VATICAN CITY – Bernie Sanders issued a global call to action at the Vatican Friday to address “immoral and unsustainable” wealth inequality and poverty, using the high-profile gathering to echo one of the central platforms of his presidential campaign.
The Democratic senator from Vermont cited Pope Francis and St. John Paul II repeatedly during his speech to the Vatican conference commemorating the 25th anniversary of a landmark teaching document from John Paul on social and economic justice after the Cold War.
Sanders arrived in Rome hours after wrapping up a debate in New York Thursday night, saying the opportunity to address the Vatican conference was too meaningful to pass up.
He told the audience of priests, bishops, academics and two South American presidents that rather than a world economy that looks out for the common good, “we have been left with an economy operated for the top 1 percent, who get richer and richer as the working class, the young and the poor fall further and further behind.”
AUSTIN, Texas – Defending a Texas state law banning the sale of sex toys, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz argued in a 2007 court brief that individuals have no legal right to use them, even in the privacy of their own bedrooms.
Cruz often cites his five years as Texas’ solicitor general to burnish his credentials as a Christian conservative. He used the position to defend capital punishment, oppose abortion and keep using “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.
But Cruz doesn’t mention his advocacy for the state in an unsuccessful defense of Texas’ sex-toy ban.
In a court brief, Cruz defended the ban as protecting public morals, while discouraging excessive interest in sexual gratification. He also argued that those who used sex toys might be more likely to hire prostitutes.
Associated Press
