extreme Catholic
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Saturday, June 05, 2004
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:40 PM Permalink
A Footnote on the Middle East During December and January, [Arab Prince] Faisal was in Britain, where [Col. T.E.] Lawrence introduced him to Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist leader to whom the British had promised a postwar Jewish homeland in Palestine. Looking upon Semitic Jews and Arabs as "an indivisible whole," Lawrence hoped for their cooperation in developing the Middle East. In return for uncontested entry to Palestine, the Jews were to lend Faisal money to establish his kingdom in Syria. I was so impressed with Lawrence of Arabia, the film, I read part of T.E. Lawrence's account Seven Pillars of Wisdom. It's a shame that he died in 1935 in a senseless motorcycle accident at the age of 47. Had he lived on to 1948, he'd only be 60 and in a position to mediate between Western, Arab, and Zionist interests
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 5:59 PM Permalink
Friday, June 04, 2004
A sense of the priorities of the Associate Press AP: Bush Late for Vatican Meeting With Pope President Bush arrived 15 minutes late for his meeting with Pope John Paul II - unusual for a president who makes no secret of his impatience when others keep him waiting. We can be thankful that at least Dziwisz didn't deny that there was a meeting scheduled.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 7:29 PM Permalink
opinion journal. Paul Johnson: D-Day The liberation of Europe has lessons for today's war leaders. These reflections of D-Day and its aftermath remind us that military decisions can never be entirely separated from their political consequences. Geopolitics is like a game of chess: You have to think a dozen moves ahead. This is as true today as in 1944-45.From one of my favorite historians. I think Johnson's History of Christianity and William Manchesters's The Glory and the Dream got me to become a total history geek after already reaching the peak of computer geekdom 20 years ago.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:38 PM Permalink
Reuters: Here is an Advocate of Peace
A hooded protester shoots a firework into the Defense Ministry during anti-war demonstrations in Rome, June 4, 2004. Thousands of armed police lined the streets of the Italian capital on Friday as activists gathered to protest against visiting U.S. President George W. Bush and the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq REUTERS/Dylan Martinez My question is, if a photographer could get close enough to this person to get a photograph, why couldn't a police officer get close enough to disable this person? Who is to know if the payload of the missile (firework?) is black powder or concentrated explosive? In New York City, you won't see such masked protesters because as soon as the mask goes up, they are subject to arrest.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:11 AM Permalink
War and Peace The anti-American or pro-terrorist lines from the Pope are quoted to demonstrate the condemnation of the liberation of Iraq by the United States and its coalition partners. Here are some of the sound bites from the 2004 World Day of Peace Message (1/1/2004) the are now well-quoted favorites. It is essential that the use of force, even when necessary, be accompanied by a courageous and lucid analysis of the reasons behind terrorist attacks... The fight against terrorism must be conducted also on the political and educational levels: on the one hand, by Has anyone quoting the first bullet point ever bothered to quote the second point. Iraq's regime had the least respect for human life on the planet. Good Riddance. Terrorists always have reasons. Osama wanted to remove the deterrent American military presence from Saudi Arabia which was left after the first Gulf War at the request of the King. And, of course, Osama wanted to remove the King and there's evidence of terrorist activity in the Kingdom to show that this hope is alive. It is his reason. The reason for the Madrid bombing in which 200 were killed was to remove the Spanish military presence from Iraq. Spain complied. The greatest capitulation to a terrorist movement since the French withdrew from Algeria. Victor Davis Hanson addresses the elimination of root causes in NRO The so-called Arab street and its phony intellectuals sense that influential progressive Westerners will never censure Middle Eastern felonies if there is a chance to rage about Western misdemeanors. It is precisely this parasitic relationship between the foreign and domestic critics of the West that explains much of the strange confidence of those who planned September 11. It was the genius of bin Laden, after all, that he suspected after he had incinerated 3,000 Westerners an elite would be more likely to blame itself for the calamity searching for "root causes" than marshalling its legions to defeat a tribe that embraced theocracy, autocracy, gender apartheid, polygamy, anti-Semitism, and religious intolerance. And why not after Lebanon, the first World Trade Center bombing, the embassies in Africa, murder in Saudi Arabia, and the USS Cole? It was the folly of bin Laden only that he assumed the United States was as far gone as Europe and that a minority of its ashamed elites had completely assumed control of American political, cultural, and spiritual life.The root cause of Islamist terrorism is that Islam has failed and Christianity has advanced the quality of life for the greatest number of people in the world -- its materialist appeal and has given life to more persons with goodness and holiness -- its spiritual appeal. The root cause of Islamist terrorism is the rage of the failed (Cain) against the success of the faithful (Abel).
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:55 AM Permalink
Did Laghi Lie on May 13? (23 days ago) Zenit: Pope to Ask Bush for Radical Shift in Policy, Says Cardinal LaghiThe meeting is over and apparently the President wasn't told to stop anything. Islam Online had an predictable anti-American spin on this story. Of course -- when Laghi criticizes violence, it is the United States that is named and not the terrorists and their state sponsors. I don't expect a retraction or clarification from either Laghi or Islam Online.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:41 AM Permalink
Thursday, June 03, 2004
In War, the first casualty is the truth Washington Post: The Difference Between Terrorists and Wedding GuestsBeing the Washington Post, it is skeptical of official US accounts. There's plenty of places on the web now where you can see conclusive and compelling evidence that this was a terrorist safe house. The area near the point where Jordan, Syria, and Iraq meet is one of the most inhospitable places in the world. Makr al-Deeb is the center of the Syrian desert. NewsMax: Iraqi 'Wedding Party' Had Terrorist Ties posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:11 PM Permalink
St. Paul Archdiocese and Archbishop Harry Flynn welcomes Protestants, er... Protesters St Paul Pioneer Press: Clash at the cathedral In other accounts, I read the Ushers of the Eucharist were effective in preventing the members of the Rainbow Sash Movement (RSM) from defilment of the Holy Eucharist. In typical distortion of the RSM agenda, the linked article omits that defy and protest the Church teaching on homosexuality. St. Pioneer Press: Man objects to Communion for gay group is the article from Thursday May 27 covering the planning for Pentecost.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:14 PM Permalink
Revising History
Chicago Tribune: Bush talks of `great clash' in Iraq As if killing 3000 Americans didn't incense us.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:04 PM Permalink
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:42 AM Permalink
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Villiage Voice Gary Indiana: Opus Heyday The success of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code excites interest in a secretive Catholic lay group—and further notes on the culture of conspiracism. A basic introduction to the topic. Pretty much free of anti-Catholic bias, unusual for the Village Voice.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 4:24 PM Permalink
1010 WINS: North Jersey Parochial Schools May Close Some of the 170 Roman Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Newark could be closed or merged with others under a plan that could take effect in the next few years.170 to close? What will be left?
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 3:47 PM Permalink
1010 WINS: Killer is Free A man convicted of stabbing a Hasidic scholar during the 1991 Crown Heights race riots in New York was released Wednesday from a federal prison in Texas. I couldn't improve on the headline. Lemrick Nelson stabbed Yankel Rosenbaum to death. As he lay dying the victim identified Nelson as the killer. Rosenbaum's blood was all over Nelson's knife and clothes. A shameful 1992 verdict of "not guilty" led many including me to doubt that the black jurors could ever convict a black person for murder - in a way foreshadowing the 1995 OJ Simpson verdict. If he was found "not guilty" in 1992, why then do headlines call Nelson a "killer"? The answer is he confessed to killing Rosenbaum as a legal tactic in his third trial. I wish Lemrick Nelson well and hope he stays out of trouble. 15 year-old Shavod Jones shot police officer Stephen McDonald in July 1986 in Central Park. McDonald lowered his gun and his guard believing that this boy was holding a toy and not a gun. Today Detective McDonald is paralyzed from the neck down and breathes with mechanical assistance. He forgave Jones and even hoped that the two of them could go on a speaking tour. Jones never responded. Jones was in prison for 8 years and then on the third day after his release died doing a stupid stunt on a powerful motorcyle.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 2:57 PM Permalink
No one debates abortion with a ferocity like Laura Ingraham If you are not listening to Laura Ingraham on the Internet or on the radio, you ought to be. She takes on a lot of popular culture stuff that is bit more interesting to me than all politics all the time. She pointed out the paradox of Kerry echoing Clinton's line that abortion should be "rare". Like Clinton, Kerry doesn't elaborate how it can be made rare. Laura counters with the obsevation that if abortion is a fundamental right, why does it need to be rare? Politicians don't win votes by saying that freedom of speech, press or religion ought to be rare. She also showed the Phyllis Hamilton accepted without allowing any refuting testimony that partial-birth abortion was in fact necessary for the preservation of the life or health of the mother. Rather than a right it's a wrong. Thanks to judicial tyranny it's like to remain so. I'm asking Laura to ask the next person who comes on with a pro-abortion position: "Has there ever been a denial of a abortion by a doctor or a hospital on the basis that the health claim made by the mother was not demonstrated (i.e. a greater health risk to the mother by carrying the baby to term than obtaining an abortion)?" This supremacy of choice for any reason or no reason at all under the cover of "health" was established in the Doe v. Bolton which included "emotional" health in its list and precluded any impartial review of the "health" claim (Georgia had legislated the concurrence of two additional doctors to make a finding of a danger to the health of the mother). This "burden" was held unconstitutional.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:07 PM Permalink
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:17 AM Permalink
It's a Global Jihad Reuters: Fearful Buddhists rally in Thailand's Muslim south NARATHIWAT, Thailand, June 2 (Reuters) - Buddhists in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south gathered on Wednesday for a morale-boosting rally after the beheading of a Buddhist man this week stoked fears of sectarian conflict in the restive region. Think of the exodus of Christians since the Lebanese Civil War which started in 1975 happening globally where there is a Muslim minority seeking Sharia or an independent state. Where's the most-discussed Cycle of Violence in Thailand or for that matter in Beirut in 1975? Connect the dots from Nigeria to East Timor and you can see the bloody borders of Islam - expanding into non-Islamic areas.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:35 AM Permalink
"Winning Converts" for the Religion of Peace™ Reuters: Gunmen hunted "infidel" WesternersIn the Reuters stylebook these are "gunmen". They have guns - but their not bumping a 7-11 for cash and beer. They are answering a higher calling. Somehow, the Reuters stylebook calls for the scare quotes around "infidel". For a perspective on the traditional meaning of the word "infidel" look at the 1918 Catholic Encyclopedia As these stories continue to pile up, it just makes the fiction maintained by President Bush and Pope John Paul II less and less credible -- that this is not a religious war. It may not be a religious war for us, but it is for them. The utter failure of Saudi Arabia to control its own internal security -- letting the terrorist escape means that not even the "Kingdom" can be expected to be a security ally but a global security threat in the years to come.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:05 AM Permalink
Who are the "Leaders of Tomorrow"? My personal life overwhelmed my abilility to blog. With a nephews's confirmation, and awards ceremonies for my elementary school-aged son and my high school-aged daughter. My son led a team of three to win a Science Fair with a project on asthma and exercise. He's in fifth grade. My daughter won a New York State Lottery Leaders of Tomorrow Scholarship And last night I was photoshopping pictures for their friends and teachers. They are good kids, and it would be a shame to neglect them to deal my obsession with the blog, current events, and political talk radio.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:33 AM Permalink
Monday, May 31, 2004
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:28 PM Permalink
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