(click on photo to enlarge)
I wonder if the irony of the top two NY Times stories of the day will be lost on anyone but our Dear Decider/Commander in Chief. Welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to the White House (in honor of his birthday, without mention that it is, in fact, a commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the oldest Diocese in the United States) President Bush spoke about the great Beacon Of Light the United States represents to the world:
In our nation, faith and reason coexist in harmony. This is one of our country’s greatest strengths, and one of the reasons that our land remains a beacon of hope and opportunity for millions across the world.
Most of all, Holy Father, you will find in America people whose hearts are open to your message of hope. And America and the world need this message. In a world where some invoke the name of God to justify acts of terror and murder and hate, we need your message that “God is love.” And embracing this love is the surest way to save men from “falling prey to the teaching of fanaticism and terrorism.”
In a world where some treat life as something to be debased and discarded, we need your message that all human life is sacred, and that “each of us is willed, each of us is loved” — (applause) — and your message that “each of us is willed, each of us is loved, and each of us is necessary.”
I find it so interesting that he sticks to this anti-abortion line as if it is all that counts. Clearly, each of us being willed, loved, and necessary does not extend to those set to be lethally injected. Or to those counted as collateral damage in Iraq. Or to Darfuris.
Perverse Egalitarianism 
Err…do you think Bush is, um…overstating his case? I mean really, faith and reason coexisting in harmony, each of us is necessary–who wrote this speech anyway? I enjoyed the irony that the pat reduction of the Pope’s “message,” “God is love,” is put forth as nothing less than a rigorous intervention into the contemporary malaise of all those secularists, terrorists, fanatics all the while side by side new laws permitting lethal injection. Nice one!
This is the same Pope who used to be the head of the modern version of the
InquisitionDoctrinal Purity and Conformance Office (whatever the actual title is) – I do like the FoxNews coverage though, having been exposed to it a bit yesterday – the basic theme was: Is he as decrepit and old and useless as anyone aged 81 is very likely to be? No, John, he seems to be very alert and he even made eye-contact with me and waved at some children, back to you in the studio, John!“are we defending life when we just pick and choose lives acceptable to lose, and which ones to defend?” -Derek Webb
It actually makes me angry that Bush would say something like that after years of war-mongering, torture, wrongful imprisonment, war crimes, etc which he has deemed all worthwhile for the “great progress” we’ve made.
ha.
i’m clearly preaching to the choir here.
and what a choir too!