Thursday, April 29, 2010

Lesbian Bishop To Be Consecrated on May 15


THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Save the date! The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles is set to consecrate as bishop Mary Glasspool, an active and partnered lesbian. This comes six years after the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson in New Hampshire. Robinson is also an active and partnered homosexual. Both Glasspool and Robinson are open about their homosexuality and see no problem with it conflicting with their professed Christian faith. The Episcopal Church seems to have no problem with it either, and in fact there is a good chance that another homosexual will soon be elected bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada. I've heard rumors there is even another potential somewhere in the Old South (Dixie).

It will be interesting to see how conservatives within the Anglican Communion will react to this. They have already threatened to disassociate from The Episcopal Church completely.

In light of all this The Catholic Knight has just one question for our Episcopalian brothers and sisters in Christ. How's that whole "Protestant Reformation" thing working you for you?

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The UK Is Anti-Catholic

(LifeSiteNews.com) – In a televised debate last week, all three leaders of the major British political parties accused Pope Benedict XVI of failing sufficiently to recognize and deal with the sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church.

With Britain’s next general election looming and the country gearing up for an official papal visit, the televised debate featured the leaders of Britain’s political class scolding Pope Benedict for upholding Catholic teaching on homosexuality, contraception and abortion, and for what was alleged to be his inaction on the sexual abuse of minors by priests....

read full story here
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Their answers were in response to what was clearly a loaded question from a member of the audience. Still, the fact that not a single candidate dared to even question the accusation against our pope demonstrates once again, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that after 500 years, the UK is still an overwhelmingly anti-Catholic country.

This comes on the heels of an embarrassing memo leaked to the press in which members of the British government circulated an anti-Catholic "joke" that mocked the pope and the teachings of the Catholic Church. The British government has since apologized to the Vatican over this.

In this latest anti-Catholic scandal, we now have clear evidence that the leaders of all three British political parties are anti-Catholic. This is demonstrated by their willingness to presume guilt on the pope without sufficient evidence against him. Of course this is the very definition of prejudice in a legal sense.

British anti-Catholicism has a long history going back five centuries and reaching the highest levels of British government. It began in the early 16th century when King Henry VIII failed to receive an annulment from the Vatican and subsequently broke English Christianity away from the pope and declared himself the absolute spiritual ruler of the Church of England. He then proceeded on a campaign to persecute and murder all who opposed his personal claim to the "English papacy." Things only went downhill from there. In subsequent generations the throne passed between Catholic and Protestant heirs, each persecuting their political enemies. The final result came under Queen Elizabeth I which settled England as a Protestant country. In the following centuries, England became the leading herald of anti-Catholic propaganda around the world, as the British crown persecuted Irish Catholics and waged war against the Catholic kingdoms of France and Spain.

Anti-Catholicism took firm root in all of England's colonies, especially the thirteen American colonies. This is how the United States came to be so anti-Catholic. The venom was inherited from it's British colonial past and continues even today in the form of radical Fundamentalism and leftist Liberalism.

Sadly, the more things change the more they stay the same. The world may have moved into the 21st century, but British politics is still locked in the 16th century. To date Catholics are still forbidden from the British royal family. Government officials still mock the pope and the Church behind closed doors. Leading party officials not only refuse to defend the pope's right of innocence until proven guilty, but actually participate in promoting anti-Catholic presumption. Way to go England! Thanks for reminding the world just how little you've progressed in five centuries. Just brilliant! Jolly good show!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Shroud of Christ Explained

(WorldNetDaily) - The shroud, therefore, they concluded, was not created by paint soaking through the linen or by a photographic image printing through to the reverse side, because the front and back facial images are not identical and the center fibers show no image creation whatsoever.

Fanti and Maggiolo concluded the shroud image was created by a "corona discharge," understood as a radiant burst of light and energy that scorched the body image of the crucified man on the topmost fibers of the shroud's front and back sides, without producing any image on the centermost of its linen fibers....

read full story here
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: This is one historical relic about which 'The Catholic Knight' has no doubt. As far as I'm concerned, this IS a legitimate artifact of Jesus Christ, and the image above is indeed the face of our Lord at the moment of his resurrection.

Monday, April 26, 2010

How Anti-Catholicism Became A Liberal Trademark


THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Are you a Liberal? Well then you must be an Anti-Catholic. At least that's the new expectation of your buddies on the Left. "Catholic-baiting is the anti-Semitism of the liberals." So wrote the poet Peter Viereck. In truth it probably is the last remaining acceptable prejudice. Of course, it wasn't always that way.

Once upon a time Liberals could be counted on as the defenders of Catholic minorities in predominately Protestant countries, like the USA for example. Not so anymore. Today, Liberals are expected to despise the Catholic Church, it's leaders, and everything it represents. "The only good Catholic is a bad Catholic." So says the Liberal Left today, as it showers with praise Catholic dissenters like Senator Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. While it simultaneously scorns faithful Catholics such as Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. Catholics who oppose Church teaching are considered "enlightened" and "sophisticated," while those who defend Church teaching are called "bigoted" and "fundamentalist" as well as "down right dangerous." You see the trend here? This is the new status quo. It's been this way for a long time. While not everyone who self-identifies as "liberal" automatically displays such blatant anti-Catholicism, it is the expected norm on the Left, and those Liberals who do not march in lock-step are the exception to the rule.

So how did it happen? How could a movement (Liberalism or "Progressivism"), which once identified with poor Catholic immigrants, turn into such a hate filled and intolerant anti-Catholic machine? The answer can best be found in modern Liberalism's embrace of moral relativism. It began sometime early in the last century, and by the 1960s it had firmly taken root. This has inevitably led to the Left's bitter turn against the Catholic Church and anyone who would defend her (even those poor Catholic immigrants the Left once supported). Why? Because in a time when the Left has embraced moral relativism, nothing is more offensive than a religion that says not all "truths" are equal, that not all religions are equally true, and that not all morality is relative.

You see in an age of moral relativism, embraced by the Liberal Left, an interesting dichotomy has developed. Relativism claims to treat all moral views equally. However, that does not hold true toward those moral views that reject relativism. In this case, Relativism demands retribution, and that its opposition be crushed. So as Pope Benedict XVI pointed out, while he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, Relativism has become a sort of "dictatorship" of the worst kind, one which demands that all be treated equally, with Relativism as the unquestionable absolute final authority. One can question any religion, any politics, any societal norm, but not Relativism. Relativism is above question, and those who dare to question it must be put down at all cost.

It's an illogical contradiction you see. The Liberal, having embraced moral relativism, says there are no moral absolutes, EXCEPT of course the absolute moral statement that there are no moral absolutes. To say there is no real morality is of course a moral statement, and the irony is that those who make such statements do so within the social framework of a Christian civilization that gave them the freedom and safety to make such statements in the first place. For to say there are no moral absolutes is to say "thou shalt not murder" is not always true. It is to say that certain addendum could easily be added depending on the situation. "Thou shalt not murder - without a good reason" could be one such example. Thus the same moral relativism espoused by Liberals could easily be used to justify killing them in the name of relativism. Why not? If it's all relative, who's to say it's wrong?

Of course The Catholic Knight does say it's wrong, because The Catholic Knight is NOT a moral relativist. Such an argument is pure insanity, but that is the nature of moral relativism itself. Let me be perfectly clear, lest some fool accuse me of advocating murder, the killing of a human being (outside of self defense) is ALWAYS WRONG, at ALL TIMES, and WITHOUT EXCEPTION. That is moral absolutism, and thankfully for Liberals, that is what The Catholic Knight espouses, along with the Catholic Church, Christianity in general, and many of the world's organized religions. So thanks to the pope, his supporters, and others like him, Left-wing Liberal Relativists are free to make such ridiculous assertions as "there are no moral absolutes" without fear of their own idiocy being used against them in some violent way. (Of course, that may all change once Islam takes over western civilization in about 50 years.)

So as Liberals espouse moral relativism within the framework of a Christian civilization, that still protects them from the inevitable conclusions of their own ideology, their hatred toward anyone who would espouse moral absolutism intensifies. This is coupled with a nagging question that plagues them. "Since the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s has given us a society where marriage is no longer necessary, and sexual morality is virtually a thing of the past, why have we not yet attained Nirvana?" A similar question could be posed about many other things as well, such as the redistribution of wealth for example. Of course, no Liberal is going to ask this out loud, but the question must be nagging them at least at a subconscious level. What do people do in uncertain times like these, when their own ideology is above question? They scapegoat of course, and since they view everything that came before their relativism as anathema, and the Catholic Church espouses such antiquated ideas, then of course the Catholic Church must be the problem. So it is scapegoated, just like the Jews have been scapegoated throughout history. Is it the least bit surprising to see that history demonstrates a recurring theme of anti-Catholicism linked to anti-Semitism at the same periods of time when the future looks bleak and uncertain? That would indeed seem to be the case, for whenever societies start to attack the Jews they simultaneously attack the Catholic Church. The attacks are often different, and the people involved are sometimes different, as it would seem that different socioeconomic classes seem to attack different groups in different ways. One thing that remains constant however is scapegoating. Anti-Semitism is currently on the rise in Europe, and this comes at a time when active participation in the Catholic religion is at an all time historic low. Of course now with the excessive and disproportionate media coverage of clerical sex abuse, the Catholic Church itself is becoming the scapegoat.

This scapegoating of the Catholic Church however fits the template of moral relativism all the more. Not only does it provide an easy answer (or excuse) for why our Liberal society has not achieved the Nirvana that was expected, but the morally absolute teachings of the Catholic Church are also conveniently offensive to anyone who holds a morally relativistic point of view.

Left-wing Liberals began adopting moral relativism sometime in the early 20th century, and the concept became synonymous with Liberalism (or "Progressivism") by the 1960s. It was at this time their attitudes toward the Catholic Church began to change and became increasingly hostile. Today we are steadily moving toward a point when Liberalism and anti-Catholicism are practically one in the same.

50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists



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Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolve - Frans de Waal



Celebrated primatologist de Waal expands on his earlier work in Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals to argue that human traits of fairness, reciprocity and altruism develop through natural selection. Based on his 2004 Tanner Lectures at Princeton, this book argues that our morality grows out of the social instincts we share with bonobos, chimpanzees and apes. De Waal criticizes what he calls the "veneer theory," which holds that human ethics is simply an overlay masking our "selfish and brutish nature." De Waal draws on his own work with primates to illustrate the evolution of morality. The volume also includes responses to de Waal by Robert Wright, Christine M. Korsgaard, Philip Kitcher and Peter Singer. Although E.O. Wilson and Robert Wright have long contended that altruism is a product of evolution, de Waal demonstrates through his empirical work with primates the evolutionary basis for ethics. Publishers Weekly

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Richard Dawkins Interviews Frans de Waal



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Sunday, April 25, 2010

Pope May Cancel Trip to UK Due to Anti-Catholic Government Memo

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: A recent British internal government memo indicates what many of us have known for a very long time. Elements within the British government still harbor deep anti-Catholic bigotry. That should be no big surprise to any of us. The English government has been anti-Catholic for nearly five centuries now, and the more things change the more they stay the same. Granted, the focus of British anti-Catholicism has changed a bit. Doctrinal issues on matters of faith once took center stage in the Anglo-Catholic divide. Now that has shifted to moral issues, particularly in the realm of sexuality, but one thing that has not changed is the bitter animosity. We Americans can thank our British ancestry for the rampant anti-Catholicism that has blighted our land. (Lord knows we didn't get it from the French or the Spanish.)

Now as the backlash to this anti-Catholic memo reaches the Vatican, there are hints the pope may cancel his trip to the UK all together. In all frankness I doubt this will happen. The pope is far more likely to ignore it and proceed with the trip anyway. However, I almost hope this doesn't get glossed over. I almost hope the Vatican uses this as a way to kill two birds with one stone. First, to spare the Holy Father the humiliation of having to get off the plane in England and immediately be greeted by rabid anti-papal protesters. Second, to teach the British government (through their own humiliation) that this kind of bigotry by government officials has got to stop. Come on folks, it's been five-hundred years now. Don't you think it's time to grow up?

Nevertheless this is what I think will happen. The pope will visit the UK. He will remain there for most of his planned four day visit. When he steps off the plane there will be the faint sound of protesters jeering in the distance, drowned by the overwhelming cheers of supporters nearby. Of course the media will focus on the protestors almost exclusively, as we would expect of such anti-Catholic gœbbels. In time however, as the protests continue in the distance, the media, the government, and especially the queen, will be shocked to see the overwhelming numbers that will come to see him, cheer him on, and chant his nickname "B16! B16! B16!". It will be quite the phenomenon you see, and when he leaves the so-called elites of the British isles will be left scratching their heads and wondering what just happened.

Followup 4/26/2010....
Vatican announces pope will visit UK in spite of bigoted memo.

BREAKING: Pope To Apologize For Sex-Abuse Cover-Up Scandal

(The Independent) - Vatican sources said the Pope considers the jamboree with the priests in June an appropriate occasion for him to lead the whole church in a "Day of Request for Pardon" of the victims and their families for the wrong done by a small percentage of priests in abusing children and minors in many countries, and the wrong done by bishops in covering up that abuse or protecting the predators.
The meeting would be appropriate for a day of fasting as well as penance, they say. On the papal flight last week-end Benedict made a second allusion to the abuse scandal, and its devastating effect on the moral authority of the church and its pastors, describing the church as the body of Jesus Christ "wounded by our sins".
The respected Vatican watcher added: "It is clear that Benedict has been reflecting and seeking to understand the abuse scandal with the eyes of faith. He seems to be developing a theological and spiritual frame for reading and dealing with this shameful and humbling reality in the life of the church in the 21st century and discerning an exit strategy from it."

read full story here
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: I think this is the right thing to do, along with a clear Vatican mandate on how to deal with this problem in the future. However, to be quite honest, I don't believe any act by this pope, no matter how sincere and reforming, will be enough to satisfy those blood thirsty Goebbels in the mainstream news media.

Friday, April 23, 2010

BREAKING: Media Campaign Against Pope Engineered By Nazis

“There are cases of sexual abuse that come to light every day against a large number of members of the Catholic clergy. Unfortunately it’s not a matter of individual cases, but a collective moral crisis that perhaps the cultural history of humanity has never before known with such a frightening and disconcerting dimension. Numerous priests and religious have confessed. There’s no doubt that the thousands of cases which have come to the attention of the justice system represent only a small fraction of the true total, given that many molesters have been covered and hidden by the hierarchy.”

An editorial from a great secular newspaper in 2010? No: It’s a speech of May 28, 1937, by Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), Minister of Propaganda for the Third Reich. This speech, which had a large international echo, was the apex of a campaign launched by the Nazi regime to discredit the Catholic Church by involving it in a scandal of pedophile priests.

Two hundred and seventy-six religious and forty-nine diocesan priests were arrested in 1937. The arrests took place in all the German dioceses, in order to keep the scandals on the front pages of the newspapers.

On March 10, 1937, with the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge, Pope Pius XI (1857-1939) condemned the Nazi ideology. At the end of the same month, the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda headed by Goebbels launched a campaign against the sexual abuses of priests. The design and administration of this campaign are known to historians thanks to documents which tell a story worthy of the best spy novels...

read full story here
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Leave it to the liberal neo-socialists in the biased mainstream news media to execute a plan carefully crafted by their forerunners in Germany's National-Socialist (Nazi) Party. I wish I could say I am shocked, but I can't. This is exactly the kind of playbook I would expect the mainstream news media to get their strategy from.

Once again, The Catholic Knight will cite the facts because we all know the Nazi (ahem! I mean "Liberal") mainstream news media never will.

1) It is a statistical fact that sexual-abuse and cover-up only accounts for less than 5% of the clergy and involves less than 0.1% of underage minors in the Catholic Church.

2) It is a statistical fact that over 80% of all sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church involve male victims between the ages of 11 and 17 years in what is clearly a predator homosexual relationship.

3) Insurance companies report that cases of sexual abuse and cover-up are slightly higher in Protestant churches.

4) According to a US government survey, sexual abuse and cover-up is literally 100 times higher in America's public schools than in the US Catholic Church.

5) All of the records and data available to date indicate that no other person in the Vatican has done more to stop sexual abuse and cover-up than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, currently Pope Benedict XVI.

That's the news you'll never hear or see from our liberally biased mainstream news media. Instead what we'll hear, see and read is Nazi hype, blown way out of proportion, while much bigger problems in the public schools are swept under the rug. Yes, I'm talking about ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and even FoxNews to some degree. I'm talking about the New York Times, Washington Post, and other liberal rags of the same ilk. They employ the tactics of Nazis, one and all, is there any reason we should refrain from calling them what they are?

Now please don't misunderstand. We shouldn't fault them just for reporting the news. After all that is their job. Rather we should fault them for the way they report it. They are careless, innacurate and grossly disproportionate. It goes well beyond incompetence. This is intentional! Let's not forget the elephant in the living room. This pope is remarkably "conservative," and he's been doing some very "conservative" things lately, if we can use that term in reference to religion. (Some might prefer the term "orthodox.") While the mainstream news media is remarkably "not conservative," and frankly there are many reasons why they would dislike him because of that. So like the Nazis before them, they raise the phantom menace of sexual abuse, blow it way out of proportion, creating an alternate reality to brainwash the population against him and the religion he represents.

We shouldn't be surprised though. After all, they're only parroting those German national-socialists who went before them. Sieg - Heil!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

"Social Security, the Military Budget and Wall Street" by Jerry Mazza

Social Security, the Military Budget and Wall Street
Jerry Mazza / 20 April 2010


The new Goldman Sachs global headquarters in Manhattan

Lately just about every month I find myself writing a check to the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. As a recipient of both, I feel it’s a cause worth supporting, especially now, and since Barbara Kennelly, its President and CEO, tells me in her newsletter that the “P” word for Privatization has reared its ugly head again. Bad ideas never seem to go away.

As Barbara writes, “Yes, another Social Security privatization plan much like the one we battled—and defeated—under the Bush Administration is making a comeback.” She adds, “And just like 2005, soaring federal debt is fueling this dangerous idea that proponents claim is essential to our nation’s economic security. But this time we’re under siege of a full-blown debt crisisand the pressure is on like never before.”

My first thought is that Social Security did not bring on the debt crisis. It was the crooked banks that went into massive debt through bad and willfully corrupt decision making, and the use of deadly derivatives, Credit Default Obligations (CDO’s) and Credit Default Swaps (CDS’s). See U.S. Accuses Goldman of Fraud and Top Goldman Leaders Said to Have Overseen Mortgage Unit.

Add to this corruption, the endlessly soaring military budget, which is to fight three wars at once in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. Secondly, the thought of handing Social Security funds to the thieves of the financial system is not only idiotic. It’s guaranteed to make those funds vanish in manipulated losses, more bailouts, and more fat-cat profits for Wall Street and its boys.

Any senior who would give those crooks a penny of their Social Security benefits, should have his or her head examined. It’s like inviting the foxes into the hen house one more time.

But Barbara, bless her, is worried that “Heavy hitters, including the House Budget Committee ranking member and senior members of the minority leadership, are strongly behind ‘debt reduction’ plans that put future benefits at risk.”

In response to financial risk, let me show you what award-winning investigative reporter Dave Lindorff says about the new and incredibly bloated military budget. His article is called Your Tax Dollars at War: More Than 53% of Your Tax Payment Goes to the Military. And it’s more than appropriate to write this mid-April, the cut-off date for tax payment. Let me a quote you a few of Lindorff’s startling paragraphs…

“The budget for the 2011 fiscal year, which has to be voted by Congress by this Oct. 1, looks to be about $3 trillion, not counting the funds collected for Social Security (since the Vietnam War, the government has included the Social Security Trust Fund in the budget as a way to make the cost of America’s imperial military adventures seem smaller in comparison to the total cost of government). Meanwhile, the military share of the budget works out to about $1.6 trillion.”


Got that? The government, since Vietnam, was actually including the Social Security Trust Fund in the budget to make the cost of America’s military mania seem smaller next to the total cost of government. But there’s more. Hold on…

“That [$3trillion] figure includes the Pentagon budget request of $717 billion, plus an estimated $200 billion in supplemental funding (called ‘overseas contingency funding’ in euphemistic White House-speak), to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, some $40 billion or more in ‘black box’ intelligence agency funding, $94 billion in non-DOD military spending (that would include stuff like military activities funded through NASA, military spending by the State Department, etc., military-related activities within the Dept. of Homeland Security, etc.), $123 billion in veterans benefits and health care spending, and $400 billion in interest on debt raised to pay for prior wars and the standing military during peacetime (whatever that is!).” How’s that for a spending menu? But there’s more…

“The 2011 military budget, by the way, is the largest in history, not just in actual dollars, but in inflation-adjusted dollars, exceeding even the spending in World War II, when the nation was on an all-out war footing.


“This military spending in all its myriad forms works out to represent 53% of total US federal spending.”

Now, how about them apples? 53 cents on every tax dollar (including your taxes paid for receiving Social Security) will go to needlessly bombing, maiming, and killing people you don’t even know, or know why they are being stomped on like so many ants, including by remote-controlled drones, fired no less by the CIA from Langley, Virginia. These drones sometimes hit their “targets” and more often kill innocent civilians, men, women, children, and the aged, who can’t get out of the way fast enough.

Returning to Barbara, she continues, “And this is an election year after all. They know that informed citizens like you won’t support any plan using the ‘P’ word, let alone any talk of benefit cuts. So they’re changing the rhetoric, using terms like ‘re-engineering,’ ‘reforming,’ [like they reformed health-care] and ‘transitioning’ to describe these unpopular plans.

“But whatever they choose to call it, the true goal couldn’t be clearer: to move much of Social Security into the hands of Wall Street bankers. And seniors will pay the price.” Alright, that sounds awful and downright unpractical. But let me turn to Dave Lindorff, for more of his bon mots…

“It’s also a military budget that is rising at a faster pace than any other part of the budget (with the possible exception of bailing out crooked Wall Street financial firms and their managers). For the past decade, and continuing under the present administration, military budgets have been rising at a 9% annual clip, making health care inflation look tiny by comparison.

“US military spending isn’t just half of the US budget, though. It is also half of the entire global spending on war and weaponry. In 2009, according to the venerable War Resisters League, US military spending accounted for 47% of all money spent globally on war, weapons and military preparedness (it's probably closer to 50% now). What contributes to that staggering figure is that America’s allies— countries like France, Britain, Germany, Italy, and Japan— account for another 21% of the world’s military spending. Fully 12 of the top-spenders among big military-spending nations are either allies of the US, or are friendly or completely non-threatening countries like Brazil and India. That is to say, America and its friends and allies account for more than two-thirds of all military spending worldwide.”

So, while the US Government and it’s so-called “allies” account for more than two-thirds of the military spending worldwide, the US government would like even more money to come out the sweat and blood and life’s work of senior citizens, seniors who paid their Social Security taxes through their working years, and paid it religiously, as it was matched by their employers.


Defense budget to increase amid budget deficit

And even if there was a shortfall in the Social Security Trust, you could raise the tax on Social Security as it was raised before by Ronald Reagan. Or you could raise the cap on earnings to be taxed. Now that taxable income cap stands at $106,800. You could raise it to pick up the shortfall, so that Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Lloyd Blankfein, Peter B. Peterson, and top-tier earners, who still don’t pay a penny more in taxes than on their first $106,800 in income, would be taxed on a larger portion of their total income, let’s say $250,000. It wouldn’t cripple them, trust me.

What’s more Social Security income goes into a Trust which earns interest to help pay for itself. Part of the problem, going back to the Bush years and before, is that presidents were continually “borrowing” from that Trust to fund their pet projects, either war or whatever. The Treasury notes they put back for what they took out Bush called “useless pieces of paper.” Goes to show you what Bush knew or thought about Treasury notes, which were promises to repay Social Security recipients for his administration’s US debt.

But let’s get back to Barbara who writes, “And your influence is needed now to STOP two privatization attempts that some are calling ‘violent’ and even ‘draconian’… The first plan quite a euphemism for picking seniors’ pockets…

“1. ‘Roadmap for America’s Future’ (H.R. 4529)
‘This legislation, introduced by the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, includes the Bush-like provision to ‘reform’ Social Security into a system with private accounts for future beneficiaries, trading guaranteed benefits for the risks of Wall Street. (It would also transform Medicare into a voucher program for future beneficiaries!)

‘2. ‘Bush Privatization Plan Redux
‘Bolstered by influential members of his party, a senior member of the minority leadership has called for a revival of the failed Bush privatization plan. It’s really no different than the ‘Roadmap’ provision above…” In other words, it’s the same old, same old, give your money to Wall Street to lose, one way or the other.

In fact, just stop and think back to September 29, 2008, when the stock market plunged 778 points in one day as a result in part of the fall of Lehman Brothers on September 16th, 2008. And think about your Social Security money tied up in Wall Street privatization hands in the middle of that chaos. Good luck. Even holding a portfolio of corporate and triple tax-free municipal bonds, I got a good kick in the head on that day. And my portfolio income hasn’t rebounded to what it was before...or before that, when I suffered worse losses in the bubble-burst of 2000. The same thing could happen again. We’re just waiting for the new bubble.


An unidentified woman who said she is a Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc employee writes a message on a portrait of Lehman Brothers Chief Executive Dick Fuld in New York September 15, 2008. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc filed for bankruptcy after trying to finance too many risky assets with too little capital, becoming the largest and highest-profile casualty of the global credit crisis. Based on assets, Lehman far surpassed WorldCom as the largest U.S. bankruptcy ever.

So don’t be suckered from giving away your Social Security to Wall Street, the ultimate insider business. Better you save it for your bread and butter. It’s the only on-going retirement plan seniors have had for 74 years, with no ands, ifs, or buts, when it comes time to provide their benefits. Even the biggest American corporations that have recently failed have bailed on their retirement payments.

As to Medicare, it’s the single-payer healthcare plan that you have paid for if you have Social Security, which you can supplement if you wish with a private Medigap plan. It could have been opened downward to people in their 50’s and become the model for a universal single-payer plan. But instead, it’s been ignored for a health-care plan that makes the insurance companies richer, cuts benefits, raises co-pays and deductibles. See my article Thanks for nothing, Mr. ‘Health Care Reform’ President. It was based on the findings of 17,000 Physicians from 43 states for a National Health Program, which included a single-payer plan that delivered more health for less cash.

Lastly, let me give you a parting blast from Dave Lindorff:

“Next time you hear that the government needs to cut funds for providing medical care to the children of laid-off workers, or that supplemental unemployment funds are running out, next time you hear that federal funds that are needed to fund extra teachers at your school are being cut, or that Social Security benefits need to be cut back, or the retirement age needs to be increased to 70, next time you hear that your local post office has to be shut down for lack of funds, next time you hear that Medicare benefits need to be reduced, think about that 53% of your tax payment that is going to finance the most enormous war machine the world has ever known. And ask yourself: Is this really necessary? Is this really where I want my money going? Is this really even making me safer or my country stronger?”

Well, that’s it. Thanks, Dave Lindorff. You’re a great man for writing what you did. And Barbara Kennelly, keep up the good work on the Washington treadmill.

Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer, life-long resident of New York City. His book “State Of Shock – Poems from 9/11 on” is available at www.jerrymazza.com, Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Novena For The Pope - Spread The Word

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: My fellow crusaders, war has been declared. The battle is before us. The time has now come to get on your knees and fight like men...
(ICKSP) - The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right which celebrates the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite as an integral part of its charism, is preparing to offer a spiritual bouquet to the Holy Father, that God may continue to grant him an abundance of spiritual wisdom and strength to guide the Barque of Peter through the difficult waters of our times. To participate in this spiritual bouquet, go here to indicate the number and types of prayers that you will offer up for the sake of the His Holiness.
Prayers and sacrifices are especially encouraged during a special Novena beginning on Saturday, April 24, the fifth anniversary of the inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI, through May 2, which is the first Sunday of the month of Mary, Mother of the Church.
I encourage all readers of The Anglo-Catholic to participate in this beautiful act of filial support and gratitude for the courageous ministry of our Holy Father.



BREAKING: Traditional Latin Mass WILL BE celebrated at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

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PRESS RELEASE FROM THE PAULUS INSTITUTE
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In consultation with His Eminence, Dario Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, The Paulus Institute has agreed to seek another celebrant for the Pontifical Solemn High Mass taking place on April 24th. This action will help maintain the solemnity, reverence and beauty of the Mass.

The Paulus Institute was formed for the propagation of sacred liturgy. The Traditional Latin Mass planned for April 24th honoring Pope Benedict on his five-year inauguration anniversary is a liturgical event much bigger than the individual celebrant. Cardinal Castrillon was approached to celebrate the Mass early in what has been a three-year effort because of his special experience in celebrating this form of Mass and his efforts under Pope John-Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI in encouraging the traditional form of the Mass, full liturgy and sacraments.

We are in the process of seeking another Bishop to celebrate a Pontifical Solemn Mass on Saturday and are confident that one will agree. However, in any event, a beautiful, dignified Traditional Latin Mass will be celebrated at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Saturday at 1PM and will be the first time in nearly a half century this has occurred. All Catholic faithful are encouraged to attend.

The Paulus Institute regards all sexual abuse as tragic and a heinous sin and supports Pope Benedict’s fight to rid this disease from the Church. It stands on the side of every victim of clerical sexual abuse and earnestly desires to bind up the wounds done to their human dignity, to vindicate their civil and canonical rights, and to help them in the restoration in Christ of all they have lost.

To that end, The Paulus Institute supports the directives by the Supreme Roman Pontiff and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that all bishops should report crimes of sexual abuse to the police in accordance with the requirements of civil law. However, the Paulus Institute is not competent, nor does it have the facts, to form an opinion about the about recent media reports concerning Cardinal Castrillon.

The Paulus Institute requests respect for the human dignity and civil rights of all who participate in this sacred liturgy and observance for the tranquility and good order of the celebration.

Hat tip to Pete Frey.

New Secularism Has Nothing Positive To Offer

(CathNews) - The New Atheist campaign to have Pope Benedict XVI arrested when he visits Britain later this year exposes the deeply disturbing, authoritarian and even Inquisitorial side to today's campaigning secularism, writes Brendan O'Neill in Sp!ked.
There is nothing remotely positive in the demand that British cops lock up the Pope and then drag him to some international court on charges of "crimes against humanity".

Instead it springs from an increasingly desperate and discombobulated secularism, one that, unable to assert itself positively through enlightening society and celebrating the achievements of mankind, asserts itself negatively, even repressively, through ridiculing the religious.

read full story here
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: What has modern Secularism given to the world that is new other than excessive authoritarianism in the name of "enlightenment"?

Monday, April 19, 2010

The Anti-Catholic Mainstream News Media


A nasty anti-Catholic cartoon published by Harper's Weekly on May 8, 1875.

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: It has been said that anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice. Of this every Catholic can be sure, because never in recent memory has it been so plainly on display in the mainstream news media's coverage of the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

Though such scandal is unacceptable for any religious institution, it is nevertheless a statistical FACT that this type of scandal is no more prevalent in the Catholic Church than in any other Christian denomination. Nor is it any more prevalent in Christianity than in any other religion. In fact, the truth be told, statistical evidence clearly indicates that sexual abuse and cover up is exponentially higher in non-religious institutions, particularly those run by government programs. In the United States alone, an independent government survey of it's own public school system revealed that public school children are over 100 times more likely to be molested by a school employee, before they graduate high school, than a Catholic child is likely to be molested within the Catholic Church. This is more than a shocking statistic. It's an indictment! So that being the case, does the mainstream news media give at least 100 times more press coverage to the greater scandal within America's public schools? No. Of course not. That type of bad press is reserved exclusively for the Catholic Church.

The latest target of this media smear is none other than the pope himself - Benedict XVI - formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The records tell the actual story and the press tells another. The records indicate that at least one official within the Vatican (Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos) did apparently encourage cover up of sexual scandal, or at least it would seem that way. However, they also indicate that no prelate was more active in uprooting this kind of corruption than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Ratzinger was appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (or "CDF") in 1981. Though he was given only limited authority over issues related to sexual abuse, Ratzinger went to work exploiting every ounce of the limited power he was given. As a result, within 20 years, he was able to reduce the occurrence of sexual abuse within the Church down to pre-1950 levels. This was done during a time when sexual abuse of minors was increasing in non-religious (secular) society. That's quite an accomplishment for a man with limited power over this issue. In fact the late Pope John Paul II was so pleased with the results, that in 2001 he transferred full authority to defrock abusive priest away from Cardinal Hoyos over to Cardinal Ratzinger.

In spite of this overwhelming evidence, not only clearing Ratzinger of any blame, but actually demonstrating he was a hero in fighting sexual abuse, the media instead focuses it's attack on him like a laser beam. Why is this? Well, it's simple really, and it's nothing personal against Ratzinger. You see the mainstream news media is run by anti-Catholics. These are liberal Secularists, Atheists, non-practicing Jews and lapsed Catholics who have always had an ax to grind against the Vatican for it's strong stand against homosexuality and abortion - the two "sacraments" of modern liberalism.

Their unwarranted attack against this pope is predictable. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter. That's how the strategy works - right? While they try to cloak their intolerant hatred in the veneer of "non-biased objective" reporting, we have to remember that their bias is not detected so much in what they say, but in what they don't say. Important pieces of the story are intentionally left out. The information that lands on the cutting room floor in news media outlets around the world (particularly in English-speaking countries) is what would exonerate the pope and turn him into a hero. This is the news that will NEVER be reported because it doesn't fit the anti-Catholic template of those who run our major news outlets. Occasionally however, their true anti-Catholic feelings are leaked to the public, usually in the form of op-ed articles that the general editor approves for print. From these we can get a glimpse of what's really going on in the minds of those who report the news to us...
(ABC) -- No-one has yet suggested bombing the Vatican and pursuing the Pope through the sewers of Europe till he is caught and riddled with bullets in order to stop priests buggering choirboys in Boston, Chicago, Dublin and Sydney...

read full story here
Now unlike many mainstream media news outlets, The Catholic Knight will cite the context of this excerpt. The article itself is an anti-war piece. It's an attack on the way the west battles terrorism. However, in the article, the author reveals a little about himself and those he associates with in the mainstream news media. From this article we learn that they make no distinction between Pope Benedict XVI and Osama Bin Laden. From this we learn that they make no distinction between a man who fights to stop sexual abuse, and a man who plots the bombing of innocent people. From this we learn that the media has been lying so much that it's actually starting to believe it's own lies about the pope, but it's nothing personal you see. It's all just business. The mainstream news media is in the business of attacking and tearing down anything that is good and wholesome, particularly religion, and the Catholic Church you see just happens to be the largest target. To destroy the Church they must first destroy it's shepherd, and that my friends is the ONLY thing that explains their blatant disregard for the facts in their unrelenting attack against the Holy Father. This isn't the first time the American press has displayed a blatant hostility toward the Catholic Church. It's been going on for nearly two centuries. Yes it's true, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Anti-Catholicism truly is the last remaining acceptable prejudice, especially in the mainstream news media.

A nasty anti-Catholic cartoon published by the Philadelphia Inquirer on February 21, 2010

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Edward Haslam - DR. MARY'S MONKEY - Part II

Perhaps no one else has a better understanding of mysterious events that were unfolding in New Orleans during 1963 than Edward Haslam, who grew up in that enchanting city and learned of Dr. Mary Sherman from his father, who was an accomplished physician in his own right and a member of the faculty at the Tulane Medical School. Ed's curiousity and perserverence in attempting to unravel the circumstances of the death of Dr. Sherman (the DR. MARY of the title of his book) led him into a network of secret operations, not only those one might expect--of CIA/mafia gun-running to Cuba and missions to sabotage its facilities--but highly surprising projects, first, to develop an antidote for a cancer-causing vaccine infected with a monkey virus, second, to use injections of cancer cells as a bio-weapon to take out enemies of the state, such as Fidel Castro, but no doubt others unnamed, including, it would appear, inconvenient witnesses like Jack Ruby. Famous physicians, myterious figures, David Ferrie, Lee Harvey Oswald, Judyth Vary Baker, and more are entwined together in a story that proves truth can indeed be stranger than fiction.


Recently, Ed was interviewed on "Coast to Coast AM" for the full four hours. It was a fascinating interview and I strongly recommend that you hear it. Moreover, if you would like to read an extract from Ed's first book on these matters you can go to the previous blog. "Coast to Coast AM" synopsis:

Appearing for the full four hours, former advertising executive Ed Haslam discussed how his investigation of the 1964 murder of a cancer researcher led him to a story which connects a massive contamination of the polio vaccine to our current cancer epidemic and even the JFK assassination. "When you look at the story, each piece fits in with each other piece, very cleanly and very logically," Haslam observed, "it's only when you stand back and look at it, that it looks as strange as it does."

While researching the mysterious death of Dr. Mary Sherman, Haslam discovered that polio vaccines created in the 1950's had been tainted with a cancer-causing virus. This contamination, he said, was detected after half of the doses, a staggering 100 million vaccines, had been administered to an unwitting public. Allegedly, the creators of the vaccine were afraid to admit the error and subsequently distributed the remaining half of the "medicine" as well. Having studied data on cancer diagnoses, Haslam noted that a "massive epidemic" of soft tissue cancers "erupts in the years following the polio vaccines." Making matters worse, he said, the cancer-causing virus could be transmitted sexually and has even appeared in grandchildren of people who received the compromised vaccine.

Realizing their grave mistake, Haslam said, those "in the know" about the widespread inoculation tried to develop a vaccine against it by mutating the virus using a particle accelerator. According to his research, it was during this process that they discovered that the radiation caused the virus to become even more aggressive. It was at that point, Haslam said, the project shifted over to weaponizing the cancer-causing virus. Eventually, the weaponized virus was so powerful that it would kill a human in 28 days. He claimed that this number was derived from a clandestine test of the virus on inmates from a Louisiana prison. The end result was a potent weapon that was virtually untraceable.

Making the story even more bizarre, many of the players in the cancer-causing virus story have connections to the JFK assassination. For instance, one of the researchers in the weaponization project had Lee Harvey Oswald as her bodyguard and handler. Additionally, one of the bases of operation for these studies was the home of longtime Kennedy assassination suspect David Ferrie. And, bringing the tale back to where it all started, on the very day that the Warren Commission began their investigation of unsolicited witnesses in the JFK assassination in New Orleans, Dr. Mary Sherman was murdered.

Cancer Conspiracy - Ed Haslam interviewed on "Coast to Coast AM" with George Noory (15 April 2010). This broadcast was deemed so important that all four hours of Coast-to-Coast were allocated to get Haslam's important information. This broadcast can be heard here, in four segments. If you enjoy this newscast, consider visiting the Coast-to-Coast AM website at http://www.coasttocoastam.com on a regular basis.








DR. MARY'S MONKEY - Ed Haslam interviewed on "The Real Deal" with Jim Fetzer (6 April 2010):

Friday, April 16, 2010

Richard Dawkins Interviews Bishop Bonifes Adoyo


Blind faith vs. rational thought

Richard Dawkins meets Bishop Boniface Adoyo who drives a campaign against evolution and the display of Turkana Boy in Kenya.


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http://rapidshare.com/files/376612143/Richard.Dawkins.Interviews.with.Bishop.Bonifes.Adoyo.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/376614602/Richard.Dawkins.Interviews.with.Bishop.Bonifes.Adoyo.part2.rar



http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I3EZLMB0
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VWIJJ0RW


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BREAKING: Vatican Sex Abuse Cover Up Revealed


THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: New evidence seems to suggest there was sex abuse cover up at the Vatican after all, but as it looks right now, it appears to be localized to a certain office. The highest prelate implicated is none other than Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos. This is what the evidence appears to suggest anyway. Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) was not involved, and appears to be the one who took corrective measures to fix the problem AFTER the cover up was revealed.

Internal conflict within the Vatican is believed to be the source of many problems that have developed in the Catholic Church over the last thirty years. Ratzinger was known to be at odds with more than a few prelates over how the Vatican handled various issues including sexual abuse. At times he was vocal about this, and used all of the limited power at his disposal to effect change and counter his opponents in the Vatican. For this he earned the epitaph of "God's Rottweiler." Ironically, the man the mainstream news media has now focused it's most fierce criticism on, Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), was the one prelate in the Vatican doing the most to fight sex abuse cover up and reform the system....
(NC Register) - Late Thursday evening Rome time, the Vatican released a statement in response to media reports in France about a September 2001 letter from Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos, at the time the prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy, congratulating a French bishop for not reporting an abuser priest to the police....

read full story here
The revelation concerns a letter of support, allegedly written by Cardinal Hoyos, in which the cardinal praised a French bishop for failing to report a sexually abusive priest to the authorities. The incident happened a few years prior, while Hoyos was overseeing the discipline of clergy, including those accused of sexual abuse.

While the letter itself carried no canonical authority or instruction it does give insight into the attitude of this high ranking Vatican prelate towards reporting sexual abuse to civil authorities. Since Hoyos was in charge of clerical discipline for the whole Church, we can begin to see where some bishops would get the idea that they ought not report abuse. Apparently, this was an attitude not shared by Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the CDF, who's congregation encouraged bishops to report abuse to authorities immediately. At the time, however, Ratzinger and Hoyos had approximately equal ranking in the Vatican, and it could be argued that in some ways Hoyos had even more pull than Ratzinger under the pontificate of John Paul II.

The letter was dated just months after Pope John Paul II changed Church law to allow Ratzinger more control over such cases. After learning about Hoyos' letter we can begin to understand why the late pope made this change.

It would appear the truth is finally starting to be revealed, but don't expect the mainstream news media to pick up on it. This is one story I'm sure they will do everything they can to avoid. Why? Because it exposes the truth about what really happened and exonerates Pope Benedict XVI. That, according to the yellow journalism of the mainstream news media, will just never do. If the news of this event reaches a crescendo, and the media is forced to report it, then they will spin it, telling only half the story you'll find here, to maintain their fierce criticism of the pope. It's yet one more reason why people are turning to Internet blogs (like this one) for news that doesn't fit the anti-Catholic politically correct template.

I'm A Teabagger For Jesus

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Proper Music For Catholic Worship

Can you tell the difference?? from Corpus Christi Watershed on Vimeo.

Richard Dawkins Interviews Richard Leakey



"The man in Kenya who is driving this particular kind of campaign is Bishop Adoyo. He has got some extraordinary ideas, but very fundamentalist, very conservative. One point in a conservation with him on a telephone interview with one of the media, he put to me that what we are proposing is dangerous, depicting the evolutionary story is dangerous. I was somewhat shocked that it was dangerous. I said to Bishop, these things have been dead before several millions of years, how could they be dangerous? And the response was that it tells a very plausible story and the youth are in danger of believing it. And therefore it is best not told." - Richard Leakey

Richard Dawkins visits paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey in Kenya's rift valley and they talks on evolution, becoming human, God etc.


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http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QY9NR6GY
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=014GFTJ6


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"Depleted uranium is destroying life" by Jerry Mazza

Depleted uranium is destroying life
Jerry Mazza / 15 April 2010


A Depleted Uranium shell - Photo courtesy of Professor Siegwart-Horst Gunther

I have long heard sound-bites or seen passages about depleted uranium that sounded more than dire. But given my own cognitive dissonance, and the fact that I was writing about many other dire topics at the time, I filed depleted uranium in my cranium for future investigation, which, given the human aversion to bad news, could have been never.

But never was over in an exchange of emails about nuclear missiles in Israel's arsenal. I received some startling nuclear information from San Francisco Bay View writer, Bob Nichols. It was an illumination long-time coming.

I started at the end of Bob's article to find out who he was. His credits read "Bob Nichols is a Project Censored Award winning writer and a San Francisco Bay View correspondent. A former bomb maker in a U.S. government factory in rural Oklahoma, he reports on the two nuclear weapons labs in the Bay Area. He can be reached at duweapons@gmail.com." His credentials were impressive and so was the article he sent, which I hope you read, PTSD, infertility and other consequences of war.


The A10 WartHog jet aircraft is built around the GAU-8 Gatling gun with seven barrels that fires 4,200 heavy uranium projectiles a minute. That’s 70 rounds a second!

In several, follow-up phone calls, Bob, in his gentle, mid-western drawl, filled me in on the picture of the imposing disasters caused by depleted uranium in Central Asia and in the Mid-East, in which hundreds of thousands of tons of depleted uranium had been dropped in the past 20 years.

Bob pointed out that San Francisco itself was receiving fallout from the Berkeley National [Nuclear Weapons] Lab, and from the Livermore Laboratory in the South Bay area, managed by San Francisco-based Bechtel, a nuclear-capable corporation, boosted by San Francisco's "'Nuclear Nancy' Pelosi and her friends at Bechtel" as Bob commented. The University of California at Berkeley now earns more from weapons than from students.


The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children. An award winning documentary film that exposes the use and impact of radioactive weapons during the current war against Iraq.

The San Francisco facilities have been part of the Manhattan Project, operating from pre-1945, contributing a dangerous amount of radiation to the area with weapons testing and leakages of material into the Bay. It was for this reason, Nichols told me, that he still lives in Oklahoma, though he has a real love affair with San Francisco. Yet he fears for its human and natural safety due to poisoning by the nuclear projects.

In fact, he bemoaned the occasion of "Fleet Week," "the happy boys sent off to war by Mayor Gavin Newsom's Fleet Week – an event responsible for a big chunk of the enlistments in the US Navy and marines – who will probably come in deadly contact with another Bay Area product: depleted uranium, aka DU, and weaponized ceramic uranium oxide gas and aerosols, UO."

As he wrote, "Iraq and virtually all the rest of the Middle East and Central Asia have been continually dosed for almost 20 years with thousands of tons of weaponized ceramic uranium oxide gas, also known as depleted uranium.

"When used as directed, the depleted uranium bullets, shells and bombs become a lethal uranium gas or aerosol. The poison uranium oxide gas aerosols last for billions of years and never stop indiscriminately maiming and killing, which is a war crime in itself."

That was shocking to hear. So I did a bit of research to corroborate Bob's claims and came upon a number of YouTube pieces, one particularly powerful ten-minute piece called Depleted Uranium - The Ultimate Dirty Bomb.


Depleted Uranium - The Ultimate Dirty Bomb

It features Dr. Doug Rokke, US Army Health Physicist and Nuclear Medicine Sciences Officer, as well as the internationally known Geological Scientist and International Radiation Expert Leuren Moret. Please take ten minutes to listen to it.

Dr. Rokke explains that as far back as 1973 [the Yom Kippur War], radioactive materials carpeted Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. He mentions too that DU radioactive contamination makes food and water unusable. He explains how the huge jolts of electrical energy in a small amount of depleted uranium can destroy human cells.

Most notably, Dr. Rooke estimates that from October/November 1991 in Gulf War 1, 160,000 US soldiers were permanently disabled by US use of some 340 tons of depleted uranium. Ten years later that number had climbed to 221,000 and left 10,000 dead. Dr. Rooke, a victim himself of the lack of proper post-battle examinations for DU poisoning, spoke with a tempered but deliberate anger and frustration at the damage done to all, including civilian populations, combatants, and himself.

"Lauren Moret pointed out that as far back as 1943 depleted uranium usage, aka "poison gas warfare" was encouraged in a government memo shown on screen. She also tells us that the UN Human Rights Commission declared depleted uranium as illegal. The ultimate irony she points out is that in 2003 we attacked Iraq and Saddam Hussein for possessing Weapons of Mass Destruction, which turned out not to be true. Yet when we attacked Iraq in 2003, we dropped between 1000 to 2000 tons of depleted uranium, a known Weapon of Mass Nuclear Destruction in a three-week period. This is a war crime unto itself.

This all jibed with Bob Nichol's writings, especially the fact that the damage of depleted uranium is forever, lasting billions of years in the atmosphere, the earth and water, as it lasts on clothing, the skin, the human body, destroying vital organs, causing birth defects of all kinds, cancers, infertility, damage to the bones, brains, testicles and ovaries, which applies to civilians and animals as well.


Iraqi Doctors See A Huge Growth In Children Born With Deformities. (R to L) Yousif Hamed, age 4 years old, his brother Anas Hamed and his sister Inas who suffer from birth defects are pictured on November 12, 2009 in the city of Falluja west of Baghdad, Iraq. Birth defects have soared in Fallujah, which was the site of two major battles between the U.S military and insurgents after the invasion of Iraq according to Iraqi doctors.

As Nichols writes, "Uranium munitions, containing weaponized uranium oxide gas and aerosols, are used by presidential order in US war zones. Privates and corporals do not decide to use these poisonous uranium gas weapons on their own. No, that order comes from the American president."

"Uranium oxide gas weapons are called 'genocidal weapons.' They maim and kill millions of people, their animals and their land. The actual targets by the US Expeditionary Forces are the populations of Central Asia and the Middle East, about a billion people." Remember that US forces themselves are the victims as well of these weapons, the worst imaginable blowback.

In fact, Nichols points us towards a "Middle Eastern country that requires all 18-year olds to join national service for several years. This country even has a roughly comparable health care system to America for a population of 7,233,701, according to the CIA World Factbook. This country is Israel."

Bob sent along an article from the noted Israeli paper, Haaretz, dated 3/21/2010: Study: Quality of Israeli sperm down 40% in past decade. Bob claimed the number was fudged somewhat because from 2004-2008 there was a 10 million sperm a year drop-off. Taken to 2015, all of the nation would be infertile. The motility of the tested sperm also indicated a drop-off. These samples were taken from healthy young people who do not smoke.

"In Israel, too," Haaretz writes, a study was published about a year ago, showing an increase of about 30 percent in defects in the male reproductive system. In addition, in the past decade, the number of cases of testicular cancer has doubled."

Haaretz goes on to attribute the sperm drop to "chemicals in the ground and in drinking water...as impacting hormone levels and secondary sexual characteristics." The paragraph concludes with "Studies published in Britain have highlighted a clear connection between continual decline in sperm counts and chemicals in the environment."

In the next to last paragraph of Bob Nichols's article, he writes of the Israeli situation, "Since 20 percent live sperm is considered to be the beginning of infertility, Israel will be sterile in less than 10 years at this rate of decline. The estimated 7 million Israeli Jews will have no more children after that. This catastrophic development has already occasioned legislative hearings in Israel's Knesset... Israeli sperm concentration is just an example of what is happening to human sperm all over the Middle East and Central Asia, by the choice and force of will of successive US presidents."

The 800-pound gorilla in the room here is that young people tested (both men and women) are performing in the Israeli Defense Forces, and face massive amounts of depleted uranium in the US manufactured weaponry being used in the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. The land, animals, and those involved in the conflict on both sides must be, by definition, poisoned by these toxic weapons of nuclear destruction. That's the real story. The Israelis have performed a service in a way just by conducting a bona fide scientific analysis of the situation.

Depleted uranium (DU) ammunition of U-238

In nearby Iraq, three-headed babies are turning up and a virtual Pandora's Box of birth defects that you can find on here Caution: these are not pretty pictures, but they are true pictures of what the future could be as the present.

Again, please read the entire Haaretz article and view the YouTube piece. Or check the more conservative Wikipedia for the 38-page article (which includes 13 pages of footnotes) linked here on Depleted Uranium. You can verify the information presented above and find more information as well. In fact, the first DU, which uses radioactive isotope-238 was "manufactured in the 1940's when the US and USSR began their nuclear weapons and nuclear power programs." P.S. Depleted uranium bombs were also used on Serbia in the Bosnian War by President Clinton.

The total world inventory of depleted uranium stands at 1,188,273 tonnes as of 2002. That is enough to wipe out life on the planet for billions of years.

The United States leads the pack with 480,000 tonnes; Russia closely follow with 460,000 million tonnes; France, 190,000 tonnes; United Kingdom, 30,000 tonnes, etcetera.

As to the Legal Status of DU, Wiki reports, "In 1996 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gave an advisory opinion on the 'legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons'.[29] This made it clear, in paragraphs 54, 55 and 56, that international law on poisonous weapons—the Second Hague Declaration of 29 July 1899, Hague Convention IV of 18 October 1907 and the Geneva Protocol of 17 June 1925—did not cover nuclear weapons, because their prime or exclusive use was not to poison or asphyxiate. This ICJ opinion was about nuclear weapons, but the sentence 'The terms have been understood, in the practice of States, in their ordinary sense as covering weapons whose prime, or even exclusive, effect is to poison or asphyxiate,' also removes depleted uranium weaponry from coverage by the same treaties as their primary use is not to poison or asphyxiate, but to destroy material and kill soldiers through kinetic energy.


"Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre," featuring interviews with U.S. soldiers, Iraqi doctors and international journalists on the U.S. attack on Fallujah. Produced by Italian state broadcaster RAI TV, the documentary charges U.S. warplanes illegally dropped white phosphorus incendiary bombs on civilian populations, burning the skin off Iraqi victims. One U.S. soldier charges this amounts to the U.S. using chemical weapons against the Iraqi people.

The deadly irony here is that depleted uranium, through the use of a perverse legalese, is classified here not as the awful poison and asphyxiate it is, but as a destructor of material and killer of solders through kinetic energy. Never has there been such a torturous misuse of language. Obviously, the people at the top are not thinking clearly. But we down here, the everyday people, must think clearly and protest the use of depleted uranium in any form, as a deadly poison and as a destructor of material, soldiers, civilians, animals, soil, water and air. Otherwise, we're committing suicide, the universe's ultimate punishment for our poisoning the planet.

This includes poisoning as well in non-warfare situations like the one in Naples, Italy (home of my forefathers) where the crime organization, the Camorra, is poisoning the Mediterranean, as Bob Nichols tells me, with the continual exploding of forty foot barges of nuclear waste, including depleted uranium. These gangsters are killing the sea that feeds that nation, the sea that runs into the Red Sea, in which Israelis swim. The Med is being poisoned for profit by criminals as the bought-off police turn their heads. Evil has many heads, like the DU misconceived child itself.


Environmental Cost of War. SourceCode investigates longterm costs of war's damage to the environment.

But let me conclude this piece, with Bob Nichols' last line, "The American war machine has consequences. PTSD is just one of them. The poison gas cannot be contained, undone or recalled. There is no antidote; there is no cure. There is no escape." But I will add that there is consciousness and the actions of conscious people to stop the situation from worsening. Let's use it.

Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer, life-long resident of New York City. His book “State Of Shock – Poems from 9/11 on” is available at www.jerrymazza.com, Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.

TEA-TIME ILLUMINATION
Jerry Mazza / April 2010

Standing in the sunlight
Broadway, 96th Street,
5 P.M., mid-April,
a cup of tea with milk
and sugar to go in hand,
a mild buzz from it, just
enough to feel the sun
on my face and the bliss it brings
to be alive in the crowd
of people walking by,
perfection in a handful
of light cupped in my hand,
my body tired from writing,
head waking to evening,
another day, another
war or two somewhere,
the wind of depleted uranium
not yet reached us, floating
over Central Asia
and the Mid East, eating
infants in the womb,
eating the bodies of billions
as millions go by here
free in the light of spring,
still-born the vision of peace
and freedom for the world,
only this private bliss
of blessed Buddha left
to lift me like a tree
from the ground-zero of being.