From the left-wing website TCRNews.com, we have three articles about the evil of usury.
The first is by Eastern Orthodox bishop Paul Peter called "Would a Bank Charge Jesus Usury?"
The second was by the late Pope John Paul II from April of 1999.
The third is from Bill Peatman from - alas - the notorious "liberal Catholic" paper The Tidings. It is on "Gospel financial wisdom".
This second press release from the Organic Consumers Association is asking consumers world-wide to boycott shopping at chain stores between November 13th and the end of this year. They ask, instead, that consumers buy their goods at local shops and co-operatives, especially as we approach the holy feast of Christmas. The campaign is called "Breaking The Chains".
We at the DR are estatic about this, and back it to the hilt. Chesterton, in The Outline of Sanity, called for people to buy more from the little shops for their goods and services. And that was back in 1926. It is just as true today.
Click on the above link to find out what you can do to further promote this effort in your neighborhoods. This is a good way to promote Distributism where you live, and encourage people to know more about it.
These two reports, sent via the US-based Organic Consumers Association (OCA), reports of a disturbing trend among big conglomerates like Procter and Gamble to market their wares to teenagers. Known as "buzz marketing", companies like P&G encourage teenagers - or pay them - to get their friends to buy their products marketed to teenagers.
A group called Commercial Alert filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against P&G and others engaging in these practices, believing them unethical.
Chesterton - quoted in a 1998 edition of the old St. Catherine's Review of Canada - called advertising a "megaphone of mere mercantile self-satisfaction." So such tactics as "buzz marketing" must be nipped in the bud before it does any further damage to the already damaged American teen culture.
The link to the OCA report has a link to Commercial Alert for any who wish to see the original press release.
We reported on the 17th of this month that a fraudulent anti-"hate crime" bill was threatened with passage. Said bill would have made illegal criticism of the Sexual Revolution and certain aspects of it, as similar laws have done in Canada, Holland, Belguim, Sweden and so on.
Now Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who was behind such bills in the past is at it again, trying to tie in his defeated bill - S. 1145 - onto the Sex Offenders Registration Act, which is S. 1086.
So once again, we ask the American readers of the DR to call your Senators, and demand they vote NO on adding Kennedy's anti-genuine free speech amendment to S. 1086. The information on what to do is here from the alternative news website Rense.com.
Time is of the essence. Call your Senators today, Friday, and tell them NO on this amendment. And pray, pray, pray. Thank you.
And for our foreign readers, we again encourage you to begin efforts to repeal those laws that forbid you to criticize the Sexual Revolution. Do not ever take no for an answer. And thank you as well.
This report, filed by Noelle Knox of the pro-globalist USA TODAY via Yahoo News, shows how horrible is the bureaucratic jungle a German small business owner must cut through. Just like in America and other nations, the two owners of a small burrito shop spent seven months filling out the proper forms and meeting bored and clueless bureaucrats.
With an 11% unemployment rate, a huge deficit and a declining population thanks to abortion and the Sexual Revolution, Germany needs all the help it can get. Angela Merkel, the new German leader, still has a long road to travel if she is even thinking of passing reforms to aid small business. Taking the chains off of small businesses and co-operatives is one major step in turning Germany toward a Distributist future. But it is a step that must be taken.
Good news from Latin America regarding the evil of gun control. This report from the globalist BBC News website reports that Brazilian voters voted against banning the sales of firearms. According to a report from the left-wing Associated Press, as reported in the Boston Metro, 64% of voters rejected the ban. And this was with 92% of the votes counted.
The pro-globalist media outlets in America and elsewhere are fuming at the news, for a disarmed public is one that is easily controlled. Neither Belloc nor Chesterton advocated gun control during their day. And neither do we. For an excellent source on the true evils of gun control, we refer to the group Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. Although they are Libertarian in origin, they are doing great work in preserving the right of self-defense and fighting the schemes of big government.
Again, congratulations to the voters of Brazil for preserving the right to own guns and fight crime and tyranny.
This column from Mark Morford of the left-wing San Francisco Chronicle is about a family in Arkansas who just recently added their 16th child. With flourishes of rhetorical scorn, riddled with shock and disgust, Morford goes on to ridicule and deride this family, including the father who he claims is "hankering" to be a Republican senator. He describes one of the photos on their website as - this is a direct quote - of the "bizarre Duggar family of 18 spotless white hyperreligious interchangeable people with alarmingly bad hair".
Bizarre, eh? Disgusting, is it? Chesterton and Belloc would beg to differ. As would the rest of sane humanity.
As would especially Our Saving Lord!
This column, found on the alternative news website Rense.com, has already got two major responses from it, both in praise of the Duggar family. Let us hope it will generate more for the Duggars, who are also devout Evangelical Protestants and home-school advocates. As for Mr. Morford, we at the DR suggest two things for you, our readers, to do in light of this.
One, to send a brief and polite reply to Mr. Morford, rebuking his sad and pessimistic stance against openness to life and trusting Christ and Mary to take care of large families like the Duggars. Let him know also about Distributism, which is best suited to support large families by fighting economic and political centralization. (His e-mail address is mmorford@sfgate.com)
And two, pray for his soul, that God may break his heart of stone and replace it with a heart of love...especially for large families.
This comment added to this report on the proposed S.1145 is by Ken Adachi of the alternative medicine and "conspiracy news" website Educate Yourself.org. It reveals that pro-Socialist Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) is one of the main men behind this bill.
Whether you accept Mr. Adachi's conclusions about this proposed law or not, it is necessary to preserve the freedom and right to criticize and fight any government expansion of power. It is also vital to fight those who would strip away from us the right and duty to criticize the Sexual Revolution, as well as fighting it in our schools, government, businesses and society. That right has been curtailed or quashed in Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Canada and possibly Germany. Don't let it happen here.
We again refer you to the National Prayer Network and their efforts to stop this attack on genuine freedom of speech. Call your senators and demand they stop S. 1145 NOW!
And for DR readers in these nations where your rights to protest the Sexual Revolution have been squished, we urge you to begin educational campaigns to repeal those laws stripping you of your rights. It will be a long time in getting them back, but do not waver. It may take years or even decades, but don't take no for an answer. Bring your homelands back to a Ten Commandments-based society.
Chesterton said this from his book Utopia of Usurers:
"Men are ruled, at this minute by the clock, by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern."
He wrote this back in 1917. Alas, on issues like this, it is still true today. Tell your senators to vote NO on S. 1145!
In light of all the weather madness we have been experiencing in America and elsewhere, many folks who cling to various shades of Green ideology - especially eco-Marxists - believe that it is all due to the phenomenon of "global warming". But could it be that the opposite is really the case?
To wit, here is an article from columnist Phil Brennan from the American pan-Rightist website Etherzone.com on the possibility of a new "ice age" that is to blame for so much of the current chaos in the weather. It is doubtless that those behind the infamous Kyoyo Treaty will care about the information presented here. But using the legitimate concerns over air pollution, superstorms and the like to further reduce economic and political freedom worldwide is frankly sinful.
Read and ponder.
We just received news of a bill going through the American Senate that would - if passed - make illegal criticism of homosexual activity and activism, as well as allow prosecution of anti-war and pro-life advocates under "hate crime" legislation.
Furthermore, it will take away the state's power to enforce local hate crime laws, putting it all in the hands of the Federal government. Centralizing power into fewer hands goes against every belief of Distributist Thought.
The Protestant group National Prayer Network is asking all concerned Americans to contact their Republican Senators to vote NO to S. 1145. This link shows how where the anti-free speech provisions are buried in the bill. This is the same trick the Congress used to pass the infamous Real ID Card bill, burying it within a bill to fund the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Please, don't let them get away with a similar trick to slice away our freedom to criticize the government and the Sexual Revolution. Go to this link to find out what you must do NOW to stop this horrid bill. And please keep praying for victory. Thank you.
This is an excellent piece from the Traditional Catholic website Daily Catholic.com. The piece is an excerpt from the book The Life of Colonel David Crockett by Edward Sylvester Ellis. One of the heroes of the Battle of the Alamo was also one of the most conscious and honest of politicians. Too often - in America, Russia and elsewhere - that is an oxymoron. In Crockett's case, it was the truth.
The excerpt reinforces the principle that government must not waste the money of taxpayers. Perhaps this is being utopian on our part, but to quote St. Augustine:
"Right is right even if no one does it, and wrong is wrong even if everyone does it."
In light of the constant bad news today, we need some good news and good food for thought. Let Davy Crockett supply it for us today.
Certainly Belloc and Chesterton would approve.
This report, dated September 28th, was written by Toby Westerman, editor of the monthly anti-Communist newsletter International News Analysis Today.
The report dwells on a recent law passed in pro-Marxist Venezuela, dominated by the strongman Hugo Chavez. According to this law, the Venezuelan military would join the military of other nations for "joint defense". Most likely, this will be in assistance of Communist Cuba.
Though he portrays himself as a hero for the poor, Chavez is anything but. In an earlier report, Westerman noted that Chavez called the Stalinist dictatorship in North Korea a "model" to base his own regime on. And according to the Jamaica Observer, the Chavez regime is looking to buy three Russian-built diesel submarines to update it's own navy.
Furthermore, acording to the pro-globalist BusinessWeek, Venezuela has liquidated its foreign reserve holdings in American banks, transfering them to pro-Socialist Europe. He also demanded the creation of a "South American central bank" to hold all foreign exchanges of the continent's central banks.
Chavez is out to spread Marxism-Leninism to the Americas, like his fellow Red dictator Castro. They both must be resisted and cast out of their nations, along with their governments. But let them not be replaced with pro-big business regimes like what has happened to Latin America in the past. (American involvement with the infamous United Fruit Company in destabilizing the continent is a warning to avoid such temptations.)
As frequent readers of the DR know, we advocate a Distributist Earth. In the case of Venezuela, that means kicking out Chavez and his thugs by moral and legal means. Then replacing his tyranny not with another US/EU backed pro-multinational clique, but with a Distributist state. One that rejects both Socialism and Capitalism, rejects globalism and the Sexual Revolution. One that defends small businesses, co-operatives and worker-owned, worker-managed businesses. One that protects family farms and farmer co-ops. One that cleans the environment without surrendering to eco-Marxist nonsense.
Until that blessed day comes, let us beware and strive to peacefully get Chavez out of Venezuela and Marxism out of Latin America.
This article from the news website Ghanaweb.com reports on progress to put into Ghana's laws an equivalent to America's Freedom of Information Act. If it is implemented, they should make sure it is not weakened or allowed to be watered down as it may be in the US or the UK.
In a Distributist society, an open and transparent government is essential to help reduce corruption. The Ghana government claims it wishes to do that. Let us truly hope so.
Dear friends and neighbors,
We at the DR want to thank you so much for your continued reading of this web log. From the last information we’ve read, there are over eight million weblogs on the Internet. Most of them have only between five and twenty readers a day. Thanks to you, we are slowly growing faster than that average.
Thanks to mention of us in Gilbert Magazine, the publication of the American Chesterton Society, our readership per day has grown near the end of this period (July 1st to September 30th). We are also mentioned on the Traditional Catholic message board Angelqueen.org, and that has also increased our readership. We are now averaging between 25 and 30 readers a day.
We have had readers from various levels of government and business in the USA, and we cannot thank you enough for considering us as part of your daily reading of news and opinions.
During this period, we also have had an increase of readers from colleges and universities in the USA, Canada and other countries. Of note, we have had readers from:
Christendom College in Virginia
Catholic University of America
University of Tennessee
University of Michigan
M.I.T.
Yale University
Villanova University
Gonzaga University
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Missouri Baptist College
Tufts University
Vanderbilt University
Penn State University
University of Notre Dame
Wheaton College, Illinois
University of Toronto, Ontario
University of Aberdeen, Scotland
Australian Catholic University
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
University of Malta
And our foreign readership has been no less impressive. During the last three months, we’ve had readers from:
England - Slovakia - Malta - Hungary - Philippines - Portugal - Italy - Australia - Canada - Brazil - Poland - Sweden - Germany - France - French Polynesia - India - Finland - Czech Republic - Norway - Singapore - Israel - South Africa - Belgium - Pakistan - New Zealand - Argentina - Japan - Iran - Netherlands - Turkey - Mexico - Chile
One may think this is much ado about almost nothing, but that is not so. Chesterton said that: “Thanks are the highest form of thought.” So it seems only right, fair and just to thank you all for considering reading this web log. We hope this will inform you as well as encourage you to learn more about Distributism, it’s co-founders Belloc and Chesterton, and challenge you to promote it in your neighborhood and nation.
Finally, we ask you all to please keep the Review and we three contributors to it, as well as our families, in your daily prayers. Thanks to those prayers, and the mercy of Our Savior, we can stay on the Internet and do our part to bring forth a future Distributist Earth.
Again, thank you all. May Jesus and Mary richly bless you and your families.
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