George Will in NRO "Pope Francis embodies sanctity but comes trailing clouds of sanctimony. With a convert’s indiscriminate zeal, he embraces ideas impeccably fashionable, demonstrably false, and deeply reactionary. They would devastate the poor on whose behalf he purports to speak — if his policy prescriptions were not as implausible as his social diagnoses are shrill. "Supporters of Francis have bought newspaper and broadcast advertisements to disseminate some of his woolly sentiments that have the intellectual tone of fortune cookies. One example: “People occasionally forgive, but nature never does.” The Vatican’s majesty does not disguise the vacuity of this. Is Francis intimating that environmental damage is irreversible? He neglects what technology has accomplished regarding London’s air (see Page 1 of Dickens’s Bleak House) and other matters. "And the Earth is becoming “an immense pile of filth”? Hyperbole is a predictable precursor of yet another U.N. climate-change conference — the 21st since 1995. Fortunately, rhetorical exhibitionism increases as its effectiveness diminishes. In his June encyclical and elsewhere, Francis lectures about our responsibilities, but neglects the duty to be as intelligent as one can be. This man who says “the Church does not presume to settle scientific questions” proceeds as though everything about which he declaims is settled, from imperiled plankton to air conditioning being among humanity’s “harmful habits.” The church that thought it was settled science that Galileo was heretical should be attentive to all evidence." . . .
. . . "Obama should be grateful to the pontiff, who helped the President achieve a very rare foreign policy “success”. If he is, the Obama sure has a strange way of showing it.
In a stunning show of political indecorum, Obama has invited a series of individuals who publicly flout Catholic teaching, including a pro-abortion religious sister, a transgender woman and the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, along with at least two Catholic gay activists.
"Truly, this is the sort of SmartPowerTM move we have come to expect from the White House." . . .
As Cuban dissidents arrested, Pope Francis enjoys 'friendly and informal conversation' with Fidel Castro . . . "Meeting under the gaze of Che Guevara,* a bloodthirsty man who enjoyed executing his political opponents – personally machine gunning them for sport – is abominable. But I suppose the pope had no choice in the venue if he was committed to seeing Castro. The photo of the meeting is certainly will do nothing to harm Castro’s image with believing Catholic Cubans:" * Guevara can't be all bad; his picture hung in some Obama election offices in 2008.
The fall of Scott Walker . . . "Scott Walker had three different positions (count them: three) on birthright citizenship alone in a week's time. He quickly became known as being squishy on immigration. . . . "I've always felt that he was a governor who did a conservative thing with the unions rather than a conservative governor who did a conservative thing with the unions. He's probably the best liberal Wisconsin can do with, but American can do better." . . .
""Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced Monday afternoon that he is suspending his campaign for the Republican nomination for President. He follows former Texas Governor Rick Perry as the second candidate to drop out of the still large field of 15 major candidates.
"Walker said he was disappointed by the debate taking place in the Republican party that is not focused on Ronald Reagan’s optimism, but instead has devolved into personal attacks.
“ 'In the end, I believe that voters want to be for something and not against someone. Instead of talking about how bad things are, we want to hear about how we can make them better for everyone,” Walker stated.
“ 'Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the race so that a positive conservative message can rise to the top of the field. With that in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately,” Walker announced." . . .
Once upon a time, the women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault had to listen to hateful, misogynist garbage like this: “Drag a $100 bill through a trailer park, you never know what you’ll find.” But as of right now, those days are over.
Hillary Clinton
✔@HillaryClinton
Hillary to every survivor of sexual assault: You have the right to be heard and believed. We're with you.
"I believe Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, and all the other women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault. And as we just heard, so does Hillary Clinton.
"See? Hillary Clinton believes victims of sexual assault. Their attacker’s punishment: not serving as Vice President of the United States. Harsh but fair.
“’I think that transgendered women — I think women should be able to participate in contact sports if they can compete effectively,’ she told The Daily Caller in the ‘spin room’ after the CNN Republican presidential debate Wednesday night. ‘I think that if they are living as a woman and identifying as a woman that they should be able to play on a women’s team’” she added. ‘But also I think that there are women who should be able to play on a men’s teams if they can effectively compete and vice versa.’ Asked specifically whether men who become women should be able to compete in female boxing or female mixed martial arts, the DNC chair punted. ‘You’re going a little deep on the type of sport,’ she said. ‘I think we are a little afield of what we are here to talk about.’”
"Can we just call this the “Hillary Clinton Rule?” That’s right, “She’s a man, Ba-By!' ”. . . Read more at the Black Sphere
