Paul Ryan Looks to the Heavens

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Earlier this week, nearly 90 faculty members at the Jesuit university declared in a letter to Mr. Ryan that, “We would be remiss in our duty to you and our students if we did not challenge your continuing misuse of Catholic teaching to defend a budget plan that decimates food programs for struggling families, radically weakens protections for the elderly and sick, and gives more tax breaks to the wealthiest few.” — Rep. Ryan Takes on Georgetown (WSJ WashWire)

Remind me to look up the meaning of the “upward stare” in the encyclopedia of body language. I’d imagine it says something about “positivity” and “idealism,” or “utopia” or “Shining City Upon a Hill” (with maybe a footnote, if you execute it at the right angle — especially in Georgetown’s stately Gaston Hall — about the merger of church and state). Oh, and did I mention the thrust of the words accompanying this fine Getty portraiture involved Ryan’s rebuttal to Catholic critics who not only take issue with slicing up what’s left of the safety net, and also to the way Ryan markets those economics in Christian terms?

As the Veep aspirant and chief architect for the “austerity” budget looked ever skyward, however, I don’t imagine his gaze lined up here:

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