News Updates, 7/17

Vatican taps Chaput to investigate order (Legionaires of Christ)
The Vatican has asked Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput and four other prelates to investigate institutions of the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative religious order whose deceased founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, had been accused of sexual improprieties...

Did Pres__ent Obama Mislead Pope Benedict? [It's a given - the man is a pathologial liar]
In the late afternoon of July 10, Pres__ent Obama met privately with Pope Benedict XVI for just over 30 minutes. According to official Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi, S.J., "The pres__ent explicitly expressed his commitment to reducing the numbers of abortions and to listen to the church's concern on moral issues."...

Mexican cardinal says existence of devil must be taken seriously
Mexico City, Mexico, Jul 16, 2009 / 02:26 pm (CNA).- The Archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, said yesterday that the existence of the devil must be taken as fact, without exaggerating or minimizing his actions out of skepticism or credulity taken to the extreme...the cardinal said skepticism leads many to deny the existence of the devil and dismiss his actions as psychological, socio-cultural or paranormal phenomena. Others, out of extreme gullibility, see the devil everywhere and grant him supernatural powers as if he were God, the cardinal stated...

Medical researchers: the unborn have memories
Able to store info and retrieve it four weeks later

NZ Masons jailed over Fiji sorcery claims
Police seized wands, compasses and a skull at lodge

'Imagine No Religion' billboard ignites debate
Erected by the US-based Alabama Freethought Association

Vatican to UN: World needs new development model
'...centered on the human person rather than profit'

Cardinal Newman to be beatified next May
Possibly at Birmingham's Oratory on Athanasius' feast

Vietnam Catholics fined for having large families
Government requires limit of two children per couple

Has George Weigel lost his Vatican 'insider' status?
Commentator thinks he can 'pick and choose' from encyclical

UK bishop bans holy water to halt swine flu
17 people in Britain have died after contracting H1N1 virus

Honduran Catholic bishops oppose Zelaya, Chavez
Catholic Church has firmly backed the ouster of president
[When will US Bishops oppose Obozo?]

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Other Issues
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AIG’s European Derivatives May Take Decades to Expire
American International Group Inc.’s trading partners may force the insurer to bear the risk of losses on corporate loans and mortgages for years beyond the company’s expectations, complicating U.S. efforts to stabilize the firm, analysts said.
[The fact is, AIG is not on the hook for anything - the US taxpayers are]

Ted Nugent: Obama Represents 'Tyranny & Slavery'
"With a liberal in the White House, it's sad to see the celebration of mediocrity and slovenliness and the cult of denial expand," he says. "That's heartbreaking to see this once-great nation abandon the drive of excellence and the new squawking mantra of whining and excuse-making, which is why we have the pres__ent [id missing] we have, and for him and his administration to defy the Constitution and Fedzilla exploding into the private sector and controlling corporations, it's shocking."...

WHO: H1N1 pandemic spreading too fast to count
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that the H1N1 flu pandemic was the fastest-moving pandemic ever and that it was now pointless to count every case...

CBO: Federal budget is on unsustainable path
Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run. Although great uncertainty surrounds long-term fiscal projections, rising costs for health care and the aging of the population will cause federal spending to increase rapidly under any plausible scenario for current law...

Joe Biden: ‘We Have to Go Spend Money to Keep From Going Bankrupt’
Vice President Joe Biden told people attending an AARP town hall meeting that unless the Democrat-supported health care plan [government mandated welfare program] becomes law the nation will go bankrupt and that the only way to avoid that fate is for the government to spend more money...

Treasury looking for a few good comedians
The Contractor shall conduct two, 3-hour, Humor in the Workplace programs that will discuss the power of humor in the workplace, the close relationship between humor and stress, and why humor is one of the most important ways that we communicate in business and office life...
__________

"I might inform those humanitarians who have a nightmare of new and needless babies (for some humanitarians have that sort of horror of humanity) that if the recent decline in the birth-rate were continued for a certain time, it might end in there being no babies at all; which would console them very much."
-G.K. Chesterton, ILN 5-24-30