Leftist Tyranny

Obama and the Dictatorship of Relativism

February 8, 2012February 8, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

by Samuel Gregg –
There is no moral truth and Rawls is his prophet.

If there was ever any doubt about one of the Obama Administration’s key philosophical commitments, it was dispelled on Jan. 20 when the Department of Health and Human Services informed the Catholic Church that most of its agencies will be required to provide employees with insurance-coverage for contraceptives, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs: i.e., products, procedures, and chemicals used to facilitate acts which the Church and plenty of others consider intrinsically evil.

Alas, it’s not a question of the administration being tragically “tone deaf,” as one American Jesuit claimed, to specifically Catholic concerns. Nor is the bedrock of President Obama’s position, in the end, a commitment to “women’s health.” Outside the ghoulish world of Planned Parenthood, pregnancy does not qualify as a disease. A fertile womb is no threat to human life.

No, this is all about the absolutization of choice for the sake of choice. It’s also about creating a society in which any discussion of the actual ends we choose is considered unacceptable in public debates about law and morality. [Read more…]

65 Orthodox Church Bishops Call on Obama to ‘Rescind’ the ‘Unjust’ Contraception Mandate

February 7, 2012August 21, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

by Ben Johnson –
The 65 canonical bishops of the Orthodox Church have asked President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to repeal the mandate that religious institutions provide birth control, sterilization, and Plan B abortion drugs in their health care coverage.

The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America – which represents 12 Orthodox jurisdictions and three million Orthodox Christians in the United States – issued a press release last Thursday calling the HHS ruling a violation of religious conscience. [Read more…]

Outrageous Choice: Religious Freedom or Healthcare?

February 5, 2012February 5, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

by Chuck Colson –
I’ve told you that the Obama Administration is intentionally restricting religious freedom. I’ve told you we are in danger of losing the right to exercise our faith in public.

Well, maybe I’ve been too understated. The attack is relentless.

Just recently, the Obama Administration announced that the Affordable Healthcare Act, otherwise known as ObamaCare, requires that employers pay for contraception, including abortifacients, and that Catholic institutions are not exempt from this requirement.

Well, Catholic Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh and other bishops are blowing the trumpets on the ramparts. And my hat’s off to them. They see the Administration’s actions for what they truly are. [Read more…]

The State Ruling the Church

February 2, 2012February 5, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

by Fay Voshell –

This past Sunday, January 29, Roman Catholic congregations were read letters opposing the Obama administration’s demand that all Catholic universities and Catholic-based charities make sure they provide all employees access to health insurance providing artificial contraception, including abortifacients and sterilization services such as vasectomies and tubal ligations. The “morning after” pill is also included.

The clerics’ fiery rebukes follow Pope Benedict XVI’s January 19 speech in which he warned the Catholic Church of the increasing threats of radical secularism’s intrusion into politics and culture. The Holy Father specifically mentioned the U.S. church’s need to be afforded conscientious objection to the administration’s demand for compliance within one year. [Read more…]

They Have Islamist Fanatics, We Have Secularist Fanatics

January 31, 2012February 1, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

by Dennis Prager –
The Muslim world is threatened by religious fanaticism. The Western world is threatened by secular fanaticism.

Both seek to dominate society and to use state power to do so. Both seek to eliminate the Other — for Islamic fanatics, that means non-Muslim religions and secularism; for secular fanatics, it means Christianity and virtually any public invoking of God. The Islamists impose Sharia law; the American Civil Liberties Union and the left generally impose secular law. The Taliban wiped out public vestiges of Buddhism in Afghanistan; the ACLU and its allies seek to wipe out public vestiges of Christianity in America — as it did, for example, in Los Angeles County, when it successfully pressured the County Board of Supervisors to remove the tiny cross from the county seal. A city and county founded by Catholics — hence the name “The Angels” — was forced to stop commemorating its founders because they were religious.

This fanaticism has been on display most recently in the state of Rhode Island. This past Christmas, the governor, Lincoln Chafee, renamed the state Christmas tree a “holiday tree.” Though Christmas is a national holiday, for the secular fanatic, anything Christian — or, as we shall see, anything that relates to religion or God — must be banned from public life. [Read more…]

You’re right Mr. President, We Need More ‘Fairness’

January 28, 2012February 1, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

by Michael Bargo Jr. –
Thank you Mr. President, for bringing up the issue of fairness. I’m sure that’s important to many people. One curious thing, though, with regard to the application of “fairness” it seems that all the recommendations you have, are decided by the government. Who decides what is fair?

Here’s some suggestions:

The average Federal employee can be paid no more than the average American employee, currently $42K a yr. Wouldn’t that be fair? And the highest amount paid to any retired Federal employee should be no more than the highest Social Security monthly amount. Wouldn’t that be fair?

In the past few years, average Americans have lost ten percent of their income. All Federal employees shall receive ten percent pay cuts, and only receive increases when the average American earns more. Isn’t that fair? [Read more…]

Obama to Catholics: ‘To Hell With You!’

January 28, 2012February 1, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

by Kathleen Gilbert –
Saying it’s “really hard to believe that it happened,” the bishop of Pittsburgh has taken aim at the Obama administration’s birth control mandate.

“It comes like a slap in the face. The Obama administration has just told the Catholics of the United States, ‘To Hell with you!’” wrote Bishop David Zubik in a hard-hitting column appearing on the diocese’s website. “There is no other way to put it.”

Catholic bishops have been up in arms ever since the administration indicated it would force virtually all employers to cover all birth control, including drugs that can cause early abortions, like Plan B and ella. Last week, Catholic Church leaders were aghast to hear that, upon further consideration, the administration had refused to back down, instead simply giving outraged faith-based groups another year to comply with the mandate. [Read more…]

Obama: Birth Control Mandate is Final; Catholic Bishops Vow to Fight

January 21, 2012January 23, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

by Kathleen Gilbert –

After being deluged with complaints from outraged religious groups, Obama’s health department has dug in its heels, saying its decision to force employers to provide abortifacient birth control drugs will continue as planned – although faith-based groups will be given a year reprieve. In response, U.S. Catholic bishops have not minced words, vowing to fight the order as “literally unconscionable.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Friday that faith-based entities like hospitals and universities will have until August 1, 2013 to provide employees with free birth control as part of their insurance packages. The mandate will also force such groups to pay for sterilizations and, because the FDA has approved abortifacient drugs such as Ella as “contraception.”

The mandate is being implemented as part of the new health care legislation that was passed in March 2010 despite vigorous opposition from U.S. Catholic bishops, who called it dangerously open to being used as a means of spreading abortion. [Read more…]

Is it My ‘Civic Duty’ to Pay for Other People’s Stuff?

January 17, 2012January 21, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

by The Godfather –

When John Harrison was a senior at Druid Hills High School in DeKalb County, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, he was miffed when he was rebuffed by parents at a private school when they refused to purchase a discount coupon for Domino’s Pizza. The money was to go to his public school’s art program. They told him, “We already contribute through taxes, and we pay for our children to go to school, so why don’t you hit up your own parents?” A little harsh, if it was really said that way, but right on the money nevertheless. Ann Coulter couldn’t have said it any better.

Young Mr. Harrison was “shocked and appalled” at the curt response he received. Well, I was shocked and appalled, but not surprised, at what I read next from the naïve public school senior who doesn’t own a home or pay very much in taxes and is on the domestic dole of his parents:

Paying taxes is a civic duty, and these people were arrogant enough to view their taxes as a contribution, not a responsibility.

[Read more…]

The Venture Capitalist vs. The Vulture Socialist

January 14, 2012January 19, 2012 by Orthodox Editors

by George Neumayr –

Put the worst possible construction on Mitt Romney’s career as a venture capitalist and it still looks much better than Barack Obama’s. Pecking at the entrails of a limping economy, Obama is the vulture socialist.

A president who promised to bankrupt the coal industry is in no position to gainsay Romney’s record of job creation at Bain Capital. Romney created at least 100,000 jobs in private life; Obama created none. Then Obama entered office and racked up a record of job destruction that would give even the most reckless corporate raiders pause.

The vulture socialists feed off an economy that they could never create. Parasitism defines their existence. To the extent that it exists, Obama’s moderation consists of keeping the golden goose of capitalism alive just long enough to pluck its eggs.

Were Obama to start an economy from scratch, it would look like the late Soviet Union’s. His de facto socialism is the spoiled and ungrateful child of Western capitalism. Take away the reviled rich and he would have no wealth to seize or workers to exploit. [Read more…]