Gutiérrez was the founder of a progressive movement within the Catholic church known as liberation theology, and while he was never censured in the manner that some of his philosophical compatriots were, there were often rumblings that Gutiérrez was being investigated by Pope John Paul II’s doctrinal czar, a German cardinal named Joseph Ratzinger who would later become Pope Benedict.

But when the 86-year-old Peruvian arrives in Rome this week as a key speaker at a Vatican event, he will be welcomed as a guest, in a striking show of how Pope Francis – the first Latin American pontiff – has brought tenets of this sometimes controversial movement to the fore of his church, particularly in his pronouncements against the blight of poverty and the dangers of capitalism.

In its height in the late 1960s and 1970s, liberation theology – a distinctly Latin American movement – preached that it was not enough for the church to simply empathise and care for the poor. Instead, believers said, the church needed to be a vehicle to push for fundamental political and structural changes that would eradicate poverty, even – some believed – if it meant supporting armed struggle against oppressors.

We have governments elected by minorities, we have acts of murder condoned by world leaders, we have military aircraft strafing houses with kids, we have military aircraft targeting water supplies and we have military aircraft bombing the electricity grid. Civilian targets.

Our cities, towns and villages are full of marauding feral children with no respect for their elders; in the UK recently a lady in her nineties was so savagely beaten in her home than she has died - her cries for help were not heard. With governments behaving like they do, using terrorists to create havoc and then blaming the authorities when they try to restore order, it is hardly surprising that downstream there is a breakdown in societies because the same lack of values is apparent in both cases.

Suppose we all take action against all those accountable for a breakdown in values and morals, whether they be the rude child that answers back in the classroom, the schoolyard bully, the drunken lout who swears at an old lady, the group of youths who kick to the ground someone who told them to mind their manners, the demonic filth walking our streets and the demonic filth waltzing round the world attacking governments as they impose freedom and democracy from 30,000 feet?

What has happened, and isn't it time we won the world back to the side of decency and Good?

A snip:

“As the second anniversary of our fraternal meeting in Rome is at hand, I wish to express to Your Holiness my prayerful best wishes for your well-being, as well as my appreciation for the spiritual bonds which unite the See of Peter and the See of Mark.

Today more than ever we are united by the ecumenism of blood, which further encourages us on the path towards peace and reconciliation. I assure you and the Christian community in Egypt and throughout the Middle East of my unceasing prayer, and I remember in particular the Coptic faithful recently martyred for their Christian faith. May the Lord welcome them into his Kingdom…

…Christians throughout the world are facing similar challenges, which require us to work together in confronting these issues. I appreciate your appointment last year of a delegate to participate in the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops dedicated to the family. It is my hope that our cooperation in this area may continue, especially in addressing matters related to mixed marriages.”

“I extend greetings to all of you participating in this meeting, and I assure you of my spiritual closeness. I hope that your encounter will be an occasion to strengthen the bonds of fraternity which you share, and to deepen your commitment to making known the cry of the innocents through the language of music.

In union with you, I ask the Lord to hear this cry and to heal the afflictions of all who suffer. So too I pray that hearts may be opened to the plight of the innocents throughout the world. With these sentiments, I invoke abundant divine blessings upon all of you as a pledge of peace and strength.”

Once inside, players are then blasted by hot air (up to 40C) and light to create an “authentic experience of burning,” according to its creators, Huange Weiping and Ding Rui. When the “burning” is over, volunteers see a womb projected on the ceiling and must crawl until they reach a large, white padded area – supposedly representing a womb – where they are “reborn”.

Approximately 50 per cent of Chinese elect for cremation upon their deaths, and the creators told CNN they went to extensive lengths to ensure their simulation was accurate, including visiting a real crematorium and being placed inside. Much of the start-up costs were covered by Jue.so, China’s version of kickstarter, with more than $65,000 raised. Similar operations have successfully opened in South Korea and Taiwan.

A transformer exploded. Fire and black smoke were visible. The plant's Unit 3 was shut down after the incident. Officials claimed no threat to public safety. Whether true or not, who knows. When incidents like this happen, the public is systematically lied to. Nuclear experts cite Indian Point's notorious history of unaddressed health hazards, safety violations, numerous accidents and pollution - issues persisting throughout its operating life.

Waste water emitted from its facilities killed millions of Hudson River fish and other aquatic life forms. High levels of cancer occur in communities close to all nuclear power plants - notably in the case of Indian Point. Hazards remain. Critics want Indian Point decommissioned before a potentially catastrophic one occurs. It needs to be shuttered to avoid a potentially catastrophic incident. Millions of New York City and state residents are at risk. Imagine the possibility of turning the entire area into an uninhabitable dead zone - like around Chernobyl and Fukushima.

These distinctive arrangements have been good for the UK overall. Remaining a united kingdom has magnified its global clout, and being in the EU, but not fully of it, has spared it the worst of the continent’s Euro-driven woes. But neither arrangement may last much longer. In the headlines, last week’s British elections were a big victory for David Cameron’s Conservatives. But the deep winners were the forces of nationalism, Scottish and English, which suddenly have the United Kingdom as we know it on the ropes.

The Scottish story is the more remarkable one, since a decade ago Scottish independence still seemed a crank’s hobby, and after losing last year’s referendum on independence it was assumed that the nationalists had shot their bolt. Instead, the referendum campaign seems to have affected Scottish politics more than its technical outcome. As Alex Massie, a pro-union Scottish writer, put it last week, in Scotland, “Nationalism is our new secular religion,” and the politics of identity suddenly “defeats all comers.” All but three, as it turned out: In Thursday’s vote, the nationalists took 56 out of 59 parliamentary seats in Scotland, effectively turning the heathered north into a single-party state.

What the Scottish nationalists ultimately want is to trade the Union Jack for the EU’s postmodern bargain: ethnically-rooted self-government under a distant supranational umbrella, rather than a political union that can back wars or budget cuts that most Scots oppose. Not every Scot who voted nationalist last week is ready to support this vision. But the pull of union is clearly weakening in the north. Meanwhile to the south, a more English sort of nationalism wants out of the European Union completely, and suspects the Scots are getting too sweet a deal within the UK as it is. This is the spirit at work in UKIP, the populist, antiglobalist party that’s taking votes from both left and right, and in the Tory base as well.

The two nationalisms, north and south, can feed on one another. However reluctantly, Cameron’s government will have to give “little Englander” sentiment its due. (He’s promised a referendum on Britain’s EU membership for 2017). This will confirm the Scottish nationalists in their alienation, their desire to rule themselves alone.

Keen to respond to a reporter asking about when interest rates might rise in March last year, Ms Yellen suggested that the Fed would start to increase these “probably something in the order of six months” after it ceased buying up bonds.

Financial markets reacted instantaneously. Ms Yellen’s offhand comment was interpreted as a clear sign that the bank would tighten policy much faster than expected, causing US stocks to tumble.

If Fed rates were to rise sharply, this could cause chaos for economies with large dollar-denominated debts. Their currencies would likely fall, resulting in much higher inflation as their import costs rose. Emerging market central banks would be forced to hike their own interest rates, putting a brake on their economies.

The human gut contains around 3,500 different microbial species, which together make up some three pounds in weight. Scientists now believe a diet based on a limited range of highly processed foods, rather than those found in a balanced, healthy diet, can wipe out the number of stomach flora by more than a third.

The discovery could explain why some people put on weight while others don’t, despite eating roughly similar amounts of fat, sugar, protein and carbohydrates. The finding emerged from studies conducted by Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London.

Professor Spector said: “Microbes get a bad press, but only a few of the millions of species are harmful, and many are crucial to our health. What is emerging is that changes in our gut microbe community, or microbiome, are likely to be responsible for much of our obesity epidemic, and consequences like diabetes, cancer and heart disease”.

Excluding fat and sugar are less important to a healthy diet than making sure the food one eats is as diverse and natural as possible, Professor Spector said. His advice chimes with studies suggesting that Belgian Beer, garlic, coffee, leeks and celery are ideal foods for promoting healthy gut flora.

He said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who is also interior minister, would lead the Saudi delegation and the king's son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is defense minister, will also attend. President Barack Obama had planned to meet Salman one-on-one a day before the gathering of leaders at the presidential retreat but the White House did not take his decision to skip the summit as a sign of any substantial disagreement with the US.

The king, who took power in January after his brother King Abdullah died, has not traveled abroad since his ascension to the throne. At the summit, leaders of Gulf nations will be looking for assurance that Obama has their support when the region feels under siege from Islamic extremists and Syria, Iraq and Yemen are in various states of chaos. Arab allies also feel threatened by Iran's rising influence and worry the nuclear pact taking shape with the US, Iran and other nations may embolden Tehran to intrude more aggressively in countries of the region.

Of the ACLU, he said: “Communism, of course, is the goal.” Although he is said to have ‘recanted’ that comment, he did so after too many others had discovered his real purposes. Tragically, the ACLU still remains in place. Baldwin’s history is rife with his support of Soviet Russian style Marxism and only requires a brief search to pull up the actions comprising his legacy.

Although many in the past have set the table for the USA’s destruction, it was not until Barack Hussein Obama took the US White House as his own that the final phase began implementation. It has been extremely easy for Obama and his syndicate to “transform” (aka “dismantle and decimate”) the USA from within, as the people of the country had already been conditioned to following the authority of leftist-run public (government) school systems and would buckle to any far-Left Luciferian authority’s order they faced. The new mantra is “It’s better to die than be called a racist, homophobe, Islamophobe” etc.

In order to prove they were none of those, a great portion of the liberal electorate voted for Obama so that they might be counted as a good guy or girl by their peers. Policies to actually help the country to prosper and become freer no longer mattered… it was how the “selfie” crowd was perceived that counted. That remains true today. So… they elected Obama to assuage their presumed shame for forgotten past sins and allowed him to do whatever he wanted to the country and to them.

Generations are now being raised to submit to any and all leftist authority and to regurgitate their mantras and beliefs on command. To not do so would be unseemly to the indoctrinated… and, nowadays, it has become increasingly dangerous. I and others have written innumerable columns about what Obama has been doing to destroy our country.

(From The National Review)

In an interview with ABC Radio last week, philosopher and professor Adam Swift said that since “bedtime stories activities… do indeed foster and produce… [desired] familial relationship goods,” he wouldn’t want to ban them, but that parents who “engage in bedtime-stories activities” should definitely at least feel kinda bad about it sometimes: “I don’t think parents reading their children bedtime stories should constantly have in their minds the way that they are unfairly disadvantaging other people’s children, but I think they should have that thought occasionally,” he said.

I note this article because people like Mr Swift always seem to find their way into policy making circles. Think Johnathan Gruber. What one day is just the idiotic ranting of an obscure professor overnight becomes law, with the force of law.

'I always call for a European army as a long-term project. It is not something you can build from scratch tomorrow morning,' he said. Juncker has consistently backed the idea that the EU's 28 member nations - all no strangers to a bloody, war-torn past - should accept a military arm, a need highlighted by the Ukraine crisis.

'A common army among the Europeans would convey to Russia that we are serious about defending the values of the European Union,' he told Germany's Welt am Sonntag in March. A joint EU force would also rationalise defence spending and drive further EU integration.

For many European Union states, however, defence is a no-go area, with Britain especially hostile to sacrificing what it sees as a core sovereign prerogative to Brussels. Britain also insists that NATO, the US-led military alliance set up to hold the Cold War line against the Soviet Union, should remain the focus of European defence efforts.

Juncker told the forum that considering the current fragmented state of EU military readiness, it was perfectly 'right that central and eastern European countries put their trust primarily in NATO.' 'The 28 armies are just not up to it,' he added. EU leaders are due to review the bloc's security policy at a June summit to take on board the threat posed by a more assertive Russia and turmoil across North Africa and the Middle East.

With the first votes on the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) that would fast-track TPP just days away, it’s looking like Senate Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell (Republican for Kentucky) expects Americans to accept former House Speaker Representative Nancy Pelosi’s (Democrat for California) Obamacare logic for the trade deal: you have to pass it to find out what’s in it.

“If you want to hear the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the Obama administration is hoping to pass, you’ve got to be a member of Congress, and you’ve got to go to classified briefings and leave your staff and cellphone at the door,” Politico’s Edward-Isaac Dovere wrote earlier this week. “If you’re a member who wants to read the text, you’ve got to go to a room in the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center and be handed it one section at a time, watched over as you read, and forced to hand over any notes you make before leaving. And no matter what, you can’t discuss the details of what you’ve read.”

"It is really worrisome," said top House Ways and Means Committee Democrat Representative Sandy Levin. "Countries do not want to give away their jurisdiction to some arbitrary panel," he added.

At issue is the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty and a provision called "Investor-State Dispute Settlement," or ISDS, that would let foreign firms challenge US laws, potentially overruling those laws and resulting in fines to be paid by taxpayers. The provisions are becoming common in some trade deals between other nations.

Levin also joined in Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions' demand that the Asia trade pact be opened to the public. Currently, it is being kept in secret and only those cleared to see it are allowed to. Levin said, for example, that he was barred from discussing some TPP provision with Jeffrey Sachs, prominent international economist at Columbia University. The White House has dismissed the secrecy claims, but Sachs said, "It is secret. I haven't seen it. I can't see it."