Joe D’Hippolito…

Joe D’Hippolito… March 9, 2012

who has called for the nuclear annihilation of five major cities in the mideast, as well as offering this sober response to an act of terror a few years ago:

“If I were the governor of New Jersey (where Johnson lived), and I heard about the tape that announced the threat to Johnson’s life, I would mobilize the National Guard around a mosque in Newark or Jersey City, roust the Muslims in that city out of their homes and businesses, transport them to the mosque — and say that if Johnson is beheaded, the mosque will be destroyed by tank and mortar fire, and everyone inside will be killed. That is the only language these Muslim bastards understand.

If I were a member of the Johnson family and I heard about the threatening tape, I would abduct the local imam and his family, and threatened to do to them what the terrorists threatened to do to Johnson. Then I would do it.

Yes, I would go to jail, probably even be executed. I don’t care. It would be worth it.”

is dilating on my alleged grave enmity to the state of Israel and my love of the Iranian regime for the folks at Front Page.

In point of fact, I affirm Israel’s existence and think Jews, like Palestinians, deserve a homeland. I’m big on people having a home. I merely reject the propositions that a) Israel is immaculately conceived and preserved from all sin both original and actual; b) it’s our job to defend Israel (or Germany, Japan, Korea, and the scores of other countries our Empire extends to); and c) we need to pound the drums for war with Iran.

In short, Joe, in addition to advocating for cold-blooded mass murder, is also a bald-faced liar.

Now the folks over at Pewsitter have decided, in their folly, to hitch their wagon to Joe D’Hippolito–Joe D’Hippolito!–and repeat the lie that I am “pro-mullah” urging their readers to go join the 15 minute hate at Front Page and listen to the sage of Fullerton. In doing so, they are urging their readers to take their cues from a guy who hates the Catholic Church with the white hot passion of a thousand suns, who declares the Church to be accursed by God, who prays for the damnation of John Paul II (“Poop John Baal” as Joe cleverly called him), and whose name is *legend* in the comboxes of St. Blog’s for a torrent of unending invective against the Catholic Faith.

But hey! He hates me so that’s good enough for Pewsitter.

Good call guys! The prophet D’Hippolito is a rock solid choice for sound Catholic spiritual guidance.

Upper-Update:  My mistake.  I thought Pewsitter had the integrity to take the link down. I was wrong. Pewsitter has chosen to keep the link (highlighted even, for maximum reputation damage).  Here’s their alleged editorial review process:

Pewsitter.com accepts previously published information worthy of greater exposure, as well as original newsworthy items that have not yet been published.

All news items submitted must be verified before Pewsitter.com will publish them. To assist us in verifying the information you submit, you must provide all of the requested information, including accurate contact information. Failure to do so will result in the rejection of your news item.

Pewsitter.com makes no guarantees regarding the publication of information it receives. The publication of information shall be solely at the judgment and discretion of Pewsitter.com

Consistent with its mission Pewsitter.com will not publish articles that are intended to question, dispute or contradict the teachings of the Church.

Pewsitter.com follows a two tiered review process for all news articles submitted.

The first tier consists of a review of all articles by our editor-in-chief. If an article is deemed to be newsworthy, the facts of the article will be verified by a Pewsitter staff member. Based upon this verification, Pewsitter may choose to publish, not publish, or edit the article. If the article is edited, Pewsitter will send the edited article back to the original author for final review before publishing.

A second tier review may also be conducted, as deemed appropriate, if ordered by the editor-in-chief. The review will consist of second, independent evaluation of the article and facts.

Pewsitter attempts to report information as accurately as possible. If errors appear in a Pewsitter article, we correct the mistakes promptly. We publish not only the errors but aslo the relevant accurate facts in the Corrections.

I have now written them twice, pointing them to this blog entry, pointing to the fact that Joe D’Hippolito is, in fact, a dedicated enemy of the Catholic faith who emphatically questions, disputes and contradicts the teachings of the Church, pointing out that I am not “pro-mullah” but merely not pro-war (and especially not pro pre-emptive war), offering actual information about my real beliefs (which are based on the Church’s Just war teaching–which Joe D’Hippolito repudiates with scorn, by the way), affirming that I think them better than this, and requesting that they take down their libellous headline.

Apparently, however, libel is Pewsitter policy when they think they have to destroy somebody they dislike.  Ultimately, this goes back to my critiques of Fr. Corapi and, again, of Michael Voris (two of their folk heros), as well, of course, as my rejection of the attempt to sell neocon warmongering as realio-trulio prolife Catholicism (in short, I blaspheme the sacred name of Santorum by not buying his Mr. Catholic act when he votes for human cloning, supports Specter, lobbies for pre-emptive war, cheers for murder as “wonderful” and rah rahs for torture). 

Accordingly, Pewsitter has marked me as an enemy of, well, not the Faith (because I’m obviously not) but of their support for a particular blend of folk hero worship, American military adventurism, police state tactics, talk radio shibboleths, and highly selective cafeteria Catholicism, which they define as Real Catholic[TM] faith.  And  so, true to the emerging soteriology of the Thing that Used to be Conservative Catholicism, they are acting as though opposition to abortion taketh away the sins of the world (as well as though “the ends justify the means”) and libeling me on the theory that wearing the Precious Feet pin makes libel okay. The irony, of course, is that D’Hippolito doesn’t even care much about the prolife movement and has written on various occasions (always in comboxes, of course, since he has no blog) to heap scorn on it as a sort of fig leaf of respectability for the hated bishops.

Sad to watch Pewsitter sell its birthright for a pot of message. I hope they take this act of libel off their site and issue a retraction and apology. It would be very Lenten of them, as well as the right thing to do.  Meanwhile, for my part, I forgive them–and Joe–and ask that God would bless all of them through Christ our Lord.


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