Khazen

The future of Syria’s pawns in Lebanon

  Whatever the outcome of the Syrian uprising, the regime of Bashar al-Assad will not have the same grip over Lebanon’s politics as before. While the government in Damascus fights against the rebels, Beirut’s political landscape is also at a crossroads, as the two main Lebanese political blocs, March 8 and March 14, still base […]

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Father Abou Kasm Says ‘All Security Agencies on Alert’ ahead of Pope Visit

  Security forces have been placed on alert ahead of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Lebanon, the visit’s coordinator said on Wednesday. "All Lebanese security organizations are on a state of alert poised to protect His Holiness the Pope," who will travel to Lebanon September 14-16, said Father Abdo Abou Kasm. Referring to what he said was […]

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Paul Ryan and Joe Biden: A Tale of Two Catholics?

Paul Ryan and Joe Biden: A Tale of Two Catholics?

It is in the area of intrinsic evils where the comparison of Ryan and Biden as a ‘tale of two Catholics’, falls apart.

Given Joe Biden’s support for what his Church has identified as intrinsic evils – and thereby persistently against the common good – and given Paul Ryan’s position consistent with the indisputable and unchangeable teachings of his Church on these issues, it seems that what is involved is not a "Tale of Two Catholics" but rather a tale of one Catholic and one . . . well, whatever we call him, it is something considerably less than Catholic. An intrinsic evil is always against the common good, regardless of the circumstances.  No Catholic politician can advance an intrinsic evil.

 

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) – This election season we are presented with some fundamental contrasts on a whole series of levels, politics, economy, health care, and so forth.  But perhaps no contrast is more interesting than the contrast between two supposedly Catholic vice presidential candidates, the Republican Representative Paul Ryan and the current Vice President, the Democrat Joe Biden. 

Numerous articles have been written on the face-off between these two under the title, "A Tale of Two Catholics," for example, the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, the Underground, and CBN News.

Now political differences are political differences, and they ordinarily do not touch on fundamental matters of faith and morals.  This is because politics, which has classically been defined as the art of the possible, is, in the main, involved in prudential decisions. 

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Vandals hit Catholic monastery in Holy Land

 

.- Vandals set fire to the door of the Latroun Monastery near Jerusalem on the morning of Sept. 4 and spray painted the walls with blasphemous phrases in Hebrew.

The monks at the monastery were awakened in the early morning hours and found the front door on fire and their outside wall spray painted with the phrases, “Jesus is a monkey” and “Ramat Migron.” The second phrase was an apparent reference to the illegal Jewish settlement in the Palestinian West Bank, which was dismantled by Israeli authorities on Sunday.

The BBC reported that Israeli police have launched an investigation into the attack on the monastery, which is located in Palestinian territory just 15 kilometers from Jerusalem.  They said the attack may have been committed by pro-settlement Jewish extremists as revenge for the eviction of 300 Israelis from Ramat Migron, which has become a symbol for hard-line groups that oppose any withdrawal from the West Bank.

In a Sept. 4 statement, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said it was “indignant” over the “disgraceful and hideous” attacks which “dishonor Christian sites in Israel and attack the person of Christ, Son of this Holy Land.” The patriarchate oversees all Roman Catholic churches in the Holy Land.

The patriarchate also condemned any attempt to “create divisions between the communities” and called for tolerance and values that “bear witness to human greatness.”

The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land issued its own statement asking, “Why are Christians still in the crosshairs?

“What is happening in Israeli society to the point that Christians are the sacrificial lambs of such violence?” 

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Suleiman: Internal Unity Needed to Allow Army to Fulfill its Duties

  President Michel Suleiman praised on Monday the army on its efforts in defending Lebanon and maintaining civil peace. He stressed on the anniversary of the end of the Nahr al-Bared clashes the “importance of internal unity and national will in allowing the security forces and army in fulfilling their duties towards the nation and people.” He […]

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Achrafieh car-free for one day

  It’s an overused and oft abused metaphor that Beirut is the Paris of the Middle East,  but the phrase seemed to ring true Sunday – at least in a section of Ashrafieh. With pedestrianized streets, people cycling everywhere, and art littering the sidewalks, all part of the Ashrafieh 2020 initiative, the area seemed positively […]

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الخازن لـ”الجمهورية”: لا بديل عن الطائف

  * هل اتّفاق الطائف ما زال قابلاً للتطبيق؟ – إتّفاق الطائف، وكأيّ اتّفاق مفصليّ في الحياة السياسية اللبنانية، يُعتبر وليد ظروف معيّنة كانت سائدة في أواخر الثمانينيات، ويعبّر مضمونه عن شقّين: سياسي وسيادي. إلّا أنّ حصر القرار اللبناني بالشؤون الأساسية في الجانب السوري حال دون تطبيق الإصلاحات السياسية والبنود السيادية، فكنّا أمام واقع تحويل […]

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إطلاق المنطقة الرقمية في بيروت

    لم تتأخر بيروت كثيراً في اللحاق بركب التكنولوجيا الرقمية ، فها هو المشروع النموذجي  Beirut digital; district ينطلق من منطقة الباشورة قرب وسط العاصمة كباكورة مشاريع ستعم لبنان تباعا ً. إنه المبنى الأول من أصل ستة مبان ستبنى في المنطقة على مدى السنوات الخمس المقبلة بمساحة تصل الى أربعين ألف متر مربع الهدف […]

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Slight Modification to the Lebanese Cigarette Law

  The Cigarette law in Lebanon is an excellent step towards a clean environment, and improved health;   I propose  a slight modifiction of the law:   1- The Cigarette banning law in Lebanon should be slighltly modified to allow bars\Coffee shops that can prove their profit is mainly based on smoking Nargile, Cigarettes or […]

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How Social Media Brings Power To The People [INFOGRAPHIC]

 

 

Did you know that there are more devices connected to the internet than there are people on Earth?

Yes, some of these belong to drug dealers. But beyond this unfortunate truism, the massive rise in affordable, portable technology has meant that we – all of us – are now empowered to react to the events around us in a real time basis. We are now the journalists. We are now part of the story. For the first time in history, the power is with us.

The examples go on and on. The ground operation that led to the death of Osama Bin Laden broke first on Twitter. Tweets about earthquakes reach people 30 seconds before they feel the tremors. Ten million online signatures and three million emails shut down SOPA. In January of this year, Facebook saw six times more traffic than Google.

This infographic takes a closer look at how social media and the internet bring power to the people.

 

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