Greg Popcak responds to my post below:

Hi Ono,

Wow, I'm souless. Nice.

I stand by everything I wrote. You can whine, for example, the Burke's letter is unjust, but I defy you to back up your point with Catholic facts. This is supposed to be a site about Catholics for Kerry after all. Point to CST or other Catholic teaching to defend your position or admit you've got nothing.

Saying something doesn't make it so, Ono. I would be happy to discuss these issues with you, but only if you are capable of rational debate.

Let's see your facts.

Or is it just easier to call me names?

(And an arch-con is NOT opposed to the Iraq War, Capital Punishment, and in favor of gun control. But an arch-liberal does believe in supply-side trickle down abortion policy--which you propose. Its hysterical, but your supposed liberal solution to abortion is just moral Reaganomics. 8 years under Clinton produced nothing but increased abortion rates. And BTW, I supported Clinton the 1st time for the same reasons you're supporting Kerry now. The difference is I learned from my mistakes.)

Eagerly Yours,
Greg Popcak

By Anonymous, at 6:25 AM

Oh, and just by way of clarification, if you were honest, you would note that the piece on the "Brownshirt" was about a man who wanted to stifle the first amendment rights of a group of Catholics.

Anyone opposed to the first amendment is a brownshirt in my book. So, opposing censorship an archcon position? Thanks for the newsflash.

Or are you saying, that as a Kerry supporter, you would only allow free speech for those who agree with you? How is that not a fascistic position? At any rate, it would be a curious position for a compassionate individual such as yourself to take. I'm being totally serious here. Defend yourself. Or admit you've got nothing and apologize.

Unlike the Catholic/Christian Right, we liberals attack opposing viewpoints not people. You guys are obsessed with destroying people personally. When liberal or moderate Catholics are called "pro-abortion," "pro-death," "babykillers" etc you don't see us whine. Why, because we know what we are fighting for, we are fighting for life and human dignity. Something the Catholic/Christian archright needs to look into.

To be serious, "souless" "cruel" "heartless" and other words I've used refer to the policy positions and platform of the Republicans and archconservatives. Nonetheless, as individuals who vote for these legislators, we bear responsibility for their platform and policies. That's the story of James 2:1-15. It means absolutely nothing to swoon with compassion personally and then enact policies that simply blow the mind in terms of their heartlessness. I've maintained and continue to maintain that compassion and conservativism, as public policy, are mutually exclulsive. George Bush has proven it.

Okay, but I've surpressed the chuckles long enough as I re-read Greg Popcak asking for an apology. Is that like Tom Delay accusing someone of ethics violations or what? GP has frequently called people "idiots," (see link in previous post--someone I don't suspect he knows or who is certainly not an idiot), has called me a "hypocrite" (I don't Popcak from jack and don't suspect he knows jack about me), called Senator Edwards "pro-death" (a man who lost his son in a tragic accident-and is the reason he went into public life), calls an opponent who wanted the "Bishops to pull the plug" from whatever radio station a "brownshirt" yet GP relishes in Catholic U banning speakers and restricting speech in the one kind of institution in which free speech should be encouraged. This is the same person asking for an apology? I frequently use the word hypocrite and liars to describe the archright (I am fully aware that it is too broad a brush, but my fine narrow brushes are on backorder), but you have to wonder if it is not earned in this case?

As for Catholic positions vis-a-vis Kerry's platforms, etc, I refer you to my Q&A at Kerrycatholics.com, or you can go to Eric McFadden's site at Catholics for Kerry 04 or Dr. Whelan's site at Catholicsforkerry.net, there's also Catholics for Democracy, etc.

But the Archbishop Burke statement is revealing and confirms what I've thought and said all along. The "pro-life" movement so-called is not concerned with life. To be fair to the people I once walked along side with, many think that they are fighting for the life issue, so I grant that it is not intentional. What Abp Bruke shows, by saying that same sex marriage is a "moral priority" over war (and his argument is that it is "intrinsically evil") is that "life" is not the issue; rather, the all-important arch-point is "church law/mandate" or a theological principle or something (I still haven't quite figure out what). You just have to wonder when people are comfortable with saying that same sex marriage is a moral priority over war--don't you even feel in your heartor gut that something is wrong with that?

After the Iraq invasion, CNN had a program on Baghdad hospitals. Needless to say these hospitals were understocked, understaffed and filthy and staggering under the weight of the flood of casualties from the "shock and awe" bombing campaign (I need not mention the trauma the Baghad kids underwent with days of intense earth-shaking bombing--I did hear an NPR report in that regard but i digress). They then showed a young girl who had been injured by the bombing. She had a portable breathing mask over her nose and mouth and she was being kept alive by someone who was continuously manually squeezing the bag. The family had been doing this for days now and at some point they were going to have make the decision to stop. Mulitply this tragedy a thousands times--that is the reality that is Iraq today. All because this President lied. And yet we choose same sex marriage as an issue over the life of that young girl and thousands other innocent civilians. (I'm not even going to bring up our dead and maimed troops, the 15% who will suffer from mental illness, the 20,000 dead innocent Iraqis, the sub-human health conditions exacerbated by war, the real prospect of further civil war to devastate and set back the region and more).

If the best the archright and war supporters can do is quote a principle, but are not moved to recognize the horror of this war, then the sharpness of our criticism is more than justified. This is not about who can whip out Aquinas or CCC quotes, these are lives we are talking about. FYI, we liberals can whip out quotes and all that with the best of them but the difference is that for us, everything is ultimately about people. This is what Jesus was about, people, not rigid laws or rules. Jesus was a liberal and the conservatives hated him for it because he exposed their so-called piety for what it was.

This election is about a choice, life with a candidate, John Kerry, who appreciates human dignity, who will fight for healthcare, for education, for jobs, for a more progressive and humane society, or death, with a candidate in Bush who pays lips service to human dignity and then undermines it; someone who is devoted to padding the profits of big business at the expense of people.

As Joshua once said, as for me and my town home . . .