Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Somebody's been reading my blog . . .

It happens rather often.   I write something in my blog (known readers of which I can count on one hand), but then a few days later someone in the national media writes something quite similar.

On Feb 4th, I wrote about "Callista's hair," concluding that it does have meaning:   in it's obsessive order and control, it's meant to balance Newt's unruly tongue and his disorganization.  Yesterday, the New York Times had a half-page article about Callista's hair, and it came to pretty much the same conclusion.

On Feb 8th, I wrote about the "Birth control brouhaha," saying that the Catholic bishops need to get over feeling unfairly treated by the Obama administration's regulations offering birth control in the health insurance for their employees.  The bishops (and opportunistic, pandering politicians) are yelling about infringement on religious freedom.

And I wrote:  I face this same problem every day when I'm forced to pay taxes that go to support unnecessary wars and the execution of death row inmates.   I don't get to choose which laws and regulations I obey -- and help pay for.   But my sense of right and wrong is just as much offended by war and capital punishment as Catholics are offended by birth control.  

So, yesterday, Zach Carter, blogger for Huffington Post, wrote about the contraceptive controversy and the Catholics:
For as long as the United States has been declaring war, there have been Americans who object to the use of violence on religious or moral grounds. Entire faiths are explicitly devoted to the total rejection of war: Quakers, Mennonites and many Pentacostal traditions, to name a few. Millions of members of other religions interpret the Sixth Commandment -- "thou shalt not kill" -- as a full ban on warfare. These people all still have to pay taxes, a tremendous percentage of which go to financing not only war, but capital punishment, a sometimes brutal prison system, and the use of violence by police forces. The U.S. government has not found their religious views to be a valid exemption from citizens' tax responsibilities.
So, there you have it.   Maybe it's just "two great minds running along the same paths."

Or maybe someone else is reading this?

Ralph

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