I don't know if Senator Mike Duffy will be convicted of fraud and various other charges but I urge people to read Christie Blatchford's National Post columns and watch her videos summarising the daily events at his trial. Duffy may be able to convince a judge that the rules were too vague and allow him to walk away a free man but he clearly fudged or broke the rules on many occasions. What is astonishing is Duffy's sense of entitlement, shocking expense claims and cavalier attitude towards taxpayers money.
Duffy's attitude appears to have been that the mere act of waking up entitled him to bill the taxpayer for every moment forward until he lay his head on a pillow that night. Many times in a taxpayer funded hotel. His 6-day trip to BC to visit family at the taxpayers expense without any real senatorial business is particularly galling.
I recall when Duffy was a TV pundit on Parliament Hill that he was so deep into the Conservative party pockets that I was astonished that Liberal and NDP politicians would even appear on his show. They should have showed an ounce of integrity and self worth and boycotted his program. It is little wonder that Harper awarded his lapdog with a senate seat.
Friday 5 June 2015
Catholic Drift Eastward Into the Third World
I was offered a seniors discount at The Bay. On Tuesday at The Bay restaurant the elderly sales lady asked if I was over 60, as I would be eligible for a 15% discount. I still have 8-years and 1-week before I get my discount. M told me this week that I was already past middle age.
A week Monday I take my boat driving lessons. Lake Ontario will be a safer place.
The vote on gay marriage in Ireland and the Vatican's reaction to it showed that Ireland has become a secular country and the Catholic Church has increasingly become a Third World institution. The church which continues to do good works in poor nations has become a single issue, right-wing, anti-abortion crusader in the west. Priests and Bishops lecturing their flock to vote in Republican and Conservative politicians to office. Issues like fair wages, worker's rights, poverty, victims of paedophile priests are all irrelevant to the western Catholic Church. The church has joined up with evangelical Christians, Muslims and Third World immigrants to push forward their socially conservative agenda.
Advances in science, liberal attitudes towards social issues, increased access to information on the Internet will further distance the church from the youth in western nations. I don't think other Christian churches will benefit. I believe that that people will continue to drift away from organised religion. Many will lose faith altogether.
For the Vatican to label the Irish vote on gay marriage an abomination is further evidence of the eastward drift of the church. This comment coming from a church with massive, largely gay paedophile scandals is further proof of an institution that has lost its credibility in western society.
I don't think the Catholic Church should necessarily modernise its teachings. Jesus didn't appear to have any female apostles. Though that may be in dispute. Married priests apparently were the norm in the early centuries of the church. The Dogma and biblical passages are what they are. I do not believe abortion was an option in biblical times. The church doesn't have to change with the times. Adherents, followers, parishioners have to decide whether they still believe.
If the Catholic Church offered Confirmation to parishioners when they were 30 rather than 13, fully able to make an intellectual choice as a free thinking adult, how many would still go through with the sacrament? It doesn't really matter in the end as many, if not most just drift away. Many of those people nominally clinging to a faith in name only.
A week Monday I take my boat driving lessons. Lake Ontario will be a safer place.
The vote on gay marriage in Ireland and the Vatican's reaction to it showed that Ireland has become a secular country and the Catholic Church has increasingly become a Third World institution. The church which continues to do good works in poor nations has become a single issue, right-wing, anti-abortion crusader in the west. Priests and Bishops lecturing their flock to vote in Republican and Conservative politicians to office. Issues like fair wages, worker's rights, poverty, victims of paedophile priests are all irrelevant to the western Catholic Church. The church has joined up with evangelical Christians, Muslims and Third World immigrants to push forward their socially conservative agenda.
Advances in science, liberal attitudes towards social issues, increased access to information on the Internet will further distance the church from the youth in western nations. I don't think other Christian churches will benefit. I believe that that people will continue to drift away from organised religion. Many will lose faith altogether.
For the Vatican to label the Irish vote on gay marriage an abomination is further evidence of the eastward drift of the church. This comment coming from a church with massive, largely gay paedophile scandals is further proof of an institution that has lost its credibility in western society.
I don't think the Catholic Church should necessarily modernise its teachings. Jesus didn't appear to have any female apostles. Though that may be in dispute. Married priests apparently were the norm in the early centuries of the church. The Dogma and biblical passages are what they are. I do not believe abortion was an option in biblical times. The church doesn't have to change with the times. Adherents, followers, parishioners have to decide whether they still believe.
If the Catholic Church offered Confirmation to parishioners when they were 30 rather than 13, fully able to make an intellectual choice as a free thinking adult, how many would still go through with the sacrament? It doesn't really matter in the end as many, if not most just drift away. Many of those people nominally clinging to a faith in name only.
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