Give Help for New Orleans

The news coming in from both so-called "mainstream" and alternative media sources report that New Orleans is all but splattered from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

This report from Brett Martel of the left-wing Associated Press, given via Yahoo News, tells of Louisiana's governor ordering refugees out of the city. Two levees broke and flodded water into the city, which itself is under sea level to begin with. It is estimated that 80 % of the city is underwater! The city of 480,000 has no drinkable water, and electricity is expected to be out for literally weeks!

As Mr. Martel reported, the winds of Katrina smashed into the area for 8 hours, along with an estimated 15 inches of rainfall.

Biloxi, Mississippi was also hard hit by the hurricane.

In both cities, looters ransacked stores and casino boats. Martial law was declared in two parishes in the New Orleans area ("parishes" are the equivalent of counties in Louisiana).

This earlier report from the French-based AFP, also brought via Yahoo News, also reported of submerged highways and washed-out bridges. As reported by the neo-conservative news giant WorldNetDaily, damage from this storm will vary between US$9 and $16 billion.

This page from the globalist BBC has reports from people who have survived the destruction caused by Katrina. Reading it is heartbreaking.

There is a report from New Orleans City Business, given via the alternative/conspiracy news outlet Propaganda Matrix, that the US Army Corps of Engineers - as far back as February - noted there were many projects needed for hurricane protection that were not being funded by the Federal government.

The cable network MSNBC said that the flood waters would turn the city into a "toxic cesspool".

AS reported by Alan Sayre of the Associated Press, given via the New Orleans info website NOLA.com, 95% of Gulf of Mexico daily oil rpoduction was shut down because of Katrina. Over 4 1/2 million barrels of oil and over 25 billion cubic feet of natural gas has been held up from reaching customers thanks to the hurricane. Because of this, oil futures went up to - acoording to some reports - either $70 or $71 a barrel.

So, in light of all this misery and disaster, we at the DR encourage you to check out the legitimate charities asking for help so as to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Go to the webpage of the group Network For Good to find out more.

And please continue to pray for the people suffering thanks to Katrina.

Our Lady of Prompt Succor, pray for us.

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Pray For New Orleans

It is in the news worldwide that the City of New Orleans will be smashed by the oncoming Hurricane Katrina. In light of this, we ask all our DR readers to pray for the people of that city - as well as all those who are affected and afflicted by hurricanes and typhoons today - that Our Lord may have mercy on all.

The Catholics of New Orleans have a special devotion to Our Lady of Prompt Succor. We encourage our readers to ask for Her intercession to God for mercy on the victims of Katrina.

Thank you all so much.

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Mega-Merger Addiction

This report, written by Padraic Cassidy, come from the MarketWatch section of the left-wing CBS News website. It is dated today, August 22nd.

American washing machine giant Whirlpool has bought out its rival Maytag for US$ 2.7 billion. According to Cassidy's report, a combined Whirlpool-Maytag company would hold 48% of the major appliance market (which includes washing machines, dryers, microwave ovens and so on). It's two rivals are General Electric - holding 26% - and Electrolux - holding 20%.

The proposed merger must now face government scrutiny over possible anti-trust law violations.

The major companies in the dying West are addicted to buying out or merging with one another, much like an alcoholic or a drug or sex addict is enslaved to whatever drives their addictions. At the very least, this proposed Whirlpool-Maytag combine will lessen competition in the domestic American marketplace.

And that is never a good thing.

Worse, too many of the brands of appliances we see today - Amana, Magic King, Admiral, Hoover and so on - are actually owned by either of these two companies. They are not independent entities. The illusion of competition is preserved but the reality underneath is just crass monopolization.

As we Distributists see it, these big companies should have never been allowed to grow so huge to begin with. And the Socialistic bureaucrats in the halls of power - Federal and state - should have never joined hands with such conglomerates. Instead, they give them tax breaks and taxpayer-financed incentives to dominate the market. Thus setting up a scenario where small, local appliance companies meeting local needs are beaten before the game begins, so to speak.

At the very least, the Federal government - if it has any sense - should rule against the proposed Maytag-Whirlpool merger. Furthermore, it should command the two companies break up into smaller ones, like what Bell Telephone was ordered to do decades ago. This would spur competition nationally between them, as well as encourage new companies - preferably (to us) worker-owned and managed co-op style companies - to sell their wares to the consumer.

And we'd encourage contacting Congressmen and Senators to demand this proposed merger be stopped in its tracks.

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Alas For Belarus

This report from the left-wing San Francisco Chronicle, given via the Libertarian website Antiwar.com, is written by Anna Badkhen.

The Eastern European nation of Belarus, under the iron heel of Alexander Lukashenko, is faring no better than Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe or Fidel Castro's Cuba. There are no private farms or independent co-operatives. All companies are owned and run by the state, even small ones. Lukashenko's "market socialism" is the ruling ideology, with all students and employees obliged to attend training in this bilge.

Let us learn from what is going on in that poor nation and avoid it. Like in so many other places in our sad world, they don't know about Distributism. True, it will not cure all the country's problems, but it can help to alleviate them to a great degree. So long as Lukashenko's neo-Communist regime remains in power, the ten million who dwell in his shadow will still endure madness and wrath.

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Lean Mean Hybrid Cars

This report, placed on the left-wing CNN website, comes from their counterparts of the Associated Press.

Small companies and one-man entrepreneurs are leading the way in modifying hybrid gas-electric cars in the US to get more fuel efficiency from their vehicles. In the report dated August 16th, some cars are able to gt up to 250 miles per gallon!

The technology, according to the AP report, has been in existence for over 30 years. Only now, with gasoline prices approaching US$2.50 a gallon, are some of the big auto companies like DaimlerChrysler getting on this bandwagon.

Distributism believes in decentralizing energy production, as well as conservation. Efforts by small inventors and small companies to help in both can only benefit the US during it's time of turmoil on gas prices.

But this will benefit other nations as well, if they are able to do similar work as those mentioned in the CNN report. As also reported by CNN, on it's Money section, other countries are in even worse straits regarding the high cost of gas. (NOTE: Other nations, using the accursed Metric System, measure their costs in litres.) Gasoline in Tokyo is US$3.84 per gallon. Rome is $4.86 a gallon. Hong Kong is $5.62 a gallon!

Contrary to the so-called "mainstream media" hyped scare of "Peak Oil" - the story that the world is running out of oil - the news coming out of Russia and the Ukraine say otherwise. Though oil and gas are a finite resource - only Almighty God is infinite, nothing else is - there is still a lot more oil in the ground than ecological Marxists claim. Nonetheless, fuel conservation is necessary and is good stewardship of the world God gave us out of His love.

Hence, efforts by these "tinkerers" and small companies mentioned above are well worth the effort and well worth our support.

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Icahn Demands Time Warner Breakup

This article, dated August 16th, is written by Jane Martinson for the far left-wing English newspaper The Guardian.

The notorious corporate raider Carl Icahn, infamous for his hostile takeover of TWA in 1985, is calling for a breakup of the media conglomerate AOL-Time Warner. Icahn, according to Ms. Martinson's report, leads a group of shareholders who want the media behemoth to sell it's cable business. Ever since AOL bought out Time Warner in 2000, it's stock value has gone down by half.

As far as Distributism is concerned, it would have been better if there were no media conglomerates in the first place. Centralizing ownership and management of media outlets into fewer and fewer hands, whether those of big government or big businesses like AOL-Time Warner, is absolutely wrong. In the USA, six conglomerates own the majority of radio, TV, newspaper and motion picture companies. Such monopolization is inhuman.

Icahn's call for this breakup is a good first step. But we Distributists would go further and demand the breakup of ALL media conglomerates, in America and worldwide. Keeping media local and responsive to the public, rather than distant and answerable to almost no one, is the ideal to strive for.

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Good News Out Of Egypt

It is a blessing from Our Lord when we can report good news on the promotion of Distributism throughout the world, or at least aspects of it.

So for this weekend, here is a report from the US-based National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA). It has been operating 25 projects in 18 countries, helping to foster small businesses and coperatives to aid these countries out of poverty without going into the evils of Socialism.

Here, for example, is what they have been doing to help small businesses in Egypt.

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A Lesson From Zimbabwe

Let us direct your attention to a website dedicated to a woman who is a true patriot for her homeland of Zimbabwe, the former Rhodesia. She is Cathy Buckle, who has written weekly letters on the chaos in that southern African nation to the controversial news website Rense.com.

The website, who's address is called "African Tears", details the misery, hunger and violence that plagues this country at the hands of the Marxist-Leninist tyrant Robert Mugabe. True, what is happening there is happening in so many other nations. But there are lessons to be learned by those willing to be taught.

Like never to centralize power - economic and political - into the hands of the few, whether in big government, big business or both. Three years ago, elections were rigged to keep the ZANU-PF Party in power, which has been continuous since 1980. Violence by thugs - trained by the government - continues against any and all rivals to power.

Like protecting domestic agriculture, which has been withering away thanks to the Communist policies of state ownership of land and such. Three years ago, 93% of Zimbabwe's farmers were ordered to leave their farms in the hands of government supporters...the majority not knowing how to farm at all, or not enough to make money.

Like always stocking up with batteries, bottled water and canned goods for use in emergencies. (For our American readers, this should be done starting TODAY, especially in these days of the current "war on terror".) Zimbabweans can't even get adequate supplies of milk, bread, flour, sugar, cooking oil and such for their families. Long lines form for such necessities, just like in the old Soviet Union and Red China.

If this poor country is ever to be freed from the Communist tyranny of Mugabe and his ilk, they must NOT allow their country to be bought up and bought out by the multinationals who are wrecking the economies and governments of other countries. Let them know of Distributism, and the insights of Belloc, Chesterton and their legitimate successors. Then they will have a better chance of survival and sanity than what they're undergoing right now.

And, as always, pray God have mercy on Zimbabwe. And that He protect Ms. Buckle and her family.

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CAFTA Fallout Beginning

This article, written on August 2nd by the left-wing Associated Press, was put on the website of Agri News. This publication covers agricultural news and affairs in Minnesota and Northern Iowa.

Members of a sugar beet growing co-operative may be voting against a Minnesota US Senator and Representative for voting in favor of CAFTA. Co-op members fear - rightly so - that cheap (and possibly subsidized) sugar imports will flood American markets. This would, in turn, hurt their operations and put more people out of work.

The men and women who voted for this horrid Agreement - using the same old lies that got NAFTA passed - have none to blame but themselves if they incure the voter's wrath. Those who voted for this travesty - whatever their party affiliation - must be voted out.

And the same applies to those politicians in Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and five of the six Central American nations who also voted for this Agreement.

For the economic and political futures of our respective nations, and for a Distributist future, let us begin now to work towards repealing both CAFTA and NAFTA...as well as fight any move to pass the planned FTAA.

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Wal-Mart Hides Behind 'Green' Mask

This press release, dated July 20th, comes from the Institute for Local Self Reliance, which promotes many projects that are in line with Distributist Thought.

A Wal-Mart store in McKinney, Texas is refurbishing itself to be more 'environmentally friendly'. However, as the Institute notes, the colossus of chain-stores has a business model that is anything but 'green'. The Institute notes that even their closed stores, of which they have more than 200, still pollute the environment where they are.

A wolf in sheep's clothing is still a wolf, no matter how soft the wool or convincing the "baa". A 'green' Wal-Mart is STILL Wal-Mart. Hence, it still is a threat to small businesses, as well as a dispenser of cheaply-made, short-lived products from tyrannies like Communist China.

Let us work together, with Our Lord's help, toward the day when chain-store monsters like Wal-Mart will no longer exist.

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France Aids Small Businesses

This article, written by Laurence Frost of the left-wing Associated Press via Yahoo News, tells of new French labor laws that are meant to help generate new jobs and help small businesses.

A part of the new rules is a "New Recruit Contract", which allows companies with 20 employees or less the right to fire a new hire anytime within the first two years of employment. Those fired, however, will have two week's notice and get unemployment benefits.

It's hoped that, by breaking the chains of over-regulation on small firms, it will help to spur economic growth in a Socialist nation with a 10.1 % unemployment rate. However, as Frost reports, the second-largest union - CGT - will be planning street demonstrations to fight this new law.

Those who advocate the Servile State in France must be punished for smothering efforts to help that country back on its feet. Removing the heavy yoke of over-regulation on small businesses in France won't by itself bring needed prosperity, but it is a necessary first start.

This is a healthy piece of pro-Distributist legislation from Paris. Let's pray God that more will follow.

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CAFTA Aftermath

Friends and neighbors, we lost again.

By a vote of 217 for to 215 against, the US House voted to pass the CAFTA Agreement. Thus, they follow the US Senate, which voted 55 to 45 in favor of this travesty. President Bush and Vice President Cheney visited the House during the day of the vote, using every dirty trick in the book to demand Republican voters to approve this measure.

What will this mean for Americans? It will mean that the job loss and company shutdown under NAFTA will continue - if not increase - under CAFTA. Furthermore, access to high-dose vitamins and minerals - or ANY vitamin and mineral suppliments - will either be restricted or eliminated under the CODEX-style regulations buried within the Agreement.

What can be done, if anything, so as to avoid despair? Begin now to form groups to educate the truly interested in your local community to begin the drive to repeal CAFTA and NAFTA. This is a long-term goal, but no matter how long it takes, work to repeal both Agreements. Not just in America only, but in Canada, Mexico and the nations of Central America.

As for vitamin and mineral suppliments, stock up now. But do so in a manner that will not cause panic. Restructure your eating habits in a manner that will give you the most vitamin and minerals for your good health. Begin to grow your own food, or join a neighborhood co-op dedicated to backyard growing. Do so NOW, for the sake of your health and that of your families.

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