Christianity bedevils talks on EU treaty

The controversial question of Christianity returned to the EU yesterday when seven states, led by Italy, urged the union to recognise a “historical truth” and refer explicitly to the “Christian roots of Europe” in its new constitution.

Britain’s foreign secretary, Jack Straw, and his fellow foreign ministers were forced to divert into a theological and cultural minefield at the meeting in Brussels called to tackle highly charged but technical issues, such as voting weights and budget procedures.

The preamble of the current draft treaty, drawn up by the former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing’s convention, refers only to the “cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe”. Specifically mentioning Christianity or God was considered too controversial in the face of furious opposition from secular France and Protestant northerners such as Sweden and Denmark.

Opponents argued that it would be wrong to exclude Muslims and Jews, and would therefore be better to avoid any religious reference.

The European parliament even rejected a proposal from Christian Democrat MEPs to mention the continent’s “Judaeo-Christian roots”.

But the largely Catholic states of Italy Poland, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have made clear they want more.

“This issue remains a priority for our governments as well as for millions of European citizens,” they wrote to Ireland, the current holder of the EU presidency.

Spain had previously supported them, but changed its policy when the Socialists won the March general election.

Spain’s foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, said: “Spain is a Catholic country, but in the European constitution our government is rather secular, and in this sense we want to respect the text as it currently stands.”

Poland would like a reference based on its own national constitution, which refers to “both those who believe in God as the source of truth, justice, good and beauty, as well as those not sharing such faith but respecting those universal values from other sources”.

The Vatican has made clear that it wants a reference to Christianity in the document.

“If you are the prime minister of a Catholic country it would be very useful to have the Pope on your side, especially when you hold a referendum on the constitution,” said one diplomat.

Mr Straw, aware of the feelings of British Muslims, told reporters that if there was a reference to one religious tradition, “we would have to make reference to others”.

This issue is not expected to be settled before the Brussels summit on June 17, when the constitution is due to be agreed.

The biggest disagreements are still over voting weights in the EU council of ministers. The current Irish proposal is that a decision is taken when supported by 50% of member states representing 60% of the EU population. But that has been rejected by Spain and Poland, as it would mean that Europe’s big three – Britain, France and Germany – could form a blocking minority on any decisions they do not like.

Christian roots of Europe? Umm not sure if they know this but Europe was around way before Christ…

Macintosh Fag Hint

Apparently, in order to render obsolete flashing pages that can occurs when a webpage loads, (due to the client getting data from any number of sources; the stylesheet, various data sources, etc) web browsers are programmed with a little delay. The delay is, appropriately, conservative. But by adjusting a variable in the Safari preference file you can speed Safari’s delay time up.

Highlight and copy the following line of code and go to the terminal after Safari has quit and after you login to the terminal paste this:

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitInitialTimedLayoutDelay 0.25

Read More Here

If you are a mac user and you don’t use Safari, “then you sir are a fool, a damn fool” as Dignan would say…

You: Hot Chick At BSC – 30

Music: The Freeway – Red Sparowes

So someone (whom I can only assume is some guido jabroni from his spectacular choice or language) left as MISSED CONNECTION thingy on Craig’s List pertaining to Martha (my fucking hot girlfriend). Here it is:

You: Hot Chick At BSC – 30
Reply to: ——@———-.——-
Date: 2004-05-18, 11:09PM EDT

You were the hot chick with brown hair, slender, tall and tattoos on both upper arms. We kept running into each other. i wanted to say hi, but was too shy. If you are reading this, hit me up.

I don’t know what is wierder
– The fact that this guy thought it was a good idea to post on Craig’s List, he obviously knows where to find her, they go to the same gym
– The use of the work “CHICK”, sick bro, more than likely you wear a visor
– That this thing was even seen…Jess what the fuck are you doing reading missed connections?

greasy hashbrowns, black coffee, green tank tops… it’s good to be home

Music:
Better Off – Razed In Black
Nonbeliever – 100 Demons
Handy With The Tongue Sword – Kid Dynamite
End Of The Century – The Ramones
We Got – Ludacris

Atlanta for 5 days. Saw Most Precious Blood, Throwdown, and With Honor… got in a little altercation with some shitty skin. Ended the night with some delicious Chinese Buddah with the crew. Stayed with MPB and hung out with them the next day. Got to see lots of my parents which was really good. Need to get home to see them more often.
Saw John and Robin on Sunday night which was really fucking good. My flight home on Monday got all fucked up but I ended up having a direct flight rather than a layover….
Martha picked me up at the airport and we tracked down the school where her interview was this morning.
Martha began to speak like JRR TOLKIEN writes “It should be upon us soon”.