Frankly, I don't believe it. Jesus would have to be a miracle worker--a god even--to convert the Roman Catholic Church to anything close to social values, like redistributing wealth.
But Pope Benedict XVI has criticised the concentration of wealth, and insisted that Christian teaching is opposed to greed. For the head of the Roman Catholic Church--the richest, greediest entity on the face of the earth--to say that is either the result of a miraculous intervention by god in the affairs of this world, or an even bigger piece of hypocrisy that the Vatican usually indulges in.
Is the Pope selling his favorite gold shoes? How about last year's new gold-threaded vestments? Is the Vatican going to sell off its real-estate holdings all over the world, and give the money to the poor? (I don't mean he should sell churches--just all the other income-generating properties the Vatican owns.)
The Pope needs to give up his gold shoes, his triple gold crown, his big gold ring, and start selling gold chalices by the dozens. He needs to order the undressing of all his be-gilded churches. He needs to start sending billions of the holy whatevers that the Vatican trades in to the world's poor. Then he can talk--and the world will perhaps listen. But until he does that, the world should mock him.
And more than mock him. All over the world, the Roman Catholic Church should be required to start paying taxes.
Then Jesus can speak through the Roman Catholic Church--for the first time in about eighteen long, greedy centuries! It can become again the Church of the great man who told us to "give up all we have" if we would follow him.
The current Pope took as his name Benedict. The first Benedict of saintly memory was the founder of what became the Benedictine order of monks. He became famous, in Roman Catholicism, as the author of the Benedictine Rule. And the Benedictine Rule is what revised the traditional triad of vows--poverty, chastity, and obedience--to make the vow of poverty apply only to individual monks; according to St. Benedict, religious communities and the Church itself can hoard all the wealth they can get their greedy hands on. Ergo the Roman Catholic Church as we know it.
Literally, the current Pope must put his money where his mouth is. When the Vatican's wealth is redistributed, then--with an appropriately empty gut, a clear throat, and a clean conscience--Benedict XVI can speak to us about aiding the poor of this world.
The poor of this world need what the Pope has the most of: money. They don't need his hypocritical words.
woensdag 8 juli 2009
dinsdag 16 juni 2009
PANETTA AND CHENEY
I am no great fan of CIA Director Panetta's, not by any means. But I am in utter agreement with his comments about former Vice-President Dick Cheney. It's Cheney, not Panetta, who should apologise.
Cheney should apologise for what he said about President Obama being "soft" on terrorism, and making America more "vulnerable." Cheney is a war criminal. And his policies are what have made America vulnerable. Cheney was a sponsor of state terrorism, and as a result of whast he and his cronies did, America and Americans are in danger wherever we go or don't go.
Cheney should apologise for what he said about President Obama being "soft" on terrorism, and making America more "vulnerable." Cheney is a war criminal. And his policies are what have made America vulnerable. Cheney was a sponsor of state terrorism, and as a result of whast he and his cronies did, America and Americans are in danger wherever we go or don't go.
zondag 14 juni 2009
THE OBLIGATIONS OF CIVILISATION
Civilisation may seem sometimes not to be worth much. A teen-ager has been arrested in Florida for torturing cats. Not too many years ago Ann Arbor, Michigan had cat-torturers,too: two fraternity boys. Mostly we ignored it. Last week we had a hate killer at the Holocaust Museum--but we always have hate killers in the news, so that isn't much. New Orleans registers almost a murder a day, but we still call it "the Big Easy." For the most part, poor kids attend terrible schools; but we get more upset about potholes than we do about that. Do we notice homelessness? hunger? Of course not; we're busy barbecuing tonight. Our country dropped more bombs on more civilians in Pakistan today--but that happens every day, and we don't care.
What undermines civilisation--makes it worthless, or at least seemingly so--is our we-don't-care attitude as much as it is the violence. Thus, despite the usual news, today is a good day, because of a federal judge in San Francisco.
Judge Jeffrey S. White has ruled against John C. Woo, another judge whose former job was justifying torture for the Bush administration's torture teams. Jose Padilla has sued, arguing that Woo's memoranda justifying torture caused him to be tortured while in U. S. custody.
Judge White cares--about law, about justice, about civilisation. Most of the rest of us don't. What passes for decency in this country is a betrayal of decency that says says "as long as I am happy, everything is okay." It says "don't complain." It says "don't bother me; I want to be happy."
Hoorah for Judge White. We owe him our thanks, for caring. For accepting the responsibility that most of us hide from.
And we owe him our contribution to the cause of civilisation for which he stands. We need to support him publicly, and to demand that Mr. Woo be removed from his judicial position while he faces trial. And if he is convicted, we need to insist that he go to prison. And when he goes, why not let him go to Guantanamo? He knows what it's like there.
What undermines civilisation--makes it worthless, or at least seemingly so--is our we-don't-care attitude as much as it is the violence. Thus, despite the usual news, today is a good day, because of a federal judge in San Francisco.
Judge Jeffrey S. White has ruled against John C. Woo, another judge whose former job was justifying torture for the Bush administration's torture teams. Jose Padilla has sued, arguing that Woo's memoranda justifying torture caused him to be tortured while in U. S. custody.
Judge White cares--about law, about justice, about civilisation. Most of the rest of us don't. What passes for decency in this country is a betrayal of decency that says says "as long as I am happy, everything is okay." It says "don't complain." It says "don't bother me; I want to be happy."
Hoorah for Judge White. We owe him our thanks, for caring. For accepting the responsibility that most of us hide from.
And we owe him our contribution to the cause of civilisation for which he stands. We need to support him publicly, and to demand that Mr. Woo be removed from his judicial position while he faces trial. And if he is convicted, we need to insist that he go to prison. And when he goes, why not let him go to Guantanamo? He knows what it's like there.
donderdag 4 juni 2009
PRESIDENT OBAMA: A VOICE OF HOPE
President Obama deserves the world's thanks and congratulations for his wonderful speech in Cairo. I only hope that now he will make that same speech to Americans.
And in addition to SAYING to people in the United States exactly what he said to the rest of the world in Cairo, he must act up to what he says. He must stop claiming "national security" to interfere with the process of law and the achievement of justice in the United States. He must agree to fight terror at home as well as abroad: and torturers--war-criminals--are terrorists. Protected by a president, they become state terrorists, and the US becomes a terrorist state.
President Obama knows that. Is he so afraid of the American people that he can't say to us what he says to the Muslim world? To the whole world, listening?
Surely not. He is the elected president of the United States, and he is responsible both to the American people and to the world to stand up for what he says. His words must be followed up--now, not next year or the year after--by action.
And in addition to SAYING to people in the United States exactly what he said to the rest of the world in Cairo, he must act up to what he says. He must stop claiming "national security" to interfere with the process of law and the achievement of justice in the United States. He must agree to fight terror at home as well as abroad: and torturers--war-criminals--are terrorists. Protected by a president, they become state terrorists, and the US becomes a terrorist state.
President Obama knows that. Is he so afraid of the American people that he can't say to us what he says to the Muslim world? To the whole world, listening?
Surely not. He is the elected president of the United States, and he is responsible both to the American people and to the world to stand up for what he says. His words must be followed up--now, not next year or the year after--by action.
zondag 31 mei 2009
THE UNITED STATES A NEW GERMAN STATE?
This afternoon I was in Koblenz, Germany, with friends. We visited the German reunification monument--the old Kaiser Wilhelm I monument--at the confluence of the Rhein and the Mosel rivers. Despite the awful heroic statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I on his horse, the site is impressive. The flag of the German republic flies at the point of the site, where the two great rivers come together. Down the sides, then, Rhein and Mosel, are the flags of the German states. And an extra flag: the United States of America's flag, flapping as though honorable in the German breeze.
When I returned home this afternoon I immediately wrote to Frau Brigette Zypries, the German Minister for Justice. If the United States really is a German state now--as that flag suggests--then Minister Zypries must require that the United States obey German and international law: quit torturing prisoners, release the men illegally held in its Concentration Camp at Guantanamo Bay, and quit bombing civilians--with illegal white phosphorus shells, no less!
If the United States is not a German state, then she must take down that foreign and very much out-of-place American flag--and insist that, as a member of the community of supposedly responsible and respectable, law-abiding nations, the United States must quit torturing prisoners, release the men held illegally in its Concentration Camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and quit bombing civilians--wsiuth illegal white phosphorus shells.
You might want to write to her as well. Go to the German Minister for Justice internet site.
When I returned home this afternoon I immediately wrote to Frau Brigette Zypries, the German Minister for Justice. If the United States really is a German state now--as that flag suggests--then Minister Zypries must require that the United States obey German and international law: quit torturing prisoners, release the men illegally held in its Concentration Camp at Guantanamo Bay, and quit bombing civilians--with illegal white phosphorus shells, no less!
If the United States is not a German state, then she must take down that foreign and very much out-of-place American flag--and insist that, as a member of the community of supposedly responsible and respectable, law-abiding nations, the United States must quit torturing prisoners, release the men held illegally in its Concentration Camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and quit bombing civilians--wsiuth illegal white phosphorus shells.
You might want to write to her as well. Go to the German Minister for Justice internet site.
vrijdag 29 mei 2009
JUSTICE VERSUS EVASIVE ADJUSTMENTS
George Bush has now proudly joined the absurd Defense of Torture. If torture gets "results," there is nothing wrong with it. That's the Bush-Cheney-Right Wing argument.
Obama's argument is a bit different: torture was torture, but now that it's been done, we should forget about it. If we blame anybody, that will cause hard feelings. And though our military proudly took photos of themselves torturing people, and kept those photos in Pentagon files, nobody should look at them. People might get angry at us if they see those images.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice makes "misprision of a felony" a crime. In civil law, hiding criminals is a crime; one can be an "accessory after the fact" of a crime. General Petraeus and his cronies should be charged under the UCMJ. And Bush and Company should be charged in U. S. civil courts, both with their crimes and with their long cover-up of those crimes. And if Obama keeps trying to hide what we did, maybe he should be charged as well.
Justice requires that we face the facts of what we did. The whole world has a right to demand that of us. Might doesn't make right. As things now stand, the United States is a rogue nation. We must change that. We must be just--even among ourselves. We can't adjust the truth to suit our cowardly convenience.
Obama's argument is a bit different: torture was torture, but now that it's been done, we should forget about it. If we blame anybody, that will cause hard feelings. And though our military proudly took photos of themselves torturing people, and kept those photos in Pentagon files, nobody should look at them. People might get angry at us if they see those images.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice makes "misprision of a felony" a crime. In civil law, hiding criminals is a crime; one can be an "accessory after the fact" of a crime. General Petraeus and his cronies should be charged under the UCMJ. And Bush and Company should be charged in U. S. civil courts, both with their crimes and with their long cover-up of those crimes. And if Obama keeps trying to hide what we did, maybe he should be charged as well.
Justice requires that we face the facts of what we did. The whole world has a right to demand that of us. Might doesn't make right. As things now stand, the United States is a rogue nation. We must change that. We must be just--even among ourselves. We can't adjust the truth to suit our cowardly convenience.
donderdag 21 mei 2009
NEW RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES AT THE CENTER FOR THER ADVANCEMENT OF PERIPHERAL THOUGHT
RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES: THE INSTITUTE FOR LEGITIMATE LIBERTIES
I don’t mind buying a new tube of toothpaste every two months. Another marker of time passing: another two months on. I don’t mind having to go buy a new ink cartridge for my printer: another three hundred pages written. And tax-time, every spring: it’s a time to reflect on what good my country has done in the world in the past year.
But I do mind having to replenish the toilet-paper supply. There ought to be more things that you only have to do once in your life, like get vaccinated for small-pox, and buying toilet-paper should be one of them. Toilet paper should come the way running water does.
The Institute for Legitimate Liberties at the Center for the Advancement of Peripheral Thought announces today a new series of research grants for the creation of continuous supplies of toilet paper. Proposals can be submitted to the address below. The deadline for applications is flexible.
RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES: DEPARTMENT OF TECHNOCONVENIENCE
We humans waste millions of hours each year looking for our eye-glasses. Some people wear their glasses all the time, except when they are sleeping; and when they go to bed put their glasses close beside them where they can be easily located. (Some sleep-walkers put on their glasses when they are sleep-walking, and put the glasses back where they belong when they return to bed.) Some people who don’t need their glasses all the time wear them on strings around their necks; but evidence conducted from clinical trials indicates that when they lean over water-fountains they make messes, and if they have to pick up big boxes or carry several grocery bags they may well break their frames against their chests. Most of us just put our glasses down when we take them off--and then we have to go looking for them.
(Squirrels never remember where they have buried their nuts; but they bury so many of them that if there are enough squirrels in a neighborhood, no squirrel will ever go hungry because there will be a nut almost anywhere, buried by one squirrel or another. But humans and their glasses are a different matter.)
The Department of Technoconvenience at the Center for the Advancement of Peripheral Thought is accepting proposals for research projects designed to create glasses which will follow their owners wherever they go. Proposals should be sent to the address listed below. The deadline for applications is under construction, and will be posted beforehand.
I don’t mind buying a new tube of toothpaste every two months. Another marker of time passing: another two months on. I don’t mind having to go buy a new ink cartridge for my printer: another three hundred pages written. And tax-time, every spring: it’s a time to reflect on what good my country has done in the world in the past year.
But I do mind having to replenish the toilet-paper supply. There ought to be more things that you only have to do once in your life, like get vaccinated for small-pox, and buying toilet-paper should be one of them. Toilet paper should come the way running water does.
The Institute for Legitimate Liberties at the Center for the Advancement of Peripheral Thought announces today a new series of research grants for the creation of continuous supplies of toilet paper. Proposals can be submitted to the address below. The deadline for applications is flexible.
RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES: DEPARTMENT OF TECHNOCONVENIENCE
We humans waste millions of hours each year looking for our eye-glasses. Some people wear their glasses all the time, except when they are sleeping; and when they go to bed put their glasses close beside them where they can be easily located. (Some sleep-walkers put on their glasses when they are sleep-walking, and put the glasses back where they belong when they return to bed.) Some people who don’t need their glasses all the time wear them on strings around their necks; but evidence conducted from clinical trials indicates that when they lean over water-fountains they make messes, and if they have to pick up big boxes or carry several grocery bags they may well break their frames against their chests. Most of us just put our glasses down when we take them off--and then we have to go looking for them.
(Squirrels never remember where they have buried their nuts; but they bury so many of them that if there are enough squirrels in a neighborhood, no squirrel will ever go hungry because there will be a nut almost anywhere, buried by one squirrel or another. But humans and their glasses are a different matter.)
The Department of Technoconvenience at the Center for the Advancement of Peripheral Thought is accepting proposals for research projects designed to create glasses which will follow their owners wherever they go. Proposals should be sent to the address listed below. The deadline for applications is under construction, and will be posted beforehand.
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