GOP Establisment Rallies Against Gingrich

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The revenge of the Republican establishment is a sight to behold. From one corner to another, those who have tangled with Newt Gingrich, who feel aggrieved toward Newt Gingrich or who fear Newt Gingrich have amassed to stop him. They know how much harder it will be to do so if the former House speaker wins Florida on Tuesday.

The quintessential example of establishment angst came Thursday from Bob Dole, the former Senate majority leader and 1996 Republican presidential nominee. Hours before Thursday’s GOP debate, he released a letter — circulated by Mitt Romney’s campaign — attacking Gingrich and pleading with Republican voters not to make him the party’s nominee. There is much rich history behind that letter.

Read the rest here.

I have no dog in this fight. Both Romney and Gingrich are just slightly different examples of the Republican Party's own version of right wing statism. That said I find the battle enormously amusing. The establishment people are right of course. Gingrich can not win in the general election. His supporters are the same people who nominated Christine O'Donnell in Delaware back in 2010 throwing away a Senate seat that was a lock. They are violating the late Bill Buckley's very astute rule of politics... "You don't nominate the most conservative candidate. You nominate the most conservative candidate who can win."

NBC News asks Romney Campaign to Remove Ad

TAMPA, Fla. – NBC News is asking that the Romney campaign remove from its ads any references to material from the network in response to a new commercial that consists almost entirely of old footage of its former news anchor, Tom Brokaw, reporting on Newt Gingrich’s legal troubles.

The ad, which uses a 1997 clip from the day Mr. Gingrich was found guilty by the House of ethics violations, prompted a terse statement from Mr. Brokaw on Saturday in which he expressed concern that his work was being used for political purposes he never intended.

“I am extremely uncomfortable with the extended use of my personal image in this political ad,” he said. “I do not want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign.”

NBC’s lawyers have requested that the Romney campaign not only pull down the commercial but eliminate any references to the network’s journalism in other ads.

Read the rest here.

Special bond of a rescue dog and dying boy

Warning: Grab the tissue box before proceding.

As nearly anyone who has adopted a dog or cat from a shelter can attest, there’s something special about a rescued pet; it’s as if the animal senses he’s been given a second chance at life. That’s certainly the case with Juno, a Belgian Malinois who was rescued from a shelter just days before she was to be euthanized. But since coming to live with her family in Alcoa, Tenn., Juno has taken on the role of rescuer to four-year-old Lucas Hembree.

Lucas suffers from Sanfilippo syndrome, an inherited, metabolic disease caused by the absence or malfunctioning of an enzyme needed to break down long sugar molecules. As the disease progresses, children lose the ability to speak, walk and eat. The disease also causes severe neurological damage that leads to aggressive behavior, hyperactivity and seizures.

“The most catastrophic thing parents hear when they learn their child has this disease is that there’s no cure or treatment available,” says Lucas’ father, Chester.

Read the rest here.

Israelis Say Settlements Must Be Part Of Israeli State

JERUSALEM — Israeli negotiators told their Palestinian counterparts this week that their guiding principle for drawing the borders of a future two-state solution would be for existing settlement blocks to become part of Israel, an approach that the Palestinians rejected as unacceptable.

The discussion, which occurred in Jordan on Wednesday night, was the first time the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally told the Palestinian Authority how it would seek to handle the territorial part of their negotiations, although Mr. Netanyahu had made the point publicly to Congress in Washington in May.

A Palestinian official said the offer “effectively abandons international law and the framework we have been focused on for the past 20 years.” Speaking on the condition of anonymity on the subject of the talks, as did Israeli officials, the Palestinian said, “If you put it in perspective, it is as if the West Bank were not occupied, just disputed, with both sides having legitimate claims, while the rest of Israel remains outside the dispute.”

An Israeli official defended the offer.

“The principle we laid out on Wednesday is that the majority of Palestinians should be on the Palestinian side and the majority of Jews on our side,” that official said. “These are preliminary discussions. The Palestinians have asked for clarification. We have asked for clarifications from them on some things as well. And we hope that in the coming weeks these talks will continue.”

The Palestinians said they saw little reason to keep the talks — started under Jordanian sponsorship this month — going

Read the rest here.

A Newspaper With a Pitchfork

A  New York Times story on Friday that essentially indicted and convicted a 22-year-old star football player on an alleged sexual assault charge by an anonymous accuser should have begun as follows:

“We know absolutely nothing about this rumor except what six people told us anonymously about this guy who they say sexually assaulted this girl. We don’t know who she is or what she said, or really anything, but here’s HIS name and what ‘they’ say about him.”

Instead, with throat-clearing authority, the story begins with the young man’s name — Patrick J. Witt, Yale University’s former quarterback — and his announcement last fall that he was withdrawing his Rhodes scholarship application so that he could play against Harvard. The game was scheduled the same day as the scholarship interview.

Next we are told that he actually had withdrawn his application for the scholarship after the Rhodes Trust had learned “through unofficial channels that a fellow student had accused Witt of sexual assault.” And there goes the gavel. Case closed.

But in fact, no one seems to know much of anything, and no one in an official capacity is talking. The only people advancing this devastating and sordid tale are “a half-dozen [anonymous] people with knowledge of all or part of the story.” All or part? Which part? As in, “Heard any good gossip lately?”

Read the rest here.

I read the original story from the Times when it was posted and was sufficiently appalled to email a nasty letter to the editor which said in part... "A story based entirely on anonymous sources about an unnamed woman who filed a non specific and informal complaint with no police involvement and no formal action from the university alleging sexual misconduct by a nationally known athlete is not what most people would describe as news. Rather the word "gossip" seems more appropriate. Which is why I was sorry to see the "newspaper of record" publishing a story I would expect to find on page six of the Post."

For those not from the big city, the NY Post runs a notorious gossip column on page six.

Happy Birthday

H.I.M. Kaiser William II born 153 years ago today.

In Scotland football (soccer) rivalry is deep and bitter

GLASGOW — It was a normal Saturday game at Ibrox Stadium, home of the Rangers soccer team. A prematch fight broke out on the subway. The crowd lobbed trash onto the field. Fans of Rangers and their mutually despised opponents, Aberdeen, abused one another with traditional chants, songs and obscene gestures.

At times, it seemed that the only thing preventing a violent free-for-all was the heavy presence of police officers and security guards. And lest the message — control yourself, or face the consequences — was lost on anyone, there was a direct request from Rangers authorities.

“If you witness any form of unacceptable or offensive behavior, including sectarian singing,” a notice inserted into the ticket envelopes said, “please advise a steward or police officer.”

No one yet has been able to defuse the visceral hatred that runs through Scottish soccer. But in its latest effort to tackle game-related violence, the Scottish government recently passed a law making it illegal for fans to attack one another using religious, ethnic, regional or violent historical slurs in songs, chants, Internet postings or even stray remarks at a stadium or pub.

Read the rest here.

More nanny state foolishness.  I have no objection to some restrictions at the games themselves.  Inciting a riot has never been protected speech.  But this pretty much just feeds any concept of freedom of expression into the shredder.  Even sadder though is the image of a stadium packed with Protestants and Catholics, but not a Christian to be found anywhere.

Reuters: Germany wants Greece to surrender control over its budgets

(Reuters) - Germany is pushing for Greece to relinquish control over its budget policy to European institutions as part of discussions over a second rescue package, a European source told Reuters on Friday.

"There are internal discussions within the Euro group and proposals, one of which comes from Germany, on how to constructively treat country aid programs that are continuously off track, whether this can simply be ignored or whether we say that's enough," the source said.

Read the rest here.

Quote of the day...

Nothing needs reforming so much as other people's habits.  Fanatics will never learn that though it be written in letters of gold across the sky.  It is the prohibition that makes anything precious.

-Mark Twain

More signs US economy is slowly mending

The nation’s on-and-off economic recovery has picked up its pace, the Commerce Department reported Friday, with the U.S. economy growing at an annualized rate of 2.8 percent for the end of 2011.

That rate is the fastest recorded in a year and a half, and it follows three quarters of growth below 2 percent.

Read the rest here.

In a military confrontation Iran could inflict serious damage

ISTANBUL — Tehran has stepped up its bellicose warnings of conflict in the Persian Gulf as potentially crippling new European Union and American sanctions have been approved on Iran's oil exports and central bank.

The US defied the warning of a top Iranian general this week and sent the USS Abraham Lincoln – flanked by British and French warships – through the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf. A senior Iranian lawmaker scoffed that the US "did not dare" to send its ship alone, because of the danger posed by the Islamic Republic. If Iran were to close the strategic waterway, as it has threatened to do, the American aircraft carriers "will become the war booty of Iran," he declared.

Such bluster is not all talk. The US may outspend the Islamic Republic nearly 90-to-1 on defense. But Iran, heir to ancient Persia's naval innovation, has a well-honed asymmetric strategy designed to reverse that advantage.

A 2002 US military exercise simulating such a conflict proved devastating to American warships.

Read the rest here.

Corruption allegations hit the Vatican

(Reuters) The Vatican was shaken by a corruption scandal Thursday after an Italian television investigation said a former top official had been transferred against his will after complaining about irregularities in awarding contracts.

The show "The Untouchables" on the respected private television network La 7 Wednesday night showed what it said were several letters that Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who was then deputy-governor of Vatican City, sent to superiors, including Pope Benedict, in 2011 about the corruption.

The Vatican issued a statement Thursday criticizing the "methods" used in the journalistic investigation. But it confirmed that the letters were authentic by expressing "sadness over the publication of reserved documents."

As deputy governor of the Vatican City for two years from 2009 to 2011, Vigano was the number two official in a department responsible for maintaining the tiny city-state's gardens, buildings, streets, museums and other infrastructure.

Vigano, currently the Vatican's ambassador in Washington, said in the letters that when he took the job in 2009 he discovered a web of corruption, nepotism and cronyism linked to the awarding of contracts to outside companies at inflated prices.

In one letter, Vigano tells the pope of a smear campaign against him (Vigano) by other Vatican officials who wanted him transferred because they were upset that he had taken drastic steps to save the Vatican money by cleaning up its procedures.

Read the rest here.

GOP infighting is getting serious

Furious conservatives have taken to blogs and Twitter on Thursday to vent their ire against what they allege is a conspiratorial dumping of twisted and manipulated negative attacks on Newt Gingrich.

The target of their fury: The Drudge Report.

For the last 48 hours, the conservative Web site led by Matt Drudge has become a virtual campaign arm for Mitt Romney, featuring huge, screaming headlines about Mr. Gingrich and his past.

That prompted conservatives who support Mr. Gingrich to accuse Mr. Drudge of selling out to the Republican establishment — many of whom have come to Mr. Romney’s aid as the battle with Mr. Gingrich has heated up.

Read the rest here.

The GOP is not far from open civil war and the Democrats are laughing all the way to the political bank.

Some Americans barred from leaving Egypt

CAIRO — A top U.S. official’s son who is working for a pro-democracy group in Egypt has been barred from leaving the country, along with at least five other Americans, escalating a crackdown on such groups by Egypt’s military government that has outraged the United States.

Sam LaHood, the son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, said Thursday that he learned of the travel ban only when he was turned away from the Cairo airport Saturday. He is the director of the Egyptian program of the International Republican Institute (IRI), a Washington-based civil society organization.

Read the rest here.

Poll: Gingrich gains in GOP field but trails Obama badly

Newt Gingrich leads Mitt Romney among Republicans, but he is the weakest of the Republican candidates tested against President Obama, according to an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday evening.

Gingrich leads Romney 37 percent to 28 percent nationally among registered Republicans likely to vote in the primaries; Rick Santorum is in third with 18 percent, and Ron Paul is fourth with 12 percent.

Gingrich has built its advantage by consolidating the heart and soul of the Republican Party: very conservative voters, the South and the Tea Party.

Though Gingrich is the preferred candidate of GOP primary voters, he performs the worst of all Republican candidates tested against Obama, including Santorum.

"Gingrich is Goldwater," said Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. "In the general election, Gingrich not only takes down his ship, he takes down the whole flotilla."

Read the rest here.

Fire badly damages 19th century church in southern Ukraine, no injuries reported

KIEV, Ukraine — Emergency officials say a fire has badly damaged a 19th-century Orthodox church in southern Ukraine, including collapsing its dome.

No injuries have been reported.

The fire at the landmark Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral in the town of Bolhrad outside the Black Sea port of Odessa broke out Thursday during renovation work, the Emergency Situations Ministry said on its website.

The church’s dome collapsed before the fire was put out.

Officials say the fire could have been caused by a violation of safety rules during the renovation.

Source

Priest with an A-level in woodwork builds his own jewel of a church... out of a garden SHED

Perhaps Father Stephen Weston took inspiration from the fact that Jesus was the son of a carpenter when he built Britain's smallest church in his back garden.

Father Weston, 63, constructed St Fursey's Orthodox Church in Norfolk with just an A-level in woodwork, earned 14 years ago, to his name.

The byzantine arches of the wooden shed, which is 18ft by 13ft wide, has become a local landmark in the middle of Father Weston's housing estate.

St Fursey's is so small the holy processions carried out during each service only take worshippers ten steps along and two steps across.

There is no room to sit and after services the congregation step through a door into the priest's living room for a cup of coffee.

But the Antiochian Orthodox church - very similar to the Greek Orthodox but English speaking - is an official place of worship after it was blessed by a bishop.

Read the rest here.

Colorado: The next front in the battle against prohibition

DENVER — Proponents of marijuana have argued for years that the drug is safer than alcohol, both to individuals and society. But a ballot proposal to legalize possession of marijuana in small amounts in Colorado, likely to be on the November ballot, is putting the two intoxicants back into the same sentence, urging voters to “regulate marijuana like alcohol,” as the ballot proposition’s title puts i

Given alcohol’s long and checkered history — the tens of thousands of deaths each year; the social ravages of alcoholism — backers of the pro-marijuana measure concede there is a risk of looking as if they have cozied up too much, or are comparable, to old demon rum.

“Why add another vice, right?” said Mason Tvert, a co-director of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which has led the ballot drive. “But we’re not adding a vice — we’re providing an alternative.”

The goal of legalization, Mr. Tvert added, is not to make access to marijuana easier, but rather, “to make our communities safer by regulating this substance, taking it out of the underground market, controlling it and better keeping it away from young people.”

The debate here and in Washington State — where members of a pro-legalization group have also submitted what they say are more than enough signatures to secure a spot on the ballot — is premised on the idea that marijuana has become, if not quite mainstream, then at least no longer alien to the average voter. Medical marijuana is already legal in both states.

Read the rest here.

A few quick points.  It is not a propaganda myth.  Alcohol and tobacco are both far more dangerous than marijuana. Secondly saying the government should not criminalize something is NOT the same thing as saying it's a good idea to do it.  Any sane person knows that sucking anything into your lungs other than air is likely a bad idea.  But the obsessive attempts to regulate people's private lives need to come to an end.  All we are doing is criminalizing an entire generation, reducing respect for the law in general, and supporting organized crime which depends on the stubborn stupidity of politicians to make their billions off an underground market.

We could also add the staggering amount of public money being wasted on this fool's errand and the number of bodies populating the nation's morgues because of turf wars over who has the commercial rights to which street corner.  Enough already!

END PROHIBITION NOW!

I did not know this

Former President John Tyler, born 221 years ago, still has two living grandchildren. The one-term president isn't a well-known historical figure; he's probably best remembered for helping to push through the annexation of Texas in 1845, shortly before leaving office.

So, how is it possible that a former president who died 150 years ago would still have direct descendents alive today? As it turns out, the Tyler men were known for fathering children late in life. And that math is pretty outstanding when added up:

John Tyler was born in 1790. He became the 10th president of the United States in 1841 after William Henry Harrison died in office. Tyler fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler in 1853, at age 63. Then, at the age of 71, Lyon Gardiner Tyler fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. in 1924 and four years later at age 75, Harrison Ruffin Tyler. Both men are still alive today.

Read the rest here.

HT: MCJ

Poll: Furious Americans want to fire Congress

In a country sharply divided on almost every issue, most Americans agree on one thing: they don’t like Congress, and they would vote to replace every single member -- even their own -- if they had the option.

Fifty-six percent of registered voters say they would vote out every member of Congress if there were a place on the ballot to do so. That’s the highest response in favor of the question since it was first asked in March 2010.

And they say so across the ideological spectrum – with 55 percent of liberals, 55 percent of moderates, and 58 percent of conservatives all feeling the same way.

Read the rest here.

This is actually not a bad idea. Maybe it would result in some adults landing in Congress.

Protest Turns Violent Against Australia's PM Gillard

CANBERRA -- Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was dragged away by security guards Thursday after she was trapped in a restaurant by rowdy protesters demonstrating for indigenous rights following a ceremony to mark Australia's national day.

Some 200 supporters of Aboriginal rights surrounded a Canberra restaurant and banged on its windows while Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were inside officiating at an award ceremony.

The protesters were marching at the nearby Aboriginal Tent Embassy to mark 40 years since its establishment and rushed the restaurant in response to comments by Abbott earlier in the day, The Australian newspaper reported.

Read the rest here.

Great Martyr Vladimir of Kiev and the Holy New Martyrs of Russia

I am reminded that today is the Feast of the Great New Martyr Vladimir of Kiev (+1918), the proto-martyr of the Communist persecution.  And this Sunday is the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Russia.  We will never know the precise number of those martyred during what is indisputably the greatest persecution in the history of Christendom, but it is certainly in the millions.  Obviously it is not possible to identify more than a small percentage of these holy martyrs.  Thus the feast commemorating the millions whose names are lost to history but not God.

Thomas Sowell: GOP infighting is helping Obama

The Republican candidates' circular firing squad now seems to be using machine guns. Whoever the eventual "last man standing" turns out to be, he may not be standing very tall or very steadily on his feet — and he may be a pushover for Barack Obama in the general election, thanks to fellow Republicans.

Whether you are a Democrat, a Republican or an independent, this is a very serious and historically crucial time for the United States of America. What Mitt Romney did or did not do when he was with Bain Capital, or what Newt Gingrich did or did not say to his ex-wife, are things that should be left for the tabloids.

With the economy still faltering and Iran on its way to getting nuclear bombs, surely we can get serious about the issues facing this nation. Or can we?

Read the rest here.

Interesting post.  Of course my problem is that there is no material difference between Obama and Newt or Mittens.  They are all big government statists.   So my attitude is pretty much one of pass the popcorn, this is more entertaining than any of the crap on TV sitcoms.

Bells? We don't want no stinking bells!

COUNCILLORS will decide whether bells can ring out from an Oxford church for the first time in at least four decades after a cacophony of complaints from neighbours.

Russian Orthodox church St Nicholas the Wonderworker has applied to Oxford City Council for permission to install and ring new bells.

While originally a church, the Ferry Road building’s last use was as a sign factory and the ringing of bells was not allowed when planning permission was granted to turn it back into a place of woship in 2010.

But after being given a gift of bells made in Russia, the church now wants to have its planning permission changed – attracting more than 20 objections to Oxford City Council.

They have accused the church of bringing conflict into the local area and say the changes would “distress” the residents.

Ferry Road resident Ian Plummer said: “Bells by design are loud and carry long distances.

“The tolling of bells is not part of the general character of the area. The majority of the Russian Orthodox congregation do not live locally, including the priest, and hence it is incongruous that the local residents should be expected to suffer an additional frippery.”

Read the rest here.

Fed says it is unlikely to raise key interest rate until late 2014

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve went further than ever Wednesday to assure consumers and businesses that they’ll be able to borrow cheaply well into the future.

The Fed pushed back the earliest date for any likely increase in its benchmark interest rate by at least a year and a half, until late 2014. It said record-low rates are still needed to help boost an improving but still sluggish economy.

Read the rest here.

More cheap money. Stocks rose slightly on the news. Gold was up more than 2%.

US Navy SEALS rescue pirate hostages

U.S. special operations forces stormed an outdoor encampment in Somalia early Wednesday, rescuing a kidnapped American aid worker and her Danish colleague and killing nine men who held them captive, officials said.

Jessica Buchanan, 32, who is originally from Ohio, and Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, were abducted Oct. 25 by a group of armed men in Galkayo, a sleepy regional capital in north-central Somalia.

Read the rest here.

Well done!

More on the Dinner Menu

The Arlington Hotel circa 1930's

A couple days ago I posted a dinner menu dated October 13 of 1896 from an establishment called The Arlington in my hometown of Binghamton New York.  Subsequently I received several inquiries for more details and after a little online research I have discovered that The Arlington was an upscale hotel once located near the old train station.  The hotel was apparently a popular place to see and be seen and catered to local society as well as travelers of the more affluent type.  It was built sometime in the 1870's or 80's (still trying to pin down the date) and was upgraded a number of times over the years.  Sometime in the early 1910"s the hotel had some of its rooms converted into high end suites de luxe with the unheard of convenience of en-suite water closet and bath.  Everyone else still had to hoof it down the hall when nature called.  The restaurant with open terrace seating during warm weather, had a high reputation (as the menu might suggest) and was often booked for important dinners and functions.  Sadly the building that housed the hotel was torn down in 1969 as part of a so called urban renewal project to make way for a new post office among other things.  Another larger image of the hotel dating to the 1920's can be seen here.

A Mozarabic Liturgy

From the NLM.  Yes, Roman Catholics used to know how to build churches.  One notes the presence of Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Policarpo Stavrópoulos who oddly is wearing the epitrachelion.  Why?  Surely he was not directly participating in the liturgy or planning to commune.

From New York City

Obama Offends the Catholic Left

When Barack Obama secured his party's nomination for president in 2008, one group of Democrats had special reason to cheer.

These were Democrats who were reliably liberal on policy but horrified by the party's sometimes knee-jerk animosity to faith. The low point may have been the 1992 Democratic convention. There the liberal but pro-life governor of Pennsylvania, Bob Casey Sr., was humiliated when he was denied a speaking slot while a pro-choice Republican activist from his home state was allowed.

With Mr. Obama, all this looked to be in the past...

...Now, suddenly, we have headlines about the president's "war on the Catholic Church." Mostly they stem from a Health and Human Services mandate that forces every employer to provide employees with health coverage that not only covers birth control and sterilization, but makes them free. Predictably, the move has drawn fire from the Catholic bishops.

Less predictable—and far more interesting—has been the heat from the Catholic left, including many who have in the past given the president vital cover. In a post for the left-leaning National Catholic Reporter, Michael Sean Winters minces few words. Under the headline "J'ACCUSE," he rightly takes the president to the woodshed for the politics of the decision, for the substance, and for how "shamefully" it treats "those Catholics who went out on a limb" for him.

Read the rest here.

Scots Begin Bid for Vote on Independence

EDINBURGH — Choosing a day of deep symbolic importance, Scottish authorities set out on Wednesday to prepare the ground for a potentially divisive referendum on their land’s independence after three centuries of union with England that separatist leaders say is becoming increasingly irksome.

Like Northern Ireland and Wales, Scotland already has its own Parliament and administration with powers over areas like health and education as part of the United Kingdom with a dominant England. But now, the country’s political leaders are pressing for a referendum on full independence or at least greatly expanded autonomy.

For its part, the British government, backed by the Labour opposition, wants Scotland to remain part of the United Kingdom and differs with the Scottish authorities on both the timing of a referendum and the nature of the question it should answer.

Read the rest here.

Strictly for the lover of arcane points of international law and history...

You are not allowed to visit Pheasant Island, which lies near the Atlantic Ocean terminus of the French-Spanish border. But “it can easily be seen from the Joncaux bank, on the Bay Path,” the Web site for the local tourist office [1] suggests, without a hint of irony.

For border enthusiasts, that feels like insult added to injury. They’re condemned to contemplate the tiny eyot [2] from either bank of the Bidasoa, the border river that separates Hendaye in France from Irún in Spain [3]. And they can only wonder about the inscription on the gleaming white monolith that graces the island.

That monument commemorates the Treaty of the Pyrenees, concluded on the island in 1659. It fixed the Franco-Spanish border, following the mountain chain of that name as the natural boundary between the two countries [4]. But tiny Pheasant Island is more than the place where that treaty was signed.

For centuries, the island, less than an acre in size, was a favorite royal meeting place, often serving as a bridal exchange. In 1615, Louis XIII of France and Philip IV of Spain first met their wives — each other’s sisters — on the island, after having married them by proxy [5]. Later that century, Pheasant Island would be the place where both Louis XIV of France and Charles II of Spain first laid eyes on their respective brides.

In recognition of its historical significance, Pheasant Island [6] is also known in French as Île de la Conférence [7]. The Treaty of 1659 consecrated its significance to both countries by establishing it as a rare example of that curious border arrangement: a condominium.

A condominium is a territory jointly administered by two or more countries, often (but not necessarily) a territory on the common border between the parties involved. As one might surmise, such an arrangement depends on the benevolent cooperation of all parties involved — and indeed, historically, most condominiums have not survived very long.

Read the rest here.

Romney campaign worries as polls show Gingrich pulling ahead in Florida and nationally

Multiple sources are reporting that the Romney camp is getting very nervous.  The most recent polls show Gingrich leading nationally by 4+ pts and by almost 8 pts in Florida.  Andrea Mitchell at NBC reported that there has been talk among GOP big shots of trying to "reinvent the smoke filled room" and presumably draft an acceptable moderate Republican if Romney loses in Florida.  There is real fear of what will happen if Gingrich is the nominee.  He has staked out positions so far to the social/neo-con right that the only way he could win the general election is if the vote is limited to members of Free Republic.

The Guardian fumes over concessions on "female bishops"

The Church of England's House of Bishops – for which, read the archbishops of Canterbury and York – has explained how they hope to mollify the opponents of female clergy. The proposals are breathtaking.

The archbishops envisage that the Church of England, once it has female bishops, will continue ordaining men who do not accept these women, finding them jobs they will deign to accept, and promoting some of them to be bishops who will work to ensure the continued supply of male priests who refuse to accept female clergy. In fact, the church will pay three bishops (the formerly "flying" sees of Ebbsfleet, Richborough, and Beverley) to work full time against their female colleagues, and to nourish the resistance.

The General Synod, last summer, rejected the archbishops' plan to fix a reservation in law where the opponents could live as if nothing had changed. Now they have brought back the same proposals, but call them "a code of practice" instead. In theory, this gives both sides what they want. In reality neither will find it easy to accept.

Obviously this will be unacceptable to most supporters of women's ordination. But the cream of the joke is that it will probably be unacceptable to their principled opponents as well. The unscrupulous ones will, of course, be very happy with the deal.

Despite all these concessions, there will be female bishops, as there are already female priests, and these will be treated exactly the same as male ones – except by the men who don't want to treat them equally and who believe that God has called them to undermine women's authority wherever it appears.

This is apparently Rowan Williams's idea of justice.

Read the rest here.

Jewish editor resigns after suggesting Israel assassinate Obama

ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta) — The owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times resigned after fallout from his column on why Israel should assassinate President Obama.

According to an email obtained by the JTA, Andrew Adler announced he was “relinquishing all day-to-day activities effective immediately.”

Jerry Farkas, office manager for the Jewish Times, told CBS Atlanta that everyone is “saddened” by what happened.

“It’s a hard thing,” Farkas told CBS Atlanta. “We feel like we’re fighting fires.”

Read the rest here.

What a surprise... a new Protestant denomination

RNS) Conservative Presbyterians launched a new denomination on Thursday (Jan. 19), saying that the Presbyterian Church (USA) is too consumed by internal conflicts and bureaucracy to nurture healthy congregations.

“This ‘new Reformed body’ is intended to foster a new way of being the church, just as traditional, mainline denominations rose to serve in their day,” wrote leaders of the new Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians.

Read the rest here.

HT: T-19

Dinner In My Hometown (1896)

Click to enlarge

I just fond this remarkable dinner menu from an establishment (hotel? restaurant?) named The Arlington in my hometown of Binghamton New York dated from 1896.

Big hat tip to the New York Public Library which has digitized near 10,000 items from it's vast collection of menus going back to the early 19th century.  Just randomly glancing through them gives one a strange glimpse of the past from the perspective of what people ate and how dining out (or dining others in) was an often important social function.

Citizen Kane: Is the epic feud over?

The bitter feud that began seven decades ago between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst over "Citizen Kane" appears to have ended after the newspaper baron's family agreed to show the film at Hearst Castle.

Read the rest here.

Obama picks a fight with Catholics

The Obama administration has chosen to ignore the First Amendment and add insult to injury for Catholics whose schools, hospitals and charities help make this nation great. Now the real fight begins.

Religious leaders had feared the worst from Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and her Department of Health and Human Services, which since September has been considering whether to exempt Catholic and other religious employers from a regulation mandating insurance coverage for sterilization and contraceptives, including some that cause abortion.

But on Friday afternoon, Sebelius announced the bad news in the most offensive way possible. Refusing even the smallest compromise with religious employers, she simply gave them an extra year to comply with the law.

“This decision was made after very careful consideration, including the important concerns some have raised about religious liberty,” Sebelius wrote in a brief statement from HHS. “I believe this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services.”

Her attempt to appear compromising is absurd. What “balance” could Sebelius possibly mean? The HHS regulations include the narrowest exemption for religious employers ever proposed by the federal government, and even more restrictive than such exemptions in most states.

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Senator Rand Paul detained by TSA

Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., has reportedly clashed with the Transportation Security Administration at a Nashville airport, according to tweets from his press aide and father, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.

At about 10 a.m. ET, Paul's press aide, Moira Bagley wrote: Just got a call from @senrandpaul. He's currently being detained by TSA in Nashville.

Soon after, Ron Paul wrote: My son @SenRandPaul being detained by TSA for refusing full body pat-down after anomaly in body scanner in Nashville. More details coming.

NBC News' Kelly O'Donnell reports that aides to Sen. Paul say he set off a full-body scanning machine while going through airport security Monday morning.

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