Spain's Princess Cristina was named Wednesday as a suspect in a corruption case against her husband, who is accused of involvement in the embezzlement of million of euros in public funds through a charity he headed. Likewise several Spanish politicians and officials including President Mariano Rajoy have been implicated in an illegal monthly payments network organized by a former ruling Popular Party treasurer Luis Barcenas whom it was revealed had 32 million Euros in Swiss banks. Apparently the slush fund was fed with contributions from the construction industry barons that led Spain to the great real estate speculation bubble. Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro has also been targeted since his masterminding of an amnesty for tax dodgers last year left him exposed him especially as the initiative brought in only half the funds expected and among the beneficiaries was none else than Bárcenas who cleared 10 million Euros. And then there is Health Minister Ana Mato accused of having received payments and gifts from the Gürtel kickbacks network, including holidays, Louis Vuitton bags and children’s parties. Another elected official in trouble is Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, premier of Galicia and hotly tipped to succeed president Rajoy in the ruling PP. He was photographed enjoying holidays in a yacht with a good friend of his, Marcial Dorado Baúlde, currently serving a 14-year jail sentence for drug trafficking. http://en.mercopress.com/2013/04/04...y-corruption-scandals-in-the-political-system
if I understand it correctly, the US is bound by treaty to defend So Korea if the north invades. this was the agreement/treaty after the war ended or I guess it was more of a truce, as they are actually technically still at war. I believe that is what this US build-up is all about...in case the north invades...the US has to respond or break our treaty. So in a sense it is black and white. where the gray area comes in...is Obama would have to give the order to defend So Korea. So, this would require an immediate decision...which is not one of Obama's strengths...as he often takes months to make a decision (I.e. the pipeline) and that is why he voted "present" like 90% of the time before he was president...he just does not like making decisions and being on the hook.
But right now Obama has tripled the debt, de-moralized our military, taken away vital money for our troops, the congress are agreeing with him to put women in the Infantry, and raising our taxes even more, and taking away funding for our Vets, punishing our Vets by tricking them into coming in for testing and when they are diagnosed with PTSD the govt. now are taking away any possible rights to own a gun, even if you've had them for years. Now the Republicans are demanding Obama stop raising taxes, and Obama calls it a Sequestor and now doctors and hospitals are turning away cancer patients because of lack of 'funding' and Obama says , "See! Its the Rupubican's fault! Noooo, its Obamacare kicking in. Doctors are quitting right and left! Its a mess. COME LORD JESUS! Our children will be going off to an unending war!!
I think the issue of the poor and vulnerable is overabused by the left and I do not see any real differences in the treatment of poor and vulnerable in between the left vs right, I just see a lot of rhetoric how the evil right will destroy all the poor - which is a lie. The problem is not in the details, but a fundamental one. If an individual becomes a property of the government,as left is aiming at everybody will be not only poor but very vulnerable. Everybody. and just to add about corruption - it flourishes everywhere where the big government is in place. It was universal in soviet union and it is still thee main problem everywhere in the post-soviet countries, where the government role is bloated.
I am afraid corruption is not just a problem for ex-Soviets. I posted links to HUGE corruption scandals in France and Spain. The problem is not with left or right politics the problem is with men's souls.
Post soviets have total corruption. All others have it in direct proportion of the advancement of big government. The French socialists did not surprise me at all - the more to the left the more corruption. The reason the big government is a very good medium for corruption is very simple - operating in a system where everything is nobody's leads to feeling of power in redistribution. The same picture is developing in huge corporations - if the owner is not visible, it starts to operate as big government does.. Human nature and human souls are the problem, but they do operate in different manner in different conditions. There are more temptations in the government system than in a private one
I believe the phrase, 'We are all sinners' is so true . The fact that a person does not break laws does not make them any less culpable in the eyes of the Law. As scripture says, 1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. This the root of all evils can be applied at least as well to Capitalist as Socialist political/ economic systems. In fact the major impetus in Capitalism is a love of money. In the Early Church in fact usury was forbidden for this very reason. If there is one single reason why the world is on the brink of economic melt down at the moment it is the cupidity and greed of those in the Financial Sectors, especially the Bankers, the very ACME of Capitalism and the Capitalist ideal. As I say, we are all of us sinners. Capitalists and Socialists. I do not see our salvation in terms of economic and , or, political systems. As to asking who, or which was worst or more culpable? Well I leave that for God to decide. My hope as I say at this present grave moment lies solely in God, not in systems and certainly not, God help us ,in politicians. Psalm 121:2 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
This is very true, Padraig. However, Our Blessed Mother warns us about the evils of communism, not capitalism, maybe because the evils of capitalism are the usual ones and the evils of communism are the threat to the very existence of humanity...
Holy Mother Church has also warned us against the dangers of unbridled Capitalism in her Social Teachings. As Pope John Paul II wrote in 1987, in his encyclical letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis: "The tension between East and West is an opposition... between two concepts of the development of individuals and peoples, both concepts being imperfect and in need of radical correction... This is one of the reasons why the Church’s social doctrine adopts a critical attitude towards both liberal capitalism and Marxist collectivism." n his encyclical letter Centesimus Annus (n. 34), John Paul II recognizes the merits of free enterprise, private initiative and profit: "It would appear that, on the level of individual nations and of international relations, the free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs. But this is true only for those needs which are ‘solvent’, insofar as they are endowed with purchasing power, and for those resources which are ‘marketable’, insofar as they are capable of obtaining a satisfactory price. But there are many human needs which find no place on the market. It is a strict duty of justice and truth not to allow fundamental human needs to remain unsatisfied and not to allow those burdened by such needs to perish." A little further in the same encyclical (n. 42), the Pope explains what is acceptable and what is not, in capitalism: "Returning now to the initial question: can it perhaps be said that, after the failure of Communism, capitalism is the victorious social system and that capitalism should be the goal of the countries now making efforts to rebuild their economy and society? Is this the model which ought to be proposed to the countries of the Third World which are searching for the path to true economic and civil progress? "The answer is obviously complex. If by ‘capitalism’ is meant an economic system which recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and the resulting responsibility for the means of production, as well as free human creativity in the economic sector, then the answer is certainly in the affirmative, even though it would perhaps be more appropriate to speak of a "business economy", "market economy" or simply "free economy". But if by "capitalism" is meant a system in which freedom in the economic sector is not circumscribed within a strong juridical framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality, and which sees it as a particular aspect of that freedom, the core of which is ethical and religious, then the reply is certainly negative." Even if Marxism has collapsed, this does not mean the triumph of capitalism. Even after the fall of Communism there are still millions of poor people and situations of injustice in the world: "The Marxist solution has failed, but the realities of marginalization and exploitation remain in the world, especially the Third World, as does the reality of human alienation, especially in the more advanced countries. Against these phenomena the Church strongly raises her voice. Vast multitudes are still living in conditions of great material and moral poverty. The collapse of the Communist system in so many countries certainly removes an obstacle to facing these problems in an appropriate and realistic way, but it is not enough to bring about their solution. Indeed, there is a risk that a radical capitalistic ideology could spread which refuses even to consider these problems, in the a priori belief that any attempt to solve them is doomed to failure and which blindly entrusts their solution to the free development of market forces." (Centesimus Annus, 42.) The fault that the Church finds with present capitalism is thus neither private property nor free enterprise. Far from wishing the disappearance of private property, the Church rather wishes its widespread availability so that all may become real owners of capital and be real "capitalists": John XXIII"The dignity of the human person necessarily requires the right of using external goods in order to live according to the right norm of nature. And to this right corresponds a most serious obligation, which requires that, so far as possible, there be given to all an opportunity of possessing private property... Therefore, it is necessary to modify economic and social life so that the way is made easier for widespread private possession of such things as durable goods, homes, gardens, tools requisite for artisan enterprises and family-type farms, investments in enterprises of medium or large size." (Pope John XXIII, encyclical letter Mater et Magistra, May 15, 1961, nn. 114-115.) Social Credit, with its dividend to every individual, would acknowledge every human being as a capitalist, a co-heir of the natural resources and progress, some of which are human inventions and technology. Capitalism has been vitiated by the financial system The fault that the Church finds with the capitalist system is the fact that each and every human being living on the planet does not have access to a minimum of material goods. So they are not allowed to have a decent life and even in the most advanced countries there are thousands of people who do not eat their fill. It is the principle of the destination of human goods that is not fulfilled: there is plenty of production, it is the distribution that is defective. And in the present system the instrument that makes possible the distribution of goods and services, the symbol that allows people to get products, is money. It is therefore the money system, the financial system that is at fault in capitalism. Pope Pius XI wrote in Quadragesimo Anno in 1931: "Capitalism itself is not to be condemned. And surely it is not vicious of its very nature, but it has been vitiated." What the Church condemns is not capitalism as a producing system, but, according to the words of Pope Paul VI, "the calamitous system that accompanies it," which is the financial system: "This unchecked liberalism led to dictatorship rightly denounced by Pope Pius XI as producing ‘the international imperialism of money’. One cannot condemn such abuses too strongly, because — let us again recall solemnly — the economy should be at the service of man. But if it is true that a type of capitalism has been the source of excessive suffering, injustices and fratricidal conflicts whose effects still persist, it would be wrong to attribute to industrialization itself evils that belong to the calamitous system that accompanied it. On the contrary, one must recognize in all justice the irreplaceable contribution made by the organization and the growth of industry to the task of development." (Paul VI, encyclical letter Populorum Progressio, on the development of peoples, March 26, 1967, n. 26.)
They are as bad. Conservative were happy to jump into bed with a liberal leader for the sake of power, even though that liberal leader has very strong socialist roots. All his family are socialists. Having said that, and then I am finished discussing this. We both have our own views. I know and have witnessed people being sent back out to work, it was then appealed and they won. It is a crying shame to see people sitting in corridors waiting to be interviewed whist they are in obvious pain and have a load of medication with them and doctor's notes. Some have missing limbs etc. Some you wouldn't know what was wrong with them. But this needs to be seriously re-thought through. As for mud slinging between the parties, I am not interested in that, that has been going on for years. Even happens in the justice system between barristers in a different sense.. But both are like puppet shows on that score. I look at the evidence therein.
Remember Apostles, To know and love Our Lady leads to trust in God and hope for the future! Safe in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
I just got back from a Divine Mercy afternoon. There was a priest there who was on fire....he was so awesome! He believes that a remnant is being formed because times are changing very quickly.....I believe we in this forum are part of the gathered remnant....
Freemasonry is satans temple...it is hardly inconsequental that practically every big and small town in America has a "masonic temple" within stones throw of the townhall or federal building.The operation is formed as a pyramid. The lower echleons are formed by people (many of them Christians) who view freemasonary as a harmless and beneficial society...these people do not care about advancing in "the craft" but are enticed by all the nicities and extended influence one obtains by membership.This is why the masons are full of judges, lawyers, politicians, buisness owners, law enforcement...simply those seeking easy money and power ...because these are the type of guys seeking power over all others by "paying" to advance in the craft.... by degrees. They pay for more advanced knowledge till they become "enlightened"...they ultimately find out who they are really serving...satan. No... this is not a joke...it is real and causes many souls to be lost. It is real and it is powerful in the politics of men today. My grandfather was a 32nd degree mason...and I'm afraid that at this very moment he burns in the fires of hell. This is a horrible reality...but let it be a solemn warning to all think of joining this infernal society.
I's true Donna we are the faithfull remnant, may God give us the grace to continue being so... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22082309
A great book to read on this is "The Crisis of Civilization" by Hilliare Belloc. One of the great minds proposing a return to the "third way", Distributism. Not Socialism, not Communism, not Re-Distributism, and not unbridled Capitalism. It invloved protection for small business from acquisition by the large, did not hold unbridled competition as "sacred" the way most capitalists do, and involved a more equal distribution of "productive property" among all. Saying it reached its peak in the high middle ages, it would be near impossible to return to today without a total collapse, and re-emergence of the Church and the moral norms it fosters as the "rule of the land".
A great book to read on this is "The Crisis of Civilization" by Hilliare Belloc. One of the great minds proposing a return to the "third way", Distributism. Not Socialism, not Communism, not Re-Distributism, and not unbridled Capitalism. It invloved protection for small business from acquisition by the large, did not hold unbridled competition as "sacred" the way most capitalists do, and involved a more equal distribution of "productive property" among all. Saying it reached its peak in the high middle ages, it would be near impossible to return to today without a total collapse, and re-emergence of the Church and the moral norms it fosters as the "rule of the land". I actually had never heard of this exactly. I THOUGHT there was something like this, but I did not know what it was called. Thanks for defining it!! WON'T THAT BE WONDERFUL! Just trying to 'buy local' is tough...lol
Very intriguing. I love the fact that they feel relying on the state is WRONG such as social security etc...we can see the impact this has in elections in the US. Many people vote in the democratic party because they will continue the benefits to them. Republicans often mean cut, cut, cut....But people sold their souls to the devil in order to continue social security benefits, knowing full well this president supported abortion, gay marriage, etc....Catholics went into the voting box worried for their purses and not their souls. I am a Libertarian which aligns itself with much of this theory save the Catholic/Christian part which obviously I adhere to in my life. I believe people should have the right to bear arms against a tyrannical government. I believe in small business. I buy local as much as possible. We partake in a community shared agriculture (CSA) in a nearby farm. We give him cash and he gives us crops from May to November (and flowers too). I can't help but think of the old saying "When you feed a man a fish, you feed him for the day but when you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime." That is what distributism sounds like to me....
N Korea warns foreigners to leave S Korea - threatens thermonuclear war on the penninsula http://rt.com/news/pyongyang-foreigners-evacuation-koreas-545/ I read somewhere that 10 million have died as a result of the Korean conflict in the last half century - darkness pervades N Korea and it is a really worrying situation. Pray, Pray, Pray
