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Pope Benedict XVI: The Rock Star!

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This post may only be relevant to my fellow Catholics, but if you’ve been watching the Papal visit coverage anywhere on television, you likely have seen the rock star-like response that Benedict has received everywhere that he’s visited so far. I just watched him enter St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City and not only did the people outside of the cathedral go bonkers when he stepped out of his car, but the priests, nuns, and bishops on the inside of the cathedral gave the man a prolonged standing ovation!

And true to Catholic form, the applause lasted until Benedict began to kneel in front of the Blessed Sacrament – then it was like someone hit the “off” button because it was suddenly quiet.

Seeing the mania around Pope Benedict’s visit makes me wish that I had planned to go and see him in New York. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to make a trip to the Vatican for one of his masses there! Anyway, the response that Pope Benedict has received will hopefully accomplish two goals. First, I hope that it puts America further up the list for future visits by the Pope and second, I hope it helps to reignite Catholicism in America. Frankly, I think both goals have been accomplished!

Bill Maher is a Scumbag

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Anyone who is unfortunate enough to watch this self-righteous loser’s show on HBO (a channel that my apartment will hopefully be canceling on May 1st), knows that Bill Maher is a jerk. He’s the type of arrogant, pompous prick who thinks that his thoughts are better than everyone else’s and that – because he’s smarter that you are – you should just take his “witty” barbs in jest. In case you haven’t heard, the New York Daily News can fill us in on what this dirtbag said about the Pope the other night:

“Whenever a cult leader sets himself up as God’s infallible wing man here on Earth, lock away the kids,” said Maher, comparing the Catholic Church to the polygamist cult authorities raided in Texas last week.

“I’d like to tip off law enforcement to an even larger child-abusing religious cult,” Maher said. “Its leader also has a compound, and this guy not only operates outside the bounds of the law, but he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats.”

After Maher said this, he flashed a picture of Pope Benedict XVI on the screen. Not only is this disturbing and disgusting, but it shows that Maher has a gross lack of understanding of reality. All this desperate-for-ratings-jerk had to do was listen to ONE comment that the Pope made since he arrived in America a few days ago to realize that he has reached out to the extreme minority of Catholics who have been abused by bastards who managed to make their way into the priesthood. All this loser had to do was open his ears (not even his mind, just his ears) and listen to the healing words spoken by the Pope. The Pope stopped and met with an inter-religious group the other night to let them know that we’re all in this thing together. The man has been the very height of religious professionalism and ecumenical evangelism since he assumed the Papacy and since he entered America.

Now, I know that this loser Maher said these disgusting, hurtful words because he wanted to get people like me to write posts like this. I also know that he wants to get people like me to watch his apology on his show tonight. Well, Maher proves once again that he knows nothing about our religion. If Maher is truly sorry for his words, then he has my forgiveness and the forgiveness of the Church. We don’t need to watch his stupid show to hear him say, “I’m sorry.” We are, however, also consumers of goods and as a consumer of HBO I choose to vote with my dollars and no longer have this channel on my lineup.

In the act of drawing a higher rating to his program, I hope that Bill Maher has set-off an Imus-like firestorm and eventually finds himself unemployed. He’s disgusting and should be shunned by all.

Update – April 2010: This has become one of my favorite entries on the entire blog. Why, you ask? Simple – there are so many brainwashed people out there who send in anti-Catholic, anti-religion, anti-white, and anti-Republican hate mongering comments that each new one I receive makes me laugh a little bit more. Let me make this clear – hate mongering comments do not get posted on the blog. So please, continue to send in your hateful comments, but know that I am the only one getting a kick out of them. That crap will never be posted on my personal blog.

The Cost of College Textbooks

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Minding the Campus is a great website that keeps an eye on the many oddities that seem to take place at college campuses. You know these oddities – the private school that believes they do not have to follow American law, the public school that believes they can restrict a student’s right to freely express their views (in a non-harmful way), the college professor that bashes and berates America…while he lives and raises a family in the very country he seems to hate. There are illogical happenings all over college campuses and Minding the Campus is one of the best sites to monitor what’s going on.

Just recently they posted a commentary by Charlotte Allen that discussed the increasing costs of college textbooks. This is one of the most thoughtful, thorough discussions of this topic that I’ve read and the comments on the post are equally as thought-provoking. If you have the time in your day, I highly suggest reading this commentary.

For what it’s worth, my stance as an Adjunct Professor is to assign textbooks that deliver the message of the course and – most importantly – help students learn the material. If that goal can be achieved with a used text or text that is cheaper than a brand new book, then I’m happy to assign an older text for the students.

A New Howard 101 Friday Line-Up

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Mercifully, the powers that be at Sirius XM and the Howard Stern Channels have decided to give us a better line-up of programming on Fridays on the Howard 101 channel. Although they will still be replaying the near-unlistened-to (and unlistenable) Mastertape Theatre on Howard 100, there will be live programming on Howard 101 starting at 7am and running through 2pm before Scott Ferrall comes back with a live show from 7pm to 11pm.

The new line-up looks something like this:

  • 6AM-7AM: Howard 100 News Week in Review
  • 7AM-10AM: Jay Thomas – Live
  • 10AM-2PM: Bubba the Love Sponge – Live
  • 2PM-3PM: Super Fan replay
  • 3PM-7PM: Bubba the Love Sponge – replay of Friday morning show
  • 7PM-11PM: Ferrall – Live

It’s somewhat annoying that the Howard Stern Show has not done a Friday Show in a long-time (over a year at this point) and that the “Friday Show” with Gary and John Hein was canceled (stupid decision). These shows brought much-needed and much-wanted live content to the airwaves. This is where part of the disconnect comes in between Howard and his contemporary audience comprised mostly of everyday people. Everyday people work on Fridays and they hate when their daily routine is goofed up…that includes what they listen to on their drive to the office!

Anyway, great move on the part of Sirius XM and the Howard Stern channels.

Biased Textbook? Obviously Not…

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While looking around FOXNews.com I noticed a story about a high school student arguing that his “American Government” textbook is biased. The article cites some parts of the textbook that claim global warming is still being studied and that the Supreme Court decision on striking down the Texas law regarding gay sex harmed the fragility of the federal system.

What bothers me is that this story is nothing more than a high school student with too much time on his hands – and a considerable liberal bend – trying to take the low road on each of these debates. The low road, as anyone who keeps an eye on political discourse can tell you, is to immediately claim that the other side’s argument is wrong and presents an inherent bias. It’s sad, really.

But I don’t blame the kid. In fact, I admire his will to put himself out there in the public eye. I do, however, blame the horrible education system in New Jersey that apparently has failed this child. A citation from the article linked above:

Another part of the book that the report criticizes deals with a Supreme Court decision overturning a Texas law banning sexual contact between people of the same sex.

The authors wrote that the Supreme Court decision had a “benefit” and a “cost.” The benefit, it said, was to strike down a rarely enforced law that could probably not be passed today, while the cost was to “create the possibility that the court, and not Congress or state legislatures, might decide whether same-sex marriages were legal.”

Derek Araujo, the report’s author, said that’s a matter of opinion and that gay-rights activists, for example, see it differently. “The major problem with this is they describe the costs and benefits of the system in a very political way,” he said.

No, you morons, this is not a matter of opinion. Stop blurring the fucking issue that the textbook is talking about, damn it. The “political” part of this debate is not looking at the issue in terms of American Government (which is the purpose of the class and textbook in question). American Government can ONLY be taught from the facts, not from a biased point of view. When it IS taught from a biased view or to an audience/class that has inherent biases with no preparation for a clean discussion, you get stupid stories like this one.

From the standpoint of American Government, the issue here is the Supreme Court making a decision about an issue that is not specifically cited in the Constitution. A teacher (and a textbook) MUST make that connection. Now, if you want to ignite some debate with the students you can always ask for their opinions on the issues themselves (in this case, gay marriage). That will probably bring a lively discussion. But the authors of this textbook (James Wilson and John Dilulio) are correct – the root issue here is the Supreme Court deciding whether or not gay marriage is legal. Does anyone read the Constitution any more besides Ron Paul?! This type of issue is to be decided by the states, period.

Now, if one wants to make an argument that certain freedoms are being restricted and thus the Supreme Court needs to step in, then I can buy that argument if it’s made well. But the issue at hand here and as discussed in this textbook is one that is not inherently political. It’s a basic, fundamental discussion of how the American federal, judicial, and legislative system work together. Get over it.

In the interest of full disclosure, I did NOT use this textbook in my class on American Government that I taught last semester. I did, however, use a previous version of this text as a student at my ultra-liberal Graduate School. Also, I was sent an updated copy of this text by the publisher when I began teaching my course and I made the decision last semester to switch to the college version of the textbook in question.