Much of the discussion at this point concerning President Obama’s invitation to speak at the University located in South Bend has centered around what President Jenkins should have done. The latest and very well written entry to that is our own Francis Beckwith’s piece in today’s First Things’ post. Given realities it seems highly unlikely at this point that the invitation be rescinded. That horse has simply left the barn. But given the uproar of Alumni furor, it is only a matter of time before Father Jenkins faces his day of reckoning for his decision. And given my experience that day will come, as it did for Gene Nichol at William and Mary when he unilaterally removed an historic cross from our school’s chapel. But the question for ND and Catholics remains: how do we respond to President Obama’s presence? (more…)

Yet another study showing more positive results from adult stem cell research.

Note that the headline reads: “Stem cell treatment effective in heart patients” (emphasis mine). What kind of stem cells? Adult stem cells – but you have to read the article to get that.

Here is a tip: whenever a headline talks about positive results of “stem cell research” – understand that it means “adult stem cells research”. Rarely do I read a headline that actually identifies adult stem cells as adult stem cells.

It seems that this is due to an effort to blur the distinction between ASCs and ESCs. It is done by the pro-ESCR crowd that the results of both ASCR and ESCR might be lumped together and the positive results of ASCR shared equally between the two camps. See The Little Red Hen.

The desired effect is to leave the reader thinking, “That stem cell research great stuff! Aren’t we glad our Obama lifted restrictions on stem cell research?” This impression is left despite that fact that the stem cells were from adults and Hopeful Leader’s lifitng of the ESCR did not contribute to this but actually discouraged such research.

Tom Roeser has some good stuff today about DePaul and the Church in general.

This year’s national meeting of the Philadelphia Society was my first. William Campbell of LSU invited me (a young-ish faculty member of Houston Baptist University) after reading a piece I wrote on libertarians and conservatives for the Acton Institute. I am very thankful for the opportunity and enjoyed the event very much. The list of attendees was really quite impressive and people were generally interested in and open to others.

At each meal I sat with a different group of people and found the conversation rewarding. There was a strong sense of fellowship and collegiality. I felt that individuals who offered divergences of opinion were treated respectfully and well. It was, in the best sense of the word, scholarly.

However, I write to offer a suggestion. To me, the panels shaded too much to the hall of famer/veteran side and not enough (or even at all) to rising, young talent needing an opportunity to demonstrate what they can do or what new things they have to say. A meeting of this kind would represent a great way for the distinguished members to identify talent and then to figure out how to promote the careers of young people who can seek to build on the previous generation’s successes.

For every paper delivered by a long-standing member who is confident in what he has said and is ready to say it again, there are young people who will work their brains out for a chance to present something impressive to people they respect. The leadership needs to figure out how to move national meetings in that direction to a greater degree.

The Philadelphia Society’s New Orleans meeting has concluded. This was my first time to be invited. I have some impressions to report about both the society and the town. For this post, I’ll focus on New Orleans.

If I can judge from the French Quarter and the rush hour traffic, New Orleans is back. The downtown area was absolutely hopping and it wasn’t Mardi Gras time. I’ve never seen an American city other than NYC with so much night life.

However, I have to admit I was taken aback by Bourbon Street. On Saturday morning, I visited Cafe du Monde with a fellow academic who’d been a Bush appointee. After eating our beignets, we walked along the sidewalks and were nearly flooded out by a street washing machine that literally poured soapy water all over the streets and walkways. I wondered how often the city conducted that operation. My guess now is every night. By the end of Saturday, I’d seen the Quarter in operation. You run into an awful lot of questionable liquids on the street and sidewalks. Come morning, the wages of overindulgence (and a lot of horse droppings) need to be washed away.

I was stunned by “out there” nature of the sexually-oriented businesses in evidence. That takes a little doing since I live in Houston which is filled with elaborate strip clubs, but there you spin rapidly by them on elevated freeways. In New Orleans, you walk by women in lingerie standing on sidewalks and in doorways to beckon customers inside. I imagine Times Square was like that P.G. (pre-Giuliani).

Having been to 21st century Times Square and seedy Bourbon Street. I’ll take Times Square. One changed for the better. The other stayed the same. Of course, I take into account the admonition of Thomas Aquinas that you can’t use the law to abolish all vice, lest you create a backlash of total rebellion. Still, Rudy G. seems to have done a better job of locating the golden mean than his counterpart Ray N.

Kmiec continues to disappoint infuriate.  Weigel rebuts.

Hat tip: Fr. Z

As a 3L law student at Notre Dame, I’ve been paying close attention to the controversy surrounding the University’s ill-considered invitation to President Obama to give the Commencement Address. The Catholic blogosphere has already more than explained why the decision was ill-considered, so I won’t revisit all those arguments in this post. Suffice to say, I think the University’s decision is wrong, not least because it is the type of conduct previously condemned by the U.S. Catholic bishops.

If for some inexplicable reason anyone hasn’t heard the case for why President Obama should not be giving the Commencement Address, then I’d recommend reading Bishop D’Arcy’s statement, Cardinal DiNardo’s statement, Prof. Rick Garnett’s excellent posts on the matter, and the press release from Notre Dame Response. Notre Dame Response’s press release is especially noteworthy because it is one of the few critiques that voices the concerns of graduating students at Notre Dame. Regardless of whether you think it’s okay for President Obama to be giving the Commencement Address at Notre Dame, it’s just a fact that a significant portion of the Notre Dame student body doesn’t think it’s okay based on deeply held moral & religious beliefs. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear Fr. Jenkins and the Administration adequately considered how their decision would affect those students

That said, I have mixed feelings on the matter, in part because I’ve been un-settled by the tone and language used by some of the University’s most out-spoken critics. Here are two of my concerns:

(more…)

It seems to me that one’s reaction to the announcement of Pres. Obama being the commencement speaker at Notre Dame and receiving an honorary degree depends largely on their view of abortion.   If abortion/ESCR  are just two issues among many to a person, then it will be incomprehensible what the big stink is all about.

If, on the other hand, abortion and ESCR are THE defining issues of our time, then it’s obvious that one should be upset.  I doubt, for example, that too many people would have difficulty understanding why it would be an outrage if Notre Dame invited George Wallace to receive the same honors in the early 60’s, no matter what his other views were….Hypothetically speaking, would anyone NOT be outraged if ND invited a top political figure who staunchly advocated the ‘termination’ of anyone with a costly medical problem?

Some political positions are just so beyond the pale of civilized thought that they render the one holding those positions unworthy of any sort of honor whatsoever, regardless of the dignity of their political office.   Most people can see that – some people just don’t think abortion is among those issues.

Sadly, even the US bishops as a whole are a lot more wishy-washy on the issue of abortion and ESCR today than they were about racism and desegregation back in the 1960’s.  On that matter, we need to remind our bishops to man up.

“John Roberts misled the Senate.” Coming from a Senator who initially voted against his confirmation anyway, this is simply a stupid statement. Reid offers no evidence at all to support his claim that the Chief Justice of the United States is a liar. I would suggest that, being a member of a Congress that consistently misleads the American People, Senator Reid would not know the truth if it slapped him in the face.

I visited Notre Dame last year at this time to meet with a few professors for the purpose of academic networking. My university was hiring and I hoped to hear about Christian doctoral students ready for their first job. As I walked across the snow-covered campus, I was a little in awe of how wonderfully the sacred space had been planned and laid out.

But when I met with one older professor who had been with the university for quite some time, he expressed a great deal of regret for how his student (the current president) was making decisions. Looking around his office, I noticed photographs of Martin Luther King, Jr. holding hands with priests protesting the injustice of segregation. I thought to myself, if this man feels something good has been lost at Notre Dame, it must truly be so. (more…)

Bishop Olmstead of Phoenix is piloting a new media outreach to bring inactive Church members back.   The “Catholics Come Home” program has drawn an estimated 92,000 inactive Catholics back to the Church just in and around the Phoenix diocese, and is expected to spread across the country in the next few years.

It must be said that Christians have not done much to make use of the power of the media for evangelization, at least not on mainstream television.  Perhaps this is because of the sheer expense, but the results in this program certainly are speaking for themselves.

That said, it’s too bad that our society has become so fractured and isolated that it takes a media ad to do what we should be doing personally ourselves.

With our leaders expanding the size and scope of government at a dizzying pace while simultaneously shrinking the scope of individual liberty it is easy to see how freedom loving Americans could slip into a downhearted dismay. It is precisely at moments like this that we, the keepers of the flame of freedom, need to fortify ourselves with some freedom loving R&R. Nothing says freedom like motorcycles and rock & roll (guns and Alcohol also help).

When it comes to motorcycles, all Real Americans recognize that there is only One Real American Motorcycle. If you ride a bike by a foreign manufacturer stop hating your country and correct yourself. Please don’t give me that crap line about how expensive Harley Davidson Bikes are currently. Save your money and buy the original. When it comes to bikes Harley Davidson has cornered the market on cool.

When it comes to Rock & Roll it is hard to beat AC/DC. However, there are some great bands out there that have not forgotten what Rock is all about. You can’t go wrong with bands like Black Rebels Motorcycle Club (conceivably the coolest name for a band ever)-a free point for the commenter that can identify the movie from which the band got its name- or Jet, another great Australian band. Velvet Revolver is also in the studio. Can’t wait for their new release.

It goes without saying that no band has ever even remotely approached the level of cool established by the greatest American Rock Band Ever, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Southern Rock represents the zenith of rock music. In fact, as Gregg Allman observed, “Southern Rock is a redundant term: it’s like saying “rock rock.” That is because the South invented Rock & Roll, i.e Elvis Presley. FWIW the Beetles suck!

This weekend go out and have some fun and remember what being a free fun loving American is all about.

The text of the statement is here.

More, please!

This week, a British court ordered life sustaining treatment withdrawn from a baby – against the wishes of his parents. The writeup indicates that it was uncertain whether this was done for the best interest of the baby or the best interest of the hospital. Does this distinction make any difference? (more…)

You study what you want to undermine and critique.  That’s why we have departments of religion at universities.  That’s why Berkeley is starting a center to study “right wing movements.”

I study secularism.

Tonight at 10 on Fox News Channel, Notre Dame students will respond to Obama’s invitation to Commencement.  It should be a well-argued and articulate defense of the University’s values.

Besieged Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, currently serving as head of the EU, called Obama’s economic plans “a road to hell.”  Well, we did ask for more infrastructure spending…

During an interview some time ago, that bastion of integrity Barney Frank called Antonin Scalia a homophobe, a charge aptly rebutted by Ed Whelan.  Frank dug in his deels and defended calling Scalia a homophobe.  Rasmesh Ponnuru pointed out the deep flaw in Frank’s reasoning.  Ed Whelan added:

Frank evidently doesn’t understand that the role of a justice, when addressing a constitutional claim, is to determine whether the challenged law is constitutionally permissible, not whether it’s good policy.

I disagree with Ed here.  Barney Frank isn’t ignorant of the role of a Justice, he just doesn’t care. (more…)

My alma mater, the College of William and Mary, is for the fourth year hosting a sex-worker arts show. The show was one of the basis for outcry over Gene Nichol’s tenure as College President (the former North Carolina ACLU operative also inexplicably removed a historic cross from the Chapel deeming it “establishment” at a Public University…no word if he actually also tried to remove the chapel…). Anyway, WM President Taylor Reveley now is hesitant to stop the sex-workers show for fear of censorship. Today’s piece by Mona Charen in NRO shows why support for this sex-worker shows like support for student-run porn magazines is but a symptom of a much larger problem: (more…)

U.S. News has a fascinating and informative discussion between Robert P. George and Douglas Kmiec discussing whether President Obama’s embryonic stem cell research policy really did prohibit human cloning (and for those wondering, it really did not). The exchange was initially via email between George and Kmiec, and U.S. News published it with permission.

HT: Justin Taylor.

Preparing for my 8th Grade Confraternity of Christian Doctrine class (CCD for all you non-papist types out there), I stumbled across this passage from an old catechism quoted favorably in the current Catechism at paragraph 2537. It’s in the section on “Thou shall not covet”. The Catechism says, “Traditional catechesis realistically mentions, ‘those ho have a harder struggle against their criminal desires’ and so who ‘must be urged the more to keep this commandment’:

…merchants who desire scarcity and rising prices, who cannot bear not to be the only ones buying and selling so that they themselves can sell more dearly and buy more cheaply; those who hope that their peers will be impoverished, in order to realize a profit either by selling to them or buying from them . . .physicians who wish disease to spread; lawyers who are eager for many important cases and trials.

Discuss, Discuss.

Professor Robert P. George on the late (and great) Father Richard J. Neuhaus.

Dude, it’s a few months into your administration, and a Vanity Fair columnist is slagging on your performance. As a friend of mine put it, you are in some deep kimchi, Mr. O.

Sheesh, the guy is Jimmy Carter.

That homespun bowling crap on Jay Leno, followed by the turgid, teachy fiscal policy lecture, together with the hurt defensiveness (and bad script for it) that everybody in Washington “is Simon Cowell… Everybody’s got an opinion,” is pure I’m-in-over-my-head stuff. Even the idea of having to go on Jay Leno to rescue yourself from the AIG mess is lame. Be a man, man.

The guy just doesn’t know what to say. He can’t connect. Emotions are here, he’s over there. He can’t get the words to match the situation.

This began, I’d argue, from the first moment. He punted on the inaugural. Everybody ran around like crazy trying to praise it because if Barack Obama couldn’t give a speech then what?

But now, at week 11, we’re face-to-face with the reality, the man can’t talk worth a damn.

Would you sign?

Maggie Gallagher is writing at length about gay marriage and the power of culture in a series over at The Corner.  She’s making an argument as to why the public meaning of marriage matters, drawing extensively on the earlier case of unilateral (no-fault) divorce.  Gallagher is always worth reading, and (if we’re lucky) Stanley Kurtz will pop in to sound the alarm about polygamy once again (just kidding, Mr. Kurtz–keep up the good work).

SUNSHINE SUNRISE, FL: President Obama issued a statement this evening apologizing for the “careless… clumsy and off-handed remarks” he made today. This most recent gaffe occurred immediately after the President had just completed grueling, back-to-back guest performances on Dancing with the Stars and American Idol. The President said, “Nancy Reagan… [should spend more time eating] arugula… [and] bowling like the Special Olympics… [than] acting like a a typical white person, … [by] you know, doing seances… and [acting] bitter… [by] clinging to her guns and religion.”

—–

Please Note: the preceding was an (awful?) attempt at satire and thus was not intended to be offensive to anyone. If such offence was found, I apologize but request that you focus your outrage on the man who actually said these things.

Barack Obama’s Teleprompter speaks out for itself.

I did my best yesterday at the AmSpec to explain, for the first time in print, why I’m pro-life. It’s not a perfect piece; I wrote it in two hours late at night. There is SOME confusion, apparently, about what I meant when I wrote a line about how we don’t know when a child becomes “ensouled.” People who are confused are confused only if they don’t know the difference, for use in a secular publication, between “know” and “believe.” Of course that which we believe is that which we personally “know” in our hearts and minds, but that doesn’t mean we “know” them scientifically, which is the context I was using. Of course I know that a child is ensouled at conception. But that is the knowledge given by faith. It is not knowledge the way the word is used in common parlance. So people need to lighten up a little about that sentence. Read it in context, and you will see it is part of the argument FOR life that I make, preaching not to the choir but to the ordinary reader who may or may not be of the faith.

The University of Notre Dame of South Bend has invited and received an acceptance to have President Obama as their graduation speaker. It’s one thing to respect the Office of the President, but when the President has been so hostile to life in his first fifty days, the ol’ Golden Dome is doing nothing more than kow-towing to the popularity of being with Caesar. They don’t HAVE TO invite him. Now I’m REALLY GLAD I didn’t go there for law school because I’m graduating this year. Disgusting.