I watched this the other day. It is quite moving. More moving and more relevant to the Irish than the latest Irish vocations campaign...
Friday 31 August 2012
The Church in Ireland
I watched this the other day. It is quite moving. More moving and more relevant to the Irish than the latest Irish vocations campaign...
Thursday 30 August 2012
A Bee in my Bonnet
Long term readers will understand that I have a propensity to become rather obsessed with an issue or a topic, especially when I smell a rat.
They say that there are rats in Parliament and so they plan to do some work on it, close it for a while and sort out whatever problems there are there.
The Sun newspaper joked that while they are there, maybe those doing the clean-up job could do something about our politicians. Funny, but as the quote on the left suggests, politics is impossible to clean up until the overlords of the politicians are at least challenged on the banking system that allows debt to escalate to such a scale and for the ordinary man in the street to be lining the pockets of those who are rich beyond most people's wildest imaginations.
Readers will also be aware that I'm becoming rather worried about the amount of sheer propaganda that is pumping out of the media on a range of issues. Whether it is attacking the family and marriage, through the proposal to introduce 'gay marriage', or whether it is an incessant effort on the part of media to keep 'assisted dying' in the public spotlight and on the agenda, as someone living in Britian and as a Catholic, I feel depressed at what feels like a consistent campaign of psychological warfare on its citizens by the State.
The power of the media is immense. Immense. Belloc and Chesterton recognised it but also recognised that media ownership was concentrated, even in his day, in the hands of a few capitalists who exploit the Press for their own agendas, be they for good, or ill. In my mind what I keep coming back to is this...
Throughout the 20th century and the early part of the 21st it becomes more and more obvious that the liberal social experiment has failed so dramatically. Whatever good men thought would come from abortion law relaxation has been proved to be fatally naive. Whatever good men thought would come from a liberal attitude towards sex and sexuality, marriage and divorce, has been proved beyond doubt to be a disaster for individuals, marriage and the family. The rate of social breakdown is evident all across society and in people of all social backgrounds. The Press's constant running down of the Church and glorification of atheism has been breathtaking. Yet, while I understand that every generation of politicians is pulled from an electorate whose views shift with the changing times, it still seems to me to be quite apparent that the effect of so much bad legislation and decision-making has been a disaster for the citizens of the United Kingdom. I mean, what kind of a State actually makes plain its support for the killing of its own citizens in the womb and appears relatively open to the idea of killing them in their infirmity as well? Are we really just commodities that can be bought, sold and thrown away when our productivity 'slows'? Is that how we are viewed and if so, why? Why is our humanity not respected?
I can't shift this feeling that there is a concerted effort being made by powers within the State against us - not just Catholics - but against the people of the United Kingdom. Why would any State promote the collapse of the economic, moral, religious and social ties that bind us together?
The only answer I can arrive at in my mind at the suicidal or brutal tendency within the British State in its policies towards its own people is that actors are not working on our behalf but for the benefit of others. It is within this context that one reads about gatherings like the Bilderberg group and you hear that Government ministers and members of commerce and industry gather (with members of the media of course) annually to discuss matters. Well, what matters, we wonder? Yet, when they meet, little of these meetings are reported in the mainstream press. No minutes are produced despite the fact that we elected these men and women to serve us, not billionaire globalists who could never put our interests first. It is as if the very Fourth Estate itself is in the pockets of a group which is global in thinking - rather than local or national. You look at the behaviour of men like Tony Blair in office and then in research learn that he was at a Bilderberg meeting just a year or two before his stunning rise to power. It is as if our politicians treat being in politics like a moral vacuum where it doesn't really matter what happens at work - as long as the work gets done.
Everything seems to be about money or the acquisition of it at the expense of others. It all seems to be about the commodification of the human person. It does not help that many of the dynastic families whose interests are represented at these meetings have a history of enthusiasm for eugenics and population control. It is the very antithesis of what the Holy Father discusses in Caritas in Veritate. Nobody elected David Rockerfeller, Lord Rothschild or David de Rothschild (now swanning around the World on his eco-campaign), Bill Gates and his contraceptive implant-promoting wife. Nobody elected these people or the people who set up the UN Population Council, yet the very rich and powerful in the World seem to exercise a great deal of influence over politicians and the media - so much so, in fact, that any critical inquiry of their influence is never discussed.
We are shocked and horrified when our economies implode or crash, but all it takes is a little bit of a search on YouTube and we find that all the Western economic models involve Government borrowing from huge private banks who are able to create money out of nothing - banks to which we are then in debt to the tune of billions or even trillions.
I don't know whether I buy what people describe as 'illuminati bloodlines' because I don't think I know what the so called 'illuminati' is even as a concept. Regardless of what I think, one does get the distinct impression that we are not viewed with any great sense of sympathy by the extremely rich and powerful of this World - the opposite, in fact - we are seen as 'useless eaters' by some of them. I don't buy the idea of important bloodlines at all, but one gets the distinct impression that the rich and powerful dynastic families who apparently own our central banks do. One gets the impression that even the Royal Family as well as these dynastic families view themselves as genetically superior to the rest of the human race despite the fact that many of these families are said to interbreed.
Politicians are meant to work for us, even if they cannot bring themselves to work for God. The media are meant to inform us, not be the carriers of propaganda designed to rob us of our humanity and dignity. Yet, both of these checks on great power have gone AWOL. Politicians, whether good or corrupted are made, they are broken and they disappear, usually into commerce or industry. Journalists live and they die taking with them whatever good or ill they have done in their work. We deserve politicians who serve their people selflessly and we deserve journalists who are not agents for forces which do not have our interests at heart. Since Blair, since the expenses fiasco and since phone-tapping by News of the World, both the credibility and respect afforded to these two professions has fallen through the floor. Take this lovely clip, for instance. There is a BBC interviewer with an incredibly rich 'bankster', a Rothschild financier no less, and he's almost fawning towards him. You would think the 'left-wing' and 'anti-capitalism' BBC would be operating a poll on what method of torture would be most appropriate for City of London financiers, but no, instead the newscaster leads the financier into a discussion on whether people like the Rothschilds should be in charge of regulating the City's trading entirely. 'Yes', says the interviewee, 'and they should be well paid!' You couldn't make it up. Then, to top it all off, he leaves the room as if he owns the joint!
There is a darkness descending over the nation which speaks of the crushing of the weak by the mighty, the poor by the rich and the boot of which Orwell spoke crushing the face of both cleric and citizen underfoot. Conspiracy theorists believe that the events that we've seen down the last 100 years have not been accidental, but that much has been planned and orchestrated by unseen characters who constitute the power behind the throne. It is because these men are so rarely in the limelight and so rarely undergo any kind of public examination that they are the Untouchables, despite the feeling that the entire banking system has been used not just to bankrupt nations, but that the very rich desire not just money, but power also. Conspiracy theories are born because the Press never consider it worthwhile investigating whether these people desire power and use power and influence over Governments, or not.
Conspiracy theories are born not because the people are nuts, nor because the politicians and journalists are rats. Conspiracy theories are born when it becomes apparent that politicians do not work on our behalf and that journalists either decide not to investigate (do their job) or have doors of investigation closed off to them. Conspiracy theories are born when it becomes clear that the only people you can trust are the people working for free. We no longer trust bankers. We no longer trust politicians. We no longer trust journalists. Money, power, intrigue and corruption appears to have destroyed the credibility of all these professions. The only institution we can trust is the Church, despite the errors or sins of Her members (including my own errors and my own sins, of course!).
Perhaps we should be grateful, in a strange way, to live in an age when it feels like we can only trust in Jesus and Mary. That appears to be the singular reason why the 21st century, more than the 20th century, is the age of the conspiracy theorist. The conspiracy theorist would also say that Damian Thompson is right when he says this is the age of addiction. It is, of course, but the conspiracy theorist would just say that that was how it was planned all along, citing such institutes as the Frankfurt School and the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. After all, didn't Huxley suggest that is how the future would be?
I was just calming down after having gone to Benediction this evening and having spent an hour before the Lord of Heaven and Earth. I shouldn't have gone back to my computer because the first advert I saw on The Daily Telegraph site was an ad for a website called Bullion Vault. For those wishing to invest in gold, there is a video below. Naturally, I looked up Bullion Vault on Wikipedia. Guess who owns it? Go on...can you guess? No wonder the price of gold is so high! Looks like that's the gold market cornered, despite the fact that Lord Rothschild claims to be 'getting out of gold'.
If anyone wishes to 'open an account' with Lord Rothschild at Bullion Vault, I'm sure some speculator out there will be able to tell you whether now is a good time to buy gold, or not.
The capitalist Press rely on the exceedingly rich and powerful for advertising and perhaps ownership too, so no investigation of them is ever done since to do so would be a huge conflict of interest. Only the Free Press can do that. If that is the case, however, why even bother being a paid journalist?
Hey, Lord Rothschild, who brings the bullion to your vaults? Would that be G4S, yeah? Oh, and I'll guess that will be the same G4S who bring in the diamonds, too, right for your other company, De Beers Rothschild Holdings Group LLC? Maybe you could come to Brighton and get 'de beers' in for me and some friends!
Boy, that company is big! The biggest employer on the stock market with a truly 'Global Presence'! And in charge of getting the mentally and physically ill off benefit and into work in Brighton too! Just to think some of my friends could end up manning the security at US nuclear facilities or perhaps in maritime operations battling pirates over the seas! The opportunities for travel are endless! Better watch out for those nuns, mind! So, the Rothschilds own the central banks, the vaults, the diamonds and the gold? No wonder 'conspiracy theorists' think they own the politicians and the Press as well.
Hmm...I wonder who owns the majority stake in G4S? I'll check on Reuters, which is apparently owned by the Rothschilds as well. Well, whoever owns it, Lord Rothschild, I'd like to dedicate this song to you, because your commodities need it! Hmm...maybe I do too...No wonder this guy gives financial advice to the Queen. He must be totally minted, if you'll excuse the pun. We only ever hear good things of these dynastic families. They are such benevolent 'philanthropists'. Come to Brighton, Lord Rothschild, and see a society fragmenting deep and wide, drug and alcohol addiction rife, the shops and even high street banks and employment agencies closing down. You must know Brighton, Lord Rothschild, since one of your family is mentioned at the beginning of Brighton Rock...
They say that there are rats in Parliament and so they plan to do some work on it, close it for a while and sort out whatever problems there are there.
The Sun newspaper joked that while they are there, maybe those doing the clean-up job could do something about our politicians. Funny, but as the quote on the left suggests, politics is impossible to clean up until the overlords of the politicians are at least challenged on the banking system that allows debt to escalate to such a scale and for the ordinary man in the street to be lining the pockets of those who are rich beyond most people's wildest imaginations.
Readers will also be aware that I'm becoming rather worried about the amount of sheer propaganda that is pumping out of the media on a range of issues. Whether it is attacking the family and marriage, through the proposal to introduce 'gay marriage', or whether it is an incessant effort on the part of media to keep 'assisted dying' in the public spotlight and on the agenda, as someone living in Britian and as a Catholic, I feel depressed at what feels like a consistent campaign of psychological warfare on its citizens by the State.
The power of the media is immense. Immense. Belloc and Chesterton recognised it but also recognised that media ownership was concentrated, even in his day, in the hands of a few capitalists who exploit the Press for their own agendas, be they for good, or ill. In my mind what I keep coming back to is this...
Throughout the 20th century and the early part of the 21st it becomes more and more obvious that the liberal social experiment has failed so dramatically. Whatever good men thought would come from abortion law relaxation has been proved to be fatally naive. Whatever good men thought would come from a liberal attitude towards sex and sexuality, marriage and divorce, has been proved beyond doubt to be a disaster for individuals, marriage and the family. The rate of social breakdown is evident all across society and in people of all social backgrounds. The Press's constant running down of the Church and glorification of atheism has been breathtaking. Yet, while I understand that every generation of politicians is pulled from an electorate whose views shift with the changing times, it still seems to me to be quite apparent that the effect of so much bad legislation and decision-making has been a disaster for the citizens of the United Kingdom. I mean, what kind of a State actually makes plain its support for the killing of its own citizens in the womb and appears relatively open to the idea of killing them in their infirmity as well? Are we really just commodities that can be bought, sold and thrown away when our productivity 'slows'? Is that how we are viewed and if so, why? Why is our humanity not respected?
I can't shift this feeling that there is a concerted effort being made by powers within the State against us - not just Catholics - but against the people of the United Kingdom. Why would any State promote the collapse of the economic, moral, religious and social ties that bind us together?
The only answer I can arrive at in my mind at the suicidal or brutal tendency within the British State in its policies towards its own people is that actors are not working on our behalf but for the benefit of others. It is within this context that one reads about gatherings like the Bilderberg group and you hear that Government ministers and members of commerce and industry gather (with members of the media of course) annually to discuss matters. Well, what matters, we wonder? Yet, when they meet, little of these meetings are reported in the mainstream press. No minutes are produced despite the fact that we elected these men and women to serve us, not billionaire globalists who could never put our interests first. It is as if the very Fourth Estate itself is in the pockets of a group which is global in thinking - rather than local or national. You look at the behaviour of men like Tony Blair in office and then in research learn that he was at a Bilderberg meeting just a year or two before his stunning rise to power. It is as if our politicians treat being in politics like a moral vacuum where it doesn't really matter what happens at work - as long as the work gets done.
Everything seems to be about money or the acquisition of it at the expense of others. It all seems to be about the commodification of the human person. It does not help that many of the dynastic families whose interests are represented at these meetings have a history of enthusiasm for eugenics and population control. It is the very antithesis of what the Holy Father discusses in Caritas in Veritate. Nobody elected David Rockerfeller, Lord Rothschild or David de Rothschild (now swanning around the World on his eco-campaign), Bill Gates and his contraceptive implant-promoting wife. Nobody elected these people or the people who set up the UN Population Council, yet the very rich and powerful in the World seem to exercise a great deal of influence over politicians and the media - so much so, in fact, that any critical inquiry of their influence is never discussed.
We are shocked and horrified when our economies implode or crash, but all it takes is a little bit of a search on YouTube and we find that all the Western economic models involve Government borrowing from huge private banks who are able to create money out of nothing - banks to which we are then in debt to the tune of billions or even trillions.
I don't know whether I buy what people describe as 'illuminati bloodlines' because I don't think I know what the so called 'illuminati' is even as a concept. Regardless of what I think, one does get the distinct impression that we are not viewed with any great sense of sympathy by the extremely rich and powerful of this World - the opposite, in fact - we are seen as 'useless eaters' by some of them. I don't buy the idea of important bloodlines at all, but one gets the distinct impression that the rich and powerful dynastic families who apparently own our central banks do. One gets the impression that even the Royal Family as well as these dynastic families view themselves as genetically superior to the rest of the human race despite the fact that many of these families are said to interbreed.
Politicians are meant to work for us, even if they cannot bring themselves to work for God. The media are meant to inform us, not be the carriers of propaganda designed to rob us of our humanity and dignity. Yet, both of these checks on great power have gone AWOL. Politicians, whether good or corrupted are made, they are broken and they disappear, usually into commerce or industry. Journalists live and they die taking with them whatever good or ill they have done in their work. We deserve politicians who serve their people selflessly and we deserve journalists who are not agents for forces which do not have our interests at heart. Since Blair, since the expenses fiasco and since phone-tapping by News of the World, both the credibility and respect afforded to these two professions has fallen through the floor. Take this lovely clip, for instance. There is a BBC interviewer with an incredibly rich 'bankster', a Rothschild financier no less, and he's almost fawning towards him. You would think the 'left-wing' and 'anti-capitalism' BBC would be operating a poll on what method of torture would be most appropriate for City of London financiers, but no, instead the newscaster leads the financier into a discussion on whether people like the Rothschilds should be in charge of regulating the City's trading entirely. 'Yes', says the interviewee, 'and they should be well paid!' You couldn't make it up. Then, to top it all off, he leaves the room as if he owns the joint!
There is a darkness descending over the nation which speaks of the crushing of the weak by the mighty, the poor by the rich and the boot of which Orwell spoke crushing the face of both cleric and citizen underfoot. Conspiracy theorists believe that the events that we've seen down the last 100 years have not been accidental, but that much has been planned and orchestrated by unseen characters who constitute the power behind the throne. It is because these men are so rarely in the limelight and so rarely undergo any kind of public examination that they are the Untouchables, despite the feeling that the entire banking system has been used not just to bankrupt nations, but that the very rich desire not just money, but power also. Conspiracy theories are born because the Press never consider it worthwhile investigating whether these people desire power and use power and influence over Governments, or not.
Conspiracy theories are born not because the people are nuts, nor because the politicians and journalists are rats. Conspiracy theories are born when it becomes apparent that politicians do not work on our behalf and that journalists either decide not to investigate (do their job) or have doors of investigation closed off to them. Conspiracy theories are born when it becomes clear that the only people you can trust are the people working for free. We no longer trust bankers. We no longer trust politicians. We no longer trust journalists. Money, power, intrigue and corruption appears to have destroyed the credibility of all these professions. The only institution we can trust is the Church, despite the errors or sins of Her members (including my own errors and my own sins, of course!).
Perhaps we should be grateful, in a strange way, to live in an age when it feels like we can only trust in Jesus and Mary. That appears to be the singular reason why the 21st century, more than the 20th century, is the age of the conspiracy theorist. The conspiracy theorist would also say that Damian Thompson is right when he says this is the age of addiction. It is, of course, but the conspiracy theorist would just say that that was how it was planned all along, citing such institutes as the Frankfurt School and the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. After all, didn't Huxley suggest that is how the future would be?
I was just calming down after having gone to Benediction this evening and having spent an hour before the Lord of Heaven and Earth. I shouldn't have gone back to my computer because the first advert I saw on The Daily Telegraph site was an ad for a website called Bullion Vault. For those wishing to invest in gold, there is a video below. Naturally, I looked up Bullion Vault on Wikipedia. Guess who owns it? Go on...can you guess? No wonder the price of gold is so high! Looks like that's the gold market cornered, despite the fact that Lord Rothschild claims to be 'getting out of gold'.
If anyone wishes to 'open an account' with Lord Rothschild at Bullion Vault, I'm sure some speculator out there will be able to tell you whether now is a good time to buy gold, or not.
The capitalist Press rely on the exceedingly rich and powerful for advertising and perhaps ownership too, so no investigation of them is ever done since to do so would be a huge conflict of interest. Only the Free Press can do that. If that is the case, however, why even bother being a paid journalist?
Hey, Lord Rothschild, who brings the bullion to your vaults? Would that be G4S, yeah? Oh, and I'll guess that will be the same G4S who bring in the diamonds, too, right for your other company, De Beers Rothschild Holdings Group LLC? Maybe you could come to Brighton and get 'de beers' in for me and some friends!
Boy, that company is big! The biggest employer on the stock market with a truly 'Global Presence'! And in charge of getting the mentally and physically ill off benefit and into work in Brighton too! Just to think some of my friends could end up manning the security at US nuclear facilities or perhaps in maritime operations battling pirates over the seas! The opportunities for travel are endless! Better watch out for those nuns, mind! So, the Rothschilds own the central banks, the vaults, the diamonds and the gold? No wonder 'conspiracy theorists' think they own the politicians and the Press as well.
Hmm...I wonder who owns the majority stake in G4S? I'll check on Reuters, which is apparently owned by the Rothschilds as well. Well, whoever owns it, Lord Rothschild, I'd like to dedicate this song to you, because your commodities need it! Hmm...maybe I do too...No wonder this guy gives financial advice to the Queen. He must be totally minted, if you'll excuse the pun. We only ever hear good things of these dynastic families. They are such benevolent 'philanthropists'. Come to Brighton, Lord Rothschild, and see a society fragmenting deep and wide, drug and alcohol addiction rife, the shops and even high street banks and employment agencies closing down. You must know Brighton, Lord Rothschild, since one of your family is mentioned at the beginning of Brighton Rock...
Tuesday 28 August 2012
Sunday 26 August 2012
The Men Who Rule the World
The Men Who Rule the World
Allow me to tell you the story of the familyWho bought you, the World, as you know it now,Who’ve brought the World to the edge of calamityAnd beyond, for such is their powerYou see the scales always work for them favourablyLet’s take a stroll down Rothschild BoulevardThey are the Profiteerers, across centuries they strideSee how their politicians always win by a landslideThe men who rule the WorldThe cause of countless tears, how do they sleep at night?The men who rule the WorldThey financed IBM when they developed the system
To barcode the Jews who were bound for Belsen
The Holocaust was indeed the sacrificeThe Jews were just their asking price!
Name me the architect of the Balfour Declaration?
To pave the way for the new creation?Show me the men who created the state of IsraelThe men who rule the WorldAre so very cleverWhile you work for your crust it’s all for their pleasureThe men who runs the money supplyI’ll show you the man who rules the WorldAt 10.30am, who's fixing commodities?And who is mining for diamonds and gold?Whose agents own the very companies?That bring precious metals into their vaults?
Show me the man who rules the diamond supplyWho is it then who bets against your currency?On the day that it falls through the floor?Show me the man orchestrating the price of goldI'll show you the man who rules the World!They’re the Profiteerers, across centuries they strideSee how their politicians always win by a landslideThe men who rule the WorldSo hated the people thatThey gave us abortion, the Stones and the BeatlesTo destroy the youth with sex, drugs, rock and rollBe it MCA, RCA RecordsThey own all of the major record labelsThey brought you Madonna and Lady GagaBut only Our Lady brings you Her SonYou rarely read about them in the Press and here’s whyThe men who own the mass mediaThe same men who rule the WorldThe Rothschilds and the RockerfellersAre so very cleverShow me the men who run the money supplyIf you can show me the man who runs the oil supplyI’ll show you the men who rule the WorldShow me the man who runs the gold supplyI’ll show you the men who rule the World
I'll show you the men who rule the World
Show me the man who rules the music industry
I'll show you the men who rule the World
Show me the man who owns your newspapers
I'll show you the men who rule the World
Show me the man who owns your politicians
I'll show you the men who rule the WorldBut who owns the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church?
The True Lord of Heaven and Earth!
Pray daily for the conversion of the Rothschilds and the Rockerfellers...I promise I will never sell out, because nobody will ever ask me to do so.
Friday 24 August 2012
Peter Stanford: Losing My Religion
Gentle Jesus, grant him eternal rest. May the soul of Tony Nicklinson rest in peace.
I've read, in my time, a few good pieces by Peter Stanford, in various publications. This should hardly be surprising given that Peter is a former editor of The Catholic Herald.
I have to say, however, that his latest piece for The Telegraph is a bit of a let down for a Catholic reader. Sensitively and with a great deal of human compassion, Peter describes the anguish and plight of the now deceased Tony Nicklinson. The good thing about the article is that Peter conveys empathy with a man who suffered a great deal and who felt trapped by his condition. It should be hard for a Catholic to be unmoved by human suffering. Another good thing that he conveys is that a Catholic man visited him, fulfilling what Our Lord asked of us to visit the sick.
The bad thing is that Peter goes on to say that the plight of Tony Nicklinson 'converted' him to coming around to the idea that assisted suicide should be made an option for those who see no way out of their condition but death itself. To say this is a considerable own goal on behalf of someone who in writing as a Catholic surely represents, albeit as a layman, the Mystical Body of Christ to the rest of the English-reading World.
It goes without saying that with Mr Nicklinson's body not yet cold, elements both in politics and media are already saying that there should be a 'Nicklinson's Law' recognising the 'right to die'. Lord Joffe, who has previously tried to introduce assisted dying legislation has already made political capital out of Nicklinson's death, saying that the locked-in sufferer's death should pave the way to a change in the law. The Times, covering Mr Nicklinson's death, suggested, outrageously, that 'pro-lifers' were among those 'prolonguing' Mr Nicklinson's suffering, when, in fact, 'pro-lifers' only insist that the law should not be changed because it is there to protect the vulnerable - indeed, to protect all.
Unhelpfully, Peter frames the debate around his Catholicism and therefore frames assisted suicide as a religious debate when it is not. It is a political debate - for it is Parliament that would have to change the law - which centres on the wisdom or lackthereof of granting to the State the power to kill its own citizens. Unhelpfully, too, Peter describes the Church as 'my Church', but perhaps it was just a rushed piece. It wouldn't be the first time that a Catholic in public life has claimed ownership of the Ark of Truth despite the fact that it was Christ who said, 'Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church.'
It is perhaps true that the life and death of Mr Nicklinson, who was so determined in what became a very public campaign for personal autonomy over his life and death, does not present Catholic writers with an easy opportunity to defend the Church's teaching. In the face of such suffering and pleas for the 'right to die' it is quite easy for the Church and those who support the teaching to be painted as cruel and indifferent towards suffering. What needs to be said, however, is that despite all the pain and the suffering of individuals, the law is there as it stands to protect individuals from other individuals who are cruel and who are indifferent to human life.
We have seen how nurses can become so indifferent to human life that they neglect to change the dirty sheets of their patients or attend to even their most basic needs. We have seen that doctors, despite their oaths to protect life, can become so indifferent to human life that they trade in their hippocratic oaths in order to devote their entire life to killing the unborn just because they are girls. We have warnings from history in the Nazis and the other regimes for whom human life meant absolutely nothing and for whom a cold eugenic mentality became a way of life. We have warnings in British history from such doctors as Dr Harold Shipman. How much more easily he would have slipped through the profession unnoticed were there a relaxation of the law!
We know that there are forces both within and without the State who, far from empathising with human suffering, view the elderly, the sick and the poor as an economic burden on society. Peter, as a Catholic, should understand and be able to communicate that despite the fallen and suffering state of the World due to Original Sin, Saints and Blesseds like Mother Teresa recognised in the suffering of their brothers and sisters the Victim Who suffered and died for mankind. Peter, as a Catholic, should be able to communicate that, because of Original Sin, human nature, too, is flawed and the temptations presented to family and relatives of those suffering could lead these same people to encourage someone to die in order to gain their property or wealth, or simply desire to end the life of someone they have come to view as a burden, or simply because they can't bare to see their loved one suffer. It is grossly naive to think that no family member or relative or doctor would abuse the relaxation of the law in order to advance purely financial or economic motives, either personally in the case of family or for the State, in terms of doctors.
Why is it, too, that so few public Catholics come forward to say that, as far as Catholics are concerned, Death is only an improvement on a condition of suffering if a person goes to Heaven. For all their 'rational' bluster, atheists have zero evidence that Hell or Purgatory do not exist. The quality of life in Purgatory is apparently not that great and in Hell the suffering and torments of the damned are worse than anything in this life and they are both intolerable and eternal.
These are just some of the objections that Catholics and others have to assisted suicide and the majority of these objections are also shared by many people who are not religious. That a Catholic should publicly declare his 'conversion' to the assisted suicide cause because he met a man suffering who wanted to die is worrying not just because he displays ignorance of 'his' Church, and not only because his audience is wide when he announces that he is losing his religion, but because on focusing on how one man changed his mind, he forgets entirely the others who are at grave risk of being exterminated having been made to feel like they should be exterminated in the future because 'nobody likes to be a burden' and everyone fears the day when their 'quality of life' may drop to a degree that is almost intolerable. What would emerge would be a society that does not tolerate weakness at all.
Of course, those working in the media and politics who support assisted dying as an answer to economic crises, or who generally despise our humanity, want us to concentrate on the 'hard cases' so that we do forget not only the general principle underlying the law, but everyone else who would be affected by a potential change in that law.
Pray for the repose of the soul of Tony Nicklinson and for his bereaved family. Pray, too, for Peter Stanford, that he may 'recover' like his patron did, after he denied his Saviour thrice.
I've read, in my time, a few good pieces by Peter Stanford, in various publications. This should hardly be surprising given that Peter is a former editor of The Catholic Herald.
I have to say, however, that his latest piece for The Telegraph is a bit of a let down for a Catholic reader. Sensitively and with a great deal of human compassion, Peter describes the anguish and plight of the now deceased Tony Nicklinson. The good thing about the article is that Peter conveys empathy with a man who suffered a great deal and who felt trapped by his condition. It should be hard for a Catholic to be unmoved by human suffering. Another good thing that he conveys is that a Catholic man visited him, fulfilling what Our Lord asked of us to visit the sick.
The bad thing is that Peter goes on to say that the plight of Tony Nicklinson 'converted' him to coming around to the idea that assisted suicide should be made an option for those who see no way out of their condition but death itself. To say this is a considerable own goal on behalf of someone who in writing as a Catholic surely represents, albeit as a layman, the Mystical Body of Christ to the rest of the English-reading World.
It goes without saying that with Mr Nicklinson's body not yet cold, elements both in politics and media are already saying that there should be a 'Nicklinson's Law' recognising the 'right to die'. Lord Joffe, who has previously tried to introduce assisted dying legislation has already made political capital out of Nicklinson's death, saying that the locked-in sufferer's death should pave the way to a change in the law. The Times, covering Mr Nicklinson's death, suggested, outrageously, that 'pro-lifers' were among those 'prolonguing' Mr Nicklinson's suffering, when, in fact, 'pro-lifers' only insist that the law should not be changed because it is there to protect the vulnerable - indeed, to protect all.
Unhelpfully, Peter frames the debate around his Catholicism and therefore frames assisted suicide as a religious debate when it is not. It is a political debate - for it is Parliament that would have to change the law - which centres on the wisdom or lackthereof of granting to the State the power to kill its own citizens. Unhelpfully, too, Peter describes the Church as 'my Church', but perhaps it was just a rushed piece. It wouldn't be the first time that a Catholic in public life has claimed ownership of the Ark of Truth despite the fact that it was Christ who said, 'Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church.'
It is perhaps true that the life and death of Mr Nicklinson, who was so determined in what became a very public campaign for personal autonomy over his life and death, does not present Catholic writers with an easy opportunity to defend the Church's teaching. In the face of such suffering and pleas for the 'right to die' it is quite easy for the Church and those who support the teaching to be painted as cruel and indifferent towards suffering. What needs to be said, however, is that despite all the pain and the suffering of individuals, the law is there as it stands to protect individuals from other individuals who are cruel and who are indifferent to human life.
We have seen how nurses can become so indifferent to human life that they neglect to change the dirty sheets of their patients or attend to even their most basic needs. We have seen that doctors, despite their oaths to protect life, can become so indifferent to human life that they trade in their hippocratic oaths in order to devote their entire life to killing the unborn just because they are girls. We have warnings from history in the Nazis and the other regimes for whom human life meant absolutely nothing and for whom a cold eugenic mentality became a way of life. We have warnings in British history from such doctors as Dr Harold Shipman. How much more easily he would have slipped through the profession unnoticed were there a relaxation of the law!
We know that there are forces both within and without the State who, far from empathising with human suffering, view the elderly, the sick and the poor as an economic burden on society. Peter, as a Catholic, should understand and be able to communicate that despite the fallen and suffering state of the World due to Original Sin, Saints and Blesseds like Mother Teresa recognised in the suffering of their brothers and sisters the Victim Who suffered and died for mankind. Peter, as a Catholic, should be able to communicate that, because of Original Sin, human nature, too, is flawed and the temptations presented to family and relatives of those suffering could lead these same people to encourage someone to die in order to gain their property or wealth, or simply desire to end the life of someone they have come to view as a burden, or simply because they can't bare to see their loved one suffer. It is grossly naive to think that no family member or relative or doctor would abuse the relaxation of the law in order to advance purely financial or economic motives, either personally in the case of family or for the State, in terms of doctors.
Why is it, too, that so few public Catholics come forward to say that, as far as Catholics are concerned, Death is only an improvement on a condition of suffering if a person goes to Heaven. For all their 'rational' bluster, atheists have zero evidence that Hell or Purgatory do not exist. The quality of life in Purgatory is apparently not that great and in Hell the suffering and torments of the damned are worse than anything in this life and they are both intolerable and eternal.
These are just some of the objections that Catholics and others have to assisted suicide and the majority of these objections are also shared by many people who are not religious. That a Catholic should publicly declare his 'conversion' to the assisted suicide cause because he met a man suffering who wanted to die is worrying not just because he displays ignorance of 'his' Church, and not only because his audience is wide when he announces that he is losing his religion, but because on focusing on how one man changed his mind, he forgets entirely the others who are at grave risk of being exterminated having been made to feel like they should be exterminated in the future because 'nobody likes to be a burden' and everyone fears the day when their 'quality of life' may drop to a degree that is almost intolerable. What would emerge would be a society that does not tolerate weakness at all.
Of course, those working in the media and politics who support assisted dying as an answer to economic crises, or who generally despise our humanity, want us to concentrate on the 'hard cases' so that we do forget not only the general principle underlying the law, but everyone else who would be affected by a potential change in that law.
Pray for the repose of the soul of Tony Nicklinson and for his bereaved family. Pray, too, for Peter Stanford, that he may 'recover' like his patron did, after he denied his Saviour thrice.
Wednesday 22 August 2012
Compare Pussy Riot and Brandon Raub
While the Western media sizzle with excitement over presenting the Pussy Riot arrest and sentencing as evidence of Putin's 'totalitarian State', just look what the FBI have done to a marine corps veteran because of something he posted on Facebook.
What's Scotland Got to Do With It?
I went for a little walk in Preston Park on Monday and saw that among the first lorries setting up shop at the Park for Gay Pride, due to commence this weekend, was BBC Scotland.
Ever with my blogger hat on I wondered, 'What's Scotland got to do with it?'
Perhaps they're inviting Cardinal Keith O'Brien down to explain the Church's position on 'gay marriage' to the revellers this weekend...
Ever with my blogger hat on I wondered, 'What's Scotland got to do with it?'
Perhaps they're inviting Cardinal Keith O'Brien down to explain the Church's position on 'gay marriage' to the revellers this weekend...
Tuesday 21 August 2012
Acxiom
In the pages I read an article about a company called Acxiom, responsible for gathering private data on consumers and storing it, later selling it to other parties.
The New York Times article is good, but the one in The Week is a little better.
There seems to be near universal concern in the comments section that a US firm (don't worry, they're operating in the UK too and ) is gathering so much data on consumers (that's all of us), clearly without our previous knowledge and is then selling that data on to others. A more general concern is that what we buy doesn't remain between us and the company from whom we made the purchase. So, obviously, if you're buying loads of pornographic magazines and DVDs and/or have a subscription to 'Fascist Weekly Gazette', stop it, but then, as a Catholic I'm meant to encourage people to do that anyway.
Apparently, this company puts G4S, Facebook, the CIA, MI5 and the rest into the pale on what they know about us. Thank God its not the Government, because we know we can trust faceless multinational corporations with our data. Thanks to the New York Times for letting us know, but I dare say that there's diddly squat we can do about it and I haven't even got a Nectar card. I'm sure they know that already, that'll be why the guy at the till keeps asking me if I've got one and if not would I like one. Next time I'm in Sainsbury's I'll tell him to call Acxiom!
Monday 20 August 2012
A Short History of Money
A very interesting documentary for those with three and a half hours spare. I do wish there were more documentaries like this in the mainstream media.
Your Help Please
I'm still digging with regard to G4S and I wonder whether there are any readers out there who know something about the world of commodities and trading.
In my blogging investigations into G4S, I noticed that G4S International appear as one of the 'Ordinary Members' of the London Bullion Market Association.
The company appear among members who are comprised nearly entirely of banks - big banks. For banks to be members of a market concerned with trading gold bullion is perfectly natural, because it is within the vaults of such banks that gold is held and stored.
G4S International, on the other hand, are meant to be merely a security firm who are responsible for the safe and secure transfer of gold bullion. They are not, as far as I know, meant to be 'traders' in gold bullion in any other sense than it is this company which does the literal moving of gold, as well as diamonds. In March of this year, Deutsche Bank teamed and up with G4S to establish a new vault for the storage of precious metals in the UK.
Like I'm saying, I'm just wondering whether it is unusual for a security firm to be ordinary members of the London Bullion Market Association, or for that to be as perfectly natural as the gold which is traded.
In my blogging investigations into G4S, I noticed that G4S International appear as one of the 'Ordinary Members' of the London Bullion Market Association.
The company appear among members who are comprised nearly entirely of banks - big banks. For banks to be members of a market concerned with trading gold bullion is perfectly natural, because it is within the vaults of such banks that gold is held and stored.
G4S International, on the other hand, are meant to be merely a security firm who are responsible for the safe and secure transfer of gold bullion. They are not, as far as I know, meant to be 'traders' in gold bullion in any other sense than it is this company which does the literal moving of gold, as well as diamonds. In March of this year, Deutsche Bank teamed and up with G4S to establish a new vault for the storage of precious metals in the UK.
Like I'm saying, I'm just wondering whether it is unusual for a security firm to be ordinary members of the London Bullion Market Association, or for that to be as perfectly natural as the gold which is traded.
Sunday 19 August 2012
Dr Sue Easide
Dr: Hello, Mr Entwhistle and how can we help you today?
Patient: Oh, morning doctor, yes I've just dropped by to ask whether there is anything you can do for this chronic back pain. I'm really suffering with it you know.
Dr: Ah, yes I can imagine that's a real killer. How long have your symptoms been going on?
Patient: Well, last two weeks really. I had thought it was on the mend but just recently its become intolerable.
Dr: Intolerable, you say?
Patient: Yes. I'm single as well and I don't get much home help now. Not with the cuts and all. I think I did it when I picked up a bag of heavy shopping. I'm really struggling what with not having much of a pension and the value stuff at the shops are on the bottom shelf. Having to ask the supermarket security guard to grab me a can of spaghetti hoops is really degrading.
Dr: Degrading, you say?
Patient: Oh, yes and it seems to take me forever to climb the stairs, doctor. Oh its so frustrating!
Dr: Really? Frustrating, you say?
Patient: Terribly! Oh, to be young again, like you! There was a lovely gentleman who would come and visit me, but he's stopped coming round now. Perhaps he's moved. I sit at home all day watching TV. I wish I could get out more but it really kills me. To be honest, I was in such pain on the way here I thought I might die! You used to give me those pills for depression. It would be good if you could prescribe those to me again as I'm frankly miserable. Oh and those good painkillers. Paracetamol doesn't touch this back!
Dr: Miserable? Oh dear. Well, Mr Entwhistle, I really do sympathise with your plight. Unfortunately, while we can send you for a scan, due to the cuts and the waiting list for back operations....well, you know what they say about backs, well the queue is going back around the block so to speak. There are alot of people in front of you. Younger people, you know they get priority because they're of a working age.
Patient: Yes, I fully understand that doctor.
Dr: And unfortunately due to the cutbacks, we have only a limited supply of anti-depressives at the moment. And the more powerful painkillers are more expensive and due to the cuts our managers have had to make some difficult decisions about who receives those. We simply can't afford to give them to everyone. You know how it is. Gosh, when will this recession end!?
Patient: Yes, doctor. I understand, I'm not a priority.
Dr: But, there is something we can offer you on a fast-track.
Patient: A fast track? Oh! What is that doctor?
Dr: Well, I can book you in for an appointment at the Royal Infirmary to see a specialist who will lay out for you a range of options. These are 'end of life' options. You'll be pleased to hear that your symptoms suggest to me that you could qualify for our fast track specialist service for end of life care.
Patient: End of life care?
Dr: Yes, you said life was miserable, intolerable, degrading and frustrating. That qualifies you for special treatment.
Patient: Oh, it is doctor. It is. Anything you could do to take it away would be fantastic. I came in here feeling like I might die and now you mention it, it would be a merciful release.
Dr: Well, these are things you might like to discuss with your specialist at your appointment.
Patient: I will do, doctor. To be honest, I thought that this might be the best avenue. My cousin told me he was going in to see an end of life specialist last Thursday. I think he made the right decision, given his age and the fact he was in that care home. God rest him, but I think he was right. He felt like a burden on his care workers. He always hated being a burden. Oh, I'd hate to be a burden. They had to empty his commode and everything, wash him down. Oh he hated it, being a burden. All on the British taxpayer too. He felt like he couldn't contribute to society anymore.
Dr: Well, if your back situation prolongs then there is a possibility you might have to consider some kind of nursing care, especially if nobody's giving you home help. Between you and I, I couldn't stand dependent on others either. I love my independence!
Patient: Oh, you're so right, doctor. I never want to be a burden or dependent. So, when is my appointment with the specialist?
Dr: Thursday?
Patient: As soon as that? Ah, that's wonderful. Oh, they say terrible things about it, but you can't knock the good old NHS, can you? They always come through for you in the end. Marvellous that you still help people even in these times of cuts and recession. Well, its been lovely having you as my doctor. I guess this is farewell. Thank, you for all your help, doctor!
Dr: That's my pleasure, Mr Entwhistle. Anytime! Well...anytime before Thursday!
Patient: Thank you, doctor. Good to see you're keeping your sense of humour! Even in these times of cuts! Bye, doctor!
Dr: Bye, bye, Mr Entwhistle.
Patient: Oh, morning doctor, yes I've just dropped by to ask whether there is anything you can do for this chronic back pain. I'm really suffering with it you know.
Dr: Ah, yes I can imagine that's a real killer. How long have your symptoms been going on?
Patient: Well, last two weeks really. I had thought it was on the mend but just recently its become intolerable.
Dr: Intolerable, you say?
Patient: Yes. I'm single as well and I don't get much home help now. Not with the cuts and all. I think I did it when I picked up a bag of heavy shopping. I'm really struggling what with not having much of a pension and the value stuff at the shops are on the bottom shelf. Having to ask the supermarket security guard to grab me a can of spaghetti hoops is really degrading.
Dr: Degrading, you say?
Patient: Oh, yes and it seems to take me forever to climb the stairs, doctor. Oh its so frustrating!
Dr: Really? Frustrating, you say?
Patient: Terribly! Oh, to be young again, like you! There was a lovely gentleman who would come and visit me, but he's stopped coming round now. Perhaps he's moved. I sit at home all day watching TV. I wish I could get out more but it really kills me. To be honest, I was in such pain on the way here I thought I might die! You used to give me those pills for depression. It would be good if you could prescribe those to me again as I'm frankly miserable. Oh and those good painkillers. Paracetamol doesn't touch this back!
Dr: Miserable? Oh dear. Well, Mr Entwhistle, I really do sympathise with your plight. Unfortunately, while we can send you for a scan, due to the cuts and the waiting list for back operations....well, you know what they say about backs, well the queue is going back around the block so to speak. There are alot of people in front of you. Younger people, you know they get priority because they're of a working age.
Patient: Yes, I fully understand that doctor.
Dr: And unfortunately due to the cutbacks, we have only a limited supply of anti-depressives at the moment. And the more powerful painkillers are more expensive and due to the cuts our managers have had to make some difficult decisions about who receives those. We simply can't afford to give them to everyone. You know how it is. Gosh, when will this recession end!?
Patient: Yes, doctor. I understand, I'm not a priority.
Dr: But, there is something we can offer you on a fast-track.
Patient: A fast track? Oh! What is that doctor?
Dr: Well, I can book you in for an appointment at the Royal Infirmary to see a specialist who will lay out for you a range of options. These are 'end of life' options. You'll be pleased to hear that your symptoms suggest to me that you could qualify for our fast track specialist service for end of life care.
Patient: End of life care?
Dr: Yes, you said life was miserable, intolerable, degrading and frustrating. That qualifies you for special treatment.
Patient: Oh, it is doctor. It is. Anything you could do to take it away would be fantastic. I came in here feeling like I might die and now you mention it, it would be a merciful release.
Dr: Well, these are things you might like to discuss with your specialist at your appointment.
Patient: I will do, doctor. To be honest, I thought that this might be the best avenue. My cousin told me he was going in to see an end of life specialist last Thursday. I think he made the right decision, given his age and the fact he was in that care home. God rest him, but I think he was right. He felt like a burden on his care workers. He always hated being a burden. Oh, I'd hate to be a burden. They had to empty his commode and everything, wash him down. Oh he hated it, being a burden. All on the British taxpayer too. He felt like he couldn't contribute to society anymore.
Dr: Well, if your back situation prolongs then there is a possibility you might have to consider some kind of nursing care, especially if nobody's giving you home help. Between you and I, I couldn't stand dependent on others either. I love my independence!
Patient: Oh, you're so right, doctor. I never want to be a burden or dependent. So, when is my appointment with the specialist?
Dr: Thursday?
Patient: As soon as that? Ah, that's wonderful. Oh, they say terrible things about it, but you can't knock the good old NHS, can you? They always come through for you in the end. Marvellous that you still help people even in these times of cuts and recession. Well, its been lovely having you as my doctor. I guess this is farewell. Thank, you for all your help, doctor!
Dr: That's my pleasure, Mr Entwhistle. Anytime! Well...anytime before Thursday!
Patient: Thank you, doctor. Good to see you're keeping your sense of humour! Even in these times of cuts! Bye, doctor!
Dr: Bye, bye, Mr Entwhistle.
Saturday 18 August 2012
The Cult of Suicide
In the 1200s those who proposed suicide as a way to happiness were killed. Sounds drastic, doesn't it?
That was, however, the outcome of the Crusade against the Albigensian heresy of the 1200s.
The cult of the Albigensians resulted in a religion so divorced from anything good or human that the 'perfecti' denied the good of marriage and starved themselves to death. Not only were they doing it to themselves, but they were recommending it to others.
The heresy, steeped in a denial of Christ's humanity was considered a great danger to souls in France and the Crusade was launched by Pope Innocent III.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Crusades had limited success in converting the Albigensians. The cult were popular because they strove to live the poverty of the Apostles. St Dominic was sent and converted many Albigensians with a band of brothers - they could see he was the real deal, living an austere and holy example while preaching Christ Crucified. He fasted and prayed and Our Lady gave him the Holy Rosary in order for those who had strayed from truth and fallen into error the grace to meditate on the humanity and divinity of Our Lord, as presented in the Gospels. This was, apparently, more successful than burning them and putting swords in their heads.
I can't help thinking there are parallels with today, except nobody, I hope, is going to go around slaughtering advocates of suicide. It really is a great danger to the public good, however, that the media give so much attention to individuals, those suffering and those campaigning 'on their behalf' for the 'right to die'. It damages the whole culture of a community and country because death becomes the answer to a range of potential problems.
When a pro-suicide advocate was in Brighton a year or two back, he wanted to sell suicide kits to despairing Brightonians. I went and told him what I thought of his idea. He and his sidekick didn't like it. At the time a friend of mine who hears voices and who finds life, at various times, 'intolerable, miserable, degrading, frustrating' was living next door to the Brighthelm Centre (where Dr Death was doing his presentation) at the YMCA. I know one or two people with suicidal tendencies.
Were assisted suicide to be introduced, it is not just the terminally ill or those suffering with obvious physical conditions like locked-in syndrome that would be 'released' into the next life. People who need encouragement and love in order to carry their Cross would be tempted into the culture of suicide. Heroin addicts, people with schizophrenia or bi-polar conditions, people living in abusive relationships, people with debt and financial worries, people with big regrets and disappointments in life, people who've had all their kids taken into care - many people, at times - even if physically healthy, would be tempted to jack it all in, walk into the hospital and come out in a body bag. I'm sure people would say there will be safeguards, but then once you've introduced State-based death as a 'right', isn't it cruel to deny the right to others?
Of course, there are plenty of people out there and close to, if not in, the corridors of power who would only be too happy to extend such a proposed law to any one of the above examples. Also, that reminds me, you might have young or old gay men realising they are homosexual and not being able to handle it going to have themselves put down. You'd have people who just split up with their lovers, husbands and wives, who've had an awful break up and feel the ground has dropped underneath them. Potentially, all those people could apply to be killed by the State.
The worst thing of course is what the State does in response to such a potential stream of suicide customers. What if the State said, 'If you've got some physical problem which you find intolerable then that is fine, you can come and see us and we'll 'talk about the options'.' However, if the State turned people away from this suicide service on the ground that the person, though suffering, doesn't understand how valuable his life is or may be able to go on with love, counselling and encouragement, then what value does that mean the community and the State put on the life of those suffering from physical conditions.
That's the point: Once you have a situation where the State or society says 'you can die' but 'you should really live' then you've a situation in which some people are valued and others are seen as expendable, while the whole community, society or country is polluted not because of suffering, but is polluted by a whole culture of death, despair and a lack of love and compassion shown by those who were meant to reach out and care.
As an aside, I noticed that Tony Nicklinson's long-suffering wife mentioned that if the State didn't recognise her husband's right to death by doctor appointment then he may be forced to starve himself. Two things struck me here. First, I'm assuming that because of his condition, she is the one who makes the dinners, therefore she is the one who would starve him to death were this to occur. I'm guessing in the relativistic law of the land that is still murder? Secondly, she is saying it as if starving someone themselves to death is terrible and agonising way to die. I've no doubt it is. So, if death by starvation and/or dehydration is so bad then why is the public and the press in uproar about the Liverpool Care Pathway on which it is estimated that 130,000 UK citizens have died by starvation and dehydration!
I don't know how we can convince the modern day Albigensians who see suicide as way for the improvement of their condition of the terrible error of their argument. The Crusades were all 'shock and awe' and they didn't seem to work well anyway. The Holy Rosary was more powerful because it was from God. The only answer we have ever had is Jesus Christ. Those who believe in Our Lord are vulnerable to the temptation that would be introduced by such a proposal because we all have bad days, months or years of pain, suffering and distress. Those who don't believe in Our Lord would be like lambs to the slaughter! Please, good God, deliver us from the new Albigensians stalking the World today! Despite the fact that Jason is a brave survivor in this World, I can imagine him one day waking up and deciding that life sleeping on a loading bay in the cold isn't really a 'good quality of life'. Knowing there was a 'way out' down the road, for him, would be a great temptation. I'm sure Brighton and Hove City Council and the other authorities would be only too happy to 'help Jason out'.
That was, however, the outcome of the Crusade against the Albigensian heresy of the 1200s.
The cult of the Albigensians resulted in a religion so divorced from anything good or human that the 'perfecti' denied the good of marriage and starved themselves to death. Not only were they doing it to themselves, but they were recommending it to others.
The heresy, steeped in a denial of Christ's humanity was considered a great danger to souls in France and the Crusade was launched by Pope Innocent III.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Crusades had limited success in converting the Albigensians. The cult were popular because they strove to live the poverty of the Apostles. St Dominic was sent and converted many Albigensians with a band of brothers - they could see he was the real deal, living an austere and holy example while preaching Christ Crucified. He fasted and prayed and Our Lady gave him the Holy Rosary in order for those who had strayed from truth and fallen into error the grace to meditate on the humanity and divinity of Our Lord, as presented in the Gospels. This was, apparently, more successful than burning them and putting swords in their heads.
I can't help thinking there are parallels with today, except nobody, I hope, is going to go around slaughtering advocates of suicide. It really is a great danger to the public good, however, that the media give so much attention to individuals, those suffering and those campaigning 'on their behalf' for the 'right to die'. It damages the whole culture of a community and country because death becomes the answer to a range of potential problems.
When a pro-suicide advocate was in Brighton a year or two back, he wanted to sell suicide kits to despairing Brightonians. I went and told him what I thought of his idea. He and his sidekick didn't like it. At the time a friend of mine who hears voices and who finds life, at various times, 'intolerable, miserable, degrading, frustrating' was living next door to the Brighthelm Centre (where Dr Death was doing his presentation) at the YMCA. I know one or two people with suicidal tendencies.
Were assisted suicide to be introduced, it is not just the terminally ill or those suffering with obvious physical conditions like locked-in syndrome that would be 'released' into the next life. People who need encouragement and love in order to carry their Cross would be tempted into the culture of suicide. Heroin addicts, people with schizophrenia or bi-polar conditions, people living in abusive relationships, people with debt and financial worries, people with big regrets and disappointments in life, people who've had all their kids taken into care - many people, at times - even if physically healthy, would be tempted to jack it all in, walk into the hospital and come out in a body bag. I'm sure people would say there will be safeguards, but then once you've introduced State-based death as a 'right', isn't it cruel to deny the right to others?
Of course, there are plenty of people out there and close to, if not in, the corridors of power who would only be too happy to extend such a proposed law to any one of the above examples. Also, that reminds me, you might have young or old gay men realising they are homosexual and not being able to handle it going to have themselves put down. You'd have people who just split up with their lovers, husbands and wives, who've had an awful break up and feel the ground has dropped underneath them. Potentially, all those people could apply to be killed by the State.
The worst thing of course is what the State does in response to such a potential stream of suicide customers. What if the State said, 'If you've got some physical problem which you find intolerable then that is fine, you can come and see us and we'll 'talk about the options'.' However, if the State turned people away from this suicide service on the ground that the person, though suffering, doesn't understand how valuable his life is or may be able to go on with love, counselling and encouragement, then what value does that mean the community and the State put on the life of those suffering from physical conditions.
That's the point: Once you have a situation where the State or society says 'you can die' but 'you should really live' then you've a situation in which some people are valued and others are seen as expendable, while the whole community, society or country is polluted not because of suffering, but is polluted by a whole culture of death, despair and a lack of love and compassion shown by those who were meant to reach out and care.
As an aside, I noticed that Tony Nicklinson's long-suffering wife mentioned that if the State didn't recognise her husband's right to death by doctor appointment then he may be forced to starve himself. Two things struck me here. First, I'm assuming that because of his condition, she is the one who makes the dinners, therefore she is the one who would starve him to death were this to occur. I'm guessing in the relativistic law of the land that is still murder? Secondly, she is saying it as if starving someone themselves to death is terrible and agonising way to die. I've no doubt it is. So, if death by starvation and/or dehydration is so bad then why is the public and the press in uproar about the Liverpool Care Pathway on which it is estimated that 130,000 UK citizens have died by starvation and dehydration!
I don't know how we can convince the modern day Albigensians who see suicide as way for the improvement of their condition of the terrible error of their argument. The Crusades were all 'shock and awe' and they didn't seem to work well anyway. The Holy Rosary was more powerful because it was from God. The only answer we have ever had is Jesus Christ. Those who believe in Our Lord are vulnerable to the temptation that would be introduced by such a proposal because we all have bad days, months or years of pain, suffering and distress. Those who don't believe in Our Lord would be like lambs to the slaughter! Please, good God, deliver us from the new Albigensians stalking the World today! Despite the fact that Jason is a brave survivor in this World, I can imagine him one day waking up and deciding that life sleeping on a loading bay in the cold isn't really a 'good quality of life'. Knowing there was a 'way out' down the road, for him, would be a great temptation. I'm sure Brighton and Hove City Council and the other authorities would be only too happy to 'help Jason out'.
Thank You For Your Prayers
Readers will be delighted to hear that the girl, a rough sleeper called Denise, taken ill with plurosy, who I asked readers to pray for, who was on life support at Royal Sussex Hospital is now, in the words of her friend, 'Doing okay, much better.'
Thank you for your prayers, thank you Mary, Blessed Mother of God and thanks be to God! Obviously, its just a coincidence that people prayed and her condition improved. Stupid Christians!
The sooner stupid praying Christians are out of the way and doctors can turn off life support machines, the better! Keep praying for her that her recovery may be full and her strength improves.
Thank you for your prayers, thank you Mary, Blessed Mother of God and thanks be to God! Obviously, its just a coincidence that people prayed and her condition improved. Stupid Christians!
The sooner stupid praying Christians are out of the way and doctors can turn off life support machines, the better! Keep praying for her that her recovery may be full and her strength improves.
Friday 17 August 2012
Tony Nicklinson Loses 'Right to Die' Decision
We must have every sympathy for the distress and suffering of Tony Nicklinson but I have to say that the verdict of Lord Justice Toulson is right. The most important thing he says is that the consequences of granting Mr Nicklinson's desire to be euthanised by a GP goes 'far beyond' Mr Nicklinson. Despite the fact that Mr Nicklinson's request has been refused, this campaign already is having consequences far beyond Mr Nicklinson, since it gives groups like Dignity in Dying more media coverage. Already, that group, well known for its eugenic links and beliefs are taking advantage of the sad scenes of Mr Nicklinson's response to the judge's decision.
Mr Nicklinson's long suffering wife also maintains, 'Why should we have to go to Switzerland?' because its 'too expensive'. Yet, while I believe that going to Dignitas would be a terrible and morally wrong thing to do, if they are so determined, why are they not just fundraising to raise the money to do this? After all, if the couple had their desires granted, the British taxpayer would be paying the Government to become the killers of its own citizens. The laws that we have in place are there to protect the vulnerable. Voluntary euthanasia is how Nazi Germany began. What then emerged was a killing machine.
Care Not Killing rightly suggest that this latest decision should 'draw a line' under this campaign in general. It won't, of course, because the plight of various long-term sufferers of harrowing conditions and disabilities will continue to be presented to the public, in the media and especially by the powerful Dignity in Dying lobbying group who will keep knocking at the door until Dr Death opens up and let's Hitler in.
Thursday 16 August 2012
Securing Your World...
Well, I've done a little digging. I intend to dig deeper in time, but for the time being I'll publish what I've discovered. It may be nothing, or it may be of interest to some, but not to others.
There are some, a number, who feel that there is something a little oppressive about modern society. It's not just our 24/7 technological and media age in which we find ourselves glued to our mobile phones and computers. It's something else. It's a feeling that around us is being erected some kind of omnipresent monitoring system which leaves little room for personal privacy. It's the feeling that, if certain parties wanted to do so, your movements could be recorded and watched on a daily basis, more or less wherever you are in urban areas, as well as on roads. What with GPS and satellite tracking in terms of mobile phones, I suppose certain parties could know of your whereabouts wherever you are.
Of course, its good to have security. Security, I am sure, plays some role in reducing crime and terrorism. However, the construction of a kind of security monitoring grid which is so vast in scale does obviously have consequences for those who cherish liberty - which should be all of us. Once an 'all seeing eye' has been established, the danger of such a control grid's construction is one of power falling into the wrong hands. We who know our history also know that the State is not always benign. At first, it could be something that's deters crime and assists police in their enquiries. Unfortunately, it could end with a 'Big Brother' scenario.
All this is obvious to readers, I am sure, but I felt I should set the scene. I recently wrote a massive post on G4S and the security roles for which they are responsible in the UK and across the World. I was personally quite shocked to discover that a security company I only knew as a regularly bumbling operation manning a few supermarkets and transporting convicts to prison were in fact a much larger commodity altogether. As well as fulfilling security roles for British Government, retail, infrastructure and banks, they do the same for the Central Banks of the World and for the US Government as well. From airports to nuclear facilities to oil and gas pipeline security, to the transportation of gold and diamonds, to cash management services and even being responsible for the security of the sea itself, in its maritime division. In different roles you will find them in the World unarmed, or, indeed, armed.
And not just that. G4S are responsible for the security at GCHQ and, to be quite honest, I wouldn't be at all surprised if G4S were responsible for monitoring ne'er do wells, potential terrorists, cybercriminals and you and, indeed, me, at GCHQ, depending on what and who you believe GCHQ, based in the beautiful Cotswolds, is for.
GCHQ, Cheltenham |
This we knew, but I did not know the following. Obviously, G4S are responsible for the running and collection of secure cash around Britain. You'll see the vans in your local high street nipping into Natwest and HSBC. Another company do the same job in the UK and that company are called Loomis. They 'manage cash in society' according to their slogan. What I didn't know is that G4S and Loomis are one in the same company. In other words, when you see G4S doing their job and Loomis doing their job, they are owned by the same parent company. That company is called Securitas which holds G4S and Loomis cash management. As its website says:
'In 2001, Securitas acquired Loomis, Fargo and Co. and incorporated it into the division Securitas Cash Handling Services. In 2006, Securitas announced its intention to split the business into separate, specialized security companies. Securitas Cash Handling Services assumed the name Loomis.'
Through acquisitions and mergers, three giant security firms become one operating under different names - a trinity, if you please. Except, that's not quite it either, since Pinkerton (Government Services Inc), the leading US security firm, in the year 2000, were brought into the Loomis-Securitas-G4S 'godhead' which begins the reign of Securitas's work in the US.
The history page of Loomis tells us that: 'Erik Philip-Sorensen, [founder of Securitas] handed over the control of Securitas to his sons, Sven and Jörgen, in 1981. The international part of Securitas’ operations has developed into Group 4 Securicor (also known as G4S) while the Swedish part of the business operates under the brand Securitas.'
Financial and business minds are welcome to put me right, but, as far as I can see, this means that when a man walks into Sainsbury's and see's a Securitas security guy, he may as well be looking at G4S. When G4S say they are manning the Olympics, they are, but they may as well be Securitas since Securitas owns G4S and regards this as its international operations division, which I take to mean the operations of G4S anywhere but Sweden.
When Loomis are 'managing cash' in society, they may as well be G4S or Securitas. In the US, or indeed Latin America, when its citizens see Loomis, they see Securitas. When they see G4S they see Securitas and when they see Securitas, they may as well be seeing G4S. When they see Pinkertons, that is Securitas too.
Now, I know that this situation isn't terribly confusing or new. That's just the way business or big business works in modern times. Acquisitions occur creating what has become known as monopoly capitalism whereby services end up being provided by just one or two companies. It isn't fair, it pushes out the little guys, but hey, who said the World was fair? Over a period of time, as the Securitas website will tell you, the merging of monitoring, surveillance, government services and security companies has been taking place because, while we sleep, national detective and security agencies never do. As a recap, feel free to watch the video below.
Personally, I don't have a great problem with the idea of a security agency being really great and spreading their operations across the globe. What I have a problem with is the fact that this same security agency, going by what we know of Securitas and G4S are so close to Government in terms of contracts. Not only does it pose a question to us as to how prepared we are to lose civil liberties in the battle against terrorism, with CCTV everywhere and satellite tracking facilities, but if what is plainly the same company is being used as a security network by Governments across the World, if Governments wanted to do something naughty, like commit some kind of false flag event, like a bombing or something, in a nation of their choice, or wished to take out someone and make it look like suicide, because they can get into just about any building on earth, in order to achieve a particular goal, then they could. All we have to do is entrust the Government with our civil liberties and pray to God that the Government always has our interests at heart. This, I think, was what both Orwell and Huxley considered very naive. Over to you. I hope GCHQ didn't read that.
I mean, in the Soviet Union, you had secret police, right? In the Eastern Bloc of Germany you had the Stasi and I'm guessing these guys were different and looked rather different to normal police. We know we've got MI5/6 and the US has CIA and FBI and all that and obviously no government departments are all pure. But, what I'm seeing in the acquistions process leading to this all-seeing, all-pervasive security force is a picture of a private security web which not only has its own investigations bureau division in Pinkerton and Burns International Security Service (also acquired by Securitas) as well as myriad other firms, but also, more or less, as G4S boast, are intent on 'securing your world' entirely. I mean, as they say, securing not 'the World' but 'your World'.
It's a little scary because it means that let's say, in the future, or even now, if you were to be considered an enemy of the State for any reason - it need not be because you oppose a particular government policy on marriage or abortion - a gigantic security network is in place to ensure you stop saying what you're saying or writing what you're writing. Meanwhile, nobody in the mainstream press has filled us in on the fact that seemingly just one, god-like massive company, working in close collaboration with the State here and in states abroad is responsible for so much. monitoring, investigation, intelligence gathering and security (for seemingly everything), logistics, delivery, transportation and new security systems and surveillance systems and cybersurveillance as well as other forms of technology around the western World. Why?
Why? Why are we never told these things? Because our Press are lazy or because they're 'in on' the deception of the Western World. For while the West was sleeping (around), taking loads of drugs and having a knees up, losing their marriages, marbles and inhibitions, forces with close ties to the State were erecting a prison around us in the name of security. So much so, in fact, that if the Government didn't like you, didn't want you to leave the country, or for some reason had locked the borders, you'd find the same security guys at the airport that were hunting you down in your home town! Then, if you made it abroad, they'd be in that country too! What is concerning is not just the links between Securitas and Government, nor their spread across the globe, but that the scale of the technology now at their disposal is now so immense and powerful. I'll keep digging, hopefully not my grave.
Blessed Titus Brandsma, pray for us.
Pray for a Woman in Brighton on a Life Support Machine
A friend of mine has just informed me that he knows someone who is on a life support machine at Royal Sussex County Hospital, following her contraction of plurosy, presumably from sleeping outdoors.
She is called Denise. The last time I saw her she was getting into an ambulance finding it hard to breathe. I am unsure whether she has slipped into a coma, all I know is she is on life support.
Pray, pray, pray. Do some form of penance for her and pray.
As things stand, she has no family at her bedside. I hope and trust that doctors or nurses will not do the unthinkable if her situation continues on life support.
Pray. We do not know in what manner God desires to answer our prayers. All we know is that God desires that we pray.
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection,
implored your help or sought your intercession,
was left unaided.
She is called Denise. The last time I saw her she was getting into an ambulance finding it hard to breathe. I am unsure whether she has slipped into a coma, all I know is she is on life support.
Pray, pray, pray. Do some form of penance for her and pray.
As things stand, she has no family at her bedside. I hope and trust that doctors or nurses will not do the unthinkable if her situation continues on life support.
Pray. We do not know in what manner God desires to answer our prayers. All we know is that God desires that we pray.
Pray, too, that Our Lady will intercede for Denise in all her maternal love for the poor of her Divine Son.
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection,
implored your help or sought your intercession,
was left unaided.
Inspired with this confidence,
I fly to you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother;
to you do I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
I fly to you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother;
to you do I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
despise not my petitions,
but in your mercy hear and answer me.
despise not my petitions,
but in your mercy hear and answer me.
Amen.
Wednesday 15 August 2012
Well Now There's a Thing...
Did you know that one company, Loomis, (or is that two?) manages the supply of cash in society in Argentina,
Austria,
Czech Republic,
Denmark,
Finland,
France,
Norway,
Portugal,
Slovenia,
Slovakia,
Spain,
Sweden,
Switzerland,
Turkey,
United Kingdom and the
United States.
G4S used to do it in France, but in that country they sold that part of their operations to Loomis. Wow! Just one or two companies running the cash supply across loads of countries across the World. That's amazing! Amazing, too, that G4S, that plucky bumbling British company are also playing a role in the management of cash in China and a host of other countries across the World! I'll supply you with links soon. How did Loomis and cash supply buddies G4S get so big that they're running the cash supply across the World?
Talk about a red rag to those conspiracy theorist bulls!
Let's do some digging...
G4S used to do it in France, but in that country they sold that part of their operations to Loomis. Wow! Just one or two companies running the cash supply across loads of countries across the World. That's amazing! Amazing, too, that G4S, that plucky bumbling British company are also playing a role in the management of cash in China and a host of other countries across the World! I'll supply you with links soon. How did Loomis and cash supply buddies G4S get so big that they're running the cash supply across the World?
Talk about a red rag to those conspiracy theorist bulls!
Let's do some digging...
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