Monday, December 31, 2012

PNoy Signs RH Bill Into Law: A Faux Victory for Little Tyrants


Poor people… they foolishly rejoice in their loss of rights and freedom.

Poor people… they foolishly rejoice in their loss of rights and freedom.

  • NOTE: Remember the people who naively supported the RH measure (their ludicrously jubilant faces and gestures, including their overjoyed Facebook/Twitter posts and comments). It’s very important to remember that a lot of good-intentioned people credulously, foolishly celebrated the surreptitious destruction of their rights and liberty.
It’s final, the controversial, anti-rights Reproductive Health bill is now part of the law in this impoverished, protectionist welfare state. This new measure, otherwise known as Republic Act No. 10354 or the “Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012, is obviously the Aquino regime’s post-Christmas gift for its millions of welfare constituents. President Aquino signed it “without fanfare”, according to media sources, on Friday, December 28.

According to the law’s proponents and supporters, the measure aims to provide universal access to RH care services and information. The law will provide its beneficiaries, as determined by the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), with “universal access to medically safe, non-abortifacient, effective, legal, affordable and quality reproductive health care services, methods, devices, supplies which do not prevent the implantation of a fertilized ovum.” It will also provide “age-and development-appropriate reproductive health education” for public school students between ages 10 to 19.

However, to achieve its goal, the law has to force doctors to render so-called “pro bono services” as well as conscientious, religious or non-religious healthcare providers to violate their freedom of conscience. It also compels employers and companies to provide said services to their employees or risk being fined or penalized with jail terms.

I am an unapologetic, strong opponent/critic of the bill (now a law) because of its perverted concept of rights and freedom of choice/conscience, it is against individual rights, and because welfare state is never a solution to poverty problem, poor access to contraceptives and even ‘overpopulation’. You may read my anti-RH law articles here.

For those who pathetically, naively, stupidly support this measure, I think– now mark my words– it will be another legislative disaster waiting to happen. Like many welfare laws passed in the past (e.g., the PhilHealth Law, Biofuels Act, Clean Air Act, anti-global warming laws, ect.), I strongly believe this RH measure will not be able to deliver its intended goals and will instead bankrupt this nation and cause more corruption in the near future.

But what if the RH bill is now a law? There’s absolutely nothing to celebrate. Instead, rational people and those who are still willing to think must mourn the continued destruction of their remaining rights and freedom.
Some fools must be asking: What loss of freedom are you talking about when the government simply guaranteed people’s access to contraceptives?

First, no one is deprived of his right ‘to buy’ condoms and contraceptives in these parts. Condoms and pills are available at almost all convenience and drug stores. The government does not currently provide us food, does this mean we’re also deprived of right right to food?

The problem is, a lot of Filipinos are blissfully unaware that a welfare government (a government that knows what is best for the people) is like a ticking bomb waiting to explode. The danger of this form of politics is that it appears beneficial to some people and that it appeals to the fools and to those whose poor judgment is instructed mainly by instinct and necessity.

Cicero warned the world of this deceptive form of government over 2000 years ago. This great Roman political philosopher and Aristotelian believed that Rome was not destroyed by Caesar, but by the people of the empire “who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and given him triumphal processions.”
Victory for women? *Facepalm* indeed... These women obviously don't know what they're doing. Give 'em Pleasurable Sex Law, Pia Cayetano...

Victory for women? *Facepalm* indeed… These women obviously don’t 
know what they’re doing. Give ‘em Pleasurable Sex Law, Pia Cayetano…

The educated/schooled Filipino should be the first to know that almost every dictatorship in the past century was blissfully supported by fools who thought they were fighting for a utopian society. Didn’t the early Russians rejoice when they formally erected the first Marxist society on earth in 1922? Didn’t the Chinese foolishly celebrate the death of their individuality when they established their great collective society?
As the old saying goes: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The geniuses and visionaries of the old world had sufficiently warned us of the evil or danger of Big Government. Thomas Jefferson once said: “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.”

With the shameless passage of this law that employs legal “force” against certain sectors to work for the “greater good” and to violate their freedom of conscience, it follows that the government may also be justified/authorized to pass similar welfare measures in the future like, say, Housing For All Act or Food for Everybody Act. If the government can force the so-called pharmaceutical cartel (primarily caused by our protectionism and welfare regulations) to sell medicines to Filipino consumers at a heavily government-discounted sales price, it can also use the same tyrannical power against other goods-producing, job-creating industries and companies.

What’s next? Pleasurable Sex Law for women? Give it to them, Pia “Pleasurable Sex” Cayetano!

Now, here’s what many economically, politically clueless Filipinos don’t understand: Somebody else has to pay for those “free” welfare services. To serve the welfare needs of the poor, the government has to steal from the productive and the successful.

The truth is: the government has no magical/supernatural power at all to create real wealth from nothing.

There is no such thing as a Santa Claus government. In the real world, Santa Claus doesn’t use force– he doesn’t steal– in order to make children happy. The message of Santa Claus is voluntary, uncoerced gift-giving. In this welfare state, the government has to employ legal force against employers and healthcare providers to provide RH services to those who need them. Indeed, what we have is an inverted Robinhood government that steals from the innocent to help the poor.
So, what is there to celebrate when:
  • we still face higher unemployment and poverty rates?
  • more and more foreign investors avoid the Philippines as if it’s a very dangerous place to invest?
  • we have high budget deficit and higher public debt?
  • we still have rampant corruption in the government sector and more ways and opportunities for our politicians and public officials to corrupt?
  • politicians focus more on welfare spending than on job-creating reforms (including constitutional reform to guarantee economic freedom)?
  • more and more Filipinos depend on the government for their daily survival?
  • the RH bill would definitely open new ways for our scheming, corrupt public officials to steal?
There is no such thing as ‘free RH services’. Someone has to pay for them. To make these services accessible to the poor, the government has to employ legal force against doctors and employers. And to fund all its welfare services, the Aquino regime has to use the power of taxation.
To increase its revenue collection, first the Aquino regime came to tax the country’s sin industries and companies. It’s always safe to denounce the rich and the successful industries that destroy people’s health.
The government might target any of the following tax options next :
  • Tax on telecommunication companies and their related services (e.g., texts, calls, etc.)
  • Tax on blogging and other related social network activities.
  • Tax on e-selling or any other money-making ventures or activities online.
  • Tax on other internet ventures or activities.
  • Tax on mining companies.
  • Tax on government benefits and insurance.
  • Tax on OFWs. Remember that tax is defined as “a fee charged (“levied”) by a government on a product, income, or activity.”
  • More taxes on the industries companies run by oligarchs who support the system.
  • Imposition of more or higher regulatory fees and payments. Any kinds of processing, permits, application fees, etc. that we pay to the government (e.g., NBI clearance, LTO permits, among many others).
Also as stated here:
If the government provides you contraceptives and family planning services you need, it would be justified and empowered to tell you how to plan your family and to take away your rights and the rights of others  (e.g., employers, doctors, etc.). 
If you want the government to pay for your medical and health care services, it would be empowered to police the food you eat, the kinds of beverages (their sizes, content, etc.) you drink, including your lifestyle and daily activities. Take the soda ban and other regulations imposed by limousine liberal Mayor Michael Bloomberg in New York. 
If you want the government to pay for your basic and college education, it would be justified to impose high taxes on industries and successful people and to tell you what to think. In France, socialist President Francois Hollande’s 75% tax on high income earners led to mass exodus of French millionaires and job creators.
So, you’re happy with the passage of the RH bill? Don’t be, stupid. Instead, brace yourselves for more destructive political measures to come…
You asked for it, brothers.
*** —————————————————————————————– ***
Of all pro-RH celebratory gibberish online, this grand display of idiocy by the Filipino freefarters takes the cake:
*FACEPALM* How stupid can you get, Filipino freefarters?
*FACEPALM* How stupid can you get, Filipino freefarters?
This statement made above must be re-posted here to further educate the clueless:
In the real world, Santa Claus doesn’t use force– he doesn’t steal– in order to make children happy. The message of Santa Claus is voluntary, uncoerced gift-giving. In this welfare state, the government has to employ legal force against employers and healthcare providers to provide RH services to those who need them. Indeed, what we have is an inverted Robinhood government that steals from the innocent to help the poor.
With their brain-deadness and hopeless idiocy, it’s very much possible the freefarters might support a proposal that would give homeless Filipinos “free” housing or “free” food. Unfortunately, these flips are giving a bad name to atheism.

Also, the little tyrants of this pro-RH Facebook page feel so empowered (***):
What a bunch of pitiful creatures... Seriously, what is there to celebrate?
What a bunch of pitiful creatures… Seriously, what is there to celebrate?

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Aquino’s moral-political cliff


By Francisco S. Tatad | Posted on Dec. 28, 2012 at 12:01am | 



While America teeters on the edge of a “fiscal cliff”, a collection of tax increases and spending cuts scheduled for the beginning of next year,  Philippine president Benigno Aquino III appears to have dragged himself to the precipice of a moral and political cliff,  by his naked misuse of presidential power to impose the will of foreign population controllers on outraged Filipinos, mostly Catholics.

To the completely unnecessary problems created by his decision to ram through Congress the patently unconstitutional and highly divisive reproductive health bill,   Aquino’s Liberal Party has now added its own completely avoidable problems, by making the country’s two biggest vote-rich provinces—-Pangasinan and Cebu—the battle zones of premature partisan fighting before the May 2013 elections.

Having earlier tried to destabilize  Pangasinan’s reelectionist Governor Amado Espino to create some partisan space for his LP gubernatorial challenger, Aquino has now trained his guns on three-term Governor Gwen Garcia of Cebu whose congressman-father, Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia, was among the most eloquent opponents of the infamous RH  bill and whose political family has served the province of Cebu long and well.

By slapping a six-month suspension order on Garcia for alleged “abuse of power,” a charge that could have been more fittingly directed at  Aquino himself, Malacañang apparently expected to render the governorship vacant to allow the LP  to have a free hand running her office during the campaign period for the May 2013 elections.

To Aquino’s chagrin,  Garcia’s supporters, instead of abandoning her for fear of Malacañang reprisal,  closed ranks behind her, and the top three stalwarts of the United Nationalist Alliance –Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, who otherwise habitually support Aquino on many issues—have weighed in, in her defense.

Malacañang’s offensive was seen to be coming directly from the camp of Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas, the LP president “on leave” who ran  unsuccessfully as Aquino’s  vice presidential candidate in 2010, but seems to be preparing early for his presidential bid  in 2016. This has turned Cebu into a veritable flash point. This is not unwelcome to other forces, who could exploit the opportunity to turn Cebu into a center of  the opposition that is building up against Aquino following his perceived sellout to foreign population controllers on the RH bill.

In particular the archdiocese of Cebu could become the staging point.  The Archdiocese of Manila used to exercise this role under the late  Jaime Cardinal Sin,  who once mobilized a crowd of one million people to oppose the anti-life agenda of the Cairo international conference on population and development in 1994, and played a decisive role in the 1986 EDSA uprising which ousted Marcos and made Cory Aquino, PNoy’s late mother, revolutionary president.

But Manila’s new archbishop, Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, has taken a relatively low profile with respect to the measure while both Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, archbishop emeritus of Cebu, and the incumbent archbishop, Most Reverend Jose Palma, who is also the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), have been at the frontline in opposing the bill.

Vidal was the CBCP president who issued the famous CBCP statement on the Feb. 7, 1986 election, which said that because of its shabby conduct, Ferdinand Marcos had lost the moral authority to remain in power.  That provided the “moral basis” for the EDSA revolt.  Although now retired, the cardinal remains  in good health and humor and is the acknowledged leader of the country’s pro-life and pro-family movement.

Governor Garcia and her followers may not necessarily want to convert the  moral and religious groundswell against Aquino into a partisan weapon in their current fight against the LP forces.  But nothing prevents them from pointing out to the Cebuano electorate that the last thing they need would be a governor who would not mind being inside Aquino’s pocket.  Cebu has a proud history: it is where Magellan met his  doom after circumnavigating the globe; it is also where Cory Aquino sought temporary refuge while the 1986 EDSA uprising raged.  The militants could appeal to that history to mount a national anti-Aquino movement.

Many Filipinos mind it very much  that Aquino’s attack on the sanctity of human life and the Filipino family, through the railroading of the RH bill, came on the eve of Christmas, on the third month of  the Year of Faith, as declared by Pope Benedict XVI, and after the canonization of the nation’s second saint, St.  Pedro Calungsod, a 17th century teenage lay catechist from Cebu who died for his faith. But many Cebuanos take it as a personal offense, and feel they have a personal score to settle with Aquino, because of their ethnic affinity with Calungsod.

Such sentiment may have been reinforced even more this season when Pope Benedict XVI  in his Christmas message challenged  Christians (which would include Filipinos) not to bow to any false gods (like an RH bill?) being proposed by some demagogues (like Aquino?) who would like to play God and replace man’s  vision of his own destiny with some diabolical construct.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Ateneo professor resigns; says his ‘service to the Church and to ADMU no longer coincide’




MANILA, Dec. 29, 2012–“No one can serve two masters.”
An Ateneo de Manila theology professor has resigned, realizing that he could “no longer share the path” taken by the Jesuit-led university community that went all-out for the passage of the reproductive health (RH) law despite opposition from the Catholic Church.
Prof. Rafael Dy-Liacco, in a resignation letter, decried the “failure” of Ateneans to reject what he said was an alliance with a “spirit of disdain for the Church” that had worked for the RH bill’s passage.
“That spirit repudiates the Church’s holiness and, at the same time, attempts to assume it for itself (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:4). It has manifested at an unusually high level of ferocity, even hatred. It has manifested in the wholesale denigration of the Church – of her teachings, of her bishops, of her catechists, and of her common lay faithful,” said the letter, addressed to the chair of the Ateneo’s theology department and the dean of humanities.
“Whatever material good Ateneans believe they have accomplished by supporting the passage of the Bill, their failure to reject alliance with that spirit, to truly seek counsel with the Church, and to make amends for and to repair whatever harm that their alliance with that spirit is doing and will do to the faith of believers in the Philippines, has not been right,” Dy-Liacco added.
The letter was written on Dec. 28, Feast of the Holy Innocents, the day on which the Church commemorates the massacre of children under King Herod and which resonates today amid the grim reality of abortion. It was on Dec. 28 that news first spread of the clandestine signing of the RH bill last Dec. 21 by President Benigno S. Aquino III, an Ateneo alumnus.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines had warned that a “contraceptive mentality” to be promoted by an RH law would lead to an “abortion mentality,” as what has happened in countries that had passed laws making contraception widespread.
In August this year, 192 Ateneo professors signed a statement of support for the RH bill, in open defiance of the shepherds of the Church and lay leaders. Ateneo professors, in a 2008 statement, had claimed Catholics could support the RH bill “in good conscience,” contradicting the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae which reiterated the Church’s ban on contraception.
The move by the 192 professors prompted the Ateneo president, Fr. Jett Villarin, SJ, to release a statement saying that Ateneo was officially against the bill. Villarin’s statement, however, was largely ignored as professors and students continued to call for the passage of the controversial measure, which calls for billions in taxpayers’ money for contraceptives and sterilization.
Detail from 'The giving of the keys to Saint Peter' by Pietro Perugino
Dy-Liacco and two other Ateneo theology professors released a statement on Aug. 28 calling out their colleagues for distorting the Church’s teachings on conscience.
In his resignation letter, Dy-Liacco said the “procreative love” between husband and wife as well as the bond between the mother and child from the point at which life begins in the womb are “spiritual realities.”
He said: “One does not need infallible pronouncements from the Magisterium in order to willingly assent to their truth, and to their implications for any path towards genuine human fulfillment.”
The theology professor, who has a Master of Arts in Religion from Yale Divinity School, said the teachings of the Church indeed “clash with the ideologies that rule this age, while her ministers and her teachers are all too human.”
“Often times it seems easier to give up believing that the Church is the Holy Spirit’s work. But the gospels tells us that believing in the Son of God when He became incarnate was not easy either (cf. John 1:11).”
Dy-Liacco maintained that there could be no compromise with the spirit of animosity against the Church, “much less collusion with it (cf. Revelation 18:4).”
“The Holy Spirit’s will and that spirit’s will are never the same (cf. CCC 676). It rejects God’s truth (cf. John 8:45). Moreover, when one becomes allied to it, one becomes like it (cf. John 8:44), he said. “Thus here the saying also holds: ‘No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other’ (Matthew 6:24). Because of these realities, I believe that my service to the Church and my service to ADMU no longer coincide, and I believe that I can no longer share the path that ADMU has taken. Therefore I hereby resign both my teaching position and my tenure at ADMU Theology,” he said.
“Throughout my years teaching theology at ADMU, the Bible had increasingly become my primary teaching resource. I had found that the religious virtues, spiritual ideals, and array of theological perspectives on the human condition that are conveyed in the full range of Biblical narratives, from Genesis to Revelation, filled a lacuna that I had noticed in ADMU theology. It was a lacuna in the formation of character and conscience,” he said.
He said he would be judged in the way he had taught his students in grasping the truth. “I wish I had been a better teacher. I wish I had learned more quickly about hewing closely to the truth (cf. 2 Timothy 2:15). I wish I had learned sooner about not putting my own thoughts ahead of God’s teachings (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:20–25). I wish I had understood more deeply about avoiding self-promotion and not seeking praise (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:5). I know that I shall be held accountable for my students’ grasp of the truth (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:10–15).” (Dominic Francisco)

    Tuesday, December 18, 2012

    RH bill: How to destroy our country’s future


     (The Philippine Star) | 

    Thursday, November 22, 2012

    God's Discipline


    Thought For The Day: Victory Over Satan


    "Modern times are dominated by Satan and will be more so in the future. The conflict with hell cannot be engaged by men, even the most clever.
     
    The lmmaculata alone has from God the promise of victory over Satan. 
    However, assumed into heaven, the Mother of God now requires our cooperation. She seeks souls who will consecrate themselves entirely to her, who will become in her hands effective instruments for the defeat of Satan and the spreading of God's kingdom upon earth."
    -  St. Maximilian Kolbe~



    Saturday, November 10, 2012

    Thought For The Day: Catholic Church


    “The Church never suits the particular mood of any age, because it was made for all ages. A Catholic knows that if the Church married the mood of any age in which it lived, it would be a widow in the next age. The mark of the true Church is that it will never get on well with the passing moods of the world” (I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you – John 15:19)
                                           - Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Love One Another)

    Friday, November 9, 2012

    The Truth About Health Care Bills

    CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYER HAS READ THE ENTIRE BILL

    *The Truth About the Health Care Bills** - Michael Connelly, Ret. Constitutional Attorney *

    *Well, I have done it! I have read the entire text of proposed House Bill 3200: The Affordable Health Care Choices Act of 2009. I studied it with particular emphasis from my area of expertise, constitutional law. I was frankly concerned that parts of the proposed law that were being discussed might be unconstitutional. What I found was far worse than what I had heard or expected.*

    *To begin with, much of what has been said about the law and its implications is in fact true, despite what the Democrats and the media are saying. The law does provide for rationing of health care, particularly where senior citizens and other classes of citizens are involved, free health care for illegal immigrants, free abortion services, and probably forced participation in abortions by members of the medical profession.*

    *The Bill will also eventually force private insurance companies out of business, and put everyone into a government run system. All decisions about personal health care will ultimately be made by federal bureaucrats, and most of them will not be health care professionals. Hospital admissions, payments to physicians, and allocations of necessary medical devices will be strictly controlled by the government.*

    *However, as scary as all of that is, it just scratches the surface. In fact, I have concluded that this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated If this law or a similar one is adopted, major portions of the Constitution of the United States will effectively have been destroyed.*

    *The first thing to go will be the masterfully crafted balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. Government. The Congress will be transferring to the Obama Administration authority in a number of different areas over the lives of the American people, and the businesses they own.*

    *The irony is that the Congress doesn't have any authority to legislate in most of those areas to begin with! I defy anyone to read the text of the U.S. Constitution and find any authority granted to the members of Congress to regulate health care.***

    *This legislation also provides for access, by the appointees of the Obama administration, of all of your personal healthcare direct violation of the specific provisions of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital. All of this is a protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures. You can also forget about the right to privacy. That will have been legislated into oblivion regardless of what the 3rd and 4th Amendments may provide...*

    *If you decide not to have healthcare insurance, or if you have private insurance that is not deemed acceptable to the Health Choices Administrator appointed by Obama, there will be a tax imposed on you. It is called a tax instead of a fine because of the intent to avoid application of the due process clause of the 5th Amendment. However, that doesn't work because since there is nothing in the law that allows you to contest or appeal the imposition of the tax, it is definitely depriving someone of property without the due process of law.*

    *So, there are three of those pesky amendments that the far left hate so much, out the original ten in the Bill of Rights, that are effectively nullified by this law It doesn't stop there though.*

    *The 9th Amendment that provides: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people;*

    *The 10th Amendment states: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are preserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Under the provisions of this piece of Congressional handiwork neither the people nor the states are going to have any rights or powers at all in many areas that once were theirs to control.*

    *I could write many more pages about this legislation, but I think you get the idea. This is not about health care; it is about seizing power and limiting rights... Article 6 of the Constitution requires the members of both houses of Congress to "be bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution." If I was a member of Congress I would not be able to vote for this legislation or anything like it, without feeling I was violating that sacred oath or affirmation. If I voted for it anyway, I would hope the American people would hold me accountable.*

    *For those who might doubt the nature of this threat, I suggest they consult the source, the US Constitution, and Bill of Rights. There you can see exactly what we are about to have taken from us.*

    *Michael Connelly*
    *Retired attorney,*
    *Constitutional Law Instructor*
    *Carrollton , Texas **

    Source: Salisbury News

    Wednesday, November 7, 2012

    Wednesday, October 24, 2012

    Tuesday, October 23, 2012

    I Choose Philippines

    Flooding In Lourdes


    British pilgrims ferried to safety after Biblical-style flood
    British pilgrims gathering at the Roman Catholic shrine of Lourdes in France this weekend quickly tuned to prayers for their own safety as the area became inundated with floodwater. French meteorologists were adamant in declaring the flooding as the worst in the past 25 years. 
    The Gave de Pau River which runs through Lourdes burst its banks following days of heavy rain, causing the widespread flooding. Meteorologists warn that the rain is set to continue until well into next week, meaning the situation could get even worse.
    The Gave de Pau River which runs through Lourdes burst its banks following days of heavy rain, causing the widespread flooding. Meteorologists warn that the rain is set to continue until well into next week, meaning the situation could get even worse.
    Share on emai
    LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Hundreds of the faithful were evacuated from the Roman Catholic shrine as muddy water rushed through the historic town in southwest France. It's believed that up to 1,000 have been left stranded, included the elderly and disabled. 

    Among the areas heaviest hit is the grotto where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared before a local girl in 1858. The grotto is now covered by around three feet of water.

    "The space in front of the grotto is entirely flooded, with the altar under water. There are torrents of mud. The damage will cost thousands," Thierry Castillo, the custodian of the Lourdes sanctuary says. 

    "It's a very worrying situation - everybody has been told to evacuate and get on to higher ground," English tour guide Phil Lomas says. He noted that there were "numerous British parties on pilgrimage.

    "They are getting out along with everyone else - there are real safety concerns here, especially for those in wheelchairs, or who are otherwise disabled," Lomas added.

    "Hotels are all being cleared out, although some people are staying in higher floors because it's easy for them to wait up there. The police and other emergency services are leading the evacuation, along with priests and other clergy."

    Lomas confirms that the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, the most revered building in Lourdes, remains undamaged.

    Set on high ground, the Basilica towered above the ever-deepening water around it.

    The Gave de Pau River which runs through Lourdes burst its banks following days of heavy rain, causing the widespread flooding.

    Meteorologists warn that the rain is set to continue until well into next week, meaning the situation could get even worse.

    The Lourdes sanctuary, which hosts 22 places of worship, was founded after 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous claimed to have witnessed a series of visions of Mary in a cave.

    People suffering illness or disability have since travelled there and claim to have been miraculously cured by the town's spring water.

    Some six million people now visit Lourdes, which is in the foothill of the Pyrenees, every year - making it one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe.

    © 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

    Tuesday, October 16, 2012

    UN warns of looming worldwide food crisis in 2013


    UN warns of looming worldwide food crisis in 2013

    SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — World grain reserves are so dangerously low that severe weather in the United States or other food-exporting countries could trigger a major hunger crisis next year, the United Nations has warned.

    Failing harvests in the US, Ukraine and other countries this year have eroded reserves to their lowest level since 1974. The US, which has experienced record heatwaves and droughts in 2012, now holds in reserve a historically low 6.5% of the maize that it expects to consume in the next year, says the UN.
    "We've not been producing as much as we are consuming. That is why stocks are being run down. Supplies are now very tight across the world and reserves are at a very low level, leaving no room for unexpected events next year," said Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior economist with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). With food consumption exceeding the amount grown for six of the past 11 years, countries have run down reserves from an average of 107 days of consumption 10 years ago to under 74 days recently.
    Prices of main food crops such as wheat and maize are now close to those that sparked riots in 25 countries in 2008. FAO figures released this week suggest that 870 million people are malnourished and the food crisis is growing in the Middle East and Africa. Wheat production this year is expected to be 5.2% below 2011, with yields of most other crops, except rice, also falling, says the UN.
    The figures come as one of the world's leading environmentalists issued a warning that the global food supply system could collapse at any point, leaving hundreds of millions more people hungry, sparking widespread riots and bringing down governments. In a shocking new assessment of the prospects of meeting food needs, Lester Brown, president of the Earth policy research centre in Washington, says that the climate is no longer reliable and the demands for food are growing so fast that a breakdown is inevitable, unless urgent action is taken.
    "Food shortages undermined earlier civilisations. We are on the same path. Each country is now fending for itself. The world is living one year to the next," he writes in a new book.
    According to Brown, we are seeing the start of a food supply breakdown with a dash by speculators to "grab" millions of square miles of cheap farmland, the doubling of international food prices in a decade, and the dramatic rundown of countries' food reserves.
    This year, for the sixth time in 11 years, the world will consume more food than it produces, largely because of extreme weather in the US and other major food-exporting countries. Oxfam last week said that the price of key staples, including wheat and rice, may double in the next 20 years, threatening disastrous consequences for poor people who spend a large proportion of their income on food.
    In 2012, according to the FAO, food prices are already at close to record levels, having risen 1.4% in September following an increase of 6% in July.
    "We are entering a new era of rising food prices and spreading hunger. Food supplies are tightening everywhere and land is becoming the most sought-after commodity as the world shifts from an age of food abundance to one of scarcity," says Brown. "The geopolitics of food is fast overshadowing the geopolitics of oil."
    His warnings come as the UN and world governments reported that extreme heat and drought in the US and other major food-exporting countries had hit harvests badly and sent prices spiralling.
    "The situation we are in is not temporary. These things will happen all the time. Climate is in a state of flux and there is no normal any more.
    "We are beginning a new chapter. We will see food unrest in many more places.
    "Armed aggression is no longer the principal threat to our future. The overriding threats to this century are climate change, population growth, spreading water shortages and rising food prices," Brown says.—

    Sunday, October 14, 2012

    Dog Saves Friends in Canoe

    In an amazing video making its way through YouTube, a black Labrador retriever comes to the rescue of his two furry friends who are stranded on a canoe in a swift, swirling river.
    The video starts with two dogs whimpering aboard a human-less boat as they drift downstream. The location is unidentified but believed to be somewhere in the U.S.
    Barks are exchanged between the dogs on the canoe and the Lab, who is offscreen. Then a man yells, "Go in," and the Lab jumps quickly in the water.
    The Lab, whose breed is comfortable in water, swims directly to the canoe, which appears to be caught on something.
    A man calls out to the Lab, named Robbie, encouraging him as he swims upstream to the canoe and grabs the tow rope with his mouth. Towing the canoe, Robbie swims back to shore.
    As the canoe approaches the shore, the other two dogs jump off and all three are greeted by cheers and pats from people on the riverbank.



    Source: Yahoo News

    Saturday, October 13, 2012

    Catholic Chaplain


    Catholic Chaplain conducting Mass in Northern Iraq....Bless these Chaplains for providing the Bread of Life and the Blood of Christ to these soldiers.





    Mother Refuses Abortion


    Doctors told her that abortion was the best plan, but this young mother refused. And that baby went on to inspire millions by growing up to be Andrea Bocelli.


    I Am With You Always


    Principle of Birth Control


    “The root principle of birth-control is unsound. It is a glorification of the means and a contempt of the end; it says that the pleasure which is a means to the procreation of children is good, but the children themselves are no good. In other words, to be logical, the philosophy of birth-control would commit us to a world in which trees were always blooming but never giving fruit, a world full of sign-posts that were leading nowhere. In this cosmos every tree would be a barren fig tree and for that reason would have upon it the curse of God.” 

    -  Archbishop Fulton Sheen

    Thought For the Day: Compassion For Animals


    Smile!


    Wisdom From Einstein








    Wonder Woman


    Thursday, October 11, 2012

    Gold-Loving Bacteria Shows Superman Strength



    A bacterium's amazing ability to turn a toxic chemical compound into 24-karat gold has been discovered as part of an art/science collaboration. The researchers found that the metal-tolerant bacteria can grow on massive concentrations of gold chloride - a liquid found in nature - and within about a week turn the toxins into gold. This image from the project shows gold created by the bacteria colony.


    EAST LANSING, Mich. — At a time when the value of gold has reached an all-time high, Michigan State University researchers have discovered a bacterium’s ability to withstand incredible amounts of toxicity is key to creating 24-karat gold.

    “Microbial alchemy is what we’re doing – transforming gold from something that has no value into a solid, precious metal that’s valuable,” said Kazem Kashefi, assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics.

    He and Adam Brown, associate professor of electronic art and intermedia, found the metal-tolerant bacteria Cupriavidus metallidurans can grow on massive concentrations of gold chloride – or liquid gold, a toxic chemical compound found in nature.

    In fact, the bacteria are at least 25 times stronger than previously reported among scientists, the researchers determined in their art installation, “The Great Work of the Metal Lover,” which uses a combination of biotechnology, art and alchemy to turn liquid gold into 24-karat gold. The artwork contains a portable laboratory made of 24-karat gold-plated hardware, a glass bioreactor and the bacteria, a combination that produces gold in front of an audience.

    Brown and Kashefi fed the bacteria unprecedented amounts of gold chloride, mimicking the process they believe happens in nature. In about a week, the bacteria transformed the toxins and produced a gold nugget.

    “The Great Work of the Metal Lover” uses a living system as a vehicle for artistic exploration, Brown said. In addition, the artwork consists of a series of images made with a scanning electron microscope. Using ancient gold illumination techniques, Brown applied 24-karat gold leaf to regions of the prints where a bacterial gold deposit had been identified so that each print contains some of the gold produced in the bioreactor.

    “This is neo-alchemy. Every part, every detail of the project is a cross between modern microbiology and alchemy,” Brown said. “Science tries to explain the phenomenological world. As an artist, I’m trying to create a phenomenon. Art has the ability to push scientific inquiry.”

    It would be cost prohibitive to reproduce their experiment on a larger scale, he said. But the researchers’ success in creating gold raises questions about greed, economy and environmental impact, focusing on the ethics related to science and the engineering of nature.

    “The Great Work of the Metal Lover” was selected for exhibition and received an honorable mention at the world-renowned cyber art competition, Prix Ars Electronica, in Austria, where it’s on display until Oct. 7. Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important awards for creativity and pioneering spirit in the field of digital and hybrid media, Brown said.

    “Art has the ability to probe and question the impact of science in the world, and ‘The Great Work of the Metal Lover’ speaks directly to the scientific preoccupation while trying to shape and bend biology to our will within the postbiological age,” Brown said.



    Plenary Indulgence Announced For The Year Of Faith






    - The Holy See announced Oct. 5 that Pope Benedict XVI has granted a plenary indulgence for the Year of Faith, which will last from Oct. 11, 2012 to Nov. 24, 2013.

    The decree announcing the indulgence was signed Sept. 14 by Cardinal Manuel de Castro, Major Penitentiary, and Bishop Kryzsztof Nykiel, Regent, of the Apostolic Penitentiary. The penitentiary is the part of the Roman Curia responsible for indulgences and governing the sacrament of confession.

    One plenary indulgence per day may be gained by an individual, which they can use for themselves or apply to a soul in purgatory. The indulgence remits the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.

    During the Year of Faith, there are four means of gaining an indulgence.

    First, by attending at least three sermons “during the Holy Missions” or reading at least three lessons from the documents of the Second Vatican Council or the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

    The second way is by making a pilgrimage to a basilica, catacomb, cathedral, or location designated by the local bishop for the Year of Faith, and either participating there in a sacred celebration, praying or meditating. The act of prayer should finish with an Our Father, a recitation of the Creed and a prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

    The third method of gaining an indulgence is by participating in Mass or the Liturgy of the Hours on a day chosen by the local ordinary, and reciting the Creed.

    Finally, people can visit their place of baptism and renew their baptismal promises there.

    Those who cannot attend such celebrations for serious reasons may still obtain the indulgence if they pray an Our Father and a Creed and other prayers that agree with the objectives of the Year of Faith.

    A plenary indulgence also requires that the individual be in the state of grace, have complete detachment from sin, and pray for the Pope's intentions. The person must also sacramentally confess their sins and receive Communion up to about 20 days before or after completing the other acts.

    The Year of Faith is meant to “recall the precious gift of faith” and “its correct interpretation.” It marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. Its opening also coincides with a general synod of bishops on the New Evangelization, which is taking place Oct. 7-28 at the Vatican.