Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 10:32am

The Catholic Left Never Fails to Disappoint

From Dave Griffey at Daffey Thoughts:

 

Yeah.  Really.  The low point of American politics in 2018, and the good deacon jumps on board the sham train.  Naturally, being good Catholic that he is, he takes the absolute worst, most leftist partisan interpretation of Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook.  That’s his high school yearbook.  If I was a Catholic at this point, I would reach out and say how shameful this is from such a well established Catholic deacon.

This as conveyed to me via Mark Shea who, naturally, gushes over all of the accusers – yes, all three of them – and dismisses anything from Kavanaugh.  You really have to see it to believe it.  Oh, and since both have banned me from their accounts for daring to question leftist narratives, I feel no guilt about pointing out their embarrassing devotion to the worst of the Left on my own page.

Remember, these are Catholics willing to unpack the adolescent years of a SCOTUS nominee, tearing apart any drinking, spinning any youthful joking, condemning even the slightest teenage indiscretion in a yearbook from high school.  We all know how puritanical Catholics are after all, especially when it comes to language.  But then, we all know how the Left has always championed an Ozzie and Harriet morality.  Here today, gone later today.  The Left’s approach to morals.

Again, all of the good deacon’s – and by extension, Mark’s – take on this relies on accepting the worst possible interpretation of what Kavanaugh did – WHEN HE WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL.  Think on that. The great fear of the Left is that Kavanaugh might curtail unlimited abortion rights.  That’s what this is all about, and everyone knows it.  And now you have Catholic apologist Mark Shea and Catholic deacon and movie critic Steven Greydanus jumping on board, accepting guilty until proven innocent, and joining the new puritanism that says anything but the most clean and puritanical behavior from an American adolescent can be grounds for wrecking your life at any point in the future.

Bonus points to Mark for dropping the pejorative ‘White’ into the mix, reminding us that Mark is also slavishly devoted to the new racism of the Left. Also note that, like Colbert, he doesn’t care a whit about any suffering on Kavanaugh’s part, or even mention Kavanaugh’s family’s suffering, choosing to mock and deride Kavanaugh’s own pain that even the pagans have admitted was tough to watch. Apparently suffering and death threats only count when they’re aimed at those who are useful to the Left.   New prolife.  Ha!

BTW, Catholics.  Stop bellyaching about the priests and leadership and the pope and all.  These two represent what the majority of Catholics are, and where they stand.  They’d rather adopt a puritanical McCarthyism filled with all of the false attacks and destruction of due process rather than take a chance on letting a judge on the court who might roll back abortion rights.  Before you go complaining about the bishops and cardinals, you might want to let that sink in.

 

Go here to comment.  Without Catholic votes, the Democrat party would be a fringe party in electoral strength as well as in some of its more arcane core beliefs.  The vile attacks by Catholic Leftists on Judge Kavanaugh, a faithful Catholic who attempts to live his faith, is part and parcel of the fact that most Catholic Democrats are first Democrats by conviction and only Catholic when it does not conflict with their prime allegiance.  Shea of course has long been a lost cause in his crazed journey to the extreme portside of our national political life.  I expected better of Greydanus.

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Paul Zummo
Admin
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 6:12am

So what you (and Dave) are saying is the same people who studiously deny deny deny the credibly sourced allegations about what Pope Francis and other Bishops did to diminish or end punishments against abusive clerics are completely comfortable swallowing uncorroborated allegations against Kavenaugh.

But don’t you dare call them partisan hacks.

Dave Griffey
Dave Griffey
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 6:49am

Yep. I avoid Mark’s blog now, but when I saw the link to it saying it was Deacon Greydanus, I had to check. I was sort of surprised, and a little disappointed. But I wasn’t shocked or anything.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 7:02am

Mark who?, that phony deacon, and all Catholics that voted dem are abortion apologists.

Dr. Fraud had eight years from the 2012 election campaign, when PP produced a propaganda piece/photo-shopped NYT article about how Judge Kavanaugh was the deciding vote on the overturn of Roe. Ergo she had eight years for hypnosis, drugs, etc. to come to believe her fabrications.

Plus, Dr. Fraud’s memory is weak. She forgot to pack her pink vagina hat.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 7:02am

Greydanus is being precious. You see that from time to time.

As for Shea, his intellectual and moral decline is a puzzle.

David
David
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 7:06am

Greydanus has given some bizarre movie reviews, such as one supporting a film promoting man-boy relationships. I think every once in a while he lets down his guard and reveals who is really is.

Paul Zummo
Admin
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 7:10am

Greydanus’s commentary is just incoherent babble.

As for Shea, he somehow manages to top himself in amazing new ways with each public pronouncement. By the way, can anyone show me the links to Shea’s condemnation of Keith Ellison? I’m sure he has spilled a lot of digital ink on that issue, right?

James
James
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 7:11am

I started noticing a leftward shift (albeit subtle) in some of the posts of Greydanus around two years ago. I have not read his stuff since then.

Paul Zummo
Admin
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 7:20am

Greydanus is not a doctrinaire leftist, at least not of the type Mark has become. He is, however, not a very deep thinker. He unquestioningly distills conventional thinking into bite-size chunks and regurgitates it for his audience, and those who are even shallower thinkers (like Mark) greedily swallow it all up.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 7:34am

In related news: if you’ve lost <a href=https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/408887-editors-of-jesuit-magazine-calls-on-trump-to-withdraw-kavanaugh<America, have you really lost America?

DonL
DonL
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 7:47am

Then again, that pinnacle of Catholic thought, the Jesuit mouthpiece, “America,” has come out against Kavanaugh, solidifying his solid Catholic credentials.

ken
ken
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 8:26am

I think heaven might be nearly empty if we judged everyone solely on their negative actions from ages 14-25. I wish I could erase some of those memories because they are so painful and humiliating.
A high school yearbook! As I said yesterday these people should be ashamed but they lack the humility to even feel a sense of shame.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 8:29am

I wonder if the root of the problem in our politics is that we’ve grown too sentimental. Graydanus and Shea are virtue signaling here, I believe the victim.

Well I believe the victim too. It’s just that they and I disagree about who the real victim is.

Mary De Voe
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 8:37am

Roe disenfranchised every father of his child. There is no rational support for denying a man his seed, his offspring. Any man who supports Roe is obviously brain dead. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not put HUMPTY DUMPTY together again.
The Supreme Court has sown the wind and is reaping the whirlwind.
Kavanaugh is reality. The rest is a lie.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 8:50am

Anyone else think that even with Kavanaugh on the court, we’re still one vote shy of overturning Casey/Roe?

Bob Kurland, Ph.D.
Admin
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 8:53am

When “America” supported Al Gore for president against Bush, I submitted a letter to the Editor castigating them. Of course, it wasn’t published. Their leftist political bias trumps what should be their Catholic beliefs. What is it with Jesuits and casuistry?

Dave Griffey
Dave Griffey
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 9:27am

I’d wager the comments will be more stunning than the post, if that is possible.

c matt
c matt
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 9:28am

Anyone else think that even with Kavanaugh on the court, we’re still one vote shy of overturning Casey/Roe?

I have no concerns about Kavanaugh regarding anything “Dr.” Ford had to say – pure rubbish. However, (1) Kavanaugh did seem to be a bit too eager to drop feminists sops during his testimony (maybe just a smokescreen?), (2) he went to Jesuit schools (3) he clerked for Kennedy, and (4) another Catholic Irish political figure whose last name begins with “K” – we have not had much luck with those.

Will he “grow” in office? Who knows. If he is confirmed, perhaps this experience will solidify in him the realization that with the Left, no quarter is given. The favor must be returned.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 9:30am

He is, however, not a very deep thinker. He unquestioningly distills conventional thinking into bite-size chunks and regurgitates it for his audience, and those who are even shallower thinkers (like Mark) greedily swallow it all up.

His piece was ruminative and inconsequential. In re Kavanaugh, he contrivedly refuses to address any factual or normative questions. Shea fancies he’s ‘reasoning’ with “Kavanaugh’s defenders”, but that’s what he is assiduously avoiding. He’s got a word-count quota, and it shows.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 9:38am

I wasn’t thinking of Kavanaugh per se.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 10:19am

I abhor word-count-quotas and hard-and-fast need to fill with blather three hours of talk radio.

If I was intent on self-flagellation, I’d read Mark-who to count the logical fallacies.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 10:51am

Shea says it’s obvious Kavanaugh is lying and guilty. Given that all four people she identified as being present undercut her story (her pal Leland most brutally), that nothing she had to say about Mark Judge couldn’t have been found in his memoir, and that no one has made a direct or circumstantial case that she was ever a personal acquaintance of Kavanaugh or Judge, that’s pretty funny, though more funny strange than funny mirthful.

He’s obsessing over Kavanaugh’s yearbook. It doesn’t seem to occur to him that slang hasn’t fixed Merriam-Webster denotations, that the slang is 35 years old (consider how ‘gay’ was used in 1947 and how it was used in 1982), and that those notations are tongue-in-cheek. (I’m none too distant from BK in age and background, but I’d never heard these terms, and I lived in Maryland around that time).

Thomas Sowell’s remark that intelligence and articulateness are not the same thing is salient here. I haven’t figured out if Shea’s just…kinda…dopey or if he’s so emotions-driven that it doesn’t matter how much g a psychometrician might locate.

Nate Winchester
Nate Winchester
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 11:34am

Shea is just that emotionally driven, Art. You can see it when he will give every benefit of the doubt to someone he knows personally even if moments before he was blasting a stranger for making the exact same points.

Nate Winchester
Nate Winchester
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 11:36am

A better comparison: Shea’s words on someone who went through a fraction of what Brett did. Yet does such a moment of personal history give him any reflection or consideration for Kavanaugh? Of course not.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 11:37am

Maybe something left an indelible mark on his hippocampus?

c matt
c matt
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 11:51am

Thomas is solid, Alito should be, Gorsuch I guess is still too early to tell. I suppose Roberts could be a bit of a wild card given his Obamacare disaster. Was Roberts the other question mark?

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 11:54am

Yup.

Dave Griffey
Dave Griffey
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 12:14pm

Nate, excellent point. By Mark’s standards, why should we believe his own nephew instead of his nephew’s accuser? FWIW, I do believe his nephew, since to be accused does not equate to guilt. I still feel it’s up to the accuser to prove the accusation. I have a feeling Mark is like many today, betting the farm on the fact that if we do go straight police state, it will only impact others.

Phillip
Phillip
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 12:23pm

Once upon a time Shea scolded anyone tiptoeing up to evil. The accusations against Kavanaugh have no evidence. Spreading such claims is thus calumny. Calumny is not only an evil, but given the gravity, can be a mortal sin. The calumny against Kavanaugh is seriously grave given the public damage to his name. Thus it is a mortal sin. Shea takes part in its dissemination. He is thus cooperating with mortal sin.
So much for tiptoeing. Take care of your soul Mark

Dave Griffey
Dave Griffey
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 12:34pm

Phillip, Mark makes false accusations as a matter of course. He accused me of horrible things before he banned me. He’s done it to others. Kavanaugh should not be expected to be anything other than another case study, in this case the noteworthy part being Deacon Greydanus.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 12:50pm

Philip,

Both Mark who? and Professor Fraud apparently are committing a mortal sin: Detraction -m unjust damaging of a good man’s name. I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt that they actually “believe” their lies – calumny would be knowingly lying. Detraction, in a general sense, is a mortal sin, as being a violation of the virtue not only of charity but also of justice.

Anyhow, every democrat and liberal is also guilty of almost every mortal sin on a daily basis.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 12:51pm

Clarification: By “every mortal sin’ I meant every sin known to God and man.

David
David
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 1:35pm

https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/09/27/editors-it-time-kavanaugh-nomination-be-withdrawn

I am reminded of Father Hardon a true Jesuit’s words: “they fell like cheap timber to demonic influence… “

Phillip
Phillip
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 2:41pm

“…calumny would be knowingly lying.” I don’t know if it necessarily needs to be “knowingly.” I suspect vincible vs. invincible ignorance comes into play. Perhaps Ford has some false memories or falsely recollected memories, but I suspect if her four witnesses reject her claims its hard for her to assert that she is telling the truth. As for Mark, I think he should be able to discern the truth of the matter and is guilty of calumny.

Nate Winchester
Nate Winchester
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 2:51pm

Here is Mark’s latest comments on his message board.

My initial response to the accusation was skepticism. However, I think it is obvious now that she’s telling the truth and that he is lying. And yes, it is rape apologetics to say “Who among us has not clapped our hand over a girl’s mouth to keep her from screaming and tried to rip off her pants?” Come on.

And.

I think that, as Steve showed, people can have doubts, but they cannot have *reasonable* doubts. Ford was credible. Kavanaugh was obviously full of crap.

Get it? No there is no way a “reasonable” person can doubt Kavanaugh’s guilt.

I assume this is also why Mark would never make it as a lawyer.

Phillip
Phillip
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 2:59pm

I believe Ivy Rukin. Reality be damned.

Nate Winchester
Nate Winchester
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 3:03pm

Also note that in parallel with Dave’s point that the Left spares no thought for the past, notice how they adopt no concern for the future. With Mark and his cohorts, there is a lot of wondering (seemingly innocent) and why this matters to Republicans at all and what’s the big deal. Apparently they are incapable of grasping that a precedent might be set which will not end well and THAT is what is being fought, not the immediate concern.

Greg Mockeridge
Greg Mockeridge
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 3:05pm

Don, I’m surprised you actually expected better from Dcn. Greydanus. In case you haven’t noticed, he’s been a Mark proto-Shea for several years now.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 3:06pm

As I said elsewhere, this is what comes of trying to be reasonable and say you believe Ford when she claims somebody attempted to sexually assault her, but she’s mistaken about Kavanaugh being her attacker.

Ezabelle
Ezabelle
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 3:37pm

I recall Mark Shea asking his readers to pray for his nephew who was at the time being accused of sexually assaulting a young woman. Mark was on the front foot and was adamant his nephew was innocent from the get go. Before any investigation. Before any evidence. Only because HE (Mark) declared him innocent. Because the young man was his nephew.

Mark is police, Judge AND jury on all matters. Mark decides Kavanaugh is guilty from the get go, before any hearing, before any facts are corroborated. Only this time Mark doesn’t care what hell some other innocent family are enduring. As long as it’s not his family. And as long as Mark is right. Mark, we salute you!

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 3:44pm

As I said elsewhere, this is what comes of trying to be reasonable and say you believe Ford when she claims somebody attempted to sexually assault her, but she’s mistaken about Kavanaugh being her attacker.

There’s a difference between being reasonable and just temporizing for the hell of it.

. Your memory of an event doesn’t improve with years. If she had a head injury at the time from which she recovered, a precis of her medical records would be entered into evidence. There was no head trauma.

1. It happened or it didn’t.

2. If it happened, she knew it was BK and MJ at the time, or she had faces in her mind she could later assign names (with the help of those in her circle who could tell her the name which went with that face), or she didn’t know who it was and never has, or she did know it was someone else. Those are your options

A. If she knew it was BK and MJ at the time, she is not mistaken. Of course, if she was familiar with them, we should have some documentation or witness or circumstance which could provide evidence they were acquainted. That does not exist as yet. The closest you get to it is that their fathers are known to have had memberships in the same golf club. Since the club is all male and women are debarred from the campus, she wouldn’t have met BK there and she has never claimed to have met him through that connection. NB. Her father hasn’t signed any letter of endorsement.

B. If those faces were given a name by those who knew her and knew them, that person should be coming forward. The closest she’s come to identifying a mutual acquaintance is the mention of Christopher Garrett. He hasn’t come forward at all, much less as he come forward to say he identified BK and MJ for her.

C. If she’s never known who the perp was, she lying now and defaming two innocent men.

D. If she did know her assailant at the time, she’s also lying and defaming.

“You’re mistaken” is not an option. Some others have raised the possibility of false memory, but that’s not credible, either. She was 15 or 18, not 4.

Shea is ignoring the elephant sized holes in her story and parsing the 1983 Yearbook to distract himself. This is emotion-driven stupidity on his part. And quite contemptable.

Phillip
Phillip
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 4:03pm

“And quite contemptable.”

And morally reprehensible. Again, Mark’s soul is in danger. Pray for him.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 4:06pm

Emotion-driven stupidity covers 99% of what goes on in politics these days.

ken
ken
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 4:19pm

Apparently now we will get a one week “””FBI””” investigation. What will be discovered? There is no evidence. There are only five (or is it six?) parties to question. If Ford’s friend or the other two (or is it three?) males suddenly change their story all it will do is destroy their credibility; although to be realistic it will be the a-ha moment for the left and will doom his nomination. I’m not convinced Dr. Ford really wants an investigation.

In my twisted mind this is what I’d like to see:
Scene: A room with five doors. At thirty second intervals introduce Dr. Ford then her friend then the other two males and finally justice Kavanaugh.
Without them knowing record the entire event. The truth would emerge in under 30 minutes.

Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 4:24pm

Has this ever been brought up?

Where are Ford’s best pals from school?
Her most trusted confidant. Her best friend.
One would think she would speak of this horrific attempt to invade her womanhood would of been spoken about to her closest friend, her aunt, her mother. (?)

The old acquaintances from school wouldn’t stand up for her..but you would think her best friend would if she was privy to the (attack).

Phillip
Phillip
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 4:24pm

“A room with five doors.”

Or how about mastic and oak trees.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 4:29pm

The nonsense ‘investigation’ is to feed the vanity of Jeff Flake.

Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 4:40pm

Will the FBI now interview her friends?

One week. (?)

Stallout now in full motion.

Ezabelle
Ezabelle
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 5:12pm

It looks like Kavanaugh has to ride this through and survive it. Pity for his wife and children. It’s humiliating.

But might I add, when he is sworn in, and the dust settles he should look to file a lawsuit against the accuser and her handlers for defamation so to receive a retraction and an apology. You can’t just randomly accuse someone and just move on. A point needs to be made here on the highest level. It will also send a warning to the media. I genuinely believe he should not let this go.

A large Catholic family, the Wagner’s, who are one of Australia’s wealthiest families (airports, quarries, mining machinery, many businesses), recently won a three year court battle against THE most prominent radio commenter in the country. This commentator who happens to be a conservative outspoken political powerbroker and whose opinion I highly regard, had to pay the family a few million $ and offer a public apology and retraction and was slapped with a gag order about ever mentioning this family in his broadcast or to the media.

This radio personality continually accused the Wagner’s, of negligence for the loss of lives during Queensland’s floods 6 years ago because the radio personality claims the Dam which the Wagner family own, burst and caused horrific flooding throughout SE Queensland and put Brisbane city under water for weeks (I’m talking downdown bustling city with water a few meters high- it was something unbelievable at the time, to comprehend that a bustling city could flood). He claims the Wagner family were negligent in the care of their Dam and caused the events which sparked the flood, where people drowned.

The Wagner sons had enough of his false drivel, and sued. Not because they needed the money, but because they were sick of their good name being trashed by somebody with a microphone. Their now elderly parents have a very respected name and have worked hard, from humble beginnings, for their wealth and employed many many people through their businesses over the years. I personally have met one Wagner family member who organised the headstone for my late father-in-Law. A lovely man, honest and hardworking. And my husbands family can vouche for their good name because they have lived in the same town as them for decades. This accusation against them was out of character.

So I guess if you forgive my long story about an incident which occurred on the other side of the world, my point is that if you allow people to defame you then it sends a message that it’s ok and nobody will think twice of doing it to others.

It wastes time, energy and money on meaningless hearings. It irreversibly damages a family’s good name and it perpetuates the political rot (Clinton’s) allowing them to undermine the job of the people who are there to serve the citizens of their nation- in this case, the American man, woman, boy and girl.

Kavanaugh should not let this go. He needs to sue.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Friday, September 28, AD 2018 5:25pm

My guess is his nomination won’t survive the weekend. But I’m just very, very frustrated and down at the moment.

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