Besides the obvious lure of Tyco lucre, McCloskey is drawn to converts of a particular ideology. His list of converts beyond Belinick and Regnery sounds like a conspiracy theorist's dream:
Dr. Bernard Nathanson, founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League, who was personally involved in 75,000 abortions, before becoming a prominent pro-life advocate with the book "Aborting America" and the stunning video, "The Silent Scream."
- Lawrence Kudlow, a CNBC economic commentator, whose career was nearly ruined by a cocaine addiction before his conversion.
- Robert Novak, a syndicated political columnist for 40 years and a non-practicing Jew, often called "The Prince of Darkness" for his gloomy presence on CNN's "Crossfire" and "The Capital Gang."
- U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, a Methodist and a conservative who teamed up with liberal Sen. Paul Wellstone to sponsor a law to curb sex trafficking, which brings 50,000 prostitutes for brothels in the U.S. annually.
- Judge Robert Bork, who was nominated by President Reagan to the Supreme Court, but suffered defeat in a Democratic Senate opposed to his pro-life views.
With its single-minded devotion to wealth and power, does it come as any shock that Opus Dei is a glimpse into the most craven soulless Republicanism of the American 21st century?
And McCloskey himself, where did he come from? Why surprise, surprise: he picked up his soul-harvesting tricks at Merrill Lynch, where he learned the sales techniques of the world's Number One wealth manager.
Only this time, instead of selling hedge funds, he's selling homophobia: "[A gay civil union] opens the door to anything from incest to bestiality," said McCloskey. "The whole question is: What is a family? What constitutes a marriage? There's no wiggle room, certainly, in that area." (Let's leave the intensely criminal homosexuality of Catholic clergy aside for the moment. Our theme today is cabalistic power, not institutionally-endorsed pedophilia.)
So is Opus Dei just a curious self-flaggelating cult, or is it the same old conspiracy we've grown so used to: media, publishing, finance and politics — all huddled in one sanctimonious chapel together to screw everyone else?
In its goofy sensationalism, The DaVinci Code tells the wrong Opus Dei story. The one in which its members find themselves in eternal hellfire. But, of course, that's fiction.
64 percent of those [Michigan hunters] polled say the nation is on the wrong track in meeting its energy needs.
65 percent agree that Congress should pass legislation that sets a clear national goal for reducing global warming pollution with mandatory timelines.
74 percent of Michigan sportsmen agree that we can improve the environment and strengthen the economy by investing in clean, renewable energy technologies that create jobs while reducing global warming pollution.
12 percent of those surveyed think drilling for more oil and gas in the U.S., including on public lands, is the best way to address America's energy needs.
I am an urban Democrat who hates guns in the city, because I don't want Chicago to turn into Houston.
But I think that hunting should be like abortion: if you don't like it, don't engage in it. That's your choice. But don't outlaw it.
Democrats should embrace hunters as the true environmentalists so many of them are. After all, their activities take place in relatively unspoiled wilderness areas filled with wildlife. I support those too.
What will the Great Wall of Texas consist of? To keep out all the brown people, Americans will rely on the White GOP Elephant: "Devices like the Tethered Aerostat Radar, a helium-filled airship made for the Air Force by Lockheed Martin that is twice the size of the Goodyear Blimp. Attached to the ground by a cable, the airship can hover overhead and automatically monitor any movement night or day. (One downside: it cannot operate in high winds.)"
The $1.8 billion Great Wall of Texas — the only thing that can bring it down it is the wind.
Petrocelli's abstractions stand in stark contrast with the real burden encountered by Enron's employees, pension funds, mutual funds, and Enron shareholders who were "robbed of their money" by a couple of CEOs with strangely self-indulgent and wealth-secreting agendas.
Consider also Enron's legendary status in supporting a political regime whose primary purpose appears to have been looting the US Treasury (not to mention Baghdad) and mortgaging the country while handing the borrowed piles of money to America's most wealthy.
In other words, "robbing" may not have been such a clever metaphor for Petrocelli's closing argument. But it sure is apt.
