US Defense Secretary Blasts NATO

BRUSSELS — America's military alliance with Europe — the cornerstone of U.S. security policy for six decades — faces a "dim, if not dismal" future, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday in a blunt valedictory address.

In his final policy speech as Pentagon chief, Gates questioned the viability of NATO, saying its members' penny-pinching and lack of political will could hasten the end of U.S. support. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed in 1949 as a U.S.-led bulwark against Soviet aggression, but in the post-Cold War era it has struggled to find a purpose.

"Future U.S. political leaders — those for whom the Cold War was not the formative experience that it was for me — may not consider the return on America's investment in NATO worth the cost," he told a European think tank on the final day of an 11-day overseas journey.

Read the rest here.

US economy at risk of 'double-dipping', Robert Shiller warns

The US economy is at risk of double-dipping back into recession, according to a leading economist, intensifying fears for the global recovery.

Recent disappointments in American housing and employment figures suggest the world's biggest economy is at a tipping point, warned Robert Shiller. "Whether we call it a double-dip or not, I think there is a risk," he told Reuters.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index of US property values, which he co-founded, showed house prices dropped 4.2pc in the first quarter of 2011 against the previous three months, marking the biggest drop since the start of 2009.

A further fall in prices of up to 25pc in the next five years "wouldn't surprise me at all", Mr Shiller said, given the amount of unsold homes in the US and the thousands of people who are behind with their mortgages. Japan saw prices fall for 15 years, he noted.

Read the rest here.

The Newlyweds Step Out

Back from their postponed honeymoon The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with Prince Harry attend Investec Derby Day at Epsom Downs Racecourse on June 4.

Photo Source
HT: The Monarchist

Serbian Orthodox Church under scrutiny over Mladic

SENIOR figures in the Serbian Orthodox Church are to be ques­tioned over allegations that the former general Ratko Mladic, who is sus­pected of war crimes, was shel­tered by the Church during his nearly 16 years on the run.

General Mladic is currently in prison at The Hague, facing charges of orchestrating the massacre of 8000 Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995 — the worst civilian massacre in Europe since the Second World War.

The President of Serbia, Boris Tadic, has said that church officials will be questioned as part of the investigation, after reports in the Serbian press suggested that General Mladic was nursed by nuns through a stroke while he was supposed to be on the run.

The St Melania convent, which is 40 miles north of Belgrade, is said to have been one of a number of secret refuges provided by the Orthodox Church.

The Church has not made any comment on the allegations, or on the arrest of General Mladic.

Drasko Djenovic, who runs Cen­taur 9, an organisation set up to monitor religious freedom in Serbia, said that there was, as yet, no proof that General Mladic had been har­boured by the Church, as Radovan Karadzic had been. He said that priests had joined in demon­strations against Mladic’s arrest, how­ever, and a demonstration in Lazar­evo, the village where the General was arrested, was led by the local priest.

Mr Djenovic said: “For most believers, priests, and bishops, he is still a national hero, and his extra­dition to Hague court will just mean that more people will vote against pro-European parties in favour of nationalist parties.”

The Very Revd Aleksandar Zebic, of the Serbian Orthodox Church of St Lazar in Bourneville, Birming­ham, told Premier Christian Radio this week that General Mladic was now “answerable to God”.

The Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Revd Anthony Priddis, has wel­comed the arrest and trial. On his blog, he contrasted General Mladic’s treatment with the discovery and shooting of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

“Putting someone on trial matters because the truth matters. Trial is not about revenge but about justice. There may have been very good reasons why Osama Bin Laden, too, could not have been arrested and put on trial for his crimes, but we are not told them in any clear or persuasive way.”

Source

Hillary Clinton is running for president (of the World Bank)

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been in discussions with the White House about leaving her job next year to become head of the World Bank, sources familiar with the discussions said on Thursday.

The former first lady and onetime political rival to President Barack Obama quickly became one of the most influential members of his cabinet after she began her tenure at State in early 2009.

She has said publicly she did not plan to stay on at the State Department for more than four years. Associates say Clinton has expressed interest in having the World Bank job should the Bank's current president, Robert Zoellick, leave at the end of his term, in the middle of 2012.

"Hillary Clinton wants the job," said one source who knows the secretary well.

A second source also said Clinton wants the position.

Read the rest here.

Further padding her resume for 2016...

Questions surround feds' raid of Stockton home

STOCKTON, CA - A federal education official Wednesday morning offered little information as to why federal agents raided a Stockton man's home Tuesday.

The resident, Kenneth Wright, does not have a criminal record and he had no reason to believe why what he thought was a S.W.A.T team would be breaking down his door at 6 in the morning.

"I look out of my window and I see 15 police officers," Wright said.

As Wright came downstairs in his boxer shorts, he said the officers barged through his front door. Wright said an officer grabbed him by the neck and led him outside on his front lawn.

"He had his knee on my back and I had no idea why they were there," Wright said.

Read the rest here.

HT: Bill (aka The Godfather)

Senior Gingrich aides resign campaign en masse

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's campaign manager, senior strategists and key aides in early delegate-selection states all resigned on Thursday, a mass exodus that leaves his hopes of winning the Republican nomination in tatters.

In response, Gingrich posted a message to his followers on Facebook: "I am committed to running the substantive, solutions-oriented campaign I set out to run earlier this spring. The campaign begins anew Sunday in Los Angeles."

NBC News confirmed that spokesman Rick Tyler, campaign manager Rob Johnson, and strategists Dave Carney and Sam Dawson have left Gingrich's team.

Tyler told NBC, "There is a path to victory ... But there was a dispute on what that path to victory was." Tyler was with the former House speaker for nearly 12 years. "I have no regrets. I admire him deeply. I hope he does become president."

Carney also responded to NBC, saying, "The professional team came to the realization that the direction of the campaign they sought and Newt's vision for the campaign were incompatible."

Carney, who was heading up Gingrich's efforts in New Hampshire, is former aide to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who may be mulling his own White House run. And Johnson, Gingrich's (now former) campaign manager, ran Perry's election bid last year.

Read he rest here.

Chicago State's Attorney Lets Bad Cops Slide, Prosecutes Citizens Who Record Them

When Chicago police answered a domestic disturbance call at the home of Tiawanda Moore and her boyfriend in July 2010, the officers separated the couple to question them individually. Moore was interviewed privately in her bedroom. According to Moore, the officer who questioned her then came on to her, groped her breast and slipped her his home phone number.

Robert Johnson, Moore's attorney, says that when Moore and her boyfriend attempted to report the incident to internal affairs officials at the Chicago Police Department, the couple wasn't greeted warmly. "They discouraged her from filing a report," Johnson says. "They gave her the runaround, scared her, and tried to intimidate her from reporting this officer -- from making sure he couldn't go on to do this to other women."

Ten months later, Chicago PD is still investigating the incident. Moore, on the other hand, was arrested the very same afternoon.

Her crime? At some point in her conversations with internal affairs investigators, Moore grew frustrated with their attempts to intimidate her. So she began to surreptitiously record the interactions on her Blackberry. In Illinois, it is illegal to record people without their consent, even (and as it turns out, especially) on-duty police officers.

Read the rest here.

Rowan Williams condemns 'frightening' Coalition

Dr Rowan Williams has launched a sustained attack on the Coalition in the most outspoken political intervention by an Archbishop of Canterbury for a generation.

He warns that the public is gripped by “fear” over the Government’s reforms to education, the NHS and the benefits system and accuses David Cameron and Nick Clegg of forcing through “radical policies for which no one voted”.

Openly questioning the democratic legitimacy of the Coalition, the Archbishop dismisses the Prime Minister’s “Big Society” as a “painfully stale” slogan, and claims that it is “not enough” for ministers to blame Britain’s economic and social problems on the last Labour government.

The comments come in an article he has written as guest editor of this week’s New Statesman magazine.

His two-page critique, titled “The government needs to know how afraid people are”, is the most forthright political criticism by such a senior cleric since Robert Runcie enraged Margaret Thatcher with a series of attacks in the 1980s.

Lambeth Palace is braced for an angry response but Dr Williams, who became Archbishop of Canterbury nine years ago, is understood to believe that the moment is right for him to enter the political debate.

Read the rest here.

Germany at odds with ECB over Greece

Germany's finance minister has called for Greece to push bondholders for a seven–year extension on the maturing of debts, putting it on a collision course with the European Central Bank.

In an open letter to European and international authorities, finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said: "Any additional financial support for Greece has to involve a fair burden sharing between taxpayers and private investors."

He warned that if Greee does not get more funding before mid-July, "we face real risk of the first unorderly default within the eurozone".

Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the ECB, and other senior directors at the central bank have stressed that forcing banks and other private investors to take losses on Greek public debt could devastate the country's banking sector and possibly wreak havoc across the eurozone.

Read the rest here.

Another slap in the face for Britain: the Obama administration sides with Argentina and Venezuela in OAS declaration on the Falklands

President Obama was effusive in his praise for the Special Relationship when he visited London recently, but his administration continues to slap Britain in the face over the highly sensitive Falklands issue. Washington signed on to a “draft declaration on the question of the Malvinas Islands” passed by unanimous consent by the General Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS) at its meeting in San Salvador yesterday, an issue which had been heavily pushed by Argentina. In doing so, the United States sided not only with Buenos Aires, but also with a number of anti-American regimes including Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua.

The declaration calls for Argentina and Great Britain to enter into negotiations over the sovereignty of the Falklands, a position which London has long viewed as completely unacceptable. It also comes in the wake of increasing aggression by the Kirchner regime in the past 18 months, including threats to blockade British shipping in the South Atlantic.

Read the rest here.

This is appalling. The Falklands have NEVER for one minute been a part of Argentina except when invaded and briefly occupied in the early 1980's. The population there is 100% British and have repeatedly made it clear they wish to remain British.  The Brits should tell Zero to go pack sand.

'Honeymooners' creator dies

Producer, writer and director Leonard Stern, who created with Jackie Gleason the iconic TV series "The Honeymooners" as well as almost two dozen other series and 12 films and was also a leader of the Producers Guild of America, died Tuesday, June 7, in Los Angeles. He was 88.

Stern, who also partnered with Roger Price and Larry Sloan in the Price/Stern/Sloan literary publishing company, authored several books, including "Dear Attila the Hun" and "A Martian Wouldn't Say That!" Jay Leno has regularly dipped into the latter, a collection of memos from TV executives that they wish they hadn't written, on "The Tonight Show." The firm was launched with the popular Mad Libs, the word game created by Stern and Price and published since 1958.

Stern quickly grew to become one of the busiest creative forces in television, writing a season of "The Phil Silvers Show" (aka "Sergeant Bilko") and drawing a shared Emmy in the process, followed by 150 episodes as head writer of "The Steve Allen Show," for which he was also Emmy nommed. He also produced "Get Smart" for five years, earning an Emmy nomination for best comedy series and winning one, together with Buck Henry, for comedy writing.

Read the rest here.

Some still remember

A song for those partial to tragedy and lost causes.

 For The King over the water.

California Insurer Says It Will Cap Earnings

Blue Shield of California, a large nonprofit health insurer that has come under sharp criticism in recent months for its double-digit rate increases, said on Tuesday that it planned to cap its earning and refund the bulk of any excess income to its policyholders.

The insurer said it would limit its profit to no more than 2 percent of its revenue and said it already planned to return $180 million, the profit the company says it made above its 2010 target.

“With our 2 percent pledge, we hope to make coverage a bit more affordable for our members,” Bruce Bodaken, Blue Shield’s chairman and chief executive, said in a speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. “But more important, we want to demonstrate that health care affordability, which is the key to universal coverage, is Blue Shield’s top priority.”

In a telephone interview, Mr. Bodaken said: “It’s one further step in a long series of steps in which we believe that we and others all need to step up and reduce the cost of health care.”

While it is unclear whether other insurers will make similar pledges, the federal health care law is aimed at making sure insurers are not able to set their premiums too much above their costs. Some experts expect other insurers to take similar actions as the law goes into effect.

“This would be the logical next step,” said Timothy S. Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University, who said some insurers have already started considering similar refunds. Last September, for example, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina said it planned to refund $156 million to policyholders.

Read the rest here.

Special report: If Monterrey falls, Mexico falls

Reuters) - Mario Ramos thought it was a bad joke when he received an anonymous email at the start of this year demanding $15,000 a month to keep his industrial tubing business operating in Monterrey, Mexico's richest city and a symbol of progress in Latin America.

Sitting in his air-conditioned office looking across at sparkling office blocks dotting the mountains on that morning in January, he casually deleted the email as spam.

Six days later, the phone rang and a thickset voice demanded the money. Ramos panicked, hung up and drove to his in-laws' house. It was already late and he had little idea what to do. Then, just after midnight, masked gunmen burst onto his premises, set fire to one of his trucks, shot up his office windows and sprayed a nearby wall with the letter "Z" in black paint, the calling card of Mexico's feared Zetas drug cartel.

"They were asking for money I could never afford," said Ramos by telephone from San Antonio, Texas, where he fled with his family the next day. "I should have taken the threat more seriously, but it was such a shock. I couldn't quite believe this could happen in Monterrey."

In just four years, Monterrey, a manufacturing city of 4 million people 140 miles from the Texan border, has gone from being a model for developing economies to a symbol of Mexico's drug war chaos, sucked down into a dark spiral of gangland killings, violent crime and growing lawlessness.

Read the rest here.
HT: T-19

I addressed Mexico in a post back on January 2nd.

Illinois probing Catholic groups for adoption discrimination

(Reuters) - The state of Illinois is looking into allegations that several Catholic groups providing adoption services for the state illegally discriminate against unmarried and gay couples, a lawsuit filed on Tuesday showed.

In a March 8 letter to the charitable arm of the Diocese of Springfield, the Illinois attorney general's office said it was investigating reports the group "discriminates against Illinois citizens based on race, marital status and sexual orientation in its provision of foster care services."

The letter, which was included as an exhibit in a lawsuit filed by the charitable arms of the dioceses of Springfield, Peoria and Joliet, warned that such policies violated the Illinois Human Rights Act, a statute that bars discrimination, harassment or retaliation based on marital status or sexual orientation, among other things.

In the March 8 letter, Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the diocese, which has a contract with the state's Department of Children and Family Services to help place children, to turn over a host of internal documents, including "all policies and requirements for adoptive parents and foster parents."

Read the rest here.

Antiwar Republican Is No Longer Party’s Pariah

GREENVILLE, N.C. — On matters like abortion, military spending and religion, Representative Walter B. Jones seems thoroughly in tune with this conservative, staunchly Republican district in eastern North Carolina, home to the Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune and thousands of military retirees.

On the issue of war, however, Mr. Jones has defied typecasting. An early critic of the American invasion of Iraq, he has been ostracized by the Republican leadership in Congress. And now he is emerging as a leading advocate for swiftly withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan, a position that has made him, of all things, a liberal hero.

“When you talk about war, political parties don’t matter,” he said in an interview.

But Mr. Jones may no longer be the outlier he was six years ago. Late last month, an amendment intended to accelerate the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan sponsored by Mr. Jones and Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, nearly passed — in part because 26 Republicans broke with their leadership to support it, triple the number who voted for a similar measure last year. Their ranks included at least three freshmen elected with Tea Party support.

Some foreign policy analysts now see Mr. Jones, 68; Representative Ron Paul, Republican of Texas; and a small coterie of Tea Party stalwarts as the leading edge of a conservative movement to rein in American military power — a break from the muscular foreign policy of President George W. Bush.

“They reflect a growing discontent within the Republican Party about the wars and a growing feeling that they don’t want to spend money on them anymore,” said John Isaacs, executive director of the Council for a Livable World, an advocacy group that promotes arms control. “They are military noninterventionists.”

Read the rest here.

Full Hierarchical Liturgy for the Feast of the Ascension in Azov

First Russian church built in Arabian Peninsula

Moscow, June 6, Interfax - The domes of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Philip the Apostle in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, have been crowned with golden crosses.

It is the only Russian church to have been built in the United Arab Emirates and in the whole of the Arabian Peninsula, and the only one to have been crowned with golden crosses, the Moscow Patriarchate said on its website.

The crosses were sanctified by the senior priest of the Russian Orthodox parish, Father Alexander (Zarkeshev).

The five crosses and nine stars with a golden titanium-nitride coating, were designed by architect Yury Kirs and made in Russia before they were airlifted to Sharjah.

This centerpiece of the Orthodox community in the United Arab Emirates has emerged on personal orders from the Sharjah ruler, Sultan bin Mohammed Al-Qasimi. The Orthodox church compound encompasses, besides the pentagonal church, a three-storied building which houses a cultural and educational center.

The stone for the stone-laying ceremony was sanctified by the then Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad and now Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia on September 9, 2007.

Source.

Spat over Boeing plant sparks political firestorm

It started as bad blood between aerospace giant Boeing Co. and its unionized production workers.

But now a feud over Boeing’s decision to assemble some of its 787 jetliners at a new, non-union facility in South Carolina has mushroomed into a very public and highly political fight over outsourcing, right-to-work states and the future of the National Labor Relations Board.

The clash's outcome could hinge on whether Boeing executives publicly said more than they should have about their motivation for opening the new plant in South Carolina.

Read the rest here.

Florida Homeowner Forecloses on Bank (not a typo)

Source
HT: Bill (AKA The Godfather)

Trailer for video on the Hermitage of the Holy Cross

Senators sound alarm over Patriot Act extension

When two senators warned that the Patriot Act is being interpreted in a secret way that would alarm Americans if they knew the details, civil liberties activists could only speculate about what they meant.

The activists' fear: that the government is using the anti-terrorism law to collect vast troves of personal information, including cellphone records, on Americans who have no link to terrorism.

Congress voted overwhelmingly last week to reauthorize key provisions of the Patriot Act for four more years. President Obama signed it from France by authorizing the use of an autopen.

The Senate debate on the law featured an unusual dissent by two senators who serve on the Intelligence Committee.

Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, both Democrats, proclaimed that the Patriot Act's surveillance powers are being used far more expansively than most Americans realize. But they can't disclose what they know, they said, because the documents that detail how the Obama administration implements the act are classified. As members of the Intelligence Committee, Wyden and Udall are privy to secret briefings.

"Today the American people do not know how their government interprets the language of the Patriot Act," Wyden said. "Someday they are going to find out, and a lot of them are going to be stunned. Some of them will undoubtedly ask their senators: 'Did you know what this law actually did? Why didn't you know? Wasn't it your job to know, before you voted on it?' "

In an interview, Udall said he wasn't even allowed to discuss details about the government's intelligence-gathering with fellow senators unless they go to a secure room in the Capitol designed to thwart eavesdropping.

But in a statement before the vote, Udall said the law allows the government to "place wide-ranging wiretaps on Americans without even identifying the target or location of such surveillance; target individuals who have no connection to terrorist organizations, and collect business records on law-abiding Americans, without any connection to terrorism."

Nonetheless, most members of Congress, including others who have received the classified briefings, apparently did not share their concerns. The Senate passed the extension, 72-23, with Wyden and Udall voting "no." The bill cleared the House, 250-153.

Read the rest here.

Prayer Request

In your charity please pray for my stepfather Harold who is in the later stages of dementia and has taken a sharp turn for the worse.  Although I do not think he is on death's door, he has been hospitalized and is almost completely unresponsive.  At present he is being fed and hydrated intravenously.  The doctors fear he may be entering the final stage of this terrible disease.

Three priests enter schism over ecumenism and church state relationship

A turbulent troika of priests has abandoned the Russian Orthodox Church over its supposedly heretical dealings with earthly powers.

Fraternising with the government is heresy and sin, they claim, and this holy trinity wants no part of it.

Anger over hob-nobbing with officials and making accommodating gestures towards other faiths has prompted the trio to abandon Patriarch Kirill and strike their own path through the wilderness.

Archpriest Sergei Kondakov, Archpriest Mikhail Karpeyev and Priest Alexander Malykh of the Udmurtsky diocese have said there is no place for them in a church and behind a patriarch that are “soiled by the sin of ecumenicalism,” they said in a letter announcing their intentions, Moskovsky Novosty reported.

They are consequently leaving them for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia[*], the result of another split. They had already voiced their disapproval of Kirill’s relations with Russia’s rulers in March.



Free from heresy

The gesture is reminiscent of the turbulent religious upheaval in Europe through the 16th and 17th centuries, and the faiths that survived or emerged on the other side of the generally bloody reformations provide a poor consort for the church of Holy Russia, the priests claim.

The dissatisfied trinity and their congregations will now “continue their religious life free from the heretical leadership”.

And their move to the Orthodox Church Outside Russia reflects the rift which beset the church in Communist times.

Those clergy who remained in Russia and reached a compromise with the atheist authorities to keep their churches open faced cries of betrayal from their exiled colleagues – a schism which was only officially patched up in 2007 and which still lingers.



Consorting with Catholics

This heresy is embroiling the Russian Orthodox Church in the World Council of Churches, an act ripe with “the sin of ecumenicalism” and friendly relations with Catholics, they say.

Both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church have come under fire before for illiberal doctrines that many say are out of touch with modern society, and this blast from the right might take liberal critics aback.


Meddling in affairs of state

The Russian Orthodox Church enjoys a legally defined “special role” in building the Russian nation and enjoys a visibly favoured status with many officials, something the troublesome trio join secular critics in objecting to.

Part of the age old dispute about the church, the state and society is being played out as Fathers Sergei, Mikhail and Alexander reject ties between the secular government and the church.

Source

*I do not believe that they are referring to ROCOR which is a part of the Russian Orthodox Church . I think they are referring to one of a number of schismatic sects which have attempted to co-opt the name.

Good News From Hungary

In case you had not noticed, Hungary has a whopper of a new constitution that is giving the European Union and other international organizations something to think (and gripe) about. Critics call the text's reference to Christian heritage and its emphasis on strong families a dangerous blast from the past. A debate in the civil liberties committee of the European Parliament has been scheduled for next week and it promises to be quite acrimonious.

But Hungary's popular ruling parties, who famously drafted most of the document on an iPad, are convinced they are moving forward from the outdated, self-centered secularist ideologies that – look around! they say – are leading societies to a cultural, demographic and economic dead end. The future, if there is to be one, lies in promoting human dignity and economic responsibility.

“Hungary can be said to have rejected the post-modern model of society,” the Strasbourg-based European Centre for Law and Justice wrote last week in a memorandum on the new Hungarian Constitution. The Central European nation is not alone, the report notes, in distancing itself from the relativistic, anti-Christian and anti-family ideas that have come to dominate European policymaking in recent decades, but which conflict with many people's understanding of human rights, social welfare and national identity.

The Parliament in Budapest adopted the new Fundamental Law of Hungary on April 18 by a vote of 262 to 44. President Pal Schmitt endorsed it a week later to take effect from the start of 2012.

After a preamble that proudly “acknowledges the role that Christianity has played in preserving our nation”, the constitution proceeds, among other things, to declare human life worthy of protection from the moment of conception, define marriage as the union of a man and a woman, urge protection of the institution of the family “as the basis for survival of the nation”, prohibit “practices aimed at eugenics”, ban human trafficking, espouse protection of the environment and biodiversity, and set strict limits on the level of the national debt.

Read the rest here.

HT: Dr. Tighe

House of Representatives Rebukes Obama on Libya

The House on Friday rebuked President Obama for failing “to provide Congress with a compelling rationale” for the military campaign in Libya, but stopped short of demanding he withdraw U.S. forces from the fight.

By a vote of 257 to 156, the House approved a resolution that criticized Obama for not seeking congressional authorization for the 76-day-old campaign against Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.

The resolution would give Obama 14 more days to convince Congress the attacks against Gaddafi are justified by U.S. interests.

The House rejected, by a vote of 148 to 265, a more drastic measure from one of the fixtures of anti-war sentiment in the House, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio). That resolution would have demanded Obama pull out of the Libyan operation within 15 days.

With those votes, the House stepped back from a confrontation over how America goes to war.

But perhaps only temporarily.

Read the rest here.

I would have preferred something with a bit more teeth.  But this is frankly more than I expected, so I will applaud a half step in the right direction over the usual none at all.

Job Growth Stalls Amidst Fears of Double Dip Recession

Policymakers, investors and economic forecasters are hoping that a sharp slowdown in economic growth last month was only a speed bump on an already bumpy road to recovery.

Because otherwise the ride could get a whole lot rougher.

Friday's jobs numbers showed that the economy produced a meager 54,000 new jobs in May with weakness across all sectors. The data capped a week of reports pointing to a sudden, unexpected slowdown in the recovery.

"It is now pretty clear that the economy ran into a brick wall last month," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

Prior to this week most data had been pointing to a slow but steady increase in the economy's momentum. What took the wind out of the recovery's sails so suddenly, and will the doldrums last?

Read the rest here.

Admin: Spammers are getting clever

I note with sadness that spammers are getting a bit more sneaky.  Apparently they now actually read or at least glance at the post before posting a comment which appears to actually be on topic and contains no links.  The link is in their profile. They post using commercial names.  I missed this completely until I noticed a comment from someone with a rather sleazy blogger ID.

So yea, I spent part of the morning reviewing the more recent comments and deleting those (a good half dozen) with obviously commercial blogger IDs that contained links in their profiles.  I hope I am not gong to have to put comments on permanent moderation.  I already have comments for all posts over 2 weeks old  moderated.  Sigh...

John Edwards is indicted for misuse of campaign funds

RALEIGH, N.C. — A grand jury indicted two-time presidential candidate John Edwards on Friday, accusing him of trying to protect his political ambitions by soliciting and secretly spending more than $925,000 to hide his mistress and their baby from the public.

The grand jury's indictment contained six felony counts, including conspiracy, four counts of receiving illegal campaign contributions and one count of false statements for keeping the spending off the public finance reports for his 2008 White House campaign.

The indictment said the payments made with money from two wealthy supporters were a scheme to protect Edwards' White House ambitions and his public image as a devoted family man.

"Edwards knew that public revelation of the affair and the pregnancy would destroy his candidacy," the indictment said.

Read the rest here.

RIP: James Arness (Marshall Dillon of Gunsmoke)

James Arness, who burnished the legend of America’s epic West as Marshal Matt Dillon, the laconic peacemaker of Dodge City on “Gunsmoke,” one of the longest-running dramatic series in television history, died on Friday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 88.

A family spokeswoman, Ginny Fazer, confirmed the death. Mr. Arness was terribly shy and had almost no training as an actor. A wartime leg wound made it painful for him to mount a horse. But he became the best-known tin star of his era, portraying the towering, weathered marshal for 20 years, from 1955 to 1975. He also made some 50 films and television movies, mostly westerns, in a career that stretched across five decades.

To a generation of television viewers, Mr. Arness and “Gunsmoke” embodied a new, more adult vision of the mythic Old West: a quiet, vulnerable lawman facing not stereotyped villains and clichéd situations but a chaotic frontier freighted with moral judgments and occasional failure. He might be too late to stop a killing. He could save a girl from kidnappers, but not from her father’s brutality.

Audiences had long been accustomed to Western heroes who never were, having been sanitized by the trail songs of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers and the righteous gunplay of the Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy. But Marshal Dillon never got the girl, did not love his horse, wore only one gun and fired it reluctantly, usually drawing last but shooting straightest in dusty street duels. Over the years, the marshal was shot 30 times.

Read the rest here.

A great actor from the golden age of television.

Mladic Refuses to Enter Plea at War Crimes Tribunal

THE HAGUE — Ratko Mladic made his long-awaited appearance on Friday here before an international court that has accused him of genocide and multiple other atrocities and he quickly dismissed the charges read out to him as “obnoxious” and “monstrous.”

The former Bosnian Serb general, one of Europe’s most wanted men for almost 16 years, entered the court flanked by two guards who assisted him as he shuffled into court and helped him into his chair. At times he rubbed his face or flashed a mocking smile as he followed the proceedings.

Asked if he wanted to exercise his right to have the 37-page indictment read aloud in court, he said, “I do not want a single letter or sentence of that indictment read to me.” But the presiding judge, Alphons Orie of the Netherlands, proceeded to summarize the 11 counts against Mr. Mladic, a grave list recounting the assaults on civilians by troops under his command during the 1992-96 Bosnian war.

For years Mr. Mladic impressed followers and enemies, diplomats and reporters with his blunt and commanding presence, but the figure in the dock on Friday, dressed in a grey suit, shirt, and cap, seemed much diminished — the myth of the powerful warrior shrunk to a frail elderly man arrested in Serbia eight days ago.

On this day, Mr. Mladic seemed most interested in his health. A few moments after the 90-minute hearing began, he told the judge: “I am a gravely ill man. I need a bit more time. Please be patient with me.” Later, he had a long private exchange with the judge about his ailments, which may well affect the course of his trial.

Read the rest here.

Moody's Threatens US Credit Rating Over Debt Impasse

The credit rating agency Moody’s warned Thursday that it is considering downgrading the United States’ credit rating as the odds increase that the government will default on its debt.

Moody’s said that even if Congress agrees to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, the country could face a downgrade if lawmakers don’t include a comprehensive package that meaningfully reduces the annual budget deficit.


The warnings come as President Obama and congressional Republicans are in tense negotiations to agree on a way to raise the debt ceiling and cut the deficit. The warning by Moody’s was similar to one in April by the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s. S&P lowered the U.S. debt outlook to “negative” from “positive,” indicating the possibility of a downgrade.

Markets have so far shown little concern that Obama and congressional Republicans won’t be able to strike a deal. But Moody’s said that it believes a resolution is less and less likely.

Read the rest here.

Good Guys Wear Black

An outstanding new website for religious vocations.  Read about it at Byzantine Texas.

No more quick fixes for US economy in rehab

Via T-19

Avert your eyes for a moment from the weak UK economic data and look at what we've learned about the US in the last couple of days. House prices have fallen 4.2% since the start of the year, meaning the 33% tumble from the 2006 peak is greater than the 31% decline seen during the Great Depression. The manufacturing sector appears to have stalled, with the purchasing managers' index at its lowest level this year. And private-sector jobs are being created at the slowest rate since last September. It looks – just as the bears predicted – as if the US economy is struggling to cope with the end of quantitative easing (QE).

Send for more stimulants then? That's what happened last year – QE2 was launched in response to similarly discouraging data. But QE3 looks unlikely. The world, and US politics, has moved on. Standard & Poor's may have been guilty of alarmism in warning about the negative outlook for US debt but the rating agency has stirred the debate in Washington about the relative merits of spending cuts and tax increases. QE3 would sit uneasily with a political mood of belt-tightening. Sceptics in Congress would argue (with some justification) that the law of diminishing returns had already set in – a $600bn (£365bn) programme over the past eight months produced annualised growth of only 1.8% in the first quarter.

The US, then, is short of tools. If both fiscal and monetary stimulus are ruled out, a weaker dollar might provide some oomph. But a weak dollar requires other currencies to be strong. True, the euro sits at a four-week high against the dollar, but who knows how currency markets will react to the next act of the Greek sovereign debt crisis?

In the end, the likeliest source of stimulation may be lower commodity prices to give relief to consumers being squeezed by higher food and energy prices. Brent crude has fallen from its highs of $125 a barrel in April to $114. That's a start, but another $40 fall might be needed to deliver a kick that would be felt by consumers. And $75 oil would probably require the US economy to become a lot weaker yet. This looks a very long haul – which is the message conveyed by 10-year yields on US treasury notes falling below 3%.

Source.

Bad economic news sends financial markets sharply lower

NEW YORK — Wall Street slumped more than 2 percent in its worst day in more than two months Wednesday after data that pointed to an economy running out of steam.

A sharp dive in private job growth and a continued slowdown in the manufacturing sector combined to send the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 250 points, its biggest drop since early March. Treasury bond prices rose to their highest level of the year as traders placed a larger value on safer investments.

Doubts about the U.S. economy's strength that built throughout May were compounded by a pair of reports that were weaker than investors expected. The ISM's manufacturing index fell to 53.5 in May from 60.4 in April. It had been as high as 61.4 in February. Still, a reading of more than 50 indicates the manufacturing industry is growing.

And private employers added just 38,000 jobs in May, down from 177,000 in April, according to payroll processor ADP. Analysts had expected 180,000 new jobs. The Labor Department's more comprehensive report, which includes hiring by both private employers and the government, is released Friday.

Read the rest here.

Under pressure from the Orthodox Church, Russia considers ditching liberal abortion laws

MOSCOW—Russia's Orthodox Church teamed with Conservative parliamentarians Monday to push legislation that would radically restrict abortions in a nation struggling to cope with one of the world's lowest birthrates.

The legislation would ban free abortions at government-run clinics and prohibit the sale of the morning-after pill without a prescription, said Yelena Mizulina, who heads a parliamentary committee on families, women and children.

She added that abortion for a married woman would also require the permission of her spouse, while teenage girls would need their parents' consent. If the legislation is passed, a week's waiting period would also be introduced so women could consider their decision to terminate their pregnancy, Mizulina said.

During the time of the Soviet Union, abortion laws were liberal, and unrestricted termination of pregnancy became virtually the only method of family planning. Sex education was frowned upon.

Russia's abortion rates are still among the world's highest, contributing to a fertility rate of only 1.4 children per woman -- far below the 2.1 needed to maintain the existing population. The rate has become a serious concern for Russia as it fights to stem a steep population decline.

Read the rest here.

In Bi-Partisan Vote House Rejects Debt Limit Increase

With an August deadline looming, the House overwhelmingly refused Tuesday to raise the legal limit on government borrowing, setting the stage for a long, sweaty summer of haggling over the shape of the largest debt-reduction package in at least two decades.

Not a single GOP lawmaker voted to support the measure to raise the limit on the national debt from $14.3 trillion to $16.7 trillion — a sum sufficient to cover the government’s bills through the end of next year. Republican leaders said their troops would reject any increase without a plan to sharply curtail spending and, thus, future borrowing.

“Tonight’s vote illustrates that there is no support in the People’s House for a debt-limit increase without real spending cuts and binding budget process reforms,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), adding, “The families and business owners throughout the country want Washington to begin to live within its means and stop maxing out the credit card.”

Polls show a higher debt limit is extremely unpopular with a large majority of voters, which has left Democrats leery of calling for an increase. On Tuesday, as the House voted 318 to 97 against raising the limit, nearly half of House Democrats sided with the Republicans. In so doing, they ignored a long-standing request from the Obama administration to boost the limit before plunging into a complex and politically difficult battle over the size of the federal budget.

“I don’t intend to advise our members to subject themselves to a 30-second political ad and attack,” House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said hours before the vote, noting that GOP leaders had offered the bill with the intention of letting their members vote against it. Seven Democrats voted present as a way of protesting the manner in which the Republican majority called up the bill.

Read the rest here.

WHO: Cell phone use may increase risk of cancer

(CNN) -- Radiation from cell phones can possibly cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization. The agency now lists mobile phone use in the same "carcinogenic hazard" category as lead, engine exhaust and chloroform.

Before its announcement Tuesday, WHO had assured consumers that no adverse health effects had been established.

A team of 31 scientists from 14 countries, including the United States, made the decision after reviewing peer-reviewed studies on cell phone safety. The team found enough evidence to categorize personal exposure as "possibly carcinogenic to humans."

What that means is they found some evidence of increase in glioma and acoustic neuroma brain cancer for mobile phone users, but have not been able to draw conclusions for other types of cancers

"The biggest problem we have is that we know most environmental factors take several decades of exposure before we really see the consequences," said Dr. Keith Black, chairman of neurology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Read the rest here.

Egypt’s Christians Fear Violence as Changes Embolden Islamists

CAIRO — The headline screamed from a venerable liberal newspaper: Coptic Christians had abducted a young Muslim and tattooed her with a cross. “Copts kidnap Raghada!”

“They tied me up with ropes, beat me with shoes, shaved my hair,” Raghada Salem Abdel Fattah, 19, declared, “and forced me to read Christian psalms!”

Like many similar stories proliferating here since the revolution, Ms. Abdel Fattah’s kidnapping could not be confirmed. But for members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, the sensational headline — from a respected publisher, no less — served to validate their fear that the Egyptian revolution had made their country less tolerant and more dangerous for religious minorities. The Arab Spring initially appeared to open a welcoming door to the dwindling number of Christian Arabs who, after years of feeling marginalized, eagerly joined the call for democracy and rule of law. But now many Christians here say they fear that the fall of the police state has allowed long-simmering tensions to explode, potentially threatening the character of Egypt, and the region.

“Will Christians have equal rights and full citizenship or not?” asked Sarkis Naoum, a Christian commentator in Beirut, Lebanon. A surge of sectarian violence in Cairo — 24 dead, more than 200 wounded and three churches in flames since President Hosni Mubarak’s downfall — has turned Christian-Muslim tensions into one of the gravest threats to the revolution’s stability. But it is also a pivotal test of Egypt’s tolerance, pluralism and the rule of law. The revolution has empowered the majority but also opened new questions about the protection of minority rights like freedom of religion or expression as Islamist groups step forward to lay out their agendas and test their political might.

Read the rest here.

Complicated dance between Orthodox Church, Serbian politicians

Religion and politics often intertwine in Serbia, but experts say the relationship is more complex than many assume.

Analysts agree on one thing: the church maintains a connection with Serbian political parties.

The real question, they argue, is which partner leads in this dance? Which wields more power over the other?

Religion analyst Zivica Tucic believes the Serbian Orthodox Church's influence on politics is weaker than many assume, given the bishops' broad range of views.

"The bishops have very different political orientations, from right-wing conservatism to closeness to the left, as in the Socialist Party," Tucic told SETimes.

Read the rest here.

Russian Church to promote modern day foundling homes to fight abortion

Russian mothers who don't want to keep their new babies will be able to leave their newborn children anonymously in special centers, if new legislation pending in the Russian parliament is approved, a parliamentary committee head said on Monday.

The bill, sponsored by the State Duma committee for family affairs and the Russian Orthodox Church, aims to reduce the number of abortions and boost live births.

"Such specialized centers can be set up both at medical institutions and social structures, as well as monasteries and shelters," committee head Yelena Mizulina said.

Under the proposed law, a woman who decides to leave her child at such an institution will be exempt from responsibility.

The centers will only be available for children under six months.

MOSCOW, May 30 (RIA Novosti)

Source

EU Racing to Draft Second Greek Bailout

Throwing good money after bad.  What a waste.  Read the story here if you are so inclined.

Orthodox Liturgy (in Slavonic) is served in the Basilica St. Maria Maggiore in Rome

On the commemoration of Sts Cyril and Methodius was held at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where over a thousand years ago for the first time a prayer and reading of the Gospel in Slavonic sounded, and for the first time since the 9th century the divine liturgy in Slavonic according to the Orthodox rite was celebrated. The worship was led by Archbishop Mark of Yehoryev, who concelebrated with Archbishop Alexander of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytkyy and Bishop Nestor of Korsun, clergymen of the Orthodox parishes in Italy and delegates in the UOC in holy order.

Read the rest at Byzantine Texas.

Greece’s crisis could torpedo Europe’s recovery

It has come to this. A year after rescuing Greece from default, Europe is staring into the abyss. The bailout has proved insufficient. Greece needs more money, and it can’t borrow from private markets, where it faces interest rates as high as 25 percent. But Europe’s governments are reluctant to advance more funds unless other lenders — banks, bondholders — absorb some losses by writing down their debts. This, however, would constitute a default, risking a broader banking crisis that might torpedo Europe’s fragile recovery in France, Germany and elsewhere. There is no easy escape.

What’s called a “debt crisis” is increasingly a political and social crisis. Looming over the financial complexities is the broader question of the ability — or willingness — of weak debtor nations to endure growing hardship to service their massive government debts. Already, unemployment is 14.1 percent in Greece, 14.7 percent in Ireland, 11.1 percent in Portugal and 20.7 percent in Spain. What are the limits of austerity? Steep spending cuts and tax increases do curb budget deficits, but they also create deep recessions, lowering tax revenue and offsetting some of the deficit improvement.

Just how long this grinding process can continue is unclear. In Spain, the incumbent socialist party lost big in recent elections. Popular unrest persists in Greece amid signs — reports The Post’s Anthony Faiola — of a “resurgence of an anarchist movement” there and elsewhere.

Some causes of Europe’s plight are well-known: the harsh recession following the 2008-09 financial crisis; aging populations coupled with costly welfare states. But there’s also another, less recognized culprit: the euro, the single currency now used by 17 countries.

Read the rest here.

A War Story

One of the great cemeteries populated by the First World War

(I wrote this essay several years ago but think it worth reposting.)

From my grandmother and my cousin Sarah Jane (memory eternal) I gleaned the story of my great-uncle Francis Guy (known as Guy in the family). He was one of the older children (14 in all) of my great-grandparents who lived in Endicott New York at the turn of the last century. My great-grandfather was by all accounts a good man, hard working and God fearing as they used to say in those days. But he also had a reputation for being stubborn with a "my way or the highway" mentality.

By contrast my uncle Guy was a shy youth in his middle teens who had been born with some minor disfigurement on his face to which no one really paid any notice other than him. But he was very self conscious about it. In 1914 my great grandfather wanted him to get a job at the local shoe manufacturing plant run by the Endicott Johnson company, then the biggest by far employer in my home town. Guy was perfectly OK with this. But he asked if he could set aside a small amount of his earnings to save for an operation which he felt would remove the offending birth mark. My great-grandfather said no. He was a man who believed that if you were born that way, it’s what God intended and that’s the end of it.

Well he was also not very diplomatic about it and there was an argument, a real barn burner by all accounts. When it was over an ultimatum was given to the boy; do as you’re told or get out and make your own way in the world. In the heat of anger and hurt Guy left home.

Now at this time what would become known as the Great War had just broken out in Europe. Guy like a lot of kids of his generation had rather romantic notions about war. The United States had not fought a really serious one in almost sixty years and memory dulls with time. With the United States still neutral and in need of a job Guy struck out for Canada where he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Army (Canada was part of the British Empire then). I am not sure if he lied about his age. He landed in the Princess Patricia Regiment which would gain great fame in the war. After preliminary training the regiment was shipped to England and then over to the continent where it joined up with the British Expeditionary Force holding the left wing of the Allied line with the Belgian Army in one of the few parts of Belgium not occupied by the Germans.

In February of 1915 during one of the innumerable back and forth battles near Ypres his unit assaulted the German trench works. The attack was repelled with the customary horrific casualties but Guy made it back to his own trench unharmed. When he looked back over the battlefield known as no man’s land between the opposing trench lines he saw amongst the human wreckage of war one of his close friends lying wounded. The odds of surviving in no man’s land were not good since neither side respected stretcher bearers or medics. The wounded were usually left to die. Guy leapt out of the relative safety of his trench and rushed forward to save his buddy. He reached him and under heavy fire dragged him back to the trench. After lowering the wounded soldier down Guy turned to drop down himself when he was shot in the stomach. He died several days later at a military hospital and was buried in one of the vast cemeteries near Ypres created by the carnage of the War to End All Wars.

My great-grandparents received the telegram while watching a silent movie at the local cinema house. The lights were turned on and half the town showed up to express their sympathy. The Canadian Army later (and retroactively) conferred the Military Medal on him posthumously which my great-grandmother was buried with. I am told that in Ottawa there is a book on display with the names of all of the dead of the Princess Patricia Regiment inscribed in it. A page is ceremoniously turned each day. On one of those pages is the name of an Irish-Catholic kid with a birth mark from a small town in upstate New York, Francis Guy Dwyer. Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

The next worse thing to a battle lost, is a battle won.
-The Duke of Wellington

Old men declare war. But it is the young who must fight and die.
-Herbert Hoover

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Royal Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

On the manly art of the shave

A Straight Razor

The Young Fogey has a post up showing a recent acquisition... a 1950's vintage safety razor which he now employs, apparently with much satisfaction.  As someone who dislikes shaving and regards it as a chore, I am rather impressed.  I think most modern razors are a bit of a rip off.  Electric razors do not shave as close as a blade, and the disposable ones I doubt are much better than the safety razors our grandfathers used.

It is a fact that the closest shave I ever got in my life was in the late 1980's while I was stationed in La Madelena Italy in the Navy.  I was out in town and in bad need of a haircut so I stopped in at a local barbershop.  Now this was a real barbershop.  The elderly proprietor was wearing the traditional white jacket and the whole place just looked like something out of a period film from say the 1940's.

He spoke to me in Italian which I did not know.  In time I would acquire a limited command of the language, sufficient to get around.  But I was new then and completely monolingual.  We briefly spoke at one another in our respective languages and I gathered he had grasped my desires for he motioned me into the chair.

Swiftly he went to work and after a few minutes I had the small mirror in my hand and managed a quick "bueno."  He indicated his pleasure and I prepared to pay my bill and go on to meet some friends.  Just as I started to tighten my grip on the arms of the chair to raise myself up however, the chair went sharply back and in just seconds the old barber stood in front of me with a bundle of white towels that he began to pack on my face.  I should note here that these towels were HOT.  I mean REALLY HOT.  All I could think of was what a crazy and extreme way to get rid of loose hairs from a trim.

But he left them there.  As in for several minutes.  When he returned and took them off he he had some sort of old fashioned brush and mug in his hand and the next thing I knew he was lathering up my face with shaving cream or more accurately shaving soap.  I had by now figured out that I was about to get the full service barbershop experience.

That's when it happened.  He set down the mug and in a flash there appeared mere inches before my eyes, which must have been the size of a 50 cent piece, one of the most wicked looking instruments of death and torture I had seen that close... a straight razor.  I am NOT talking about the semi sheathed blades some barbers use today to edge around the ears.  I am talking the real deal here, an honest to goodness cutthroat razor. 

I vaguely recall opening my mouth in a minor panic.  I am not sure if I was trying to find the Italian word for "STOP!" or if I just wanted to scream.  In any event he moved way too fast.  In a blink he had my head in a vise like grip with his left hand and very firmly moved it to the left.  I just closed my eyes and mouth... and cringed as I felt the blade on my face.  He began to draw it across my right cheek.  After several strokes of the blade, with no evident damage, I opened my eyes just as his hand moved my head to the right and he shifted sides.  I could now watch him as he held the blade like a master sculptor and he began to sweep the left side of my face.  So far so good.  Then he lifted my chin and again I couldn't watch as he drew the blade along my neck and throat.  I was afraid to breath or so much as twitch.  Forget the urgent desire to swallow that suddenly was upon me.

I don't know what I will eventually die from.  But I am fairly certain it won't be a heart attack.  If that were my fate, I would have been fertilizing a lawn somewhere for decades now.

When I ceased to feel the blade on my throat or neck for a few moments I opened my eyes.  He looked at my face carefully and then took the blade and gently ran the short end right under my nose.  At last he nodded with apparent satisfaction and I began to think that this rather remarkable experience was at an end.

Wrong.

He set the blade down, picked up the mug and brush and before I could say anything he was soaping up my face again.  And for a  second time (!) he began to shave me.  Yet again I could not keep my eyes open when the blade was on my throat and neck.  And then it was over.

He grabbed a fresh (very hot) towel and wiped my face clean.  I think I gave the man close to twice the charge for the haircut and shave and waved off the change.  It was probably a couple of minutes before I bothered to feel my face.  Despite being bathed in sweat I could tell that my face had probably not been that smooth since before I reached a certain age.  Point in fact I had no real need to shave for the next two days.

Over the years I have toyed with the idea of learning how to shave with a straight razor.  But on that score my courage is really no greater now than it was 20+ years ago.  Every time I look at a straight razor they just seem sooo... wicked.  I doubt I could keep my hand steady enough to avoid inflicting some terrible injury on myself.

For those more adventurous than myself however I found this rather interesting article posted by an avid straight razor man.  If you have ever thought about trying your hand at the most manly (and frightening) of shaving instruments, this strikes me as a good primer.

351 years ago

The monarchy was restored and the tyranny of the republic abolished.  Happy Royal Oak Day and God Save The Queen!

HT: The Mad Monarchist

High Tory Gerald Warner: On a deluded pursuit of democracy and the IMF playing master of the universe

Liberal democracy is part of the "accepted political landscape"? Accepted by whom? By China, which occupies a not inconsiderable portion of the landscape? Increasingly it is viewed with scepticism in the developed world which spawned it. Yet Western "statesmen" are still trying to market this flawed commodity abroad. Last week's state visit by Barack Obama and the G8 meeting that followed demonstrated the delusions of what passes for a leadership in the Western world. The litmus test was Libya. At his joint press conference with David Cameron, Obama deployed all the usual rhetoric; but although Barack supplied the mouth music it was left to Dave to furnish the Apache helicopters - as already announced over his head by France.

Libya is Dave's war. He has never been happy with Afghanistan: that was a hand-me-down conflict. Dave wants his own piece of action and Libya is it. That suits Barack: he would like to sit out this dance. When Barack Obama displays a better grasp of reality than yourself, you are in a bad way. That is Dave's situation: even Obama now knows when to come in out of the rain. He has taken terrible punishment in his foreign policy initiatives. All the post-inauguration "outreach", hug-a-mullah naivety blew up in his face.

Read the rest here.

And...

International capitalism these days is perfectly happy to embrace socialism when, as with Strauss-Kahn, it comes with $3,000-a-night hotel suites, a starting salary of £260,000 a year, an annual living allowance of £45,000 and a severance package of £154,000. The IMF should have been abolished years ago. It is a phantom survivor of the Bretton Woods agreement marinated in Keynesian delusion. Whenever a country has been living beyond its means the IMF thrusts a large loan upon it, then imposes conditions such as inflated tax rates that prevent genuine recovery.

Read the rest here.

HT: The Monarchist

One of those days

OK.  I know I harp on inflation here.  But this is nuts.  I just finished reading a paperback novel that a friend had recommended (it was enjoyable) and I thought to pass it along to my mother and sister on the right coast.  So I stop by the local UPS drop off and show them the book.  I tell the gentleman that I want to send it to New York.  Next I provide him with all of the appropriate information (names addresses etc.) and let him know that it can go via the next wagon train, which is to say I don't care when it gets there as long as it does so before my family dies off.

Total cost... $33.04.

No.  I am not joking.  After expressing my astonishment he recalculated and came back with the same figure.  I reiterated that I was shipping a paperback book that weighed 1.6 lbs, that it was neither an overdue library book, nor a rare first edition.  The numbers did not move.  I then pointed out that I could purchase the book brand new on Amazon.com and have it shipped by two day delivery via UPS for 1/3 what he was proposing to charge me.  The numbers did not move.

Needless to say the book is sitting on my desk under my right arm as I type.  Come Tuesday I will stop by the Post Office and send it for perhaps $4 Book Rate.

I don't want to disparage the gentleman who waited on me.  Nor suggest that UPS is a poorly run company staffed by a bunch of simpletons.  So I will confine myself to observing that if I owned UPS stock right now, I would sell it.

Blanchflower: A euro debt default 'inevitable'

Former Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member David "Danny" Blanchflower discusses the European debt crisis here.

Anti-Christian violence in Faisalabad (Pakistan)

Faisalabad (AsiaNews) – Christian tombs were recently desecrated and a young Christian woman was gang-raped for an entire night. In both cases, police refused to file a First Information Report, allowing the culprits to escape justice. These are examples of the ordinary violence visited upon Pakistan’s Christian minority. Whether it involves Christian-owned land and property or individuals who are targeted because they are defenceless, victims will not find justice with the country’s legal system. Gradually, Pakistan’s ‘Islamisation’ slowly progresses, especially in the densely populated province of Punjab.

The Pakistan Christian Post reports that, in Chak Jhumra (Faisalabad), Muslim landowners destroyed and desecrated a Christian graveyard, using a tractor to plough over a number of tombs. Buried coffins were broken and the bones of the dead were brought to the surface. The local police refused to open an inquiry, whilst the landowners utter threats against local Christians to get them to stop legal proceedings.

The Faisalabad chapter of the National Commission for Justice and Peace of the Pakistani Catholic Church has intervened in the affair. A team sent by the commission visited the desecrated graveyard and collected evidence.

However, a local Muslim has filed a claim, saying he owned the land on which the cemetery is located. The first hearing in the case is scheduled for 13 June 2011.

Fr Joseph Jamil, a Faisalabad priest, strongly condemned the anti-Christian violence. “The Church,” he said, “is closing monitoring the issue.”

“Landowners and extremists are actively involved against the Christian minority in Punjab,” he told AsiaNews. “Most attacks happen in the central part of the province.” The government, he said, should “take charge of the situation and defend the minority.”

As additional evidence of the prevailing atmosphere of violence, a story came to light involving a 29-year-old Christian woman who was abducted by a Muslim co-worker, roughed up, drugged and gang-raped.

Afshan Sabir is a factory worker and a mother of three. She was assaulted over night on 27 March in an unspecified area near Gojra. When she woke up, she sought help in a state of disorientation. She later tried to file a complaint with the local police station. However, instead of helping the woman, police officers helped the rapists cover their tracks.

On this occasion, the National Commission for Justice and Peace also intervened, providing the victim with legal counsel and following the case on her behalf.

Source.

Procession and service in honor of Sts. Cyril & Methodius

Procession from the Uspenski Cathedral to the Cathedral of St. Basil.  Times have indeed changed.  Who, a mere 20 years ago, could have imagined such a massive procession within the very walls of the Kremlin?

Pope Benedict XVI receives new tiara

Via Fr. Z

At today's weekly general audience the Holy Father received a new tiara made for him and presented by Catholic and Orthodox Christians.

The tiara was commissioned by Dieter Philippi (http://www.dieter-philippi.de/), a German Catholic businessman who has a great devotion to the papacy as well as to the call to Christian unity.

The tiara was created in Sofia, Bulgaria by Orthodox Christians of the Liturgix studio (http://www.liturgix.com/).

Today a small delegation of Roman Catholics and Bulgarian Orthodox on pilgrimage in Rome had the honor to present the tiara to the Holy Father in the name of Christian unity.

Read the rest here.

On a side note, I am not certain about the involvement of Orthodox Christians and would caution against reading too much into this though I can all but guarantee that some of our Roman Catholic friends will latch onto this as yet further proof of imminent re-union.  The website for Liturgix does not identify themselves as Orthodox.  Rather they simply declare that they cater to both Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholics.

At one time it was customary for the citizens of whatever city a newly elected Pope came from to commission a new tiara for the Pope for his coronation.  Obviously this custom died out after Paul VI abandoned the tiara in the 1960's.  All three of his successors have declined to revive its use with Benedict going so far as to remove the tiara entirely from his coat of arms.

Still, it's an impressive addition to the Vatican's collection of papal bling. 

Europe sees return of horse drawn trash wagons

Horse-drawn rubbish carts are making a comeback decades after the demise of the rag-and-bone man in new trials by Suez Environnement, the European waste and recyling company.

Suez Environnement, the owner of Sita UK, is trying out the new horse-drawn bin lorries in cities across France - saving petrol money and therefore carbon dioxide emissions.

The company, which collects the bins for 62 UK councils, said initial data from the regions shows that people are recycling 15pc to 17pc more waste than before, as they are reminded of the need to be eco-friendly.

"It seems as though the mere presence of horses makes households think and act with more of an environmental conscience," a spokesman said.

The first areas in France to see horses trotting the streets to collect waste are Beauvais three parishes near Troyes, Verdun, Vendargue and Sezanne, where collections started in April and May this year.

If the trials are successful, the use of horses could be expanded further across Suez's operations in suitable locations.

Read the rest here.

In Israel, Netanyahu Is Seen as Diplomatic Failure

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel returned from Washington on Wednesday to a nearly unanimous assessment among Israelis that despite his forceful defense of Israel’s security interests, hopes were dashed that his visit might advance Palestinian peace negotiations.

One of the widely articulated goals of his trip, where he met with President Obama and addressed Congress, was to find a way to lure the Palestinians back to direct negotiations, thereby preempting their plan to approach the United Nations in September for recognition of statehood within the pre-1967 lines.

Instead, the Palestinians now say, Mr. Netanyahu’s speeches convinced them that they have no negotiating partner. They plan to intensify their United Nations efforts, leaving Israelis worried about increasing international isolation and pressure, especially in light of the popular uprisings across the Arab world.

A cartoon in the centrist Yediot Aharonot newspaper summarized the concern. It showed Mr. Netanyahu’s returning plane flying near a volcano. Inside the plane someone says, “All in all, it was a very successful visit.” From the volcano, smoke rises that spells out “S-E-P-T-E-M-B-E-R.”

Newspapers and airwaves were filled with similar commentary.

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Ariz. shooting spree suspect incompetent for trial

PHOENIX — A federal judge has ruled that the suspect in the Arizona shooting rampage that wounded U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is mentally incompetent to stand trial, putting the criminal case on hold indefinitely.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns means 21-year-old Jared Lee Loughner will be sent to a federal facility for up to four months in a bid to restore his competency.

During the hearing Wednesday, Burns had Loughner escorted from the courtroom after Loughner lowered his head and said what sounded like: "Thank you for the freak show. She died in front of me." His head was inches from the table in front of him.

Loughner, dressed in a khaki prison suit and sporting bushy, reddish sideburns, was pulled from the courtroom by three court officers, NBC News reported. A room had been set up with a monitor so he could follow proceedings on closed circuit TV.

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G.O.P. on the Defensive as Voters Resist Medicare Plan

WASHINGTON — When they proposed just last month to overhaul Medicare, House Republicans were confident that the wind of budget politics was at their backs and that the country’s looming fiscal problems provided justification to begin reshaping the increasingly costly social welfare system.

But the last six weeks have left Republicans pointed into a stiff headwind. With polls and angry town hall meetings suggesting that many voters were wary if not opposed to the Medicare overhaul, party unity and optimism gave way to a slow-motion backtracking in the House and, in the Senate and on the presidential campaign trail, a bit of a Republican-on-Republican rumpus.

Even before the Republican loss Tuesday night in the race for a vacant House seat from New York — a contest fought in large part over the Medicare proposal — Democrats were clinging to the developments like koalas to eucalyptus trees, hoping that the plan’s toxicity among many voters would give them a shot at retaining control of the Senate and, in their most vivid dreams, taking back the House majority.

Eager to press their advantage, Senate Democrats will stage a vote on the Medicare plan as soon as Wednesday, forcing Senate Republicans into a yes-or-no choice that both sides know will become the basis of countless campaign commercials over the next year and a half.

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GOP Senator blocks pay raise for Interior Secretary

President Obama's Interior secretary is due for a raise, but Louisiana GOP Sen. David Vitter threatened to block that pay increase unless the Interior Department opens more access to Gulf drilling. Democrats say that Vitter's opposition amounts to coercion.

This morning, aides to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar say he asked the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to withdraw any effort to address Salazar's planned salary increase over a rare and personal dispute launched by Vitter. Salazar wrote to Reid, that Vitter's demand is "wrong" and called it "attempted coercion."

Vitter is demanding Salazar take action to open more drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico, an issue important in his home state after last year's spill. In a letter, Vitter threatened to use a procedural move that would allow him to block Salazar's pay adjustment.

Vitter wrote, "[W]hen the rate of permits issued for new deepwater exploratory wells reaches pre-moratorium levels (so 6 per month), I will end my efforts to block your salary increase."

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In case anyone was wondering just how powerful the oil companies are in Washington.

Joplin Hospital: A Rush to Protect Patients, Then Bloody Chaos

JOPLIN, Mo. — When the warning — “Execute Condition Gray!” — blared through the halls of St. John’s Regional Medical Center, nurses began rolling patients’ beds into the hallways, as they had been trained to do time and again in this tornado-prone region.

But just as workers were completing the precautionary steps Sunday night, the entire nine-story building was pummeled by a tornado. Glass shards exploded from every window, doors blew open, and even patients’ IV-lines were ripped from their arms.

By the time the three-quarter-mile-wide tornado — among the deadliest in the nation’s history — moved on, the hospital was a scene of stunned chaos. Nearly every patient was splashed or covered with blood from all the glass, and people in the emergency room on the first floor were sucked out of windows into the parking lot. Even a backup generator failed, leaving ventilators and other medical equipment without power in dark rooms.

One panicked nurse, who had been in the intensive care unit, pleaded for help when machines stopped pumping air into the lungs of critically ill patients. “I’ve got patients dying up there!” Robert Kuhn, a hospital worker, recalled the nurse calling out. The doctors told him to go back and pump the air manually.

“You were on your own,” Mr. Kuhn explained.

At least 116 people were killed and hundreds more injured, city officials said Monday, as hundreds of emergency workers searched for others beneath the rubble that blanketed this southwest Missouri city. Leaders said they expected the death count to continue to rise.

The tornado, which struck around dinner time, crushed nearly a third of the city. It pounded about 2,000 buildings, knocked out power and cellphone service for many, and damaged water treatment and sewage plants. The tangled remains of cars and trucks were overturned and thrown against buildings and trees. Some blocks were jagged mounds of debris, while others were stripped to utter emptiness: just foundations of homes and tree trunks — no leaves, no branches, no bark.

The tornado did catastrophic damage to a Wal-Mart, a high school and a nursing home apartment building, and ripped through the places that exist to respond to emergencies, like a fire station, where a brick wall was crumbled over a fire truck, and the hospital, whose sign was reported to have been spotted miles from Joplin.

It was the deadliest single tornado in more than half a century, and it adds to a season of particularly deadly tornadoes. Storms in the Midwest and South have killed hundreds of people in the last two months, and left millions of dollars of damage behind.

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Islamists Drive Cairo Church Shut Down

Hundreds of Muslims, angered by the prospect of a government-closed church re-opening in their neighborhood, protested outside the church yesterday, causing the provisional military authority to back away from its promise to allow Orthodox clergy to reopen it.

Protesters started gathering on Thursday afternoon outside the Church of the Virgin Mary and St. Abraam in Ain Shams, a poor section of northeastern Cairo. The church was scheduled to reopen that day, but protestors surrounded the building, preventing anyone from getting into it and trapping priests who were inside.

Several people were injured in fights between the Copts and the Muslims. Protestors threw rocks at each other, according a witness. One Coptic bystander was seriously injured, another witness said, when he took out a cell phone camera to record the protest and a group of Muslims surrounded and beat him. Several Copts were arrested, according to church officials.

It was unknown if any of the Muslim protesters have been arrested.

Peter Rizq, a lay minister at the church, said he, the priests and others trapped in the building found a way to sneak to safety after Muslims threatened to kill the head priest of the congregation.

“He [the priest] told us, ‘We need to go home now,’” Rizq said. “He told us we couldn’t stay any longer in the church because it would cause more problems.”

The men left the church building one by one, but some of them were later arrested and charged with illegal possession of weapons, a charge Rizq said was untrue.

Intimidation
This is the second time the church has been closed because of local Muslim opposition. Three years ago, in November 2008, Egypt’s State Security Intelligence service closed the church building after a group of protesting Muslims blocked the entrance.

Prior to their attempts to open the church building, members of the congregation held meetings in two rented apartments. Eventually the congregation gathered donations and bought a plot of land with a building, converting the inside of it into a worship place. Other than signs outside the building, there were none of the structures traditionally associated with a Coptic Orthodox church, such as crosses or domes.

Problems started soon after the renovations began. A group of Muslims bought a piece of land across from the church building and hastily started constructing a mosque. When the mosque was still unfinished, the Muslims blocked access to the church building; on the day it was scheduled to open, they placed prayer mats in front of the makeshift mosque, extending the rows to the entrance of the church.

The church building has been closed since the confrontation in 2008.

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An excellent discussion on the European debt crisis

Watch it here.

HT: T-19