During lunch today someone sitting near me was talking about visiting the Vatican. She commented with angst “look at all of the gold on the ceiling, how many poor people could they feed with that?” This instantly reminded me of a comment my dad said years ago. He complained that the church could sell its art work and donate millions to the poor, and that they were hypocritical for not doing so.

It’s easy to tell other people to do with their money, when you have no reason to complain other than your emotional hate for the church. It’s easy to redistribute, to point out how you would spend it if it was your own. And, it’s easy to criticize the Catholic church because you know doing so won’t result in your head being cut off or getting stoned to death.

People continue to battle the church, including the president. His healthcare laws forced the Catholic church to choose between coverage and their morals, then last year he changed his stance (one of his myriad flip flops), and then recent modifications to the law shifted the decision away from churches and put the choices on the insurance companies now. In other words, instead of the faith-based employers or churches paying for contraception coverage, either the insurers or the government will pick it up. So, the same moral dilemma occurs, but now the church just isn’t paying for it.

Remember, the left enjoys attacking the church and loves to point out the horrific atrocities that occurred hundreds of years ago. They love to point out horrible mistakes made by a very small percentage of priests, while at the same time they dare not speak out against radical Islamic practices such as stoning women to death because they were raped (Muslims call that adultery). They ignore how radical Muslims burn homosexuals alive, or regularly beat their women. (Remember, in Islam, women are somewhere between slave and a free person.) Liberals dare not take on the traditional black Baptist population, one that is largely opposed to gay marriage. Instead they pick on the Catholics, an easy target. You know what that sounds like to me? Bullying.

Let’s take a look at just how much the Catholic church helps the world.

• The Catholic Church was founded long before there were hospitals. Today, nearly one-sixth of all hospital patients in America is taken care of by a Catholic hospital.
• Catholic hospitals are ahead of other hospitals in a wide range of public health and specialty services traditionally considered “unprofitable.”
• The Catholic Church teaches 3 million students a day: in its more than 250 Catholic Colleges and Universities, in its more than 1200 Catholic High Schools and its more than 5000 Catholic grade schools.
• Every day, the Catholic Church feeds, clothes, shelters and educates more people than any other organization in the world.
• At least ninety-three Catholic Charities adoption agencies can be found online; they are nationwide and have placed thousands of babies into loving homes since the 1920s.

Churches all over the world serve as a refuge to the poor, the needy, and the destitute. Yet in America there exists a rising tide of anti-church hatred, despite all of the good that the church performs. At the same time Americans are being asked to embrace Muslim practices in America, whether it be burqa day at school, or ignoring Muslim honor killings in Texas, or sweeping stories about the New Jersey hate crime of beheading Christians under the rug, or calling the Boston bombers lone wolves, or calling the Fort Hood massacre an incident of workplace violence. Remember, we are not at war with anyone, all of that stuff going overseas is just workplace violence.

So before you consider a liberal anti-church rant, or before you rush to dismiss terrorist activities in America, consider the following. The Catholic church is by far the most giving global charity in both human volunteer time and billions of dollars every year. Meanwhile,

• Have you ever been tended to in a Muslim hospital?
• Have you benefited from a Muslim charity?
• Have you ever seen a Muslim gay pride parade?
• Have you ever visited a Muslim women’s shelter?

If you think the Catholic church could do a better job with charity, or that it should lose tax-exempt status, check your premise. Then again, if you tend to say these things, you probably believe that the government would do a better job of spending money than the church.

There are rules of etiquette in the world of national leaders. There are things you and don’t do. Sadly, the past five years have been a living case study in how not to conduct international relations for our president.

Today we learned that Obama has no plans to send an official delegation to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s funeral. Speaker of the House John Boehner had to step up to get this obvious political responsibility properly addressed.

While this might be infuriating on its own merit, the piece de resistance is that our Nobel laureate president felt compelled to send a delegation to the funeral of the America-hating tyrant Hugo Chavez.

Makes perfect sense in our upside down world.

Let me remind the world of just a few of the non-reported gaffes of the worst president in our nation’s history (presented in no particular order). I had to stop at 15… I could double this list quite easily, but I think you get the point.

1. Obama said it would be so much easier to be the president of China. As one official put it, “No one is scrutinizing Hu Jintao’s words in Tahrir Square.” Maybe because they would be shot for exercising free speech?
2. Caught on an open microphone. French President Sarkozy: ’I don’t want to see him anymore, he’s a liar.’ President Obama, You’ve had enough of him, but I have to deal with him every day!” Stay classy, Mr. President.
3. Even Mrs. Obama is not immune. Apparently the first lady didn’t listen to her protocol team when visiting the Queen in 2009. You do not touch the queen.
4. Includes Nazi collaborator/Hitler admirer in proclamation for Jewish American Heritage Month
5. Declares Polish freedom fighter Lech Walesa “too political” to accept award, gives another to Dolores Huerta, chair of Democratic Socialists of America. Freedom too political, Socialism just dandy.
6. 2009 Noble Prize winner Obama hosted a state dinner for the Chinese premiere Hu Jintao, the same human rights violating guy that was holding the 2010 Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo under house arrest.
7. Starts toasting the Queen of England way too early and embarrasses himself in the process. Watch the pain here.
8. Obama’s crack protocol team strikes again. A dinner to honor leader from South Korea features an all Japanese menu.
9. Not international, but still disgusting: Sends form letters to families of SEALs killed in action, yet fins time to send a personal letter to family of rapper Heavy D.
10. No time to meet with Israeli Prime MInister Netanyahu, makes time for the Pimp with a Limp radio show. Seriously?
11. Three words: “Polish Death Camp.”
12. Any rational person recognizes that the killing of Bin Laden was a massive military victory. But he was not found by a president or congress, he was found thanks to the efforts of our stellar military carrying out plans launched by President GW Bush and rightfully continued by President Obama. You would think after such a lengthy effort that a president would tip his hat to his predecessor, Nope, not this one. That would be classy. It took a week for the administration to acknowledge the former president, and even that was delivered by an aide, not Obama himself.
13. Tries to kiss Burmese political leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi
14. Completely blows the world leader gift exchange with England. Receives antique desk carved from the wood of a slave ship to match the desk that Kennedy had. Gives the queen a DVD box set of top American movies.
15. Who can forget the blatant ass kissing bow to the Saudi King? World leaders do not bow.

I watched much of the Diane Feinstein gun grabapalooza today and found myself cursing more often than any person should. It was nothing but an emotionally driven power grab based on nothing resembling legitimate data or reality as we know it today. There were so many deceptive statements, so many red herrings and straw men presented, yet I’m sure there were plenty of Americans clapping and cheering every time a Democrat said the word “children” or asserted that we “had to do something now.” Truly pathetic.

As the cherry on the top of this shameful crap sundae, a handful of victims were paraded to the podium to share their stories and help prove that Diane Feinstein and her supporters truly have the best interests of Americans on their mind.

Below are the people and their stories based on their brief commentary on C-SPAN today. (Click here to view the video of this portion of the broadcast)  Remember that the goal of this “Assault Weapons Ban Bill” circus is to prevent future tragedies by making it harder or impossible to buy certain weapons.

• Laurie –  Her daughter was killed by someone with a gun that she says had a “high-capacity” magazine. We know Democrats like to twist words so that they fit a given agenda, such as calling the Fort Hood Massacre a “workplace shooting” or renaming “gun control” legislation “gun safety” legislation. Based on this and comments from earlier in the gun grab festival, we don’t know if she was referring to a 33-round magazine, 16-round, or even a 10-round magazine. She used the term “high capacity magazine” on purpose. Furthermore, she failed to specify if the gun was an assault rifle. My guess is that she did not, because it was not.
• Pam & Bruce – staffers for Gabby Giffords, one was shot in chest. They failed to mention that Giffords and the others were shot with a Glock 19 handgun. It had a high capacity 33-round magazine, but it was still a handgun.
• Collin – VA Tech shooting survivor, shot four times.
• Omar – His sister was killed at VA Tech.
• Lilly – Was shot at VA Tech, mentioned a call for “gun safety” legislation.
• Umalu – Her father was killed at VA Tech.
• I would like to point out that the VA Tech shooter used a Glock 19 with standard 10-round magazines. The gun was legally purchased despite his massive mental history record. The law prevented his mental history from being included as part of the background check process.
• Maya – Her Father was killed in Minneapolis workplace shooting – Gun not specified.
• Unnmaned gentleman – Referred to Thousand Oaks, CA where his parents were killed as “Americas safest city”. The gun used in the murder was not specified, and I find it intensely ironic that the final victim in Feinstein’s pity party parade actually mocked the strength of the gun laws in that city. His final statement basically said “GUN LAWS DON’T WORK, IF THEY DID MY PARENTS WOULD STILL BE ALIVE.”

Please note that I am in no way trying to belittle their suffering or their losses. But none of the new legislation being proposed by this panel would have prevented any of the crimes listed above. Yet Feinstein (someone who once admitted how safe she felt carrying her own gun), felt compelled to use these people as pawns in her disgusting game.

Unlke many of my liberal counterparts, I welcome the chance to be corrected, so hit me up on Twitter @Loud_Talker or use the contact form on the About Me page to send me your opinion. Every death is tragic, but gun laws are as effective as prohibition was and as immigration laws are today. I am for improving the background check process in a rational manner based on technology. I am for reasonable waiting periods. But I am not for confiscation, mandatory registration, or background checks on ammunition purposes. Why should I be allowed to have an AR-15? Because I can. In America you do not have the right to not be offended. If you want to DEBATE the topic, let’s do it Congress. But I refuse to sit around and listen to a bunch of Democrats tell me how it is going to be. We get that enough from our president, I expect better from the rest of our representatives.

Last week Kieth Ellison (D-MN) appeared on The Young Turks show (Al Jazeera Current TV) to talk about budget cuts. Here’s one of the things he had to say:

“…eliminating oil, gas and coal tax breaks and subsidies would leave “another $100 billion” in government coffers.” Then he added, “My point is, if Republicans want to do cuts, we should do cuts, but we’re not going to hurt America’s working class and poor to do it.”

According to the Cato Institute, the 2012 budget included about $97B in funding that is categorizes as “corporate welfare.” When you look at the report (something that Ellison and his supporters failed to do), you learn that there are lots of different categories. For example, of the $97B in the Cato report, $17B falls under the category of Dept. of Energy. Of that, almost $10B is for “Energy Supply and Conservation.”

Keith Ellison Wants To Cut Conservation Funding!

Another example: The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Minority Business Development Agency are considered corporate welfare.

Keith Ellison Is A Racist, Wants to CUT Spending For Minorities!

What about green investment? Corporate welfare also includes the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan program.

Keith Ellison Wants To Cut Green Jobs/Investments!

Seriously… this is how the headlines would appear if any Republican even hinted at cutting government programs that touched minorities or the environment. Just look at the comments under the article I linked above to find examples of how utterly clueless many Americas are when it comes to facts and tax revenue.

Remember, emotion is the enemy of critical thought. Ellison’s emotional claim that we can cut $100B by cutting off evil energy companies is patently false. Liar, liar pants on fire false. America faces dark times, the last thing we want to be doing is promoting lies and distorting the truth.

Ed Morrissey is one of the most respected and well-read conservative bloggers out there. I’m happy to call him a friend and always look forward to chatting with him those few times we cross paths at an evil conservative get-together. For four years he has been running a daily post over at Hotair.com called the “Obamateurism of the Day.” It was a one-term deal (just like our president should have been), I’m happy to post the finalists for the Obamateurism of the year.

Remember, every day for the past four years Ed has posted an Obama screw up, administration guffaw, or public facing White House blunder. We’re talking more than a thousand now. Of course, members of the press have been too busy swooning over their Obama posters or sending their lemmings out to dig up dirt on conservatives when they’ve had a legitimate goldmine of newsworthy red meat staring them in the face. But as often is the case, the abused don’t recognize their abuser.

The following list is a collection of the top gaffes from 2012. It’s not a complete list, there are almost three hundred more I could have posted. for this year alone. I’ve posted them in no particular order, and each link takes to you a source article for more information. Just imagine if the press spent as much time doing its job as Ed has done doing his.

1. “He didn’t want to take pictures with any more soldiers; he was complaining about it“
2. Shuts down Disney World in order to promote tourism
3. Hails Roe decision as essential to allow “our daughters … to fulfill their dreams“
4. Finds claim of unemployment “ interesting” because he is getting “the word” that woman’s husband should have no trouble finding work
5. Says “when the chips are down, I have Israel’s back,” WH claims it’s not a military doctrine
6. Claims that his apology to Karzai “calmed things down“ in the Middle Easts
7. Uses Boeing plant in SC to cheer manufacturing after his National Labor Review Board tried to shut it down
8. The man proudly opposed of signing statements issues one covering 17 provisions of bill he signed
9. Emphasizes graduation rates in the State of the Union address, but cuts DC school voucher program that nearly doubled grad rates
10. “Well, it turns out our Founders designed a system that makes it more difficult to bring about change that I would like sometimes.” Imagine that.
11. Gets annoyed when asked about number of vacations, doesn’t answer question
12. “I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.”
13. Tells Russian leader “This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.”
14. Blames Fox News for his unpopularity because “they hear Obama is a Muslim 24/7, and it begins to seep in” Thin skin much? 
15. Attacks Limbaugh while remaining silent on Maher contribution to his super-PAC
16. “[T]hose of us who have spent time in the real world . . .”
17. Adds himself into presidential histories of his predecessors, screws up JFK quote
18. “When I think about, ah, those soldiers or airmen or Marines, sailors, who are out there fighting on my behalf …”
19. Includes Nazi collaborator/Hitler admirer in proclamation for Jewish American Heritage Month
20. Obama’s griped that the American public just did not appreciate their exceptional leader
21. Removing silverware from tables before speaking to Hispanic voters. I guess he was afraid they might cut him?
22. Scolds American Crossroads for lack of transparency … on same day Obama asserted executive privilege in Fast & Furious probe
23. “The private sector is doing fine“
24. Declares Lech Walesa “too political” to accept award, gives another to Dolores Huerta, chair of Democratic Socialists of America. Freedom too political, Socialism just dandy.
25. “Polish death camp“
26. “Because we’re leading around the world, people have a new attitude toward America. There’s more confidence in our leadership. We see it everywhere we go.”
27. “Just like we’ve tried their plan, we tried our plan — and it worked.”  Um. Define “worked” please.
28. “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Full context doesn’t make it any more palatable.
29. “But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people…”
30. Pitches amnesty policy at naturalization ceremony of people who entered legally
31. Ordering platform change after criticism over God, Jerusalem
32. Sends form letters to families of SEALs killed in action, yet fins time to send a personal letter to family of rapper Heavy D
33. “I don’t think you or anybody who’s been watching the campaign would say that in any way we have tried to divide the country.”
34. Hiding from WH press corps while giving interviews to People and Entertainment Tonight
35. Asks supporters to find businesses to support his “you didn’t build that” argument
36. “Jim, you may want to move on to another topic.” In other words, don’t dare ruffle the feathers of the great one.
37. Scolds Congress for campaigning instead of addressing issues – after he campaigned while embassies burned
38. “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” In the mean time, Catholics are forced to go against their beliefs.
39. Goes to Las Vegas fundraiser after attack on Benghazi consulate
40. No time to meet with Netanyahu, makes time for the Pimp with a Limp radio show. Seriously? How is that acceptable?
41. “If four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal.” I guess that’s one way to describe the death of an ambassador and three soldiers that was then covered up and intentionally distorted by his administration.
42. Refuses to talk to reporters about Benghazi, but grants interview to Us Magazine
43. Tells rally that they have a tough choice to make “in four days” … three days before the election
44. Spends Election Day playing basketball rather than working on Hurricane Sandy relief. I bet those New Yorkers are blaming GW Bush for their suffering.
45. Tries to kiss Burmese political leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi, in yet another example of just how clueless this administration is when it comes to understanding political protocol and etiquette.
46. Gives eulogy for Daniel Inouye, but actually spends his time talking mostly about himself

Head on over to HotAir if you want to see which Obamateurisms made it to the finals, and which one won.