THE NEW POPE FRANCIS AND HIS HISTORY WITH ARGENTINA'S MURDEROUS MILITARY JUNTA - A BRIEF HISTORY OF PAPAL SHAME

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

Austere lifestyle tells us very little about the character of a man as leader.

Stalin wore modest uniforms most of the time and worked about 16 hours a day.

Hitler too was a man of fairly modest tastes, wearing a modest uniform, being a vegetarian, and often having a polite tea with his secretaries.

Pope Francis's behavior around the junta was the ethical question which immediately sprang to mind.

While not definitive, this article makes it clear enough he was not an admirable figure during those horrors.

The issue of his behavior over two arrested members of his Jesuit order seems almost a sideshow.

Many thousands were killed by being illegally arrested, drugged, and thrown out of aircraft over the ocean.

Obama has extra-judicially killed 4700 people with drones without a word of disapproval from Rome.

Any man claiming moral authority who does not speak against that is worthy of neither respect or nor admiration.

But then that has always been the behavior of the Catholic Church.

The popes blubber about peace but never speak to those starting wars or those committing great evils.

George Bush happily killed a million people with no disapproval from the pope.

Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon killed some 3 million in Vietnam without any opposition from the pope.

Hitler had a concordat with the pope.

Fascist Italy did too.

As did Napoleon.

When Catherine de' Medici began an orgy of murder of Huguenots (protestants) in France - an event called the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre - the pope honored her "achievement" with the striking of a gold medal.

It is a long and quite shameful history, without even touching on Rome's behavior over countless years of sexual abuse of children.

Anyone who sees the pope as a moral force in the world is just reciting meaningless words.

THE REDOUBTABLE JEAN CHRETIEN CONFIRMS THE VIEW THAT CANADA HAS LOST STATURE IN THE WORLD DURING THE HARPER YEARS

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

While Chretien's observation is already shared by most citizens genuinely concerned with international affairs, his testimony still is welcome.

Chretien is one of our most respected former prime ministers, a man who is admired by a number of world statesmen as an ethical statesman and a remarkable politician.

The grotesque and clownish stunts of Peter Kent, Maxime Bernier, John Baird, Helena Guergis, Peter MacKay, Rahim Jaffer, and the bloodless, narrow ideology of their leader do not go unnoticed in the world.

There is an inherent lack of commitment by this government to openness, honest communication, genuine democratic principles, and balanced human rights.

Everything from cheap stunts like pernicious robo-calls, ceaseless negative advertising, ugly outbursts, and blatant catering to special interests reduces our stature.

There is also - and quite in conflict with the historic role of Conservative Parties in Canada - a marked spirit of following America's lead in almost all matters of international consequence - almost a visibly servile posture.

Informed people in countries around the world - politicians, members of international organizations, and private citizens - note these things and their goodwill towards our country must inevitably be reduced.

And this has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with core traditional conservative principles.

It is strictly a reflection of the ugly ideological bent of this government.

A bent demonstrated in everything from contempt for Parliament, contempt for important international forums and organizations, unbalanced and almost viciously partisan statements on the Middle East, and its cheap way of expressing itself on many solemn occasions, such as the recent death of the widely-liked President of Venezuela.

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“Talking to other leftists and anti-american socialists is obviously going to get the desired result of Canada being disliked. I fully expect nothing being done by our current governemnt to be gain acceptance with the worldwide pro terrorist socialist alliance. Nothing to read here....and to think a criminal thug like Chretien should be given any futher respectability is beyond me.”

You are too uninformed to comment with any meaning.

A number of prominent world leaders have in the past made public statements of admiration for Chretien.

No one but Mr. Netanyahu - a genuine thug who has committed murder, piracy, and theft - expresses admiration for Harper.

SECRET RECORDINGS OF PRIVATE MANNING ARE LEAKED: HIS REASONS FOR REVEALING ARMY SECRETS ARE THE MOST HONORABLE POSSIBLE

RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN RUSSIA TODAY

Private Manning deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, and as few recipients have deserved it in recent years.

He represents a genuine hero for our time, having risked so very much to reveal truth, a most ugly set of truths too.

His words about being most affected by seeing helicopter pilots enjoying their devilish work of slaughtering what were obviously civilians reminded me painfully of the recordings of American pilots during the first Gulf War.

Poor Iraqi troops - just poor conscripts for the most part - were evacuating Kuwait City and trying to retreat.

A huge traffic jam allowed American pilots to swoop down, again and again, to strafe and bomb their vehicles.

Hundreds of the retreating troops were killed in the most horrible fashion in acts no different to shooting a fleeing man in the back.

We heard voices of American pilots yelling out things like, "Hey, this is jus' like shootin' fish in a barrel! Whoopee!"

It was a horrifying moment for any person of conscience.

MICHAEL IGNATIEFF'S PATHETIC PLEA OVER WESTERN INACTION IN SYRIA: THE OLD CRYPTO-NEOCON TRIES NEW WAYS TO PROMOTE IMPERIALISM WHILE PRETENDING CONCERN FOR PEOPLE

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY MICHAEL IGNATIEFF IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

Michael Ignatieff yet again proves what a remarkably thoughtless person he is for someone who enjoyed the status of an intellectual concerned with human rights.

But then, even in his old sinecure at Harvard, Ignatieff frequently defended American imperial interests and displayed no concern for America's increasing violence and authoritarianism in the world.

The horrors in Syria exist for one reason only, and that is America's effort to determine the future of most of the countries of the Middle East for the benefit of its imperial satrapy in the region, Israel, itself a country which regularly kills, tortures, kidnaps, imprisons, and steals.

Turkey's behavior in offering the "rebels" refuge and border access and its threats against Syria are all at the behind-the scenes behest of the U.S.

The American Ambassador recently killed in Libya - another American disaster - was involved in smuggling weapons and Islamic fighters into Syria. That's why no one in Obama's government can give an honest accounting of the event.

Some of the thugs fighting in Syria are the kind of people the U.S. wouldn't even admit through its own border, yet it seems perfectly okay for them to go to Syria and murder and destroy.

The hypocrisy and lack of ethics are stunning.

Israel's murderous thug of a prime minister of course just chuckles at Syria being tied down in such a bloody mess.

The aim here is to destabilize Syria, perhaps dividing it into parts, and removing the Syrian army as a piece on the Middle East chessboard.

The fact is that Assad, like Hussein, provides a secular government in a region torn with religious hostilities. That's why Islamists hate him. Treatment of women too is better than in many parts of the Middle East.

But none of that counts when the U.S. decides in private that it is time for change in your region of the world.

The country which has killed millions over recent decades now feels entitled to control events anywhere its fancy takes it.

And flacks like Ignatieff - for that is what he is - help form the chorus of support for evil.

He's trying desperately, I think, to reclaim his sinecure at Harvard.