Tom Faranda's Folly

Rugby: Superb! New Zealand Super Rugby division, Chiefs vs. Highlanders

Two exciting and amazing passages of play; the second one especially. Plenty of current and past New Zealand internationals on both teams.

 

And later in the same game;three minutes of non-stop action with the same try scorer at the end.

The Chiefs ultimately won, 41-27

Bob Woodward vs. Barack Obama

As Woodward said last night he's been threatened by high-ranking White House officials.

Bob Woodward said this evening on CNN that a "very senior person" at the White House warned him in an email that he would "regret doing this," the same day he has continued to slam President Barack Obama over the looming forced cuts known as the sequester.

Earlier today on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Woodward ripped into Obama in what has become an ongoing feud between the veteran Washington Post journalist and the White House. Woodward said Obama was showing a "kind of madness I haven't seen in a long time" for a decision not to deploy an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf because of budget concerns.

Here's the CNN video - catch Woodward's last line!

Pope Benedict's last public audience

150,000 in St. Peter's Square. The article is from the LA Times

"To love the church means also to have the courage to take difficult, painful decisions, always keeping the good of the church in mind, not oneself," said Benedict, his voice slightly hoarse but unwavering.

"I have had moments of joy and light, but also moments that haven't been easy," he added. "I felt like St. Peter with the apostles in the boat on the Sea of Galilee. ... I always knew that the Lord was in that boat, and I always was aware that the boat of the Church was not mine, was not ours, but it belonged to Him."

Benedict vowed to continue serving God in his retirement to a renovated monastery in the Vatican Gardens, a stone's throw from the papal apartment he currently occupies.

"I no longer bear the power of office of government of the church but remain in the service of prayer," he said, adding that, as pope, he belonged to everyone and would continue to belong to everyone the rest of his life.

SAT college entrance exam in for a makeover

From the Washington Post. One of the reasons - more students now take the ACT exam.

In his brief message, Coleman called the project an “ambitious endeavor” but did not provide details about why the College Board wants to change the exam, how long it will take or what the process will entail.

The overhaul comes as the SAT is starting to lose market share to a rival standardized exam, the ACT. Historically, the ACT has been taken by high school students in the West and the South, while those on the East and West coasts have tended to take the SAT.

More than 1.66 million students in the class of 2012 took the SAT, making it the largest class of SAT takers in history. And the pool of test takers has become increasingly diverse, with rising numbers of low-income, African American and Hispanic students taking the exam.

But in 2011, the number of students who took the ACT surpassed the SAT for the first time, and Coleman suggested in his e-mail that one reason for the makeover is to ensure that the SAT is relevant.

“While the SAT is the best standardized measure of college and career readiness currently available, the College Board has a responsibility to the millions of students we serve each year to ensure that our programs are continuously evaluated and enhanced, and most importantly respond to the emerging needs of those we serve,” Coleman wrote.

He wrote that his objective is to increase the value of the SAT to students, higher education officials, and to K-12 administrators, teachers and school counselors.

Joe only took the SAT exam. But we will probably have Tim take both the SAT and the ACT.

 

My (our) meeting with the Gannett newspaper editorial board.

I mentioned here that myself and two other people, Judy Anderson and Dr. Antoinette Cosentino would be meeting with the editors of the Journal News, who had enthusiastically endorsed a plan to increase abortion in NY State. The state-wide abortion rate of 30% (40% in NY city and 60% among non-hispanic African Americans in the Bronx) - the national rate is about 21% - is evidently not enough for certain politicians in New York, including Governor Cuomo. And of course they are under heavy pressure from the powerful state pro-abortion lobby, looking to expand business (I'm not cynical; I am realistic).

Anyway, here is the Journal News "Editorial Spotlight" video of our meeting Tuesday, as well as a link to their February 15th editorial. Just go through the links. There I am in all my increasingly bald-spotting glory. You can judge for yourself how effective we were or weren't - I think we got better as the questioning went on.

Our meeting with the Lohud/Journal News editorial board yesterday, livestreamed

if you think it is worthwhile, please post the link on various social media, pass along to interested people, etc. i thought Antoinette was especially effective.

"The People vs. Winter"; very funny with over 3 million views in one month

My friend Bernadette sent me this. It gets better as it goes along; watch for the very amusing bull and cow scene. 

 

From the Financial Times: "Scientists claim 72 is the new 30"

Yeah right. That makes me 19. When I told one of my friend's (who will go nameless) that would make her 23, she said "Tell my physical therapist that".

72 as the new 30

The Cable News Race

FOX on top again; I still think it's ridiculous and amusing at the same time, that the Comedy Channel "news" beats CNN. What does that say about CNN?

CABLE NEWS RACE
MON FEB 25 2013

FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,174,000
FOXNEWS THE FIVE 2,006,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,002,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 1,863,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 1,849,000
CMDY DAILY SHOW 1,610,000
CMDY COLBERT 1,310,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 1,271,000
MSNBC MADDOW 921,000
MSNBC SCHULTZ 853,000
CNN COOPER 788,000
MSNBC SHARPTON 708,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 706,000
CNNHN NANCY GRACE 657,000
CNN PIERS 637,000

Rugby: Six Nations, Wales vs. Italy

Played in Rome. 2 good tries in the second half. Referee decisions at collapsed scrums are still mysterious ...

 

The sequester cuts, in one graph

Yeah right. Cuts of this magnitude will send us back to the stone age. Right. 

Remember the math. 3,500 billion dollar budget. 85 billion in cuts, when we are borrowing 1,540 billion (44%!) to fund our budget.

Here's the blog posting the graph comes from -

Earth to New York Times: Please Show Us these “Deep Spending Cuts” You Keep Writing About

 

 

Meeting with the local Gannett newspaper editorial board, 3PM today

Read about it here, if interested.

HVCL co-directors meet with Lohud/Journal News board tomorrow; a webcast @ 3PM Tuesday

A hectic few days, as I am also moving my office tomorrow (Wednesday).

A fine tribute to Benedict XVI by Fr. Rutler

Fr. George Rutler, Anglican convert and noted speaker and author. He is the pastor of the Church of Our Saviour, on Park Ave. and 38th St.

 

FROM THE PASTOR
February 24, 2013
by Fr. George W. Rutler

The meteorite that exploded over Russia's Ural Mountains with the force of thirty atomic bombs had the biggest impact since the one that exploded over Tunguska in 1908 with a force more powerful than all the bombs, including the atomic ones dropped in the Second World War. But such a force of nature, when observed passing safely by with breathtaking speed, can also be a sign of the beauty and brevity of all things. So it was in “The Year of Three Popes” when the death of Paul VI was followed by the death of John Paul I just four weeks after his election, and then the election of John Paul II. Cardinal Confaloniere said of John Paul I, in the exquisite Latin for which he was famous: “He passed as a meteor which unexpectedly lights up the heavens and then disappears, leaving us amazed and astonished.”

   The impact of that pope's sudden death seemed at the time to be immeasurably hurtful, and yet he made the way for many providential events. Now the gracious abdication of Pope Benedict XVI also amazes and astonishes. When he assumed the papacy, he knew the work would not be easy: “Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.”  Without histrionics or self-pity, he quietly took up his burden in the succession of St. Peter to whom the Lord said, “Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not; and that when you are converted, you will strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:31-32).

   In many glorious ways, Benedict XVI has done just that. With unerring fidelity he has explained the sacred deposit of the Faith to its opponents, both cultured and uncultured, with patient eloquence and stunning insight. Many reforms in the Church’s structure and the purification of abuses were his intense initiatives. Rather like St. Francis of Assisi going to meet with the caliph of Egypt clad only in simplicity, Benedict XVI refused to wear a bullet-proof vest when he went to Turkey, turning the anger of many to respect. A new reverence and beauty in worship has been his gift to the Church through his renewal of the sacred rites, and the provision of an ordinariate for whole groups seeking full communion with the Church “amazed and astonished” many. Now, his renunciation of the Keys entrusted to him, teaches the essence of the papacy as a stewardship that transcends the charisms of any individual. Officially, a pope is Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of Vatican City, Servant of the Servants of God. But to the world, this Pope has also been a very good Father.

From my brother - a photo and commentary smuggled out of Korea

My brother Jim, who currently is in the Peoples Republic of Washington D.C.

As you know, North Korea is an isolated, secretive society.  My special sources were able to obtain a photo that was taken clandestinely at a major supermarket in North Korea, and smuggled out of the country.  Only a handful of people in the entire world have seen this photo.

******

This photo shows the latest and finest in available food products for the workers of North Korea, which is officially named, and quite aptly, of course, "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea".  Among the advances in that workers' paradise is an almost total absence of obesity.  In fact, our sources inform us that the reigning government there is so popular, there is no record of any opposition to it. 

******

Have a great week.

JF

Very funny: lightweight pundit Ezra Klein refers to Bob Woodward as "my colleague"

Yeah it takes cojones. Klein is a Washington Post writer (as is the very legendary Bob Woodward), and is another slavish AK'er forthe Democrat Party. He's frequently on MSNBC offering his uhhh, thoughts. Klein is 28 years old (and has a BA in poli sci from UCLA!).

Anyway, here's a column by Woodward, taking the President to task - Obama’s sequester deal-changer .

Well, we can't have that can we? So Klein writes a long and tedious column which starts with I don’t agree with my colleague Bob Woodward .

This is like my saying I'm a colleague of Mariano Rivera because I used to pitch softball in Central Park.

Video from the Daytona 500 crack-up

Wow. Right at the end of the race. By hitting the link you'll get first to a spectator's video, and then another link will get you to the ESPN sportscast. Thank the Lord the car engine was embedded in the protective fencing and didn't make it into the crowd.

Daytona 500 crash as seen from the stands.

FULL DISLOSURE: I've never had any interest in the sport of car racing.

The crowd at the Pope's last public prayer & blessing

200,000+ and a second video from the AP.

 

And here's the coverage with the Associated Press - some nice views of the Pope.

Rugby: New Zealand Super Rugby division - Hurricanes vs. Auckland Blues

Catholics of a certain perspective brace for new Pope

I have been enjoying Bill Donohue's little news release commentaries on the pending Papal conclave, up on the Catholic League website. Here's one A fascinating montage of opinions on the Pope and another an amusing piece on how "Unsolicited Advice" for the Catholic Church has "surged" both of which I posted.

And then there's this new one -

CATHOLIC LEFT BRACES FOR NEW POPE

Bill Donohue issued the following remarks today:

Here is how the Catholic Left reacted right before a new pope was elected on April 19, 2005:

• E.J. Dionne blasted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger for using “fighting words” in an address before the cardinals.
• Father Richard McBrien said, “I think this homily shows he realizes he’s not going to be elected. He is a polarizing figure.”
• Peggy Steinfels agreed, saying, “Oh well, that gets rid of him.”

A few hours later, he was elected Pope Benedict XVI.

Here is how the Catholic Left greeted the news:

• The president of Dignity, Michael Rocks, said of the new pope, “I didn’t think he had a chance because he already was so negative.”
• Sr. Donna Quinn, head of the pro-abortion group, National Coalition of American Nuns, slammed him for lacking “sensitivity” to women.
• Scott Appleby of Notre Dame opined, “This is the worst nightmare come true.”
• Ex-priest Paul Lakeland lamented that “this choice is nothing but backwards looking.”
• Andrew Greeley’s warning was ominous: “There might be a reign of terror for those who still support the Vatican Council.”
• A spokesman for Call to Action exclaimed, “People here are in a state of shock.”

The Catholic Left will again be in a state of shock once the new pope is named. Having lost on virtually every issue that excites them—and nothing excites them more than sex—they are now bracing for more bad news. What they want has already been tried: they want the Catholic Church to adopt the teachings of the mainline Protestant denominations. Someone needs to tell them (gently, of course) that it didn’t work—they’re all in free fall.

What do you call a Pope who resigns?

From my friend Kathy -

Rugby: New Zealand Super Rugby division - Chiefs vs. Highlanders

End to end scoring

 

Limbaugh on his: "... I am ashamed of my country" comment

The point being that sequestration will take 85 billion out of a 3,600 billion dollar budget. Ohh, and meanwhile we are borrowing 46 cents of every one dollar the government spends. The WSJ editorial on the issue from a couple of days ago is quite apropos. WSJ on sequestration: "President Armageddon"

So here's Rush Limbaugh's comment -

 

WSJ on sequestration: "President Armageddon"

A fine look at reality and the nonsense the President is spouting. Great analysis! Hit the link for the whole thing.

... Mr. Obama made his usual threat of Armageddon if automatic spending cuts go forward on March 1. Americans can expect more such melodrama in the coming days, so as a public service we thought we'd break down the President's three biggest political tricks.

His parade of horribles went on for several minutes. All of this wreckage from a
5% cut to domestic agencies and a 7% cut to the military.

Americans need to understand that Mr. Obama is threatening that if he doesn't
get what he wants, he's ready to inflict maximum pain on everybody
else. He won't force government agencies to shave spending on travel and
conferences and excessive pay and staffing. He won't demand that agencies cut
the lowest priority spending as any half-competent middle manager would.

It's the old ploy to stir public support for all government spending
by shutting down vital services first. Voters should scoff at the idea that a
$3.6 trillion government can't save one nickel of every dollar that agencies
spend. The $85 billion in savings is a mere 2.3% of total spending. The agencies
that the White House says can't save 5% received an average increase in their
budgets of 17% in the previous five years—not counting their $276 billion
stimulus bonus.

******

Mr. Obama just whacked the economy with a roughly $160 billion tax increase in
2013 that he says will do no harm, but he wants us to believe that $85 billion
in spending cuts will trigger a recession. The sequester shaves the equivalent
of about 0.25% of GDP when offsetting it against the extra money the feds are
spending on Sandy relief.

After World War II federal spending fell from 42% of GDP to 14.8% in two years,
yet the private economy and employment roared back to life. In the 1980s
domestic spending fell by about two percentage points of GDP and in the 1990s it
fell by more than three. Those were decades of government austerity but rapid
growth in private output and wealth. Mr. Obama has taken government spending
from 21% to 24% of GDP, yet we've had the weakest economic recovery in three
generations.

******

Mr. Obama isn't proposing to substitute other spending reforms for the blunt instrument of the sequester. He is actually demanding another tax increase on top of the one he just beat out of Congress. His trick is to pretend that this is "tax reform" that would eliminate loopholes, but this is the same President who insisted on more than $30 billion in tax breaks for big business (including $12 billion for the wind industry) in the fiscal-cliff deal.

For 30 years bipartisan tax reform has meant lowering tax rates in return for
closing loopholes. But having already raised rates, Mr. Obama now wants fewer
loopholes for those he dislikes while keeping the higher rates. This is nothing
but a grab for more revenue so he and Democrats can keep spending.

******

The sequester is far from ideal and it would make much more sense to work with
Congress to set priorities. But Mr. Obama has rejected every meaningful reform
in entitlements that Republicans or his own Simpson-Bowles commission have
offered. ObamaCare will add more than $1 trillion in new costs and add some 17
million people to Medicaid, but he says this can't be touched. In his State of
the Union address Mr. Obama proposed $83.4 billion in new spending ...

 

an amusing piece on how "Unsolicited Advice" for the Catholic Church has "surged"

In the form of a press release from the Catholic League on February 15th

UNSOLICITED ADVICE SURGES

Bill Donohue comments on reaction to the pope’s resignation:

The decision of Pope Benedict XVI to retire has elicited a surge of unsolicited advice on how the Catholic Church must change. Paradoxically, most of it is coming from those who are not exactly connected to the Church: we are hearing from ex-Catholics, those with one foot out the door, and non-Catholics. Much of their advice has to do with sex, proving once again that it is not the Church that is obsessed with sex—it is the Church’s critics.

Can the Church change? On some teachings, of course. As Judge John T. Noonan Jr. has demonstrated, the Church has evolved on slavery, usury, religious freedom, and divorce. Moreover, it has modified its teachings on subjects ranging from celibacy to the role of Jews in the crucifixion. While capital punishment is not an intrinsic evil, Pope John Paul II narrowed its legitimate exercise. So if these changes, and many others, have been made, why can’t there be more? There can be, at least on some teachings. The question is whether there should be.

The Catholic League is positively agnostic on these issues. We are not an advisory group, nor are we a theological debating society. We are a civil rights organization. Our job is to defend the right of the Church to proclaim the Gospel as it sees fit. Moreover, we adamantly reject the notion that there can be parallel teaching bodies: the Magisterium, which is the pope in communion with the bishops, is the sole teaching body of the Catholic Church. It is their rights we defend. All we ask for is a respectful hearing.

Everyone, of course, is entitled to offer advice. But those who are no longer practicing Catholics, or who never were, cannot expect a serious hearing. This has to be said now because over the next several months we are likely to witness an explosion in voyeurism, as well as downright meddling, in the internal affairs of the Catholic Church.

"The Kid from Brooklyn", applying to be next Pope

He cleaned up his language for this video. ...

Tim puts up a big number in the barbell squat

Tim's squat PR was 370 lbs. Last Monday evening he decided to go for a new personal best. I was sure he'd hit 385 - but he actually hit the goal we'd set for him to get to by June, 405!

I have a 17 second video of his lift - but he won't let me post it.

Oh, and yesterday he raised his personal best in the bench press from 300 to 305. He called me in the afternoon to tell me he'd hit it (his friend Tyler spotted Tim for the lift). To "spot" someone for a lift is to be right there to help if the lifter falters/can't make it.

 

The vice-president's advice on defending your home

The man who would be President, off his meds again?

 

Ahh but then he makes some sense in this, as he suggests that the law is a moral teacher, and that is important. But clearly, only on certain issues

On Meet the Press, Carly Fiorina crushes two babbling idiot men

Got referred to this off the Ann Althouse blog. The two men are Gavin Newsom, Lt. Gov. of California, and one of the ultimate Democratic Party AK'ers, Chris Matthews. The clip is three minutes long (sorry for the embedded commercial). Fiorina's piece is 20 seconds near the end.

"I find it stunning, truly, that this president and the Democratic party continues to lay all the blame for their failure to achieve anything at the feet of the tea party or Ted Cruz or whoever the latest villain is. The truth is, this man is the President of the United States. He could get immigration reform, as one example, tomorrow. If he would step forward and say, 'I applaud and salute the gang of eight's proposal. Let's move forward and go beyond that...'"

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Russian meteor was the biggest in over 100 years

From the Wall Street Journal

The meteor that crashed to earth in Russia was about 55 feet in diameter, weighed around 10,000 tons and was made from a stony material, scientists said, making it the largest such object to hit the Earth in more than a century.

Data from a global network of sensors indicated that the meteor's fiery disintegration as it neared earth near Chelyabinsk, Russia, unleashed nearly 500 kilotons of energy, more than 30 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

It is the largest reported meteor since the one that hit Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The U.S. agency's new estimate of the meteor's size was a marked increase from its initial one.

"We would expect an event of this magnitude to occur once every 100 years," said Paul Chodas of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office. "When you have a fireball of this size we would expect a large number of meteorites to reach the surface and in this case there were probably some large ones."

Comparison: how the media handles bible-quoting Carnival cruise folks

Interviews from two different networks of people who'd been on the Cruise ship Triumph that broke down at sea. 

Pretty revealing and the second one is actually good for a laugh. You don't have to even read the text of the article, just scroll down to the two videos.

After four days of nasty conditions, the crippled ship was finally towed into Mobile Bay, where the passengers couldn’t get off the ship fast enough. A number of news people were at the dock and tried to interview as many passengers as they could so that their audiences could hear of all the nightmares they had to endure.

 

NYC: soda size is important, housing the homeless in freezing weather, not so much

This amazes me (but maybe on second thought, it doesn't).

Joe and I were part of a Midnight Run from our parish Friday, and around 11PM I asked three different street people (two men, one woman) where they'd spend the night. It was getting cold and a freezing rain was beginning. All three of them said they'd ride the trains (subway) for the night.

Meanwhile, families are being turned out or turned down for shelter by the city. The big issue though: don't drink soda's larger than 16 oz.

From the NY Daily News -

The city's 'code blue' policy that provides shelter for people when temperatures dip below freezing is leaving families out in the cold

Junior and Kaneesha Clarke with their daughter Janiah,4, are homeless and struggling in the cold. Usually during a 'code blue' the city would relax its shelter admissions rules so people on the street could come inside but thats no longer true.

 

Washington Post: "Fiscal trouble ahead for most future retirees"

Yeah. No kidding. And if you read the full article, the answer to this from some politicians is simply to take from those who are prepared, and give to those who aren't. 

For the first time since the New Deal, a majority of Americans are headed toward a retirement in which they will be financially worse off than their parents, jeopardizing a long era of improved living standards for the nation’s elderly, according to a growing consensus of new research.

The Great Recession and the weak recovery darkened the retirement picture for significant numbers of Americans. And the full extent of the damage is only now being grasped by experts and policymakers.

Personally, this is not a problem for me because I don't plan on retiring any time soon. I like what I'm doing, so why stop? Of course, if my lymphoma comes back, that would be a problem ...

Benedict XVI and Hans Kung

Here's a short essay I just came across, written a couple of years ago. Takes only a few minutes to read. 

The Pope's book mentioned - Jesus of Nazareth (vol 2; I reviewed it here - Lenten reading: Jesus of Nazareth, by Pope Benedict XVI ) I did read; Kung's I didn't.

The review is relevant to what's going on today, with the Pope having stepped down -

Benedict XVI, Hans Kung and Catholicism’s Future

 

Michael Jordan turned 50 today; here's how good he still is

Yeah, Jordan is 50, which is another reminder that I'm old.

And he can still play.

Somewhere between jokes about the Bobcats' struggles and Michael Jordan's comeback potential is this little nugget of truth: His Airness recently beat Charlotte's No. 2 draft pick one-on-one.

"It was hard for me," Kidd-Gilchrist said Friday night before playing in the Rising Stars Challenge. "I lost. He's the greatest man that ever played the game.

"Oh, yeah. He's good."

The first-year player out of Kentucky denied taking it easy on the man who signs his paychecks, telling CSN Houston he gave the game an honest effort.

“No,” he said. “No. I didn’t allow him to beat me. Because that’s my boss? Nah.”

i was in the gym a couple of days ago, and ESPN was doing a show on Jordan. They interviewed the former commissioner of basketball and in a complete turnaround from the normal comparisons he said "Babe Ruth was the Michael Jordan of Baseball."

The real reason the Pope quit

The inside story from my friend Bernadette -

 

Rand Paul's Tea Party response to the President's State of the Union speech

Besides' Marco Rubio's response, there was Paul's. It's 13 minutes long and I agree with about 97% of what he says.

 

How to save the world from a giant asteroid collision

Explained in the Washnigton Post. A 'gravitational tractor."

The world has no real defense against killer meteors (but it has one very good idea)

 

Papal Conclave to include presence of female Cardinals

UPDATE: an email from my friend Ellen - "I wish I knew the person who belongs to the quote, "Do not bind God to contracts He never signed."  I would congratulate him /her. The Law is sooooooo simple." Thou shall love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, mind and Soul, and love thy neighbor as thy self."The two operative words are love and asWe little humans get so side tracked with minutia and ignore totally what counts.

It's only fair.Thanks to Michael for sending me this. ...

BUT, it may be possible that a woman could be a Roman Catholic Cardinal - without being ordained! See this link -

Cdl. Dolan and Fr. Benedict Groeschel Affirm Me in My Okayness!

Works for me.

Here's the Russian meteorite hit

Pretty scary if you're on the spot.

 

A fascinating montage of opinions on the Pope

Put together by the Catholic League -

Assessing the Pope's Record

• Garry Wills [ex-seminarian]: “What we really need are no priests.”
• James Carroll [ex-priest]: The pope “has seen only a solemn obligation to defend the church.” [Italic added.]
• Richard Sipe [ex-priest]: “Certainly, he did a lot, but it was all reactionary.” [Italic added.]
• Daniel Maguire [ex-priest]: The “scandal of the papacy [is] one of the last absolute monarchies in a democratizing world.”

• Ronald Lauder, president, World Jewish Congress: “The papacy of Benedict elevated Catholic-Jewish relations to an unprecedented level.”
• Abraham Foxman, national director, ADL: “He [the pope] was good for the Jews.”
• Rabbi Yona Metzger, Israel’s chief Ashkenazic rabbi: Benedict’s papacy exhibited “the best relations ever between the church and the chief rabbinate.”

• Imam Hassan Qazwini, Islamic Center of America: “I have so much admiration for the pope, for being honest and humble.”
• Nihad Awad, national director, Council on American-Islamic Relations: “We offer the American Muslim community’s best wishes to Pope Benedict XVI.”

• Geoff Tunnicliffe, secretary general, World Evangelical Alliance: “I appreciate his [the pope’s] courage of ideas…and his boldness in warning us of the dangers of moral relativism….”
• Rev. R. Albert Mohler, president, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: “Pope Benedict has offered a brave and intelligent defense of truth against a relativist tide.”

Bill Donohue, who put this together, opines: “I could offer many other examples, but the point is obvious: embittered ex-seminarians and ex-priests suffer not only from profound anger—ultimately directed at themselves—but their perception of Catholicism makes them look twisted in comparison to the sentiments of Jews, Muslims, Protestants, and others.”

Humor from Mrs. Pelosi

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that she opposes a cut in congressional pay because it would diminish the dignity of lawmakers' jobs.

Does she realize how ridiculous she sounds?  I guess not.

"I don't think we should do it; I think we should respect the work we do," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. "I think it's necessary for us to have the dignity of the job that we have rewarded."

k

Nominee for theTreasury Secretary post didn't know why his investments were in the Cayman Islands

Well Mr. Lew, I can vouch that the scuba diving and beaches are stunning.

Of course that's not the point, is it?

Mr. Lew seems to have been equally disengaged about his own investments. He said he didn't know why the venture-capital fund in which he had invested was based in the Cayman Islands or whether its location had resulted in any tax benefits. He did aver that Congress could always have banned such tax shelters before he had invested in one.

 

Benedict XVI: "Reason's Revolutionary

Here's a fine short essay on the Pope. And I couldn't agree more. I loved reading anything by Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict.

But we need to remember that Benedict XVI is arguably the most intellectual pope to sit in Peter’s Chair for centuries—even more so than his saintly predecessor, who was certainly no slouch in the world of ideas. And if there is one single thing that stands out in Benedict’s papacy, it’s this: his laser-like focus on the root-cause of the intellectual crisis that explains not only Western culture’s present wallowing in facile relativism that’s on full display in the content-free rhetoric of your average EU politician, but also the trauma that explains the violence and rage that continues to shake the Islamic world and which Islam seems incapable of resolving on its own terms.

And that problem is one of reason. As Benedict spelt out ... —man, especially Western man, has lost confidence in reason’s power to know more-than-empirical truth.

And what’s the result? It means very basic discussions in the realms of politics and universities are no longer conducted along the lines identified long ago by figures such as Aristotle and Aquinas. Instead it’s all about power, who is stronger, and who can evoke the highest degree of sentimental humanitarianism from people looking for guidance in increasingly incoherent societies.

In the religious world, the crisis of reason means two things. First, God is reduced to the status of a cuddly Teddy Bear incapable of distinguishing between good and evil and who, as Benedict once wrote, “no longer does anything but affirm us.” Or, conversely, God becomes a creature who demands that we behave unreasonably—be it by driving trucks full of explosives into Catholic churches in Nigeria, beheading teenage Indonesian Christian schoolgirls, or other unmentionables that professional inter-faith dialoguers never want to talk about.

The essay finishes with this fine quote from the Cardinal:

But, like another Benedict who spent most of his life in a monastery but nevertheless managed to save Western civilization, Joseph Ratzinger knows that, in the long run, there’s something else that the world needs besides a renewal of reason in all its fullness. And that’s sanctity: the sanctity of a Thomas More, Thérèse of Lisieux, or John Paul IIwhich produces that vision of fearless and indestructible goodness that truly changes history. Never did Benedict make this point so well as when he spoke these words during a prayer vigil for thousands of young Catholics at World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005:

The saints are . . . the true reformers. . . . Only from the saints, only from God does true revolution come. . . . It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really good and true. True revolution consists in simply turning to God who is the measure of what is right and who at the same time is everlasting love. And what could ever save us apart from love?

From the Civil War USS Monitor - the remains of two sailors to be buried

Here is - to me - a fascinating bit of history, from the Washington Post.

For 140 years the two Yankee sailors lay entombed in the turret of the USS Monitor, doomed shipmates aboard the sunken Civil War vessel 40 fathoms down and 16 miles off Cape Hatteras.

Next month, after a decade of trying to learn their identities, the Navy plans to bury the comrades as unidentified in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

******

And it will lay to rest perhaps the last of over 600,000 soldiers, sailors and Marines who perished in the long ago war for the Union. The nation is currently commemorating the sesquicentennial of the war, which ran from 1861 to 1865.

“These may very well be the last Navy personnel from the Civil War to be buried at Arlington,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in a statement Tuesday. “It’s important we honor these brave men and all they represent as we reflect upon the significant roleMonitor and her crew had in setting the course for our modern Navy.”

The Monitor is famous for battling the Confederate ship CSS Virginia, formerly the USS Merrimack, on March 9, 1862, at Hampton Roads, Va., in the first fight between ironclad warships.

******

Almost 10 months later, the two sailors were aboard the Monitor when it sank in a gale off the North Carolina coast on Dec. 31, 1862. The ship capsized and settled on the bottom upside down.

Most of the 63 crewmen escaped. Sixteen men perished; the bodies of the other 14 were never recovered.

The two unidentified men — an older sailor, about 35, who walked with a limp, wore a gold ring and often had a pipe clenched between his teeth, and a younger man, about 21, with a broken nose and mismatched shoes — were trapped in the turret.

More than a century later, their almost-complete skeletons were found, one on top of the other, amid a tangle of huge guns and debris. The turret resides at the Mariners’ Museum today.

******

“Here we have two men who were lost in a storm, forgotten by even many of their descendants,” he said. “But the nation’s never forgotten.”

 

A Frenchman explains "Why chocolate makes you feel good"

Rugby: Six Nations, Italy vs. Scotland

Played at Murrayfield.

 

Washington Post on Benedict XVI: "Failed ... inadequate ... reactionary ... "

UPDATE: From my friend Nancy, in an email: "As I usually say, if mainstream journalists were writing favorably about the Pope, we would do best to check our pulses and ascertain that we are still on this side of the pearly gates..."

This is one of a number of attack op eds and editorials that have come out in the last 24 hours - the Daily Beast (part of the now-defunct Newsweek) and a FOX news online writer had particularly scathing commentaries.

I would have expected more from a Washington Post editorial - but here it is. I report you decide.

Some of Pope Benedict’s most important achievements came in response to the backlash triggered by his reactionary acts.

If you can stomach him (not everyone can), there are some links to EJ Dionne's - a progressive's progressive Catholic - WaPo columns at the end of the editorial.

 

Rugby: Six Nations, Wales vs. France

Played in Paris. One good try.

 

Kimmel: Saluting weathermen who risk their limbs!

Yes, it's kind of silly, but that's Jimmy Kimmel.

 

Dr. Ben Carson interviewed by Neil Cavuto

I've already posted twice about this guy I agree with the Wall St. Journal: "Ben Carson for President", and Fabulous speech by Dr. Benjamin Carson at the National Prayer Breakfast who I hadn't ever heard of before last Thursday.

Good interview -

 

CNN Anchor: Is coming asteroid caused by Global Warming?

Are NY Times op ed columnists also wondering about this? ...