SOME PUNDITS DON'T LEARN OR BEND

The other night I watched MSNBC. Mike Barnicle was subbing for Chris Matthews on Hardball. He asked a question of Pat Buchanan and Lawrence O'Donnell, both of whom were raised as Catholics and are products of parochial school education. The question was, "Should Notre Dame have asked Obama, who supports abortion rights and stem cell research, to speak at this year's commencement?", which they have apparently done.

Buchanan was against it and said that, though he is a friend of the man who made the decision, he thinks the decision was a violation of that for principles for which the religious school. He kept raising the opinions of the Pope as the deciding and acceptable factor in determining the values and opinions of the speakers. Boston College is a Catholic school but I have never heard that sort of discrimination about its students or speakers. Brandeis, primarily of Jewish faith, also shows no discrimination in accepting students or choosing speakers and professors. Years ago, when I attended graduate school at Boston University, some of my classes were assigned to be held in the School of Theology. I recall a sign on a wall that said "If God had wanted you to smoke, he would have provided you with a chimney." It amused me because one could have written "God must have wanted you to smoke because he provided you with cigarettes and a nose." To this day I cannot tell you what denomination the School of Theology is at BU, though I seem to recall it to have been some Protestant denomination.

I've never been a fan of Pat Buchanan because I have found him to be too tied to his past, with rigidity. In fact, he seems totally out of touch with all the Catholics I know, most of whom believe in the right of others to abortion, believe in and practice birth control, and most believe that science should be outside church regulations.

The argument against Obama was raised and O'Donnell countered that the Pope was equally against capital punishment but GW Bush, the governor with the most executions. had been a speaker at Notre Dame. While O'Donnell was recognizing and accusing Buchanan of hypocrisy, Buchanan could not admit to it. He kept insisting that all who were put to death were GUILTY of murder. He completed misses one of the main arguments that many against capital punishment make...that too many innocent people are put to death and only later found they are victims of the judicial system, political pressure and greed, inaccuracy of witnesses, sloppy lab work or other reasons.

It seems evident that the managers of news stations do not care what positions their staff and honored guests take, just as long as it pretends to offer a fair and balanced presentation by the channel. If intelligence, knowledge and truth were important to them, they would present those rather than the rigid, bizarre, distorted thinking that many of the ones on staff and as guests present the viewers.