It’s pretty much inevitable that the end of the year inspires us to take stock of what we’ve done well, what we’ve done poorly, and what we’ve failed to do in the last year. I asked one of my readers to offer constructive criticism. Here’s the response [with links added by me].
INTERVIEWER: So what in a sense, you’re saying is that there are certain situations…where the president can decide that it’s in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.
PRESIDENT: Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.
INTERVIEWER By definition.
PRESIDENT: Exactly. Exactly. If the president, for example, approves something because of the national security, or in this case because of a threat to internal peace and order of significant magnitude, then the president’s decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out, to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they’re in an impossible position.
Remind you of anyone? Nope, it’s not George "It’s just a goddamn piece of paper" Bush. It’s Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon discussing aspects of executive privilege in an interview with David Frost as it related to United States v. Nixon. Be sure to read the whole interview. I found the quote from Abraham Lincoln particularly interesting.
My wife and I wish a blessed Christmas to everyone, and especially to regular readers
of this blog. Don’t forget there are still ten days left in the Christmas season.
In the midst of the so-called War on Christmas, it’s easy to forget that receiving
gifts and being merry are nice, but giving love and being thankful are far superior.
"…[T]he Mass is very much like the events of the Gospel itself. That is, in those events we saw ternal mysteries veiled under the inauspicious terms, not only of our world, but of the most unlikely crannies of our world. Nazareth: the ultimate small town. A stable: dung and straw for the child born to the purple. Crucifixion: the worst that our malice could arrange. And yet in all of these the eye of faith sees glory. It finds at these points what T.S. Elliot called ‘the point of intersection of the timeless with time’."
"Likewise with the Mass. To all intents and purposes, it is 8:00 A.M/ on Tuesday, June 13, A.D. 304, or A.D. 1995, in Lyons or Peoria. But we have stepped, the way the shepherds did, into the precincts of the eternal. No straw, no dung, no braying ass, that does not belong here. Belong here? Surely the mystery is to be perceived in spite of all that noisome stuff?"
"No. Belongs here. This is where, and how, the Most High prepared and set the scene for his advent. Let the straw stay; let the straw be acclaimed even, since in it all straw is touched with the dignity of proffering something to the Most High. If the asses are what they truly are, made by this Most High, then their very dung testifies to the odd and cyclic harmony that characterizes his creation. The Incarnate One will not draw fastitious skirts away from this that marks his beloved asses. No: he will be found, quite helpless, right here"
– Thomas Howard, On Being Catholic
, pp. 83-84
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probablecause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." – Fourth Amendment
Was Bush (Congress, the NSA, whomever) wrong to employ the kinds of wiretaps he did? Did he violate Constitutional law? I don’t know. Just because a certain power is not forbidden to the federal government by the Constitution, doesn’t mean it’s licit.