Santorum joins think tank (Directs Program "America's Enemies")

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07009/752397-100.stm

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum has joined a conservative Washington think tank, where he will found and direct a program called "America's Enemies."

The program will study "threats posed to America and the West from a growing array of anti-Western forces that are increasingly casting a shadow over our future and violating religious liberty around the world," according to a statement from the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he will be a senior fellow.

The center was established 30 years ago to apply moral principles derived from Christianity and Judaism to public policy issues. It is strongly, but not exclusively, associated with conservative Catholic intellectuals. Another of its senior fellows, George Weigel, is best known as the author of the most comprehensive biography of the late Pope John Paul II. Mr. Santorum, who served as a Pennsylvania senator from 1995 until this year, is an outspoken Catholic.

"In these perilous and uncertain times, I believe it is critical that we define the threats that confront America," Mr. Santorum said in a prepared statement.

"Without a clear definition and precise understanding of our enemies we cannot fight effectively and our own citizens become divided. It is my hope that the America's Enemies program at EPPC will help the American people -- including our leaders -- understand and communicate with clarity, honesty and consistency the enemies we face and the complex and enormous threat that they post to our lives and the freedoms we all enjoy."

[thereismore]

1. Knock yourself out Rick, as long as you don't write laws. nt

[Joe Bacon]

16. THe World Wrestling Fedration DIDN'T take him back?

Wow. Im shocked!

[havocmom]

2. Cheney leading him to beat the drum for more war?

Wonder what carrot they are dangling.

[RamboLiberal]

3. BTW Ricky was in Cheney Hunting Party yesterday

H'mmmm. Story is posted in GD-Politics

[havocmom]

8. Ricky is prolly feeling vulnerable these days. Nothing like a bit of courting

to get a geek to do anything you want him too. Cheney would be kinder if he just shot the guy.

Cheney, kind? :wtf: was I thinking?

[primavera]

9. And he didn't fall to a blast from Dead-Eye Dick?

What a pity.

[ThomCat]

Who would know more about America's enemies

than a man who was an enemy himself? He did more to subvert this nation than any of our outside enemies could hope to accomplish.
x(

[iconoclastic cat]

4. Violating RELIGIOUS LIBERTY? nt

[Divernan]

5. He will "found and direct a program", i.e, he'll bring his old staff

over to do all the work, research and writing, and then he'll fund raise for the think tank, schmooze with lobbyists, get lots of PR face time, and choose "research" topics to benefit neocon corporations. It won't be about "threats that confront America", like Big Pharma jacking up Rx prices or Big Oil inflating prices of gas at the pump; it will be about threats that confront CORPORATE America, like Hugo Chavez nationalizing the phone service and kicking Verizon out on its ass.

[Felix Mala]

6. LOL!!! "THINK" tank...

Puppets who only regurgitate the latest papist order are thinkers? Hmmm... I guess only in a country where "W" can be considered by some to be a "strong leader."

[Jacobin]

7. Well, that tank's IQ just went down about 100 points

[rocktivity]

10. The words "Santorum" and "think tank" don't belong in the same solar system

never mind the same sentence.

:headbang:
rocknation

[rodeodance]

12. Santy man is NO intellectual that is for sure

[lanlady]

19. with one exception

I think that if you're a raving lunatic like Santorum, you will tank at the polls.

[rodeodance]

11. and Hannity is having his 'Enemies of the State" !!

[chieftain]

13. "We have met the enemy and he is us"

Walt Kelly's Pogo spoke those words in a comic strip decades ago. Now they can be attributed to fascists like Santorum who are doing their damnedest to destroy American values and reputation.

[annabanana]

14. The "Ethics and Public Policy Center" must be really, really

hurting in both the 'ethics' and 'policy' divisions to make him a senior anything....

[salin]

20. or so rightwing fringe that they need Santorum for "legitimacy" & fundraising

[mcscajun]

15. Just what America needs...

...somebody ELSE with an "Enemies List"!

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

Why couldn't he just go away QUIETLY!?!?

[Carla in Ca]

17. America's Enemies?

Well, I guess they can have their meetings at the house of mirrors when the circus comes to town.

[krispos42]

18. Trying to fill an empty tank with Santorum?

Might explain the strange smell in NYC on Monday...

[cap]

21. "America's Enemies" is anti-Catholic

It ignores one of our most beloved saints: St Francis of Assisi. He is best known for the prayer:

"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."

America's Enemies fails to acknowledge the contribution that Muslim thought has made to Catholic Theology. Fransiscan spirituality is very indebted to Muslim thought in terms of its practice of being in God's presence as you pray. The prayer cited above has many references that a Muslim would understand and be in sync with. America's Enemies fail to acknowledge St. Francis' efforts to conduct a very gentle and peaceful dialog with the Muslims... a dialog that acknowledges many of the strengths of the Muslim faith.

Muslims have had a large influence on St Thomas Aquinas especially Averroës (Ibn Rushd). Averroes wrote commentaries on Aristotle that greatly influenced Thomist spirituality.

Also, Catholicism had a big influence on Rumi, one of the Muslim world's famous poets:

"SPRING IS CHRIST
by Jelaluddin Rumi

Everyone has eaten and fallen asleep. The house is empty.
We walk out to the garden to let the apple meet the peach,
to carry messages between rose and jasmine.
Spring is Christ,
raising martyred plants from their shrouds.
Their mouths open in gratitude, wanted to be kissed.
The glow of the rose and tulip means a lamp is inside.
A leaf trembles. I tremble
in the wind - beauty like silk from Turkestan.
The censer fans into flame.
This wind is the Holy Spirit.
The trees are Mary.
Watch how husband and wife play subtle games with their hands.
Cloudy pearls from Aden are thrown across the lovers,
as is the marriage custom.
The scent of Joseph's shirt comes to Jacob.
A red carnelian of Yemeni laughter is heard
by Muhammad in Mecca.
We talk about this and that. There's no rest
except on these branching moments"

Why oh why, do whack jobs have the public microphone when it comes to religion and not folks like these above?

[Toots]

22. In the 1990s the Catholic Church, some 350 years later declared

They were wrong about Galileo and science does have a role to play..These are the people that are going to decide who america's enemies are????