Welfare states in Europe are going broke and the Pope’s solution is to double down on more money to feed the beast. I also didn’t know that only “elites” care about the defense of their nation.
If a Pope isn’t going to stay in his lane, couldn’t we ask that he avoid sounding like a freshman in a late night college bull session, reciting the latest “wisdom” from The New York Times?
Italian armies are a joke. Carrying on the tradition since 476 AD.
This same University protested B16 going there to speak and he was forced to not attend. They gave Leo a standing ovation.
JFK wrote, “They gave Leo a standing ovation.” Indeed, Pope Bob, the Democrat ideologue from Chicago, cares more about the praise of men than the praise of God. May he be rewarded accordingly.
I’m thinking that more than a few of those “elites who care nothing for the common good” are teaching at those educational institutions whose public funding Leo would have increased.
Low military spending is an issue, but I have a suspicion that there are more consequential factors rendering militaries ineffectual, such as the enervation which results from turning militaries into toy theatres for the social fantasies of the professional-managerial stratum, the enervation which results from the assumption that the military is never to be used, and the deficit of actual military aged males. The relentless effort to expand the position of women in protective services is bound to have an ill-effect on performance standards and institutional ethos. See what happened in New Zealand’s Navy when some agent of Jacinda Ardern got the idea in their head that it would be a capital idea to recruit a middle aged dyke who had migrated from Britain (where she’d had had some naval service and promote her to captain. She managed to run her ship into a reef off of Samoa. New Zealand didn’t have much naval capacity and a fat chunk of it is now at the bottom of the ocean.
Remember the dingbats ca 1983 who said things like “It will be a great day when our schools are fully funded [details unspecified] and the Pentagon has to have a bake sale to buy a bomber”? That’s the level of his thinking.
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Any effort at common provision has to be actuarially sound and to contain perverse incentives. it wouldn’t surprise me if Singapore had designed there’s to fulfill those criteria. We have issues with this in the U.S., and our long term fertility issues are less severe than Europe’s and we never invested much in ill-advised items like rent control, public housing, and state-owned industry.
Public monies that supposedly go to “education and Healthcare” are routinely grifted away by “elites who care nothing for the common good”. Is His Holiness unaware of current multiple scandals in this country, e.g. Minnesota “learing centers” and California hospices?
European countries don’t spend enough to effectively defend themselves as it is. As far as education is concerned, eight years in the Navy, five of those spent on hard sea duty, gave me a better education than any institute of “higher” learning ever could have.
European social programs are only possible with because the US underwrites European defense.
@Art Deco
You’re absolutely right about the use of the military as a social experiment and the harm it causes. As I know from personal experience, the military is something of a hermetically sealed society. As a result, the poison spreads much more quickly. During the debate about gays in the military, even listening to those who opposed it frustrated the hell out of me because their arguments were so convoluted you couldn’t make heads or tails of them. Something the left took full advantage of. The explanation is simple. Military units, particularly infantry and those serving aboard Navy ships, you live in very close quarters and fraternal bonds are crucial. You inject sexual attraction into that mix, you’re asking for real trouble. The enlisted berthing aboard ship that I lived in for five years and change was like living in a men’s locker. Even someone with an IQ of an ice cube can tell within seconds it’s no place for a homosexual.
As for women. They don’t belong in combat and they don’t belong on Navy ships. Sorry Bree Dail. I’m sure you and other women served well. But a Navy ship is a man’s world. Full stop!
Lavender Watch: A Continuing Series….
(have in mind nominations for the various roles being played out in real time)
Don – leader of an organization, often referred to as The Boss. The typical structure includes ranks such as underboss, consigliere, and capo-regime. (self explanatory)
underboss – the second-in-command in Mafia crime families, directly beneath the boss, and is responsible for overseeing the capos and their soldiers. This position often involves running the day-to-day operations of the family and can be a stepping stone to becoming the acting boss if the boss is unavailable.
(Fernandez)
consigliere – An adviser, especially to a leader of an organized crime syndicate.
(James Martin)
caporegime – A high-ranking member of a crime family in the Mafia who heads a “crew” of soldiers and has significant social status and influence in the organization.
(Cupich)
If Pope Leo wants the Peters Pence collection in the USA to amount to a large chocolate custard at Dairy Queen, he is on the right track.