My Take on Libya, War, and Getting a Grip; Mostly Links

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This post is one of a series being written today:

• "Citizenship, being Catholic, and the Rules of Polite Society"
  (March 22, 2011, 2:22 p.m. Central, 19:25 UTC)
• "Pacifism?"
  (March 22, 2011 6:02 p.m. Central, 23:02 UTC)
• "'Jesus was a Pacifist/American/Vagrant'?!"
  (March 22, 2011 6:36 p.m. Central, 23:36 UTC)
• "Assumptions, Making Sense, and Politics "
  (March 22, 2011 6:45 p.m. Central, 23:45 UTC)
• " 'Just War:' Unpleasant, but Not a Contradiction in Terms "
  (March 22, 2011 6:49 p.m. Central, 23:49 UTC)

I've organized a list of other posts that relate to what's been written today:

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Posts, with some duplicates from the first list, about war, faith, reason, emotions, Catholicism, perceptions, politics, assumptions; and then some news and background:

• War (it's not nice)
  • "Assumptions, Making Sense, and Politics"
    (March 22, 2011)
  • "Libya: Nobody's Happy, but It Could Be Worse"
    Another War-on-Terror Blog (March 21, 2011)
    Particularly
    • Ideally - Things Would be Ideal
  • "Libya, an International Coalition, the United Nations, and Getting a Grip"
    Another War-on-Terror Blog (March 19, 2011)
  • "Libya: American President's 'Childish,' But Not 'Unilateral' "
    Another War-on-Terror Blog (March 7, 2011)
  • "Killing the Boss's Flunky, Life Issues, and the Vatican"
    (October 27, 2010)
    Particularly
    • The Catholic Church: Run by Pacifist Warmonger Liberal Conservative Capitalistic Commies
  • "About the Just War Doctrine"
    (June 7, 2009)
• Faith and reason - and emotions
  • "Becoming Catholic for Reasons, Leaving Because of Feelings"
    (August 5, 2010)
  • "It's Faith and Reason"
    (June 19, 2010)
  • "Feeling Forgiven: My Faith and Emotional Perks"
    (November 24, 2009)
  • "Emotions, the Frontal Cortex, The War on Terror, Anarchists, and the Illuminati"
    Another War-on-Terror Blog (December 23, 2008)
  • "Beware Sandwich-Throwing Boyfriends"
    Apathetic Lemming of the North (December 15, 2008)
• Catholicism
  • "Bishops, Congress, and the Poor"
    (February 18, 2011)
  • "Hating People? Not an Option"
    (December 9, 2010)
  • "If Catholics are Superstitious, How Come We're Not Allowed to be Superstitious?"
    (August 18, 2010)
  • "If Catholics aren't Supposed to Read the Bible, How Come We're Told to Read the Bible?"
    (May 31, 2010)
  • "Catholic Beliefs and Practices: Don't Believe Everything You Read"
    (September 16, 2008)
• Applied theology
  • "Hating People? Not an Option"
    (December 9, 2010)
  • "Mirrors, Television, and MP3 Players"
    (November 6, 2010)
  • "Gargling at the Stream of Wisdom"
    (October 11, 2010)
  • "The Catholic Church and Homosexuals: Harsh and Soft, Judgmental and Understanding"
    (March 13, 2009)
  • "The Catholic Church Won't Even Let People Kill Themselves"
    (January 28, 2009)
• Living in the real world
  • Perceptions and assumptions
    
    • "Wealth, Poverty, Stereotypes, and Snidely Whiplash"
      (March 8, 2011)
    • "Jesus is a 'Wine-Guzzling Vagrant' - It's Taught in School"
      (December 7, 2010)
    • "All Those 'Poor, Uneducated, Minorities Being Drafted in America!' "
      Another War-on-Terror Blog (January 4, 2009)
      Particularly
      • America's Military Draft: Reality Check, Please!
      • Attention, Anti-War Chauvinists: The Age of Aquarius is Now the Information Age
    • "Being Counter-Cultural: I am Not Now, Nor Have I Ever Been, a Hippie"
      (January 12, 2010)
    • "Conservative? Liberal? Democrat? Republican? No, I'm Catholic"
      (November 3, 2008)
  • Politics and more assumptions
    • "Natural Moral Law, Catholicism, Karma, and the Tea Party"
      (October 16, 2010)
    • "New Archbishop of Miami: Obviously Conservative? Obviously Liberal? No: Clearly Catholic"
      (July 2, 2010)
    • "Cultural Chaos, Divisiveness, and CNN"
      (April 1, 2010)
    • " 'I Take No Interest in Politics' isn't an Option"
      (March 29, 2010)
    • "Conservative? Liberal? Democrat? Republican? No, I'm Catholic"
      (November 3, 2008)

News and views:

• "Who's in charge? NATO members squabble over who leads Libyan bombings...and they can't even agree whether to assassinate Gaddafi"
  Mail Online (UK) (March 22, 2011)
• "China Steps Up Denunciations of Allied Campaign in Libya"
  Andrew Jacobs, The New York Times (March 22, 2011)
• "China Calls for Libya Cease-Fire"
  Peter Simpson, VOA News, Voice of America (March 22, 2011)
• "Strip Obama of Nobel Peace Prize: Russia, Bolivia"
  The Zimbabwe Guardian (March 22, 2011)
  Zimbabweans have rules they must remember - see
  • "Zimbabwe, Where Watching the Wrong Videos is Treason"
    Another War-on-Terror Blog (February 25, 2011)
• "US Jet Goes Down in Libya Operation "
  Elizabeth Arrott, VOA News, Voice of America (March 22, 2011)
• "Russia: call for Libya cease-fire"
  Miriam Elder, GlobalPost (March 22, 2011)

Background:

• "Libya"
  World Factbook, CIA (last updated March 16, 2011)
• "Instruction on certain aspects of the 'Theology of Liberation"'"
  Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (August 1984)
  • I think a reasonable summary is 'liberation theology' is a bad idea
    • And we shouldn't do it
• Catechism of the Catholic Church
  • 2243
  • 2307-2317
• "Two Traditions: Nonviolence and Just War"
  Office of Media Relations, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (November 17, 1993)
• "Statement on Iraq"
  United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (November 13, 2002)

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¹ I didn't vote for the current American president. It's very unlikely that I will vote for him in the next presidential election. I strongly disagree with many of his policies.

I am not "for" President Obabma.

I am not "against" President Obama, either.

I do not believe he is the personification of evil, a diabolical agent of chaos and un-Americanism.

Such a belief would be, in my opinion, as silly as the views expressed by an otherwise-sensible person, that President George W. Bush was "diabolical."

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² He is the Word of God, Messiah, the Son of the living God, who was tortured to death - but didn't stay dead. Jesus lives, an will come at the end of time to judge the living and the dead.

Can't say that I'm looking forward to that: but that's the way it is. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Christ, 240, 241, 436, 442, 369, 595-, 668-670, 678-679; and Matthew-Revelation)