From a fascinating article in the January 2010 issue of The Atlantic:

…We really have only two choices. Doing more, or doing less. Trying to work with our flawed governmental system despite its uncorrectable flaws, or trying to contain the damage that system does to the rest of our society. Muddling through, or starving the beast.

…

Our government is old and broken and dysfunctional, and may even be beyond repair. But… our only sane choice is to muddle through. As human beings, we ultimately become old and broken and dysfunctional—but in the meantime it makes a difference if we try. Our American republic may prove to be doomed, but it will make a difference if we improvise and strive to make the best of the path through our time—and our children’s, and their grandchildren’s—rather than succumb.

I couldn’t agree more.

budget planner – Mint.com

From the New York Times article, “Goldman’s Bonus Pool Puts It in a Public Relations Bind“:

David A. Viniar, the chief financial officer, was on the defensive Thursday. Talk of bonuses, and whether they were justified, dominated what in another era might have been a celebratory call with the media.

“We are very focused on what is going on in the world,” Mr. Viniar replied to a barrage of questions about whether the bank should pay outsize bonuses in these hard economic times. “We are focused on the economic climate. We are focused on what is going on with other people.”

That last phrase–”we are focused on what is going on with other people”–struck me as either disingenuous or completely out of touch.

Anyone care to defend this?

Yes We Can!

Believe it or not, the difference between 480 and 460 may have caused the poll workers to not be able to find me on the rolls, since one polling place is sliced into about a dozen smaller areas by address. But that’s assuming my name wound up on someone’s rolls by election day and that the delay was just in mailing the cards out.

Either way, it’s still pretty crappy that my voter registration confirmation was sent to me 3 weeks after election day with the incorrect address. God help our democracy.

2008: Catholic vote goes 54-45 for Barack Obama

Obama did gain in nearly all demographic groups compared to John Kerry, but this one in particular carries special significance for me. Looks like those bishops flinging fire and brimstone upon Catholics thinking of voting Democratic didn’t work so well after all.

Today, I showed up at the polls, and sure enough, my name wasn’t on the list of registered voters. Needless to say, I wasn’t very happy about this. Fortunately, I was able to vote “by affidavit,” meaning I filled out a paper ballot and signed a statement attesting to my residence in the precinct. As I handed it in, I asked the poll worker, “Is my vote going to count?” She enthusiastically reassured me that yes it would. That made me feel a little better, but I still walked out of the polling place feeling a little cheated.

Inexcusable.

Nevertheless, this incident, combined with my experiencing canvassing in Pennsylvania this past weekend, really showed to me the importance of grassroots voter awareness, registration, and education efforts. This election at the end of the day is only partly about the candidates on the ballots. It’s about the millions of volunteers who get out the vote and the millions upon millions who actually do vote.

Or at least the ones who vote and get their votes counted.

Sheesh. At least this election will be over very soon.

I’ve written earlier on the dilemmas facing modern Catholics in America, and those dilemmas are all the more pressing in this election year. The NY Times has an excellent article on the Catholic vote, “Catholic Church Is Riven By Internal Debate,” and it cuts to the heart of the crisis of authority facing the Church in the US.

As I’ve said before, the middle ground is a tough place to be, especially when it comes to religion. When you take some things from the theological salad bar but leave some of them behind, part of you wonders why you’re even at the salad bar to begin with. The Church can’t show any cracks in its authority for fear that any compromise on its issues will lead to a slippery slope of moral relativism and eventual obsolescense.

Unfortunately, it’s not helping its cause when it tells Catholic voters to essentially Vote for McCain (and only for McCain and other anti-abortion public officials) Or Else. The article quotes one American bishop as saying:

Being ‘right’ on taxes, education, health care, immigration and the economy fails to make up for the error of disregarding the value of a human life. It is a tragic irony that ‘pro-choice’ candidates have come to support homicide — the gravest injustice a society can tolerate — in the name of ‘social justice.

Let’s rewind the clock and apply this logic to the year 2000. By this logic, even though George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and his Republican Pro-Life pals were wrong on Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, Abu Ghraib, the economy, torture, politicizing the Justice Department, domestic spying, and every other pathetic failure of the public trust over the last eight years, this is all somehow OK because at the end of the day they put two conservative judges on the Supreme Court who might someday possibly consider overturning Roe V. Wade?

Everyone gets it. Abortion is bad. Nobody wants Planned Parenthood to have people lining up outside the clinic for quick ‘n’ easy pregnancy terminations. Nobody wants a culture that disrespects human dignity and human life.

But do you know what else disrespects human dignity and human life? Denying access to sex education that will ultimately prevent abortions. Torturing prisoners of war. Supporting economic policies that keep poor people in the ditch. Launching an unjustified war. Sitting on your laurels while poor black people drown in New Orleans. Stoking hatred and vitriol against people in same sex relationships. Blindly trusting the free market to regulate itself while millions of American fall into the economic abyss.

I’m Catholic, I do respect life, and I’m not voting for a candidate just because they carry the anti-abortion flag into the battlefield. I do respect Catholics and others who want to vote their conscious and vote Pro-Life, but I’m Catholic, I’m voting my conscious, and I’m voting for Obama.

If you’re a minority and you’re selected for a job over more qualified
candidates you’re a “token hire.”
If you’re a conservative and you’re selected for a job over more
qualified candidates you’re a “game changer.”

Black teen pregnancies? A “crisis” in black America .
White teen pregnancies? A “blessed event.”

If you grow up in Hawaii you’re “exotic.”
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you’re the quintessential
“American story.”

If you spend 3 years as a community organizer growing your
organization from a staff of 1 to 13 and your budget from $70,000 to
$400,000, then become the first black President of the Harvard Law
Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new
African American voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law
professor, then spend nearly 8 more years as a State Senator
representing a district with over 750,000 people, becoming chairman
of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, then spend
nearly 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of
nearly 13 million people, sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the
Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs
committees, you are woefully inexperienced.

If you spend 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of
a town with less than 7,000 people, then spend 20 months as the
governor of a state with 650,000 people, then you’ve got the most
executive experience of anyone on either ticket, are the Commander
in Chief of the Alaska military and are well qualified to lead the
nation should you be called upon to do so because your state is the
closest state to Russia .

Similarly, if you name your kid Barack you’re “unpatriotic.”
Name your kid Track, you’re “colorful.”

If you’re a Democrat and you make a VP pick without fully vetting the
individual you’re “reckless.” A Republican who doesn’t fully vet is a
“maverick.”

If you are a Democratic male candidate who is popular with
millions of people you are an “arrogant celebrity”. If you are a
popular Republican female candidate you are “energizing the
base”.

If you are a younger male candidate who thinks for himself
and makes his own decisions you are “presumptuous”.
If you are an older male candidate who makes last minute
decisions you refuse to explain, you are a “shoot from the hip”
maverick.

If you are a candidate with a Harvard law degree you are “an
elitist-out of touch” with the real America .
if you are a legacy (dad and granddad were admirals) graduate of
Annapolis , with multiple disciplinary infractions you are a hero.

If you manage a multi-million dollar nationwide campaign, you are an
“empty suit”.
If you are a part time mayor of a town of 7000 people, you are an
“experienced executive”.

If you go to a south side Chicago church, your beliefs are “extremist”.
If you believe in creationism and don’t believe global warming is man
made, you are “strongly principled”.

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your
disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.
If you have been married to the same woman with whom
you’ve been wed to for 19 years and raising 2 beautiful daughters
with, you’re “risky”.

If you’re a black single mother of 4 who waits for 22 hours after her
water breaks to seek medical attention, you’re an irresponsible
parent, endangering the life of your unborn child.
But if you’re a white married mother who waits 22 hours, you’re spunky.

If you’re a 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton, the right-wing press calls
you “First dog.”
If you’re a 17-year old pregnant unwed daughter of a Republican, the
right-wing press calls you “beautiful” and “courageous.”

If you kill an endangered species, you’re an excellent hunter.
If you have an abortion you’re not a Christian, you’re a murderer (
forget about if it happen while being date raped…)

If you teach abstinence only in sex education, you get teen parents.
If you teach responsible age appropriate sex education,
including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber
of society.

If you’re a Republican senator who solicits gay sex in an airport
bathroom, you get to return to your job in the Senate and are
encouraged to run for re-election.
If you’re a Democratic Senator who is out of public office and have
an affair, your political career is over and your wife who has
terminal cancer is to blame.