Tom Faranda's Folly

Rugby: Hong Kong 7's - last day and finals

The USA made the quarterfinals.

 

Tim outdoor track season off to a good start

Last Thursday in cold conditions Tim got a third place at "The Tusker Twilight" in the shot put. He only threw 37'2", well off his best, but the conditions were not very conducive.

Then yesterday at the CHSAA (Catholic HS Athletic Association) Relay Carnival, he tied for first in the javelin with a 148'1" throw. The conditions were wet, windy, and cold, so that was very good - and a new personal best for Tim.

The meet was at Icahn Staium on Randall's Island, and the last event of the day.

Here's his PR at 148'1"

 

And just a bit more - his last throw which was also a good one - look closely and you'll see where the javelin lands - 147'10".

Article on the Ukraine situation by a friend of mine

UPDATE: Apropos to commentary below:

"Russia on Sunday night repeated its demand that the US and its European partners accept its proposal that ethnic Russian regions of eastern and southern Ukraine be given extensive autonomous powers independent of Kiev as a condition for agreeing a diplomatic solution to the crisis over its annexation of Crimea."

Actually, the son-in-law of my friend John.

Rory Finnin is the Director of the Cambridge University Ukrainian Studies Program.

The title of the essay is "A Divided Ukraine: Europe's Most Dangerous Idea."

I excerpted the last two paragraphs - the link gets you to more detail (it has to be cut and pasted into your browser), and the whole article is not very long.

http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/a-divided-ukraine-europes-most-dangerous-idea

Over the past decade, poll after poll of respondents in Ukraine’s eastern oblasts reveal – to entertain the reductive label one final time – a majority ‘pro-Ukrainian’ sentiment. In a 2005 Razumkov Centre study, for instance, 67% of citizens from Ukraine’s east answered positively in response to the question ‘Do you consider yourself a patriot of Ukraine?’, while 22% answered negatively and 11% found it difficult to answer at all. Likewise, in a 2006 Razumkov Centre study, 62% of respondents in the east said ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Would you choose Ukraine as your fatherland if you had the choice?’, while 20% said ‘No’ and 18% ‘Hard to say’. Keep in mind that in Ukraine per capita GDP was $2,303 in 2006; in Russia it was $6,947. Even despite economic disparity with its powerful neighbour, most residents in Ukraine’s east have made a point of embracing the Ukrainian state as their home.

It is high time we listened to them. With another Russian invasion of Ukraine’s sovereign territory on the horizon, we cannot afford to retreat to stale, intellectually lazy and above all dangerous clichés about Ukraine’s ‘pro-EU’ and ‘pro-Russian’ halves. Ukraine is a large, diverse country that has managed its many differences admirably since winning independence in 1991. Today the Kremlin is trying to fetishize, manipulate and exaggerate these differences through brute force, intimidation, provocation, and propagandistic deception – simply because the Ukrainian people ousted a corrupt, criminal president and fought to determine their own destiny. War is imminent, and the Kremlin is counting on our ignorance and on our tacit questioning of Ukraine’s sovereignty over its eastern territory. We need to respond not only by supporting the new Ukrainian government with ambitious financial assistance but by making Ukrainians, at last, the subjects of their own story.

- See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/a-divided-ukraine-europes-most-dangerous-idea#sthash.nVZReycA.dpuf

Over the past decade, poll after poll of respondents in Ukraine’s eastern oblasts reveal – to entertain the reductive label one final time – a majority ‘pro-Ukrainian’ sentiment. In a 2005 Razumkov Centre study, for instance, 67% of citizens from Ukraine’s east answered positively in response to the question ‘Do you consider yourself a patriot of Ukraine?’, while 22% answered negatively and 11% found it difficult to answer at all. Likewise, in a 2006 Razumkov Centre study, 62% of respondents in the east said ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Would you choose Ukraine as your fatherland if you had the choice?’, while 20% said ‘No’ and 18% ‘Hard to say’. Keep in mind that in Ukraine per capita GDP was $2,303 in 2006; in Russia it was $6,947. Even despite economic disparity with its powerful neighbour, most residents in Ukraine’s east have made a point of embracing the Ukrainian state as their home.

It is high time we listened to them. With another Russian invasion of Ukraine’s sovereign territory on the horizon, we cannot afford to retreat to stale, intellectually lazy and above all dangerous clichés about Ukraine’s ‘pro-EU’ and ‘pro-Russian’ halves. Ukraine is a large, diverse country that has managed its many differences admirably since winning independence in 1991. Today the Kremlin is trying to fetishize, manipulate and exaggerate these differences through brute force, intimidation, provocation, and propagandistic deception – simply because the Ukrainian people ousted a corrupt, criminal president and fought to determine their own destiny. War is imminent, and the Kremlin is counting on our ignorance and on our tacit questioning of Ukraine’s sovereignty over its eastern territory. We need to respond not only by supporting the new Ukrainian government with ambitious financial assistance but by making Ukrainians, at last, the subjects of their own story.

- See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/a-divided-ukraine-europes-most-dangerous-idea#sthash.nVZReycA.dpuf

In this article, Dr Rory Finnin - University Lecturer and Director of the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies programme - addresses the notion of a 'divided' Ukraine and the current military escalation by Russia. - See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/a-divided-ukraine-europes-most-dangerous-idea#sthash.nVZReycA.dpufIn this article, Dr Rory Finnin - University Lecturer and Director of the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies programme - addresses the notion of a 'divided' Ukraine and the current military escalation by Russia. In this article, Dr Rory Finnin - University Lecturer and Director of the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies programme - addresses the notion of a 'divided' Ukraine and the current military escalation by Russia. A divided ukraine: Europe's Most Dangerous Idea

In this article, Dr Rory Finnin - University Lecturer and Director of the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies programme - addresses the notion of a 'divided' Ukraine and the current military escalation by Russia. - See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/a-divided-ukraine-europes-most-dangerous-idea#sthash.nVZReycA.dpuf

In this article, Dr Rory Finnin - University Lecturer and Director of the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies programme - addresses the notion of a 'divided' Ukraine and the current military escalation by Russia. - See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/a-divided-ukraine-europes-most-dangerous-idea#sthash.nVZReycA.dpuf

Rugby: USA over Uruguay to qualify for the World Cup

USA in, Uruguay out.

 

At a Conference yesterday; Religious Freedom topic

Wow. Things are even grimmer than I thought. One of the speakers was an attorney with The Alliance Defending Freedom, and among other things, he showed this video. This is the case in Washington State where a florist felt she could not supply the flowers for a Same Sex Wedding. She'd known the man for nine years; he was a regular customer. 

 

Former President Jimmy Carter on female feticide

This was sent around by Peace and Life Connections, a weekly email from Consistent Life*

Female Feticide
 
        Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter had this exchange in an interview about his new book on women’s rights on the PBS News Hour on March 26, 2014:
 
JIMMY CARTER: And I think the most horrible statistic that’s included in this book that is quite accurate is that there — there have been about 160 million little baby girls killed in this generation by their own parents because they didn’t want to have girls. They wanted boys.
 
JUDY WOODRUFF: By abortions, you mean?
 
JIMMY CARTER: And that includes most recently abortions, because now, with the advent of sonograms even in the poorest countries, they can detect the sex of a fetus when it’s being developed, and they abort it. Otherwise, they just wait until the girl is born and then strangle her to death.

*Consistent Life was formerly known as the Seamless Garment Network. We

We are committed to the protection of life, which is threatened in today's world by war, abortion, poverty, racism, capital punishment and euthanasia. We believe that these issues are linked under a 'consistent ethic of life'. We challenge those working on all or some of these issues to maintain a cooperative spirit of peace, reconciliation, and respect in protecting the unprotected.

are committed to the protection of life, which is threatened in today's world by war, abortWe are committed to the protection of life, which is threatened in today's world by war, abortion, poverty, racism, capital punishment and euthanasia. We believe that these issues are linked under a 'consistent ethic of life'. We challenge those working on all or some of these issues to maintain a cooperative spirit of peace, reconciliation, and respect in protecting the unprotected.ion, poverty, racism, capital punishment and euthanasia. We believe that these issues are linked under a 'consistent ethic of life'. We challenge those working on all or some of these issues to maintain a cooperative spirit of peace, reconciliation, and respect in protecting the unprotected.
 

Rugby: "NFL Players on Rugby"

Short video, kind of interesting. Some good diplomacy shown at the end. ...

 

AP: Obama and Pope "Find Common Ground - and Divisions"

UPDATE: Pretty funny - Krauthammer's take, "Who to believe the Holy See or the man who told the lie of the year?"

Pretty fair coverage by the Associated Press, of yesterday's meeting between the pope and the President.

The gaps were evident in the differing accounts Obama and the Vatican gave of the meeting, with Obama stressing the two leaders' common ground on fighting inequality and poverty while Vatican officials emphasized the importance to the church of "rights to religious freedom, life and conscientious objection." That point by church officials referred to a major disagreement over a provision of Obama's health care law.

The president said the plight of the poor and marginalized was a central topic in their talks, along with Middle East peace, conflicts in Syria and the treatment of Christians around the world. Social issues, he said, were not discussed in detail.

However, the Vatican left out any reference to inequality issues in its description of the meeting. In a written statement, church officials instead said discussions among not only the pope and president but also their top aides centered on questions of particular relevance for the church leaders in the U.S., making veiled references both to abortion and a contraception mandate in Obama's health care law, which is under review by the Supreme Court.

 

 

Obama opinion poll in Washington Post - no one is "undecided"

Unusual. Vote is 59% disapprove, 41% approve.

The incredible Houston fire rescue

As the lady taking the video said "Thank you Jesus!"

You CAN vote for Rush Limbaugh as "Children's Author of the Year"!

HA! That's right, as he has said (over and over) the past few months, he's got two books for children, aiming to teach them American History. They've evidently sold like crazy, but for some odd reason have yet to be reviewed by the NY Times.

Vote for Rush! Children's Choice Book Awards

You can read about the book and see the almost 3,000 reviews on Amazon (five stars! Where are the haters?) by going here.

It is amusing to read the one star reviews; hatred from people who no doubt haven't read the book.

The fantasy continues as the President lectures Putin

Good God!

 

Oval Office: In Case of Crisis, Break Glass

Helmet cam video - the Freedom Tower B.A.S.E. jumpers!

All righty a stupid stunt, but still... amazing video. I believe all four participants have been arrested on a variety of charges.

Here's the short version from one jumper -

And here's the full prep - the prayers - the jump - both videos worth watching.

 

NY Times: "Ripples from the Big Bang"

on the recent discovery of gravitational waves gong back to the geginning of the universe.

If you have some interest in physics, quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity, a pretty good piece.

These gravitational waves are the long-sought markers for a theory called inflation, the force that put the bang in the Big Bang: an antigravitational swelling that began a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the cosmic clock started ticking. Scientists have long incorporated inflation into their standard model of the cosmos, but as with the existence of the Higgs, proving it had long been just a pipe dream.

Astronomers say they expect to be studying the gravitational waves from mountaintops, balloons and perhaps satellites for the next 20 years, hoping to gain insight into mysteries like dark matter and dark energy.

"The Great Escape" - 70th anniversary was yesterday

The real great escape (76 men got out; three made it to England, 50 were executed by the Gestapo). Made famous by the 1963 movie The Great Escape, which is truly a great movie and which was based on the 1950 book The Great Escape. I read the book, either before or after I saw the movie, many years ago.

 

Rugby: Tokyo 7's, on the World Series 7 a side tour

This is the second day of the tournament - the final eight and finals - Whew!

"Back to Reality" on the unemployment rate

This is good news, if Yellen follows through.

From NRO and Andy McCarthy

"Back to Reality"

The Journalreports that as the “unemployment rate” (now purportedly 6.7 percent) crawls toward 6.5 percent, the Fed’s target for easing off its bond-buying program, new chairwoman Janet Yellen has essentially abandoned the “unemployment rate” as a useful metric:

The central bank also rewrote its guidance about the likely path of short-term interest rates, putting less weight on the unemployment rate as a signpost for when rate increases will start. It said instead that the Fed would look at a broad range of economic indicators in deciding when to start raising short-term rates from near zero, where they have been since December 2008.

And what is the new guidance?

Ms. Yellen mentioned 10 different labor-market indicators she is watching, including the share of workers who have been unemployed for six months or more, the share of adults who are holding or seeking jobs, the portion of workers who hold part-time jobs but say they would rather have full-time occupations and the rate at which people are quitting jobs.

In other words, the Fed is going to be emphasizing real metrics of joblessness, such as the percentage of people in the working-age population who are working (now at its lowest point since the Carter malaise), not the voodoo “unemployment rate” statistic that manages, by Washington math, to drop even as employment drops.

Anti-abortion Democrat Congessman figures out he was doublecrossed

This whole issue is now before the Supreme Court - the "Hobby Lobby" case.

Bart Stupak, a leading former Congressman, explains in an op ed in USA Today - a couple of weeks ago. He had only supported Obamacare after reassurances that individuals and employers would not be requirred to violate their own consciences.

Contraception mandate doublecross: Column

As a member of Congress, I was proud to vote for the Affordable Care Act, providing 32 million Americans with access to quality, affordable health care. I was eager to see many of the reforms in the act, including its provision to lower health care costs for women by increasing access to affordable preventive care. Today, as a private citizen, I'm proud to stand with the Green and Hahn families and their corporations, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood, in seeking to uphold our most cherished beliefs that we, as American citizens, should not be required to relinquish our conscience and moral convictions in order to implement the Affordable Care Act.

******

... The Greens and the Hahns cannot, in good conscience, risk subsidizing actions that may take human life. As they have for years, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga's owners will comply with the Affordable Care Act's requirements that they provide quality health insurance for their employees, including a broad spectrum of preventive services for women. They ask only that they not be required to provide four out of the 20 FDA-approved contraceptives that can destroy life in its earliest stages. Their legal position relies on the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, but it's supported by our nation's especially strong and broad tradition of protecting those who object to participating in taking human life. These conscious clause protections date back to our nation's founding, when Quakers were exempted by General George Washington from bearing arms in the Revolutionary War. Today, we exempt pacifists from military service, anti-death penalty doctors from being required to assist in executions — including indirect assistance such as certifying a prisoner's mental competence before execution -- and pro-life nurses from being required to assist with abortions.

The conscience clause that the Green and Hahn families rely upon is consistent with scores of federal and state laws dating back more than 40 years....

The vice-president reaches out to me as a Croton resident

UPDATE: An email from my friend N - Lately their ilk send requests to "chip in": they sound so normal, that it makes me wanna just dig down into my handbag, so I too can "chip in" and save America.

I get all sorts of political email - both parties, moveon-org, the tea party, etc, etc.

Here's one I found quite amusing - i'm pasting in the whole email. As you can see, we're on a first name basis. ...

Tom --

Think about what will happen if we do not succeed in 2014. We're going to the polls in November to elect the last Congress that will ever work with President Barack Obama.

There are no second chances with this one. We have to do this right, and we have to do it now.

That's why I'm asking 20 supporters like you in Croton On Hudson to chip in $10 or more today, and help Democrats up and down the ticket get ready for the fights we're in, as well as those to come.

We're in a place where we have a chance to make some gigantic progress for the American people -- we can't blow this.

This won't just be the last Congress that works with Barack, though. These senators we're electing in 2014 are going to be around for the rest of the decade. Trust me, if you're going to have to deal with someone for that long, you better make sure you like 'em.

So chip in today to elect some keepers:

https://my.democrats.org/Elect-Democrats

Thanks,

Joe

 

Croton Landing walk today - the first in months!

And quite a few people were out enjoying the nice weather.

And -

Pope warns Mafia: "...Repent. There's still time to not end up in hell, which is what awaits you if you continue on this path."

If you watch the video below, you can see that the Pope spoke quite softly - very effective.

The pontiff on Friday delivered his most forceful denunciation yet of organized crime. The occasion was a prayer vigil at a Roman church for relatives of innocents killed by the mafia, during which the names of 842 victims were read aloud as a somber Francis looked on.

After voicing his solidarity with the family members, Francis said he couldn't leave the service without speaking to those not present: the "protagonists" of mafia violence.

Addressing these absentee mafiosi, Francis was unsparing:

"This life that you live now won't give you pleasure. It won't give you joy or happiness," he said. "Blood-stained money, blood-stained power, you can't bring it with you to your next life. Repent. There's still time to not end up in hell, which is what awaits you if you continue on this path."

******

The brutality of Italy's mobsters was driven home this week by the death of Domenico Petruzzelli, a 2-year-old killed along with his mother and her companion in a mob hit in southern Taranto in which assailants opened fire on their car. Domenico's two older brothers, sitting in the backseat, escaped unharmed.

Francis mentioned the hit in his remarks, ending his exhortation to mobsters with a reminder.

"You had a father, a mother. Think of them," he said. "Weep a little. And convert yourselves."

Mark 1:15; The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the good news.”

WSJ column: "American Fatigue Syndrome. If the U.S. doesn't lead, the strongmen win. For them it's easier."

Good column by Dan Henninger in yesterday's Journal.

By the time the second World Trade Center tower collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001, the whole world was watching it. We may assume that Vladimir Putin was watching. Mr. Putin, a quick calculator of political realities, would see that someone was going to get hit for this, and hit hard.

He was right of course. The Bush presidency became a war presidency that day, and it pounded and pursued the Islamic fundamentalists of al Qaeda without let-up or apology.

During that time, it was reported that Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer in East Germany, deeply regretted the fall of the Soviet Union's empire and despised the Americans who caused it to fall. But no one cared what Mr. Putin thought then. Russia's power was a sliver of its former size. Besides, Mr. Putin's hurt was salved with the limitless personal wealth that flowed from doing business with the West. Conventional wisdom clicked in easily: Capitalism's surplus was enough to sate any rational autocrat.

In 2008, the American people elected a new president, and Vladimir Putin, a patient feline, would have noticed that President Obama in his speeches was saying that American power would be used "in concert" with other nations and institutions, such as the United Nations. What would have made Mr. Putin's eye jump was the decision by George Bush's successor not just to leave Iraq but without leaving a residual U.S. military presence to help the new government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Sometime in the first Obama term, opinion polls began to report that the American people were experiencing what media shorthand came to call "fatigue" with the affairs of the world. The U.S. should "mind its own business." The America-is-fatigued polling fit with Mr. Obama's stated goal to lead from behind. A close observer of American politics also could notice that Republican politicians, the presumptive heirs of Reagan, began to recalibrate their worldview inward to accommodate the "fatigue" in the opinion polls.

******

This moment is not about Barack Obama. By now we know about him. This is about Vladimir Putin and the self-delusions of Western nations and their famous "fatigue." Vladimir Putin is teaching the West and especially the United States that fatigue is not an option.

Sometimes world affairs go off the grid. ... It is difficult for men embedded in a world of rational affairs to come to grips with Mr. Putin's point of view: He doesn't care what they think.

******

Running alongside these old realities is a new phenomenon, surely noticed by Mr. Putin: The nations of the civilized world have decided their most pressing concern is income inequality. Barack Obama says so, as does the International Monetary Fund. Western Europe amid the Ukraine crisis is a case study of nations redistributing themselves and perhaps NATO into impotence.

Because no modern Democrat can be credible on this, some Republican presidential candidate will have to explain the high price of America's fatigue. Fatigue will allow global disorder to displace 60 years of democratic order. If the U.S. doesn't lead, the strongmen win because for them it's easier. They don't lead people; they coerce them. Ask the millions free for now in the old countries of the Iron Curtain.

A simple pictorial: "Their Guy, Our Guy"

Here's Their Guy:

And Our Guy

How Our Guy spent today -

WSJ op ed: Two themes of Pope Francis' first year + more

Interesting article by Raymond Arroyo, who is seen on EWTN.

The title of the column is

Pope Francis Shakes Up the Vatican. Behind the headlines, he's begun cleaning up the Roman Curia's sprawling bureaucracy.

But before going into that Arroyo has these comments -

... his provocative, if oblique, statements have generated global headlines. From his comments on divorced and remarried Catholics to civil unions, each time the pope has thrown a verbal grenade, clarification, debate and a healthy discussion has followed. Despite the temporary agita experienced by some, the pope's outspokenness has been a net positive, creating a new forum for exploring church teachings.

******

The only possible drawback is the media fixation with his comments on hot-button issues, like capitalism or homosexuality. This has diverted attention from the crucial and oft-mentioned themes of this pontificate. Two particularly stand out.

The pope has repeatedly, almost weekly, decried what he calls the modern world's "throw away culture, according to which everything can be discarded." This cultural climate has led to a rampant disregard for the elderly, the pope charges, endless consumerism, an economy that ignores the poor, and the disposal of innocent human life. His disgust for this "throw away culture "and all it implies will continue to be a central complaint of this pontificate.

Then there is Satan. During Pope Francis' very first homily in the Sistine Chapel, he said: "He who doesn't pray to the Lord prays to the devil." Over the past year he has spoken of the devil as a distinct being among us fixated on man's destruction.

The pope credits the devil with Christian persecutions from Christ's time to the present. And just this past weekend he urged those gathered in St. Peter's Square, "Let us renounce Satan and all his works and seductions because he is a seducer." His warnings about Satan are rarely covered, but they reveal a spiritual understanding that informs all he does.

Maybe the throwaway culture and Satan are related?

Then on to the bureaucracy reform:

Francis knows that any reform must start in the hearts of his collaborators or all the administrative tinkering in the world will never succeed. He has called out "careerism" in the clergy and gone so far as to describe the Vatican court as the "leprosy of the papacy." He has abolished the honorific title of "monsignor" and routinely encourages his co-workers to go out to the people on the periphery, to those who have been forgotten. He models this behavior at his weekly audiences and during parish visits.

Substantively, the pope has made one major change that has set teeth chattering in the Vatican's offices: Last month, he appointed Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, a former rugby player not adverse to public combat, to lead the newly formed Secretariat for the Economy. This new body will have dominion over all the financial, economic and administrative affairs of the Vatican. The office seems to occupy the same plane of power as the Secretariat of State, marking a critical change at the heart of the Holy See's organizational structure. To execute this change, Pope Francis couldn't have chosen a churchman better versed in economics, culture or faith than Cardinal Pell. I am told it is the first of many such bold moves.

That's what the Church needs, a rugby player to sort things out!

Tragic: Detroit nearly at Third World status

For instance - massive growth in carless households, and the bus system is awful.

For legions of carless in the Motor City, the buses are running on fumes.

"We have been waiting almost an hour and a half out here," she told driver Raymond Muse as she boarded the bus on Woodward Avenue. And then, as if her message hadn't been heard, the woman, who declined to provide her name, repeated: "An hour and one half I've been waiting."

Frustration over dysfunctional public transportation in this bankrupt city is a daily reminder of how often the rubber on Detroit's public services fails to meet the road, residents and city officials say.

Many Detroiters have little choice in the matter: High unemployment and expensive auto-insurance rates keep a growing number of residents from owning their own car, making bus service a necessity in a city of 139 square miles with no rail system, save for an elevated, three-mile monorail that loops around downtown.

Bus lines, which have a daily ridership of 100,000, have been cut or curtailed in recent years. Aging, poorly maintained buses regularly conk out, leaving remaining ones so overcrowded they often blast through stops without taking on new passengers. Many days, nearly one-third of all buses don't even make it out of their depots because of mechanical or staffing problems, according to transit advocates, union and city officials. The average age of a Detroit bus is 9½ years, the back end of a 12-year life span.

Here's the end of the article -

For now, residents must continue to wait. On a recent afternoon aboard the Woodward Avenue bus, Alexander Bassett, 24, said he leaves his house at 5 a.m. to catch two buses to travel about 10 miles and be at work at a downtown bar and restaurant by 8:30 a.m.

"I've traveled all over the world," said Mr. Bassett, whose father served in the military. "But this city is the worst."

Mr. Bassett, however, said he is used to waiting. When he was shot in the leg as he was robbed of $10 at a Detroit gas station about a year ago, he said, the ambulance didn't arrive for an hour and a half.

 

Women's curling shot - neat!

I don't understand curling, but still can appreciate this.

While the President works on his NCAA bracket ...

The leader of the Free World. "You can't make it up".

Ron Paul on Crimea takeover: "So What"

Not my view, but hey, fair and balanced ...

In USA Today, yesterday.

What's the big deal? Opponents of the Crimea vote like to point to the illegality of the referendum. But self-determination is a centerpiece of international law. Article I of the United Nations Charter points out clearly that the purpose of the U.N. is to "develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples."

Why does the U.S. care which flag will be hoisted on a small piece of land thousands of miles away?

Critics point to the Russian "occupation" of Crimea as evidence that no fair vote could have taken place. Where were these people when an election held in an Iraq occupied by U.S. troops was called a "triumph of democracy"?

That's an absurd comparison - there was no option for them to stay united with the Ukraine, with no changes. And large portions of the Crimean population (like the Tatars) boycotted the vote.

Perhaps the U.S. officials who supported the unconstitutional overthrow of Ukraine's government should refocus their energies on learning our own Constitution, which does not allow the U.S. government to overthrow governments overseas or send a billion dollars to bail out Ukraine and its international creditors.

Fr. Robert Barron: "The Flying Spaghetti Monster and God"

Excellent. As it happens the book he mentions by Gilson - in reference to Merton - I read in college and at least once since then. I still have it. 

 

A comparison: "Following the Trail Nixon Blazed"

Historian Victor Davis Hanson

A brief comparison -

Following the Trail Nixon Blazed. Obama shows the same Orwellian disregard for the Constitution.

the real problem is this -

If you once suggested that Nixon’s team was violating constitutional principles, you were hailed as speaking truth to power. Try that with progressive Obama and you are likely to be caricatured as some sort of embittered tea-party zealot at best, a retrograde racist at worst. Nixon ended impeached and disgraced; Obama may well enjoy a lucrative and in-demand post-presidency.

WSJ Editorial: "Welcome to the 19th Century"

John Kerry's unfortunate line on the Sunday talk shows two weeks ago, re: Putin acting in a 19th century manner. 

Poor Kerry; look at the mess he's been left by the prior Secretary of State and the current President. It was no one particular act, it was the atmosphere they created ...

'You just don't in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext," declared John Kerry on March 2 as Russia began its conquest of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. Though he didn't intend it, the U.S. Secretary of State was summing up the difference between the current leaders of the West who inhabit a fantasy world of international rules and the hard men of the Kremlin who understand the language of power. The 19th-century men are winning.

Here are a few more excerpts from their editorial yesterday which, alas, is completely accurate.

Left in shambles are the illusions of Mr. Obama and his fellow liberal internationalists. They arrived at the White House proclaiming that the days of U.S. leadership had to yield to a new collective security enforced by "the international community." The U.N. would be the vanguard of this new 21st-century order, and "international law" and arms-control treaties would define its rules.

Thus Mr. Obama's initial response to Mr. Putin's Crimean invasion was to declare, like Mr. Kerry, that it is "illegal" because it violates "the Ukrainian constitution and international law." As if Mr. Putin cares.

The 19th-century men understand that what defines international order is the cold logic of political will and military power. With American power in retreat, the revanchists have moved to fill the vacuum with a new world disorder.

******

The question now is whether Mr. Obama and his advisers will shed their 21st-century fantasies and push back against the new Bonapartes. Jimmy Carter finally awoke after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, but Mr. Obama hasn't shown the same awareness of what is happening on his watch.

That's right; to quote Gary Kasparov, former chess world champion and current Russian political dissident compared to Obama "Carter looks like Churchill."

******

In response to the Crimean referendum Sunday, the White House issued a statement declaring that, "In this century, we are long past the days when the international community will stand quietly by while one country forcibly seizes the territory of another." We shall see, but Mr. Obama first needs to understand that America's adversaries reject his fanciful 21st-century rules.

 

 

 

Wife-carrying contest in Britain!

Great! I'll have to organize my friends to do this - or the Parish!

But instead - because this is America - have a husband-carrying contest!!!

 

Rugby: Ireland vs. France for 6 Nations Championship

Played in Paris.

On CNN, John McCain - great line about Russia and Putin

Russian State TV: We can turn U.S.A. into radioactive ash

How to win friends and influence people...

"Russia is the only country in the world realistically capable of turning the United States into radioactive ash," anchor Dmitry Kiselyov said on his weekly news show on state-controlled Rossiya 1 television.

Kiselyov made the comment to support his argument that the United States and President Barack Obama were living in fear of Russia led by President Vladimir Putin amid the Ukraine crisis.

His programme was broadcast as the first exit polls were being published showing an overwhelming majority of Crimeans voting to leave Ukraine and join Russia.

He stood in his studio in front of a gigantic image of a mushroom cloud produced after a nuclear attack, with the words "into radioactive ash".

"Americans themselves consider Putin to be a stronger leader than Obama," he added, pointing to opinion polls which then popped up on the screen.

"Why is Obama phoning Putin all the time and talking to him for hours on end?" he asked.

Didn''t anyone tell this guy that the greatest threat to world peace was "climate change" as per John Kerry's comments exactly one month ago?

Obama shows up Putin on Saturday Night Live

Pretty good.

 

Runways where the Malaysian 777 may have landed

Farfetched? Yes, but the whole thing is mysterius and farfetched.

This was produced by NPR station WNYC. The link shows the map.

WNYC acknowledges that theories that the plane might have landed are "unusual" and "unlikely." But the plane's disappearance is often described with both of those terms, and the mystery of its whereabouts persists. So WNYC's Data News team plugged in the data and generated a map showing 634 possibilities.

 

Rugby: More on Ireland's O'Driscoll; his last match is later today playing for 6 Nations Championship

Here's a very good article from the Guardian (UK)

Brian O'Driscoll: 'He changed Irish rugby's mindset for good' Shane Horgan and Denis Hickie detail the huge impact the centre has made as he prepares for his final international

Below is a video from last week; an interview with O'Driscoll after last week's match against Italy, with highlights of his play in the last 40 seconds of the video. in the game, O'Driscoll put on a clinic on center play & he was named "Man of the Match" setting up three scores with his ball skills and passing. O'Driscoll is #13. By current standards he is a small center, only 5'10" and 205 lbs.

 

A Lenten meditation by St. Thomas Aquinas

This was in the Magnificat prayer book a week ago. I thought it was great and appreciate that Judy Anderson typed it out for me, since it's not online in any format you can cut and paste.

Thomas Aquinas - "The Dumb Ox". But one of the great geniuses of the Middle Ages.

Why We Fast      

How are we to serve God?

We must serve God both by external acts and by internal acts. We are possessed of a double nature; we are intellectual beings and sentient beings also. We should therefore offer to God a double adoration – a spiritual adoration, consisting in the interior devotion of the mind, and a bodily adoration made up of the external humiliation of the body. And since in all acts done in acknowledgment that God is God the external act depends on the internal – for the internal act is the more important – so the external acts of adoration are done for the sake of the internal adoration. That is to say, that it is by our gestures of humility that we are moved to subject ourselves to God in our inclinations and our will. This is due to our nature being what it is, for it is natural to man to proceed to things that can only be known through the intelligence from the starting point of things seen, felt, heard and known by the senses.

So, just as prayer has its origin as something in the mind, and is only in the second place expressed in words, adoration also consists primarily and in its origin, in an internal reverence of God and only secondarily in certain bodily signs that we are humbling ourselves: such bodily signs, for example, as genuflections to show our weakness by comparison with God, or prostrations to show that we are nothing of ourselves.                                                    

Saint Thomas Aquinas

Is Amazon Prime still worth it?

I've had Amazon Prime (Originally free shipping, after you pay a flat annual fee, but now other stuff is included) for years. Originally $35 a year, recently $79 and now going up to $99.

Here's an easy way to get a ballpark figure whther it's worth it for you.

Should I Get Amazon Prime?

For me it was a no brainer once I used the calculator; I had 55 orders last year, plus a few freebies like "borrowing" some books from the "library" for my kindle and getting a couple of books for free.

Awesome - "El Sendero Luminoso (The Shining Path)" - Ropeless solo up a 2,500 foot rock face

if you have six minutes this is a great video, sponsored by The North Face clothier and equipment manufacturer. Been up on youtube since February 12th, and already over 800,000 views.

"The climb rises 2,500 feet to the summit of El Toro. It could be the most difficult rope-less climb in history."

Immediate efforts by people to help at Harlem building explosion; a cell phone video

Dramatic and a bit moving to see people spring into action. it was on the CBS local television channel, so sorry for the commercial.

 

Krauthammer on the cancelled mandate to buy insurance

I posted about this yesterday Administration quietly extends the mandate exemption to buy insurance by another two years so here's Krauthammer's take on it.

 

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Dalai Lama endorses same sex marriage; kind of, sort of, maybe not ...

A few days ago I posted this, Dalai Lama's prayer in the Senate yesterday. which earned me a couple of annoyed emails.

Here's more from the Dalai Lama, who I have a great deal of respect for.

Because his view is so nuanced I am only putting a short excerpt; if you are interested, hit the link.

Compassionate or confusing? The Dalai Lama on same-sex marriage One of the world's best known religious leaders has came out in favour of same-sex marriage. But what does he really think?

... it turns out that the Dalai Lama’s religious beliefs are just as sexually limiting as those of pretty much any other major religious sect. The real difference between the Pope and the Dalai Lama is that, for reasons of pragmatism or of doctrine, the Dalai Lama maintains a sharp distinction between morality for Buddhists, and morality for the rest of us. His latest comments show that the Dalai Lama still maintains this double-standard for believers,...

Much to the dismay of flaky Westerners, it turns out that the Dalai Lama’s religious beliefs are just as sexually limiting as those of pretty much any other major religious sect. The real difference between the Pope and the Dalai Lama is that, for reasons of pragmatism or of doctrine, the Dalai Lama maintains a sharp distinction between morality for Buddhists, and morality for the rest of us. His latest comments show that the Dalai Lama still maintains this double-standard for believers, - See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/compassionate_or_confusing_the_dalai_lama_on_same_sex_marriage#sthash.MHFOsurt.dpuf

Much to the dismay of flaky Westerners, it turns out that the Dalai Lama’s religious beliefs are just as sexually limiting as those of pretty much any other major religious sect. The real difference between the Pope and the Dalai Lama is that, for reasons of pragmatism or of doctrine, the Dalai Lama maintains a sharp distinction between morality for Buddhists, and morality for the rest of us. His latest comments show that the Dalai Lama still maintains this double-standard for believers, - See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/compassionate_or_confusing_the_dalai_lama_on_same_sex_marriage#sthash.MHFOsurt.dpuf

Sheila Jackson Lee on the U.S.A. 400 year old Constitution

And she's in Congression.

 

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Administration quietly extends the mandate exemption to buy insurance by another two years

Very quietly. The Wall Street Journal only stumbled upon it by accident. What is happening and will no doubt continue to happen is that the original legislation is being transformed by executive decree into something completely different from what was originally legislatively enacted as the Affordable Care Act aka "Obamacare." HOWEVER, the name will stay the same, so that the adminstration can save face, and keep it's blind faith followers happy. After all they've WON - they have Obamacare!

Of course, eventually the house of cards will come unglued, but it will be the Republicans - insurance companies - big pharma - greedy doctors - ungrateful patients fault.

That seven-page technical bulletin includes a paragraph and footnote that casually mention that a rule in a separate December 2013 bulletin would be extended for two more years, until 2016. Lo and behold, it turns out this second rule, which was supposed to last for only a year, allows Americans whose coverage was cancelled to opt out of the mandate altogether.

Keep in mind that the White House argued at the Supreme Court that the individual mandate to buy insurance was indispensable to the law's success, and President Obama continues to say he'd veto the bipartisan bills that would delay or repeal it. So why are ObamaCare liberals silently gutting their own creation now?

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The larger point is that there have been so many unilateral executive waivers and delays that ObamaCare must be unrecognizable to its drafters, to the extent they ever knew what the law contained.

 

WSJ on Pope Francis first year - short video

On the Journal website. Presumably the interview is with a Catholic "intellectual."

 

Study: Glucosamine ineffective for knee pain or deterioration

From the LA Times, pretty comprehensive article on a 24 week, carefully controlled study. 

The MRI images, pain assessments and urinalysis provided no evidence that glucoasime was more effective than the placebo in improving joint health, authors concluded.

Ok but some studies have found glucosamine, in it's various iterations and combinations, to be helpful for some people. I have always been skeptical of these sorts of remedies, but for the last four or five months I have been taking a supplement - more about it in another posting sometime - and it seems to be helpful.

Palin @ CPAC goes after female voters

The sort of truth that will drive some of my friends nuts.