The Vaccination Thing: Interplay of Issues of Freedom and Common Good — Valuable Commentary

It's entirely possible not everyone in the world (or in the U.S.) shares my near-obsession with the "debate" about vaccination that has suddenly emerged from some dark undercurrents of American culture to become a real political thing. I'm interested in this topic because it illustrates so clearly, I think, a fatal propensity of many Americans across party, ideological, and regional lines to fetishize "liberty" in a way that's dangerous to the well-being of all of us, and of the whole planet. I tried so say some of this several weeks ago as we were discussing the Charlie Hebdo massacres and freedom of speech, and got the same kind of fierce pushback I get anytime I mention guns here — pushback against my insistence that no freedom of any kind is an absolute value, and that in a sane society, liberties must always be measured against the common good to be meaningful.

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: Commentary on Naked Lady Bound in Ropes Image Vatican Used to Advertise Conference on Women

Lively (and thought-provoking) commentary from various places about the naked lady bound in ropes image the Vatican Pontifical Council on Culture has chosen to advertise its conference (which starts today) on women:

Vatican. Vatican. Vatican. Women. Women. Women. ("Equal" but Different and Subordinate.)

This is the image the Vatican chose to represent a conference about women. http://t.co/4l4q7uKalH link via @NCRonline pic.twitter.com/z7lcHb9Jj5
— kaya oakes (@kayaoakes) February 2, 2015

The Vatican's Pontifical Council on Culture (whose members are all cardinals and bishops) will discuss women tomorrow. And for several days after that. And as Kaya Oakes says (see the tweet above), this is the image their website is using to advertise their discussion?

Huckabee. Huckabee. Huckabee. Gay. Gay. Gay. (And Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp.)

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Well, former Arkansas governor, current GOP presidential contender, and Southern Baptist minister Mike Huckabee surely got press coverage this weekend, didn't he? Here's commentary about his shenanigans that has caught my eye — Caitlin McNeal summarizes the story for TPM:

Four Stories Hot off the Press: Catholic Whistleblowers, Mennonite Conference on Yoder, Catholic Abuse Case Settled in Arkansas, Dr. Rosemary McHugh Tells Her Story

Several links this morning to stories about the abuse situation in communities of faith:

On How My Jesuit Education Taught Me I'm Not a Very Good Catholic: Implications for Bilgrimage

I'm not a very good Catholic, you understand. One of the first ways I learned that lesson decisively, as a callow convert to the Catholic church studying at a Catholic university, was from a Jesuit. Father Henry M. was an old-school Jesuit — ramrod straight military bearing, no-nonsense teaching style as he barked out his lectures from notes he'd long since memorized, taking deep draws on an endless succession of unfiltered cigarettes as he did so, flicking the ashes dismissively from his black cassock. 

A Reader Writes: About Pope Francis and the Jesuits, "Many of the Origin Stories of Religious Orders Do Look a Lot Like a Spectacularly Successful Effort at Prolonged Adolescence"

Not to be missed: Brian Gallagher's stellar response to my posting yesterday about the ambiguity of Pope Francis's Jesuit roots, as Francis deals with women's issues: