Words I wish I wrote myself, n. 1

“Personally, I believe that when faced with an imperial power - and let’s not kid ourselves, that’s exactly what the USA is - one ought to do everything non-violent that one can do to resist it, just on principle.

The USA is a great country full of great people. It’s just their propensity as a whole for electing idiots and then conducting a foreign policy of the utmost depravity that I object to.”

Iain Banks, The Steep Approach to Garbadale

Possibly first of a series. I don’t think it will be regular, I’ll just post them when I meet them, whenever I feel like it.

And, to my US friends - nothing personal! As an Italian, I can teach you a few things myself about electing idiots.

Pro-Life

On June 1st, the Pope received in the Vatican the new ambassador of the United States to the Holy See, Mary Ann Glendon.

Addressing the new ambassador in English, among other considerations, the Holy Father expressed his appreciation for:

“…the efforts of so many of your fellow citizens and government leaders to ensure legal protection for God’s gift of life from conception to natural death, …”

I wonder what would be the appreciation of such efforts by the people of Iraq or Afghanistan, or by US soldiers stationed in these countries, for that matter. But maybe the concept of “natural death” has a deep theological meaning that baffles my ignorant self.