Blogging the democratic revolution
I kid you not. Here they are, in Cologne, Germany, for the World Festival of Youth: Oh Benedict! You’re so dreamy!
Venezuela’s fearless Rosalio Cardinal Castillo Lara has warned that Venezuela faces a bloodbath under dictator Hugo Chavez, and specifically cites the “unfortunate intervention” of former President Jimmy Carter. It’s about time. Carter has pretended for decades to be this pious man of peace, and feasted off his ‘Nobel laureate’ reputation while doing untold damage to democracies around the world. Because of Carter, North Korea’s monster regime is entrenched, the Iranian ayatollahs are firmly in place, Central America has endured ten years of war, Afghanistan got a communist invasion, the Soviets marched all over the world, and now Venezuela’s democracy has…
Mark Steyn’s latest is out, and it’s absolutely stunning. I won’t even bother to excerpt anything here, just go and read the whole thing.
How low can it go for Venezuelan sciences? Apparently much lower than anyone imagined in Hugo Chavez’s pseudo-revolution. Venezuela’s IVIC, which had been the finest scientific research institution south of the Rio Grande, is now being forced to conduct research not based on what will advance science but what will advance the Chavez party. That means no more petroleum engineering discoveries for efficient production but instead new orders from on high to conduct “scientific” experiments on what the best Orisha voodoo methods are for divining the future and getting back at one’s enemies. If you can stand to read more,…
Bizblogger reminds us that with the Pope’s passing, there are still those in China who are not free to worship as they wish. He also notes something unknown certainly to myself and probably many others. An unidentified secret cardinal. While there are 117 known cardinals preparing to select the next pope, the number could actually be 118. When John Paul II created new cardinals in 2003, he said he was keeping one name secret, or “in pectore,” meaning “in the heart.” The name remains secret until the pope announces it or leaves other instructions. This formula has been used when…
Timothy Garton-Ash is not a well-known name in the U.S., but when I was a student in England, during the darkest days of Poland’s martial law, he was the person whose lectures I went to, and the one whose answers to my questions provided the most illumination. He hasn’t changed any after all these years and today he writes about what he knows best in a truly fine summary of the Pope’s contributions to the world’s freedom struggles. Read the whole thing here.
The death of Pope John Paul II, although expected, has nevertheless been strongly felt around the world. One of his main themes was the promotion of democracy and freedom. What I would like to do here is to use this opportunity to look at two other issues close to John Paul’s heart – the future of Arab Christianity in the Arab world, especially those groups – the Uniates and the Maronites – aligned with Rome, and the future of Muslim-Christian relations. Christian Arabs will play a role of course in the democratization of the Arab world, assuming their communities survive…
One of the most admirable men of the last century is passing his last breaths before softly slipping to a more enviable place. Pope John Paul II has been to myself and countless others the spiritual revolutionary that gutted the Soviet Union in its Godless, empty soul. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for the unmatched contribution he made toward securing us a freer world than the one he was born to. Thomas Jefferson once said, “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God,” making Pope John Paul II one of His most humble servants. With the Pope’s passing…
But Steve L.’s post about the comparison of Catholic and Marxist thought makes for good discussion, and is enough related to the theme of this site to warrant a linking! Certainly some of us supported those tax cuts with the belief that they would ultimately “grow the pie” and benefit the poor. Must that be the primary motivation? The biggest problem I have with linking Marxist ideas with Catholic thought is the role of the state. For Marx, the collective was everything. There could be no individual giving, and thus no piety could come from it. Yesterday, at an Ash…