tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530605658421308020.post3379373612036673314..comments2014-02-07T14:28:42.566-08:00Comments on Defending Obama: Sirico and I CorrespondGreg Metzgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04965309388308485389noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530605658421308020.post-56214378347106453582014-02-07T14:28:42.566-08:002014-02-07T14:28:42.566-08:00I'm with you Gregm!I'm with you Gregm!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530605658421308020.post-71667271907924052722011-06-15T12:24:55.490-07:002011-06-15T12:24:55.490-07:00Thanks Positive Trends for the kind words. In term...Thanks Positive Trends for the kind words. In terms of your criticisms:<br />1. I don't think I have mischaracterized his essay at all. I quoted the most damning words he said about Rand. What I criticized was the political context he put the essay in and the failure to show the same empathy to Obama.<br />2. He and you have every right to disagree with Obama on key social issues like abortion and gay marriage, and I really do need to do a lengthier post on abortion, but you misunderstand my point. If you read Sirico and listen to him as I have, you will see a sharp difference in his willingness to assume the worst about Obama while assuming good for Rand. Just beacuse Obama is alive does not mean that in our speech, particularly speech of a priest, that we are free to use any type of hyperbole or "McCarthyesque" descriptions. Yet I would argue that Sirico has been an active participant in that type of discourse at crucial points in the Obama administration.Greg Metzgerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04965309388308485389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530605658421308020.post-71126613232514008732011-06-15T10:32:27.186-07:002011-06-15T10:32:27.186-07:00Congrats, Greg - you've engaged a big fish in ...Congrats, Greg - you've engaged a big fish in Father Sirico....my thoughts below. Keep up the good work!<br /><br />**********************<br /><br />Oh please, Mr. Metzger -You are comparing apples and oranges. Clearly this is no defense of Rand. Quote after quote after quote. Re-read the article. Father Sirico, acknowledges Rand's short-comings and even suggests a raison d' tre for Rand's creation of John Galt...her search for that ideal, the God-Man, that her institutionalized "religion" snuffed out. Maybe true, maybe not. <br /><br />What is true is that Rand is an author, not President of the United States. Rand is dead, not alive and well. Our President on the other hand (thank God) is alive and well. Unfortunately, the collection of his words and actions as a believer are ambiguous at best - as it relates to his Christian faith. He's a significant "funder" of abortion, but won't significantly fund it's alternatives. He's a "defender" of Marriage but won't defend marriage....and on and on it goes. President Obama impacts our lives more significantly in a single week than Ayn Rand will in a lifetime. We can't afford the "charity" you suggest until the President is at least willing to offer the balance that suggests, at a minimum that he is representing "we the people". His current policies suggest an ethereal belief in one thing, while at the same time he supports and funds it's antithesis. Someone needs to engage him (or at least the culture) on that point.Happy but Melancholyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03838049902879942040noreply@blogger.com