Perry's Taxpayer-Funded Home Could Pose Political Hazard

 "When Texas has a governor who is more interested in his own house -- his own future -- than our schoolhouses, which are our future, then you know he's been governor too long,"

From RealClearPolitics

By Scott Conroy 

One of Texas Gov. Rick Perry's most valuable assets as a potential Republican presidential candidate figures to be his early and emphatic association with the tea party movement, whose cost-cutting principles have dominated the discourse in early primary and caucus states.

But if Perry does enter the race, he is likely to face some uncomfortable questions about his own taxpayer-funded spending habits.

Congressman Paul Ryan: Social Teaching and the Federal Budget: a Catholic Politician's Views

Insight into the role faith and social doctrine should play in creating policies

From Our Sunday Visitor

By Congressman Paul Ryan

Congressman Paul Ryan

Catholic social doctrine is indispensable for officeholders, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to understand it. The wrong way is to treat it like a party platform or a utopian plan to solve all of society’s problems. Social teaching is not the monopoly of one political party, nor is it a moral command that confuses the preferential option for the poor with a preferential option for bigger government.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, indicated the right way in his gracious letter to me: “[T]he Church makes an essential contribution to society when she raises up moral principles to help guide and inform decisions about public policy in a compelling way. We bishops are very conscious that we are pastors, never politicians.”

The Obama Legacy

Chinese Police Seize Catholic Bishops as Illicit Ordination Approaches

From Catholic World News

Four Chinese Catholic bishops have been seized by police and are being held incommunicado, apparently so that they can be forced to participate in the ordination of a new bishop arranged by the Catholic Patriotic Association.

Bishops Liang Jiansen of Jiangmen, Liao Hongqing of Meizhou, and Joseph Gan Junqiu of Guangzhou—all of them recognized by the Vatican—are being held by authorities. Chinese Catholics loyal to the Holy See expect that the bishops will be brought by police to the scheduled ordination of a new bishop in Shantou on July 14.

Officials of the Patriotic Association have announced that they will proceed with episcopal ordinations, such as the one in Shantou, without Vatican approval. The Vatican has countered with a reminder that anyone who participates in an episcopal ordination without approval from the Holy See is subject to the penalty of excommunication. While noting that his penalty would not apply to those who participate under compulsion, the Vatican has urged Chinese Catholics to resist pressure, emphasizing the the illicit ordinations harm the unity of the Church.

In the Liaoning diocese, priests have surrounded Bishop Paul Pei Junmin to protect him from being seized by authorities. With police ringing the cathedral, the priests have announced that they will remain there to protect the bishop.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Officials kidnap bishops of Guangdong to force them to take part in illicit Shantou ordination (AsiaNews)

An American Knight: The Life of Colonel John W. Ripley, USMC

2010 Gold Medal Winner, Military Writers Society of America

From Tradition, Family, and Property

This first cradle-to-grave biography of Colonel John W. Ripley provides readers with the complete story about a great man who is considered by Marines, such as General Carl Mundy, former Commandant of the Marine Corps, to be on the same level as legends Chesty Puller and Dan Daly.

Colonel Ripley is most commonly known for his heroics in Vietnam during the Easter Offensive of 1972, where Colonel Gerald Turley ordered him to “hold and die,” in the face of over 30,000 North Vietnamese and 200 enemy tanks. John Ripley proceeded to blow the Dong Ha bridge, preventing the enemy from crossing. He unhesitatingly obeyed and earned the nation’s second highest honor, the Navy Cross.

As stunning as the Dong Ha story is, there was much more to Colonel John Ripley. An American Knight: The Life of Colonel John W. Ripley, USMC narrates his early life and the influences which shaped his personality.

Comrade Obama and China's Infrastructure

Despite reports of severe power shortages, Obama insists that his comrades in China have eclipsed the United States with a far superior infrastructure.  So we regret that Obama is not in the Chinese promised land to celebrate the 90th birthday of the Communist Party.  In fact we wish he were on the two-day-old motorway that just collapsed, or the collapsing bridges, or the trains that don't run.  Sounds like just his kind of place.

Part of the collapsed motorway in China

A Chinese motorway has collapsed just two days after it opened, causing the deaths of two people, after builders were ordered to rush the project so it could be unveiled for the 90th birthday of the Communist party.

From The Telegraph

By Malcolm Moore

The 57-mile-long Xinsan motorway, through the mountains of Yunnan, was supposed to be a perfect example of how the Communist party has rolled out pristine infrastructure to even the most remote areas of China, creating economic prosperity.

Despite warnings from the construction team in charge of the project, it was included in the list of "glory projects" to be unveiled for the party's 90th anniversary on July 1.

The Vision of Sir Winston Churchill - Then and Now

When we read the following speech by Rabbi Nachum Shifren, we knew it was a speech we had to share with Sunlit Uplands readers.  Rabbi Shifren evokes the memory and words of our blog's patron, Sir Winston Churchill, in rallying people of good will to the defense of Western civilization.  As Rabbi Shifren points out, the struggle in which the West finds itself today is no less serious, and in many ways a continuation of that great struggle led by Churchill -- away from the "abyss of a new dark age" and "forward into broad, sunlit uplands.''

Rabbi Shifren's speech is addressed to the thousands of supporters of the English Defense League in Luton, England.

From NewsWithViews

By Rabbi Nachum Shifren

For millions of Americans such as myself, there remains a special grandeur in the British people, long after the "Great War" has ended, long after the average schoolboy or girl has stopped recalling that there was once a real threat to the entire island.

What we remember most from those long-forgotten trials of fire, is the tremendous spirit of defiance, an unyielding attitude of tenacity in the face of an overwhelming evil. There are no fitting words to use in recounting the admiration that has been shown for that great statesman and hero to all that understand and cherish what we have in our Western civilization, the great Sir Winston Churchill.