This Will Tie the Multiculturalists up in Knots

Jacob Zuma, of the African National Congress, the next president of South Africa:

He once spoke of how, in his youth, he would knock down any 'pansy boy'...He has hinted he might restore the death penalty. He is keen on traditional medicine men. He thinks teenage unwed mothers should have their babies taken away; that school prayers should be compulsory and that there is too much sex on TV. He completely lacks the Westernised polish and smoothness of Mandela and Mbeki. His political party, the African National Congress, sometimes seems aghast that it has chosen him as leader. Too late.

This Will Tie the Multiculturalists up in Knots

Jacob Zuma, of the African National Congress, the next president of South Africa:

He once spoke of how, in his youth, he would knock down any 'pansy boy'...He has hinted he might restore the death penalty. He is keen on traditional medicine men. He thinks teenage unwed mothers should have their babies taken away; that school prayers should be compulsory and that there is too much sex on TV. He completely lacks the Westernised polish and smoothness of Mandela and Mbeki. His political party, the African National Congress, sometimes seems aghast that it has chosen him as leader. Too late.

The Economic Recovery Act

Doing his part.

The Economic Recovery Act

Doing his part.

Barack Obama's Moment

Here is Obama's chance to prove to the world he really is a President of the United States.

Somali pirates hijack ship; 20 Americans aboard

NAIROBI, Kenya – Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members onboard, hundreds of miles from the nearest American military vessel in some of the most dangerous waters in the world.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk. It was the sixth ship seized within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates who are operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

[snip]

"It's a very significant foreign policy challenge for the Obama administration," said Graeme Gibbon Brooks, managing director of the British company Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service Ltd. "Their citizens are in the hands of criminals and people are waiting to see what happens."

No kidding. Please, please, dear God in heaven, let us not hear talk of "negotiations" or bringing it to the United Nations.

UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds reports the crew has retaken the ship. Bravo to them but we are going to see this again, often, until thugs on the high seas decide it isn't worth the risk.

UPDATE 2: The crew has the ship but the pirates have the captain.

Barack Obama's Moment

Here is Obama's chance to prove to the world he really is a President of the United States.

Somali pirates hijack ship; 20 Americans aboard

NAIROBI, Kenya – Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members onboard, hundreds of miles from the nearest American military vessel in some of the most dangerous waters in the world.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk. It was the sixth ship seized within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates who are operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

[snip]

"It's a very significant foreign policy challenge for the Obama administration," said Graeme Gibbon Brooks, managing director of the British company Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service Ltd. "Their citizens are in the hands of criminals and people are waiting to see what happens."

No kidding. Please, please, dear God in heaven, let us not hear talk of "negotiations" or bringing it to the United Nations.

UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds reports the crew has retaken the ship. Bravo to them but we are going to see this again, often, until thugs on the high seas decide it isn't worth the risk.

UPDATE 2: The crew has the ship but the pirates have the captain.

Now That Bush Is Gone,

The Israelis take matters into their own hands.

JERUSALEM – Israel successfully tested an anti-missile system designed to protect the country against Iranian attack, the Defense Ministry said, perfecting technology developed in response to failures of similar systems during the 1991 Gulf War. The intercept of a dummy missile was the 17th test of the Arrow system, a U.S.-Israeli joint venture. Israeli defense officials said the interceptor was an upgraded Arrow II, designed to counter Iran's Shahab ballistic missile.

Israel has identified Iran as its biggest threat, citing the country's nuclear program and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. Those fears have been compounded by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

[snip]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made the Iranian threat a top priority of his administration, congratulated defense officials for the successful test. "While we are for peace, we will know how to defend ourselves," he said.

Damn straight, and they can no longer rely on us for help anymore. Meanwhile, in an interview with CNN, our nation's First Clown, Vice President Joe Biden, was asked

how worried he is that Israel, under Netanyahu, will launch a strike to take out Iran's nuclear facilities.

"I don't believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu would do that," Biden said. "I think he would be ill-advised to do that. And so my level of concern is no different than (sic) it was a year ago."

The man is foolishness compounded.

Now That Bush Is Gone,

The Israelis take matters into their own hands.

JERUSALEM – Israel successfully tested an anti-missile system designed to protect the country against Iranian attack, the Defense Ministry said, perfecting technology developed in response to failures of similar systems during the 1991 Gulf War. The intercept of a dummy missile was the 17th test of the Arrow system, a U.S.-Israeli joint venture. Israeli defense officials said the interceptor was an upgraded Arrow II, designed to counter Iran's Shahab ballistic missile.

Israel has identified Iran as its biggest threat, citing the country's nuclear program and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. Those fears have been compounded by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

[snip]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made the Iranian threat a top priority of his administration, congratulated defense officials for the successful test. "While we are for peace, we will know how to defend ourselves," he said.

Damn straight, and they can no longer rely on us for help anymore. Meanwhile, in an interview with CNN, our nation's First Clown, Vice President Joe Biden, was asked

how worried he is that Israel, under Netanyahu, will launch a strike to take out Iran's nuclear facilities.

"I don't believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu would do that," Biden said. "I think he would be ill-advised to do that. And so my level of concern is no different than (sic) it was a year ago."

The man is foolishness compounded.

Futurama

The government car company's first offering!

General Motors and Segway have joined forces to produce a two-wheel, two-seat, too-small-for-the-highway micro-car.

These new PUMAs (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) are based on the motorized personal transporters that made Segway famous. But rather than standing on the scooter’s two wheels, drivers sit on a well balanced bench encased in lightly protective walls.

GM and Segway hope the battery-powered vehicle will ease urban congestion and cut carbon emissions. During PUMA’s debut in New York City today, the two companies revealed plans to partner with cities and universities to set up special PUMA lanes. Segway failed to carve out exclusive real estate for its scooters years ago, leading to the predicament that they were a little too fast for sidewalks and a little too slow for roads. PUMAs can reach 35 miles per hour.

Gee, with city bureaucrats and university professors calling the shots, how can they miss?

Futurama

The government car company's first offering!

General Motors and Segway have joined forces to produce a two-wheel, two-seat, too-small-for-the-highway micro-car.

These new PUMAs (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) are based on the motorized personal transporters that made Segway famous. But rather than standing on the scooter’s two wheels, drivers sit on a well balanced bench encased in lightly protective walls.

GM and Segway hope the battery-powered vehicle will ease urban congestion and cut carbon emissions. During PUMA’s debut in New York City today, the two companies revealed plans to partner with cities and universities to set up special PUMA lanes. Segway failed to carve out exclusive real estate for its scooters years ago, leading to the predicament that they were a little too fast for sidewalks and a little too slow for roads. PUMAs can reach 35 miles per hour.

Gee, with city bureaucrats and university professors calling the shots, how can they miss?

Vanity of Vanities, Saith the Preacher, Vanity of Vanities; All Is Vanity.

From the New York Post:

TALE OF BEAUTY AND THE PRIEST

'STOLE' 85G FOR NIP/TUCK

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the cutest clergyman of all?

A 66-year-old Staten Island pastor trying desperately to turn back the clock ripped off nearly $85,000 from his congregation to pay for plastic surgery, Botox shots and fancy clothes, authorities said yesterday.

The Rev. William Blasingame, 66, a fixture at the historic St. Paul's Memorial Episcopal Church for more than 30 years, began breaking the Eighth Commandment in January 2005 and continued to steal for another three years, according to the Staten Island district attorney.

[snip]

The landmark church at 225 St. Pauls Ave. in Stapleton is renowned for its Victorian Gothic architecture -- and parishioners set up the Friends of St. Paul's foundation to fund the maintenance, upkeep and beautification of its grounds.

But Blasingame was using the money to fund his own beautification and upkeep (you gotta love the Post), officials said.

[snip]

Blasingame spent much of yesterday holed up in his Vanderbilt Avenue home, declining to speak to reporters who knocked on his door.

He apparently spent little or none of the stolen money to make improvements on anything but his face and wardrobe.

His rundown house sports a weed-strewn yard. Collapsed shutters decorate the windows.

His 22-year-old car was parked on the street yesterday with an old poster from the church and a Bible in the back seat.

An exquisite metaphor, even if unintentional.

Vanity of Vanities, Saith the Preacher, Vanity of Vanities; All Is Vanity.

From the New York Post:

TALE OF BEAUTY AND THE PRIEST

'STOLE' 85G FOR NIP/TUCK

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the cutest clergyman of all?

A 66-year-old Staten Island pastor trying desperately to turn back the clock ripped off nearly $85,000 from his congregation to pay for plastic surgery, Botox shots and fancy clothes, authorities said yesterday.

The Rev. William Blasingame, 66, a fixture at the historic St. Paul's Memorial Episcopal Church for more than 30 years, began breaking the Eighth Commandment in January 2005 and continued to steal for another three years, according to the Staten Island district attorney.

[snip]

The landmark church at 225 St. Pauls Ave. in Stapleton is renowned for its Victorian Gothic architecture -- and parishioners set up the Friends of St. Paul's foundation to fund the maintenance, upkeep and beautification of its grounds.

But Blasingame was using the money to fund his own beautification and upkeep (you gotta love the Post), officials said.

[snip]

Blasingame spent much of yesterday holed up in his Vanderbilt Avenue home, declining to speak to reporters who knocked on his door.

He apparently spent little or none of the stolen money to make improvements on anything but his face and wardrobe.

His rundown house sports a weed-strewn yard. Collapsed shutters decorate the windows.

His 22-year-old car was parked on the street yesterday with an old poster from the church and a Bible in the back seat.

An exquisite metaphor, even if unintentional.

Your Servant, Sir

Here's a headline that never, ever would have appeared on the top of the fold, right hand side, of page one of the New York Times during the last administration:

Outlook on Economy Is Brightening, Poll Finds

Your Servant, Sir

Here's a headline that never, ever would have appeared on the top of the fold, right hand side, of page one of the New York Times during the last administration:

Outlook on Economy Is Brightening, Poll Finds

We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us

George Weigel argues the Pope is being severely undermined by a belligerent and entrenched Curia.

Yet as the events of recent months have made painfully clear, Curial incapacity can impede and even damage the evangelical mission of the most intelligent pope. It was nothing short of a tragedy that a world-class Catholic theologian like Ratzinger, who had spent 50 years explaining Christianity's debt to Judaism to his Christian co-believers, should find himself saddled with the charge that he had reconciled a Holocaust denier to the Church. Yet that is what happened, because no one in whom Benedict XVI reposed trust had the sense to find out about Richard Williamson, and because the Curial culture of the day did not encourage those who did know the facts to warn the superiors. The entire Lefebvrist mess was preventable: if the pope had insisted throughout his pontificate on competence and had taken forceful measures to rectify incompetence; if those whose sole purpose is to give effect to the pope's will had done their jobs better; or if Benedict had reached outside the apostolic palace to take private soundings as to the likely effects of his gesture of reconciliation.

The world, not simply the Church, needs a Benedict XVI working at the top of his form and being enabled to do so by his closest associates. Whether the question is challenging Europe to pull out of the demographic death-spiral caused by its debonair nihilism, or inviting Muslim leaders to seek an Islamically - faithful rapprochement with political modernity, or defending the dignity of human life against the dangers of a brave new world of bio-technically manufactured humanity, there is no substitute for the combination of insight and institutional authority that Pope Benedict brings to the world table. Yet he now faces a crisis in his papacy, for the wisdom of his voice is being muted by the decline in his authority attendant on the managerial incompetence of the Curia.

Read it all.

UPDATE: Never underestimate the ability of an executive's own bureaucracy to work against him. Recall the machinations of President Bush's State Department, even after he had appointed Condoleeza Rice, one of his own, its head.

We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us

George Weigel argues the Pope is being severely undermined by a belligerent and entrenched Curia.

Yet as the events of recent months have made painfully clear, Curial incapacity can impede and even damage the evangelical mission of the most intelligent pope. It was nothing short of a tragedy that a world-class Catholic theologian like Ratzinger, who had spent 50 years explaining Christianity's debt to Judaism to his Christian co-believers, should find himself saddled with the charge that he had reconciled a Holocaust denier to the Church. Yet that is what happened, because no one in whom Benedict XVI reposed trust had the sense to find out about Richard Williamson, and because the Curial culture of the day did not encourage those who did know the facts to warn the superiors. The entire Lefebvrist mess was preventable: if the pope had insisted throughout his pontificate on competence and had taken forceful measures to rectify incompetence; if those whose sole purpose is to give effect to the pope's will had done their jobs better; or if Benedict had reached outside the apostolic palace to take private soundings as to the likely effects of his gesture of reconciliation.

The world, not simply the Church, needs a Benedict XVI working at the top of his form and being enabled to do so by his closest associates. Whether the question is challenging Europe to pull out of the demographic death-spiral caused by its debonair nihilism, or inviting Muslim leaders to seek an Islamically - faithful rapprochement with political modernity, or defending the dignity of human life against the dangers of a brave new world of bio-technically manufactured humanity, there is no substitute for the combination of insight and institutional authority that Pope Benedict brings to the world table. Yet he now faces a crisis in his papacy, for the wisdom of his voice is being muted by the decline in his authority attendant on the managerial incompetence of the Curia.

Read it all.

UPDATE: Never underestimate the ability of an executive's own bureaucracy to work against him. Recall the machinations of President Bush's State Department, even after he had appointed Condoleeza Rice, one of his own, its head.

TV was Better Then

But audiences demanded better then.



Now we want American Idol.

(h/t Aufer a Nobis.)

TV was Better Then

But audiences demanded better then.



Now we want American Idol.

(h/t Aufer a Nobis.)

You Think We've Got Problems

American Catholics who believe misery loves company will be eager to learn of Holy Mother Church's star-crossed attempt installing Dr. Gerhard Maria Wagner as her new auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Linz. In many ways it's a familiar saga, the liberals vs. the conservatives, but from a uniquely Austrian perspective, especially because it involves Linz, a diocese that makes the Archdiocese of Los Angeles appear the exemplar of traditional Catholicism. This passage alone will give you an idea.

Bishop Schwarz's troubles also were not over. On March 9 it was reported that one of the deans who had voted against Dr Wagner had confessed to having a long-term girlfriend. Fr Josef Friedl, who had a high media profile as a result of a controversial case with illegal immigrants, spoke out after being pressured to admit to having a mistress.

"I am 65 now. Why should I lie?" Fr Friedl said. He added that everyone in his parish knew about his girlfriend anyway.

Why indeed, Father, lying is a sin and besides, it could be a lot worse: at least it's a girlfriend. Read the whole long piece in the Catholic Herald (UK) to be dismayed, yes, but also entertained.

(Thanks to Dr. Tighe.)

You Think We've Got Problems

American Catholics who believe misery loves company will be eager to learn of Holy Mother Church's star-crossed attempt installing Dr. Gerhard Maria Wagner as her new auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Linz. In many ways it's a familiar saga, the liberals vs. the conservatives, but from a uniquely Austrian perspective, especially because it involves Linz, a diocese that makes the Archdiocese of Los Angeles appear the exemplar of traditional Catholicism. This passage alone will give you an idea.

Bishop Schwarz's troubles also were not over. On March 9 it was reported that one of the deans who had voted against Dr Wagner had confessed to having a long-term girlfriend. Fr Josef Friedl, who had a high media profile as a result of a controversial case with illegal immigrants, spoke out after being pressured to admit to having a mistress.

"I am 65 now. Why should I lie?" Fr Friedl said. He added that everyone in his parish knew about his girlfriend anyway.

Why indeed, Father, lying is a sin and besides, it could be a lot worse: at least it's a girlfriend. Read the whole long piece in the Catholic Herald (UK) to be dismayed, yes, but also entertained.

(Thanks to Dr. Tighe.)