The FBI reports crime has dropped.
Compstat policing and three strikes sentencing continue taking a toll on criminals, as the Wall Street Journal reports.
An excerpt.
“The number of violent crimes reported in 2009 declined for the third-consecutive year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported, with law-enforcement officials crediting better policing despite cutbacks caused by the weak economy.
“Violent crime was down 5.3% and property crime declined 4.6%, according to the FBI's full-year statistics released Monday. The property-crime decrease was the seventh-consecutive annual drop.
“Policing experts attribute lower rates to a number of factors, from improved policing tactics to demographic trends. The U.S. also imprisons people at a much higher rate than other industrialized countries....
“The FBI crime statistics are gathered from nearly 18,000 federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies, which cover more than 96% of the U.S. population.
“Among the types of violent crimes that posted decreases in 2009 were murders, rapes, robberies and assaults. Among the sharpest declines was the number of murders. The FBI estimated 15,241 people were murdered nationwide in 2009, down 7.3% from the 2008 estimate.”
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Sign of Contradiction
The saint we celebrate today is a powerful example of that injunction, and his life as a bishop a path to follow for those bishops with the strength and clarity to do so.
An excerpt from Saint of the Day.
“The ambiguity and intrigue surrounding John, the great preacher (his name means "golden-mouthed") from Antioch, are characteristic of the life of any great man in a capital city. Brought to Constantinople after a dozen years of priestly service in Syria, John found himself the reluctant victim of an imperial ruse to make him bishop in the greatest city of the empire. Ascetic, unimposing but dignified, and troubled by stomach ailments from his desert days as a monk, John became a bishop under the cloud of imperial politics.
“If his body was weak, his tongue was powerful. The content of his sermons, his exegesis of Scripture, were never without a point. Sometimes the point stung the high and mighty. Some sermons lasted up to two hours.
“His lifestyle at the imperial court was not appreciated by many courtiers. He offered a modest table to episcopal sycophants hanging around for imperial and ecclesiastical favors. John deplored the court protocol that accorded him precedence before the highest state officials. He would not be a kept man.
“His zeal led him to decisive action. Bishops who bribed their way into office were deposed. Many of his sermons called for concrete steps to share wealth with the poor. The rich did not appreciate hearing from John that private property existed because of Adam's fall from grace any more than married men liked to hear that they were bound to marital fidelity just as much as their wives were. When it came to justice and charity, John acknowledged no double standards.
“Aloof, energetic, outspoken, especially when he became excited in the pulpit, John was a sure target for criticism and personal trouble. He was accused of gorging himself secretly on rich wines and fine foods. His faithfulness as spiritual director to the rich widow, Olympia, provoked much gossip attempting to prove him a hypocrite where wealth and chastity were concerned. His actions taken against unworthy bishops in Asia Minor were viewed by other ecclesiastics as a greedy, uncanonical extension of his authority.
“Two prominent personages who personally undertook to discredit John were Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria, and Empress Eudoxia. Theophilus feared the growth in importance of the Bishop of Constantinople and took occasion to charge John with fostering heresy. Theophilus and other angered bishops were supported by Eudoxia. The empress resented his sermons contrasting gospel values with the excesses of imperial court life.”
An excerpt from Saint of the Day.
“The ambiguity and intrigue surrounding John, the great preacher (his name means "golden-mouthed") from Antioch, are characteristic of the life of any great man in a capital city. Brought to Constantinople after a dozen years of priestly service in Syria, John found himself the reluctant victim of an imperial ruse to make him bishop in the greatest city of the empire. Ascetic, unimposing but dignified, and troubled by stomach ailments from his desert days as a monk, John became a bishop under the cloud of imperial politics.
“If his body was weak, his tongue was powerful. The content of his sermons, his exegesis of Scripture, were never without a point. Sometimes the point stung the high and mighty. Some sermons lasted up to two hours.
“His lifestyle at the imperial court was not appreciated by many courtiers. He offered a modest table to episcopal sycophants hanging around for imperial and ecclesiastical favors. John deplored the court protocol that accorded him precedence before the highest state officials. He would not be a kept man.
“His zeal led him to decisive action. Bishops who bribed their way into office were deposed. Many of his sermons called for concrete steps to share wealth with the poor. The rich did not appreciate hearing from John that private property existed because of Adam's fall from grace any more than married men liked to hear that they were bound to marital fidelity just as much as their wives were. When it came to justice and charity, John acknowledged no double standards.
“Aloof, energetic, outspoken, especially when he became excited in the pulpit, John was a sure target for criticism and personal trouble. He was accused of gorging himself secretly on rich wines and fine foods. His faithfulness as spiritual director to the rich widow, Olympia, provoked much gossip attempting to prove him a hypocrite where wealth and chastity were concerned. His actions taken against unworthy bishops in Asia Minor were viewed by other ecclesiastics as a greedy, uncanonical extension of his authority.
“Two prominent personages who personally undertook to discredit John were Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria, and Empress Eudoxia. Theophilus feared the growth in importance of the Bishop of Constantinople and took occasion to charge John with fostering heresy. Theophilus and other angered bishops were supported by Eudoxia. The empress resented his sermons contrasting gospel values with the excesses of imperial court life.”
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Marxism & Personalism
Marxism underlies the way of thinking that continues to be one of the most corrosive threats to the Church (even winding its way into the Church as liberation theology) and in 1938, when Emmanuel Mounier—who heavily influenced Jacques Maritain and Dorothy Day—wrote his seminal book A Personalist Manifesto, (it is very difficult to find a copy, but well worth the search) it was strongly ascendant.
Mounier defines personalism:
“We shall apply the term personalist to any doctrine or any civilization that affirms the primacy of the human person over material necessities and over the whole complex of implements man needs for the development of his person.” (p. 1)
And he argues that:
“Personalism is the only basis on which an honest and successful combat can be waged against Marxism.” (p. 44)
He adds:
“It is this intimate life of the person, vibrant in all our acts, that is the rhythmical reality of human existence. It alone answers the need for authenticity, for true action, and for the fullness of life which Marxist materialism and fascist naturalism try to find in the objective realizations of man. Nothing can take its place.
“The error of the mathematicians,” Engels once wrote, “was to believe that an individual could achieve by himself what can be achieved only by the whole of mankind in its constant development.” We answer that the error of fascism and Marxism is to believe that the nation or the state or Humanity can and must undertake in its collective evolution what alone each human person can and must undertake in his personal development.” (p. 79)
Mounier defines personalism:
“We shall apply the term personalist to any doctrine or any civilization that affirms the primacy of the human person over material necessities and over the whole complex of implements man needs for the development of his person.” (p. 1)
And he argues that:
“Personalism is the only basis on which an honest and successful combat can be waged against Marxism.” (p. 44)
He adds:
“It is this intimate life of the person, vibrant in all our acts, that is the rhythmical reality of human existence. It alone answers the need for authenticity, for true action, and for the fullness of life which Marxist materialism and fascist naturalism try to find in the objective realizations of man. Nothing can take its place.
“The error of the mathematicians,” Engels once wrote, “was to believe that an individual could achieve by himself what can be achieved only by the whole of mankind in its constant development.” We answer that the error of fascism and Marxism is to believe that the nation or the state or Humanity can and must undertake in its collective evolution what alone each human person can and must undertake in his personal development.” (p. 79)
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Outside Crime from Inside Prison
Another in the ongoing reportage of cell phones inside prisons allowing prisoners to control crimes outside, as reported by The Clarion Ledger; and another nail in the coffin of the argument by the USCCB that the death penalty can be abolished because modern penal technology can protect the innocent from the aggressor.
An excerpt.
“More than 216,320 texts and cellular phone calls have been blocked from being delivered inside the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman since Aug. 6, thanks to cutting-edge technology unveiled Wednesday.
“The system forms a radio frequency umbrella that intercepts cell phone transmissions in a specified area, preventing unauthorized communications from inmates.
"It's a big deal that we're first in the U.S. to employ this type of managed access system when there's a problem in virtually every prison and jail in the United States of America," Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said.
“MDOC negotiated so that its telecommunications provider, Global Tel*Link Solutions, and partner Tecore Networks would include a system to control cell phone usage without costing the state an additional dime, Epps said. "This system is worth over a half-million dollars in this process," he said.
“So far this year, nearly 2,000 cell phones have been confiscated from Mississippi prisons. Last year, almost 3,600 cell phones were seized
“In recent years, cell phones have been used in prison escapes, including from Parchman, Lee County and the Harrison County Community Work Center, Epps said. One escape culminated in the shooting of a police officer in Nashville. Also, cell phones have been used to call in hits on witnesses or possibly police officers, Epps said.
"In Baltimore, a man called in a hit on his witness and had him killed before trial," Epps said. "A death row inmate in Texas called the state senator, and when they took up the phone, the SIM card had more than 2,000 calls on it. And there's a reason to believe a captain in South Carolina was killed as a result of a cell phone."
An excerpt.
“More than 216,320 texts and cellular phone calls have been blocked from being delivered inside the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman since Aug. 6, thanks to cutting-edge technology unveiled Wednesday.
“The system forms a radio frequency umbrella that intercepts cell phone transmissions in a specified area, preventing unauthorized communications from inmates.
"It's a big deal that we're first in the U.S. to employ this type of managed access system when there's a problem in virtually every prison and jail in the United States of America," Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said.
“MDOC negotiated so that its telecommunications provider, Global Tel*Link Solutions, and partner Tecore Networks would include a system to control cell phone usage without costing the state an additional dime, Epps said. "This system is worth over a half-million dollars in this process," he said.
“So far this year, nearly 2,000 cell phones have been confiscated from Mississippi prisons. Last year, almost 3,600 cell phones were seized
“In recent years, cell phones have been used in prison escapes, including from Parchman, Lee County and the Harrison County Community Work Center, Epps said. One escape culminated in the shooting of a police officer in Nashville. Also, cell phones have been used to call in hits on witnesses or possibly police officers, Epps said.
"In Baltimore, a man called in a hit on his witness and had him killed before trial," Epps said. "A death row inmate in Texas called the state senator, and when they took up the phone, the SIM card had more than 2,000 calls on it. And there's a reason to believe a captain in South Carolina was killed as a result of a cell phone."
Friday, September 10, 2010
Social Justice
1) It is often misunderstood, as this article from Catholic Culture reports :
An excerpt:
“A Connecticut bishop has defended the concept of social justice against critics who “have been telling Catholics to eliminate the term ‘social justice’ from any organization that speaks on Catholic social justice or has this expression as part of its title.” Auxiliary Bishop Peter Rosazza of Hartford is likely referring to comments made earlier this year by radio and television host Glenn Beck, a Catholic who converted to Mormonism.”
2) It is also often misinterpreted by dissenting Catholics, but—understood correctly—is a principle steadfastly embedded within Catholic social teaching, as the Catechism teaches us, and is the second guiding principles of our apostolate, as noted on the Lampstand website.
“We will work for social justice in all that we do.
"1928 Society ensures social justice when it provides the conditions that allow associations or individuals to obtain what is their due, according to their nature and their vocation. Social justice is linked to the common good and the exercise of authority.
"1929 Social justice can be obtained only in respecting the transcendent dignity of man. The person represents the ultimate end of society, which is ordered to him:
"What is at stake is the dignity of the human person, whose defense and promotion have been entrusted to us by the Creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of history are strictly and responsibly in debt.
"1930 Respect for the human person entails respect for the rights that flow from his dignity as a creature. These rights are prior to society and must be recognized by it. They are the basis of the moral legitimacy of every authority: by flouting them, or refusing to recognize them in its positive legislation, a society undermines its own moral legitimacy. If it does not respect them, authority can rely only on force or violence to obtain obedience from its subjects. It is the Church's role to remind men of good will of these rights and to distinguish them from unwarranted or false claims." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1928-1930)
An excerpt:
“A Connecticut bishop has defended the concept of social justice against critics who “have been telling Catholics to eliminate the term ‘social justice’ from any organization that speaks on Catholic social justice or has this expression as part of its title.” Auxiliary Bishop Peter Rosazza of Hartford is likely referring to comments made earlier this year by radio and television host Glenn Beck, a Catholic who converted to Mormonism.”
2) It is also often misinterpreted by dissenting Catholics, but—understood correctly—is a principle steadfastly embedded within Catholic social teaching, as the Catechism teaches us, and is the second guiding principles of our apostolate, as noted on the Lampstand website.
“We will work for social justice in all that we do.
"1928 Society ensures social justice when it provides the conditions that allow associations or individuals to obtain what is their due, according to their nature and their vocation. Social justice is linked to the common good and the exercise of authority.
"1929 Social justice can be obtained only in respecting the transcendent dignity of man. The person represents the ultimate end of society, which is ordered to him:
"What is at stake is the dignity of the human person, whose defense and promotion have been entrusted to us by the Creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of history are strictly and responsibly in debt.
"1930 Respect for the human person entails respect for the rights that flow from his dignity as a creature. These rights are prior to society and must be recognized by it. They are the basis of the moral legitimacy of every authority: by flouting them, or refusing to recognize them in its positive legislation, a society undermines its own moral legitimacy. If it does not respect them, authority can rely only on force or violence to obtain obedience from its subjects. It is the Church's role to remind men of good will of these rights and to distinguish them from unwarranted or false claims." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1928-1930)
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Police Technology
We all benefit when it improves and this improvement, as reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is a good one.
An excerpt.
“Handguns, notepads and BlackBerrys?
“The tools used by Pittsburgh police officers have changed a little in the past decade.
“Today, in the front seat of each patrol car is a sturdy, wireless laptop that generates maps, streams information from 911 calls and, with the swipe of an officer's "Smart Card," provides access to criminal databases.
"We're creating this technology in-house," said Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who held a news conference Tuesday with police officials to showcase the department's new technology.
“Sixty patrol cars now have tiny printers that produce waterproof citations and can read and extract information from scanned driver's licenses.
“Officers in Zone 5 are testing windshield-mounted video cameras that remotely upload footage when they drive within 300 feet of a station. A microphone on the officer's lapel records conversations during traffic stops, providing proof of what happened if disputes arise.
"Obviously, the film won't lie," Mr. Ravenstahl said.
“The new technologies reduce paperwork and allow officers to return to the station less frequently, said Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson.
The wealth of information also keeps officers safer, said Sgt. Eric Kroll, who coordinates new technology training.
"There's no lost communication between 911 and the officer," he said.
“The department continues to tweak its tools.
"Things work, things don't work ... it's ever-evolving," said Cmdr. Linda Barone.
“And officers continue to return to the police academy for crash-courses about their dashboard.
"It's like the cockpit of an airplane now," said Officer Don Adamsky.”
An excerpt.
“Handguns, notepads and BlackBerrys?
“The tools used by Pittsburgh police officers have changed a little in the past decade.
“Today, in the front seat of each patrol car is a sturdy, wireless laptop that generates maps, streams information from 911 calls and, with the swipe of an officer's "Smart Card," provides access to criminal databases.
"We're creating this technology in-house," said Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who held a news conference Tuesday with police officials to showcase the department's new technology.
“Sixty patrol cars now have tiny printers that produce waterproof citations and can read and extract information from scanned driver's licenses.
“Officers in Zone 5 are testing windshield-mounted video cameras that remotely upload footage when they drive within 300 feet of a station. A microphone on the officer's lapel records conversations during traffic stops, providing proof of what happened if disputes arise.
"Obviously, the film won't lie," Mr. Ravenstahl said.
“The new technologies reduce paperwork and allow officers to return to the station less frequently, said Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson.
The wealth of information also keeps officers safer, said Sgt. Eric Kroll, who coordinates new technology training.
"There's no lost communication between 911 and the officer," he said.
“The department continues to tweak its tools.
"Things work, things don't work ... it's ever-evolving," said Cmdr. Linda Barone.
“And officers continue to return to the police academy for crash-courses about their dashboard.
"It's like the cockpit of an airplane now," said Officer Don Adamsky.”
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
The Catholic President & Catholic Politicians
Much of the disastrous showing of Catholic politicians in relation to the dogma of the Church over the past several decades, received a huge boost from the unholy bargain the first Catholic presidential nominee made to become president, in a speech to Protestant ministers, examined in this article from Catholic World Report.
What is heartening is that some Catholic leaders at the time, spoke out against the bargain, but what is disheartening is that more have not, continuing to today.
An excerpt.
“So, what did Kennedy say to the ministers a half-century ago in Houston?
“Part of it was pandering of the kind politicians running for office frequently indulge in. As a young congressman for the Boston district once represented in the US House of Representatives by his own grandfather, John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, and also by legendary Boston mayor James Michael Curley, Kennedy was, in Maier’s words, “a stalwart supporter of the Church.”
“Now, to the Houston ministers he proudly cited his “declared stands against an ambassador to the Vatican, against unconstitutional aid to parochial schools [what would be constitutional was left unsaid, but earlier he’d backed health services, transportation, and textbooks], and against any boycott of the public schools.” He also expressed support for “absolute” separation of church and state.
“None of this, however, was the heart of the speech. That distinction goes instead to the text’s powerful thrust toward privatizing religion. Father John Courtney Murray, SJ—the American theologian whose thinking about church-state relations, religious pluralism, and freedom of conscience was soon to be influential at Vatican Council II—called its position “idiocy.”
“Kennedy’s privatizing of religion operated on two levels: the macro level of politics and public life, and the private level of individual conscience. In both areas, the message was devastating.
“On the public-political level, the text employs the familiar rhetorical device of setting up straw-men in order to knock them down. “I believe,” Kennedy bravely affirmed, “in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant, nor Jewish—where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the pope, the National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source.” But what rational person believes in anything else?
“Far more dangerous, however, is Kennedy’s declaration of belief in an America “where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials.” The unspoken but unmistakable subtext of this points to an America where religion has nothing to say to politics and politicians, and churches, docile and domesticated, keep their noses out of public life.
“As for conscience, Kennedy delivered this remarkable pledge: “Whatever issue may come before me as president—on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling, or any other subject—I will make my decision…in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be in the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates.”
“Practically speaking, this reduces the criterion of right and wrong to national interest—a proposition that would have delighted Machiavelli. Still more, the appropriate instrument for determining where national interest lies is said to be the private judgment of a president, unhampered by objective moral principle, moral doctrine, or anything else.
“A few years later, commenting on Vatican II’s Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae, Father Murray said the idea that “I have a right to do what my conscience tells me to do, simply because my conscience tells me to do it” was a “perilous theory” that ended in “subjectivism,” and was not at all what the Council taught.
“And, many more years after that, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic, justified her support for legal abortion and gay rights by appealing in a 2009 Newsweek interview to that perilous theory: “I feel what I was raised to believe is consistent with what I profess, and that is that we are all endowed with a free will and a responsibility to answer for our actions. And that women should have that opportunity to exercise their free will.”
“History records that JFK’s speech worked. Kennedy won the election, collecting 80 percent of the Catholic vote and becoming, in the words of Notre Dame historian Jay P. Dolan, a “symbol of success” for his coreligionists.
“The race to embrace positions like those that he enunciated in the 1960 Houston text was much sped up by the Supreme Court’s January 1973 abortion decision in Roe v. Wade. Soon the Democratic Party became the party of legal abortion, and Catholic Democrats scrambled to accommodate their views to the new regime of abortion rights.”
What is heartening is that some Catholic leaders at the time, spoke out against the bargain, but what is disheartening is that more have not, continuing to today.
An excerpt.
“So, what did Kennedy say to the ministers a half-century ago in Houston?
“Part of it was pandering of the kind politicians running for office frequently indulge in. As a young congressman for the Boston district once represented in the US House of Representatives by his own grandfather, John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, and also by legendary Boston mayor James Michael Curley, Kennedy was, in Maier’s words, “a stalwart supporter of the Church.”
“Now, to the Houston ministers he proudly cited his “declared stands against an ambassador to the Vatican, against unconstitutional aid to parochial schools [what would be constitutional was left unsaid, but earlier he’d backed health services, transportation, and textbooks], and against any boycott of the public schools.” He also expressed support for “absolute” separation of church and state.
“None of this, however, was the heart of the speech. That distinction goes instead to the text’s powerful thrust toward privatizing religion. Father John Courtney Murray, SJ—the American theologian whose thinking about church-state relations, religious pluralism, and freedom of conscience was soon to be influential at Vatican Council II—called its position “idiocy.”
“Kennedy’s privatizing of religion operated on two levels: the macro level of politics and public life, and the private level of individual conscience. In both areas, the message was devastating.
“On the public-political level, the text employs the familiar rhetorical device of setting up straw-men in order to knock them down. “I believe,” Kennedy bravely affirmed, “in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant, nor Jewish—where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the pope, the National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source.” But what rational person believes in anything else?
“Far more dangerous, however, is Kennedy’s declaration of belief in an America “where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials.” The unspoken but unmistakable subtext of this points to an America where religion has nothing to say to politics and politicians, and churches, docile and domesticated, keep their noses out of public life.
“As for conscience, Kennedy delivered this remarkable pledge: “Whatever issue may come before me as president—on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling, or any other subject—I will make my decision…in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be in the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates.”
“Practically speaking, this reduces the criterion of right and wrong to national interest—a proposition that would have delighted Machiavelli. Still more, the appropriate instrument for determining where national interest lies is said to be the private judgment of a president, unhampered by objective moral principle, moral doctrine, or anything else.
“A few years later, commenting on Vatican II’s Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae, Father Murray said the idea that “I have a right to do what my conscience tells me to do, simply because my conscience tells me to do it” was a “perilous theory” that ended in “subjectivism,” and was not at all what the Council taught.
“And, many more years after that, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic, justified her support for legal abortion and gay rights by appealing in a 2009 Newsweek interview to that perilous theory: “I feel what I was raised to believe is consistent with what I profess, and that is that we are all endowed with a free will and a responsibility to answer for our actions. And that women should have that opportunity to exercise their free will.”
“History records that JFK’s speech worked. Kennedy won the election, collecting 80 percent of the Catholic vote and becoming, in the words of Notre Dame historian Jay P. Dolan, a “symbol of success” for his coreligionists.
“The race to embrace positions like those that he enunciated in the 1960 Houston text was much sped up by the Supreme Court’s January 1973 abortion decision in Roe v. Wade. Soon the Democratic Party became the party of legal abortion, and Catholic Democrats scrambled to accommodate their views to the new regime of abortion rights.”
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