Two By Congressman Paul

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Update on Congressman Paul's attempt to get a bill passed that would require auditing the Federal Reserve-Tomorrow Dr. Paul will grill Bernake.

Article: Healthcare is a Good, not a Right

Political philosopher Richard Weaver famously and correctly stated that ideas have consequences. Take for example ideas about rights versus goods. Natural law states that people have rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A good is something you work for and earn. It might be a need, like food, but more “goods” seem to be becoming “rights” in our culture, and this has troubling consequences. It might seem harmless enough to decide that people have a right to things like education, employment, housing or healthcare. But if we look a little further into the consequences, we can see that the workings of the community and economy are thrown wildly off balance when people accept those ideas.

First of all, other people must pay for things like healthcare. Those people have bills to pay and families to support, just as you do. If there is a “right” to healthcare, you must force the providers of those goods, or others, to serve you.

Obviously, if healthcare providers were suddenly considered outright slaves to healthcare consumers, our medical schools would quickly empty. As the government continues to convince us that healthcare is a right instead of a good, it also very generously agrees to step in as middle man. Politicians can be very good at making it sound as if healthcare will be free for everybody. Nothing could be further from the truth. The administration doesn’t want you to think too much about how hospitals will be funded, or how you will somehow get something for nothing in the healthcare arena. We are asked to just trust the politicians. Somehow it will all work out. Universal Healthcare never quite works out the way the people are led to believe before implementing it. Citizens in countries with nationalized healthcare never would have accepted this system had they known upfront about the rationing of care and the long lines.

Read the rest here

Remember the First Victims of the Bolshevik Revolution

The Royal PAssion-Bearers, The Right Victorious Nicholas, Emperor of All the Russias, The Empress, the Right Victorious Alexandra, and the Royal PRinces: Tsarevich Alexei, the Princesses Maria, Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia: Orate pro nobis!


From The Young Fogey:

Lovely people, but an incompetent emperor, not particularly bright, getting the country mired in an immoral war, World War I, owing to nationalism and misplaced loyalties, causing (as Rasputin predicted) his own downfall - and death. The war destroyed so much of Catholic Europe, east (in this case) and west (the soon-to-be beatified Emperor Charles of Austria-Hungary abdicated and his empire was carved up). Besides a basic monarchist inclination - a sacramentally crowned king is profoundly Catholic - what turned me in favour of the Russian royals was reading Robert Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra back in 1996. This American historian (writing about 40 years ago) with no bias either way (royalist or Communist) convinced me that personally they are saints. (As for politics, saints are fallible in their prudential judgement.) In a society littered with loveless dynastic marriages (like the late Diana in recent years) the tsar was a country gentleman who truly loved his wife.

This is something I'm asked often: If the Emperor Nicholas was such a saint, why was he an incompetent ruler? My answer: Who says saints have to be competent rulers? He did the best he could under the circumstances, but made some mistaken judgments. saints are fallible, after all. What makes a saint a saint is humility, and a thorough recognition of his own weakness and his need for God.

A film produced recently in Russia brings this out very well. Here's a clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw5AJ43NJoY&feature=related

Warning: The scene where they are murdered in the end is quite graphic, and the Tsarevich Alexei covering his eyes is heart-wrenching. You have been warned!

Crimes Against Humanity 1794

Genocide in the Vendée at the height of the Reign of Terror.

As The Young Fogey reminds us, "modern liberalism was barbaric to begin with."

Warning: If you have a weak stomach, just read the first half. But if you have a passion for truth...

Le Fleur de Lys Too

Hat tip to Tea at Trianon and The Young Fogey

On the Abuse of Ecclesiastical Power

By Arturo Vasquez

Or: Things that happen when clergymen get too enthusiastic
Pope Paul IV when he was a cardinal was in charge of the Roman Inquisition: one of his first acts as a pope was to increase the powers of this institution and the penalties associated with heresy: even some cardinals were charged with heresy and Cardinal Morone was imprisoned in Castel Sant’Angelo as a hidden Lutheran. The pope imposed on the Romans a very austere lifestyle, but allowed his nephew Carlo Carafa to profit from his position to enrich himself and, according to widespread rumours, to behave badly from a moral viewpoint. He forced the Jews of the Papal State to live in two ghettos in Rome and Ancona: he built walls around an area of Rione Sant’Angelo which was subject to floods: the Jews were not allowed to live elsewhere and during the day had to go about wearing a distinctive sign… Pope Paul IV died in August 1559: the Romans reacted to the news by setting fire to the Inquisition palace and by destroying all the coats of arms of the pope: his statue in Campidoglio was beheaded and the head was rolled down the cordonata.
Source

Nisi Dominus aedificaverit domum... Psalm 126 (127): 1

Read the rest of the article here.

Giraldi says "Hands off Honduras" to both Left and Right

From Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty

This column is from a few days ago, but it is a continuing situation. Libs and neocons have taken sides, but no consideration has been entertained about what the Honduran people actually want.

It is perhaps predictable that the unrest in Honduras is being seized upon by the usual suspects in an attempt to exploit the situation to draw conclusions that are completely unwarranted by what is taking place. Neocons are hailing the removal of a "leftist" president while liberals are shouting "coup." In an attempt to determine what Hondurans think, I have recently had the opportunity to speak to a number of military officers, students, civil servants, and businessmen. As many commentators have correctly noted, there is a sharp class divide in Honduras, with 70% of the population mired in poverty and a middle and upper class that is much better off and politically empowered to stay that way. The existence of extreme poverty with little hope for improvement in the majority of the population has been exploited by populists in Latin America through promises to bleed the rich and help the poor. Though the promises have rarely been kept, the ability to organize bloc voting by the poor has created a de facto monopoly of power for the leaders who have successfully sold themselves as being champions of the disenfranchised, leaders like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

What is lacking in the media feeding frenzy is any deference to what the Hondurans themselves might want. Last month a crisis that had been building for nearly a year exploded. President Manuel Zelaya, a wealthy rancher elected as a center-leftist in 2006 but turned populist after entering into office, proposed a non-binding referendum that would have supported amending the country's constitution. Zelaya said that he was interested in changing the constitution to help the poor, though he did not propose any specific remedies. But according to most Hondurans, the particular part of the constitution that he was interested in obtaining a mandate for eventually amending was a non-amendable part that was designed to keep presidents like him from remaining in office beyond their constitutionally permitted terms. Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution reads in translation: "No citizen who has already served as head of the Executive Branch can be President or Vice-President. Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform, as well as those that support such violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years." A number of Latin American countries have such clauses in their constitutions to avoid the establishment of presidents-for-life, which have resulted in continuous one party rule. The US Constitution also has several permanent articles.

Read the rest of the article here.

Dr. Paul on Napolitano's Freedom Watch

The good doctor talks about his bill, introduced in Congress, to audit the Federeal Reserve, and the threats the Fed is making to the American people if this passes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLGWIrBZCvY

Audit the Fed, then phase out all our ties with it, and let it die. Back to the gold standard.

This is the time for all good men (and women) to come to the aid of their country!

From Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty website

Caritas in Veritae

From The Distributist Review

Did you ever think you'd read an encyclical that advocated:
-energy efficiency, and the moral duty to reduce energy consumption
-consumer co-ops
-micro-finance
-large-scale redistribution of wealth on a world-wide scale (this one reminds me of what Edmund Burke calls the real "Social Contract": "Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.")
-intergenerational justice—in the context of environmental resources
-opening international markets, especially in agriculture

As Benedict shows, these ideas are merely consistent developments (or repetitions) of Catholic social teaching. But he is fearless in applying CST in today's arena.Nor does he hesitate to dig into our dirty details:

As Benedict shows, these ideas are merely consistent developments (or repetitions) of Catholic social teaching. But he is fearless in applying CST in today's arena.

Nor does he hesitate to dig into our dirty details:
-NGOs peddling contraceptives and involuntary sterilization to poor countries
-the decline in birth rates
-the hoarding of resources, especially water
-human embryos are sacrificed to research
-the poverty of isolation
-abusive tourism
-usury

Tribute to King Louis XVI

On this "Bastille Day," I offer prayers for the soul of King Louis XVI, King of France and Defender of American Liberty!

+May his soul, and that of his Queen, Marie Antoinette, Rest in Peace!

+May their Memories be Eternal!

What is Socialism?

Incidents where Libertarians claim Distributism is some kind of veiled socialism because of the predication of government intervention in the economy betrays the same failure to grasp what socialism is even all about. Socialism was never defined as government intervention into economic life or the running of businesses. If it was then virtually every government in history would have to be socialist, even the Bush administration. Every government has regulated trade to a greater or lesser extent. Rather, Socialism as predicated by its founder, Louis Blanc, and its most well known advocate (Marx) is when the government becomes the universal capitalist. In every system, for wealth to be created, capital must be expended to produce the wealth. This is something as simple as the food a man must eat and the tractors, plows, and livestock he must use in order to produce wheat, or as complex as the scientists that must be paid to develop a drug. The amount of goods consumed in creating new wealth is always capital. The person laboring on it brings the human labor and together with that capital creates wealth.

Read the whole article here.

Two on Torture

From The Young Fogey:

Do We Owe Japanese WWII Waterboarders (executed after the war) an Apology?

From The Western Confucian:

The Gipper (+RIP) on Torture:

1. "...torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession..."

2. "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."

Another Blogging Hiatus

Two reasons: Holy Week, and a paper I must prepare for The Medieval Congress at the University of Michigan in Kalamazoo.

Blogging will commence after next week.

Ahh yes, I like logical thinking

Credit

Biretta tip: The OrthoCuban

Moscow Patriarchate Approves of Pope's Uncompromising Position on Ethics

From the Ochlophobist: In my opinion, this is the real "ecumenical" work, and the form of ecclesial dialogue that is truly appropriate and beneficial.Instead of having fancy wine & cheese meetings in Ravenna, we should be shutting down abortion mills together. Instead of having common prayer services in churches, we should be praying together in jail.

Let's do it!

Biretta tip: The Young Fogey

KLA Attrocities Finally Revealed

Our invasion of Serbia bears its fruit. Thank you, Madame Albright and Mr. Clinton!

Suffering L'Aquila

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Of your charity please pray for the people devastated by the earthquakes in Central Italy, most especially L'Aquila.

For those who perished, +may their memory be eternal!

+Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetuam luceat eis.
+Requiescant in Pace

Viva Italia!

A Monarchist Version of Functional Libertarianism

Would YOU Sign the Declaration of Independence?

This is one source of our current troubles--a utopian experiment that led to the central-state-empowering Constitution, to democracy and to the abolition of monarchies, to the Civil War and greater centralism, to American entry into WWI, to the punitive Treaty of Versailles, and thus to the rise of German nationalism and Hitler and WWII, tens of millions dead and the Holocaust, nuclear bombings of Japan, the Cold War, etc.

No thanks. Give me back the modest taxes under King George III, and rule from over the Atlantic.

The young Fogey adds: BTW good George III didn’t cause the grievances of some colonists; Parliament did.

For these reasons I am tending towards support of our joining the Commonwealth of English-Speaking Nations, under the nominal rule of Her Majesty the Queen.

Hat tip to The Young Fogey

My Scriptorium Daily Article on Archbishop Demetrios' White House Speech

Read it here

Finding Folk Orthodoxy

By Arturo Vasquez

A couple of years ago, I wrote a provocative piece on my experiences with Eastern Orthodoxy in this country. In it, I wrote that in my past encounters with Orthodoxy, what I usually found was a boutique religion for the white middle class, or alternatively, an ethnic church closed off from the rest of society, and not much else in between. In terms of the former, the most likely suspect to convert to Orthodoxy is a (usually white) religious maverick who wants to re-discover the “New Testament Church” as founded by Jesus Christ without the “popish” baggage that Roman Catholicism has to offer. Compared to the suburban white-washed suburban mega-parishes and the “supersitious” masses of the Latino barrio parish, Orthodoxy seems to have all of it i’s dotted and t’s crossed. There is, of course, the presence of the ethnic Orthodox, who often don’t come to Divine Liturgy on time or only grace the shadow of the church for a baptism or wedding, but they are a small price to pay for being in a church that doesn’t have “idolatrous” statues or the “Filioque” (that sum of all errors). The convert can thus enjoy his “true religion” detached from all of the cultural baggage of the “old country”. He may even seek refuge in an old, long fogotten past, being nostalgic for an “Orthodox Western Europe” that never was.

My own religious project since I wrote that polemical essay two years ago has changed substantially. It is very easy to find out what the Church says about itself. One only need look at such books as Ludwig Ott’s Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma or a similar book to find out what you should believe. That is the religious center of the Faith; the safe region, the core of what the clergy say is to believed by all. But what role, if any, does the periphery hold; what is the role of belief that grows spontaneously outside of the control of the “official Church”? And what relation, if any, does the official Church have with these beliefs? Living in the 21st century, and having passed through the paradigm shifts of early modernity, it is very easy to dismiss half of the things that our grandparents believed in as superstition or remnants of a pagan past. My nagging suspicion, however, is that without these things that were at the periphery ( or underground, unofficial, or quasi-forbidden), the center cannot hold. The death of the religious imagination of our forefathers is leading to the death of religion itself.

Read the rest here

The Diversity Scam

From Rod Dreher

John McWhorter, an African-American Obama-supporting Democrat who often gets mislabeled a "conservative because of his criticism of racial preferences in job placement and college admissions, talks truth about the diversity scam.

My inability to cherish my brown students as the invaluable quintessence of diverseness is in no way "conservative." For example, I am all for adjusting admissions procedures to account for class as opposed to race. If a brown student went to a school where there were no Advanced Placement classes or had a tough home life and yet gives all indication of being a hungry and diligent student, less-than-astounding SATs should not keep him from admission to a good school.

This is also true, however, of his white equivalent. By the time I left U.C. Berkeley in 2002, admissions were based not on pigment but hardship. This meant admitting brown people who had grown up the hard way - but also white ones and Asian ones. It felt right.

Hat tip to The young Fogey

Reforming the Monarchy

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Gordon Brown and Buckingham Palace have discussed plans to change the rules of succession to the throne, including giving royal women equal rights.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said:

"To bring about changes to the law on succession would be a complex undertaking involving amendment or repeal of a number of items of related legislation, as well as requiring the consent of legislatures of member nations of the Commonwealth.
"We are examining this complex area although there are no immediate plans to legislate."

Proceeding slowly is the wise course of action, given the complexities of reforming a law of succession that has been in place since Queen Anne in 1701. Still, I think ending the restriction against a monarch marrying a Roman Catholic is long overdue, given the fact that a great number of Brits today hardly go to church, with an increasing number claiming no religion and a steady growth of Islam.

But still, proceed slowly. Change is necessary, but ought to come slowly. I believe the English monarchy provides a principle of order, stability and continuity to the government. Healthy change is the means of social preservation, and the monarchy has shown itself quite able to change when it needed in order to serve the people of the realm more efficiently.

Read BBC News article here.