Uncommon Commentary #385: And Now, Some Words from Their Sponsor

US law forbids our officials to negotiate with organizations designated by the State Department as terrorist.  Does it not violate the spirit of this law to parley with countries listed by that same body as state sponsors of terrorism, e.g., Iran?

Uncommon Commentary #384: A Feather(head) in His CAP (Alternate Title: The Founder Is a Bounder)

Within two weeks of the Republican landslide in the 2010 midterm US elections, the founder of the far-left Center for American Progress (CAP) sent Obama an extensive list of policy areas in which the repudiated president ought to ignore Congress and instead rule by executive order, thus becoming more truly our dictator than he already is; that founder is John Podesta, who has just joined Emperor Nerobama's administration.  People need to understand how politically extreme, indeed, dangerous, the Obama regime is.

Uncommon Commentary #383: Their Version Is Per-Version

As you probably already know, the cable-television network A&E has indefinitely suspended Phil Robertson from appearing on its program Duck Dynasty, over an interview that he did with GQ magazine in which he voiced opposition to homosexual behavior.  You may not know that (A&E's parent network) ABC will be airing a special featuring Miley Cyrus, whose recent performance "twerking" with a giant teddy bear was the centerpiece of what has been called the most revolting spectacle in the entire history of television.  And so, Robertson is in disfavor for opposing depravity, while Virus—I mean, Cyrus—is in favor despite committing a depravity.  Do you have a sneaking suspicion that the ABC/A&E executives will be in some trouble on Judgment Day?

Uncommon Commentary #382: That's a Lot to Allot!

US Senator Coburn comes out with an annual "Wastebook" that lists examples of government misspending.  One item in this year's edition concerns $3 million allocated by the NASA for studying how Congress works.  I don't expect the NASA to pay me $3 million for telling them this, but I can give a one-word summary of how Congress works: "badly".

Uncommon Commentary #381: A Taxing Problem (Alternate Title: Why Has Planned Parenthood Panned Parenthood?)

Many persons have expressed anxiety over the fact that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (known unofficially as "ObamaCare", and to me as ObamaCareless) will compel people who oppose the inducing of abortion to pay for that procedure.  They're right to be concerned, but none of them seem to realize that anyone who supplies revenue to Uncle Sam already subsidizes abortions.  Many States (and the District of Columbia) mandate their own funding of foeticide, and even in those that do not do so, the federal government picks up the bill for many abortions.  The federal government defrays a high percentage of the operational expenses of Planned Parenthood, the USA's largest provider of abortions; the Hyde Amendment ostensibly guarantees that this money will not go to the committing of such murders, but performing and promoting abortion is practically all that PP does.  Moreover, as if it weren't bad enough that the US taxpayer pays for abortions to be carried out in his own country, he's also currently paying for them to be carried out in other countries, since Emperor Nerobama put an end to President Reagan's "Mexico City" rule (which bars foreign foeticide-related programs from receiving US funds; Clinton had already reversed the policy, but Bush the Younger reëstablished it).
The question of whether a Christian can conscientiously contribute part of his income to a government that allocates dollars for the killing of the unborn is complex.  Christ told us to "render to Caesar what is Caesar's" (Mk. 12:17a), and St. Paul wrote "For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.  Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due …" (Rom. 13:6-7a); the Church, though, has always held that one must disobey the secular power if it tries to force us to disobey God.  Further complication comes from the fact that Scripture does not mention abortion but that writings of the Early Church Fathers (e.g., Justin Martyr) do.  Because of sales tax, the sad truth is that on almost every occasion on which we make a purchase, part of our money goes to cover the cost of inducing abortion; since we can't very well go our whole lives without buying anything, unless we live in a place where people barter goods rather than sell them, I must conclude that we might as well go on rendering taxes to the odious regime in the District of Columbia.  (Of course, if Obama continues his economic policies, we may have to go back to the barter system anyway.)

Uncommon Commentary #380: Not My Kind of Fella, That Nelson Mandela

The fallen world in which we live often rewards vice and punishes virtue; there may be no better illustration of this than the contrast between the late Nelson Mandela and F. W. DeKlerk.

If you've never heard of the latter, well, that's part of the point that I intend to make.  The former co-founded (in 1961) and led Umkhonto we Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation"), the violent (left-)wing of the African National Congress (ANC), which carried out guerilla attacks against civilian targets (in other words, acts of terrorism); within just three years, however, the "Spear" had been broken, for its insurgency had been quashed and Mandela put into prison.  There he remained until his release was secured by South Africa's President F. W. DeKlerk, who also brought about the abolition of apartheid.  DeKlerk's actions meant that South Africa experienced not a continuation of the bloodshed that Mandela had thought necessary, but instead negotiations with the ANC as representatives of the Black majority; these negotiations resulted in the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and in a peaceful transition to multiracial suffrage in South-African elections.

(The purpose of the preceding sentence is not to say that DeKlerk's reforms made South Africa a better place, which, sadly but predictably, they did not.  The elections held after the end of apartheid were won by Mandela's ANC, which, thanks to its tripartite alliance with both the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, has enjoyed a monopoly on power in the nearly-two-decades since then.  South Africa's economy was already in bad shape when the ANC took over, but that had much to do with foreign sanctions over apartheid, which came to an end with the end of apartheid itself; under the ANC things have only gotten worse, with g.d.p. growth pathetically low and unemployment phenomenally high.)

DeKlerk has received some honors, such as receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in conjunction with Mandela, but today he's nearly forgotten; whereas Mandela is adulated all over the world as the supposed liberator of Black South Africa, even though, as you can see from what I've already told you, he didn't really liberate anyone; indeed, he needed liberation.

Isaiah 5:20 reads "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!"  Woe to us.

The Best of Uncommon Commentary

The Doman Domain is attracting increasing attention, and so it may again be time to showcase a posting that I made when I had a smaller audience than I do now.