Plenty of saints were shocking, to say nothing of our Lord, who got in a spot of trouble for His shocking claims, as you might recall. I am certainly no saint, but I don’t think “shocking” is a helpful way of approaching the question of Catholics in public life. It doesn’t settle much to say that the current Pope is shocking to many Catholics, including me. Or to note that I’m shocked by supposedly Catholic politicians who make laws in flat contradiction to the natural law, which you need no faith to grasp.
In my case, do you mean it’s shocking that a Catholic like me is loudly worried about Islam, which has waged war on Holy Mother Church for more than a millennium?
Or that I’ve supported Pope Paul VI’s criticism of artificial contraception so strongly that Hillary Clinton attacked me for it in her presidential campaign?
Frankly, what’s really shocking is that a poor sinner like me has spoken out more on contraception than 99% of our bishops, who seem too preoccupied with diversity and climate change to talk about God.
Maybe you mean it’s shocking that I’m always joking about my lack of chastity and my fondness for black dudes, but I still call myself Catholic. And I don’t see what’s so shocking about that, either. One of the most famous saints of all time, sixteen centuries ago, prayed, “Lord, make me chaste, but not yet.”
Anyone who grows up in Catholic cities like New Orleans and Rome emerges pretty unshockable — and certainly wouldn’t be alarmed by me.
I think it was a visit to New Orleans that inspired Evelyn Waugh to make an observation I often quote: Protestants seem to think, I’m good, therefore I go to church, whereas Catholics think, I’m very bad, therefore I go to church. Waugh also said, when people asked how he could call himself a Catholic: You have no idea how bad I’d be if I weren’t.
Sins of the flesh, let us remember, are at the bottom of the scale. The Church says self-righteousness is at the top. Therefore, I’m in a lot better shape than some of my feminist and establishment Republican enemies. To say nothing of Islam!
In life, I believe in aspiration. If you’re a poor kid, aspire to rise economically. If you’re shy, aspire to confidence, so you can defend your views in public. And if you’re a wretched sinner like me, aspire to end up better than you are now. Miracles do happen!
Where do you experience tensions with Catholicism in your life?
Who says any Catholic should lack tension stoked by his weaknesses? We Catholics are better at clothes, food, and parties. Why shouldn’t we be better at guilt, too?
You don’t see me disputing the Church’s teachings on homosexuality. There’s no intellectual tension, because I wouldn’t dream of demanding that the Church throw away her hard truths just to lie to me in hopes I’ll feel better about myself. I love the truth, not lies, and I know no one’s feelings are the basis of truth.
That’s why I don’t understand those Catholics — such as, if you’ll forgive my horrid impertinence, this magazine’s editor at large, Fr. Martin — who imply that if people don’t like what the Church says, maybe the Church is wrong or should apologize. The Church was founded on a rock and a cross, not on a hug.
Still, if you insist I talk about feelings, I’ve said before that I feel there’s something wrong with the fact that my lovemaking can’t produce the mini-Milo’s I’d like to have. How’s that for a subjective confirmation of the Church teaching that same-sex attraction is “objectively disordered” because it can’t lead to procreation?
Bottom line: The Church says I’m not culpable for my temptations, but I shouldn’t sin. She’s right. And her founder said He came to heal those who knew they were sick, so I don’t despair.
What was the best thing about your Catholic upbringing?
One good thing was hearing Mary praised for her motherhood. Whatever my own mother’s shortcomings, I learned that motherhood is the greatest vocation, and one that God banned all men from. That’s why I think it’s sad that today’s feminists, as Chesterton observed, despise motherhood and all the other chief feminine characteristics. The idea that men and women shouldn’t be different — shouldn’t have different interests, strengths, and ways of relating to Creation — is insane, and it’s empirical fact that trying to deny these differences makes all of us less happy.
“I think it’s sad that today’s feminists, as Chesterton observed, despise motherhood and all the other chief feminine characteristics.” Milo tweet.
Growing up Catholic also taught me the value of humility, even if that’s not exactly a forte of mine. This virtue is important for society, because it teaches us to be tolerant of a diversity of opinions, rather than arrogantly trying to silence people we disagree with. And it’s important for me personally, because despite my vanity, I know I’m not as smart as Thomas Aquinas or as good as St. Francis.
There’s a great line from the novelist Flannery O’Connor, who liked to shock and troll a bit herself: “I’m not limited to what I personally feel or think; I’m a Catholic.” She meant the same thing Chesterton did in his famous quip, “Tradition is the democracy of the dead.” Political correctness gives us thin gruel and loneliness. The Church gives us a grand party with red meat and red wine.
[ … ]
How do you pray?
On my knees.
Who are your role models, either living or dead, in the Catholic faith?
Pope Benedict XVI is still the wisest and most erudite man in Europe, though I’m sure he doesn’t deserve to have me hung around his neck as an admirer. He was also brave enough to declare publicly that Islam’s irrationalism is one of the world’s great problems.
By the way, in the same Regensburg lecture he pointed out that secularists in the West are also dangerously unbalanced, because they’re as hostile to religion as Muslims are to rationality. I note that he credits my wild pagan ancestors in Greece for the West’s deepest rational roots.
My personal motto, “laughter and war,” comes from a passage in Chesterton’s Heretics. He should be the patron saint of Catholic journalists. And of course Hilaire Belloc was brilliant as a defender of the West. In the 1930s, when the Caliphate had collapsed and no one imagined Islam would ever come back, he prophesied that the West would again be threatened, because our superior money and technology can’t take the place of a devotion to your civilization.
I’ve already quoted St. Augustine, who had his own pelvic issues. I once tweeted out an illustrated page from his Confessions that began, “I will now recall my past foulnesses.” That’ll work for my memoirs someday, too.
Rabelais and the anonymous trolls who wrote the Carmina Burana are kindred spirits.
She wasn’t a Roman, but the conservative essayist Florence King earned a title I aspire to. A New York Times book reviewer said of her: “The mind of a Jesuit with the mouth of a truck driver.”
What’s your favorite Scripture passage and why?
I’m tempted to go for the easy Waugh line from Ecclesiastes: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
You recently self-published the new book Dangerous after Breitbart fired you and your original publisher withdrew the contract. How do you respond to critics who say you are “hateful” and “hurtful” to others?
The truth often hurts, as the Church has always understood. That’s one reason she so often shows us a Man in agony on a cross. I don’t delight in others’ pain, but I’m not scared into silence by the fear someone somewhere will take offense.
“The fact that so many of us think hurting people’s feelings is the greatest evil says all you need to know about the decline of our civilization.” Milo tweet.
If I’m wrong about something, don’t whine; show me evidence and make rational arguments.
Or tell a good joke! A big part of what I do is playing the jester, telling the powerful the truths they don’t want to hear. Maybe that’s what you meant about my “shocking” aspect. A friend who’s a brilliant medievalist at the University of Chicago (and who was just received into the Church this Easter, Deo gratias), likes to embarrass me by writing about me as a holy fool.
The fact that so many of us think hurting people’s feelings is the greatest evil says all you need to know about the decline of our civilization.
I say embarrass, but of course it’s a great compliment and I am happy to receive any kind of attention.
By the way, I wasn’t fired.
In the book you mention that you made a mistake in the broadcast that got you fired. Looking back at your public career to date, what would you do differently if you could do it all over again?
I would change nothing.
In 2011 and 2012, you were featured in Wired UK’s yearly top 100 most influential people in Britain’s digital economy, and the Observer once called you “the pit bull of tech media.” How is tech media changing the way we do journalism today?
I blame tech bloggers for the proliferation of “process journalism,” which means writing whatever appears to be true at that moment and fixing it later. Of course, they never bother. Tech journalism today has lower professional standards than a Detroit bordello, which is why I left to become famous for a living instead.
You were one of the first tech journalists to cover the Gamergate controversy, criticizing what you saw as the politicization of video game culture by “an army of sociopathic feminist programmers and campaigners, abetted by achingly politically correct American tech bloggers.” How do you respond to critics who say you are supporting the tendency of video games to demean women?
Just as there was no evidence in the 1990s that rock music, heavy metal and video games caused violence, there is no evidence today behind the moral panic that video games make you sexist. It’s politics masquerading as well-meaning academic enquiry. Fortunately, we won, and the noxious feminists are on the defensive in gaming.
What does masculinity mean to you?
It means a willingness to expose yourself to enemy fire, whether or not you wear a uniform, in order to defend the good — your family, your church, your country, your civilization. Now the men in uniform are much better men than I, but even I can do a bit to defend those things with the gifts God gave me.
Our Lord, as always, showed the way: He endured the horrors of the Passion to defend and redeem the whole world. I’m with Rod Dreher: Anybody who only preaches a namby-pamby God, and not the highly masculine God of Scripture, is leaving young men vulnerable to the monstrous false gods of race and ideology.
Boys struggling to become men are always potential barbarians, because they hunger for masculinity but aren’t sure where to find it or how to productively express it. Our Lord revealed it to them, but too many in the Church keep masculinity hidden or the subject of shame.
As a gay Catholic, you’ve debated same-sex civil unions on television news programs, surprising some people with your perspectives. In a nutshell, what do you believe about this issue and why?
First, I’m with St. Thomas Aquinas: The civil laws can’t forbid everything the Church forbids, because utopianism does more harm than good, given how weak most of us are.
I was for a long time contemptuous of gay marriage. But then I fell in love, and now I don’t know what to think.
I’d add that just as the Church doesn’t insist civil society require everyone to follow all her views of proper conduct, so civil society should follow the First Amendment and not bully believers into espousing whatever views politicians have enacted. It disgusts me when gay activists harass in the public square, much less in the courts, those simple believers who aren’t harming anyone while they bake pizzas and the like.
In 2008, the BBC featured you in media coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s historic visit to the United Kingdom. From your perspective, what was most significant about his visit?
One major thing he did was to visit John Henry Newman’s Oratory and move him a step forward toward canonization. That’s great, given that Newman’s nemesis was liberalism in religion. He was not, as George Weigel has joked, a believer in an ice-your-own-cupcake world.
The Vatican has launched a commission to examine and overhaul the Holy See’s media communications strategy. If you could give any advice to Pope Francis about how to do journalism today, what would it be?
Stop talking.
Any final thoughts?
Pray for me. I need it.
Reprinted with permission from MiloYiannopoulos.net; slightly edited.
Alleged Sexual Predator and Hollywood Mogul Harvey Weinstein Threatens NRA (Again)
/in Gun Rights/by NRA Institute for Legislative ActionEven in a city and industry that prides itself on strict adherence to anti-gun orthodoxy, Hollywood Producer and Democratic mega-donor Harvey Weinstein distinguished himself as an enemy of law-abiding gun owners. In a January 2014 interview on The Howard Stern Show, the mogul launched into a lengthy anti-NRA tirade.
The rant started when Stern, a carry permit holder, asked Weinstein whether he owned a gun. Weinstein responded, “I don’t think we need guns in this country, and I hate it. And I think the NRA is a disaster area.” The producer went on to share his plans to make an anti-NRA feature film, titled, The Senator’s Wife. Weinstein noted, “I’m going to make a movie with Meryl Streep, and we’re going to take this head-on. And they’re going to wish they weren’t alive after I’m done with them.” The mogul also contended that the movie would damage the gun industry, stating, “Gun stocks, I don’t want to be involved in that stuff. It’s going to be like crash and burn.”
It’s nearly four years later and The Senator’s Wife is reportedly still in the development stage. However, Weinstein’s grudge against NRA is back in the national spotlight, thanks to the producer’s bizarre attempt to deflect attention from a spiraling sexual misconduct scandal.
On October 5, the New York Times published an article titled, “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades.” The piece detailed allegations that the mogul used his position of influence to make unwanted sexual advances towards young women in the movie industry, including movie star Ashley Judd.
That same day, Weinstein issued a statement that addressed the Times’s story and attempted to excuse some of his behavior. Oddly, following a series of tepid apologies and justifications, the statement turned to NRA.
The beginning of the final paragraph of Weinstein’s statement read:
Weinstein’s clumsy attack on gun owners was immediately seen for what it was, an attempt to distract the public and curry favor with anti-gun Hollywood. The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel remarked on Twitter, “Gotta love how Harvey Weinstein’s statement includes swipes at NRA/Trump. Clear message: Hey guys, i’m a good liberal. Give me a pass.” Even MSNBC’s Chris Hayes tweeted, “Weinstein’s attempt to rally liberals to his side by attacking the NRA is gross and absurd and I hope people don’t fall for it.”
The ploy didn’t work. In the days since the Times ran their initial article, a host of other women, including stars Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, have come forward and accused Weinstein of sexual harassment. Some of the more recent allegations have taken on an even more serious character, with the New Yorker reporting that Weinstein allegedly raped at least three women. The New Yorker report also included an account of an N.Y.P.D. sting operation where Weinstein was allegedly caught on tape mistreating a woman.
The allegations have put several prominent Democratic politicians in a difficult position. CBS has reported that Weinstein-hosted political fundraisers have brought in more than $5 million for Democrats.
An ardent Hillary Clinton supporter, Weinstein hosted a June 2016 fundraiser at his Manhattan home that reportedly raised $1.8 million for the failed candidate. Further, according to the New York Times, in October 2016, Weinstein “co-produced a Broadway fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign that was headlined by former President Bill Clinton, her husband, and Chelsea Clinton, her daughter, and featured dozens of performing artists.” Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are among the prominent politicians who have disgorged themselves of Weinstein’s money in the wake of his sex scandal.
It should not come as a surprise that an individual who has allegedly used his influence and physical stature to overpower and abuse woman would detest the right to keep and bear arms. Published research on sexual assault from Florida State Professor of Criminology Gary Kleck concluded that rape victims “who resist are much less likely to have the rape completed against them than nonresisting victims,” and that, “[t]he form of resistance that appears most effective in preventing rape completion is resistance with a gun, knife, or other weapon.”
As for Weinstein’s recent threats against NRA, gun owners shouldn’t lose any sleep over the alleged sexual predator’s bluster. Even if Weinstein weren’t preoccupied with mounting legal woes, the producer isn’t much for follow-through. In response to criticism of his 2014 comments on The Howard Stern Show, Weinstein said he would curtail his support for violent movies. Weinstein said, “I have to choose movies that aren’t violent or as violent as they used to be,” and, “I know for me personally … I can’t continue to do that. The change starts here. It has already. For me, I can’t do it. I can’t make one movie and say this is what I want for my kids and then just go out and be a hypocrite.” A year later, Weinstein put out the blood-soaked Quentin Tarantino film The Hateful Eight.
On October 8, the Weinstein Company board, which includes Weinstein’s brother Bob, fired the embattled producer. Given the criminal implications of some of the allegations against the mogul, and reports of an FBI investigation, it is has yet to be determined if Weinstein’s retirement party will be held at a state or federal penitentiary.
Department of Health and Human Services: ‘Life Begins at Conception’
/in Courts & Law, Culture War, Healthcare, Must Read, Policy, Politics/by Dr. Rich SwierIn a stunning turn of events President Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has declared that life begins at conception.
The 2018-2022 DHHS draft strategic plan reads:
Readers may share their thoughts on each part of the draft strategic plan.
Download the HHS DRAFT Strategic Plan FY 2018 – 2022 – PDF
The Federalist’s Harvest Prude reports:
Harvey Weinstein: Right-wing ‘conspiracy’ out to get me
/in Commentary, Satire/by The Peoples CubeHollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein believes that accusations of sexual harassment on his part are part of a “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy” to bring down the big donor to Democratic causes, according to the DailyMail.com.
The Extreme Right-Wing New York Times is reporting that the founder of the Miramax film company has been accused of reaching at least eight settlements with women for sexually harassing behavior going back three decades.
He is said, for example, to have paid actress Rose McGowan $100,000 in a settlement for an incident shortly before her breakthrough role in the horror movie Scream, and to have asked hysterical feminist activist/actress Ashley Judd to watch him shower. Judd said she was invited up to Weinstein’s room 20 years ago where he appeared in a bathrobe and asked if he could massage her or watch him shower.
Judd remembered thinking, “How do I get out of the room as fast as possible without alienating Harvey Weinstein?”
She soon got another invitation and was asked to give him a shoulder rub, according to the Daily Mail, or to watch him shower.
EDITORS NOTE: This political satire column by Antonio Salazarinski originally appeared in The Peoples Cube.
VIDEO: America Truth Conference — You are invited!
/in Culture War, Elections, Immigration, Policy, Politics, Video/by Defend The BorderAmerica – The Truth
“Election Day 2018: Truth or Consequences”
Click here for details and to register
(NOTE: The cost for adults is $10.00 and students $5.00)
Attend the America – The Truth conference. Become informed and enlightened on:
Speakers:
The Catholic Magazine Interview with Milo they Refuse to Print
/in Culture War, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Church MilitantMilo Yiannopoulis talks about his Catholic faith, masculinity, Fr. James Martin.
Milo Yiannopoulos is best known as a conservative provocateur, famous for making statements like “Feminism is cancer,” “Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy,” and “Islam is cancer,” among others. His talks are routinely interrupted by leftist protestors, most notably at Berkeley in February, which ended up cancelling Yiannopoulos’ talk after Antifa members smashed windows, overturned barricades, set fire to property and attacked police. Although Church Militant does not endorse everything Yiannopoulis says and does, we are on the same page with regard to the unchanging teachings of the Church and opposing Catholics who would try to change Christ’s teachings to make them more comfortable. Church Militant reproduces here what America magazine refuses to publish.
By Milo Yiannopoulos
Over five weeks ago, I sent the following answers to questions I was asked by America magazine, a journal run by Jesuits. They have chosen not to publish it, perhaps out of compassion, fearing too many of their aging readers would suffer heart failure. Or perhaps they couldn’t stand my tweaking of their most famous contributor, Fr. James Martin, notorious for equivocating over any Church teaching that might cause a stir at an Anglican garden party.
Amusingly, while the Jesuits struggled to decide if they could bear to publish my answers, one of the Church’s highest ranking Cardinals called out Fr. Martin by name as “one of the most outspoken critics of the church’s message with regard to sexuality.” That means my side in this dispute enjoys support from a black prince of the Church raised on a continent where martyrdom is common, while the other side’s champion is a white bourgeois man in whose life the worst threat is that the wine is a bit off this week.
Ask yourself: Which of these men would you want to have your six?
Although you grew up Catholic, you now say and do many shocking things in your public career which seem to be at odds with your childhood faith. In what sense do you still consider yourself a Catholic?
Plenty of saints were shocking, to say nothing of our Lord, who got in a spot of trouble for His shocking claims, as you might recall. I am certainly no saint, but I don’t think “shocking” is a helpful way of approaching the question of Catholics in public life. It doesn’t settle much to say that the current Pope is shocking to many Catholics, including me. Or to note that I’m shocked by supposedly Catholic politicians who make laws in flat contradiction to the natural law, which you need no faith to grasp.
In my case, do you mean it’s shocking that a Catholic like me is loudly worried about Islam, which has waged war on Holy Mother Church for more than a millennium?
Or that I say Planned Parenthood’s abortion crusade amounts to black genocide?
Or that I’ve supported Pope Paul VI’s criticism of artificial contraception so strongly that Hillary Clinton attacked me for it in her presidential campaign?
Frankly, what’s really shocking is that a poor sinner like me has spoken out more on contraception than 99% of our bishops, who seem too preoccupied with diversity and climate change to talk about God.
Maybe you mean it’s shocking that I’m always joking about my lack of chastity and my fondness for black dudes, but I still call myself Catholic. And I don’t see what’s so shocking about that, either. One of the most famous saints of all time, sixteen centuries ago, prayed, “Lord, make me chaste, but not yet.”
Anyone who grows up in Catholic cities like New Orleans and Rome emerges pretty unshockable — and certainly wouldn’t be alarmed by me.
I think it was a visit to New Orleans that inspired Evelyn Waugh to make an observation I often quote: Protestants seem to think, I’m good, therefore I go to church, whereas Catholics think, I’m very bad, therefore I go to church. Waugh also said, when people asked how he could call himself a Catholic: You have no idea how bad I’d be if I weren’t.
Sins of the flesh, let us remember, are at the bottom of the scale. The Church says self-righteousness is at the top. Therefore, I’m in a lot better shape than some of my feminist and establishment Republican enemies. To say nothing of Islam!
In life, I believe in aspiration. If you’re a poor kid, aspire to rise economically. If you’re shy, aspire to confidence, so you can defend your views in public. And if you’re a wretched sinner like me, aspire to end up better than you are now. Miracles do happen!
Where do you experience tensions with Catholicism in your life?
Who says any Catholic should lack tension stoked by his weaknesses? We Catholics are better at clothes, food, and parties. Why shouldn’t we be better at guilt, too?
You don’t see me disputing the Church’s teachings on homosexuality. There’s no intellectual tension, because I wouldn’t dream of demanding that the Church throw away her hard truths just to lie to me in hopes I’ll feel better about myself. I love the truth, not lies, and I know no one’s feelings are the basis of truth.
That’s why I don’t understand those Catholics — such as, if you’ll forgive my horrid impertinence, this magazine’s editor at large, Fr. Martin — who imply that if people don’t like what the Church says, maybe the Church is wrong or should apologize. The Church was founded on a rock and a cross, not on a hug.
Still, if you insist I talk about feelings, I’ve said before that I feel there’s something wrong with the fact that my lovemaking can’t produce the mini-Milo’s I’d like to have. How’s that for a subjective confirmation of the Church teaching that same-sex attraction is “objectively disordered” because it can’t lead to procreation?
Bottom line: The Church says I’m not culpable for my temptations, but I shouldn’t sin. She’s right. And her founder said He came to heal those who knew they were sick, so I don’t despair.
What was the best thing about your Catholic upbringing?
One good thing was hearing Mary praised for her motherhood. Whatever my own mother’s shortcomings, I learned that motherhood is the greatest vocation, and one that God banned all men from. That’s why I think it’s sad that today’s feminists, as Chesterton observed, despise motherhood and all the other chief feminine characteristics. The idea that men and women shouldn’t be different — shouldn’t have different interests, strengths, and ways of relating to Creation — is insane, and it’s empirical fact that trying to deny these differences makes all of us less happy.
“I think it’s sad that today’s feminists, as Chesterton observed, despise motherhood and all the other chief feminine characteristics.” Milo tweet.
Growing up Catholic also taught me the value of humility, even if that’s not exactly a forte of mine. This virtue is important for society, because it teaches us to be tolerant of a diversity of opinions, rather than arrogantly trying to silence people we disagree with. And it’s important for me personally, because despite my vanity, I know I’m not as smart as Thomas Aquinas or as good as St. Francis.
There’s a great line from the novelist Flannery O’Connor, who liked to shock and troll a bit herself: “I’m not limited to what I personally feel or think; I’m a Catholic.” She meant the same thing Chesterton did in his famous quip, “Tradition is the democracy of the dead.” Political correctness gives us thin gruel and loneliness. The Church gives us a grand party with red meat and red wine.
[ … ]
How do you pray?
On my knees.
Who are your role models, either living or dead, in the Catholic faith?
Pope Benedict XVI is still the wisest and most erudite man in Europe, though I’m sure he doesn’t deserve to have me hung around his neck as an admirer. He was also brave enough to declare publicly that Islam’s irrationalism is one of the world’s great problems.
By the way, in the same Regensburg lecture he pointed out that secularists in the West are also dangerously unbalanced, because they’re as hostile to religion as Muslims are to rationality. I note that he credits my wild pagan ancestors in Greece for the West’s deepest rational roots.
My personal motto, “laughter and war,” comes from a passage in Chesterton’s Heretics. He should be the patron saint of Catholic journalists. And of course Hilaire Belloc was brilliant as a defender of the West. In the 1930s, when the Caliphate had collapsed and no one imagined Islam would ever come back, he prophesied that the West would again be threatened, because our superior money and technology can’t take the place of a devotion to your civilization.
I’ve already quoted St. Augustine, who had his own pelvic issues. I once tweeted out an illustrated page from his Confessions that began, “I will now recall my past foulnesses.” That’ll work for my memoirs someday, too.
Rabelais and the anonymous trolls who wrote the Carmina Burana are kindred spirits.
She wasn’t a Roman, but the conservative essayist Florence King earned a title I aspire to. A New York Times book reviewer said of her: “The mind of a Jesuit with the mouth of a truck driver.”
What’s your favorite Scripture passage and why?
I’m tempted to go for the easy Waugh line from Ecclesiastes: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
You recently self-published the new book Dangerous after Breitbart fired you and your original publisher withdrew the contract. How do you respond to critics who say you are “hateful” and “hurtful” to others?
The truth often hurts, as the Church has always understood. That’s one reason she so often shows us a Man in agony on a cross. I don’t delight in others’ pain, but I’m not scared into silence by the fear someone somewhere will take offense.
“The fact that so many of us think hurting people’s feelings is the greatest evil says all you need to know about the decline of our civilization.” Milo tweet.
If I’m wrong about something, don’t whine; show me evidence and make rational arguments.
Or tell a good joke! A big part of what I do is playing the jester, telling the powerful the truths they don’t want to hear. Maybe that’s what you meant about my “shocking” aspect. A friend who’s a brilliant medievalist at the University of Chicago (and who was just received into the Church this Easter, Deo gratias), likes to embarrass me by writing about me as a holy fool.
The fact that so many of us think hurting people’s feelings is the greatest evil says all you need to know about the decline of our civilization.
I say embarrass, but of course it’s a great compliment and I am happy to receive any kind of attention.
By the way, I wasn’t fired.
In the book you mention that you made a mistake in the broadcast that got you fired. Looking back at your public career to date, what would you do differently if you could do it all over again?
I would change nothing.
In 2011 and 2012, you were featured in Wired UK’s yearly top 100 most influential people in Britain’s digital economy, and the Observer once called you “the pit bull of tech media.” How is tech media changing the way we do journalism today?
I blame tech bloggers for the proliferation of “process journalism,” which means writing whatever appears to be true at that moment and fixing it later. Of course, they never bother. Tech journalism today has lower professional standards than a Detroit bordello, which is why I left to become famous for a living instead.
You were one of the first tech journalists to cover the Gamergate controversy, criticizing what you saw as the politicization of video game culture by “an army of sociopathic feminist programmers and campaigners, abetted by achingly politically correct American tech bloggers.” How do you respond to critics who say you are supporting the tendency of video games to demean women?
Just as there was no evidence in the 1990s that rock music, heavy metal and video games caused violence, there is no evidence today behind the moral panic that video games make you sexist. It’s politics masquerading as well-meaning academic enquiry. Fortunately, we won, and the noxious feminists are on the defensive in gaming.
What does masculinity mean to you?
It means a willingness to expose yourself to enemy fire, whether or not you wear a uniform, in order to defend the good — your family, your church, your country, your civilization. Now the men in uniform are much better men than I, but even I can do a bit to defend those things with the gifts God gave me.
Our Lord, as always, showed the way: He endured the horrors of the Passion to defend and redeem the whole world. I’m with Rod Dreher: Anybody who only preaches a namby-pamby God, and not the highly masculine God of Scripture, is leaving young men vulnerable to the monstrous false gods of race and ideology.
Boys struggling to become men are always potential barbarians, because they hunger for masculinity but aren’t sure where to find it or how to productively express it. Our Lord revealed it to them, but too many in the Church keep masculinity hidden or the subject of shame.
As a gay Catholic, you’ve debated same-sex civil unions on television news programs, surprising some people with your perspectives. In a nutshell, what do you believe about this issue and why?
First, I’m with St. Thomas Aquinas: The civil laws can’t forbid everything the Church forbids, because utopianism does more harm than good, given how weak most of us are.
I was for a long time contemptuous of gay marriage. But then I fell in love, and now I don’t know what to think.
I’d add that just as the Church doesn’t insist civil society require everyone to follow all her views of proper conduct, so civil society should follow the First Amendment and not bully believers into espousing whatever views politicians have enacted. It disgusts me when gay activists harass in the public square, much less in the courts, those simple believers who aren’t harming anyone while they bake pizzas and the like.
In 2008, the BBC featured you in media coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s historic visit to the United Kingdom. From your perspective, what was most significant about his visit?
One major thing he did was to visit John Henry Newman’s Oratory and move him a step forward toward canonization. That’s great, given that Newman’s nemesis was liberalism in religion. He was not, as George Weigel has joked, a believer in an ice-your-own-cupcake world.
The Vatican has launched a commission to examine and overhaul the Holy See’s media communications strategy. If you could give any advice to Pope Francis about how to do journalism today, what would it be?
Stop talking.
Any final thoughts?
Pray for me. I need it.
Reprinted with permission from MiloYiannopoulos.net; slightly edited.
Watch what happened at Values Voter Summit 2017 today…
/in Courts & Law, Elections, Healthcare, Policy, Politics, Video/by Family Research CouncilIt’s time for Americans to seize the moment.
Opening day of the 2017 Values Voter Summit gave attendees a window into the opportunity before us to make America a place in which all human life is valued, families flourish, and religious liberty thrives. If you missed today’s sessions, you can watch all the action, including President Trump’s address, at the VVS website here.
Harvey Weinstein — Question: Why? Answer: It’s in the Holy Bible!
/in Culture War, Elections, Featured, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Dr. Rich SwierAmerican poet Criss Jami wrote, “The motive behind criticism often determines its validity. Those who care criticize where necessary. Those who envy criticize the moment they think that they have found a weak spot.”
I have been watching the unfolding of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Weinstein was born in the borough of Queens, New York City, to a Jewish family. His parents were Max Weinstein, a diamond cutter, and Miriam (née Postel).
There are currently ten U.S. Senators and nineteen members of the U.S. House of Representatives who are Jewish. Of these twenty nine members of Congress twenty seven are Democrats, one, Bernard Sanders is an Independent and one, Lee Zeldin, is a Republican.
As a Christian I believe that Jews are the “chosen people.”
The Jewish Virtual Library notes:
The Jewish people have suffered great persecution and continue to do so. The Jewish state of Israel is hated by many but still stands as a shining light of freedom in the most dangerous neighborhood in the world – the Middle East.
You would expect that Jews in America would understand their “covernant with God.” That they would live up to be His “holy people.”
So why do we see one of His chosen people, Harvey Weinstein, fail so miserably?
Covenant is defined as, “[T]he agreement between God and the ancient Israelites, in which God promised to protect them if they kept His law and were faithful to Him.”
Faithful to Him means faithful to His laws. His laws are contained in Exodus 31:18, known as the Ten Commandments. Perhaps the commandants that strike home in the case of Harvey Weinstein are:
Washington, D.C., deemed “the swamp” by President Trump, is guilty of breaking their agreement with God by coveting. Hollywood, what some call a cesspool, is guilty of breaking its agreement with God by worshiping false idols and adultery.
Washington, D.C. covets power, wants our property our wages, homes, and possessions. Hollywood wants our souls. Hollywood wants us to worship them and not the God of Abraham.
I write this not because I found a weak spot named Harvey Weinstein. We all have weak spots and we are all sinners.
I come to criticize where necessary. To help those in Washington, D.C. and Hollywood to embrace God in all of His glory. This is a time for prayer. Prayers for all sinners.
As it says in John 3:16 (KJV):
As a Christian I pray for President Trump, all members of Congress and those in Hollywood that they see the light, that they believe in Him and have everlasting life.
RELATED ARTICLES:
Harvey Weinstein’s Army of Spies, The film executive hired private investigators, including ex-Mossad agents, to track actresses and journalists.
George Clooney Accused of Helping Blacklist Actress Who Complained of Sexual Harassment – Breitbart
Why Hollywood is the perfect hunting ground for pervs
RELATED VIDEO: Cecil B. DeMille – The Ten Commandments – Trailer – Charlton Heston As Moses And The Voice Of GOD.
The Truth vs CNN
/in News, Politics, Video, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Bill WhittleIn a July 2nd, 2017 FIREWALL, host Bill Whittle recounted a CNN scandal, describing the masterful way the videos were released and showed what incredible — almost unbelievable — harm is caused by media bias.
RELATED ARTICLE: Why Rosaries Scare the Media
EDITORS NOTE: Media Bias/Fact Check writes, “The Cable News Network (CNN) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner. It was founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner as a 24-hour cable news channel; however, by April 2016, a CNN executive officially described the channel as “no longer a TV news network” and instead as “a 24-hour global multi-platform network.” CNN has a left bias in reporting and sometimes uses sensational headlines. CNN typically sources its news sources. Do not confuse CNN’s talk shows with actual reporting of news. Further, they have failed numerous fact checks from Politifact. (5/16/2016) Updated (6/4/2017)
Undo Obama’s Massive Land Grabs
/in Environment, Policy, Politics, Taxes, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Committee For A Constructive TomorrowPresident Obama infamously said, “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone – and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions.”
This he did with a vengeance.
One of the most egregious areas he wielded his menacing pen was in expanding federal control over wilderness areas with use of the “Antiquities Act.”
This Act was established in 1906 under President Theodore Roosevelt and was never intended to be a tool used by Uncle Sam to swipe up massive amounts of territory from states and private citizens. As CFACT senior policy analyst Bonner Cohen explains at CFACT.org:
Yes, Obama had “the pen,” but now it has been turned over to President Trump … and he should use it to right these wrongs.
Again from Cohen:
To step up efforts at reforming the Antiquities Act, CFACT recently joined a coalition of free market organizations in co-signing a letter to President Trump urging him to have Secretary Zinke act more decisively to eliminate and reign in Obama’s national monument land grabs. We posted it at CFACT.org.
The letter concludes:
Problematic Women Video: College Students Use Sex Objects to Protest Katie Pavlich
/in Culture War, Gun Rights, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Video/by The Daily SignalAt the University of Wisconsin-Madison this week, Fox News contributor and Second Amendment advocate Katie Pavlich faced a new brand of protest from liberal campus activists—sex objects.
The protest, named “Cocks Not Glocks,” was reportedly organized by students and led by Katherine Kerwin and focused on Pavlich’s views that guns can protect women from being sexually assaulted on campus.
Their rationale, according to Facebook, goes like this:
In order to participate, the event page encouraged students to “tie that dildo to your backpack and wear it proudly to class every day.”
Although Pavlich’s speech, hosted by the Young Americans for Freedom chapter at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, went smoothly on Tuesday, students did come out to demonstrate using these profanities.
For this reason, this week’s edition of “Problematic Women” is honoring Pavlich as our “Problematic Woman of the Week.” In this show, co-hosted with Bre Payton of The Federalist, we show clips of the protest Pavlich faced, discuss the hypocrisy of liberal Hollywood, and the Boy Scouts of America deciding to welcome young girls into its programs.
Watch in the video above.
COMMENTARY BY
Kelsey Harkness
Kelsey Harkness is a senior news producer at The Daily Signal. Send an email to Kelsey. Twitter: @kelseyjharkness
A Note for our Readers:
Judge: Congress Still Living on a Prayer
/in Commentary, Culture War, Policy, Politics/by Family Research CouncilFor over 240 years, our elected representatives to the federal government have begun their public duties with prayer. When a session of the House of Representatives is opened, a prayer seeking God’s guidance is offered. Among other things, this is a reflection of the faith of many people across America who themselves seek His guidance in their lives.Nevertheless, there are always those who just can’t stand the idea of Americans, especially leaders, acknowledging their dependence upon God.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) perpetuates its existence by trying to stamp out the very recognition of God’s existence from across our land, much as — quite sadly — communist governments tried to wipe out the church from public life during the last century.
The FFRF has challenged public monuments, prayer, and virtually any public recognition of religion. Like most on the Left, FFRF engages in bullying tactics threatening to haul the “offenders” into court for their “unconstitutional” activities. Unfortunately, too many school districts and city and town councils hand over their milk money to the bullies and capitulate.
When FFRF actually does sue, a very high percentage of their cases are simply dismissed. However, they occasionally find a sympathetic ear (just several days ago, a quite radical federal judge in Wisconsin ruled in favor of the group’s claim challenging housing allowances for pastors). After failing so many times, the FFRF is now trying a new tactic, with founder Dan Barker (who has publicly proclaimed his atheism but maintains ministerial credentials) applying to the U.S. House of Representatives chaplain to be able to lead a prayer.
His application was rejected, and he sued, claiming the practice of House prayer was in violation of the Supreme Court’s decision in Town of Greece v. Galloway (which had ruled permitting ministers to pray before legislative gatherings was constitutional).
The interpretation of the Establishment Clause in this and other cases simply doesn’t require what Barker demanded. Sanity has prevailed — for now.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), who was named a defendant in Barker’s suit, praised the ruling and observed:
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
Also in the October 12 Washington Update:
Watch VVS Live on a Screen Near You
Class is in Session
Watch the Premiere of ‘Islam in Our Schools’
/in Culture War, Education, National Security, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Martin Mawyer“America needs a national awakening to be aware of the growing number of public schools that are attempting to convert children to Islam and turn them into evangelists for the Islamic faith”
Watch the Premiere of “Islam in Our Schools”
The live stream of the premiere was a success! If you missed it live you can still watch the video of the event including an excellent question and answer session with me and Ryan Mauro.
Plus, an additional SURPRISE guest joins in and gives some great insight to the increasing issue of…. “Islam in Our Schools”
FBI Arrest Data by Race and Ethnicity in 2016
/in Commentary, Culture War, Policy, Politics/by Dr. Rich SwierThere has been much discussion about how blacks are being targeted and shot by police. The narrative is that “white privilege” has kept Caucasians out of prison, while others are arrested just because they are black or Hispanic. Let’s look at two sets of data for 2016:
Perhaps this will paint a clearer picture for readers about differences in arrests by race and age.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimate of the racial breakdown of America in 2016 is depicted in the below chart:
The most recent data release by the Federal Bureau of Investigation portrays those arrested by race/ethnicity. Below is a summary of FBI data (the full report may be reviewed and downloaded here).
Arrests, by Race and Ethnicity, 2016
Arrests, by Age, 2016
When comparing these data sets the following stand out about “adult” arrests:
When comparing these data sets the following stand out about “juvenile” arrests:
As a law enforcement agency, given these data points, profiling criminals is a must.
To reduce “violent” crimes law enforcement would focus primarily on adult whites of which 89.9% were arrested. To prevent property/larceny-theft the focus would be on white adults first and white juveniles second. To stop drug abuse law enforcement would target the 93.7% of white adults and 74.8% of white juveniles. To reduce rape and arson juveniles would need to be profiled.
While black/African American juveniles arrested for violent crimes (52.0%) is high for their population, it is not indicative of the need for great police concern as juveniles (age 18 and younger) of all races only 8% (half black and half white) were arrested for committing a crime.
A law enforcement model must look at the profile of those who do the crime, if the police, given limited resources, are to be effective in reducing crime.
RELATED ARTICLES:
About Crime in the U.S. (CIUS)
FBI Releases New Crime Stats For 2016… The Charts Are Startling
My Fourth Health Care Plan Just Died Thanks to Obamacare by Michelle Malkin
/in Culture War, Featured, Healthcare, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily CallerCue the funeral bagpipes. My fourth health insurance plan is dead.
Two weeks ago, my husband and I received yet another cancellation notice for our private, individual health insurance coverage. It’s our fourth Obamacare-induced obituary in four years.
Our first death notice, from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, arrived in the fall of 2013. The insurer informed us that because of “changes from health care reform (also called the Affordable Care Act or ACA),” our plan no longer met the federal government’s requirements.
Never mind our needs and desires as consumers who were quite satisfied with a high-deductible preferred provider organization that included a wide network of doctors for ourselves and our two children.
Americans need an alternative to the mainstream media. But this can’t be done alone. Find out more >>
Our second death knell, from Rocky Mountain Health Plans, tolled in August 2015. That notice signaled the end of a plan we didn’t want in the first place that didn’t cover our kids’ dental care and wasn’t accepted at our local urgent care clinic.
The insurer pulled out of the individual market in all but one county in Colorado, following the complete withdrawal from that sector by Humana and UnitedHealthcare.
Our third “notice of plan discontinuation,” again from Anthem, informed us that the insurer would “no longer offer your current health plan in the state of Colorado” in August 2016.
With fewer and fewer choices as know-it-all Obamacare bureaucrats decimated the individual market here and across the country, we enrolled in a high-deductible Bronze HSA EPO (Health Savings Account Exclusive Provider Organization) offered by Minneapolis-based startup Bright Health.
Now, here we are barely a year later: Deja screwed times four. Our current plan will be discontinued on Jan. 1, 2018.
“But don’t worry,” Bright Health’s eulogy writer chirped, “we have similar plans to address your needs.”
Riiiiight. Where have I heard those pie-in-the-sky promises before? Oh, yeah. Straight out of the socialized medicine Trojan horse’s mouth.
“If you like your doctor,” President Barack Obama promised, “you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.”
Is pathological lying covered under the Affordable Care Act?
Speaking of Affordable Care Act whoppers, so much for “affordable.” Our current deductible is $6,550 per person—$13,100 for our family of four. Assuming we can find a new plan at the bottom of the individual market barrel, our current monthly premium, $944.86, will rise to more than $1,300 a month.
“What’s taking place is a market correction; the free market is at work,” says Colorado’s state insurance commissioner, Marguerite Salazar. “[T]his could be an indication that there were too many options for the market to support.”
This presumptuous central planner called federal intervention to eliminate “too many” options for consumers the free market at work. Yes, friends, the Rocky Mountain High is real.
This isn’t a “market correction.” It’s a government catastrophe.
Premiums for individual health plans in Virginia are set to skyrocket nearly 60 percent in 2018. In New Hampshire, those rates will rise 52 percent.
In South Carolina, individual market consumers will face an average 31.3 percent hike. In Tennessee, they’ll see rates jump between 20-40 percent.
Private, flexible preferred provider organizations for self-sufficient, self-employed people are vanishing by design. The social-engineered future—healthy, full-paying consumers being herded into government-run Obamacare exchanges and severely regulated regional health maintenance organizations—is a bipartisan big government health bureaucracy’s dream come true.
These choice-wreckers had the arrogant audacity to denigrate our pre-Obamacare plans as “substandard” (Obama), “crappy” (MSNBC big mouth Ed Schultz), and “junk policies” (Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa).
When I first called attention to the cancellation notice tsunami in 2013, liberal Mother Jones magazine sneered that the phenomenon was “phony.” And they’re still denying the Obamacare death spiral. Liberal Vox Media recently called the crisis “a lie.”
I don’t have enough four-letter words for these propagandists. There are an estimated 450,000 consumers like us in Colorado and 17 million of us nationwide—small business owners, independent contractors, and others who don’t get their plans through group coverage, big companies, or government employers.
The costs, headaches, and disruption in our lives caused by Obamacare’s meddling meddlers are real and massive.
But we’re puzzles to corporate media journalists who’ve never had to meet a payroll and don’t even know what is the individual market.
We’re invisible to late night TV clowns who get their Obamacare-at-all-costs talking points from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
We’re pariahs to social justice health care activists and Democrats who want us to just shut up and subsidize everyone else’s insurance.
And we’re expendables to establishment Republicans who hoovered up campaign donations on the empty promise to repeal Obamacare—and now consider amnesty for immigrants here illegally and gun control higher legislative priorities than keeping their damned word.
We’re the canaries in the Obamacare coal mine. Ignore us at your peril, America. You’re next.
COMMENTARY BY
Michelle Malkin
Michelle Malkin is the senior editor of Conservative Review. She is a New York Times best-selling author and a FOX News Channel contributor. Twitter: @michellemalkin
RELATED ARTICLES:
Why Trump’s Executive Order on Health Care Is a Positive Step
Trump, Paul Forge Alliance on ‘Biggest Free-Market Reform of Health Care in Generation’
A Note for our Readers:
Gay Coffee Shop Owner Kicks Out Pro-Life Customers
/in Commentary, Culture War, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily CallerThe gay owner of a coffee shop in Seattle kicked a group of Christians out of his coffee shop Sunday after declaring in obscene terms that he would like to sodomize Jesus Christ.
The owner heatedly tells the Christians to leave his shop immediately in a video posted to Facebook by Abolish Human Abortion, a Christian group seeking to end the practice of abortion.
“I’m gay, you have to leave,” the owner tells the group. “This is offensive to me. I own the place. I have the right to be offended.”
The group tried to explain that they hadn’t placed any in the shop, but the owner repeatedly told them to”shut up.”
“There’s nothing you can say. This is you and I don’t want these people in this place,” the owner says. The group asks why he can’t tolerate their presence, prompting the owner to ask them if they would watch him have sex with his boyfriend.
“Can you tolerate my presence? Really? If I go get my boyfriend and f— him in the a– right here you’re going to tolerate that? Are you going to tolerate it?” the owner asked. “Answer my f—ing question! No, you’re going to sit right here and f—ing watch it! Leave all of you! Tell all your f—ing friends don’t come here!”
The group gets up to leave, as one woman among them says, “just know that Christ can save you from that lifestyle.”
“Yeah, I like a–. I’m not going to be saved by anything. I’d f— Christ in the a–. Okay? He’s hot,” he said.
According to The Liberator, the Christian group had been handing out pamphlets to Seattle locals on abortion, sin and the Bible. The group entered Bedlam Coffee to take a break and drink coffee when a barista went upstairs to tell the owner that the group was there.
“They had good coffee,” Caytie Davis, a group member, said. “It’s just too bad the service sucked.”
Amber Randall
Amber Randall is a reporter for The Daily Caller News Foundation. Twitter: @ARAND1990
RELATED ARTICLES:
Texas parents confront local public library officials over aggressive “gay pride” push targeting children
This Couple Faces Jail Time If They Film Weddings, But Decline Same-Sex Wedding
EDITORS NOTE: Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities for this original content, email licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.