David Cameron pledged to shrink the government; instead, he raised taxes and strangled economic recovery.

The British Evasion

by Nicole Gelinas

• When the financial hurricane struck in 2008, Britain found itself in a crisis very much like the American one. 
• A giant credit bubble had fueled an unsustainable rise in the price of real estate. 
• British homeowners, feeling rich, had spent and spent, pushing up their household debt to a staggering 106 percent of GDP, up from 61 percent just eight years earlier. 
• When the bubble burst, hitting house prices and making people feel poorer and afraid, British consumers went on strike; employers promptly imitated them, and the United Kingdom lost 1.6 percent of its jobs between 2008 and 2009. (America, with its easier hire-and-fire culture, lost 5 percent.) 
• With bubble-era tax revenues gone, a British government deficit that had seemed manageable became cavernous, expanding from 3.5 percent of GDP over the 2004–08 period to 11.5 percent in 2009.

.....

Read more: www.city-journal.org

The return of the word “virtue” to the lexicon means we can at least talk about what it means to act with moral excellence

What is this Thing called Virtue?

by Bruce Frohnen

Believe it or not, in at least one specific area public discourse in the United States is a bit better than it was a few decades ago. How so? Today we occasionally hear the word “virtue” used—and not always in sarcasm. This is good news because the return of the word “virtue” to the lexicon means we can at least talk about what it means to act with moral excellence, conforming to a standard of right conduct, to “be good” in a meaningful way. And this makes it less difficult for us to talk about what we are supposed to be like as human beings, for what we ought to strive, and how.

For many decades, the general view seems to have been that “virtue” was what suckers called their own lack of sophistication. This too often remains the view. But today there at least is a debate. Partly this is a self-interested response to certain natural facts. A society that shuns virtue and decency descends into a war of all against all. As that war has gotten ever more violent and destructive, even liberals—at least those with property, status, and wealth to preserve (think Ivy League professors and members of various professional-managerial elites) have come to see the value in calling people to some form of good conduct. Partly, however, the return to discussions of virtue stems from more intellectual sources.

In 1981, Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue shocked academia and that sector of journalism with intellectual pretensions by pointing out the utter failure of the modern moral project—the attempt to build a coherent moral structure on the basis of Enlightenment philosophy. That project, MacIntyre showed, was doomed to fail because it was empty at its core. The central, missing element? Teleology or the understanding that we all have a natural end or goal that we must strive to achieve if we are to have any chance for true happiness.

Enlightenment thinkers (Voltaire might serve as a useful model, here) dismissed teleology as the product of superstition and self-interested myth making. Peasants are ordered to be “good” by obeying their masters, the argument went, lest they betray their mythically proper end—salvation—and be condemned to Hell. Hell, then, was the creation of priests intent on protecting their own privileges and the power and wealth of their patrons. Virtue, on this reading, meant foolishly acting in accordance with the prevailing myths of (Christian) superstitions.................
Read more: www.theimaginativeconservative.org

France - Allemagne: "Alors, plutôt que de se battre sur les mots, il faut maintenant décider : ou quitter l’Euro et restaurer notre compétitivité grâce à une monnaie dévaluée, soit baisser le coût du travail par une série de vraies réformes structurelles"

FRANCE-ALLEMAGNE : 

JE T’AIME. MOI NON PLUS !

par Christian Vanneste

France et Allemagne jouent à « Je t’aime. Moi, non plus ». 

Wolfgang Schaüble avait pourtant jouer les grands frères compatissants en disant : « la France doit poursuivre le chemin des réformes structurelles. Elle sait qu’elle a des coûts administratifs et du travail trop élevés. » 

C’était plutôt sympathique de voir des réformes structurelles dans un brouet de contre-sens, de mesures complexes et de réformettes, assaisonné, il faut le dire, d’un net changement lexical présidentiel, qui permet de dire compétitivité ou entreprise privée, sans donner l’impression de proférer un gros mot. 

En bon professeur soucieux d’encourager un mauvais élève qui témoigne d’un peu de bonne volonté, l’Allemagne veut surtout que l’exécutif français prenne ses distances avec le discours idéologique et démagogique qui l’a amené au pouvoir et avec le Parti Socialiste. 

Celui-ci, comme un taureau harcelé par le picador gauchiste, continue bêtement à voir rouge. 

Certes, le PS aime l’Allemagne, mais pas les conservateurs allemands. 

Pas de chance : ils sont au pouvoir et comptent bien y rester. 

Alors, Ayrault twitte en allemand un mot doux pour Angela tandis que Hamon, toujours prêt à exhiber une intelligence qui devient légendaire, s’en prend à Merkel coupable, selon lui, de croire que l’austérité, çà marche. 

La confrontation souhaitée par Bartolone entre la France et l’Allemagne se produit, mais c’est entre les deux discours socialistes, celui des réalistes qui pensent que ce n’est pas parce qu’on a dit une chose pour accéder au pouvoir qu’il faut se priver de dire le contraire pour s’y maintenir et les doctrinaires, les obsédés de l’exception française, de la dépense publique improductive érigée en modèle. 

Pour dissimuler le changement de cap du pédalo présidentiel, il y a heureusement le brouillard des mots : croissance contre austérité. 

Dans le fond, l’opposition franco-allemande existe sur ces deux termes, et la division des socialistes se résume à une nuance dans le ton : dialogue franc et amical ou polémique.

............

Lire la suite: www.christianvanneste.fr

Pour parvenir au véritable amour, il va falloir passer de la pure subjectivité à l’objectivité de l’amour.

Petite approche philosophique de l’amour

par Théophile

(article écrit en mars dernier pour le journal de mon école)

Il est assez difficile de parler philosophiquement de l’amour, tant il semble nous dépasser par son mystère et sa richesse. Cependant, puisque le philosophe est celui qui doit premièrement s’émerveiller de tout puis chercher à connaitre de manière universelle l’objet de son émerveillement, il nous faut oser ce cheminement afin de mieux comprendre ce qu’est l’amour et surtout ce qu’il n’est pas. L’enjeu de cette réflexion n’est pas spéculatif, mais pratique : il s’agit de mieux connaitre l’amour afin d’aimer chaque jour davantage en vérité, et témoigner autour de nous de la beauté de cette réalité. Si nous parlons ici de l’amour sponsal, il convient néanmoins de souligner son ancrage dans l’amour « philia », c’est-à-dire dans l’amitié. La vertu d’amitié, nous dit Aristote, est une disposition de la volonté à vouloir le bien de l’autre[1]. Mais cela ne suffit pas. Il faut que cette bienveillance soit mutuelle entre les deux personnes, et explicitée par chacune d’elles à travers des actes qui vont nourrir cette bienveillance en l’actualisant de façon concrète. De plus, il s’agit de vouloir le bien véritable de l’autre, et pas un bien apparent qui ne ferait pas grandir la personne vers sa finalité qui est le bonheur. En cela une telle bienveillance doit être fondée sur la vertu de justice, afin de permettre l’avènement du bien qui est dû à la personne en fonction de ce qu’elle est.

L’amour sponsal s’ancre dans l’amitié, en tant qu’il contient également cette notion de bienveillance. Cependant, et ici ce trouve sa spécificité, il contient la notion de don et d’exclusivité dans ce don mutuel. Dans l’amour, il s’agit non seulement de vouloir le bien de l’aimé, mais également de donner sa personne à l’autre. Comment comprendre ce don fait à l’autre ? Serait-ce une aliénation ? Non, il ne s’agit pas de devenir l’esclave de l’autre. Ce don est le don de la personne, qui est un être d’extériorité et d’intériorité. Le don n’est pas ici à comprendre au sens strict, c’est-à-dire comme la dépossession de son corps et de son esprit pour qu’ils deviennent la propriété de l’autre, mais comme l’union mutuelle des deux personnes à travers toutes leurs dimensions personnelles. Ainsi l’amour sponsal devra se déployer à travers la communion des corps et des esprits. Cette communion des vies est alors communion de l’intériorité et de l’extériorité ayant pour finalité le bien commun du couple, bien commun qui englobe l’avènement du bonheur de chacune des deux personnes ainsi que des enfants qui seront le fruit de cette communion.

...............

Lire ici: laphronesis.wordpress.com

The rejection of the good by those who find its demands inconvenient is nothing new...

What is This Thing Called Virtue?

by Bruce Frohnen

Believe it or not, in at least one specific area public discourse in the United States is a bit better than it was a few decades ago. How so? Today we occasionally hear the word “virtue” used—and not always in sarcasm. This is good news because the return of the word “virtue” to the lexicon means we can at least talk about what it means to act with moral excellence, conforming to a standard of right conduct, to “be good” in a meaningful way. And this makes it less difficult for us to talk about what we are supposed to be like as human beings, for what we ought to strive, and how.

For many decades, the general view seems to have been that “virtue” was what suckers called their own lack of sophistication. This too often remains the view. But today there at least is a debate. Partly this is a self-interested response to certain natural facts. A society that shuns virtue and decency descends into a war of all against all. As that war has gotten ever more violent and destructive, even liberals—at least those with property, status, and wealth to preserve (think Ivy League professors and members of various professional-managerial elites) have come to see the value in calling people to some form of good conduct. Partly, however, the return to discussions of virtue stems from more intellectual sources. In 1981, Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue shocked academia and that sector of journalism with intellectual pretensions by pointing out the utter failure of the modern moral project—the attempt to build a coherent moral structure on the basis of Enlightenment philosophy. That project, MacIntyre showed, was doomed to fail because it was empty at its core. The central, missing element? Teleology or the understanding that we all have a natural end or goal that we must strive to achieve if we are to have any chance for true happiness.
.......
Read more here: www.crisismagazine.com

Livres: Euthanasie, Stade suprême du capitalisme par Jean-Claude MARTINEZ

Euthanasie stade suprême du capitalisme

par Anne Brassié

Le droit de mourir est il un bon droit ? Surtout quand il est promu, célébré tout simplement parce que les vieux coûtent cher et qu’il n’y a plus d’argent en caisse…..

Voilà l’excellente question roborative que nous pose Jean Claude Martinez avec un humour décapant. 

Il montre l’état des lieux, les finances au plus bas , le nombre de vieux qui augmentent. Et il démonte le processus de la propagande : on traite les malades en phase terminale de légumes, un légume n’est plus un homme donc on peut l’éliminer. Le jeune tétraplégique comateux coûte trop cher , on dit que sa vie est trop dure et hop une petite piqûre. 

Le rôle du médecin n ‘est pourtant pas d’éteindre la bougie.

Attali nous avait prévenus en 1981: » La vieillesse est actuellement un marché mais il n’est pas solvable. » La vie coûte cher donc on supprime la vie. Dans le même ordre d’idées on subventionne les IVG.

Certains envisagent même d’euthanasier les pauvres…

Dur dur de vivre en socialie.

Via romana

.........

Lire ici: annebrassie.fr

President Obama and Planned Parenthood are out of step with public opinion on abortion and the scientific realities behind abortion laws

The President, Planned Parenthood, 

and "Quality Health Care"

by Elise Italiano

President Obama's recent address to Planned Parenthood's National Conference sweepingly mischaracterized abortion restrictions 

and pro-life views as culturally inaccurate and outdated.

Last Friday, Barack Obama became the first president of the United States to offer an address at Planned Parenthood's National Conference. While his appearance at the event and the rousing welcome of the organization is historically and culturally significant, his address proved to be out of sync with current trends in health care, the pro-life sentiment of Americans, and contemporary feminism.
During his address, Obama promised his fidelity to the group in the "fight against the war on women" that he and Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, have staunchly opposed. This supposed campaign against women's rights and equality is largely characterized by the passage of state-level restrictions on abortion, as well as legislative proposals that challenge particular requirements of the Affordable Health Care Act.
Obama fervently opposed these laws, calling them "absurd." By implication, he called into question the moral, legal, and scientific soundness of the laws when he said, "When you read about some of these laws, you want to check the calendar. You want to make sure you're still living in 2013." He also rallied his supporters by saying,
As long as we've got to fight to make sure women have access to quality, affordable health care, as long as we've got to protect a woman's right to make her own choices about her own health, I want you to know that you've also got a president who's right there with you, fighting every step of the way.

His inaccuracies were numerous, given scientific and cultural shifts in this generation. But more troublesome are the assertion that quality health care includes unrestricted access to abortion, the sweeping statements about the moral pulse of the nation on the issue of abortion, and the assumption that all persons who advocate for women's interests, health, and flourishing support the services that Planned Parenthood supplies and the government funds.

.........

Read more: www.thepublicdiscourse.co

Vladimir Putin ha fatto sapere che non intende concedere eventuali adozioni alle coppie francesi dello stesso sesso.

Putin: il Compagno don Camillo

Scritto da Michelangelo Nasca 

«E soprattutto non vi azzardate a raccontarmi un'altra delle vostre stramaledette calunnie sulla vostra Russia. Io voglio continuare... a credere alla mia!», diceva Peppone a don Camillo in uno degli ultimi episodi della celebre saga diretta da Luigi Comencini e tratta da alcuni racconti di Giovanni Guareschi. 

Nessuno, 24 anni fa – quando ancora il “Berliner Mauer” era il simbolo della cortina di ferro, la linea di confine europea tra la zona d'influenza statunitense e quella sovietica durante la guerra fredda – avrebbe mai immaginato il leader del Cremlino disposto a prendere posizione a favore della famiglia adducendo, peraltro, motivazioni etico-morali. 

In questi giorni, infatti, il Presidente della Federazione Russa, Vladimir Putin ha fatto sapere che non intende concedere eventuali adozioni alle coppie francesi dello stesso sesso. 

“Dobbiamo reagire – afferma Putin – a quello che succede vicino a noi, rispettiamo i nostri vicini ma chiediamo il rispetto verso le nostre tradizioni culturali, etiche, legislative e verso le nostre norme morali”. 

La Russia, così, potrebbe rivedere gli accordi di adozione con la Francia e gli altri Paesi occidentali che hanno legalizzato il matrimonio tra persone dello stesso sesso.

........

www.korazym.org

Gosnell trial exposes how filthy clinics endanger women

Cleaning up the Big Abortion machine

By Denise M. Burke

“The medical practice by which [Kermit Gosnell] carried out this business was a filthy fraud in which he overdosed his patients with dangerous drugs, spread venereal disease among them with infected instruments, perforated their wombs and bowels and, on at least two occasions, caused their deaths.” 

So begins the graphic and stomach-turning January 2011 grand jury report into the notorious activities of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, currently on trial for murder, and on the Women's Medical Society, the “house of horrors” abortion clinic, where he is alleged to have killed infants who survived attempted abortions by “snipping” their spinal cords with scissors.

Kermit Gosnell is not an aberration. During the past three years, at least 15 states have launched investigations into abortion clinics and individual abortion providers for substandard care — care that in some cases has resulted in women’s deaths.

For more than a decade, Americans United for Life has led the nationwide effort to combat the reality of “back-alley” abortions, advocating for meaningful and comprehensive regulation and oversight of abortion clinics. Legislators across the country have responded to Americans United for Life’s call to protect women from substandard abortion clinics and providers. Over just the past three years, eight states have enacted new comprehensive abortion clinic regulations or made significant improvements to existing regulations.

Prominent in Americans United for Life’s efforts is the “Abortion Patients’ Enhanced Safety Act,” model legislation mandating that abortion clinics meet the same health and safety standards as facilities performing other outpatient surgeries. On April 9, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signed legislation that was inspired by the model.
..............

Read more: www.washingtontimes.com

Venezuela - El acoso a Capriles: "en las calles de Caracas la vida vale muy poco, pero dentro de las cárceles venezolanas no vale absolutamente nada"

La vida de Capriles y el poder de Maduro 

penden de un hilo

Por Carlos Alberto Montaner

Iris Varela a Capriles Radonski

¿Por qué el acoso a Capriles y, en general, a los dirigentes de la Mesa de Unidad Democrática (MUD)? Es muy sencillo: en Venezuela todos, gobierno y oposición, saben que Henrique Capriles ganó las elecciones por un clarísimo margen.


En Venezuela, Iris Varela, Ministra de Asuntos Penitenciarios, una joven y rolliza abogada de mirada fiera y verbo incendiario, ha advertido que ya tiene preparada la celda para encerrar a Henrique Capriles. Se lo creo a pie juntillas.

No contenta con maltratar a la cabeza de la oposición venezolana, a quien acusó sin pruebas de consumir alucinógenos y ser el autor intelectual de los nueve asesinatos y 78 heridos, entre ellos el diputado antimaduro William Dávila, severamente lesionado dentro del propio parlamento por los chavistas, de paso maltrató el idioma alegando que el líder de los demócratas tiene ojos “puyúos”.

No tengo la menor idea de lo que es un ojo “puyúo”, pero supongo que debe ser algo tan terrorífico como la propia mirada de la señora Varela mientras hace sus acusaciones. Invito a los lectores de esta columna a que busquen su intervención en YouTube. Es como la niña del exorcista, pero notablemente crecidita en todas las direcciones.

De acuerdo con la amenaza de la Ministra, el primer paso es meter en la cárcel a Henrique Capriles por pedir el recuento electoral. ¿A quién se le ocurre sospechar de ese gobierno respetuoso de la ley? Imperdonable.

Me imagino que el segundo paso será que otro preso lo asesine en medio de una de las reyertas tan comunes en los predios de la señora Varela. Ya se sabe que en las calles de Caracas la vida vale muy poco, pero dentro de las cárceles venezolanas no vale absolutamente nada.

............Leer aquí: www.laprensapopular.com.ar

Logic: "It would be 37 more years before the Philadelphia doctor who carried out the Mother’s Day Massacre would go out of business. His name is Kermit Gosnell"

Kermit Gosnell: 

the back alley abortionist Roe ensconced

by Sheila Liaugminas

"It was called the Mother’s Day Massacre. A young Philadelphia doctor “offered to perform abortions on 15 poor women who were bused to his clinic from Chicago on Mother’s Day 1972, in their second trimester of pregnancy.” The women didn’t know that the doctor “planned to use an experimental device called a ‘super coil’ developed by a California man named Harvey Karman.”

A colleague of Karman’s Philadelphia collaborator described the contraption as “basically plastic razors that were formed into a ball. . . . They were coated into a gel, so that they would remain closed. These would be inserted into the woman’s uterus. And after several hours of body temperature, . . . 

the gel would melt and these . . . things would spring open, supposedly cutting up the fetus.”

Nine of the 15 Chicago women suffered serious complications. 

One of them needed a hysterectomy. The following year, the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade. It would be 37 more years before the Philadelphia doctor who carried out the Mother’s Day Massacre would go out of business. 

His name is Kermit Gosnell."

--------------

The headline on James Taranto’s article in the WSJ was succinct and apt: From Roe to Gosnell. There is a direct line if you follow the logic of abortion.

This pull quote pretty well sums up the article:

“The reductio ad absurdum of the pro-abortion side is Kermit Gosnell. That is why the Gosnell case has crystallized our view that the current regime of abortion on demand in America is a grave evil that ought to be abolished. It is murderous, if not categorically then at least in its extreme manifestations. Maintaining it requires an assault on language and logic that has taken on a totalitarian character. And it is politically poisonous.”

Don’t think this is some pro-life screed of triumphalism using the horrors committed by notorious Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell as a launching point to vent nearly 40 years worth of pent up angst over fighting the pro-abortion movement.

It’s an alarm bell set off by a former “pro-choice libertarian” journalist from what he himself calls “the mushy middle” on abortion issues. A journalist who’s been making the transition for many years from one position to another, although one who sees the full pro-life position as “a bridge too far” but found in the Gosnell case and subsequent trial the most damning evidence that Roe was really wrong all along.

...................

Read more: www.mercatornet.com

At the end of his life, Maritain could say with Bloy, “There is only one tragedy in the end, not to have been a saint.”

Jacques Maritain’s Service to Truth

by Christopher Shannon

In the nineteenth century, the West took great pride in its independence from the Church, an independence based on a new public authority rooted in the language of the natural sciences. Liberals and socialists disagreed on the nature of the economy, but both appealed to science to justify their positions. In France, this general faith in science came to be celebrated and advanced under the banner of “positivism,” an ideology that reduced the criteria of truth to empirically verifiable facts and the mechanistic, deterministic laws discernable from those facts. This ideal of scientific truth stood as the shining glory of nineteenth-century Western civilization, but it drove one sensitive, agnostic student at the Sorbonne, France’s premier university, to the brink of suicide.

That man was Jacques Maritain. Born in 1882 and raised in a Protestant, free-thinking family milieu, Maritain would convert to Catholicism in 1906 and go on to be the most influential Catholic public philosopher of the twentieth century. Maritain is best known today for his role in guiding Catholic thought toward its rapprochement with modern political democracy. But these achievements in the field of political philosophy have unfortunately hindered appreciation for those aspects of his life and thought that transcend the contingencies of modern politics. Maritain came to the Catholic Church as a man searching for a truth beyond positivistic materialism, yet also searching for an authentic way of living beyond the material prosperity and technological wizardry the West still holds up to the world as the highest goal of human aspiration.

The collapse of marriage in the developed world is happening faster than many believed possible.

Crisis of Fatherhood

by Stratford Caldecott

The current issue of HUMANUM, the freely available online journal of the Pope John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, DC (from the Institute’s Center for Pastoral and Cultural Research) is devoted to the crisis of fatherhood in our culture. It contains articles and book reviews devoted to the literature on this topic. (The following notes are based on the Editorial for the issue.)

The collapse of marriage in the developed world is happening faster than many believed possible. Civil marriages exceed religious ones, and both are in steep decline. In Italy, the heartland of Catholicism, where the largest religious institution on earth might be expected to have some influence, there are only 3.6 marriages a year for every thousand inhabitants, compared to 4.7 for the European Union as a whole – in the wealthy parts of Italy the numbers are even lower. Clearly most couples now do not get married. Single parents, especially single mothers, are commonplace. Given that it is hard enough for a stable, loving couple to bring up a child, or children, the difficulties faced by single parents are formidable.

The recovery of fatherhood is not merely a political and sociological challenge, to be met by strengthening the legislation that keeps families together, deters separation, and insists that a man takes more responsibility for his children (whether he be married or not). What needs to be recovered is a vision, a sense of responsibility, something the philosopher Gabriel Marcel in his book Homo Viator (1951) called a “creative vow.”

...........
Read more: www.theimaginativeconservative.org

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

http://www.humanumreview.com/articles/category/winter-2013#

• Winter 2012/13

• PDF
• Absent Fathers:
• STRATFORD CALDECOTT
  EDITORIAL: ABSENT FATHERS
• NICHOLAS J. HEALY, JR
  THE ECLIPSE OF FATHERHOOD
• MELANIE DANNER
  Life is a Blessing
• NICK BAGILEO
  A Father’s Guide
• CARLA GALDO
  Fatherneed
• MARGARET LARACY
  Fatherhood Matters
• MICHAEL LUEKEN
  Usable History?
• MARY SHIVANANDAN
  Why Have Children?
• STEPHEN BARRIE
  In Denial
• JULIANA WEBER
  Healing Fatherlessness
• RICHARD KRAMER
  Lost Fathers
• SARAH MAPLE
  Finding the Father
• PAOLO PROSPERI FSCB
  The Necessary Wound
• MEREDITH RICE
  Faith of the Fatherless
• BENJAMIN PETTY
  New Men
• STEPHEN MCGINLEY
  Men’s Lives
• PRAVIN THEVATHASAN
  Without Fathers

• Issue Archive

• Absent Fathers:
  Winter 2012/13
• Same-Sex Unions:
  Fall 2012
• Artificial Reproductive Technology:
  Summer 2012
• Children of Divorce:
  Spring 2012
• The Child:
  Fall 2011

« Mgr Georges Pontier, archevêque de Marseille et désormais président de la Conférence des évêques de France, a réaffirmé qu’il était opposé au « mariage » homosexuel. »

Faut-il taire le caractère désordonné

 de l’acte homosexuel ?

BY MAXIMILIEN BERNARD

Dans l’hebdomadaire Famille Chrétienne, nous pouvons lire

« Mgr Georges Pontier, archevêque de Marseille et désormais président de la Conférence des évêques de France, a réaffirmé qu’il était opposé au « mariage » homosexuel. »

Et puis cette citation de l’archevêque :

« C’est la position de l’Eglise de France. Pas une position anti-homosexualité, une position de la conception du mariage dans la société depuis toujours, en particulier pour ce qui touche à la place de l’enfant ».

Que signifie « pas anti-homosexualité » ? Est-il permis, au sein de l’Eglise qui est en France, de continuer à affirmer que les actes homosexuels sont intrinsèquement désordonnés, ainsi que l’enseigne le catéchisme de l’Eglise catholique ? 

.........

Lire ici la suite: www.riposte-catholique.fr

“A woman may not even know that she’s pregnant at six weeks,” Mr. Obama said.

Obama all in on abortion, defends 

government funding to Planned Parenthood

By Dave Boyer

President Obama offered a defiant defense of government funding for Planned Parenthood Friday and urged the group’s members to help his administration sign up more women for benefits under his besieged health-care law.

The first sitting president to address Planned Parenthood, Mr. Obama accused conservative politicians of trying to “roll back the clock” on abortion rights and health-care services for women.


“They’ve been involved in an orchestrated and historic effort to roll back basic rights when it comes to women’s health,” Mr. Obama told the group’s annual convention in Washington. “When politicians try to turn Planned Parenthood into a punching bag, they’re not just talking about you, they’re talking about the millions of women who you serve. And when they talk about cutting off your funding, let’s be clear, they’re talking about telling many of those women, ‘You’re own your own.’ “

...............

Read more: www.washingtontimes.com

L’Union pour Maintenir nos Places n’est pas la solution pour l’Europe en déclin, ni pour la France en pleine décadence...

DES UNIONS NATIONALES ?

par Christian Vanneste

.....

Deux camps sont profondément opposés dans la Nation : l’affrontement sur l’absurde mariage unisexe l’a montré et amplifié. Ces deux forces ont leur enracinement dans une société divisée entre la France protégée d’un secteur public obèse et la France exposée de l’économie réelle. La France sacrifiée de la production industrielle et agricole, sortie du système tend à constituer une troisième force rejetée par les deux autres. La tradition idéologique de la gauche, avec un marxisme résiduel, un gauchisme soixante-huitard stupide et prétentieux, une lecture de l’Histoire manichéenne qui discrimine, n’est pas un terreau fertile à l’union. Seule la vacuité abyssale de la pensée politique à « droite » pourrait la laisser entrevoir lorsque les technocrates carrièristes de l’ump, partisans d’une Europe Fédérale, prêts à se rallier à la loi Taubira, après avoir fait mine de s’y opposer, se diront que rejoindre sur les bancs du gouvernement leurs anciens condisciples de l’ENA qui ont fait carrière à gauche ne serait pas déraisonnable pour sauver l’Europe du populisme, la France de l’infréquentable FN, et… leurs ambitions du naufrage.

L’Union pour Maintenir nos Places n’est pas la solution pour l’Europe en déclin, ni pour la France en pleine décadence. Les Européens, les Français souhaitent évidemment que leurs responsables s’entendent pour les sortir de la crise. Mais dans les pays dont la situation est la conséquence de l’action de ces « responsables », il serait salutaire de s’en défaire plutôt que de les laisser aggraver les mesures qui nous ont conduits là où nous sommes.
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Lire ici: www.christianvanneste.fr

France - « Le combat n’est pas fini ; il change simplement de nature. »

La victoire est à portée de main 

mais à certaines conditions

par Guillaume de Thieulloy

Plus que jamais, la victoire est à portée de mains. Mais, plus que jamais, 

elle passe par l’unité, par le respect des diverses sensibilités représentées 

au sein du mouvement de défense de la famille. Le B. A.–BA de la politique, c’est d’être capable de définir ses amis, ses alliés et ses adversaires. 

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Toute la question est de savoir comment unir tous ces fronts. Personnellement, ce que j’entends dans cet énoncé sinistre de scandales et d’affaires, c’est que ceux qui sont censés nous représenter ne le font pas. Je ne vois qu’une seule façon de tirer les conclusions de cette réalité, sans tout casser (car je ne suis pas un adepte de la table rase) : réclamer qu’au-dessus de la démocratie représentative, il y ait une démocratie directe. Réclamer que le peuple puisse voter sur les sujets qui lui tiennent à cœur et que les parlementaires ne puissent pas détricoter les votes du peuple. C’est-à-dire, en droit, réclamer que le peuple puisse s’auto-saisir par un véritable référendum d’initiative populaire accessible ; je dis bien véritable et accessible, c’est-à-dire un référendum qui ne puisse pas être soumis au veto parlementaire comme c’est le cas dans le texte de la réforme constitutionnelle de 2008, et accessible, c’est-à-dire qu’il soit réclamé non par 10% du corps électoral, chiffre parfaitement inatteignable, mais 1%, par exemple. Bien sûr, bon nombre de réformes idiotes en sortiront. Et alors ? Croit-on que les lois qui sortent du parlement soient toutes empreintes de sagesse ?

Si notre mouvement veut peser en politique, plutôt que de menacer d’une improbable transformation en parti politique, il pourrait bien plutôt se transformer en Tea party. Autant la place est prise pour les partis à droite, autant la place de la défense du peuple est cruellement vacante.

Quant aux raisons internes qui rendent notre victoire accessible, elles tiennent essentiellement à cette magnifique mobilisation. Il est clair que le gouvernement ne l’attendait pas. Il en est ébranlé, tous les échos que nous avons du côté de la majorité nous le montrent. Et il espère que cette mobilisation va se tarir au plus vite. Car, cela commence à se dire, les forces de l’ordre arrivent à saturation : comme , depuis des semaines, chaque mini rassemblement de quelques dizaines de jeunes pacifiques est « encadré » par des dizaines de CRS, les quelques milliers de CRS que le ministère de l’Intérieur peut aligner sur le terrain sont presque tous dédiés à surveiller notre dangereux mouvement factieux ! D’après les informations qui filtrent du ministère de l’Intérieur, la fin mai constituerait le point de rupture. Ce qui veut dire que, si nous poursuivons nos rassemblements nombreux, divers, inattendus, au-delà de la grande manifestation du 26, le gouvernement ne pourra plus tenir. La grogne syndicale monte parmi les policiers et les CRS, non seulement du fait de cette sur mobilisation (qui absorbe toutes les vacances et toutes les RTT des forces de l’ordre), mais aussi parce qu’on exige des CRS des choses qu’il n’est pas prévu qu’il fassent, comme matraquer ou gazer des jeunes filles pacifiques.

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Lire ici: www.ndf.fr

There was no information in the conversation that suggested a plot inside the United States

Russia caught Tamerlan Tsarnaev 

and mother on wiretap discussing jihad

By Eileen Sullivan and Matt Apuzzo

Russian authorities secretly recorded a telephone conversation in 2011 in which one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his mother, officials said Saturday, days after the U.S. government finally received details about the call.

In another conversation, the mother of now-dead bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, officials said.

The conversations are significant because, had they been revealed earlier, they might have been enough evidence for the FBI to initiate a more thorough investigation of the Tsarnaev family.

As it was, Russian authorities told the FBI only that they had concerns that Tamerlan and his mother were religious extremists. With no additional information, the FBI conducted a limited inquiry and closed the case in June 2011.
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Read more:www.washingtontimes.com

Allemagne - Faiblesses structurelles: son avenir ne sera pas forcément plus serein que celui d'autres pays actuellement dans la tourmente

L'Allemagne, un modèle pour l'avenir ?

Par LE PROFESSEUR DIDIER RAOULT

Les indéniables succès économiques de notre voisin d'outre-Rhin masquent les faiblesses structurelles qui le minent, souligne le professeur Didier Raoult.
La gestion économique énergique de l'Allemagne, ces dernières années, a amené à penser, dans la crise actuelle, que cette politique permettait d'en faire le leader incontesté d'Europe, avec un modèle vers lequel nous devrions tendre. Pour évaluer le succès d'une société et d'une civilisation, d'autres éléments permettent d'avoir une autre approche de l'organisation sociale. 

• Un point essentiel est la qualité de la production scientifique d'un pays.  ....
• Un autre élément important concerne l'espérance de vie. ....
• Enfin, le patrimoine des familles à revenu égal, ....

Lire ici la suite: www.lepoint.fr

Une étude s'inquiète de l'augmentation trop rapide des salaires en cette période de crise.

Pourquoi vos salaires sont trop élevés

Par MARC VIGNAUD

Une étude* s'inquiète de l'augmentation trop rapide des salaires en cette période de crise. Pour y faire face, les entreprises doivent sabrer dans leurs effectifs.

"Pour préserver la motivation des travailleurs et le climat social, deux déterminants essentiels de la productivité, les entreprises préfèrent réduire les emplois que les salaires." Résultat, l'augmentation des rémunérations dépasse celle de la productivité (le coût de production par tête d'une entreprise) depuis l'éclatement de la crise financière, en 2008. Une spécificité bien française en Europe : les salaires ralentissent en Italie, en Espagne, au Royaume-Uni, mais aussi aux Pays-Bas, relèvent les trois auteurs de ce travail. Seule l'Allemagne a fait comme la France, mais après une stagnation des salaires avant la crise. 
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Lire la suite ici: www.lepoint.fr

* Dynamique des salaires par temps de crise, Phlippe Askenazy, Antoine Bozio et Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa, Conseil d'analyse économique

Total brain death is a valid criterion for pronouncing the death of human beings.

Total Brain Death: 

Valid Criterion of Death

by Patrick Lee and Germain Grisez 

Total brain death--the complete and irreversible cessation of functioning of all parts of the brain--has been widely accepted in ethics and law as a valid criterion for pronouncing the death of a human being. But in the last fifteen years, some philosophers and neurologists have advanced arguments that challenge this criterion. D. Alan Shewmon, a neurologist from UCLA, has advanced the strongest case so far. In our judgment, Shewmon has shown the unsoundness of the usual argument for the total brain death criterion, but we think--on different grounds than the standard rationale--that the criterion is a valid one for death.

The usual argument for the total brain death criterion has been that, once a human individual's brain has developed, it is the primary integrator of all the body's tissues and organs into a single organism. It seems to follow that, when all parts of the brain irreversibly cease to function, what remains is no longer a single organism, but an aggregate of tissues and organs.

However, Shewmon presents what appear to be counter-examples that disprove this criterion. Shewmon's evidence seems to show that some individuals have survived total brain death. In such cases, there are many functions that seem to belong to the individual as a whole. Among these are: homeostasis of a variety of mutually interacting chemicals and physiological parameters, detoxification and recycling of cellular wastes throughout the body, maintenance of body temperature (albeit at a lower than normal level), wound healing, and, of course, respiration and nutrition (though assisted). Shewmon describes an individual called "TK" who continued to manifest all those functions for more than twenty years, even as total brain death was confirmed by repeated clinical tests.

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Read more: www.thepublicdiscourse.com

Helicopter sans pilote ...

EC145 AFlight

Al Qaeda's threat did not end with Osama bin Laden

Al Qaeda and its Affiliates in 2013

By Katherine Zimmerman

Al Qaeda and its Affiliates in 2013 from AEI's Critical Threats Project

.....

Osama bin Laden envisioned al Qaeda as a global network that led the jihad against the United States, the West, and allied Muslim governments. The group known today as al Qaeda core serves as the center of the al Qaeda network, which now also includes groups recognized by the al Qaedaemir, or leader, as affiliates. These are al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al Shabaab, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, al Qaeda in Iraq, and the Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus. Recovered al Qaeda correspondence, especially from the Abbottabad raid, reveals continued communications about ongoing developments and operations between senior leaders in Pakistan and leaders of affiliated groups.

Read more: www.criticalthreats.org

Books - "Speer: The Final Verdict" by Joachim Fest

The Relevance of Albert Speer: 

Decent Citizens in an Indecent Society?

by Matthew Anger

"Certainly, I was one of those co-workers of Hitler’s 

who are called “technocrats” today"

Albert Speer’s career is a microcosm of the decent (but philosophically agnostic) citizen living in an indecent (and ideologically fanatical) society. Speer served as Hitler’s chief architect, and during the Second World War was Germany’s minister of armaments. As such, Speer was a leading technocrat in a totalitarian state. While 21st century America is a far cry from the death camp regime, totalitarian aspirations are no longer a fringe phenomenon. Ideological despots are increasingly mainstream, and many individuals in power are bent on controlling the “totality” of national life. Their politicized morality is opposed to traditional beliefs, and it is growing more brazen and assertive. So if we are to avoid the desperate choices that faced people like Speer, we should be aware of these trends before they become “inevitable,” as they did during Hitler’s seizure of power.

Albert Speer (1905-1981) has been an object of controversy since he issued his best-selling memoirs in 1969. The chief accusation against this suave, intelligent and respectable man – who stood apart from the corrupt and thuggish Nazi inner circle – is that he was an accomplished opportunist who deliberately blinded himself to the dark side of Hitler’s genius. Certainly this was true of much of his career. But, as the late Joachim Fest pointed out, Speer opposed Hitler’s inhuman last-ditch scorched-earth policies at personal risk. Likewise after the war it would have easy for him to avoid the lingering and often fractious controversy over German guilt. But he chose not to.

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Read more: www.theimaginativeconservative.org

Argentina - When it comes to getting more dollars, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is more than willing to comply with the International Monetary Fund.

Anti-IMF Stand Forgotten 

When Cash on the Line: Argentina Credit

By Eliana Raszewski 

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner en la ONU comparando al FMI con la FIFA

"Quiero decirle al FMI que esto no es un partido de fútbol sino la crisis financiera y económica más grave desde la década del treinta. Y que mi país no es un equipo de fútbol sino una nación soberana que toma sus decisiones de manera autónoma y que no va a aceptar presiones ni mucho menos amenazas de parte de ningún organismo internacional" afirmó la presidenta argentina...

Argentina, which the IMF censured for underreporting inflation less than three months ago after three warnings over the past two years, last week authorized the deposit of $400 million with the Washington-based lender to increase the nation’s access to emergency cash. The move will boost Argentina’s special drawing rights that currently total $3.2 billion and comes as reserves, Fernandez’s main source for bond payments, declined to a six-year low of $39.8 billion.

Fernandez, who has also criticized the IMF for causing the country’s record $95 billion default in 2001, is using the bank to bolster her dwindling supply of dollars as a decade-long legal dispute with holdout creditors and her increasing influence over the economy leaves Argentina as the world’s least creditworthy debtor nation based on swaps trading. With overseas borrowing costs at 13.92 percent, Argentina hasn’t sold bonds globally in over a decade, prompting Fernandez to tighten capital controls and ban most dollar purchases.

“They’re doing this because they’re worried, and the special drawing rights helps them have more liquidity,” Claudio Loser, a former IMF director who now heads research firm Centennial Group Latin America, said by telephone from Washington. “Once the drawing rights are approved, they can use the money practically immediately, like cash.”

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Reado more: www.bloomberg.com