Free Republic

Believe what you want, but the FACT is that the number of altar boys dropped dramatically in the last 12 years once females were allowed to serve at the altar. I,unlike you, am not blind to reality.

The FACT is that altar serving is by in large in many parishes seen as a female role, and hence, it has become VERY difficult in many parishes to recruit males for those roles.

Who cares if the girls take to it, the thing is that female altar servers came asd a result of feminist pressure, and sadly teh Vatican on this issue caved, but even then the Vatican said that boys serving on the altar is strongly preferred, but sadly in terms of liturgy, most US parishes are disobidient.

I am not sure how permanent it is, because many of the parishes that strongly pushed for girls on the altar now lack servers in general.

There is EVERYTHING wrong with altar girls. The thing is that in many(probably the majority) of parishes, serving at the altar is now seen as a female role now, and with this, boys have less of a chance to interact with the priests, therefore, there is a great possibility of vocations being lost. And again, parishes that have strong altar boy programs such as SS Cyrill $ Methodius and Assumption Grotto, both in the Detroit archdiocese, also produce the most female religous as well.

I am not just opposed to altar girls(and in general with the exception of altar boys who serve the priest during mass) but I am opposed to all lay involvment in clerical roles. It is the biggest reason why I mostly attend the TLM, not because of language, but I am sick of lay and female involvment in what should be roles reserved for the clergy.

Actually, per capita, more female religous come from parishes that have no altar girls.

Allowing of altar girls was THE WORST mistake of Pope John Paul II papacy, and no amount of sugar coating in my eyes can justify such a rupture of tradition.

The girls at the parish you mentioned have plenty of other chances to gain a religous education rather than pushing boys off the altar. Thorw the baby out with the bathwater? Sorry, the whole mess is pure poison.

I can tell you what will happens as the trends of well paying blue collar(and now even many white collar jobs) continue to leave the country. The bulk of voters impacted by this will then start to lok at the FEDs to maintain their standard of living, and the oh so valuable "freedoms" the "free" trade crowd allways mention like a mantra(I think its due to them listening to has beens like Limbaugh and Kudlow) will be fewer than ever before.

There will be no US military action against Iran, there is no political will for it.

Very true, but in the GOP, due to how the GOP gets its capaign funds, there are many forces that will strongly be against any re eveluation of "free trade" at all and any costs.

That said, I do think there will be a re eveluation of sorts when all other sorts of taxes impact the GOP contributors bottom line.

You have had this explained to you by many other posters, but let me re state this, tariffs, somthing that is mentioned in the constituion itself(unlike the income tax) are not Socialistic. Also the govrenmnet from the founding of this nation has never been all about "free markets", even in the beginning, they set forth to make sure the poeple did their part to be responsible.

That said, if you put more stress on the Middle Class, they will vote for those who will take more and more of your "freedom" away. Anyways, the "logic" of your crowd is very much so lacking, you seem to worship your concept of "free markets" above all else. Well guess what, your crew is a political minority.

What you seem to advocate, along with other people who share your viewpoint, is "Freedom" without ANY responsibility.Ironically, your so called "Freedom" will diminish in the next few years as working class conservatives continue to abandon the GOP as they become more economically stressed. All I can say is enjoy your new Health Security payroll tax that will be coming.

That will never happen, a value added tax, I think a flat tax would be an easer sell, but you are correct that the Byzantine style of taxation in the US does hinder many things.

That said, is there any developed nation that is based on a Value Added tax? I can not think of any off hand.

Politics can change all and any aspects of the "Global" economy, no matter what Wall Street may say. There is no Free Lunch despite what the likes of Kudlow claims.

Even the Union contracts were by in large the result of Wall street being short sighted. When the profits were rolling in, managment took the short term approach and bought labor peace at all costs. For example, there was no reason why a steel worker in 1975 was making in 1975 dollars, $15($60 hr equivlent today) hr along with 6 weeks of vacation a year, a 1 hr paid lunch and other goodies. Now I do believ in having a well trained, well paid workforce is essential for a stable society, but the excess in the 70s were a bit much. That said, we are at the other end of the spectrum today, and I fear that as more and more Americans become economically stressed, the road to a European style Socialist state will get shorter and shorter.


. Now again, even with these bloated contracts, the steel firms still could have re invested profits and adopted newer technologies, and by the 70s, attrition started to take hold in the steel industry and could have planned a future with a leaner labor model, but sadly, managment was clueless.

Well foreign products from other first world nations do have taxes built in, as in the costs of national healthcare in these nations, its just that the costs are tabulated differently, in a less direct manner compared to the US.

Oh another example in another thread, about Railroad porters, many were absorbed into the RRs freight end starting in the 50s, wile other went to work for Hotels and Motels.

The point is that the amount of job displacement going on now and for the last few years, really does not have an equivlent when looking though history. In t he past, skills were largely transferable, now they are in so many industries, not.

US steel companies made some boneheaded moves when it came to union contracts in the 30 years after WWII, but still made a heavy amount of profits well into the 70s. Like so many old line companies, the Steel firms managment was taken over by accountants and slaves to Wall Street, and they refused to invest in new technology that could have kept them ahead of the curve.

Yes, the union contracts would have still been a problem, but in the end, the buck stopped with the managment. They decided to boost dividends and invest money into other ventures such as shopping malls, airlines and even sports teams. An excellent book to read on how corporate managment in the US lost its way is the "Wreck of the Penn Central", that came out in 71.

Another example is how Roger Smith at GM refused to invest profits back into GM itself, and wasted billions unopn billions on Areospace and other unrelated industries such as Hughes Aerospace.

People who made buggy whips transferred their skills to making belts for motors and the like, and yes I have read how buggy whips were made. As for whale oil lamps, demand for those slowly fell off since electricity was not widespread in the US still the 40s outside of urban areas, and kerosine was pretty much a staright though replacement for whale oil.

As for workers who specialised in rubber products, again, it was not much retraining involved to transfer their skills to plastics. Stamping parts made out of rubber is not that different than stamping parts made out of plastics. Another example is the first machinists were trained blacksmiths.

I am going to be blunt here, but globalists such as you, are quite arrogant, but at the same time, seem to little understand the process involved in the production of goods. I have done research on the turn of the century and the transition of the US into an industrial sociaty, and despite what you may claim, there was no great displacement of workers when newer technology was introduced, the workers did not require extensive retraining, their skills transferred more or less staright though. I know that doesnt fit your ideology very well, but those are historical facts.

Another one who spouts off "Buggy Whip". Again, stoplistening to Limbaugh and stop reading the WSJ op ed pages. How many times does this have to be explained. When autos replaced horse and buggys, the workers who made buggy whips simpily used their skills to start makings cars. There was little, if any retraining required, it was basically a lateral move.

People make much on the 10% loss of the Hispanic vote, and say this cost the GOP dearly, but the realkiller was the 8% loss of the white male vote, a demographic that has been severely impacted by globalism. If one takes an honest look at what did happen, the GOP had the most damage done on the congressional level in the Midwest and Mid Atlantic regions, and economic fear played a large role. For example, outgoing senator Jim Talent R-MO only won Springfeild MOs Greene county by a paltry 53%, an area that has a fairly large amount of light industry, and this is an area that has traditionally voted for GOP canidates by a 2-1 margin.