CARDINAL SINS

CARDINAL SINS
A Castro cleric brings disgrace.
By Jay D. Homnick – 6.26.15

Have you heard about the awful Cardinal hack scandal? It brings shame
and obloquy upon a respected organization which has spent many years
building up its good name. How could moral myopia prevail at such a
critical time? What manner of insensitivity and obtuseness would lead to
such unconscionable behavior?

What's that you say… the Saint Louis Cardinals hacking into the Houston
Astros scouting reports…?

Oh, no, no, not about baseball at all. I was referring to the Cardinal
of Cuba, Jaime Ortega, revealing himself to be a shameless political
hack. Yes, it is true. The cleric, in Spain for a conference, was asked
by reporters about the conditions of political prisoners in Cuba. His
response: THERE ARE NO political prisoners in Cuba. Mercifully he
stopped right there and did not treat us to a treatise about the
exemplary democracy of the island nation, thriving merrily under the
avuncular gaze of those benevolent Castro brothers.

So, I suppose, Yippee! Castro's prisons are empty now, leaving extra
space for other uses. Perhaps they can open more of those wonderful
medical schools Michael Moore featured in his documentary. A Castro
Convertible, as it were.

This whole Cuban business is thoroughly disheartening. A formerly
thriving country had its kleptocracy replaced by a theocracy, the
theology in this case being Communism. In the old days the government
made out like bandits and the people made out like people. Instead the
government is a bunch of superannuated sanctimonious creeps and the
people are a mass of penniless hostages. Greed has been replaced by
need: how lovely!

All this happened over half a century ago. The United States expressed
its moral disapproval in the form of an economic embargo. The result has
been a pathetic standoff where we do not buy their cigars nor sell them
our cars. None of this has fazed the Artful Codgers who run the place
like a failed experiment. If political science is a form of science
(questionable premise) then Cuba is a dysfunctional world out of
political science fiction.

Along comes President Obama to point out that the policy has not
"worked" and it is time to try a new approach. That sounds great for the
five seconds requisite to withstand TV news scrutiny. Naturally the "new
approach" turns out to be moral abdication. This reminds us of the
famous remark by an elderly gentleman in the 1960s: "This New Morality
sounds to me a lot like the old immorality."

Of course the old approach has not "worked" if working is limited to
complete success in restoring the island nation to normalcy. However,
the policy has worked very well indeed at achieving its moral objective.
It has left Cuba isolated as a moral pariah, a cautionary tale, a stink
bomb. When we lift the embargo we lift the white flag of moral surrender.

"We are beginning a new relationship with the people of Cuba," intoned
our trend-setting President, thereby committing the Sobran Fallacy. The
late Joseph Sobran was the first to identify this rhetorical trick of
the Left. They speak of their fraternization with the captors as if it
is a form of communion with the captives. If, say, we initiate friendly
talks with Boka Haram in Nigeria, is that a way of beginning a new
relationship with the schoolgirls they have kidnapped? No way! Sucking
up to the Castros is not a way to reach out to the people of Cuba.

Here in South Florida the media are happy to be the mouthpiece for this
drivel. We hear a steady drumbeat of cheerful echoes supposedly
emanating from the island. Yes, Cubans are excited! They are ecstatic!
They are upbeat! They are hopeful! Then the propaganda is upended by
that pesky bugaboo of the left; namely, reality. A few days ago
Hallandale Beach bathers were startled to be joined by four desperate
rafters. Apparently they still like their chances better broke and
barefoot in Florida than basking in the Communist paradise.

Which brings us back to the pathetic hack, Cardinal Ortega, who went to
Spain and ran with the bulls***. His congregants look to him in vain for
guidance along the pathways of conscience. If businessmen have sold out,
if politicians have sold out, our last slender hope reposes in the hardy
souls of our clergy. When they betray that hope, the tyrants own us
outright.

Source: Cardinal Sins | The American Spectator -
http://spectator.org/articles/63264/cardinal-sins