Christians who want to be exempt from equality legislation are like Muslims trying to impose sharia on Britain, Trevor Phillips, the human rights watchdog, has declared.
Religious rules should end at the door of the temple and give way to the public law laid down by Parliament, the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said.
He argued that Roman Catholic adoption agencies and other faith groups providing public services must choose between their religion and obeying the law when their beliefs conflict with the will of the state.
Mr Phillips singled out the adoption agencies that fought a long legal battle to avoid being forced to accept homosexual couples under equality laws.
Last year, following a High Court case, the Charity Commission ruled against an exemption for Catholic Care, an adoption agency operating in Leeds.
Speaking at a debate in London on diverse societies, Mr Phillips backed the new laws, which led to the closure of all Catholic adoption agencies in England. You cant say because we decide were different then we need a different set of laws, he said, in comments reported by The Tablet, the Catholic newspaper.
#2
As Daniel Hannan so eloquently said, Britain is headed for the edge of the cliff, & looking in the rear view mirror they see the US trying to overtake them. Govt. attacks on Chritianity are just getting going here.
If you care about religious freedom in the US, contact your Senators and support the Blunt Conscience amendment. Lets not ket the stupid bastards win here.
Posted by: Cincinnatus Chili ||
02/17/2012 7:49 Comments ||
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#4
They pulled off this same stunt in Illinois. This is forgotten in the current fight over requiring Catholic organizations to break their doctrines and support birth control and abortion.
The left truly hates the Catholic church, and is attacking it from several directions: abortion, adoption, euthanasia, women and gay priests, etc. They truly hate the idea that others occupy the moral high ground.
List of "Catholic" front organizations paid for by George Soros, through the Open Society Initiative:
Catholics United
Faith in Public Life (Marxist/Communist)
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG)
Catholic Charities, USA (via CACG)
Catholic Health Association
Catholic Campaign for Human Development
Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC)
Catholics for a Free Choice
Catholic Democrats
National Association for Catholic Chaplains
#8
When acceptance of immorality is mandated, and all elements of society obey, the gateway to darkeness and death is thrown wide open for that society.
Posted by: Marilyn Barnsmell7062 ||
02/17/2012 14:21 Comments ||
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#9
What g(r)omgoru said.
So the religion of the left is what? Radical environmentalism. Atheism? Statism? Social engineering? Redistribution of wealth. Social justice? Class warfare? Racial politics?
He may be a stupid bastad, but by means of the rejection and/or destruction of belief that one is part of a larger sum than earthly experience, that person loses their individuality and merely beaten souless servants with nothing to look forward to the next day, including dreams, wealth, or freedom. Only toil, and toil the same field your lords let your great grandchildren toil. Perhaps you will have a son, who for a brief moment may have an existential thought before becoming blank eyed cannon fodder instead of broken at mid life.
#11
Have those asshole start their own religion, like, Bestiality Without Borders Church of Frank/
Catholics United
Faith in Public Life (Marxist/Communist)
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG)
Catholic Charities, USA (via CACG)
Catholic Health Association
Catholic Campaign for Human Development
Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC)
Catholics for a Free Choice
Catholic Democrats
National Association for Catholic Chaplains
Posted by: jack salami ||
02/17/2012 21:24 Comments ||
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#12
hey now!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2012 21:25 Comments ||
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#13
The American Catholic Bishops have long supported all these leftists who hate everything about the church. The bishops like the sound of many of the elements of the leftist's espoused social agenda. For me most of these policies include a thin veneer of sanctimony over an underlying structure of cronyism and statism. The poor that the bishops hope to help instead become a dependent class of devotees to be milked for cash and votes. Most are degraded spiritually in ways that the bishops don't seem to connect to their leftist buddies. When the leftists periodically open their trench coats wide for all to see with some obvious anti-religion, the bishops pretend not to see as acting offended might be inconsistent with their policy of enabling engagement.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/17/2012 22:48 Comments ||
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For a map, click here. For a map of Chihuahua state, click here
By Chris Covert
As the drought and record cold in the upper elevations of the Mexican Sierras continues, aid from across Mexico continues to pour into the area, according to Mexican news accounts.
Among communities sponsoring aid drives is a group in Reynosa, Tamaulipas which has collected nine tons of items such as bottled water, clothing, food, and blankets. The aid drive is sponsored by female members of Pemex's Activo Integral Burgos de Pemex Exploracion y Produccion group.
The drive also collected about MP $45,000 (USD $3518.54) in two weeks, according to the leader, Rebeca Acevedo de Reyes. Foodstuffs collected included rice, beans, cornmeal, milk tetrapack liquid, biscuit, chocolate, sugar, coffee and vegetable.
From Puebla state in central Mexico, the Puebla state Secretaria de Gobierno (SEGOB), Fernando Manzanilla Prieto, announced a total of 128 tons of aid collected, 70 tons of which was delivered January 28th, the remainder having left last Thursday morning. The aid is bound for Urique, Chihuahua, which is an 11 hour trip from Puebla state.
As with the PEMEX group, aid collected included water, oil and grains such as rice, beans, lentils. The drive in Puebla is asking for additional foods such as jam, caramel and chocolate powder. Volunteers to help in the drive are also being requested in the aid drive.
As with many modern famines and food crises, the problem is as much one of logistics as it is the actual shortage of food. The Sierra Tarahumara region is so remote that many areas have no telecommunications of any kind, and the roads make travel difficult.
Adding to the crisis are stories published last month by the leftist weekly Proceso, which said that aid packages are being sold for cash and often do not even reach their destination.
Even as aid reaches victims of the food crisis, a dark side is emerging.
In an El Diario de Coahuila news daily report, a Creel, Chihuahua parish priest, Hector Fernandez Martinez was quoted in a Grupo Imagen radio interview saying that aid should be given over to Non Government Organizations for distribution because a specter of politics has entered aid distribution.
Fernandez Martinez said that local municipal governments as well as the federal Secretaria de Desarrollo Social (SEDESOL) are causing problems with the indigent Indians in the area, withholding aid in exchange for promises to vote.
A general election for president is in July, and Mexico is currently in an inter-campaign period between candidate selection by the three major political parties and the start of the campaign season in late March.
Fernandez Martinez also complain about inappropriate aid handed out. As an example is Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa's trip to Batopilas in late January, reportedly delivered bank cards charged with about MP $300 (USD $23.46) to indigents in the area.
According to Fernandez Martinez, the nearest bank to Batopilas is in Creel, about a three day walk. By truck it costs MP $150 (USD $11.73) to get to the nearest bank.
Fernandez Martinez characterized the bank cards as "ridiculous."
Other concerns addressed by Fernandez Martinez was the delivery of expired food, and clothing and blankets infested by vermin.
In a related story, the Mexican federal Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB) added two municipalities in southern Sinaloa state as disaster areas due to the ongoing drought.
The municipalities affected are San Ignacio in southern Sinaloa state and about 20 kilometers west of San Dimas, Durango, and Choix, which is in northern Sinaloa state about 15 kilometers west of the border with Chihuahua state.
Disgraced former Coahuila state government official Hector Javier Villareal Hernandez has won a stay Tuesday from a re-arrest bench warrant issued by a Coahuila state judge, according to Mexican news accounts.
Villareal originally posted MP $10 million (USD $781,898.00) of a MP $20 million (USD $1,563,796.00) bond, and was required to check in with the court from time to time, but has left Mexico and was last seen in Texas. Some reports also place Villareal in Cuba.
Villareal was detained February 1st along with his wife Maria Botella, two unidentified children and an unidentified adult in Smith County, Texas, where he was charged with money laundering following a traffic stop. USD $67,000 in cash was found in the car. Villareal spent 5 days in jail before being released on USD $20,000 bond.
Villareal faces charges in Coahuila state of using falsified official documents to trick private bank officials into loaning Coahuila state government amounts of up to MP $1 billion. Seven other officials have also been charged in the matter, five of whom are at large, and two -- Jaime Rene Jimenez Flores and Jorge Lopez Alarcon -- are imprisoned at the Reclusorio Norte del Distrito Federal prison in Distrito Federal for investigation and trial. Those seven are part of a larger group of 12 who were called to Mexico City last December to be available to officials for the Procuradoria General Republic (PGR), or attorney general's office. To read a general Ranturg report on the Coahuila debt scandal, click here and here.
The legal fate of the other five is unknown.
Amparo lawsuits are procedural appeals meant to challenge a prosecutor, but are almost always used to slow down a criminal proceeding. The amparo suit in Coahuila involves a minor charge, while federal charges concern a 2005 federal credit reporting law which provides for stiff penalties for falsifying loan documents. Violations of the federal law are considered felonies, and is a reason why Villareal and other five other officials are on the run.
The U.S. and South Korean navies will stage a joint anti-submarine drill in the Yellow Sea next week to guard against potential attacks by North Korea, Seoul's defense ministry said Thursday.
The drill from February 20-24 will involve a number of submarines and warships from both countries, a ministry front man told Agence La Belle France Presse without elaborating.
JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said the drill would involve some 20 craft including two Aegis ships from the U.S. and one from South Korea, as well as Lynx helicopters and P3-C anti-submarine surveillance aircraft.
Citing an unidentified Seoul military official, it said the exercise would be the largest anti-submarine joint drill carried out by the allies.
The two countries staged a joint anti-submarine drill in September 2010, months after Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing a warship with the loss of 46 lives in the Yellow Sea in March 2010.
The North denied it sank the ship. But in November that year it shelled a border island, killing four South Koreans.
The upcoming drill, to precede two other major joint exercises, comes at a sensitive time in the North which is undergoing a power transition.
Pyongyang has taken a hostile tone towards Seoul since Kim Jong-Un, the youngest son of the late leader Kim Dear Leader Jong-Il ... hereditary dictator of North Korea. His definition of reunification isn't the same as the definition in Seoul... , took over following the death of his father last December.
The Key Resolve drill between the South and the U.S. will start on February 27 and continue until March 9. Separately, a joint air, ground and naval field training exercise known as Foal Eagle will be held from March 1 to April 30.
North Korea has denounced the exercises as warmongering.
#1
OTOH WAFF > FIVE COMMIE [PLAAF] WARPLANES PLAY TAG [for hours] WID 10 JAPANESE, SOUTH KOREAN AIRCRAFT, "FIGHT" [simulate Dogfight = Wartime] IN JAPANESE AIRSPACE.
When asked to leave, they didn't + chose instead to simulate an air-to-air dogfight, save Guns or Conventional, Nuclear-tipped AAMS were fired.
IIUC, RUSSIAN AIR FORCE + CHINESE AIR FORCE = basically gave US Allies NIPPON + SOUTH KOREA the air equivalent of the "the Finger", ala "WE HAVE THERMONUCLEAR WEAPONS + CAN NUKE YOU, YOU DON'T + CAN'T NUKE US".
* WORLD MIL FORUM > RUSSIAN EXPERTS REFUTE JAPAN'S WARNING AS PER "FEBRUARY 8th" INCIDENT: RUSSIAN AIR FORCE NEEDS ONLY 20 MINUTES TO DESTROY OR ERADICATE JAPAN SDAF FROM THE EARTH.
DItto for the UK Royal Air Force + NATO Allies in Northern/NW Europe.
versus
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > US TESTING "BATTLEFIELD ILLUSION" TECHS TO BAFFLE ENEMIES | [Daily Mail.UK] DREAM WARRIORS? US MULLING TO RESARCH ... ... ...
To test oer the Guam-WESTPAC areas?, ala 1960's = 1970's Guam Taotamonas.
GUAM LOCALS WILL THINK JESUS HAS RETURNED, ETC. WHEN IN REALITY ITS JUST US INTEL-PYWAR ILLUSIONS/IMAGES IN THE SKIES.
#2
CHINA DAILY FORUM > JAPAN OBSERVATION OF NORTHERN TERRITORIES DAY [former Nippon NTS = now Russian South Kurils]CAUSE OF CONCERN FOR RUSSIA | RUSSIA SLAMS JAPAN ON NORTHERN TERRITORIES DAY.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > ANALYSIS: NEW CHINA LANDING VESSELS POINT TO [growing] PACIFIC RIVALRY.
#3
I wonder how much of this is fine tuning against Iranian submarines? I'm sure the SKor would be more than happy to provide observers to any fight involving Iran subs.
#1
Is this the final conclusion to that 2009 bond smuggling deal? There has been so much cloak and dagger involved with this that it's hard to know what is going on.
Originally it was, "Two middle-aged men with valid Japanese passports", and The men were questioned, but not arrested.
#3
Terrorism does not have to be bombs or bullets.
A really smart attack on our financial system could have devestating affects on our current condition.
I personally believe the 9/11 attacks were aimed at our financial system and created some of the early instability in our financial system that was a precursor to the DEPRESSION we are now in.
Remember a recession is three consequtive quarters of negative growth. A depression is six. Are we in a DEPRESSION?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/17/2012 13:47 Comments ||
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#4
Are we in a DEPRESSION? Not as long as it hurts Obama's re-election chances to admit it.
#5
There is the situation of the known high-quality counterfeits of US $100 bills done by North Korea & probably others, and the possibility of counterfeit gold bullion - gold plated tungsten bars substituted for the real thing in vaults anywhere in the world.
International finance could collapse any day for a wide variety of reasons, mostly not related to the WOT. If we're very lucky it won't.
#9
"Severe threat my a***. Who would have redeemed those papers. Swiss banks? Please.
This is like saying that those blackened Nigerian "dollars" present a threat to world economy.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/17/2012 17:22 Comments ||
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#10
I assumed all the "money printing" has all been digital (Treasury issues bonds, Fed buys them). But maybe not. Severe threat if they're the real thing?
#12
At the risk of being seen as smug and flippant, the only difference between counterfeit money and US treasury money is the location of the printing press and the quality of the work. Fiat money is PAPER, we merely agree now that it means something. What tangible thing will the governemtn give you for it? Aside from the increasingly meaningless "Full Faith and Credit" of the US government, what does it mean? Massive monetary crisis courtesy of the Fed and Bernake is on the way, and the Chinese hold that gun to our head in a not very subtle manner any more. Why be subtle or overly polite, they hold the mortgage to the entire farm and can destabilize the currency in a minute if they are willing to take the hit. Sadly, the proud American Dollar, like the skilled American worker, is a fading memory. The one through hyper inflation, the other, through "free trade" policy where everyone cheats except us.
#13
>Fiat money is PAPER, we merely agree now that it means something. What tangible thing will the governemtn give you for it?
You can pay your tax with it. Gold is fiat, just harder to expand the supply (which isn't as good as it sounds, as it puts control of the economy in the hands of mine owners).
#14
This is a good discussion. Are silver coins better than paper? I think paper has more faith than metal, but I could be wrong. At the end of the day, it's all about faith. And there are a lot of faithful, but stupid, people out there.
But count me among the faithful, I have more paper than silver.
#15
Scooter, the Fed has printed so much paper since 1913 that the dollar has lost 96% of its value since then. Most of that loss is recent and accelerating. 10 years ago, an ounce of gold cost about $300. Today, $1725. Over the same time frame, wages have been more or less flat.
Metal can always be exchanged for paper. Paper can always be exchanged for metal too - BUT, how much paper will it take? Metal is regarded as a hedge against inflation for a reason.
it puts control of the economy in the hands of mine owners.
Which is why mining stocks are so hot right now. Unlike the Fed's printing press, you can own a piece of those. Stated differently, are you satisfied with who's in control of the economy now?
#16
Back when the currencies were silver and gold, they also had runaway inflations and crashes. "You can't eat gold," they said then, and starved to death with their gold beside them.
Money has no intrinsic value unless it is edible, but then it is subject to mold and rot. Or, seen differently, money is portable barter, which makes it only worth whatever people are willing to trade it for at a given moment. It never has intrinsic value, no matter whether paper, precious metal, or gigantic stone wheel with a hole in the center. The only thing of real value is a skill people need, or complete self-sufficiency in an area with perfect climate that's proof against invaders.
#17
Speaking of which - in the early Cold War - a year or two worth of crops were supposedly buried in the Alaska tundra for safe keeping... I wonder if it's still edible/safe and if anybody alive today knows where it is buried.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/17/2012 23:55 Comments ||
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FEARS of a military coup were mounting last night as Greece grappled with financial meltdown.
The crisis saw shares in London fall yesterday and the euro hit a three-week low as banks, including RBS and Barclays, were threatened with having their credit ratings downgraded.
Former Chancellor Lord Lamont warned that Greece was the canary in the mine...a warning of dangers to come. The appearance of several high-ranking army officers sitting next to Greek president Karolos Papoulias at a meeting on Wednesday, when he criticised Germany, fuelled speculation of a military takeover.
Mr Papoulias said ominously: The politicians should take an example from our soldiers. They always stayed true to the native country. It would not be the first time Greece has succumbed to military rule. A brutal junta led the country from 1967 to 1974.
Former German general Harald Kujat yesterday expressed his fears of a coup. And after the riots in Athens earlier this week, there were calls for tanks to be deployed to protect banks.
FEARS of a military coup were mounting last night as Greece grappled with financial meltdown.
The crisis saw shares in London fall yesterday and the euro hit a three-week low as banks, including RBS and Barclays, were threatened with having their credit ratings downgraded.
Former Chancellor Lord Lamont warned that Greece was "the canary in the mine...a warning of dangers to come." The appearance of several high-ranking army officers sitting next to Greek president Karolos Papoulias at a meeting on Wednesday, when he criticised Germany, fuelled speculation of a military takeover.
Mr Papoulias said ominously: "The politicians should take an example from our soldiers. They always stayed true to the native country." It would not be the first time Greece has succumbed to military rule. A brutal junta led the country from 1967 to 1974.
Former German general Harald Kujat yesterday expressed his fears of a coup. And after the riots in Athens earlier this week, there were calls for tanks to be deployed to protect banks.
#2
I remember the junta but didn't really pay that much attention do to my own personal concerns.
One thing I don't recall is that it was what I would call brutal. Daffy and Pencilneck are brutal but I don't remember citizens being machine gunned in the streets whole sale.
Authoritarian sure, undemocratic, definitely, but brutal? I'm just not sure.
Is this a faulty memory on my part or lefty/communist propaganda?
#3
Brutal or not, the coup of the Colonels was blamed on the US - you'd have gone deaf, listening to the Greeks go on and on and on and on and on about the brutality of the Colonels and how the US government was behind it all.
IIRC, I think we just sat back and watched it happen, but apparently that was just exactly the same as issuing detailed marching orders.
#4
In December the PM asked for and recieved resignations from several senior officers. The current military leadership is personally beholden to the PM for their positions. Presumably to defuse any potential issues
#5
A good way to bring on a coup would be to threaten military pay or pensions. A good rule of thumb for the Greek government: mess with the military last - they have guns.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/17/2012 22:26 Comments ||
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#6
FOX NEWS AM showed video news footage of many homeless kitchens + vendors being set up outside in Greek streets - IIRC, it was repor that 1-in-4 Greeks are unemployed now???
Not many Vehicles, Private or Govt., seen driving around in the video segment - LOTS OF UNCOLLECTED TRASH, THOUGH.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
North Korea
Kim 
FEARS of a military coup were mounting last night as Greece grappled with financial meltdown.
