avelloso.com

Sexta-feira, Junho 22, 2001

Spurning Bush
Anne Applebaum fez interessantes observações sobre os protestos histéricos contra a visita do presidente americano à Europa, ao notar que esses protestos não são realmente dirigidos à política externa de Bush, porque essa política é exatamente a mesma de Clinton - que era universalmente amado. Aliás, Bush, por enquanto, se tem mostrado menos imperialista e intervencionista - ou pelo menos mais relutante em interferir em problemas alheios - do que seu antecessor.
"To see what I mean, it helps to compare Bush’s foreign policy with that of his predecessor. Look carefully: on issue after issue they are virtually identical. OK, Bush discarded the Kyoto treaty; Clinton had abandoned it already, not least because he couldn’t get it through Congress. Bush is cooler towards Russia; Clinton had already cooled towards Russia, post-Yeltsin, in the last year of his administration. Bush is in favour of missile defence; Clinton, given the chance to quash missile defence, failed to do so. Bush has bombed Iraq, and is still boycotting Cuba; Clinton — well, Clinton bombed Iraq, boycotted Cuba, bombed Sudan, occupied Kosovo, bombed Serbia, armed the Croats, invaded Haiti, yet never incurred the wrath of the European Left in the way that Bush does, even though Bush still hasn’t had time to invade anybody at all.
"Part of the difference lies, of course, in the personality of Clinton himself. By his second term in office, the ex-president had so mastered the aw-shucks-I-just-want-to-feel-your-pain method of communicating with the outside world that no one saw him as an imperialist. (...) But the more important difference, as I say, is that Bush’s domestic concerns are different from those of Clinton. Let’s face it, the European Left doesn’t like the death penalty, it doesn’t like American social conservatism, it doesn’t think that people should own guns, and it doesn’t understand born-again Christianity, all of which it associates, fairly or not, with Bush (never mind that Clinton personally approved the execution of a retarded man while he was still governor of Arkansas, fighting his first presidential election campaign).
"Above all, the European Left doesn’t like tax cuts, which threaten its own assumptions — and could even threaten its own power if they were ever to catch on over here. It is not, I believe, coincidental that the other major hate figure around at the moment is also an opponent of high taxes: the cross-European wave of disapproval that greeted Silvio Berlusconi’s surprisingly decisive victory in the Italian elections was part of the same syndrome. To the Germans, the French, and indeed to the British, all of whom are at present ruled by social democrats, Berlusconi’s election was incomprehensible: they simply couldn’t grasp the fact that the Italians hate their overbureaucratic, overregulated, overtaxed system so much that they were willing to elect a man of deeply suspect and possibly criminal origins merely because he promised, convincingly, to reform it."
Bush não é nenhum libertário, mas ele sinaliza uma oposição moderada ao eurocomunismo, e nem mesmo isso os euroburocratas são capazes de tolerar. Desagrada aos europeus o fato de que as políticas internas do presidente americano - como as de Berlusconi - desafiam o consenso "civilizado" dos quais eles estão fanaticamente convictos, um consenso que inclui impostos altos, burocracia em expansão, confiança no papel do Estado para fazer praticamente tudo, e assim por diante.
Por isso, embora sejam procedentes as críticas aos embargos e sanções econômicas e ao absurdo projeto de defesa anti-mísseis (mas não as críticas à rejeição de Kioto), esses protestos europeus não passam de patéticas demonstrações de fanáticos esquerdistas que não admitem que alguém discorde deles.
"No, the Germans, the French and, indeed, the British are not interested in lower taxes or in smaller government. Hence the hostility to Berlusconi; hence the hostility to George Bush and his so far bland and centrist foreign policy. And hence Bush’s decision to make his first two bilateral visits to Spain, which has a centre-right government (despite its left-leaning chattering classes), and to Poland, which has both a centre-right government and centre-right chattering classes."
postado por Alvaro Velloso 4:38 PM

Mayor's aide calls for black schools
"Solução" proposta por um assistente do prefeito comunista de Londres para o problema do racismo na cidade: escolas públicas segregadas.
"Lee Jasper, who also advises the London Mayor on law and order, claimed that black children were being subjected to bullying by white teachers.
"Speaking at a community meeting in South London held to discuss the death of a ten-year-old boy, he said: 'I am going to organise black children, black parents and black teachers to come together to educate black people in London. We need black schools where our children can study their culture without fear of bullying'.”
Curiosamente, este é outro problema que não existiria se o Estado deixasse de interferir na educação: em escolas privadas, cada escola poderia exercer seu direito de propriedade e de livre associação, e só admitir os alunos que desejasse, sem uma integração forçada que acaba provocando desconforto em alguns alunos. Nas escolas públicas, a questão se torna mais delicada, e se a cidade de Londres criar escolas só para negros sem, ao mesmo tempo, criar escolas específicas para outras etnias e sem permitir que aqueles que assim desejem freqüentem escolas não-segregadas, estaremos diante de uma política de racismo oficial, contrária a qualquer princípio de eqüidade.
postado por Alvaro Velloso 4:25 PM

Ringmeister
Boa resposta de Bernie Ecclestone sobre por que a Fórmula 1 não faz sucesso nos Estados Unidos:
"'From the day children start thinking in America, they are educated not to concentrate,' he says. 'All American sport is punctuated with breaks, but with F1, you can't get up and go to the fridge, now can you?'"
Em grande parte por isso, a Fórmula 1 - apesar de as inovações tecnológicas terem tornado raras as ultrapassagens e apesar das críticas que se possam fazer a certas decisões de Ecclestone - continua a ser infinitamente mais interessante e empolgante do que as corridas mais diretamente dirigidas ao público americano, como a CART e a NASCAR.
postado por Alvaro Velloso 4:19 PM

Brewing Change
Uma das agentes da industrialização do México é uma mulher de 37 anos chamada María Asunción Aramburuzabala Larregui, herdeira da cerveja Corona.
"Using cash from the sale of stock in Grupo Modelo, the brewer of Corona beer cofounded by her grandfather 66 years ago, she bought a 5% stake in Televisa for a reported $600 million from Alejandro Burillo Azcárraga, the disgruntled cousin of Chief Executive Emilio Azcárraga Jean. The move served to get the broadcasting entity past the bickering and on to cutting costs and going after the Hispanic market in the U.S.
"Thus María entered the clubby, male-dominated world of Mexican corporate politics. Now, armed with seats on the boards of Televisa and three other large Mexican firms, she hopes to use her influence and a family venture capital pool of perhaps $40 million (she won't say) to upgrade Mexico's industrial base. The venture fund is backing a company that is building data and Web hosting centers in Mexico. In the U.S. Web hosting companies like Exodus are struggling, but María is confident. 'We just laid the first stone in our first building and we already have three clients interested in leasing 100%,' she notes.
"María's father, Pablo Aramburuzabala Ocaranza, the son of penniless Basque immigrants to Mexico, made a fortune on Corona beer and died in 1995 at 63, leaving no male heirs--just María, her sister and their mother."
Nunca é demais lembrar que são pessoas assim - e não burocratas investidos de superpoderes a ser exercidos em nome do "bem comum" e da "justiça social" - que tornam melhores as vidas das pessoas.
postado por Alvaro Velloso 4:15 PM

Quinta-feira, Junho 21, 2001

A Real Racket
Excelente artigo de Jacob Sullum sobre a absurda ação do governo americano contra as companhias de tabaco (e cuja "lógica" nosso ministro neonazista da sanitarização social, José Serra, tem prometido seguir), exigindo reparações pelos gastos que o Estado teve cuidando das "vítimas da indústria do fumo".
Sullum aponta as duas principais razões pelas quais o processo é ridículo:
"The idea that the federal government has been victimized by the tobacco companies is laughable on several counts. Since the 1960s the government has mandated cigarette warning labels and produced one report after another on the hazards of smoking, so it can hardly claim ignorance of tobacco's ill effects. During the same period it has nevertheless forced taxpayers to subsidize other people's health care, knowing that some of those people would smoke and get sick as a result. It has also participated in the tobacco trade, distributing smokes to servicemen and profiting from cigarette sales through taxes. Indeed, the federal government makes more money from the cigarette business than the tobacco companies do.
"Even if the government's hands were spotless, it could not recover damages because it hasn't suffered an injury. Since smokers tend to die earlier than nonsmokers, the cost of treating tobacco-related illness is offset by savings on other forms of health care (not to mention Social Security). A 1997 study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that if everyone stopped smoking total medical spending would rise. In other words, smoking saves taxpayers money."
postado por Alvaro Velloso 1:24 PM

Kosovo justice system 'biased'
Sabe o laboratório da Nova Ordem Mundial atualmente se desenvolvento no Kosovo, com "juízes internacionais" designados para prestar jurisdição no local? Suas experiências não apenas produzem a tirania de que falamos ontem, como têm sido marcadas por injustiças e partidarismos. Quem o diz é a Anistia Internacional e a própria ONU:
"The human rights group, Amnesty International, says attempts by the United Nations mission in Kosovo to reform the province's justice system have not worked. The accusation follows the trials of three Serbs accused of crimes committed during the 1999 conflict in Yugoslavia.
"The criticisms have been echoed by UN officials who are concerned that some court decisions are being influenced by political pressure. (...)
"UN officials with a close knowledge of the case said judges had considered abandoning the case, but said it was too politically sensitive to drop.
"In a separate trial of two Serbs accused of war crimes last week, officials criticised the conduct of a German judge.
"They say he was abusive towards court staff and witnesses, asking at one point his fellow judges, 'Should we torture him?', when a witness failed to answer a question satisfactorily. (...)
"It has now been a year since the UN started the introduction of international judges, but in spite of that, Kosovo's justice system continues to be seriously flawed and justice is not being conducted in a manner consistent with international human rights standards, said a spokeswoman."
postado por Alvaro Velloso 1:17 PM

The Persistence of the Communist World View
Mal posso esperar para ler a autobiografia de Ronald Radosh, que comprei em dezembro do ano passado, quando ela não havia nem sido publicada e que, com a "ajuda" da alfândega brasileira, de chegar por aqui dentro de um mês. Radosh conheceu todo mundo na esquerda, sabe muito sobre o assunto.
O único problema - que analistas notáveis como Joseph Stromberg e Justin Raimondo já apontaram - é que a "conversão" de Radosh ao conservadorismo foi muito menos uma conversão do que um abrandamento das próprias opiniões estatizantes.
Um excelente exemplo do problema é seu artigo de ontem, uma crítica inteiramente razoável ao revisionismo stalinista de picaretas como Eric Hobsbawn, sobre cujas mentiras Radosh escreve:
"These lies include old bromides such as the claim that Communism was not totalitarian; it was a project of the Enlightenment; true socialism was never tried – their version was a historically caused distortion, a result of the West’s opposition to socialism. In other words, the experience of the existing socialist societies – be it the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and even North Korea – cannot reflect on the purity and worthiness of the socialist idea itself. McInnes quotes Hobsbawm explaining that Communism was a 'global cause,' and 'history is not reason enough to abandon the chosen cause.' In other words: socialism is dead; but long live socialism! It was the Russian people who let the cause down; not socialism that gave them the raw deal from 1917 to 1989. Praise not its victims, but its perpetrators, who history 'so cruelly disappointed.' What does this mean? We can weep tears for Gorbachev, but make it up by standing firmly behind Fidel Castro. As for those who lied about things like the crushing of the Hungarian revolt of 1956, or the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, condemning them as CIA and fascist coup attempts that had to be protected by Soviet troops, one must forgive the apologists. After all, they were 'inspired by noble ideals'.”
Mas, lá no penúltimo parágrafo, eis a afirmação que acaba fazendo de Radosh um crítico pouco confiável e pouco consistente do comunismo:
"True, we have a welfare state, and sophisticated men of industry fully realize that any just economic system must provide the means for those on the short end of the stick to survive and have the opportunity to advance. But the welfare state and social and economic reform, as distinct from revolution, goes all the way back in our country to the figures of the Progressive era, men like Theodore Roosevelt, who admonished that a progressive is a 'conservative who sets his face towards the future,' and who understood that the modern economic and social system based on private ownership could not simply reward its own benefactors."
Aí estão as velhas falácias social-democratas sobre as injustiças e distorções do livre-mercado, e sobre a necessidade de burocratas iluminados redistribuírem a renda (i.e., roubar de uns para dar para outros - e principalmente para si próprios); e aí está uma apologia da Progressive Era, um dos períodos marcantes de crescimento do intervencionismo estatal na vida americana.
Obviamente, não é possível ser um defensor consistente do capitalismo sem reconhecer a suprema importância dos direitos de propriedade; ao admitir que o Estado pode violá-los a fim de acabar com a "exclusão social" (seja lá o que isso signifique), Radosh mostra que simplesmente passou de bolchevique a menchevique, que abandonou a esquerda revolucionária para aderir à esquerda social-democrata, que hoje, encarnada num "centrão" político que sempre defende e trabalha para o crescimento do Estado, só que de forma gradual e sub-reptícia, domina praticamente toda a política mundial.
Se eu quisesse ser malicioso, diria que Radosh apenas passou de uma moda a outra, sempre navegando a crista da onda. Mas deixemos os exercícios de psicologia negativa para outros, e notemos apenas que ele não mudou tanto seu ideário político quanto deseja fazer parecer.
postado por Alvaro Velloso 1:08 PM

Blair takes a liberty on rights
"TONY BLAIR embarked on his historic second term in power yesterday with a programme of authoritarian legislation curbing centuries-old individual liberties.
"He claimed a 'mandate' to drive through reforms to ensure that Labour delivered on its election promise to improve public services. Criminal justice reforms eroding the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty', tough new conditions on benefit claimants, an extension of means testing for pensions, and another vote on hunting with dogs were announced in the first Queen's Speech of the new Parliament."
O fim da presunção de inocência, o fim da regra de "double jeopardy" (segundo a qual alguém que foi inocentado por um crime não pode ser julgado novamente por esse crime), a redução dos casos de julgamento por juri popular, a permissão do confisco de bens de pessoas suspeitas de crime, novos poderes para a polícia confiscar os passaportes de suspeitos de "hooliganismo" e impedi-los de viajar para assistir a jogos de futebol, ainda que nunca tenham sido condenados criminalmente por nada. Essas foram as principais propostas do primeiro discurso de Tony Blair como primeiro ministro reeleito.
Como diz o editorial do Daily Telegraph:
"Never before can a single gracious speech have contained five separate proposals to override the ancient civil liberties of Her Majesty's subjects."
E isso sem falar na promessa de um novo voto para proibir a caça a raposas.
Este é o homem que "liberais" sul-americanos dizem ser o legítimo sucessor do thatcherismo na tentativa de reduzir o papel do Estado na vida privada dos ingleses... Isso deve servir para dar uma noção de quão delirantes esses nossos liberais são.
postado por Alvaro Velloso 12:48 PM

Biography of Lord Acton
Boa e breve síntese da vida de um dos mais consistentes defensores da liberdade e um dos melhores historiadores do assunto; um católico que combateu ferozmente as tendências coletivistas e estatizantes de alguns setores reacionários da Igreja no século XIX. Vale citar a epígrafe:
"Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being." (Lord Acton)
postado por Alvaro Velloso 12:39 PM

Quarta-feira, Junho 20, 2001

EU elite 'is building a superstate'
Os corajosos irlandeses continuam a desafiar o neocomunismo da União Européia. Primeiro, o ministro da economia da Irlanda, o bravo Charles McCreevy (que despertou a ira dos burocratas de Bruxelas ao pôr em prática um plano de cortes de impostos) disse que a rejeição do Tratado de Nice pelos irlandeses era um "desenvolvimento saudável". Agora, o Procurador Geral da Irlanda, Michael McDowell, engrossou o coro e acusou os burocratas de Bruxelas de tentar forçar as nações européias a aderir a um superestado que ninguém quer.
"Mr McDowell told the Institute of European Affairs in Dublin that Irish voters rejected the European Union's Nice Treaty partly because of a 'widespread perception that developments in Europe were taking a turn, or moving in a direction, that caused deep unease'.
"He said 'a narrow class of activist office-holders, elected and unelected', were charging ahead of public opinion with proposals for a European constitution, a justiciable Bill of Rights, EU direct taxation, a defence arm, a judicial machinery to prosecute and punish citizens, an elected EU president, and an EU government.
"'Few if any of these proposals carry popular significant support. While many have been put forward separately, they constitute, in the round, the indiciae of a European state in substance'."
Essas declarações são péssima notícia para a União Européia, porque, como diz, no artigo, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard:
"His speech on Monday was a further warning to Brussels that it will not be easy to make the Irish change their minds in a second referendum. During the weekend's summit at Gothenburg, EU leaders refused to contemplate altering any text in the treaty, although it is technically null and void for all 15 states if any country refuses to ratify it."
postado por Alvaro Velloso 1:17 PM

Pour it on - caffeine still gets a clean bill of health
"Chances are you're reading this with a cup of coffee, tea or soda within reach. Rest assured, the evidence so far on such caffeine-containing beverages suggests you can take another sip without worry.
"Caffeine occurs naturally in the leaves, seeds or fruits of more than 60 plants, including coffee and cocoa beans, tea leaves and cola nuts, whose extract gave birth to a soft-drink behemoth.
"Despite centuries of seemingly safe consumption, caffeine has been blamed over the past few decades for countless health conditions and behavior problems. Its effects on health have been scrutinized from every angle, making it one of the most well-studied ingredients in our food supply."
No restante desse excelente artigo, Betsy Hornick vai demonstrando a falácia das suspeitas que pesam contra a cafeína - que não causa osteoporose, nem doenças cardíacas, nem alterações comportamentais em crianças, nem é (e esta é a acusação preferida das babás oficiais) "viciante", a não ser que use "vício" num sentido tão elástico que a palavra perde completamente o sentido:
"We've all heard someone profess an 'addiction' to caffeine. But the term is often used loosely to describe a craving or desire--like being 'addicted' to chocolate, jogging or playing computer games. Although some people report unpleasant withdrawal-like symptoms when they stop caffeine abruptly, the discomfort subsides after a few days. And unlike true addictions, you do not need increasing amounts of caffeine to achieve the same stimulant effects."
postado por Alvaro Velloso 1:10 PM

Panel passes bill allowing inciting violence against terror suspect
Enquanto os setores extremados da direita israelense afirmam que o nome de Ariel Sharon "estará para sempre manchado na história judaica" porque ele não está matando palestinos com a eficiência prometida, o comitê de legislação de Israel se prepara para legalizar as tropas de linchamento:
"The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee yesterday passed the second and third reading of a bill that includes an article that decriminalizes inciting a lynch mob to against a suspected terrorist.
"Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit, Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein, and State Prosecutor Edna Arbel tried to dissuade the committee's MKs from passing the bill, to no avail.
"Sheetrit said a bill that legalizes attacking a suspected member of a terrorist organization 'is a very dangerous measure that undermines democracy and basic human rights in our country. It accomodates "field trials" ... and even a lynching or sentencing to death by a mob that suspects someone is a terrorist.'"
postado por Alvaro Velloso 1:04 PM

Israel and the question of media bias
"A new front is opening in the intifada. Faced with increasing international criticism of its handling of the Palestinian uprising, the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon and its allies in the powerful and influential pro-Israeli lobby, have stepped up their efforts against international media reporting the current crisis. News organisations that fall foul of Israel are accused of being pro-Palestinian at best, and at worst anti-Semitic."
Aquilo que os neoconservadores americanos fazem há décadas agora é política oficial do Estado de Israel: qualquer crítico de Israel, qualquer jornalista que veja algum mérito na causa palestina ou que procure fazer reportagens com um mínimo de imparcialidade será difamado e chamado de anti-semita - o que é praticamente sinônimo de neonazista.
Nos EUA, a prática dá mais do que certo, e é quase impossível ler críticas a Israel na imprensa americana; felizmente, na Inglaterra as coisas são diferentes, e existe grande diversidade de coberturas (e já elogiei aqui, e repito os elogios, as coberturas do Guardian e do Independent, os jornais da esquerda britânica).
Justamente por isso, ataques a jornalistas ingleses em Israel têm sido freqüentes:
"If journalists were facing any intimidation during the present intifada, complained the assembled reporters, it was not from the Palestinians but from the Israeli army, which they accused of directing gunfire at them. Eight journalists in as many months had been wounded, some seriously, including AP photographer Yolah Monakhov, CNN bureau chief Ben Wedeman and French television correspondent Bertrand Aguirre.
"In each case the Foreign Press Association had complained. In each case the Israeli authorities had declined to reply.
"That harassment, correspondents say, is not confined to physical threats. It is psychological as well, and from both official and unofficial sources. At its worst it has smacked of the tactics of the Soviet bloc countries during the Cold War. Correspondents the Israeli authorities feel have stepped out of line - including the Guardian's award-winning correspondent Suzanne Goldenberg - have been threatened with having their accreditation removed.
"Dossiers of alleged anti-Israeli bias have been sent to editors, and correspondents who have fallen foul of the authorities have complained of being the target of humiliating searches when they leave the country."
postado por Alvaro Velloso 12:57 PM

UN Tyranny in Bosnia
Em maio deste ano, John Laughland publicou na Spectator esse impressionante artigo sobre o desprezo tirânico com que os administradores coloniais da Nova Ordem Mundial tratam seus súditos na Bósnia - anulando eleições, difamando políticos que lhes desagradam, inventando leis arbitrárias, confiscando contas bancárias. Dizia Laughland:
"Bosnia’s international administrators evidently have no understanding of one the most basic principles of Western political civilisation, the presumption of innocence, and little sense of the responsibility incumbent on them as important public figures not to make inflammatory statements which may be prejudicial to any future trial.
"Instead, the powers now vested in the UN administrator of Bosnia and Herzegovina are as close to pure tyranny as anything which has existed in recent European history. The decisions of the UN High Representative are neither democratically legitimised nor subject to the rule of law. Sniggering admissions that Bosnia and Herzegovina is in reality 'a protectorate' fail to capture the sheer lawlessness of the UN’s power there, which goes way beyond the powers enjoyed, say, by a British colonial official in the last century."
Como se não bastassem as arbitrariedades dos administradores locais, agora surgem indícios de que os soldados da ONU na Bósnia estão envolvidos em um submundo de comércio sexual:
"Kathryn Bolkovac left her job as a veteran police officer in Lincoln, Neb., to take on a very different kind of law enforcement - a U.N. police post cracking down on forced prostitution in Bosnia. Investigating the plight of the women from Eastern Europe was grim enough. But then, Bolkovac says, she began amassing evidence that some fellow officers were customers at Bosnia's illegal brothels, and others were even more deeply involved.
"Last year, Bolkovac was demoted, and in April she was fired. The official reason: She allegedly falsified a time sheet. Bolkovac's explanation: She filed a report alleging that officers forged documents for trafficked women, aided their illegal transport through border checkpoints into Bosnia, and tipped off sex club owners ahead of raids."
Apesas das negativas costumeiras dos encarregados, há outros depoimentos no mesmo sentido:
"But David Lamb, a former Philadelphia transit police officer and for the past two years a U.N. human-rights investigator in central Bosnia, said he and others routinely forwarded evidence of wrongdoing to the mission's internal-affairs unit, only to be told 'not to look too deep.'
"Near the end of his tenure in April, Lamb said, he was conducting an investigation based on information from six women who said they were forced into prostitution.
"'They gave us a whole list of IPTF people involved,' he said. 'It was just incredible to see the resistance we got from mission headquarters.'
"Prostitution is illegal in Bosnia, but it thrives amid the presence of 21,000 NATO peacekeepers and thousands of international bureaucrats and aid workers. Lamb cited one case involving a Romanian IPTF officer whose wife managed a brothel; together, he said, the couple helped recruit young women from Romania. Other officials said officers from the United States, Britain, India, Pakistan and Ukraine have been implicated in alleged criminal and sexual misconduct. Their names have not been released."
Gente adorável, esses novos senhores do mundo.
postado por Alvaro Velloso 12:42 PM

Segunda-feira, Junho 18, 2001

Churchman who was a thorn in Blair's side
O recém-falecido Cardeal Thomas Winning deveria ser um modelo para bispos conservadores ao redor do mundo, que, em vez de recolher-se timidamente a apelos espirituais em artigos que ninguém lê, deveriam, como Winning, fazer uso da mídia com tanta eficácia quanto seus opositores progressistas.
É claro que essa referência aos "conservadores" deve ser posta entre aspas, porque, no contexto midiático, qualquer religioso anti-abortista já é "conservador", embora seja óbvio que nenhum bispo que pretenda manter as "reformas" das últimas décadas possa ser corretamente identificado como tal. Mas aceitemos por um instante essa designação midiática, e admitamos que, embora em temas teológicos importantes haja pouca diferença entre ditos "conservadores" e "progressistas", pelo menos na pregação moral e política essa diferença é significativa - e, por isso, apesar de todos os seus defeitos, ainda é melhor ter Dom Eugênio Salles como arcebispo do que o sr. Evaristo Arns.
Mas meu ponto aqui é notar que os bispos relativamente conservadores não sabem usar a mídia, e não sabem divulgar suas mensagens e influenciar o debate público com tanta eficiência quanto os progressistas. Daí surge essa idéia absurda de oposição entre os bispos que "não desejam interferir na política" e que só defendem a "vida espiritual" (como se a defesa do movimento carismático tivesse alguma coisa a ver com "vida espiritual"...) e aqueles que promovem a idéia de uma "Igreja ativa" e militante, isto é, os bispos filiados ao PT.
Ora, não são apenas os progressistas que têm idéias políticas - aliás, suas idéias políticas significam que eles não são católicos de maneira alguma, porque idolatram o deus Estado e porque são apologistas de um regime que já vitimou dezenas de milhões de católicos - mas são eles que fazem uso da mídia para promovê-los. Seria interessante que tivéssemos padres e bispos dispostos a usar a mídia para promover opiniões políticas mais coerentes com o cristianismo e que, em vez dos ridículos protestos da CNBB contra a política econômica do governo, eles aparecessem para criticar a doutrinação marxista (e, portanto, anticristã) nas escolas públicas, a defesa do aborto, as passeatas dos gays etc. - como fazia o Cardeal Winning. Essa não é uma "interferência da Igreja na política": é parte legítima e necessária do apostolado.
"CARDINAL Thomas Winning, an uncompromising moral conservative with a flair for publicity, was the most outspoken and political churchman in Scotland in many years. After his elevation to cardinal in 1994, he used the media to discomfit politicians, in particular 'New' Labour. His public utterances as leader of Scotland's 750,000 Catholics invariably conformed to the official Vatican line, but sometimes prompted criticism from his own priests, who found it hard to deliver his hard-line message in a changing world.
"A tireless anti-abortionist, he memorably announced in 1997 that the Archdiocese of Glasgow would offer money to pregnant women to stop them having abortions. The scheme is still in operation, and has helped more than 200 women and schoolgirls, including one 12-year-old in Plymouth, by providing money, cots, furniture, and a sympathetic ear.
"Like the men around him as he grew up in a tough, Lanarkshire steel town, the cardinal never minced his words. He likened abortion to the Dunblane massacre, called the homosexual act 'a perversion', and took the Prince of Wales to task for his 'woolly' views on Christianity.
"He was also not afraid to be unpopular, lending support to the campaign against the Scottish Executive's repeal of Section 28, the law banning the promotion of homosexuality in schools. This month, he condemned the people of his beloved Glasgow for their treatment of asylum-seekers, saying that he was 'almost ashamed' of his city.
"Cardinal Winning's tactic with controversial utterances was to make a headline-grabbing statement, then withdraw to watch the fireworks. He rarely granted interviews, but appeared in the media on an almost weekly basis and invariably had something to say at election time, although never openly backing a party."
postado por Alvaro Velloso 12:52 PM

Educação pseudo-religiosa
Tem toda razão W. F. Deedes em suas reclamações contra o "ensino religioso" na Inglaterra, que apresenta "todas as religiões" e, enquanto apresenta os ensinamentos das demais religiões com respeito e reverência, só trata do cristianismo para criticar seus "erros" e "abusos".
"THE point I recently quoted Canon Edward Norman of York Minster as making on the subject of religious education in our schools has produced a heavy correspondence. The teaching of Christianity in schools, he pointed out, has been replaced by a broad introduction to all the major religious bodies.
"But, while Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism are treated with careful respect, Christianity is criticised for its past social record, supposed cultural insensitivity, and espousal of past errors. (...)
"For those who feel uncomfortable with Christian beliefs and even more uncomfortable at imparting such beliefs to children, race relations afford a pretext for keeping children ignorant of what Christianity is all about.
"I do not think this is a sustainable position. The children of other religions are unlikely to remember gratefully that their teachers, out of regard for their feelings, laid off Christianity. But at least some potentially Christian children may feel resentful that they were denied a religious grounding."
Esse, no entanto, é um problema insolúvel em escolas públicas e escolas particulares controladas pelo Estado, como são quase todas na Inglaterra (quem diria...). É óbvio que um ensino religioso "ecumênico" não ensinará a ninguém o suficiente sobre religião alguma, e terá o exclusivo efeito de relativizar a religião e transformá-la num "fenômeno curioso", algo para ser observado de fora como representativo das crenças de algumas pessoas atrasadas. Por outro lado, o Estado leigo não apenas não pode apoiar oficialmente uma religião específica, como é, em sua própria origem, hostil a todas elas, porque não admite que ninguém seja leal a algo superior a ele, Estado. Não custa lembrar, aliás, que as escolas públicas surgiram justamente para abolir o ensino religioso, substituindo-se às escolas cristãs.
Não apenas é impossível solucionar o problema do "ensino religioso" sem tirar o Estado da educação, como esse "problema" só surgiu porque o Estado se intrometeu nela. Numa sociedade sã, os ateus formariam suas próprias escolas, os cristãos as suas, os judeus as suas, e nenhum desses grupos procuraria impor aos outros suas próprias crenças, nem seria obrigado a, em suas próprias escolas, elogiar e celebrar as crenças alheias.
postado por Alvaro Velloso 12:30 PM

Ban all children from working on farms, says union
Não é curioso - embora de nenhuma maneira surpreendente, dadas as características do movimento - que todo esse movimento de "direitos da criança" conspire para tomar das crianças e adolescentes um direito básico: o de escolher entre o trabalho e o estudo?
Comunas em todo o mundo se unem para escravizar as crianças, prendendo-as em salas de aulas nas quais não lhe será ensinado nada que lhes interesse e das quais elas sairão mais cínicas e revoltadas do que quando entraram, porque terão aprendido a avançar na vida ("passar de ano") enganando professores.
Mas esse é só um dos aspectos brutais e absurdos desse movimento. Outro - talvez ainda pior - é que os "defensores das crianças" são também defensores de sua expropriação pelo Estado, abolindo todos os vestígios de autoridade paterna. A decisão entre trabalho e estudo, por exemplo, normalmente é feita pelos pais em conjunção com a criança; mas isso é liberdade demais, algo intolerável para os comunas.
É a partir dessas duas características que deve ser entendida essa recente proposta dos sindicados ingleses:
"THE tradition of allowing children of farmers and their workers to lend a hand on farms in the hope that they will follow in their parents' footsteps should be banned, trade unionists said yesterday. Instead, farm children under school leaving age should be provided with 'child care facilities' and should be kept away from 'working areas' of farms for their own safety, the Transport and General Workers' Union said."
Em suma: retirem as crianças de seus pais e deixem-nas sob cuidados de assistentes sociais e demais agentes da tirania estatal. Para os sindicatos - em cuja destruição Margareth Thatcher não foi longe o suficiente - as propostas têm o benefício adicional de permitir que alguns de seus membros encontrem empregos nas fazendas, tirando o lugar das crianças. Para o Estado, a proposta tem a tentação adicional de lhe permitir dar mais um golpe na estrutura familiar (ainda mais no campo, onde ainda existem os últimos vestígios da família tradicional) e expandir seu poder.
postado por Alvaro Velloso 12:15 PM

Bush Stunned by U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Size
O presidente americano ficou impressionado quando lhe contaram quantas armas nucleares seu país possui, e não é para menos:
"'I had no idea we had so many weapons,' Bush was quoted as saying by an unidentified 'White House insider'. 'What do we need them for?' the president was said to have asked at a briefing, according to the Newsweek report.
"But that was not a dumb question, the magazine noted in detailing the vast U.S. nuclear arsenal, which includes 5,400 warheads on intercontinental ballistic missiles, 1,750 nuclear bombs and cruise missiles ready to be launched from B-2 and B-52 bombers, 1,670 'tactical' nuclear weapons and another 10,000 warheads in bunkers around the United States."
Podemos deixar a questão das armas nucleares em si mesmas para outra ocasião, mas é certo que o simples fato de os EUA terem tantas armas leva os outros países do mundo a tentar alcançá-los e, longe de promover a paz, promove na verdade uma corrida armamentista que, se nada no momento pós-guerra fria indica que poderia ter conseqüências funestas, sempre deixa em aberto essa possibilidade. É boa, portanto, a notícia de que a atual administração americana pretende promover uma redução radical no arsenal nuclear:
"That potential for nuclear overkill may be reined in, however, as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld prepares at the Pentagon to implement Bush's stated goal of streamlining and downsizing the arsenal.
"Rumsfeld has brought back retired Gen. George (Lee) Butler and former Reagan administration national security guru Richard Perle to spearhead an effort to reduce the arsenal to safer, more manageable and more cost efficient levels, Newsweek said.
"I see no reason why we can't go well below 1,000' warheads, Perle told the magazine. 'I want the lowest number possible under the tightest control possible'."
postado por Alvaro Velloso 11:58 AM

Hit Status Elusive Target for 'Pearl Harbor'
Não vi "Pearl Harbor", porque o filme tem quatro das caracaterísticas que me fazem pensar mil vezes antes de ver um filme (e que normalmente me fazem decidir contra a ida ao cinema): a presença de Alec Baldwin; a glorificação de um vilão (FDR, no caso); a apologia do militarismo; mais de três horas de duração.
Parece que outras pessoas fizeram raciocínios semelhantes, porque o filme está longe de ser o mega-sucesso que a Disney esperava que fosse. Vejam o e-mail que Michael Eisner, presidente da companhia, enviou a seus funcionários quando do lançamento:
" 'There are no sure things in the entertainment industry, but this comes close,' Eisner wrote. 'It better, because I've already predicted this in the annual report letter I wrote in December. And, I've been on CNBC and CNN in the last two weeks proclaiming it a smash. I've been telling anybody who would listen that this will be our biggest live-action film ever.' Eisner went so far as to predict on CNBC that the World War II romance epic would be the 'biggest movie of the summer.'"
Acontece que Pearl Harbor nem é o filme de maior bilheteria do verão, nem foi o filme mais bem-sucedido da história da Disney:
"Its domestic ticket sales of $153 million through Friday already have been surpassed by DreamWorks' animated hit 'Shrek' ($188 million) and Universal's 'The Mummy Returns' ($191 million). And other potential hits loom this summer, including Steven Spielberg's 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence.' Nor will the movie rank as Disney's most successful live-action film. That distinction is held by the 1999 supernatural thriller 'The Sixth Sense,' which earned $660 million worldwide."
Ainda existe alguma justiça nas bilheterias de cinema.
postado por Alvaro Velloso 11:46 AM

Bye, bye, Salon
O principal site do esquerdismo chique americano foi obrigado a retirar-se do Nasdaq - onde se tinha incluído num acesso de megalomania - porque suas ações não chegam ao preço mínimo exigido.
"Salon Media Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SALN - news), a leading Internet media company, today reported that it received a Nasdaq Staff Determination on June 13, 2001, indicating that the Company has failed to comply with the minimum bid price requirement for continued listing (Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4450(a)(5))."
postado por Alvaro Velloso 11:38 AM