Regression and fantasy take over the Belgian parliament while violence and crime paralyse parts of Brussels, and the Belgian justice system plays keystone cops

When Pope Benedict XVI claimed during his visit to Africa this year that condoms were not the solution to AIDS epidemic, the usual entities (newspapers, politicians, specialist commentators, homosexuals and feminist groups etc etc) went into hysterics, as expected. The Edmonton Journal in Canada gave a good summary of the uproar, showing The New York Times and The Washington Post setting the trend for their lesser sisters like Melbourne's Age.

Their thunderous denunciations in the usual of cloud sanctimony, however, were brilliantly eclipsed by the Belgian Parliament. The girls and boys of that august body got together in a terrific tiz and issued secular fatwas and anathemas against the Pope. LifeSiteNews.Com gives the pertinent points of the Belgian resolution:

The resolution, passed by a 95-18 vote, calls for the government to "react strongly against any state or organisation that in the future brings into doubt the benefit of using condoms to prevent transmission of the AIDS virus." In addition the resolution said that the Belgian envoy to the Vatican must "condemn the unacceptable affirmations of the Pope during his trip to Africa and to protest officially to the Holy See..."

Belgian Premier Herman Van Rompuy said he will support the motion saying, "It is not the Pope's job to shed doubts on public health policies which are unanimously supported and save lives every day."

This is the typical knee-jerk reaction from the mindless ideologues who make up the dominant political class across the Western world. The Belgian parliament in this case must be congratulated for taking the mindlessness down to a new catatonic level. We know that this class could not give a fig about their hypocrisy (freedom of speech is only freedom of speech when you agree with them). We know that they shamelessly misrepresent or lie about the views of their perceived enemies - as in this case. What is special here is the brazenness of the ideological manipulation of the democratic order, signalling a dangerous regressiveness that gives whiffs of Europe in the 1930s.

LifeSiteNews.Com provides a summary of the Vatican's reaction to the Belgian nonsense, explaining what the Pope actually said, and not what the liars of the Left claim he said. I need not add to that, other than to say that the Pope's point was basically that you can drop a billion condoms over Africa but the problem of AIDS will remain unless there is a life-style change. Apart from the failure record of the AIDS campaigns supporting that claim, there has been support from scientists: Pope was right about AIDS.

But, really, we don't need the formal testimony of a scientist from one of the world's pre-eminent universities. There is the empirical evidence of everyday life. In Australia where marriage is monogamous the incidence of AIDS among married couples is negligible. This is where Christian morality still holds. The highest incidence of AIDS is among homosexuals to whose impressive promiscuity gay bars and public toilets are testimony. This is where Christian morality has broken down. Now, before one runs off to Helen Szoke to report me, that is the evidence. AIDS is a function of sexual life-style. And no amount of class sloganising (e.g. AIDS does not discriminate) nor a battalion of secular clerics will change that.

But let's be clear about what's going on here. Although the fantasising footsloggers of the PC-class might be unaware of the untruths the higher-ups peddle, most of those higher-ups consciously spread their lies and disinformation. It all comes down to ideological tactics. For a class that does not believe there is objective truth, lying is easy. There is a culture war here (to state the obvious); the perceived culture of the Catholic church is diametrically opposed to the dogma of the politically correct. Politically correct dogma by virtue of its 'reasoning' mode cannot accommodate any deviation. Any and all means are justified in eliminating deviates.

The position of the Belgian parliamentarians comes as no surprise. They are simply towing the line of the political class they represent. What has my attention here is the numbers that supported the resolution. It says something about the state of Belgium, the country that spawned the evil Marc Dutroux. Here we have a state where the intolerant PC-class and government appear to be identical. As I say, a whiff of the 1930s.

It also says something about Belgium that while the girls and boys of the Belgian parliament were busy socking it to the Vatican, that country was becoming a laughing stock of Europe with its prison break-outs (Belgium's prison-break problem & More prisoners escape). One prisoner gave his guards the slip in the court building. Another jumped aboard a helicopter that had landed in the prison grounds. This last week the government could not handle the (legal) request of Marc Dutroux to inspect his house that was compulsorily up for sale. This is the house where he killed two girls in a basement prison and left two nine-year-olds to starve to death. The country was treated to vision of this man of pure evil being taken on a pleasurable outing to visit his 'house of horrors.' I suppose it could be said that the government was scratching their heads about the no-go areas in Brussels where Islamic violence was calling the shots.

Belgium is like Victoria, but way out ahead. The dominant political class is too busy implementing their PC agenda and monitoring the fidelity of the population to their dogma to worry about the break-down of society.

Comment: gerard@gerardcharleswilson.com