Things That Make You Go Hmmm
Steve Kelley invites you to consider why, if the Democratic Party Health Care Bill is really as good as its hype alleges, why is it necessary to bribe senators to vote for it?
Progressive Anglican Priests: Theft You Can Believe In...
One of my best friends, a liberal accounting professor in San Diego, once attempted to convince me that everyone should be willing to pay a little more for fast food in order to pay a "living wage" to minimum-wage employees. I rarely eat fast food, but I was always bothered by his argument, which confounds business with charity. I don't consider wages a reflection of a worker's performance or his worthiness as an individual but of labor supply and demand. My friend might have been willing to pay a higher price for his food, but I'm not sure lower-income families can afford the higher prices or lower-skilled workers would appreciate the shrinking supply of relevant jobs.
Pastor Tim Jones apparently believes that the Ten Commandments are a "living document":
A UK priest has defended his comments that it is acceptable to steal from large companies.
Tim Jones, parish priest of St Lawrence and St Hilda, told his congregation in York, northern England: "My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift."
I would ask that they [steal] from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices
As course, the cleric knows where to point fingers:
I would say to [my critics]: Compare how much you are spending on yourself this Christmas compared to how much you have given to people in desperate situations
I could swear I read somewhere (Mt. 7:1-2), "Judge not, lest you be judged." And "The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' (Lk. 7:34). Perhaps instead of putting so much of their money in Father Tim's collection plate, people should find a more worthy secular humanistic cause...
Of course, Father Tim links the moral acceptability of stealing with the size of the company. Never mind, for example, that pensioners may depend on dividends from large companies. He swears that stealing this way is innocuous; the big companies won't even miss it. I guess God didn't have enough space on those stone tablets to fit in Father Tim's moral ambiguity, nuances and fine print.
Today's Cartoon
Dana Summers reminds us of the reason for the season:
Christmas Musical Interlude: Bing Crosby's "White Christmas"
The best-selling single of all time, sung by the master crooner:
