Cardinal Martino spoke out from the Vatican recently, saying that the US plan to build a wall on the American-Mexican border is “inhumane“.

As head of the Council for Justice and Peace at the Vatican, Cardinal Martino said “Speaking of borders, I must unfortunately say that in a world that greeted the fall of the Berlin Wall with joy, new walls are being built between neighborhood and neighborhood, city and city, nation and nation”.

When asked whether the Tortilla Curtain between Mexico and the US fit within these categories, Cardinal Martino replied “Yes, that’s exactly what it is”. Going further, the cardinal praised both US and Mexican bishops who have condemned the wall, echoing the sentiments of at least one US mayor along the US-Mexico border. Vatican Condemns The Tortilla Curtain, by Martin Barillas, Spero News 11/14/06

I suggest to Cardinal Martino that he look out his window more often. According to wikipedia:

The Vatican City, one of the European microstates, is situated on the Vatican Hill in the north-western part of Rome, several hundred metres west of the Tiber river. Its borders (3.2 km or 2 miles in total, all within Italy) closely follow the city wall constructed to protect the Pope from outside attack.

So what is his wall — inhumane, or merely hypocritical?

Occasionally you see something in the news that really makes you sick and for me it’s the report a few minutes ago that Milton Friedman, the great free market economist and Nobel prize winner, has just died at the age of 94. Friedman’s mind and personality were pure magic and he was personally kind to me in very many ways - for example, blurbing my 2003 education book , which meant (being Milton) that he read the whole manuscript with great care.

Milton was a famous libertarian, but you won’t read about this, a quote from our 1997 Forbes Magazine interview , in many obituaries.

BRIMELOW: Where does the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page campaign for fixed exchange rates fit into this [movement to free markets]?

FRIEDMAN: You got me! I think that’s just an aberration. My God, how the hell can they stick with that? They’ve just got an idée fixe about it. Like they’ve got on immigration. It’s just obvious that you can’t have free immigration and a welfare state…

BRIMELOW : [Wall Street Journal editor Robert] Bartley says he thinks the nation-state is dead, that we’re moving to a world driven by markets, free movement of labor and capital. I’m not sure what he thinks the political institutions will be. Your view?

FRIEDMAN: No, I don’t think the nation-state is dead. And all attempts to depart from the nation-state in the direction of the United Nations and a United States of Europe have so far been complete disasters.

The WSJ’s OpinionJournal has this Republican success story today, about Bob Riley’s win as Governor in Alabama. He got 58 percent of the vote overall, iincluding what the Journal calls ” an impressive 20% of the black vote. “

Here are the reasons the GOP won in Alabama, hey say:

How, then, did Mr. Riley recover from such political disaster to win re-election so resoundingly? Not just Mr. Riley but editorial writers across the state will readily identify his successes in the “Three Es”: economic development, education and, not least, ethics [Alabama Lazarus Act A Republican success in a Democratic year. BY QUIN HILLYER Thursday, November 16, 2006 ]

And here, via Hugh McInnish, on VDARE.com, is an even better reason, which may escape mention in the WSJ:

MONTGOMERY — While President Bush pushes Congress to overhaul U.S. immigration laws, state Republican leaders are doing some pushing of their own.

They passed a resolution that asks the federal government to seal the country’s borders against illegal immigrants.

Republican Party Executive Director Chris Brown said Tuesday that the party’s Executive Committee approved a resolution on illegal immigration drafted by Hugh McInnish of Huntsville.

McInnish wants the government to shut the country’s borders to illegal immigrants and “employ all practical and legal measures required to achieve this end.” The Huntsville engineer said he is concerned that current immigration practices make it easier for terrorists to enter the country and put a greater financial burden on taxpayers.

[State GOP: Seal border against illegals, By M.J. Ellington, Decatur Daily News,JUNE 22, 2005]

UPDATE: Of course a certain amount of credit has to go to Senator Jeff Sessions, (R-AL) who has stood against amnesty in the Senate like, ahem, “a stone wall.” Sessions wasn’t up for re-election this year, but his example no doubt shored up other Alabama Republican candidates.