You have to hand it to Ian Wishart. While everyone else ums and arhs on the internet about the purported internet release of hacked Hadley CRU files containing evidence that climate change "scientists" are deliberately forging data and obfuscating contrary evidence (in order to manipulate the IPCC meetings), Ian goes straight to the point: he rang and interviewed the victim of the alleged hacking (one Phil Jones at Hadley) and got it confirmed that the damaging emails are real. From the face of it, Ian Wishart is the only one at the moment who had the presence of mind to do this and his interview is now being linked around the world.

What twitter did for Iran, this could do for Copenhagen. Sure Copenhagen will happen, but no-one will believe it, for a lot of people's suspicions are now confirmed. Most pro-Climate change scientists are not scientists at all, they are educated-liars: people like Michael Mann, Phil Jones, and so on.

UPDATE: Having thought about this a bit this morning, I would for one would not want to be "Professor" Michael Mann right now. You see, he is the recipient of numerous public good science funding projects in the USA to the tune of MILLIONS of dollars. If someone complains to the US public funding agency then his career could be over. The US science funding system has taken a rather dim view of those who manipulate and fabricate scientific data in recent years and have prosecuted them through the USA Office of Research integrity. If these emails implicate that Mann has knowingly misled the science community or ommitted, fabricated or manipulated data for the purposes of publication, then he is in deep do-do.

What a shame.

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FRIDAY 9:45PM. Must be time to kick off the regular FNFFA session!

Fashionably late, but fashion is so yesterday. Especially if you are commenting from England. Something to do with time zones perhaps. Drop by and leave a comment. Something that reflects the fashion of the week perhaps?

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Pope John Paul II, in his later years, used the term "the springtime of the new evangelisation". One aspect he clearly meant was a return toward the continuity of the Catholic form and prose of worship, which has remained constant in the Latin rite for 1000 years. Now in 1968-1970, Pope Paul VI approved the Novus Ordo (New Order) for the Catholic Mass in English. This Order, whilst completely valid, has caused much consternation and grief across the last 4 decades as individuals have interpreted it in their own way (sometimes mischievously and in direct opposition to what the Catholic Church allowed), leading to much confusion, heartache and debacle for individual Catholics and dioceses worldwide. But, now, the first buds of that new evangelisation JPII talked about are showing, and they have bloomed at the annual USCCB meeting in Baltimore with the US Bishops overwhelmingly approving their work on the translation of the Roman Missal.


You see, the base and core of the Catholic belief is contained in the Mass and its liturgy. We have doctrine and the catechism, but what we REALLY believe and who we REALLY are is expressed in the Mass. Thus, it HAS to be right and any translations from the Latin need to be as accurate as possible. Since the Novus Ordo, the translations to English have been poor and inaccurate, which makes a huge difference as any scholar or lawyer will tell you. Since Benedict XVI took the helm, great progress has been made in the 're-translation' of the Latin to English version of the Mass. It is in fact, more of a revision, but to many in the pews, it will feel like a new translation as certain phrases are now correctly interpreted. And this point was used by certain Bishops at the conference to stall the translations. Why? Because those Bishops were the hierarchical representation of the dissident and mischievous individuals of the last 40 years who have sought to "reform" the Liturgy in their own image. They lost. Rome now has to approve the final version, but as the ineffable Fr Z. at WDTPRS has shown, the US Bishops not only approved the translations, they voted for Rome to actually do the spadework on other aspects that need fixing. Needless to say, Rome will not object. :-)

This is a major positive step forward. The new translations are not hard to understand, and they add a distinct connection with history in their phrasing and flow. Sure, they will take getting used by a congregation that has limited ability to connect with history. But these translations are a direct connection with our Christian heritage; they tell us something about who we are. But moreover, the fact that they have been approved will have a flow on effect across the world. The American Church now has a voice and public forum because of their recent stance on the US Health Care Bill: everyone knows where the US Bishops stand on this and they are watching. The problem now for the liturgical terrorists in New Zealand, who promote all sorts of strange and arcane things is that they will now be hit with a double whammy in the near future. First, the news of this approval will go worldwide. Second, Cardinal Arinze, Prefect Emeritus for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments of the Vatican is coming here to NZ next year. He will not just be discussing the weather with certain Bishops in this part of the world.

The springtime is coming. One hopes the scent of the US liturgical rose permeates the NZ Catholic scene in full.

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I came across a DRAFT UNFCCC document today (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and it makes interesting reading. Over the next few weeks I'll post bits and pieces I've come across within the document. Then we can all be prepared for Copenhagen and John's promises.

The document is full of waffle, for example on page 28: "The framework shall be...flexible, bottom up, results-based and country driven, involving all relevant stakeholders..." and patronising: "including women, with a view to enhancing ownership...", but nevertheless, it doesn't lose track of the need to establish multiple sources of funding:

Page 43, Point 41: Providing financial support shall be additional to developed countries ODA targets. Mandatory contributions from Developed Countries ... shall include ...

a. Assessed contributions of at least 0.7% of GDP.
c. Levies on CO2 emissions
g. Levies on international transactions
h. Fines for non-compliance [of Kyoto Commitments]

And these are costs additional to the ETS. At this rate, everyone will soon be familiar with the acronym NWO.

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Vision without execution is hallucination. -- Thomas Edison

It seems to be human nature to dream, to have some kind of vision of how you would like your future to be. Thomas Edison sums it up for me though by pointing out if you don't have a plan to execute, then you are fooling yourself. It's a hallucination.

I think that's so true on the personal level.

Wider than that, is the ETS. I suppose there, the vision is to save the world from the effects of man-made pollution. The execution of that is Kyoto, Copenhagen and in NZ, right now, the ETS. But it doesn't gel. Edison may have had a saying for this situation. Perhaps it would have been something like:

Executing on a hallucination will not achieve the vision.

Dream on, dream on.

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The idea that universities became the focus of the SIS in terms of WMD in New Zealand might seem a little odd to some people, but in one sense its not that far fetched. Universities here are making a rather nice income out of international student enrolments; indeed they actively tout for them. For example, the University of Otago has a deal with Saudi Arabia to train approximately 300 Saudi's in medicine, a deal which started back in 2001. Indeed, the number of Saudi, Brunei, Malaysia and Omani students at Otago has increased between 50-200% over the last 5 years. But then so have UK students and others. At the same time, the number of USA, Chinese and Hong Kong students have dropped.

Otago is not alone in this; Auckland University has agents all over the world as well. Indeed, for NZ Universities, international students can mean the difference between break or bust in some departments that have dicey budgets. The cause for concern for the SIS is the shifting demographic of where these students are coming from. Is it a valid concern? I believe so, but Tom Ryan, head of the Tertiary Education Union doesn't. He thinks that colleagues might spy on one another and he is concerned about academic freedom. Well Tom, academic freedom is a crock of dung, in the sense you like to think of it. Who gave universities the mandate to be "critic and conscience of society"? And why should academics be above suspicion? This attitude just confirms in average peoples minds that academics consider themselves ineffable and out of touch. The Vice Chancellors of course, are concerned because of the dollars involved. Its a simple financial problem for them.

MrTips hasn't seen the document from the SIS. But there are other ways of identifying potential problems like this, so its not really needed. It would make good coffee room reading though.

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Go bikers! I think the effort put into protesting rising ACC levies admirable. An estimated 10,000 bikers fronted up to Parliament today to give the government a rev up.

Unfortunately though, there are already signs that the Government is simply going to write this mass protest off as just another "Boobs on Bikes" parade. ACC Minister Nick Smith said the number of dead motorcyclists last year justifies fee increases to the survivors.

Funny, for a moment I thought he was also going to acknowledge the government's failure to invest in safer roads. Obviously, it's safer to tax.

"The stats are crap!" Declared Goff. "These levies are not fair, and they're not reasonable."

Phil, being a petrol head, has memory lapses about Labour's glory years watching ACC on a collision course with a deficit bigger than a train wreck. That wasn't an accident though, so tax payers cannot claim any relief. Au contraire, this week bikers face a levy increase. SUV and diesel owners next, then car owners and surely, cyclists aren't paying their fair share? How about joggers? Two recent road deaths in Wellington is all the justification the government needs.

If this protest becomes yet another massively democratic action that is ignored, expect the divide and conquer strategy from National to continue.

And then we all become part of the boobs on bikes parade.

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They say one is born every minute and they are right.

And it is a crying shame when it is our Government who is being scammed or is it just that they are scamming us - its hard to know which it is for sure. But what is abundantly clear is that our "polluting" livestock are going to cost us dear if the Government persists with this ludicrous Emissions Trading scam scheme.

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People have been herding livestock since biblical times. Abraham's vast herds did not mess up the planet. He in fact lived at a time when the planet was warmer than today but it isn't cooler now because of his sheep and goats. No its just a natural thing the planet has been both cooler and warmer since the days of the Patriarchs. Our forebears lived with it, survived and persisted to ultimately produce us.

And we need meat, milk and wool - these are good things, they feed and cloth us with the surplus paying the bills for products we don't produce locally, such as the computer I am using to create this post.

We don't need carbon credits, they perform no useful function, non whatsoever.
Would you be pleased to find 10 Carbon Credits under your Christmas tree? What would you do with them? You can't eat them. According to the scammers you might be able to trade them for a nintendo - D'ya reckon Dick Smiths would take them in lieu of cash?

Anyway in order to get this scheme under way Nick Smith has bought of the Maori party by effectively giving five Iwi a heap of Carbon Credits. In return the Maori party will help push this crap through Parliament after which real dollars will flow to the Iwi, real dollars for a fictitious commodity. The Maori party now has a vested interest in seeing this scheme implemented. Real dollars earned by people who produce real commodities like food, wool, steel and cement. You know things people actually need and can use, unlike carbon credits. And if you think a single cent of this money will find its way into the hands of the Maori underclasses in South Auckland or Cannons creek I have an ETS scheme to sell you.

The only reason that kiwis aren't up in arms over this that I can conceive of is that we are so inured to our Government giving it to us up the keister that we have resigned ourselves to this fate.

Which doesn't bode at all well for our future.

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Go the All Whites, what can one say? Can't wait now until Dec 1 when the World Cup pools will be drawn. And time for an interesting fact; unlike the All Blacks, the All Whites will be coached at the World Cup by someone who knows what its like to actually play in a World Cup, and more to the point, win matches that matter! Furthermore, the Chair of NZ Soccer is Frank van Hattum who also knows what its like to play at the World Cup (although he did controversially replace Richard Wilson who got us there) and he had put in place Michael Glading as CEO who understands international business far better than Steve Tew, his rugby equivalent at the NZRFU.

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A couple of weeks back (Thursday, October 29, 2009), The Dominion Post regurgitated a Washington Post article by David Gibson, keeping the original title, Is Pope Benedict a closet liberal?

I just about choked on my breakfast when I saw that The Dominion Post had grabbed the offending piece, as I had read it online a couple of days prior, and had dismissed it as the rabid rantings of a Catholic who saw the Church only in political shades. Clearly, someone at The Dominion Post is in the category of extremely clueless when it comes to working out which articles are rubbish and which articles are worth republishing.

However, I will give The Dominion Post a little credit for realising that the outreach to Anglicans is big news and worthy of more than a passing mention soon after it happened. But rather than putting up drivel by Gibson, why not ask to publish an article such as This offer was 400 years in the making by The (British) Catholic Herald?

Years before Pope Pius V excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I, and absolved the people of England from their allegiance to her (at a stroke turning Catholics into traitors), years before the threat of a Catholic invasion and plots to unseat her, Pope Pius IV had invited the Queen to send Anglican bishops to the Council of Trent, and, it was rumoured, was willing to approve the use of the Book of Common Prayer in the English Church.

The next initiative came not from Rome but from King James I, who wrote to Pope Pius V offering to recognise his spiritual supremacy and reunite the English Church to Rome, if only the Pope would disclaim political sovereignty over kings. The offer was rejected. Too late would a new pope, Urban III, succeed to the papacy two years before James died, and declare: "We know that we may declare Protestants excommunicated, as Pius V declared Queen Elizabeth of England, and before him Clement VII the King of England, Henry VIII... But with what success? The whole world can tell. We yet bewail it in terms of blood. Wisdom does not teach us to imitate Pius V or Clement VII."

And so it goes on, listing more attempts at unification through the centuries. Far more interesting than David Gibson declaring:

More important, with the latest accommodation to Anglicans, Benedict has signaled that the standards for what it means to be Catholic -- such as the belief in the real presence of Christ in the Mass as celebrated by a validly ordained priest -- are changing or, some might argue, falling. The Vatican is in effect saying that disagreements over gay priests and female bishops are the main issues dividing Catholics and Anglicans, rather than, say, the sacraments and the papacy and infallible dogmas on the Virgin Mary, to name just a few past points of contention.

No, no, no, no.

I think the fact that Gibson wrote a book titled The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World should really give a clue as to the lack of insight this man has.

Related Link: Is Pope Benedict a closet liberal ~ Washington Post

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A new Catholic blog that comments on politics as well has popped out of the woodwork.

And All These Things...

But I am disappointed that Hone Harawira is being loosely compared to French King Louis XVI.

Hone Harawira it is ironic that in over spending you choose to go to France, the home of some great over spenders such as Louis XVI. He lost his head for his exuberance so consider yourself lucky that you will only lose your job!

Especially since Louis did not lose his head for overspending - regicide is generally far more complicated than that. Louis XVI was a Catholic monarch, killed during a period when not only were most of the French nobility killed, but open season was unleashed on Catholic priests and nuns. Louis XVI might even be recognised as a Saint (martyred for the Faith) in some future time.

But apart from that minor faux pax which someone from NZ could be excused for, welcome to the blogosphere, newbies!

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The recent condemnation by the European Court of Human Rights of crucifixes displayed in Italian public schools could result in all public Christian images being banned in the EU.

Ironic, really, when Europe has been celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In Poland, Communists banned crucifixes. Once the Communists were thrown out, the crucifixes came back. Now the oxymoronic "human rights" court wants to ban them again.

The ECHR decision came last week in response to a single suit brought by an Italian citizen of Finnish origin who has been campaigning for eight years to have crucifixes removed from schools. The court ruled that the display of crucifixes in public schools restricted religious freedoms. "The compulsory display of a symbol of a given confession in premises used by the public authorities ... restricted the right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their convictions," the court said.

While the ECHR, as a body of the Council of Europe, did not have the power to order the removal of crucifixes, "what it does do is find a violation of the Convention. The Italian government now has to report back to the Council of Europe exactly what it proposes to do in order to implement the ruling, which in this case will mean removing crucifixes from the classrooms, courts public buildings etc," Addison said.

He explained that if the ECHR judgment is not overturned on appeal then Italy cannot simply ignore the ruling. The effects will be profound, he said, since the Lisbon Treaty "in effect incorporates European Convention on Human Rights into EU law," which is now binding on Italy, and all other 26 member states.

Addison called the decision "an extraordinarily wide decision which could be used, for example, to prevent state schools putting on nativity plays." He cited the examples of Greek and Cypriot schools where it is common to see icons displayed. If the Italian crucifix ruling stands, he said, "those icons will have to be removed and, arguably so will displays of Christianity from all public buildings throughout Europe."

He said what is perhaps "most surprising" is that ECHR did not apply "its own concept of 'Margin of Appreciation and recognise that this type of question should be left to individual countries to decide."

Addison commented, "I do wonder if perhaps this judgment may, in time, come to be seen as European 'Dredd Scott' case, a moment when the implications of a court ruling are so significant and so contrary to public opinion that they lead to a public backlash."

Related Links: All Public Displays of Christianity Could End with Italian Crucifix Ruling: Legal Expert ~ LifeSiteNews
Poland Defends Right to Keep Crucifixes in Schools ~ FoxNews
Crucifix picture from 4Crucifix.com

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I think it's definitely time for a glass of red.

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Wow. An American Catholic Bishop is conducting a very public correction of one of the political members of his flock. How many times have we heard politicians use their Catholic identity as political capital, while not exactly adhering to what being Catholic actually means? NZ has a number of these types of politicians - people that I've been shocked to find quite happily describe themselves as Catholic while supporting Government policies that quite honestly no Catholic politician should support if they want to be faithful to what they are supposed to believe.

Congressman, I’m not sure whether or not you fulfill the basic requirements of being a Catholic, so let me ask: Do you accept the teachings of the Church on essential matters of faith and morals, including our stance on abortion? Do you belong to a local Catholic community, a parish? Do you attend Mass on Sundays and receive the sacraments regularly? Do you support the Church, personally, publicly, spiritually and financially?

In your letter you say that you “embrace your faith.” Terrific. But if you don’t fulfill the basic requirements of membership, what is it exactly that makes you a Catholic? Your baptism as an infant? Your family ties? Your cultural heritage?

New Zealand has state funded, hospital enacted abortion on demand in all but name. What are our Catholic politicians doing about this? As far as I know - nothing.

Related Link: Bp. Tobin publicly instructs Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) What Does the Prayer Really Say?

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It's very easy to distort history if the version that is being sold is more exciting or seen to be more interesting than the standard version that while cool, doesn't enthral the general populace for reasons generally to do with what people want to believe rather than what is most likely true. A recent blog post here at NZ Conservative shows how such alternate histories can capture the imagination of people, much to the annoyance of researchers and archaeologists.

This post is on the Knights Templar, themselves subject to people who would rewrite their history for their own ends. I've copied the forward to a book by French historian Régine Pernoud, where she attempts set the story straight on the Knights and I hope that rather than being swayed by the likes of fiction writer Dan Brown, you'll consider that the truth is far more worthwhile.

Historical distortions are difficult to straighten out. A mistake about a chemical compound or an airline schedule will be exposed in due course by an explosion or a missed connection, but misconceptions about the past can persist for centuries, despite the diligent work of historians, either because vested interests benefit from the distortions (the Whig view of history) or because the fanciful version is more fun.

This is particularly true of the Knights of the Temple of Solomon, the Templars. The order was founded at the start of the twelfth century by a knight from Champagne in eastern France, Hugh of Payns, who, five years after the capture of Jerusalem by the First Crusade, made a pilgrimage in the Holy Land with his liege lord and namesake, Count Hugh of Champagne. Seeing the need for knights to protect the pilgrims from Muslim marauders, but also sensing a call from God to lead the life of a monk, Hugh and eight companions formed a hybrid community of monk-knights. They took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and followed the rule of a religious order but remained under arms.

Not all the leaders of the Church at the time approved of this notion of a military order. Saint Bruno, the founder of the Carthusians, had grave doubts about the moral legitimacy of killing for Christ. However, Hugh of Payns found a champion in the leading churchman of the time, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who not only endorsed the concept but also drew up a strict rule much like that of his own Cistercian order which was approved by the Pope.

It was an idea whose time had come. The rulers of Latin Christendom all wished to go on crusade but ran the risk of usurpation if they left their kingdoms for any length of time. The Templars became their proxies. Endowments of land provided an income with which the order could equip knights, sergaents and squires; build castles and hire mercenaries. Their monastic vow of obedience led to a military discipline impossible to impose on prima donna knights. There was no time limit to their period of service, as here was with a feudal levy; as celibates they had no children to provide for; and the authority within the order did not depend on feudal ties. The chief of the Syrian Assassins, Sinan ibn-Salman, said that there was no point in killing a Templar Grand Master because there would always be another knight to take his place.

By the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Templars had become a rich and powerful institution with fortresses in London and Paris, a network of well-run land-holdings throughout Europe, and a strong military and political presence in the Holy Land. There is almost no evidence of corrupt knights--certainly less than there is of corrupt monks--but there is some of a certain institutional arrogance and conspicuous consumption: the Templar fortress at Acre was adorned with four gold-plated lions costing '1,500 Saracen besants'. Answerable only to the Pope, bishops resented their autonomy and kings their wealth.

In 1307, King Phillip of France, looking for ways to make up the deficit in the royal finances, decided to expropriate the property of the Templars. Accusing the order of treachery, blasphemy, sodomy and devil worship, he ordered the arrest of al the knights in his jurisdiction and called upon the Kings of England and Aragon to do the same. The subsequent torture and trial of the Templars, and the procrastination of the then Pope, Clement V, and his dissolution of the order at the Council of Vienna in 1311, is one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the Medieval Church.

As disgraceful as the fate of the last Templars--the last Grand Master, James of Molay, was burned at the stake in Paris--has been the appropriation of the Order by myth-making Freemasons in the eighteenth century, whose mytagogy and obfuscation persists to this day. From Walter Scott's Ivanhoe to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, the protrayal of the Templars is as false as it is absurd. This distortion exasperated, and even enraged, the French historian Régine Pernoud, who has already set right many of our misapprehensions about the Middle Ages in her Those Terrible Middle Ages: Debunking the Myths. Now in The Templars she rehabilitates the devout Catholic knights, exposing 'the incredible crop of fanciful allegations attributing to the Templars every kind of esoteric rite and belief, from the most ancient to the most vulgar. . . .' As she rightly points out, the truth is accessible in archives and libraries; it is not impossible to uncover the facts. The result is an excellent, unadorned history which is a pleasure to read.

Where there is controversy, she gives her opinion based on her wide knowledge of the Middle Ages. She considers that the charges made against the Templars are bogus: 'only a few historians, committed to defending the memory of Philip the Fair come what may, give any credience to the accusations of which the Templars were victims.' She also sets the dissolution of the order in historical context, comparing it to the suppression of the Society of Jesus in the eighteenth century; and pointing out that the brain-washing and torture to which the Templars were subject presaged the methods of totaliarian governments in modern times.

There is no canonised Templar saints. Apart from the Grand Masters, little is known about the individual knights who joined the order: few could read or write (something that was to prove a grave disability at the time of their arrest) and so none left any record to what he thought or endured. Every knight who entered the order knew that he was likely to die in battle. The white of his tunic was that of the martyrs in the Book of Revelation, and the read of the cross the colour of the blood that was shed. After the defeat of the Latin Christians at the Battle of Hattin, the Templar knights taken captive were given the choice of apostasy or death. None chose to deny Christ. All were decapitated by ecstatic Sufis on the orders of Saladin. Saladin went on to gain a reputation as merciful and magnanimous in victory--another historical distortion: the Templar knights, we can be sure, to an eternal reward.

Related Link: Historical Distortions and The Templars | The Foreword to Régine Pernoud's The Templars: Knights of Christ | Piers Paul Read | Ignatius Insight

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