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2 comments May 13th, 2009
Archive for May 13th, 2009
Letter from Notre Dame prez to class of 2009
Add comment May 13th, 2009
 
 A former Golden Domer has passed along the text of a letter from the Rev. John Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame, to the school’s graduating class of 2009.
 Notre Dame, of course, has been the focal point of controversy of late because of its invitation to President Obama to deliver the commencement address at ceremonies next Sunday.
 Jenkins addresses that controversy in his letter:
May 11, 2009
Dear Members of the Notre Dame Graduating Class of 2009:
This Sunday, as you receive your degrees at Commencement, your joy — and that of your families — will be shared by the faculty, staff, and administration of the University. We have had the privilege of laboring with each of you to inquire and discover, to teach and to learn, and we will send you off with affectionate and fond hopes for the future.
For those of you who are undergraduates, I feel a special kinship. You arrived in your dorm rooms as I arrived in the President’s Office. You have learned much; I may have learned more. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to learn with you, come to know you, and to serve you during our time together at Notre Dame.
During your years here we have endeavored to train you in the various disciplines and urged you to ask the larger questions - discussing not only the technical and practical but also the ethical and spiritual dimensions of pressing issues. I have been proud of you as you’ve grappled with intellectual, political, and spiritual questions. But I have never been more proud than I have been watching the way you’ve conducted yourselves over the past several weeks.
The decision to invite President Obama to Notre Dame to receive an honorary degree and deliver the Commencement address has triggered debate. In many cases, the debate has grown heated, even between people who agree completely on Church teaching regarding the sanctity of human life, who agree completely that we should work for change - and differ only on how we should work for change.
Yet, there has been an extra dimension to your debate. You have discussed this issue with each other while being observed, interviewed, and evaluated by people who are interested in this story. You engaged each other with passion, intelligence and respect. And I saw no sign that your differences led to division. You inspire me. We need the wider society to be more like you; it is good that we are sending you into that world on Sunday.
I am saddened that many friends of Notre Dame have suggested that our invitation to President Obama indicates ambiguity in our position on matters of Catholic teaching. The University and I are unequivocally committed to the sanctity of human life and to its protection from conception to natural death.
Notre Dame has a long custom of conferring honorary degrees on the President of the United States. It has never been a political statement or an endorsement of policy. It is the University’s expression of respect for the leader of the nation and the Office of the President.
In the Catholic tradition, our first allegiance is to God in Christ, yet we are called to respect, participate in, and contribute to the wider society. As St. Peter wrote (I Pt. 2:17), we should honor the leader who upholds the secular order. At the same time, and born of the same duty, a Catholic university has a special obligation not just to honor the leader but to engage the culture. Carrying out this role of the Catholic university has never been easy or without controversy.
 When I was an undergraduate at Notre Dame, Fr. Hesburgh spoke of the Catholic university as being both a lighthouse and a crossroads. As a lighthouse, we strive to stand apart and be different, illuminating issues with the moral and spiritual
wisdom of the Catholic tradition. Yet, we must also be a crossroads through which pass people of many different perspectives, backgrounds, faiths, and cultures. At this crossroads, we must be a place where people of good will are received with charity, are able to speak, be heard, and engage in responsible and reasoned dialogue.The President’s visit to Notre Dame can help lead to broader engagement on issues of importance to the country and of deep significance to Catholics. Ultimately, I hope that the conversations and the good will that come from this day will contribute to closer relations between Catholics and public officials who make decisions on matters of human life and human dignity.
There is much to admire and celebrate in the life and work of President Obama. His views and policies on immigration, expanding health care, alleviating poverty, and building peace through diplomacy have a deep resonance with Catholic social teaching. As the first African-American holder of this office, he has accelerated our country’s progress in overcoming the painful legacy of slavery and segregation. He is a remarkable figure in American history, and I look forward to welcoming him to Notre Dame.
As President Obama is our principal speaker, there will no doubt be much attention on your Commencement. Remember, though, that this day is your day. My fervent prayer is that May 17 will be a joyous day for you and your family. You are the ones we celebrate and applaud. Congratulations, and may God bless you.
Conservative jurist Richard Posner laments intellectual decline of conservative movement
1 comment May 13th, 2009
 
 Federal Appeals Court Judge Richard Posner (who has ruled on several Rockford cases, by the way), a Ronald Reagan appointee, SAYS “the policies of the new conservatism are powered largely by emotion and religion and have for the most part weak intellectual groundings.”
 With all due respect to the judge, I think he’s offering nothing more than a profound grasp of something that’s been obvious to some of us for a long time.
 UPDATE: Nate Silver also did a post on this Posner thing over at FiveThirtyEight, and he offered this chart demonstrating the steady drift of the nation’s intelligentsia toward the Democratic Party over the past 30 years:
Is overheated rhetoric on talk radio an ominous sign of things to come?
5 comments May 13th, 2009
Camille Paglia (above) says THIS of talk radio: “[W]hen the tone darkens toward a rhetoric of purgation and annihilation, there is reason for alarm.”
Can you identify the authors of these quotations concerning torture?
9 comments May 13th, 2009
 
 With a tip of the hat to Eric Martin over at Obsidian Wings, we offer here a quiz on the subject of torture.
 Can you name the respective sources of these quotations? (The answers are at the top of the comments section.)
 1. “The United States is a country that takes human rights seriously. We do not torture. It’s against our laws and against our values. And we expect all those who serve America to conduct themselves accordingly, and we enforce those rules…America is a fair and a decent country. President Bush has made it clear, both publicly and privately, that our duty to uphold the laws and standards of this nation make no exceptions for wartime. As he put it, we are in a fight for our principles and our first responsibility is to live by them. The war on terror, after all, is more than a contest of arms and more than a test of will. It’s also a war of ideas.”
 2. “The awfulness is twofold. First, there’s the illegal, morally corrupt — and corrupting — evil of torturing people…Second, there’s the counter-productive stupidity of it. Even if these guys were the worst [of the worst], the damage this does to the image of America is huge…How many more American soldiers will be shot because of the ill will and outrage this generates? How do we claim to be champions of the rule of law? Well, there is one way. This needs to be investigated and prosecuted. If there’s more to the story — whatever that could conceivably be — let’s find out. But if the story is as it appears, there has to be accountability, punishment and disclosure.”
 3. “The United States participated actively and effectively in the negotiation of the Convention [Against Torture]. It marks a significant step in the development during this century of international measures against torture and other inhuman treatment or punishment. Ratification of the Convention by the United States will clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today. The core provisions of the Convention establish a regime for international cooperation in the criminal prosecution of torturers relying on so-called “universal jurisdiction.” Each State Party is required either to prosecute torturers who are found in its territory or to extradite them to other countries for prosecution.”
 4. “…[T]here is no place for abuse in what must be considered the family of man. There is no place for torture and arbitrary detention. There is no place for forced confessions. There is no place for intolerance of dissent…the roots of American rule of law go back more than 700 years, to the signing of the Magna Carta. The foundation of American values, therefore, is not a passing priority or a temporary trend.”
 5.”Obviously, it was a shameful moment when we saw on our TV screens that soldiers took it upon themselves to humiliate Iraqi prisoners — because it doesn’t reflect the nature of the American people, or the nature of the men and women in our uniform. And what the world will see is that we will handle this matter in a very transparent way, that there will be rule of law — which is an important part of any democracy. And there will be transparency, which is a second important part of a democracy. And people who have done wrong will be held to account for the world to see. That will stand — this process will stand in stark contrast to what would happen under a tyrant. You would never know about the abuses in the first place. And if you did know about the abuses, you certainly wouldn’t see any process to correct them.”
 6.  ”[The perpetrators of torture] deserve jail or execution, and will probably get one or both…[Torture] should be dealt with very, very harshly. But those who would…make such behavior emblematic of our effort, instead of recognizing it as an abandonment of our principles — are mere opportunists.”
 7. “I don’t agree with the belief that we should use any means necessary to extract information. I believe there are absolutes. There are things we must never do under any circumstances. For me the ultimate test is: Could I, in good conscience, do whatever I am authorizing or condoning others to do? If not, then I must oppose the action. If I could not waterboard someone—and I couldn’t—then I must oppose its practice. There are some things you should never do to another human being, no matter how horrific the things they have done. If you do so, you demean yourself to their level. Civilized countries should err on the side of caution. It does cost us something to play by different rules than our enemies, but it would cost us far more if we played by their rules.”
 8. “…[T]here is a good debate going on about the importance of values in all that we do. We think for the military, in particular that camp, that’s a line [torture] that can’t be crossed…It is hugely significant to us to live the values that we hold so dear and that we have fought so hard to protect over the years.”
 UPDATE: The Obama administration OPPOSES the release of photos showing abuse of detainees by American captors.
 UPDATE II: Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham CITES a debunked news story as proof that torture is effective.
Wingnut congressman says government workers will take in foster kids just for the benefits
Add comment May 13th, 2009
The competition is pretty stiff, but U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, seems determined to capture the trophy as the BIGGEST DIMWIT in Congress.
GOP ill-served by negative, angry tone of rhetoric from its leaders
Add comment May 13th, 2009
It says HERE that “the Republican party’s difficulty in finding something forward-looking to say— as well as the right people to say it — has been on display for much of the six months since” Barack Obama defeated John McCain in the November election.Â
