Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The Monarchy is still Revered in Canada: relevance of Mainstream Journalists questioned.
Not a small number of Journalists are questioning the relevance of the Monarchy during Prince Charles' visit attempting to incite a "national dialogue" about something they've already concluded.
The following article from Reuters here says that the relevance of the Monarchy should be questioned, but it seems more obvious from the actual polls that, a few journalists notwithstanding, that the majority of Canadians revere their Queen and the Institution of the Monarchy as much as Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The thing that should be questioned here is the quality of the news services offered to Canadians.
The article did manage to correctly quote the Prime Minister:
Article here...
The following article from Reuters here says that the relevance of the Monarchy should be questioned, but it seems more obvious from the actual polls that, a few journalists notwithstanding, that the majority of Canadians revere their Queen and the Institution of the Monarchy as much as Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The thing that should be questioned here is the quality of the news services offered to Canadians.
The article did manage to correctly quote the Prime Minister:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the St. John's ceremony that Canada's association with the monarchy was a "defining symbol of our unique Canadian identity."
This is Prince Charles's 15th visit to Canada, but his first since 2001. Queen Elizabeth is expected to visit the country next year.
Article here...
Vatican denounces European ruling against crucifixes in schools
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican said it experienced “surprise and sorrow” when a European court ruled that the crucifixes hanging in Italian public schools violate religious freedom.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled Nov. 3 that the crucifixes hanging in every public classroom in Italy were “a violation of the freedom of parents to educate their children according to their own convictions and of the religious freedom of the students.”
Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, reacted to the decision saying, “The crucifix has always been a sign of God's offer of love and a sign of union and welcome for all humanity. It is sad that it is being considered a sign of division, exclusion or limitation of freedom. That is not what it is and that is not the common feeling of our people.”
In his statement Nov. 3, Father Lombardi said, “It also is surprising that a European court is intervening so heavily in a matter that is deeply tied to the historic, cultural and spiritual identity of the Italian people.”
Read more...
The case in question bears all the hallmarks of ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) style legal activism which is pointed to by the plaintif's suspicious Finnish heritage and the tactics employed. Finnland has a long tradition of Communism and thanks to just government persecution of Communists there, many Finns have spread to other parts of the world bringing their poisonous political beliefs with them.
More here...
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican said it experienced “surprise and sorrow” when a European court ruled that the crucifixes hanging in Italian public schools violate religious freedom.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled Nov. 3 that the crucifixes hanging in every public classroom in Italy were “a violation of the freedom of parents to educate their children according to their own convictions and of the religious freedom of the students.”
Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, reacted to the decision saying, “The crucifix has always been a sign of God's offer of love and a sign of union and welcome for all humanity. It is sad that it is being considered a sign of division, exclusion or limitation of freedom. That is not what it is and that is not the common feeling of our people.”
In his statement Nov. 3, Father Lombardi said, “It also is surprising that a European court is intervening so heavily in a matter that is deeply tied to the historic, cultural and spiritual identity of the Italian people.”
Read more...
The case in question bears all the hallmarks of ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) style legal activism which is pointed to by the plaintif's suspicious Finnish heritage and the tactics employed. Finnland has a long tradition of Communism and thanks to just government persecution of Communists there, many Finns have spread to other parts of the world bringing their poisonous political beliefs with them.
More here...
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Gay Marriage Opponents are Claiming Victory in Maine
PORTLAND, Maine – Gay-marriage opponents are claiming victory in a closely watched referendum in Maine on a new state law that would have allowed same-sex couples to wed.
The law in question was passed by the Legislature in May but never took effect because of a petition drive by conservatives.
With more than 84 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday, the side seeking to repeal the law had 53 percent of the vote. Their campaign organizer, Frank Schubert, claimed victory and declared that Maine voters had helped preserve the institution of marriage.
Article here...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091104/ap_on_el_st_lo/us_gay_marriage_maine
The law in question was passed by the Legislature in May but never took effect because of a petition drive by conservatives.
With more than 84 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday, the side seeking to repeal the law had 53 percent of the vote. Their campaign organizer, Frank Schubert, claimed victory and declared that Maine voters had helped preserve the institution of marriage.
Article here...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091104/ap_on_el_st_lo/us_gay_marriage_maine
7th Anniversary Of Guimond Disappearance Next Week
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. (AP) ― It's been nearly seven years since St. John's University student Josh Guimond disappeared after leaving a small card party about midnight.
His friends and family will return to Collegeville next week to mark the Nov. 9 anniversary. There will be public events to remember Guimond, and to demand answers.
On Saturday the inaugural "Justice for Josh" march will be at noon near St. John's. There will also be a march at the Stearns County Sheriff's office at 2:00 p.m.
The family maintains that Guimond was taken against his will, and they're asking the sheriff's office to release all the information it has on the case.
Sheriff John Sanner says his office has spent thousands of hours on the case and he's just as frustrated as the family that it hasn't been solved.
___
Information from: WJON-AM, http://www.wjon.com
http://wcco.com/wireapnewsmn/7th.anniversary.of.2.1289916.html
His friends and family will return to Collegeville next week to mark the Nov. 9 anniversary. There will be public events to remember Guimond, and to demand answers.
On Saturday the inaugural "Justice for Josh" march will be at noon near St. John's. There will also be a march at the Stearns County Sheriff's office at 2:00 p.m.
The family maintains that Guimond was taken against his will, and they're asking the sheriff's office to release all the information it has on the case.
Sheriff John Sanner says his office has spent thousands of hours on the case and he's just as frustrated as the family that it hasn't been solved.
___
Information from: WJON-AM, http://www.wjon.com
http://wcco.com/wireapnewsmn/7th.anniversary.of.2.1289916.html
Priestly Subordinate Insults his Boss: Mad about Same-Sex Marriage
Father Farrow is getting tough (doesn't he look tough?) and demanding that the laity hold back their contributions. We have a better idea. Why don't they become Episcopalians? He is simply beside himself that Maine's Bishop Malone is "campaigning" against same-sex marriage. He correctly indicates that clerics may not hold public office, but he is quite wrong about any prescription against campaigning against Abortion, Homosexuality or any other attempts to legitimize or approve corporately any immoral behavior. Seems to us that this issue of Church-State relations becomes a whole lot more crucial when one's personal sexual proclivities are at stake. It's not really our interest to go into the question of the seperation of the Church and State, although it is clear from Magisterial teaching that the Seperation of Church and State are condemned. (Testem Benevolentiae)
This blogging priest/social worker is interesting for other reasons, namely, that Bishop Malone is actually taking action against supporters of perversion in his ranks and removing them from their jobs. Father Farrow complains in an especially bitter and simpering tone here,
The scandal in that article is that a Catholic wrote a letter to the editor of her local newspaper. Because, her political opinion was contrary to that of her bishop she was summarily removed from parish assignments regardless of how you feel about the particular issue, consider the implications of this for Catholics. It means that the clergy will now monitor and become the final arbiters of political opinions of the faithful.
Actually, it's not that you have a mere political opinion different from the Bishop, like questions about school zoning or fire hydrant placement, or the hours the dog catcher should keep, it's actually about a central tenet of the Church's teachings which are being threatened once again by further legitimization of immorality. We know it's hard to understand, but perhaps it's not the best thing to disagree with your boss about core philosophies of how the organization is run. It's a bit like stealing.
This story is also interesting for another reason. It means that Bishops are cracking down on dissenters. We've been tired of hypocritical priests and employees of Dioceses for years who don't agree with the Church's teachings yet draw a paycheck. It's about time.
And one more thing to Father Farrow. Perhaps instead of trying to defend Homosexuality, he should actually read about the Inquisition and the question of Church and State. But once again, he should do himself, his integrity and everyone else a favor and find employment in a different communion.
P.S. Father Farrow actually has been forced out of the Church and has no faculties to say Mass or present himself in this fashion. In Italy he'd be arrested for impersonating a priest. It's not surprising that he was at a Newman Center. Back in the 70s-90s, Newman Centers were great places where people who dissented from Church teachings (particularly on sexuality) could go to express themselves. According to Per Christum Catholic Blog, Father Jeff was suspended a divinis for supporting Prop-8.
Busybody Red Finn and Activist EU Judges attack God and Italian Sovereignty
In another effort to further obsolesce national sovereignty, the EU Parliament, dominated as it is by sympathetes for sodomy and immorality, vampires that they are, want Crucifixes taken down from all Italian Schools.
No doubt, the woman who filed the complaint against the court, a woman of Finnish and likely communist origins. It remains to be seen what a foreign court, or a Red Finn, should have any say about what Italians do in their lands.
Rome - Italian state-run schools are fully entitled to hang crucifixes in their classrooms, an Italian high court ruled on Wednesday, thus rejecting a legal challenge raised by a non-Christian.
Soile Lautsi, an Italian citizen of Finnish origins whose two children frequent a school in the Veneto region, had argued that the crucifix on display there violates the principle that the state should be neutral when it comes to religious matters.
Read more...
No doubt, the woman who filed the complaint against the court, a woman of Finnish and likely communist origins. It remains to be seen what a foreign court, or a Red Finn, should have any say about what Italians do in their lands.
Rome - Italian state-run schools are fully entitled to hang crucifixes in their classrooms, an Italian high court ruled on Wednesday, thus rejecting a legal challenge raised by a non-Christian.
Soile Lautsi, an Italian citizen of Finnish origins whose two children frequent a school in the Veneto region, had argued that the crucifix on display there violates the principle that the state should be neutral when it comes to religious matters.
Read more...
FBI investigates Nun's Halloween Murder on Navajo Nation
By Debra Mayeux The Daily Times
Posted: 11/03/2009 12:00:00 AM MST
NAVAJO — Authorities believe a Roman Catholic nun was murdered on Halloween in her home at St. Bernard Convent in Navajo.
Sister Marguerite Bartz, 64, failed to show up for church Sunday morning, so a colleague went to look for her and found her body.
"Everyone is in shock in that area," said Lee Lamb, spokesman for the Diocese of Gallup, which encompasses the entire Navajo Nation.
Navajo is located on the New Mexico-Arizona state line northwest of Gallup and inside the Navajo Reservation, where federal authorities investigate crimes such as murder.
Bartz was a 40-year member of the order of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. She served since 1999 in Navajo, and prior to that at the Guadalupe Indian Mission in Peña Blanca, Saint Joseph in Laguna and Saint Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe.
"She was always passionate for justice and peace," Lamb said. Lamb learned of Bartz from her superior, Patricia Suchalski, president of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, based in Bensalem, Pa.
Read more...
http://www.daily-times.com/ci_13699845
Posted: 11/03/2009 12:00:00 AM MST
NAVAJO — Authorities believe a Roman Catholic nun was murdered on Halloween in her home at St. Bernard Convent in Navajo.
Sister Marguerite Bartz, 64, failed to show up for church Sunday morning, so a colleague went to look for her and found her body.
"Everyone is in shock in that area," said Lee Lamb, spokesman for the Diocese of Gallup, which encompasses the entire Navajo Nation.
Navajo is located on the New Mexico-Arizona state line northwest of Gallup and inside the Navajo Reservation, where federal authorities investigate crimes such as murder.
Bartz was a 40-year member of the order of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. She served since 1999 in Navajo, and prior to that at the Guadalupe Indian Mission in Peña Blanca, Saint Joseph in Laguna and Saint Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe.
"She was always passionate for justice and peace," Lamb said. Lamb learned of Bartz from her superior, Patricia Suchalski, president of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, based in Bensalem, Pa.
Read more...
http://www.daily-times.com/ci_13699845
Monday, November 2, 2009
Are Catholic Colleges Poisonous to Women? Or is it Just Certain Ones?
I haven't enjoyed going to church so much in ages and I mean no disrespect and I mean that most sin-cerely, [giggles] that's really what I think. Dad said he was glad that was over with, but all I could think about was that this was the beginning of the rest of my new life. After graduation, me and John were going to Europe for a month. Amsterdam here we come! Then I was going to start my new job working for Google in New York where we got this cool apartment. [stares fixedly at passing car]
I guess I'm pretty religious, but after some soul searching, I decided that I didn't get anything out of this and I actually stopped going to church in my sophomore year. Fr. X was nice and everything...
I guess the nuns were alright, but it was hard to understand why they were there.
Catholic Italian Actor says: "divorce and abortion has destroyed the family"
The famous actor Bud Spencer became 80 this last Saturday -- he identifies himself as a "conservative and active" Catholic, who has been married for 48 years -- He finds the hysteria around Obama strange, "The man is not Jesus".
Only a few know, that the Italian born Neapolitan, Carlo Pedersoli, is Catholic. He states, "today divorce and abortion has destroyed the family," he informed the Italian media.
For 48 years he has been married to Maria Amago. According to the Hamburg Morning News Spencer said in the past week, "I was married 48 years and have ever confessed to my wife, if I have ever betrayed her. She has always forgiven me. That is true love, that stands above things. Lust and suffering are really only inanities.
He otherwise describes himself as "an animal with a human face", who would like to thank God, that he has been allowed to lead such a many faceted life.
The brilliant actor, jurist and swimmer has played in many films, notably as the Praetorian in the 1967 film, "Quo Vadis" and more famously in the spaghetti western, Trinity.
Link.
Wikipedia article...
Florida Elected Official Takes Steps to Protect Public Health and is Heckled by Homosexuals
From today’s Florida Sun-Sentinel Newspaper:
Fort Lauderdale mayor issues apology, but not to gay community
FORT LAUDERDALE — Mayor Jim Naugle issued a public apology on the steps of City Hall Tuesday afternoon, but it wasn’t the apology the gay community was looking for.
Naugle apologized for underestimating the problem of men having sex with each other in public restrooms, and urged people to call police to complain when they come upon it. He also said Broward County leads the nation in the incidence of new AIDS cases involving men having sex with men, and questioned whether the county tourism office should be welcoming them here.
Naugle alerted the media that he was holding a news conference that would include “an apology.”
Gay activists and others have been calling for a public apology form the mayor, and for his resignation, since the South Florida Sun-Sentinel published Naugle’s comments earlier this month about gays. In article about a proposed self-cleaning, automatic toilet the city was going to buy for the beach, Naugle said an added benefit would be that it would deter men from using it for “homosexual activity,” which he said was a problem in public restrooms.
Press conference video...
Source: http://americansfortruth.com/
Fort Lauderdale mayor issues apology, but not to gay community
FORT LAUDERDALE — Mayor Jim Naugle issued a public apology on the steps of City Hall Tuesday afternoon, but it wasn’t the apology the gay community was looking for.
Naugle apologized for underestimating the problem of men having sex with each other in public restrooms, and urged people to call police to complain when they come upon it. He also said Broward County leads the nation in the incidence of new AIDS cases involving men having sex with men, and questioned whether the county tourism office should be welcoming them here.
Naugle alerted the media that he was holding a news conference that would include “an apology.”
Gay activists and others have been calling for a public apology form the mayor, and for his resignation, since the South Florida Sun-Sentinel published Naugle’s comments earlier this month about gays. In article about a proposed self-cleaning, automatic toilet the city was going to buy for the beach, Naugle said an added benefit would be that it would deter men from using it for “homosexual activity,” which he said was a problem in public restrooms.
Press conference video...
Source: http://americansfortruth.com/
Shocking Halloween Display at Blackfen England
When will the liturgical aberrations stop? This just in from Mulier Fortis Blog, depicting the most indescribable Halloween Liturgy ever seen.
Click Here...
Bishop DiMarzio's strange Alliance in Brooklyn
In a tit for tat arrangement the Bishop of Brooklyn, Nicholas DiMarzio, gives support to a NARAL endorsed, pro-abort, same-sex marriage candidate in a close election in return for his ruling on the statute of limmitations in clerical abuse cases.
Original article here...
Original article here...
Sunday, November 1, 2009
The Time Has Come to End Lula's Monarchy in Brazil
Written by Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Monday, 02 November 2009 05:37
The downpour of odd government decisions, apparently meaningless presidential phrases and so much propaganda perhaps will lead people with common-sense to ask themselves: After all, where are we going? I use the adverb "perhaps" because some are in such a way intoxicated with "the biggest show on earth," of easy money that benefits a few, that I have my doubts.
It seems more comfortable to pretend that everything is going well and forget about the everyday transgressions, the discretionarism of the decisions, the disrespect, if not of the law, of the good moral values. It's become customary to say that the Lula government gave continuity to the good things that were achieved by the preceding government and in addition improved many things. So, why and what for question the little conduct deviations or small scratches in the law?
It happens that each small transgression, each deviation keeps on accumulating until it disfigures the original. As the renowned deranged prince used to say, there is no method to this madness. Method that probably does not come from our prince, only a victim, who knows, of verbal apotheosis. But everything that surrounds him has a DNA that, even without any conspiracy, can lead the country, nice and slowly, almost without one realizing it, to mould itself to a politics style and to a relationship manner between state, economy and society that keeps little resemblance to our democratic ideals.
It is possible to choose at random the examples of "small murders." Why make Congress swallow, without time to breathe, an ill-explained, scruffy change to the oil legislation? A change that can't even be presented as a "nationalistic" banner, because, if the current system, of concessions were a "sell out," it should have been banished, and it wasn't. It only had added to it the share system, subject to three or four political-bureaucratic instances to complicate businessmen's life and to fatten business facilitators from the public machine.
Why announce who won the competition to purchase military planes, if the selection process hasn't finished yet? Why so much noise and so much government interference in a company (Vale) that, if not totally private, has mixed capital and is governed by the statute of private companies? Why anticipate the electoral campaign and, without any embarrassment, stroll throughout Brazil at the expense of the Treasury (taking money from your, my, our pocket...) parading a claudicating candidate? Why, in foreign policy, forget that there are democratic forces in Iran, even Muslim ones, who fight against Ahmadinejad and instead bow to those who are not concerned with peace or human rights?
Little by little, behind what can seem isolated and not-so-serious gestures, the DNA of the "popular authoritarianism" keeps undermining the spirit of the constitutional democracy. This supposes rules, information, participation, representation and conscious deliberation. In the countercurrent of all this, we are getting back to political forms from the military authoritarianism time, when the "impact projects" (some of which became "skeletons", which were put on tick in the Treasury unpayable debts) livened up contractors and inflated the hearts of those deceived: "Brazil, love it or leave it."
At issue we have the Transnordestina (Transnortheastern road), the bullet train, the North-South, the San Francisco river's transposition and the hundreds of PAC's (Growth Acceleration Program) small projects, which, some good, others not so much, gush out in the budget and dwindle away for lack of operational capacity or for misappropriations barred by the Union's Audit Court. It doesn't matter, in the advertising outcry, it is as if the people were already enjoying the benefits: "My House, My Life"; castor bean biodiesel, family agriculture redemption; ethanol for the world and, in the new slogans maelstrom, pre-salt for all.
Unlike what occurred with the military authoritarianism, the current one does not send anyone to jail. But from the presidential mouth itself we can hear insults to morally kill businessmen, politicians, journalists or whoever dares to disagree with the "Brazil power" style.
Even the atomic bomb defense as instrument for us to get to the UN's Security Council - against the clear text of the Constitution - once in a while is supported by top executives, without asking the citizenry what is the best course for Brazil. And we should be reminded that the president has already declared that when it comes to strategic objective matters (as the fighter planes' purchase) he decides all by himself. It's a shame that he forgot to add: "L'État c'est moi." But he didn't forget to mention the reasons that led him to such strategic decision: he saw there were pirates in Somalia and, therefore, we need fighter planes to defend "our pre-salt". That's OK, everything's pretty logical.
It can be serious, but, realists will say, time goes by and what is left are the results. Among these, however, there are some worrisome ones. If there is logic in the foolishnesses, it's only one: the one of power without limits. Presidential power with popular applause, as in all good authoritarian situation, and bureaucratic-corporative power, that's not funny it all for the people. This last one has method. State and unions, State and social movements are more and more smelted in the Treasury's high-temperature ovens.
The parties are demoralized. It was by the "dedaço" (big finger) that Lula chose the PT candidate to succeed him, as the Mexican presidents used to do when the PRI controlled. With the parties devastated, if Dilma wins the elections will be left only a subPeronism (Lulism) infecting the docile party fragments, a union bureaucracy nested in the State and, as foundation for the block of power, the might of the pension funds. These are "nova stars," They came up in the firmament, changed their trajectory and our voracious, but naive capitalists get from them the death embrace. With a little help from the BNDES (National Bank of Economic and Social Development) everything becomes perfect: we have the alliance between state, the unions, the pension funds and the lucky fellows from big companies that join them.
Now, they will say (since I've talked about stars), the pension funds represent the spur of the modern economy. That's right. It happens that our funds belong to public companies' workers. Now, in these places, the PT, that was already controlling the employees' representation, now also controls the employers' one (the government). With that the funds have become instruments of political power, not exactly of a party, but of the union-corporative segment that controls it.
In Brazil the pension funds are not only stockholders - with the freedom of selling and buying in the stock markets -, but managers: they take part in the oversight blocks or in the private or "privatized companies" committees. Weak parties, strong unions, pension funds converging with the interests of a party in the government and drawing to them privileged private partners, there is the block from which the Lulist subPeronism will get its sustenance in the future, if it wins the elections. I started with where are we going? I will close saying that time is ripe to put a brake to perpetuation in power, before it's too late.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso, sociologist, was President of Brazil from January 1st, 1995 to January 1st, 2003.
Translated from the Portuguese by Arlindo Silva.
Monday, 02 November 2009 05:37
The downpour of odd government decisions, apparently meaningless presidential phrases and so much propaganda perhaps will lead people with common-sense to ask themselves: After all, where are we going? I use the adverb "perhaps" because some are in such a way intoxicated with "the biggest show on earth," of easy money that benefits a few, that I have my doubts.
It seems more comfortable to pretend that everything is going well and forget about the everyday transgressions, the discretionarism of the decisions, the disrespect, if not of the law, of the good moral values. It's become customary to say that the Lula government gave continuity to the good things that were achieved by the preceding government and in addition improved many things. So, why and what for question the little conduct deviations or small scratches in the law?
It happens that each small transgression, each deviation keeps on accumulating until it disfigures the original. As the renowned deranged prince used to say, there is no method to this madness. Method that probably does not come from our prince, only a victim, who knows, of verbal apotheosis. But everything that surrounds him has a DNA that, even without any conspiracy, can lead the country, nice and slowly, almost without one realizing it, to mould itself to a politics style and to a relationship manner between state, economy and society that keeps little resemblance to our democratic ideals.
It is possible to choose at random the examples of "small murders." Why make Congress swallow, without time to breathe, an ill-explained, scruffy change to the oil legislation? A change that can't even be presented as a "nationalistic" banner, because, if the current system, of concessions were a "sell out," it should have been banished, and it wasn't. It only had added to it the share system, subject to three or four political-bureaucratic instances to complicate businessmen's life and to fatten business facilitators from the public machine.
Why announce who won the competition to purchase military planes, if the selection process hasn't finished yet? Why so much noise and so much government interference in a company (Vale) that, if not totally private, has mixed capital and is governed by the statute of private companies? Why anticipate the electoral campaign and, without any embarrassment, stroll throughout Brazil at the expense of the Treasury (taking money from your, my, our pocket...) parading a claudicating candidate? Why, in foreign policy, forget that there are democratic forces in Iran, even Muslim ones, who fight against Ahmadinejad and instead bow to those who are not concerned with peace or human rights?
Little by little, behind what can seem isolated and not-so-serious gestures, the DNA of the "popular authoritarianism" keeps undermining the spirit of the constitutional democracy. This supposes rules, information, participation, representation and conscious deliberation. In the countercurrent of all this, we are getting back to political forms from the military authoritarianism time, when the "impact projects" (some of which became "skeletons", which were put on tick in the Treasury unpayable debts) livened up contractors and inflated the hearts of those deceived: "Brazil, love it or leave it."
At issue we have the Transnordestina (Transnortheastern road), the bullet train, the North-South, the San Francisco river's transposition and the hundreds of PAC's (Growth Acceleration Program) small projects, which, some good, others not so much, gush out in the budget and dwindle away for lack of operational capacity or for misappropriations barred by the Union's Audit Court. It doesn't matter, in the advertising outcry, it is as if the people were already enjoying the benefits: "My House, My Life"; castor bean biodiesel, family agriculture redemption; ethanol for the world and, in the new slogans maelstrom, pre-salt for all.
Unlike what occurred with the military authoritarianism, the current one does not send anyone to jail. But from the presidential mouth itself we can hear insults to morally kill businessmen, politicians, journalists or whoever dares to disagree with the "Brazil power" style.
Even the atomic bomb defense as instrument for us to get to the UN's Security Council - against the clear text of the Constitution - once in a while is supported by top executives, without asking the citizenry what is the best course for Brazil. And we should be reminded that the president has already declared that when it comes to strategic objective matters (as the fighter planes' purchase) he decides all by himself. It's a shame that he forgot to add: "L'État c'est moi." But he didn't forget to mention the reasons that led him to such strategic decision: he saw there were pirates in Somalia and, therefore, we need fighter planes to defend "our pre-salt". That's OK, everything's pretty logical.
It can be serious, but, realists will say, time goes by and what is left are the results. Among these, however, there are some worrisome ones. If there is logic in the foolishnesses, it's only one: the one of power without limits. Presidential power with popular applause, as in all good authoritarian situation, and bureaucratic-corporative power, that's not funny it all for the people. This last one has method. State and unions, State and social movements are more and more smelted in the Treasury's high-temperature ovens.
The parties are demoralized. It was by the "dedaço" (big finger) that Lula chose the PT candidate to succeed him, as the Mexican presidents used to do when the PRI controlled. With the parties devastated, if Dilma wins the elections will be left only a subPeronism (Lulism) infecting the docile party fragments, a union bureaucracy nested in the State and, as foundation for the block of power, the might of the pension funds. These are "nova stars," They came up in the firmament, changed their trajectory and our voracious, but naive capitalists get from them the death embrace. With a little help from the BNDES (National Bank of Economic and Social Development) everything becomes perfect: we have the alliance between state, the unions, the pension funds and the lucky fellows from big companies that join them.
Now, they will say (since I've talked about stars), the pension funds represent the spur of the modern economy. That's right. It happens that our funds belong to public companies' workers. Now, in these places, the PT, that was already controlling the employees' representation, now also controls the employers' one (the government). With that the funds have become instruments of political power, not exactly of a party, but of the union-corporative segment that controls it.
In Brazil the pension funds are not only stockholders - with the freedom of selling and buying in the stock markets -, but managers: they take part in the oversight blocks or in the private or "privatized companies" committees. Weak parties, strong unions, pension funds converging with the interests of a party in the government and drawing to them privileged private partners, there is the block from which the Lulist subPeronism will get its sustenance in the future, if it wins the elections. I started with where are we going? I will close saying that time is ripe to put a brake to perpetuation in power, before it's too late.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso, sociologist, was President of Brazil from January 1st, 1995 to January 1st, 2003.
Translated from the Portuguese by Arlindo Silva.
The Queen is as Popular as Ever in Canada despite Media Distortions
Significant increase in popularity for the Queen in Canada in New Zealand at BBC which they say is even up from 2001, but this Wikipedia poll says 78% favor the Monarchy.
But there are others, pre-emptively predicting the abolition of the Monarchy in Canada, primarily from strange outlets like ths politically dubious report from Yahoo.
The Queen generally stays out of political frays, but it's hard not to imagine that the leftists want to belittle her importance to Canada prior to her visit in 2010 for political advantage, so no doubt, there will be those wanting to "dialogue" about her irrelavence to Canada when it's clear from the massive jiggerng of the polls that the majority of Canadians actually do favor the Monarchy and look forward to welcoming her Majesty next year.
Politicizing Prelates and New York
The last few days have gotten us to thinking about politicising prelates and here we have a case of one who uses his mitre and authority to prop up his leftist political causes. Generally abortion isn't negotiable, most of the time, but sometimes (most of the time) you support the DNC talking points and candidates when your Diocese's schools, hospitals or "charitable" organizations or the semnary where conservative candidates get weeded out, need support.
A bishop’s flexibility
November 1, 2009, 5:11 pm Posted by Paul Moses
As chairman of the bishops’ committee that drafted the statement “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” Brooklyn’s Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has had an important role in interpreting what it actually means. In the heat of the 2008 presidential campaign, he wrote in a letter to The New York Times that the newspaper had erred in a story on Joseph Biden and the Catholic vote in reporting the statement would “explicitly allow Catholics to vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights if they do so for other reasons.”
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A bishop’s flexibility
November 1, 2009, 5:11 pm Posted by Paul Moses
As chairman of the bishops’ committee that drafted the statement “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” Brooklyn’s Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has had an important role in interpreting what it actually means. In the heat of the 2008 presidential campaign, he wrote in a letter to The New York Times that the newspaper had erred in a story on Joseph Biden and the Catholic vote in reporting the statement would “explicitly allow Catholics to vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights if they do so for other reasons.”
Read more...
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