All of us, every single man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth were born with the same unalienable rights; to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And, if the governments of the world can't get that through their thick skulls, then, regime change will be necessary.
TURIN, Italy (Reuters) - People who manufacture weapons or invest in weapons industries are hypocrites if they call themselves Christian, Pope Francis said on Sunday.
Francis issued his toughest condemnation to date of the weapons industry at a rally of thousands of young people at the end of the first day of his trip to the Italian city of Turin.
In the same speech, Pope Francis appears to call for acts of terrorism:
Francis also built on comments he has made in the past about events during the first and second world wars.
He spoke of the "tragedy of the Shoah," using the Hebrew term for the Holocaust.
"The great powers had the pictures of the railway lines that brought the trains to the concentration camps like Auschwitz to kill Jews, Christians, homosexuals, everybody. Why didn't they bomb (the railway lines)?"
From this source quoting James J. Lee, who invaded the Discovery Channel's building today in Silver Spring Maryland, fired shots, and held hostages until the police shot him:
"Nothing is more important than saving ... the Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels. The humans? The planet does not need humans.”
Westerners are not supposed to recognise that they are living in a civilisation that is superior to other civilisations. But the smarter ones have trouble not seeing it, and in their more honest moments they admit the superiority of western civilisation, at least to themselves.
The great ideas of the West—rationalism, self-criticism, the disinterested search for truth, the separation of church and state, the rule of law and equality under the law, freedom of thought and expression, human rights, and liberal democracy—are superior to any others devised by humankind. It was the West that took steps to abolish slavery; the calls for abolition did not resonate even in Africa, where rival tribes sold black prisoners into slavery. The West has secured freedoms for women and racial and other minorities to an extent unimaginable 60 years ago. The West recognizes and defends the rights of the individual: we are free to think what we want, to read what we want, to practice our religion, to live lives of our choosing.___CityJournal
One could characterize the difference between the West and the Rest as a difference in epistemological principles. The desire for knowledge, no matter where it leads, inherited from the Greeks, has led to an institution unequaled—or very rarely equaled—outside the West: the university. Along with research institutes and libraries, universities are, at least ideally, independent academies that enshrine these epistemological norms, where we can pursue truth in a spirit of disinterested inquiry, free from political pressures. In other words, behind the success of modern Western societies, with their science and technology and open institutions, lies a distinct way of looking at the world, interpreting it, and recognizing and rectifying problems.
...A culture that gave the world the novel; the music of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert; and the paintings of Michelangelo, da Vinci, and Rembrandt does not need lessons from societies whose idea of heaven, peopled with female virgins, resembles a cosmic brothel. Nor does the West need lectures on the superior virtue of societies in which women are kept in subjection under sharia, endure genital mutilation, are stoned to death for alleged adultery, and are married off against their will at the age of nine; societies that deny the rights of supposedly lower castes; societies that execute homosexuals and apostates. The West has no use for sanctimonious homilies from societies that cannot provide clean drinking water or sewage systems, that make no provisions for the handicapped, and that leave 40 to 50 percent of their citizens illiterate.
Western civilisation has worked its way through periods of monarchy, world colonialism, battles of totalitarian ideologies that took themselves too seriously--and has mostly come out on the side of facilitating the healing of the world's sick, feeding of the world's hungry, and helping to enable the impoverished of the world to acquire a measure of comfort. All of that, and much more typifies the prevailing spirit of the achieving west.
The suicidal west is another matter, but I suspect we can deal with them. All the doomseekers, holy warmers, lefty dieoff.orgies, and the like. But we cannot allow the suicidal insiders to sabotage us in our resistance to the bloody outsiders who would take our freedom and our lives.
I came across the following through the help of an excellent new blog-find, WI Catholic Musings. The full article appeared at The Jewish Press, who are, as they are putting it themselves, commenting from "from a centrist or Modern Orthodox perspective".
The Pope's Got A Point By: Rabbi Yerachmiel Seplowitz
The pope has generated a bit of controversy.
First, he permitted congregations to go back to the old custom of praying in Latin. (More about that later.) Then he announced that only the Catholic Church qualifies as a real church. Protestants, as far as the pope is concerned, simply don’t make the grade!
And with that, over 40 years of ecumenical dialogue go down the tubes. Protestant leaders are offended. The churches whose founders long ago broke away from the Catholic Church feel they are considered less-than-Christian by an institution they previously rejected as “too Christian.”
No doubt, in short order, a multitude of Jewish leaders will express their own concerns over the pontiff’s lack of tolerance for those whose beliefs are different from his own. After all, a spirit of cooperation fostered by the Second Vatican Council back in 1965 has allowed people of diverse faiths to share their beliefs in mutual respect. Why, we’ve even witnessed the intriguing phenomenon of cardinals, in full “uniform,” visiting rabbinical students to observe the study of Talmud. How, many are asking, could the pope jeopardize this détente with his bigoted condemnation of non-Catholics?
I have one thing to say to the pope: “Hear! Hear!” What do his critics want from the man? He’s got a religion to run!
I, for one, am not at all put off by the fact that the leader of another religion sees that religion as primary. If he thinks his religion is right, he obviously thinks mine is wrong.
I’ve always found it curious that people of different religions get together in a spirit of harmony to share their common faiths. By definition, these people should have strong opposition to the beliefs of their “colleagues” at the table. The mode of prayer of one group should be an affront to the other group. Yet, for some reason it isn’t. Why is that?
I suspect the reason many representatives of diverse religious groups find it easy to pray together is that they don’t really believe very strongly in the uniqueness of their own beliefs.
If my religion is okay and your religion is okay, we can mix and match and share with mutual respect and admiration. Can you envision Elijah the Prophet conducting an ecumenical service on Mount Carmel? “Oh, would you like to have a joint prayer meeting? Great! We’ll do God, and you can do Baal!” I don’t think so!
What the pope is saying – and I agree 100 percent – is that there are irreconcilable differences, and we can’t pretend those differences don’t exist.
Christians believe we are all sinners and that there is only one way to achieve salvation. It starts with believing that the Messiah arrived about 2,000 years ago. I obviously don’t believe that premise to be correct. I can’t. Such a belief is, based upon the teachings of the Torah, theologically indefensible.
If you believe in something, if you really believe in something, you need to have the courage of your convictions and stand up for what you believe. I can respect the pope for making an unambiguous statement of what he believes.
We need to respect all people. All of us are created in God’s image. This does not mean, however, that we have to respect their opinions. Nor does it mean that we should go around trashing the beliefs of other people. What it means is that we don’t need to play games of “I’m okay, your okay” with beliefs we find unacceptable.
The Latin Mass that was dropped many years ago included a prayer for the conversion of the Jews. Now that the Latin Mass is once again acceptable to Catholics, the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations has written to the Vatican and expressed “profound concern … that the authorization may have allowed the return of this prayer.” They have requested confirmation that the conversion prayer will not be reintroduced.
I ask you, does this make sense? Where do we Jews get off making demands of Catholics that they only say prayers that meet with our approval?
Next week is Tisha B’Av. Have we forgotten that we are living in exile? The audacity of Jews dictating to Christians how they should pray is simply mind-boggling.
First off, the request implies that we can influence Catholic theology. Face it: Christians believe they are right and we are wrong. They think we should convert, and that attitude will not change until Moshiach comes.
And speaking of Moshiach, if we are going to sit down with the Vatican to negotiate liturgy, should we, l’havdil, offer to take out the second paragraph of Aleinu, in which we pray for the day when gentiles will stop worshipping idols? How about “sheheim mishtachavim” – the line that Christian censors removed from Aleinu, claiming it insulted Christians? Many of us have put it back. Should we allow the Vatican to dictate what we say in our prayers? Or should we, perhaps, do a line-by-line analysis of the Talmud to make sure there is nothing there that people may find offensive?
I don’t mean to suggest that we shouldn’t be talking to Catholic leaders. The pope needs to know, for example, that it is good to encourage his millions of followers to support Israel and that it is bad to hate Jews. There needs to be careful dialogue, but it needs to be a secular, common, needs-based dialogue. We should not be studying Talmud together and we should not be discussing prayer.
A Catholic doctor once came to visit me in my office. Someone had told him what I said in a sermon about the murder of pre-born children, and he determined that he and I were on the same page. He invited me to participate in a symposium on abortion, to be made up of doctors, lawyers, and clergy. He was looking for non-Catholics. “After all,” he reasoned, “we orthodox people have to stick together!”
I declined the invitation.
The rabbi's views are like a fresh breeze cleaning up the minds clogged by relativism and I-am-okay-you-are-okay drivel. Can you believe it! He is not taken aback by the fact that the pope is Catholic! This is a long-overdue slap in the face of all those who insist on their different-, precious- and uniqueness and who are then not content with discerning respect received from a distance, an attitude best defined as leftism, by the way.
I wrote some months ago about a platform whose objective is to send Aznar to the International Criminal Court because of “his support to the illegal Iraqi war”. Another platform, called “Aznar for ICC” is preparing a “hot autumn“, as United Left’s MP from Andalucia’s Autonomous Community Antonio Romero has said. He added:
Neither Aznar, nor Bush nor Tony Blair can go away without punishment after causing an illegal and immoral war, which has produced the death to 700.000 Iraqis, the majority of which were civil, more than 2 million of people in exile, the complete destruction of the country’s infraestructures, of its historical and cultural heritage and the absolute looting of its natural resources, specially, of oil”.
For you to consider the personality of Antonio Romero: he was condemned some years ago, because in a strike, he beat, insulted and menaced an old man, owner of a little cafeteria, and one of the clients because he did not want to go on strike. He shouted at both: “fascist, son of a bitch, asshole”, after yelling at them “you’re going to shut whether you like it or not, or you’re going to shut por cojones“. You know, a peaceful, respectful and calm guy… But the best is what he said: “I only wanted to defend their rights -whether they liked it or not-, telling him how marvellous it was to close all the shops for Andalucia’s rights“.
It looks like Marvel has once again sunk into the sick obsession they've developed with offending America. In one of their latest crossover connected comics, Silent War #6, they depict US troops as suicide bombers:
Now, in the story, a select group of soldiers who are primed and ready to die at the command of their superior are exposed to the Mists and given temporary super powers that doom them to die. These soldiers are sent to the moon to battle the Inhumans who can honestly take people who’s insides are being torn apart by energies they were never meant to have. One guy’s head pops off, at which point the soldiers surrender and are taken into custody by the Inhumans. One of these soldiers wasn’t exposed, however, and instead carried explosives.
As the soldiers are escorted to holding cells, Maria Hill personally activates ‘KISMET‘ from a control room watching the fight go down and when the soldier is on target, she doubles over, stutters out a ‘God Bless America’ and explodes, killing herself, the rest of her squad and leaving Atillan in rubble, burying Black Bolt in the blast and I’m sure doing some harm to the Inhumans in the area as well.
Let me say this again: SHIELD wrapped a woman in explosives and detonated her in order to destroy people who didn’t have to be an enemy if the Fantastic Four had just gotten their heads out of their asses and talked to the people who used to watch their kids on weekends. An American citizen (albeit fictional) tried to kill people she felt were the enemy because her government didn’t understand them. SHIELD supports terrorist tactics that, in real life, are considered cowardly and wrong. Bill Maher got kicked off the air by calling people who do such actions ‘warriors‘ and now here are our heroes sending in people to kill themselves for their beliefs.
Absolutely disgusting. I recall that 3 years ago, Marvel was giving out some Avengers specials as a seeming gesture to support the troops in Iraq. However, if they're going to put out garbage like this, that even goes so far as to insult the Inhumans and SHIELD, then no US soldier with common sense should have to accept Marvel's so-called contributions. Here's their page with the contact info, where I'd encourage all concerned to go and write to tell them that this is simply offensive and that they should apologize.
This video is based upon a blog I wrote last year, when Global Defense Group was still a MySpace group. The blog was well received at the time, so I thought it would make a good subject for a video. This is the first video GDG has made featuring a vocal track by your's truly, your humble administrator.
I am not interested in keeping an "open mind" about the the people who want to kill me, kill my family and destroy my entire culture.
I am not interested in keeping an open mind about a religion that openly declares our only options are conversion to Islam, subjugation by Islam, or death at the hand of Islam.
I am not interested in keeping an "open mind" about the partisans in our government, who are more interested in regaining power by undermining the current administration, than focusing their hatred on the enemies of the American people.
I am not interested in keeping an "open mind" about the members of our media who seem determined to dispirit the American people, undermine confidence in our leadership and offer aid and comfort to the enemy through their blatantly biased (and often factually incorrect) reporting...
I am not interested in keeping an "open mind" about teachers who preach anti-American sentiments to captive student audiences, and who publicly ostracize any student who does not pander to their leftist agenda.
I am not interested in keeping an "open mind" about people who find moral equivalence between what our nation is doing in Iraq, and the actions of those who behead people, blow up children with suicide belts and target civilian populations with airliners.
I am not interested in keeping an "open mind" about people who are too intellectually lazy to learn a little history, but instead prefer to regurgitate the latest news sound-bites, wholly undigested and with absolutely no concept of historical context.
I am not interested in keeping an "open mind" about my fellow citizens who believe we are not at war, that our government is the true enemy, and that this is all some complex conspiracy to reduce our freedoms, and ultimately increase control over the American people.
I am not even slightly interested in keeping an "open mind" about the people who consider Hamas and Hizbollah legitimate political entities, and find moral equivalence between their actions, and the actions taken by the Israelis in self-defense.
Keeping an "open mind" is great in theory, but sometimes it's just an excuse to not take sides, or not own up to the side you have already chosen. An open mind is a wonderful thing to have... but so are convictions.
Sometimes in life, you have to pick sides and make a stand.
Thank you Kafir...thank you sir.
[Note to all: I am having trouble becoming accustomed to Blogger. I realize the font is quite small. Please bear with me.]
