Once again Robert Gibbs shows his butt. He is the worst press secretary since Bagdad Bob...
From Yahoo news...
Robert Griffin is no gentleman talking like this to a woman. There is no way I can agree with this woman in politics but no one should talk like that to any person let alone a woman. It seems to be the normal way of Robert Gibbs. It may sound like I am being easy on Gibbs. I am not. The worst insult to a man is to call him un-gentlemanly. No fear, he won't ask for satifaction...
by Brett Michael Dykes
...The testy exchange was sparked by Ryan's insistent questioning of White House social secretary Desiree Rogers' role at the recent state dinner, which has been in the headlines because of the fallout from Tareq and Michaele Salahi's "party crashing."
Ryan claimed that there have been whispers around Washington insinuating that Rogers had overstepped the traditional role of her title at the event to become the "belle of the ball," thus "overshadowing the first lady." Frustrated by Ryan's tabloid-y line of questioning, Gibbs instructed her to "calm down" and to take a deep breath," adding "I do this with my son and that's what happens."
As the press corps cringed, murmured and chuckled at Gibbs' chastising, Ryan shot back: "Don't play with me."
In the end, Gibbs recommended that they return to more weighty issues, "like 98,000 men and women in Afghanistan.
Dieu Sauve le Roy.
Brantigny
4.12.09
Messianic Communism in the Protestant Reformation
Byron Bullock set this along to me today, and I direct you to the excellent article from Lew Rockwell. we today have such people as Bockelson, for example there is Brother Stair, whose site is here...
Messianic Communism in the Protestant Reformationby Murray N. Rothbard
Communist Zealots: the Anabaptists
Sometimes Martin Luther must have felt that he had loosed the whirlwind, even opened the gates of Hell. Shortly after Luther launched the Reformation, various Anabaptist sects appeared and spread throughout Germany. The Anabaptists believed in predestination of the elect, but they also believed, in contrast to Luther, that they knew infallibly who the elect were: i.e., themselves. [...]
[...]
Bockelson would undoubtedly have let the entire population starve to death rather than surrender; but two escapees betrayed weak spots in the town's defence, and on the night of June 24, 1535, the nightmare New Jerusalem at last came to a bloody end. The last several hundred Anabaptist fighters surrendered under an amnesty and were promptly massacred, and Queen Divara was beheaded. As for ex-King Bockelson, he was led about on a chain, and the following January, along with Knipperdollinck, was publicly tortured to death, and their bodies suspended in cages from a church tower.
The old Establishment of Münster was duly restored and the city became Catholic once more. The stars were once again in their courses, and the events of 1534–35 understandably led to an abiding distrust of mysticism and enthusiast movements throughout Protestant Europe...
Thanks Byron,
Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny
Monsieur Perrault and his fairy tales
Thanks to Catherine Delors I am able to send along this direct for you.
A Chrismas present for petite Audrey I think...
Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny
A Chrismas present for petite Audrey I think...
Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny
The 1938 Gettysburg Reunion.
Being retired from the Marine Corps for almost 15 years, I have a great deal in common with not only my fellow veterans but those on the other side, both allies and foes. Where once we trained to fight the other, we now share memories, and remember our common hardships.
In 1938, during the anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, the last few survivors of that conflict, came together in a place only they could remember from experiences.
As in 1863 the veterans in 1938 slept in tents and ate communially. One confedaerate veteran at a communial meal remarked "it was not a meal, it was a sacrement...".
This reunion was not the first by the veterans, but it was the last. The "War between the States" would fall into historical anecdote, while events in Europe and Asia would overshadow that war.
The following is a short but poignant film from that reunion.
In the last scene is the Peace memorial unveiled by President Franklin Roosevelt that day. In the field before it seen below...
In 1938, during the anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, the last few survivors of that conflict, came together in a place only they could remember from experiences.
As in 1863 the veterans in 1938 slept in tents and ate communially. One confedaerate veteran at a communial meal remarked "it was not a meal, it was a sacrement...".
This reunion was not the first by the veterans, but it was the last. The "War between the States" would fall into historical anecdote, while events in Europe and Asia would overshadow that war.
The following is a short but poignant film from that reunion.
In the last scene is the Peace memorial unveiled by President Franklin Roosevelt that day. In the field before it seen below...
It was on this field that my wife's great-uncle was captured. He was a private soldier of the 23d North Carolina Troops. Greg Mast, historian relates... "...Brigadier General Alfred Iverson's* Brigade, attached to Major General Robert E. Rodes's Division, arrived on a northern extension of Oak Ridge, north of Gettysburg, in the late morning of July 1. General Rodes seemingly was presented with an excellent opportunity to strike the Federals on McPherson's Ridge squarely in their unprotected flank. Iverson's advance was doomed by a display of extraordinary incompetence (or cowardice) on the part of the general himself. After ordering the advance and exhorting his troops to “give them hell,” Iverson did not go forward with his brigade but, according to Major Charles C. Blacknall of the 23rd North Carolina, took shelter behind a big chestnut log [that] intervened between him and the battle and . . . more than once reminded his staff that for more than one at a time to look over was an unnecessary exposure of person.” The four Tar Heel regiments advanced over an open field on Oak Ridge in the following order, left to right: 5th N.C. State Troops, 20th N.C. Troops, 23rd N.C. Troops, and 12th N.C. Troops. Had a competent brigade commander (Iverson or otherwise) been with them to provide guidance, the North Carolinians could probably have smashed into the Federals' right flank and rolled up their line. Instead, the brigade drifted to the right, presenting its left flank to a stone wall, unaware that five enemy regiments huddled behind it. Furthermore, by neglecting to deploy skirmishers in advance of his line, General Iverson ensured that the Federals waiting in ambush would remain undiscovered. The watchful enemy was impressed with the magnificent order” with which the North Carolinians advanced: perfect alignment, guns at right shoulder and colors to the front.” When the command was given, the Federals rose and delivered a short-range volley of shocking violence. Hundreds of men in the 5th, 20th, and 23rd Regiments dropped; survivors either drifted to the rear or sought meager shelter in a shallow swale in front of the wall. Incredibly, upon seeing some of his men pinned closest to the wall begin to wave handkerchiefs in token of surrender, the panic-stricken Iverson informed Rodes that one his regiments had gone over to the enemy!” The Tar Heels, taking casualties by the minute and sporadically returning fire, endured the carnage. "I believe every man who stood up was either killed or wounded," Lieutenant Oliver Williams of the 20th North Carolina remembered; Lieutenant George Burns Bullock of the 23rd North Carolina said it was the only battle "where the blood ran like a branch. And that too, on the hot, parched ground." A subsequent advance by the Federals gathered in hundreds of prisoners. Survivors hugged the ground until renewed attacks by General Stephen D. Ramseur's Brigade, the 12th North Carolina, and elements of General Junius Daniel's Brigade overwhelmed the enemy. Next day a Virginia artilleryman, visiting the sight of Iverson's attack, recorded a "perfectly sickening and heart-rending" sight: "There were . . . seventy-nine North Carolinians laying dead in a straight line. I stood on their right and looked down their line. It was perfectly dressed. Three had fallen to the front, the rest had fallen backward; yet the feet of all these dead men were in a perfectly straight line..." more... Greg Mast is the Author of State Troops and Volunteers: A Photographic Record of North Carolina's Civil War Soldiers, which is probably the most comprehensive pictorial history, devoted exclusively to North Carolina which contains 603 rare and striking photographs, most of which have never before published, of not only the soldiers who fought in that war, but many of their wives as well. Below: Veterans on the 23rd NC Troops, Company D, "Pee Dee Guards"**, about 1910.
Below: The regimental colour (battle flag) of the 23d NCT, cotton bunting, 44 inches square. I do not know when it was captured, but I have seen and touched this colour when it was housed in the old NC Department of Archives and History, it is not currently on display.
For more information go here..., the author, John Heiser was a fellow reeinactor in my unit 1st NC volunteer regt.
The National Park web site is here... if you go to Gettysburg you shoul take at least 3 days. It is impossible to see everything in one day.
Dieu le Roy,
Brantigny
*Iverson was not a Carolinian, he was from Georgia...
**Each Company of 100 men who volunteered for the war was assembled and chose a name for that company. After training at one of the state training camps through out the state (the 23rd NCT trained at Camp Magnum, which at the time was outside of Raleigh) 10 companies were formed into a regiment, elected their officers, and non commissioned officers, mustered out of NC service and into the Confederate Army. It was the same in every state north and south.
Some names of company names were... Granville Grey Rifles Co G, 23rd NCT, (my wifes great-uncle's company) Spartan Band Co A, 38th NCT, Sampson Farmers Co C, 38th NCT, Sampson Plowboys, Co D, 38th NCT, Granville Regulators, Co A 44th NCT,( my wifes great-grandfather Absolom Norwood was a corporal in this regiment.
3.12.09
Why Is Everyone Crazy About Vampires?
In a shameless promotion of his blog Carlos has sent me this...
Fr. Robert Barron
You’d have to be living under a rock not to have noticed the prevalence of vampires in today’s culture.
One of the most popular television shows in recent years was Buffy the Vampire Slayer Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles continue to be widely read; HBO is currently running a series about vampires called True Blood; Wesley Snipes starred in a trilogy of vampire films called Blade; and one of the most successful movies of late is Twilight, the story of teen mortals and teen vampires in love. How do we explain the seemingly endless fascination with the undead?
Obviously, clever marketing has a good deal to do with it, but I think there are deeper reasons as well. There is, in the spiritual order, a law analogous to the law of the conservation of energy, which I would express as follows: when the supernatural is suppressed, it necessarily finds expression in indirect and distorted form. What we have witnessed in the last fifty years or so is the attenuating, and in some circles, complete disappearance of the biblical worldview. I've complained in the past about a bland, bored secularism that simply sets aside questions of the spiritual, the supernatural, and the transcendent. And this widespread bracketing of the religious dimension is abetted by a consumerist culture that teaches us in a thousand ways that sensual pleasure and wealth are the keys to happiness. For the secularist mind, God is, at best, a distant, indifferent force; Jesus is a guru of self-affirmation; and eternal life is a childish fantasy.
But in accord with the above-mentioned law, the supernatural will not be denied. The instinct for God and for a world that transcends the realm of ordinary experience is hard-wired into us and thus our desire, thwarted by the environing culture, will produce some distorted version of transcendence, some ersatz spirituality. Hence the world of vampires. Let me analyze just one feature of this universe. Besides blood sucking, the distinguishing mark of vampires is immortality: they are the undead, the eternally young. Though the materialist ideology around us insists that we are no more than clever animals who will fade away at death, deep within us is the sure sense that we are more than that. There are in us, as Shakespeare's Cleopatra put it, "immortal longings," for we are linked, whether we like it or not, to the eternal God who stands outside of time. When the proper religious sense of immortality is suspended, we produce the weird ersatz of the vampire who cannot die. I say ersatz, because authentic immortality has nothing to do with endless life in this world; rather, it has to do with being brought outside of time into the eternal realm of God. But when we're starving spiritually, we find even thin gruel appealing.
Just recently, I came across a most illuminating remark by Anne Rice, the aforementioned author of the series of novels that effectively inaugurated the entire vampire craze. She said that the character of Louis, the tortured vampire who is famously interviewed in her first novel, was evocative of the many friends of hers from the sixties and seventies of the last century, people who had fallen into the morass of a post-Christian secularism. Like Louis, they knew they were caught up in something spiritually deadly, and again like the vampire, they could find no way out. The anguish of the Rice's vampire was parallel to the anguish of the secular generation, thirsty for the very thing that their culture had denied. And what makes Rice's observation even more fascinating is that she herself followed that thirst and made her way through the secularist delusion of her generation and rediscovered Christ. Just about ten years ago, Anne Rice re-embraced the vividly imagined and intellectually profound faith of her youth and since then has dedicated her writing exclusively to the Lord. She has brought out, so far, two volumes of a multi-volume life of Jesus, told in the first person; and her most recent text is the commencement of a new series of novels on angels. And she has asserted that, despite the pleas of her legion of fans, she will never write another vampire novel. What's really fascinating is that the godmother of contemporary vampire chic has effectively seen through phony supernaturalism and embraced the real thing.
There are in us, as Shakespeare's Cleopatra put it, "immortal longings," for we are linked, whether we like it or not, to the eternal God who stands outside of time.
Anne Rice's Catholicism brings to mind the Catholicism that played a central role in the original Dracula by Bram Stoker. Stoker, a nineteenth century Irishman, placed the vampire legend within the overarching biblical narrative of sin, grace, and redemption. In Stoker's telling, Dracula had cursed God and hence fallen into a hellish state (which helps to explain his aversion to the crucifix). Professor Van Helsing, a scientist and a devout believer (yes, the two can co-exist!), brought the tortured vampire to salvation. Throughout the novel, Catholic themes abound: the Eucharist, the Mass, eternal life, etc. At the end of the nineteenth century, it was still possible to situate the vampire story within the far greater story of Christianity. What we witness today is a sad declension, whereby vampire tales are a bloodless substitute for robust Christianity.
References
Father Robert Barron, "Why Is Everyone Crazy About Vampires?" Catholic New World (November 19, 2009). Fr. Robert Barron was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1986. He has a Masters degree in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Institute Catholique de Paris. He is currently professor of systematic theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary. Fr. Barron is the author of, And Now I See: A Theology of Transformation, Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master, Heaven in Stone and Glass: Experiencing the Spirituality of the Great Cathedrals, Eucharist (Catholic Spirituality for Adults), Priority of Christ, The: Toward a Postliberal Catholicism, and Word on File: Proclaiming the Power of Christ. He also gives frequent talks, retreats and workshops on issues of theology and spirituality. Father Barron uses his YouTube channel to reach out to people and bring valuable lessons of faith alive by pointing out things that can be learned by watching popular characters of movies and television shows.
Thanks Carlos.
Dieu Le Roy!
Brantigny
Fr. Robert Barron
You’d have to be living under a rock not to have noticed the prevalence of vampires in today’s culture.One of the most popular television shows in recent years was Buffy the Vampire Slayer Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles continue to be widely read; HBO is currently running a series about vampires called True Blood; Wesley Snipes starred in a trilogy of vampire films called Blade; and one of the most successful movies of late is Twilight, the story of teen mortals and teen vampires in love. How do we explain the seemingly endless fascination with the undead?
Obviously, clever marketing has a good deal to do with it, but I think there are deeper reasons as well. There is, in the spiritual order, a law analogous to the law of the conservation of energy, which I would express as follows: when the supernatural is suppressed, it necessarily finds expression in indirect and distorted form. What we have witnessed in the last fifty years or so is the attenuating, and in some circles, complete disappearance of the biblical worldview. I've complained in the past about a bland, bored secularism that simply sets aside questions of the spiritual, the supernatural, and the transcendent. And this widespread bracketing of the religious dimension is abetted by a consumerist culture that teaches us in a thousand ways that sensual pleasure and wealth are the keys to happiness. For the secularist mind, God is, at best, a distant, indifferent force; Jesus is a guru of self-affirmation; and eternal life is a childish fantasy.
But in accord with the above-mentioned law, the supernatural will not be denied. The instinct for God and for a world that transcends the realm of ordinary experience is hard-wired into us and thus our desire, thwarted by the environing culture, will produce some distorted version of transcendence, some ersatz spirituality. Hence the world of vampires. Let me analyze just one feature of this universe. Besides blood sucking, the distinguishing mark of vampires is immortality: they are the undead, the eternally young. Though the materialist ideology around us insists that we are no more than clever animals who will fade away at death, deep within us is the sure sense that we are more than that. There are in us, as Shakespeare's Cleopatra put it, "immortal longings," for we are linked, whether we like it or not, to the eternal God who stands outside of time. When the proper religious sense of immortality is suspended, we produce the weird ersatz of the vampire who cannot die. I say ersatz, because authentic immortality has nothing to do with endless life in this world; rather, it has to do with being brought outside of time into the eternal realm of God. But when we're starving spiritually, we find even thin gruel appealing.
Just recently, I came across a most illuminating remark by Anne Rice, the aforementioned author of the series of novels that effectively inaugurated the entire vampire craze. She said that the character of Louis, the tortured vampire who is famously interviewed in her first novel, was evocative of the many friends of hers from the sixties and seventies of the last century, people who had fallen into the morass of a post-Christian secularism. Like Louis, they knew they were caught up in something spiritually deadly, and again like the vampire, they could find no way out. The anguish of the Rice's vampire was parallel to the anguish of the secular generation, thirsty for the very thing that their culture had denied. And what makes Rice's observation even more fascinating is that she herself followed that thirst and made her way through the secularist delusion of her generation and rediscovered Christ. Just about ten years ago, Anne Rice re-embraced the vividly imagined and intellectually profound faith of her youth and since then has dedicated her writing exclusively to the Lord. She has brought out, so far, two volumes of a multi-volume life of Jesus, told in the first person; and her most recent text is the commencement of a new series of novels on angels. And she has asserted that, despite the pleas of her legion of fans, she will never write another vampire novel. What's really fascinating is that the godmother of contemporary vampire chic has effectively seen through phony supernaturalism and embraced the real thing.
There are in us, as Shakespeare's Cleopatra put it, "immortal longings," for we are linked, whether we like it or not, to the eternal God who stands outside of time.
Anne Rice's Catholicism brings to mind the Catholicism that played a central role in the original Dracula by Bram Stoker. Stoker, a nineteenth century Irishman, placed the vampire legend within the overarching biblical narrative of sin, grace, and redemption. In Stoker's telling, Dracula had cursed God and hence fallen into a hellish state (which helps to explain his aversion to the crucifix). Professor Van Helsing, a scientist and a devout believer (yes, the two can co-exist!), brought the tortured vampire to salvation. Throughout the novel, Catholic themes abound: the Eucharist, the Mass, eternal life, etc. At the end of the nineteenth century, it was still possible to situate the vampire story within the far greater story of Christianity. What we witness today is a sad declension, whereby vampire tales are a bloodless substitute for robust Christianity.
References
Father Robert Barron, "Why Is Everyone Crazy About Vampires?" Catholic New World (November 19, 2009). Fr. Robert Barron was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1986. He has a Masters degree in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Institute Catholique de Paris. He is currently professor of systematic theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary. Fr. Barron is the author of, And Now I See: A Theology of Transformation, Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master, Heaven in Stone and Glass: Experiencing the Spirituality of the Great Cathedrals, Eucharist (Catholic Spirituality for Adults), Priority of Christ, The: Toward a Postliberal Catholicism, and Word on File: Proclaiming the Power of Christ. He also gives frequent talks, retreats and workshops on issues of theology and spirituality. Father Barron uses his YouTube channel to reach out to people and bring valuable lessons of faith alive by pointing out things that can be learned by watching popular characters of movies and television shows.
Thanks Carlos.
Dieu Le Roy!
Brantigny
2.12.09
News I am tired of hearing about.
Tiger Woods. I am tired of hearing about him and the dissection of his affair.
"Gay" Hollywood. It is "homosexual Hollywood" OK? I do not care. The news media has reported on every actress and actor in Hollywood who has decided to "come out." It causes me to wonder if anyone in Hollywood is not homosexual. Possibly that is the point of the media's attention. Why don't we just put a description under those in Hollywood who are homosexual by writing, "So and so", An openly homosexual actor(ess)." I never liked "Family Ties". I was not suprised.
I don't want to hear about Britanny, Lyndsey, Paris, Perez, Hanna Montana or Madonna.
I don't want to hear what happened on the "View" or AU-Phra.
I am tired about hearing how many jobs Obama saved. ('cause he doesn't own a business).
God help me.
I feel better now.
Brantigny
"Gay" Hollywood. It is "homosexual Hollywood" OK? I do not care. The news media has reported on every actress and actor in Hollywood who has decided to "come out." It causes me to wonder if anyone in Hollywood is not homosexual. Possibly that is the point of the media's attention. Why don't we just put a description under those in Hollywood who are homosexual by writing, "So and so", An openly homosexual actor(ess)." I never liked "Family Ties". I was not suprised.
The Whitehouse Party crashers. Arrest them or leave them alone. This administration can't control who comes into the Whitehouse and who doesn't . That is just another indication of the lacksidasial attitude that exists. The buck stops a the door of the guy in charge. The Secret Service says the President was never in danger... This idiot got right up to BO. Note to the Secret Service,... you don't have to shoot someone to kill them. Inmates get assaulted every day with plastic shanks and shives. If someone with a middle eastern name can get in a terrorist (oops) can. Then Joe Biden would have gotten to be president.
I don't want to hear about Britanny, Lyndsey, Paris, Perez, Hanna Montana or Madonna.
I don't want to hear what happened on the "View" or AU-Phra.
I am tired about hearing how many jobs Obama saved. ('cause he doesn't own a business).
God help me.
I feel better now.
Brantigny
Alas England no more...
"...Now, it has the so-called “passerelle” clause, or self-amending mechanism. Parliament, in other words, no longer has the final say on extensions of EU jurisdiction. The EU derives its authority, not from its 27 members, but from its own foundational texts..."
At midnight last night, the United Kingdom ceased to be a sovereign state. That single sentence has all the sadness and pathos as Neville Chamberland announcing war with Germany on September 3rd, 1939. Below find an article from the Daily Telegraph...
By Daniel Hannan Politics Last updated: December 1st, 2009
293 Comments Comment on this article
We woke up in a different country today. Alright, it doesn’t look very different. The trees still seem black against the winter sun; the motorways continue to jam inexplicably; commuters carry on avoiding eye contact. But Britain is no longer a sovereign nation. At midnight last night, we ceased to be an independent state, bound by international treaties to other independent states, and became instead a subordinate unit within a European state.
Yes, a European state. Take a quick dekko at the definition set out in Article One of the1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States: “The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states.”
Until yesterday, the EU qualified on grounds (a), (b) and (c). Now it has ticked the final box. Under the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force today, it acquires “legal personality”, which gives it the right to sign accords and treat with other states. Nor is this right simply theoretical: the EU now has a foreign minister, a diplomatic corps (the European External Action Service) and 160 overseas embassies.
Until yesterday, the EU could not annex additional policy areas without a new treaty, which needed to be ratified by all its constituent nations. Now, it has the so-called “passerelle” clause, or self-amending mechanism. Parliament, in other words, no longer has the final say on extensions of EU jurisdiction. The EU derives its authority, not from its 27 members, but from its own foundational texts.
Until yesterday, Britain could simply walk out of the EU by abrogating the Treaty of Rome and repealing the 1972 European Communities Act. Henceforth, it will have to go through the secession procedure laid down in Lisbon. In other words – in the minds of Euro-lawyers, at any rate, if not of British constitutionalists – the EU gets to settle the terms on which its members are allowed to leave. Formal sovereignty has been shifted from the national capitals to Brussels.
It is appalling, demeaning, disgraceful that such a thing should have been done without popular consent, and in the absence of the referendum that all three parties had promised. “There’s no point in crying over spilt milk,” you might say. True. But there is every point in mopping it up.
This is why it is so important to read the texts of the bills which pass through the Congress. They same type of people in Britain who snuck this through Parliament are trying to run the health care bill past us. Information as the above is buried in pioles of diplomatic BS.
Dieu Le Roy!
Brantigny
Note I was thinking of doing the Vera Lynn version of the They'll Always be an England" but I found this one instead.
At midnight last night, the United Kingdom ceased to be a sovereign state. That single sentence has all the sadness and pathos as Neville Chamberland announcing war with Germany on September 3rd, 1939. Below find an article from the Daily Telegraph...
By Daniel Hannan Politics Last updated: December 1st, 2009
293 Comments Comment on this article
We woke up in a different country today. Alright, it doesn’t look very different. The trees still seem black against the winter sun; the motorways continue to jam inexplicably; commuters carry on avoiding eye contact. But Britain is no longer a sovereign nation. At midnight last night, we ceased to be an independent state, bound by international treaties to other independent states, and became instead a subordinate unit within a European state.
Yes, a European state. Take a quick dekko at the definition set out in Article One of the1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States: “The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states.”
Until yesterday, the EU qualified on grounds (a), (b) and (c). Now it has ticked the final box. Under the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force today, it acquires “legal personality”, which gives it the right to sign accords and treat with other states. Nor is this right simply theoretical: the EU now has a foreign minister, a diplomatic corps (the European External Action Service) and 160 overseas embassies.
Until yesterday, the EU could not annex additional policy areas without a new treaty, which needed to be ratified by all its constituent nations. Now, it has the so-called “passerelle” clause, or self-amending mechanism. Parliament, in other words, no longer has the final say on extensions of EU jurisdiction. The EU derives its authority, not from its 27 members, but from its own foundational texts.
Until yesterday, Britain could simply walk out of the EU by abrogating the Treaty of Rome and repealing the 1972 European Communities Act. Henceforth, it will have to go through the secession procedure laid down in Lisbon. In other words – in the minds of Euro-lawyers, at any rate, if not of British constitutionalists – the EU gets to settle the terms on which its members are allowed to leave. Formal sovereignty has been shifted from the national capitals to Brussels.
It is appalling, demeaning, disgraceful that such a thing should have been done without popular consent, and in the absence of the referendum that all three parties had promised. “There’s no point in crying over spilt milk,” you might say. True. But there is every point in mopping it up.
This is why it is so important to read the texts of the bills which pass through the Congress. They same type of people in Britain who snuck this through Parliament are trying to run the health care bill past us. Information as the above is buried in pioles of diplomatic BS.
Dieu Le Roy!
Brantigny
Note I was thinking of doing the Vera Lynn version of the They'll Always be an England" but I found this one instead.
26th Wedding Anniversary
Suzanne my wife.Today my wife and I have been married 26 years. ...Through a lot of thick and much too much thin, richer and poorer (most of the time)... Through these last 26 years, Suzanne has stuck by my side and put up with a lot. She has been quick to forgive and be understanding. She is far better than I deserve.
God Bless my wife,
Richard
1.12.09
Global Warming Fraud
This weekend it was reported that the emails and other documents, apparently originating from with the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, were hacked on 20 November, 2009. The messages were pirated from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia (UEA) and reveal correspondence between British and American researchers engaged in fraudulent reporting of data to favor their own climate change agenda. UEA officials confirmed one of their servers was hacked, and several of the scientists involved admitted the authenticity of the messages, according to the New York Times. The article however opined, "The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument." in an incredible "Baghdad Bobism" denial. Climatologist Patrick J. Michaels has challenged that position. "This is not a smoking gun, this is a mushroom cloud." The e-mails implicate scores of researchers, most of whom are associated with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an organization many skeptics believe was created exclusively to provide evidence of anthropogenic global warming (AGW). It has been reported that this information had been sought through the British equivalent freedom of information but had been stonewalled of out right ignored.
There are calls for the hackers to be arrested and charged in a typical leftest move to destroy the credibility of those who found the information. My question is how they got in; Did they have an inside to what was in the documents? The question by the left is not that the evidence is damning but what the hackers did. That in itself is proof that the left are using their useful idiots the press.
This is damning evidence. It is however evidence which will most likely be ignored by the Obama administration in their move to pass socialist laws and to pursue their own leftest agenda.
Take a day and look at the Emails yourself... here...
Is it getting cold or is it just me? The usual joke at the end of article like this is, "I bet Al Gore is sorry he invented the internet."
Dieu le Roy,
Brantigny
There are calls for the hackers to be arrested and charged in a typical leftest move to destroy the credibility of those who found the information. My question is how they got in; Did they have an inside to what was in the documents? The question by the left is not that the evidence is damning but what the hackers did. That in itself is proof that the left are using their useful idiots the press.
This is damning evidence. It is however evidence which will most likely be ignored by the Obama administration in their move to pass socialist laws and to pursue their own leftest agenda.
Take a day and look at the Emails yourself... here...
Is it getting cold or is it just me? The usual joke at the end of article like this is, "I bet Al Gore is sorry he invented the internet."
Dieu le Roy,
Brantigny
30.11.09
Terrorist attack or Manmade Disaster
Why is it that the Russians get it and we in the US have trouble calling a terrorist a terrorist? I received an email from my friends in Belgorad on the 27th of November. They passed along the news that a terrorist had exploded a bomb under the track of the Nevsky express. They did not call this a, "man made disaster", as our home land Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has informed her staff to call such events. Nick said "terrorist" attack. ...and Nick asks some pertinent questions. Here is the text of his letter...
Dear Richard,
Thank you very much for your e-mail and for wonderful photos of the baby. She is just charming! And her mother looks very happy though tired a little.
Our congratulations and very best wishes dear friends!
Here now we have sad news.
Yesterday evening (November,27) in Russia a new terrorist attack happened. The "Nevsky Express" train went from Moscow to S.Peterburg. In the middle of the way not far from the Bologoe station a bomb burst under the train. 4 cars in the end of the train were derailed and turned over.
25 died and more than 90 were wounded in this crash.(See the attached pictures)
The main version of this tragedy is terrorist attack, now even our media have to admin this. By the way 2 years ago the same Nevsky express was blown up in the same way and the terrorists charged for this attack were finally condemned just on November,25.
And on November 27 mussulmans celebrated their holiday, the so-called "Kurban Bairam". This is an islamic sacrifice holiday...
Again and again and again.... Islamic terrorists, explosions, victims, blood...
Sometimes it seems we live not in 21-st century but in the Middle Ages.
But if it's so maybe only a new Crusade can be the single solution?
This is the main Russian news for today.
Best wishes from Russia
Your friends
Helen and Nick
Dear Richard,
Thank you very much for your e-mail and for wonderful photos of the baby. She is just charming! And her mother looks very happy though tired a little.
Our congratulations and very best wishes dear friends!
Here now we have sad news.
Yesterday evening (November,27) in Russia a new terrorist attack happened. The "Nevsky Express" train went from Moscow to S.Peterburg. In the middle of the way not far from the Bologoe station a bomb burst under the train. 4 cars in the end of the train were derailed and turned over.
25 died and more than 90 were wounded in this crash.(See the attached pictures)
The main version of this tragedy is terrorist attack, now even our media have to admin this. By the way 2 years ago the same Nevsky express was blown up in the same way and the terrorists charged for this attack were finally condemned just on November,25.
And on November 27 mussulmans celebrated their holiday, the so-called "Kurban Bairam". This is an islamic sacrifice holiday...
Again and again and again.... Islamic terrorists, explosions, victims, blood...
Sometimes it seems we live not in 21-st century but in the Middle Ages.
But if it's so maybe only a new Crusade can be the single solution?
This is the main Russian news for today.
Best wishes from Russia
Your friends
Helen and Nick
I found this an interesting article too...
The Muslim should open a history book and read just why Alexandr Nevsky is revered in Russia. Possibly they will understand exactly what they are in for.
Dieu Le Roy!
Brantigny
Evidently the Russian people know what a terrorist is...
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