Continua em crescendo, a campanha do referendo. A 30 de Janeiro foi a abertura da campanha pelo “Não” –e em defesa dos mais desprotegidos dos seres humanos – em Braga. Braga é o coração do “outro país”, o país cristão, patriota, pelos vistos verdadeiramente humanista. Artigo muito interessante também no Público desse 30 de Janeiro, comparando as duas campanhas – a disciplina, a organização, a convicção – do Não, onde as pessoas estão “como se isto fosse a coisa mais importante das suas vidas” e o diletantismo, fragmentação e contradições ideológicas e partidárias do “Sim”.
Que também segundo O Público de 31 de Janeiro, fizeram uma abertura de grande flop, na Baixa lisboeta.
Também, na mesma edição, EPC se indigna com a atitude do JN que acha pouco “ética”, para um título de primeira página. Só vêem mesmo o que lhes apetece ver!
É curioso, nesta campanha pelo “Sim”, e à medida que os dias correm, os “tiques” tradicionais da esquerda jacobina e libertina, à portuguesa; a arrogância de Vital Moreira, qual esopiana Rã bem inchada de presunção jurídico-constitucional, a “leveza” neflibática de Lídia Jorge, falando do embrião como essa “coisa” humana! Pior só José António Pinto Ribeiro, com a imagem de ovos e frangos! A cassete dos pêcês; a agressividade das “claques” itenerantes do Bloco, quando se apanham em zonas mais periféricas, longe das câmaras da TV. E, para meu desgosto, no meio deste cocktail mal informada, algumas pessoas que não deviam lá estar; pelo menos tão cedo e tão bruscamente.
E o pano de fundo dos media e dos comunicadores politicamente correctos, ignorantezecos, esses sim sem quase nenhuma “objectividade”.
Mas também é magnífico ver, no “Não” tanta gente nova mobilizada, com disciplina, com funcionalidade, na rua, nos debates, na blogosfera, activos, activistas, com causas e convicções, em vez da “bacoquice” destes “direitistas” pró-aborto, que desertam nestas “questões de civilização” mas esperam os votos dos cristãos na hora das eleições.
P.S. À noite, noutro debate do aborto vejo aquele personagem, o irmão do Pinto da Costa, espécie de profeta barbudo e solene, contrastando com a bonomia manhosa do mano...
Friday, February 2, 2007
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Ponto de viragem:Gates informa Bush sobre o Iraque
WASHINGTON -- Moving closer to an overhaul of troubled war strategy, President Bush on Saturday heard firsthand from his new Pentagon chief, just back from a visit to Iraq.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, finishing up his first week on the job, spent three days in Iraq before heading straight to Camp David in Maryland to report to the president on his conversations with Iraqi leaders and U.S. commanders and soldiers.
President Bush, who is spending Christmas at the presidential retreat, was joined by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, national security adviser Stephen Hadley and Hadley's deputy, J.D. Crouch, who is coordinating the administration's Iraq review.
While in Iraq, Mr. Gates expressed confidence that Iraqis can take the lead in reducing the violence and warned Iran and Syria not to meddle in their neighbor's affairs.
President Bush has said he cannot settle on a revised war plan without input from Mr. Gates, who took over from Donald H. Rumsfeld at the Defense Department on Monday. The president is expect to announce a revamped Iraq strategy in a speech to the nation between the New Year's Day and Jan. 23, when he gives his State of the Union address.
The president is considering adding thousands of U.S. troops to the 140,000 already in Iraq as a way to control escalating violence, particularly in Baghdad.
The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and other military leaders once skeptical of a "surge" in troops have decided to endorse the idea.
FIGHT FOR IRAQ
[Fight for Iraq] • See continuing coverage of developments in Iraq, including an interactive map of day-to-day events in Iraq. Plus, see a tally of military deaths.
Some important voices at the Pentagon, however, are not convinced that a significant troop increase would help and, in fact, worry it could do more harm than good.
Democrats about to take control of Congress and other war critics fear that American troops will remain mired unless the Iraqis are threatened with an imminent withdrawal of U.S. soldiers and forced to meet specific benchmarks.
President Bush has changed his mind and now believes the Army and Marine Corps should be increased in overall size. This process would take years but still could address some doubts in the military about a short-term boost in Iraq.
While saying he has not decided whether to deploy more U.S. soldiers, the president has given a nod to military leaders by making clear he agrees that any such mission is only feasible if there is a defined mission that is clear and achievable.
Before leaving Baghdad, Mr. Gates would not say whether he supports a short-term increase in troops. He did speak optimistically about Iraq's political leaders' commitment to taking over their own security and ability to deal with the militias that have brought the country to the brink of civil war.
The military component of President Bush's upcoming plan has drawn the most attention. But it is only one part of what is expected to be a multi-pronged strategy.
It also will include a way to improve the economic picture in Iraq and a new approach to both diplomacy in the region and to the delicate -- and deadly -- political situation inside Iraq.
An anti-American, mostly Sunni insurgency has been replaced this year as the chief source of violence by bloodshed between Sunni and Shiite factions.
With public support for the war falling as violence and U.S. deaths rise, President Bush has been eager to show he is ready to make changes, even while he rejects calls from many Democrats for significant troop withdrawals to begin soon. The president has talked often in recent weeks about the long commitment America must make to Iraq.
"Things are moving in a positive direction. But it's going to be a long haul," Mr. Gates said during his visit.
Looking ahead, the president has called a meeting of his National Security Council on Thursday at his Crawford, Texas, ranch.
"If you're serving on the front lines halfway across the world, it is natural to wonder what all this means for you," the president said Saturday in his weekly radio address, taped before he left Washington on Friday for the holiday.
"I want our troops to know that while the coming year will bring change, one thing will not change, and that is our nation's support for you and the vital work you do to achieve a victory in Iraq."
(The WSJ, 24 Dec 2006)
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, finishing up his first week on the job, spent three days in Iraq before heading straight to Camp David in Maryland to report to the president on his conversations with Iraqi leaders and U.S. commanders and soldiers.
President Bush, who is spending Christmas at the presidential retreat, was joined by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, national security adviser Stephen Hadley and Hadley's deputy, J.D. Crouch, who is coordinating the administration's Iraq review.
While in Iraq, Mr. Gates expressed confidence that Iraqis can take the lead in reducing the violence and warned Iran and Syria not to meddle in their neighbor's affairs.
President Bush has said he cannot settle on a revised war plan without input from Mr. Gates, who took over from Donald H. Rumsfeld at the Defense Department on Monday. The president is expect to announce a revamped Iraq strategy in a speech to the nation between the New Year's Day and Jan. 23, when he gives his State of the Union address.
The president is considering adding thousands of U.S. troops to the 140,000 already in Iraq as a way to control escalating violence, particularly in Baghdad.
The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and other military leaders once skeptical of a "surge" in troops have decided to endorse the idea.
FIGHT FOR IRAQ
[Fight for Iraq] • See continuing coverage of developments in Iraq, including an interactive map of day-to-day events in Iraq. Plus, see a tally of military deaths.
Some important voices at the Pentagon, however, are not convinced that a significant troop increase would help and, in fact, worry it could do more harm than good.
Democrats about to take control of Congress and other war critics fear that American troops will remain mired unless the Iraqis are threatened with an imminent withdrawal of U.S. soldiers and forced to meet specific benchmarks.
President Bush has changed his mind and now believes the Army and Marine Corps should be increased in overall size. This process would take years but still could address some doubts in the military about a short-term boost in Iraq.
While saying he has not decided whether to deploy more U.S. soldiers, the president has given a nod to military leaders by making clear he agrees that any such mission is only feasible if there is a defined mission that is clear and achievable.
Before leaving Baghdad, Mr. Gates would not say whether he supports a short-term increase in troops. He did speak optimistically about Iraq's political leaders' commitment to taking over their own security and ability to deal with the militias that have brought the country to the brink of civil war.
The military component of President Bush's upcoming plan has drawn the most attention. But it is only one part of what is expected to be a multi-pronged strategy.
It also will include a way to improve the economic picture in Iraq and a new approach to both diplomacy in the region and to the delicate -- and deadly -- political situation inside Iraq.
An anti-American, mostly Sunni insurgency has been replaced this year as the chief source of violence by bloodshed between Sunni and Shiite factions.
With public support for the war falling as violence and U.S. deaths rise, President Bush has been eager to show he is ready to make changes, even while he rejects calls from many Democrats for significant troop withdrawals to begin soon. The president has talked often in recent weeks about the long commitment America must make to Iraq.
"Things are moving in a positive direction. But it's going to be a long haul," Mr. Gates said during his visit.
Looking ahead, the president has called a meeting of his National Security Council on Thursday at his Crawford, Texas, ranch.
"If you're serving on the front lines halfway across the world, it is natural to wonder what all this means for you," the president said Saturday in his weekly radio address, taped before he left Washington on Friday for the holiday.
"I want our troops to know that while the coming year will bring change, one thing will not change, and that is our nation's support for you and the vital work you do to achieve a victory in Iraq."
(The WSJ, 24 Dec 2006)
Nostalgias de época:"White Christmas"
"White Christmas" é típico do romântico um bocado kitsch dos anos 50:como a América de
Eisenhower,a primeira guerra fria, os carros grandes "americanos",os chapéus das senhoras e os sapatos de atacadores ,pretos e brancos,que os homens usavam no Verão.Mas é uma nostalgia sem tempo muito definido, como se vêdeste dueto do Bing Crosby e da Rosemary Clooney...
Saturday, December 23, 2006
More Cxmas season :In hoc anno domini
In Hoc Anno Domini
When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.
Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.
But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression -- for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?
There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?
Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.
And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.
So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.
But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.
Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.
And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
(This editorial was written in 1949, in The Wall Street Journal, by the late Vermont Royster and has been published annually since.)
When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.
Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.
But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression -- for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?
There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?
Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.
And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.
So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.
But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.
Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.
And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
(This editorial was written in 1949, in The Wall Street Journal, by the late Vermont Royster and has been published annually since.)
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