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I would agree wholeheartedly with the OP, both in experience and in conclusion. Last time I went to Mass (just over 2 weeks ago), I heard the Gospel preached in the sermon.

Actually, the primary purpose for the international force (including British, for which we lose a young man virtually every other day) in Afghanistan is nation-building in opposition to the Taleban, which are an illegal Islamist insurgency against the Afghan government.

A fine piece of emotional rhetoric, for which I commend you. I can be emotional too, about my wife and children, and it is as well therefore that I am not a legislator or a judge, since I would willingly violate the rule of law when it comes to my family. I know in my heart that I am capable of...

I'm after the statute that says, for example, that if I get in a brawl in a US bar, I should be treated differently in law to the US citizen I'm having the fight with (NB: this is very much a hypothetical example!) I'm just saying...be careful what you wish for. For example, many in the German...

Sorry, Tim, much as I sympathise with your feeling, that's lynch mob justice, and we don't do that in a democracy; stoop to that level and the bad guys have won because they've turned us into them.

OK, let's analyse wha you and Carpro are saying here, chunk by chunk [/I]Now, which war might that be? This guy is a Nigerian; AFAIK, Congress hasn't authorised the President to declare war against Nigeria. Oh, do you mean president Bush's "War on Terror"? Sorry, but that was just a rehotorical...

If they don't want government intervention, they shouldn't have taken government handouts...when they return all their tax dollars (tax £s over here), then I'll start listening to their whingeing; until then, they're an arch example of cant and hypocrisy.

And how many of these investors are fat cat bankers, happy to take your tax dollars to fund their bonuses and lavish lifestyles?

Whoa, just back up there a bit! Was this guy in the military? No, which makes him a civilian. Is he a citizen of the US? No - but on what basis does this mean that he should not be afforded the due process of American justice? Or are you saying that only US citizens are eligible for US justice...

Good points, Nathan. Haiti's poverty compared with the neighbouring Dominican Republic, to which Pat (rightly) refers, has far more to do with human rather than Satanic forces. Beware though: there will be some here I expect who will accuse you of 'bashing' America; they forget Phil 3:17-21...

You see, the trouble is that's the sort of argument I've heard put forward - by secularists and others - against the wearing of headcoverings by women in certain Christian fundamentalist denominations. "If you wants to butter you bread that way, you'se better be prepared to eat it."

It was a snide reference to our Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who inherited the office from Tony Blair without even the election of his own party, let alone the rest of us mere mortals. He will face the British electorate for the first time in our General Election later this year, which he is...

[Aside]As a Brit, can I just say how disconcerting it is to see headlines like "Brown wins election"; it's really not what we're used to...[/as you were]

Good cartoon. What I want to know, though, is who gave Obama permission to use Bob the Builder's catchphrase in the first place?

The civil rights issue problem with banning the burqa as an article of (at least quasi-) religious clothing is, once you establish the principle of banning religious clothes, where does it stop? Ban clergy from wearing dog collars? Amish and Mennonite women from wearing head-scarves? Christians...

Er...no - I think you misread her there. The early liturgies were Realist (ie: strongly stressing the Eucharistic Real Presence) rather than Memorialist-symbolic in nature, hence why the early Church was accused of cannibalism by its detractors. Believer have believed that throughout the...

It's an blowing-up-out-of-all-proportion exaggeration of a real event - the initial slave rebellion in Haiti in 1791 was sparked off by a voodoo ceremony, although the ideals behind the rebellion were firmly based in the principles of the French Revolution rather than voodoo. However, it does no...

The 'pact with the devil' thing is a bit of an urban myth that's 'bigged up' by some of the locals (typically vacation reps) to increase the scare factor for the tourists, along with voodoo dolls, tales of human sacrifice and zombies etc - it all adds to a potent frisson of excitement to attract...

If any 'pact' is to blame for Haiti's situation, it's the pact they were forced to make with the French in 1825: under the threat of military action by the French the Haitian government agreed to pay an indemnity of 60 million francs (to put it in perspective, Jefferson paid 60 million francs...

Fantastic news!