Catholic Scorecard

The announcement by some in the Catholic Church that pro-choice politicians should not receive communion has generated some controversy. Pro-choice Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin is fighting back by pointing out the selective nature of this stance. His staff have complied a Catholic scorecard which assesses senator’s voting records on two dozen issues which have been cited as priorities by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:

The survey’s findings: Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, D-Mass., and Durbin topped the list of 24 Catholic senators as supporting the Catholic agenda more than 60 percent of the time. The survey prompted an angry conference call by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn., a Catholic who stood with the U.S. Conference of Bishops’ issues listed in the survey just 40 percent of the time.

Critics point out that the survey weighs all issues equally, when some are more important to the church. But it does point out the inconsistency in making a single issue the litmus test for whether or not a politician is being a “good” Catholic.

Enronigans Caught on Tape

Remember that the energy situation California had a few years ago? Blackouts, soaring prices, that kind of stuff. At the time we were told by self-designated rightist energy gurus that the cause of the crisis was out of control environmental wackos who were intent on stymieing the energy companies’ noble efforts to serve the public good. Further, we were told that the way to get out of the jam was to give energy companies a helping hand, in the form of billions of dollars in public subsidies and tax give-aways.
Reality turned out to be quite a different story. It turned out that the energy companies were actually part of the problem.
Now CBS News has obtained a copy of Enron tapes which provide a sampling of what was going on behind the scenes at the time:

Four years after California’s disastrous experiment with energy deregulation, Enron energy traders can be heard — on audiotapes obtained by CBS News — gloating and praising each other as they helped bring on, and cash-in on, the Western power crisis.
. . .
The tapes, from Enron’s West Coast trading desk, also confirm what CBS reported years ago: that in secret deals with power producers, traders deliberately drove up prices by ordering power plants shut down.

Lovely. The tapes also remind us why these publicly-minded servants cast their support to that man for the people–George W. Bush:

Before the 2000 election, Enron employees pondered the possibilities of a Bush win.
“It’d be great. I’d love to see Ken Lay Secretary of Energy,” says one Enron worker.
That didn’t happen, but they were sure President Bush would fight any limits on sky-high energy prices.
“When this election comes Bush will f——g whack this s–t, man. He won’t play this price-cap b——t.”

Secretary of Energy Ken Lay–what a missed opportunity. Imagine what an asset he could have been for America in our “war on terror.”

The “Case” Against Padilla

The Department of Justice had a press conference to present evidence against alleged dirty bomber suspect Jose Padilla. Interesting that this occurred on the same day that Senator Kerry gives a speech on preventing nuclear terrorism. I’m sure that was just a coincidence, right? This government wouldn’t stoop to having politically-motivated press events regarding the “war on terror.”
Anyway, it sure is wonderful to be in a country where the government has a news event publicizing its charges against a criminal accused . . . and doesn’t even offer the defendant a court appearance in which to respond. Too bad for him the media is too caught up in the Scott Peterson case to even notice.

Last Matrimonial Link to the Civil War

This year’s Memorial Day brought an unusual milestone: the last widow of a Civil War veteran died.
Alberta Martin, then 21, married 81-year-old William Jasper Martin in 1927. They had a son, who, if I read the article correctly, is still alive. After the veteran died, Ms. Martin married her late husband’s grandson. Which would make her son her second husband’s step-uncle. Or something.
If this all wasn’t strange enough, according to the article didn’t receive Confederate widow’s benefits until 1996. Not sure why it took so long. One would think that the funding for such a program would have ended a long time ago.

Discipline Delayed

A litigating plagiarist:

A student who was booted off his degree course for plagiarism is to sue the university. He says tutors at the University of Kent should have spotted what he was doing and stopped him sooner.
Michael Gunn, a 21-year-old English student, freely admits using material downloaded from the Internet to complete his assignments. He told the Times: “I hold my hands up. I did plagiarise. I never dreamt it was a problem.”
His problem, then, is not that he was caught, but that he was caught too late. He argues that the university should have warned him of the consequences earlier.

I suspect the University of Kent has your typical student policies forbidding plagiarism. In which case I’m afraid Mr. Gunn is going to have a hard time making the case that his getting away with cheating for a while created a reasonable expectation that he could plagiarize and still receive a degree.