Click the screenshot to enlarge and read. Intellectual rigor? Or rigor mortus - beginning to bloat? You can join 'The Club' and presumably get green stamps or bulk-order discount coupons at gun shows. Whatever.
Screenshots from -
http://www.ktlkfm.com/main.html
http://www.ktlkfm.com/cc-common/globalsignup.html
I never knew that radio outlet existed. I wonder what they do and say. No time for it, unfortunately.
Anyway, for something totally unrelated; this link.
Breitbart, dim bulb, and pity the fallen warrior. There's plenty of rigor on all sides. Here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, or here.
Without the Web we would have none of that.
So much worthy content exists that we must every day be thankful for having the Web. For instance we learn that Mainstream Media is turning up the heat on the Pope in Europe and elsewhere, we read it, for example, here. Without web news would we know that? Without web veracity, would we know that Mainstream Media might also have editorial-ownership dislikes for Vatican speech without caring to frontally assault it as inappropriately prone to raise questioning if an attack were made against social justice and the Roman Church's views of its unfortunate absence; where the Obama administration and Nancy Pelosi are around as targets for that, and the Roman Church can be pressured via alter boy scandalizing in a 'properly objective' but duly salacious manner. And don't rock their boat over embryos, embrace instead, clasp hands on that front. However, consider a few things the Roman Church says from time to time that could make some view a need for greater silence and circumspection:
It is not the Church's mission to resolve all social problems. However, the Church can doubtlessly contribute to the partial solution of some fundamental problems. For example, She could help in areas which touch the basic things needed for a dignified human life--food, housing, education, clothing, medicine, etc.. Many particular Churches in America give Gospel witness to a communion in solidarity by creating programs to foster cooperative initiatives between one Church and another. They also do this at the continental level within already existing structures of aid, and, when opportune, apart from these structures. The example of the primitive Christian community in apostolic times continues to be the Church's inspiration in the area of a real communion and sharing of gifts, including material ones. The text from the Acts of the Apostles is clear and simple in its teaching: "Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet; and distribution was made to each as any had need" (Acts 4:32-35).
This link.
It is incumbent upon States to protect the lives of their citizens, however, greater renewal at all levels is needed to form a society in which the recognition of human dignity and human rights are at the core rather than a consequence of our policy decisions.
In this era of greater economic interconnectedness, effort must be made to ensure consistent focus on a human-centred approach to development. Around the world, millions of children lack access to the very ways and means which will assist them in shaping a better future for themselves and their community. The lack of access to basic healthcare, education, food, water and development prevents people from exercising their fundamental human rights.
The current global economic collapse highlights and will surely exacerbate the plight of the so-called "bottom billion", a figure which due to the present aggravating conjuncture is on a constant rise. These persons will have their right to food impinged by the global food crisis. With the governmental spending focused upon fixing the financial meltdown, social sectors such as education and healthcare will be further downsized and underfinanced. While the economic crisis is presenting a number of challenges for the entire global community, as we begin to create measures to fix the economic collapse, we must not lose sight of those who live with little hope for a decent future. To this end, the report of the independent expert on human rights and extreme poverty rightly recognizes that in addressing the plight of the bottom billion, the realization of human rights and the elimination of extreme poverty are mutually reinforcing endeavours.
This link.
A disconcerting conclusion about the most recent period should serve to enlighten us: side-by-side with the miseries of underdevelopment, themselves unacceptable, we find ourselves up against a form of superdevelopment, equally inadmissible. because like the former it is contrary to what is good and to true happiness. This super-development, which consists in an excessive availability of every kind of material goods for the benefit of certain social groups, easily makes people slaves of "possession" and of immediate gratification, with no other horizon than the multiplication or continual replacement of the things already owned with others still better. This is the so-called civilization of "consumption" or " consumerism ," which involves so much "throwing-away" and "waste." An object already owned but now superseded by something better is discarded, with no thought of its possible lasting value in itself, nor of some other human being who is poorer.
All of us experience firsthand the sad effects of this blind submission to pure consumerism: in the first place a crass materialism, and at the same time a radical dissatisfaction, because one quickly learns - unless one is shielded from the flood of publicity and the ceaseless and tempting offers of products - that the more one possesses the more one wants, while deeper aspirations remain unsatisfied and perhaps even stifled.
The Encyclical of Pope Paul VI pointed out the difference, so often emphasized today, between "having" and "being,"51 which had been expressed earlier in precise words by the Second Vatican Council.52 To "have" objects and goods does not in itself perfect the human subject, unless it contributes to the maturing and enrichment of that subject's "being," that is to say unless it contributes to the realization of the human vocation as such.
Of course, the difference between "being" and "having," the danger inherent in a mere multiplication or replacement of things possessed compared to the value of "being," need not turn into a contradiction. One of the greatest injustices in the contemporary world consists precisely in this: that the ones who possess much are relatively few and those who possess almost nothing are many. It is the injustice of the poor distribution of the goods and services originally intended for all.
This then is the picture: there are some people - the few who possess much - who do not really succeed in "being" because, through a reversal of the hierarchy of values, they are hindered by the cult of "having"; and there are others - the many who have little or nothing - who do not succeed in realizing their basic human vocation because they are deprived of essential goods.
The evil does not consist in "having" as such, but in possessing without regard for the quality and the ordered hierarchy of the goods one has. Quality and hierarchy arise from the subordination of goods and their availability to man's "being" and his true vocation.
This shows that although development has a necessary economic dimension, since it must supply the greatest possible number of the world's inhabitants with an availability of goods essential for them "to be," it is not limited to that dimension. If it is limited to this, then it turns against those whom it is meant to benefit.
This link.
Surely a cynic can say that's only rhetoric incidental to passing the plate and managing the Vatican Bank and real estate; but even as 'window dressing' there are some who think propaganta works best when the propagandized hear only one message, not confusing other things. Two voices can be thought of as one too many.
I wonder if those illuminate KTLK radio hosts ever get into such matters, in depth, leaving the sloganeering and mob incitement to lesser men? And where is the place for Mac Hammond and his airplanes in things?