Editorial
“La libertad individual significa literalmente ausencia de todo poder omnipotente y omnímodo en el Estado y en el gobierno del Estado” Juan Bautista Alberdi
El proyecto de ley denominado ley de medios presentado por el Gobierno Nacional, pone en blanco sobre negro, el tema de la libertad y el rol de los gobiernos en la consecución del bien común público. ¿Hasta donde pueden incursionar sin perder el rumbo y dirigirse francamente – por ignorancia, ideologías o intereses espurios – hacia el puerto del constructivismo? En esta inteligencia no podemos dejar de considerar dos conceptos claves: la esencia de la libertad integral y la prudencia política. Cuando hacemos referencia a esta última, no debemos perder de vista que es propia tanto de gobernantes como de gobernados. Por lo tanto, es necesario tomar conciencia que la “formación política del ciudadano – al decir de Don Eulogio Palacios - es preciso concebirla como el desarrollo paulatino y armónico del discernimiento racional de la persona humana en orden al bien común de la nación, que sólo puede conseguirse, dada la conexión de las virtudes éticas, por una sólida educación moral.”
De lo precedente se infiere que la educación es, sin lugar a dudas, la primera de las actividades políticas, esencial para servir al bien común. Abandonar los contenidos utilitaristas de la constitución de hecho, impone nuestra formación ciudadana, única vía para retomar la senda hacia la sociedad libre y virtuosa trazada por nuestra Constitución Histórica. Desde Prudentia Política, interpretamos como necesidad imperiosa la formación en una educación política que encarne los conceptos de libertad integral y prudencia política, lo de suyo redundará, sin lugar a dudas, en la calidad de nuestras instituciones republicanas, nuestro compromiso ciudadano, la conformación de una oposición inteligente y un gobierno que no pierda de vista el bien común público.
Tanto el presente número como los anteriores están en nuestro blog www.prudentiapolitica.blogspot.com . Nuestra dirección de correo electrónico es prudentiapolitica@gmail.com , adonde se pueden solicitar tanto altas como bajas del servicio.
Comité editorial
Roberto Bosca, Carlos Piedra Buena, Cristian Lavarello, Pablo López Herrera (editor).
Artículos
Cultura
La experiencia de la familia - Una belleza que hay que conquistar de nuevo por don Julián Carrón, presidente de Comunión y Liberación
La familia se halla, en los últimos tiempos, en el centro del debate público. El intento de regular nuevas formas de convivencia distintas a la del matrimonio concebido como relación definitiva y fecunda entre un hombre y una mujer ha desencadenado una apasionada discusión. No es algo totalmente nuevo, sino que representa más bien el culmen de un proceso comenzado hace años. La pertenencia de un ser humano a su familia se dilata en la pertenencia a la Iglesia y, por lo tanto, a esa parte de Iglesia en la que cada uno de nosotros experimenta la presencia universal de Cristo. Juntarse fraternalmente, crear moradas acogedoras: ésta es la mayor contribución que los cristianos pueden ofrecer para favorecer y acompañar la experiencia de la familia como camino infatigable hacia la plenitud de Cristo.
http://www.zenit.org/article-32347?l=spanish
La libertad religiosa exige la enseñanza de la religión en la escuela
El respeto de la libertad religiosa exige que los alumnos de las escuelas públicas y privadas puedan recibir voluntariamente una enseñanza de la religión en coherencia con su fe. Esta es la postura que mantiene la Santa Sede en una Carta circular de la Congregación para la Educación Católica (ver en http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20090505_circ-insegn-relig_sp.html) que, con motivo del inicio del curso escolar en el hemisferio Norte, está siendo distribuida a los obispos.
http://www.aceprensa.com/articulos/2009/sep/09/la-libertad-religiosa-exige-la-ensenianza-de-la-religion-en-la-escuela/
French turn their backs on the Church by Alain Woodrow
The number of weekly Massgoers in France has dropped steeply from 20 per cent in 1972 to 4.5 per cent today. This was the most striking finding of a survey carried out by the IFOP polling organisation between 2005 and 2009 for the daily Le Monde earlier this month.
http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/13568
Whatever Happened to the Work Ethic? by Steven Malanga
The financial bust reminds us that free markets require a constellation of moral virtues. Values like thrift, which remained strong through the 1950s, eventually gave way to a culture of uncontrolled consumption and debt. In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville worried that free, capitalist societies might develop so great a “taste for physical gratification” that citizens would be “carried away, and lose all self-restraint.” Avidly seeking personal gain, they could “lose sight of the close connection which exists between the private fortune of each of them and the prosperity of all” and ultimately undermine both democracy and prosperity.
http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_3_work-ethic.html
Inflation’s Moral Hazard by Theodore Dalrymple
An age of loose money not only destroys savings; it corrodes character. Runaway inflation in Germany, which turned money into wallpaper, undermined the Weimar Republic and led to Hitler’s rise. During the sixties and seventies, the sums of money of which everyone spoke increased, first by a little and then by a lot (and how nonchalantly we now speak of trillions of dollars or euros!). All that had seemed solid, to paraphrase Marx, melted into air. A man trying to preserve a competence learns to trust neither himself nor others. Inflation has overturned centuries of economic wisdom, or at least prejudice.
http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_3_otbie-inflation.html
Análisis político
El problema sociopolítico del cristianismo actual por Rafael Alvira
No hay persona sin sociedad, ni sociedad sin un orden que la constituya, ni orden sin un dogma y un poder. Esta tesis sencilla tiene a su cargo, es decir, es responsable de la interminable variedad de complicaciones en la vida de los hombres y los pueblos y, señaladamente, de la fricción continuada entre religión y política, fricción inevitable y cuyo tratamiento adecuado reclama la presencia de la filosofía, en este caso, la filosofía política.
http://www.almudi.org/tabid/36/ctl/Detail/mid/386/aid/792/Default.aspx
La engañosa neutralidad del laicismo por Andrés Ollero
Toda sociedad necesita establecer un mínimo ético, deslindando la frontera entre moral y derecho. No hace mucho que, invitado a un Congreso nacional sobre objeción de conciencia, he debido ponerlo de relieve. El problema surge a la hora de obtener los criterios para resolver si una determinada cuestión, por su grado de relevancia pública, debe o no ser regulada por el derecho. Hoy día a menudo se intentan imponer sin debate soluciones ideológicas que se presentan como neutrales. No cabe imponer las propias convicciones a los demás. Tan tajante afirmación, a más de drástica, suena a perogrullada. ¿Qué es eso de pretender que todos piensan como nosotros? Analizada desde otro ángulo -más jurídico- quizá cambie el panorama. Si fuera imaginable una sociedad en la que cada cual pudiera comportarse con arreglo a su leal saber y entender ¿sería necesario el derecho?
http://www.almudi.org/tabid/36/ctl/Detail/mid/386/aid/789/Default.aspx
The Axis of the Embittered by Matt Gurney
A recent trip to Russia by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has brought those two embittered states closer together. Chavez, known mostly for his firebreathing anti-Americanism, found a welcoming crowd in Moscow. After meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chavez announced new financial and arms deals. Venezuela will purchase 100 battle tanks from Russia, and the two countries will found a joint bank for the funding of mutual, and as yet unspecified, economic ventures. In exchange, Venezuela has given Russia something it had until now proven virtually incapable of finding elsewhere: diplomatic recognition for its South Ossetian puppet states, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36300
The Reagan Revolution and Its Discontents by Steven F. Hayward
His Presidency Was Better Than Expected, but Worse Than Desired. Domestically Ronald Reagan did far less than he had hoped, he did far less than he had promised, less than people wanted--and a hell of a lot more than people thought he would. What was the Reagan revolution anyway? How revolutionary was it? And what should those who wish to emulate Reagan today learn and apply from Reagan's story? To answer these questions it is necessary, first, to understand the unity of Reagan's statecraft, and second, to appreciate the way Reagan perceived his statecraft in constitutional terms.
http://www.aei.org/article/100950
The End of the World
There is a mounting body of evidence of a global alliance directed against the United States, running from Moscow to Tehran, Damascus and Caracas. United by hatred of America, funded by oil and narcotics revenues (including our own), and unanimous in their contempt for free societies, the leaders of Russia, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Bolivia publicly declare their intentions and demonstrate their resolve. Manhattan District Attorney, the legendary Robert Morgenthau, recently spoke of the Iranian-Venezuelan collaboration in very stark terms: “ [Iranian President Mahmoud]Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez have created a cozy financial, political and military partnership rooted in a shared anti-American animus.” There hasn’t been anything quite like this since the early days of the Second World War, when Argentina’s anti-democratic leaders, in league with like-minded tyrants in other South American countries, forged a secret alliance with Nazi Germany.
http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen/2009/09/09/the-end-of-the-world/
L'Honduras, i cattolici e il finto golpe by Massimo Introvigne
(Articolo pubblicato su Libero del 17 settembre con il titolo “I cattolici italiani si sono divisi pure sulla presidenza dell’Honduras”) Per capire dove si situano le linee di faglia che dividono i cattolici italiani ogni tanto, oltre che a Fini e a Casini, sarebbe bene dare uno sguardo alla politica estera. In particolare a un Paese piccolo, bellissimo (provare per credere: io ci sono stato) e dimenticato, l’Honduras.
http://blog.libero.it/larocca/7680818.html
In Defense of Capitalism by Vasko Kohlmayer
"Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil... you have to eliminate it and replace it with something that is good for all people," concludes Michael Moore in his latest documentary Capitalism: A Love Story. Moore's fulmination is neither surprising nor atypical in this era when capitalism finds itself under all-out assault. Having become something of a derogatory term, capitalism gets faulted for almost every societal problem and ill. Blamed for exploitation, poverty, fraud, alienation, crime, racism and nearly everything else, capitalism is increasingly cast as the great villain of our time. It is enough to compare the experience of, let's say, the United States, Switzerland and Australia, on one hand, with that of the Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea and Saudi Arabia on the other. The rule always holds: Capitalist societies are invariably prosperous. Non-capitalist ones are always poor.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36305
Lenin's Take on Current Events by John L. Chapman
What would Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, think of modern American history, all the way up to and including President Obama? And as an archetype of the modern-day policy intellectual, what would he do moving forward to advance his core beliefs, if he were alive today? While he has no modern parallels, the question is of more than academic interest, given calls for a permanently greater level of state intervention in the economy.
http://www.aei.org/article/101010
Política Internacional
Three Wrongs Don’t Make a Right by Robert R. Amsterdam
The recent visits to Moscow and Tehran by Hugo Chavez raise a number of concerns about the deepening relations between Russia, Iran and Venezuela. The motivation behind the Russia-Iran-Venezuela alliance is often misunderstood. On the one hand, there is the narrative that these governments are pursuing national interests, seeking to deepen their security against ever-present external threats and accrue regional power. Others argue that the alliance is driven by an attempt to build an “alternative architecture” of global relations, one that is conveniently unconcerned with democracy and human rights and bound solely by the common value of anti-Americanism.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=29795
América
Manuel Pastor: “Obama y América Latina” por Manuel Pastor (1)
¿Qué sabe Barack Hussein Obama de la historia y cultura hispanoamericanas? A diferencia de George W. Bush, que siendo gobernador de Texas visitó Méjico y otros países de la zona con frecuencia, gozando de gran popularidad entre la comunidad hispana, el actual ocupante de la Casa Blanca ni siquiera habla español. Por otra parte, haber sido estudiante en Columbia y Harvard no garantiza nada, como ya vimos cuando se refirió confusamente a la historia de España, Andalucía, el Islam y la Inquisición, en su discurso del El Cairo. Parafraseando al gran H. L. Mencken: el más importante presidente de la historia después de George W. Bush, se ha ganado también el título que hasta la fecha ostentaba William J. Bryan, “el más esforzado y eficaz cazamoscas” de América. Pero en la línea de los grandes demagogos del siglo pasado y de la tradición genuina del “fascismo liberal” norteamericano (Jonah Goldberg), probablemente Obama sea más bien, modestamente, “An Ivy League Huey Long” (George F. Will, Newsweek, 7 de septiembre de 2009). En terminología sudamericana, que fascinaría a Borges o a cualquier escritor del realismo mágico, el Perón gringo de Harvard.(1) catedrático de Ciencia Política en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, ex director del Real Colegio Complutense en la Universidad de Harvard.
http://www.semanarioatlantico.com/2009/09/21/articulos/manuel-pastor-obama-y-america-latina.html
Relativismo es Oficial en México
Adoctrinando a los hijos. Lo bueno es una mezcla de lo que cada persona cree con lo que piensa el resto: las ideas que yo tengo con las ideas que tienen los demás. Eso es lo bueno. Lo malo, por necesidad, es lo que no contiene ni mis ideas ni las del resto, ni mis intereses no los del resto. La moral y la ética fueron reducidas a una negociación de intereses. La escuela está enseñando que no hay reglas morales ni éticas, que cada quien hace las suyas. Si esto no es trascendental, no sé que lo sea.
http://contrapeso.info/articulo-1-3890-92.html
Obama Isn’t “Cool” – He’s Cold and Ruthless by Mark J. Koenig
Anyone who doubts that Obama and his advisors, in particular Rahm Emanuel, are thoroughly familiar with the Cloward-Piven Strategy – the strategy of orchestrated crisis — needs to become familiar with it themselves and then consider the actions taken to date by this administration. Far from being distressed by the worsening economic conditions, the ugly truth is that Obama welcomes this state of affairs; he is doing everything in his power to promote its continuance, and nothing to reverse it. To deny this is necessarily to ascribe to this President a level of staggering economic illiteracy which is simply incredible.
http://newsrealblog.com/2009/09/10/obama-isnt-cool-hes-cold-and-ruthless/
Venezuela: The Next Iran? by Ryan Mauro
Sean Penn, Danny Glover and Kevin Spacey have met privately with him. Oliver Stone is making a movie putting him in a positive light. From Hollywood’s love of him, you’d expect Hugo Chavez to be a courageous human rights activist, but he’s an anti-American extremist who received Iran’s highest national medal from Ahmadinejad in July 2006, where he said “We have to save humankind and put an end to the U.S. empire." And now he’s announced his intentions to begin a nuclear program with Russian assistance.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36327
Chavez Dreams of Being Putin by Yulia Latynina
Last week, Moscow blocked a United Nations Security Council resolution against Iran and gave Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez $2 billion in arms on credit. Chavez claims he needs them for defense, but the bill of sale includes 100 T-90 and T-72M1M tanks.By supplying Chavez with a small army of tanks, Moscow has lit a fuse that could ignite a war between Venezuela and Columbia — a war that Chavez needs to distract his people from the country’s problems and that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin needs to raise the price of oil. Chavez has dreams of becoming a leader who is for South America what Putin is for the former Soviet republics.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=29796
Terror on the Links
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has taken a swing at golf as the latest threat to revolutionary progress. Mr. Chavez could take a lesson from the socialist paradise of North Korea, where golf has become a symbol of the puissance of Dear Leader Kim Jong-il. According to official accounts, during his first round on Pyongyang's par-72 Taesong golf course, Mr. Kim shot 38 under par, including 11 holes in one.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36019
Beck Bashing by Harry Stein
Glenn Beck is good for America—and bad for the Lef. Glenn Beck and the Angry Style of American Politics reads the line under Time ’s current cover subject, the talk show host/author/provocateur who has lately so energized the conservative base. The headline inside gets more specific: Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America? While the piece is scrupulously moderate in tone, no one will not be surprised to learn that Time answers its own question with a resounding “Yes!” Beck is a “gifted entrepreneur of angst in a white-hot market . . . a man with his ear uniquely tuned to the precise frequency at which anger, suspicion and the fear that no one’s listening all converge,” as writer David Von Drehle puts it. “As melodrama, it’s thumping good stuff. But as politics, it’s sort of a train wreck—at once powerful, spellbinding and uncontrolled.”
http://www.city-journal.org/2009/eon0918hs.html
Are Communists (or neo-Communists) Dangerous? by David Horowitz
Last Friday night, O’Reilly and Beck had a back-and-forth about communism (inspired by Beck’s takedown of self-proclaimed communist and presidential adviser Van Jones). O’Reilly opined (I hate that word but he likes it, so there it is) that he was afraid of Islamo-fascists but not of communists. Like many Americans, O’Reilly thinks that because the communist party is almost a thing of the past (it exists but is not and will not be big enough to throw its weight around again), the communist idea is dead. It is not. It’s interesting that we have words like “neo-Nazi” to describe post-Hitler Nazis, and “neo-conservative” to describe liberals who left the Democratic Party when it took a sharp turn to the left, but not “neo-Communist” to describe the massive numbers of people on the left — and among them very influential people — who share, almost to the jot and tittle, the old communist view of capitalism, and are prepared to act on that perception.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36385
The fallacy of respecting the presidency by Tibor Machan
After Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouted out “You lie!” during President Obama's speech to Congress last week, one of Obama's cheerleaders at The New York Times intoned gravely that even if one disapproves of a given officeholder, one ought to show respect for the office. Well, not really, not any more. Suppose as a fan of the sport of baseball you have discovered that umpires across the country have become corrupt. In most countries it is pretty much a given that politicians are and have for centuries been corrupt. This is true even in so-called civilized societies because politicians take bribes, payoffs and favor special groups of citizens rather than the citizenry as a whole.
http://www.desertdispatch.com/opinion/shouted-6933-fallacy-wilson.html
Area Asia Pacífico
Japan's New Guard by Matt Gurney
Change does not come easily in conservative Japan, and yet it has come. After 54 almost continuous years in power, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan was defeated in a general election this Sunday by the rival center-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). The election is not only a historic event inside Japan. It may also augur a dramatic change in America’s relationship with one of its closest allies.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36147
Japan's People Problem by Steven Malanga
Japan's population problems are already so acute that it would take a massive influx of foreign workers to make a difference, and that's unlikely. The historic vote in Japan's recent national election, in which the Liberal Democratic Party which ruled nearly continuously for more than six decades has lost control of the government, is testament to deep undercurrents of discontent in a country whose economy is no bigger today than it was in 1996. The victorious Democratic Party, which touts Keynesian stimulus and more protections for Japanese firms, didn't inspire confidence among voters, according to polls, but the party carried the day anyway with an electorate hungry for change.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36174
Afghanistan - De Clausewitz à Galula, la singularité de la guerre contre-insurrectionnelle par Matthieu Meissonnier
La lecture comparée de Clausewitz et Galula, comme semble nous y inviter le général américain Petraeus, permet de comprendre ce que le second doit au premier, mais surtout en quoi il innove. Elle permet d’appréhender la singularité de la guerre contreinsurrectionnelle. Selon Galula, elle se caractérise par la maîtrise de la violence et le refus de la montée aux extrêmes. Son centre de gravité n’est pas l’armée adverse, mais la population qu’il faut conquérir. Enfin, elle confirme la prépondérance du politique sur le militaire et exclut toute autonomie de la sphère de la guerre.
http://www.defnat.com/pdf/MEIS-10-09.pdf
2009 : une année cruciale pour l’Afghanistan par Françoise Hostalier et Jean-Pierre Kucheida
L’année 2009 a été signalée comme l’année de tous les dangers pour l’Afghanistan. Dans la réalité, les multiples effets d’annonce, officiels et médiatiques, ont un air de déjà-vu. Ce qui rend cette année si particulière, c’est une accumulation d’événements majeurs tels que les élections présidentielles afghanes, l’arrivée de 21 000 soldats supplémentaires qui seront déployés au sud età l’est et l’évolution préoccupante de la situation au Pakistan. Depuis 2008 s’est développé dans les médias un sentiment d’urgence quant à l’avenir de la campagne militaire en Afghanistan. Sur place aussi, les avis divergent. En dépit de l’augmentation des moyens militaires et de l’intensification des opérations, l’instabilité et l’insécurité subsistent à des niveaux élevés.
http://www.defnat.com/pdf/HOST-10-09.pdf
Europa
El limbo comunista
El fascismo llegó a producir en la Alemania de Hitler más de seis millones de muertos en los campos de concentración mientras que el comunismo de Stalin acabó con la vida de 20 millones de rusos, según algunos historiadores británicos, y 1.2 millones a juicio de las autoridades soviéticas. El pasado fin de semana dos jóvenes dirigentes del PSOE, como eran Leire Pajín y Bibiano Aído, podían asistir al mitin de Rodiezmo y acabar entonando la Internacional con el puño en alto sin que nadie se escandalizara por ello. Si esas dos mismas jóvenes hubieran aparecido en todos los medios de comunicación con el brazo en alto al estilo nazi, seguramente hoy mismo se hubieran visto forzadas a presentar su dimisión y el escándalo hubiera adoptado dimensiones internacionales.
http://www.abc.es/20090908/valencia-valencia/limbo-comunista-20090908.html
Desgobierno español por Ignacio Camacho
Desde un plano puramente técnico, éste puede ser el Gobierno más incompetente desde que se restauró la democracia, lo que incluye el crítico año final de Adolfo Suárez, que al menos tenía la atenuante de haber perdido el control de su propia mayoría. Por lo general, en España los malos gobiernos lo han sido por falta de ideas, por abotargamiento o por soberbia, pero éste lo es además por incapacidad administrativa.
http://www.abc.es/20090828/opinion-firmas/desgobierno-20090828.html
Ayatollah Putin by Jamie Glazov
Frontpage Interview's guest today is Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy, a former KGB agent who became one of the KGB’s harshest critics. He is the author of seven books about the KGB and Japan.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36129
Russia general says missile plan not shelved
ZURICH (Reuters) - Russia's top general said on Monday that plans to deploy missiles in an enclave next to Poland had not been shelved, despite a decision by the United States to rethink plans for missile defense in Europe.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE58K12S20090921
German election: why Angela Merkel is no Margaret Thatcher by Damien McElroy
When she first came to power, Angela Merkel was heralded as Germany's Thatcher: a trail-blazing female leader who would shake up the country's traditional, male-dominated politics. Yet in their approach to government, they are as different as day and night.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6157224/German-election-why-Angela-Merkel-is-no-Margaret-Thatcher.html
Over to You (a wake-up call for Europe) by Katerina Safarikova
The end of America’s Czech- and Polish-based missile shield should be a wake-up call for Europe. President Barack Obama’s decision last week to stop work on a missile-defense system planned for Poland and the Czech Republic sparked emotional reactions among the system’s supporters. Former Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek felt “disappointed” in the Americans, Polish Premier Donald Tusk worried about Washington’s commitment to its Eastern European allies, and Jan Vidim, chairman of the Czech parliament’s defense committee, made no attempt to hide his frustration, calling Obama a “coward.”
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=340&NrSection=2&NrArticle=20853
Turquía - Erdogan y los cristianos. Pocas promesas, cero hechos por Sandro Magister
Visita sorpresiva del premier turco a Bartolomé I. Pero como otros gestos distensivos del pasado, también éste corre el riesgo de no tener consecuencias. Las reservas de Benedicto XVI respecto al ingreso de Turquía en la Unión Europea: “Europa es un continente cultural y no geográfico. Es su cultura la que le dona una identidad común. Las raíces que han formado y permitido la formación de este continente son las del cristianismo. […] En este sentido, Turquía ha representado siempre en el curso de la historia otro continente, en disputa permanente con Europa. Turquía – que se considera un estado laico, pero fundado sobre el Islam – podría tratar de dar vida a una cultura que posea propia identidad, pero que esté en comunión con los grandes valores humanistas que nosotros todos deberíamos reconocer. Esta idea no se opone a formas de asociación y de colaboración estrecha y amigable con Europa y permitiría el surgimiento de una fuerza común que se oponga a cualquier forma de fundamentalismo”.
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1339804?sp=y
Cultura y valores
Necesitamos evangelizar la cultura - Alocución televisiva de monseñor Héctor Aguer, arzobispo de La Plata
“La V° Conferencia General del Episcopado Latinoamericano, celebrada en Aparecida, en Brasil, proponía que cada bautizado, cada miembro de la Iglesia se reconozca a sí mismo como discípulo misionero de Jesucristo. Allí está la clave: como se transforma, como se cristianiza esta cultura a la cual vemos tantas veces con indiferencia, con hostilidad, respecto de los valores cristianos y que, por tanto, está también en trance de una progresiva deshumanización”. ¿Cómo se la transforma? Sólo por la presencia testimonial y coherente de cristianos que vivan de un modo auténtico su fe. Es decir que sean verdaderos discípulos y misioneros de Jesucristo. ¿Para qué? Para que Cristo sea reconocido como el salvador del mundo y el Señor de la historia y para que nuestros pueblos, los pueblos de América Latina, tengan vida plena en Él. Hasta la semana próxima si Dios quiere”
http://www.aica.org/index2.php?pag=aguer090905
Cardenal Rouco: Iglesia, sociedad y política
Intervención del arzobispo de Madrid en el Meeting de Rímini: conferencia que dictó el cardenal Antonio María Rouco Varela, arzobispo de Madrid y presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal Española, en la XXX Edición del "Meeting para la Amistad entre los Pueblos" que organiza el movimiento eclesial Comunión y Liberación en Rímini.
http://www.zenit.org/article-32230?l=spanish
Viena recuerda a Freud
Setenta años después de su muerte, Viena se pregunta si su obra, el psicoanálisis, extendido prácticamente en todo el mundo, compite hoy con las religiones en la búsqueda de la verdad del ser humano. Ese es el tema de la conferencia titulada "Psicoanálisis como religión laica" de Felix de Mendelssohn…
http://www.aurora-israel.co.il/articulos/israel/Newsletter/24285/?utm_source=Noticias+diarias+Miercoles-TEA&utm_medium=23-09-2009%202da%20edic
Economía
Inequidad e Iniquidad por Armando Ribas
Una vez más el Papa plantea el problema de la pobreza y en esta oportunidad se refirió específicamente a la Argentina. Es indudable que la pobreza existe y que los datos del INDEC aparentemente están lejos de reflejar la realidad de la misma, tal como la reconocen entes privados. Pero medir la pobreza y quejarse por ella no es la solución. La realidad es que alrededor de la pobreza lo que reina es la demagogia en la lucha por el poder.
http://www.libertad.org.ar/contenidos/2009/08/28/Editorial_4141.php
The School of Salamanca Saw This Coming by Jerzy Strzelecki
The most beautiful justification of the free market that I know of is theological in nature. In his Disputationes de justitia et jure, published in 1642 in Lyon, the Spanish cardinal Juan de Lugo (1583–1660) wrote that the "just price" depends on so many factors that it can be known only to God. (Saint Alfons Liguori, the founder of the Order of Redemptorists and the patron saint of confessors and moral theologians, considered de Lugo the most prominent theologian following Saint Thomas Aquinas.). In the period from 1913 to 2007, the Fed — implementing its mission to "stabilize the price level" — destroyed over 97 percent of the purchasing power of the dollar. The beauty of fiat money! Hence, the need for theology. The destruction of 97 percent of greenback purchasing power cannot but be considered Satan's work. At least on this point, everyone can certainly agree!
http://mises.org/story/3607
Markets are mad, long live markets by Terence Corcoran
While all around us are hailing the death of free markets and the end of capitalism, nobody seems to have noticed how ugly capitalists are now rekindling the global economy. For people who don’t know how markets work and how self-interest drives business activity, two good examples of capitalist-like greed in action include the mini-boom in the North American auto market and the emerging bubblet in Canadian housing.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/09/17/terence-corcoran-markets-are-mad-long-live-markets.aspxA Critique of Pure Financial Reason by Dane Stangler
Did Efficient Market Hypothesis destroy the economy? Among this recession’s casualties—lost jobs, foreclosed homes, bankrupt companies—one might include the economic theory known as Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). The notions that all available information is already reflected in fluctuating asset prices, that inefficiencies (if they exist) are fleeting, and that people are cool calculators of optimal utility have all come under attack as having either caused, or substantially contributed to, the financial crisis and recession. The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street, by Justin Fox (HarperBusiness, 400 pp., $27.99)
http://www.city-journal.org/2009/bc0925ds.html
Whatever Happened to the Work Ethic? by Steven Malanga
The financial bust reminds us that free markets require a constellation of moral virtues.In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville worried that free, capitalist societies might develop so great a “taste for physical gratification” that citizens would be “carried away, and lose all self-restraint.” The economic shocks that followed the tumultuous late 1960s, especially the devastating inflation of the 1970s, reinforced an emerging materialism. In the wake of the market crash, our national discussion about how to fix capitalism seems limited to those who believe that more government will fix the problem and those who think that free markets will fix themselves. Few have asked whether we can recapture the civic virtues that nourished our commerce for 300 years.
http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_3_work-ethic.html
Falling for the Great Lie by Vasko Kohlmayer
Having incurred more than $65 trillion in obligations of various kinds, the federal government finds itself in an insurmountable fiscal hole. To give a sense of size, this amount is more than the annual economic output of the whole world and four times America's Gross Domestic Product. It would be impossible to manage this even if our leaders suddenly came to their senses and began to behave responsibly.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35993
Historia
The Communist Collapse: Twenty Years On by Jamie Glazov
Twenty years ago, the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe began to fall one by one -- so quickly that the coming months will be very dense with 20th anniversaries of great historic events. That was the final battle of the Cold War, where the Iron Curtain was finally broken, and the monstrous Soviet Empire ruined. Freedom triumphed in Europe at last. Or so it seemed. For the next twenty years have shown that that victory was not as final as many hoped during that momentous autumn of 1989. How did the communists wriggle out of what appeared to be their historic defeat? The answer to that question may very well be found in Soviet secret archives, which show the 1989 events in a profoundly new light.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36211
Why did the second world war begin?
The events of September 1939 look less like the beginning of a world war and more like a critical moment in the escalation of an ongoing global conflict. It was a war, above all, for dominance in Eurasia. It was a war begun by the "have-nots" – Japan, Italy and Germany – but won by the least deserving of the "haves" – the Soviet Union, which had begun on the wrong side in 1939, and the United States, which entered the war more than two years later. It was a war that was not really over until 1953, by which time its two most hotly contested zones – central and eastern Europe and Manchuria-Korea – had been divided in two, with deadly, impassable borders dividing each of them.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/304249.html
Le pacte Ribbentrop-Molotov, l’agression soviétique contre la Pologne le 17 septembre 1939 - Alexandra Viatteau
Le 1er septembre 2009 sera le 70e anniversaire de l’attaque allemande de la Pologne, par l’Ouest, évènement qui marque le début de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Le 17 septembre 2009 sera le 70e anniversaire de l’attaque soviétique de la Pologne, par l’Est. Cette deuxième date est moins connue. Voici pourquoi l’auteur lui donne tout son sens. Une vision claire des responsabilités est tout aussi importante que la connaissance lucide de la vérité aux fondements des réconciliations et de l’avenir.
http://www.diploweb.com/Le-pacte-Ribbentrop-Molotov-l.html
Libros
La América ingenua de Mariano Facio, por María Isabel González del Campo
No es fácil encontrar un libro que, de forma tan amena y ágil como éste, narre la historia del descubrimiento, conquista y evangelización de América. El propósito del profesor universitario argentino Mariano Fazio es acercarnos a esa América que un tiempo fue española en su mayor parte, y relatar a grandes rasgos los acontecimientos principales que fueron configurando su personalidad y características.La América ingenua Mariano Fazio Rialp. Madrid (2009). 200 págs. 12 €.
http://www.aceprensa.com/articulos/2009/sep/09/la-america-ingenua/
Libertad y Tiranía: Un Manifiesto Conservador, de Mark Levin por Alberto Acereda
El último libro de Mark Levin, Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto (2009) se agotó en las librerías norteamericanas nada más publicarse. Hubo que hacer a toda prisa una segunda tirada de ejemplares que también se agotaron. El éxito de este libro radica no sólo en que alcanzó inmediatamente el primer puesto en las listas [...]En menos de 250 páginas y con rigurosas notas, Levin desglosa cada capítulo sobre temas concretos: libertad y tiranía; prudencia y progreso; la fe en el momento de la fundación de Estados Unidos; la Constitución; el Federalismo; el libre mercado; el llamado Estado del bienestar; el estatismo medioambiental; la inmigración; la autoprotección de los valores estadounidenses. Levin sustituye conceptos como “progresistas” o “izquierdistas” por su nueva calificación de “estatistas” (”the Statists”) referido negativamente a los partidarios del Gran Gobierno.
http://www.fundacionburke.org/2009/09/16/libertad-y-tirania-un-manifiesto-conservador-de-mark-levin/
The Church and the market by Thomas E. Woods Jr
This wonderful book has been justly recognized for its importance. It won first place in the Templeton Enterprise Award 2007. Professor Woods is as skilled an interpreter of Mises, Reisman, Rothbard, Menger, Hayek, and others as he is of Leo XIII, Pius X, Pius XII, Paul VI, and John Paul II. His reading of the relevant documents stretching back more than a century--and his careful explanation of their status as official teaching--is a model of fairness and disciplined commentary. In short, this is the book that pastors and Bishops need to read.
http://mises.org/store/Church-and-the-Market-P199.aspx
Conservative Books Top Best-Seller Lists by Lachlan Markay
Conservatives are resuming their historically dominant position atop the New York Times and Amazon.com bestsellers lists after a short hiatus that coincided, not coincidentally, with George W. Bush's tenure in the White House. While the mainstream media raved about a new era of leftist intellectual supremacy during the liberal ascendance on the bestsellers lists, the return of conservative books to the tops of those lists seems to be going unnoticed.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36171
Justice and Its Critics by Adam Kirsch
Two new books take fresh looks at John Rawls’s magnum opus. “Justice, justice shalt thou pursue,” commands the Book of Deuteronomy. But for American political philosophers, it is not so much justice as A Theory of Justice that is the object of pursuit. Since John Rawls published that seminal book in 1971, its ideas and language have exercised an extraordinary hold on the imagination of political thinkers.Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?, by Michael Sandel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 320 pp., $25) / The Idea of Justice, by Amartya Sen (Harvard University Press, 496 pp., $29.95)
http://www.city-journal.org/2009/bc0911ak.html
Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45 by Michael Burleigh
Max Hastings's Finest Years explores the Churchill myth – partly the creation of the man himself – but how far did those who knew him believe in it, asks Michael Burleigh. While insisting that Churchill was 'the greatest actor upon the stage of affairs whom the world has ever known’, Max Hastings has written a subtly revisionist account of Britain’s wartime premier, chiefly by viewing Churchill through the eyes of others. This enables him to resist the pull of Churchill’s own narrative histories, which were written without the aid of a diary of the sort that others used to record their shifting reactions to him.Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45 By Max Hastings, HARPER PRESS, £25, 664pp
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/6163217/Finest-Years-Churchill-as-Warlord-1940-45-by-Max-Hastings-review.html
Ronald Reagan: He Did It His Way by Conrad Black
This is a very worthwhile book, whose title incites hopes for a vast plot confected and executed in all its intricacy by a much more complicated figure than Ronald Reagan is generally reckoned to be. Reagan's Secret War: The Untold Story of His Fight to Save the World from Nuclear Disaster By Martin Anderson and Annelise Anderson. (Crown, 464 pages, $32.50)
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/15/he-did-it-his-way/
martes, 29 de septiembre de 2009
sábado, 22 de agosto de 2009
Agosto 2009 - N° 4
Editorial
Las elecciones como un relámpago ya forman parte de nuestra historia, y el mundo sigue andando y cada uno a lo suyo... Y mientras se perfilan aún confusamente el alcance y efectos de la crisis económica mundial, también van cambiando los paradigmas, y el peso relativo de las potencias en un tiempo de liderazgos temporales que no se distinguen por generar los mayores entusiasmos.
Cada época plantea sus propios desafíos, y la nuestra no es una excepción. Hoy disponemos de herramientas en calidad y cantidad como para elevar el nivel de vida del hombre como nunca antes en la historia. Solo falta que tomemos conciencia de ello y asumamos nuestras responsabilidades. ¿Repetiremos las historias ya vividas y los resultados ya experimentados de "miseria, lamentos y desolación", o multiplicaremos las riquezas espirituales y materiales para encontrar caminos de genuino progreso y mejorar la existencia humana?
De lo que estamos cada vez más seguros es que nuestras esperanzas están basadas en el desarrollo espiritual de la humanidad, y que solo a partir de allí lograremos una realidad temporal más ejemplar y aleccionadora. Mientras tanto, desde Prudentia Política, abrimos los ojos sobre la realidad que nos rodea y sacamos nuestras conclusiones....
Nuestra dirección de correo electrónico es
prudentiapolitica@gmail.com , adonde se pueden solicitar tanto altas como bajas del servicio.Comité editorial
Roberto Bosca, Carlos Piedra Buena, Cristian Lavarello, Pablo López Herrera (editor).
Artículos
Reflexiones
“Ciertamente la relación con Dios es algo profundamente personal y la persona es un ser en relación, y si la relación fundamental --la relación con Dios-- no es viva, no es vivida, las demás relaciones no pueden encontrar su forma adecuada. Pero esto es válido también para la sociedad para la humanidad como tal. También aquí, si no se tiene en cuenta a Dios, si se prescinde de Dios, si Dios está ausente, entonces falta la brújula para mostrar el conjunto de todas las relaciones para encontrar el camino, la orientación hacia la que se debe ir.”
http://www.zenit.org/article-32056?l=spanish
Sobre el laicismo y el gobierno de las instituciones
por Rafael Alvira
Lo estatal es en sí jurídicamente público y de todos, pero de hecho pertenece a los victoriosos de la política, no es ni de lejos tan público como parece. Un buen gobernante sabe que ha de basar su política en aquella fe, por pequeña que pueda ser, que los ciudadanos tienen en común. Pero también sabe que sin esperanza no se vive bien. Ha de intentar, por ello, facilitar el crecimiento de una fe que genere esperanza, pues entonces se reforzará esa "amistad" básica sin la que no hay sociedad posible.
http://arvo.net/laicidad-y-laicismo/sobre-el-laicismo-y-el-gobierno-de-las-instituciones/gmx-niv132-con15607.htmSecularidad cristiana y cultura de los derechos humanos
por Martin Rhonheimer
¿Cómo se relaciona la identidad cristiana —pensando principalmente en los católicos— con el secularismo político moderno y qué significa esa relación para la justificación pública de los derechos humanos? La relación entre libertad y verdad debería ser respetada también por los medios de comunicación, sin por ello coartar su libertad —ni siquiera su libertad para la estupidez—, pero sí fomentando su sentido de responsabilidad.
Por Julio Crivelli
El mito de la redistribución sigue vigente en la Argentina y gracias a él somos cada vez más pobres. Los argentinos tenemos una vieja pelea con la democracia y el capitalismo, los dos pilares de la sociedad occidental. Dicha pelea, que arranca en 1930; en la "hora de la espada" y el "derecho de la revolución triunfante," se fue profundizando hasta embarcarnos en una estructura populista y nacional-socialista, que hasta el día de hoy infecta la mente de los argentinos. © http://www.economiaparatodos.com.ar/
http://www.economiaparatodos.com.ar/ver_nota.php?nota=2604
L’amitié politique, forme suprême du bonheur.
Guy Delaporte
Nous voudrions montrer dans cet article que l’amitié politique est la forme suprême du bonheur éthique, et essayer d’en approcher les conditions actuelles de sa réalisation. Nous développerons donc notre pensée autour de quatre points : 1. le bonheur éthique, 2. l’amitié politique, 3. la citoyenneté et 4. l’état actuel en France
http://www.thomas-d-aquin.com/Pages/Articles/AmitiePolitique.pdf
La parabola dell’umanesimo ateo
Bruno Forte
Nel dibattito accesosi in questi giorni sulla stampa intorno al concetto di nichilismo e di umanesimo ateo, a partire dalla frase pronunciata da Benedetto XVI nell’Angelus del 9 agosto riguardo ai «lager nazisti, simboli estremi del male, come il nichilismo contemporaneo», vorrei inserirmi concentrandomi su un’unica domanda, quella che dal punto di vista delle conseguenze pratiche mi appare la più decisiva: è possibile un’etica senza Trascendenza? Può esserci un codice morale normativo e condiviso senza il riferimento a Dio, all’«ultimo Dio»?
http://www.avvenire.it/Cultura/La+parabola+dellumanesimo+ateo_200908190841498270000.htm
Which Way Is History Marching? Debating the Authoritarian Revival
By Azar Gat, Daniel Deudney and G. John Ikenberry, and Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel
Democracy´s victory is not preordinated. Liberal democracy is presumed to possess intrinsic advantages, a presumption that confers an air of inevitability on the past as well as on the future. If "world history is the world's court," as Hegel put it, then history's verdict is clear. But is it really? Or might the owl of Minerva, due to its current flight path, be encountering optical illusions?
By Fraser Nelson
The Spectator has canvassed its readers and put their recommendations to the test in an opinion poll. Fraser Nelson unveils a shopping list of refreshing political ideas. In aggregate, the results amount to an agenda for change that may not please any of the parties. They disclose a series of public priorities that are rather distinct from those one encounters within the Westminster village, where the various parliamentary reforms under discussion tend to reflect thinly disguised party political strategies.
Pocos conceptos políticos resultan hoy tan equívocos como el de democracia. Democráticos se consideran los Estados Unidos, Gran Bretaña o Suiza; pero también Venezuela, China, Cuba y muchos países islámicos. Resulta evidente el deterioro que las instituciones occidentales sufren hoy en día en nombre, precisamente, de la democracia. Nunca como hasta ahora los Estados han tenido más capacidad -técnica, burocrática, administrativa e ideológica- para imponer al hombre mayores deberes y obligaciones, y todo se hace apelando a la democracia. Resulta desagradable comprobar cómo hoy en día, con el triunfo del discurso democrático, nuestras libertades se resquebrajan.
http://www.fundacionburke.org/2009/07/28/el-regreso-de-platon/
América
By Ariel Cohen and Owen B. Graham
President Hugo Chavez recently announced that Venezuela will purchase dozens of Russian tanks and other arms, signaling growing military ties between the two countries -- and trouble ahead in the hemisphere. It may be time for the State Department to declare Venezuela a terrorist-sponsoring state. Both Russia and Venezuela are among Iran's principal supporters and have contacts with Hezbollah and Hamas. The Russian-Venezuelan axis bodes ill for hemispheric security, energy access and for the cause of liberty in the Western Hemisphere.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/20/authoritarian-arms/
The Organization of American States (OAS) grabbed headlines on June 28 when it became the international point-organization for dealing with the “coup” in Honduras that ousted President Manuel Zelaya. One might have expected the OAS to launch immediate consultations between the two sides to reduce the prospects for violence and seek some common ground and resolution of the differences. But no, from the beginning under the macho leadership of Secretary General José Miguel Insulza it chose confrontation and ultimatums. This was what Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his OAS supporters wanted, for Zelaya was one of them, and all OAS member states went along with the basic policy.
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2563
Russian Subs Patrolling Off East Coast of U.S.
by Mark Mazzetti and Thom Shanker
A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States in recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military. The episode has echoes of the cold war era, when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly parked submarines off each other’s coasts to steal military secrets, track the movements of their underwater fleets — and be poised for war.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/world/05patrol.html
Obama at Six Months - Lack-of-Progress Report
by Michael Novak
After six months in the Oval Office, Pres. Barack Obama has a lower job-approval rating than did ten of the last twelve presidents at the same point in their presidencies. Rasmussen reports that the daily tracking poll of the president's popular standing shows eleven points negative. The support for his signature issue, health-care "reform," is falling by the day. The more that Americans learn about it, the more revulsion they feel against it. His big stimulus bill has not delivered what he said it would. A giveaway stimulus is the Democrats' usual alternative to tax cuts, on the theory of "increase demand" as opposed to "increase supply." Unemployment in a few important states has now soared to 17 percent, and nationally it has risen close to 10 percent.
http://www.aei.org/article/100836
Seven Countries That Are Furious with Obama
by Philip I. Levy
While President Obama is personally very popular around the world, his policies have not been uniformly welcomed. There are a number of important countries who have some serious reservations about the foreign policy of the new administration, particularly when it comes to trade.
http://www.aei.org/article/100833
‘Chimerica’ is Headed for Divorce
By Niall Ferguson
When does a rising power become a threat? There is seldom a single moment. A century ago, AngloGerman antagonism was still a relatively new phenomenon; an alliance between the two empires seemed plausible as late as 1899. Likewise, the United States took time to identify Japan as a serious rival in the Pacific region; it was not until the 1930s that relations really soured. In both cases, the perception of a strategic threat was slow to grow. But grow it did—and ultimately it led to war. Could the same be happening to the United States and China today? Are we imperceptibly but inexorably slipping from cooperation to competition?
http://www.newsweek.com/id/212143
Area Asia Pacífico
El Papa traducido al chino. Con demasiados errores
por Sandro Magister
La carta escrita en el año 2007 por Benedicto XVI a los católicos de China ha sido gravemente malentendida, afirma el cardenal Zen, para beneficio absoluto de las autoridades comunistas y de su designio de someter a la Iglesia. A dos años de la carta, el cardenal José Zen Zekiun, obispo emérito de Hong Kong, ha trazado un balance y lo ha publicado a mitad de julio en chino y en inglés, en el sitio web de su diócesis.
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1339411?sp=y
Herodes hace matanzas donde no llega la cruz
por Sandro Magister
China, con la obligación del hijo único, no es el único país donde se asesinan niños por nacer e infantes. El infanticidio era y es práctica corriente en muchas civilizaciones de ayer y hoy. Desde siempre el cristianismo es su más radical antítesis. Un libro y un artículo lo documentan: "Mejor diez tumbas que un nacimiento más ", predica un slogan de la campaña por el hijo único en China. Y ese es también el título original del libro con el que Harry Wu ha descrito y analizado la política antinatalista china, compuesta de esterilizaciones, abortos forzados, de infanticidios.
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1339690?sp=y
A Defense Strategy for Taiwan Deter, Defend, Repel, and Partner
by Dan Blumenthal, Gary J. Schmitt, Michael Mazza, Randall Schriver, Mark Stokes
Taiwan is a great success story. It is a prosperous, thriving democracy living at peace--and it wants to remain at peace. A recent poll shows that more than 90 percent of Taiwanese support maintaining the "status quo," meaning principally that an overwhelming majority of the island's citizens wants to avoid a conflict with the mainland if at all possible while retaining their de facto sovereignty.But in order to maintain that peace, Taipei will have to build a military strong enough to make the use of force against Taiwan unlikely.
http://www.aei.org/paper/100030
Europa
Obamaníacos del mundo, ¡uníos!
por Pablo Molina
Somos bastante catetos. Los españoles. Especialmente los progres, tan proclives a actuar de felpudo con cualquier figurón bendecido por la izquierda: ante él, pierden toda capacidad de pensamiento crítico. Zapatero, por ejemplo, está fascinado con Obama, y, si hemos de creer a Leyre Pajín, el sentimiento es recíproco. Algo estará haciendo (mal) el presidente norteamericano para que sus homólogos europeos le tengan en tan alta estima, con la circunstancia adicional de que ese sentimiento es directamente proporcional a la magnitud del fracaso de los admiradores en sus respectivos países.
http://findesemana.libertaddigital.com/obamaniacos-del-mundo-unios-1276236871.html
Britain, U.S. Go in Different Directions
By Michael Barone
Once upon a time, British and American politics seemed to operate in tandem. But today British and American politics today are moving in very different directions. One reason is that changes of government, from one party to another, have become very infrequent in Britain. The only one the last 30 years, since Thatcher's victory in 1979, was Blair's in 1997. Indeed, the interval was the longest since Britain developed modern political parties in the mid-19th century.
http://www.aei.org/article/100782
Why the restless Chinese are warming to Russia's frozen east
by David Blair
Russia's Far East is emptying of people but is very mineral rich. The endless silver birch forests of the Russian Far East might appear so desolate and windswept that no one could possibly be interested in them. Yet the vast swath of territory between Lake Baikal and Vladivostok may become a new theatre of confrontation between Russia and China in the decades ahead.
A Hot Summer in Europe
By André Glucksmann
The continent’s sovereignty, such as it is, depends on containing Russian ambitions. Is there such a thing as the European Union? In Washington, the State Department has been seeking the phone number for such an entity since the days of Henry Kissinger. In Moscow, the EU is nothing but a television prop. Since the days of Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko, regimes have come and gone, but the conviction endures that only classical powers matter: the United Kingdom, France, and above all Germany, long a political dwarf but always an economic giant.
http://www.city-journal.org/2009/eon0730ag.html
Russo-Georgia One Year On: From Reset to Repeat?
by Austin Bay
This past week's rhetorical exchanges between Russia and the Republic of Georgia is a definite reminder that the complex political, historical and geographic issues at play in the Russo-Georgia War of August 2008 still plague both nations and affect Russia's relations throughout Europe. Likewise, the "reset" of U.S.-Russian relations, touted by the Obama administration as a demonstrable change from Bush administration diplomacy, is, well, quite unsettled.
Lessons of Georgia - Russia under Putin is not a force for good in the world
When Vladimir Putin described the collapse of the Soviet Union as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the 20th century, his remarks were seen as part and parcel of the nationalist bluster that is an integral part of his domestic political appeal. When, one year ago, the Russian prime minister sent his tanks into Georgia, he seemed to be attempting to recreate this land of lost content. His revanchist foray confirmed what the West had long suspected – that Russia has never been able to come to terms with the independence of those countries that were once part of the Soviet empire.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/6006248/Lessons-of-Georgia.html
Africa
La crise en Afrique
Par Philippe Hugon
Géopolitique de l’Afrique. Les pays africains sont fortement mais différemment impactés par la crise du fait de leur dynamique plus ou moins extravertie, de leurs structures et des politiques mises en œuvre. L’auteur présente d’abord les canaux de contagion de la crise puis procède à une différenciation précise des Etats. Il s’interroge, enfin, sur les perspectives géopolitiques du continent.
http://www.diploweb.com/La-crise-en-Afrique.html
Cultura y valores
Vacío Lleno de Chatarra - Todo es un descuido
Por Eduardo García Gaspar
Mi pregunta había sido simple: ¿Estaría él dispuesto a financiar parte de un esfuerzo destinado a difundir los ideales de la libertad humana?. El hombre de empresa me dijo, “No me preocupan esas minucias que cualquiera puede hacer. Lo que yo hago es lo que en verdad importa, manejar mi empresa. Soy un tipo práctico que no entiende de esas cosas teóricas. De eso se encargan otros, yo no”. Esa fue su respuesta y con ella dio por terminada la entrevista.
http://www.contrapeso.info/articulo-1-3842-91.html
Rusia introducirá la enseñanza religiosa en las escuelas
Su Beatitud Kirill, patriarca de Moscú y de todas las Rusias, ha alabado el anuncio del presidente ruso Dimitri Medvedev sobre la propuesta de introducir la asignatura de Religión en las escuelas rusas. Sin embargo el proyecto piloto prevé sólo enseñar cuatro credos entre los que no se incluye el católico.
http://www.zenit.org/article-32020?l=spanish
Educación y valores
Por César Nombela
La educación integral no es solo instrucción para el aprendizaje de diversos contenidos científicos o humanísticos. En los niveles más básicos ha de contribuir al desarrollo integral de la persona, basado tanto en la configuración de hábitos de trabajo y aptitudes intelectuales, como la adopción de actitudes que capaciten para actuar con libertad y autonomía.
http://www.abc.es/20090810/madrid-madrid/educacion-valores-20090810.html
por Juanjo Romero
La densidad de posts desasosegantes del Coronel Kurtz empieza a alarmar. En el último cuenta que el Partido Laborista planea poner bajo vigilancia a 2.000 familias primero y, después, en un plazo de dos años, a 20.000 para que eduquen correctamente. Vamos, Educación para la Ciudadanía a lo bestia. ¡Pobres Zapatero y Kirchner, que se quedan atrás!, miedo me dan.
http://infocatolica.com/blog/delapsis.php/0908-emghome-checksl-emg-el-estado-vigil
Los musulmanes en la escuela de la democracia. La TV hace de maestra
por Sandro Magister
Gran Bretaña da vía libre en su propio territorio, en nombre del multiculturalismo, a unos ochenta tribunales islámicos alternativos, que adoptan como regla no la Common Law británica sino la sharia – con todo lo que ésta abarca en materia de poligamia, de repudio, de sumisión de la mujer y la no-libertad religiosa Una gran investigación analiza los mensajes. En el Vaticano prevalece una visión positiva respecto a la posibilidad que los Estados musulmanes se transformen en democracias liberales consumadas, con el reconocimiento de las libertades fundamentales y de la igualdad de derechos entre el hombre y la mujer.
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1339523?sp=y
España - Escuela sin Crucifijo
EL ministro de Justicia anuncia la intención del Gobierno de retirar los símbolos religiosos de las escuelas públicas en el marco de un «claro deslinde» entre el fenómeno religioso y la laicidad del Estado. Nadie es capaz de sustraerse a la ola de dogmatismo ideológico que Rodríguez Zapatero ha puesto en marcha para ocultar su fracaso ante la crisis económica. Se plantea la supresión del Crucifijo en la escuela, siempre con un tono de aparente objetividad y con la peculiar excepción de los bienes de carácter histórico-artístico, los cuales -concede generosamente- «no podrán destruirse».
http://www.abc.es/20090810/opinion-editorial/escuela-crucifijo-20090810.html
by Vincent Nichols
If my life has no objective value, then why should anyone else care for it. While there are many ethical, medical and legal issues surrounding assisted suicide, at its heart lies the notion that we have an absolute moral entitlement to have whatever kind of death we choose. The consequences of this attitude lie at the root of the weakening of social structures, including the decline of the family as the core unit, the rise of anti-social behaviour, the pursuit of profit at all cost and the increasing intolerance of non-materialist, philosophical or ethical views.
Saving Catholic Schools
by Andy Smarick
For decades, Catholic schools in American cities have been disappearing, but in recent years the pace has accelerated rapidly. In the last decade alone, more than 1,000 Catholic schools nationwide have closed their doors for the last time. The Archdiocese of Baltimore has lost 13 schools since 1998 (including both archdiocese-run and, like Towson Catholic, non-archdiocese-run schools).
http://www.aei.org/article/100779
Economía
Por Domènec Melé
Con motivo de la crisis actual, un columnista de The New York Times (edición online) ironizaba afirmando que palabras como off-balance-sheet vehicles, que los bancos utilizan para designar riesgos ocultos en el funcionamiento del sistema, y mortgage-backed securities, los productos financieros que contenían las famosas hipotecas subprime,”no tienen mucho significado para muchos de nosotros. Lo que nosotros entendemos es codicia”. Como síntesis está bien, pero la realidad es más compleja. No pretendo explicar en este breve artículo tal complejidad, pero sí proporcionar unos apuntes que puedan ayudar a descubrir sus causas más profundas. Para ello, consideraré cuatro polos interrelacionados que resultan útiles para analizar cualquier realidad social: regulaciones e incentivos, condiciones operativas, cultura dominante y agentes.
http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=3015211
http://socrates.ieem.edu.uy/articulos/archivos/654_raices.pdf
The Consequences of Government Intrusion into Prices
By Jon N. Hall
Prices are set by billions of people constantly making trillions of decisions about what they need, what they can afford, and what is important to them, i.e. their values. But that's only how prices work in some pure, laissez-faire, free enterprise system. Such a pure system hasn't existed in America since at least the advent of FDR. More and more, government comes between buyer and seller and subverts the sensitive mechanism of price -- a mechanism at the very heart of commerce and the economy.
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=072009A
Le mythe du modele social francais
Roland Hureaux
Comme ces revenants familiers d’un vieux château, le spectre du déficit de la Sécurité sociale, qui atteint aujourd’hui les 18 millions d’euros, revient au premier plan de l’actualité française avec son cortège de lamentations. Cessons de fantasmer : le pseudo modèle français n’existe pas et n’a jamais existé; il y a à la rigueur un modèle européen de protection sociale dont les fondements furent posés au milieu du XXe siècle avec le soutien de toutes les forces politiques, des fascistes (en France, des vichystes) aux communistes en passant par la démocratie chrétienne et la social-démocratie.
http://roland.hureaux.over-blog.com/article-34664945.html
Globalization in Retreat - Further Geopolitical Consequences of the Financial Crisis
By Roger C. Altman
The popularity of the U.S. economic model is waning. To put globalization back on track, President Barack Obama must articulate the benefits of open markets and free trade.
It is now clear that the global economic crisis will be deep and prolonged and that it will have far-reaching geopolitical consequences. The long movement toward market liberalization has stopped, and a new period of state intervention, reregulation, and creeping protectionism has begun. Roger C. Altman is Chair and CEO of Evercore Partners. He was U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary in 1993–94.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65153/roger-c-altman/globalization-in-retreat
by Anders Aslund
First-half results are arriving, presenting many countries with shocking declines, but the record is quite varied. Whatever standard we choose, Russia is underperforming. The country’s natural comparison is with the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China. According to JP Morgan’s current forecast, this year the gross domestic product of China is expected to grow by 8.4 percent, India — 6.2 percent, while that of Brazil is expected to shrink by 1.0 percent, and Russia — 8.5 percent. During the first half of 2009, China and India have been forging ahead, while Russia’s GDP plunged by 10 percent.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35752
Vasko Kohlmayer
Show me the money! That seems to be the rallying cry of the dwindling number of people who still support the federal government’s debt-driving economic spending. “I actually think that what we need now is another round of stimulus,” said economist Joseph Stiglitz in a recent CNN interview. In this era of budget busting deficits and mountainous debts, one would think that these must be the words of a fiscal crank. But Joseph Stiglitz does not fit the description: A professor at Columbia University, he won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001. He has also served as Chief Economist of the World Bank and Chair of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35885
Keynesian Fiscal Stimulus Policies Stimulate Debt - Not the Economy
by J.D. Foster, Ph.D.
The global economy is in a deep, synchronized recession, and governments around the world are moving mountains to stop job losses and wealth destruction. Monetary authorities are pumping massive liquidity into credit markets and working with finance ministries to prop up, sustain, and nationalize major financial institutions. President Bush signed a $152 billion stimulus bill in 2008 and President Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus bill early in 2009, and the ranks of unemployed continue to swell.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Economy/bg2302.cfm
Historia
Comunismo / A sessant’anni dalla scomunica: le ragioni di un “no” che cambiò la storia
Luciano Garibaldi
Da un punto di vista rigorosamente storico, si può affermare senza ombra di dubbio che la presa del potere, in Italia, da parte degli uomini di Stalin fu evitata proprio grazie a quel provvedimento. Stiamo parlando del decreto del 1° luglio 1949 emesso dalla Congregazione del Sant’Uffizio e passato alla storia come il decreto di scomunica dei comunisti. Sono trascorsi, da allora, sessant’anni ed è davvero venuto il tempo di storicizzare quell’evento che rappresentò, per la strategia di conquista del potere studiata a Mosca e messa a punto a Botteghe Oscure, una sconfitta irreparabile e definitiva. Da cui l’odio mortale della sinistra – che dura tutt’ora – nei confronti del grande Pontefice, Pio XII, che aveva avallato il decreto.
http://www.ilsussidiario.net/articolo.aspx?articolo=29412
Libros
Por Iván Garzón Vallejo
Michael Burleigh logra relatar cómo los totalitarismos fueron religiones políticas que pretendieron ser para las masas unos sustitutos del cristianismo en Europa. El texto es la continuación de uno publicado en 2005, y que goza del mismo interés y rigor investigativo: Poder Terrenal. Religión y política en Europa. De la Revolución francesa a la primera Guerra mundial.
http://ivangarzonvallejo.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html#2581870647229086393
«Leonor de Aquitania»
Por Jesús García Calero
Imaginen una mujer poderosa, inteligente y libre; Reina de Francia, luego Reina de Inglaterra, Reina del Amor Cortés, Reina de los Trovadores cuando la poesía de amor nacía en Occidente... Leonor de Aquitania está en el centro de todos los caminos del medievo. Su peripecia vital fue tan increíble y brillante que, hasta en un burdo resumen, desborda la capacidad de las solapas de los libros para contener la que tal vez es la personalidad más fascinante de la historia.(Régine Pernoud. Traducción de Isabel de Riquer. Acantilado (Madrid, 2009). 336 páginas. 22 euros)
http://www.abc.es/20090715/cultura-literatura/leonor-aquitania-200907151006.html
La voz del aprendizaje liberal de Michael Oakeshott
Para Oakeshott, la cultura no es un conjunto de creencias, de percepciones o de actitudes, y sin duda no es un cuerpo de conocimientos o un "canon", sino una variedad de "lenguajes" de comprensión; no consiste en un conjunto de "grandes libros" sino más bien en las conversaciones que se mantienen con una herencia. En una "cultura" hay una serie de "voces" diferentes, y cuando se aprende se adquiere acceso a ellas. Hay un lenguaje de la política, de la economía, del arte, de la literatura, de la filosofía, y aprender consiste en adquirir la habilidad de sumarse a esas conversaciones.
http://www.katzeditores.com/fichaLibro.asp?IDL=96
«Debemos resistirnos al adoctrinamiento»
Entrevista al escritor Michael O’Brien
Nunca un medio de comunicación español ha entrevistado al escritor Michael O’Brien. A pesar de que sus novelas son best-sellers traducidos a nueve idiomas y de que la crítica lo ha comparado con George Orwell o Aldous Huxley, cuenta cómo en Canadá, su país natal, ninguna editorial se atrevió a publicar sus títulos. «Durante 20 años estaba convencido de que mis libros nunca serían publicados. Estaba seguro de que las fuerzas que reprimen la cultura católica habían ganado. Me equivoqué». Se equivocó. Hoy es uno de los periodistas y escritores más brillantes y leídos del mundo, y un referente en el panorama católico internacional.
http://www.alfayomega.es/revista/2009/652/06_aquiahora1.html
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