The Russian Orthodox Church gets review rights over legislation

Patriarch Kirill

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill invited the United Russia deputies to his office to voice his angst over EU-backed plans to introduce sex education in Russian schools. He left the meeting with a promise from the pro-Kremlin party that he would be allowed to preview all legislation considered in the State Duma. The extraordinary agreement grants the Russian Orthodox Church a privilege not shared by any other religious community in Russia and not even afforded to the Public Chamber, the civil society advisory body that is supposed to have the right to examine pending legislation and influence its outcome.

It raises questions about separation between church and state, which is enshrined in the Constitution, and promises to raise new concerns about the growing clout of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has seen a revival since Vladimir Putin rose to power in 2000. Putin, now prime minister after eight years as president, heads United Russia. Patriarch Kirill invited two senior United Russia deputies to his office near the Christ the Savior Cathedral on Wednesday to express his worries about the Duma’s ratification of the European Social Charter on May 20. The charter, which Russia was obliged to approve as part of its membership in the Council of Europe, guarantees people’s right to housing, health, education, employment and other issues. It also requires public schools to offer sex education and member states to establish juvenile justice systems aimed at deterring minors from committing crimes — two matters that the patriarch told Deputies Andrei Isayev and Vyacheslav Volodin that he opposes strongly.

Kirill said parents should be responsible for both sex education and disciplining their children, not the government. “We told the patriarch … that the ratification of the charter won’t require any changes in Russian legislature and won’t lead to circumstances that will frighten the public,” Isayev said in a statement. At the meeting, Kirill also asked whether he could preview upcoming legislation to prevent any misunderstandings in the future, and the deputies agreed.

Read the rest here.

Scenes from the Feast of St. John Maximovitch

Here are some pictures taken during the various services commemorating the glorification of St. John in San Francisco. I actually got caught in the background of one of the photos. Click on the pics to see them full size.

(I can sort of be seen between the bishop's right shoulder and the protodeacon.)

Source

Resurrection

In the lower part of the sidebar the reader will note a section I named "The Blog Yard." It's where I preserve a few of the blogs that have died off, which I felt were good enough that they deserved to be linked if only for their archives. I am pleased to report that one of those blogs appears to have risen from the grave. Eirenikon, one of the few really good blogs dedicated to East West discussion is back. The blogger being Orthodox, I have moved the link into the Orthodox blog roll.

New York: Still trying to make California look good...

New York is still at it. That is to say they are still resolved to make California's government look rational if not positively good. Recall that back in June I took note of New York's bitterly and evenly divided state senate and how they were behaving like spoiled children. One of the major problems has been that New York's Lieutenant Governor's office has been vacant ever since then Lt Governor Paterson had to take over after Governor Eliot "Mr. Clean" Spitzer got caught renting the kind of entertainment you don't get at Blockbuster Movies. Thus there has been no tie breaking vote for the Senate.

Today Governor Paterson finally resolved this problem by appointing Mr. Richard Ravitch as the new Lt. Governor for the state. There is just one small problem. He has absolutely no authority to do that. There is no provision in the State Constitution that permits filling that office between elections. But hey, why let something petty like legality spoil the beauty of the thing?

Others mourn too

No this is not about Michael Jackson...

If Wootton Bassett had had the money to build a proposed by-pass, it would never have found a place in history. Lack of funds to divert traffic has had the unforeseen consequence of turning this otherwise obscure market town in Wiltshire into a national focus for honouring those who have given their lives in the service of their country. Twice this week – on Monday, and again on Friday – townspeople, visitors and the world's media will have gathered to watch a funeral cortege as it passes down the High Street.

The ceremony that has grown up in Wootton Bassett is as simple and moving as the coffins themselves, wrapped only in the Union flag. As the hearses approach, the tenor bell of St Bartholomew's Church begins to toll. Business stops while shoppers and shopkeepers join the crowds lining the pavement. When the cortege reaches the war memorial, the president of the British Legion says a single word – "Up" – to mark the moment when ex- and serving members of the forces should begin their salute. "Down," he says 60 seconds later, as the hearses move on.

"It is a most strange feeling," says Sally Hardy, manager of the Sue Ryder charity shop. "When the bell from the parish church starts to toll and the police stop the traffic, there is just silence. It is a very unusual thing to find in a town. Just about everybody and anybody comes out. It makes me feel there but for the grace of God go my son and daughter."

Dennis Smith, 73, an assistant at butchers K & E J Crump & Sons and a former corporal in the 5th Royal Tank Regiment, also stops serving when the coffins pass. "We all stand outside the shop and take our hats off. They come out of the pubs and stand in silence. It is a very patriotic scene. Everybody shows their appreciation of what the soldiers are doing."

In the last two years, Wootton Bassett has become a very British version of Arlington, the US cemetery where respect is paid to the fallen. No fuss. No flowers or razzmatazz. No tired old formulae of condolence dished out by the PM before the argy-bargy of Prime Minister's Questions begins. Just thousands of people, young and old, standing with lowered eyes and lumps in their throats at the thought of yet more young lives ended in a distant land.

Read the rest here.

Sometimes I think we Americans need to be reminded that we are not alone in the world and our soldiers are fighting and dying with comrades at their side from other countries.

A Western Rite Discussion

Some Ochlophobic ruminations on the Western Rite with my comment here.

Please leave comments there.

Michael Jackson: Pagan idolatry is alive and well

A golden casket and wall to wall coverage that exceeds that accorded the death of presidents, so what's missing? The only thing I can think of is a pyramid for a tomb. But then Forest Lawn cemetery has a reputation as a sort of modern day Valley of the Kings.

Break out the popcorn

Last week was busy. There was the parish fireworks sale (I am cautiously optimistic about how we did), and the trip to San Francisco. By time I got home Sunday after church and tearing down the fireworks stand I was really tired. So here I was sitting at home today after the busiest week in a while... and I was bored. Then I checked my usual sources for information on what's going on in the world, and I discover that my boredom is to be short lived.

Mid-summer entertainment is on the horizon, courtesy of The Episcopal Church.

Yes, that's right. TEC is getting ready to hold their every several years General Convention. And this year it should be more entertaining than watching those late night chiller movies we all loved as kids. You know the kind I am talking about. Where the creature comes out of the mist and creeps up on its intended victim.

With the departure of a sizable block of what was left of the Christian wing from TEC over the last couple of years, there is very little left in the way of a loyal opposition to the liberals. Of course the liturgical Unitarians already dominated the church once referred to as "the Republican Party at prayer." (Proof that God, while not a Republican, does have a sense of humor.) There are rumors flying that GenCon will drive a stake through the heart of the Anglican Communion wide moratorium on consecrating gay bishops and same sex marriages. This should have the effect of forcing everyone in the AC to choose sides once and for all. Indeed, with nothing left to slow down the "progressives" beyond their own self restraint, one can easily imagine the near endless possibilities for theological knavery.

With no other comparable entertainment, I guess its time to break out the popcorn and soda, lean back in the easy chair and wait to see what form the monster in the mist will take.

The service on the 15th anniversary of the glorification of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco

Video of parts of the liturgy on Saturday July 4th. There is also a close up of St. John's relics.

Hat tip to ROCOR UNITED.

The Incorrupt Relics of St. John (Maximovitch) of Shanghai and San Francisco

I was asked in a previous post about the relics of St. John (+1966) with specific reference to their being "incorrupt." Unfortunatly I did not take any pictures during my recent pilgrimage. This was more of a personal spiritual trip than sightseeing. The next time I go I will try and take some photos. However I did a quick google search and found several photos of St. John's relics.

The top one was taken some years ago during the transfer of his relics into a new coffin after his old one had rotted away. The middle photo is of his relics in their usual shrine in the right side of the Cathedral. And the last Picture is of him lying in repose looking towards his face (which in keeping with Orthodox custom is veiled). I can confirm that these photos were substantially what I saw in San Francisco last Friday.

Feast of the Holy Royal Martyrs of Russia

Sometimes it's easy to forget that saints were real people.

Holy Royal Martyrs of Russia pray for us!

I'm back

I have just returned from a one day pilgrimage to the relics of my namesake, St. John Maximovitch, in San Francisco. While there I had the opportunity to venerate his holy and incorrupt relics, take confession (along with hundreds of other pilgrims) and attend the all night vigil in the Cathedral of The Virgin Mary Joy of All Who Sorrow. The experience was profoundly edifying and frankly one of the most emotional since my reception into the Orthodox Church.

I added my own contribution to the sea of candles burning before the relics of St. John for innumerable family (both blood and spiritual), friends and those who have touched my life in so many positive ways. Thank you to everyone for being there in the good times and not so good.

A mobile military chapel

source

Feast of St. John of San Francisco and Shanghai

Today is the fifteenth anniversary of the glorification of my namesake, St. John Maximovitch.

The Antiochian Archdiocese: It's getting ugly

I am not under the Antiochian jurisdiction. As such I am profoundly reluctant to throw stones in what some might argue is not my fight. However I AM an Orthodox Christian who cares deeply about the Church as a whole. And I recognize that more than any other jurisdiction excepting perhaps the OCA; the Antiochian Archdiocese has been and is going to continue to be an integral part of what will eventually be a unified local North American Orthodox Church. Thus while the scandal now gripping it affects all Orthodox everywhere, it is felt most keenly here in the United States.

When a close personal friend and honorary Trustee of the Archdiocese sends vulgar and menacing emails on your behalf to Orthodox laymen, clergy and even bishops, that's not what I would call a good character reference. When said Trustee is also a gentleman with well documented connections to large scale narcotics and weapons trafficking then it is time for serious questions to be asked. And this time executive privilege will not fly. I don't care that Met. +Phillip is a Metropolitan. I frankly would not care if he were the Patriarch. Extremely serious allegations have been made and silence, under whatever pretext, is not an acceptable response.

The details of the most recent chapter in the ongoing scandal in the Antiochian Archdiocese (AOANA) are up over at ocanews.org and also the Ochlophobist has more on Metropolitan +Phillip's latest champion, Walid Khalife. The situation is starting to sound like an episode of the Sopranos with critics of the Metropolitan receiving very threatening communications from a man with simultaneously close ties to +Phillip and organized crime. I am not going to rehash the details of what has been posted at the two linked sites. But I do strongly recommend reading both posts.

So where are we? We have a Metropolitan who has refused an independent audit of the Archdiocese's funds since forever, who has been living a lavish lifestyle, who has been implicated in the forging of Patriarchal documents, whose supporters have used wholly deceptive means in an attempt to subvert the canons of the Church and reduce in dignity lawfully elected and installed diocesan bishops, whose supporters have further been implicated in the forging of Synodal and Patriarchal documents already alluded to, and who now has mobbed up "Trustees" trying to muscle his critics.

Enough!

Metropolitan +Phillip has been accused of things that in another day and age would have seen a bishop run out of town one step ahead of the angry crowd with pitchforks and torches. The Metropolitan must summon an emergency and open meeting of the Archdiocesan Synod and answer these (among many other) allegations for as long as it takes to satisfy everyone that he is and has been on the up and up. A forensic audit of the AOANA’s finances must be conducted. The ranks of its Trustees, honorary or otherwise, must be purged of gangsters and persons of similarly questionable backgrounds.

If he can not do this then he has forfeited any claim to obedience that might enjoin the other bishops and clergy in the AOANA. If he defies the faithful of the Antiochian Archdiocese and refuses to answer these very serious charges the bishops and clergy of the AOANA should cease to commemorate him and demand that he be deposed. The offense of forging Patriarchal and Synodal documents alone warrants excommunication.

Insured But Bankrupt Anyway

The New York Times is reporting that huge numbers of people who are facing bankruptcy over medical bills actually had insurance. This should not come as any particular surprise. There are a number of factors which contribute to the high rate of bankruptcies associated with medical bills. One is indeed a lack of health insurance on the part of a large number of Americans. This is a serious problem and one that needs to be addressed. But it is not the subject of my post.

The crux of the problem is that most Americans don't understand medical insurance, including what it is for. If you ask the average American if he files a claim against his car insurance when he has a flat tire or needs a routine oil change he would laugh at you. Likewise presumably most of us don't file a claim against our home insurance when the toilet backs up. We may swear a little as we run for the plunger, but we deal with it ourselves.

That's because we understand that our car insurance and homeowners insurance is for serious emergencies. A collision or fire or some other event that inflicts a high dollar bill on us. Why then do Americans feel that we need to call our insurance company to deal with routine maintenance or minor dings on... US?

Large numbers of people who have insurance either from work or purchased on their own tend to look for policies that will provide some coverage for routine medical expenses like the occasional doctors visit or a possible trip to the ER because someone gets stupid with a hammer and smashes a couple of fingers (been there and done that). But these same policies usually leave the buyer inadequately insured against the real danger to their finances and health.

That is not the flue or the measles or a smashed finger. It is the catastrophic medical crisis.

Being honest, most Americans who are stably employed could cover routine medical bills themselves if they set aside a little money in a rainy day fund. If you have around $5-10,000 in a bank account somewhere that is understood to be untouchable except for medical expenses then the average family could get the insurance they really need, which is major medical.

The vast majority of insurance policies held by Americans provide some coverage for the routine things and also some coverage for hospitalization and emergency medical care, a lot of which is unnecessary and merely adds to the cost of the policy. The only two things most Americans need to pay attention to on their insurance policy is the percentage of major medical expenses covered (hospitalization etc.) and total maximum lifetime payout amount.

The typical policy today covers around 70-80% of hospitalization bills. But that is frankly inadequate. The bare minimum needed to protect yourself from potential financial ruin is 100% coverage for major medical with a lifetime payout maximum of at least $3 million.

Consider a case from my own family. On March 30th of this year my step-mother collapsed while visiting her natural son in Florida. She was taken by ambulance to the local hospital which quickly diagnosed a massive stroke. Following protocols she was airlifted to a nearby regional medical center which specializes in neuro-medicine. She had emergency brain surgery performed on her that night. She spent the next 3 weeks in intensive care. And she is STILL in the hospital today, though not in ICU. I don’t know what her medical bills are but I would be surprised if they were not well north of a million dollars. Fortunately for her she is a retired teacher with excellent health benefits.

But a person whose insurance covers routine doctors visits but only 70-80% of hospitalization would be wiped out by this kind of event. Far too many Americans base their insurance needs on covering small minor expenses without considering what would happen if there were a serious medical crisis with very steep bills.

I can cover a few thousand dollars in bills from a quick trip to the ER if I needed to or even could arrange a payment plan if I was short on cash. But a high five or six figure medical bill would I suspect push me and most ordinary Americans over the financial cliff.

I believe the solution is for Americans to steer clear of the types of insurance that are most common today. They should save $5-$10k (depending on family situation) to cover ordinary expenses and low level medical emergencies. If the money is not needed then they are ahead of the game with money stashed and collecting interest. They should then purchase a major medical policy that will insure excellent care and protect them from financial ruin in the event of an extreme medical crisis. These policies are offered by most insurance companies with high deductibles of $3000 to $5000 (again you pay for the routine things) but they cover 100% after the deductible. They also have the added advantage of being generally less expensive than the ‘cover a little of everything’ policies most people buy because the insurance companies know they are not likely to have to pay out.

If many Americans are being bankrupted by staggering medical bills, I suspect it is in part a result of poor planning and bad spending habits.

In fairness many, indeed probably most Americans get their insurance from their employer. In some cases they have no real choice in polices and employer offered medical insurance rarely covers more than 80% of hospital bills these days.

In these cases the individual needs to consider his/her options.

There are essentially two ways to deal with the inadequate major medical coverage typical of employer provided insurance. The first is to opt out of the employer provided plan and buy the major medical policy on their own. The second, and usually the better choice, is to purchase a supplemental policy solely to cover any major medical expenses not covered by the employer’s insurance. As with catastrophic health plans, these policies are available from many providers and are usually quite inexpensive since they would only kick in in the event of a catastrophic medical crisis and then only to cover the 20-30% not covered by the employer provided policy.

But again for the math challenged, 20-30% of a six or seven figure medical bill is pretty substantial. A lot of families could not cover that on their own.

Why stagfaltion is coming

Both the money supply and federal spending have increased at breathtaking rates over the past year, unprecedented in peacetime. The policy decisions made by the Federal Reserve Board and Congress virtually assure we will enter a period of 1970s-like stagflation.

The recovery, when it comes, will combine slow economic growth, unusually long un- and underemployment, stagnating real incomes, rising interest rates and inflation. There is little that policymakers, having made colossal mistakes, can do to prevent such an outcome. However, there are steps that can be taken to shorten the period of stagflation and return to an era of robust economic growth, good jobs and stable asset and consumer prices.

The money supply is measured several different ways. They all show alarming increases. The monetary base (coins, currency and bank reserves) has doubled over the past year. It is increasing at a rate 12 times the average since 1981. M1 (the monetary base plus checking deposits) increased last year by roughly 16 percent, a near record and three times faster than average since 1981. M2 (M1 plus most savings deposits and money market funds) increased 9 percent in the past 12 months (a rate more than 50 percent higher than the average since 1981).

The demand for money is relatively stable and generally increases in proportion with economic activity (although precautionary motives play a role). Given the huge increases in the money supply and credit, future inflation is virtually ensured. Money supply will outstrip money demand, and the excess money will cause prices to be bid up.

Read the rest here

Hat tip Brian

Should we (the tax payers) pay for Bernie Madoff's crimes?

Let’s dispense first with the idea that the S.E.C. should be reimbursing Madoff victims. Why? Government agencies make mistakes, treat people unfairly, and do all sorts of things we all wish they wouldn’t. But by law, the federal government cannot be sued when it carries out an unjust prosecution or, for that matter, when it fails to uncover a giant fraud. Government negligence led pretty directly to the recent financial crisis. Does that mean the feds should be reimbursing us for our stock market losses? Of course not. Because it’s not really the S.E.C. that would be paying out the money — it would be the taxpayers. Why should my tax dollars go to helping Madoff victims? This is not 9/11.

Besides, as I’ve argued before, the S.E.C.’s negligence notwithstanding, shouldn’t the Madoff victims have to bear at least some responsibility for their own gullibility? Mr. Madoff’s supposed results — those steady, positive returns quarter after blessed quarter — is a classic example of the old saw, “when something looks too good to be true, it probably is.” What’s more, most of the people investing with Mr. Madoff thought they had gotten in on something really special; there was a certain smugness that came with thinking they had a special, secret deal not available to everyone else. Of course, it turned they were right — they did have a special deal. It just wasn’t what they expected.

Source

More drivel from the Liturgical Unitarians (TEC)

The theological commission of the Episcopal Church reports on their increasingly common practice of communing anyone (including the non-baptised). And they wonder why Metropolitan +Jonah ended ecumenical dialogue with them. Sorry, but if you are giving Holy Communion to Buddhists then we are not even on the same theological planet.

You are who you are in communion with.

Hat tip T-19

The new boys in the sidebar

OK I have done some updating to the sidebar. In particular I would like to welcome the blog Logismoi which I recently stumbled on. It's impressive enough that I am perusing the archives (something I very rarely do on blogs for want of time).

Also added is the Orthodox Christian Information Center. The wealth of truly great material there is astounding. But I feel obliged to add a caveat. Mr. Barnes (the site master) is from the conservative wing of the Church and some of the articles posted on his site are authored by Old Calendarists (though he is not Old Calendarist). While I am not passing judgment on their writings please note that some of the opinions there may be controversial.

Metropolitan Jonah Demonstrates True Ecumenism

Metropolitan Jonah's Speech to the inaugural convention of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA)

Hat tip to Dr. Tighe

This is what true ecumenism looks like. That said, I harbor no illusions about the likelihood of the ACNA coming to Orthodoxy as a corporate body. There are too many low church Evangelical types for whom accepting Orthodoxy would mean renouncing most of their Protestant theological heritage. But I do have some hopes that we might welcome some of the Anglo-Catholics into the Church.

Why Merkel is cool on Obama

Despite the president's claim at a joint appearance this afternoon that "I like Chancellor Merkel a lot," President Barack Obama and Germany's Angela Merkel are widely believed to have a somewhat frosty relationship. The biggest perceived rift between the two? How best to respond to the global financial crisis...

...One reason for the two leaders' different philosophies is ideological: Merkel is a center-right politician who has argued against bank bailouts in Europe. But German history is also a factor. Under the German parliamentary governmental system known as the Weimar Republic, Germans faced hyperinflation in the 1920s that destroyed savings and drove many people into poverty...

...The Weimar Republic stayed in power in Germany for another decade, but the period of hyperinflation is considered a significant factor in the emergence of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party – the Nazis.

Germans are thus particularly attuned to the dangers of inflation – and particularly wary of fiscal policy that they fear could bring it about.

"We learned from the worldwide economic crisis of the 1920s that an economic crisis can result in an incredible threat for all of society," Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told Der Spiegel magazine, as the Washington Post reported last year. "The consequences of that depression was Adolf Hitler and, indirectly, World War II and Auschwitz."

Source

Even rednecks got it...

Back when I was stationed in Virginia during my time in the Navy there was a running joke that went something like this...

How can you tell when you have walked into a redneck bar? There are three good indicators. First there is the large rebel flag hanging behind the bar. Next the bartender is wearing jeans, work boots, a flannel shirt and a hat with the name of a heavy machinery manufacturer on it. And lastly there is the sign prominently displayed reminding perspective patrons that it is unlawful to carry a loaded firearm into an establishment licensed to sell alcohol.

(For the record, I had a lot of fun in some honest to goodness redneck bars. Mostly good people there...)

The object of this post is not to post snarky jokes about drinking joints or their patrons but to point out that people, even people who generally take their right to gun ownership seriously, aren't stupid. Which is to say that I find myself in the extremely rare position of agreeing with an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times.

It would appear that the Tennessee state legislature has actually overridden the veto of their governor (a gun owning hunter) of a bill that repeales the aforementioned prohibition on carrying guns into establishments licensed to sell alcohol. Now I am a member of the National Rifle Association. I am also (in addition to being a monarchist) strongly sympathetic to libertarian politics. As such I support a reasonable right to own and yes, CARRY firearms.

That said, this law is asinine.

Any idiot with two brain cells going off at the same time knows that guns and booze don't mix. These knaves (the legislators) are trying to cover themselves by saying it's still illegal to actually drink while packing heat. That just makes me think that they are not merely morons but malicious morons.

First, places where alcohol is served are statistically far more likely to see disturbances because (what a shock) booze is not the world's greatest reinforcement of good judgment and restrained passions. The presence of a firearm in an establishment with lots of drunks is going to vastly increase the danger to everyone in there irrespective of whether the person packing is one of the drunks. That of course is accepting at face value the mendacious suggestion that all these people will want to hang out in a bar and only drink club sodas because they are armed.

This brings up the second point. WHY do you want to carry a gun into a bar anyways? Seriously. If you feel uncomfortable being unarmed in your favorite watering hole, you need to find a new place to quench your thirst. People may not have that option when it comes to where you live, which is one of the many reasons I support the second amendment. But that excuse doesn't fly with bars.

I know the hard core "I should be able to carry my piece wherever I want and whenever I want" crowd are going to throw a fit at what I am suggesting. But no right is absolute. Rights without responsibility is not libertarian, it's anrachy. This will absolutely increase the danger to the public safety and people are going to die as a result. It is akin to demanding the right to smoke in an explosives factory.

Even in the old west (Hollywood silliness notwithstanding) most saloons made you check your guns at the door. It was the law.

An Indictment

ANAXIOS!

Leave comments there please.

Living without the plastic cushion

This is one of the best articles I have read in a while.

Lisa Brough was forced into a debt-free life by medical disaster.

Her husband has Huntington’s disease, a degenerative brain disorder, and has been unable to work since 1999. The couple, who have three children, saw their finances suffer as a result. They ended up with $50,000 worth of credit card debt as Brough worked two jobs and still struggled to pay the bills and the high property taxes on their home in Westchester County, N.Y.

“I said to myself, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ ” she recalled. “He was going downhill, and I had to figure out a way to get out of this. I couldn’t count on tomorrow because I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring.”

In 2005, she took drastic measures. She decided to sell her $350,000 home, pay off all the family’s debt, and move to lower-cost Cary, N.C., where she was able to buy a house for $164,000 house in cash.

Since then it’s been cash and debit cards only for Brough, 50, who has no debt of any kind.

How does she do it? She buys secondhand furniture and electronics, gets her husband’s medicines from Canada at cut rates, has a $10,000 emergency fund and thinks long and hard before she opens up her wallet.

“When you use cash you think about what your needs are because you’re paying a big chunk of money at once,” she said.

This concept is probably a foreign one to many Americans who are addicted to buying almost everything on credit. But believe it or not, it is possible to survive and thrive without depending on credit cards. In fact, Brough is part of a small but growing debt-free movement, some joining because of personal or economic hardships, and others just looking to simplify their lives.

Read the rest here.

A couple of quick notes...

First tomorrow morning at 1130 Eastern (0830 Pacific) Metropolitan +Jonah will address the inaugural convention of the Anglican Church in North America. The address can be watched here.

Secondly, as many of you already know (and if you didn't, consider yourself fortunate) there has been something of tempest brewing in the Antiochian Archdiocese. The issue being a canonically dicey decree from their Holy Synod over in Damascus that purported to reduce the N. American Antiochian bishops to the status of auxiliary bishops in service to Metropolitan +Philip. After quite a blow up over the whole thing their Holy Synod reconsidered the issue last week and appeared to have substantially "clarified" their earlier decree in a manner effectvely nullifying it. (Roman Catholics aren't the only ones who know how to fix a mistake without admitting to having made one.)

This should have been the end of the matter, right?

Unfortunately what was essentially a heated debate over church canons and ecclesiology may be in the process of becoming a full blown scandal. Owen the Ochlophobist (a critic of the earlier decree) has written about the new and potentially much more serious issues here. Please leave any comments on the matter at his blog.

Having spent the last couple of years living through a scandal that at times seemed on the verge of tearing the OCA apart, I have great sympathy for our brothers and sisters in the Antiochian Archdiocese. I ask for everyone's prayers that this is resolved as quickly as possible, comencerate with truth and justice.

New York... Making Californians feel good about their government

ALBANY —Republicans and Democrats attempted to hold separate Senate sessions at the same time on Tuesday, leaving the Capitol in confusion and bickering as members of both parties shouted over each other on the Senate floor, and each party claimed it was in control.

Though Democrats had entered the Senate chamber through a back hallway just before 12:30 p.m. and locked the doors — much to the surprise of Republicans — Republicans moved ahead with plans for their own session and began calling for votes on bills as Democrats sat silent in protest.

Exactly who was in control of the Senate — or whether any of the procedural action the Republicans had taken was legally valid — was unclear. Democrats were successful in blocking Republicans from taking control of the Senate gavel, which remained firmly in the hands of Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins of Westchester County, who was guarded by sergeants-at-arms on both sides.

Read the rest.

You just can't make this stuff up.

The state Senate is split down the middle with the defection of at least one Democrat to the Republicans and there is no Lieutenant Governor to break ties. He became Governor after Elliot (Mr. Clean) Spitzer was caught renting high priced entertainment of the sort most men would not want their wives discovering. And of course this being New York there is no constitutional provision for filling the office of Lt. Governor between elections.

The Democrats and Republicans are both behaving like children in this matter, though I fault the Democrats mostly. They gained a majority in the Senate for the first time in decades in last year's election. But the Republicans pulled a fast one and managed to persuade two Democrats to defect to their side giving them a one seat majority. To be honest, I was pretty impressed by that one.

One of them has since re-defected leaving the Senate split with no tie breaking vote. Even during their brief (it was days) tenure in their one seat majority the Republicans were hampered when Democrats locked the doors to the Senate Chamber, refusing to surrender the keys rather than admit the Republicans. Then they hid all off the pending bills and legislative materials. Again they refused to hand any of them over. "If I'm not in charge then I'm taking all of the marbles and no one is playing anymore."

Sadly I am cursed twice over. I live in California, but am a native of New York. Sigh.

How about them Mets?

Some thoughts on Metropolitan Jonah's speech

Having listened to the speech and read it through a couple of times now I am beginning to form a few very preliminary impressions. First this guy is NOT Herman or Theodosius. And secondly while the OCA talked the talk in the past it's new leader seems to be taking the concept of a unified local American Orthodox Church far more seriously than any of his predecessors or for that matter any of the other senior hierarchs in other jurisdictions. Whether this is a good thing is something that I think will be much debated in the coming days.

I know of more than a few Orthodox (mostly cradle/ethnics but also some converts) who think America is not ready for its own local church and needs the firm guiding hand of the mother church(es). In fairness there are some weaknesses here in America. But I see that in all of the churches in the old country too. For good or ill though +Jonah clearly believes it is time to get serious about Orthodox unity, and his speech suggests that he means business.

Three dramatic points stood out in my reading of the address. First is that he made the OCA a negotiable entity. He made it clear that it is no longer about the OCA and he is not going to press the debateable claim that the OCA is the only canonical Orthodox jurisdiction in North America (a proposition he repeated at least once himself in a presentation some years ago). Now the OCA's very existence is open for discussion as long as whatever replaces it is a local North American Orthodox Church.

Secondly he pondered aloud the possibility of opening up the Holy Synod of the OCA to all the bishops of the canonical Orthodox jurisdictions in North America. Such a move would effectively undercut the newly proposed episcopal conferences that are supposed to be set up for the diaspora (a term I intensely dislike as it ignores non-ethnics and by implication downplays the obligation of evangelism). This would be a very interesting development. How would the other jurisdictions and their bishops respond?

And finally he as much as issued an invitation to the Antiochian Archdiocese to merge with the OCA (not "join") and form a new American Orthodox jurisdiction. Again how would this play out? It would create a jurisdiction that in size would rival the Greek Archdiocese which has been cool to downright hostile to the idea of Orthodox unity under anyone other than the Ecumenical Patriarch. How would the smaller jurisdictions respond? We can be fairly sure that ROCOR would remain unaffected in its ties to the Russian Church. But there are a myriad of smaller jurisdictions whose raison d' etat has been fading as each new generation becomes more American and the connections to the ethnic homeland of their ancestors weaken.

Of course these are just words so far. But they are words coming from someone who seems quite serious about his mission. That mission being Orthodox unity in North America.

Thoughts?

The OCA's Mission: To Disappear?

Another fascinating address by Metropolitan Jonah has been posted online for those who missed the live broadcast. It has way too many points to post excerpts while doing justice to the speech.

Read the entire address here.
Or listen to it here

Hat tip OCANews

Ecumenical Councils IV

The rather long discussion prompted by the recent post on Eastern Rite Catholics and the Filioque has (predictably) turned into a vigorous debate on Rome-Orthodox ecumenical relations and/or the lack thereof. But I think a few posts by an anonymous commenter and Father J, an occasional and appreciated (if often critical) contributor to com-box discussions here, require a response.

It strikes me that they are overstating their case and ignoring some important elements. First I know of no Orthodox Christian who does not want the unity of the early Church restored. What we do not want is unity at the expense of Truth. And since our two churches have different (often dramatically so) views on dogmatic matters, that creates obstacles which they and David B. Hart (see his essay here) seem stubbornly unwilling to address.

In short Fr. J and Mr. Hart are both wearing the same set of blinders. They are long on platitudes and short on substantive recommendations. When Owen the Ochlophobist asked Fr. J to name some of the carved in stone post-schism dogmas of the Roman Church he felt are negotiable Fr. J could not come up with a single one. While the dear father’s prayers for unity are much appreciated something a bit more concrete would also be helpful.

So I will ask Owen's question again; what Roman Catholic post-schism dogmatic definitions are negotiable? If there are none then we are back to square one which has already been described.

Unity can be obtained as soon as we Orthodox become Catholics, or Rome returns to Orthodoxy.

While we have held two councils post-schism that many Orthodox (including myself) consider OEcumenical, they did not dogmatize anything that should pose a severe problem for Rome. It is Rome's last fourteen claimed OEcumenical Councils which pose the near insurmountable barrier. This is especially true of the decrees of Vatican I whose definitions, as we Orthodox have repeated ad infinitum, are flatly inconsistent with the doctrine and ecclesiology of the Orthodox Church both pre and post-schism. Further the language of the decrees on Papal Supremacy and Universal Jurisdiction is so crystal clear and unambiguous as to remove any possible wiggle room for “doctrinal development.” In summary Orthodoxy does not require of Rome any assent to doctrine which she has not already claimed to agree to, while Rome demands total acquiescence to her post 1054 doctrinal innovations.

Even so I have opined in the past that there is a path forward, if Rome is willing to take the leap. I actually addressed this in a series of posts back on November 16 (here and here) and November 19 (here) of 2007. It was part of a multi party (and multi-blog) discussion on what might lead to restoration of communion.

I will spare everyone a lengthy reposting of my original articles and summarize them.

In a nutshell I believe the only path that has a reasonable chance at reconciliation is the one I have labeled "reset." Which is to say that Rome must de-dogmatize its post 1054 doctrinal additions and come to an OEcumenical Council ready to lay it all on the table for open discussion. This does not require as a precondition that Rome must abjure the Filioque or any of its other additions. But it does require that Rome must agree that no true OEcumenical Council has been held since the seventh (the last one agreed on by both East and West). The councils held since then could be treated as local synods of the Western Church and the "dogmas" promulgated would be understood as theologumena and the strongly held opinions of the Latin Church, that could then be debated by the Church as a whole.

As others have noted, there are surely some areas where we might be able to reach agreement. Most Orthodox would have little difficulty with coming to some sort of understanding on the doctrine of the Assumption. Many other points of difference might be resolvable. And then there are others where the odds are steeper than the slopes of Mt. Everest in winter (Vatican I). But I see no hope at all if Rome's position is "come, kneel, and kiss the Pope's ring and all will be forgiven."

In other words we need to start from where the breach occurred. Even if Rome agreed to this and such a council could be convened, it might well fail. Lyons and Florence did, though in fairness neither council was an attempt at a reset. But if a council were to have a chance it would only be if it were convened as the eighth OEcumenical Council, not the twenty-second. The question before us then is the same one I asked Mike Liccione back in ’07. Is Rome prepared to take this leap?

I think the answer must be negative as Mike implied in his reply (see the post of 19 November 2007). For Rome to do so would implicitly call into question her claim to being the One True Church. Effectively this still leaves us with what Owen has repeatedly stated must be the end product of any restored communion. One or the other of our churches must cease to be.

Montana City Job Apps

Name - check
Address - check
SSN - check
References - check
All personal web sites and passwords - DO WHAT???

Source

Royal Ascot

A Member of Parliament?

This one is for Bill... AKA The Godfather.

In Britain this week they are holding the annual Royal Ascot horse racing. The Queen and most of the Royal Family show up for this and it's one of the last society functions that is still a very dress up affair. Officially the uber formal dress code only applies to the guests in the royal enclosure, but by long standing tradition everyone gets into the act. Ladies vie for who can wear the most eye catching attire and the most outlandish hats. And yes the men still wear formal morning dress with toppers.

Some scenes here.
And some notable hats from "Ladies Day" here and here.

A glimpse of Orthodox Greece

The Future of Orthodoxy in America

A live video feed of the symposium at St. Vladamir's Seminary which begins at 7:30 PM Eastern (4:30 PM Pacific) today June 18 and continues through the 20th can be viewed here. Ancient Faith Radio Linked in the sidebar will also be posting audio podcasts.

Coptic Orthodox Converts Not Recognized in Egypt

An Egyptian Muslim converts to Christianity but the government will not recognize the act. He is currently suing the Egyptian government! This is a brave man and I would ask for prayers on his behalf. Christians in Egypt, of whom the non-Chalcedonian Copts are by far the largest group, face constant persecution and abuse.

Fr. Stephen Freeman writes on Divine Mercy & Justice

I strongly recommend his two posts on this subject which may be read here and here.

Please leave comments at Fr. Stephen's blog.

More knavery from the National Catholic Reporter

I have long since come to expect the worst from the pages of NCR. But even I am shocked at this blatant and openly heretical screed. The author's ignorance of church history and teachings is so appalling that it should be embarrassing even for this sorry publication. This is the sort of drivel one expects on some fundamentalist anti-Catholic website.

Update: Fr. Z has a post up on this with numerous comments.

A glimpse of Orthodox Serbia

The chant is the 135th psalm.

June 15th: Feast of the Great and Holy Prince Martyr Lazar of Serbia

Holy Prince Lazar pray for us, especially for your suffering children in Kosovo.

June 15th: Feast of Blessed Augustine of Hippo

Yes, he is an Orthodox saint.

He wrote some things which are not generally accepted in Orthodoxy. But we commemorate him for his great spirituality. His confessions are still powerful reading.

Eastern Rite Catholic's and the Filioque

Perry Robinson has posted on Rome's forbearance (and lack thereof) with respect Eastern Catholics and the Filioque. My comment is here. Apologies in advance to my Catholic readers. Neither Perry nor I are members of the kumbaya club.

While I have great respect for the Roman Church as I have said on multiple occasions, that does not extend to restoring communion absent some fairly major doctrinal shifts on her part. Nor would I expect anything less from Rome than a demand for complete acquiescence to all of her post schism doctrines and dogmas as a precondition to restored communion. Which in a nutshell is why I believe we need to work on the things we can agree on (there are many) and stop trying to put all the water back in the reservoir a thousand years after the dam burst.

Jim Grant on printing money

This is a really good interview (two parts) on the consequences of printing money. Jim Grant is highly respected in the financial world. Some of this is a little jargon heavy, but I think even the layman can figure out his points.

On a side note posting may be thin over the next couple days as I am out of town visiting some friends. However, I do have internet access so I will be trying to check email etc. And finally thank you to the many people who emailed or posted birthday wishes to me. Your kind words and wishes were much appreciated.





Hat tip to Al over at Accrued Interest. Although I don't agree with him, Al has been a consistent and very articulate champion of the deflationist position. I would encourage anyone interested in getting a contrary opinion on the dangers of inflation to check out some of his postings on the subject at his web site linked above.

Finland sends a priest to the European Parliament

I have mentioned in previous posts some disturbing goings on in the Finnish Orthodox Church. (here & here). Now there is an article in the New York Times about a Finnish Orthodox Priest who has been elected to the European Parliament. The Times notes that he has been suspended (though they do not use that term). But they also seem to have gone almost out of their way to avoid any discussion of what his positions are on political matters.

Indeed there is not a single political issue mentioned anywhere. I find it suspicious in the extreme that someone would write an entire article about an Orthodox priest elected as a European MP, taking note that his political affiliation is a left of center party and that the priest has been suspended, while declining to identify his position on any political issues. While much space is taken up with the good Father's opining that there is a long history dating to the days of the Empire of Orthodox clergy being involved in politics, not one sentence is devoted to explaining what his politics are.

Has Father Mitro sought election to public office in order to bear witness to Orthodox Christian moral values and spirituality in an environment that, I don't think would be unfair to characterize as a spiritual desert? Is he a missionary of God's Church to a body that seems to have forsaken God? For some reason my naturally cynical nature is telling me that if such were the case he would...

a) ...never have been elected in the first place.

and

b) If he were somehow elected the press (especially the Times) would either have ignored him or described him as a right wing extremist. I also strongly suspect that most of the other Euro MPs would have gone to great lengths to bar him from being seated in a body that is so notoriously anti-Christian that it has made repeated efforts to force the monks of Mt. Athos to permit women on the Holy Mountain and once refused to seat an elected MP who expressed as a matter of private religious belief that homosexual behavior was a sin.

All that said, I will forbear any judgment pending some clarification of his politics. But in the meantime you may color me highly skeptical.

Happy Birthday

Happy 85th to former president G. H. W. Bush (the good one). He celebrated his birthday by skydiving (I am not kidding). Personally I have never seen the point in jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, but to each their own. I understand that the first time he did this it was not voluntary. His airplane had just been perforated with multiple holes courtesy of the Japanese and after parachuting into the pacific ocean he spent some time drifting around before a submarine rescued the future commander in chief.

By happy coincidence it is also my own birthday. I however have no plans that involve anything more adventurous than taking advantage of a fast free Friday.

Can you balance California's budget?

Try your hand here. There are a number of things I would like to do that were not on the options list. But I suspect some are prevented by law or one of those %^&#ed public referendums that have helped make California effectively ungovernable.

A glimpse of Orthodox Bulgaria

Not for lightweights: A Baptist minister discovers Orthodoxy

From the blog Real Live Preacher

Last Sunday was the 4th of 13 in my sabbatical time. Each of them is precious to me. Each week I am choosing a place and a way to worship. I’m not a church tourist, hoping to see new things. I’m seeking spiritual experiences. I want to worship. Saturday night Jeanene and I still hadn’t decided where to go. I experienced something common to our culture but new to me. The “Where do you want to go to church - I don’t know where do YOU want to go to church” conversation. I found the Saint Anthony the Great website. It's an Orthodox church that has beautiful Byzantine art in the sanctuary. We decided to go there.

Shelby and Lillian went with us. On the way we warned them that this was going to be different. “They might not have changed their worship service much in a thousand years or so,” I told the girls.

That was an understatement.

Saint Anthony the Great isn't just old school. It's "styli and wax tablets" old school. We arrived ten minutes early for worship and the room was already filled with people lighting candles and praying. There was one greeter. I said, “We don’t know what to do.” She handed me a liturgy book and waved us inside.

Pews? We don’t need no stinking pews! Providing seats for worshipers is SO 14th century. Gorgeous Byzantine art, commissioned from a famous artist in Bulgaria. Fully robed priests with censors (those swinging incense thingies). Long, complex readings and chants that went on and on and on. And every one of them packed full of complex, theological ideas. It was like they were ripping raw chunks of theology out of ancient creeds and throwing them by the handfuls into the congregation. And just to make sure it wasn't too easy for us, everything was read in a monotone voice and at the speed of an auctioneer.

I heard words and phrases I had not heard since seminary. Theotokos, begotten not made, Cherubim and Seraphim borne on their pinions, supplications and oblations. It was an ADD kids nightmare. Robes, scary art, smoking incense, secret doors in the Iconostas popping open and little robed boys coming out with golden candlesticks, chants and singing from a small choir that rolled across the curved ceiling and emerged from the other side of the room where no one was singing. The acoustics were wild. No matter who was speaking, the sound came out of everywhere. There was so much going on I couldn't keep up with all the things I couldn't pay attention to.

Lillian was the first to go down. After half an hour of standing, she was done. Jeanene took her over to a pew on the side wall. She slumped against Jeanene’s shoulder and stared at me with this stunned, rather betrayed look on her face.

“How could you have brought us to this insane place?”

Read the whole thing here.

The minister has since made a couple more trips to Orthodox parishes which you may read about here and here.

Work in progress...

Playing with the website a bit today. You may see some things appearing, disappearing and being moved around.

A glimpse of Orthodoxy in the Ukraine

Lord have mercy!

Political Crisis in Britain

We Americans tend to ignore the politics of other countries to a degree that is frankly a bit embarrassing. But for those who have missed the news the British Labour Party appears to have suffered its second electoral drubbing in less than a week. Polls indicate that it has been crushed in European Parliamentary elections held yesterday by the Conservative Party and even came in behind a couple of fringe political parties. Last week Labour suffered massive losses in local elections.

This follows on the heels of a huge scandal which has rocked Britain's political establishment. It would appear that large numbers of Members of Parliament (MPs) have been abusing the official expense account for years. Charges for obviously personal items have been rung up on the public's nickel (or should that be shilling?) and the British public is livid. Making matters worse is that this scandal broke during a brutal recession which has left their working class in the same kind of pain we are feeling here in the states. The fact that the Tories (conservatives) were also up to their eyebrows in this scandal does not seem to have registered much with the voters who appear intent on punishing the party in power.

Under Britain's unwritten constitution the government (they use that word in the same sense we use the word "administration") must call for a new general election within the next year. And as one might expect the Tories smell blood in the political waters and the sharks are circling. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is now facing a revolt in his own party as Labour MPs are becoming concerned that they are political dead meat if they go into the next general election with Brown as their party leader. There have been a slew of resignations from his cabinet over the last week including one former female minister (political, not clergy) who accused Brown of using her as "window dressing."

Reading the tea leaves I think it's looking bad for the prime minister. He has been so severely damaged by members of his own party calling for him to step down, that even if he manages to hold onto power his ability to govern effectively has all but evaporated. This would seem to render his position untenable during a time of extreme economic crisis and potentially looming foreign crisis (N. Korea etc.).

If I had to make a guess I would say his chances of surviving in office are now less than 50%. The odd thing is that the Tories may have won too big in the recent elections. More than a few Conservative MPs grasp that Brown is by far the man they want to run against in a general election. If he is ousted it may not strengthen their electoral prospects unless it occurs in a way which forces an early election.

But my gut says Brown is political toast and he will be gone by the end of the week. If I am wrong and he survives this week then I think he will hold on until the general election, when the Tories will get their wish.

Stay tuned...

Some food for thought...

From Mike Liccione who updates his blog far too infrequently...

As as another Tiber-swimmer, Fr. Al Kimel, once wrote: "A church which does not claim to be the Church, outside of which there is no salvation, is not the Church founded by Jesus Christ." The Anglican Communion has, historically, understood itself to be at most a "branch" of the Church; but for Fr. Jeffrey and many others, the recent history of that communion calls even that claim into question. A church which recognizes no doctrinal authority other than a "consensus" identifiable by scholarship and subject to reversal by allegedly new things done by the Spirit cannot reliably transmit the "faith once given" to the saints—nor, indeed, eternal life. It cannot present divine revelation as anything more than a set of data about which various opinions can be entertained and should be tolerated. Such a church is not an authoritative vessel and teacher of truth, the Mystical Body of Christ which shares in his authority as her Head.

Read the whole thing here. Mike and I would disagree on where The Church lies. But here are words which express a very Orthodox understanding of the word "catholic" and what it implies. There are no multiple Churches and multiple Truths. There are no "branches." There is The Church, and there is that which lies outside it. Of course not all sects are created equal. There are varying degrees of error. But the Ark of Salvation and the true and grace filled Mysteries can only be found within the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church affirmed in the Symbol of Faith.

This is something which I think we have become a bit timid about pointing out to those outside of it. In all honesty I am guilty of this myself. No one wants to offend others and I seriously doubt many converts have been won by insulting people. But there is a fine line between being sensitive to causing unnecessary hurt or offense and fudging the truth because it might make people uncomfortable. Sometimes I think we shy away from saying things like this not because we are afraid we might hurt someone's feeling but more because we are afraid what others will think of us.

New Orthodox Church in Rome

The Russian Orthodox Church has a new church in Rome. There are some very nice pictures here.

Hat tip: Rorate Caeli & Carlos Antonio Palad

Caution: If you go to the Rorate post on the new church be prepared for the usual snarky anti-Orthodox comments.

More nauseating clap trap from the religious left...

A prominent Catholic academic and supporter of President Barack Obama says that Roman Catholic Archbishops Raymond Burke and Charles Chaput and Bishop Joseph Naumann did not take a "Catholic approach" when they insisted that prominent pro-abortion Catholic politicians should not take communion.

He also said bishops and priests who deny communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians are engaging in “intimidation.”

“Let me tell you that to be separated from the body of Christ even once is intimidation,” said Douglas Kmiec, professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.

Kmiec--a campaign advisor to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008--was barred from communion by a priest in California last year. Kmiec wrote a book, “Can a Catholic Vote for Him?” which promoted the idea that pro-life Catholics could support Obama, who supports legalized abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, and same-sex unions.

“But it is not just an isolated case of a mistaken priest who thankfully, with the discipline of the local archbishop (Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles), wrote a letter of apology, which of course, is accepted," said Kmiec, speaking of his own case, on a panel at the National Press Club last week.

“It is instead that since 2004, it has been the teaching of at least some bishops that this is something that should be readily advertised and pursued,” said Kmiec.

Kmiec, a former dean of the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University of America, cited these examples:

“‘Mr. Kerry, don’t come to St. Louis.’ ‘Mr. Biden, if you’re in town, in Denver, and you’re attending mass, you should think twice about coming to the altar rail.’ ‘Kathleen Sebelius, because we disagree with how you have discharged your responsibilities as you’ve been advised by your legal counsel, stay away. Publicly confess.’

“I suggest that is not either an effective or a Catholic approach,” Kmiec added.

Read the rest here.

Episcopalians mourn "hero" abortionist

First put down your coffee and grab the trash basket before reading further. You have been warned.

Join the Boston community in sharing our grief and celebrating the life of Dr. George Tiller, a true hero for women across the country.

Monday, June 1st
6pm

St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral
138 Tremont St., Boston
Across from the Park St. T stop

Read the rest here if you have the stomach.

Peter Schiff: Libertarians should take over the Republican Party

Obama gets a pass...

Big surprise here (that someone in the press is actually noting this).

The Obama infatuation is a great unreported story of our time. Has any recent president basked in so much favorable media coverage? Well, maybe John Kennedy for a moment, but no president since. On the whole, this is not healthy for America.

Our political system works best when a president faces checks on his power. But the main checks on Obama are modest. They come from congressional Democrats, who largely share his goals if not always his means. The leaderless and confused Republicans don't provide effective opposition. And the press -- on domestic, if not foreign, policy -- has so far largely abdicated its role as skeptical observer.

Obama has inspired a collective fawning. What started in the campaign (the chief victim was Hillary Clinton, not John McCain) has continued, as a study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism shows. It concludes: "President Barack Obama has enjoyed substantially more positive media coverage than either Bill Clinton or George W. Bush during their first months in the White House."

Read the rest here.

The (British) Supreme Court has ruled...

Pringles are a potato chip.

You just can't make stuff like this up. No one would believe it.