The salary of British MEPs rises next month from £63,000 to £80,500, and that in total MEPs can receive expenses and allowances of £363,000 a year including a £261 daily subsistence allowance for simply turning up at work and £45,648 in general office expenses, even if they don't have an office in their home constituency.
Married for over 45,000 years!
Nearly 600 couples with a combined total of 45,584 years of marriage will be celebrating their wedding anniversaries at a Mass in Westminster Cathedral on Saturday 30th May 2009 at 11am. The Mass will be celebrated by the recently installed Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols.
The only people the president disarms with these words are those who are convinced that abortion is the deliberate taking of the life of a unique human individual (with its own unique DNA, distinct from that of its mother and its father). It is they and only they whom the president now summons to listen to the other side, to compromise, to pull clouds of uncertainty over their previous convictions, and to begin to waver. Obama is disarming the pro-life side, and only the pro-life side. The poor young students of Notre Dame, and their inexcusably uncritical and politically unsophisticated professors, are undone by a surface appeal to reason and civility, which is actually a call for their unconditional surrender.
For the pro-abortion forces here [in the US], “reason” and “right” and “sensible” mean supporting abortion. Anything else is unreasonable, against women’s rights, and lacking in all sense. One highly placed appointee of President Obama even compares the condition of a woman who wants an abortion to that of the slave woman in America prior to 1863 — caught in a kind of mandatory, unwilling servitude.
"in all its severity among the Greeks. While the position of the goddesses in their mythology, as Marx points out, brings before us an earlier period when the position of women was freer and more respected, in the heroic age we find the woman already being humiliated by the domination of the man...
...
Monogamous marriage comes on the scene as the subjugation of the one sex by the other; it announces a struggle between the sexes unknown throughout the whole previous prehistoric period.
Spain's prime minister defended Tuesday one of the most controversial parts of his proposed abortion law reform which would allow 16-year-olds to terminate their pregnancies without parental consent.
"Let's take into account what the experts say, the experience of other European countries and let's have confidence in our youth, in our women," Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said when asked about the measure.
"Let's not deny them the right to freely decide, let's not intervene in the free and private decision of a woman, who is the one who has to take on the responsibility of a pregnancy during her entire life," he added.
“Love One another in the Heart of the Universe”: our development day theme was presented by two passionate, visionary speakers, D___ R____ and S___ V____ and their enthusiastic team. This faith experience began with a meditative, multi media presentation of the creation story and highlighted our role as Catholic women in preserving our environment.
When you look at a leader like Winston Churchill, he’d been leading and doing real things and handling very serious responsibilities for years. Of course he made mistakes of various sorts, but not from inexperience, or noob-itis. He’d been military, Head of the navy, politician, and so much more in th years before he became Prime Minister of Great Britain and her remaining Empire. A very, very full CV indeed– and he came from a long line of famous and impressive people.
...
What, exactly, had Obama done before becoming president? Got a couple degrees. Got a pile of radical friends & mentors & groomers. Got an ambitious wife. Got in ith the Chicago Democratic mafia machine, got on a spending-spree radical education program that did very little, helped ACORN extort questionable mortgages from banks. Got into the Senate, where he was notable for nothing. Got to be president. Not much of a CV.
Notre Dame chose to bestow an honor on the most pro-abortion President the USA has ever seen. You honor those whose positions and actions you believe are laudable.
Sir Peter Viggers claimed for a £1,645 floating “duck island” in the garden pond at his Hampshire home. In a statement, the Conservative Party said: “Sir Peter Viggers has confirmed that he will retire as MP for Gosport at the next election. He will do so at the direct request of David Cameron”;
Dublin archbishop: Sex abuse report will shock
The Catholic organisations would happily refer a gay couple to a secular [adoption] agency, but it would be against their faith to take them on themselves.
This state of affairs harmed no one, and worked well, a compromise between the secular and religious, the old and new, the socially conservative and liberal. But it offended the Labour party, who see homophobia as a heresy to their state religion. This is a government, after all, that has made it legal for firms to suspend workers who disapprove of homosexual acts and to fire public servants who belong to a democratic political party. This is a government that is turning Britain into a closed society where anyone who hasn't sworn the modern secular equivalent of the Thirty-Nine Articles can be thrown out of work.
An atheocracy.
However, given that both science and philosophy continue to struggle to define what the beginning of “life” is, wouldn’t it be better to come at the debate from a different angle entirely? For if a pregnant woman has dominion over life, why should she not also have dominion over not-life?
If women are, by biology, commanded to host, shelter, nurture and protect life, why should they not also be empowered to end life, too? I’m not advocating stoving in the heads of children, or encouraging late abortions - but then, no-one is.
Following the birth of her son last year, however, Sawyer had begun to have doubts about the ethics and logic of abortion. “I was calling the life inside me a baby, because I wanted it,” she wrote, after visiting picketed abortion clinics in America. “Yet if I hadn't - as would perhaps have been the case ten years earlier - I would have thought of it as just a group of cells it was OK to kill. It was the same entity. It was merely my response to it that determined whether it would live or die. That seemed irrational to me. Maybe even immoral.”
Now that Donald Trautman has weighed in against Notre Dame I've decided to jump off the bandwagon. There must be something wrong with any cause that man supports.
The Catholic philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre famously ended his landmark 1982 book After Virtue with a gloomy meditation about the collapse of a common moral sense in the West. He suggested that we were too far gone into nihilism and relativism to save and that those devoted to the traditional virtues should consider hiving off, as Benedict and his followers did in Rome’s final days, to build communities that can withstand the incoming tide of chaos and despond. MacIntyre wrote that our unawareness of how lost we are “constitutes part of our predicament,” one that can only be adequately addressed by “another—and doubtless very different—St. Benedict.”
On Monday, the Corporation announced that it has appointed a Muslim as head of religious broadcasting. This is not a joke, I can assure you.
...
Retired Presbyterian minister Dr. Robert Coulter said the appointment of Aaqil Ahmed was "a juvenile gimmick".
"According to the Church of England 70% of the UK are Christian, 3% are Muslim yet the BBC for its head of religious broadcast appoints a Muslim," he said.
Religious commentator Clifford Longley said the complaints were "spurious".
Steyn is incapable of writing a tedious line. As reviewers noted about his last book, the demographic doomsday tome America Alone, reading Mark Steyn can be the most fun you’ll have getting depressed
“I think it caught me off guard. It was not necessarily something I was ready to hear coming from the Archbishop,” Callahan said.
Bukovsky was one of the first to expose the use of psychiatric imprisonment against political prisoners in the Soviet Union. He spent a total of twelve years in Soviet prisons, labor camps and in psikhushkas, forced-treatment psychiatric hospitals used by the regime as special prisons.
"Go through all the structures, all the features of this emerging European monster, and it more and more resembles the Soviet Union. Of course, it’s a milder version of the Soviet Union. Please don’t misunderstand me...it has no gulag. It has no KGB, not yet. But I’m very carefully watching such structures as Europol, for example. And that really concerns because this organisation will have power probably even more than the KGB. They will have diplomatic immunity. I cannot imagine the KGB with diplomatic immunity. That’s even more frightening than it is."
"What you have observe taken in perspective, is the systematic introduction of ideology which will be enforced later...and apparently, that's the whole purpose of Europol. Otherwise, why would we need it? That for me is very suspicious. And I'd watch very carefully who is persecuted for what and what is happening now.
That is one field in which I am an expert. I know how gulags spring up."
The Pope was "never in the Hitler Youth: never, never, never," announced the Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi at a press conference in Jerusalem today.
In 609 the Byzantine emperor Phocas gave the building to Pope Boniface IV, who converted it into a Christian church and consecrated it to Santa Maria ad Martyres, now known as Santa Maria dei Martiri.
The building's consecration as a church saved it from the abandonment, destruction, and the worst of the spoliation which befell the majority of ancient Rome's buildings during the early medieval period.
In a recent article in the New York Times by Peter Steinfels ("Roman Catholics' War Over Abortion", NYTimes, May 9, 2009) Steinfels attempts to "explain" the concerns of Roman Catholics over the invitation to President Obama to speak and receive an honorary doctorate degree at Notre Dame University...
Classic American Catholic dissent: all one has to do is observe the category for this Steinfels article in the New York Times: "Beliefs" -- the effort being to frame the debates (which they always do so successfully) by assuring the readers that abortion is just a "belief", that one only believes that abortion kills innocent human beings. And like any belief, in our democratic, pluralistic, multicultural society one person's or groups beliefs must not be allowed to outweigh the beliefs of the rest of those in society (or, as in the mini-version of utilitarian ethics called "communitarianism", where the beliefs of the majority in a community outweigh the beliefs of the minority in a community).
"Chief Islamic Judge of the Palestinian Authority, Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, launched a poisonous verbal attack at Israel at a Monday night gathering attended by Pope Benedict XVI.
In a meeting with organizations involved in inter-religious dialogue at the Notre Dame Jerusalem Center, Tamimi called upon Muslims and Christians to unite against what he said were the murderous Israelis.
Taking the podium after the pope without being on the original list of speakers scheduled for the evening, Tamimi, speaking at length in Arabic, accused Israel of murdering women and children in Gaza and making...
Out of around 40,000 pregnancies more than 20,000 were terminated - the first time more had chosen this option than become mothers. The figure is higher than 2007, when it just hit 50 per cent, and consistent with a steady upwards trend since the Government started its controversial Teenage Pregnancy Strategy in 1999.
British Muslims hold more conservative opinions towards homosexual acts, abortion, viewing pornography, suicide and sex outside marriage than European Muslims, polling markedly lower when asked if they believed these things were morally acceptable.
The most dramatic contrast was found in attitudes towards homosexuality. None of the 500 British Muslims interviewed believed that homosexual acts were morally acceptable. 1,001 non-Muslim Britons were interviewed.
"Hi, I'm an Italian Catholic and I love your blog! I was so worried about Winnie, I'm glad she's OK."
Home Office name hate promoters excluded from the UK
I Want To Be Banned From England Like Michael Savage
1) List your Thoughtcrimes.
Here's mine:
I believe that Jesus Christ, a male Jew who lived in 1st century Palestine at the time of Tiberius Caesar, who was born to a woman who remained a virgin before, during and after His birth, is the only Son of the living God and that He died on the cross for our sins. And that a piece of bread becomes His body and blood (soul and divinity) when a duly ordained, male, member of the Roman Catholic Church says the right words over it.
I believe in the devil and hell and that people go there who disobey God.
Including people who disobey him "sincerely".
I believe that "error has no rights" and that "outside the Church there is no salvation".
I believe that babies do not come from the stork but from inside their mummies and that when a lady has an abortion, the baby is killed.
I believe that Adam and Eve really existed and were man and woman, respectively, and that their union, in accord with the observable laws of nature, is the model for all marriages.
I believe in the logical principle of non-contradiction: that two opposed things cannot be "reconciled", "balanced", or nuanced to find a "third way" between them that will make everyone in the world happy.
I believe that really bad criminals should be executed.
Publicly.
2) Email them to Jack-boot Jacquie Smith, Gordo's Home Secretary,
public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
with the following note:Dear eminent mouthpiece of our Dear Leader,
With regard to your most recent efforts to rid our nation of wrongthinkfulness, I wish to submit the enclosed list of thoughtcrimes, to which I freely and willingly admit.
I have come to see the innapropriateness of my ways. I hereby certify that I wish to be helped to realise a more tolerant and diversity-minded lifestyle.
I therefore request immediate retrieval by duly authorised agents of the state and transport to the nearest facility for re-education.
Thank you for your consideration.
[signed]
3) pass it on.
I was in Cameroon for the papal visit and his statement on condoms was a non-issue. On the contrary Cameroonians were grateful to Benedict for telling the truth to power. His admonition to Christians to speak out against "corruption and abuses of power" was a hit, precipitating a domino effect. Curiously enough, this was hardly reported by most foreign media. Perhaps threatened by Benedict's nerve to contest their 'infallibility' in setting global agenda for HIV/AIDS, the media became hysterical.
This condescending attitude was not lost on most of us in the news business. This is not the first, nor will it be the last time that Africa will be viewed from the biased prism of a childish continent. The issue of condoms and the curtailing of transmission of HIV/AIDS have always been controversial.
Remarkably there are two schools of thoughts. Some elitist African puppets, who have been milking most of these foreign agencies, give the impression that all we need is condoms. On the other hand, the less vocal majority, know that the African worldview is essentially polygamous. Thus any intervention that does not put this into account is bound to fail.
That is why; condoms will not solve the AIDS palaver, rather it will only aggravate it. Condom advocacy is like trying to quench a fire with petrol.
a withering report on the impact of surveillance on society released by a House of Lords committee today.
"Surveillance is an inescapable part of life in the UK," the peers' select committee on the constitution laments. "Every time we make a telephone call, send an email, browse the internet, or even walk down our local high street, our actions may be monitored and recorded.
"To respond to crime, combat the threat of terrorism and improve administrative efficiency, successive UK governments have gradually constructed one of the most extensive and technologically advanced surveillance systems in the world."
In September 2006, a 14-year-old schoolgirl, Codie Stott, asked a teacher if she could sit with another group to do a science project as all the girls with her spoke only Urdu. The teacher's first response, according to Stott, was to scream at her: "It's racist, you're going to get done by the police!" Upset and terrified, the schoolgirl went outside to calm down. The teacher called the police and a few days later, presumably after officialdom had thought the matter over, she was arrested and taken to a police station, where she was fingerprinted and photographed. According to her mother, she was placed in a bare cell for 3 1/2 hours. She was questioned on suspicion of committing a racial public order offence and then released without charge. The school was said to be investigating what further action to take, not against the teacher, but against Stott. Headmaster Anthony Edkins reportedly said: "An allegation of a serious nature was made concerning a racially motivated remark. We aim to ensure a caring and tolerant attitude towards pupils of all ethnic backgrounds and will not stand for racism in any form."
Socialists cry “Power to the people”, and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean — power over people, power to the State.
Are you sure your request is not just an affectation? Think about it.
The Odescalchi Castle is located in a position well known in antiquity for its strategic and landscape qualities. For the Etruscans, the harbour was the point of arrival for merchandise coming from Carthage. Later on in time, the Romans settled here, re-naming it Punicum. Here they built a splendid sea-side villa which belonged to the great consul Ulpiano.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Norman tower was erected (12th century). Still standing to this day, it was built with the scope of defending the coastline from pirate attacks.
In 1567, with an edict published by Pius V, it became part of a larger-scale defence system of towers running along the coast from Terracina to Porto Ercole.
At the end of the 16th Century the observation tower was encircled by a tall enclosure.
On the promontory of Santa Marinella, where now is found the Odescalchi Castle, according to Tabula Peutingeriana, where the site of the ancient Punicum could be found, a settlement of Etruscan origin, born in coincidence with a point of easy area, protected from winds and the sea.
The name Punicum, by the connection to the frequency of this track of coast by part of the Punic people, may derive from the Latin name of pomegranate (malum punicum) a plant that in ancient epoch, together with other elements of the natural landscape, was used often as topography point of reference (ad punicum).
In the Roman age near Punicum was built a great and luxury marine villa called Ulpianus, including a port and an establishment for fish farming, bought perhaps at the start of the III century A.D. by the famous jurisconsult Ulpianus.
Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, in course of time, become so complicated that no man alive knows what it means... Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable old people have died out of it... The little plaintiff or defendant who was promised a new rocking-horse when Jarndyce and Jarndyce should be settled has grown up, possessed himself of a real horse, and trotted away into the other world.
Fair wards of court have faded into mothers and grandmothers; a long procession of Chancellors has come in and gone out; the legion of bills in the suit have been transformed into mere bills of mortality; there are not three Jarndyces left upon the earth perhaps since old Tom Jarndyce in despair blew his brains out at a coffee-house in Chancery Lane; but Jarndyce and Jarndyce still drags its dreary length before the court, perennially hopeless.
Monday was our first visit to the hospice here in Vladivostok. It is free, and in terrible condition. Excellent medical help is available now if you can pay for it, but the hospice is the alternative for those who cannot pay. There are about forty patients there, mostly elderly, but some are there trying to recuperate from accidents, and a few are even mentally ill people in their 30's or 40's.
Thankfully, it was a sunny day, about 60 degrees, so the staff let us wheel some people outside in wheelchairs. They only own three wheelchairs, and the third fell apart when they tried it, so only two elderly people can go outside at a time. One woman, Nina, told me that she had not been outside for 3 or four months, due to the weather and probably lack of available staff. She was so grateful to be in the sun! She came out all bundled up in blankets, a furry hood and several head scarfs, but soon removed at least the hood. She told me that she used to have a large house (6 rooms) with a large vegetable garden, and that for over thirty years she had never been sick. But then she fell and hurt her leg, and now she's in the hospice. Another woman, Evgenia Semenova, crossed herself several times on the way outside. I asked her if she's a believer, and she said, yes, Orthodox.
She asked me what Church I belong to, and wrinkled her nose a little when I said "Catholic". She lamented that there are so many different churches when there is only one God, which I agreed with, but then she said that the Catholic Church was founded in the 6th century, after the Muslims! She says that she's studied the
Bible for a long time and that she didn't believe that I know much about it, because you have to read it every day. But she, too, enjoyed the sun and when we asked if we could take her picture, she took off her head scarf and fluffed out her grey curls and asked if she wasn't beautiful? :)I hope to send a few pictures by email soon.
...
On Wednesday, we went back to the hospice to help feed the patients. To get there from the church,which is on a steep hill, first you go down about 200 or so uneven steps and around the corner to the bus stop. You ride about 10 minutes or so, and then walk across train tracks, around the corner, and up another steep hill, past a children's clinic and a hospital--about 35 minutes in all, which isn't bad timing-wise.
To feed the patients, we sat next to them on their beds, because chairs are scarce. One woman asked me to open the window, and I eventually understood what she meant through her motions, because I didn't understand all the words. She had me stand on her bed to get to the window sill, because the little window was out of reach. The women were much more talkative than the men, and were curious when I told them that I want to be a nun.
One woman who was just admitted on Monday told me that she used to always attend the concerts at the Catholic Church in town, and that she greatly misses the beautiful music. She was very happy when I told her that I'm going to bring my harp soon to the hospice! She said she'll be waiting. I hope to go again tomorrow. We just wanted to make sure that we knew the way well before carrying the harp across town.
/311_Kuala_02.jpg){kind=link}
/309_FrRichard017.jpg){kind=link}
/308_GoodFriday.jpg){kind=link}