Br. Steve | June 26, 2010
So I finally got around to actually reading the Rolling Stone piece that got Gen. Stanley McChrystal fired. If I didn’t know that this was the article that got him fired I would have barely noticed the quotes that lost him his job. They amount to about four paragraphs in a very long and interesting [...]
Br. Steve | June 25, 2010
Senators Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) have introduced The Responsible Estate Tax Act in the Senate. The estate tax was repealed in 2010 due to congressional inaction and earlier this year the first billionaire in U.S. history died without his estate being taxed a penny. This cost [...]
Br. Steve | June 25, 2010
The once and would-be future governor of California Jerry Brown wants to be an environmental pioneer, again. During his first tenure as governor of California (1975-83) Brown was responsible for establishing energy efficient appliance standards and building codes and was one of the first governors to experiment with renewable energy in the form of wind. [...]
Br. Steve | June 25, 2010
I found this picture on a website focusing on epic fails in the photographic realm. I cant’t find out if this is a real toy, but either way, it’s both really funny and really disturbing. My favorite part is the assault rifle as an accessory. As a good Catholic I should probably be insulted by this, [...]
Br. Steve | June 24, 2010
That is one sentence that I never thought I would write about politics, but today it happens to be true. The reason why is an exchange Scarborough had with Congressional Minority Whip, and VA Representative, Eric Cantor. Scarborough challenges Cantor on why Rep. Joe Barton is being allowed to keep his position on the House [...]
Br. Steve | June 24, 2010
In what seems like a classic example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing it appears that Taliban forces are being payed off to not attack U.S. supply shipments. This is according to a Congressional report scheduled to be released next Tuesday, an advance copy of which was obtained by [...]
Br. Steve | June 22, 2010
One of the real tragedies in the way that Israel’s attack on the Mavi Marmara has been handled in mainstream media sources is how it obscures the utter failure of Israel’s policy towards Gaza. Most of the public debate on the incident has focused on whether or not Israel was justified in stopping the flotilla [...]
Br. Steve | June 21, 2010
Iraq War veteran Ethan McCord is alleging that members of his battalion were given orders to engage in “360 rotational fire” in the event they were hit by an IED or improvised explosive device. According to his report the order was given at the battalion level to “kill every motherf**ker in the street.” In other [...]
Br. Steve | June 12, 2010
I wrote a while ago about an independent task force convened by Congressman Barney Frank called the Sustainable Defense Task Force. The purpose of the task force was to make recommendations on sensible cuts in the defense budget. The task force arose out of concern that the official commission charged with making deficit reduction recommendations [...]
Br. Steve | June 12, 2010
Moral theologian and bioethicist Kevin O’Rourke, OP has an excellent commentary in America on the case of Sr. Margaret McBride. He does a good job of laying out the basic moral and canonical questions around the case and the complexities in the situation. Morally the question is whether or not the abortion performed was direct [...]
