Documentary on Clinton Scandal #37

(Not sure which numbering system this refers to. Understand there are several. The exhaustive ones reaching several hundreds.)

From a World Net Daily article, Clinton blood scandal exposed in new film :

Sunday, October 30, 2005 / Clinton blood scandal exposed in new film / Documentary tying Arkansas guv to spread of AIDS to screen in Hollywood next week

WASHINGTON – A documentary seven years in the making tying Bill Clinton to an Arkansas prison blood scandal that spread AIDS to thousands around the world is set to screen in Hollywood next week – renewing controversy about the long-forgotten story.

The film, which premieres at the prestigious American Film Institute film festival next Tuesday, reportedly uncovers fresh evidence about how thousands in Europe contracted AIDS and hepatitis through tainted blood deliberately shipped even after widespread problems were discovered in Canada where some 10,000 had already been infected.

"Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal," made by Kelly Duda, an Arkansas native, will reveal new details about how inmates at an Arkansas jail were paid to donate blood despite authorities knowing they had AIDS and hepatitis.

The documentary shows how senior figures in the state prison system altered prisoners' medical records to make it look like they were not carrying the deadly diseases.

[…] The film reveals how for more than two decades, the Arkansas prison system profited from selling blood plasma from inmates infected with viral hepatitis and AIDS. Thousands of unwitting victims who received transfusions of a product called "Factor 8" made from this blood died as a result.

[…] "In the early days of AIDS, we at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) were surprised that the hemophiliac community was infected so rapidly," said Dr. Donald Francis, former head of the AID Laboratory for the CDC. "This shocking documentary tells why."

[…] "Kelly Duda's film screams to be known about," says William Gazecki, producer-director of "WACO: The Rules of Engagement." "The blatant abuse of power, the criminal subjugation of prison inmates, and the complete absence of government oversight and accountability make for a compelling, must-see story."

"Prior to the making of 'Factor 8,' I never considered myself an investigative journalist," says Duda. "In fact, I had never written a newspaper article before in my life. I was an aspiring filmmaker who had a story thrown into his lap. Actually, it wasn't even a story at the time but a series of events that allegedly took place in my home state in the 1980s. It was a tale I didn't want to tell, but the more I looked into it, the more I found. It didn't take long before I realized that regardless of the cost and sacrifice, the story you're about to see which is a complicated one had to be told. There where quite literally lives at stake. I felt a moral responsibility, a civic duty to do something."

[…] As WorldNetDaily reported, Bill Clinton was at the center of a scandal in Arkansas in the 1980s involving the sale of AIDS-tainted blood to Canada, which was distributed through the Red Cross.

As governor of Arkansas, Clinton awarded a contract to Health Management Associates to provide medical care to the state's prisoners. The president of the company was a long-time friend and political ally of Clinton and later was appointed by him to the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission. Later, he was among the senior members of Clinton's 1990 gubernatorial re-election team.

The death toll from the tainted blood has grown since the figure of 3,000 was calculated in 1997, but recent estimates are not available, the Associated Press reported.

[…] The Canadian Red Cross already has paid victims $55 million in a separate fund. Along with the fine, the charity will set aside $1.2 million for scholarships for family members of victims.

[…] But HMA found a willing buyer in Montreal, which brokered a deal with Connaught, a Toronto blood-fractionator, which didn't know the source of the supplies.

[…] Michael Galster, who conducted orthopedic clinics in the Arkansas prison system during the period the blood was collected, charged HMA officials knew the blood was tainted as they sold it to Canada and a half-dozen other foreign countries. He also alleged Clinton knew of the scheme and likely benefited from it financially.

"It may sound sensational, but I assure you it's true. In the process of making 'Factor 8,' I received strange phone calls, I was followed, my house was broken into, my tires slashed, and sensitive information – including my personal notes – mysteriously appeared on the Internet," recounts Duda. "I also had a gun pointed at the back of my head, there was a murder, and a key inmate informant was whisked out of state and put into isolation."

[…] While working at the White House, Linda Tripp – the former assistant to both Vincent Foster and Bernard Nussbaum – said received a phone call from someone who mentioned the "tainted blood issue." The phone call came just after Foster's mysterious death. The phrase meant nothing to Tripp and when she tried to find out more from a White House computer, the database denied her access. Testifying in a Judicial Watch deposition, Tripp said, "It had been alarming to me that when I tried to enter data from a caller that I was working with on a tainted blood issue, that every time I entered a word that had to do with this particular issue, it would flash up either the word 'encrypted' or 'password required' or something to indicate the file was locked."

The Ottawa Citizen reported attorney Foster had defended a lawsuit against HMA, the Arkansas firm shipping tainted blood from prison inmates. [My ellipses and emphasis]

In Rust We Trust: Men and Boys and the Wealth of their Toys

Townhall.com :: Columns ::

In Rust We Trust: Men and Boys and the Wealth of their Toys by Jennifer Roback Morse: "In Rust We Trust: Men and Boys and the Wealth of their Toys / Oct 31, 2005 / by Jennifer Roback Morse

I could never be a Leftist because the Left seems to hate two things that I love: men and American business.
Male-bashing has developed into a full-blown art-form in this country. And strangely enough, the male-bashing is often accompanied by the presumption that men and women are the same in every significant way. No one seems to notice the logical conclusion: if men are bad, and women and men are the same, ergo, women must be bad. But never mind. I love the men and boys in my life, precisely because of the ways in which they differ from me. And many aspects of American business are distinctly �guy things.� I love these parts of American business too. "

[...] These two things, American men and American business came together for me last weekend. My husband and I had a few blessed child-free hours, so we went on a date. We went to the Antique Gas and Steam Engine fair, held two week-ends a year on the grounds of the Museum of the same name, here in Vista, California. Male and female difference number one: My husband went to look at the antique steam engines. I went to look at my husband, and a whole lot of other guys, in their natural habitat.

[...] As I watched my husband and the other guys, looking at antique engines with love in their eyes, I realized those men weren’t just looking at old rusty machines. Every man there was filled with admiration for the men who made those machines, admiration for the lives they lived and the lives they made possible. These were once little boys who loved their toy trains and tractors and cars. They grew up to be men who make things happen, who look for a better way, and who figure out, one step at a time, easier and cheaper and safer ways to do things. These are men who honor the past, not by preserving it, but by building on it, improving it.


[...] The American way is about small business and individual initiative. Our country’s system of private property and personal innovation harnesses the unique gifts of men and places those gifts at the service of the common good. We are a rich country because we turn little boys who love tractors into grown-up men who make things work better.

Dr. Morse is Research Fellow in Economics at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, and the author of Smart Sex: Finding Life-long Love in a Hook-up World.

An Iraqi city becomes turnaround story

An Iraqi city becomes turnaround story | csmonitor.com:

"[...] Each time an attack originated in the area, Risberg would have a nearby palm grove shelled, sometimes as often as every 15 minutes the whole night. He'd also further restrict residents' movement. 'We were trying to show them that you're going to help us clean up this area or you're going to pay the price,'' he explains. 'I didn't care which.'

When local families complained that the shelling frightened their kids, he'd tell them to help hand over insurgents - only then would the shelling stop. They also replaced the local mayor and the town council, who seemed sympathetic to the insurgency. Eventually, he and others in his battalion say, the approach got results. [...]"

Study: Getting drunk part of Australian identity

Getting drunk part of Australian identity, study finds - Yahoo! News: "Getting drunk part of Australian identity, study finds

Mon Oct 31, 9:13 AM ET / SYDNEY, (AFP) - Occasionally getting drunk is a core part of national identity for most Australians, according to new research.

The National Drug and Alcohol Research Council study of 1,500 Australians found that some 58 percent of people agreed that sometimes having too much to drink was 'simply part of the Australian way of life.'

The survey found that about one in 10 people had a problem with alcohol at some point in their lives and that about 60 percent were close to someone who had experienced a drinking problem.

The study also found that 17 percent of those interviewed said that they sometimes felt pressure to drink alcohol while in a work situation." [...]

Patterico�s Pontifications � Alito�s Dissent in Casey

Patterico�s Pontifications � Alito�s Dissent in Casey: "10/30/2005
Alito�s Dissent in Casey
Filed under: General, Abortion, Judiciary � Patterico @ 1:08 pm
There is a lot of buzz [UPDATE: now confirmed!] saying that Judge Samuel Alito may be President Bush�s nominee for the Supreme Court. If Judge Alito is nominated, the primary Democrat talking point is going to be his dissent in the case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 947 F.2d 682 (3d Cir. 1991). In that case, Judge Alito wrote a cogent dissent which argued for the validity of a law requiring spousal notification before an abortion."

$addam and hi$ enabler$

$addam and hi$ enabler$ -- The Washington Times: "

Published October 31, 2005

Critics of President Bush make the specious assertion that he went to war two years ago not because Saddam Hussein was a mass murderer and an international menace but because the administration was beholden to firms like Halliburton. These same critics -- who are so eager to libel Mr. Bush -- are understandably reluctant to talk about a genuine multibillion-dollar scandal regarding the war: the oil-for-food scandal, presided over by the United Nations. [...]

The myth of "suitcase nukes."

Wall Street Journal - OpinionJournal - Extra:

Baggage Claim / The myth of "suitcase nukes."

BY RICHARD MINITER / Monday, October 31, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

[...] All portable nuclear devices--which are much bigger than a suitcase--were stored at a central facility under heavy guard. Lt. Gen. Igor Valynkin, chief of the Russian Defense Ministry's 12th Main Directorate, which oversees all nuclear weapons, denied that any weapons were missing. "Nuclear suitcases . . . were never produced and are not produced," he said. While he acknowledged that they were technically possible to make, he said the weapon would have "a lifespan of only several months" and would therefore be too costly to maintain.

[...] "For now, suitcase-sized nuclear bombs remain in the realm of James Bond movies. Given the limitations of physics and engineering, no nation seems to have invested the time and money to make them. Both U.S. and the USSR built nuclear mines (as well as artillery shells), which were small but hardly portable--and all were dismantled by treaty by 2000. Alexander Lebed's claims and those of defector Stanislev Lunev were not based on direct observation. The one U.S. official who saw a small nuclear device said it was the size of three footlockers--hardly a suitcase. The desire to obliterate cities is portable--inside the heads of believers--while, thankfully, the nuclear devices to bring that about are not.

Mr. Miniter is author of 'Disinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror' (Regnery, 2005), from which this article is excerpted. It is available from the OpinionJournal bookstore. "

Strange Indictment

OpinionJournal - Featured Article

What Goes Around, Comes Around
The Plame kerfuffle has made hypocrites of just about everyone.

BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
Monday, October 31, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

[...] To judge by his verbose and self-regarding performance, containing as it did the most prolix and least relevant baseball analogy ever offered to a non-Chicago audience, Patrick Fitzgerald is not a man with whom the ironic weighs heavily. Nor does he seem discountenanced by his failure to find any breach in the IIPA or even the more broadly drawn Espionage Act. Mr. Libby stands accused of misstating his conversations with almost every journalist in Washington except for the only one--Robert Novak--who actually published the totemic name of Valerie Plame. "We have not made any allegation that Mr. Libby knowingly and intentionally outed a covert agent," Mr. Fitzgerald contentedly confirmed. [...]

As to the critical question of whether Ms. Plame had any cover to blow, Mr. Fitzgerald was equally insouciant: "I am not speaking to whether or not Valerie Wilson was covert."

In the absence of any such assertion or allegation, one must be forgiven for wondering what any of this gigantic fuss can possibly be about. I know some apparently sensible people who are prepared to believe, still, that a Machiavellian cabal in the White House wanted to punish Joseph Wilson by exposing his wife to embarrassment and even to danger. So strong is this belief that it envisages Karl Rove (say) deciding to accomplish the foul deed by tipping off Robert Novak, one of the most anti-Iraq-war and pro-CIA journalists in the capital, as if he were precisely the pliant tool one would select for the dastardly work. And then, presumably to thicken the plot, Mr. Novak calls the CIA to confirm, as it readily did, that Ms. Plame was in the agency's employ.

Meanwhile, and just to make things more amusing, George Tenet, in his capacity as Director of Central Intelligence, tells Dick Cheney that he employs Mr. Wilson's wife as an analyst of the weird and wonderful world of WMD. So jealously guarded is its own exclusive right to "out" her, however, that no sooner does anyone else mention her name than the CIA refers the Wilson/Plame disclosure to the Department of Justice.

Mr. Fitzgerald, therefore, seems to have decided to act "as if." He conducts himself as if Ms. Plame's identity was not widely known, as if she were working under "non official cover" (NOC), as if national security had been compromised, and as if one or even two catch-all laws had been broken. By this merely hypothetical standard, he has performed exceedingly well, even if rather long-windedly, before pulling up his essentially empty net.

However, what if one proposes an alternative "what if" narrative? What if Mr. Wilson spoke falsely when he asserted that his wife, who was not in fact under "non-official cover," had nothing to do with his visit to Niger? What if he was wrong in stating that Iraqi envoys had never even expressed an interest in Niger's only export? (Most European intelligence services stand by their story that there was indeed such a Baathist initiative.) What if his main friends in Niger were the very people he was supposed to be investigating?

Well, in that event, and after he had awarded himself some space on an op-ed page, what was to inhibit an employee of the Bush administration from calling attention to these facts, and letting reporters decide for themselves? The CIA had proven itself untrustworthy or incompetent on numerous occasions before, during and after the crisis of Sept. 11, 2001. Why should it be the only agency of the government that can invoke the law, broken or (as in this case) unbroken, to protect itself from leaks while protecting its own leakers? [...]

Novack: CIA Objection to Plame leak "very weak"

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today: "Taranto: You have to have learned it through your government functions, and you have to have disclosed it knowing that the government was taking affirmative measures to conceal it. Now Robert Novak, who first reported this, said later that he had asked the CIA if it was OK to disclose this name. He said the CIA said we'd rather not, but made only--and these are his words--'a very weak objection.' So it doesn't sound like the government was taking affirmative measures."

Post-Indictment, A Glut of Glee?

Post-Indictment, A Glut of Glee?

Post-Indictment, A Glut of Glee?

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 31, 2005; Page C01

[...] So when Rove was not indicted in the CIA leak case Friday, it almost seemed like a victory for the White House. But it was clearly not a victory for the reporters and commentators who climbed far out on the limb of handicapping what a special prosecutor operating in secret might do.

Now that an indictment has reached the highest level of the White House for the first time since Watergate, journalists face a minefield of potentially explosive questions: Are they enjoying a bit too much the spectacle of Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, having to resign over the charges of perjury and obstruction of justice? What happened to the normal journalistic skepticism toward a single-minded special prosecutor, as was on display when Ken Starr was pursuing Bill Clinton?

The hostility directed at Patrick Fitzgerald when he was threatening reporters with jail seems to have faded now that his targets are senior aides to President Bush. Perhaps most important, are reporters, commentators, bloggers and partisans using the outing of Valerie Plame as a proxy war for rehashing the decision to invade Iraq? The vitriol directed at New York Times reporter Judith Miller, whether deserved or not, seems motivated as much by her role in touting the administration's erroneous WMD claims as in her decision to be jailed, at least for a time, to protect Libby.

In short, the leak prosecution is shaping up as a test of media fairness and responsibility in a polarizing age when many people on the left and right think the news business is hopelessly biased. [...]

Supreme Court Nominee Alito's Major Decisions

TIME.com: Bush's New Nominee: Not Always on the Same Page as Scalia -- Page 1:

"Bush's New Nominee: Not Always on the Same Page as Scalia
A review of Sam Alito�s major decisions / By SEAN SCULLY/PHILADELPHIA "

[…] The conservative bent of judge Sam Alito, who President Bush nominated this morning to the U.S. Supreme Court, has prompted facile comparisons to Justice Antonin Scalia, arguably the most stridently conservative member of the court. But clerks and associates say the comparison, often made with the derisive nickname of "Scalito," does a disservice to the man. "I think he really looks at the facts of the case; he'd be very realistic," says former clerk Katherine K. Huang. "He [Alito] doesn't have his head in the clouds. He's not going to be carried away by some legal doctrine or some arcane grammatical rule." Huang is refering to a little-known Social Security case in 2002 which may be instructive when it comes to comparing Alito to Scalia.

In that case, Alito argued passionately with other members of the 3rd Circuit Appeals Court that a disabled woman, Pauline Thomas, should be granted benefits because she had been laid off from her job as an elevator operator and could not find a new job since the position of "elevator operator" had virtually disappeared from the economy. A lower court had ruled that a narrow and technical reading of the Social Security statute did not entitle Thomas to benefits. Alito called this result "absurd" and overrode the objections of several of his colleagues and convinced the full 3rd Circuit to overturn the lower court decision.

Alito's passion didn't move the Supreme Court, however, which overturned his decision in 2003. In a pointed rejection of Alito's opinion—accusing him of "disregarding" basic grammatical rules for interpreting the law—the Supreme Court fell back on the narrow and technical reading and denied Thomas her Social Security benefits. The author of this stinging rebuke to Alito? Justice Antonin Scalia.

Nevertheless, as an appeals court judge, Alito has had a strong conservative record. Perhaps his most famous case came only a year into his judgeship, in 1991, when he dissented from a decision by his fellow appeals court judges striking down a Pennsylvania law that required women to inform their husbands before obtaining an abortion. In 1996, he dissented from a decision broadening the rights of workers suing over sex discrimination. A year later, he upheld the display of a Nativity scene in front of city hall in Jersey City, N.J. because it was multi-denominational, including not only a creche and a menorah, but also Frosty the Snowman. On the bench, Alito is known to be unfailingly polite, but pointed in his questioning. […] [My ellipses and emphasis]

Any judicial champion of Frosty the Snowman is okay in my books.

French Innocent of Causing Their Bad Reputation

BREITBART.COM - Just The News:

Britons think French deserve their 'negative stereotype': poll / Oct 31 12:45 PM US/Eastern

Eighty-six percent of people in Britain aged 18 to 30 think the French deserve "a popular negative stereotype," suggests an opinion poll conducted for an Anglo-French art show in London.

"'British people should face up to the fact that they have an enormous problem when it comes to the French,' said exhibition organiser Richard Kaye, a Brition resident in France. "

Not Watching TV Is Actually Punk-Rock?

New York Daily News - Entertainment - Never a dull moment:

"Some critics, however, assert that Madonna is being reactionary, or even (gasp!) conservative, in her oft-stated refusal to let her kids (Lourdes, 9, and Rocco, 5) watch TV.

"'It's not conservative,' she says. 'It's actually very punk-rock to not watch TV.'"

AIM worm plays nasty new trick

AIM worm plays nasty new trick | CNET News.com:

"The advice to users is to be careful when clicking on links in IM messages--even when they seem to come from friends--and to use up-to-date antivirus software. When receiving a link in an instant message, the best practice is to verify with the sender if the link was sent intentionally or not. "

CBS News Meltdown Continues

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2005�

CBS REPORTER TO WHITE HOUSE: ALITO 'SLOPPY SECONDS?'
Mon Oct 31 2005 11:26:56 ET

CBSNEWS Chief White House correspondent John Roberts described the President’s selection of Judge Samuel Alito as “sloppy seconds” during today’s press gaggle with White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.

John Roberts: “So, Scott, you said that -- or the President said, repeatedly, that Harriet Miers was the best person for the job. So does that mean that Alito is sloppy seconds, or what?”

Scott McClellan: “Not at all, John.”

Sloppy seconds” is described in the United Kingdom’s A Dictionary of Slang as:

Noun: “A subsequent indulgence in an activity by a second person involving an exchange of bodily fluids. This may involve the sharing of drink, or more often it applies to a sexual nature. E.g. ‘I’m not having sloppy seconds, I want to shag her first.’”

Developing...

NYC Mayor Race from NY Post

IN THE LAND OF THE LOST - Yahoo! News:

"It comes as little news that a man must possess at least average intelligence combined with a total lack of shame to be elected mayor of New York.

But yesterday, Ferrer demonstrated his utter lack of the former, and wild abundance of the latter. And � Lordy! � I'll offer a cash reward to the human who can find a fresh idea lurking in this train wreck of a campaign. "

Three Cheers for Bush, Rice, and Bolton

U.N. Security Council OKs Syria Resolution - Yahoo! News:

"The three co-sponsors agreed to drop a direct threat of sanctions against Syria in order to get support from Russia and China, which opposed sanctions while the investigation is still under way. Nonetheless, the resolution was adopted under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, which is militarily enforceable."

Inventive Ways of Going After Strange Flesh

(Hat tip to Wayne Dutt.)

From a forum thread:

In the 28 June newspaper it read "The Reverend Doctor Janet Edwards officiated in a ceremony integrating the couple’s Buddhist and Christian traditions. Dr. Edwards is a Presbyterian minister active in advancing the full recognition of gay persons within the Pittsburgh Presbytery." Janet Edwards is a descendant of Jonathan Edwards who preached that great sermon "Sinners in the hands of an angry God." The author of the article said Jonathan Edwards may "have been less horrified by the absence of a groom than by the presence of a Buddhist." (Australian Ind. Bapt. Newsletter, 8/8/05) / [ PLAINS BAPTIST CHALLENGER - October 2005 ]

How marvelously inventive our reverend doctors are these days.

Alito for Supreme Court II

Bush Picks Alito for Supreme Court - Yahoo! News:

[…] 'Judge Alito has served with distinction on that court for 15 years, and now has more prior judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in more than 70 years,' Bush said, drawing an unspoken contrast to his first choice, Harriet Miers.

[…] From the bench, Alito has staked out positions supporting restrictions on abortion, such as parental and spousal notification. If confirmed by the Senate, Alito would replace retiring justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a decisive swing vote in a host of affirmative action, abortion, campaign finance, discrimination and death penalty cases.

Alito favors more restrictions on abortion rights than either the Supreme Court has allowed or O'Connor has supported, based on a 1992 case in which he supported spousal notification.

[…] Alito signaled his alliance with Daly and other conservatives, speaking of the "limited role the courts play in our constitutional system."

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America immediately called on the Senate to reject the nomination. "Judge Alito would undermine basic reproductive rights," said Karen Pearl, interim president. "It is outrageous that President Bush would replace a moderate conservative like Justice O'Connor with a conservative hardliner."

Judicial conservatives praise Alito's 15 years on the Philadelphia-based court, a tenure that gives him more appellate experience than almost any previous Supreme Court nominee. They say his record shows a commitment to a strict interpretation of the Constitution, ensuring that the separation of powers and checks and balances are respected and enforced. They also contend that Alito has been a powerful voice for the First Amendment's guarantees of free speech and the free exercise of religion.

Liberal groups, on the other hand, note Alito's moniker and say his nomination raises troubling concerns, especially when it comes to his record on civil rights and reproductive rights. Alito is a frequent dissenter on the 3rd Circuit, one of the most liberal federal appellate benches in the nation.

In the early 1990s, Alito was the lone dissenter in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a case in which the 3rd Circuit struck down a Pennsylvania law that included a provision requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses.

"The Pennsylvania legislature could have rationally believed that some married women are initially inclined to obtain an abortion without their husbands' knowledge because of perceived problems — such as economic constraints, future plans or the husbands' previously expressed opposition — that may be obviated by discussion prior to the abortion," Alito wrote.

He has not been a down-the-line abortion foe, however. In 2000, Alito joined the majority that found a New Jersey law banning late-term abortions unconstitutional. In his concurring opinion, Alito said the Supreme Court required such a ban to include an exception if the mother's health was endangered.

The case ended up at the Supreme Court where the justices, in a 6-3 decision struck down the spousal notification provision of the law. The late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist cited Alito's reasoning in his own dissent.

Alito, an Italian-American who grew up in Trenton, N.J., has a resume filled with stepping stones to the high court. He was educated at Princeton University and earned a law degree from Yale University, the president's alma mater. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Bush to Nominate Alito to Supreme Court

Bush to Nominate Alito to Supreme Court - Yahoo! News

[…] The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to preview Bush's remarks, said Alito was virtually certain to get the nod from the moment Miers backed out. The 55-year-old jurist was Bush's favorite choice of the judges in the last set of deliberations but he settled instead on someone outside what he calls the "judicial monastery," the officials said.

Bush believes that Alito has not only the right experience and conservative ideology for the job, but he also has a temperament suited to building consensus on the court. A former prosecutor, Alito has experience off the bench that factored into Bush's thinking, the officials said.

While Alito is expected to win praise from Bush's allies on the right, Democrats have served notice that his nomination would spark a partisan brawl. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said Sunday that Alito's nomination would "create a lot of problems."

Unlike Miers, who has never been a judge, Alito, a 55-year-old jurist from New Jersey, has been a strong conservative voice on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since former President George H.W. Bush seated him there in 1990.

So consistently conservative, Alito has been dubbed "Scalito" or "Scalia-lite" by some lawyers because his judicial philosophy invites comparisons to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. But while Scalia is outspoken and is known to badger lawyers, Alito is polite, reserved and even-tempered. […] [My ellipses and emphasis]

Alito made the best impression on me from what I have read in earlier run ups to nominations.

I think the President's characterization of the "judicial monastery" is right on. Particularly as it pertains to those with only appellate judge and academic experience.

The "partisan brawl" anticipated by the Democrats will be just as entertaining to conservatives and as demoralizing to Democrats as the last round. "Rope-a-dope, round two", as Mohammed Ali would say.

Don't expect a joyride from Scooter, Dems

Don't expect a joyride from Scooter, Dems:

"Don't expect a joyride from Scooter, Dems / October 30, 2005 / BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

The 'Ding Dong, the Bush Is Dead' fever rages on, disappointments notwithstanding. Hurricane Katrina was, politically, a wash. And say what you like about Harriet Miers, but at least the disaffected right wrapped the whole thing up in a month. Meanwhile, the left's still panting orgasmically about Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into what Scooter Libby said to Judith Miller about what Valerie Plame knew about what Joseph C. Wilson IV said . . . zzzz . . . fingers growing heavy . . . losing the will to type . . ." [...]

Day Care Abuse "Victim": 'I Lied'

McMartin Pre-Schooler: 'I Lied' - Los Angeles Times:

"McMartin Pre-Schooler: 'I Lied'

A long-delayed apology from one of the accusers in the notorious McMartin Pre-School molestation case / By Kyle Zirpolo, as told to Debbie Nathan

My mother divorced my father when I was 2 and she met my stepfather, who was a police officer in Manhattan Beach. They had five children after me. In addition, my stepfather has three older children. In the combined family, I'm the only one of the nine children he didn't father. I always remember wanting him to love me. I was always trying excessively hard to please him. I would do anything for him."

Associated Press Against UN & US?

It would seem so when their headline writer interprets a "world body condemnation" as "derision".

BREITBART.COM - Just The News: "Iran Rejects Derision of Leader's Remarks
Oct 29 11:39 AM US/Eastern By NASSER KARIMI Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran / Iran hit back at the U.N. Security Council on Saturday after the world body condemned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call for Israel to be destroyed.

The Security Council issued a statement Friday reminding Iran that, according to the U.N. charter, member states must refrain from threatening to use force against each other.

'The statement by the president of the U.N. Security Council was proposed by the Zionist regime to close the eyes to its crimes and to change the facts, therefore it is not acceptable,' Iran's Foreign Ministry said. "

Prince Charles to plead Islam's cause to Bush

Telegraph | News | Prince Charles to plead Islam's cause to Bush: "Prince Charles to plead Islam's cause to Bush
By Andrew Alderson, Chief Reporter (Filed: 29/10/2005)

The Prince of Wales will try to persuade George W Bush and Americans of the merits of Islam this week because he thinks the United States has been too intolerant of the religion since September 11.
The Prince, who leaves on Tuesday for an eight-day tour of the US, has voiced private concerns over America's 'confrontational' approach to Muslim countries and its failure to appreciate Islam's strengths.

The Duchess of Cornwall will accompany her husband
The Prince raised his concerns when he met senior Muslims in London in November 2001. The gathering took place just two months after the attacks on New York and Washington. 'I find the language and rhetoric coming from America too confrontational,' the Prince said, according to one leader at the meeting."

Christian girls beheaded Indonesia

Christian girls beheaded in grisly Indonesian attack - World - smh.com.au:

"Christian girls beheaded in grisly Indonesian attack
October 29, 2005 - 7:01PM

Three teenage Christian girls were beheaded and a fourth was seriously wounded in a savage attack on Saturday by unidentified assailants in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi.

The girls were among a group of students from a private Christian high school who were ambushed while walking through a cocoa plantation in Poso Kota subdistrict on their way to class, police Major Riky Naldo said."

DRUDGE FLASH: Paranoid Politics

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2005�:

"BROOKS: WHY ARE DEMS SO OVERHEATED?
Sat Oct 29 2005 17:15:12 ET

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald did not find evidence to prove that there was a 'broad conspiracy to out a covert agent for political gain. He did not find evidence of wide-ranging criminal behavior. He did not even indict the media's ordained villain, Karl Rove,' writes David Brooks in Sunday's NY TIMES. "

"Leading Democratic politicians filled the air with grand conspiracy theories that would be at home in the John Birch Society."

"Why are these people so compulsively overheated?.. Why do they have to slather on wild, unsupported charges that do little more than make them look unhinged?

Brooks quotes from an essay written 40 years ago by Richard Hofstadter called "The Paranoid Style in American Politics."

Hofstadter argued that sometimes people who are dispossessed, who feel their country has been taken away from them and their kind, develop an angry, suspicious and conspiratorial frame of mind. It is never enough to believe their opponents have committed honest mistakes or have legitimate purposes; they insist on believing in malicious conspiracies.

"The paranoid spokesman," Hofstadter wrote, "sees the fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic terms -- he traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values. He is always manning the barricades of civilization." Because his opponents are so evil, the conspiracy monger is never content with anything but their total destruction."

Brooks summarizes: "So some Democrats were not content with Libby's indictment, but had to stretch, distort and exaggerate. The tragic thing is that at the exact moment when the Republican Party is staggering under the weight of its own mistakes, the Democratic Party's loudest voices are in the grip of passions that render them untrustworthy." [...]

Is America off the tracks?

OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan:

"Everyone was laughing. Then, writes Mr. Lawford, Teddy 'took a long, slow gulp of his vodka and tonic, thought for a moment, and changed tack. 'I'm glad I'm not going to be around when you guys are my age.' I asked him why, and he said, 'Because when you guys are my age, the whole thing is going to fall apart.' '

Mr. Lawford continued, 'The statement hung there, suspended in the realm of 'maybe we shouldn't go there.' Nobody wanted to touch it. After a few moments of heavy silence, my uncle moved on.'
Lawford thought his uncle might be referring to their family--that it might 'fall apart.' But reading, one gets the strong impression Teddy Kennedy was not talking about his family but about . . . the whole ball of wax, the impossible nature of everything, the realities so daunting it seems the very system is off the tracks.

And--forgive me--I thought: If even Teddy knows . . ."

Canada: built on politeness?

WorldNetDaily: A nation built on � politeness (Oh Canada by Ted Byfield):

[...] One of the many earnest intellectuals who write in Canada's national media shared with the country last week his perception of the liberal paradise that Canada is becoming. It's the only country in the world, he writes, 'where women can live in real equality, where it's OK to be gay, and where people pick up after their dogs.' [...]

What made the article noteworthy, however, was not its fundamental absurdity – i.e., that what ostensibly distinguishes Canada can also be found in virtually every country in the Western world – but rather two curious aspects. One was the complete absence of religion in the social composite of the envisioned country. It is mentioned only as a detriment currently preventing the election of the Conservative party, and obviously something that must be abandoned.

The other is the assumption that the real builders of the New Canada will be the Asian and African immigrants, "the millions of new arrivals who have landed at our docks and airports," and are already "transforming us." In other words, the force that will fuel this ultra-polite utopia of serial marriage, gay pride parades, childless households and godless hedonism is the immigrant.

A couple of developments seem to have escaped Mr. Ibbitson's notice. One is the fact that church attendance in Canada, for the first time in four decades, is rising. The second is that the chief factor making it rise is the overwhelming devotion to Christianity of the immigrants, particularly those from Asia and Africa.

Canadians must learn to see themselves, writes Mr. Ibbitson, "through the eyes of a young woman arriving here from Manila." One wonders: Has he ever actually met any young women arriving here from Manila. I've known at least a dozen. They are, every last one of them, either devout Catholics, or Protestants with a strong Evangelical bent. At least half have married Caucasian Canadians and have been raising relatively large and delightful families, with all the children going to church.

To my knowledge, none has ever taken part in a gay pride parade – in fact, they regard such things as objects of horror – though several are active in the pro-life movement. A number are professional women who have raised families and regained a career, but I don't think any would comfortably describe herself as "a feminist." [...]

Arkcity.net: Community - ID advocate: Scientists to get irrational 10/28/05

Arkcity.net: Community - ID advocate: Scientists to get irrational 10/28/05:

"The debate over evolution flared again Thursday, first with criticism from the National Academy of Sciences and National Science Teachers Association. The groups said standards being considered by the State Board of Education, which express skepticism of evolution, would confuse and mislead students about the theory.

Hours later, a student group at Washburn University in Topeka welcomed Phillip Johnson, a retired University of California law professor who sometimes is called the father of the intelligent-design movement now questioning evolutionary theory.

''This is very scary to the Mandarins of science,'' he told about 75 people attending the Christian Challenge meeting at a local church's community building. ''There's been a panicky and hysterical response to this, some of which you've seen in your state recently.''"

Culture classes stunting children's creativity

Telegraph | News | Parents 'are stunting children's creativity' with culture classes:

Parents who enrol their young children in a host of activities as soon as they can walk could be stunting their development, according to researchers.

Children who learn to speak French, play the violin or handle a tennis racquet at the age of two or three are victims of middle-class angst, said a study published yesterday by a team from London University.

[...] Dulwich College Preparatory School in south London does not formally test children but invites them to spend one or two hours in groups of three with teachers at the school. 'We are not trying to find out whether the child already knows differential calculus at the age of seven or is grade six on the violin but that he enjoys maths and music,' says George Marsh, the head teacher.

Some children are prepared by tutors but Mr Marsh says it does not help. 'We want to meet the child, not see what he has learnt. Has he got the ability to stay on task, to reason, to ask simple questions and follow instructions?

'We look at the way they talk to you and look around and ask questions,' he said. 'I try to get parents to see that it would be better if their child did nothing but play for at least two nights a week. They need to spend time with Mum and Dad, which is an issue when both parents have to work to pay school fees.' [...]

Not Fit to Print?

Evidently, according to the motto, "All the news that's fit to print", of our "newspaper of record".

The emphasized words below were omitted from a quote from Corporal Starr's last letter in a 4000 word article.

He wrote: "Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."

Michelle Malkin gives the details in a blog post: CPL. JEFFREY B. STARR: WHAT THE NYTIMES LEFT OUT.

FIVE BEST Green Gray Areas

OpinionJournal - FIVE BEST:

FIVE BEST Green Gray Areas
Books that question the conventional wisdom on the environment.

BY MICHAEL CRICHTON
Saturday, October 29, 2005 12:01 a.m.

1. 'Playing God in Yellowstone' by Alston Chase (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986).
That raw sewage bubbles out of the ground at Yellowstone National Park--after more than a century of botched conservation--would come as no surprise to Alston Chase, who 20 years ago wrote 'Playing God in Yellowstone: The Destruction of America's First National Park.' Mr. Chase, a former professor of philosophy turned journalist, presents a clear critique of ever-changing environmental beliefs and the damage that they have caused the actual environment. As a philosopher, he is contemptuous of much conventional wisdom and the muddle-headed attitudes he calls 'California cosmology.'
2. 'The Culture Cult' by Roger Sandall (Westview, 2001).
In 'The Culture Cult: Designer Tribalism and Other Essays,' anthropologist Roger Sandall explores romantic primitivism--the myth of Eden and the Noble Savage. Mr. Sandall's histories of utopian communities (Robert Owen's New Harmony, John Humphrey Noyes's disastrous Oneida) are vivid, and his portraits of leading primitivists, from Rousseau to Mead to Levi-Strauss, are sharply drawn. This ignorant nostalgia for our tribal past ignores the truly horrific reality of tribal initiation, warfare, mutilation and human sacrifice.
3. 'Man in the Natural World' by Keith Thomas (Oxford, 1984).
Don't be put off by the academic title of Keith Thomas's 'Man in the Natural World: Changing Attitudes in England 1500-1800.' The book's a delight. Mr. Thomas's account is both detailed and charming as he guides the reader from the Tudor view, that nature was made for man to exploit, through the later sense that nature was to be worshipped and cherished (such that trees became pets and aristocrats gave names to their great estate trees and said good-night to them each evening). Still later came the Romantic preference for untouched nature and rough settings, a rarified taste that required "a long course of aesthetic education." At every turn, Mr. Thomas emphasizes the contradictions between belief and behavior.
4. "The Skeptical Environmentalist" by Bjrn Lomborg (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
No one should miss Bjrn Lomborg's "The Skeptical Environmentalist." The author, a Danish statistician and former Greenpeace activist, set out to disprove the views of the late Julian Simon, who claimed that environmental fears were baseless and that the world was actually improving. To Mr. Lomborg's surprise, he found that Simon was mostly right. Mr. Lomborg's text is calm and devastating to established dogma.
5. "The Logic of Failure" by Dietrich Dörner (Perseus, 1998).
Future environmentalists will heed Dietrich Dörner's "The Logic of Failure." Mr. Dörner is a cognitive psychologist who invited academic experts to manage the computer simulations of various environments (an African herding society, a town in Maine). Most experts made things worse. Those managers who did well gathered information before acting, thought in terms of complex-systems interactions instead of simple linear cause and effect, reviewed their progress, looked for unanticipated consequences, and corrected course often. Those who did badly relied on a fixed theoretical approach, did not correct course and blamed others when things went wrong. Mr. Dörner concludes that our failure to manage complex systems such as the environment reflects bad habits of thought, overreliance on theory and lazy procedures. His book is brief, cheerful and profound.

Mr. Crichton is author of the novels "State of Fear" and "Jurassic Park," among many others, and creator of the television series "ER."

Centuries of Meditations - Century One #6

Centuries of Meditations - Century One:

#6 True Love as it intendeth the greatest gifts intendeth also the greatest benefits. It contenteth not itself in showing great things unless it can make them greatly useful. For Love greatly delighteth in seeing its object continually seated in the highest happiness. Unless therefore I could advance you higher by the uses of what I give, my Love could not be satisfied in giving you the whole world. But because when you enjoy it you are advanced to the Throne of God and may see His Love; I rest well pleased in bestowing it. It will make you to see your own greatness, the truth of the Scriptures, the amiableness of Virtue, and the beauty of Religion. It will enable you to contemn the world, and to overflow with praises."

Pajamas Media II - Writers & Editors

For complete editor and contributor profiles and latest developments, link to Pajamas Media in Transition.

Links to: Pajamas Media I - "The Sea! The Sea!" source ABC News article, thread at Adult Christian Forum , thread at AAA Bible Study Forum, blog post at In Two Cities.

The profiles of Pajamas Media writers and editors quoted below and in following posts in this thread are from the "Pajamas Media in Transition" site linked at the top of this post.

Jose Guardia, Editorial Board Member

[(] Jose Guardia is known in the blogosphere as Franco Alemán, the author of Barcepundit which has both English and Spanish editions. With this bio, he officially reveals his true identity. Jose has been named Western European Editor of the Pajamas Media portal, to be unveiled November 16.[)]

[…] I am a native of Barcelona, an inspiring city I really enjoy. I have a law degree from the University of Barcelona -- with a couple business courses during and after it -- but jumped into business management. I can say I haven't really worked as an attorney for a single day. I have been involved for almost 15 years with technology and new media, whether as an executive or a consultant.

As for so many people, there was a precise moment that really shook my worldview. It was early afternoon in Barcelona and the second plane had just crashed into the WTC. I was glued to the screen and the Internet for the next 72 hours, getting no sleep, trying to digest everything. I couldn't. It was then when I, someone not too deeply interested in politics, definitely became a news junkie and discovered the real power of the blogosphere.

[…] Which put me more and more at odds with what I was reading and watching in Spain. I would yell at the TV set when seeing the newscasts, which I know is nothing particularly unique. It was when the guy on TV started shouting back at me that I realized I had to do something or I'd go nuts! The angle the media chooses to report has consequences, because people can only build fully informed opinions and then make fully informed decisions when they get two sides of the issues. This one-sided coverage helps to explain, for example, the overwhelming anti-war sentiment in Spain, and at least partially explains Zapatero's surprise victory in the polls right after March 11.

Last year I launched my English edition [of BarcePundit Blog]. I was quickly linked by big shots like Roger, Glenn, Tim, Norm and Cori (I'll stop there, otherwise this will sound like the Oscars ceremony). One of my posts was the topic of a full piece by Frank Gaffney over at NRO.

[…] As for Pajamas Media I think it's fabulous that there's an initiative run by people who know what they're talking about, because they're successful bloggers, to enhance the intelligence aggregation which is probably the blogosphere's most distinctive trait.

It will bring more visibility to what really great bloggers have to say, and if at the same time there's an income incentive for the affiliated bloggers, well, in Spain we'd say that's "honey on cornflakes" (we'd say "miel sobre hojuelas", but you get the point). Personally speaking, it's not an exaggeration to say how excited I am to be joining the project. I feel like Pau Gasol heading for the NBA; only that Pau is bit taller than me! [My ellipses and emphasis]

Full disclosure: Barcelona was my home port a few years back when I was serving in the U. S. Navy.

Pajamas Media I "The Sea! The Sea!"

For editor and contributor profiles and latest developments, link to Pajamas Media in Transition.

From an ABC News article, Silicon Insider: MSM, Meet the Blogosphere :

(Hat tip: BarcePundit)

Silicon Insider: MSM, Meet the Blogosphere [/] Thousands of Bloggers Edge Closer to the Mainstream [/] Commentary [/] By MICHAEL S. MALONE [/] Oct. 27, 2005

The sea! The sea!

Please excuse the bloggy style of this column, but I'm writing it on short breaks between meetings. As you read this, I am in New York City co-hosting a conference.

It is officially entitled "The Oxford & York Media, Communications & Technology Summit" -- but it really is the first annual summit meeting between Mainstream Media and the blogosphere. For that reason, the panelists range from senior executives at Reuters, the Financial Times, Forbes and Sony BMG Music to, on the other end, folks from Yahoo!, Odeo and AdventuresofChester.com. The audience, largely composed of CEOs and advertising executives, is equally diverse. The goal is not to throw spitballs at each other (which has largely characterized relations between the MSM and blogosphere in the past) but to see if there is some common ground where the two can work together. [...]

The Impending Launch of Pajamas Media

Though the topics today cover everything from evolving revenue models to piracy, and the social impact to new media versus old, easily the most anticipated event at the summit was last night's keynote speech by Roger L. Simon. Simon had already enjoyed a successful career as a novelist (the Moses Wine detective novels) and screenwriter ("Enemies: A Love Story") when he discovered the then-new world of Web logs.

[...] His blog alone would be enough to make Roger a popular dinner attraction. But these days he is an even bigger draw, thanks to stepping up as CEO of the new Pajamas Media. PM -- its name (which may soon change) derives from a dismissive comment made about bloggers by a CBS executive last year -- is the most talked about secret on the Web. Simon regularly delivers hints about its progress on his site, and for the last month the best-known PMers (Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit, for example) have been running daily profiles of bloggers that have signed up with Pajamas Media. They are an extraordinarily wide-ranging group, from noted political pundits like Michael Barone to a lady who runs a Web site for dogs, and a guy who writes about spelunking, to the most famous of the on-the-ground bloggers from the War in Iraq (Iraq the Model).

Getting the Readers Involved

[...] In keeping with the nature of the Internet, PM will operate 24/7, with managing editors in L.A., Sydney and Barcelona. An editorial board will approve stories before they appear, and corrections will be made on the front page in real time. There will be no editing of the blogs themselves, to preserve their independence. In every way, readers will be intimately involved with the site, from commenting and correcting, to submitting content, especially events on the ground in distant corners of the world -- ultimately providing streaming video. [...]

Will It Succeed?

Will Pajamas Media make it? I've been around too many start-ups in too many brand new industries to make any prediction in confidence. But I will predict that the very existence of Pajamas Media will lead to the creation of scores of other online media companies rushing to imitate its business model. I'll also predict that one -- or perhaps even many -- of these imitators will find the perfect combination, will create a vast new media industry sector that will be chased by scores of venture capitalists and thousands of young entrepreneurs. And their arrival will signal the end of the MSM as we know it.

It can't happen soon enough. Ironically, while flying in from Silicon Valley, I read an absorbing new book by an Oxford classics professor (Oxford's Said Business School is a co-sponsor of the summit) named Tim Rood, entitled "The Sea! The Sea! The Shout of the Ten Thousand and the Modern Imagination" (Duckworth, 2004).

That title (in Greek, "Thalatta! Thalatta!") is one of those phrases that is so resonant that it keeps popping up throughout the last 2,500 years in novels, plays, paintings -- and most recently, in movies. It comes from the climactic moment of one of history's greatest adventure stories, "The Anabasis" by Xenophon. As the tale goes, 13,000 Greek soldiers, rendered unemployed by the end of the Peloponnesian War, sign on as mercenaries for a Persian prince named Cyrus, supposedly to fight some rebels. It turns out that Cyrus in fact intends to attack the current king and take his throne. In the decisive battle, fought near Baghdad, the Greeks fight brilliantly -- but the prince is killed and the rest of the army collapses. The Greeks try to negotiate a safe departure, but are betrayed and their generals murdered.

And thus begins the adventure that has haunted Western Civilization for more than two millennia: The Greeks have to fight, trick, and march their way more than 1,000 miles through enemy territory in modern Turkey, Syria and Iraq to get back to Greece. They succeed through a combination of teamwork, guts and the charismatic leadership of Xenophon, among others. The climactic moment comes when, in eastern Turkey, the exhausted army climbs a mountain pass ... and sees, in the distance, the Black Sea and the safe ending to their journey. The soldiers are so excited they start shouting "The sea! The sea!"

That phrase has haunted western civilization ever since, coming to mean the exhilarating end of a perilous journey. It shows up in Roman poems and plays, in 19th century adventure stories, in the 20th century in POW escape memoirs, and most remarkably, in Joyce's "Ulysses."

The death of classical education means that today's school kids, unlike their Greek-speaking Victorian predecessors, have never heard of Xenophon, much less the cry. Still, it's interesting to note that my boys' favorite cult film is "The Warriors," which is the Anabasis translated to the dark and foreboding street gang world of 1970s New York, in which the sea lies off Coney Island.

Reading the book made me think of the 10 million bloggers out there. They have spent years now in the wilderness, defeating one obstacle after another, somehow surviving the hard times, devoting billions of hours to their dream of one day turning their Web logs into real careers. Now, Pajamas Media gives them a glimpse of salvation just ahead.

Thalatta! Thalatta! [The sea! The sea! (In the language of the New Testament)]

[...] Michael S. Malone, once called "the Boswell of Silicon Valley," most recently was editor at large of Forbes ASAP magazine. He has covered Silicon Valley and high-tech for more than 20 years, beginning with the San Jose Mercury-News as the nation's first daily high-tech reporter. His articles and editorials have appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Fortune, and for two years he was a columnist for The New York Times. He has hosted two national PBS shows: "Malone," a half-hour interview program that ran for nine years; and a 16-part interview series in 2001 called "Betting It All: The Entrepreneurs." Malone is best known as the author of a dozen books: his latest, a collection of his best newspaper and magazine writings, is called "The Valley of Heart's Delight" (Wiley). [My ellipses and emphasis]

United Nations Bankrupt?

I know that the United Nations is completely corrupt.

But there must be some bank, somewhere, that will loan them the money to keep the earthquake relief helicopters flying.

U.N. Warns Funds Drying Up for Quake Aid By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan - The U.N. on Friday warned it will run out of money and be forced to ground helicopters delivering earthquake relief supplies to northern Pakistan unless donors come through with the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to see 2.3 million hungry people through the winter. […] [My ellipses and emphasis]

All Souls Day (Nov. 2)

At least part of the thought behind All Souls' Day is worth considering and adopting.

From all-souls-day.123holiday.net :

All Soul's Day is a Roman Catholic day of remembrance for friends and loved ones who have passed away.

In thanking God for those neighbors who have passed away, we are thanking Him for those who have been instruments of His love toward us.

This is why our neighbors are to be loved.

This is why the second part of the Great Commandment of the law of Moses is called "like unto the first" by our Lord.

Even if a neighbor intended evil toward us, God uses that neighbor as an instrument of His perfect provision of good toward those who are called according to His purposes.

Genesis 50:20 KJV But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

It is good to thank God for our neighbors.

Including those whose salvation or spiritual growth we do not pray for because they are deceased or most probably deceased.

Particularly for deceased parents, whatever their faults. God chose them. And we ought to forgive them completely as God has forgiven us completely.

More from the article linked above:

All Soul's Day (sometimes called the "Day of the Dead") is always November 2 (November 3rd if the 2nd falls on a Sunday).

All Soul's Day is a Roman Catholic day of remembrance for friends and loved ones who have passed away. This comes from the ancient Pagan Festival of the Dead, which celebrated the Pagan belief that the souls of the dead would return for a meal with the family. Candles in the window would guide the souls back home, and another place was set at the table. Children would come through the village, asking for food to be offered symbolically to the dead, then donated to feed the hungry.

The day purposely follows All Saint's Day in order to shift the focus from those in heaven to those in purgatory. It is celebrated with masses and festivities in honor of the dead. While the Feast of All Saints is a day to remember the glories of Heaven and those there, the Feast of All Souls reminds us of our obligations to live holy lives and that there will be purification of the souls of those destined for Heaven.

The Christian holiday of All Soul's Day pays respect and remembers the souls of all friends and loved ones who have died and gone to heaven. The living pray on behalf of Christians who are in purgatory, the state in the afterlife where souls are purified before proceeding to heaven. Souls in purgatory, who are members of the church just like living Christians, must suffer so that they can be purged of their sins. It is a time to pray for their souls that they may be received into heaven. […]

The traditions of the Feast of All Souls began independently of the Feast of All Saints. The Feast of All Souls owes its beginning to seventh century monks who decided to offer the mass on the day after Pentecost for their deceased community members. In the late tenth century, the Benedictine monastery in Cluny chose to move their mass for their dead to November 2, the day after the Feast of all Saints. This custom spread and in the thirteenth century, Rome put the feast on the calendar of the entire Church. The date remained November 2 so that all in the Communion of the Saints might be celebrated together.

Many customs are associated with The Day of the Dead celebration. In the home an altar is made with an offering of food upon it. It is believed that the dead partake of the food in spirit and the living eat it later. The ofrendas (offerings) are beautifully arranged with flowers such as marigolds (zempasuchitl), which are the traditional flower of the dead. There is a candle placed for each dead soul, and they are adorned in some manner. Incense is also often used, and mementos, photos, and other remembrances of the dead also adorn the ofrenda.

It is also traditional in some areas to see the play Don Juan Tenorio. Paper mache and sugar skulls are popular, as are cardboard coffins from which a skeleton can be made to jump out. Special masks are also worn, allowing a person to achieve a facial expression for which they feel they are inadequate to achieve.

Traditional Catholics still honor customs related to the relief of the souls suffering in purgatory. One custom is for persons to pray six Our Fathers, Hail Mary's and Glory Be's for the intentions of the Pope in a church, and thereby, receive a plenary indulgence for a soul in purgatory. This action may be repeated for another soul, by leaving the church and re-entering it to repeat the prayers.

All Soul's Day lives on today, particularly in Mexico, where All Hallows' Eve, All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day are collectively observed as "Los Dias de los Muertos" (The Days of the Dead). First and foremost, the Days of the Dead is a time when families fondly remember the deceased. But it is also a time marked by festivities, including spectacular parades of skeletons and ghouls. In one notable tradition, revelers lead a mock funeral procession with a live person inside a coffin. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Centuries of Meditations 1st Century #59

Centuries of Meditations 1st Century:

#59

" Of all the things in Heaven and Earth it is the most peculiar. It is the most exalted of all objects. It is an Ensign lifted up for all nations, to it shall the Gentiles seek, His rest shall be glorious: the dispersed of Judah shall be gathered together to it, from the four corners of the earth. If Love be the weight of the Soul, and its object the centre, all eyes and hearts may convert42and turn unto this Object: cleave unto this centre, and by it enter into rest. There we might see all nations assembled with their eyes and hearts upon it. There we may see God�s goodness, wisdom and power: yea His mercy and anger displayed. There we may see man�s sin and infinite value. His hope and fear, his misery and happiness. There we might see the Rock of Ages, and the Joys of Heaven. There we may see a Man loving all the world, and a God dying for mankind. There we may see all types and ceremonies, figures and prophecies. And all kingdoms adoring a malefactor: An innocent malefactor, yet the greatest in the world. There we may see the most distant things in Eternity united: all mysteries at once couched together and explained. The only reason why this Glorious Object is so publicly .admired by Churches and Kingdoms, and so little thought of by particular men, is because it is truly the most glorious: It is the Rock of Comforts and the Fountain of Joys. It is the only supreme and sovereign spectacle in all Worlds. It is a Well of Life beneath in which we may see the face of Heaven above: and the only mirror, wherein all things appear in their proper colours: that is, sprinkled in the blood of our Lord and Saviour."

Centuries of Meditations (i_1)

Centuries of Meditations (i_1): "54
He that is in all, and with all, can never be desolate. All the joys and all the treasures, all the counsels, and all the perfections; all the angels, and all the saints of God are with him. All the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them are continually in his eye. The patriarchs, prophets, and Apostles are always before Him. The councils and the fathers, the bishops and 38the doctors minister unto him. All temples are open before him, the melody of all quires reviveth him, the learning of all universities doth employ him, the riches of all palaces delight him, the joys of Eden ravish him, the revelations of St. John transport him, the creation and the day of Judgment please him, the Hosannas of the church militant and the Hallelujahs, of the Saints Triumphant fill him, the splendour of all coronations entertain him, the joys of Heaven surround him, and our Saviour�s cross, like the Centre of Eternity, is in him; it taketh up his thoughts, and exerciseth all the powers of his soul, with wonder, admiration, joy and thanksgiving. The Omnipotence of God is his House, and Eternity his habitation."