Ted Kennedy, 1932-2009

[guest commentary by Paladin]

I just learned (along with most of the world, who knew it hours before I did) that Ted Kennedy, the dissident Catholic senator from Massachusetts, died last night at his home.

I hate episodes like this. In the social/political order, this is a clear case of "addition by subraction", in that Senator Kennedy can no longer champion the culture of death; in the spiritual order, it's a time of fear and grief... since there's great reason to fear for his eternal soul. In your charity (and if your worldview allows), I ask you to pray for the soul of this sadly wayward man; he is a child of God, whose redemption was bought by Christ's agony and death on the cross, and our prayers (which go beyond time--see HERE for details) can make the difference between his salvation and damnation. He now knows the full horror of what he's done throughout his life and career; and if his soul is saved, he will have (by the grace of God) grieved for that evil far more than we could understand... and he will have joined his repentant tears and prayers to ours, in trying to undo those evil works.

Kyrie, eleison.

Why Oppose Homeschooling?

Why would anyone be opposed to parents teaching their own children at home? Possibly because it means that the children won't be taught liberal morality (H/T: Deo Gratias):

Opponents of home-schooling—and some of them are vehement—argue that it is socially divisive. Also, since it is regulated lightly or not at all, it is hard to tell whether children being taught at home are receiving an adequate education. “Unregulated home-schooling opens up the possibility that children will never learn about ... alternative ways of life,” writes Rob Reich of Stanford University. [Emphasis added.]

Bean Wins Award

My Congressional Representative, the Hon. Melissa Bean (D-IL), is the latest recipient of Michelle Malkin's new "Cone of Shame Award":

She billed her $25/person Chamber of Commerce pow-wow as a “town hall,” then had it changed after getting smoked out.

Then she hastily convened a telephone town hall, but didn’t notify constituents until the last minute.

Liberals lacking a sense of humor, and those who have not seen the movie UP, will not get the joke.

A Very Brief Reflection On The Eucharist

Last weekend, I was sitting in mass in the first or second row as usual, and this day I happened to be holding my seven-month-old son Michael during the Eucharistic Prayer. He's a "glasses grabber," and so I took off my glasses to avoid him getting them. Now, without my glasses I have really bad vision. 20-20? More like 20-400! That's no joke. And so at the moment of consecration, as I tried to look up to see the elevation of the Host, I realized that I was wholly unable to see the large Host in Father's hands. I could barely make out his arms; I could see nothing at all of what he was holding. And yet, even without being able to see what he was holding, I knew what it was. With no eyes to see, I still knew that he was holding up the body, blood, soul and divinity of our risen Lord. And I realized that, even with my glasses on, I wouldn't have been able to see what he was really holding anyway. It's only with eyes of faith that we perceive the realities of the mass.

This is post #1,900 to this blog

The Democratic Party -- What Might Have Been

A very interesting compare and contrast exercise (H/T: Ten Reasons):

On July 20, 1968 -- just weeks after RFK's death -- Eunice convened the first Special Olympics, a movement of dignity and hope for mentally disabled children. It was born of Eunice's love for her mentally disabled sister, Rosemary; her firm defence of the dignity of every human life; and her deep Catholic faith. Eunice and Sargent (who also founded the Peace Corps and was the architect of many of the Great Society programs for the poor) changed the way we think about people with special needs.

Almost a year to the day after the first Special Olympics, Ted Kennedy drove Mary Jo Kopechne to her death at Chappaquiddick, Mass. From that point on, two paths diverged from the Kennedy compound. The Senator took the ignoble path of indulgence and irresponsibility. The Shrivers used their fame and wealth for the service of others, especially those at the margins.

In the 1970s, the Shrivers were a major political force. Sargent was the Democratic vice-presidential candidate in 1972, and subsequently entertained both presidential and gubernatorial bids. Meanwhile, Ted marinated in the Senate, finally running for president in 1980 without any ostensible reason for doing so other than the fact that, as a Kennedy, he was entitled to it.

The Shrivers represented the old Democratic Party -- economically liberal and culturally conservative. They were routed by the new Democratic Party -- economically liberal and culturally libertine -- of which Ted became the poster boy. The tortured relationship of the Catholic Church with the Democratic Party mirrored that cleavage. Eunice was the ideal of the Catholic in public life -- passionately committed to the poor, defender of the weak, prolife, morally upright and a woman of faith and family. But the party followed Ted.

The Shrivers were devout Catholics who lived their faith with integrity privately before bringing its implications to the public square. Before Alzheimer's took its toll on Sargent, he was a daily communicant, attending Mass either in Maryland or in Hyannis, Mass., a well-worn rosary often in hand. He shared his Marian devotion with his wife; in a statement upon Eunice's death, her family noted that "she was forever devoted to the Blessed Mother. May she be welcomed now by Mary to the joy and love of life everlasting, in the certain truth that her love and spirit will live forever."

Such lines will not be written of Ted Kennedy who, as one of America's most prominent Catholics, blazed the trail of making religious belief an entirely private matter. His debauchery was the opposite of the Shrivers' piety. Having broken up his own family, he degenerated into a dissoluteness that reached its nadir on Good Friday, 1991, when instead of doing the Stations of the Cross at the local parish, he took his son and nephew out for a night of bar-hopping and skirt-chasing. The details of Ted's behaviour that night were embarrassingly sordid. It gave rise to the joke that Senator Kennedy's religion was so private he refused to impose it on himself.

Be sure to read it all.

What Value On Life?

I saw this interesting piece in my local paper this morning:

The debate — OK, the shouting match — we are having over “health care reform” is about many things, including cost, who gets help and who does not and who, or what, gets to make that determination. Underlying it all is a larger question: Is human life something special? Is it to be valued more highly than, say, plants and pets? When someone is in a “persistent vegetative state” do we mean to say that person is equal in value to a carrot?

Are we now assigning worth to human life, or does it arrive with its own pre-determined value, irrespective of race, class, IQ, or disability?

The bottom line is not the bottom line. It is something far more profound. Our decisions regarding who will get help and who won’t are more than about bean-counting bureaucrats deciding if your drugs or operation will cost more than you are contributing to the U.S. Treasury.

The secular left claims we are evolutionary accidents who managed to crawl out of the slime and by “natural selection” stand erect and over millions of years outsmart our ancestors, the apes. If that is your belief, then you probably think health care should be rationed. Why spend lots of money to improve — or save — the life of someone who evolved from slime and has no special significance other than the “accident” of becoming human? Policies flow from such a philosophy, though the average secularist probably wouldn’t put it in such stark terms. Stark, or not, isn’t this the inevitable progression of seeing humanity as maybe complex, but nothing special?

The opposing view sees human beings as unique creations. Even Thomas Jefferson, identified by historians as a Deist who doubted the existence of a personal God, understood that if certain rights (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) do not come from a source beyond the reach of the state, then the state could take those rights away. Those who believe that God made us and also makes the rules about our existence and our behavior will have a completely different understanding of life’s value and our approach to affirming it until natural death. [Emphasis added.]

Democrats should turn back from their rush to embrace a culture of death. And Republicans must not falter in their opposition to it.

Meeting Dan Proft

On this blog, we've endorsed Adam Andrzejewski for Illinois Governor. Adam's campaign continues apace, and he's given us no reason to reconsider our endorsement.

That said, I was at a meeting last night with one of Adam's five primary opponents, Dan Proft. Dan makes a very favorable impression. But do not take my word for it, ask Helga: