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Perspective, Political

Drive me away —“ with taxes

My old hometown, Buffalo, is bleeding people. The latest study published yesterday shows that upstate New York, and in particular Buffalo, is loosing people like crazy (See: Employers may have tough time replacing retiring boomers)

The reasons, as I see it, are threefold: taxes, lack of jobs, the public dole.

Donn Esmonde of the Buffalo News has been doing opinion pieces on these issues for some time. Today’s article: A few words from the expatriates places the blame pretty squarely where it lies. Check it out.

Now the only point of departure I would have with Mr. Esmonde is his constant harping on public employees. The public employees’ pay and benefits are generous in certain ways, but still lag behind the private sector, especially at the executive and managerial level.

When Erie County shut off all but basic safety and health services as a result of its budget crisis, Mr. Esmonde and others in the community were the first to decry the lack of services they were used to. Someone has to perform the services. You have to pay for what you get, although at the entry and journeyman levels of public employment pay and benefits far surpass the private sector. Public employees are not the problem —“ they are actually smart enough to go where the money and security are. It is rather their handlers (the unions) and the laws and policies that perpetuate the status quo.

I wish someone would be truthful in breaking out where the money goes. New Yorkers are taxed like crazy, the highest taxes in the nation. This certainly keeps jobs and people away. No one will bring their company to New York State so they can be taxed at far higher rates. It’s counterintuitive.

The CATO Institute does a good job of making policy recommendations to cut the biggest money wasters in New York. In Cleaning Up New York State’s Budget Mess, CATO points out that a luxury Medicaid program accounts for over 28% of the State’s budget. That coupled with disproportionate increases in education funding, debt service, welfare, and other ‘luxury’ programs, and further coupled with a needed restructuring in the State public employee workforce drive our taxes through the roof.

My recommendation is to cut and restructure, to think outside the box. How do we do what’s necessary in a leaner and smarter way?

  • Dump the luxuries —“ people can do better on their own —“ keeping their own money.
  • Pass Right to Work laws to cut the legs off powerful unions that are no longer necessary and are actually counterproductive.
  • Maintain systems of public support for the poor and needy that are consistent with other states (it will eliminate benefit shopping) and that assure care for those who are most in need.
  • Reform the insurance industry and litigation processes in New York driving down workers compensation, general business, and automobile insurance costs.
  • Reform the State workforce and focus on a lean professional/para-professional team that is hard working and effective (do we still need file clerks and clerk typists?).
  • Reform the Assembly and Senate into a once every two years citizens body eliminating the ‘professional politician’.
  • Make sure that these reforms take place at every level of government.

New York has natural resources, an educated populace, and varied beauty that makes it a top notch place to live, work, and play. Now all we need is courage and thinking leaders.

By the way, this is my 500th post to my blog —“ hurray for my insight 😉

Christian Witness, Current Events, Political

The War Paradigm

I rarely discuss issues like this. I think the faith is rather clear on war issues. I also think that Jesus Christ’s commands to us are very clear in regard to our duty as Christians. That is why true Christianity is so diametrically opposed to the things that precipitate war and to the conduct of war.

Unless I am mistaken, no Christian in the first centuries of Christianity would stand up to anyone with intent to fight. They stood up of course, but that was to proclaim the truth. Many died for doing so. Most died horribly, but their faith was sure.

By Augustine’s time the Church had developed certain doctrines (Just War Theory) to cover the eventuality of war. Still, on the whole, Christianity, as institutionalized by that time, was reactive to aggression.

To me, war is the product of those who lust for power, control, or who simply have a taste for death and destruction (ala the brutality carried out by some troops, most recently U.S. troops).

This week’s events in Israel, along with the re-invasion of Gaza, are just the next step in the long slide toward self imposed annihilation. The people who built this road, who are the authors of the coming annihilation, are the so-called neo-con drum beaters in the United States and of course the ‘I have my own agenda’ Israelis (and there are others jumping on the bandwagon too).

The new paradigm is war. It is war for any reason, real or perceived. It is proactive, pre-emptive, and out of scale to the reality of the situation. Washington (under the neo-cons) and Tel Aviv (always) have decided that the atmosphere for destruction is right. They have set the tone for the world. Don’t be surprised if the world goes up in flames.

  • Civilian death —“ ok
  • Disproportionate and random shelling, bombing, bulldozing —“ ok
  • Hit civilian targets – ok
  • Drop a bomb on a car filled with five kids and a terrorist – ok
  • Invading other sovereign countries based on a perception —“ ok
  • Blockades —“ ok
  • Playing poker with one devil to get the next – ok
  • Lies to make it all ok —“ ok

I cannot fathom the idea that we or Israel are so unsophisticated and so inept that we have to bulldoze and use low yield nuclear weapons to get the ‘bad guys’.

Now, I am no pacifist. I hope every terrorist gets a nice hole in their head ASAP. I just think we could use brains to do it rather than brawn. That we could think our way through solutions, rather than bulldozing through them. That we could be a shining example of justice, truth, and civilized ideals, rather than a people who trample on their own rights in order to act like their enemy.

Terror is being committed on all sides and the innocent are the ones being hurt. No matter how you count the bodies, the innocent outweigh the guilty. That’s not just, truthful, or even smart in the long run. If you don’t see your children and grandchildren covered in blood when they relay the pictures from Beirut, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Gaza, or Baghdad, then you are not a Christian or a human being.

For additional information check out Antiwar.com and the Anti War Blog.

Current Events, Political

Freedom of speech?

Fr. Rob Johansen from Thrown Back posted a homily for the R.C. Feast of St. John Fisher, Bishop and Martyr and St. Thomas More, Martyr. It’s a great read and very pertinent as it ties in the recent persecution of a Catholic in Maryland (ironic isn’t it). Here’s an excerpt:

The King’s Good Servant, But God’s First…

Last week, an official of the Metropolitan Transit Authority in Washington, D.C. was fired by the governor of Maryland. The Metro Transit Authority runs the subway and bus mass-transit system in Washington, D.C. and its suburbs. This official wasn’t fired because he was incompetent. He wasn’t fired because he was doing a bad job. He wasn’t fired because of corruption, or any other misconduct. He wasn’t even fired because of budget cuts or other financial problems. No, he was fired because, on a local cable tv talk show, he expressed an opinion. He described homosexual activity as “sexual deviancy”, and stated that he held this opinion as part of his Roman Catholic faith.

The story of Mr. Robert Smith’s firing by the governor of Maryland has been making its way around the blogsphere since this occurred. Here’s an excerpt from the original Baltimore Sun article: Ehrlich appointee fired over remark. Transit official equates gay lifestyle with deviancy

WASHINGTON // Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. fired one of his appointees to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority yesterday after the board member asserted on a local cable talk show that homosexuals lived a life of “sexual deviancy.”

The termination came a few hours after Metro board member Robert J. Smith, an architect and unsuccessful Republican candidate for the General Assembly from Montgomery County, was publicly confronted by a transit board colleague. Board member Jim Graham, a District of Columbia councilman who is openly gay, called on Smith to disavow his remarks or resign during yesterday’s regular meeting of the panel, which oversees Metro business.

Graham said he was gratified that Ehrlich decided to replace Smith. Earlier in the day, Smith said that he stood by his beliefs, which he said stemmed from his Roman Catholic faith, and insisted that he would not resign unless ordered by the governor.

“Governor Ehrlich got it; Mr. Smith was clueless until the end,” Graham said. “This is serious. To defend this point of view is beyond the pale. And so I think Governor Ehrlich got that very clearly, very quickly. So I appreciate his action.”

Ah, Mr. Graham, deviancy has caused your brain to go soft. Mr. Smith is not clueless, just faithful. He is faithful to God. You on the other hand are faithful only to your lifestyle.

We could easily call you on the public carpet for only representing one point of view now couldn’t we? Anyone can say that defending your point of view is beyond the pale. Be careful of the house of cards you build by persecuting people for their beliefs, that house could fall down around you.

For all interested please contact Governor Ehrlich. I’m sure he’d listen to other points of view (uh, yeah…).

Also, see the First Things article on this issue by editor Joseph Bottum who writes in part:

Even among those who preach toleration most loudly, genuine toleration is often scarce once the power to be intolerant has been gained. One of the many wonders of the American experiment is that the American people, throughout most of our history and with some shameful exceptions, have been astonishingly tolerant even of those who disagreed most flagrantly with the majority’s values. There is no guarantee, however, that such generous toleration will continue.

Political

Giving witness

Fr. Marin Fox testified before the Ohio Legislature in regard to House Bill 228 which would outlaw abortion in Ohio. Read his witness —“ its fantastic.

Then the captain and the court officers went and brought them in, but without force, because they were afraid of being stoned by the people. When they had brought them in and made them stand before the Sanhedrin, the high priest questioned them, “We gave you strict orders (did we not?) to stop teaching in that name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and want to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles said in reply, “We must obey God rather than men.”

Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political

Constitution of May 3, 1791

Constitution of 3 May 1791
The Constitution of 3 May 1791 by Jan Matejko (1891)

The end of the 18th century produced three constitutions considered the first modern constitutions in the World. The American Constitution of September 17, 1787 was the oldest. The second in the World and the first in Europe was the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791 preceding the French September Constitution by several months.

The American Constitution was forged in the fire of the American War of Independence, the French one was produced by the Revolution, while the Polish Constitution bloomed from bloodless changes effected by forces striving to recover independence for their own state and sovereignty over their nation.

May 3rd is a national holiday in Poland in recogniotion of this historic constitution and of freedom in general.

Constitution of 3 May 1791

Preamble

GOVERNMENT STATUTE
May 3, 1791

In the name of God, One in the Holy Trinity. Stanislaw August, by the grace of God and the will of the people King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Ruthenia, Prussia, Mazowsze, Zmudz [Samogitia], Kiev, Wolyn, Podole, Podlasie, Livonia, Smolensk, Sever and Czernihov; together with the confederated estates in dual number representing the Polish people.

Recognizing that the destiny of us all depends solely upon the establishment and perfection of a national constitution, having by long experience learned the inveterate faults of our government, and desiring to take advantage of the season in which Europe finds itself and of this dying moment that has restored us to ourselves, free of the ignominious dictates of foreign coercion, holding dearer than life, than personal happiness the political existence, external independence and internal liberty of the people whose destiny is entrusted to our hands, desiring as well to merit the blessing and gratitude of contemporary and future generations, despite obstacles that may cause passion in us, do for the general welfare, for the establishment of liberty, for the preservation of our country and its borders, with the utmost constancy of spirit ordain the present constitution and declare it to be entirely sacred and inviolable until the people, at the time by law prescribe, by their clear will recognize a need to alter it in any of its articles. To which constitution the further statutes of the present sejm shall apply in everything.

I. The Dominant Religion
The dominant national religion is and shall be the sacred Roman Catholic faith with all its laws. Passage from the dominant religion to any other confession is forbidden under penalties of apostasy. Inasmuch as the same holy faith bids us love our neighbors, we owe to all persons, of whatever persuasion, peace in their faith and the protection of the government, and therefore we guarantee freedom to all rites and religions in the Polish lands, in accordance with the laws of the land.

II. The Landed Nobility
Reverencing the memory of our ancestors as the founders of a free government, we most solemnly assure to the noble estate all liberties, freedoms, and prerogatives of precedence in private and public life, and more particularly we confirm, assure and recognize as inviolable the rights, statutes and privileges justly and lawfully granted to that estate by Kazimierz the Great, Louis the Hungarian, Władyslaw Jagiełło and his brother Witold, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and no less those by Wladysław the Jagiellonian and Kazimierz the Jagiellonian, by Jan Albert, the brothers Alexander and Zygmunt the First, and by Zygmunt August, the last of the Jagiellonian line. We acknowledge the dignity of the noble estate in Poland as equal to any degree of nobility used anywhere. We recognize all the nobility to be equal among themselves, not only in seeking for offices and for the discharge of services to the country that bring honor, fame or profit, but also in the equal enjoyment of the privileges and prerogatives to which the noble estate is entitled. Above all, we desire to preserve and do preserve sacred and intact the rights to personal security, to personal liberty, and to property, landed and movable, even as they have been the tide of all from time immemorial; affirming most solemnly that we shall permit no change or exception in law against anyone’s property, and that the supreme national authority and the government instituted by it shall lay no claims to any citizen’s property in part or in whole under pretext of jurium regalium (royal rights) or any other pretext whatever. Wherefore we do respect, assure and confer the personal security of, and all property by rights belonging to, anyone, as the true bond of society, as the pupil of civil liberty, and we desire that they remain respected, ensured and inviolate for all time to come.

We recognize the nobility as the foremost defenders of liberty and of the present constitution. We charge unto the virtue, citizenship and honor of every nobleman the reverence of its sanctity and the safeguarding of its durability, as the sole bulwark of the country and of our liberties.

III. The Cities And Their Citizens
We desire to maintain in its entirety, and declare to be part of the present constitution, the law passed at the present sejm under the title, —Our free Royal Cities in the states of the Republic,— as a law that provides new, genuine and effective force to the free Polish nobility for the security of their liberties and the integrity of our common country.

IV. The Peasants
Both from justice, humanity and Christian duty, as from our own self-interest properly understood, we accept under the protection of the law and of the national government the agricultural folk, from under whose hand flows the most copious source of the country’s wealth, and who constitute the most numerous populace in the nation and hence the greatest strength of the country, and we determine that henceforth whatever liberties, assignments or agreements squires authentically agree to with peasants of their estates, whether those liberties, assignment and agreements be done with groups or with individual inhabitants of a village, shall constitute a mutual obligation, in accordance with the true sense of the conditions and provisions contained in such assignments and agreements, subject to the protection of the national government. Such agreements and the obligations proceeding there from, freely accepted by a landowner, shall so bind not only him but also his successors or purchasers of the right, that they shall never arbitrarily alter them. Likewise peasants, of whatever estate, shall not withdraw from agreements freely entered into, or from assignments accepted, or from duties therewith connected, except in such manner and with such conditions as stipulated in the provisions of said agreement, which, whether adopted in perpetuity or for a limited time, shall be strictly binding upon them. Having thus guaranteed squires in all profits due them from the peasants, and desiring as effectively as possible to encourage the multiplication of the people, we declare complete freedom to all persons, both those newly arriving and those who, having removed from the country, now desire to return to their native land, insofar as every person newly arrived from any part, or returning, to the states of the Republic, as soon as he set foot upon Polish soil is completely free to use his industry as and where he will, is free to make agreements for settlement, wages or rents as and to such time as he agree, is free to settle in city or countryside, and is free to reside in Poland or to return to whichever country he wish; having previously acquitted such obligations as he had freely taken upon himself.

V. The Government, Or Designation Of Public Authorities
All authority in human society takes its origin in the will of the people. Therefore, that the integrity of the states, civil liberty, and social order remain forever in equal balance, the government of the Polish nation ought to, and by the will of the present law forever shall, comprise three authorities, to wit, a legislative authority in the assembled estates, a supreme executive authority in a king and guardianship, and a judicial authority in jurisdictions to that end instituted or to be instituted.

VI. The Sejm, Or Legislative Authority
The sejm, or the assembled estates, shall be divided into two chambers: a chamber of deputies, and a chamber of senators presided over by the king. The chamber of deputies, as the image and repository of national sovereignty, shall be the temple of legislation. Therefore all bills shall be decided first in the chamber of deputies.

Primo. As to general laws, that is, constitutional, civil, criminal, or for the institution of perpetual taxes: in which matters proposals submitted by the throne to the provinces (wojewodztwa), lands (ziemie) and counties (powiaty) for discussion, and by instructions coming to the chamber, shall be taken for decision first.

Secundo. As to resolutions of the sejm, that is, temporary levies, degree of coin, contraction of public debt, ennoblement or other incidental rewards, disposition of public expenditures ordinary or extraordinary, war, peace, final ratification of treaties of alliance or trade, any diplomatic acts or agreements involving the law of nations, the quitting of executive magistracies, and like matters corresponding to the chief national needs, in which matters proposals from the throne shall come directly to the chamber of deputies and shall have priority of procedure.

The duty of the chamber of senators, comprising bishops, province chiefs (wojewodowie), castellans and ministers, presided over by the king, who is entitled to cast a votum (vote) of his own, and secondly to resolve paritas (an equal division of votes) either in person or by sending his judgment to that chamber, is: Primo. To adopt, or to retain for further deliberation by the nation, by the majority vote provided in law, every law which, having formally passed the chamber of deputies, shall be immediately forwarded to the senate; adoption shall confer the force and sanctity of law; retention shall only suspend a law suspended by the senate shall be adopted. Secundo. To decide every resolution of the sejm in the above enumerated matters, which the chamber of deputies shall immediately send to the senate, together with the chamber of deputies by majority vote, and the conjoint majority, provided by law, of both chambers shall be the judgment and will of the estates.

We stipulate that senators and ministers shall not have a votum decisivum (decisive vote) in the sejm in matters concerning their conduct of office, either in the guardianship or in commission, and at such time shall have a seat in the senate only to give explication upon demand of the sejm.

An ever ready sejm shall be legislative and ordinary. It shall begin every two years and shall last as provided in the law on sejms. Ready, convoked in exigencies, it shall decide only about the matter in which it be convoked, or about an exigency befallen after it be convoked. No law shall be abrogated at the ordinary sejm at which it has been enacted. A sejm shall comprise the number of persons provided by lower law, both in the chamber of deputies and in the chamber of senators.

We solemnly confirm the law on regional sejms, enacted at the present sejm, as a most essential foundation of civil liberty.

Inasmuch as legislation cannot be conducted by all, and the nation to that end employs as agents its freely elected representatives, or deputies, we determine that deputies elected at the regional sejms shall, in legislation and in general needs of the nation, be considered under the present constitution as representatives of the entire nation, being the repository of the general confidence.

Everything, everywhere, shall be decided by majority vote; therefore we abolish forever the liberum veto, confederations of any kind, and confederate sejms, as being opposed to the spirit of the present constitution, subversive of government, and destructive of society.

Preventing on one hand abrupt and frequent changes of national constitution, and on the other recognizing the need to perfect it after experiencing its effect upon the public weal, we designate a season and time for review and amendment of the constitution every twenty-five years, desiring that such a constitutional sejm be extraordinary in accordance with the provisions of a separate law.

VII. The King, The Executive Authority
No government, be it the most perfect, can stand without strong executive authority. The happiness of the people depends upon just laws, the effect of the laws upon their execution. Experience teaches that neglect’ of this part of government has filled Poland with misfortunes. Therefore, having reserved unto the free Polish people the authority to make laws for itself and the poser to keep watch upon all executive authority, as well as to elect officials to magistracies, we confer the authority of supreme execution of the laws to the king in his council, which council shall be called the guardianship of the laws.

The executive authority is strictly bound to observe the laws ad to carry them out. It shall act of itself, the laws permitting, where the laws need supervision of execution, or even forceful aid. Obedience is owed to it always by all magistracies; we leave in ii had the power to press magistracies that be disobedient or remiss in their duties.

The executive, authority shall not enact or interpret laws, impose les or levies by any name, contract public debts, alter the distribution of treasury revenues established by the sejm, wage war, or definitive (definitively) conclude peace or treaties or any diplomatic act. It shall be free to conduct only interim negotiations with foreign states, ad to take, temporary and current measures requisite for the security and peace of the country, of which it shall inform the next assembly of the sejm.

We desire and determine that the throne of Poland shall be forever elective by families. Disastrous experience of interregnums periodically overturning the government, the obligation to safeguard every inhabitant of the Polish land, the sealing forever of avenue to the influences of foreign powers, the memory of the former grandeur and happiness of our country under continuously reigning families, the need to turn foreigners away from ambition for the throne, and to turn powerful Poles toward the single-minded cultivation of national liberty, having indicated to our prudence that the throne of Poland be passed on by right of succession. We determine, therefore, that following the life that Divine beneficence shall grant to us, the present-day elector of Saxony shall begin with the person of Frederick Augustus, present-day elector of Saxony, to whose male successors de lumbis (from the loins) we reserve the throne of Poland. Should the present-day elector of Saxony have no male issue, then the consort, with the consent of the assembled estates, selected by the elector for his daughter shall begin the male line of succession to the throne of Poland. Wherefore we declare Maria Augusta Nepomucena, daughter of the elector, to be infanta of Poland, reserving to the people the right, which shall be subject to no prescription, to elect another house to the throne after the expiration of the first.

Every king, when ascending the throne, shall execute an oath to God and to the nation, that he will preserve the present constitution and the pacta conventa that shall be drawn up with the present-day elector of Saxony, as destined to the throne, and which shall bind him as shall those of the past.

The person of the king is sacred and secure from everything. Doing nothing of himself, he shall be answerable for nothing to the nation. He shall not be autocrat but father and chief of the nation, and as such the present law and constitution deems and declares him to be. The incomes as they shalt be provided for in the pacta conventa, and the prerogatives proper to the throne as stipulated by the present constitution to the future elect, shall not be touched.

All public acts, tribunals, courts of law, magistracies, coin and stamps shall go under the king’s name. The king, to whom shall be left every power of beneficence, shall have ius agratiandi (the right to pardon) those sentenced to death, except in crlminibus stati’s (in crimes of state). To the king shall belong the supreme disposition of the country’s armed forces in wartime and the appointment of army commanders, howbeit with their free change by the will of the nation. It shall be his duty to commission officers and appoint officials pursuant to the provisions of lower law, to appoint bishops and senators pursuant to the provisions of that law, and ministers, as the prime officials of the executive authority.

The guardianship, or royal council, added to the king for supervision of the integrity and execution of the laws, shall comprise: primo the primate, as chief of the Polish clergy and as president of the educational commission, who may substitute for himself in the guardianship the first bishop ex ordine (in rank), neither of whom shall sign resolutions; secundo five ministers, to wit: a minister of police, a minister of the seal, a minister be Iii (of war), a minister of the treasury, and a minister of foreign affairs; tertio two secretaries, of whom one shall keep the protocol of the guardianship, the other the protocol of foreign affairs, both without a decisive votum.

The successor the throne, having emerged from minority and executed an oath to uphold the constitution, may be present at all sessions of the guardianship, but without a vote.

The marshal of the sejm, elected for two years, shall be of the number seated in the guardianship, without entering into their resolutions, solely in order to convoke a ready sejm in the event that he recognize in the cases requiring convocation of a ready sejm, a true need, and the king demur at convoking it, when said marshal shall issue to the deputies and senators circular letters convoking them to a ready sejm and stating the causes of its convocation. The only cases requiring convocation of a sejm are the following: Primo. In an exigency involving the law of nations, more particularly in the event of war hard by the borders. Secundo. In the event of internal disorder that threatens revolution in the country or collision between magistracies. Tertio. In evident danger, generally voiced. Quarto. In the country’s bereavement by death of the king, or in his dangerous illness. All resolutions in the guardianship shall be discussed by the above- mentioned body of persons, and the royal decision shall prevail after all opinions have been heard, that there be a single will in the execution of law; therefore every resolution from the guardianship shall issue under the king’s name and with the signature of his hand, but it shall also be signed by one of the ministers seated in the guardianship, and thus signed, it shall oblige obedience, and shall be carried out by the commissions or by any executive magistracies, but particularly in such matters as are not explicilly excluded by the present law. In the event that none of the seated ministers wish to sign the decision, the ting 1shall abandon the decision, but should he persist in it, the marshal of the sejm shall request convocation of the ready sejm; and if the king delay convocation, the marshal shall convoke it.

Even as to appointment of all ministers, so also is it the king’s right to summon one of them from every department of administration to his council, or guardianship. This summoning of a minister to sit in the guardianship shall be for two years, as now with the king’s free confirmation of it. Ministers summoned to the guardianship shall not sit in commissions.

In the event that a two-third majority of secret votes of the two conjoint chambers of the sejm demand change of a minister either in the guardianship or in an office, the king shall immediately appoint another in his place.

Desiring that the guardianship of the national laws be bound to strict accountability to the nation for any and all its misdeeds, we determine that, when ministers be charged with breach of law by a deputation designated to examine their deeds, they shall answer in their own persons and property. In any such impeachments, the assembled estates shall by simple majority vote of the conjoint chambers send the inculpated ministers to sejm courts for their just punishment equaling the crime or, their innocence being demonstrated, their release from proceedings and punishment.

For the orderly carrying out of executive authority, we institute separate commissions, having connection with the guardianship and bound in obedience to the guardianship. Commissioners shall be elected to them by the sejm to carry on their offices for a time set by law. These commissions are: primo of education, secundo of police, tertio of the army, quarto of the treasury.

The provincial (wojewodzkie) commissions of order instituted at this sejm, also subject to the supervision of the guardianship, shall receive orders through the above-mentioned intermediary commissions, respective(ly) as to the objects of the authority and obligations of each of them.

VIII. The Judicial Authority
The judicial authority shall not be carried out either by the legislative authority or by the king, but by magistracies instituted and elected to that end. And it shall be so bound to places, that every man shall find justice close by, that the criminal shall see everywhere over him the formidable hand of the national government.

We institute, therefore:

Primo. Courts of first instance for every province (wojewodztwo), land (ziemia) and country (powiat), to which judges shall be elected at regional sejms. The courts of first instance shall be ever ready and vigilant to render justice to those in need of it. From these courts, appeal shall go to chief tribunals for every province (prowincja), to be established, comprising also persons elected at regional sejms. And these courts, both of first and of last instances, shall be land courts (sady ziemskie) for the nobility and for all landowners in causis juris et facti (in matters of law and fact with anyone).

Secundo. We secure judicial jurisdictions to all cities, pursuant to the law of the present sejm on the free royal cities.

Tertio. We shall have separate referendary courts for each province (prowincja) in matters of free peasants under former laws subject to this curt.

Quarto. We preserve chancery, assessorial, relational and Kurlandian courts.

Quinto. The executive commissions shall have courts in matters pertinent to their administration.

Sexto. In addition to courts in civil and criminal matters for all the estates, there shall be a supreme court, called a sejm court, to which persons shall be elected at the opening of every sejm. To this court shall be subject crimes against the nation and the king, or crimina status (crimes of state).

We command that a new code of civil and criminal laws be drawn up by persons designated by the sejm.

IX. Regency
The guardianship shall be also a regency, headed by the queen, or in her absence by the primate. A regency may have place in only three cases: Primo during the king’s minority. Secundo during an infirmity causing permanent mental alienation. Tertio in the event that the king be taken in war. Minority shall last only until eighteen years of age; and infirmity respecting permanent alienation shall not be declared except by a ready sejm, by majority vote of three parts against the fourth of the conjoint chambers. In these three cases, the primate of the Polish Crown shall immediately convoke the sejm, and if the primate be slow in this obligation, the marshal of the sejm shall issue circular letters to the deputies and senators. The ready sejm shall arrange the order of seating of the ministers in the regency and shall empower the queen to take the place of the king in his duties. And when the king in the first case emerge from minority, in the second come to complete health, in the third return from captivity, the regency shall tender him account of its deeds and answer to the nation for the time of its office, even as is prescribed of the guardianship at every ordinary sejm, in their own persons and property.

X. The Education Of Royal Sons
Royal sons, whom the constitution destines for succession to the throne, are the first sons of the nation, wherefore attention to their good education is a concern of the nation, without prejudice, however, to parental rights. Under the government of the king, the king himself, together with the guardianship and with a supervisor of the education of the king’s sons designated by the estates, shall see to their education. Under the government of a regency, the regency, together with the aforementioned supervisor, shall have the education of the king’s sons entrusted to them. In either case, the supervisor designated by the estates shall inform every ordinary sejm about the education and conduct of the royal sons for confirmation by the sejm, so that in their education uniform rules continually and early instill in the minds of future successors to the throne religion and love of virtue, country, liberty and the national constitution.

XI. National Armed Force
The nation bears a duty to its own defense from attack and for the safeguarding of its integrity. Therefore all citizens are defenders of the national integrity and liberties. The army is naught but a defensive force drawn and ordered from the general force of the nation. The nation owes reward and esteem to its army because the army dedicates itself solely to the nation’s defense. It is the army’s duty to protect the nation’s borders and general peace, in a word, to be its strongest shield. That it fulfill this destiny unfailingly, it shall remain always in obedience to the executive authority, in accordance with the provisions of law, and shall execute an oath of fidelity to the nation and to the king and to the defense of the national constitution. Thus the national army may be used for the general defense of the country, for the safeguarding of fortresses and borders, or in aid of law, if any not be obedient to its execution.

Signatories
Stanisław Nalecz Malachowski, referendarz wielki koronny, sejmowy i konfederacji prowincji koronnych marszałek.
Kazimierz książę Sapieha, generał artylerii litewskiej, marszałek konfederacji Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego.
Józef Korwin Kossakowski, biskup inflancki i Kurlandzki, następca koaudiutor biskupstwa wileńskiego, jako deputowany.
Antoni książę Jablonowski, kasztelan krakowski, deputat z Senatu Malej Polski.
Symeon Kazimierz Szydlowski, kasztelan tarnowski, deputowany z Senatu prowincji małopolskiej.
Franciszek Antoni na Kwilczu Kwilecki, kasztelan kaliski, deputowany do konstytucji z Senatu z prowincji wielkopolskiej.
Kazimierz Konstanty Plater, kasztelan generała trockiego, deputowany do konstytucji z Senatu Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego.
Walerian Stroynowski, podkomorzy buski, poseł wołyński, z Małopolski deputat do konstytucji.
Stanisław Kostka Potocki, poseł lubelski, deputowany do konstytucji z prowincji małopolskiej.
Jan Nepomucen Zboinski, poseł ziemi dobrzyńskiej, deputowany do konstytucji z prowincji wielkopolskiej.
Tomasz Nowowiejski, łowczy i poseł ziemi wyszogrodzkiej, deputowany do konstytucji.
Józef Radzicki, podkomorzy i poseł ziemi zakroczymskiej, deputowany do konstytucji z prowincji wielkopolskiej.
Józef Zabiello, poseł z Księstwa Żmudzkiego, deputowany do konstytucji.
Jacek Puttkamer, poseł województwa mińskiego, deputowany do konstytucji z prowincji Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego

Translated from Polish by Christopher Kasparek, based on the Polish text published in Piotrków, Poland, in 1915. Translation originally published in PNCC Studies, Vol. 3 (1982), pp. 45-58.

Political

Thou shalt not kill

Laurence Vance provides an interesting perspective on the Fifth Commandment, —You shall not kill.— (NAB, Exodus 20:13).

He writes about the Commandment in relation to his perspective on the war in Iraq.

Here is an excerpt from Is It or Isn’t It? by Laurence M. Vance

“Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13)

There seems to be an inordinate number of Hebrew scholars who support the war in Iraq. It was not until recently, however, that I realized just how many of them are readers of this website. True, I always hear from one or two whenever I write about Christianity and war and happen to reference the above commandment, but the last time I wrote about this subject, the Hebrew scholars came out in droves.

I was told that a more [appropriate, proper, precise, preferred] translation of the sixth commandment, according to the original Hebrew, would be: “Thou shalt not commit murder” or “Thou shalt do no murder.” My rendering of the sixth commandment (actually, it is the rendering found in the Holy Bible) is unjustified and simplistic.

…

Read the whole article and you will see that he makes good sense, although I would disagree only on the level that disengagement would upset the ‘apple cart’.

What do I mean?

I think we have to get to a clear understanding of the reasons for our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I never bought the WMD or nuclear argument.

We’re smart enough and technologically advanced enough to know where that stuff would have been, had it been real. The U.S. or a surrogate (Israel) would have just bombed the locations to dust. This is what will happen if the Iranian threat is real or if North Korea gets any crazier than it is already.

The same goes for terrorism. In a general sense we know where Osama is. If we wish we could just fly in and obliterate whole tracts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. If people actually think the U.S. wouldn’t do this they are deceiving themselves.

And that is the key. That is the why.

We’ve taken self deception in regard to the power and might of the U.S. off the table. Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and many others all know that in order to achieve self preservation they have to bow to the U.S.

The House of Saud will never cut off oil. They know we are crazy enough and strong enough to melt the dessert. We’ll even let our sons and daughters die and burn tons of money, just to drive that point home.

We’ve simply taken the Cold War concept of spheres of influence and changed its paradigm. We’ve allowed Moslem leaders a big enough box to operate in (e.g., letting the Taliban blow up cultural treasures). We can close the box anytime and cut off the air. We can crush the box if we wish, or just leave it alone. The freedom that was obtained for the Christian man being persecuted in Afghanistan testifies to this truth. We will get what we want when we really want it.

Obviously, none of this squares with the commands of God or our life in Christ. None of it is right in the true sense of right. All of it is driven by economics and power politics.

That is the reality. That is why disengagement will not happen, why the ‘apple cart’ will not be upset, and why, as the Bush administration claimed in recent days, Bush’s successor will inherit this ‘war’.

I give Mr. Vance credit for testifying to the truth. I am just sorry that so few are persuaded to embrace not just the facts of the situation but the greater truth which is our life in Christ.

Current Events, Political

Walesa – on Political and Moral Leadership

Lech Walesa, former President of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize winner, is visiting the United States on a speaking tour. The Daily Times carried an article about his speech at Salisbury University in Maryland.

Power, respect, responsibility

SALISBURY — Former Polish president and Democratic activist Lech Walesa gently chided the United States in an address to more than 1,500 people at Salisbury University to think hard about the examples and leadership it is offering the world as the globe’s most powerful nation.

In a largely lighthearted speech, delivered in Polish with the help of an English interpreter, Walesa talked about America with fondness and respect, invariably calling it “the superpower,” and he demurred when a questioner asked if he specifically condemned America’s war in Iraq.

“I’m not saying that you are no longer the hope” for the world’s oppressed people, Walesa said, but he urged the U.S. and Europe to find solutions to world problems that did not involve resorting to violence.

“No longer, the empire of evil exists,” Walesa said, referring to the Soviet Union. “You are the only superpower left on the battlefield. … You have involved yourself in solving other people’s problems. Are you a political and moral leader in the world?”

Walesa, the president of Poland from 1990 to 1995, played a key role in the 1980s in ending that country’s Cold War-era dominion by Communist governments. He was the leader and public face of Solidarity, a Polish labor movement that acted as the opposition to Communism. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1983, and spoke at Salisbury University at the invitation of the Center for Conflict Resolution.

…

Current Events, Media, Political

Getting closed out on adoption?

There is an interesting article in the Buffalo News today regarding the Roman Catholic Church and adoption services.

Buffalo has two venerable institutions that have provided adoption services forever, Catholic Charities and the Father Baker Homes (Baker-Victory). Just an aside, Baker-Victory was founded by Fr. Nelson Baker who has been declared venerable by the Holy See.

As you may know, the states provide some funding for adoption services and the process of adoption has changed over the years. Catholic groups who wish to provide adoption services, with government funding, must abide by state guidelines, including “non-discrimination” provisions that require them to provide adoption services to homosexuals.

The Church has clearly stated that allowing homosexuals to adopt would be “gravely immoral” and “would actually mean doing violence to these children.”

I agree.

Part of the duty of the Church is to look after and defend those who cannot speak for themselves (children, the poor, the elderly, and the unborn). It must also hold society accountable for what is right and proper according to natural law and God’s plan for humanity.

The real key is whether the Church’s cozy relationship with government must end.

Catholic institutions generally provide a better level of service and as the article states, are professional at their job. As in the business world, Catholic organizations who provide quality and professional services will make out better than organizations that do the job poorly or simply rely on a token infusions of money from the government. These institutions can well stand on their own, provide services legally, and not kowtow to immoral government regulations.

Some pertinent parts of the article Catholic agencies face dilemma are as follows:

Vatican stance against allowing same-sex couples to adopt children conflicts with state anti-bias law

A 3-year-old Vatican document that condemns the adoption of children by gay couples appears to put some area Catholic human service agencies at odds with state anti-discrimination laws.

The document characterizes the adoption of children by same-sex couples as “gravely immoral.”

Some states, including New York, prohibit discrimination against gay couples trying to adopt children.

Catholic Charities of Boston already decided to pull out of adoption services because it was unable to reconcile church teaching with Massachusetts law.

In this area, two Catholic agencies – Catholic Charities of Buffalo and Baker Victory Services in Lackawanna – appear to face the same dilemma.

“This is one of our seminal services. We’ve been doing it since we started,” said Dennis C. Walczyk, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities of Buffalo. “If it ever came to that point with us as it had in Boston, my hope would be that there could be a reconciliation between the teachings of the church and the regulations that govern adoption.”

State law now bans Catholic agencies providing foster care adoption services from discriminating against same-sex couples, adoption and legal experts say.

State law is a law. It is not the Law. What we should be seeking is not a ‘reconciliation of teachings’ but rather an acknowledgment by the State that the Church not be coerced.

All Catholic human service agencies comply with state adoption regulations, and no statewide policy on same-sex adoptions has been discussed, said Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, the church’s lobbying arm in Albany.

But exceptions should be made, he said.

“We certainly feel the church ought to be exempt from any requirement to place children in same-sex households,” he explained.

Bishop Edward U. Kmiec of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo has not commented publicly on the decision in the Archdiocese of Boston or its effect here.

Through diocesan spokesman Kevin A. Keenan, Kmiec said Catholic Charities fully complies with state guidelines on adoptions.

The adoption program, Keenan added, may be reviewed at some point.

Now?

…

“We’re not in a position to question their belief systems, but they would have to comply with the laws and regulations that the county requires,” said Pat Dietrich, adoption supervisor for the county Social Services Department. “By law, we can’t differentiate between a same-sex couple and a heterosexual couple.”

A policy prohibiting same-sex foster care adoptions “would be contrary to the law,” said Rudy Estrada, a lawyer with Lambda Legal, a national organization that handles gay and lesbian civil rights litigation.

Estrada said he wasn’t aware of any such policies at Catholic agencies in this state.

No Mr. Estrada, a law, not the Law.

Agencies lack official policies

The heads of Catholic Charities of Buffalo and Baker-Victory Services, nonetheless, expressed concerns about the fate of their foster care adoption programs, funded in part with state contract money and, therefore, subject to anti-discrimination laws.

…

“So far, this has not been an issue with us,” said James Casion, chief executive officer of Baker Victory Services. “We don’t currently have a policy [on same-sex adoptions]. It’s not come up. I guess we hadn’t really thought about it. . . . If the bishop makes a proclamation about it, it will be law then. Whatever the bishop says will be the position.”

Catholic Charities also does not have a policy on same-sex adoptions.

Casion noted that the state has made religious exemptions in other cases, and he was optimistic that a resolution could be reached.

“They don’t require that we provide birth control for people who ask us,” Casion said. “They’ve allowed us to maintain a particular posture as long as the clients’ needs are met.”

Actually, the states are trying to require Catholic institutions to provide “emergency contraception” and are reaching well above and beyond in forcing certain issues onto faith based organizations. All in the name of money.

Some professionals in the adoption field expressed concern that the Vatican teaching could lead other Catholic agencies to drop high-quality adoption programs.

“I hope that this doesn’t start some kind of sweep throughout the country,” said Judith O’Mara, director of adoption and foster care at Baker Victory Services.

Erie County handles most of its foster care adoptions in-house and contracts with several agencies for the rest.

Losing the services of Catholic Charities and Baker Victory Services “would certainly be difficult for us,” Dietrich said.

“They’re both fine agencies, and they’ve both been involved in adoption programs for many years.”

Ms. O’Mara is wrong. It should sweep through this country as fast as possible. I hope she understands that she needs to have the children’s best interests at heart. Placing a child in a, dysfunctional at its core, homosexual home is not in their best interest.

I love it when people who get their take home pay from a Catholic institution begin this process of questioning the beliefs of their employer. Suddenly they realize that unlike other employers, the bottom line is different. It’s eternal.

Media, Political

On Immigration

The second annoying NPR story tonight was on immigration reform. Now NPR’s reporting wasn’t necessarily annoying, but rather some of those interviewed.

Now I am fairly liberal on immigration issues. This country has benefited greatly from immigration. My grandparents and great-grandparents were immigrants. Further, I prefer to work with a person who is industrious and has drive and determination over a slacker who thinks it should all be handed to him.

That being said, listening to illegal immigrants protesting the governmental process in the United States and in the various states by yelling Mexico, Mexico —“ well ok, the border is right there, please go back. The high school student in the story uses the ‘racism’ card because he hasn’t learned to make a cogent argument. Instead he has turned himself into a mimic for interest groups. See: Senate Pursues Immigration Bill.

I agree that immigration reform is necessary. I also agree that churches and charities that offer help to immigrants, whether legal or illegal, are engaging in sanctuary (a concept which has been lost) and should be exempt from any penalties for offering such help.

The way to go forward is to understand the need, to be as just as humanly possible, and to offer the opportunity of America with as few unrealistic barriers as possible. In addition, we have every right in the world to protect our borders.

Unfortunately, much of our immigration policy is so far behind the times that it reflects 1950’s and 1960’s anti-communist initiatives (see the issues surrounding immigration from Poland for example).

We need to get up-to-date, to reward those who wish to come and contribute, and to protect ourselves from those unwilling or unable to espouse our values.

Current Events, Political

Wear Denim Today at the Embassy of Belarus

—The Denim Revolution—
SUPPORT FREEDOM IN BELARUS!
March 16, 2006
Between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
At Embassy of Belarus, 18th & New Hampshire, Washington, DC

Why Your Help is Required:

  • Europe’s —last dictatorship— is facing presidential elections on March 19
  • Results of election likely to be falsified, as has happened previously
  • Ignorance to what is happening strengthens the dictator and harms the world

For the Last 12 Years in Belarus:

  • Politicians seeking democracy and freedom have been kidnapped and killed
  • The list of permanent political prisoners grows each day
  • Dictator calls his opponents —bastards— on TV, while arresting youth activists for plotting a —coup— against the government
  • Opposition candidate beaten and arrested, his cameraman shot at

Demonstration Location:

Across from the Belarusian Embassy
1619 New Hampshire Ave NW, (Near 18th & New Hampshire), Washington, DC 20009
Metro: Dupont Circle, Red Line, Q St. Exit

You are invited to attend a demonstration of solidarity with the democratic movement in Belarus to show the Belarusian dictator that the world is not indifferent to the destruction of life and liberty.

We welcome all diversity of backgrounds, colors, religions, opinions, and ideassome of the very things that Belarus and its people have been deprived of during the 12 years of Alexander Lukashenko’s rule.

What is Belarus?

Belarus is a former republic of the Soviet Union, located north of Ukraine and to the west of Russia. It has been ruled by Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, who is currently seeking an illegal third term in office with plans to stay in power indefinitely.

What is the Occasion?

Belarus will have its next presidential “elections” on March 19th, 2006. March 16th was chosen as a —Day of Solidarity with Belarus— to remember all those who are oppressed in Belarus on the behalf of democracy and freedom and it is vital that this event continue ahead of the elections.

Why Should I Come?

Significant amounts of people demonstrating in Washington, DC, will show the Belarusian people that the world supports to their right to choose another president on election day, and that freedom and democracy are the right of all peoples, not dictatorship and fear. Like the people of Ukraine, Belarusians will come out onto the streets to peacefully show their disagreement with rigged results and you can join with them in support.

Who Will Win the Presidential Elections?

The “elections” are expected to be officially won by Mr. Lukashenko by over 70%, and he has already stated his victory. This situation has happened many times before, including during the last presidential “elections” in 2001, parliamentary elections, referendums, and other votes which have all been in his favor. Alyaksandar Milinkevich is a united opposition candidate, and has been campaigning despite the numerous obstacles forced upon him. Another independent candidate, Alyaksandr Kazulin, is also running.

Will the Presidential Elections be Fair in Belarus?

No. During the current campaign, one of the opposition candidates was beaten up and detained for 8 hours. Police are arresting campaign volunteers and do not allow peaceful gatherings. Belarus has no independent media and students are threatened and expelled for expressing disagreement with the current government, for attending gatherings, or for supporting the opposition campaigns. It is already expected that Alexander Lukashenko will be announced the —winner— having gathered at least 70% of the vote.

You can make a real difference by showing solidarity – by showing up!

What to bring: You can bring a cowbell (Belarus’ dictator was once the head of a collective farm), or any other fun musical instruments. To pass the time, a few skits will be performed.

More information on Belarus and the upcoming elections can be found at: Charter 97

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