by Stephen Hand, editor
November 30: It's interesting, this website does somethings the blog cannot and vice versa, so maybe it's best to coordinate them as closely as possible, while emphasizing the geopolitical more (though not exclusively) here and the spiritual (again not exclusively) at the blog; with some meaningful essays on art too here and there. It's worth a try anyway, since I have and enjoy them both. The advantage of the blog is that each post is a page in itself, which is a bit harder to do here (requiring more time at any rate). So thanks for your kind patience.
November 27: There is another much neglected (suppressed?) aspect to the clergy sexual abuse scandal, and that is the scandal of the psychologists / psychiatrists who cleared offenders after treatment time and again. These psychologists were sent offenders by the Cardinals and they are supposed to either clear them as ready to return to some kind of ministry or to declare them unfit and still dangerous and likely to offend again.
Cardinal Law then and others got a raw deal. They were listening to professionals and MD's who were supposed to know what they were doing and who treat patients all of the time, wherever sex offenses occur.
Then there is the cynically selective focus on the Catholic Church, when this happens to rabbis and Protestant ministers, public school teachers (the biggest offenders), Boy Scout leaders and wherever adults work with children, as insurance payout records show.
November 26. Thanksgiving Day. Reconnecting theology, the natural / moral laws and compassion...Some see these as somehow exclusive of each other in a polite society. But the Saints never saw it anywhere near like that. If we know who we are, why we are, and what God calls us to---and away from---we have something truly wonderful to give to the meek of the earth. Otherwise we feed but half man's hunger. And it is why authority and theology must speak clearly, addressing the whole person and society.
Recently an example of courage has been seen where in recent decades, alas, it has not always been found -- in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. While advocating universal health care in principle, they called on Catholics to refuse and oppose the plan if abortion is to be part of it. And then there is Bishop Thomas Tobin of Rhode Island regretfully telling Rep. Mr. Patrick Kennedy that he (Kennedy) cannot support any policy which allows the killing of the unborn and still receive the Eucharist. "Politicians are not forced to be Catholic," he said, and Mr. Kennedy must put his eternal soul first. That is true love, and the opposite of servile fear. It's time for us to speak clearly again, firmly, and, yes, compassionately. Oftentimes compassion means saying no, precisely because we love.
Nov. 25, 2009
After a haphazard start I return to this project which I had begun in the Spring, but decided then I was not yet finished at the blog (which will remain somewhat more for the theological). Now to resume in earnest. It will doubtless take a long while before people are even aware of this new effort, if they become aware of it at all, and to decide whether it is worthwhile.
I've also decided to make these notes more random in content, simply a few thoughts from time to time to either reflect on the news ---or to escape from it. Today, wishing to escape, I will only note that after returning from some chores I was shocked by the sounds of what seemed like hundreds of New England sparrows and snowbirds around the house. It was truly mesmerizing.
Life is still beautiful when we pause to contemplate it all, light, shadow, sunshine, grey Novembers, a grain of sand... And for those who are suffering too much to contemplate as they would wish---and they are many---it is our call not to extinguish or neglect them but to alleviate their suffering in love in whatever ways we are able. Even the sick can advocate for those who are sicker than themselves. He made his sun to shine on all of us, male, female, black, white, red, brown, the healthy and the sick. And if He made us all, He calls us all to help the needy, the weak, those without a voice to speak for themselves.
"... the Irish are a difficulty. They were never in the (Roman) Empire, and therefore their discipline is an external constraint and not an acquired inheritance. Thus they make excellent soldiers and incomparable monks and nuns - but socially they are as quarrelsome as dogs and their minds go off at tangents".---Hilaire Belloc
Previous
April 3, 2009: It is already very disturbing to us and to many peoples across the earth that the G-20 nations have proclaimed an emerging 'New World Order' without public referendums for over 170 'member' nations. This appears the very opposite of the democratic process which the G-20, and particularly Britain and the United States, have touted as the best fruits of 'Enlightenment' 'progress'. Rather it appears dictatorial and raises suspicions of Anglo-American hegemonic intentions, and fears of totalitarianism on the horizon. Surely participating leaders have an obligation to address and quell such fears. Ordinary people want only peace and basic Western freedoms, not Orwellian-like substitutes.
What this NWO will emerge as over time remains to be seen. Already there has been at the G-20 talk of 'failed states' which some fear could become a ruse for aggression against these nations under the pretext of "rescuing" them from instability (to a NWO?). But one wonders by what criteria the US and Britain, which have become virtually bankrupt themselves through greed and selling their people out to offshore banking interests, and their manufacturing bases sold overseas, can escape from appearing 'failed states' themselves. Is it the blind leading the blind? Will free enterprise remain to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit?
Meanwhile fiat 'money' (=debt+interest), backed up by nothing but the manufacturing of 'confidence,' or the lack thereof, pumped into both Western and poorer nations at high interest, to the tune of trillions and trillions of dollars, raises the specter of global hyper-inflation which threatens to plunge the world into even greater financial collapse.
And what kind of justice allows unelected 'global' authorities to tax citizens for anything? Yet we hear such 'global' taxes (e.g., carbon taxes, etc.) are coming? Would not such taxes amount to a gross violation of national sovereignties, indeed a violation of the natural law and common law?
“There’s not going to be a ceding of sovereignty to a global regulator,” said a White House official this week. We can only hope this is not an Orwellian transvaluation of facts, and we must hold leaders to this. But what of the facts? Is not the amoral globalist International Monetary Fund already baiting nations into debt + usury, and thus utter dependence far into the future, even as 'international' institutions take over education, ethics, and all economic rules, despite the global collapse which these very institutions wrought? Is this dependence not the supreme intention of the NWO announced this week at the G-20 meeting in London?
Finally, all pomp and circumstance aside, many wonder what kind of governing mechanisms the NWO will employ transnationally. In light of the decline of the US dollar, will it mean a greater role for the Rockefeller-inspired United Nations with its increasingly macabre agendas based on controverted 'science,' or will there be different centers of political gravity in multi-lateral fashion? Will an emerging 'global ethic' which has already taken the form of draconian political correctness in Western nations be imposed on dissenting nations and peoples? Will dissent and free speech continue to be the boast of the West at all, or is it already caving under the pressure of political correctness? Surely free speech and the right to dissent are the last bulwark against outright totalitarianism. So many questions remain...
** “My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.” Words of Mr. Obama to Bank CEO's meeting at the White House this week. But these are words spoken after he allowed the Fed and banks to loot the treasury and the American taxpayer of unaccounted for trillions. Words for the media, deeds for the international bankers and Wall Street.
--->April 4, 2009 - Indeed a disturbing report from last December: 'Disturbing' study reveals most of us would torture others if ordered to'. On the contrary, the measure of a man, of a soul, is to refuse such an order, whatever the consequences. It is another reason people should think twice about joining the military in a time when the State increasingly arrogates to itself ultimacy, refusing to acknowledge the divine law. Such a state acknowledges only its own will-to-power, ala the nihilism of Neitszche, and is no better than Caligula. Can a Christian, or any man who loves justice, serve such ends?
--->The New World Order = Anglo-American-Zionist Quest for Hegemony: With Barack Obama on his side, Gordon Brown brokers a new world order at G20 summit
--->Has Israel been involved in false flag terrorist attacks? Judge for yourself
--->April 6: How A Police State in the US Became Possible: In part by the money masters spending millions in small county and city sheriff and Attorney General races which ordinarily cost far, far smaller amounts. Millions of dollars (and payoffs) have been spent in these races to put up Federally approved candidates to defeat local-hearted law enforcement which naturally aligned with the people. Then these new officials began with the Feds to tear down Posse Comitatus.
The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878 after the end of Reconstruction, with the intention (in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807) of substantially limiting the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement. This separation of powers is now greatly compromised as local police have been militarized, turned into SWAT teams and the like. It is an ominous development.
“Domestic emergency deployment may be “just the first example of a series of expansions in presidential and military authority,” or even an increase in domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU’s National Security Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of “a creeping militarization” of homeland security.” P. J. Wilson
As Martin Luther King showed, boycotting the empire, and calling for disrupting work strikes, is far more efficacious a response to political evil than violence. But people need to get away from the TV hypnosis-lethargy and realize something wicked this way comes. Violence may be cathartic, but violent protestors only bring down the fire of the Dragons on all, rather than starving the beasts until they give way or die. We pray it goes nor farther.
Legislature Through Martial Law
Turning Back: The United States Can Become a Good, a better country again, by returning to the values of an earlier time, before offshore bankers controlled our destiny. That is what ordnary people ask, not violent revolution, but for a moral revolution which rejects the grasping desire to dominate and make war against others which only invites blowback and the endless cycles of suffering for millions. We need to return to the decent values of simplicity and to the rule of law, while encouraging by example (not force) the same in all (truly) sovereign nations. We can and must do better.
