‘Pope Paul VI promulgated Gaudium et Spes (December 7, 1965), in which was written: "Furthermore, whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or wilful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are supreme dishonor to the Creator." 

‘For much of the past 25 years, a small group of Catholic intellectuals has worked to inject its radical religious ideas into the nation's politics.

The leader of this theo-conservative movement is Father Richard John Neuhaus.

In the pages of his monthly magazine First Things, Neuhaus and his ideological allies set the theo-con agenda on a range of policies.

Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute argues that the American founders were orthodox religious believers who thought of the United States as a Christian nation - and that American-style capitalism perfectly conforms to Catholic social teaching.

Last Friday, Prime Minister John Howard officiated at the launch of Peter Cosgrove’s biography, ‘My Story’.

As we all know, Peter Cosgrove is the former Chief of the Australian Defence Force, who retired last year, after a military career spanning 40 years.

There can be no argument with the fact that Peter Cosgrove was an outstanding Australian soldier.

He was brave, professional & popular: a Duntroon graduate; recipient of the Military Cross in Vietnam in 1969. Cosgrove was appointed as Commander of the INTERFET peacekeeping force in East Timor in 1999, subsequently became Chief of the Australian Army & was ultimately promoted to the role of Defence Force Chief in 2002.

I was suprised to find out yesterday that the Halliburton engineer for a major (proposed) S.A. water reclamation project had also set up a nut farm in the Murray.  There's already one in Canberra, where KBR paves the paths on which the pollies slither, so why would Cheney's Men be setting up a foreign investment opportunity on the banks of a dying river?

Engineering and construction firm KBR had planned to start planting this month, until its financial partner pulled out due to 'overseas policy issues'.

‘In summary: Bush has suddenly not really changed the course and insists he was never for "stay the course," so that he could make it seem like he was going to change the course without actually changing the course. To that end he held a press conference to announce that he was going to "stay the course" without saying he was going to "stay the course," because if he doesn't pretend to be changing his failed course in Iraq there will be a major change in the Republican political course. And, of course, since Bush has ignored the Constitution and shredded the Geneva Conventions, he hopes to change the political course before Democrats put him on a course leading to impeachment. Hence, he's never been a "stay the course" guy.’

from our ABC …..

Bush dissatisfied with 'Iraq situation', urges patience

By Washington correspondent Kim Landers

‘The US President George W Bush has expressed concern about the increased bloodshed in Iraq which has left 93 American soldiers dead so far this month.

His latest comments come with his party facing a struggle to retain control over Congress amid widespread voter dissatisfaction at his handling of the Iraq war.

‘The Roman emperor Nero is best remembered for having his mother and wife assassinated, murdering his second wife, indulging in orgies, concerts and sporting spectacles while persecuting Christians, and blaming them for the great fire of Rome during which, most infamously, he supposedly played the lyre from the balcony of his palace. Nero playing while Rome burned is myth. The rest is not.

I wonder what history will say about us when we are gone, off to that great absolute water frontage in the sky?

New Element on Periodic Table …..

‘A major research institution has just announced the discovery of the densest element yet known to science. The new element has been named “Bushcronium.”

Bushcronium has one neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 311.

These particles are held together by dark forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

‘With a flip of the wrist, Bush signed into law the anti-Habeas Corpus, pro-torture law (cleverly repackaged as the Military Commissions Act of 2006), signaling with it the end of American democracy.

For the Bush family it was simply another day - like any other day - for the entitled nobility, who take from others that which does not belong to them.

‘While al-Qaeda and its ilk are clearly terrorist organisations, even if Satan ran their operations that would not alter the fact that some people accused of terrorism offences will be innocent. But while lip service may still be paid to the presumption of innocence, it's scorned in practice.

Australia's acceptance of the detention of its citizen, David Hicks, by the US for five years in Guantanamo Bay, and his trial by a military commission almost universally rejected by legal authorities as an unjust process, is based on a view of him as a terrorist threat. For that reason alone, he is subject to a regime that would be unacceptable for any person accused of any other crime (and any US citizen, terrorist or not).

‘A magical glow arises from the land. "Our economy is evolving," Labor Secretary Elaine Chao told CNN in September. "It's transitioning to a knowledge-based economy." Many liberals are dazzled by the light, imagining a new era in which poverty is curable by education and the highly educated know no limits. Those who go to college and work hard are set for life, while the clueless and the unprepared drift down into the working poor. Message to Americans in a competitive, globalized world: Sink or swim. It's up to you.

‘What I am arguing tonight is that our country is afflicted with a blindness that needs urgent repair given the magnitude of the problems now staring us in the eye.

By the end of the current bushfire season, I doubt many Australians will question the fact of climate change.

I am also arguing that this government can no longer claim to represent all Australians. It formally surrendered that claim, and also its claim to moral authority on the issue of our national values, when it appointed Keith Windschuttle to the board of the ABC.

 
20 October 2006

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
ROYAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB, SYDNEY

JOURNALIST:

Mr Howard, General Cosgrove says there's been an energising of the jihadist movement through the protracted war in Iraq, that's a direct quote.  Do you agree with that?

‘"Friends speak together with complete freedom and frankness and listen to one another in trust. Neither seeks to dominate, neither acts like a vassal," asserted Michèle Alliot-Marie during the ceremony, before laying a spray of flowers at the foot of a monument celebrating the last battle of the American War of Independence. She added that, "friendship creates a duty of sincerity (...) in all independence, without excessive reverence, without beatific subservience."

"We each have our identities, our aspirations, our national interests to defend. They are sometimes contradictory," pleaded Michèle Alliot-Marie, before reminding that, "France is not and will never be a feeble friend to America."

from the SMH ...

Alan Ramsey

A few weeks ago, when John Howard and Kim Beazley, like schoolboys, were trying to outdo each other on "Australian values", a friend asked if I knew of the "must display" poster Brendan Nelson had been responsible for as John Howard's education tsar before Howard moved him, nine months ago, into Defence, to make life as miserable for the military as he had done for the nation's education industry. I didn't, so my friend mailed me one.