Former ABC News reporter/anchor Sam Donaldson is ready to say the last rites for network news because it will soon lose its dominant position as Americans' primary source of news. "I think it's dead. Sorry," he said during a breakfast panel Tuesday at the National Association of Broadcasters' convention in Las Vegas. "The monster anchors are through." DING DONG! The Whitch is dead!
Even though 30 million viewers still turn to networks news each night and garner ratings well above CNN and Fox News, networks news operations long ago lost their role as the sources Americans rely on during time of major breaking news, said Donaldson
"God forbid, if someone shot the President, which network would you turn to? It will be cable, the Internet--something other than General Hospital being interrupted."
Increasingly, viewers will continue turning to alternative sources for everyday news as well, he said.
Donaldson was joined on the panel by CNN political analyst Jeff Greenfield and CBS Sunday Morning's Charles Osgood., both of whom were less pessimistic about network news' future.
"If it's dying, it's dying a very slow death," Greenfield said. Although the network news monopoly was "smashed" by cable, broadcast news will redefine itself, thought he didn't yet know how. And the Blogs are starting to have an impact on the cable broadcasters (CNN in particular).
Osgood said the network news can remain competitive with other platforms but must be constantly reevaluated to remain competitive--a fact that makes him glad he's at the tail end of his career rather than the beginning. "It used to be when we wanted to make a show more appealing to more people, the first thing we did was design a new set."
During their talk the three reporters came out in favor of a federal shield law that would allow journalists to protect the identity of their sources without threat of jail.
Donaldson, however, said journalists shouldn't have blanket protection when lives are at stake, but didn't know how to draft a law that would balance the need to ensure that journalists can protect whistle blowers but won't impede legal investigations.
The three also agreed that that Internet bloggers have had a generally positive impact on news because mainstream reporters are forced to better verify their information and pare opinions out of their work or face he wrath of scrutinizing critics. But they still dont get it -- witness CBS hiring an terrorist and Memo-gate. No the "Big Three" are dead - their just flapping around the yard a bit before they realize it.
SOLDOTNA, Alaska, April 19 (UPI) -- A 51-year-old jogger is in serious condition after he was mauled by two bears when he came across a half-eaten moose carcass near Soldotna, Alaska.
This is what they call a "Oh Shit!" moment
Scott MacInnes was knocked to the ground Monday by either one or both of the animals and sustained bites to the abdomen, head, neck, face and leg, the Anchorage Daily News reported. But the bears abruptly broke off their attack and MacInnes was able to escape to a house nearby.
"Bloody feet, don't fail me now!"
He underwent surgery at Central Peninsula General Hospital later that day.
"He'll recover," said sister Ann Mize of Anchorage. "He's lucky to be alive. He'll be in the hospital for at least a week."
At least
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2005 3:48:14 PM ||
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#1
Bears will protect a carcass like it is their own cub. People jogging about without distance or firearms protection are fools. Pepper spray is a last resort and is REALLY a last resort if the wind is not in your favor. Distance is your best protection.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/19/2005 15:58 Comments ||
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#2
If yer gonna shot you better have more than a small caliber. Anything short of a 44 mag will just piss then off.
#11
As I read the other day, presence of mind is good- absence of body is better.
Seriously, we are going to bear country this summer, I was thinking about a .357 magnum. Any comments? I have only ever used a rifle.
CLEVELAND - Scientists studying recent rock samples taken from beneath an ancient earthen mound are trying to determine what caused unusually high concentrations of a metal rarely seen anywhere but near Earth's molten core or in asteroids and comets.
Serpent Mound, an earthen snake effigy believed to have been built from about 1000 B.C. to A.D. 200 is about 60 miles east of Cincinnati. Some believe the 1,348-foot-long mound had a religious function for its builders, although nobody knows for sure what philosophy and beliefs shaped its origin because the mound builders left no written records.
Geologists only recently discovered high concentrations of iridium 1,412 feet beneath the mound.
The levels of the silver-gray metal, occasionally brought up in lava from volcanoes, measured 10 times beyond what is usually present in the Earth's crust.
There's actually a little model of the "disturbed" area at the Serpent Mound site. It's roughly circular and the center is just about where Serpent Mound sits. Not as spectacular as Arizona's Meteor Crater, but, hey we Midwesterners take what we can get.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/19/2005 2:54:19 PM ||
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#1
Sheesh! What kind of idiot builds a religion around a magic space rock?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/19/2005 15:38 Comments ||
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#4
What kind of people build a religion around a space rock?
People who were scared out of their wits by a crashing rock from the sky. People with no concept of how natural forces work, so see the natural shot through with the supernatural. People who know there is something divine in Nature; they just don't know what it is.
#7
So what made these people build ontop of an event that occured 250M years ago?
The meteor left a greeting card for them.
Posted by: Charles ||
04/19/2005 16:13 Comments ||
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#8
RC, there is a reason why there is a Snake Mound. The event that disturbed the area did not happen 256MYA, but about 700BCE. When you look at the topography, you'll find features that would match a trace of the massive electric discharge, IOW a lightning bolt, with a central crater area reminding of what we think a meteorite/bolide impact would look like, with additional scaring on the edge of the 'crater' and other features that remind of cracks. The deposits of heavy metals are usually associated with these events, even as deep as ~1400ft in a dispersed fashion, and on the surface metals are usually found in nugget form, usually copper, but sometimes gold, silver or electrum (a gold & silver alloy).
The image is a good representation of what happened. You see the coiled end, as if the snake is ready to strike from its point of rest high above, the zig-zag of the discharge and then the mouth of the snake swallowing the earth.
BH, these people were not idiots, just somewhat ignorant--and we are not that remote from them as ignorance is concerned. They could not explain what happened and postulated deities they thought responsible for similar events. In some cases, seeing the wreck the gods caused, they though that appeasement may work. Including human sacrifices to feathered serpent (which is another moniker for the discharge; some cultures called it 'fiery serpent' or 'fiery dragon' and that later got misinterpreted as fire-breathing dragon), thinking maybe if they sacrifice a few, the multitude would be saved from the gods' wrath.
Well, one thing they did not know: Appeasement never works!
Posted by: Eset ||
04/19/2005 16:18 Comments ||
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#9
*sigh* Well, at least Frank G. got it. Apologies to the rest.
#10
BH, I got it fine. These people did not build a shrine around a space rock they just did not know what hit them, while some millenium and half later...
Posted by: Eset ||
04/19/2005 16:40 Comments ||
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#11
Thanks Eset, I thought the article was wrong and they had mixed up the date of the geological explanation with the meteor event.
Apparently the magic space rock in Mecca isn't. It appears Allan went out into the desert after a meteor trail was seen and came back with a rock he said was the rock that fell from the sky. Its probably marble and BTW the British Museum is supposed to have a piece of it.
#12
"...the British Museum is supposed to have a piece of it."
So that's what has drawn all those jihaidis to London! Kabaanite. Lethal to Great Satans and PC Wankers alike. Causes jihadis to seethe, turbans to spin up, and politicians to appease - even at great distances.
Eset -- Seek help. No human being was around to witness whatever made the "anomaly" in Ohio; there's no more than a coincidental connection between the mound and the geology. The features that define the anomaly are buried; there are NO surface features.
NOTHING in the topography suggests a "massive electrical discharge". It's the edge of the glacial plain, on the border of the Appalachian ridge; the area's marked by creek valleys and steep hills.
Furthermore, your claim that the event took place in 700BCE is bullshit. There's 1400+ feet of STONE between the surface and the bottom of the anomaly, the location of the high iridium concentration. That much stone doesn't get laid down in 2700 years.
Also, your claim that the mound was built in 700BC is bunk. A couple of years ago archaeologists found a charcoal layer at original ground level, under the Serpent. They had enough to carbon date, and the Serpent dates to around 1000AD. You're off by 1700 years.
Stop reading von Danniken and stop watching "In Search Of".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/19/2005 18:39 Comments ||
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#17
high concentrations of iridium 1,412 feet beneath the mound & Motorola
BoR, there is probably a better way to dispose of 'em than burry 'em under the Snake Mound.;-)
1412 ft, that's about 425 m...
Not sure what is the geology of the area, but the deposit may be related to the Yucatan peninsula impact 65 mil years ago, which was supposedly instrumental in dino extinction. You can find a related layer all over western hemisphere and a less concentrated layer on the opposite side.
The area was at the edge of last glaciation, so my guess would be there is a lot of rock debree mixed with silt. 425 m is rather a thick layer, but considering the last 1.2 mil yr of glacials and interglacials, a piece of cake. Even considering the last glacial only, the annual deposit would translate to something like 6 cm in average.
So, I would be inclined to believe that it has little to do with an event that prompted building of the Snake Mound.
#19
Sobiesky has a point. A glacial terminal morraine could deposit tens of feet of debris each year. Without knowing the geology, the thickness of the overlying 'rock' doesn't mean much.
#20
RC, A couple of years ago archaeologists found a charcoal layer at original ground level, under the Serpent. They had enough to carbon date, and the Serpent dates to around 1000AD.
Well, that tells us when the mound has been built in the present form, does it? It does not tell us what was there before. The charcoal layer hints that there may be some continuity if it is found under the mound and not elsewhere. Note that sites of similar nature are built, almost as a rule, over older sites of similar nature.
OTOH, the dating (about 1070CE) coincides with the appearance of Halley's comet (1066 CE), so there may be some connection with 'fiery serpent'.
#22
Concretion and compression would compact the lower levels of a morraine into "stone" (rigid continuous solid) within a few hundred years of deposition. If any formation is 1400 feet deep, the greater part of it is almost certainly stone, simply because compression will not allow loose aggregates (dirt etc.) to exist in continuous layers at that depth. If the material were average near-surface soil, which is nothing but a collection of really little rocks, the pressure at 1400 feet would be around 2100 lbs sq^2 inch, more than enough to compact the material into a rigid solid with the help of mineral concretion from percolating water. This does not happen at the bottom of the sea, where the pressure is higher, because the material is saturated with stagnant (as opposed to percolating) water, which is incompressible and has the effect of keeping the individual grains apart.
Beyond that, there are few processes that would allow loose material to accumulate to that depth over a geologically short period of time. Glacial deposition is one but that depth of accumulation is rare because of the relative mobility of the glacial front.
Beyond that, there is good evidence that the older land areas of the Earth (the Canadian shield and the Ohio basin, for example) are almost covered with the eroded remnants of impact craters. This is only apparent from careful analysis of subsurface structures. We are talking here about an accumulation of crater remnants over a period in the billions of years. It would not be unusual for measurable chemical traces of one of these long-ago events to turn up at a given spot.
#26
In a few weeks, by sheer coincidence, my gang of grad students and I will be working in and around the Odessa Meteor Crater, near Odessa Texas. This is much smaller than the Barringer Crater in Arizona, about 500 feet in diameter, but it is still the second largest in the United States. It is also much newer than the Barringer Crater, ca. 20,000 years old vs. 48,000 and quite a bit better preserved. The site is unusual for the very large number of nickel-iron meteorites that have been recovered from the area. Several much smaller impact points are associated with this one. These are not readily apparent from the surface and it is possible, indeed likely, that not all of them have been discovered. One of the things we will be doing is looking for more of them.
#28
RC, are you sure there is 1400 ft of stone? Do you mean solid stone? Have a ref?
You want me to go take pictures? The surrounding hills are certainly solid rock. While the creek valleys are certainly filled by erosion, this is Ohio, not Illinois or Iowa. In southern Ohio you get an inch or two of top soil, then clay for a few feet, then rock.
Well, that tells us when the mound has been built in the present form, does it? It does not tell us what was there before... Note that sites of similar nature are built, almost as a rule, over older sites of similar nature.
The site was certainly important before; there are Hopewell mounds right next to the Serpent Mound parking lot! The problem is, there's almost no evidence that the older cultures built effigy mounds.
The Hopewell and Adena built conical mounds, geometric enclosures next to flowing water, and contour-hugging enclosures on top of hills. I've seen a few sources try to interpret some of their works as effigies, but the attempts range from laughable (the central mound at Seip as a "centipede effigy") to the questionable (three conjoined mounds in the center of the Newark Great Circle as an eagle).
In contrast, the Fort Ancient culture have a few effigial mounds and similar works attributed to them. The Salamander near Newark is Fort Ancient, as is the Tarlton Cross. The dating of the Serpent places it right in the Fort Ancient culture's period.
Coincidentally, this is also the peak period of effigy mound building in Wisconsin. For some reason, around 1000AD it was a Great Lakes region fad to build effigy mounds.
(BTW -- to add to the confusion, the Fort Ancient people didn't build Fort Ancient. They got that name because they occupied the Fort Ancient site, but the walls of Fort Ancient were built by the Hopewell/Adena.)
I'd buy that the Serpent may have been inspired by Halley's Comet. I don't think it's the remotest possibility it has anything to do with whatever made a crater shape a third of a mile underground.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/19/2005 20:17 Comments ||
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#29
AC -- cool! Have fun looking.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/19/2005 20:19 Comments ||
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#33
A glacial ice front when advancing (and they will typically advance and retreat every year or few years) acts like a giant bulldozer and will fill in depressions. I recall there are Karst depressions filled with glacial debris to similar depths. Were there a meteor crater, glaciation could fill it in within a few hundred to a few thousand years. This doesn't mean there was one, but glaciation obliterates almost all previous landforms especially deep depressions.
#1
As a high school student in the 70's and a member of the rifle club we were allowed to carry our rifles with us through the day during classes. Nobody ever got hurt. None of us ever jokingly pointed it someone. We were taught responsibility when handling firearms first then how to shot. Nowdays that would cause loss of bladder control amongst the educational professionals. Its good to see someone try and do the right thing.
#3
This should be broken down into three separate courses. The first should be comprehensive gun safety and maintenance, to include a big block on the "medical effects of guns". This should be as graphic as drivers' ed, and for the same reason, not to dissuade students from driving or firing guns, but to instill in them that there are rules, and that the rules are there for a very good reason. The second course will be the "lab" for gun safety, with students learning safety with .22 shorts, progressing up to large calibers, to learn the practical differences between guns; then advancing to target shooting. The THIRD course should be oriented to defensive use of a firearm, open only to senior students, and with the guidance of their local police department, with an eye towards steering them into criminal justice majors in college. In this course they would learn gun laws, "gun experience" from seasoned police officers, and most importantly, how *not* to use their gun at all, or hopefully, ever, except for target shooting.
#4
Not sure if it's still the law there, but I was required to take ROTC to graduate from HS in Utah. Weapons training was part of it - certainly broke the boredom of marching around in the parking lot - and I was on the rifle team. We had matches against other schools - it was great, but nothing compared to the training I had received from my Grandfather from age 4 on. You got ribbed on uniform day - once a week - but nobody really cared that much, even back then in the 60's. Helped me when we hit Basic - I could do everything from obliques to hospital corners and ended up as Platoon Guide, a pretty sweet situation, relatively speaking. Early E-2, etc.
#5
Anonymoose I would keep the cops as far away from these kids a possible.
Actual Range Masters free from any "law enforcement" agendas. I have had firearms training in an "law enforcement" enviroment. I got way more from people who only do firearms traning for a living. Some of them were ex law enforcement but totally free from the "them and us" attitudes many in law enforcement are infected with. Kids don't need that.
#6
Thought about this when a kid in California shot several other students with a .22 revolver. He reloaded several times, but none of the other kids knew that they could take him out while he reloaded - or that a full backpack could probably stop anything he fired at them!
#7
OF - if you're referring to Santana HS - my daughter was one of the one's shot at - nobody had a clue til he started shooting in a crowded hallway between classes, and he reloaded from cover by a restroom - nobody could get near him.
Other than the actual facts, your anecdote's right on :-(
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/19/2005 15:41 Comments ||
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#8
Frank G: Sorry you were offended by my remarks; I was thinking of the kids I taught outside Paterson, NJ - they would've taken the s.o.b. out. (These are the same kids who offered to kill a cop who got in my younger brother's face; when I declined, they wondered if they could just torch his house or car. Nice kids; only a few died from drugs or gang-related violence, and one even made it to college.)
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, a longtime guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy, was elected the new pope Tuesday evening in the first conclave of the new millennium. He chose the name Pope Benedict XVI.
#2
I know, Old Spook. The articles were posted between the time I pulled up Rantburg, and the time I clicked Submit. You only beat me by two minutes, however. Not bad for a little housewife when compared to a real life spy/analyst! Congratulations to you and all Catholics on this short interregnum -- only two days to make such a decision bodes well for the Church in the coming days.
#2
Waiting now to hear the SCREAMS from the left - you know the MSM will queue them up, lest a conservative Pope get any traction liek JP-II did.
This guy is as conservative as you can get - if anything, more conservative than JP-II.
Personally I was hoping for Cardinal Arinze, but Ratzinger is fine by me too. One reason Ratzinger? He is 78 (or is it 79?). That means a shorter papacy. Perhaps Arinze's turn will be the next one.
But: VIVA EL PAPA! to all us Catholics. Ratzinger should not let us down as a guardian of the faith.
#3
Ratzinger sees himself as a moderate as noted in another thread. Which means the liberals will see him as an Arch-Conservative. And since he is German, they are probably starting the "Nazi" undercurrent right about now.
The good thing is that John Paul II basically trained him and Ratzinger was JP-II's right-hand-man. So he is already familiar with the Vatican, and the issues facing the Chruch -- and the way JP-II was planning to handle them.
He is a strong traditionalist, and was "a guardian of the faith" that slapped down Liberation Theology, and a lot of the other things unacceptable to the Church like gay marriage and radical feminism.
Imagine that, someone claiming that there are real differences between men and women.
You will hear the Left positively howl - read a lot of the stuff Pope Benedict XVI (Ratzinger) has written, and you will see a thread that continues throught John Paul II's entire papacy, starting with Vatican II. Its good that he is well written - you need to be that to follow an incredible Church scholar like JP-II.
Any bets as to how long it takes them to attack him, even though he will be teaching the same things JP-II did?
Already they are discounting him as a "transitional" Pope. 78 years old is being emphasized.
Can they not leave their biases alone for a day? (Only Fox seems to be asking the people that count - the lay faithful and some brand new priests, American ones!)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/19/2005 13:14 Comments ||
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#7
Some insights for you from his bio that may indicate where Pope Benedict XVI will be headed.
{prior section on the quashing of Liberation Theology with its mishmas od Marxism}
But after the collapse of Marxism as a global ideology, Cardinal Ratzinger identified a new, central threat to the faith: relativism. He said relativism is an especially difficult problem for the church because its main ideas -- compromise and a rejection of absolute positions -- are so deeply imbedded in democratic society.
More and more, he has warned, anything religious is considered "subjective." As a result, he said, in places like his native Germany, the issue of abortion is being confronted with "political correctness" instead of moral judgment.
He said modern theologians are among those who have mistakenly applied relativistic concepts to religion and ethics. ...
He also has focused on ordinary Catholics, saying there can be no compromise on dissent by lay faithful. The cardinal helped prepare a papal instruction on the subject in 1998 and accompanied it with his own commentary warning Catholics they would put themselves outside the communion of the church if they reject its teachings on eight specific issues.
The conservative part is fine by me, but I have a real problem with the advice that he gave JP II regarding the child molestation problem here in America. The recommendation that the American bishops' get rid of the "you molest a kid, you are outta here" policy was, I'm going to come out and say it, evil. There's no place in the priesthood for someone like that, and if he sees otherwise, that's not good. I expect better from my church.
Hopefully OS is right, and Arinze will get it next time. And soon.
#11
He is a very principled, but kind hearted friendly and modest man. He is not someone, as the left claims, who won't discuss. He knows where he stands though.
I know him from the late 70s, when he was archbishop of Munich and Freising, actually because we were friends of the musician and composer Carl Orff ("Carmina Burana") who introduced Ratzinger to us. Several times he was our invited guest before he was called to Rome.
We had very spirited discussions which included Islam, which he seemed to know very well. We talked about Khomeini and the rise of Islamic fanatism which Ratzinger saw with great worries. You can expect him to be very clear on that point. He is very much against religious leaders assuming political roles. That doesn't keep him from having political views. He emphasizes Europe judeochristian traditions and refuses a greater role of Islam in Europe.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/19/2005 13:41 Comments ||
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#15
I am not Roman Catholic but was raised in a Roman Catholic Neighborhood and most of my friends went to church run schools. Getting a Pope this quickly is a good thing. I expect Pope Benidict to continue the policies of Pope John Paul.
Pope Benedict is a believer in the power of prayer. He also wrote much for Pope John Paul. It is a good thing Pope Benidict has issue with relativism, as a German he knows and can see the impact of that first hand. Modern Germany is about a relativist as you can get.
I hope the new Pope has a long and productive reign.
#24
TGA - brushing up on your Italian for that visit to Rome? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/19/2005 15:03 Comments ||
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#25
Old Spook, the hit pieces began before the Pope was confirmed. NPR had an interview with one Laura Goodstein (?) of the NY Times in which they discussed at length Ratzinger's alleged childhood membership in the Hitler youth.
No idea whether this is true or not, but even if it is, I find it interesting that they didn't note that Ratzinger was selected by that Polish resister of Nazi atrocity, Karol Wojtyla, as his # 2. Hard to believe Wojtyla would have selected one with any kind of voluntary Nazi attachment in his past.
Expect more of the Ratzinger as Nazi meme. Probably an above the fold NYT piece to come.
#30
It sounds like the Cardinals are making a clear message for the world, as well as the LLL: Their church teachings have a central place in their faith and that moral relativism and trendy stuff are out, too. That is a good thing that someone takes a stand on the soul-less doctrine of the LLL. We non-Catholics may have differences with the Church, but basic issues need to be brought to the forefront. The LLL may howl, but let them. The Church has made a stand from which they will not retreat. Witness the selection of Pope Benedict XVI in a relatively short time.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/19/2005 15:55 Comments ||
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#31
Well Angie, here's a funny coincidence.
Carl Orff was the composer of the Carmina Burana. Those were actually medieval songs, named after the place they were found:
The monastery of Benediktbeuern.
#32
It will be interesting to see what impact this papal election has on the EU constitution's ratification. The Church is certainly being hard-pressed in Europe by militant secularism. Recent actions by the Europhiles, including the elimination of any mention of Christianity in the EU constitution, and the rejection of Rocco Buttiglione's nomination as the EU's Justice Commissioner, were widely seen as anti-Catholic (More on this from a Catholic perspective here).
It looks to me that with the selection of Cardinal Ratzinger as the new Pope Benedict XVI, the Battle for Europe is fully engaged. I wouldn't be surprised to see within the next 12 months more Vatican-related stories posted to Rantburg's Pages 1&2.
That's why I figured it would have to be a European selected to be pope. The cardinals in South America and Africa cannot possibly have the experience that men like Benedict XVI have gained in battling the moral relativists, moonbats, LLLers, etc. that are literally crawling out of the woodwork in Europe.
Glad to see they've decided to fight the war in Europe first.
#36
"The problem of truth and human fellowship is important for democratic societies; it seems to me to be particularly important for this country (the USA-E.B.), where men and women coming from a great diversity of national stocks and religious or philosophical creeds have to live together. If each one of them endeavored to impose his own convictions and the truth in which he believes on all his co-citizens, would not living together become impossible? That is obviously right. Well, it is easy, too easy, to go a step further, and to ask: if each one sticks to his own convictions, will not each one endeavor to impose his own convictions on all others? So that, as a result, living together will become impossible if any citizen whatever sticks to his own convictions and believes in a given truth?"
Thus it is not unusual to meet people who think that NOT TO BELIEVE IN ANY TRUTH, or NOT TO ADHERE FIRMLY TO ANY ASSERTION AS UNSHAKABLY TRUE IN ITSELF (Maritain's emphasis), is a primary condition required of democratic citizens in order to be tolerant of one another and to live in peace with one another. May I say that these people are in fact the most intolerant people, for if perchance they were to believe in something as unshakably true, they would feel compelled, by the same stroke, to impose by force and coercion their own belief on their co-citizens. The only remedy they have found to get rid of their abiding tendency to fanaticism is to cut themselves off from truth. That is a suicidal method. It is a suicidal conception of democracy: not only would a democratic society which lived on universal skepticism condemn itself to death by starvation; but it would also enter a process of self-annihilation, from the very fact that no democratic society can live without a common practical belief in those truths which are freedom, justice, law, and the other tenets of democracy; and that any belief in these things as objectively and unshakably true, as well as in any other kind of truth, would be brought to naught by the presumed law of universal skepticism...
Be it a question of science, metaphysics, or religion, the man who says: "What is truth?" as Pilate did, is not a tolerant man, but a betrayer of the human race. There is real and genuine tolerance only when a man is firmly and absolutely convinced of a truth, or of what he holds to be a truth, and when he at the same time recognizes the right of those who deny this truth to exist, and to contradict him, and to speak their own mind, not because they are free from truth but because they seek truth in their own way, and because he respects in them human nature and human dignity and those very resources and living springs of the intellect and of conscience which make them potentially capable of attaining the truth he loves, if someday they happen to see it. (Jacques Maritain. "Truth and Human Fellowship," in ON THE USE OF PHILOSOPHY: THREE ESSAYS. (New York: Atheneum) 1965, pp. 17-18, 24)
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
04/19/2005 21:25 Comments ||
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#10
St. Benedict's rule for monasticism is indeed a moderate one. It is communal rather than solitary, disciplined without the extremes of asceticism that characterized some monks before him and has a lot of common sense built into it.
#14
Mine has the Pope's name on it, and who it is, as the headline - a bit more informative. Benedict is more the subject, his history, theology, and the reaction.
This thread is all about the announcement and not much else apparently.
Now I really have to get out the door. Fr Nguyen just gave me a call :-)
Posted by: Ghost of Kemal Attaturk ||
04/19/2005 13:26 Comments ||
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#15
Lol, GoKA - you are certainly full of yourself, lol!
#16
I will call him PB4 squared. JK I liked the idea that they didn't change paths (theologically). Wonder if this will affect Germans like JPII affected Poles?
The Mesa Police Department is looking to add some primal instinct to its SWAT team. And to do that, it's looking to a monkey.
Mesa Officer Sean Truelove, who builds and operates tactical robots for the SWAT team... is spearheading the department's request to purchase and train a capuchin monkey, considered the second smartest primate to the chimpanzee. The department is seeking about $100,000 in federal grant money to put the idea to use in Mesa SWAT operations.
The monkey, which costs $15,000, is what Truelove envisions as the ultimate SWAT reconnaissance tool. Since 1979, capuchin monkeys have been trained to be companions for people who are quadriplegics... Truelove hopes the same training could prepare a monkey for special-ops intelligence...it could unlock doors, search buildings and find suicide victims on command. Dressed in a Kevlar vest, video camera and two-way radio, the small monkey would be able to get into places no officer or robot could go.
If the grant goes through, Truelove plans on learning how to train the monkey himself and keeping the sociable monkey at home, just like a K-9 officer would. He projects that $85,000 in grant money would outfit the monkey with gear and pay for veterinarian care, food and habitat for three years.
Posted by: Pappy ||
04/19/2005 11:15:00 AM ||
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#1
"Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!"
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2005 12:04 Comments ||
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#2
"What the...? There's an Organ Grinder and an armed monkey on the porch. Youse guys stay down!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/19/2005 12:11 Comments ||
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#5
LOL mojo! PETA to boycott this decision in 5, 4, 3, 2....
Posted by: BA ||
04/19/2005 13:45 Comments ||
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#6
Mesa Officer Sean Truelove, who builds and operates tactical robots for the SWAT team... is spearheading the departmentâs request to purchase and train a capuchin monkey, considered the second smartest primate to the chimpanzee.
So... chimpanzees are the smartest, capuchin monkeys are in second.... who's in third, gorillas, orangutans, or humans?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
04/19/2005 15:10 Comments ||
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Massachusetts Colony was a hotbed of sedition in the spring of 1775. Preparations for conflict with the Royal authority had been underway throughout the winter with the production of arms and munitions, the training of militia (including the minutemen), and the organization of defenses. In April, General Thomas Gage, military governor of Massachusetts decided to counter these moves by sending a force out of Boston to confiscate weapons stored in the village of Concord and capture patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock reported to be staying in the village of Lexington.
The atmosphere was tense, word of General Gage's intentions spread through Boston prompting the patriots to set up a messaging system to alert the countryside of any advance of British troops. Paul Revere arranged for a signal to be sent by lantern from the steeple of North Church - one if by land, two if by sea. On the night of April 18, 1775 the lantern's alarm sent Revere, William Dawes and other riders on the road to spread the news. The messengers cried out the alarm, awakening every house, warning of the British column making its way towards Lexington. In the rider's wake there erupted the peeling of church bells, the beating of drums and the roar of gun shots - all announcing the danger and calling the local militias to action.
In the predawn light of April 19, the beating drums and peeling bells summoned between 50 and 70 militiamen to the town green at Lexington. As they lined up in battle formation the distant sound of marching feet and shouted orders alerted them of the Redcoats' approach. Soon the British column emerged through the morning fog and the confrontation that would launch a nation began.
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, or leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2005 10:46:44 AM ||
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I attended the reenactment at Lexington as a spectator yesterday. Got the Goodwife and 3 year old up at 3 AM in order to make it down there, but well worth the effort; I recommend attending Lexington (or Concord) on Patriot's Day to anybody.
I was especially delighted that they included the detail of Paul Revere and a friend lugging a trunk full of John Hancock's secret papers across Lexington Green to a safe place, moments ahead of the arrival of the Redcoats.
In fact, I was so into it that some of the Brit reenactors had an easy time recruiting me to join their troops. (What can I say, I'm a sucker for the snazzy uniforms and cool hats -- the fact that my wife was impressed by them also might have something to do with it !)
Highly recommended reading: "Paul Revere's Ride" by David Hackett Fischer.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
04/19/2005 13:02 Comments ||
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Black smoke emerged from the Sistine Chapel chimney again Tuesday as the scarlet-robed cardinals inside failed in two more ballots to elect a new pope to build on John Paul II's legacy and heal deep rifts within the Roman Catholic Church. I posted this because of the title: those Cardinals are such failures! They must heal deep rifts! - so says all-seeing, all-knowing AP (and I'm not even Catholic)
Posted by: Spot ||
04/19/2005 8:38:06 AM ||
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#1
Wonder if the money is shifting from the 'Zinger.
#2
Hope this doesn't run in to the NFL draft on saturday....
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/19/2005 10:01 Comments ||
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Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had an op-ed piece asking whether the West was ready for a third world pope. Europe and North America have the most liberal, and older, Catholics; Latin America, Africa, and Asia have more fervent, younger, and conservative catholics.
In the flap over the Anglican appointment of Eugene Robinson, someone pointed out that conservative Anglicans in the third world are also growing, and they have faced persecution there. People who have stood up to persecution, as John Paul II did in the Soviet days and as modern Catholics and Protestants in third world countries, aren't going to be afraid to stand up to political correctness.
There are 58 EUropean and North American Cardinals. There are 57 Third World Cardinals.
#4
Why do they need to blow black smoke to show they haven't picked a pope? Couldn't they signal the same information by just not blowing the white smoke?
#7
Not all N.American Cardinals are "liberal" like the US "cafeteria Catholics" the newspapers always seem to be emphasizing. Look at Cardinal Stafford, for instance.
And this "rift" is due to peopel calling themsleves Catholic who realy are not. They were maybe baptised as infants, but they are no more Catholic than Jack Kevorkian: the hold beliefs that are counter to the Church's core teachings and counter to the Scripture. They just show up at holidays. The news organizations shoudl ask the *real* Catholics about their opinions: you know, the ones that give money to the Church, the ones who go to Mass every Sunday (it is an OBLIGATION for all Catholics to do so if able). THose are the real heart of the Church, not the excrebale lot who stand outside the teachings screeching for the Church to change to fit thier philosophy instead of going on what it has internally maintained for 2 centuries. The last time the Church tried to meet the external wishes in contravention with the Scriptures and great philosophers of the Church, it became the worldly mess it was during the late middle ages, and sparked the reformation.
Catholics for Abortion and others like them should be treated for what they are: Heretics. And excommunicated. Period. They can find another faith tradition that fits their politics if their politics are more important to them than the beleif in God's Word in the Scriptures, Christ's words, and the centuries of teaching by Christ's body on this earth (the Church). I'm sure the Anglican Church would be happy to have them.
#8
The problem here is that the MSM has No Clue on who is truly Catholic and who is not. Many that claim to be Catholic are not, and cannot be because thier core beliefs are against the teachings of the Church. They are Christians, but not Catholic - believers who believe in the basic Christian teaachgins of the Triune God, and the Scriptures, but not the Catechism and Dogma of the Cathoic Church are not called Catholic - they are called Protestants. Its all the typical self centered "Me First" of the American Left - the stance that they dont need to change, the world must change to accomodate them even if it violates someone elses' beliefs.
The MSM should be more observant - they do differentiate between all the Islamic terrorists with a fine toothed comb -why can they not do the same with Christian believers? Why tar Catholcis with a broad brush of those who stand outside the Church while claiming to be part of it? Intellectual laziness or moral prejudice on the mart of the MSM I think.
Basically, if you claim to be Catholic, there are certain beliefs you MUST have and accept. If you do not have them then you are NOT Catholic. Its that simple. You cannot be pro-choice and Catholic anymore than you could be an Atheist and Catholic. Atheists have nothing meaningful (other than denying them) to say about the tenets of Faith to believers that bears on the fundamental basis of the Church. And in turn, the Church puts the tenets of faith out there for all, but does not force itself on Athiests, so they can go on about their way; we do not convert at swordpoint like the Saracens and Islamists. These so-called "Catholics" who want gay marriage, abortion, birth control that is destructive of life, and other things like that are not Catholic in the truest sense; they are trying to make the Church bend its basis in faith to fit their politics. This would be like going to an atheist convention and forcing belief in God/gods on them and trying to call yourself an atheist none the less. When you CHOOSE to be Catholic, you accept the precepts of the faith as put forth in the Catechism and the Creed by the Holy Catholic Church. You do not try to force it to be something it isnt, not if you are being honest about your choice. If you cannot accept these precepts completely, then find a church that does allow you to have your faith in comfort. But don't bother calling yourself Catholic.
#10
Can we go back to this headline? Then I'll still be only 117 heartbeats away.
Oh well, wait'll next year. At least I don't have that long plane flight home anymore...
Posted by: Bernie Law ||
04/19/2005 17:11 Comments ||
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(04-15) 14:20 PDT LONDON, United Kingdom (AP)
A grandmother stopped an intruder from entering her home by lobbing a heavy garden gnome at him, police said Friday. Jean Collop was woken early on Tuesday morning by the sound of an intruder on the roof of her home in Wadebridge, southwest England.
"I grabbed the first thing that came to hand — one of my garden gnomes — and hurled it at him, and hit him," she recalled. She must be great at grenade throwing. Those gnomes are heavy!
"He lay there and I began to scream. I went back into the kitchen and found a rolling pin in case he came down. I didn't want to break another gnome." Come on down, Sonny, and take your medicine! Come on, big boy, try to get a piece of me! The classic weapon for a Grandma! Bean him with a rolling pin!
A neighbor alerted police who arrived shortly afterward and arrested the intruder. I have visions of Granny from The Beaverly Hillbillies.
He added: "Our usual advice would be not to get involved, but to contact the police straight away," said a spokesman for the Devon and Cornwall Police. That's part of the problem. The criminals know most people will call the police and as good as they are they can't get there fast enough. People are responsible for their own security.
"We do appreciate that in the heat of the moment people react to that situation, and if it results in a happy outcome that's great." The happy outcome is the criminal is behind bars.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/19/2005 7:46:16 AM ||
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You go, girl.
Posted by: too true ||
04/19/2005 8:44 Comments ||
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I'm surprised they didn't prosecute her. She attacked a poor, defenseless intruder with a deadly weapon, after all.
(1) Garden gnomes: Why do they hate us(tm)?
(2) That's it, we must ban all gnomes and rolling pins. When you outlaw gnomes, only the outlaws will have gnomes! (/sarcasm off/)
Posted by: BA ||
04/19/2005 9:26 Comments ||
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#5
Forward this to Martha Stewart! I'm glad Grandma
is safe- the act of crime turned out okay for her*
Keep some manure on hand as well.
ANdrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
04/19/2005 9:56 Comments ||
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#6
In France we have had a movement called the "Garden Gnome Liberation Front" who dedicated itself at kidnapping captive garden gnomes and then freeing them in their natural habitat (forest).
Had she been living in France she wouldn't have had a gnome to throw at the intruder.
#7
Luckily she threw a concrete gnome and not a Christmas fruit cake, or she'd be facing murder charges. ;)
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
04/19/2005 10:19 Comments ||
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#8
Oh, great--this means a whole new rash of "Roming Gnome" Travelocity commercials...
Seriously, though, I'm surprised this granny wasn't prosecuted--are things changing in the UK? Can you legally defend your own life, property, and family now?
Posted by: Dar ||
04/19/2005 10:26 Comments ||
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Cuban officials on Monday said that nearly 97 percent of registered voters in the country participated in municipal elections over the weekend. Justice Minister Roberto Diaz Sotolongo, who presides over the National Electoral Commission, said nearly 8.2 million Cubans, or 96.66 percent of those registered, went to the polls Sunday to elect 169 municipal assemblies across the island of 11 million. "I don't think any other country has such a high voter turnout," Cuban President Fidel Castro said in a fifteen-hour televised address after Diaz presented the results. Pointless details of Cuba's "voting" process at link.
Posted by: seafarious ||
04/19/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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96%? Slackers. Any decent totalitarian state should be able to claim at least 98%. Wotta second-rate grabass dictatorship.
"I don't think any other country has such a high voter turnout"
#2
..nearly 8.2 million Cubans, or 96.66 percent of those registered, went to the polls Sunday to elect 169 municipal assemblies across the island of 11 million.
And the best thing about it is,.....it's 100% Castro approved!!
#7
Back in his heyday Soloth Sar could bring in 100% of the vote in Cambodia any day of the week if he desired. It's got to feel a little weird to be the spokesperson making the great pronouncement of Cuban voter turnout. Doesn't the word "election" imply there is some real choice in the matter anyway? At last check, Castro doesn't offer choice beyond what he provides. It's not healthy over the long term to insist on calling a pig a beautiful dove. It's odd for the Cuban regime to insist on drawing attention to the farce when most cubans surely know the difference, despite what they think of it.
#8
I could forgive them the low turnout if there had been mass demonstrations and people chanting "Fidel! Fidel! Our blood for you!" But this is just unsat. It's like they're not even trying.
A dozen chanting men have stormed a London mosque to denounce Britain's principal umbrella group for Muslims. No it's not Pakistan it's the U.K.
The protesters at Regent's Park mosque said voting was against Islam and that Tony Blair "should go to hell". Leaders of the Muslim Council of Britain tried to restore order but were drowned out by the demonstrators. Only Salafist/Whabi Imams and Mullahs should run the world that is allen's plan according to these asshats. Everyone else has no right to ideas or speaking in public.
The group, believed to be former members of extreme group Al Muhajiroun, said Muslims who voted would commit a crime against their own faith. More Salafist tripe.
The council had been attempting to launch its manifesto for the general election.
The document does not back any particular party but seeks to set out the most important issues facing British Muslims.
However, within minutes of the launch starting the protesters barged into the mosque library, being used for the launch, and denounced the event. Because Al Muhajiroun think they are more holy than regular allenists. Just like Pakistan.
A lead speaker, who did not give his name, said: "The MCB is the mouthpiece for Tony Blair. 'Cause I said so!
"The MCB can go to hell. Anyone who votes is kafir (an unbeliever)." 'Cause I talked to allen and he told me so, (Well it wasn't allen actually, it was my Salafist Imam but since I am an allenist it's OK to lie.)
Council secretary general Iqbal Sacranie denounced the protesters, saying any decent Muslim would engage in proper debate rather than in headline-grabbing tactics. Persons like this offer a faint hope for Islam, very faint
One protester threw a punch at Mr Sacranie, but he was unhurt.
Other members of the MCB sat resigned, saying the demonstration would cause damage to the community. "..would cause damage to the community." They already have, get a clue. This is the face of Islam in the world. Punching people in the face is the natural behaviour of Salafist adherents.
Organisers of the event managed to restore order by using security guards to hustle the protesters out of the event. "...using security guards.." I hope they gave them a good pounding out back in the alley
Seeking to restore order Mr Sacranie said the demonstrators had proved that their own self-defeatist agenda would do nothing but damage British Muslims.
"These people are a minute group with the loudest voice.
'Growing cancer' The cancer is well rooted, massive radiation or chemo treatment may be the only hope of curing the patient.
"The responsibility is on us all to demonstrate what really concerns British Muslims. We must be aware of freak elements who have these views," Mr Sacranie said. Well you should turn the "freaks" into the police so they can be identified and put under police observation
"I asked these people one question: is it part of Islam to behave in such a way? They did not answer me." You are kafir, they don't need to answer you according to their Salafist/Whabi teaching.
Prospective parliamentary candidates from the three main parties who attended the event denounced the demonstrators.
Ali Miraj, the Conservative candidate for Watford, said the Muslim community must not put its head in the sand. Shouldn't that be remove their head from their...? Never mind
It had to recognise "the growing cancer" of disenchanted young Muslims, he said. A form of retroactive infanticide may be required
The discrediting and defeat of Canada's Liberal government would constitute a grand event in Canadian history: after all, the Liberals have ruled Canada almost without challenge for the past 12 years and for almost 80 of the past 109 years. But the kickback scandal could reverberate outside Canada's borders too.
Many Americans see Canada as a kind of utopian alternative to the United States: a North American democracy with socialized medicine, same-sex marriage, empty prisons, strict gun laws and no troops in Iraq.
What they don't see is how precarious political support for this alternative utopia has become among Canadian voters in recent years. From World War II until the 1980's, Liberal power rested on two political facts: its dominance in French-speaking Quebec and its popularity in the immigrant communities of urban Ontario.
Over the past two decades, however, the Liberals' Quebec-plus-the-cities strategy has worked less and less well.
As French-speaking Quebecers have become more self-confidently nationalistic, they have turned their backs on the intensifying centralism and paternalism of the Liberals. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau rewrote the Canadian Constitution in the early 80's over the objections of the Quebec government of the day. In none of the six federal elections since have the Liberals won even half of Quebec's seats in Parliament.
Luckily for the Liberals, the Conservative Party split into warring factions in 1993. Consequently, the Liberals were able to return to power that year even though they won only 37 percent of the vote.
So in 1995 a multimillion-dollar emergency national unity fund was established. The fund was justified as a way to win Quebecers away from separatism by sponsoring sporting events and cultural projects across the province. The fund failed in its ostensible purpose. But what the scheme did do was create a huge unmonitored slush fund from which key political figures in the province could be rewarded. A large portion of those rewards, the judicial inquiry in Montreal is being told, were then kicked back as campaign contributions to the Liberal Party and as payments to Liberal insiders.
Some Liberals defend the scheme as a noble plan gone wrong, an attempt to beat back separatism that was unfortunately corrupted by a few bad apples. But when so many apples go bad, you have to suspect that the barrel is rotten.
Unlike their supposed analogues, the Democrats in the United States or Great Britain's Labor Party, Canada's Liberals are not a party built around certain policies and principles. They are instead what political scientists call a brokerage party, similar to the old Italian Christian Democrats or India's Congress Party: a political entity without fixed principles or policies that exploits the power of the central state to bribe or bully incompatible constituencies to join together to share the spoils of government.
As countries modernize, they tend to leave brokerage parties behind. Very belatedly, that moment of maturity may now be arriving in Canada. Americans may lose their illusions about my native country; Canadians will gain true multiparty democracy and accountability in government. It's an exchange that is long past due.
David Frum, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, is a columnist for The National Post, a Canadian newspaper.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2005 11:41:22 AM ||
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Bananna Republics to the south, Popsicle Republic to the north...what's happened to the neighborhood?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/19/2005 12:58 Comments ||
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Unlike their supposed analogues, the Democrats in the United States or Great Britain's Labor Party, Canada's Liberals are not a party built around certain policies and principles. They are instead what political scientists call a brokerage party, similar to the old Italian Christian Democrats or India's Congress Party: a political entity without fixed principles or policies that exploits the power of the central state to bribe or bully incompatible constituencies to join together to share the spoils of government.
I don't see that being very different from today's Dems. They don't have to form coalitions within the government, but they are constantly forming/rallying/bullyragging their coalition of special interests in order to get themselves elected. A distinction without a difference? Perhaps.
President Robert Mugabe on Monday marked 25 years of independence by telling the West to mind their own elections and leave Zimbabwe alone. "Our elections have not needed Anglo-American validation. They are validated by fellow Africans, and friendly countries from the Third World," Mugabe told thousands gathered at a sports stadium for the independence celebrations. "That is where we get justice, not from Europe neither indeed from America." "We never agitate to observe their elections and therefore let them keep away from our affairs," Mugabe said. Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party won victory in elections last month that the opposition said was rigged while the United States, Britain and other western governments declared that the parliamentary vote was neither free nor fair. Mugabe, who has been in power since independence 25 years ago, also defended his land reform program launched five years ago that saw some 4,000 commercial farms seized and handed over to landless blacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2005 00:00:00 ||
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"25 years of independence"
Award yourself another medal, Bob. You need one like Chavez has - kinda looks like a Shimano Rear Derailleur.
#3
One of his top AIDS was nicknamed Hitler. He's dead and gone. You have to give Mugabe credit for a full head of dyed black hair. Heps one's image as African strongman. Heps him casting his own personal voodoo/hypnotism onto his subjects
#4
This jerk should be the 4th member of the Axis of Evil. I can't help but think Colonialism was better for everyone. The indigenous just can't govern. Look at all of Africa, Pakland, Afghan the rest of the Stans and most Arab Regimes. The only ones who seem to have it right is the Indians. Why we haven't moved to increse their power more I have no idea.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Cuban officials on Monday said that nearly 97 percent of registered voters in the country participated in municipal elections over the weekend. Justice Minister Roberto Diaz Sotolongo, who presides over the National Electoral Commission, said nearly 8.2 million Cubans, or 96.66 percent of those registered, went to the polls Sunday to elect 169 municipal assemblies across the island of 11 million. "I don't think any other country has such a high voter turnout," Cuban President Fidel Castro said in a 
President 
