"Economists searching for reasons why some nations are richer than others have found that those with a wide belief in hell are less corrupt and more prosperous, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis."
"Now, returning to our republican roots doesn't mean we try to live in splendid isolation. Not at all. It just means that we stop trying to run other people's countries and concentrate on running our own. We can have trade relations with the whole world – cultural exchanges, tourism, the whole ball of friendly wax. We just make sure the CIA and the military don't do any dirty work inside other people's countries, such as interfering in their elections or overthrowing their governments. And we don't take sides in other countries' wars and feuds. Armed neutrality should be our position.
"That, to me, would be the best of all possible worlds for Americans. This is not pie in the sky. It was once American policy, and the United States was widely loved and respected during that period of time. Now, with our troops in more than 100 foreign countries, we are widely disliked, if not hated and feared."
"We know that British weights and measures, as a human and 'natural' system, is vastly superior to the artificial metric system." (from THE TURNING OF THE METRIC TIDE: HOW METRIC ROAD & PEDESTRIAN SIGNS ARE BEING REMOVED FROM OUR LAND)
"I tried to exclude my personal views of the United States as much as I could. In the case of the Iraq War, rather than focusing on the war itself, I tried to provide a big framework for American foreign policy through such things as analyzing U.S. strategy in the Middle East and the influence of Jews behind those policies."
"[The Scopes Monkey Trial] is a good example of 'news handling' vs. what really happened. This was a test case, a cause taken up by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). (Consider that Smith is a member of the ACLU) There was a lot of financial incentive for the little town of Dayton, TN to get involved. Furthermore, Scopes was not even a biology teacher. The famous film "Inherit the Wind" depicts the town as 'inhuman' toward Scopes, but this is not true. William Jennings Bryan was depicted as a crude fundamentalist, and he was not a fundamentalist at all. In fact, he believed in the 'old earth' theory, and his primary mission was stamping out Social Darwinism."
"Fate has offered us this opportunity, and I would not refuse it for anything in the world. I have examined myself before God and my conscience. It must be done because this man [Hitler] is evil personified." - Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg after gaining access to Hitler's briefings.
"In July 1941 there was an escape from the camp. Camp protocol, designed to make the prisoners guard each other, required that ten men be slaughtered in retribution for each escaped prisoner. Francis Gajowniczek, a married man with young children was chosen to die for the escape. Maximilian volunteered to take his place, and died as he had always wished - in service."
"Every single modern language changes. I don't care what language you pick but you've got to have a language that's not going to change over time if you want to communicate ideas."
"Pius Cheong Jae-don, president of the Korean Catholic Farmers' Movement, told the symposium that Woori-nong Saligi [Save our Farmland] has established its identity as a movement that protects agriculture, farmland and ecology, and its main thrust is organically grown food, normally devoid of pesticides and herbicides."
"It is quite ludicrous to suggest that if a dashing young princess from Spain or Belgium or Luxembourg were to sweep Prince William off his feet and the young couple wished to marry, that somehow the British state would be brought to its knees."
"Disturbing, no doubt. Unless--and here is a venture full of hazards--one could find a way to hear the call to prayer not as an alien voice but as a summons, a periodic reminder, for Christians as well as Muslims, for Catholics and Protestants too, of the 'one thing needful.'"
LONDON, JULY 17, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Abortion laws are at the center of a controversy in Britain after the Sunday Times published a series of articles on late-term abortions. The newspaper reported June 20 on a number of cases where babies had been left to die unattended after having survived abortions.
The article quoted an unnamed midwife who claimed that her hospital had an unwritten rule of not aiding babies who survived abortions. Another case involved a baby who survived for three days. The infant received nourishment, but no medical help. British law allows abortion up to 24 weeks, but permits them right up to the end of pregnancy in cases of handicaps...
"Have you ever tried to listen to a painting? Try listening to this picture. The kneeling shepherds are greeting the child with a silent gesture of honor. The animals, too, seem quiet, as they gaze with curiosity at the baby in their manger. Mary and Joseph appear speechless, as if the Christ child's very presence were speaking and notheing more need be said. Only the one shepherd, holding his staff, may be speaking. Perhaps he has whispered, 'Look!'
"The delicate colors and gentle lines used by Ki-Chang Kim add to the sense of quiet created by this picture. The styles of Asian art, in music, drama, poetry, and painting, often convey an invitation to silence or deepended attention. What an important message the Asian tradition has: Silence reveals grace."
"'Catholics thought,' some supercilious history professor of the not-too-distant future will say with a smirk, 'that human nature itself was some kind of an eternal given, that it provided a kind of impassable limit, and that from the "eternal givens" [chuckle!] of human nature something called "mo-ral-i-ty" [and here he/she/it will need to spell this strange word] arose from these givens. This is a somewhat understandable error. Just as it appears that the sun is rising, so also it appeared to them that human beings could only be created in the same way as is common among other animals. This lack of imagination was rooted in a lack of technology. We note this pattern in a number of areas. Telescopes allowed human beings to see that the vastness of the cosmos demonstrated how insignificant a speck they were, and hence they wisely gave up the belief that the Earth was at the center of the universe. So also, the new genetic technologies have made clear: "Our only limit is our imagination!"'"
"We have killed an infidel who tried to propagate Christianity in Iraq. This infidel studied theology and was preparing to become a missionary in the Islamic world."
28 "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."
"'The blessing of the committed life long unions of persons of the same gender is one way our community can live the Gospel through faithful and loving pastoral care and spiritual support for each other,' Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina said in a letter to clergy earlier this month."
"Last weekend, I went to see a musical only to end up with trouble. Because a young man, sitting next to me, kept his bare feet on top of the LCD monitor installed in the back of the front row, I could not concentrate on the performance. I had to smell not the scent of culture, but the scent of feet..."
"It's been confusing times recently for North Korea's supporters and alleged collaborators in South Korea, a relatively new democracy that has launched a virtual political love-in with Pyongyang, turning a blind eye to its widespread repression and human-rights abuses. Some critics of the North, such as those who try to run an anti-Pyongyang radio station, Free North Korea, have been harassed - FNK may even be forced off the air. And yet a pro-Pyongyang professor languishes in jail - and his sentence soon may be increased for his refusal to denounce the North..."
"'A low relative female rate of pay encourages husbands to specialise in the market sector and wives to specialise in household production,' said the study, titled Female Earnings and Divorce Rates.
"'Higher female earnings are believed to diminish marital gains by reducing the demand for children and improving the opportunities for women outside marriage.'"
"The other great ethnic church engine in New York City is the Korean population. Several hundred Korean churches dot the boroughs, and have become a major center of social services and cultural continuity, said Wontae Cha, a professor of ministry at New York Theological Seminary."
"Competition for Korean congregants can be fierce, he said. He sends church members out to distribute fliers in Korean markets in Queens and advertises in Korean-language newspapers. The flow in and out of the neighborhood keeps his congregation changing."
"'I look at condoms as an improvisation, not a solution,' Museveni told delegates on the second day of the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok.
"Instead, he called for 'optimal relationships based on love and trust instead of institutionalized mistrust which is what the condom is all about.'"
"Ladies an gennelmen of the jury, the United States is a great country, but its growth has been stultified, ladies an gennelmen, an I do mean stultified by the policies of the gennelman who got his way into the White House on account of, well, how would we get along, in American justice, if seven of you voted not guilty, five voted guilty, the judge slams down his gavel an pronounces the defendant is guilty..."
"Several (though not all) investigations have shown that a man's risk for prostate cancer rises with the number of sex partners he has had in a lifetime.
"Other studies have concluded that men who have contracted a sexually transmitted disease, or STD, appear to have an elevated risk for cancer of the prostate too.
"University of Illinois researcher Karin Rosenblatt and several colleagues studied men in the Seattle area and found that those who had 30 or more sex partners in their lifetime more than doubled the risk of prostate cancer."
"In this oasis of calm, in front of this marvelous show of nature, one can easily appreciate just how fruitful silence, something which is becoming ever more rare these days, can be."
"Returning to Rome after 3 years in the field, General Marcus Vinicius meets Lygia and falls in love with her. She is a Christian and doesn't want to have anything to do with a warrior. Though she grew up Roman, the adopted daughter of a retired general, Lygia is technically a hostage of Rome. Marcus gets Emperor Nero to give her to him for services rendered. Lygia resents this, but somehow falls in love with Marcus anyway. Meanwhile Nero's atrocities get more outrageous. When he burns Rome and blames the Christians, Marcus goes off to save Lygia and her family. Nero captures them and all the Christians, and throws them to the Lions, but Marcus, Lygia, and Christianity prevail in the end."
"LAHORE: Representatives of different churches in the city demanded on Friday that a ban be imposed on issuing liquor permits to Christians."
"The demand was raised at a seminar entitled 'The Bible forbids the drinking of liquor', which was held at the Lahore Press Club. Clerics of the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan, the Full Gospel Assemblies, the Seven Day Adventists and the Baptist Church attended the seminar."
"'The Holy Bible forbids the drinking of liquor and spirits in the Old and New Testaments,' said the clerics. 'If anybody drinks, it is his or her personal act. Issuing liquor permits to Christians is an insult to the faith.' The speakers said that if necessary, the supply of liquor should be open and legalised for all and not only for Christians."
"They claimed that the other churches in the city – the Catholic Church, the Church of Pakistan and the Salvation Army - also agreed with them on this issue."
"We are totally pro-life, with no exceptions, whereas Mr. Bush is not. We are totally pro-family and pro-traditional marriage --- completely against homosexual "marriage" in any shape or form ---, whereas Mr. Bush is in favor of "civil unions" between members of the same sex. And we believe we are even more pro-American --- in the original sense of this word --- because we believe the Constitution of these united States should be strictly obeyed, whereas Mr. Bush, by his actions, has shown that he does not believe this."
"'Nation building' is not a permissible function of the United States Government under Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution.
"As President, I would follow the Supreme Law of the Land, the United States Constitution, and bring home our troops."
"'I oppose abortion personally. ... I believe life does begin at conception.' So said John Kerry last week in Iowa.
"Remarkable. If Kerry believes life begins at conception, he must concede that each time he has voted to fund abortions, he has voted to fund the killing of human beings. And voting to uphold Clinton's veto of the partial-birth abortion ban, Kerry voted against sparing tiny human beings from an excruciating form of execution."
"Catholicism used to produce a different kind of prelate. In 1953, Archbishop Joseph Rummel of New Orleans issued a pastoral letter: '(L)et there be no further discrimination or segregation in the pews, at the Communion rail, at the confessional and in parish meetings, just as there will be no segregation in the kingdom of heaven.'
"Resistance to integration of the parochial schools was fierce. The battle went on for a decade. Catholics appealed to the Vatican. Pius XII backed up the archbishop. In the Louisiana Legislature, bills were introduced forbidding integration of the Catholic schools, bills supported by Catholic legislators. The archbishop's response was to threaten the Catholic lawmakers with excommunication.
"When the rabid segregationist Leander Perez of Plaquemine Parish persisted, Archbishop Rummel excommunicated him and the head of the Citizens Council of Louisiana for "continuing to provoke the devoted people of this venerable archdiocese to disobedience or rebellion in the matter of opening our schools to all Catholic children."
"Now, there was an archbishop."
Redeemed by Our Savior, I work out my salvation with fear and trembling in Pohang, South Korea, where I live with my wife, daughter, and son and teach English at a science and technology university. Baptized a Methodist and raised a Missouri Synod Lutheran in Buffalo, NY, I spent six years as a guest of the Anglican Communion before being received by the Grace of God into the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church on the Feast of Saint Andrew, my patron, anno domini 2002.
