Noonan: A Battering Ram Becomes a Stonewall

The IRS's leaders refuse to account for the agency's corruption and abuse.

"I don't know." "I don't remember." "I'm not familiar with that detail." "It's not my precise area." "I'm not familiar with that letter." 

Lois Lerner and her lawyer

These are quotes from the Internal Revenue Service officials who testified this week before the House and Senate. That is the authentic sound of stonewalling, and from the kind of people who run Washington in the modern age—smooth, highly credentialed and unaccountable. They're surrounded by legal and employment protections, they know how to parse a careful response, they know how to blur the essential point of a question in a blizzard of unconnected factoids. They came across as people arrogant enough to target Americans for abuse and harassment and think they'd get away with it.

So what did we learn the past week, and what are the essentials to keep in mind?

Read more at The Wall Street Journal >>

Moochelle Considering an Endless Vacation

Here's a dilemma to which we can all relate -- having to change seasonal wardrobes and repack for Hawaii when you've just returned from a grand tour of Europe, and then have  only hours for your lady's maid or valet to pack again for a weekend in Aspen or the yacht at the Vineyard.  Our always practical and thoughtful First Lady, Moochelle, has found a solution -- one long, extended, taxpayer-paid vacation.

From White House Dossier

With scandal swirling about the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama may be considering an extended exit from Washington this summer, fleeing for weeks to the Obamas’ traditional summer haven, Martha’s Vineyard.

According to the Boston Globe, “Michelle Obama and the children may be on the island for an extended period.” But the president would hardly be suffering by comparison. He may come up on weekends and then stay for two weeks at the end of the summer, the Globe reports.

The White House has not commented on the Obamas’ vacation plans.

The Obamas are said to be eying a house in Farm Neck on the Vineyard. If they land there, the president will have easy access to the lovely Farm Neck Golf Club and Cafe. Here’s the view from the tee on the third hole.

It appears Michelle may be skipping her usual spring excursion overseas, which in the past has included stops at a luxury resort in Spain and in South Africa. Instead, she’ll accompany her husband next month on an official trip to Africa.

But not to worry. She already spent two weeks in Hawaii this past winter and jetted out for some Apsen skiing in February.

The Obamas opted out of their annual trip to Martha’s Vineyard in 2012, likely because they were campaigning and because a luxury sojourn there would have conflicted with the campaign image Obama was trying to project as a fighter for the middle class.

The Spectator President

By Patrick J. Buchanan

No, this is not Watergate or Iran-Contra. Nor is it like the sex scandal that got Bill Clinton impeached.

The AP, IRS and Benghazi matters represent a scandal not of presidential wrongdoing, but of presidential indolence, indifference and incompetence in discharging the duties of chief executive.

The Barack Obama revealed to us in recent days is something rare in our history: a spectator president, clueless about what is going on in his own household, who reacts to revelations like some stunned bystander.

The Charismatic Renewal and the Catholic Church

A look at the history and future of the sometimes-controversial movement    

By Allesandra Nucci

When the newly elected Pope Francis appeared at the window before the cheering crowd in St Peter’s Square, and promptly bowed down asking the people to pray for him, most of the public at large was charmed, but puzzled. Pope Benedict too had asked the people to pray for him from the outset, but without the bowed head. To some spectators, however—including the members of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and their counterparts in the Protestant and Orthodox worlds—the gesture came as something surprisingly familiar.  In the “charismatic” galaxy, prayer is offered and asked for in this way by people of all levels—specifically, prayer for a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 

There is a photograph available on the Internet that shows Pope Francis, while still archbishop of Buenos Aires, on his knees with head bowed as a group of evangelical pastors and Catholic priests and laymen pray over him.  As Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Pope would celebrate Mass on a monthly basis for the Charismatic Renewal of Buenos Aires. And despite the conflicts between Catholics and Pentecostals in Latin America, word has it that Pentecostal pastors rejoiced at the election of the new Catholic pope. 

Read more at Catholic World Report >>

Choir and Congregation of Notre Dame de Paris Sing Veni Creator Spiritus

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,

and in our hearts take up Thy rest;

Come with Thy grace and heav'nly aid, 

To fill the hearts which Thou hast made.

Father Rutler: Pentecost

A weekly column by Father George Rutler.

There is some sense to calling Pentecost the birthday of the Church, but it can be somewhat glib. You might say that the Church was born when Christ was born, or when water and blood, Baptism and Eucharist, flowed from Christ’s side on the Cross. You might even say that the Church was born with Adam and Eve and came to maturity when Jesus, the new Adam, and his mother Mary, the new Eve, greeted each other in the unrecorded instant before the break of Easter dawn. What we can say with precision is that on Pentecost the bond of love between the Eternal Father and the Eternal Son filled the Church. When Christ prayed the night before he died, he spoke of that unifier which is the Holy Spirit: “I made known to them your name, and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them” (John 17:26).

The Year of Faith proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI is to put to work the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are given in Confirmation: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They give life to the Seven Holy Virtues and defeat the Seven Deadly Sins. He who has never been tempted by those sins would be an oyster or a rock rather than a human. Perhaps the most underestimated sin is sloth. It is not simple laziness: sloth is spiritual apathy that dampens ardor for serving God in our short lifespan. An example of this is an individual who recently complained about Pope Francis canonizing the 813 martyrs of Otranto, since it might be taken as an affront to Islam. We cannot pretend that they were martyred by wild Methodists brandishing water pistols, but the real problem is that slothful souls cannot understand why anyone would give one’s life for Christ. Rather, Pope Francis said, “As we venerate the martyrs of Otranto, let us ask God to sustain those many Christians who, in these times and in many parts of the world, right now, still suffer violence, and that he give them the courage and fidelity to respond to evil with good.”

In our corner of the Church, which is New York, sloth is more subtle than heresy or blasphemy or wrath. Notwithstanding all the good things in our archdiocese, it is significantly below many other areas of our nation in attendance at Holy Mass and in priestly vocations. This is not what one would expect of a people filled with the Holy Spirit. With the beauty of worship in our parish, and the springtime of vocations exemplified by two of our young men being ordained this month, we too may risk becoming smug, a condition as ugly as it sounds, forgetting that there is much more to do. “Come Holy Spirit. Enlighten the hearts of your faithful people."

Grifters for "Ethics Reform" - Nikki Haley's Assault on Senator Bright

Governor Nikki Haley came to the Upstate this past week to bash Spartanburg's fiscal and social conservative State Senator, Lee Bright, for his refusal to sign-on to the fraudulently misnamed "Ethics Reform" legislation. 

Nikki Haley as an advocate for ethics reform is a bit like Barack Hussein Obama pushing the cause for small, frugal and accountable government or the League of Prostitutes for Purity.  Politics is the second oldest profession, but Haley's assault on Senator Bright is audacious, even for her.

Senator Bright made clear that he would not support so-called "ethics reform" legislation until he could get a vote on the nullification of Obamacare.  As a principled conservative he is also right to oppose this misnamed, retrograde legislation because it does anything but advance ethical, transparent and good government in our state.  In fact, it would shield legislators from criminal prosecution for ethical violations.  The Spartanburg TEA Party has summarized here what they have aptly called a "crap bill."

Perhaps Haley's assault on Senator Bright is just the Establishment's first strike on a solid conservative with a real chance of defeating Senator Lindsey Graham next year in a GOP primary.  If that was her intent, we expect Boss Connelly, choreographer of the recent state GOP infomercial, and Curtis Loftis, Mitt Romney's SC chairman,  will be following in her wake.

We can well understand Governor Haley's personal interest in shielding corrupt politicians from criminal prosecution, but the people of South Carolina should not be fooled by Nikki Haley, the most ethically challenged of all South Carolina politicians.