Rev. Eric Rapaglia On Ideas to Benefit Minorities

Mount Carmel pastor, the Rev. Eric Rapaglia, hires [a] firebrand educator with ties to a white supremacist group, Frank Borzellieri, to run a Bronx Catholic school where most of the students are black and Latino:

Mount Carmel pastor, the Rev. Eric Rapaglia, said he knew of Borzellieri's views, but didn't "see any cause for concern" when he hired him to run the 200-student elementary school.

"I knew of him from my last parish," he said. "Do I agree with all of it? No. But I think much of it is valuable and logical and reasonable.

"A lot of his ideas would actually benefit minorities," he added.

Ideas like, for example, this one:

In 2004, Borzellieri wrote the book "Don't Take It Personally: Race, Immigration, Crime and Other Heresies," in which he declares "diversity is a weakness" and says the rising black and Hispanic populations in America will lead to the "New Dark Age."*

*I haven't read Mr. Borzellieri's book.

113 Degrees

That's it, I think the city officially melted today.

Michele Bachmann's Presidential Campaign Slogan

Michele Bachmann For the Humane Treatment of Animals Blacks and Women!

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

...

Humane protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy - our next generation of American children - from human trafficking, sexual slavery, seduction into promiscuity, and all forms of pornography and prostitution, infanticide, abortion, or other types of stolen innocence.

First Vegan Pleasure

Ok I've found one. Majas Deli on Pappelallee, a place which serves vegan food and desserts. I tried the raspberry pie and the chocolate cheese-cake. It was kind of awesome.

Rapture on the Subway

Who says ridding the subway can't be fun?

I Had an Abortion, Therefore Totalitarian State Rule!

"I had an abortion, therefore Totalitarian State Rule for the lot of you!" type narratives puzzle me.

Take the latest offering, from Rep. Michele Bachmann. While answering a question on her position on abortion at a town hall meeting she tells the story of a past unplanned pregnancy that ended in a spontaneous abortion:

“It was an unexpected baby, but of course we were delighted to have this child. The child was coming along and we ended up losing our child. And it was devastating to both of us, as you can imagine if any of you have lost a child.”

She told the rapt audience of 400 South Carolina voters that the experience changed her and eventually led her to raise 23 foster children along their five biological children.

“At that moment, we didn’t think of ourselves as overly career-minded or overly materialistic but when we lost that child, it changed us, and it changed us forever,” she said.

Bachmann is clearly able to recognize that a private, personal matter -- how she and her husband felt about an unplanned pregnancy and its outcome -- shaped her view on abortion. And her as you can imagine if any of you have lost a child clearly shows she is aware that other people, just like her, also have personal experiences when it comes to pregnancy matters.

So far, so good. What puzzles me is the next step.

How do you go from "Based on my personal experience I would not choose to have an abortion." to "We must use the State's power to force the choice I made based on my personal experience on perfect strangers."?

I really wish a reporter would bother to ask Rep. Bachmann to explain her thought process.

And just for comic relief, next time Rep. Bachmann says she is 100 percent pro-life from conception until natural death, she should be asked at what point exactly during "conception" does her position kick in (fertilization is a complex sequence of events that takes about 24 hrs after sperm penetrates the oocyte, and results in a bunch of totipotent cells).

Happy 4th of July!