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How the Catholic Church survives social progress
Mary Shaw
I was just starting out as a student at a small-town Catholic elementary school in the mid-1960s when the Second Vatican Council (also known as Vatican II) brought the Catholic Church into the 20th century. The Council's most notable changes for me at the time were that the use of vernacular language was now permitted in the Mass and that the laity became more involved in the Church's ministry. At around the same time, the nuns who taught in my school were given new, more modern habits to wear, which exposed their ankles and their hairlines -- much more progressive than the burka-like garb that they had to wear previously.
All of this was very exciting and appealing to us young folks. But, unfortunately, that is where the progress stopped.
'Almost a perfect mix'
Eric Walberg
Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court is another American dream story, as told by Anayat Durrani and Eric Walberg
Federal Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor is on the path to become the first Latina and third woman to serve on the High Court. If confirmed by the Senate, she would join Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the only other woman on the court.
The 54-year-old daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants grew up in a public housing project in the South Bronx and lost her father at the age of nine. But this and her medical condition as a Type 1 diabetic did not stop Sotomayor from graduating from both Princeton and Yale.
Remembering Father Gerry
by Stephen Lendman
The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti's (IJDH) Brian Concannon knew him well, and posted this on IJDH's web site on his passing:
"Reverend Gerard Jean-Juste (1947 - 2009), a tireless advocate for justice for Haitians in Haiti and the US, passed away today, May 27, 2009. Fr. Gerry's passing is a great loss to all of us at IJDH and BAI (Bureau des Avocats Internationaux in Haiti)."
In an on-air interview, Concannon added:
"So every time there's been a dictatorship in Haiti in the last 20 years he was one of the top people out there resisting it. He was also a leader in the United States where we've got a problem of treating Haitian immigrants discriminatorily. He not only achieved results including ending all three of those dictatorships, but what's probably (most) important was how he achieved (them) - because he was a steadfast proponent of nonviolent tactics including sit-ins, demonstrations, popular education, those kinds of things. He was very effectively able to channel the Haitian people's desire for justice into concrete activities."
Heresy of the First Order: We are the 'Third Chimpanzees'
Essay by Jason Miller
“On this dot, tiny lumps of impure carbon and water, of complicated structure, with somewhat unusual physical and chemical properties, crawl about for a few years, until they are dissolved again into the elements of which they are compounded.”
–Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) from “Dreams and Facts”
Russell’s nihilistic characterization of Homo sapiens injects some much-needed perspective into a world in which our species of intellectually evolved primates suffers a collective delusion of grandeur. In “Dreams and Facts,” Russell further savages our God-complex with the powerfully humbling reminder that our solar system is but “an infinitesimal speck” and the Earth a mere “microscopic dot.” He does apply some soothing salve to our wounded egos with the observation that, “No man can achieve the greatness of which he is capable until he has allowed himself to see his own littleness,” but his decimation of our grossly-overinflated sense of importance remains intact.
Trigger Points for Civil Unrest
from Aurelia Masterson
Introduction ? This article is mostly for the USA but will have relevance for other countries. We are going to look at civil unrest and what can trigger it.
Definition of Civil Unrest ? This is not a revolution or violent overthrow of the government. It is a breakdown of law and order. The symptoms of civil unrest follow: crowds gathering and engaging in violence such as starting fires, throwing rocks, destroying vehicles, attacking cars with motorists inside, marching outside of government buildings and acting in a disorderly and destructive fashion, crowds throwing rocks and other projectiles. Civil unrest is more than just unhappy people. It is when these unhappy people demonstrate their unhappiness with violence and destruction of property so as to send a signal to the government that they had better meet their wishes and fast. Civil unrest is not revolutionary behavior. Revolutionary behavior generally focuses sharply on specific targets; it is not random violence or destruction of property. Revolutionary behavior has a lot of let?s call it propaganda for lack of a better word. This is where the revolutionary forces tend to publish material and make speeches to support their political position and win over converts.
WATERBOARDING TIP OF THE ICEBERG - RE-OPEN 9-11 INVESTIGATION
Allen L Roland
Part TWO of Bill Moyer's harrowing PBS documentary TORTURING DEMOCRACY establishes that waterboarding was just the tip of the iceberg of the severe interrogation techniques implemented and condoned by the White House and Justice Department. I feel it is also quite possible they were covering up their own 9/11 activities and involvement :
The reason George W Bush could say "The United States does not Torture " with a straight face is that under the enhanced interrogation techniques approved by George W Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld ~ Any method that does not kill or result in the loss of a limb is not defined as torture. In other words, if the " Detainee dies, your doing it wrong."
Israel lobby commits major blunder in France: tries to silence a comedian
VINEYARDSAKER
Amazing stuff is happening in France. It all began with a relatively well-known French-Cameroonian comedian, Dieudonné M'bala M'bala was invited to participate on a TV show on the channel France 3. The show also featured a Maghrebian artist and Dieudonne decided to impersonate an extremist Israeli settler infuriated by the presence of an Arab on a French show.
Dieudonne who, in the past, had always enjoyed ridiculing pretty much every segment of French society clearly had never expected the hysterical uproar that his humor would trigger that day: the huge constellation of French Zionists organizations lead by the notorious CRIF ("Representative Committee of Jewish organization in France" - the French version of AIPAC) immediately attacked Dieudonne, suing him for racists comments and suing him for "anti-Semitism" (a criminal offense in France). This was hardly the first time that the French Zionist mob had decided to crush an outspoken critic of its role in French politics or its unconditional support for the last racist state on the planet: Israel. But this time, the Ziomob miscalculated, badly.
Twenty Nine Reasons People Need to Pull Their Heads Out of the Sand
Wanda Woodward
When money speaks, the truth keeps silent. - Russian Proverb
All it takes for evil to exist is for good people to do nothing. - Edmund Burke
Corporations have been enthroned…An era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people…until wealth is aggregated in a few hands…and the Republic is destroyed. - Abraham Lincoln
Less than two years ago, I sent an email to an acquaintance regarding some pressing topic like global environmental degradation, erosion of habeas corpus in America, or the millions of women and girls around the world who are being sold as sex slaves, victims of female genital mutilation, raped, beaten, and murdered. The response from the acquaintance shocked me, especially since she was highly educated, is a mental health professional (supposedly with lots of compassion), and has two small children who will, of course, inherit the legacy of the condition in which she and I and 6.6 billion others will leave this world. To paraphrase, she said: “Oh, I can’t read this stuff. I bury my head in the sand because there is so much and I can’t do anything about it.”
Retailers risk prosecution for mislabelling produce from illegal Israeli settlements
Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights
Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) are illegal under International law, as confirmed by the International Court of Justice in its Advisory Opinion of 9 July 2004 on the separation barrier in the West Bank. Produce of illegal Israeli settlements is imported and readily sold in UK supermarkets, such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Somerfield. That produce is regularly labelled misleadingly as originating in the ‘West Bank’.
BUSH, CHENEY AND RUMSFELD - UNINDICTED WAR CRIMINALS
Allen L Roland
Any American who watches Bill Moyer's harrowing PBS documentary TORTURING DEMOCRACY will not only be shocked by the Bush Administration's move to the dark side but the key role of Dick Cheney in implementing this blatant abuse of executive power:
I just finished watching Part One of Bill Moyer's TORTURING DEMOCRACY ~ From 9/11 to Waterboarding: The Inside Story and it was a harrowing experience of watching evil perpetuated and condoned by morally corrupt leaders, led by Dick Cheney ~ who were committed to breaking all moral conventions and laws to accomplish their evil means and legally cover their tracks in the process.
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