Frankenstein's back, with a resounding endorsement of Barack Obama. I refer, of course, to the reemergence in public of former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Albright chastized Bush and defended Obama's statement that he would be happy to talk to Iran and other enemies of the United States. Albright blasted the current approach to the Middle East and made the anodyne point that it is just as important to converse with one's adversaries as it is to converse with one's friends.
The problem, of course, is not with talking with folks like Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. The problem is: who is going to do the talking? Certainly a President McCain has the experience and resolve to sit across the table with the bad guys and not fall for their deceptions or give in to their pressures. With an unseasoned guy like Obama, whose global experience may be confined to an occasional visit to the International House of Pancakes, who knows?
With Albright too it is credibility that becomes an issue. On May 11, 1996 this woman was asked by a television interviewer for "60 Minutes" whether she was troubled by the fact that Clinton-supported sanctions had resulted in the death of 500,000 Iraqi children. "It's a hard choice," she replied, "but we think it's worth it."
Leftists should keep Albright's response in mind when they wail about civilian casualties as a consequence of Bush's war in Iraq. Iraq Body Count keeps track of these casualties, and they are less than one-fifth the number of innocent civilians (mostly children) killed in the aftermath of sanctions. Sanctions had no effect on Saddam or his henchmen, who didn't miss a meal. Rather, they hurt the most vulnerable members of Iraqi society.
These facts remind us not only of the shortcomings of sanctions, which are not likely to work better with Iran than they did with Iraq. They also remind us that bad things in the world must be measured not against utopia but against what came before. Bush's Iraq war has resulted in a steep reduction of Iraqi deaths compared to the 300,000 people Saddam deposited in the mass graves and compared to the even greater number of deaths that Clinton's policies seem to have produced.
Still, I come back to Albright's original dismissal of half a million deaths with the calm affirmation: it's worth it. Can you recall another secretary of state making a remark more shockingly callous than Albright's? How this Frankenstein became the first female secretary of state remains a mystery.
And it is this same person who would presume to lecture us on what we should now be doing with Iran. I don't think we need more advice from Albright. Rather, what we need from her is an apology, followed by an overdue withdrawal from public life.
Reader Comments ( Page 13 of 14)
181. Oh, and ChristofascistSoldier, in case you wanna cry and call me out as a bad person for "attacking" you, I'll post this excerpt where you attacked me first, just so you aren't confused about that, like so many christians that attack me first seem to be...
(Why, you'd think it was a TACTIC or something, it happens so often. They attack, I counter, and they cry foul at my COUNTER.
Anyhow, here it is:
"GHB - it is not forcing my religion or anyone elses to say conception is the beginning of life. Un-fertilized eggs, and dead sperm does not constitue life. Maybe an exception in your case."
"Maybe an exception in your case." That's the slur, the diss... not overt, but that's part of it's charm. You insinuate that I was perhaps born of dead sperm. Nice Christian thing to say. Way to go convincing people that you're the nice guys and your religion is real and true and good and prodices in it's followers a sense of morality.
See, if you had played nice, we MIGHT have had a conversation. Of course, that wasn't what you wanted in the first place, was it? You're just here for the sheer pleasure of pissing us atheists off, aren'tcha? Hey, I understand. It's one of your FEW allowable pleasures. Hatred, I mean.
Godless Heathen Brian at 7:18PM on Jul 1st 2008
182. And I only wish that whoever wrote "pro-abortionists" on the last page could hear me SCREAM. I'm sure it would have made the hateful fuck happy.
Godless Heathen Brian at 7:21PM on Jul 1st 2008
183. The two sides more properly should be called "Anti-Abortion" and "Pro-Choice" or other such neutral terms.
Calling it "Pro-Life" is a lovely way of putting us in the position of "anti-life" when we're more for ALL life than you schleps are. You would take away the freedom of the mother for the child yet unborn. Even when it's a mere blastocyst! That's just way too fascist for us. And you care little for the already-born, as proven by your horrific social ideas and programs that leave the poor and disenfranchised out in the fucking COLD, so why should we listen to hypocrites again?
In fact, your side is so rife with hypocrisy on all issues, that you aren't even taken seriously by ANYBODY on the outside of your death cult anymore. You're laughing stocks, in fact. Happy? Hope so. You certainly should be, since after all, ignorance is bliss.
Godless Heathen Brian at 7:31PM on Jul 1st 2008
184. God and His Providence
by Rev. William G. Most
ONE GOD
In the first article of the Apostle's Creed we express our belief in the existence of God. He is a pure spirit, that is, He has no matter at all, and no parts.
We call Him Father, since He is the supreme source of everything, the one "from whom all Fatherhood in heaven and on earth takes its name" (Ephesians 3. 16).
We call Him the Creator, since He has made all things , not out of some previously existing material, but simply out of nothing. He has infinite power. By just willing it, He can do all things. So in Genesis 1 He merely spoke and said, "Let there be light." And light came into existence. Really, He did not speak in our sense of the word; He merely willed it, and it came into being.
To describe Him we use the word attributes. These are the perfections that He has, which we attribute to Him by comparison with creatures. Some of His attributes belong to Him by His very nature; others belong to Him in relation to the world He made.
The chief attributes that are His by His very nature are His unchangeability and eternity. He is unchangeable. Since He has the fullness of being, He could not change into anything higher or better, or acquire anything: "I, the Lord, do not change," He said through the prophet Malachi (3:6). We call Him eternal, not in the sense that there always was time, and in it He always was. No, since He is unchangeable there is no past or future for Him: all is one unchanging present. So when we say that He made the world--a past expression--to His divine mind it registers as present! "Before the mountains were born, before you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are, O God" (Psalm 90:2).
There are attributes that follow upon God's relation to this world. He is omnipotent or almighty because "nothing is impossible to God" (Luke 1:37). The book of Sirach 23:20 says: "Before they were made, all things were known to Him." So He is all-knowing, or omniscient. We say He is present everywhere. In Jeremiah 23:24 He said: "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" Yet He is not present in the sense of taking up space, as we do: we say a Spirit is present wherever it causes an effect. He caused all things to come into being, and keeps them in being. Since He rewards good and punishes evil we call Him all-just. St. Paul wrote (Romans 2:6): "He will repay each one according to his works." He guides and directs the paths of all creatures, and hence the First Epistle of Peter 5:7 can say: "Cast all your care upon Him, for He takes care of you". He is all-good since He is the author of everything that is good, and wills eternal good to us. Psalm 136:1, "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good."
It is strictly correct to say that God is love, since if we said that He has love, there would be a duality, two. But He is totally unity. He is identified with each of His attributes. So He is mercy, He is justice, and therefore in some way, mercy and justice are identified in Him. His justice is His mercy is Himself, and so on for all His attributes.
Michael at 7:43PM on Jul 1st 2008
185. God's Providence
His providence watches over and guides everything: "No creature is invisible before Him: all are bare and uncovered to His eyes" (Hebrews 4:13). His wisdom "extends from end to end mightily and governs all well" (Wisdom 8:1).
This providence extends especially to man. As we saw from 1 Timothy 2:4, He "wills all to be saved". That will to save us is so great that He did not spare His only Son, but sent Him to a horrible death, to make eternal life open for us (Rom 8:32). Thus He really, "proved His love" (Rom 5:8). For the greater an obstacle the one who loves can get over in trying to bring happiness and well-being to the beloved, the greater the love must be. So He gives His helps, His grace, most abundantly, since the infinite price of redemption (cf. 1 Cor 6. 20; 7:23) paid for an infinite treasury of forgiveness and grace for each individual one, for "He loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). This does not mean that someone could say: Since I have so great an abundance going for me, I can sin greatly most of my life, and pull up short at the end. No, one who sins much becomes spiritually blind, incapable of receiving the graces God so greatly wills to give him.
If we follow up the most basic comparison used by Our Lord Himself in the Gospel we would say: God is our Father. As such, He wants all His children to turn out well. But if someone then throws aside His graces to such an extent that he cannot be saved - becoming blind - then with sorrow the Father must let him be lost. But otherwise, He will save us, not because we earned it, but because He, like any good Father, wants all His children to turn out well. So St. Paul speaks of sinners as not being able to "inherit the kingdom" (1 Cor 6:10; Eph 5:5). When we inherit from our parents, we do not say we earned it: we get it because they are good, not that we are good. But we could have earned to lose that inheritance by being evil. So Paul said in Romans 6:23: "The wages of sin [what we earn] is death; the free gift of God [unearned] is eternal life." As a student once said: "As to salvation, you cannot earn it, but you can blow it."
If we live with this attitude and realization, we fulfill what Our Lord called for: "If you do not change and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3).
The very first grace is normally the grace to pray. Other things then follow. St. Augustine wrote well: "See these things, Lord, mercifully, and free us who now call on you. Free also those who do not yet call on you, so that they may call on you, and you may free them" (Confessions 1:9).
When God decided to create the human race, it was inevitable to give them free will--otherwise it would be something other than the human race. He saw this would give an opening to great evils, but also to very great goods. He decided to as it were buy the package.
There is so much evil in the world. Why? Physical evils result from the frailty of creatures, made out of nothing. To stop all of these, God would need to multiply miracles very frequently--but then He would contradict Himself, constantly going beyond the laws of nature which He Himself had established. Moral evils come from the fact that He gave us free will--opening the way, as we said, to great good, and great evil. Again, to prevent these would take miracles of grace constantly, which would be out of order. And it would reduce human freedom also. However, He can and does draw much good out of evil, e.g., evils provide the material for the patience of the just; physical evils give opportunity for much charity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taken from The Basic Catholic Catechism
PART TWO: The Apostle's Creed
First Article of the Creed: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth."
By William G. Most. (c) Copyright 1990 by William G. Most
Michael at 7:45PM on Jul 1st 2008
186. I hope you're posting all that propaganda for your fellow christians, michael. Because to us it's just drivel, sorry to so inform.
Michael, the archangel. I picture him in red armor with a flaming sword, black hair and a fearsome visage, with flames in the background and the smell of cordite and brimstone under a darkened sky. Archangel of the south, of the element of Fire, and of the sphere of Geburah, representing catabolism or the destruction of that which is no longer useful or good. Also represents war, interestingly enough. A vivid mental image for sleight-of-mind type self-manipulations. A useful archetype.
You aren't very much like him.
Godless Heathen Brian at 8:39PM on Jul 1st 2008
187. 173. botts - you are not being honest to say life does not begin at conception, and you know it. I've seen your posts.
xxxx
both sperm and egg are alive. You are spouting preacherbabble. and newsflash, the earth isn't six thousand years old nor is it flat.
The reason you want this absurdity to be so is to have power over the sexual behavior of others and to have license to kill them for murder.
I say you're just too much of a phony to state it. It looks to me like you and the emperor share a sartorial oversight.
Clif Kuplen at 2:05PM on Jul 2nd 2008
188. helix you are a stupid idiot... You must be eating to many of those magical mushrooms. Or you are in a different country. I have been on several juries, and our mix was as varied as the American culture. No clan mentality, and certainly not all of the same faith. So, no you are the complete idiot here. Thanks for letting us all know.
American Soldier at 2:35PM on Jul 2nd 2008
189. Clif if you want to be a pud sucking faggot, I don't care. Just be honest about it. I am all for giving y'all your own island, hell after a generation or two you would be extinct.
American Soldier at 2:40PM on Jul 2nd 2008
190. ghb - you were the one making the case for dead sperm. I was just giving you your bit. I am a Christian, just not a real good one to set as an example. Thank God I am not in charge, I do not tolerate dissent very well. The military is not a good example of democracy. Do what you are told when you are told.
American Soldier at 2:44PM on Jul 2nd 2008
191. American soldier-
example, at the time when voter registration was required to be on a jury, a person was called to jury duty after he said he would not vote. #1
example, at the time when a certain juror was to be called to duty, he was called during a conflict of interest trial, people are set free this way. #2
example, at a time when a defendent has a easy case to win, he is called before the toughest judge, known to convict for the certain offense, coincidence?. Not. #3
example, citizen contacts representative to see what can be done about legal issues. They are asked how much money they have. No money, no legal representation. #4
example, same civil servant threatens civilian, tells them the DA, the law, the judge work together. To get passed all three without money is impossible. #5
The list goes on... but I don't have the time for you dummy. You simply follow whomever can fool you the most.
I get the island to go extinct, you get to pray to a brick wall.... how american!
helix at 3:23PM on Jul 2nd 2008
192. helix - more given the more will be required. In other words all those judges, politicians, and civic leaders will some day stand before a Holy and righteous judge, and will give an account. (period)
I will be the first to agree that our public officials, and politicians are corrupt.
As far as lawyers yeah they can select only clients that can pay. That is capitalism.
American Soldier at 7:30PM on Jul 2nd 2008
193. Clif if you want to be a pud sucking faggot, I don't care.
xxxx
Of course not.
From where you are you can say something like that and you won't need surgery to remove my foot from what used to be your face.
Wouldn't you suck his pud if jesus told you to?
What if he wanted half an hour to draw a crowd and made you stand on your mama's shoulders to do it?
Hey, it's jesus, whaddya say?
And meanwhile, there may be a chance I'm your father or your grandfather. I spent a long time in touring bands.
Since you might not have had pussy since pussy had you, here's a little tip to sort shit out:
If you like girls, you're hetero.
If you have to pray about it, you ain't.
Clif Kuplen at 8:40PM on Jul 2nd 2008
194. I don't think it's name-calling (as if that were even of importance here) when a person is guilty of, or complicit in, the deaths of many, many people. It's frankly time to call people like Obama and Kathleen Sebelius and so many others "mass murderers" for their direct moral complicity in the deaths of tens of thousands of unborn (and born alive) children. Can't even consider puting such a person if office. Put them in jail. And pray for them.
tom at 10:41PM on Jul 2nd 2008
195. Sebelius and so many others "mass murderers" for their direct moral complicity in the deaths of tens of thousands of unborn (and born alive) children.
xxxx
Then science has every right to call every human being that ovulates or ejaculates a mass murderer.
Or they can laugh at your attempts to create mass hysteria. Why don't you all go back to trying to put brassieres on cows.
Clif Kuplen at 12:32AM on Jul 3rd 2008