HEAD ON CONFRONTATION

What goes around, comes around.

 

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

 

Beware of what you do as some day it may come back to bite you in the ass.

 

All appropriate sayings for the confrontation that is fomenting on the Boston College campus.

 

Recall when Catholic institutions and employers came out against that provision of Obamacare that required employers to provide contraceptive coverage to their employees. There was an immediate religious uprising. First, the religious right. Then the Catholic Church itself. The argument presented was that to force these institutions to participate was a violation of religious freedom.

 

Obama acquiesced. Catholic institutions were let off the hook. The insurance companies were required to provide contraceptive coverage free to employees of such institutions.

 

Boston College is an old and revered institution. Jesuit. Which means very doctrinaire. By the book. Their book.

 

What soon occurred was the end of the free flow of contraceptives and birth control information on campus.An aftermath of the Obamacare issue. Students were unhappy. They believed and still believe that they have a right to items of birth control and birth control information.

 

Necessity is the mother of invention. The students decided to provide condoms,

contraceptives for males and females, and birth control information to the student body. An organization was formed. The Boston College Students For Sexual Health. Actually nothing more than some dormitory rooms providing contraceptives and information. The dormitory rooms so designated became known as Safe Sites.

 

Boston College has told the students to cease and desist. The students refuse.

 

Boston College has a non-discriminatory clause. However, the clause has a reservation. The reservation reads that Boston College reserves  its ".....lawful rights where appropriate to take actions designed to promote the Jesuit, Catholic principles."

 

There is a problem, however. Federal and state laws do not permit Catholic institutions to discriminate on the basis of a person's religion.

 

The students claim Boston College is practising religious discrimination against them. Additionally, the students claim that a woman's equality is infringed upon. Birth control costs money. Female students can get it free through the student program. The College's position would prevent this.

 

A referendum was held on the Boston College campus regarding the issue. Ninety per cent voted in favor of the student program. The College was not impressed and remains adamant to this day with a clear and loud No!

 

Boston College recently advised that if the student program does not end, disciplinary action will be taken.

 

The ACLU has entered into the fray on behalf off the students.

 

The lines of battle are drawn. Boston College's initial right of freedom of religion versus the students' right not to be religiously discriminated against. As well as a woman's right not to be sexually discriminated against.

 

A WOW! Major Constitutionally protected religious rights in direct contradiction.

 

I am not sure where this is all going. My sense is that students' rights are superior to Boston College's in this fight.

 

Boston College played the religious card initially to escape an Obamacare requirement. Now the religious card is being used against the College.

 

Amusing.

 

A legal war of major proportions has begun! 

OUR ENEMY THE BANKS

Lets talk about banks. Nationally and internationally.

 

They have become too big. Too big to control. Eventually they will totally dominate and/or destroy society as we know it. Unless reigned in.

 

Recall the mortgage foreclosure crisis of 2008-9. People put out of their homes.

 

The crisis in the first instance was caused by the banks themselves.They got greedy. The banks were loaning money without credit checks. They were loaning money at more than the value of the property. The banks wanted to get as many homes on their mortgage books as they could and then turn them over to another entity almost immediately who in turn bundled them and started trading them. Just like stocks. A major insurance company even insured the transactions. Everyone was eating big!

 

Most banks lied and cheated about many aspects of the mortgaging and foreclosure process. The insurance aspect following foreclosure was fraught with fraud. Involved also were improper file reviews and kick backs. In addition to other machinations.

 

If the entity who loans the money is not paid, that entity goes under as well as the person who borrowed the money. That is the normal way. Not with the banks, however.

 

We were told the banks were too big to fail. The national and international economies would fall if the major banks took a hit.

 

So the United States bailed the banks out. Big bailout dollars. Taxpayer dollars.  As a result thereof, the banks survived. They invested the bailout dollars rather than loan the monies to the American public. The banks made tons of profit. Bank CEOs began to receive any where from $10 million to $40 million in bonus'. At the same time that the American people were experiencing the worst depression since 1929.

 

No bank or banking official was ever arrested, indicted, charged, or brought to trial, for any of the criminal misdeeds involved.

 

From too big to fail to too big to prosecute. Then and now.

 

Recall the very recent HSBC scandal. HSBC is a British bank. One of the largest in the world. The bank has many offices in the United States. The U.S. bank got itself involved in money laundering. Primarily drug cartel dollars from Mexico and Columbia. Illegal. Nevertheless, HSBC did it. Involved was $200 trillion. Many times more than our national debt. HSBC received a monthly profit in the area of $1.9 billion.

 

The United States government caught them. HSBC was investigated upside down and inside out for its involvement. The investigation was conducted at the highest level of government. Attorney General Holderfield spearheaded the investigation.

 

A deferred prosecution agreement was entered into between HSBC and the United States. HSBC admitted its wrongdoing. Agreed to pay one month's profit of $1.9 billion as a penalty. And promised to sin no more.

 

Attorney General Holderfield took the position that the national and international ramifications of criminal charges would hurt the world economy. He suggested the matter was too complicated because of the size of the banks to proceed beyond the deferred prosecution agreement. In effect, HSBC was too big to prosecute.

 

Now comes Cyprus. Cyprus has been front page news the past two weeks.

 

The problem confronting Cyprus has to do with the euro, the euro bank, the European Central Bank, and many other banks. Cyprus owes money to the euro nation bank. It cannot meet its payments. The euro bank says pay up. The alternative for Cyprus is bankruptcy. Imagine, a country going bankrupt!

 

Involved is some $12 billion. Cyprus says help. We need a bailout. The euro bank says ok. BUT Cyprus must come up with the first $7.5 billion.

 

Cyprus did not have the money and could not come up with it. The euro nation and bank arrived at a solution. They wanted Cyprus to levy/tax all bank deposits in Cyprus a certain percentage. Cyprus was told just take the money out. In effect, screw the depositors.

 

This insane idea by the euro bank was subject to Cyprus' legislature approving it. Good luck! The people were in the streets immediately protesting! The legislature voted no with not one positive vote being registered.

 

The problem still exists. Cyprus banks have been closed a week already. They are scheduled to open next Tuesday (this past Tuesday) assuming some arrangement is made regarding grabbing the money from depositors' bank accounts. The percentage is being discussed. The only banking service available to Cypriots presently are the ATM machines.They are still being loaded with cash. People are standing in long lines to take their money out at the rate of 500 euros a day.

 

Grabbing the bank accounts is the euro nation and euro bank's way to get paid. Perhaps the only way.

 

Bankers in the last 20 years have become bad people. They have acquired too much power. They have become a world unto themselves. More powerful in many instances than even the United States.

 

Banks have historically been frowned upon. Christ threw the money changers out of the temple. Shakespeare wrote of Shylock.

 

If, and it is a huge if, the banks have their way with Cyprus and depositors' accounts, the calamity will spread. If permitted in one place, it can be done every where. It would not surprise me in due course to see American banks do it to their depositors for one reason or another.

 

Therein lies the danger. Taking money from a depositor's account will become a spreading cancer. American banks are saying never in the United States. I do not believe them. 

 

Let me share the thoughts of some famous persons regarding banks. The quotes speak for themselves.

 

Thomas Jefferson said, "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks...will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless." Jefferson also said, "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies."

 

John Adams was of the opinion that "...banks have done more injury to religion, morality, tranquility, prosperity, and even wealth of the nation than they have done or ever will do good."

 

Finally, Lord Action crystallized that which faces us: "The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks."

 

Be vigilant, my friends.

NEW POPE AND U.S. CATHOLIC SOCIAL ISSUES.....RESOLUTIONS?

A new Pope was announced to the world this week. Pope Francis.

 

Apparently a very holy and humble man. I wish him every success in guiding the Catholic Church through its trying times.

 

Some background. He is Argentine by birth. However, he is of Italian extraction. His father was born in Italy. A modest man. The new Pope dances to his own tune. He does things his way.

 

As an Argentine Cardinal, he was entitled to all that goes with the position. From a glamorous home to a limousine to drive him here and there to whatever. He shunned all these things. He lived in a small apartment. Cooked his own meals. Took the subway to his office each day.

 

Pope Francis was ordained a Jesuit. Jesuits are an order of priests within the Catholic Church. They are well educated and considered extremely intelligent. The primary purpose of a Jesuit is to give aid the poor. To assist in providing  basics such as food and shelter.

 

Jesuits are also doctrinaire. They read the Bible literally. What it says, it says. Period. No room for interpretation.

 

In 2010, Argentina recognized same sex marriage. Today's Pope Francis spoke out at the time. He disagreed with the law. Said it was not consistent with God's plan.

 

Argentina is part of the Latin American community. The community is still dealing with poverty. Basics such as of food and shelter. The things Pope Francis was most concerned with as a priest and then Cardinal in Argentina. He had his brush with same sex marriage.He disagreed. Matters such as priests marrying, a woman becoming Pope, dealing with the pedophile problem, birth control, and other matters of a social nature do not appear to have been on his plate. Pope Francis is accustomed to caring for the poor. A Latin American and Third World country problem. A full plate in and of itself.

 

There is significance in the new Pope taking the name of Francis. He took unto himself the name of St. Francis of Assisi. Saint Francis was a wealthy person. He gave all his riches to the poor. He then spent the rest of his life caring for the poor.

 

I doubt that the new Pope will have time to delve into the social ails of the U.S. Catholic Church. When and if he does, it will be in the doctrinaire fashion described before. The word itself with no deviation.

 

Which means in the final analysis that U.S. problems will basically remain unsolved. Priests will continue to be prohibited from marrying, a woman may not become Pope, birth control will be as it has for the past sixty years, gays will be shunned.

 

I smile when these issues arise in the context of the Church. Priests initially were permitted to marry. Some early Popes had wives. It is man made law, not God's law, that prohibits marriage. Jesus respected women. His mother Mary is a prime example. He also was a close friend of the prostitute Mary Magdalen. Such has no present impact on the woman becoming Pope issue. Women continue to be second class citizens. Birth control is an issue that has strangled Catholic and non-Catholic society for years. The fight by those against birth control will go on. Leaving otherwise devout Catholic women in a quandary. The mockery of God's universal love will continue by not recognizing the love between two persons of the same sex.

 

New York's Cardinal Dolan in an interview following the new Pope's election said he doubted the social problems concerning U.S. Catholics would gain attention or be resolved. Things would continue as they have been. A status quo. No solutions.

 

My thoughts answer the question raised in the title to this article. Resolutions? Few, if any.

WHY DO PEOPLE HATE OBAMA?

Respect has taken a breather. It is no longer with us as it once was. There was a time if you disagreed with a police officer, a military person,  a priest or a political figure, you still gave the uniform and/or position the respect it was entitled to.

Today, many who disagree would rather spit on a person rather than attempt to reconcile differences.

President Obama has had a rough road since he first was elected. Respect for him is lacking. The office he holds is likewise disrespected.

It is my considered opinion that two reasons exist for the dislike.

The first has to do with color. Obama is half black. The first person of color elected to such high office. Probably not the last. Many people, especially middle aged white Americans, have a hatred for Obama that eats at them every day. Obama can do nothing correct. No one can be that bad!

This group of white Americans sense Obama is the first of his color to achieve such heights. He will not be the last. The whites are fearful of losing their perceived status as the big guys in American society. Underlining that thought, these same persons are equally fearful that the black man will remember his history in our country and get even. The philosophy being that what goes around, comes around.

The numbers regarding persons of color are staggering. This very day, there are more persons of color in the United States than whites. Those who dislike/hate Obama are aware of that. The color group includes blacks, Hispanics, Asians and whatever other persons of color there may be.

It is probable that the United States will elect another person of color President within the next 20-30 years. Colored America will be by that time the largest voting block.

There is another consideration. I suspect that in 50 years, there will be few people of color. As the colored population grows and the white diminishes, there will be intermarriage. Society will generally be tan.

Have I said a terrible thing? No. It is inevitable.

And that sticks in the craw of the hateful whites!

The other reason Obama is disliked and hated is corporate America. If Obama were white, they would still dislike and hate him. Corporate America wishes to control and dominate American society. Any Democrat President obstructs that desire. Corporate America is for themselves, the rich. That two per cent.

Corporate America will do anything to feather its own bed. They care not for the masses.

Obama's color and selfish corporate interests have eroded the respect that a President of the United States is entitled to. Any President.

I cannot understand. The change to color influence is inevitable. It is a wave that cannot be stopped. Corporate America cannot go on as it has. Record profits while farming out 80 per cent of jobs to foreign countries. The middle class will return. Respect for every one, also.

Republicans, haters and corporate America  beware. The train has left the station.