Grahams sell WaPo to Bezos, Catholics and libertarianism, and more

• From LRC:
  • Gary North: The Graham family is selling The Washington Post for a paltry $250 million to Amazon owner Jeff Bezos. Bezos has no background in running a newspaper. He just thought it would be a kick to own one. Well, I am sure it will be. The Grahams were presiding over a doddering patient with a catheter. They sold out just in time. By hanging on for two decades, they walked away from a fortune. They wound up selling to a billionaire who owns the largest mail-order operation in the world. He is taking on the project the way that rich men play with hobbies in their spare time. Bezos now has two options: (1) do nothing new, and serve as the captain of the Titanic; (2) change the entire operation. In either case, liberalism has suffered a major hit. I think Bezos will play the first role.
  • Audio (17:49): Why Catholics should be libertarians. The paleos, third-wayers, and social-justicers blame libertarianism. I hear them. Daniel Nichols points out a big change in our culture since about 1968 is growing selfishness (do your own thing = every man for himself), which means, like the Third World, the rich are much richer, the poor poorer, and the American-dream middle class is going away. Modestinus has pointed out that the church’s social teaching (the well-meant holy welfare state) and its independence from American politics enabled the SSPX to oppose the Iraq war, for example (as I did on this blog from the beginning, hence its name), not falling for the mainstream Republican Party, which good pro-life Catholics are vulnerable to, like evangelicals. But I’m sticking with the minarchist version.
  • The art of manliness: Integrity.
• From RR:
  • Why are your children buying houses for Ben Bernanke?
  • Russia’s stake in Syria’s war. The amalgam of Islamists that is assembling to fight Assad appears to include a healthy contingent of radical-right Islamists from Chechnya, and they’re reportedly among the toughest fighters in the anti-Assad coalition. Why on earth are we supporting al-Qaeda in trying to overthrow one of the Mideast’s few secular governments (in which Christians are relatively free)?
  • Detroit.
• From Ad Orientem:
  • Feds sue Bank of America for fraud.
  • The British are rewriting history by giving Richard III a Protestant burial.
• Pat Buchanan: Al-Qaeda in perspective.
• From Catholic Culture and Society: The ecclesial movements and new communities are a poor substitute for an organically formed society.
• From Dyspeptic Mutterings:
  • Notes toward a diagnosis of our times. “‘'What happens next?’ We shattered the family and called it ‘liberation.’ We elected grifters and called it ‘self-government.’ We pillaged the future and called it ‘prosperity.’ We lionized theft and called it ‘commerce.’ We scorned our heritage and called it ‘education.’ We disposed of the helpless and called it ‘freedom.’ We laughed at virtue and called it ‘enlightenment.’ You really want to know ‘what happens next?’ That’s easy: what we deserve.”
  • Looking for examples from American Catholic history to deal with the present and future.