A Republican puts family first as he weighs White House run

INDIANAPOLIS — Cheri Daniels has made no secret of her distaste for politics. She did not campaign for her husband, Mitch Daniels, during two races for governor. She did not fully move into the governor’s mansion after his election. She has never delivered a political speech.

But as leading Republicans step up their efforts to urge Mr. Daniels to run for president, the attention has suddenly turned to Mrs. Daniels, who makes her debut here on Thursday when she delivers a keynote address at the spring dinner of the Indiana Republican Party.

Her willingness to take on a public role has increased the speculation about his intentions. But it has also come at the price of increased scrutiny on the couple’s private life, something Mr. Daniels had seemed to have on his mind for months as he made it clear that family considerations would weigh heavily on his decision.

While much is known about Mr. Daniels in Republican circles, where he is viewed as a fiscally focused, budget-cutting, pragmatic-thinking conservative, there is one period of his life that has remained almost entirely private — until now.

He has been married twice — to the same wife.

Read the rest here.

Long Live the Queen

Unmarked by any official commemorations, the reign of Queen Elizabeth II has become the second longest in British history, overtaking that of George III.

Since ascending the throne on the death of her father, George VI on February 6 1952, the Queen has reigned for a total of 59 years and 110 days – including leap years – or 21,645 days.

She now ranks second only to Queen Victoria, who died in 1901 after 63 years and seven months on the throne, in the history of the monarchy in the British Isles over more than 1,000 years.

The Queen, who celebrates her Diamond Jubilee next year, is set to overtake even Victoria’s record in September 2015, at the age of 89.

Among living heads of state in world, only King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand – who has occupied the country’s throne since 1946 – has served for longer.

During her reign she has attended an estimated 25,500 official engagements in Britain, conferred 400,000 honours and awards and received 3.5 million items of correspondence.

A total of 12 prime ministers and six Archbishops of Canterbury have served under her while she has hosted more than a million garden party guests, scores of foreign heads of state, two popes and five astronauts at her palaces.

But despite fitting in an average of 430 engagements a year, today’s landmark will not be commemorated with any formal events.

She is expected to spend the day privately at Windsor although visitors to the Royal Windsor Horse Show, in the castle grounds, might just have the chance to pass on their congratulations.

Buckingham Palace signalled that the Queen may well “pop in”.

Source

 Many Years to H.M.The Queen

On a side note  I am reminded of the story that some years ago it was tactfully suggested that HM should sit for a new official portrait since the last one (that was on all the money etc.) was from the 1950's, to which she readily agreed. As it happened when she met the artist commissioned to do the portrait he laid it on a bit thick with the compliments about how well she had aged etc. At the conclusion he said all she need to do was sit and smile. Without missing a beat The Queen replied "with teeth or without?"

A thought provoking essay on the death of Osama Bin Laden

The killing of Osama bin Laden has become a battlefield of its own, pitting effete, hand-wringing talking heads against square-jawed, decisive columnists.

Amongst the hand-wringers are old campaigners for moral equivalence. Celebrity human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson (yes, the one who wanted to jail the Pope) immediately declared that taking out OBL was a perversion of justice. "Justice means taking someone to court, finding them guilty upon evidence and sentencing them." he said. "This man has been subject to summary execution, and… it may well have been a cold-blooded assassination."

Predictably, radical warhorse Noam Chomsky argued that deaths of thousands in Iraq were far more evil than crimes for which OBL was allegedly responsible. “We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic.”

For such scruples and assertions of moral equivalence, the machismo team has nothing but scorn, beginning with President Obama, who thought it was one of the most satisfying moments of his presidency. "Anyone who would question that the perpetrator of mass murder on American soil didn't deserve what he got needs to have their head examined."

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd was sounding a lot like a shotgun-toting frontier housewife in a TV Western than the über-liberal feminist she is. Her response to the news that the murderer of hundreds of New Yorkers was dead was stridently patriotic: “I want memory, and justice, and revenge… Morally and operationally, this was counterterrorism at its finest. We have nothing to apologize for.”

Read the rest here.

Health-care lawsuits: Delaying the inevitable

As if our political system were not having enough trouble already, we now confront the possibility that a highly partisan judiciary will undo a modest health-care reform that is a first step toward resolving a slew of other difficulties.

As you watch the lawsuits against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act work their way through the courts, consider that what you are really seeing is a great republic tying itself into as many knots as possible to avoid facing up to a challenge that every other wealthy capitalist democracy in the world has met.

Yes, all the others have decided that it’s both more just and more efficient for all their citizens to have health insurance. Countries do this in different ways. Some rely primarily on government, others on a mix of private and public resources. But given the costs of health care, even the most conservative governments have concluded that the public sector has to play a large role in its provision.

Not us. No, thanks to our own peculiar brand of conservatism that sees government-subsidized health care as a lurch down the road to serfdom and dictatorship, we kept finding ways to evade the problem — until last year’s breakthrough. But having failed to block health-care reform in our elected branches of government, conservatives now hope that they can achieve their end through judicial fiat. They were against judicial activism until they were for it.

Read the rest here.

Another Victory in the War on Drugs

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - New details are emerging about Jose Guerena, the man killed last Thursday in a SWAT incident at his Tucson home. He was gunned down by SWAT members while his wife and young child hid in a closet.

Now, the Pima County Sheriff's Department has taken responsibility for the fatal shooting. The SWAT team said it was just executing a narcotics search warrant when Guerena threatened officers with a military rifle. But the Sheriff's Department has changed its story on whether Guerena actually fired at anyone.

On Tuesday, candles and tributes to Guerena could be seen outside his home. Family members said the 26-year-old former Marine served two tours of duty in Iraq. A smashed window and a barrage of bullet holes might be the type of scene a battle-hardened Marine would find in a war zone but not the Tucson home he shared with his two children and wife. Guerena's wife, Vanessa, said her husband died thinking he was protecting his family from an invasion.

"I saw this guy pointing me at the window. So, I got scared. And, I got like, ‘Please don't shoot, I have a baby.' I put my baby (down). (And I) put bag in window. And, I yell ‘Jose! Jose! Wake up!'" she explained.

Jose had just come home from working at the mine. Vanessa said he had fallen asleep two hours before, only to wake up to chaos in his house. It was Pima County SWAT executing a narcotics conspiracy search warrant, but according to her, neither she nor her husband knew it was the authorities until it was too late.

"You're saying only (they) yelled SWAT after the shootout?" asked KGUN9 reporter Joel Waldman.

"Oh, yes! Yes," said Guerena.

Vanessa said Jose grabbed a gun to protect himself from what he thought were home invaders. But, authorities said the Marine knew who it was; and they said he had SWAT in his sights. According to officials, Jose crouched with his AR-15 and said, "I have something for you!"

"Now, they're saying this now that they admitted for him not shooting back (SIC). They want to throw more dirt on him," said cousin Oscar Garcia.

Now, Pima County Sheriff's officials are refuting original claims that Guerena fired at the SWAT members. In fact, they confirmed his safety was still on when his gun was recovered. Also, officials said that reports that some SWAT officers' shields were riddled with bullets are also untrue.

SWAT gunned Jose down with 71 rounds fired in just about seven seconds; officials said they did not expect Vanessa to be home with their four-year-old son, Joel, who ended up witnessing his dad's death. Now he has questions about what happened, like so many others.

"The only thing he asked me, 'Mom, my dad a bad guy? They killed my dad! Police killed my dad? Why? What did my dad do?'" explained Guerena.

Jose's relatives want his children to know he did his best to be a great husband, dad and patriot.

Authorities told KGUN9 that three other neighborhood homes were targeted Thursday, all tied to a narcotics conspiracy. They say a large amount of cash was found at one of the homes. But, not at the Guerena house; all they said they found there was "evidence pertinent to the case." At this time, officials aren't saying anything more. However, Vanessa Guerena has insisted there were no drugs or money in their home.

Source.

Vanessa said Jose grabbed a gun to protect himself from what he thought were home invaders.
And so he was. This was a home invasion. And an assassination. Seventy-one (71!) shots fired in seven seconds at a man who never fired a single shot? In a just world some of these trigger happy cops would end up in prison. Sadly we don't live in a just world, and I am all too familiar with how hard it is to convict cops of anything. The best she can realistically hope for is a cash settlement in a wrongful death suit.

But hey, victory in the war on drugs is worth the occasional home invasion by armed police commandos gunning down a man trying to protect his wife and kid. Right?

60 Minutes reports on massive mortgage fraud by... you guessed it...banks

This is unbelievable.  Words fail me.

Egypt's Coptic Christians fear the future

CAIRO – For a third day in a row, Egypt’s Coptic Christians demonstrated in front of the state TV building in central Cairo Tuesday against the military government they blame for failing to prevent the destruction of a church in weekend clashes.

For Coptic Christians, the attack was just the latest in a series of events that have made them feel increasingly vulnerable, threatened and worried about whether Egypt’s post-revolution future includes them.

Apparently, a romantic dispute sparked violent clashes on Saturday evening. Security officials said Monday that a Christian woman reportedly had an affair with a Muslim man. She then allegedly disappeared, which led the man to spread rumors that Christian clergy had snatched her and were holding her prisoner at Saint Mena Church in Imbaba, a working-class neighborhood of Cairo, because she converted to Islam.

Eyewitnesses say the clashes began when a group of Salafists, Muslims who practice Islamic fundamentalism, gathered outside the church. Although the parishioners denied the allegation that the woman was captive inside, the church came under attack and was burned, along with a neighboring church and some Christian-owned buildings. The clash left 12 dead (six Muslims, four Coptic Christians and two others); hundreds were injured and almost 200 arrested.

The Copts insist that the military and state security showed up late and did nothing to intervene. Although the government has transferred those arrested to military court for immediate trial and has decided to activate all laws criminalizing attacks on houses of worship, Copts feel the military government has not doing enough to protect their communities and churches.

'Islamists want to take power'
Egypt is 10 percent Christian, and Copts see the attacks targeting Christians since the revolution as an attempt by Islamists to terrorize them into leaving. Many believe Islamists want a country, and ultimately a region, free of non-Muslims. They fear that if Egyptians elect a predominantly Islamist parliament in September, the new government will widen the scope of Islamic law.

“The revolution was white, and now it has turned black because the Islamists want to take power and control the country,” said protester Marcelino Youssef said during Monday’s protests. “We are waiting to see which way the government will go, in the right direction or the wrong direction. Will the military government remain silent as usual? If they don’t take the right road, Egypt will be lost. There is no safety for Christians here, and the leaders move too slowly to solve the problems.”

Read the rest here.

Washington Post: Boehner declares tax hikes ‘off the table,’

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) declared Tuesday that raising taxes is “off the table” in negotiations on deficit reduction, prompting a White House complaint that such “maximalist positions” do not lead to compromise.

The White House also denounced Boehner’s demand a day earlier for more than $2 trillion in spending cuts in exchange for Republican agreement to raise the U.S. debt limit. Press secretary Jay Carney likened the demand to a hostage-taking, telling reporters, “It is folly to hold hostage the vote to raise the debt ceiling . . . to any other piece of legislation.” He said increasing the debt limit is intended to prevent the United States “from defaulting on its obligations.”

In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show ahead of a new round of deficit-reduction talks hosted by Vice President Biden, Boehner appeared to rule out any compromise with Democrats on allowing the Bush-era tax cuts for wealthy Americans to expire or ending tax breaks worth billions of dollars to large oil companies making record profits. Republicans define both steps as tax increases.

“What some are suggesting is we take the money from people who would invest in our economy and create jobs and give it to the government,” Boehner said. “The fact is you can’t tax the people we expect to invest in the economy and create jobs. Washington doesn’t have a revenue problem. Washington has a spending problem.”

Asked whether “raising taxes is a nonstarter,” Boehner replied: “It’s off the table. Everything else is on the table.”

Read the rest here.

Monarchy: Charles II lays down the law

Could Ron Paul Win The New Hampshire Primary? Maybe

Libertarian hero Ron Paul stands to benefit from a little-known phenomenon stirring in New Hampshire: Fans of hands-off government are migrating en masse to the state where license plates boast the motto “Live Free or Die”—and where, coincidentally, the presidential primary season kicks off.

The “Free State Project,” as it’s called, makes a strong case against conspiracy theorists who are eager to point out that Paul supporters are “stacking” the critical voting state. But for a campaign notorious for loading any event featuring a presidential straw poll, will the advantage invite political scrutiny?

“That would be pretty easy to disprove,” said Sovereign Curtis, Free State Project participant and organizer of the group’s signature Porcupine Festival. “We predate Ron Paul’s run for president. And either way, it’s not like we’re a secret pact for him; he just happens to have a philosophy that a lot of us agree with.”

Indeed—then-Yale student Jason Sorens hatched the idea for the project nearly 10 years ago, before Paul, a Republican congressman from Texas, had thought about plunging into 2008 and 2012 presidential waters.

Read the rest here.

Why Greece needs to default on its debt

SOMETIMES there is turmoil in the markets because a government threatens to do what is best for its citizens. This seemed to be the case in Europe last week, when the German magazine Der Spiegel reported that the Greek government was threatening to stop using the euro. The euro suffered its worst two-day plunge since December 2008.

Greek and European Union officials denied the report, but a threat by Greece to jettison the euro is long overdue, and it should be prepared to carry it out. As much as the move might cost Greece in the short term, it is very unlikely that such costs would be greater than the many years of recession, stagnation and high unemployment that the European authorities are offering.

The experience of Argentina at the end of 2001 is instructive. For more than three and a half years Argentina had suffered through one of the deepest recessions of the 20th century. Its peso was pegged to the dollar, which is similar to Greece having the euro as its national currency. The Argentines took loans from the International Monetary Fund, and cut spending as poverty and unemployment soared. It was all in vain as the recession deepened.

Then Argentina defaulted on its foreign debt and cut loose from the dollar. Most economists and the business press predicted that years of disaster would ensue. But the economy shrank for just one more quarter after the devaluation and default; it then grew 63 percent over the next six years. More than 11 million people, in a nation of 39 million, were pulled out of poverty.

Read the rest here.

Jerusalem Patriarchate severs communion with Romanian Orthodox Church

Mystagogy reports...

The Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem met on Monday 9 May 2011 regarding the resolution of the anti-canonical actions of the Patriarchate of Romania, which has built a church and hostel in Jericho without their permission.

The Holy Synod of Jerusalem, after an in-depth investigation, regretably decided to sever communion with the Patriarchate of Romania and crossed Patriarch Daniel out of the dyptychs.

In the 1990's during the days of Patriarch Diodoros of Jerusalem and Teoctist of Romania a church and hostel was being built by Romanians in Jericho without permission from the Jerusalem Patriarchate. The Patriarchate of Jerusalem protested these actions, but the Romanian Church continued the unlicensed building project, and today the church is even functioning liturgically.

It should be noted that despite the interruption of ecclesiastical communion, Romanian pilgrims are welcomed to visit the Holy Land and the Monasteries of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

HT: Dr. Tighe

Some quick points...

• The original source for this is Greek.  I'm not saying that the report is in anyway inaccurate, just bear in mind that we are only getting one side of the story right now.
• It is not at all unusual for autocephalous churches to have "representation" parishes in the canonical territory of other churches to serve their own nationals and also act as a sort of ecclesiastical embassy.  The Russian Church has some in the United States with the full agreement of the OCA and I understand that there are some in Constantinople with the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.  There is also an OCA  representation parish in Moscow.
• This however is allegedly being done without the permission of the JP.  If true, that is a no-no and a potentially serious breach of church canons.
• These sorts of ecclesialogical hissy fits are not all that unusual.  Every now and then one church will do something stupid or deliberately step on the toes of one of the others and the result is a (usually) short lived mini-schism.  There was one between the Russian Church and the EP some years ago.  It was short lived, though I hasten to note that relations between Moscow and the EP have occasionally been strained in recent times.
• Finally it sounds like the JP is wisely limiting this to clergy concelebration for now and have indicated that they are not excommunicating all Romanians in their territory.

Iranian President Linked to Black Magic, Summoning Genies

Iran's powerful clerics have accused associates of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of witchcraft, including summoning genies, amid an increasingly bitter rift between Ahmadinejad and the country's supreme religious leader.

In recent days, some 25 confidants of Ahmadinejad and his controversial but loyal chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei have been arrested and charged with being "magicians."

One aide, Abbas Ghaffari, was described by conservative Iranian newspaper Ayandeh as "a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with unknown worlds."

Ghaffari has reportedly been accused of summoning a genie, who caused his interrogator to have a heart attack.

The arrests are the latest window into the growing rift between Ahmadinejad, Iran's elected secular president, and Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, the country's appointed religious supreme leader.

Read the rest here.

Russia: Good News & Bad News

Moscow

Two decades after the collapse of the USSR, history's most atheistic state, the vast majority of Russians attest to a belief in God – more than in any other European country – according to a new opinion poll.

The survey, carried out in April by the independent Public Opinion Fund (FOM), found that 82 percent of Russians say they are religious believers, while just 13 percent say they do not believe in any deity.

But the powerful Russian Orthodox Church will find nothing to celebrate in the survey's details.

The church claims 70 percent of Russians as its adherents and on the basis of that has successfully pressured the Kremlin to return most church property seized by the Bolsheviks almost a century ago, including vast tracts of land, churches, monasteries, and thousands of religious artifacts formerly held by state museums.

But according to the poll, just 50 percent of Russians say they are Orthodox, while 27 percent didn't associate themselves with any particular organized faith. Among young people between 18 and 24, the number of unaffiliated believers was 34 percent.

"It would be correct to describe Russia as a land of believers, but it cannot be called a country of religious people," says Mikhail Tarusin, head of sociology at the independent Institute of Public Projects in Moscow. "We were an officially atheist state for 74 years, and it may take some time to rebound from that. Right now I don't think we could put the proportion of truly religious, church-going people at more than 20 percent."

Read the rest here.

After seventy years of the most brutal persecution in the history of Christendom it is going to take time to repair the damage. To be honest, I think it is nothing less than a miracle that so much has been accomplished in just the last two decades. But yes; there is a long ways to go.

Egyptian Copts, reeling from violence, want protection

Cairo (CNN) -- Muslim-Christian sectarian violence intensified in Egypt this weekend, spurring an emergency meeting of the Cabinet and public exhortations from Coptic Christians for international protection.

At least 12 people were killed and 232 others were wounded in sectarian clashes outside a Cairo church, according to state TV. Officials said violence began over rumors that a Christian woman who converted to Islam was being held at the church against her will.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf postponed a trip to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to discuss the church attack and hold the emergency meeting, according to EgyNews, Egypt's official news agency.

A small group of Coptic Christians gathering near the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Sunday called for international protection of Egypt's Christian community and condemned the government for not doing more to protect them.

Read the rest here.

Greek creditors are back at the EU welfare office

Greece has conceded it may need more help beyond last year's €110bn (£95bn) bailout on fears that the country will be unable to return to the markets to refinance its debts in 2012.

European leaders are preparing to let Greece use Brussels' emergency funding mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), to roll over its maturing debts. The embattled Mediterranean nation needs to raise an estimated €22bn next year to meet repayments that are not covered by the current rescue package.

The alternative would be a "soft" restructuring that would see the terms of the investors' loans lengthened and the interest rate reduced, but Brussels is keen to avoid that.

Greece's options were debated at a summit in Luxembourg with leading European nations over the weekend. As well as access to the EFSF, Brussels and the International Monetary Fund are believed to be considering easing the terms of the original bail–out for a second time, by extending the three–year package for longer.

Read the rest here.

I have said this many times. Greece was broke yesterday. It is broke today. And it will be broke tomorrow. They simply owe too much money. There is a limit to how much austerity one can impose. Greece is already in the middle of a brutal depression. There is no way they can pay this off.

But let's be honest here.  This really is not about Greece at all. It is about the banks. There are a lot of banks in Europe that lent money to Greece and should not have. They made bad business decisions.  Some of them will likely fail if (really "when") Greece defaults.  This is not a "Greek" bailout.  I would be stunned if a single Greek even got to feel the money as it made its way to the vaults of Zurich.  This is just another bank bailout.

Understand this.  It is and has always been about the banks.  The EU would rather that an entire nation be reduced to beggary than suffer the failure of a single major bank.  Banks are the enemy.  They are evil.

Arizona to solicit donations for border fence

PHOENIX — Arizona lawmakers want more fence along the border with Mexico — whether the federal government thinks it's necessary or not.

They've got a plan that could get a project started using online donations and prison labor. If they get enough money, all they would have to do is get cooperation from landowners and construction could begin as soon as this year.

Gov. Jan Brewer recently signed a bill that sets the state on a course that begins with launching a website to raise money for the work, said state Sen. Steve Smith, the bill's sponsor.

Read the rest here.

Russia: Signs of a Putin-Medvedev Rift

MOSCOW — For three years, the power-sharing tandem of Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin and President Dmitri A. Medvedev purred along like a sports car, quieting skeptics who said that any division of executive authority in Russia would lead to instability. The ambiguous arrangement seemed to soothe tensions, allowing everyone, from pro-Western technocrats to hawkish hard-liners, to believe they were represented at the very top.

But lately the tandem has begun to hiccup and backfire. It is impossible to say whether trust has broken down between the two men, one of whom will increase his power in next spring’s presidential election. But a universe of officials, businessmen and political hangers-on — uncertain whether to show loyalty to one man, the other or both — has “spent the whole last month on the verge of a nervous breakdown,” the economist Vladislav L. Inozemtsev wrote last week in the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets.

Read the rest here.

SOS (stuck on stupid)

Look, I'm a civil libertarian (yes and a monarchist) and I have no qualms about calling out cops if they are crossing the line.  But this is not the case here.  These herbs were obviously out looking for trouble and they found it.  Or more accurately they started it.

1. In every state when a cop asks for your drivers license you are legally obligated to produce it.

2. If you think a cop is overreaching you can demand his badge number and name AFTER you have complied with his instructions. File a complaint or take it to the courts. Refusing to obey a cop at a check point is illegal.

3. Check points are legal in some states and not in others. This happened in California. Check points are legal here.

They are #^&@ed.

I also think the cops deserve kudos for behaving in a very professional and restrained manner when dealing with these clowns.  On which note I hope they both get fined and the idiot behind the wheel has his DL revoked.

HT: Blog reader Eric

Ecumenical Idiocy

Two news stories via T-19...

ROME (CNS) -- Because the Roman Catholic Church was a driving force behind the development of a common English translation of basic prayers used by many Christian churches for 40 years, more recent Vatican rules for translating Mass prayers "came as a bombshell," said an Anglican liturgist.

"I do not contest for a moment the prerogative of churches to change their liturgical texts," said the Rev. David Holeton, a professor at Charles University in Prague.

But he said other Christians were "both stunned and dismayed" when the Vatican abandoned the English texts of prayers Catholics had developed with them since the Second Vatican Council and when the Vatican discouraged Catholics from consulting ecumenically on the new translations.

Read the rest here
See my response here.

And this...

In a scene you don’t see every day at an Episcopal church, 30 Muslims knelt in prayer behind the altar at St. Mark’s Cathedral on Saturday, with a Christian cross as backdrop.

It was a break in “Confronting Islamophobia,” a conference that dissected false images of and prejudice against Muslims, but also heard their critics stereotyped and labeled.

The Yin and Yang were represented in two keynote speakers at the conference, sponsored by about 40 Muslim, Christian and pro-Palestinian groups, even by Jewish Voice for Peace

Read the rest here.

Corul Sfintei Manastiri Camarzani - Pruncul Imparat

Connecticut conservatives sue to block budget

HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut conservatives said Friday that they planned to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the newly adopted state budget, alleging spending exceeds revenue in violation of the state's 1992 balanced budget amendment.

The plaintiffs said they would file the lawsuit by the end of the day in Hartford Superior Court, seeking to overturn this week's approval of the two-year, $40.1 billion budget by Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the Democrat-controlled legislature. A Malloy spokesman denied the allegations.

The lawsuit will claim the budget violates the state constitution's balanced budget amendment, because it includes a $2 billion shortfall that the Malloy administration hopes to fill with labor savings, including worker concessions. GOP officials say because administration talks with labor unions are pending, the budget isn't balanced.

Tom Scott, a former Republican state senator and conservative activist, said the Milford-based Roger Sherman Liberty Center conservative think-tank he co-founded is a plaintiff, along with Republican state Rep. Christopher Coutu, GOP state Sen. Len Suzio and Litchfield businessman and former congressional candidate Mark Greenberg. Coutu, Suzio and Greenberg joined Scott at Friday's announcement at the Hartford courthouse.

"They have to be stopped and their reckless behavior needs to be reined in by a judge," Scott said, referring to state Democratic leaders.

Scott noted that state voters approved the balanced budget amendment after the state income tax was created following a bitter political fight.

"Even those that voted for the income tax recognized that the people of Connecticut expected some protections against reckless spending, wildly out-of-balance budgets and massive tax increases with no thought to the economy and the rights of voters," Scott said. "This constitutional provision was designed to protect the taxpayers against the very thing that happened this week."

Read the rest here.

Volcker warns of danger from U.S. deficits

(Reuters) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker warned on Friday that trillion-dollar deficits posed a threat to the stability of the U.S. economy and the dollar, and said he is frustrated by the gridlock in Washington.

Speaking before the World Affairs Council of Oregon, Volcker said that "prolonging trillion dollar deficits can't be a reality" and that the United States is on course to have its public debt exceed the size of its gross domestic product.

"One way or another, we do have to return to a balanced budget," he said in prepared remarks.

Volcker's speech came on the same day that the Congressional Budget Office said the U.S. budget deficit had totaled $871 billion for the first seven months of the year, which is significantly above the previous year's pace. On Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden led a bipartisan meeting in an effort to strike a deal with Republicans on cutting the growing federal deficit and averting a default.

They face an August 2 deadline to raise the country's $14.3 trillion debt limit.

Volcker, who stepped down early this year as the chairman of President Barack Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, said he was concerned about how the U.S. consumes and borrows "to the point that China, Japan and other foreign countries hold more than 5 trillion dollars of U.S. government obligations."

Read the rest here.

HT: JSM

Muslims attack Coptic Christians and Church - 5 killed

CAIRO (AP) — Christians and Muslims fought in the streets of western Cairo on Saturday in violence triggered by word of a mixed romance, Egypt's official news agency reported. At least five people were killed.

The clashes marked an escalation in tension between Egypt's Muslims and its Coptic Christian minority that has coincided with uncertainty surrounding the country's path after President Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February.

Ultraconservative Muslims have renewed protests in recent days accusing the church of abducting the wife of a Coptic priest who the protesters believe converted to Islam. Copts answered back by holding their own rally Friday outside the Orthodox Church to protest what they said was the "targeting of the church."

The news agency said the violence Saturday broke out in the Imbaba neighborhood after word spread that a Christian woman had married a Muslim and was being held in a church against her will.

Hundreds of Muslims converged on the church to demand the woman be released, witnesses said. Copts stood outside the church protecting it. The witnesses said gunfire was exchanged in the melee, including from people shooting from rooftops.

Islamists threw firebombs at the church, leaving the facade burning. Firefighters battled with the fire in the church as violence extended to nearby streets. Fire also hit homes near the church, the witnesses said. Crowds chanted, "With our souls and our blood we defend you, Islam."

Read the rest here.

Feast of St. Alexis (Toth) of Wilkes-Barre

St. Alexis  (+1909)

96 years ago

The RMS Lusitania (seen here in happier times) was sunk killing 1198 passengers and crew in one of the most controversial acts of war in modern history.

China fines Unilever for talking about inflation

China's government said it fined consumer products maker Unilever for disrupting efforts to cool surging inflation by talking to Chinese media about expected price hikes for soap and triggering a buying rush.

The British-Dutch company was fined the equivalent of $308,000 for "spreading information about price rises and disrupting market pricing order," the Cabinet's planning agency said Friday.

Beijing has told companies to hold down price increases to help cool inflation that spiked to a 32-month high of 5.4 per cent in March. The communist government has declared taming inflation its priority and has raised interest four times since October and imposed lending and investment curbs.

Unilever is accused of violating orders to makers of noodles, liquor and hygiene products such as soap to avoid talking publicly about prices, according to the statement by the National Development and Reform Commission.

Read the rest here.

Moscow: Liturgy in honor of St. George the Great Martyr and Commemorating Victory in World War II

Moscow May 6 2011

SPAM of a different flavor

This just showed up in my inbox somehow getting past my generally very good spam filter.

Do you need a top quality light concealed bulletproof vest??Israeli made. Battle proven. NIJ certified!

Introducing the Robo Level 3A Concealed vest. Light, concealed and comfort.The next generation of bullet proof vests. Less than $370! Retail price is more than $800!Level 3A protection NIJ certified.

Well at least it's not the usual offer for viagra or some new method of enlarging certain parts of my anatomy.  I wonder if someone is trying to give me a hint.  Maybe I need to lighten up on the Anglicans...

California: Jerry Brown's Last Stand

...Jerry Brown was already something of an oddity when he first was elected governor in 1974, succeeding Ronald Reagan, who, like Schwarzenegger, was an actor who became governor. Brown was, at 36, a symbol of the glamour and the restless adventurousness of California, as well as its quirkiness. But California and Brown have changed in the 28 years since he left the governor’s office, and now they are relearning each other. Government has new rules, new problems, new politics and new players. It has grown, particularly in California, more ossified and divided. Term limits, the new governor suggested to me a few weeks after taking office in January, have turned out to be a force for bad, feeding the paralysis in Sacramento. Over late-night glasses of pinot grigio and plates of brussels sprouts at a restaurant near the State Capitol, he talked about lawmakers who now spend so much time worrying about getting elected to another, higher office that they have little time to consider the staggeringly complicated legislation that lands on their desks or to build working relationships with other lawmakers.

“The experts have taken over,” Brown told me, referring to the more permanent class of legislative aides and lobbyists. “The elected people are the ones who ought to be thinking about this, but they are all thinking about their next job. It has actually created more insecurity and less independence on the part of representatives.” The days when legislation could be drafted by five elected officials in a room — the governor and the majority and minority leaders of each party — are gone. The lawmakers and staff members who ran the place when Brown last served as governor are also, for the most part, gone. “The first time I came, most of them were older than me,” he said. Now, “I am older, and they are younger.” Brown, who is 73, was governor when the Democratic leader of the Senate, Darrell Steinberg, entered college as a freshman in 1977.

Brown speaks with the assurance that comes with time and experience — but also with the freedom that comes from being, you assume, at the last station of his career. Age has overtaken ambition; he is almost certainly not going to run for any higher office. By now, the contours of his story are mostly written: his years as governor, attorney general and mayor of Oakland. His races for the White House and the Senate. His squabbles with Bill Clinton and his romance with Linda Ronstadt. His passing fascination with Zen Buddhism and meditation. His trips to India to work with Mother Teresa. His domestic dabbles as a populist, a liberal, even a flat-taxer. Still, there is something slightly bizarre, at least by the usual rules of political advancement, in running for governor after having been governor, not to mention after waging three national campaigns for the White House. Of course, this is the man who ran for mayor of Oakland after he was governor, an odd political move that befuddled even his friends.

Read the rest here

Washington Post: Who is Bradley Manning?

In January 2010, more than 130 people gathered to celebrate the opening of Room B-28, a “hacker space” in the basement of the computer science building at Boston University. The room had two rows of computers running open-source software, and, in conformity to the hacker ethic, its walls were painted with wildly colored murals, extensions of the free expression to be practiced there. That was the reason for the power tools, too — in case someone wanted to build something amazing and beautiful, such as the musical staircase, under construction now, that chimes when you step on it.

One of the visitors was a young Army specialist named Bradley Manning, on leave from duty in Iraq. He had been working with computers, modifying code, since he was a kid. David House, founder of the hacker space, said he immediately sensed that Manning “was in the community,” someone who understood how technology could be empowering. This was the sort of world Manning hoped to inhabit one day, friends said. He had joined the Army so the GI Bill would finance his education. He had his eye on a PhD in physics.

Days later, he would be on a plane back to Baghdad and a culture where rule-breaking was not celebrated. And eight months after that, House — who had chatted with the man for barely 15 minutes — went to visit him in the brig at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, where Manning was being held as the prime suspect inthe largest national security leak in U.S. history.

He is accused of violating military computer security and leaking classified information to the insurgent Web site WikiLeaks. He faces 22 charges, including “aiding the enemy,” a capital crime. The material includes a video of an Apache helicopter firing on civilians in Baghdad, daily field reports from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a quarter-million cables from U.S. diplomats around the world. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called the cable leaks “an attack on America’s foreign policy interests.”

For most of the past year, Manning spent 23 hours a day alone in a 6-by-12-foot jail cell. His case has become a rallying point for free-information activists, who say the leaked information belongs to the American people. They compare the 23-year-old former intelligence analyst to Daniel Ellsberg, leaker of the Vietnam War-era Pentagon Papers, and decry excessive government secrecy. “What is happening to our government when Bradley Manning is charged with aiding the enemy?” asked Pete Perry, an organizer with the Bradley Manning Support Network. “Who is the enemy? Information? The American people?”

The case raises troubling issues. Placing information in the public domain has never before been construed as aiding the enemy. Manning had a history of emotional outbursts throughout his youth, and they continued during his Army service, culminating in a breakdown in Baghdad.

How did a young man of such promise wind up in a brig? And how was he in a position to potentially access sensitive material given what the Army knew — or should have known — about him? Who is Bradley Manning, and what made him the way he is?

Read the rest here.

GOP Retreats from Medicare Reform

WASHINGTON — House Republicans signaled Thursday that they were backing away from the centerpiece of their budget plan — a proposal to overhaul Medicare — in a decision that underscored both the difficulties and political perils of addressing the nation’s long-term fiscal problems.

While top Republicans insisted that they remained committed to the Medicare initiative, which had become the target of intense attacks by Democrats and liberal groups in recent weeks, the lawmaker who would have to turn the proposal into legislation said he had no plans to do so any time soon.

The lawmaker, Representative Dave Camp, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said that while he still supports the party’s Medicare approach, opposition from Democrats made it pointless to proceed.

“I’m not interested in talking about whether the House is going to pass a bill that the Senate shows no interest in,” Mr. Camp said in an appearance at the National Press Club. “I’m not interested in laying down more markers. I am interested in solutions.”

Coupled with remarks by other House Republican leaders, his statement suggested that the party’s Medicare proposal had been shelved, even though the party’s lawmakers had taken a risky vote to pass the budget in the House just last month, and in the past two weeks had attempted to sell it to constituents in often-stormy town hall meetings.

Read the rest here.

Eternal Memory

Chief Petty Officer Claude Choules, who died in Australia on May 5 aged 110, was the last surviving man to have seen action in the First World War.

On the outbreak of war in 1914 he tried to join the British Army as a boy bugler by lying about his age. Instead he was sent in 1915 to the boys' training ship Mercury, under the headmastership of the athlete CB Fry, moored in the Hamble river. He then completed his training in the former 140-gun wooden Impregnable, berthed in the Hamoaze. He was still there when he heard the news of the battle of Jutland.

In October 1917 he joined the 40,000-ton battleship Revenge as a boy seaman, first class. The ship had fired more than a hundred 15in shells at Jutland, and Choules's next ship was another veteran of the battle, the fast battleship Valiant.

Read the rest here.

Another red day on Wall Street

The US Dollar Index rallies sharply as bonds rise.  Stocks continue their week long slide with the S&P 500 down as of this writing by more than 1%.  Commodities continue to get hammered with near panic selling in silver (down by more than 11%) and oil down near 10% and trading below $100 a barrel.

On the upside this weekend may be a good time to gas up the car.

Bill Gross Warns Of ‘Repression’ In U.S. Treasuries

Bill Gross, managing director of the world’s largest bond portfolio, may reside near his office for Pacific Investment Management Company in Newport Beach, California, but he is still sailing away from U.S. government bonds.

In his investment outlook letter to investors for May, Gross discusses the “immediate threat” that low interest rates in the U.S. pose to investment portfolios. Gross is no bigger fan of U.S. Treasuries today than he was a month ago, when he said he was pulling out of all but a small supply of U.S. Treasuries in PIMCO’s $1.2 trillion bond portfolio. (Read “Bill Gross Shorts Treasuries“) Gross cites an academic paper that refers to the “financial repression” that debt-burdened U.S. and U.K. governments employed in capping interest rates in government bonds in order to reduce the debt to GDP ratio. What worked in the post-WWII era may work again now, but Gross doesn’t want to be around when it does.

As inflation hits U.S. products like gasoline and food, which are excluded from the core measure that the Federal Reserve analyses, indications for job growth and a healthier economy are growing slimmer. “Even if 10-year Treasuries stay where they are at 3.30%, and fed funds close to 0%, savers and financial intermediaries are being shortchanged by both of these yields and everything in between,” Gross writes.

Read the rest here.

A Questionable Veneration

From Rorate Caeli

Mary alone found grace before God without the help of any other creature. All those who have since found grace before God have found it only through her. She was full of grace when she was greeted by the Archangel Gabriel and was filled with grace to overflowing by the Holy Spirit when he so mysteriously overshadowed her. From day to day, from moment to moment, she increased so much this twofold plenitude that she attained an immense and inconceivable degree of grace. So much so, that the Almighty made her the sole custodian of his treasures and the sole dispenser of his graces. She can now ennoble, exalt and enrich all she chooses. She can lead them along the narrow path to heaven and guide them through the narrow gate to life. She can give a royal throne, sceptre and crown to whom she wishes. Jesus is always and everywhere the fruit and Son of Mary and Mary is everywhere the genuine tree that bears that Fruit of life, the true Mother who bears that Son.


To Mary alone God gave the keys of the cellars of divine love and the ability to enter the most sublime and secret ways of perfection, and lead others along them. Mary alone gives to the unfortunate children of unfaithful Eve entry into that earthly paradise where they may walk pleasantly with God and be safely hidden from their enemies. There they can feed without fear of death on the delicious fruit of the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They can drink copiously the heavenly waters of that beauteous fountain which gushes forth in such abundance. As she is herself the earthly paradise, that virgin and blessed land from which sinful Adam and Eve were expelled she lets only those whom she chooses enter her domain in order to make them saints.
...
The salvation of the world began through Mary and through her it must be accomplished. Mary scarcely appeared in the first coming of Jesus Christ so that men, as yet insufficiently instructed and enlightened concerning the person of her Son, might not wander from the truth by becoming too strongly attached to her. This would apparently have happened if she had been known, on account of the wondrous charms with which Almighty God had endowed even her outward appearance. So true is this that St. Denis the Areopagite tells us in his writings that when he saw her he would have taken her for a goddess, because of her incomparable beauty, had not his well-grounded faith taught him otherwise. But in the second coming of Jesus Christ, Mary must be known and openly revealed by the Holy Spirit so that Jesus may be known, loved and served through her. The reasons which moved the Holy Spirit to hide his spouse during her life and to reveal but very little of her since the first preaching of the gospel exist no longer.

-(RC Saint) Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort

Am I the only one who finds this disturbing?  I ask that as even as I stare at the icon of the Theotokos over my desk. Frankly, this is so over the top that parts of it strike me as straying perilously close to heresy.

Pakistani Army, Shaken by Raid, Faces New Scrutiny

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The reputation of the army, the most powerful and privileged force in Pakistan, has been severely undermined by the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden, raising profound questions about its credibility from people at home and from benefactors abroad, including the United States.

That American helicopters could fly into Pakistan, carrying a team to kill the world’s most wanted terrorist and then fly out undetected has produced a stunned silence from the military and its intelligence service that some interpret as embarrassment, even humiliation.

There is no doubt that the raid has provoked a crisis of confidence for what was long seen as the one institution that held together a nation dangerously beset by militancy and chronically weak civilian governments.

The aftermath has left Pakistanis to challenge their leadership, and the United States to further question an already frequently distrusted partner.

By Wednesday, members of Parliament, newspaper editorials and Pakistan’s raucous political talk shows were calling for an explanation and challenging the military and intelligence establishment, institutions previously immune to public reproach.

Read the rest here.

Quote of the day...

"So when does Seal Unit 6, or whatever it's called, drop in on George Bush? Bush was responsible for a lot more death, innocent death, than bin Laden. Wasn't he, or am I wrong here?,"
-Left-wing radio talk show host Mike Malloy

Source

Christianity Today: From Russia With Love

Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion offers evangelicals more than an olive branch.
Timothy C. Morgan | posted 5/04/2011 08:50AM

Hilarion Alfeyev, the Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, located 80 miles northwest of Moscow, has a very big job. As head of external relations for the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Hilarion is responsible for talking to global Christianity on behalf of the 150 million people in Russian Orthodoxy worldwide.

Given his gift for languages, Hilarion arose as an easy pick for the job by Russian Patriarch Kirill. This year, the Russian-American Institute, a faith-based educational and support organization (formerly the Russian-American Christian University), helped Hilarion interact with a cross-section of evangelicals around the United States for the first time. Christianity Today deputy managing editor Timothy C. Morgan interviewed Hilarion while he was in Washington, D.C.

What's the purpose of your trip?

To establish contacts and to find common positions. Often we are in circles in our own ecclesiastical environment and don't communicate with those who might be our allies.

With regard to evangelical leaders, until recently we didn't have any systematic collaboration or dialogue or conversation. Many evangelicals share conservative positions with us on such issues as abortion, the family, and marriage.

Do you want vigorous grassroots engagement between Orthodox and evangelicals?

Yes, on problems, for example, like the destruction of the family. Many marriages are split. Many families have either one child or no child.

There are many incomplete families, not to speak of various homosexual unions, which are equated with the family. This completely changes the whole picture of human relationships. It directly affects the future of many nations. The sign of a spiritually healthy nation is that it expands—it grows. If it shrinks, it is a very clear sign of unhealthiness.

Read the rest here.

Turkey Cultivates Sites of Its Christian Heritage

ALASEHIR, TURKEY — Knapsacks shouldered and bibles in hand, a group of Christian pilgrims from Indonesia, China and the United States trooped into the remains of a fourth-century church in ancient Philadelphia last month. Gazing up at the columns that tower over what is today the Turkish market town of Alasehir, the pilgrims listened as their Australian guide read from the Apostle John’s letter to the early Christians of this city, one of the biblical Seven Churches of Revelation.

“It makes you see the Bible in 3-D and color,” the guide, Dan Fennell, said of his tour of historical Christian sites around western Turkey.

Mr. Fennell, who is based in Jakarta, has been leading pilgrimages to Anatolia for close to a decade. But these visits have become richer and more rewarding, he said, because Turkey has been cultivating the historical sites of Christianity.

“In Laodicea, for example, where we are headed next, you can now see things you could not see five years ago,” Mr. Fennell said of the ruins of the seventh city addressed by the Apostle John.

A Muslim nation long ill at ease with its pre-Ottoman history, Turkey has discovered Anatolia’s Christian heritage as a way of drawing visitors and of cultivating an image as a meeting-point and arbiter of civilizations.

“We have recognized this as a special field of tourism and as a special cultural wealth,” the Turkish culture minister, Ertugrul Gunay, said in an interview in Ankara. By next year, his ministry aims to increase the number of religious tourists to Turkey to more than three million, from 1.3 million last year.

“Until now, our concept of faith tourism was limited” to Muslim shrines “like the Mevlana tomb in Konya or the Halil-Ur Rahman mosque in Urfa,” Mr. Gunay said, “even though Anatolia is the home of important shrines of Christianity and Judaism as well.”

“Now,” he added, “we are working to care for all of these sites, Muslim, Christian and Jewish, without discrimination, to restore them and maintain them and to open them up to the public to visit.”

A case in point is the ancient metropolis of Laodicea, in southwestern Turkey, where Turkish archaeologists unearthed a spectacular church dating to the early fourth century.

Read the rest here.

Georg Friedrich Händel - Organ Concerto - G Moll - Adagio

What Happened to Air France Flight 447?

Late on the morning of April 3, the expedition ship Alucia rocked violently on the South Atlantic Ocean in the middle of a squall. On the aft deck, the crew huddled together in rain slickers and gazed across the heaving seas to a yellow blur on the horizon. This was an unmanned reconnaissance submarine carrying 15,000 photographs that they were nearly desperate to see. But it had buoyed to the surface just as the squall sprang up, and with 30-knot winds and four-foot swells that splashed over the stern, it was too dangerous to retrieve the sub. So they watched and waited.

For eight days, the Alucia had been trolling the ocean near a spot known as the L.K.P., or the Last Known Position of Flight 447, the Air France jet that vanished in June 2009, about halfway between South America and Africa. In the nearly two years since, three other search teams went looking for the wreckage, but this was the Alucia’s first try. The ship carried three Remus 6000 submarines, some of the most advanced underwater search vehicles on earth, which swept the seafloor in 20-hour runs, then surfaced to deliver sonar imagery to the Alucia’s scientific team, who pored over the data in 12-hour shifts around the clock. So far, they had not found the plane, but the day before, one scientist pointed at something unusual on the monitor and said, “What about this?” And ever since, the air on the Alucia was charged.

Everyone knew the stakes. This wasn’t a scan of the Sargasso Sea or a study of salinity samples. The families of 228 passengers were restless for results. The search had already taken two years and cost more than $25 million. Another $12 million was committed to the Alucia this year, but French investigators had quietly decided that this year would be the last. If the Alucia did not find the plane, no one ever would.

As expedition leader, Michael Purcell was equal parts colleague and boss, with a raspy voice and a sonic laugh and a playful sarcasm, but he knew the Remus subs as well as anyone. Looking at the fuzzy mark on the monitor, he knew they had found something unnatural. It was too long and straight to be geologic. It was unlike anything else on the seafloor. On the other hand, if it wasn’t Flight 447, Purcell knew the disappointment would be palpable. As he prepared the photographic sub to return to the bottom for an 18-hour mission, Purcell whispered to another scientist, “I’m 95 percent sure that’s it, but man, if it’s not, it’s going to be a long two and a half months.” The sub went down at 9:45 p.m. At 2 a.m., Purcell was still awake in his cabin. He picked up his journal. “Tired but not sleepy,” he wrote. “May have found the plane today. Everyone is on edge.”

Four hours later, Purcell was up with the sun, and by late morning he was on deck with the crew, watching the Remus bob in the distance. A little after 1 p.m., they pulled the sub onboard and attached two thick cables to upload its data into the computers in the mission-control room. They drew the curtains around the room, so nonscientific crew members could not see in, and yanked the satellite uplink offline, so no one could leak the news. Then they crowded around the computer monitor as the first images of Flight 447 came onscreen: engines, landing gear and sections of fuselage, all unmistakably vivid on the ocean floor. But as they turned the satellite back on and began sending the first photos to air-crash investigators in France, the deeper implications of their discovery were just beginning to surface.

The vanishing of Flight 447 was easy to bend into myth. No other passenger jet in modern history had disappeared so completely — without a Mayday call or a witness or even a trace on radar. The airplane itself, an Airbus A330, was considered to be among the safest. It was equipped with the automated fly-by-wire system, which is designed to reduce human error by letting computers control many aspects of the flight. And when, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the ocean, Flight 447 seemed to disappear from the sky, it was tempting to deliver a tidy narrative about the hubris of building a self-flying airplane, Icarus falling from the sky. Or maybe Flight 447 was the Titanic, an uncrashable ship at the bottom of the sea.

Read the rest here.

Referendum puts strain on Britain’s coalition government

LONDON — Among the fragrant roses behind No. 10 Downing Street, David Cameron and Nick Clegg presented themselves to the British public one year ago as a political dream team: Cameron, a Conservative, as prime minister and Clegg, a Liberal Democrat, as his deputy, in a coalition government blurring the lines between the right and left wings.

Yet as Britons vote on a pivotal referendum Thursday that could change the way they elect their governments, the coalition is no longer smelling so sweet.

Cameron’s conservatives grudgingly agreed to hold the referendum to appease the Liberal Democrats — traditionally Britain’s third-largest political force after the Conservative and Labor parties, and whose support Cameron needed to form a government after a close vote last May. But passage of the measure would arguably aid the Liberal Democrats the most, while hurting the Conservatives in future elections. To defeat it, the Conservatives are being accused of waging a misinformation and smear campaign against their very own coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats.

After talking up the fraternal bonds of political friendship only months ago, Clegg is now lashing out at the Conservatives for spreading “lies” and “deceit.” The tension spilled over into a cabinet meeting Tuesday, when the Liberal Democrat energy secretary openly confronted Cameron over campaign materials against the measure that contained personal attacks against Clegg.

The open warfare over the referendum is damaging the coalition, potentially testing its ability to hold together as planned for a full five years. The Liberal Democrats are vowing that win or lose, they will more aggressively challenge Cameron’s Conservative agenda after Thursday’s vote. Already, the Liberal Democrats in recent weeks have come out swinging against Cameron on issues including immigration and heath-care reform.

“The first 12 months, there was a bit of an embed [with the conservatives], but now it is time for us to flex our muscles a bit,” Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ party president, said in an interview.

In the balance, however, is not only the durability of the coalition government, but also a major shift in the voting system.

The ballot measure would dump the current system that elects members of Parliament by simply awarding victory to the candidate with the most votes. It would be replaced with a system similar to the one used to pick the best picture at the Academy Awards, with voters ranking the candidates in order of preference and the losing candidates’ votes then redistributed.

Read the rest here.

Palestinian factions, in Cairo, sign unity accord

JERUSALEM–Fatah and Hamas formalized their agreement to halt a four-year rift at a ceremony in Cairo on Wednesday, raising hopes of an end to a split that left Palestinians under rival governments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“We announce to our Palestinian people that we turn forever the black page of division," said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who leads Fatah,adding that he soon will visit Hamas-ruled Gaza.

The start of the ceremony at the headquarters of Egypt’s intelligence agency, which followed a signing of the accord by delegation leaders from both sides, was held up for hours in a protocol dispute.

A Palestinian official told Reuters news agency that there was disagreement over whether the leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashal, would sit with delegation members on the podium or with Abbas. In the end, Mashal sat with the delegations.

Fatah's agreement with Hamas, a militant Islamist group whose charter calls for Israel’s destruction, has drawn warnings from Israel and stirred concern in Washington that the accord could undermine peace efforts. Both the U.S. and Israel consider Hamas, which has carried out suicide bombings and fired rockets from Gaza into Israel, a terrorist organization.

But the signing set off small celebrations in the West Bank city of Ramallah and in Gaza City, where young Palestinians shouted: “Fatah and Hamas, one hand!,” and “National unity!” The demonstrators held Palestinian flags and the banners of both factions.

Read the rest here.

Obama won't release Bin Laden post mortem photos

Good for him.  The wingnuts on the far right are already having a cow and spinning more conspiracy theories.  Let them.  This was the right call.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has decided not to release photographs of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's body, a senior administration official told NBC News on Wednesday.

Obama also announced the decision not to release post-mortem photos during an interview Wednesday with CBS' "60 Minutes."

The White House had been weighing the release of a photo, in part to offer proof that bin Laden was killed during a raid on his compound early Monday. However, officials had cautioned that the photo was gruesome and could be inflammatory.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill, many of whom have seen the pictures taken by Navy SEALs, agreed with the president.

"In my opinoin there is no end served by releasing a picture of someone who has been killed," Democratic House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said during an unrelated news briefing on Wednesday. "I think there is absolute proof that Osama bin Laden was in fact the person that was taken into custody... killed in the firefight."

"Conspiracy theorists around the world will just claim the photos are doctored anyway," GOP House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers told CBS, "and there is a real risk that releasing the photos will only serve to inflame public opinion in the Middle East."

Read the rest here.

Wall Street takes a hit; Gold and Silver plunge

After a powerful first quarter stocks have started the month of May on the downside.  As of this writing the S&P 500 is deep into its third day of negative trading with commodities taking the biggest hit.  Oil is now trading at just over $108 a barrel.  Precious metals have been hammered since posting records all through April, with Gold and especially Silver (which rose more than 20% in April alone) in headlong retreat so far this week.  The sell off in metals was however predicted by more than a few traders who warned that a month of record gains was going to cause some major investors to take profits.  Many analysts also cautioned that silver's near parabolic move to the upside had outpaced market fundamentals and it was due for a correction.

The general pattern for metals, especially gold, for the last decade has been two steps forward - one step back - pause - repeat.  Many believe this is a continuation of that pattern.

Old Topic... New Discussion

For those interested there is a (surprisingly adult) conversation going on about the differences in Catholic and Orthodox ecclesiology over here... On Papal Primacy and the Independence of Bishops.

HT: Dr. Tighe

A New Saint: Blessed Irodion of Lainici is Glorified

The glorification of St. Irodion of Lainici in Romania. Read the story at Mystagogy.

Holy Saint Irodian pray for us!

Canada: Conservatives win national election

OTTAWA — The Conservative Party will again govern Canada, this time with a majority, following the country’s fourth election in seven years.

In addition, incomplete results late Monday night clearly indicated that the New Democratic Party, a movement with socialist roots, will form the official opposition, which would mean that the vote is likely to significantly reshape Canada’s political left.

It was the first time since Canada became a nation in 1867 that the Liberals, the most successful political party in the country’s history, finished in third place.

The unexpected rise over the campaign’s final days of the New Democrats, a party historically distinguished by its lock on third place, was also devastating for the Bloc Québécois, a party that has championed Quebec separatism for the last 20 years. It was reduced to just two seats and its defeated candidates included Gilles Duceppe, its long time leader.

For Prime Minister Stephen Harper, obtaining a majority was the overriding focus of his campaign. In the end, he did much better than the dozen seats he needed to secure the 155 required for control, acquiring 165, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation projected. The New Democratic Party won 105 seats, well above its previous record of 45, while the Liberals held only 35. Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party, became its first, and only, elected member.

Read the rest here.

Dining in Old New York

Dinner Menu & Wine List (also beer) from Rector's Restaurant  May 1901 (click to enlarge)

From The New York Public Library Collection

Shamelessly stolen from here. (click to enlarge)

On the demise of a demagogue (Glenn Beck)

On Friday, the unemployment rate dropped to 8.8 percent, as businesses added jobs for the 13th straight month.

On Wednesday, Fox News announced that it was ending Glenn Beck’s daily cable-TV show.

These are not unrelated events.

When Beck’s show made its debut on Fox News Channel in January 2009, the nation was in the throes of an economic collapse the likes of which had not been seen since the 1930s. Beck’s angry broadcasts about the nation’s imminent doom perfectly rode the wave of fear that had washed across the nation, and the relatively unknown entertainer suddenly had 3 million viewers a night — and tens of thousands answering his call to rally at the Lincoln Memorial.

But as the recession began to ease, Beck’s apocalyptic forecasts and ominous conspiracies became less persuasive, and his audience began to drift away. Beck responded with a doubling-down that ultimately brought about his demise on Fox.

He pushed further into dark conspiracies, urging his viewers to hoard food in their homes and to buy freeze-dried meals for sustenance when civilization breaks down. He spun a conspiracy theory in which the American left was in cahoots with an emerging caliphate in the Middle East. And, most ominously, he began to traffic regularly in anti-Semitic themes.

This vile turn for Beck reached its logical extreme two weeks ago, when he devoted his entire show to a conspiracy theory about various bankers, including the Rothschilds, to create the Federal Reserve. To make this case, Beck hosted the conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffin, who has publicly argued that the anti-Semitic tract “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” “accurately describes much of what is happening in our world today.”

Griffin’s Web site dabbles in a variety of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, including his view that “present-day political Zionists are promoting the New World Order.”

Read the rest here.

Benedict XVI sacks an Australian bishop

THE Catholic Bishop of Toowoomba, William Morris, has been effectively sacked by Pope Benedict XVI over doctrinal disobedience for his support for ordaining women priests and other liberal reform.

Read the rest here.
HT Fr. Z who has his own take on the news story posted.

FDNY in Times Square read the news ticker. 343 New York firefighters were murdered by Bin Laden.

Osama bin Laden has been killed

God forgive my celebrating anyone's death, but that murderous SOB is long overdue for his standing reservations in the hot stinky bad place.  One can but hope that the pitchforks have been sharpened recently.  Well done to all involved in bringing this monster to justice.  Bravo Zulu!

Some recent posts on Reactionaries and Monarchy

The other piece of nonsense is that there is a single solution — in this case the thing called democracy, or election — to any problem in social and political life. Why do we need a hereditary family when we can have an elected head of state? As a reactionary, my view is that the great thing about the British monarchy is precisely that no one ever elected them. They have good public relations and conspicuous charm, but that is irrelevant to our constitution’s continuity and tradition. Bright radicals have been trying to pull the same democracy trick with the House of Lords for a century now, and no one has yet come up with a popular solution. Who, one wonders with Henry II, will rid us of these meddlesome fools? For reactionaries, that is one of the great historical questions.

From "In Praise of Reactionaries." I strongly recommend the entire post.
H/T Wilson Unplugged

I offer my heartfelt congratulations to the newly-wed Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. It is very catholic and godly to greatly reverence the Royal Family; like the Tradition of the Church, they are a fundamental connexion to God, and a symbol of the national Christian tradition. You cannot be a good Catholic and support pure democracy in my very humble opinion; democracy is simply the exaltation of oligarchical despotism and authority which comes not from God and by no means mirrors the authority of God in Heaven. If the King is a despot, at least there's only one of him. Nevertheless it is a great day to be English (though not ''British''), and to be Irish. A plague upon enemies of the Crown!

From Patricius.

Some interesting data from the Ukraine

Russian religion oriented and Orthodox outfits reported on the findings of a sociological inquiry conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Ukrainian National Academy of Ukraine, with the title 'Religion in Ukraine: Confessions, Attitudes, Believers.' Here are the results:

1) 46% of inhabitants of Ukraine consider themselves members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate; 22% belong to the schismatic Kiev patriarchate; Nearly 10% are Uniates; 3% are Protestants; 2% is shared by Latin Christians and Muslims; 1% belongs to the, unrecognised by the Orthodox Communion, Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox Church; 1% are members of non-traditional religious movement (whatever those are).

2) 52% of people characterised the relations between the various religious organisations as normal; 6% think they are good; 27% thinks that the relations between religious organisations are conflicting

3) The Western regions of Ukraine contain by far most religious people (96%); In the East it is 71%; 73% in the Central Ukraine; 78% in the South; the least religious are the inhabitants of Kiev (69%); among people in villages it is 84%; 86% of women are religious compared to 67% of men.

Read the rest here. There is some very interesting material there.

H/T A blog reader who asked not to be named.

Yes, they hate us too

Just in case anyone thought that only Roman Catholics were the target of ignorant rants by the theologically illiterate. 

When Jehovah's Witnesses get pushy

Rhonda Kalapach believes Jehovah's Witnesses have no place on her property.

When two of them came to her door, the 60-year-old Monroe County woman asked them to leave. Her husband saw the women from across the street and yelled at them, but they didn’t go.

That’s when her husband, William George Kalapach, came into the home and got his rifle. The women were walking to the car where three other people were waiting, when Kalapach said they weren’t moving fast enough, police said.

Police said he fired four shots into the ground about 11 a.m. Saturday near the car with all five people inside. He is now in county prison, charged with aggravated assault and related charges.

"This is a Catholic home," Rhonda Kalapach said. "This is a devout home."

She said the evangelists ignored repeated demands from her and her husband to leave, forcing her husband to react the way he did.

They were at her door about five to 10 minutes before shots rang out, Rhonda Kalapach said.

"I kept telling them this was a Catholic home," she said. "They were trying to convert me."

She said Jehovah’s Witnesses come to her door about three to four times a year. They visited last winter, she said. Every time they’re told to leave. She said her husband did what he had to do to defend their home, she said.

"He doesn’t think he did anything wrong," she said. "This is private property. If you drive in my driveway, you’re trespassing."

Read the rest here.

Definitely an overreaction.  But yea, I do empathize.

Before 1.5 million John Paul II is beatified

VATICAN CITY — The late Pope John Paul moved a major step closer to sainthood on Sunday at a joyous ceremony that drew more than 1.5 million people, the largest crowd in Rome since his funeral six years ago.

"From now on Pope John Paul shall be called 'blessed,'" Pope Benedict, wearing resplendent white and gold vestments, solemnly proclaimed in Latin, establishing that his predecessor's feast day would be October 22, the day of the inauguration of John Paul's history-making pontificate in 1978.

To the cheers of the huge crowd, a tapestry showing a smiling John Paul was unveiled seconds after Benedict read the proclamation.

St Peter's Square was jam-packed and the crowd stretched as far back as the Tiber River, more than half 550 yards away. The throng of devotees, many carrying national flags and singing songs, had moved toward the Vatican area from all directions from before dawn to get a good spot for the Mass.
Many camped out during the night in the square, which was bedecked with posters of the late pope and one of his most famous sayings, "Do not be afraid!"

In his homily, Benedict noted that the late Pope, whom he praised as having had "the strength of a titan" and who gave millions of people "the strength to believe", had blessed crowds thousands of times from his window overlooking the same square.

"Bless us now," Benedict said.

Read the rest here.