All in Phillipe And Jorge

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Phillipe And Jorge

Judging the Judge

NO APOLOGIES
It always astounds P&J when Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin opens his mouth in public. Not just because the Catholic Church is racing to catch up to the 21st century in many ways, but because of the utter arrogance of the man, who evidently believes that because he spends his time swanning around in costumes he has the right to attack people such as President Obama and now Rep. Patrick Kennedy. (Note: P+J also spend much of our time swanning around in costumes and attacking people, but that is in our official job description. In fact, it is our entire job description.)

What got Tommy Tobin’s silk knickers in a horrible twist was Kennedy having a go at the Catholic Church’s stance on abortion, which it has heavy-handedly promoted in Con-gress to forbid the use of federal funds except in extreme cases. But now more hysterics have been involved in the health-care debate by those who oppose abortion and maintain that the changes being proposed would take away that stricture. And the US Conference of Bishops went on the record saying they would fight any new plan that eliminates that funding stricture.

So our boy Patrick spoke very eloquently on CNSNews.com about how flawed the opposition was, saying, “I can’t understand for the life of me how the Catholic Church could be against the biggest social justice issue of our time, where the very dignity of the human person is being respected by the fact that we’re caring and giving health care to the human person.” A bit hyperbolic, but the point is clear. The Catholic Church and others who would interfere with funding being denied to anyone — including women who wish to have an abortion (and hope-fully for very sound reasons) — are living so far back in the past they think the sun goes around the earth. (Whoops, there’s that Galileo thing again.)

So Tobin jumped in and said Kennedy had his facts wrong, noting he was “a disappointment to the Catholic Church” (that should be a badge of honor) and that he owed everyone an apology. Well, Bish, if anyone is making apologies, there is still a very long list of items we could ask the Catholic Church to man-up on — or is that perhaps the wrong phrase to use when we’re talking about things like abortion rights and female priests? Oh, those second-class citizens, right.
Pull your head in, Bishop Tobin — spouting off may impress the altar boys, but the public is having none of it.

WHERE’S OUR MONEY (PART 748)?
Imagine you are in a high stakes poker game with two of your pals and three Wall Street bankers and stock traders. After a while, and a few losing hands, you look around and notice that you and your friends are playing with stacks of US currency, while the Big Bankers are using Monopoly money. Every time you lose, you pay off in cash. Every time they lose, you get imaginary money.

That’s a rough idea of the investment scams in the banking industry that have been going on essentially unregulated and led to the fall of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers that are exposed by the excellent Matt Taibbi in “Wall Street’s Naked Swindle,” in the current edition of Rolling Stone. Oh, add to that the equivalent of those three Big Bankers having not yet been identified, never mind prosecuted; that many of their surrogates are now running the US economy at Barack Obama’s behest; and, oh yeah, where’s your money from the bailout funds?

And the beat goes on, only you are still paying cash and our investment bank buddies are proceeding to Broadway and Park Place with the blessing of the government.