RELIGION

It's not uncommon for religious and spiritual leaders to deride entrepreneurial capitalism. Robert Sirico reminds them of the parable of the talents: "As a group, entrepreneurs are frequently depicted as greedy, immoral, and cutthroat. This prejudice can be found equally among business and religious leaders, not to mention among cultural elites and individual people. But such criticisms, though justified far too often, fail to acknowledge the implicit spiritual dimension of enterprise..While it is true that entrepreneurs-like any other group of people-have been stained by sin, they must not be judged more severely for their moral failings merely because their profession involves the creation of wealth.......The Parable of the Talents implies a moral obligation to confront uncertainty in an enterprising way. There is no more apt example of such an individual than the entrepreneur"

The recent story about a Catholic charity being ordered by a Californian court to pay for contraception was so manifestly bizarre and unjust that it went all over the world, even popping up on Australian radio news bulletins. As a follow-up to the story, a reader has mentioned an employer he knows of who of his own accord added contraceptive coverage to the health plan for his employees. To fund the change, the firm had to put up the the co-payment premiums and deductibles -- so that the average woman now pays more for the insurance than the cost savings on contraception! So it would be poetic justice if the Catholic charity simply did as the court ordered and saddled the grasping employees behind the original complaint with the resultant costs.

Handicapping religion: "The State of Washington awards handsome college and graduate scholarships to gifted students of modest means through the Promise Scholarship Program. But reminiscent of discrimination against blacks, Jews, or the Irish, a disturbing exception is celebrated. Students pursuing devotional degrees need not apply. ... The purpose is to discourage faith-based professions or vocations, an illicit government objective under the free exercise clause of the First Amendment. Yet a decisive 7-2 majority in the U.S. Supreme Court constitutionally blessed the scholarship exclusion last week in Locke vs. Davey. Religious neutrality -- the customary commandment of the First Amendment -- was cast out of the constitutional heavens."

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ELSEWHERE

The terrorist attack in Spain seems to have convinced at least some Europeans that America's tough line against terrorism was not so "stupid" or "cowboy-like" after all.

But the conversion will probably be far from complete so perhaps we should still look at what a German writer says about the disagreements between the USA and "Europe" (meaning in fact only Germany and France -- U.S. allies such as Spain, Italy, Denmark and Poland are apparently not in Europe!). The article makes a big thing about the importance attached to "international law" by Europe. But the chief proofs of what a joke "international law" is come from Europe! Who do they think Hitler and Mussolini were? Americans? Or have Europeans forgotten how Hitler and Mussolini simply walked out of the League of Nations when its resolutions did not suit them? What use is "law" that is unenforceable? Saddam defied United Nations resolutions for 11 years and the United Nations did absolutely nothing of any moment about it. And in the United Nations itself the most disgusting and lawless tyrannies are highly influential -- with regimes like Iran and Libya heading important committees! I think the USA pays TOO MUCH attention to the ridiculous fiction of international law!

And the United Nations is also hopelessly corrupt. Take the UN oil for food program. As it says here: "In the growing scandal over the United Nations Oil-for-Food program, which from 1996-2003 supervised relief to Saddam Hussein's Iraq, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and his staff have excused themselves from any responsibility for the massive corruption involving billions in bribes and kickbacks that went on via more than $100 billion in U.N.-approved contracts for Saddam to sell oil and buy humanitarian supplies. U.N. officials have denied that this tidal wave of graft in any way seeped into their own shop

Iraq freer than ever: "The press coverage from Baghdad is so gloomy that it's hard to remember that a dictator is gone, oil is pumping again and the proposed interim constitution contains strong human rights guarantees. We seem not even to recognize freedom when we see it: Shiites by the hundreds of thousands walking barefoot to celebrate in the holy city of Karbala, Iraqis turning up at town meetings and trying out democracy for the first time, newspapers and free media sprouting everywhere, daily demonstrations in the streets. If freedom is the only goal that redeems all the dying, there is more real freedom in Iraq than at any time in its history..."

Ho Hum! The American Leftist media is now resorting to barefaced lies to discredit the Iraq intervention. As Peg Kaplan reports, they are saying that Clinton handed over to Bush a plan to grab Osama and Co. but Bush ignored it. The truth is that it was Clinton who knocked back offers by Sudan to hand over Osama.

Nice to see The Guardian taking note of the Muslim slave trade that tyrannized Europeans for centuries.

THAT film: "Rabbi Daniel Lapin, an Orthodox rabbi and popular radio talk-show host, has also repeatedly defended Gibson and "The Passion". Rabbi Lapin points out that it is not Gibson's movie, but the irresponsible and vehement accusations coming from Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League and other self-appointed Jewish leaders that are most likely to cause anti-Semitism.... "Rabbi Lapin says. "Christians heard Jewish leaders denouncing Gibson for making a movie that follows Gospel accounts of the Crucifixion long before any of them had even seen the movie. Furthermore, Christians are hurt that Jewish groups are presuming to teach them what Christian Scripture `really means.'" Rabbi Lapin says that "instead of helping the Jewish community," leaders like Foxman "have inflicted lasting harm." "By selectively unleashing their fury only on wholesome entertainment that depicts Christianity, in a positive light," he says, "they have triggered anger, hurt, and resentment.... I consider it crucially important for Christians to know that not all Jews are in agreement with their self-appointed spokesmen." I must say that I myself was amazed by the folly of Foxman and Co. They are living in the past rather than the present. They should have held their fire for their real enemy of the present day -- Islam -- rather than attacking their best friends of today -- Christians.

More BBC dishonesty: "A headline on BBC News today - 'Figures show rise in vCJD deaths' - sounds worrying until you read the article, which reveals that the 'rise' corresponds to an increase from 17 deaths in 2002, to, er, 18 deaths in 2003." {vCJD is better known as "mad cow disease"}.

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

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