The Times (of London) Ranks America's Presidents

The Times of London recently ranked all 42 U.S. Presidents. Many of their choices were not surprising. A few were (and a couple I actually agreed with). You can read their list here. My rankings* are below. Feel free to share your own rankings or comment on theirs (or mine). One note I will make is that it appears some of the Times' historians ranked the presidents in part on activities that occurred outside of their terms as president. I confine my judgments of their administrations to what they did while in office.

1. Abraham Lincoln: OK. He came uncomfortably close to being a dictator, but he saved the Union. And he had the good fortune of being assassinated at the moment of his supreme triumph. Had he lived and had to deal with the messy issues of Reconstruction I have my doubts as to whether he would still occupy the # 1 slot.

2. George Washington: Father of the country and a man who’s near every action has become the guidepost for the conduct of presidents since. He was one of the most honorable men to walk God's Earth.

3. Franklin Roosevelt: He may have saved the country from revolution or worse in the height of the Great Depression. He gave hope in one of our nation's darkest hours and had the foresight to prepare the country for its involvement in the Second World War. He may have been the most gifted politician to occupy the White House.

4. Ronald Reagan: Few presidents can claim to have fundamentally shifted the political culture of the nation. Reagan is one of them. He said government was not the solution it was the problem and the era of big government liberalism effectively came to an end for 28 years.

5. Theodore Roosevelt: Or as some refer to him… the good Roosevelt. Teddy was our nation’s first modern president and he pushed through urgently needed social and economic reforms.

6. Dwight D. Eisenhower: He played nuclear poker with the Reds and beat em every time. He also was a great centrist president who got along well with people from both parties and provided a very badly needed period of normalcy after the war and depression years.

7. James K. Polk. He stole Texas and large parts of California and the south-west from Mexico and made em like it. Not really something I am too proud of, but hey he got away with it.

8. Harry Truman: One of the few true “ordinary Joes” to become president. He made his share of mistakes but his decision to revive the issue of civil rights in the teeth of bitter opposition from his own party’s southern wing scores big points with me. I am inclined to call Truman the last good Democrat.

9. John Adams: A bit of an authoritarian, but unlike Jefferson he knew how to make other countries respect American sovereignty.

10. William McKinley: I am not a fan of imperialism. But if you’re gonna build an empire you could do a lot worse than what Bill McKinley pulled off. His domestic politics were moderately progressive for the time. But he had the misfortune of being succeeded (and eclipsed) by Theodore Roosevelt, so no one noticed.

11. William Howard Taft: He never wanted to be president but let Teddy and his wife talk him into it. That said I think he is one of our more underrated presidents who actually signed more progressive legislation and prosecuted more anti-trust cases than T.R.

12. Lyndon Johnson: It has been said of LBJ that he got us into two wars (the war on poverty and Vietnam) and he lost both of them. But his record on civil rights makes up for a lot of that. I am no fan of big government liberalism, but Johnson finally completed the too long unfinished business of Reconstruction and made it forever clear that racism has no place in a civilized society.

13. James Monroe: There is a lot to be said for a president who knows how to get along with people and avoid a lot of partisan bickering. I think we could use a little more "era of good feelings."

14. Ulysses S. Grant: A relatively honest man who had the misfortune of presiding over one of the most breathtakingly corrupt (even by the fairly low standards of the late 19th century) administrations in history. His redemption comes from his aggressive efforts to protect minority rights in the southern states during Reconstruction.

15. John Q Adams: Noble ideas which mostly did not come to fruition. Though I do not count it in his ranking it must be noted he had a long and very distinguished career in Congress after the presidency.

16. James Madison: He tried to stand up to Britain for its policy of kidnapping American sailors on the high seas and impressing them into the Royal Navy. But he did so with no thought to what war would mean and no real preparation. The nation was left largely unarmed and defenseless by the Jefferson Administration and Madison did little to repair that deficiency in the roughly four years he was president before declaring war on England. It is a good thing the British were distracted by that short French fellow during most of the war or we would all be singing God Save the Queen at the start of the Super Bowl every year.

17. Thomas Jefferson: He doubled the size of the country and reduced the debt. He also let England kidnap thousands of American citizens with impunity and virtually disarmed the country while demanding foreign powers respect us. His neutrality and non-intercourse acts only serve to highlight his ignorance of economics and his naivete in foreign affairs. If someone wants to argue my ranking is generous I would have a hard time refuting it.

18. John F. Kennedy: A promising figure who never measured up to his soaring rhetoric. I feel uncomfortable passing judgment on him given the brief tenure of his administration, but his domestic program was mostly stalled in Congress and his sole foreign affairs triumph was the Test Ban Treaty. Unlike many historians I do not count the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 as a triumph but rather as evidence of a certain streak of recklessness. There is no possible way to justify bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war over the Russians doing what we had just done in Turkey. There were many ways that could have been handled differently with the same end result. Also certain aspects of his personal life including his notorious womanizing and his uncomfortably close connections to high ranking members of the Mafia would certainly have created a major political crisis and brought down his administration had they become publicly known at the time.

19. Chester Arthur: A surprisingly honest and independent president in an era not famous for producing such. He was the product of a notoriously corrupt political machine which he promptly ignored after becoming president and signed the first ever civil service reform legislation. He also is credited with founding the modern American Navy which had been allowed to deteriorate to the point of becoming a joke after the Civil War. Beyond which Arthur was a man who really knew how to enjoy life. He had a reputation as something of a Bon Vivante in Washington society with a taste for good food, wine and dancing with the ladies (he was a widower).

20. Calvin Coolidge: Probably the only true Jeffersonian to ever occupy the White House (including Jefferson). "Silent Cal" was the butt of scores of jokes and had a very dry New England Yankee wit of his own. He understood government's role was to leave people alone as much as possible and he was highly successful at it. He restored trust in honest government after the Harding scandals and enforced rigorous economy on the Federal Government. He was the last president to balance the budget every year he was in office, to never learn how to drive a car, to write all of his own speeches, and to refuse to allow a telephone in the oval office (he believed it was beneath the dignity of the President to talk on the contraption). While vacationing in the Dakotas in 1927 Coolidge came out one day and wordlessly handed out small pieces of paper to the press. On each piece of paper was the typewritten sentence "I do not choose to run for president in 1928." He never addressed the matter again.

21. Grover Cleveland: An honest man who did his best to curb corruption in a government where corruption was the norm.

22. Gerald R. Ford: An extremely decent man who had the misfortune of following a man who was much less so, Ford restored much trust and dignity to the office that he had never aspired to. His pardon of Richard Nixon unjustly cost him the election of 1976. He remains the only man never to be elected either president or vice-president to hold the office.

23. George H. W. Bush: Another decent man and an above average statesman, he was too often bored by ordinary politics and domestic issues. He disliked the partisan nastiness in Washington and never seemed to relate well with ordinary Americans.

24. Bill Clinton: “Slick Willy” was an average president who could have been much more. He was certainly one of the more gifted politicians to occupy the White House. But he never seemed able to think big. And the reckless nature of his personal life ultimately crippled his presidency.

25. Warren Harding: Often listed near the bottom of presidents I think he has been treated a bit more roughly than he deserves. Harding was a moderate Republican who fit in well with the expectations of the American public. He was the first president to promote arms limitations by hosting the Washington Navy Treaty talks which resulted in the treaty of the same name in 1923. Sadly, like Grant he was not a good judge of character when filling government offices.

26. Zachary Taylor: A very short presidency but one that might have taken a decisive step towards a constitutional abolition of slavery had he lived.

27: Andrew Johnson: A mean spirited drunk and bigot he nevertheless tried to let the South up easy after the Civil War. But he had no interest at all in protecting the freed slaves.

28. Rutherford B. Hayes: His election signaled the end of Reconstruction and the death knell of civil rights for blacks until the Truman Administration revived the issue.

29. Benjamin Harrison: An administration marked by four years of mismanagement and cronyism, he left the Treasury in rough shape.

30. John Tyler: The first vice president to succeed after the death of his predecessor. His actions set the precedent which has been followed since.

31. Herbert Hoover: The “great humanitarian” as he was ironically known before becoming president meant well, but his incompetence helped turn what would have been a nasty recession into the greatest economic catastrophe of modern history. To his credit Hoover was the first president to affirm the responsibility of the Federal Government to help people in distress through no fault of their own. But his mismanagement of the depression condemns him to the bottom ten list.

32. Franklin Pierce: Jefferson Davis thought well of him.

33. Martin Van Buren: A nonentity who played the role of a nonentity well.

34. Millard Fillmore: His birthday is a popular occasion for parties each year on the campus of the State University of New York at Buffalo (Fillmore’s hometown).

35. Andrew Jackson: Putting the president “of the common man” in the bottom 10 is going to be controversial. Oh well, that’s what I live for. The only way Jackson could be called an advocate of the common man is if you were not female, black, Indian, Catholic, Jewish or a foreign immigrant. Jackson was a mean bigot whose only use for blacks was as slaves. And that’s more than can be said for Indians for whom he had no use at all. His mass deportation of the Cherokee Indians in violation of a ruling by the Supreme Court was one of the most ignominious and despicable acts in our country’s history. Twice he vetoed bank bills which helped lay the groundwork for the economic disaster that would befall the nation under his successor. Though admirable, his stand against threats of secession does not make up for his many shortcomings.

36. Jimmy Carter: One of the finest ex-presidents we have had and one of the most incompetent presidents. Carter’s foreign policy was one of unadulterated liberal idealism which had no connection at all with the real world. During his administration the United States were repeatedly subject to humiliations by foreign powers and our armed forces sank into the most appalling state of disrepair and low moral since before the Second World War. His economic policies left the nation suffering from the worst recession in the post war era (up until the present depression).

37. Richard Nixon: This was a tough call given who I decided to rank just under him. But in the end I concluded that Nixon’s administration was only incompetent when it came to breaking the law and public corruption, unlike…

38. George W. Bush: Whose administration was breathtakingly incompetent in so many areas it’s hard to know where to begin. The total disregard for the rule of law by this administration though is what ultimately lands it near the bottom of my rankings.

39. James Buchanan: Again, this was a tough call. Buchanan almost always ranks at the bottom of every historian’s list of presidents. And there will no doubt be cries of heresy over who I have put in his place. Buchanan nearly lost the country in the last few months of his presidency and did nothing to prevent the crisis. Other than that one could argue he was not a horrible president. He also has the distinction of being our only bachelor president and quite probably the only homosexual to hold the office.

40. Woodrow Wilson: I detest Wilson for most of the reasons that the Times and all the liberal weenies love him (and a few others on the side). Woodrow Wilson was a self absorbed man with a messianic complex that in any ordinary person would have caused others to question his mental faculties. He was so absolutely convinced that he knew what the world needed that he dragged the United States into a war we had no business being in and got a quarter of a million Americans killed. In the process of arbitrarily creating the new world order according to his own judgments after the war, he was the prime instigator in dismantling most of Europe’s old order and replacing it with a hodge podge of states that had little cohesion and no real foundation. As just one example, the perpetual crisis in the Balkans in the 90’s is a direct consequence of the dismantling of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which had maintained a semblance of order among its vast and diverse populace. The Second World War is something which must at least in part be laid at Wilson’s feet. Had we stayed out of the First World War it would have ended with a German victory (distasteful, but again none of our business) and the complete catastrophe of the treaty of Versailles would most likely have been avoided.

Wilson was a bigot who quickly broke his campaign pledge on taking office and issued an executive order segregating the civil service on racial lines. During the war he exercised powers that Lincoln could only have dreamed of and sharply curtailed freedom of speech and the press. He jailed any who dared to criticize his administration or the war. Wilson’s obsessions with the war also lead directly to the suppression of most serious efforts to deal with the crisis of the influenza pandemic in the Fall of 1918. This lead to the deaths of more than 700,000 Americans, almost three times as many as were killed by the Kaisers army.

And finally on a very petty point of peevishness I note that it was Wilson’s Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, an outspoken white supremacist and puritanical Methodist (yes there were such things at one time), who on taking office in 1913 swiftly moved to abolish the immemorial custom of the daily ration of rum for all enlisted men in the Navy. Mr. Daniels was one of the movers and shakers behind what would eventually become Prohibition. To this day all Navy ships are dry and remain the last vestige of Federally enforced prohibition.

*Note: William Henry Harrison and James A Garfield both were in office for less than six months and I believe can not be fairly ranked.

Rise in Jobless Poses Threat to Stability Worldwide

PARIS — From lawyers in Paris to factory workers in China and bodyguards in Colombia, the ranks of the jobless are swelling rapidly across the globe.

Worldwide job losses from the recession that started in the United States in December 2007 could hit a staggering 50 million by the end of 2009, according to the International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency. The slowdown has already claimed 3.6 million American jobs.

High unemployment rates, especially among young workers, have led to protests in countries as varied as Latvia, Chile, Greece, Bulgaria and Iceland and contributed to strikes in Britain and France.

Last month, the government of Iceland, whose economy is expected to contract 10 percent this year, collapsed and the prime minister moved up national elections after weeks of protests by Icelanders angered by soaring unemployment and rising prices.

Just last week, the new United States director of national intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, told Congress that instability caused by the global economic crisis had become the biggest security threat facing the United States, outpacing terrorism.

“Nearly everybody has been caught by surprise at the speed in which unemployment is increasing, and are groping for a response,” said Nicolas Véron, a fellow at Bruegel, a research center in Brussels that focuses on Europe’s role in the global economy.

Read the rest here.

Peter Schiff: "People did not want to hear that there is no Santa Claus"

I can't imagine why anyone would call him Dr. Doom.

Bush is gone and Venezuela's dictator needs a new scapegoat

Venezuelan strong man Hugo Chavez

VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chávez, who says he intends to remain in office for decades to come, lost a referendum 14 months ago that would have removed the constitutional limit on his tenure. When he announced another referendum in December, the first polls showed him losing again by a wide margin. Yet, as Sunday's vote approaches, his government is predicting victory -- and some polls show him with a narrow advantage.

How did Latin America's self-styled "Bolivarian revolutionary" turn his fortunes around? Not through rational argument, it is fair to say. Mr. Chávez's regime has mounted a propaganda and intimidation campaign of a ferocity rarely seen in Latin America since the region returned to democracy 25 years ago. Pro-Chávez rhetoric dominates the national airwaves, from which opposition voices have been almost entirely excluded. Pro-government thugs have targeted student demonstrations, the home of an opposition journalist and the Vatican's embassy, which gave shelter to one student leader.

Then there is the assault on Venezuela's Jewish community -- which seems to have replaced George W. Bush as Mr. Chávez's favorite foil. After Israel's offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip last month, the caudillo expelled Israel's ambassador and described Israel's actions in Gaza as "genocide." Then Mr. Chávez turned on Venezuela's Jews. "Let's hope that the Venezuelan Jewish community will declare itself against this barbarity," Mr. Chávez bellowed on a government-controlled television channel. "Don't Jews repudiate the Holocaust? And this is precisely what we're witnessing."

Government media quickly took up the chorus. One television host close to Mr. Chávez blamed opposition demonstrations on two students he said had Jewish last names. On a pro-government Web site, another commentator demanded that citizens "publicly challenge every Jew that you find in the street, shopping center or park" and called for a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses, seizures of Jewish-owned property and a demonstration at Caracas's largest synagogue. On Jan. 30 the synagogue was duly attacked by a group of thugs, who spray-painted "Jews get out" on the walls and confiscated a registry of members. Mr. Chávez denied responsibility; days later, the attorney general's office said that 11 people detained in connection with the attack included five police officers and a police intelligence operative.

It is fair to infer that Mr. Chávez doesn't care to dwell on more mundane domestic issues in Venezuela. The oil-based economy is crashing; inflation, at over 30 percent, is the highest in Latin America, and shortages of basic goods are common. Venezuela ranks 158th out of 180 countries in a global corruption index, and its murder rate has tripled under Mr. Chávez, making Caracas one of the most dangerous cities in the world. If Mr. Chávez loses the referendum, he could very well join the country's eclipse, which appears likely to accelerate in the next year or two. Apparently, he's already decided whom to blame.

Source.

200 Years Ago Today

Abraham Lincoln born February 12, 1809

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

-A. Lincoln at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863

The Religious Blog Awards competition heats up

I think Caroline Cannonball has hired Karl Rove as her campaign manager. No response yet from the Fr. Z campaign.

Sad News

I have been informed that Roman Catholic blogger Michael Dubruiel the husband of Amy Welborn (a well known blogger in her own right) reposed suddenly this morning. Please keep Amy and the children in your prayers as they cope with this terrible loss.

May his memory be eternal.

Black And Whistling Dixie

Nelson W. Winbush of Kissimmee FL, whose grandfather fought for the Confederacy.

This from the AP today.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A black state senator is pushing a bill that would require South Carolina cities and counties to give their workers a paid day off for Confederate Memorial Day or lose millions in state funds.

Democratic Sen. Robert Ford's bill won initial approval from a Senate subcommittee Tuesday. It would force county and municipal governments to follow the schedule of holidays used by the state, which gives workers 12 paid days off, including May 10 to honor Confederate war dead. Mississippi and Alabama also recognize Confederate Memorial Day.

Years ago, Ford said, he pushed a bill to make both that day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day paid holidays. He considered it an effort to help people understand the history of both the civil rights movement and the Confederacy in a state where the Orders of Secession are engraved in marble in the Statehouse lobby, portraits of Confederate generals look down on legislators in their chambers and the Confederate flag flies outside.

"Every municipality and every citizen of South Carolina, should be, well, forced to respect these two days and learn what they can about those two particular parts of our history," Ford said Tuesday.

Read the rest here.

Although certainly rare, this sort of thing is not completely unknown.

From the St. Petersburg Times October 7th 2007...

KISSIMMEE -- Nelson Winbush rotates a miniature flag holder he keeps on his mantel, imagining how the banners would appear in a Civil War battle.

The Stars and Bars, he explains, looked too much like the Union flag to prevent friendly fire. The Confederacy responded by fashioning the distinctive Southern Cross -- better known as the rebel flag.

Winbush, 78, is a retired assistant principal with a master's degree, a thoughtful man whose world view developed from listening to his grandfather's stories about serving the South in the "War Between the States."

His grandfather's casket was draped with a Confederate flag. His mother pounded out her Confederate heritage on a typewriter. He wears a rebel flag pinned to the collar of his polo shirt.

Winbush is also black.

"You've never seen nothing like me, have you?"

Read the whole story.

First, I'm a Yankee born and bread whose ancestors wore the blue uniform (one gave an arm for the Union at Gettysburg). And yea I do find the idea of African-Americans standing up for the Confederacy more than a little odd. But as they say, it's a free country. And while, I have read some Neo-Confederate apologetics, and concede that a strict construction of the Constitution may have given states a right to secede; I find the argument that the defense of slavery was not the primary motive behind the South's decision to exercise that right, to be spurious at best.

All of this said, I respect the efforts by (most) Southerners to preserve their heritage as long as they present it honestly. I think it unreasonable of some to demand that an entire group of people go forth and collectively spit on the graves of their ancestors. Most soldiers in the Confederate Army did not own slaves and were not fighting for or against the institution. In their minds they were mainly fighting for the right to be left alone. Those seeking to vilify the soldiers of the Confederacy would do well to consider the complexity of Southern society in that day and age. It was not nearly as monolithic as some would have us believe. And then of course we must also bear in mind the caution about attempting to pass moral judgments on persons of another era according to our modern societal norms. That is a dangerous and slippery slope.

Church or Correctional Facility?

Ahh the ugly church contest. Head over to Crescat and take your best guess. I am wondering what the answers are. Frankly I think they all have the aesthetic charm of a Greyhound Bus Station.

More on Blago

Orrologion posted an interesting question which raised some points I did not cover in my previous post. My answer turned into something long enough that I think it deserves a post of its own as a response. First Orrologion's comment from the preceding thread.

I think the devil is in the details on this one. Do we know, to start with, what the Constitution of the State of IL says on a matter of impeachment? Can impeachment only be done on the basis of a crime, or can other factors be taken into account.

As an example, the Clinton impeachment required both a legal proceeding, undertaken by the House of Representatives and presided over by the Chief Justice AND a ratification by the Senate, which required no legal proceedings being a purely political standard. Clinton was (rightly, to my mind) impeached by according to the legal standard and then that impeachment was not approved by the Senate (rightly, again, to my mind, given the fishing expeditions that led to the perjury). The IL Constitution may not require a legal proceeding, or at least not one that demands a specific and overly high bar if the framers intent was to ensure trust between the executive and the legislature (a constitutional ethic of shared weakness akin to Fr. Stephen Freeman's comments on the 'weakness' of Orthodox ecclesiology).

Orrologion makes some interesting points. The Illinois State Constitution is closely modeled after the Federal Constitution. With respect to impeachment the matter was deliberately left vague by the framers while setting a high bar (2/3 super majority) for removal by the Senate. When asked about what would be grounds for impeachment the then minority leader of the House of Representatives in the early 1970's Gerald Ford famously responded that "the House could impeach the president for a bad haircut. Getting the Senate to convict is a different story."

Most constitutional scholars tend to agree that the power of impeachment is not limited to offenses against the criminal code. And it also needs to be noted that this was NOT a criminal trial with criminal sanctions attached. In that sense this was not a "judicial" proceeding.

But it was a process whereby the legislature effectively cast a veto over the last general election in which the people of Illinois elected Blago as their Governor. Also the framers deliberately did not establish a parliamentary system of government here. So I don't think it would be fair to reduce what we saw to the equivalent of a vote of "no confidence" which typically compels a prime minister to resign.

Clearly it falls somewhere between a criminal proceeding and a simple decision by an employer to terminate an employee suspected if inappropriate behavior. I think that while again conceding, this was not a "judicial" proceeding that it was "juridical." Recall that the Senate convened as a “tribunal” for the purpose of “trying” the Governor. It passed a judgment on the Governor that he had abused the powers of his office and in this case committed acts which could be considered criminal and it removed him from office and barred him for life from holding any office of public trust in Illinois.

Further while the process may not have been laid out in any detail, it was a "constitutional" process by which the Governor was removed. A proceeding which is at once both "juridical" and "constitutional" in nature I believe implies the guarantee of at least a modicum of due process rights. One notes that the in the armed forces commanding officers are empowered under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (Title X U. S. Code ) to impose “Non-Judicial Punishment” on servicemen for minor infractions of military discipline such as overstaying leave or mouthing off to a superior. These often informal proceedings are not criminal (they are not Courts Martial) and the punishments are typically limited to reduction in rank, restriction to quarters, assignment of extra duties and fines which normally can not exceed a half months pay per month for two months. But the courts have also consistently held that while such proceedings are not “judicial” they are still “juridical” in nature and that the accused must still be given a fair hearing and an opportunity to offer a defense.

All that said the State Senate is a part of the legislative branch of the government and is co-equal to the other branches including the judiciary. Thus I am not sure that the former Governor has much recourse. The constitution gives the power of removal to the Senate and outside of the 2/3 majority requirement the rest is left to the Senate to determine. Based on this one could make a narrow though compelling argument that the Senate did not violate any of Blagojevich's rights. That's the legal argument.

But my short essay was more about the question of due process as a basic concept of fairness. In that context I think the Senate trial fails miserably. It was not a trial at all. It was a political firing squad thinly disguised as a trial. When one considers that this is the first time Illinois has ever impeached and removed a Governor from office it becomes even more disturbing. For good or ill (I am strongly disposed to believe the latter) this “trial” is now not only a precedent, it is indeed THE precedent. And I think it is a very unfortunate one.

Thoughts on Blago

This is going to be short, as I really don't want to spend much time on this sordid subject. But I think something needs to be said that no one wants to talk about. To no one's surprise today the Illinois State Senate removed God's gift to late night television comedians, otherwise known as Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, from office. The vote was 59-0.

The man was indisputably a clown and almost indisputably guilty of some of the most insane behavior in the history of political crime. Let’s be honest here. If stupidity were a crime he would get the chair. But the bone sticking in my throat is not whether or not he was guilty (he clearly was). Nor whether or not he should have been removed from office (this is a couple years over due). My problem is with a really quaint and to be honest, damned inconvenient phrase composed of two words, "Due Process."

It's the bizarre idea that no matter how obviously guilty a man is, no matter if he shot the sheriff in front of a hundred people in broad daylight and sat on the corpse until he was arrested, he is still entitled to a fair trial before he can be hung. And let us again be frank and honest. Whatever you choose to call what went on in Springfield over the last week; due process and fair trial are not words which can be applied. The descriptive term which I am leaning towards is "kangaroo court."

OK, I will admit it. It really is hard to feel bad when an obvious sleaze ball like Blago gets the legal shaft. And I don't think anyone not in urgent need of anti-psychotic medication could seriously argue that Illinois is not better off without him. But I keep getting pulled back to those damned inconvenient words again, “Due Process.”

The man was hauled (figuratively) in front of a tribunal where the rules established that all evidence received from the lower house (which had just impeached the Governor) was to be accepted at face value and could not be challenged. No matter that the accused was not allowed to question or challenge any of the evidence in the House of Representatives either. Nor was he permitted to summon any witnesses on his behalf to testify or to question his accusers under oath.

No. Whatever we might want to call it; this was not justice. This was a lynching. For the record a lot of people who were lynched were as guilty as sin of the crimes they were strung up for. But it was still a lynching. There was not even a pretense to a fair trial. The outcome was pre-ordained. Stalinist show trials had more drama and suspense.

Call me a wimpy liberal (I self identify as a monarchist with strong libertarian sympathies), but when we stop worrying about due process for the obviously guilty, who will stand up when the not so obviously guilty are getting railroaded? How will we know the difference? Blago is gone and good riddance to be sure. But I gotta admit that the way it was done has left a really bad taste in my mouth. All in all, this was not a great day for American justice. It was a rather depressing one.

A Roman Catholic Who Gets It

From a discussion at the New Liturgical Movement:

"There are several other patriarchs out there who would love full communion with Rome, but out of reverence for Moscow have been awaiting for Moscow to lead. The process of dialogue and reunification has for a long time been held up by Moscow."

Roger, this is the line that much of the Catholic media likes to feed us, but unfortunately it isn't true.

I would like to point out that Patriarch Bartholomew, for all of his friendliness to Rome, has always insisted that we Catholics are heterodox. To this very day, many Greek Orthodox dioceses under Constantinople reject the validity of Catholic sacraments. And you can be sure that if ever Bartholomew were to proclaim reunion with Rome, the Athonites and most of his own bishops will rebel against him.

Same with the Patriarchate of Antioch, which, with Constantinople, is considered as the friendliest to Catholicism. When the Melkite Catholics tried to reunite with the Antiochene Orthodox in 1997 the Antiochenes made it clear that there will be no reconciliation unless the Melkites explicitly rejected all the ecumenical Councils not also recognized by the Orthodox Church.

When Daniel of Moldova was elected Romanian Orthodox Patriarch last year, he made clear that there will be no reunion with Rome. And he is almost as friendly to Catholics as Bartholomew.

The Church of Greece continues to be shot through with anti-Catholicism, and Jerusalem doesnt even recognize Catholic baptisms. As for the Slavic Orthodox -- Serbia, Bulgaria, Czech and Slovak Lands, Poland, OCA -- these follow the indications of Moscow.

Perhaps the most telling fact is that, when the Catholic-Orthodox dialogue appealed in 1999 to all the Orthodox Churches to recognize the validity of Catholic BAPTISMS, NOT A SINGLE Orthodox Church responded to the proposal. Not Constantinople, not Antioch, not Alexandria...

There is a saying that the Orthodox tend to overestimate the division between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, while we Catholics tend to underestimate it.

Carlos Palad

One could fairly quibble (though I do not) about this being a rather broad generalization, but here is a Roman Catholic who seems to grasp something that far too many of his coreligionists (and not a few Orthodox) do not. Yes there is some diversity of opinion in Orthodoxy on a few points. But this is a breath of fresh air compared to the kumbaya crowd who persistently attempt to minimize the differences between Orthodoxy and Rome and tend to get snarky with those of us who periodically attempt to inject some reality into these discussions.

I am very strongly in favor of improving relations with Rome. There are many obvious areas of mutual interest for both confessions. But as I have noted ad infinitum, I am more than a little skeptical about restoration of communion. I think we have grown too far apart for that to happen without, as Owen the Ochlophobist once observed, one or the other (Orthodoxy or the Roman Catholic Church) ceasing to be what it is.

I am going to leave the comments open but I would ask that comments on Carlos' post be left at the original discussion over at NLM (see the link above).

SSPX Silences Williamson

This is turning into a rather busy day for religious news. The latest shoe to drop in the ongoing SSPX saga fell today with the announcement that Bishop Fellay (the superior general of the SSPX) has ordered Bishop Williamson to refrain from any further comments on "historical and political" matters. He also pointedly apologized to the Pope for the embrassment his collegaue has caused. All well and good to be sure, but I can not help but note what was left unsaid. This statement did not condemn Williamson's odious opinions. Rather it condemnes the distraction and embarrsment they have created.

Rorate has the details.

MANY YEARS!!!

To His Holiness Kirill Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia elected today to succeed the newly departed Patriarch Alexeii who reposed suddenly in December. May God grant him many many years!

AXIOS AXIOS AXIOS!!!

Father Z on the SSPX

As most who keep track of these things will know the Pope lifted the excommunications of the four schismatic bishops of the Society of St. Pius X on Saturday. This has caused quite a stir for some of the reasons I mentioned in an earlier post. Now Fr. Z has a really good piece up on the subject which he dissects with his customary sharp insights. It addresses in detail some points I have alluded to before about the connection between Catholic Traditionalists and radical right politics. I strongly recommend it.

Election Day...

It's election day in Russia where the new Patriarch is expected to be elected sometime today. Results will be posted as soon as I get the word. Please keep the Russian Church in your prayers during this very important moment in their history.

Heard you were robbed... Can I bring you a pie?

CARLETON, Neb.
The man entered the intimate Citizens State Bank with a balaclava covering his face and sunglasses shading his eyes. His attire did not seem too out of place, given that workers at the nearby grain elevator are known to wear similar protection against the punishing cold of Nebraska in winter.

Here in Carleton, the standard greeting — “Keeping out of trouble?” — gleans a “Yep” or a “Nope,” both equally reassuring to its population of about 136. But this man stepped up to the counter, with its rack of candy canes and clear view of the silvery vault open in trust, and greeted the teller with: Give me your money.

The salutation received a classic Carleton response, something along the lines of: Are you serious?

The man answered by making sure she saw the pocket of his heavy Carhartt coat, bulging with his hand and maybe something else. Following bank protocol, which says no amount of money is worth a human life, she gave him the cash in her till, all the while taking quiet note of two physical traits. He had fat fingers and a fat nose.

He tucked the money into a zippered pouch and left without availing himself of either a candy cane or one of the complimentary yardsticks jutting from a bucket by the door. As soon as he left, the teller loudly called out words not common in Carleton: We’ve been robbed.

The bank’s president, Michael Van Cleef, came running out of his office, where he had been discussing a farmer’s financial situation with the bank’s loan officer. He looked out the window just in time to see the grimy getaway, in a maroon, dust-caked Grand Am with a spoiler on the back.

The event took all of 55 seconds.

Proper protocol continued. The bank locked down, and someone called 911. Within nine minutes the sheriff’s deputies arrived. Soon came the first of many calls of concern and support, a few of which, a smiling Mr. Van Cleef remembers, went like this: “Hear you’ve been robbed. Can I bring you over a pie?”

In this day of bank bailouts and subprime mortgage debacles, some of us might find Robin Hood charm in a Nebraska bank robbery. Some might whisper the lines to the old Woody Guthrie song romanticizing the violent bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd: “Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen.”

But the Citizens State Bank in Carleton has no connection to any of those banking conglomerates with names like AmeriCitiComGroup. It is the only branch of a small, family-owned business that has six employees, three of whom are family and none of whom are accustomed to junkets. It has a few hundred customers and about $11 million in loans out.

Its one-story brick building, built as a bank more than 100 years ago, has remained a local fixture while most buildings in downtown Carleton, such as it is, are bricked up or closed up: the old Weddel’s grocery store; the old post office that partially caved in a few years ago; the old Little Café, where Thelma and Shirley sold fresh pies of apple and cherry.

Just outside the bank, a Cargill grain operation grinds away. Truckloads of soybeans and corn are weighed and dumped with a sound like a sigh into the mammoth grain elevators looming over the empty storefronts. Every few minutes, another long Union Pacific freight train loudly announces itself.

Inside the bank, Mr. Van Cleef, 46, is usually helping local farmers figure out how to finance the fertilizer, chemicals, machinery, fuel and irrigation needed to grow their crops, all while guessing what beans and corn will go for. There is no online banking here. It’s all face-to-face, how are you, Mike, see you later down at TJ’s for a burger.

Read the whole story here. And no I don't know if they accept out of state accounts. They don't have a web site.

Commemoration of the New Martyrs of Russia

Today is the commemoration of the Holy New Martyrs of Russia. Their exact numbers will likely never be known on this side of the veil, but most agree that one million in Russia alone is not an unreasonable figure. The last I read (it was a while ago) the number of those officially investigated and glorified by the Church as martyrs was already in the hundreds of thousands. The murderous regime of the Communists has given that country a new Holy Baptism, one of blood.

My new favorite Bible verse

Psalms 50:9
I will accept no bull from your house...

Hat tip to Bishop Benjamin (OCA Diocese of the West)

More SSPX News: Bishop Williamson opens mouth and inserts...

I remember Bishop Williamson of the Society of St. Pius X from my own days in the SSPX (mea culp mea culpa). Back then he was still Fr.Williamson. My impressions of him were that he was a remarkably well spoken gentleman, congenial with a very British dry wit, and a complete loon. Over the many years since I last saw him (it's probably been over 20 years now) he has continued to pop up in various news reports here and there. And almost without fail he continues to confirm my earlier impressions. Now he is at it again on the eve of the most dramatic step towards regularizing the SSPX that has thus far occurred (he has been deeply opposed to reconciliation with Rome).

In an interview with a European television crew (see above) he repeats his longstanding views that the Holocaust is mostly a myth and that there were no gas chambers. Of course Holocaust denial is one of the pet causes of radicals in the tin foil hat crowd. But it is also a bit more serious than that for a few reasons.

First is that this is a glimpse into the weird subculture of Trad Catholics. Not all by any means, but a large number of them are hard core right wingers. Anti-Semitism may not be an article of faith for the SSPX, but its pretty widespread among both the laity and the clergy. I could fill several pages with anecdotal experiences that send shivers down my spine just thinking about them. But it is sufficient to note that this has been so widely reported that it is not seriously contended except by the society's apologists.

Secondly it demonstrates the grave risks that must attend the lifting of the excommunications from a group that has in no way softened its opposition to the so called hermanuetic of continuity espoused by Pope Benedict. The SSPX is a group that has long seen itself as the last bastion of true Catholicism and their obstinate refusal to tow the Vatican's line has won them many supporters among the fringe. Most remain completely unreconciled to Vatican II and they are likely to see this as a de facto surrender by the Vatican as are many more moderate and liberal Catholics who will wonder what this says about Benedict's views on Vatican II.

And finally it will without doubt further damage the already frayed relations between Rome and the Jewish community who are almost certainly going to be alarmed by the readmission of a hardcore Holocaust denier like Williamson to communion with the Roman Catholic Church. And to be honest I won't blame them. There will be no way to interpret this as anything less than a huge slap in the face. I have been a big fan of B-XVI, but if he does this without first silencing Williamson he will be making a huge mistake that will seriously damage his reputation.

The question which this begs is, have Rome and the SSPX reached an agreement on the serious points of divisions? I have long feared that Pope Benedict, who felt keenly and personally the failure to prevent Archbishop Lefebvre's schism in 1988, would undertake a rush to reconciliation with the SSPX. No doubt reconciliation and the healing of schism is a much to be desired thing. But is this a true reconciliation or a modern false union of Florence?

A little bit of history

Yesterday apparently did not have enough historical firsts for an inauguration. So another one has been added. A short while ago in the Map Room of the White House President (we think) Obama took the oath of office... again. Only this time he and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court managed to get it right. Those who watched the event yesterday will recall that the highest ranking judge in the country (a renowned constitutional scholar) and the former editor of the Harvard Law Review could not seem to remember the words, or at least their correct order. The White House cited "an abundance of caution" in the decision to repeat the oath.

This is the first time a President has retaken the oath after a formal inauguration. Calvin Coolidge took the oath a second time following the death of Warren Harding (Coolidge was Vice-President) in 1923. His father, a public notary in Vermont, had given him the Oath by kerosene lamp after the news of the president's death reached them. Coolidge also cited an abundance of caution.

Immediately after the ceremony President (we are now certain) Obama told reporters that the bad news was there were now 12 more balls to go to.

SSPX Rumors

Several usually reputable sources are buzzing with the rumor that Pope Benedict XVI is preparing to lift the excommunications imposed on the four schismatic bishops of the Society of St. Pius X. Some are suggesting that the decree may have already been signed and its publication is imminent. Rorate has the details.

Inauguration in a time of crisis

With two wars and the worst economic crisis since the 1930's confronting the nation, Barack Obama will take the oath of office as the 44th President of the United States tomorrow. Of course it is not the fist time that a president has assumed office in a crisis. With that view in mind I thought I would post some rare newsreel footage of the last time a president took office in comparable circumstances.

For the president and all civil authorities and those serving in the armed forces, let us pray to the Lord. Lord have mercy!

March 4 1933

Quote of the day

"Four Episcopalians will easily represent at least five different religions."
- Crypto Papist

In response to this news report:
Four Episcopalians and three Jews lead the list of religious figures selected to give sermons, prayers, Scripture readings and blessings at the National Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral.

The invitation-only service Wednesday morning, to be attended by the new president and vice president plus members of Congress, the Supreme Court and hundreds of foreign diplomats, will be built around themes of "tolerance, unity and understanding," according to a press statement released Friday.

Several groups, including Buddhists, Seventh-day Adventists, the Salvation Army and Mormons, were left out entirely...

Hat tip to T-19

A little levity

As some of you know from private correspondence it's been a challenging week for me in what is shaping up to be a tough month. A good laugh being always welcome after a rough week, I stumbled on this little clip below and laughed harder than I have in a long time. Is it just my imagination or were there really television shows once upon a time that were both classy and funny? Anyway without further introduction let's all step into the wayback machine and set the dial for 1953. It's time for everyone's favorite guessing game... "What's My Line?"

When Only the Pope Can Absolve

A fascinating article about a Vatican department I never knew existed.

ROME - One of the Vatican's most secrecy shrouded tribunals, which handles confessions of sins so grave only the pope can grant absolution, is giving the faithful a peek into its workings for the first time in its 830-year history.

The Vatican has long lamented that fewer and fewer Catholics are going to confession, the sacrament in which the faithful can receive forgiveness if they sincerely confess their sins to a priest.

To combat the decline, the so-called "tribunal of conscience" invited the public into the frescoed halls of its imposing 16th-century palazzo for a two-day conference that ended Wednesday.

Read the rest here.

Thoughts on scandal mongering

If it is the end goal of Stokoe et al. to renovate the OCA, to make it in the image and likeness of a town hall meeting, and to deny her hierarchs the authority to lead, then what business does the Church have with them? Too long self-professed “experts” have made Orthodoxy an experiment and used the OCA as their laboratory. All the while the house of cards was collapsing. Now the OCA has real leadership and the malcontents can’t cease their invective.

Read the entire post.
Hat tip to Owen the Ochlophobist

On a personal note I think Mark Stokoe rendered an important service by sounding the alarm when the smoke of Satan was filling the Church. He and a few others bravely stood up and spoke truth to power at a time when it was urgently needed. However, I have long suspected that there was an element that was feeding off the endless scandal mongering and enjoying themselves and the attention they were getting.

It has been observed that some people who work in high pressure or dangerous jobs have difficulty adjusting when the time comes to move on to more normal pursuits. While I think having a voice that is independent of the church administration to provide balanced (and yes occasionally critical) reporting is not a bad thing, I wonder if this website is the right voice for that job. The most recent posts there give me serious pause and compel me to ask the question, have Mr. Stokoe and some of his followers become addicted to the thrill of fighting scandal?

Reflections on the current crisis in The Episcopal Church

Over at T-19 a frequently asked question has been posted in the form of an article. Should I stay or should I go? I wrote a reply there but on consideration I think this is not a bad time to repost my thoughts on the situation in TEC from back in 2006. A few of the details have changed but the fundamentals have not. I stand by the substance of the post below as strongly now (perhaps more so) as I did when I wrote it.

Some thoughts on losing a war...

One of the few programs on television I watch religiously is on the Sci Fi channel. It’s called Battlestar Galactica. This is a remake of the campy late 1970’s series of the same name. But while the older series was a cross between space opera and silly comedy the new series is incredibly gritty, well written and blessed with superb acting. It is also dark. When I say dark, I mean midnight black. The motto of this program could be “remember it’s always darkest just before it gets even more hopeless.” Most television programs tend to end on a happy note. If that’s what you’re looking for DO NOT watch this program. Allow me a small example from the pilot miniseries.

(WARNING!!! PLOT SPOILER AHEAD FOR THOSE WHO MAY WANT TO GO OUT AND RENT THE DVD)

The pilot is set in an unknown time and corner of the universe with humans living on twelve planets in a solar system called “The Colonies.” A long time ago we are told in the written prologue, they made a race of machines called Cylons to serve them. But the machines rebelled and there was a war that eventually ended in a draw. The Cylons left and had not been heard from in a generation. Meanwhile The Colonies are seen as an advanced society that is relatively democratic, peaceful and prosperous. Then the Cylons came back.

In the space of roughly 24 hours in their time (about 3 1/2 hrs on DVD) the twelve colonies are annihilated. I mean gone, as in wiped out. Genocide is an often overused term. This program shows what a real genocide might look like. The home worlds are obliterated in a massive surprise attack with nuclear weapons raining down on cities. The Colonial Fleet is also destroyed except for a lone ship called the Galactica, a sort of space age aircraft carrier/battleship.

The Galactica survives the initial massacre by a stroke of luck and retreats to the far corner of the solar system to rearm. While there a handful of civilian space ships arrive lead by the erstwhile Secretary of Education, now President of The Colonies, Laura Rosalyn with perhaps 50,000 survivors left from a civilization of probably tens of billions of people.

There she meets the commanding officer of the Galactica, Bill Adama who quickly makes it clear he has only one interest. He wants to get back into the fight as quickly as possible. A stunned President Rosalyn asks him if he is serious. To which Adama replies with his own question. “What do you suggest we do? Run?” And that’s when Rosalyn gives the money quote that is at the heart of my post.

“Yes. We run. I respectfully suggest it’s the only sane thing to do. We leave and we don’t come back. I am not sure if you realize this, but the war is over. And we lost.”

(SPOILER OVER… SAFE TO RESUME READING)

There are today in the Episcopal Church (TEC) 110 dioceses and a significant number of retired bishops. Of those perhaps a dozen are at least somewhat orthodox (small “o”). Five are in open resistance to their own church, with one (San Joaquin) contemplating secession from TEC. The rest are to varying degree heretics or even apostates. The number of orthodox Christians left in TEC is not known but it’s unlikely that they comprise more than 10% of the clergy in most dioceses. There are exceptions to be sure. But in the big picture they are an extreme and dwindling minority in a denomination which has elected an apostate as its presiding bishop. How many times have we all heard of the few clergy and laymen who courageously soldier on against all odds, dreaming of a restoration?

My question is at what point does one step back and say the cause is lost? The few bishops who have not become formal heretics in TEC must at some point retire or die. Do you think the people running the show will tolerate many more Bishop Schofields? They came very close to taking steps to remove him as Bp of San Joaquin, and may yet do so. How long can one remain in communion with heretical or apostate bishops knowing them to be such? Even if your own bishop is one of the few, he (and by extension you) is in communion with heretics. Leaving is painful. But fighting for a cause that is lost can be more painful. It can warp one’s faith and allow bitterness and anger to intrude itself into the soul. Better to accept this defeat and focus on where to go for spiritual nourishment. For the Protestant minded there is no shortage of denominations available. Pick one.

For the catholic minded, that is to say those seeking The Church and not a denomination there are logically two choices, Orthodoxy or Rome. But wherever you go one thing needs to be said plainly though with love and empathy for the pain of this fact. Staying in TEC is no longer a moral option for an orthodox Christian. There is no longer any reasonable hope of reversing the fortunes of this fight. To believe otherwise is to be willfully blind to the truth. “The war is over. And we lost.”

Matthew 10: 14-15
14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

Rearranging the Furniture

Please bear with me as I am in the process of updating the blog and doing a little redecorating. I have streamlines the links in the sidebar and removed a few that had become dormant while adding a couple new sites. Please let me know if you encounter any dead links. As always comments and constructive suggestions are welcome. This may continue for a couple of days.

Memory Eternal: Richard John Neuhaus

Richard John Neuhaus 1936-2009

It is a sad day for our brothers and sisters in the Roman Catholic Church. Fr. Neuhaus was a well known theologian and convert to Rome from Lutheranism. He also underwent a long process of conversion from theological and political liberal to outspoken conservative. As the founder and editor of First Things we may assume that his legacy will live on for many yeas. Fr. Neuhaus reposed at the age of 72 after a long battle with cancer.

Grant O Lord, thy servant Richard, blessed repose and make his memory to be eternal.

Memory Eternal! Memory Eternal! Memory Eternal!

Post Scriptum: I note that Owen the Ochlophobist has a short obit of his own and he has some interesting things to say. I would encourage a glance. There is some food for thought towards the end.

A Merry Christmas...

to all those on the old calendar.

CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!



A glimpse of the Hierarchical Liturgy for the Feast of the Nativity in the Cathedral of The Virgin Mary Joy of All Who Sorrow (ROCOR) in San Francisco earlier today.

Metropolitan Jonah's Speech

If you have not heard the remarks of Met. Jonah following his enthronement then run (don't walk) over to Fr. Joseph's Orthodixie and listen to his speech (about 14 mins). I agree with Fr. Joseph that this should be required viewing for all Orthodox Americans.

Please leave any comments on Fr. Joseph's website.

Many Years (x2)

A belated many years to His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah on the occasion of his enthronement in Washington DC as the new Primate of the Orthodox Church in America.

AXIOS AXIOS AXIOS!!!

And many years to my Godson Basil on his name day and the first anniversary of his baptism into the Holy Orthodox Catholic Church.

Happy New Year

May 2009 be a year of health and happiness for you and yours.

A Great American on Taxes & Government

Thoughts on schism & heresy

Via T-19 Rod Dreher has a very thoughtful piece up on the pain of schism and heresy with an eye to the Episcopal Church. Which is worse? For the record I tend to agree with his views. Be sure to check out the comments below his article. Many of them are well written and thoughtful in their own right.

Israel Reminding its Enemies "We Have Teeth"

A Palestinian Terrorist prepares to fire a rocket into Israel three days before Israel counter-attacked. Hamas has fired more than 1000 rockets and several hundred mortar rounds into Israel over the last year.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military operation in Gaza is aimed primarily at forcing Hamas to end its rocket barrages and military buildup. But it has another goal as well: to expunge the ghost of its flawed 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and re-establish Israeli deterrence.

On the second day of the offensive, which has already killed hundreds and is devastating Hamas’s resources, Israeli commanders on Sunday were lining up tanks and troops at the border. But they were also insisting that they did not intend to reoccupy the coastal strip of 1.5 million Palestinians or to overthrow the Hamas government there.

This is because whatever might replace Hamas — anarchy, for example — could in fact be worse for Israel’s security. So the goal, as stated by a senior military official, is “to stop the firing against our civilians in the south and shape a different and new security situation there.”

Read the whole story.

Dateline: San Francisco

Hundreds of thousands of cheering people crowded the streets and confetti floated down as the city by the bay rolled out an enthusiastic welcome for the Republican President of the United States on his way to the GOP convention being held in San Francisco...


OK... OK... so it was 1956
.

The GOP convention in the Cow Palace

This Site Rated PG

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Andy Burnham says he believes that new standards of decency need to be applied to the web. He is planning to negotiate with Barack Obama’s incoming American administration to draw up new international rules for English language websites.

The Cabinet minister describes the internet as “quite a dangerous place” and says he wants internet-service providers (ISPs) to offer parents “child-safe” web services.

Giving film-style ratings to individual websites is one of the options being considered, he confirms. When asked directly whether age ratings could be introduced, Mr Burnham replies: “Yes, that would be an option. This is an area that is really now coming into full focus.”

ISPs, such as BT, Tiscali, AOL or Sky could also be forced to offer internet services where the only websites accessible are those deemed suitable for children.

Read the entire story.

Of course this is a concept in its early stages, and as the saying goes "the devil will be in the details." But based on first impressions I think this is a good idea as long as it does not actually restrict free access on the part of adults to any websites they wish to visit or give legal license to track their movements on the web (something the U. S. Government already does clandestinely). It seems a reasonable and balanced approach to a serious problem. I look forward to seeing what they actually wind up proposing.

P.S. When I wrote my initial post I had the title label this site as rated G. After some thought I concluded that occasionally subjects are addressed on A/O that might not be suitable for really young children. I felt kinda odd slapping a PG rating on my own blog.

A Romanian Christmas Carol

CHRIST IS BORN!

Wishing you all the joy of the Feast and a very Merry Christmas!

Thought for the day...

Back home after a rather trying day at work and I must confess that I am not feeling warm and fuzzy right now about the season. Given that I am not Roman Catholic purgatory is not on my theological hit parade. But on the off chance that I am wrong, there are some people who frequent malls during the last few days before Christmas who I think might be candidates for spending a few thousand years working Christmas in retail.

The dangers of deflation

Hundreds of thousands of people are being laid off. The nation’s leading banks and carmakers need bailouts. The stock market has had an ugly 2008.

Well, here’s something else to worry about: deflation. This week, the government announced that prices fell in November for the second month in a row.

It might seem hard to understand what the problem is with falling prices. If all they mean is that we can buy our Christmas presents for less this month than we could have a month ago, maybe we can get the decked out Mac after all. What’s there to worry about?

A lot. If prices persist in their decline, they could be devastating to the economy — not primarily because of their impact on consumers’ spending habits but because of their impact on consumers’ ability to service their debts.

Think of it this way: Say you earn $50,000 a year, and have a $200,000 mortgage. If there is heavy deflation, prices and salaries fall. Your salary might go down to $40,000, but your mortgage would remain the same. Suddenly, making those mortgage payments has gotten a lot tougher.

Read the rest here.

An eye for an eye...

TEHRAN -- Ameneh Bahrami once enjoyed photography and mountain vistas. Her work for a medical equipment company gave her financial independence. Several men had asked for her hand in marriage, but the hazel-eyed electrical technician had refused them all. "I wanted to get married, but only to the man I really loved," she said.

Four years ago, a spurned suitor poured a bucket of sulfuric acid over her head, leaving her blind and disfigured.

Late last month, an Iranian court ordered that five drops of the same chemical be placed in each of her attacker's eyes, acceding to Bahrami's demand that he be punished according to a principle in Islamic jurisprudence that allows a victim to seek retribution for a crime. The sentence has not yet been carried out.

The implementation of corporal punishments allowed under Islamic law, including lashing, amputation and stoning, has often provoked controversy in Iran, where many people have decried such sentences as barbaric. This case is different.

Read the entire article. WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE

8 really, really scary predictions

Nouriel Roubini
Known as Dr. Doom, the NYU economics professor saw the mortgage-related meltdown coming.

We are in the middle of a very severe recession that's going to continue through all of 2009 - the worst U.S. recession in the past 50 years. It's the bursting of a huge leveraged-up credit bubble. There's no going back, and there is no bottom to it. It was excessive in everything from subprime to prime, from credit cards to student loans, from corporate bonds to muni bonds. You name it. And it's all reversing right now in a very, very massive way. At this point it's not just a U.S. recession. All of the advanced economies are at the beginning of a hard landing. And emerging markets, beginning with China, are in a severe slowdown. So we're having a global recession and it's becoming worse.

Things are going to be awful for everyday people. U.S. GDP growth is going to be negative through the end of 2009. And the recovery in 2010 and 2011, if there is one, is going to be so weak - with a growth rate of 1% to 1.5% - that it's going to feel like a recession. I see the unemployment rate peaking at around 9% by 2010. The value of homes has already fallen 25%. In my view, home prices are going to fall by another 15% before bottoming out in 2010.

For the next 12 months I would stay away from risky assets. I would stay away from the stock market. I would stay away from commodities. I would stay away from credit, both high-yield and high-grade. I would stay in cash or cashlike instruments such as short-term or longer-term government bonds. It's better to stay in things with low returns rather than to lose 50% of your wealth. You should preserve capital. It'll be hard and challenging enough. I wish I could be more cheerful, but I was right a year ago, and I think I'll be right this year too.

Read the other seven predictions here.

Nouriel Roubini is a man I respect. I am not going to say he is infallible. But like Peter Schiff (see here & here) he has some credibility on this subject that is not exactly widespread these days. Thus when he speaks I pay attention. And very frankly what he is saying scares the &%!! out of me.

I really really hope that he is (finally) wrong.

Scenes from the Funeral of Alexii II

Part 1



Part 2



Give rest, O Lord, to the soul of Thy servant who has fallen asleep…
Memory Eternal! Memory Eternal! Memory Eternal!

In the Vatican times are a changin...

The Former Prefect: Cardinal Francis Arinze

The New Prefect: Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera

The new Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has been named by Pope Benedict XVI. To no one's particular surprise he has appointed Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera of Toledo (Spain). The new Prefect has a reputation for conservatism that has earned him the nickname "little Ratzinger." This would seem to be very much in line with the Pope's much rumored agenda for a "reform of the reform" of the liturgy.

Benedict has been sharply critical of various aspects of the liturgical reform that occurred in the wake of Vatican II. Since acending to the See of Peter he has suported a return to more traditional Catholic liturgical practices such as Mass celebrated Ad Orientem, kneeling for communion and an increased use of Latin in parts of the Mass with a special emphasis on Gregorian chant. In July of 2007 he issued a Motu Proprio lifting most restrictions on the use of the Roman Missal of 1962 (often referred to as the Tridentine rite).

Tis the Season...

My schedule is becoming increasing hectic. As of about an hour ago my two days off this week have been canceled and I expect to be working pretty much every day for the next couple of weeks. Since I am likely going to have entirely too much free time after Christmas I am taking the hours I can get now without complaint. I still expect to blog, but posting may be somewhat erratic depending on schedules and what else needs to be done.

Wishing all a joyous Advent (or tolerable Nativity Fast)...

John

P.S. I have received a number of emails from readers, and I am getting worse than usual about replying in a timely manner. Please forgive me.

The Passing of a Blog

The blogger known as Eirenikon (see the link in the sidebar) has announced that he is closing up shop. This is not terribly surprising as the blog has been inactive for sometime, but it is still sad. It was an excellent blog with some very thoughtful discussions there on issues relating to the relationship (or lack thereof) between Orthodoxy and the Roman Catholic Church. I will be leaving the link in the side bar for those interested in perusing the archives.

Erasing the "G" Word

God Bless America

Normally, I'm for keeping church and state out of each other's business as much as humanly possible, mostly to protect religion from government intrusion and idolatry, but also to protect us from zealots who think Jesus wears an American flag lapel pin.

Inserting "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance and adding "In God We Trust" to our money diminishes religious faith, which recognizes no national borders or economic systems. And it disrespects America's pluralistic promise.

But lately, I'm beginning to think that evangelical Christians who are complaining about the "War on God in America" have a point.

"There's a terrible movement to rewrite our history and obscure our faith," J. Randy Forbes, a Republican congressman from Virginia, told the National Review this week.

I don't know about a movement, but things are getting a bit suspicious.

Take the new $621 million capitol Visitor Center, which opened this week to mixed reviews. Among the critics were Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican who several weeks ago noticed that something was missing from a center's replica of the House Speaker's rostrum. The words "In God We Trust" -- engraved over the actual rostrum in 1962 -- were not included in the replica.

The center identified "E. Pluribus Unum" (rather than "In God We Trust") as the official national motto. Displays deleted these words from Article 3 of the Northwest Ordinance; "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind..."; and the words "in the Year of Our Lord" from Article 7 of the Constitution.

Read the rest here.

Some kind words from the Roman Bloggosphere

Rocco Palmo, a well known Catholic blogger, has posted the text of Pope Benedict XVI's unusually personal (and frankly moving) letter of condolence to the Holy Synod of the Russian Church on the death of Patriarch Alexei. He also has written a really nice article about the election of Metropolitan Jonah as the new Primate of the OCA. I reccomend both.

Memory Eternal: Alexii Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

His Holiness has reposed at the age of 79. May his memory be eternal!

Is the Worst Over? "No" says Peter Schiff

The man who was laughed at over the last 2-3 yrs for predicting the current economic crisis (see the previous post) made an appearance on CSNBC on November 20th. When asked if the worst was over he gave a frankly grim prediction for the future. This man has been dead on in his predictions thus far and his prognostications for the next couple years sound pretty well reasoned to me. I really hope that he is wrong this time. But I would not put money on it. Not even a dollar that might not be worth the paper it's printed on.

A Prophet Scorned

Something is rotten in Finland

I am not going to belabor this excessively since it has been addressed by Owen the Ochlophobist. However it appears that some really serious problems are cropping up in the small Finnish Orthodox Church. The most serious is what appears to be an openly pro-homosexualist cadre of clergy, some of whom are very close to Archbishop Leo (the primate), that is pushing all kinds of liberal heresy. As Owen's post makes clear, the Russian Church is taking official note of this and does not appear disposed to ignore the efforts of some to create an Orthodox equivalent to the Epsicopal Church.

I hope that the world's other Orthodox churches will send messages of support to the Russian Synod and Patriarch Alexei in this matter while also urging Archbishop Leo to firmly address the very serious problems that appear to be threatening the church given to his care. It would be nice if the Ecumenical Patriarch (who seems always to be looking for reasons to intrude into the canonical territory of other Orthodox churches), would lend his support to this as well. For the canonical Primus Inter Pares this would seem to be the kind of situation that the Fathers had in mind for the exercise of a true Orthodox primacy.

I encourage all to read Owen's post linked above. Also check out the comments there for some links to other related reports.