Bishops wrongheaded to weaponize Communion

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Every day, someone in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy wakes up says, “What can we do today to show how out of touch we are with our people and lose more of them?” The current leader of that effort is José Gomez, archbishop of Los Angeles and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The conference is considering whether Catholic politicians, like President Joe Biden, should be denied Communion—the heart ...

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Trump’s coronavirus blunder and failed leadership

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In failing to react quickly to the coronavirus, Donald Trump’s blunder rivals that of General Maurice Gamelin, commander of the French Army at the start of World War Two.

Shortly before Germany invaded France, Gamelin received intelligence reports the Germans were headed toward the Ardennes forest. Convinced the Ardennes could not be penetrated, Gamelin disregarded what he was told. The Germans burst through the ...

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Trump’s defense skips over an important fact

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One of President Trump’s defenses to his impeachment is that he withheld aid from Ukraine because of his concern for corruption in the country. But there’s a significant fact he doesn’t mention. 

According to Trump, then-Vice President Joe Biden told Ukraine’s president at the time, Petro Poroshenko, the U.S. would withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees unless Ukraine’s prosecutor general Victor Shokin was fired. According to Trump, Shokin was investigating Burisma, where Bidens’ son, Hunter, sat on the ...

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God likes guns, and Trump is biblical–Really?

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Do you think at all about where to find God in your life? I do, and I struggle to find him, but some politicians make it look easy. A select number claim to know what God wants, based on what must be a direct line to the Heavens which the rest of us will likely never enjoy. Two examples were given to us within the last few weeks.

The first is from Ohio Representatives Ron Hood, R-Ashville, and Tom Brinkman, ...

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What’s the best way to measure patriotism?

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We’re in the midst of a national kerfuffle over what it means to be patriotic, and it has a lot more to do with ego and attitude than substance. Funny thing is, the man who started the ruckus never served in the military.

President Donald Trump has castigated NFL players for not standing during the national anthem and criticized franchise owners for allowing them to do so. Last week, he used the NBA finals to renew his spat with players LeBron ...

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State should support legal aid

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Is access to legal assistance for low-income Americans important? President Donald Trump doesn’t think so. His 2018 budget proposed eliminating the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), an independent nonprofit, established during the Nixon administration that provides civil legal aid to low-income Americans.

Trump apparently forgot about his campaign theme—“to bring hope to every forgotten stretch of this country.” According to former LSC president Martha Bergmark, the majority of the states with the lowest ranking for access to legal assistance for low-income citizens ...

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So now the unemployment stats are legit?

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President Donald Trump is beside himself with how well the economy is doing and boasts about the nation’s unemployment rate.

Though the Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us unemployment has been steadily declining since 2010 and was 4.6% in November 2016, Trump is taking sole credit for the current 4.1% unemployment figure.

I’m not surprised. Actually, I’d be shocked if Trump didn’t take all the credit.

But does anyone remember what Trump said about unemployment statistics before he was elected? The Continue Reading →

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Are liberals purveyors of misinformation?

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In my last post, I wrote about why it’s hard to debunk misinformation. Two examples of misinformation I cited came from the Trump administration. Some readers suggested I should have been more balanced. One wrote, “Too bad you didn’t offer a couple examples from the other side of the aisle, like the notorious Harry Reid or the ever-panicked Nancy Pelosi. Surely there are others??”

I wasn’t trying to pick on the Trump administration, and I’m not an apologist for either ...

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The irony in Trump’s Muslim policy

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After the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, Donald Trump bellowed, “The bottom line is that the only reason the killer was in America in the first place, was because we allowed his family to come here.” I suppose Trump is right, but is his proposal to ban all Muslims the right solution?

Maybe, but then let’s look at the Orlando massacre from another angle. If Joseph Ibrahim’s father, a Muslim, had not emigrated to the U.S. from Egypt, there may ...

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