400-408 – Father Robert Sirico, president of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty (acton.org), is out with his latest book Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy (2012) (Amazon). Also, see their new website povertycure.org that talks about actually curing global poverty, with distinctions for how to do so domestically and internationally. The foundation of catholic teaching with regards to the poor, is the principal of subsidiarity, the idea that those who can best help the poor are those who are closest to the poor – this roots in being my brother's keeper and loving the "least of these."
413-423 – Father Robert Sirico,
428-438 – Calls – In light of last week, whether "your guy" won or lost, what are you going to do differently as a Christian? Has our Christian responsibility changed at all – to love the world enough to redeem it? E.g., how would I do this show if I were in Toronto, or London, where I no longer assume a Christian majority? If we were to transplant ourselves into a non-Christian culture, what would we do and how would we live in order to win the right to be heard? What if there were no pro-life, pro-family, "Christian" political parties, what would you do differently?
443-452 – Calls – Shomir, The "theological-political problem" of Plato's Laws.
458-508 – Calls – Brian,
512-523 – Calls – Brian,
LINER – Last September hundreds of couples in Southern California strengthened and redefined their marriage from the comfort of their own church! And due to popular demand, KKLA is again partnering with Family Life Today to bring the Art of Marriage to your church February 8th and 9th at absolutely no cost to you. To sign up or for more information visit kkla.com or call 818-662-3782, that's 818-662-3782.
528-539 – Calls – We ought to be missionaries to America.
544-554 – Calls –
558-608 – Calls –
• 2010 American illegitimacy rates: overall 41%, white 29%, brown 53%, black 73%.
612-623 – Calls –
628-639 – Calls – Not just life and marriage, it's also economics.
644-656 – Calls –
• Keely Brazil (Washington Times, 11/11/2012) Rising number of states seeing one-party rule.
Divided government still rules in the nation's capital after Tuesday's vote, but unity is increasingly the name of the game in Annapolis, Topeka, Concord, Little Rock and other capital cities.
In a little-noticed footnote to the elections, votes to fill legislative seats produced the highest number of states with one-party rule in 60 years. Democrats or Republicans now have sole control of the governorship and both legislative chambers in 37 state capitals.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks party representation in the country's 50 state governments, Democrats now control all three bases of power — the governorship and both houses of the state legislature — in 14 states and Republicans in 23, with only 12 states sharing power. Nebraska's unicameral legislature is considered nonpartisan.
// Among the 50 states, Democrats run 14 and Republicans 23, with divided gov in 12.
// Among governorships, Democrats have 20 and Republicans 30.
// Democrats gained seats in 40 chambers overall and obtained veto-proof supermajorities in California and Illinois.
• Dante Atkins (Daily Kos, 11/11/2012) Golden results in the Golden State: Democrats dominate California.
// The "tax revolt" is over. Over a third of a century ago, during Jerry Brown's first stint in the Governor's Mansion, California voters passed Proposition 13. In addition to limiting the growth of property taxes on both residential and commercial property, Proposition 13 dictated that any bill to pass taxes must be approved by a two-thirds vote of both legislative bodies. The passage of Proposition 13 hailed the beginning of the so-called "tax revolt"—a voter rebellion against the fact that property taxes had doubled in a 10-year period as a result of rising property values. But on Tuesday night—with Jerry Brown once again serving as governor—the tax revolt ended.
// The Bottom Line: Republicans should be terrified. What California looks like now is what the entire United States will look like in the future, and it is a world in which Republicans cannot win. California is done with the conservative ideology of tax revolts, and they are done with Republican politicians at the ballot box. Nov. 6 was a golden day for Democrats in the Golden State.
(3X) Frank Luntz on Fox News. • Erica Ritz (Blaze, 11/10/2012) 'VIEWERS OUGHT TO BE OUTRAGED': FRANK LUNTZ EXPLAINS WHERE POLLSTERS FAILED IN 2012.
(3X, money quote is #3) Bill Kristol • Madeleine Morgenstern (Blaze, 11/11/2012) BILL KRISTOL: 'IT WON'T KILL THE COUNTRY IF WE RAISE TAXES A LITTLE BIT ON MILLIONAIRES'.
// "The leadership of the Republican Party and the leadership of the conservative movement has to pull back, let people float new ideas. Let's have a serious debate," Kristol said. "Don't scream and yell if one person says 'You know what? It won't kill the country if we raise taxes a little bit on millionaires.' It really won't, I don't think."
President Barack Obama made increasing taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year a signature part of his re-election campaign. House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday that House Republicans would be "willing to accept new revenue, under the right conditions."
"I don't really understand why Republicans don't take Obama's offer to freeze taxes for everyone below $250,000, make it $500,000, make it $1 million," Kristol continued. "Really? The Republican Party is going to fall on its sword to defend a bunch of millionaires, half of whom voted Democratic and half of whom live in Hollywood and are hostile to Republican principles?"
•• Charles C. W. Cook (NRO, 11/11/2012) Why I Despair: The central problem is that America, knowing Obama, gave him a second term.
// Many had hoped that Tuesday would be 1980 revisited. It was not. Instead, in its effects at least, it was more like 1945 in Britain, in which year the Labour party was elected and began to put into place the foundations of a government-owned and -run health-care system that would quickly displace the established church as Britain's national religion. (If you question the believers' zeal, take a look at the frenzied NHS worship at the Olympic opening ceremony.) As Mark Steyn has correctly observed, in Britain as elsewhere, the National Health Service paved the way for a "permanent left-of-center political culture" that obtains regardless of who wins office. Obamacare will now go into effect, and Americans will soon feel entitled to its fruits. Those who doubt that this will have a deleterious effect on American republicanism have clearly never been bribed with their own health care. Almost certainly, Obamacare will fail. And then, as always, it will be replaced by something even further left. For the model, see Obama's record on student loans.
Economic gravity will prevail, as it always does, and it will eventually yield another conservative president. Indeed, the nature of the two-party system all but guarantees it. But this won't do much good in and of itself. The growth of the state is a one-way ratchet, and its size and intrusion are almost never retrenched. Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1788 that "the natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground." "A government bureau," added Ronald Reagan, "is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth."
How true these words are. Mrs. Thatcher, fittingly lionized by those on the right, certainly achieved a lot. But she could do nothing about Britain's creaking welfare system or its antediluvian National Health Service. Nobody can. Nobody would even try. (Consider what an Augean task it is even to get people seriously to discuss Medicare's disquieting trajectory.) Mrs. Thatcher's party is well named: They are, quite literally, the "Conservatives," and their role now is simply to run the government better than the socialists. Britain once had an Empire that stretched across one quarter of the globe; it provided the world with a common language, many of its institutions, global trade, and cricket; we did Great Things at home and abroad. Now, we wrangle over whether state spending should be 39 or 40 percent of GDP, and we hold the prime minister personally responsible for hospital conditions hundreds of miles from London. It's debilitating.
// There will be little virtue in America if it becomes a larger version of Britain, but with free speech and the right to bear arms.
• Billy Hallowell (Blaze, 11/12/2012) THIS IS A RECAP OF AMERICA'S CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS & HOW THEY WILL IMPACT THE GOP IN FUTURE ELECTIONS.
Currently, Hispanics are the largest minority group and make up 17 percent of the U.S. population, compared with 12 percent for blacks and 5 percent for Asians. Together minorities now make up more than 36 percent of the population.
Hispanics will make up roughly 30 percent of the U.S. by midcentury, while the African-American share is expected to remain unchanged at 12 percent. Asian-Americans will grow to roughly 8 percent of the U.S.
• George Skelton (LA Times, 11/11/2012) GOP might never again hold power in California. After last week's bludgeoning, Republicans remain too weak to affect the legislative agenda and challenge Gov. Jerry Brown for reelection.
• Joseph Curl (Washington Times, 11/11/2012) CURL: Time for a new Republican Party.
• Mark Steyn (NRO, 11/12/2012) The Edge of the Abyss: The default setting of American society is ever more liberal and statist.
[Concluding paragraph] So Washington cannot be saved from itself. For the moment, tend to your state, and county, town and school district, and demonstrate the virtues of responsible self-government at the local level. Americans as a whole have joined the rest of the Western world in voting themselves a lifestyle they are not willing to earn. The longer any course correction is postponed the more convulsive it will be. Alas, on Tuesday, the electorate opted to defer it for another four years. I doubt they'll get that long.
• Scott Atlas (NRO, 11/12/2012) A Pyrrhic Victory for America's Youth.
• Samuel Gregg (NRO, 11/12/2012) Are We All Europeans Now?
• WSJ Editors (11/11/2012) The Hard Fiscal Facts: Individual tax payments are up 26% in the last two years.
• Mike Flynn (Breitbart, 11/10/2012) CONSERVATIVES, ROMNEY LET DOWN BY CAMPAIGN TEAM.
• Andrew McCarthy (NRO, 11/10/2012) The Voters Who Stayed Home: They need better choices.
