Mystery of the contempt for Fredo Corleone

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Jorge Costales

I just don’t get it. What is it about Fredo Corleone that invites such universal scorn? Have you ever heard anyone anywhere stick up for this guy? I once heard him referred to during a conversation between seminarians as a weak bastard. I mean, a little perspective here. Let’s take a closer look at his family.

Father & Mother–He’s the middle son of a homicidal crime boss. What kind of a father was Vito Corleone? His pseudo guinea charm is exposed in the scene in II when he brings home a pear. His wife, Carmella [real stand-up chick this one], acts as though they have just won the Lotto. This suggests there were earlier beatings when the original Ms See No Evil showed something less than enthusiasm to earlier Vito ‘generosities,’ i.e. bread or Sodium bicarbonate. The next time you watch that scene, watch Carmella closely and tell me if she doesn’t resemble the adults in the Billy Mumy Twilight Zone episode. Trips to the zoo with this guy probably ended with Fredo being held up to the Gorilla cage and told not to show any fear when they approached, Clemenza chuckling in the background.

Older Brother–How bad a bad-ass was this disturbed sociopath? Professional assassins, having already shot Santino 173 times and with numerous potential assailant/witnesses approaching [not from the “the Jersey Turnpike”] in more than one vehicle, felt it necessary to stop, methodically walk up to the sieve-like figure lying on the floor and emptied out the remaining ammunition in their NRA rifles [aka machine guns]. Mind you, these were the type of people who would later develop signature assassination procedures, widely hailed for their efficiency [double-tap] and copied throughout their industry. ‘Santino, watch your brother,’ probably initiated more than a few Fredo nightmares.

Younger Brother–Had older brother killed. Planned it for months. Watched. Most popular Corleone son.

So the next time you hear some bourgeois pansy rip Fredo, in the words of his Dad’s advice to Johnny Fontane, ‘you can act like a man’ and do the right thing. Stick up [pun intended] for the only normal Corleone you’ve ever been exposed to.

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Straw Man Tactic Explained: Safire on Obama

Posted on June 7, 2009 by Jorge Costales

I took my own shot at explaining the straw man form of argument, but let’s read how a pro lays it out. William Safire on President Obama, an excerpt:

Accepting the Democratic nomination in a huge football stadium way back in the presidential campaign of ’08, Senator Barack Obama displayed his oratorical talent by using one of his favorite tried-and-true devices in argument: “Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t defend this country!”Who was telling him that? To be sure, his opponents were claiming that a Republican administration would be stronger on defense, but nobody was telling him or the voters that Democrats preferred abject surrender. At the time, reviewing that speech, I noted the rhetorical technique: “By escalating criticism, he knocked down a straw man, the oldest speechifying trick in the book.”

Encouraged by his reviews for eloquence, President Obama has embraced the straw man frequently (as F.D.R. liked to emphasize it, “again and again and again”) with nary a peep of criticism. Two weeks ago, the Times correspondent Helene Cooper dared to note this president’s repeated use of digs like “I know some folks in Washington and on Wall Street are saying we should just focus on their problems.” Some folks, like those who, are never named but are always wrongheaded extremists. Her “White House Memo” was headlined “Some Obama Enemies Are Made Totally of Straw”; its subhead was “Setting them up to have someone to knock down.” Cooper, as the objective reporter, gave examples of conservative politicians who speak straw-manese, although none with such fluency.

Articles referenced is copied in full at end of post.

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Straw-Man Issue – By WILLIAM SAFIRE
June 7, 2009 – On Language

Accepting the Democratic nomination in a huge football stadium way back in the presidential campaign of ’08, Senator Barack Obama displayed his oratorical talent by using one of his favorite tried-and-true devices in argument: “Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t defend this country!”

Who was telling him that? To be sure, his opponents were claiming that a Republican administration would be stronger on defense, but nobody was telling him or the voters that Democrats preferred abject surrender. At the time, reviewing that speech, I noted the rhetorical technique: “By escalating criticism, he knocked down a straw man, the oldest speechifying trick in the book.”

Encouraged by his reviews for eloquence, President Obama has embraced the straw man frequently (as F.D.R. liked to emphasize it, “again and again and again”) with nary a peep of criticism. Two weeks ago, the Times correspondent Helene Cooper dared to note this president’s repeated use of digs like “I know some folks in Washington and on Wall Street are saying we should just focus on their problems.” Some folks, like those who, are never named but are always wrongheaded extremists. Her “White House Memo” was headlined “Some Obama Enemies Are Made Totally of Straw”; its subhead was “Setting them up to have someone to knock down.” Cooper, as the objective reporter, gave examples of conservative politicians who speak straw-manese, although none with such fluency.

I’ve had experience in this form of rhetorical attack as analyst, as victim and as perpetrator. President Bill Clinton told a foreign-policy audience in 1995 that “the new isolationists would have us face the future alone.” I wondered in print: Who were those nuts proposing “America — let’s face the future alone”?

The same year, when the Serbs were imposing “ethnic cleansing” on the Muslims in Bosnia and the world was wringing its hands, op-ed columnists urged the supply of arms and NATO air support to the besieged Bosnians in their homeland. Gen. Colin Powell told The New Yorker: “William Safire and Tony Lewis say this will only take a little bit of bombing and it will work . . . and Safire . . . just says, ‘Air power can do it.’ Forget it.” Rather than whine about his misrepresentation of my position, I counterattacked: “That’s the straw-man trick: Take your opponent’s argument to a ridiculous extreme and then attack the extreme.” (U.S. air power helped force the Serbs out and also led to today’s independent Kosovo.)

Now for my own perp walk: Such mid-1990s straw-manese reminded me of a speech I drafted for President Nixon to give at the Air Force Academy in 1969. Handing over my draft, I carefully advised the president in these words: “Take the easy way.” He looked surprised but understood when he read the line “It would be easy for a president of the United States to buy some popularity by going along with the new isolationists.” For years afterward, Nixon could then truthfully use the “some say” straw man: “Some of my advisers say I should ‘take the easy way’ — but I have rejected that course. . . .”

THE REAL STRAW MAN

We know the technique; but what’s the source of straw man? A poet in the 18th century responded to critical judgment with “Critics, who like the scarecrows stand/upon the poet’s common land.” The best guess about the trope’s origin is the farmer’s scarecrow — an old coat and hat set up on a pole and stuffed with straw to resemble a human sentry and frighten hungry blackbirds away from vegetable seedlings.

Though it appeared in a somewhat sexist 17th-century English saying — “A man of straw is worth a woman of gold” — in U.S. politics it was made famous in 1912 by President William Howard Taft, who had been set in place by the retiring Theodore Roosevelt four years earlier but who was being savaged by Teddy’s campaign to get his old job back: “I was a man of straw; but I have been a man of straw long enough. Every man who has blood in his body, and who has been misrepresented as I have . . . is forced to fight.” Taft won renomination, but Roosevelt ran as a “Bull Moose” independent, splitting Republicans and helping elect Woodrow Wilson, the Democrat.

Early in the 2008 primary season, The New York Post — not inclined to support most Democrats — surprised readers with the front-page headline “Post Endorses Obama.” David Carr, media reporter for The Times, asked rhetorically, “Why did The Post kick Senator Clinton to the curb?” While noting that the relationship between Rupert Murdoch of The Post and the Clintons was complicated, he wrote that the endorsement “invited suggestions that Mr. Murdoch was using The New York Post to set up a straw man for the Republicans to mow down in the fall.”

The noun phrase straw man, now used as a compound adjective as in “straw-man device, technique or issue,” was popularized in American culture by “The Wizard of Oz.” Dorothy (played by Judy Garland in the 1939 movie), backed up by the Tin Man (Jack Haley) and the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), slaps the paw of the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) for frightening her dog Toto and says, “It’s bad enough picking on a straw man, but when you go around picking on poor little dogs. . . .” The meaning is clear: a figure of a man stuffed with a cheap material may appear scary but is really weak and defenseless.

In the late 20th century, the metaphor was challenged by empty suit, but that was directed mainly at male business executives; as suits lose their fashion dominance, the old straw man endures both as a noun phrase and a compound adjective, scaring off flights of speechwriting fantasies.

Send comments and suggestions to: safireonlanguage@nytimes.com
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Fear and Loathing at the State Department

Posted on June 6, 2009 by Jorge Costales

This morning, when I read the story of the Washington D.C. couple — Walter Kendall Myers and Gwendolyn Myers — in their 70’s who were accused of espionage on behalf of the Castro regime, I wished my newspaper could have turned into a hardcover novel.

For us with a front porch view of geopolitical intrigue, the article had a run of the mill aspect to it. But little about U.S. & Cuba politics are simple. For example, let’s appreciate the timing of the release of this news. Coming after a week in which the Obama Administration capitulated to OAS demands regarding Cuba, this must have been an ace sticking out of the Administration’s back pocket for a while now. Politically speaking, like a Tim Hardaway cross-over dribble, it was a nice move.

But the last sentence of the Miami Herald story by Lesley Clark is what made me wish I was reading a novel instead of a straight news story.

After the FBI source suggested his next meeting with them would be the last, the documents say, the Myerses admitted to “mixed feelings” about giving up their ties to Cuba. “It’s forever,” Kendall Myers told the FBI source. “You know, it’s like Fidel, it’s forever.”

An unrequited homosexual attraction aside, what married male in his 70’s ever thinks, let alone speaks, a sentence such as the last one? What male in his 70’s with a two-decade long involvement in espionage and State Department politics ever thinks, let alone speaks, such a sentence? At that point is when when we need to think like a novelist instead of believing in a ‘straight’ quote.

The answer to the question I posed above is someone who has read or heard of The Secret World of American Communism. For spies and fellow travelers, aside from the actual contents of the book itself, the publisher was just as big a disaster, Yale University Press. Not your typical right-wing publisher and much more difficult to attempt to discredit. Here is a review of the book by Glen Garvin in Reason magazine, click here.

Anyone who has ever spied, especially if they’ve gone undetected, must live in fear of that book for what it represents. A paper trail. This from book description:

… the hidden world of American communism can be examined with the help of documents from the recently opened archives of the former Soviet Union. An engrossing narrative places the documents in their historical context and explains key figures, organizations, and events.

So imagine you having been a careful spy for many years, but also realizing that your handlers leverage over you never goes away, in fact it increases as the evidence [your efforts] mounts. Even semi-retired spies who have requests made of them, must weigh what paper trails remain about them before deciding to comply.

So when 72 year-old Walter is sitting across from his handler and waxes poetically about Castro, he is trying to send the same message Frankie Five Angels does after being visited by Tom Hagen, ‘don’t worry, you won’t get any trouble from me.’ After all, given the nature of their profession, one would think spy handlers are a notoriously unromantic lot. So when Walter was going through his song and dance, a typical handler would probably be thinking, “I got him, thank God too, I was worried this would take me past lunch.” Fortunately for us, in this case, the handler was the FBI.

Keep in mind the Walter Kendall Myers of the world the next time you hear people defend indefensible regimes, like the one in Cuba. Maybe they are just trying to cheat or postpone their judgment day. Like banner sugar harvests in centrally planned economies, I believe their prospects of success are low. While we should never wish that fate upon anyone, like Walter, I believe that some truths, ‘are like … forever.’

Article referenced is copied in full at end of post.

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D.C. couple spied for Cuba for decades, feds say – Jun. 05, 2009

BY LESLEY CLARK – lclark@MiamiHerald.com

Walter Kendall Myers spent more than two decades deep in the bureaucracy of the U.S. State Department until this week, when federal authorities accused him of a life of intrigue and espionage as a clandestine agent for one of the United States’ longtime antagonists: the communist government of Cuba.

The 72-year-old retired State Department employee — who had enjoyed top-secret security clearance — and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, 71, appeared in federal court Friday, charged with serving as illegal agents for Cuba for nearly 30 years and conspiring to deliver classified information to its government. They pleaded not guilty.

According to documents unsealed Friday in Washington, Myers, a former analyst on Europe for the State Department, and his bank employee wife agreed in 1979 to deliver U.S. secrets to Cuba.

Federal authorities called the couple’s spying for Havana “incredibly serious.”

Investigators allege Myers — at the behest of the Cuban Intelligence Service — landed a job at the State Department, gained sensitive clearance and traveled with his wife to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and New York to meet with Cuban agents. He told an undercover FBI source he was so successful he received ”lots of medals” from the Cuban government, and that he and his wife enjoyed a rare private meeting in 1995 with Fidel Castro.

The couple agreed as recently as April to supply information on the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, the Justice Department said.

The Myerses were arrested Thursday by the FBI and made initial appearances Friday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The arrest comes as President Barack Obama has sought to improve relations with Havana. Critics moved swiftly to raise caution flags. Florida Sen. Mel Martinez called on the administration to halt ”any further diplomatic outreach to the regime,” including the resumption of planned migration talks, “until the U.S. Congress has a full accounting of the damage these individuals have caused to our national security.”

The Center for a Free Cuba, advocates for dissidents on the island, called on the House and Senate intelligence committees to hold hearings on Cuban intelligence operations in the United States.

The State Department said the arrests were part of a three-year investigation. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has ordered a ”comprehensive damage assessment” to determine what may have been divulged to Cuba.

ABOUT THE AGENTS

Court documents portray a couple who relished their work and missed visiting with Cuban intelligence agents when they stopped traveling in 2006 after worries that Myers’ boss at the State Department had “put him on a watch list.”

They proclaimed ”great admiration” for Ana Belen Montes, a senior intelligence analyst who worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency and was arrested for spying for Cuba in 2001. Montes, Gwendolyn said in the records, “was not paranoid enough.”

Gwendolyn Myers — known by the Cubans as Agent 123 and Agent E-634 — told investigators that her favorite way to pass information along was to swap shopping carts in grocery stores because it was “easy enough to do.”

The criminal complaint says Kendall Myers — dubbed Agent 202 — began working for the State Department in 1977 as a lecturer at the agency’s Foreign Service Institute. The government alleges a Cuban official visited him and his wife when they were briefly living in South Dakota after traveling to Cuba in December 1978, and they agreed ”to serve as clandestine agents of the Cuban government.” They returned to Washington, and Myers resumed working at the State Department.

The indictment says that in 2007 alone — the year Myers retired from the State Department as a senior analyst for Europe — he had viewed more than 200 intelligence reports related to Cuba. Of those reports, the affidavit alleges, most were classified “and marked Secret or Top Secret.”

In court records, the Justice Department said Myers ‘expresses a strong affinity towards Cuba and its revolutionary goals and a negative sentiment toward `American imperialism,’ ” in a diary he wrote about his 1978 trip to Cuba.

”Fidel has lifted the Cuban people out of the degrading and oppressive conditions which characterized pre-revolutionary Cuba,” a purported excerpt from his diary reads. “He is certainly one of the great political leaders of our time.”

Myers surfaced publicly in news reports in 2006, when he criticized U.S.-British relations when it came to the Iraq War.

The affidavit alleges that Cuba often “communicated

with its clandestine agents in the U.S. through encrypted radio messages from Cuba on shortwave radio,” and that the Myerses had “an operable shortwave radio in their apartment of the same make used by Ana Belen Montes.”

Montes is serving a 25-year prison term. The Myerses could face as much as 20 years in prison on at least one charge. The indictment seeks the return of $1.7 million Kendall Myers earned at the State Department and $174,867 in retirement money.

The radios have surfaced in Cuban spy cases dating back nearly two decades. One of the earliest cases unfolded in 1992 when Francisco Avila, a Cuban exile in Miami, revealed on Spanish-language television that he had been a double agent and had received orders from Cuban intelligence officers via shortwave radio.

In 1998, when FBI agents in South Florida shut down one of the biggest Cuban spy rings in U.S. history — the Wasp Network — investigators revealed that several of the suspects received coded instructions from Havana via shortwave radio.

WHAT RAISED ALARM

The Justice Department says the Myers espionage began to unravel in April when the FBI began an undercover operation.

The documents say an undercover FBI source, purporting to be a Cuban intelligence officer, approached Kendall Myers in front of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies where he was teaching a class, saying he had instructions to contact him and seek out his opinions “because of the change that is taking place in Cuba and the new administration.”

The couple apparently took the bait, meeting several times with the FBI in various Washington hotel rooms.

They gave mixed reactions to what they thought were the renewed ties to Cuba, saying they were ”delighted to have contact again,” but were retired and “don’t want to go back into the regular stuff.”

The documents suggest the Myerses’ travel to meet with Cuban contacts was ”notable,” as it began shortly after Montes’ arrest in September 2001. Investigators said they believe the Cubans then began meeting their contacts outside the United States because they believed the risk was too great after Montes’ arrest.

The Myerses told the FBI source that their last face-to-face contact with Cuban agents was in Mexico in 2005. They said they had kept in touch, via e-mail, with Cuban intelligence sources asking the Myerses to come to Mexico, but they were reluctant to travel. Documents suggest Cuban intelligence e-mails were sent to the Myerses as recently as March.

After the FBI source suggested his next meeting with them would be the last, the documents say, the Myerses admitted to ”mixed feelings” about giving up their ties to Cuba. ”It’s forever,” Kendall Myers told the FBI source. “You know, it’s like Fidel, it’s forever.”

Miami Herald staff writers Alfonso Chardy and Carol Rosenberg contributed to this report.

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Catholic Formula for Determining Self-Worth

Posted on June 3, 2009 by Jorge Costales

Fr Vallee’s homily to the Carrollton School–part of the world-wide network of Sacred Heart Schools inspired by the vision of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat who founded the first school of the Sacred Heart in 1801–graduates, an excerpt:

… But be careful. As John Lennon opined, “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” Many years ago, I began saying mass at St. Augustine’s in Coral Gables. Back then, I was a young and cute priest with a full head of hair. Perhaps not as cute as Fr Alberto but still pretty cute. Anyway, as I walked into the sacristy there was a sweet and shy little girl there all dressed up to serve. I never forgot because her name is Monica and Monica is the name of Augustine’s mother. At the end of mass, I told the people that this was her first time serving and they all applauded. All these years later, the seven year old is 17 and graduating tonight; the priest is no longer very young or cute and life moves on. Every day of your life opportunities for friendship and love and grace are offered to you. Do not be so focused on becoming the rulers of the universe that you do not take the time to live, to love to laugh and to be. As for me, I am so much more grateful for the friends I have made than for the degrees I have earned. All those years ago, I made a friend in that sacristy in Coral Gables. I am more grateful for that than for my doctorate or for any of the academic articles I have published. By all means, study hard, do great things. But do not let that get in the way of living. Live with all the passion, joy and faith you can muster. It is not what you do or say that determines the worth of your life but how much you love and are loved. Only love will be weighed at the last judgment.

The email address to request to be put on Vallee’s email distribution list is Cioran262@aol.com. To see the entire homily click on ‘read more.’ Search for other Fr Vallee homilies in this blog by entering ‘Vallee’ in the search box in the upper left hand corner or look for Fr Vallee in the Labels.

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Fr Valle Homily for Carrollton Graduates –

I. Socrates, the unexamined life
Socrates, the first great thinker of the West, was famous for claiming that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” As a professional philosopher, I cannot help but agree. What Socrates failed to mention is that the converse is also true: “the unlived life is not worth examining.” My dear young ladies, you are sent off today to make your marks on the world. You will go to very fine colleges and universities. You should realize that in the whole history of human kind, only very recently have women had this chance, as Madeline Sophie said, to get an education every bit as good as that of a boy. Who knows what great things you might accomplish? But do not make the mistake that young men have been making for centuries. The measure of your life’s worth is not to be found in the letters after your name. The measure of your life is not to be found in power. The measure of your life is not how much money you make or what car you drive or house you live in. The measure of your life is quite simple: how deeply do you love? How deeply do you live? It is not what is in your bank account in 20 years that will tell you if your life is a success or failure; what is in your heart in 20 years will answer that question. The unlived life is not worth examining.

II. Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans
But be careful. As John Lennon opined, “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” Many years ago, I began saying mass at St. Augustine’s in Coral Gables. Back then, I was a young and cute priest with a full head of hair. Perhaps not as cute as Fr Alberto but still pretty cute. Anyway, as I walked into the sacristy there was a sweet and shy little girl there all dressed up to serve. I never forgot because her name is Monica and Monica is the name of Augustine’s mother. At the end of mass, I told the people that this was her first time serving and they all applauded. All these years later, the seven year old is 17 and graduating tonight; the priest is no longer very young or cute and life moves on. Every day of your life opportunities for friendship and love and grace are offered to you. Do not be so focused on becoming the rulers of the universe that you do not take the time to live, to love to laugh and to be. As for me, I am so much more grateful for the friends I have made than for the degrees I have earned. All those years ago, I made a friend in that sacristy in Coral Gables. I am more grateful for that than for my doctorate or for any of the academic articles I have published. By all means, study hard, do great things. But do not let that get in the way of living. Live with all the passion, joy and faith you can muster. It is not what you do or say that determines the worth of your life but how much you love and are loved. Only love will be weighed at the last judgment.

III. From Socrates to Solis
I began with a quote from a famous dead philosopher, I would like to end with a quote from my favorite living philosopher, Dr. Jose Solis-Silva, who also happens to be Mrs. Lily Figueroa’s father and one of the wisest men I know. Anyhow, Dr Solis teaches in his metaphysics class that there are two ways to live your life, according to the hermeneutics of theft or according to the hermeneutics of gift. If everything you have gotten was stolen then the only option for us is power. We must turn to power to hold on to what we have gotten illegitimately. And we must look at everything with fear and suspicion. On the other hand, if everything is gift, the only proper response is gratitude and love. All you have and all you are has been given to you as a pure gift — from your parents, from your teachers, ultimately, from your God. Do not be afraid! Do not be suspicious. Live! Love! Pray! Be and be grateful! The unexamined life is not worth living. The converse is, likewise, true; the unlived life is not worth examining. Madeline Sophie said she would have founded the order for the sake of one girl. Today, in heaven, she is smiling 71 smiles in a long girlish giggle.
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Posted in Catholic Faith & Inspiration | Tagged | 4 Comments

The Episcopal Church: Unstiff competition

Posted on June 2, 2009 by Jorge Costales

The lack of class exhibited by the local Episcopal Church in general and Bishop Leo Frade in particular, makes one conscious that religions, even those with similar beliefs, are in competition for parishioners. So with an eye towards highlighting differences, something which Bishop Frade has been doing with a surprisingly cheerful enthusiasm, let’s check out the competition.

At first glance, the Episcopal Church appears so flexible as to its core beliefs, that I would not be surprised to see Plastic Man at their next poaching press conference. The only delay might be that he needs to get a girlfriend [or boyfriend in select dioceses] at his side before they go on camera.

Even determining how to refer to the Episcopal Church is not a simple proposition. The former Joe Robbie Stadium looks stable in comparison. A brief rundown of its history:

  • Church of England in British North America (1497–1775).
  • Forced to break with the Church of England after the American Revolution.
  • Became First Anglican Province outside the British Isles (1789).
  • During the American Civil War, an Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America was temporarily formed from the dioceses within the seceded states.
  • The Reformed Episcopal Church broke away in 1873.
  • The Continuing Anglican Movement broke away in 1977 out of frustration over the Church’s position on homosexuality, the ordination of openly homosexual priests and Bishops, and abortion among others.
  • Six Anglican organizations, calling their alliance Common Cause, broke away in 2004 to promote ‘orthodox Anglicanism.’
  • The Anglican Church in North America broke away in 2008 to form a “separate ecclesiastical structure” for Anglican faithful in North America, distinct from the Episcopal Church in the USA, since it believed that Church to be heretical.
  • Today known as The Episcopal Church, The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America and the Anglican Church in Canada, they are the arm of Anglicanism in North America.

What Episcopalians Believe on Issues

Ordination of Women

  • In 1976, the General Convention amended Canon law to permit the ordination of women to the priesthood.
  • Most dioceses of the Episcopal Church ordain women as priests and bishops.
  • However, the full Anglican Communion [of which the Episcopal Church is part of] does not universally accept the ordination of women. Some individual US dioceses do not either.
  • The General Convention [GC] reaffirmed in 1994 that both men and women may enter into the ordination process, but also recognized that there is value to the theological position of those who oppose women’s ordination [JC – no word on whether any remaining testicles in the faith were actually removed during the session, or whether it was assumed they no longer existed].

Homosexuality

  • The Episcopal Church affirmed at the 1976 GC that homosexuals are “children of God” who deserve acceptance and pastoral care from the church.
  • However in 1991, the GC seemed to contradict itself when it affirmed that “physical sexual expression” is only appropriate within the monogamous, lifelong “union of husband and wife.”
  • In 1994, the GC determined that church membership would not be determined on “marital status, sex, or sexual orientation”. The GC also discourages the use of conversion therapy to “change” homosexuals into heterosexuals.”
  • The first openly homosexual bishop–a divorced father of two–Gene Robinson, was elected in June 2003.

Abortion

  • 1958 — Held a strong pro-life position, stating, “Abortion and infanticide are to be condemned.”
  • 1967 — The 62nd GC of the Episcopal Church supported abortion law “reform,” to permit the “termination of pregnancy” for reasons of life, rape, incest, fetal deformity, or physical or mental health of the mother.
  • 1982 — The 66th GC condemned the use of abortion as a means of gender selection and non-serious abnormalities.
  • 1988 — The 69th GC developed a position that stated, “All human life is sacred. Hence it is sacred from its inception until death.” The statement goes on to call for church programs to assist women with problem pregnancies and to emphasize the seriousness of the abortion decision.
  • 1994 — The 71st GC expressed “unequivocal opposition to any … action … that [would] abridge the right of a woman to reach an informed decision about the termination of her pregnancy, or that would limit the access of a woman to a safe means of acting upon her decision.”
  • In 1997, at the 72nd General Convention, the delegates approved a resolution that did not condemn partial-birth abortions but expressed grave concerns about the procedure, “except in extreme situations.”
  • The Episcopal Church currently supports abortion and opposes efforts to restrict it.
  • Recently, the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA, chose a lesbian, pro-abortion president to lead the seminary.
  • Ms Katherine Hancock Ragsdale recently gave a sermon where she stated, “Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done.”

The shift in the Episcopalian position on abortion no doubt reflects ‘progress’ in the secular world. Given that background, the shift in allegiance by Fr Cutie is nothing if not logical. An ostensibly confused priest simply could not refuse a certifiably confused Church.

The Catholic Church is often criticized for moving too slowly. I think the Episcopal Church is a good example of why we should continue to do so.

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The Thin Edge of the Sky is Falling Wedge

Posted on June 1, 2009 by Jorge Costales

Thin edge of wedge defined:

A minor change that begins a major development, especially an undesirable one. For example, First they asked me to postpone my vacation for a week, and then for a month; it’s the thin edge of the wedge and pretty soon it’ll be a year. This term alludes to the narrow wedge inserted into a log for splitting wood. [Mid-1800s]

John Taylor, a Stanford economist, looks at the Obama budgets and is horrified. An excerpt from his column in the Financial Times:

Under President Barack Obama’s budget plan, the federal debt is exploding. To be precise, it is rising – and will continue to rise – much faster than gross domestic product, a measure of America’s ability to service it. The federal debt was equivalent to 41 per cent of GDP at the end of 2008; the Congressional Budget Office projects it will increase to 82 per cent of GDP in 10 years. With no change in policy, it could hit 100 per cent of GDP in just another five years.

Anticipating the response from defenders of the Administration that they ‘inherited this mess.’ Mr Taylor points out the following really inconvenient fact:

The debt was 41 per cent of GDP at the end of 1988, President Ronald Reagan’s last year in office, the same as at the end of 2008, President George W. Bush’s last year in office. If one thinks policies from Reagan to Bush were mistakes does it make any sense to double down on those mistakes, as with the 80 per cent debt-to-GDP level projected when Mr Obama leaves office?

Taylor’s conclusion:

Good government should be a nonpartisan issue. I have written that government actions and interventions in the past several years caused, prolonged and worsened the financial crisis. The problem is that policy is getting worse not better. Top government officials, including the heads of the US Treasury, the Fed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commission are calling for the creation of a powerful systemic risk regulator to reign in systemic risk in the private sector. But their government is now the most serious source of systemic risk.

The next time you hear talk about a ‘Great Depression,’ remember this graph presented on Donald Marron’s blog:

Taylor’s column referenced is copied in full at end of post.

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Exploding debt threatens America – John Taylor – Published: May 26 2009

Standard and Poor’s decision to downgrade its outlook for British sovereign debt from “stable” to “negative” should be a wake-up call for the US Congress and administration. Let us hope they wake up.

Under President Barack Obama’s budget plan, the federal debt is exploding. To be precise, it is rising – and will continue to rise – much faster than gross domestic product, a measure of America’s ability to service it. The federal debt was equivalent to 41 per cent of GDP at the end of 2008; the Congressional Budget Office projects it will increase to 82 per cent of GDP in 10 years. With no change in policy, it could hit 100 per cent of GDP in just another five years.

“A government debt burden of that [100 per cent] level, if sustained, would in Standard & Poor’s view be incompatible with a triple A rating,” as the risk rating agency stated last week.

I believe the risk posed by this debt is systemic and could do more damage to the economy than the recent financial crisis. To understand the size of the risk, take a look at the numbers that Standard and Poor’s considers. The deficit in 2019 is expected by the CBO to be $1,200bn (€859bn, £754bn). Income tax revenues are expected to be about $2,000bn that year, so a permanent 60 per cent across-the-board tax increase would be required to balance the budget. Clearly this will not and should not happen. So how else can debt service payments be brought down as a share of GDP?

Inflation will do it. But how much? To bring the debt-to-GDP ratio down to the same level as at the end of 2008 would take a doubling of prices. That 100 per cent increase would make nominal GDP twice as high and thus cut the debt-to-GDP ratio in half, back to 41 from 82 per cent. A 100 per cent increase in the price level means about 10 per cent inflation for 10 years. But it would not be that smooth – probably more like the great inflation of the late 1960s and 1970s with boom followed by bust and recession every three or four years, and a successively higher inflation rate after each recession.

The fact that the Federal Reserve is now buying longer-term Treasuries in an effort to keep Treasury yields low adds credibility to this scary story, because it suggests that the debt will be monetised. That the Fed may have a difficult task reducing its own ballooning balance sheet to prevent inflation increases the risks considerably. And 100 per cent inflation would, of course, mean a 100 per cent depreciation of the dollar. Americans would have to pay $2.80 for a euro; the Japanese could buy a dollar for Y50; and gold would be $2,000 per ounce. This is not a forecast, because policy can change; rather it is an indication of how much systemic risk the government is now creating.

Why might Washington sleep through this wake-up call? You can already hear the excuses.

“We have an unprecedented financial crisis and we must run unprecedented deficits.” While there is debate about whether a large deficit today provides economic stimulus, there is no economic theory or evidence that shows that deficits in five or 10 years will help to get us out of this recession. Such thinking is irresponsible. If you believe deficits are good in bad times, then the responsible policy is to try to balance the budget in good times. The CBO projects that the economy will be back to delivering on its potential growth by 2014. A responsible budget would lay out proposals for balancing the budget by then rather than aim for trillion-dollar deficits.

“But we will cut the deficit in half.” CBO analysts project that the deficit will be the same in 2019 as the administration estimates for 2010, a zero per cent cut.

“We inherited this mess.” The debt was 41 per cent of GDP at the end of 1988, President Ronald Reagan’s last year in office, the same as at the end of 2008, President George W. Bush’s last year in office. If one thinks policies from Reagan to Bush were mistakes does it make any sense to double down on those mistakes, as with the 80 per cent debt-to-GDP level projected when Mr Obama leaves office?

The time for such excuses is over. They paint a picture of a government that is not working, one that creates risks rather than reduces them. Good government should be a nonpartisan issue. I have written that government actions and interventions in the past several years caused, prolonged and worsened the financial crisis. The problem is that policy is getting worse not better. Top government officials, including the heads of the US Treasury, the Fed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commission are calling for the creation of a powerful systemic risk regulator to reign in systemic risk in the private sector. But their government is now the most serious source of systemic risk.

The good news is that it is not too late. There is time to wake up, to make a mid-course correction, to get back on track. Many blame the rating agencies for not telling us about systemic risks in the private sector that lead to this crisis. Let us not ignore them when they try to tell us about the risks in the government sector that will lead to the next one.

The writer, a professor of economics at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, is the author of ‘Getting Off Track: How Government Actions and Interventions Caused, Prolonged, and Worsened the Financial Crisis’

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
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Miami News Flashback– Boxing and Archdeacon

Posted on May 27, 2009 by Jorge Costales

One of the things I miss about the Miami News, aside from their West Coast boxscores and the fact that they were not the Miami Herald, is the ample space they were able to provide great writers like Tom Archdeacon. Mr Archdeacon was in town recently to cover a boxing event in Miami Beach. An excerpt:

Never mind that Duran, now just a few weeks shy of 58, looks, as someone noted, more like Buddy Hackett than the steaming, petulant Hands of Stone who knocked out 70 men in 119 fights and won world titles at four different weights. He was THE center of attention Friday.And the cowboy-hatted LaMotta — now 87 and far from his Raging Bull days — held nearly as much sway. He and Duran are boxing Hall of Famers. With this crowd, they were gods.

All night long, people streamed to their table seeking photos and autographs and especially a snippet of conversation. Duran especially obliged.

Some 32 years ago here at the Fontainebleau — when he was the coal-haired prince of machismo — I saw him retain his lightweight title with a 13th-round knock-out of Vilomar Fernandez. After that, I covered several of his fights in Miami, Las Vegas, even Cleveland.

I’ve listened to him regale late-night tippers at the Caesars Palace lounge with outrageous stories about his pet lion. I’ve seen him take the stage in a Miami nightclub and play the bongo drums with the band and, of course, I know the story about the time an opponent’s irate mom jumped into the ring and tried to clobber him with her stiletto heels. She got KO’ed, too.

Duran did things on his terms, and though they sometimes had an edge to them, he became one of my favorite fight personalties. Friday night he sat with Frankie Otero, whose family fled Cuba for Miami when Fidel Castro came to power. He became a top-10 lightweight himself in the early 1970s and was the local favorite here.

The Fontainebleau always was a magnet for fighters. Beau Jack — the lightweight champ of the 1940s who headlined Madison Square Garden a record 21 times — shined shoes here after his career.

“Don’t have no pity on me,’’ he once told me. “I’ve been the champion of the world — been to the top of the mountain — and I met a lot of nice people along the way. I’ve worked hard all my life, and I’m doing honest work now.”

Go on, I dare you not to read the whole article.

Thanks to Santos Perez for tipping us off about the article. The article referenced is copied in full at end of post.

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‘Night of Legends’ fights create quite a stir in Miami Beach
By Tom Archdeacon – Staff Writer – Monday, May 25, 2009

It was a pretty unbelievable scene.

At one ringside table in the Fontainebleau Hotel ballroom sat Alonzo Mourning, one of the most celebrated figures in Miami sports history.

The 16-year NBA veteran and seven-time All-Star played most of his career with the Miami Heat and helped them win an NBA title. Less than two months ago, he became the first Heat player to have his number retired and now his charitable foundation is huge in South Florida.

Yet Friday night, May 22, he sat there in his wine-colored shirt and fancy straw fedora and was all but ignored by the crowd.

Two tables away, supermodel Cheryl Tiegs — whose face has graced the covers of magazines like Vogue, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, Time and three Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues — wasn’t creating much of a stir either.

And it wasn’t much different for Matt Damon or Kourtney Kardashian at their ringside perches.

This evening was billed “The Night of Legends” but none of the above qualified. Not with this crowd. Not up against the two aging guys sitting at the table between Mourning and Tiegs.

The Fontainebleau — that glitzy Miami Beach hotel where Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Jackie Gleason, Sammy Davis Jr. and Bob Hope once were regulars and movies like “Goldfinger” and “Scarface” were shot — reopened six months ago after a $1 billion renovation.

Friday night it hosted an ESPN-televised fight show that not only featured four trumpeted Cuban boxers who had recently defected — including two-time Olympic gold medal winner Guillermo Rigondeaux — but also honored Roberto Duran and Jake LaMotta.

Duran steals show

Never mind that Duran, now just a few weeks shy of 58, looks, as someone noted, more like Buddy Hackett than the steaming, petulant Hands of Stone who knocked out 70 men in 119 fights and won world titles at four different weights. He was THE center of attention Friday.

And the cowboy-hatted LaMotta — now 87 and far from his Raging Bull days — held nearly as much sway. He and Duran are boxing Hall of Famers. With this crowd, they were gods.

All night long, people streamed to their table seeking photos and autographs and especially a snippet of conversation. Duran especially obliged.

Some 32 years ago here at the Fontainebleau — when he was the coal-haired prince of machismo — I saw him retain his lightweight title with a 13th-round knock-out of Vilomar Fernandez. After that, I covered several of his fights in Miami, Las Vegas, even Cleveland.

I’ve listened to him regale late-night tippers at the Caesars Palace lounge with outrageous stories about his pet lion. I’ve seen him take the stage in a Miami nightclub and play the bongo drums with the band and, of course, I know the story about the time an opponent’s irate mom jumped into the ring and tried to clobber him with her stiletto heels. She got KO’ed, too.

Duran did things on his terms, and though they sometimes had an edge to them, he became one of my favorite fight personalties. Friday night he sat with Frankie Otero, whose family fled Cuba for Miami when Fidel Castro came to power. He became a top-10 lightweight himself in the early 1970s and was the local favorite here.

The Fontainebleau always was a magnet for fighters. Beau Jack — the lightweight champ of the 1940s who headlined Madison Square Garden a record 21 times — shined shoes here after his career.

“Don’t have no pity on me,’’ he once told me. “I’ve been the champion of the world — been to the top of the mountain — and I met a lot of nice people along the way. I’ve worked hard all my life, and I’m doing honest work now.”

Levi Forte — known as The Battling Bellman — still totes bags at the Fontainebleau. He’s worked at the hotel 45 years and he boxed more than 30 of them. He was Muhammad Ali’s sparring partner, fought George Chuvalo twice, Floyd Patterson once and — in 1969 — he became the first man to go 10 rounds with George Foreman, who gave him four broken ribs.

Forte came to Friday night’s show to see the four Cuban fighters, three of whom were making their pro debuts. All had impressive amateur careers and even more enthralling stories of flight from Cuba.

No turning back

Rigondeaux had disappeared from the Cuban national team with fellow boxer Erislandy Lara, a welterweight world champ, at the 2007 Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Two weeks later, Brazilian police picked them up and the fighters then said they hadn’t planned to defect and wanted to return home.

A German promoter — who said he signed them to five-year contract during their disappearance — claimed the only reason they agreed to return was because Cuban authorities were threatening their families.

Once back in Cuba, the pair felt the wrath of Fidel Castro himself who wrote, in an essay for Granma, the regime’s propaganda paper:

“They have reached a point of no return as members of a Cuban boxing team. An athlete who abandons his team is like a soldier who abandons his fellow troops in the middle of combat.”

The two were no longer permitted to fight and soon after Lara escaped again, this time on a speedboat to Mexico.

Rigondeaux finally fled in February — leaving a wife and two kids — with two other boxers Yudel Johnson and Yordanis Despaigne, both former Olympians.

The three won their debuts Friday and Lara upped his pro record to 6-0.

Meanwhile, the Cuban national team is feeling the effects of so many defections in recent years. For the first time since 1968 — not counting the two Games it boycotted — Cuba failed to win a boxing gold medal at the Beijing Olympics last summer.

Four Cuban fighters who left the island have won pro titles and many think the 28-year-old Rigondeaux is the best of the lot.

“I have won more than 400 amateur fights so I consider myself more of a professional,’’ Rigondeaux said as the crowd celebrated his three-round TKO victory with unfurled Cuban flags and the chant “Coo-ba… Coo-ba… Coo-ba.”

And had he looked out into the clamoring masses just then, he would have spotted one very tall man in a fedora pointing a cell phone in his direction.

Alonzo Mourning wanted to capture this moment with a photo of his own.
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Philly Talk After Lindstrom Walk

Posted on May 26, 2009 by Jorge Costales

It’s 9:54 pm and Matt Lindstrom has just walked Shane Victorino to open the 9th inning. It’s officially time for me to pace around the house. As is my habit, I had just logged back into MLB.com and the other team’s radio broadcast [I had been checking in off and on during the game]. One of the neat things about MLB.com is the ability to listen to the other teams broadcasters. I have no idea what makes a good or bad broadcast, when I listen I’m trying to get a sense of what others are saying about the Marlins [and naturally, any anti-embargo comments-J].

The Philadelphia broadcasters are fine–Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen on WPHT-easy going and fair about the Marlins, i.e. raving about what a good young prospect Voldstad is. They had just the right amount of homer-ism too. For example, they were still whining many innings later about a pitch they felt which should have struck out Helms before he homered–music to my ears given that it came at the expense of uber-annoying Jaime Moyer.

To put the revenge factor in perspective, it did not rise anywhere close to the 3rd strike call against Fred McGriff and the Atlanta Braves in the 1997 NLCS. That glorious pitch, delivered by Livan Hernandez, was so far outside it would have gone behind a right-handed batter and came at the expense of a team which lived off it’s great pitchers getting the benefit of an expanded strike zone for over a decade, in the playoff game clinching at-bat no less. It is simply the gold standard for revenge. If Eric Gregg was forced to spend any time in purgatory before arriving in heaven, some of my prayers may have [or will] put him over the top. An actual wikipedia quote about the 1997 NLCS Game 5:

Hernández pitched a complete game, three-hit, 15 strikeout masterpiece to reclaim a series lead for the Marlins

This particular game is remembered for the controversy surrounding an unusually wide strike zone by umpire Eric Gregg.

Beautiful, just beautiful.

But I digress. It’s 9:55 pm and the crowd is buzzing, smelling a comeback against the struggling Marlins and Lindstrom. It’s now 9:56 pm and just like that, it’s over. Paulino threw out Victorino trying to steal 2nd base. The air went out of the crowd and the broadcast. Stairs and Ruiz were quickly dispatched and by 10:00 pm, Lindstrom had another save. It’s 10:01 and I’m trying to convince myself that I never really doubted him.

I am a big fan of the Marlins TV broadcasters, Rich Waltz and Tommy Hutton. Waltz makes you realize how valuable a sense of humor is to an enjoyable broadcast, especially over an entire season–think of him as the anti-Joe Morgan. I think Hutton does a good job of walking that fine line of being honest about questioning managerial moves–a key part of an analyst’s job I would imagine–without trying to throw the manager under the bus.

Case in point, last night Hutton speculated about whether Dan Meyer could have been left in the game to pitch to Howard in the next inning. A tough call given that Meyer’s batting slot came up in the top of the 8th. Working together, Waltz laid out the scenario for not over using the bullpen and Meyer. Last night was the 1st time all year [ever?] that Meyer was used in 3 consecutive days. Case closed, he should have come out, but it’s a fun baseball debate.

Hey we got Andrew Miller going tomorrow, he’s looked good in his two outings since his return….

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Sarah Stephens — Puppeteer with a cause

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Jorge Costales

Media Puppeteer:

n. – One who advocates while pretending to inform. Information typically disseminated by those pretending not to have an opinion, i.e. journalists and/or marionettes.

Sarah Stephens is an advocate for lifting the limited U.S. economic embargo against Cuba. Check out her web site here. Here is a quote from that that website:

She has advocated for changes in our policy toward Cuba in forums, editorial columns, and other publications since starting the Freedom to Travel program in 2001.

Unlike most advocates quoted in the media, Ms. Stephens operates with a distinct advantage. She is often quoted on the topic of Cuba without having it disclosed that it is her job [and personal belief I assume] to advocate for the embargo to be lifted.

Her latest example of puppeteering came in an above the fold front page article in the New York Times. The role of marionette feel to Ginger Thompson with the New York Times:

Sarah Stephens, an expert on Cuba policy, praised the move, saying, “It is a signal not just to Cuba but also to the region that we’re leaving behind our policy of isolation and moving in the direction of engagement.”

Allow me to translate: Ms Stephens, who we [the NY Times] believe to be a Cuba expert, dispassionately analyzed this particular decision and deemed it worthy of her approval. You see, that is so much more effective than stating that Ms Stephens has been working and planning for this move to become a reality for years. But if that were it, Ms Stephens would just be another run of the newsroom puppeteer, no she is the best. Very next paragraph:

Three members of Florida’s congressional delegation — Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart, all of whom are Republicans — issued a joint statement denouncing the administration for proposing reopening talks with Cuba.

No disclosure, then disclosure, back to back and the marionette will not even blink [rumor has it Ms Thompson actually drank a glass of water during this part of the article].

I took a closer look at the Board of Directors for Ms Stephens organization. I found the name Dr. Julia Sweig. Ms Sweig is a talented puppeteer in her own right, her work was on display recently with the policy announcement by the U.S. company Orbitz.

How else could have Ms Stephens been quoted? Here is another NY Times article on Cuba from April 14th – article by By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Damien Cave:

“We really don’t know yet what he’s got in mind for the long term,” said Sarah Stephens of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, which advocates a further loosening of the restrictions. She said the administration may be trying to take “baby steps toward building confidence” by letting the Cuban exile community in Miami, which has traditionally opposed any softening of American policy, get used to the idea.

Now ‘advocates further loosening’ is the gentlest of disclosures, but it is a disclosure [hey, it is the lefty NY Times after all]. But not all journalists or editors operate with that level of fairness. For every Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Damien Cave, there are Ginger Thompson and Mike Nizza.

In a recent article Mr Nizza accurately identified Babalu as a “leading anti-Castro blog” [albeit with a messed up hyper-link, an accident no doubt] but then only described Ms Sweig as an ‘expert’ and went on to describe the Council on Foreign Relations [CFR], as a nonpartisan organization. The only thing the CFR is nonpartisan about is which leftist dictator to kiss up to more, Castro or Chavez. If you think I’m exaggerating, try finding a quote critical of either on their web sites. They are there, but it might challenge your ‘I Spy’ skills [folks w/o kids, just move on, but not to move on dot org].

Anyways, let’s hope Mikey at least got a date out of that one. Strings attached, of course.

Just another day on the Cuba dilettantes watch.

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John Wooden’s Pyramid on Leadership

Posted on May 24, 2009 by Jorge Costales

Please click on image above to enlarge or print.

Click here to see John Wooden’s web site.

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