“Schemed”?! Well, I should hope so!

This morning’s Anchorage Daily News carried a front-page lead-in to an article with this eyebrow-raising headline:

“CIA schemed to kill al-Qaeda leaders”

Schemed? What an odd choice of words.   How, exactly, is it news that the CIA would be developing such plans?  Wouldn’t every American just naturally assume that they were doing that?  In fact, wouldn’t it only be news if it were discovered that the CIA had done absolutely nothing to develop any kind of plans for striking back at al-Qaeda in the wake of 9-11?

Schemed? Oh well, the article is from the New York Times news service.  That explains everything… time for a little counter-attacking distraction from the failing economic stimulus?  From the Honduran fiasco? From the Sotomayor confirmation?  From… (fill in the blank).

How, uh,  inconvenient that the NYT already broke this story back in … 2002 (here).  Hard to keep any national security secrets secret with the NYT at work.

Later in the day I found this analysis by Andrew C. McCarthy at NRO.

Please, bring back the grown-ups before the children break something irreplaceable.

“Holy Toledo!”

This rather irreverent expression of surprise is said to have originated as a reference not to our Toledo, Ohio, but to Toledo, Spain.  It was the see of the regional archbishop, and enjoyed a cultural renaissance after it’s liberation from Muslim rule.

But today it does indeed refer to Toledo, Ohio.  There, news about the controversies within the Antiochian archdiocese has spilled over from the Internet into the city’s newspaper.  The article hints at a potentially contentious scene at the church’s upcoming national convention in Palm Desert, California.  Might this be just the sort of thing to catch the interest of the AP and UPI?  Byzantine intrigue, forged documents, power asserted and power questioned.

And as if that weren’t enough, we have of course that reliable standby, sex.  The article refers to the former bishop of Toledo who was convicted- I say again, convicted- of felony sexual assault, is now a registered sex offender, and yet still the powers-that-be (or should I say “the power-that-is”) quietly brought him in the back door to be reinstated at the highest levels of the archdiocese .

(I suppose that a very, very thin silver lining to that disgraceful misconduct was that it involved an adult female rather than an underage boy).

What an embarrassing, and shameful, witness to the world.  Let the sun shine in and the disinfecting begin.

Image vs. Reality

President Obama and the First Lady have made a number of media-savvy attempts at cleaning up the anti-military image the Democrats have earned over the years- visits to wounded soldiers, etc.

Here’s the reality.  Absolutely incomprehensible, especially given that he is the Commander–in-Chief of our armed forces.  How do you think news like this goes over among the troops?  How’s your morale today, suckers?

“We worked hard to catch these bastards, now we’re cutting them loose with little thought to the consequences of doing this.” (Source)

More details at National Review Online,  here:

[excerpt]

“First, of the 4,322 Americans killed in combat in Iraq since 2003, 10 percent of them (i.e., more than 400) have been murdered by a single type of weapon alone, a weapon that is supplied by Iran for the singular purpose of murdering Americans. As Steve Schippert explains at NRO’s military blog, the Tank, the weapon is “the EFP (Explosively Formed Penetrator), designed by Iran’s IRGC specifically to penetrate the armor of the M1 Abrams main battle tank and, consequently, everything else deployed in the field.”

“Understand: This does not mean Iran has killed only 400 Americans in Iraq. The number killed and wounded at the mullahs’ direction is far higher than that — likely multiples of that — when factoring in the IRGC’s other tactics, such as the mustering of Hezbollah-style Shiite terror cells.”

My qualified Libertarianism

In an earlier post I talked about my complete disgust with the Republican Party national leadership, and that I’ve come to believe there is no home there any longer for sincere conservatives.  The Republican Party is bereft of any ideas beyond trying to pretend they are something other than “me to ” Democrat-lite.  If conservatives are to be credible when they claim “I’m not a Republican, I’m a conservative”, they need to officially quit being officially Republicans; only then can they begin the long hard slog of reclaiming their integrity and re-educating the public on the heritage, the nature, and the value of American conservatism.  The Libertarian Party (whatever it’s present flaws) appears to be a natural match.

I haven’t even begun to look into the present state of the Libertarian Party.  It’s been years since I’ve read anything of or about them.  I suppose you could say that the first libertarian “literature” that I read was “Atlas Shrugged”, back in high school.  For being such a supposed “blockbuster” and “prophetic” work, I thought it was disappointingly silly and shallow (will I be banned from the Party for saying that?  Is Ayn-worship required for LP membership?  Hope not.)  And way back then there was still a debate within the “movement” as to whether or not a Libertarian political party was self-contradictory.  I trust that they’ve worked all that out between the “anarcho-libertarians” and the realists.  I hope so.

It’s enough to make you cry to realize how recently it was that President Bill Clinton was compelled to declare that “the era of big government is over”.  Now, God help us, it has come roaring back with a vengeance,  having been resuscitated and nurtured back to health (and put on steroids) by the Republican Party of George W. Bush, under the philosophically misbegotten monstrosity called “big government conservatism”.  Has there ever been a more blatant and cynical contradiction in terms?

So now it’s come to this- a Republican Party trying to market itself as the “right” kind of big government as opposed to the Democrats who supposedly practice the “wrong” kind of big government.  A pox on both their houses, as they say.

This gives a Libertarian-Conservative coalition it’s most favorable opportunity.  I believe the most significant, and historically momentous realignment in American politics will be between the “big government” Statism of the Democrats and Republicans on the one hand, and a Libertarian-Conservative coalition on the other, spearheading a rediscovery and renewal of the traditional American values of individual liberty and limited government.

One of the things that used to bother me about the Libertarians was the perception of their “amorality”.  With the wisdom of passing years, I finally “get” it… politics shouldn’t be the source of your morality, private or public.  Politics OUGHT to be amoral, at least in the sense in which it operates in the realm of what theologians call God’s “common grace”, in which He “causes the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust”.

Viva Honduras! Viva Libertad! (UPDATE)

This is one of those times when reading the news coverage of some event makes me feel almost like poor Winnie the Pooh.  What I’m reading seems to be such a “through the looking glass” distortion of reality that I can’t help wondering if there’s something I missed, or something I just don’t “get” (and yes, I realize I mixed literary metaphors there- call it evidence of my disorientation).

Please, help me understand…

- After ~20 years of military dictatorship, civilian government is reestablished;

- To defend the country from any attempt by any future wannabe strongman, the office of President is limited to one single four-year term.  Any attempt on the part of any such wannabe strongman (aka tyrant) to override the term limit is illegal;

- The newly-former President Zelaya did in fact attempt such an illegal extension of his incumbency;

-  The Honduran Supreme Court duly informs Pres. Zelaya that his actions are illegal, that he must cease and desist;

- Pres. Zelaya inflames lawless mobs of his supporters to storm Army bases to seize and distribute illegal referendum ballots;

- For this breach of the Constitution (which amounts to an attempted civilian coup, doesn’t it?) the Supreme Court-  I say again, the Honduran Supreme Court- issues an arrest warrant and the Army acts on this constitutional authority;

- The Honduran Congress endorses the action, and replaces now-former Pres. Zelaya with another member of the same- yes, the same- political party.

I have never in my life read of anything remotely like this “coup”, from the dawn of civilization to the present day. How… please help me understand… how does any of this fit any definition of a “military coup”?

And our President, so circumspect and cautious about not meddling in Iran, has no such hesitation in regards to Honduras.  Amazingly, he promptly upholds the old- and, I thought, discredited- tradition of American presidents meddling in the internal political affairs of Latin American countries.  Incredibly, however, he speaks out not to congratulate Hondurans for defending their liberty under the rule of law, but weighs in on the side of the wannabe despot.

Shame.

Specifics on the legality of the action here.

______________________

UPDATE:  Having stuck one foot in it, President Obama attempted to “clarify” his position regarding Honduras, and wound up sticking his other foot in it as well.

The reason he supports ex-Pres. Zelaya’s reinstatement is- I kid you not-  “because we respect the universal principle that people should choose their own leaders” (link).

Excuse me, but what does that have to do with anything here?  It isn’t about a people’s right to choose their own leader, it’s about their right to remove their leaders, in a manner prescribed by their own laws, when such leaders violate the laws by which they are governed.

So does that mean that this “universal principle that people should choose their own leaders” mean that once they elect their leader they have no right to remove him? So, it logically follows that the impeachment of Richard Nixon was illegal since Americans had twice chosen him as their leader? Hans Bader made that point in a column here that also lays out the specific details of the scrupulously legal deposing of a would-be dictator.

How stupid does Pres. Obama think we are?

Sarah??!

Gov. Palin just announced her resignation.  I’m stunned, and speechless-  no words of insight here.  Apparently, it was on the whole a rather unsatisfactory statement, according to Ed Morrissey, here.

All sorts of proposed Machiavellian explanations circulating, regarding her positioning herself for future political ambitions, but I am quite willing to believe she just finally said to herself. “All y’all can just go pound sand”… and I wouldn’t blame her one iota if that were the case.

God bless you, Governor Palin.  Thank you for your service to Alaska and the nation, not least of all for being the one who exposed the vicious, unhinged, hypocritical hatred of the Left (need an example?), and the vile, gutless, unprincipled treachery of the Republican “leadership”.

God grant you peace, comfort, encouragement and strength, Governor Palin.

_________________

On the Monday after, these are my two favorite commentaries on the resignation:

“Maybe She Doesn’t Want to be President”, and

“Who the Hell Do They Think They Are?”, a more general look at what the Palin phenomenon says about our arrogant liberal “elites”.

Lord have mercy.

An Iraqi answers “Was it worth it?”

Written one month before Iraqi National Sovereignty Day, appearing in “The Australian“- where, apparently, they publish the news that American editors won’t.

Also check out this eye-opening chart of the Iraqi stock exchange, below.  Notice espcially the chart from September ‘08… the exact inverse of every major world stock market.  This is a people confident of their future.

The disinfectant quality of sunlight.

Previously parts I and II, combined:
_____________________________

“Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases.  Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the best policeman.”

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

President Lyndon Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act into law in 1967.  Since that time it has fulfilled it’s purpose of letting private citizens pull back the curtains and raise the blinds to shine the light of day on the workings of government.

The Internet let’s us do the same in regard to private businesses and associations.  Some have responded better than others to this new, and involuntary, openness.  It is understandably awkward when you have been used to doing things in privileged privacy, and suddenly find that you have an uninvited audience that can’t be told- won’t be told- to go away.

The Church is one of those institutions most used to conducting its governance in private.  I’d like to think that 99%- or 99.9%- of the time that works just fine, that the trust and confidence placed in the clergy by the laity is well-earned, fully deserved and justified. But all humans are fallen and subject to temptation and sin, and on the occasions when we yield to the temptation, sunlight is the prescribed remedy.

In the Church, this is usually accomplished through the sacrament of confession.  In the early days of the Church, confession was actually made to the entire congregation, but that was when the churches were for the most part small groups of the faithful, well-known to each other, joined in persecution and martyrdom, who had entrusted their lives to each other.  Only later, when Christianity had been legalized and the churches became filled with more casual acquaintances and visitors, was a concession made for giving confession to a priest privately.  Clergy make their confessions to other clergy as well.

Nevertheless, Satan is persistent and wily, and gains a foothold from time to time.  How many times have found ourselves, instead of confessing a sin, persuading ourselves that it wasn’t really a sin?  No need to confess what isn’t a sin, right?  Instead of being “nipped in the bud”, the sin is watered, nurtured, cared for.  And sin grows in the dark.

The effects of sin are bad enough on a personal level, but they never remain on a personal level- they radiate outward and poison every relationship in our lives; family, work, social, church.  And if you have a supervisory, administrative, or executive leadership position within an organization, the effects of sin increase the higher your level of responsibility is within the organization.

OK, so sin and scandal in any human institution is nothing new. What is new is the inescapable publicity of the Internet. Dirt that used to be “swept under the rug”, skeletons that used to be kept in the closet … now the rugs have been rolled back and the closet doors are gone. Sites like “Orthodox Christians for Accountability” make it clear that the rugs and doors won’t be coming back- they are gone for good.

And I do believe that, over all, it is for the good, but it has been difficult for some people to adapt to the new environment. Embarrassment, anger and denial seem to be common first reactions, followed by attempts to shame people who would notice and be concerned about the controversies.

Partly in response to the web site mentioned above, the Antiochian Archdiocese put up it’s own site called “The Antiochian”, sub-titled “The Voice of Truth and Unity”.

[CORRECTION: Fr. Andrew informs me that "The Antiochian" is not in fact an official publication of the Archdiocese- I had made that assumption based solely on it's fervently pro-Metropolitan Phillip tone]

Readers are invited to “contribute in a creative manner to the theological, pastoral, and ecclesiastical discussion…”, and promises that their “free, responsible, and well-mannered opinions and concerns count”. Unfortunately, when confronted with posts by those skeptical of Metropolitan Phillip, the responses of the site administrator and other +Phillip partisans have not been a witness of Christian love and charity either. “Are you hallucinating?” is probably one of the milder replies, degenerating down from there- from “You should be ashamed!” to “You should be excommunicated!”. The good, the bad and the ugly are all out there on public display.

When the current flap in the Antiochian Archdiocese first came to light, our clergy responded by assuring us that it was nothing, really, or at least nothing about which we needed to be concerned. “Move along folks, move along, nothing to see here!” It was all much ado about little, they said, just an inconsequential modification of the organizational chart. And anyhow, whatever questions there were to be settled would be settled by those several echelons above us. Since then, the affair seems to have ramped up several stages of seriousness.

Now the truth is, if I were asked how this internecine conflict among the bishops affects me, I’d have to admit- “Not at all”. What action can I take to affect it’s outcome? None at all- except to pray for the bishops, and for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the affairs of the Church, which is nothing more or less than what I should be doing daily anyways. We live in a scandal-obsessed culture, and are surrounded by, immersed in, a soul-suffocating flood of distractions that constantly tempt us away from the only thing we actually need to be concerned with… our relationship with God.

And yet nothing gets my hackles up as much as the condescending attitude expressed in the verse

“Be sweet, young maid, and let who can be clever”.

Or being told, in essence, that my only responsibilities as a layperson are to “pray, pay and obey”, as they used to say about pre-Vatican II Catholics.

What then? Beyond my basic duty to pray, perhaps it is simply to be fully informed, without succumbing to outrage or other partisan passions; to be informed and knowledgeable about the organizational health of my Church; to bear witness, giving “honor to whom honor is due”; to let them know we know.

Pilgrimage

Just made flight and lodging reservations for Lesa and I to attend the 2009 St. Herman pilgrimage to Spruce Island this August.  I went with a group three years ago, but this will be Lesa’s first.  We’re really looking forward to it.

The pilgrimage follows the Eagle River Institute (ERI) held each year at St. John’s.  If your not that into hunting or fishing, and you are into visiting Alaska and hearing some great Orthodox teaching, the ERI is a great reason to come.

Information on the ERI here.

Information on the St. Herman pilgrimage here.

Family matters

Just got back from a week in Arlington, Virginia where I went to visit my (paternal) aunt.  She is 89 years old, will turn 90 in a few months, “mirabile dictu”.  Been single all her life, very independent, dabbles in the stock market as a hobby instead of crossword puzzles.

No chronic health issues until relatively recently, when macular degeneration began to seriously affect her eyesight.  Other recent health concerns since the start of the year have caused increasing concerns about her welfare and ability to continue to live alone safely.

I had hoped that I would be able to persuade her to fly back to Alaska with me and live with us in the downstairs kitchenette we have.  I phone her every week, and had frequently mentioned the idea, but her stock reply was always “What an interesting idea, very attractive, I’ll certainly keep it in mind and give it serious consideration”.  A polite brush-off.

I bought a one-way return ticket to Alaska for her anyways, on the chance that maybe she might yield to a sudden, impetuous “sieze the day” impulse and say “Oh, what the heck, sure, let’s just do it!”  Ha ha.  Not quite.  Didn’t happen.

But I think she was touched by my effort, and who knows- maybe it moved her to give the idea more serious consideration.  The annual lease on her apartment is due for renewal this fall, so that may be the catalyst for her to make the decision.

We had a great time together in any event.  In her thirty years of living just outside Washington, D.C., she had never been to the Atlantic shore.  Hard to imagine.  That had to be done, so one day we took U.S. 50 east to Rehoboth Beach.  Crossed the Chesapeake Bay bridge, which I thought was an incredible piece of engineering… and a “heckuva” great ride!  At the beach I waded in the Atlantic, while my aunt settled for stepping off the boardwalk onto the sand.

So now I’m home, recovering from the traveling, taking a few more days off before returning to work.  Today I had the first session of my final paralegal class, so the end is coming closer.  Right now though I’m falling asleep, so it’s time to get horizontal.  More later.