Waiting for Godot to Leave

Four years ago I was very naive. In 2010 when I began blogging seriously and using Facebook regularly I actually thought that reasoned arguments could happen on the internet.  Now, of course, I know better. The Torture Debate was the first issue I engaged at the time.  The Torture Enthusiasts, who since they Dissent from Church Teaching I will henceforth call Dissenters (though clear terminology makes them furious - see below), were using this approach ... They denied that the Church forbid Torture, or else they claimed that Church teaching forbidding Torture in any and all circumstances was not Magisterial or was still in flux. They claimed that the act they were defending (in this case waterboarding) was not in fact Torture. I later discovered that this handy template is the only one that's used by right wing Dissenters on all their precious issues.  Just fill in the blank and you're good to go.  And go and go and go.  If you're a Dissent...

"Professional Catholic" Mark Shea rightly condemns Professional Demagogue Michael Voris for promoting the work of antisemites and geocentrists . Let me explain what this is all about.  I'll use shorter words. Michael Voris.  The bad hair doesn't bother me; what bothers me is what's underneath. Michael Voris is not content (as Shea points out) with denouncing the errors and gutless cowardice of such menaces as Fr. Father Robert Barron and such dangerous men as Karl Keating, Jimmy Akin, Al Kresta and similar wolves in sheep’s clothing ... he now gives exposure to folks who believe that modern science is all wrong and who believe that the Jews are a menace to society. *** Let us learn a few things here. As I point out in Mark's comment box ... The fact is that Voris has been fueling the fires of schism, fanning the flames of the irrational, and feeding the furnace of wrath for years now. His engine keeps chugging along, but the track leads ...

Many of you are still mad at me that I make no quarter for Holocaust deniers, thinking that what these folks need is just good plain patience and reasoning, someone sitting down and holding their hands and explaining to them calmly and serenely that the Holocaust happened, and that it was not the fault of the Jews. Maybe this will help explain my position.  It's from an email I sent to a Facebook friend. There is at the root of antisemistism something that's not able to be educated, in my opinion. When a Facebook commenter says, "The Jews elected every president since WWII and the Jews assassinated JFK," there's nothing to say to "educate" that man except addressing the demon he's dancing with, "Get thee behind me, Satan."  Take yesterday. I'm on the fence on gun control. But three anti-gun-control commenters said the following: 1. Gun control is a violation of the Tenth Commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor...

Two very odd and rather funny things about this Matt McGuiness debate. *** 1. McGuiness' defenders in the comboxes here keep telling me over and over that I'm misreading him.  And then they proceed to paraphrase what he's saying so that I can understand it, and they proceed to say exactly what I'm claiming McGuiness is saying.  It goes something like this ... "You've misread him totally!  He's not saying you can sin your way to salvation!  He's saying that if you're sinning a little bit, you should sin a whole lot more so you'll be miserable and repent and find salvation!" *** 2. It is impossible to criticize the content of anyone's argument without being accused of being judgmental and committing a mortal sin, such as calumny or detraction. This is not so funny, actually. For example, Dawn Eden, who was a victim of childhood sexual abuse, complains that McGuiness opens his article by making light of a teenage girl being ...