Getting back to the basics of our Catholic faith and of our service to our nation

Head of Catholic Archdiocese for the Military 

Remembers Soldiers’ Sacrifices

BY TRENT BEATTIE

Religious faith is seen by some people as poisonous to good citizenship. One’s religious beliefs are expected to be kept private if they are not in conformity with the secularist mindset. Matters such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ mandate are seen as demands to which any good citizen would acquiesce.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio could not disagree more.

Citing the examples of Servants of God Emil Kapaun and Vincent Capodanno, the Ohio native sees those who live their Catholic faith as most loyal citizens.

In 35 years of priesthood, Archbishop Broglio has witnessed the close connection between love of God and love of country. He has seen this most strikingly in his current role as archbishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, a position he has held since 2008.

National Catholic Register

Si todos se volvieran multiculturales, ya no habría posibilidad de serlo

Dilema Multicultural
Examinar la idea de lo multicultural es irresistible y eso es lo que hace Baggini en un breve ejercicio mental. Es uno de los cien ejercicios que su obra plantea: partiendo de la presentación de un escenario que el autor lo examina breve y razonablemente, sin complicaciones.

Más allá del examen de la posición de la persona multicultural y el dilema que sin remedio padece, la obra del autor muestra el enorme potencial que tiene la observación de situaciones comunes para examinar la solidez de nuestras ideas. Por ejemplo, el reclamo de preservar culturas étnicas de antiguas tradiciones es una petición considerada como inobjetable.

¿Lo es? No, de acuerdo con el examen del autor. La idea para este resumen fue tomada de Baggini, J. (2006). The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher. Plume, pp. 199-201.

Contrapeso

America Latina: la demonización sistemática de los años noventa

Los `90 y las mentiras de la izquierda

Hay un relato goebbeliano de la izquierda que se ha ido asentando como una verdad indudable y generalmente aceptada por líderes de opinión, comunicadores, y hasta dirigentes políticos no afines a ella. Es el que consiste en afirmar que los gobiernos de los partidos tradicionales del período 1985-2005 no tuvieron sensibilidad social. Es más, dice que esos gobiernos llevaron adelante reformas que "perjudicaron al pueblo", y es por eso que "la derecha", como señaló la campaña del Frente Amplio, no debe "volver a gobernar nunca más".

El Pais (Uruguay)

Happy Memorial Day!

10 Links for Your Memorial Day Web Surfing

by Jennifer Fulwiler

I hope that nobody is reading this, and instead you're all out getting some fresh air and frolicking in the sunshine with your families. But if you do happen to find yourself with some extra web surfing time over the long weekend, below are a few links you might enjoy. 

National Catholic Register

Le catéchisme du premier siècle après JC, le Didachè, précise: «Il y a deux voies: l'une de vie et l'autre de mort, et il y a une grande différence entre les deux voies»

Le "mariage" gay, un retour à la Rome décadente de Néron

Nous ne sommes, bien sûr, pas surpris de constater que les premiers chrétiens ont accepté et revendiqué le strict rejet de l'homosexualité inhérent au judaïsme, mais cela faisait partie du rejet de toute sexualité en dehors du mariage monogame hétérosexuel. Les chrétiens ne doivent pas être loués pour avoir affirmé que le mariage doit être défini comme l'union d'un homme et d'une femme, parce que c'est la valeur naturelle de tout peuple entendant ne pas disparaître en une seule génération. Ce qui a été propre au christianisme (encore une fois, ne se contentant pas de suivre judaïsme, mais l'intensifiant) ce fut la restriction de la sexualité uniquement au mariage hétérosexuel <monogame>. Les chrétiens se sont retrouvés dans une culture païenne où il y avait peu de restrictions à la sexualité, à part l'imagination - une culture qui, à noter comme une évidence, mais extrêmement importante, ressemble étrangement à la nôtre.

Le Salon Beige

Gay marriage and homosexuality were part of the moral landscape faced by the first Christians in Ancient Rome

Gay Marriage—Nothing New Under the Sun

Benjamin Wiker

Given that the gay marriage agenda will be increasingly pressed upon Catholics by the state, we should be much more aware of what history has to teach us about gay marriage—given that we don’t want to be among those who, ignorant of history, blithely condemned themselves to repeat it.Contrary to the popular view—both among proponents and opponents—gay marriage is not a new issue. It cannot be couched (by proponents) as a seamless advance on the civil rights movement, nor should it be understood (by opponents) as something that’s evil merely because it appears to them to be morally unprecedented.

Catholic World Report

La seule première Dame de France

La Vierge Marie est notre seule Première Dame de France

Pour la première fois, la France est dotée d’un chef d’État qui revendique son état de concubin. Certes, les écarts de conduite existent depuis la nuit des temps, c’est-a-dire depuis que l’homme est pécheur. L’historien rappellera aussi que Henri IV, Louis XIV ou Louis XV, grands rois s’ils en furent, furent des maris volages, ou que le Président Félix Faure est mort a l’Élysée, en 1899, dans des conditions qui firent scandale.

Mais même François Mitterrand avait préservé les apparences en accédant a sa fonction parce que, en 1981, le mariage faisait encore référence. François Hollande est le reflet de son époque quand il prétend qu’il y a « plusieurs types de familles ». La formule est lourde de sens et présage nos combats futurs.

Le Salon Beige

Chen speaks out: 'I cannot be silent when facing evil'

Chen says he suffered ‘beyond imagination’ in China

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, who is now in the United States after a diplomatic standoff between Washington and Beijing, said Thursday he endured “suffering beyond imagination” at home. ...

When asked to discuss in detail reports that he and his wife were repeatedly beaten during their house arrest, Chen said: “I don’t want to talk about it right now… I still need time to gather my thoughts.” ...

The Raw Story

In keeping with the solemn significance of Christian marriage, many beautiful customs have developed over time

Tying the Catholic Knot: Church Teachings and Wedding Customs

Above the confusion and contentious hum that surrounds the redefining-marriage debate stands the Catholic Church. Her beliefs on marriage do not sway with public opinion, but are seated in Christ, the unchanging Truth. The Church passes on what she has received without reinterpretation.

Many people today aren’t aware of the fullness of these teachings and where they come from. As we launch into wedding season, it’s worthwhile to revisit the Church’s teachings as well as various wedding customs.

The National Catholic Register

The divinity of the Holy Spirit was infallibly defined at the First Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381

Diez webs para encontrar a Dios en Internet.

Deuxième partie: Crise de l'Etat ou dégénérescence du régime? Regard sur les menaces qui pèsent sur la Chine.

Géopolitique. Crise de régime en Chine ?

Marie-France Chatin reçoit Valérie Niquet, maître de recherche. Responsable du pôle Asie à la Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique et Marianne Peron-Doise, senior analyste. Chargé de cours à l'INALCO et à Sciences Po.

Deuxième partie http://www.rfi.fr/emission/20120526-2-crise-regime-chine

Première partie - Le Parti communiste chinois doit renouveler ses dirigeants à son 18ème Congrès cet automne.

Géopolitique. Crise de régime en Chine ?

Marie-France Chatin reçoit Valérie Niquet, maître de recherche. Responsable du pôle Asie à la Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique et Marianne Peron-Doise, senior analyste. Chargé de cours à l'INALCO et à Sciences Po.

Première partie http://www.rfi.fr/emission/20120526-1-crise-regime-chine

How the California Teachers Association betrayed the schools and crippled the state

The Worst Union in America

TROY SENIK

In 1962, as tensions ran high between school districts and unions across the country, members of the National Education Association gathered in Denver for the organization’s 100th annual convention. Among the speakers was Arthur F. Corey, executive director of the California Teachers Association (CTA). “The strike as a weapon for teachers is inappropriate, unprofessional, illegal, outmoded, and ineffective,” Corey told the crowd. “You can’t go out on an illegal strike one day and expect to go back to your classroom and teach good citizenship the next.”

City Journal

Books: A North Korean survivor story

Escape from Hunger

DANIEL J. FLYNN

Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West, by Blaine Harden (Viking, 224 pp., $26.95)

Explaining why socialism failed to gain traction in the United States, German academic Werner Sombart famously noted: “All socialist utopias came to nothing on roast beef and apple pie.” Fat and happy aren’t the ingredients for a socialist revolution. A century after Sombart’s observation, Shin Dong-Hyuk shows why starving and miserable aren’t the ingredients for keeping the people in a people’s republic: all socialist dystopias come to nothing on tree bark and barbecued rat. Shin’s amazing tale, inspired by the most basic human drive—hunger—is told by veteran journalist Blaine Harden in Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West.

City Journal

The War of the Vendée, a new film about the forgotten martyrs of the French Revolution.

Frodo Versus Robespierre

by Joseph Pearce

On his death bed Chesterton had emerged from a sort of reverie and had said: “The issue is now quite clear. It is between light and darkness, and every one must choose his side.” In the war between light and darkness, the peasants of the Vendée had chosen the right side. In this film, all shades of shadow are removed so that we can see things in the clear light of everlasting day. To see things in this way is to see them as Chesterton saw them and as the people of the Vendée saw them. In spite of all appearances to the contrary, The War of the Vendée shows us that to see things through the childlike eyes of Chesterton, or Frodo, or the people of the Vendée is to see them as they really are.


Crisis Magazine

Romney released a statement criticizing the Obama administration for “welcoming the daughter of a dictator.”

‘I would vote for President Obama’: Fidel Castro’s niece

Fidel Castro’s niece on Wednesday hailed Barack Obama’s support for gay marriage and the loosening of US-Cuba travel restrictions, saying: “I would vote for President Obama.”

Mariela Castro, the daughter of President Raul Castro, also lamented the “small group of delinquents” whom she said were preventing the warming of ties between Washington and Havana.

The Raw Story

Memorial Day is not about death. It is about duty

Duty and Sacrifice

By Ralph Kinney Bennett
For the majority of Americans, Memorial Day is first and foremost a three-day weekend. Time to watch the Indianapolis 500 or a baseball game; time to open the swimming pool or have a picnic. The American flag will be appropriated to embellish ads for supermarkets, department stores, car dealers, and home improvement centers. Sales on everything from garden fertilizer to bedroom furniture will be accompanied by perfunctory messages urging us to “remember those who died for our country” as we clip our coupons and make our way to the mall. The nearest most folks will get to any graveyard, let alone a military cemetery, is a file photo in the local newspaper or obligatory footage on the television news.
The American

Confirming Germany’s worst fears

Can euro bonds save the union?

Desmond Lachman

Hope springs eternal among policy makers in Europe’s beleaguered periphery. At five minutes to midnight in Athens, and with a bank run having started in Madrid, these policy makers cling to the forlorn hope that somehow Germany is going to relent on its strong opposition to euro bonds. And they do so despite the deterioration in the economic and financial situation of the periphery, which is now validating Germany's worst fears about the potential costs to Germany of signing up to a scheme that would effectively involve a German guarantee of sovereign borrowing in the European periphery.


The American Entreprise Institute

North Korea's conspicuous economic failure must be explained in terms of the particularities of "socialism with Korean characteristics"

The economics of state failure in North Korea

Nicholas Eberstadt

Ever since its founding in 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, aka North Korea) has maintained an aggressive and bellicose international security posture. Today, fully two decades after the end of the Cold War, North Korea's external defense and security policies look arguably more extreme and anomalous than ever-in the sense of being more distant from evolving international security norms than ever before.

The particulars of DPRK "extreme" security policies and practices are well known. 

The American Entreprise Institute

We will never know what deals Carlos Slim made to gain the Telmex monopoly. But we know this was crony capitalism in its most destructive form.

Should The New York Times Investigate 

Wal-Mart Or Carlos Slim?

The  New York Times’s Vast Mexico Bribery Case Hushed Up by Wal-Mart After Top-Level Strugglesuggests that Wal-Mart violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The smoking gun: Seven years ago, Wal-Mart de Mexico hired two outside lawyers for $8.5 million to “facilitate” store permits. The lawyers were effective:  “Legal and bureaucratic obstacles melted away after payments were made to minor officials who could thwart Wal-Mart’s growth.” Wal-Mart executives, the  article charges, did not take appropriate action after an internal investigation. No believer in free enterprise should excuse or make light of violations of laws by Wal-Mart or any other private company. We hope that Wal-Mart moves forcefully to put this business behind it...

Carlos Slim was the highest bidder for Mexico’s dilapidated national telephone company, when it was privatized in 1990. Slim was wealthy at the time, but he was not in the top 100. Telmex made him the world’s richest man, quite a feat for someone from a desperately poor country.

Forbes.com

When the private and social returns of investment diminish too much, growth cannot be sustained indefinitely

Why Do Economies Stop Growing?

by Michael Spence, a Nobel laureate in economics, is currently Chairman of the Commission on Growth and Development, an international body charged with charting opportunities for global economic growt 

Over the years, advanced and developing countries have experimented, sometimes deliberately and frequently inadvertently, with a variety of approaches to growth. Unfortunately, many of these strategies have turned out to have built-in limitations or decelerators – what one might call elements of unsustainability. And avoiding serious damage and difficult recoveries requires us to get a lot better at recognizing these self-limiting growth patterns early on.  Here are some of the items in a growing library of decelerating growth models.

Project Syndicate

Allan H. Meltzer: why we have big deficits now?

Why Capitalism?

Allan H. Meltzer 

The United States government is on course in 2009, 2010, and 2011 to run the largest peacetime deficits in its history—at least $1 trillion a year for ten years or more—with no end in sight. Logic and history tell us that financing such enormous deficits will cause inflation and a depreciation of the dollar against other currencies. Every knowledgeable observer agrees that the projected deficits and debt are unsustainable. Studies at the Bank for International Settlements suggest that decades of surpluses will be required to restore the 2007 debt to GDP ratio. 

It is a big problem, but not a new one. Historically, politicians have given lip service to fiscal restraint. Today, however, efforts to achieve budget balance or surplus in the United States are a rarity—apart from routine complaints from the party currently out of office about deficits attributed to their opponent. Once in office, the winner neglects fiscal orthodoxy and adds to the deficit.

Hoover.org - Defining ideas

C’est seulement en reconnaissant le côté démoniaque de l’idéologie de gauche que la droite pourra gagner la bataille des idées

La face démoniaque de l’idéologie de gauche

Par Bogdan Calinescu.

Dans son ouvrage intitulé « Demonic. How the Liberal Mob is endangering America », Ann Coulter analyse la psychologie des foules séduites par les promesses inconsidérées de la gauche américaine. Utile pour comprendre ce qui se passe en France aussi.

Contrepoints

Mariage: pourquoi pas à 4 ou 5 ?

Si on autorise le mariage des paires,

pourquoi pas le mariage à 4 ou 5 ?

Samedi, Alain Escada était invité de l'émission "Revu et Corrigé" animée par Paul Amar et diffusée en direct à partir de 19h sur France 5. Alain Escada, président de Civitas, intervenait face à Nicolas Gougain, porte-parole de l'Inter-LGBT, dans un débat sur le "mariage homosexuel". Lors de ce débat, Alain Escada mettait en garde. Le mariage fait l'objet de deux conditions. La première, c'est qu'il s'agit de l'union de deux personnes. La deuxième, c'est que ces deux personnes doivent être un homme et une femme.A partir du moment où la deuxième condition est remise en cause, la première peut l'être également. 

Le Salon Beige

Church: Decline or renewal? - Periods of decline in the Church’s life are often followed by phases of renewal

Liberal Catholicism: Requiescat in pace

by Samuel Gregg

If Church history teaches us anything, it’s that periods of decline in the Church’s life are often followed by phases of renewal. The corruption, scandals and heresies (sound familiar?) which sparked the Reformation were followed by the evangelical energies unleashed by the Council of Trent and Counter-Reformation that took Christ’s message literally to the ends of the earth. Likewise, the Church’s abasement at the hands of philosophes, Jansenists, Febronists, absolutist monarchs, and French revolutionaries during the eighteenth century was followed by nineteenth-century Catholicism’s profound spiritual revival, a rejuvenation which produced giants such as Thérèse of Lisieux, a saint and doctor of the Church.


Crisis Magazine

China: the most forceful population-control program since Nazi Germany

China’s population-control holocaust

The bloody history of ‘Limits to Growth’

On May 7, South Korean customs authorities announced they had discovered 17,500 capsules made from the incinerated remains of human fetuses and infants being smuggled into the country from Chinafor sale. Coming in the wake of the high-profile drama concerning the effort of the Chinese government to suppress the voice of the brave, blind anti-population-control activist Chen Guangcheng, this news has placed the issue of the regime’s brutal one-child law forcefully before the conscience of the world. Therefore, a look at the origin and history of this atrocity is in order.

The Washington Times

Perhaps, we should lay out broad but well-defined principles that businesses are expected to follow

Why We Need Principles-Based Regulation

By Arnold Kling

Recently, large trading losses at JP Morgan have revived the question of how to regulate financial institutions. I believe that this would best be done using a very different approach than what regulators traditionally employ. When we think of regulation, we think of specific rules that spell out the boundaries between what is approved and what is forbidden. For example, requiring credit card issuers to give 45 days notice prior to a rate increase. I call this bright-line regulation (BLR). What I want to propose is an alternative approach, called principles-based regulation (PBR). With PBR, legislation would lay out broad but well-defined principles that businesses are expected to follow. Administrative agencies would audit businesses to identify strengths and weaknesses in their systems for applying those principles, and they would punish weaknesses by imposing fines. Finally, the Department of Justice would prosecute corporate leaders who flagrantly violate principles or who are negligent in ensuring compliance with those principles.

The American

“Jerusalem, my happy home, when shall I come to thee?”

Zeal: The Fourth Lively Virtue

by Anthony Esolen

 Zeal is the spirit that breathes throughout the celebratory Psalms.  “I rejoiced,” says the Psalmist, “when I heard them say, Let us go up to the house of the Lord.”  David is moved by zeal when he dances naked before the Ark of the Covenant.  When Ezra the Scribe reads the book of the law to the Jews returned from captivity, they are at first abashed and crushed with sorrow, but he commands them instead to refresh themselves and to feast with joy.

Zeal reveals to us all the difference between a world grown merely secular and old, and the youthfulness of Christian love. 

Crisis Magazine

Obama: The “smartest guy ever to become President,” has turned out to be remarkably ignorant about a multitude of issues from the economy to foreign policy

The Potemkin President Disintegrates

by Bruce Thornton

After nearly four years in office, the tinsel and cardboard persona of Barack Obama is starting to fall apart. The political unifier who claimed, “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America––there is the United States of America,” has been exposed as one of the most divisive and partisan presidents of modern times. 


Frontpagemag

Livres: Lettre à un membre de l’assemblée nationale sur la révolution française et Rousseau, par Edmund Burke

Petit retour d’Edmond Burke

Victor Scribe

C’est un peu l’une des surprises, et même l’une des bonnes surprises, de ces derniers temps en matière d’édition. On connaît les Réflexions sur la Révolution française de l’irlandais Edmund Burke qui fut l’un des premiers à analyser le processus révolutionnaire de 1789. Avec sa Lettre à un membre de l’assemblée nationale sur la révolution française et Rousseau(Mille et une nuits, 116 pages, 4,50€), Edmund Burke poursuit sa critique virulente contre l’esprit du nouveau régime établi en France.

Riposte Catholique

Nuit des Témoins - Notre Dame de Paris - 25 mai 2012

MESSE à 18h30. 

Nuit des Témoins de 20h à 21h30

Pour découvrir les grands invités de la Nuit des Témoins,

rdv sur www.aed-france.org

En présence de grands témoins de Chine, du Pakistan, d'Irak et d'Egypte. 

Parlez-en autour de vous, et venez rendre hommage à ceux qui ont payé de leur vie leur fidélité au Christ. La soirée sera retransmise en direct sur KTO et Radio Notre-Dame.

Obama: Because of continued confusion about his faith, conservative charges that he is waging war against religious groups

The Controversial Faith of Barack Obama

by Gary S. Smith

President Obama’s recent statement on gay marriage has again thrust his religious views onto the front pages. In defending his position, Obama stressed that he and his wife were “practicing Christians” and that his stance was supported by Christ’s teaching of the Golden Rule. 

Since his quest to win the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois in 2004, Barack Obama’s faith has provoked controversy. In that campaign, his Republican rival Alan Keyes—a black Catholic—accused Obama of stressing his faith only “when it’s convenient to get votes.” When faith must be followed, explained, and serve as a basis for policies, Keyes protested, Obama pled the “separation of church and state”—a concept that was neither constitutional nor scriptural. “Christ would not vote for Barack Obama,” Keyes asserted, because his behavior was so contrary to that of Christ’s.

Crisis Magazine

The partisans of the Volcker Rule would ban banks from taking proprietary risk positions...

J.P. Morgan and the conceptual confusion of the Volcker rule

Alex J. Pollock

We have certainly heard a lot about the $2 billion "trading loss" at J.P. Morgan, which is of course not at all the same as the bank experiencing a loss on its bottom line. From the perspective of the corporate profit and loss statement, a trading loss is one expense item in the context of all revenues and expenses. So $2 billion should be compared to the bank's $26.7 billion in pretax profits for 2011, suggesting a reduction of something less than 10 percent in annual profit.

So we have discovered that trading and hedging activities can have losses which somewhat reduce overall profits. Eureka! This ranks with the discovery that if you make loans, some of them will default. Does it justify the partisans of the Volcker Rule which would ban banks from taking proprietary risk positions and make them stick to the "traditional" banking business of making loans?

The American Entreprise Institute

Let the 2012 electoral predictions commence!

5 electoral college predictions for 2012

• 
  
• .

By Henrik Temp

Below are four separate electoral college predictions from some of the best analysts in the business: The Cook Report, RealClearPolitics, The Washington Post’s The Fix blog, and John Ellis’s Ellisblog. I’ll follow those up with my own prediction.

Let’s look at the maps.

The American Entreprise Institute

Obama et Sebelius : le baiser de Judas à Judas… et réciproquement

Kathleen Sebelius chahutée à la Georgetown University

Daniel Hamiche

Passant outre aux quelque 36 000 pétitions exigeant qu’on désinvite la scandaleuse ministre de la Santé d’Obama, la ci-devant catholique Kathleen Sebelius, et au cinglant désaveu de l’épiscopat américain, les dirigeants de la ci-devant catholique Georgetown University de Washington D.C. l’ont reçue, honorée et lui ont permis de prononcer le discours de remise des diplômes de fin d’études au Public Policy Institute de l’établissement jésuite. Une université “catholique” offrant une estrade et honorant une politicienne persévérante dans son application de la culture de mort et architecte du HHS Mandate, qui est une déclaration de guerre contre l’Église catholique et la liberté religieuse aux États-Unis – au mépris des prescriptions du Magistère exprimées dans Ex Corde Ecclesiæ–, voilà qui dépasse la raison, mais je crains qu’il n’y ait plus guère de foi et encore moins de raison à la Georgetown University… Mais il s’est, heureusement, trouvé des catholiques pour dénoncer sur le campus ce scandale(photo), et deux dizaines d’autres courageux protestataires pour chahuter Katheen Sebelius dans la salle…

Rriposte Catholique

Cardinal Raymond Burke writes book on the Eucharist: 'Divine Love Made Flesh'

Livres: conférences inédites données par Gustave Thibon entre 1940 et 1985

Les hommes de l’éternel

Victor Scribe

Il y a des saisons pour la sagesse. 

Thibon fut l’un des sages du XXe siècle. Nous le savions en le lisant alors ; nous en étions persuadés en l’écoutant. Sa disparition aux yeux des hommes en 2001 nous a laissés un peu plus seuls que d’ordinaire. Et puis le temps a cru gagner la partie, en effaçant de la mémoire des hommes les seules choses véritables qui comptent. Espoir vain !

Il y a de nouveau des fleurs aux arbres en attendant que les fruits naissent. Nous sommes en pleine saison Thibon. Après la publication duDossier H, si admirablement dirigé par Philippe Barthelet, François Chauvin vient de faire paraître aux éditions Mame des conférences inédites données par Gustave Thibon entre 1940 et 1985 (Les Hommes de l’éternel, Mame, 298 pages, 21 € ).

Riposte Catholique