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Ridding the governance of socialistic free-loading and attempts at wealth redistribution
Amplify’d from canadafreepress.com
Ridding the governance of socialistic free-loading and attempts at wealth redistribution
Liberal Democrats Prove They Never Learn - Pelosi and Reid Selected to Lead Them Astray Again
As I write on this column, two weeks and two days after the national elections that were held on Tuesday, November 02, 2010; the elections which, to quote Mr. Obama, were a “shellacking” by the Republicans over the Democrats, I find some additional euphoria.
This bonus feeling of happiness and confidence is the result of the in-house Congressional leadership selections in both houses where, much to the elation of conservatives, the same power house of inefficiency, power-mad, self-absorbed, country-be-damned, spend and tax, BIG government growth, trio of P-R-O’s, as in Pelosi, Reid and Obama will try to continue their mismanagement style of profligate, wasteful, taxing, job-killing, harmful to the people and foolhardy follies, all of which were soundly REJECTED by the people in those last elections.
This is one of the striking examples of how our government election processes can do damage to the country, strictly unintentionally. Here we have one Congressional District out of 53 in the state of California showing questionable judgment by returning the Wicked Warlock of the West, Nancy Pelosi, to the House of Representatives where her pack of lemmings ignored the wishes of the rest of the country and returned her to the position of House Minority Leader for the upcoming session.
Coincidentally, we have one small state of Nevada with less than three million residents, who were likewise oblivious to the desires of a majority of the country’s voters and were responsible for sending Harry Reid, the socialist-communist style of government lover back to the Senate where his small band of big government tax and spend, job-killing cohorts selected him as the Senate Majority Leader.
The third member of the nefarious P-R-O group, the man of mystery, unproven nationality, as well as future lofty international goals, Barack Obama is still firmly in place and warding off all attempts to determine just exactly who he truly is. But the word ‘firmly’ in the previous sentence, is a bit ambiguous considering he will no longer, after January 2011, have his two socialist P-R-O partners to carry out his country-damaging plans.
I have heard and read many forms of displeasure at the prospects of having to go through ANOTHER two years of the evil triumvirate of Pelosi, Reid, and Obama, but I am happy that they were all kept in the same place. It will be a constant reminder to the proven conservative public and voters of who and why the “shellacking” took place on November 02, 2010.
This is not to say that the future of the Congress will be relatively peaceful and smooth running; quite the contrary as a matter of fact. With conservative Republicans in charge of only one of three branches of
operational government, the House of Representatives while the liberal Democrats continue to control the Senate and the Executive Branch there will be many confrontations and disputes between the two factions.
But this separation of control will ease the minds of the conservative public that there will be no runaway spending, government growth increases, irresponsible tax proposals, or financially devastating legislation passed and signed into law as was done in this past two years of alarming national debt increases and punishing acts of law.
It is hoped that with tighter controls on the government’s fiscal resources more sensible legislation as well as the revision, redacting or repeal of the more onerous acts passed can be made more palatable to the public and practicable to the country’s financial problems; of which there are many facing us for years to come.
The unconscionable mountain of public debt has got to addressed and pared down to manageable levels so as not to harm the future continuation of the American dream that has suffered due to the lack of fiscal sanity.
America has survived for two hundred and thirty five years due to the expert guidance set down by our Founding Fathers and by ridding the governance of socialistic free-loading and attempts at wealth redistribution, we are partially on the road to better days and years.
But it will take the efforts and prayers of ALL Americans; and 2012.
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Ave Maria and superstition
Amplify’d from www.heraldsun.com.au
Ave Maria and superstition
Bryan Patterson
A FUNERAL celebrant recently wrote of how people with little religious belief often request religious songs to be played at farewells to loved ones.
He was celebrant at a funeral where there was no acknowledged religious belief in the grieving family.
The chapel was packed, with people standing in the aisles.
In the discussions about the funeral, the man's son had asked for the song Ave Maria after the eulogies. The funeral director expressed surprise, because he had been given strong instructions to include nothing religious in the service.
The son's comment was, "Well, I like it and they play it at weddings".
"A colleague of the father, an older man, and his son gave simple, heartfelt tributes," said the funeral director. "Then, we played Ave Maria. There was, a stillness in that room. I don't know whether it was the music, the effect of the two eulogies or whatever.
"But I have had this experience with a reciting of other traditional prayers in non-traditional settings.
"All I know is that in sacred moments in human life, bereft of a religious context, the traditional prayers, the well-worn, half-forgotten words still work."
We humans are a funny lot. When I was growing up, even the non-religious carried little St Christopher medals in their cars as superstitious protection from harm.
Even after the Vatican desainted Christopher, on the ground he had never really existed anyway, the medals still sold well.
In India, owls are in danger of becoming extinct because the superstitious believe wearing parts of the bird around their necks will ward off bad spirits.
A recent Associated Press poll found that one in five people in western nations admit to being at least somewhat superstitious.
Another poll showed that traditional Christians were about four times less likely than agnostics/atheists to believe in superstitions such as astrology, pseudo science and "luck".
The New Age movement teaches that crystals have all kinds of powers when, in reality, they are pretty paperweights.
Jesus recognised that superstition was all about ignorance and fear. He met the superstitious religious leaders of his time and said, "Don't be afraid".
A belief in superstitions gives people an illusion of control in an uncertain world.
True faith is not about bringing you luck. It is about sharing in the loving relationship that exists between God and his creation. It requires an open mind.
It involves trust but also evidence; it is not, like superstition, blind faith. It is objective faith the most centred act of the human mind.
True faith is not to protect people from the nightmares of existence, but to awaken them to their greatest dreams.
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Blair debates Hitchens on religion
Amplify’d from www.salon.com
Blair debates Hitchens on religion
In Toronto, the former British leader argues with the anti-religious writer over God as a "force for good"
Former British prime minister Tony Blair said Friday his religious beliefs did not play a role in his decision to support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq during a debate about the merits of religion in Toronto.
Blair attempted to persuade his verbal sparring opponent, writer Christopher Hitchens, that religion is a force for global good when he was asked by an audience member how religion influenced his decision to stand with the United States against Iraq.
"Religion doesn't do policy. All my decisions were based on policy and so they should be, and you may disagree with those decisions but they were made because I genuinely believed them to be right," said Blair before the audience of more than 2,600 at Toronto's Roy Thompson Hall.
Blair, 57, converted to Catholicism after leaving office in 2007. Since then he has started the Tony Blair Faith Foundation to promote understanding between religions.
He faced a fierce opponent in the debating ring Friday night. Hitchens, 61, an avowed atheist, Vanity Fair columnist and author of "God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," has been a prominent voice in attacking religion.
"Is it good for the world to worship a deity that takes sides in wars and human affairs, to appeal to our fear and to our guilt -- is it good for the world?" Hitchens said in his opening remarks.
"To terrify children with the image of hell ... to consider women an inferior creation. Is that good for the world?" Hitchens asked as he opened the debate hosted by the Munk Debates center.
Though his face was pale and drawn, and his trademark mop of unruly hair gone, he was no less animated than usual in spite of his battle with cancer of the esophagus. He said earlier Friday that he scheduled his chemotherapy treatments around the debate so he "wouldn't have to let anyone down,"
"This is what I do whether I'm sick or not. (Religion) is still the main argument," said Hitchens who has made it known that his diagnosis has not opened him to God or religious belief.
Hitchens fueled the debate by criticizing religion for blocking peace in the Middle East, perpetuating poverty by subjugating women as inferior and causing numerous conflicts including the genocide in Rwanda -- a country he says "is the most Christian country in the world, and one which many of the people who committed the crimes are now hiding in the pulpit."
Blair acknowledged that religion has been used to lead people to commit indescribable acts, but it has also led people to commit acts of goodness.
"Health care in Africa has been delivered by those motivated by their religion ... The abolition of slavery was achieved by combined secularism and non-secularism. At least accept that there are people who are doing great things because of their faith," he said.
Blair incited a sarcastic response from Hitchens when he argued the Northern Ireland peace process is an example of how people of different faiths can bridge their differences.
"It's very touching for Tony to say that he recently went to a meeting to bridge the religious divide in Northern Ireland, where does the religious divide come from?" Hitchens asked. "Four-hundred years and more in my own country of birth of people killing each other's children depending on what kind of Christian they were."
Although a lot of conflicts have religious roots, it's futile to try to drive religion out, Blair said.
"In the end, it's for politics and religion to try and work out a way in which religion in a world of globalization that is pushing people together can play a positive rather than negative role," he added.
Audience members voted on the debate and preliminary results posted on the Munk Debates website sided with Hitchens, with 68 percent saying that religion is more of a destructive than benign force in the world.
BBC World News and the News Channel will broadcast the debate on Jan., 1 2011.
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Website tool to keep Catholics safe from lurking heretics
Amplify’d from www.catholicculture.org
Your guide to Catholic information on the Internet.
Trinity Communications has been providing Catholic Internet users with qualified reviews of Catholic web sites since 1996. Our review staff is led by Jeffrey A. Mirus, Ph.D and is currently maintaining 680 active reviews.
Request a Site Review
Request a Review Form
If you are a webmaster and would like your site to be reviewed on this site, or you are simply a member of the general
public who would like to see an important site reviewed, please fill out our request form.
Please note that we do not review every site that is submitted.
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Catholic Culture.org the TSA of Catholic Journalism, takes on the Vatican
Catholic Culture.org has a web site tool to keep us safe from lurking heretics that examines a site's “fidelity” to the Magisterium of the Church.
Amplify’d from www.ministryvalues.com
Catholic Culture.org the TSA of Catholic Journalism, takes on the Vatican
By Stephen K. Ryan November 27, 2010
Ah! to have sat down for breakfast with Dr. Jeff Mirus and Phil Lawler the prolific commentators and co-founders of online magazine Catholic Culture.org the day L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper, told the world that "Homer and Bart Are Catholics.” The coffee, no doubt, would have blown across the room.
And now Catholic Culture.org – the TSA of Catholic Journalism - has finally had it “up to here” with the Vatican newspaper after it published excerpts from the new book called “Light of the World”. Book snippets that revealed Pope Benedict’s evolving belief that HIV infected male prostitutes who choose to use condoms perhaps demonstrates a morality superior to those infecting somebody with the deadly virus unprotected, has Lawler and Mirus fit to be tied and insisting that heads should role.
Catholic Culture has now gone nuclear over the “Condom Crisis".
Lawler writes “Today millions of people have the impression-- a completely inaccurate impression-- that Pope Benedict has signaled a change in the Church's teaching on the morality of condom use. Pope Benedict has been badly served by his public-relations staff. In this case, the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano bears most of the blame for a truly disastrous gaffe.”
Most Catholics I know saw no huge controversy in the Pope’s statements - after all Pope Benedict XVI was talking about homosexual prostitutes infected with HIV – which we argue is not a large segment of the Catholic population. Most folks without the help of Catholic Culture understood the Pope was not talking about teenagers at Catholic schools in the United States.
Philip Lawler then asks “Why didn’t the Vatican publisher warn Pope Benedict that his statement was bound to be distorted? Why didn’t the Pope himself recognize that risk? Why haven’t other Vatican officials offered real clarifications—as opposed to the turgid and confusing statements from Father Lombardi? There is plenty of blame to go around.”
Mirus and Lawler have built up a successful following on the internet by blaming people for their Catholic shortcomings. It also turns out Catholic Culture.org is in the business of “warning” Catholics against “dangerous, risky” Catholic web sites. The syndrome of “to a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail” is seriously at work here.
Catholic Culture.org has a web site tool to keep us safe from lurking heretics that examines a site's “fidelity” to the Magisterium of the Church.
They grope and put Catholic Web sites through full body scanners to keep us safe from Catholic terrorists. - On the "danger list" - America Catholic Magazine, a leading respected Jesuit publication. Catholic Culture says about America Catholic "There are numerous articles on this site, and many of them should be read only with extreme caution. Extreme Caution?
Catholic Culture.org likes to say that they are " working to shape an authentically Christian culture in a secular world." But sadly and typically like many "conservative Catholics" they define authentic Catholicism in terms of red state republicanism.
Incidentally we searched for Catholic Culture's review of L’Osservatore Romano but to no avail. Perhaps it is under review by the righteous folks at Catholic Culture after the “truly disastrous gaffe” by the Vatican.
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Pope Pleads for End of Nuke Warheads
Amplify’d from www.voanews.com
Pope Pleads for End of Nuke Warheads
Pope Benedict is urging nuclear-armed nations to get rid of their arsenals.
The pope issued the plea Saturday at the Vatican after Japan's new ambassador to the Holy See presented his credentials to the pontiff.
Pope Benedict called nuclear weapons a source of tension and mistrust. He said the 65th anniversary of bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should serve as a reminder of the horror nuclear weapons can cause.
The United States dropped atomic bombs on both cities in August of 1945, killing more than 200.000 people. Japan surrendered unconditionally shortly afterwards, ending World War Two.
Pope Benedict praised Japan for setting an example since the bombings, for always trying to find peaceful solutions to conflicts.
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'Peace Torch' begins world journey
As part of Austrian initiative for Christmas, flaming torch lit in Church of Nativity in Bethlehem and transported on commercial flight under supervision of Aviation specialist. Torch to make its way to pope, US President Obama
Amplify’d from www.ynetnews.com
'Peace Torch' begins world journey
The torch travelled in the back seats of the flights economy class, in a lantern-style apparatus while an aviation expert, himself a pilot supervised.
The Peace Torch project which was organized by Austrian State television, received special permission from the Israeli Civic Aviation Authority under the leadership of Major General (Res.) Giora Rom.
Lighting fires on airplanes became illegal a few years ago which meant that Olympic Torch procedures were considered special exceptions, and were never carried on commercial flights.
The Peace Torch project was lead by 500 Austrian pilgrims who visited Israel last week in hopes of meeting and getting to know the Jewish people, including Holocaust survivors from Austria. The Torch is set to pass through 30 countries around the world. It will also be making a visit to Pope Benedict in the Vatican and President Barak Obama in Washington DC.
Daniela Epstein, who is coordinating the pilgrims' trip on behalf of the Sarel tourism office, explained to Ynet that the aim of the Peace Torch is to reach out and bring people from around the world closer together.
"The group was very excited by its visit to Israel; the torch was lit by a 10-year-old Croatian," she said.
Coexistence
Art as a bridge to peace / Ynetnews
Read more at www.ynetnews.com
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'Tell us the truth': Sex abuse victim's plea to the Pope
Amplify’d from www.thisissurreytoday.co.uk
'Tell us the truth': Sex abuse victim's plea to the Pope
By owen evans owen.evans@essnmedia.co.uk
A SEX-abuse victim who was raped by two clergymen has gone to the Vatican, calling on the Pope to reveal the identities of all paedophile priests.
Former Oxted School student Lucy Duckworth, who protested with fellow victims last Friday, says she was just five years old when first abused.
The 28-year-old said the abuse continued until she was 11 years old, and was carried out by a Catholic priest, Church of England vicar and an accomplice.
She has waived her anonymity and spoken exclusively to the Mirror about her ordeal.
Miss Duckworth explained the abuse happened when she and other children spent time with the clergymen at a church in the holidays.
Describing one incident she said: "We would always be picked out as a group to go and clean. The group was always made up of girls. We would be picked out for our 'good behaviour'.
"Then, when we were there, he would take us round the back and abuse us one by one.
"I was eight years old at the time. I did not know it was wrong.
"The abuse eventually stopped when I was 11 and went to Oxted School as I wasn't as accessible any more, and also I was hitting puberty and I think it got too dangerous for them."
Two years ago, Miss Duckworth "broke down" and finally told her boyfriend and family.
She walked into her local police station in London – where she now lives – and reported the crimes for the first time two years ago.
They referred her to a police station in Surrey but the Crown Prosecution Service did not follow up the complaint.
She joined the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests – and became the English Ambassador – following a demonstration for the Pope's UK visit in September.
"I couldn't believe the Pope was over here and I was helping to pay for the trip," she added.
"I went to the London demonstration with my boyfriend.
"We were holding up some quite controversial signs. Someone from SNAP saw them and asked us if we wanted to join them at the protest in Birmingham.
"When we were there we held up the same signs and we were spat at and shouted at.
"I just thought, 'Isn't this a sad society where you have to walk around with a placard to show people abuse is going on under their noses.'"
Following a series of gynecological tests this summer, the former Hurst Green resident and Reigate College student discovered that, due to the systematic abuse, she has only a ten per cent chance of conceiving naturally, .
"I don't want an apology. An apology won't make it easier for me to have children naturally. An apology won't make my mother feel any better about herself.
"I want both churches to acknowledge they have predators and to hand over the information they have on them.
"I don't want another child to go through what I went through."
For more information on SNAP visit www.snapnetwork.org.
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