Saturday, July 30, 2011

PoliticsUSA: Debt Ceiling Legislation: The impasse according to Charles Krauthammer

Washington Post (July30,1940)


Krauthammer:  "Obama faces two massive problems — jobs and debt. They’re both the result of his spectacularly failed Keynesian gamble: massive spending that left us a stagnant economy with high and chronic unemployment — and a staggering debt burden. Obama is desperate to share ownership of this failure. Economic dislocation from a debt-ceiling crisis nicely serves that purpose — if the Republicans play along. The perfect out: Those crazy Tea Partyers ruined the recovery!
"Why would any conservative collaborate with that ploy? November 2012 constitutes the new conservatism’s one chance to restructure government and change the ideological course of the country. Why risk forfeiting that outcome by offering to share ownership of Obama’s wreckage?"
— I recommend that you read the entire WaPo article by Krauthammer.  And while you're at it, you mite want to read also Todd Zywicki's item in Volokh Conspiracy (July30,2k11), "Charles Krauthammer on the Debt Ceiling Debate," a short comment and a different quote from The Hammer (he always hits the nail on its head!).


— Politicarp

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Juridics: Criminal Justice: San-Hyun Song, Prez, International Criminal Court makes statement July 17

Christian Post, Singapore Edition (July15,2k11)
Material posted here by Lawt

International Criminal Justice Day
Friday, Jul. 15, 2011 Posted: 7:32:39PM HKT






On 17 July the world celebrates International Criminal Justice Day. This commemorates the adoption on 17 July 1998 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC for short). States and civil society from all continents came together to end impunity for the gravest international crimes – genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression.

In 2002, the ICC opened its doors in The Hague, Netherlands. Today, it is a major international institution, securing justice for victims when this cannot be delivered at the national level. 14 suspects and accused have appeared before the judges to face accusations against them. The first trial is concluding soon, with closing arguments set to be heard next month.

I am delighted to see support for international criminal justice growing around the world. 114 nations have already joined the ICC, and Grenada from the Caribbean and Tunisia from North Africa will become the next two States Parties later this summer. Several other countries have announced their intention to follow in the near future. But many more countries have still to join if the ICC is to be seen as representing the will of the overwhelming majority of the world's peoples.

During the past year, I have met representatives of governments, civil society and regional organisations in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and most recently the Arab world. Time after time, I have found that the goals of the Rome Statute resonate everywhere, regardless of culture, language or nationality. People of all nations want peace, justice, rule of law and respect for human dignity. These are the very goals for which the ICC exists.

Let us cherish our spirit of solidarity while we commemorate 17 July. Let us show our compassion for all the innocent civilians who continue to fall victim to unimaginable crimes. Let us state loudly and clearly that mass crimes such as murder, rape, torture and the use of child soldiers cannot and will not be tolerated. The perpetrators of such crimes must be held accountable, regardless of their official position.

I call on states and people everywhere to join the international justice movement, as we work toward a more just, more peaceful future for children, women and men around the world. We must be united in our resolve to defeat impunity and the lawlessness, brutality and disdain for human dignity that it represents. We must persevere.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

EconomicsUSA: Unemployment: 4.4 million Americans — no jobs for a year

Wall Street Journal video (July 22,2k11)
Job Search stretches past a year for Millions, by Sara Murray and Phil Izzo

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

PoliticsCanada: Church Leader: Canada has distinctive mode of relating faith and politics, says EFC's Clemenger

Faith Today (July/August, 2k11)
Faith Today is the official monthly publication of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada; the author is a doctoral graduate of the Institute for Christian Studies.  Dr Clemenger wrote his doctoral dissertation for ICS on the philosophy of Friedrich von Hayek, a political thinker regarded as a founder or precursor of contemporary libertarianism.  —  Politicarp


The Canadian Way
by Bruce J. Clemenger, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada


Canada handles the intersection of faith and politics differently than Britain, France or the United States.
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The issue of religion rarely surfaced in the recent federal election [in Canada], a change from previous elections. When it did make news, it was usually prompted by media commentators raising the issue.

There were bright spots in the coverage. The National, the CBC TV evening news program, profiled the Elections Kit released by The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC). In this segment explaining how religious groups engage during elections, viewers learned that the EFC is not a single-issue organization, that we cover a breadth of issues and work across party lines.

Perhaps this is an indication of the media's willingness to explore what it means to be Canadian, to be religious and to be a voter or a citizen running for political office.

Party leaders and many other politicians regularly attend religious services and festivals of a variety of religions, but very few say much about their own religious beliefs.

Contrast this with American candidates for public office: for them not to speak about their own faith or not to have photo ops attending their preferred place of worship raises suspicion.

It is characteristically Canadian for our politicians not to wear their religion on their sleeves and instead to publicly reach out to a variety of religious expressions. It's a manifestation of a long-standing non-sectarian approach to religion that distinguishes Canada from Britain, France and the United States, the three countries with the greatest historical influence on our country.

Our Canadian ancestors did not presume faith should be privatized and kept out of the public square (France), nor did we have a state church (Britain), nor do we have a constitutional separation of church and state (United States).

A non-sectarian approach accepts that religions influence all aspects of life including the political - that religion does have political implications - and hence non-sectarianism seeks fairness in accommodating these expressions.

A secularist approach, by contrast, seeks to limit religious expression to the private sphere and asks people to check their specific religious beliefs at the door when entering the House of Commons or engaging in public dialogue about law or public policy. 

Canada's federation was forged in the political dynamics of the French Catholic and English Protestant reality that required anyone who would be prime minister, whatever their first language or denominational allegiance, to be seen as someone who could mediate between these “two solitudes” and be able to accommodate the aspirations of both.

Not only did Canada develop without a constitutional doctrine of the separation of church and state as in the United States, the Canadian constitution provided for the funding of minority religious schools: Catholic schools in predominately Protestant Ontario and Protestant schools in Catholic Quebec. Further, consider our social services sector, where Canada's largest provider besides our governments is The Salvation Army.

Canada's approach has been a robust non-sectarianism, where no single set of doctrines, religious or secularist, would be imposed.

At the same time, a non-sectarian approach does not presume religious neutrality or that the public square can be neutral. Rather, it recognizes that a plurality of worldviews shapes and guides the actions of citizens.

The political world and the broader public realm are shaped by this doctrinal diversity. The goal is not to sanitize statecraft from this plurality, but to accommodate diversity and its expression in the fairest ways possible. In such a context political leaders are expected to be even-handed, fair and just in their dealings with everyone.

What we need is more constructive exploration of the intersection of faith and politics in Canada, and more reflection on how Canada is distinctive from other countries in how this has been expressed.

When political leaders are reluctant to talk about their faith, it doesn't necessarily indicate a hidden agenda or prove they consider their faith to be a private matter with no public consequence.
It might simply mean they understand what previous Canadian leaders learned about giving leadership in a plural and non-sectarian Canada.


Bruce J. Clemenger is president of The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. Read more of his columns at theEFC.ca/clemenger.

Monday, July 11, 2011

PoliticsEgypt: Medicine: Muslim Brotherhood wins voters thru its clinics

BBC (July11,2k11)



Sunday, July 10, 2011

EconomicsPakistan: Labor: Incipient Christian labor movement

Compass Direct via  Christian Post (July9,2k11)





Pakistan's 

Christian Sanitation Workers 

swept into societal gutter

'Sweeper' leader faces suspension, criminal charges; for others, disease, death – and murder.




LAHORE, Pakistan 

The often unseen or unrecognized abuses suffered by Christians at Pakistan’s lowest level of society – street sweepers – have come into sharp focus this year.

While one Christian sanitation worker in Lahore has been suspended and criminal charges filed against him for objecting to discrimination against fellow workers, another was killed the same month for not tending to a shopkeeper’s command fast enough.
Anayat Masih Sahotra, who has worked as a street sweeper for Lahore’s Solid Waste Management (SWM) department for 24 years, said he is facing baseless charges of forgery and fraud from his employers because of his work as a labor leader for area sweepers, who are nearly all Christians. He was suspended and accused of the crimes on May 14 after he asked SWM Managing Director Wasim Ajmal Chaudhry to fulfill a promise to make 400 Christian workers regular employees with full benefits, he said.
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