I came to Carthage, where I found myself in the midst of a hissing cauldron of lusts. I had not yet fallen in love, but I was in love with the idea of it, and this feeling that something was missing made me despise myself for not being more anxious to satisfy the need. I began to look around for some object for my love, since I badly wanted to love something. —St. Augustine, Confessions
Here is a big surprise for you, kiddies. Female "sexual freedom" is really nothing more than the triumph of the male orgasm. Males get what they have always wanted - females without morals - and the females get mental disorders!
Ain't modernity grand?
From OpinionJournal: 'Unprotected'
Sexual freedom is damaging to students. But health officials must not judge.
By Danielle Crittenden
"My patients were hurting, they looked to me and what could I do?" So confesses an anonymous campus physician in the beginning of her startling memoir. Over the course of 200 pages, she tells story after story about suffering young women. If these women were ailing from eating disorders, or substance abuse, or almost any other medical or psychological problem, their university health departments would spring to their aid. "Cardiologists hound patients about fatty diets and insufficient exercise. Pediatricians encourage healthy snacks, helmets and discussion of drugs and alcohol. Everyone condemns smoking and tanning beds."
Unfortunately, the young women described in "Unprotected" have fallen victim to one of the few personal troubles that our caring professions refuse to treat or even acknowledge: They have been made miserable by their "sexual choices." And on that subject, few modern doctors dare express a word of judgment.
Thus the danger of sexually transmitted diseases is too often overlooked in the lifestyle choices of the young women at the unnamed college where the author works. But the dangers go far beyond the biological. A girl named Heather, for instance, has succumbed to an intense bout of depression. The doctor presses her to think of possible causes. She can't think of anything. Then she says: "Well, I can think of one thing: since Thanksgiving, I've had a 'friend with benefits.' And actually I'm kind of confused about that."
Yeah, baby! "Benefits"!
Heather continues: "I want to spend more time with him, and do stuff like go shopping or see a movie. That would make it a friendship for me. But he says no, because if we do those things, then in his opinion we'd have a relationship--and that's more than he wants. And I'm confused, because it seems like I don't get the 'friend' part, but he still gets the 'benefits.'" It finally dawns on her: "I'm really unhappy about that. It's hard to be with him and then go home and be alone."
It is not that females are less intelligent than males, they are simply more vulnerable.
The feminist thugs (male and female) reject both possibilities. Most of them refuse to admit modern females are suffering from sex at all. And those that do merely prescribe the psychological equivalent of "walk it off".
Heather is not an unrepresentative case. The author meets patients who cannot sleep, who mutilate themselves, who exhibit every symptom of psychic distress. Often they don't even know why they feel the way they do. As these girls see it, they are acting like sensible, responsible adults: They practice "safe sex" and limit their partners to a mere two or three per year.
Only two or three? What in the name of Huge "Tiny" Hefner is going on here?
They are following the best advice that modern psychology can offer. They are enjoying their sexual freedom, experimenting, discovering themselves. They can't understand what might be wrong. And yet something is wrong. As the author observes, surveys have found that "sexually active teenage girls were more than three times as likely to be depressed, and nearly three times as likely to have had a suicide attempt, than girls who were not sexually active."
Ahh...modern psychology. Can't you just smell the heady mixture of testoterone and brimstone, ladies?
SEX IS DEATH, baby.
And should all this joyous experimentation end in externally verifiable effects--should girls find themselves afflicted with a disease or an unwanted pregnancy--then (and only then) do their campus "women's health" departments go to work for them. They will book the abortion, hand out a condom or prescribe a course of antibiotic treatment. And then they will pat their young patients on the shoulder and send them back into the world, without an admonishing word about the conduct that got them into trouble in the first place.
Maybe they aren't fornicating enough! Did the neocon nazis at the WSJ and this "doctor" (who may very well be a church-goer) ever think that these hot babes may need to pleasure more men? Maybe they are suffering from some medieval guilt thingee and clintonizing a couple dozen guys a year (instead of a paltry two or three) would smack down whatever bit of conscience is keeping these man-pleasers from doing their darwinistic duty!
Oh, and don't forget the lesbians. They need screwed up girls, too.
"Look at how different health decisions are valued," the author advises. "When Stacey avoids fatty foods she is being health conscious. . . . When she stays away from alcohol, she is being responsible and resisting her impulses. For all these she is endorsed for keeping long-term goals in mind instead of giving in to peer pressure and immediate gratification. But if she makes a conscious decision to delay sexual activity, she's simply 'not sexually active'--given no praise or endorsement."
If anything, the more "transgressive" the behavior, the greater the reluctance to judge. On a University of Michigan Web site, "'external water sports' is described as a type of 'safer sex.'" (The phrase has nothing to do with a swimming pool.) At Virginia Commonwealth University, "cross-dressing is called a 'recreational activity.' " The sexual advice blog "Go Ask Alice," sponsored by Columbia University, provides helpful hints to students on ménages à trois ("Nothing wrong with giving it a try, so long as you're all practicing safer sex"), swing-club etiquette and phone sex ("Getting Started").
When the author treats Brian, a young homosexual man who is engaged in "high-risk behavior with multiple people," she discovers that, by policy, she cannot insist that he be tested for HIV. And if he were to submit to voluntary testing, and the tests were to prove positive, she would not be allowed to report this information to the local department of health--although of course she would be required to do so if he had contracted any other communicable disease. Isn't promoting health, even saving lives, "worth the risk of feeling judged?" Apparently not.
No.
You mean buggery is not the pinnacle of mental and physical health?
Doogie Howser, call your office.
And yet, not all judgments are to be avoided. The author of this vivid and urgent book has published it anonymously precisely because she fears that if her employers and colleagues heard her unwelcome views, they would judge her negatively--and punish her, personally and professionally. The anonymity, however understandable, is a shame: Her cause could use a visible and vocal crusader.
Ms. Crittenden is the author of "What our Mothers Didn't Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes The Modern Woman." "Unprotected" is available for sale at the OpinionJournal bookstore here.
We are well on our way to destroying our women, boys. Sure, it may be fun for ten minutes or so, but what do you do after that? We all have to go to sleep eventually, and most of us are not rich enough to hire boyguards or quick enough to get the gun from under the pillow in time to stop every revenge-fueled psychotic female we have created...
Keep it in your pants and everybody wins.
Part 1: SEX IS DEATH. (Stories for boys) is here.
Part 2: SEX IS DEATH. (Distaff death) is here.
Part 3: SEX IS DEATH. (Joyously dispensing death) is here.
Part 4: SEX IS DEATH. (Sex is depression) is here.
Part 5: SEX IS DEATH. (When self-pleasuring becomes self-destruction) is here.
Part 6: SEX IS DEATH. (Sex is theft) is here.
Part 7: SEX IS DEATH. (A review of Bareback Mountain) is here.
Part 8: SEX IS DEATH. (What is the ultimate penalty?) is here.
Part 9: SEX IS DEATH. (Haven from reality) is here.
Part 10: SEX IS DEATH. (Sin-redemption-reasons-reason) is here.
Part 11: SEX IS DEATH. (Mommy loves you) is here.
Part 12: SEX IS DEATH. (George Gilder offers a clue) is here.
Part 13: SEX IS DEATH. (Post-killem depression) is here.
Part 14: SEX IS DEATH. (Whither womanhood) is here.
Part 15: SEX IS DEATH. (Saving psychology 1) is here.
Part 16: SEX IS DEATH. (Saving psychology 2) is here.
Part 17: SEX IS DEATH. (Fear of the boomers) is here.
Part 18: SEX IS DEATH. (The battle continues apace) is here.
Part 19: SEX IS DEATH. (Hot for teacher) is here.
Part 20: SEX IS DEATH. (Kids do the darndest things) is here.
Part 21: SEX IS DEATH. (Defects) is here.
Part 22: SEX IS DEATH. (Privates' privacy) is here.
Part 23: SEX IS DEATH. (National Condom Week) is here.
Part 24: SEX IS DEATH. (Wegenics) is here.
Part 25: SEX IS DEATH. (White wedding) is here.
Part 26: SEX IS DEATH. (Literally) is here.
Part 27: SEX IS DEATH. (Can't get me no satisfaction) is here.
Part 28: SEX IS DEATH. (Wrestle with mania) is here.
Part 29: SEX IS DEATH. (Press one for death/Presione uno para la muerte) is here.
Part 30: SEX IS DEATH. (Raunch culture) is here.
Part 31: SEX IS DEATH. (Gimme some of that sweet zombie lovin') is here.
Part 32: SEX IS DEATH. (The devil made me eat my baby) is here.
Part 33: SEX IS DEATH. (Mind control = womb control) is here.
Part 34: SEX IS DEATH. (The expense of playing with yourself) is here.
Part 35: SEX IS DEATH. (You can't always get what you want) is here.
Part 36: SEX IS DEATH. (Whom does a master serve?) is here.
Part 37: SEX IS DEATH. (Shootin' 5 for 8) is here.
Part 38: SEX IS DEATH. (Being a never-wed mom of four and an illegal alien is no picnic either) is here.
Part 39: SEX IS DEATH. (Duane indulges himself then goes out in a blaze of cowardice) is here.
Part 40: SEX IS DEATH. (The line is not fine at all) is here.
Part 41: SEX IS DEATH. (Worse than homelessness) is here.
Part 42: SEX IS DEATH. (Attack of the hooker dolls) is here.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
SEX IS DEATH. ('Benefits' for men - death for women)
Fyodor's Pro Football Picks of the Week.
1) The guys who set the lines are professionals. Their job is to make each game look as attractive as possible to everyone. That way they even out the amount of money bet on each side.
Instant translation: The house wins no matter who wins. That's why people get into the gambling business.
2) I am just a fan. I won't even keep track of these picks week to week if it gets too embarrassing.
3) There is no such thing as "inside information". Especially in the pros.
4) If those idiot touts on tv and in the paper were any good, they wouldn't go public with their genius. They'd sit at Harrah's sports book from open to close and then go out and buy $2,000 an hour hookers who dress like high school girls.
5) Gambling is stupid. You cannot win.
That being said, here are my NFL picks for this week.
Thursday 12/14
San Francisco (+10) at Seattle
10 seems too big to me, but Seattle is the better team playing at home. Take the Seahawks to cover.
FINAL: 49ers 24 Seahawks 14 - Fyodor loses! (The Greatest Team Never To Win A Super Bowl came up really small at home. And, BTW, who builds a stadium in Seattle without a roof?)
Saturday 12/16
Dallas (-3.5) at Atlanta
I think Mr. Vick is due for a DOWN week, and I hope Parcells will run the ball. Pick Dallas.
FINAL: Cowboys 38 Falcons 28 - Fyodor wins!
Sunday 12/17
Cleveland (+11) at Baltimore
Fyodor's Opposite Pick of the Week! I don't care how good the Ravens are playing! A double digit favorite? No way. Obviously, I should take the Browns. The Opposite? Take the Ravens at home.
FINAL: Ravens 27 Browns 17 - Fyodor loses! (Ack!)
Detroit (+5) at Green Bay
The Crummy Game of the Week! Favre comes out of retirement to bravely lead the Pack to cover the spread.
FINAL: Packers 17 Lions 0 - Fyodor wins!
Houston (+11.5) at New England
The Texans are improved, the Patriots are down, and Brady may be ailing. The number is just too big. Take Houston and the points.
FINAL: Patriots 40 Texans 7 - Fyodor loses! (What was I thinking?)
Jacksonville (-3.5) at Tennessee
This should be a good game. I'll go with Jacksonville's running game over the improving Vince Young. Pick the Jaguars.
FINAL: Titans 24 Jaguars 17 - Fyodor loses! (Turnovers kill, kiddies.)
Miami (+1) at Buffalo
I'll go with the Dolphins in the balmy Buffalo sun.
FINAL: Bills 21 Dolphins 0 - Fyodor loses!
NY Jets (+3) at Minnesota
I think the Jets know they have a great opportunity here. Give me NY and the points.
FINAL: Jets 26 Vikings 13 - Fyodor wins!
Pittsburgh (-2.5) at Carolina
This game is off many boards because of the Panthers' QB problems. Since there is no money involved, I'll pick the Steelers to cover.
FINAL: Steelers 37 Panthers 3 - Fyodor wins! (NOW they start to play!)
Tampa Bay (+13.5) at Chicago
Start Hester at QB! Pick the Bears.
FINAL: Bears 34 Buccaneers 31 - Fyodor loses! (Are the Bears packing it in while anticipating the playoffs?)
Washington (+9.5) at New Orleans
I'll take the Saints to cover at home.
FINAL: Redskins 16 Saints 10 - Fyodor loses! (Drew Brees and friends came up really small.)
Denver (-3) at Arizona
I'll take the Cardinals (shudder!) to cover at home.
FINAL: Broncos 37 Cardinals 20 - Fyodor loses! (Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!)
Philadelphia (+5) at NY Giants
Take the Eagles and the points to upset the New Yorkers!
FINAL: Eagles 36 Giants 22 - Fyodor wins! (If it weren't for all the miserable losses, I would be proud of this pick.)
St. Louis (+2) at Oakland
Talk about crummy games! I'll pick the Raiders because they are at home.
FINAL: Rams 20 Raiders 0 - Fyodor loses! (Oakland gets shut out for the third time this season!)
Kansas City (+9) at San Diego
The spread is too big, even for the Chiefs as a road dog against a good team. Take KC and the points.
FINAL: Chargers 20 Chiefs 9 - Fyodor loses!
Monday 12/18
Cincinnati (+3.5) at Indianapolis
The Colts bounce back. Pick Indy.
FINAL: Colts 34 Bengals 16 - Fyodor wins!
Please pray for the recovery of Senator Johnson of South Dakota.
No politics allowed here on this one, kiddies. Also pray for his family.
AP: S.D. Sen. Johnson in critical condition
Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson was in critical condition Thursday after late-night brain surgery, creating political drama about which party will control the Senate next month if he is unable to continue in office.
Johnson suffered from bleeding in the brain caused by a congenital arteriovenous malformation, the U.S. Capitol physician said, describing the surgery as succesful.
"The senator is recovering without complication," the physician, Adm. John Eisold, said. "It is premature to determine whether further surgery will be required or to assess any long-term prognosis."
Lamar Hunt, Requiescat in pace.
Mr. Hunt was one of the true giants of twentieth century American sport. He will be missed.
Lamar Hunt, the pro sports visionary who owned the Kansas City Chiefs and came up with the term "Super Bowl," died Wednesday night. He was 74.
Hunt, a founder of the American Football League and one of the driving forces behind the AFL-NFL merger, died at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas of complications from prostate cancer, Chiefs spokesman Bob Moore said.
Hunt battled cancer for several years and was hospitalized the day before Thanksgiving with a partially collapsed lung. Doctors discovered that the cancer had spread, and Hunt had been under heavy sedation since last week.
"He was a founder. He was the energy, really, that put together half of the league, and then he was the key person in merging the two leagues together," said Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Hunt's neighbor. "You'd be hard-pressed to find anybody that's made a bigger contribution (to the NFL) than Lamar Hunt."
Carl Peterson, the Chiefs' president and general manager, called Hunt "arguably the greatest sportsman of this last half-century, although he never sought fame or recognition for the improvements and changes he brought to the world's sports institutions."
"His was a creative, constructive and loving life not nearly long enough and we will likely never see one like it again," Peterson said.
The son of Texas oilman H.L. Hunt, Lamar Hunt grew up in Dallas and attended a private boys' prep school in Pennsylvania, serving as captain of the football team in his senior year. His love of sports led to his nickname, "Games."
Hunt played football at SMU, but never rose above third string. His modest achievements on the field were dwarfed by his accomplishments as an owner and promoter of teams in professional football, basketball, baseball, tennis, soccer and bowling.
Hunt's business dealings were also the stuff of headlines. Hunt didn't need to make money -- his father was an oil wildcatter who was often referred to as the richest man in the world. But he tried to build on his father's wealth.
Along with two brothers, Hunt tried to corner the silver market in 1979 and 1980. Their oil investments also soured in the 1980s. Some estimated the family's losses in the billions.
Hunt also suffered setbacks in the world of pro sports, but overcame them.
When NFL owners rebuffed Hunt's attempt to buy a franchise and move it to Dallas, Hunt -- ignoring his father's advice -- founded the AFL. He owned one of the AFL's eight original teams from the inaugural 1960 season, the Dallas Texans.
The Texans, however, struggled in head-to-head competition with the expansion Dallas Cowboys of the NFL. Convinced that both franchises would suffer as long as Dallas remained a two-team city, Hunt moved the Texans to Kansas City in 1963.
"I looked around and figured Kansas City could be a success," he told The Associated Press. "By our fourth or fifth year, we started to succeed. The Cowboys of course did very well too."
Hunt realized his dream of becoming an NFL owner after the two leagues reached a merger deal in 1966.
In 1967, the Chiefs lost the first AFL-NFL championship -- it was then called the World Championship Game. Three years later, the Chiefs beat the Minnesota Vikings for the title.
By then, the championship game had been christened the Super Bowl. Hunt came up with the name while watching his children play with a SuperBall.
In 1972, Hunt became the first AFL figure to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and each year the Lamar Hunt Trophy goes to the winner of the NFL's American conference.
Hunt long campaigned to let teams other than Dallas and Detroit play at home on Thanksgiving Day. To honor his effort, the NFL scheduled a third game on the holiday this year -- in Kansas City. Hunt missed it, though, because he was in the hospital and couldn't get the game on TV.
For several years, Hunt also owned the minor-league baseball Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs, but his 1964 effort to bring major league baseball to the Dallas-area failed. Eight years later, the Washington franchise moved to suburban Arlington and became the Texas Rangers.
In 1967, Hunt was one of 10 original founding partners in the Chicago Bulls basketball franchise. He was the last remaining original owner.
Also in 1967, Hunt started the first organized effort at a pro tennis tour with World Championship Tennis, and in 1968 he helped bring pro soccer to the United States with his Dallas Tornado of the old North American Soccer League.
More recently, Hunt and his sons owned Hunt Sports Group, which manages Major League Soccer franchises in Dallas, Kansas City and Columbus, Ohio.
In 1969, Hunt tried to buy Alcatraz, the island in San Francisco Bay that once housed a federal prison, and develop it with a tourist park and shopping destination. The idea died amid local protest.
Hunt created Worlds of Fun, a $50 million amusement park, and Oceans of Fun, a $7 million water recreation park, in Kansas City. He opened a pro bowling arena in Dallas -- actress Jayne Mansfield was the opening-night draw.
Hunt was part of H.L. Hunt's "first family" -- the wildcatter had 15 children by three women. Despite huge losses in the silver and oil markets, family members kept much of their wealth protected by elaborate trusts, and their names have long dotted lists of the wealthiest Americans.
Counting pro football, Hunt has been inducted into eight halls of fame, including ones for soccer and tennis as well as the Texas Business Hall of Fame and the Kansas City Business Hall of Fame.
Hunt is survived by wife Norma, children Lamar Jr., Sharron Munson, Clark and Daniel; and 13 grandchildren. (Thanks to Sports Illustrated for this obituary.)
Paul Arizin, Requiescat in pace.
It is another sad day in Philadelphia, for the Father of the Jump Shot has left us. Paul Arizin, a Catholic gentleman and one of the fifty greatest NBA players of all time, died yesterday.
Paul Arizin, a cowlicked, asthmatic South Philadelphia native who wasn't good enough to make his high school team yet transformed himself into an NBA legend, died in his sleep Tuesday night at 78.
Mr. Arizin's Hall of Fame career, which included an 85-point performance at Villanova plus 10 All-Star Game appearances, two scoring titles and an NBA crown with the Philadelphia Warriors, took place entirely in and around his hometown.
When owner Eddie Gottlieb moved the Warriors to San Francisco after the 1961-62 season, Mr. Arizin retired rather than relocate. But the 6-foot, 4-inch forward's love of basketball persisted, and he played several more seasons with the Camden Bullets of the semi-pro Eastern League.
"It's not very often you get a chance to interact as an adult with someone who had been your hero as a youngster, but I got that opportunity when Paul and I played on the Camden Bullets," Sonny Hill, an icon of the local basketball community, said yesterday.
"I used to listen to Warriors game on the radio," Hill added, "and I just identified with Paul Arizin. It was an era of set shots and one-hand stabs. He was one of the first to use the jump shot. And to this day, Paul Arizin's jump shot remains one of the classic jump shots in NBA history."
In his 10 years with the Warriors, who played their home games in two now-vanished buildings - Convention Hall and the Arena - he not only established himself as one of the franchise's great stars but played alongside many of its others.
His first pro team included Jumpin' Joe Fulks, believed to be the originator of the jump shot Mr. Arizin would master. Center Neil Johnston joined the Warriors a year later. Subsequently, Mr. Arizin teamed with several of his peers in this basketball-rich city's hoops pantheon - Wilt Chamberlain, Tom Gola and Guy Rodgers.
Now only Gola, who is in poor health in Florida, remains from that potent Philly foursome.
"Paul Arizin was also one of Wilt's idols," Hill said.
A prototype of today's versatile small forwards, Mr. Arizin averaged 24.2 points a game in leading the Warriors to the NBA title in the 1955-56 season. He was the young league's top scorer in 1951-52 (25.4 points per game) and 1956-57 (25.6 ppg.).
He averaged 20 points or more in nine of his 10 seasons and finished with a career scoring average of 22.8. In 1961, he became the third NBA player to reach the 15,000-point mark. (Bob Cousy and Dolph Schayes preceded him.) He also averaged better than eight rebounds a game and was the MVP of the 1951-52 All-Star Game.
"I just loved playing basketball," Mr. Arizin said in a 1998 interview. "It's for me to believe that I'm in Hall of Fames with people like Wilt because I never ever imagined that was possible when I started playing in all those dark little gyms."
The Marines drafted him in 1952, and he missed the next two NBA seasons. During his absence, the Warriors nosedived, finishing with records of 12-57 and 29-43.
The spry, lanky youngster from St. Monica's Parish took up the game relatively late. Playing in church and intramural leagues in low-ceilinged city gymnasiums that often doubled as dance floors, he developed a low-arced, one-handed jump shot that was exceedingly rare in that pre-World War II era.
"It was strange how I developed it," he said. "Because they held dances in those gyms, the floors would be very slippery. I couldn't get my feet set under me to try some of my shots, so I started shooting with my feet off the floor."
The son of a French father and an Irish mother, Mr. Arizin went out for the basketball team his senior year at La Salle High School. But after a few games, legendary Explorers coach Obie O'Brien, one of the winningest coaches in Catholic League history, cut him.
Grown to his full 6-foot-4 height, Mr. Arizin enrolled at Villanova in 1946 to study chemistry. He did not try out for the basketball team until his sophomore season. It was not long until coach Al Severance and everyone else were wondering what took him so long.
The frenetic, offensive-minded player sportswriters dubbed "Pitchin' Paul" had an unstoppable weapon in his jump shot, one his leaping ability allowed him to get off whenever he wanted. Though he always preferred the jumper, he could drive hard - and often acrobatically - to the basket and was a dogged rebounder.
According to his biography on NBA.com, he was "an early version of Michael Jordan or Sidney Moncrief."
The night of Feb. 12, 1949, in a game against an overmatched Naval Air Material Center team, Mr. Arizin scored 85 points, still a record for a Villanova player or any Philadelphia-area collegian, in a 117-25 victory.
Mr. Arizin scored 735 points as a Wildcats senior, five off the national record, and averaged 25.3 points, the second-highest ever at the time. Villanova went 25-4 and the Sporting News named him its college player of the year. Eventually, the school retired his No. 11, the number he also would wear as a professional.
"Paul Arizin was the most dignified, classy and humble legend I've ever met," Villanova head coach Jay Wright said. "He is adored and respected by anyone who has touched Villanova basketball."
Pro teams then had first crack at players from their geographical area and Gottlieb's Warriors made him their territorial draft pick in 1950.
As smooth as he was on the court, Mr. Arizin always gave the impression of being a blue-collar player. He dove for balls, banged with defenders and, because of his asthmatic condition, wheezed and grunted throughout games.
He was named one of the top players in NBA history on the league's 25th anniversary. On the league's 50th celebration in 1996, the NBA selected Mr. Arizin as one of its 50 greatest players.
In 1977, he was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. And even though his Villanova career predated the Big Five, that organization placed him in its Hall of Fame as well.
Mr. Arizin, said his son, Mike, a former basketball star at Cardinal O'Hara High, lived in the same house in Springfield, Delaware County, for 52 years. He began working part-time for IBM while he was still a player in 1960 and continued with the company until his retirement in 1985.
"My dad was a daily Mass-goer since his boyhood... every day, come rain or shine, work or travel... every day," Mike Arizin said.
Mr. Arizin, a longtime resident of Springfield, remained a presence on the local basketball scene. He spoke at Chamberlain's funeral in 1999 and was a regular at Villanova basketball events.
In April, he presented the award named in his honor to Wildcats' guard Kyle Lowry at the school's 2006 basketball banquet.
He is survived by his wife, Maureen, five children, Michael, Alicia, Tim, Dennis and Christopher, and 14 grandchildren.
There will be funeral visitation at St. Kevin's Roman Catholic Church in Springfield at 6 p.m. tomorrow, followed by a Mass at 7:30 p.m. There will be a private burial Saturday. (Thanks to Philly.com for this obituary.)
Please help provide Ranger rosaries for Catholic troops.
For more information, call 410-280-1448 or St. Mary’s Ranger
visit www.rangerrosary.com.
Send donations to:
Rosary St. Mary AdvancementOffice
109 Duke of Gloucester St.
Annapolis, MD 21401
The Catholic Review (via Catholic.org): Ranger rosaries in short supply for U.S. soldiers
Annapolis, Maryland - What Pat Evans calls the “most powerful weapon” American servicemen could ever carry is failing to make its way into the hands of many military men and women in Iraq.
The “weapon” is a spiritual one designed to bring peace to a troubled region and protection to soldiers - the rosary.
Ms. Evans knows there aren’t enough of the time-honored Catholic prayer beads being shipped because she has coordinated a rosary- making guild at St. Mary in Annapolis for nearly four years that has produced 70,000 military-style “ranger rosaries” - an impressive number, but nowhere near what military chaplains tell her is needed.
“From the letters I receive from military chaplains, I could probably send a thousand rosaries (every week),” said Ms. Evans, noting that it costs about $1 to make and ship each rosary.
“We only have a budget of $20,000, so we just can’t do it,” she said. “We need more people to help us.”
There are 25 St. Mary’s parishioners who make and send about 400 rosaries every week - mostly to chaplains in Iraq, but also to chaplains in Afghanistan, stateside training bases, the Navy fleet and military hospitals.
Some parishioners of the Church of the Resurrection in Ellicott City, Md., and St. John the Evangelist in Columbia, Md., have also helped produce the popular rosaries - as have some Catholics across the country, but Ms. Evans would like to see more Maryland parishes step up.
Father John Kingsbury, C.Ss.R., St. Mary’s pastor, has proposed expanding the ministry beyond his parish to include other faith communities surrounding Annapolis or the entire eastern vicariate. He is looking for a parishioner to coordinate the expanded ministry.
Ranger rosaries were the idea of Frank V. Ristaino, a St. Mary parishioner and sergeant in the Maryland Army National Guard.
During training as a young army recruit in 1981, Sgt. Ristaino used parachute cord and beads in land navigation drills. Every 72 paces, he pulled one of the beads down his cord to indicate that he had walked 100 meters. It was during one of those drills when it struck him that the cord and beads would be perfect for a rosary.
Made of olive green parachute cord, black plastic beads and a black plastic crucifix, the ranger rosaries include no metal parts that would reflect light or make rattling sounds in the field.
St. Mary’s parishioners also make similar sailor rosaries with gray parachute cords and royal blue beads. They pray for the men and women who will hold the beads, and the rosaries are blessed by the Redemptorist priests of the parish before they are shipped.
“I think some people are unhappy with the war and sometimes they forget the warrior,” said Ms. Evans. “I can’t tell you how many letters I receive from chaplains who say their men don’t feel forgotten when they have one of our rosaries in their hands.”
Some letters Ms. Evans has received tell how soldiers hang the rosaries in their humvees and tents. Others recount how servicemen use them in prayer in the field or while recovering from wounds in the hospital.
“I know firsthand how much the ranger rosary is loved by the American soldier,” wrote Chaplain Christian T. Connelly in one of Ms. Evans’ treasured letters. “Once they get it in their hands, it is a powerful reminder of their Catholic faith and the love that our Lord and his Blessed Mother had for each of us no matter where harm’s way may take us.”
A U.S. Army chaplain in Baghdad said he uses the sturdy beads to pray as many as 50 mysteries of the rosary a day when he goes on a mission with his troops.
“Do you know that we are one of only two units in Iraq that has never been attacked?” he wrote. “Please continue to pray and Our Lady will continue to protect us.”For more information, call 410-280-1448 or
visit www.rangerrosary.com.
Send donations
to:
St. Mary’s Ranger
Rosary
St. Mary
Advancement Office
109
Duke of Gloucester St.
Annapolis, MD 21401.
Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.
Today is the feast of St. John of the Cross, priest, Doctor of the Church, Carmelite mystic and poet. (See The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross.) Pray for us, all you angels and saints.
Today's reading for the Feast of St. John of the Cross is 1 Corinthians 2:1-10.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 37:3-4, 5-6, 30-31.
Today's Gospel reading is Luke 14: 25-33.
Everyday links:
The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTN
National Coalition of Clergy and Laity (dedicated to action for a genuine Catholic Restoration)
The Catholic Calendar Page for Today
ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome
Just in case you are wondering what exactly Catholics believe, here is
The Apostles Creed
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.
Memorare
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.
St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.
Anima Christi
Soul of Christ, sanctify me; Body of Christ, save me; Blood of Christ, inebriate me; Water from Christ's side, wash me; Passion of Christ, strengthen me; O good Jesus, hear me; Within Thy wounds hide me; Suffer me not to be separated from Thee; From the malicious enemy defend me; In the hour of my death call me; And bid me come unto Thee; That I may praise Thee with Thy saints and with Thy angels Forever and ever. Amen.
Prayer to St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire
Dear St. Anthony, you became a Franciscan with the hope of shedding your blood for Christ. In God's plan for you, your thirst for martyrdom was never to be satisfied. St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire, pray that I may become less afraid to stand up and be counted as a follower of the Lord Jesus. Intercede also for my other intentions. (Name them.)
Prayer To Saint Michael The Archangel
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the divine power, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
Prayer to End Abortion
Lord God, I thank You today for the gift of my life, and for the lives of all my brothers and sisters. I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion, yet I rejoice that you have conquered death by the resurrection of Your Son. I am ready to do my part to end abortion. Today I commit myself never to be silent, never to be passive, and never to be forgetful of the unborn. I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement, and never stop defending life until all my brothers and sisters are protected and our nation once again becomes a nation with liberty and justice, not just for some, but for all. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Prayer For Vocations
Send forth your Spirit, Lord, into the hearts of your faithful people, that we may be conscious of our vocation to holiness and sevice to others. Grant that many of us may dedicate ourselves to You through the priesthood and the religious life.We pray especially for the needs of our own parish and diocese. Grant that we may always have sufficient good and holy priests, and dedicated Sisters to serve our commumities.We pray, too, for religious orders; that generous men may join them to become zealous missionaries in preaching the Gospel in word and action, especially to the poor and abandoned.We make this prayer through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Redeemer. Amen.
Prayer Before The Crucifix
Behold, O kind and gentle Jesus, I kneel before Thee and pray that Thou would impress upon my heart the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, with true repentance for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment. At the same time, with sorrow I meditate on Thy five precious wounds, having in mind the words which David spoke in prophecy: "They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones."
Divine Praises
Blessed be God.
Blessed be His Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be His most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be His most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints.
May the Heart of Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament
Be praised, adored and loved
With grateful affection at every moment
In all the tabernacles of the world
Even to the end of time. Amen.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Archaeology is cool.
Catholic Times: Vatican officials say they found St. Paul's tomb in Roman basilica
After years of archaeological work, Vatican officials announced they have identified the tomb of St. Paul beneath the Rome basilica dedicated to the apostle.
Bloomberg.com: Afghan Gold Treasure, Hidden in War, Goes Public in Paris Show
A year before the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan in 1979, archaeologists in the north of the country dug up a trove of delicate artifacts from the first century A.D. that soon became known as the ``Hoard of Bactrian Gold.''
Golly, I'd have thought the ozone hole would have burned that sucker to the ground...
...or "global warming" would have washed it into the sea by now.
Roto-Reuters: Antarctic hut eerily intact
A century-old shelter still looks the way it did for some famous South Pole explorers.
Peter Boyle, Requiescat in pace.
Another Philadelphia native! My favorite movie of his was The Dream Team.
Peter Boyle, best known to today's television viewers as Raymond's cranky father on "Everybody Loves Raymond," has died. He was 71.
The actor died Tuesday evening at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He had been suffering from multiple myeloma and heart disease, said his publicist, Jennifer Plante.
Boyle, whose lovably rude exclamation of "Holy Crap!" was his signature line on the hit sitcom, had a long career in Hollywood.
A member of the Christian Brothers (!!!!!!!! - F.G.) religious order who turned to acting, the tall, prematurely balding Boyle gained notice in the title role of the 1970 sleeper hit "Joe," playing an angry, murderous bigot at odds with the emerging hippie youth culture.
Briefly typecast in tough, irate roles, Boyle began to escape the image as Robert Redford's campaign manager in "The Candidate" and left it behind entirely after "Young Frankenstein," Mel Brooks' 1974 send-up of horror films. The latter movie's defining moment came when Gene Wilder, as scientist Frederick Frankenstein, introduced his creation to an upscale audience. Boyle, decked out in tails, performed a song-and-dance routine to the Irving Berlin classic "Puttin' On the Ritz."
From The It Couldn't Possibly Happen Here Department:
Or, Babykilling über alles!
The Scotsman: Suspicious baby deaths 'feed stem-cells market'
New-born babies who died in suspicious circumstances in the Ukraine are being used as a source for stem cells, a campaign group has claimed.
The group has passed on video footage it believes will back up its long-held suspicions to the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, which is investigating the claims.
The National Ukrainian Federation of Multiple-child Families triggered international attention when it suggested last year that organs and possibly live babies were being taken and sold through Ukrainian hospitals.
It reports that some mothers fear healthy babies were taken from them at birth, either to be trafficked abroad, or possibly murdered so their organs could be removed. The campaigners believe video footage of exhumed infant corpses indicates that their dismemberment was not compatible with a normal post-mortem.
Instead, it suggests that missing body parts were removed and sold while stem cells may also have been extracted from the infants' bone marrow for medical research.
Ukrainian health officials have vehemently denied the accusations.
The Council of Europe has two investigations, looking at the country's general human rights record and the baby organ issue.
Paying the price for the continuing Catholic crackup.
Roto-Reuters: Former priest gets 15 years for Rwanda genocide
Nairobi - A U.N. court trying leaders of Rwanda's 1994 genocide jailed a former Catholic priest for 15 years on Wednesday for ordering bulldozers to level a church, sparking the death of 2,000 people hiding inside.
The first Catholic priest to face judgment at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, Father Athanase Seromba had denied the charges, including genocide and crimes against humanity.
"He has been jailed for 15 years," ICTR spokesman Everard O'Donnell told Reuters by telephone from the court.
The tribunal heard Seromba ordered the destruction of a church where more than 2,000 minority ethnic Tutsis were hiding from machete-wielding gangs of ethnic Hutu militia.
"It was further established beyond reasonable doubt that Seromba spoke to the driver of the bulldozer, encouraging and identifying when to start demolition of the parish and which parts of the parish were the weakest," ICTR said in a statement.
After the roof of the building collapsed, witnesses said militiamen swarmed over the rubble to finish off the survivors.
ICTR said that at the time of his indictment Seromba worked, allegedly under a disguise, as a priest in two parishes in Florence, Italy.
Seromba was the first Catholic priest to face charges at the tribunal in connection with the genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were butchered by Hutu militants in 100 days. But he is not the first clergyman.
Last week, Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, a former Seventh Day Adventist pastor, was released after completing a 10-year sentence for his role in the killings.
Although priests were among those murdered, survivors have reported numerous incidents in which Catholic priests and nuns took part in killings, encouraged their congregations to kill or colluded with gangs of killers in rounding up victims.
Some of the ugliest massacres were committed in churches, missions and parishes where Tutsis who took shelter were hunted down by Hutu militias. At least two other Catholic priests are facing charges in Arusha.
Most of Rwanda's eight million population are Christians and among those, the largest single denomination is Roman Catholic.
Seromba is the 27th person to be convicted by the ICTR, which is prosecuting the perpetrators of the genocide. It has acquitted five suspects since its first trial in 1997.
The court credited Seromba, who was arrested after surrendering in 2002, for time served since then.
Yeah, that'll help.
Ailing UK Labor Party Looks to Howard Dean
(CNSNews.com) - Trailing in the polls, the Labor Party is looking to American Democrat Howard Dean for help in restoring its popularity with Britain's voters. Full Story
The Pelosi/Reid Era of Sunshine and Gumdrops continues apace.
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun?
When the law break in
How you gonna go?
Shot down on the pavement
Or waiting on death row?
(From The Guns of Brixton by The Clash)
Intelligence Chair's Lack of Facts Called 'Alarming'
(CNSNews.com) - The incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee appeared to know very little about two major terrorist groups in a recent press interview -- a situation that analysts have called "extremely alarming" and something that "should concern all Americans."
Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) -- in a Dec. 8 interview with a Congressional Quarterly reporter -- stumbled when he was asked basic questions about al Qaeda and the Lebanese-based terror group, Hizballah. Full Story
Battling the Invasion Update.
Remember when American trade unions used to fight for the rights of American workers?
Nope. Me neither.
Raid An 'Outrageous Use of Force,' Union Says
(CNSNews.com) - A federal immigration raid on meatpacking plants in six states on Tuesday violated immigrants' rights and constituted an "outrageous use of force," according to the union that represents meatpackers. Full Story
Ohio's gungrabbers get a well deserved beat down.
Ohio Lawmakers Override Governor's Gun Bill Veto
(CNSNews.com) - For the first time in nearly three decades, the Ohio Legislature has voted to override a governor's veto. However, the new law outgoing Gov. Robert Taft tried to kill, which establishes a statewide standard for the concealed carrying of firearms, is likely to be challenged in court by the mayors of Ohio's largest cities, where most guns are banned.
The GOP-controlled state Senate on Tuesday voted 21-12 - one more vote than needed - to override the Republican governor's veto of House Bill 337. The Ohio House voted 71-21 last Thursday to bypass Taft's veto, the third in his eight-year tenure.
"Cities are out of the firearm regulation business," Buckeye Firearms Association legislative chairman Ken Hanson said after the Senate vote.
Jeff Garvas, president of Ohioans for Concealed Carry, said in a statement that the framers of Ohio's Home Rule Amendment had never intended local governments to have authority over laws that are of statewide concern.
"Local governments have created a patchwork of unknown laws aimed at disarming their law-abiding residents in different ways than their neighbors in another town," Garvas said. "This confusing patchwork also unfairly traps the unwary gun owner traveling through their jurisdictions.
"This reform isn't just needed, it's long overdue and brings Ohio in line with the rest of the country," Garvas added, noting that 43 other states deal with gun-control issues on the state level.
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), agreed with Garvas, calling the vote "a common-sense move that will eliminate confusion among private citizens and peace officers."
"This reform measure effectively overrides local gun bans in such places as parks, and it also will nullify local bans on certain firearms," Gottlieb said in a statement.
"Equally, if not more important," he added, the new law "abolishes the absurd requirement that Ohio citizens who are licensed to carry concealed must have their guns in the open while driving."
"Now all Ohio residents will know that whether they travel from Akron to Ashland, Cincinnati to Cleveland or anywhere in between, the firearms laws will be the same, and they won't risk running afoul of some local regulation," Gottlieb said.
Three Democrats - including Attorney General-elect Marc Dann - joined 18 Republicans in overriding the veto on Tuesday, the same day a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute survey revealed that a majority of Ohio respondents said overriding local gun laws was a bad idea.
'Appalling arrogance'
Taft, who is leaving office in a few weeks due to term limits, said the bill exceeded its goal of cleaning up Ohio's concealed weapons law because it pre-empted about 80 local gun laws.
"The governor strongly believes his veto was the right thing to do and that our cities should have the ability to protect their citizens through reasonable firearms regulation," said Taft spokesman Mark Rickel. "He continues to believe that the bill was over-broad and that overturning local assault weapon and handgun laws is a mistake."
Toby Hoover, executive director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, agreed with Taft's reasoning and accused Ohio lawmakers of showing "appalling arrogance against the will of and the respect for the people of Ohio to govern themselves."
"State legislators have shown their true colors by passing a bill and then today overriding the governor's veto in order to take rights away from the people of Ohio," Hoover said in a statement. "To please the gun lobby, our legislators preempted all local ordinances that regulate firearms.
"These laws range from having gun dealers register in the city, to permits to purchase and assault weapon bans, to child safety, all of which city governments and their citizens thought were beneficial to the safety of their communities," he noted.
Within hours of the override vote, mayors in some of the state's largest cities were considering legal action to prevent the new law from taking effect.
Senator War Criminal continues to pretend he is relevant.
I really do not care what this knucklehead says or does...
Boston Globe: Kerry prepares for tour of Mideast
The trip will be Kerry's fourth visit to Iraq since the war started and his first since his election-eve "botched joke" where he suggested that poor students would "get stuck in Iraq."
Kerry said he wanted to meet with the National Guard soldiers who mocked his blunder by holding the banner: "Halp us Jon Carry -- we R stuck hear N Irak." When he saw the banner in a widely circulated photograph, Kerry said, he laughed, adding that he'd have done the same thing if he were in their shoes. But he said he won't make that part of this trip because he is interested in "business, not politics."
I'll bet you $20 he didn't laugh.
Seriously, if rabbis can't learn the lessons of the Shoah, what hope is there for the rest of us?
WAFB: Rabbis attend Holocaust Conference in Iran
Two rabbis are among 67 people attending a conference in Iran that organizers say will examine whether the Holocaust ever took place...
Oy vey!
Organizers tout the conference as a scholarly gathering aimed at discussing the Holocaust away from Western taboos...
Well, I suppose we should be relieved the systematic murder of millions (Did you know the Nazis killed 1.3 Christians for every Jew they slaughtered?) is still taboo...
Ha! I thought I was just kidding about the Klan!
From The Truth Is Stranger Than My Idea Of Humor Department:
Fox 35 Orlando: KKK's David Duke Tells Iran Holocaust Conference That Gas Chambers Not Used to Kill Jews
Iranian President Hungadunga's conference questioning the Holocaust came to an end Tuesday, but not before hearing former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke say that gas chambers were not used to kill Jews.
Memo To Hollyweird: Wake the #@!!##**%#! up!
From the tv columnist of Washington's other newspaper, Lisa de Moraes, comes a tiny bit of good news.
Holiday Classics Snowball the Competition
Rankin-Bass week on TV. Rudolph, Frosty, Santa -- all stars of the famous animation production house of Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass -- came away winners. Billboard's annual music trophy show and the annual Victoria's Secret skivvies special -- not so much.
If the donkeys in Armani suits who make the networks' decisions were smart they would re-run Bob Hope's and Andy Williams' Christmas specials every night from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day.
Here's a look at the week's gifts and goofs:
WINNERS
"America's Next Top Model." CW boasted that the modeling competition's season finale clocked the network's biggest night ever -- which is saying precious little, since CW debuted this fall. Among all seven "Top Model" editions, this one ranked third among all viewers but best among the 18-to-34-year-olds CW targets.
I believe the correct phrase is "damning with faint praise".
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Rankin-Bass '60s holiday classic, narrated by Burl Ives, copped nearly 13 million viewers Friday, trampling "1 vs. 100," "Justice," "Smackdown!" and "America's Funniest Home Videos" in its time slot, and finishing the week in the top 10 among 18-to-49-year-olds and No. 2 with kids.
Yippee!
"Frosty the Snowman." Rankin-Bass '60s holiday classic, narrated by Jimmy Durante, also clocked nearly 13 million viewers Friday -- up nearly 5 million compared with last year's broadcast -- frosting Diane Sawyer's trip to North Korea, "Las Vegas," "Trading Spouses" and "Smackdown!" in the time slot, and landing in the week's top 10 among 18-to-49-year-olds and at No. 1 with the 2-to-11 crowd.
Yippee!
"Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town." Rankin-Bass 1970 holiday classic, narrated by Fred Astaire, logged more than 11 million viewers Tuesday -- about 2 million more than last year -- and made mincemeat of "Gilmore Girls," "Standoff," "Friday Night Lights" and "NCIS" in its time slot...
Yippee!
LOSERS
17th Annual Billboard Music Awards. Despite the promise that neither Paris Hilton nor Britney Spears would host this year's trophy show, only 6.1 million tuned in -- a record low and just sad compared with the 15 million-and-change this show used to cop in the '90s. We miss the '90s.
Heehee!
"Victoria's Secret Fashion Show." The bottom fell out on CBS's skivvies show this year. Too much model blathering and stomping around backstage, and too much Justin Timberlake singing, meant fewer than 7 million watching -- "VCFS's" smallest crowd ever and the orgy of undies' worst-ever numbers with teens and 18-to-34-year-old guys.
Heehee! Could America's men actually be growing up?
Martin Nodell, Requiescat in pace.
A Philadelphia native, the creator of Green Lantern has left us.
Thank you, Mr. Nodell, for one of the greatest comic book heroes ever.
Martin Nodell, the creator of Green Lantern, the comic book superhero who uses his magical ring to help him fight crime, has died. He was 91.
Nodell died at a nursing home in Muskego, Wis., on Saturday of natural causes, his son Spencer Nodell told The Associated Press on Tuesday. He previously lived in West Palm Beach.
Nodell was looking for a new idea for a comic book in 1940 when he was waiting for a New York subway and saw a train operator waving a lantern displaying a green light, said Maggie Thompson, senior editor of Comics Buyer's Guide.
Nodell imagined a young engineer, Alan Scott, a train crash survivor who discovers in the debris an ancient lantern forged from a green meteor. Scott constructs a ring from the lamp that gives him super powers, and becomes a crime fighter.
He brought his drawings and story lines to All-American Publications, which later became a part of National Periodical Publications, the company that was to become DC Comics, Thompson said.
The first Green Lantern appearance came in July 1940, an eight-page story in a comic book also featuring other characters. The character then got his own series, and Nodell drew it until 1947 under the name Mart Dellon.
After its cancellation in 1949, the series was reborn in 1959 with a revised story line, and it has been revived several times.
Meanwhile, Nodell left the comics field for an advertising career. In the 1960s, he was on a design team that helped develop the Pillsbury Doughboy.
In later years, Nodell traveled the comic book convention circuit with his wife, Caroline, who died in 2004.
"There were myriad of fans who would come up to my dad and would say `Green Lantern got me to read' or `Green Lantern got me to do something in my life,'" Spencer Nodell said.
Nodell was born in Philadelphia and studied at art schools in Chicago and New York. Besides Spencer Nodell, survivors include another son, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Straight thinking on the Iraq Study Group.
Professor Rummel of Democratic Peace (with an assist from Eliot Cohen) leads the way. No Way to Win a War
Producing a Giraffe -- The Iraq Study Group Report
Permalink
The recently published Iraq Study Group Report has provided the major media with an excuse to naively and ignorantly heap further abuse on President Bush's policies in Iraq, and to call more stridently for surrender in this significant battle against Islamofascism. This report is the product of a blue ribbon commission (committee) of largely retired eminent public officials, few of whom have any expertise in national security, foreign policy, or war and peace. They were selected for their imminence and to achieve a balanced bipartisan commission. Now, committees of this sort rarely produce anything useful. Indeed, there is the possibly apocryphal story of the committee of renowned angels that God formed to create a tiger, and which after weeks of hearings and testimony by expert angels, came up with a giraffe. He tried again with another commission, and it produced a hippo. He tried one more time -- these were imminent angels after all -- and this time they produced an elephant. He decided to keep the animals, all functional after all, and charged Saint Peter with the task. In seven days, he alone produced what we have come to know as a tiger. This Iraq study group has produced a giraffe. If it were not so serious, their recommendations would be laughable. I have read the document, its recommendations, and will refer you to the best of the critiques with which I fully agree. This is "No Way to Win a War," by Professor Eliot Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advance International Studies. It was published in the 12/706 Wall Street Street Journal, and is only available on the Internet to online subscribers. This op-ed is so important a critique that they should have made it generally available. I am doing so.*
by Eliot Cohen
The theory of the thing is very peculiar indeed. You are in the middle of a war -- a hard war, a war that is going badly. If the government has bogged down, if the people inside have gone stale, you would say that the sound thing, the Churchillian or Lincolnian or Rooseveltian thing, would be, first, to fire a bunch of officials (generals as well as top civilians), promote or bring in fresh talent, and put together a small group of people to take a new and unillusioned look. Those people would report back in secrecy to the president and his most senior advisers and aides.
They would consist of experienced soldiers and civilians in whom the president (who, after all, has to make the strategic decisions, and is the accountable executive) has trust. There would not be many of them, a half dozen or so, and they would have to be hardy enough to visit the war zone for several weeks, talking not just to politicians and generals but to captains and sergeants. They would go see things for themselves. They would visit a forward operating base near Tikrit; they would spend some time with Iraqi soldiers in Taji; they would take their chances in a convoy to al Asad, or even a patrol in Tal Afar.
They -- not their staff of a few soldiers and secretaries -- would do the probing, digging, thinking, discussing and, above all, the writing. The chairman of the group would insist that they air their disagreements candidly and thoroughly in front of the president, engaging in a debate that might last a day, perhaps longer. The rest of us would not find out about the panel until months, or even years, after it reported back; maybe not until the war was over.
The administration's congressional critics (including those of its own party) came up with a different solution: the Iraq Study Group (ISG), which has now produced a document that consists of 50 pages of recommendations, preceded by a 40-page thumbnail sketch of the current situation in Iraq and 50 pages of
maps, lists of people, and full-length biographies of the commissioners. This is a group composed, for the most part, of retired eminent public officials, most with limited or no expertise in the waging or study of war. It consists of individuals carefully selected with an eye to diverse partisan and other irrelevant personal characteristics. These worthies, with not one chairman but two (for balance, of course), turned to several score experts known to disagree vehemently with one another about the best course of action to be pursued in Iraq.
Some of the commission members and their advisers cordially detest the president and his administration and opposed him and his war from the outset; others were equally passionate in their defense of both the man and the conflict. And yet this diverse group had an overwhelming mandate, from the beginning, to produce a consensus document. The commission members spent four days in Iraq, and with the exception of a one-day foray by former Marine Chuck Robb, they stayed in the Green Zone, that bubble of palaces and residences that has little to do with the real Iraq of Basra, Kirkuk, Ramadi, Baquba and Mosul. At the end, they had breakfast with the president and a few hours later posted their conclusions on the Internet for all the world to ponder. There is something of farce in all this, an invocation of wisdom from a cohesive Washington elite that does not exist, a desperate wish to believe in the gravitas and the statecraft of grave men (and women) who can sort out the mess in which the country finds itself.
A fatuous process yields, necessarily, fatuous results. "Iraq's neighbors are not doing enough to help Iraq achieve stability" -- a statement only somewhat ameliorated by the admission that some are even "undercutting stability," which sounds as though Syria and Iran were being downright rude, rather than providing indispensable assistance to those who have filled the burn wards of Walter Reed, the morgue in Baghdad, and the cemetery at Arlington. The selected remedy is, first and foremost, rather like the ISG's credo for its own functioning, consensus. "The United States should immediately launch a new diplomatic offensive to build an international consensus for stability in Iraq and the region," as if our chief failure with Bashar Assad or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lies with the hitherto unnoticed laziness or rhetorical ineptitude of our diplomats, or as though Europe, Saudi Arabia and Israel have not yet figured out that stability in Iraq is a good thing. "Syria should control its border" and "Iran should respect Iraq's sovereignty."
Here comes the 800 pound gorilla, kiddies.
No kidding -- but who is going to make them? That perennial solution, "resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict," makes its appearance, including direct negotiations between Israel and Palestinians, but only with "those who accept Israel's right to exist." The report conveniently forgets that the elected leaders of Palestine do not, in fact, accept Israel's right to exist. And it also neglects the grim reality that one of the most terrible things about Gaza, and possibly the West Bank as well, is that no one, not even Hamas, is really in charge.
Part of Iran's price for easing up on us in Iraq is pretty clearly taking the heat off its nuclear program; the ISG recommends that that issue "should continue to be dealt with by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany." Well, what deal should the U.S. be willing to cut on Iranian nuclear weapons? Do we think the Iranians would deliver? And what are the long-term consequences?
War, and warlike statecraft, is a hard business, and though this is supposed to be a report dominated by "realists," there is nothing realistic in failing to spell out the bloody deeds, grim probabilities and dismal consequences associated with even the best course of action. Indeed, some parts of the report read as sheer fantasy -- Recommendation 15, for example, which provides that part of the American deal with Syria should include the latter's full cooperation in investigating the Hariri assassination, verifiable cessation of Syrian aid to Hezbollah, and its support for persuading Hamas to recognize Israel.
The prescriptions for internal processes in Iraq are only somewhat better. The ISG argues that American forces should shift to developing Iraqi security forces and backing them up, which is more or less the course we are on now. It talks of milestones for Iraqi performance, as if Iraqi benchmarking were more a problem than Iraqi will, and Iraqi will more the problem than Iraqi capability. It suggests announcing our own planned redeployments without considering the most obvious consequence, which is that Iraqis of many political hues will decide that the Americans are leaving, and the time has come to cut deals with Jaish al Mahdi, or the Badr organization, or al Qaeda in Iraq, or any of the other cutthroat outfits infesting that bleeding country.
Quite apart from the psychological impact of our actions, there is the sober fact that the Iraqi army is small, 138,000-strong (and that number probably overstated), and that building effective security forces takes time. The 188,000-man police forces are corrupt, riddled with militia influence, and in need of a thorough overhaul. We cannot build the Iraqi security forces without a substantial combat presence. Nor is the problem merely one of training, as Iraqi corporals driving around in pickup trucks without functional radios might have sourly pointed out, had they had the chance to talk to a Study Group member.
At least the ISG has given considerable thought to preparing us for future conflict. Consider recommendations 47 and 48. Congress, they declare, should allocate money to repair the clapped-out equipment the Army and Marines will bring back from Iraq. This is no doubt better than, say, heaving Bradley infantry fighting vehicles overboard on the way back to American ports in order to provide a home for new coral reefs. "As [American] redeployment proceeds, military leaders should emphasize training and education of forces that have returned to the United States in order to restore the force to full combat capability." Pentagon planners would do well to pursue this plan rather than give the troops six months of leave and then having them paint the sorely neglected rocks outside the sergeant major's office.
The great war leaders, in their private deliberations, shied away from vagueness. Haziness about ends and means, about what to do and how to do it, is a mark of strategic ineptitude; in war it gets people killed. But a Churchill could only call the flattening of German cities "terror bombing" in private.
Thus, unsurprisingly, in a public document of this kind, euphemism and imprecision abound. The U.S. needs to give "disincentives" to Syria and Iran: But the real question has always been whether we are willing to use a variety of overt and covert means -- from bombing insurgent safe houses to sabotaging refineries, from mining harbors to supporting their own insurgents -- to do so. And, in fact, the report mentions no means for squeezing either country. True, as James Baker irritably noted at the press conference releasing the report, the U.S. talked to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. But as the U.S. did so it also bankrupted the U.S.S.R. in an arms race, undermined its client governments in Eastern Europe by supporting Polish labor unions, and killed its soldiers by providing surface-to-air missiles to Afghan guerrillas. Real pain, and not merely tough talk sweetened by a bucket of goodies, paves the way for successful negotiations with brutal opponents.
What we need in Iraq is not a New Diplomatic Offensive (capitals in the original) so much as energy and competence in fighting the fight. From the outset of the Iraq war much of our difficulty has stemmed not so much from failures to find the right strategy, as from an astounding and depressing inability to implement the strategic and operational choices we have nominally made.
This inability has come from things as personal as picking the wrong people for key positions, in the apparent belief that generals are interchangeable cogs in a counterinsurgency machine. It has come from an unwillingness or inability to grab the bureaucracy by the throat and make it act -- which is why, three years after the insurgency began, we still send soldiers out to risk roadside bomb attacks in overweight Humvees when there are half a dozen commercially available armored vehicles designed to minimize the effects of such blasts. It is why -- although the government has declared long before the ISG issued its report that training the Iraqis is Job One -- we still embed fewer than a dozen American advisers in an Iraqi battalion when the right number is three to five times that many.
We have not come up to the brink of failure because we did not know how important it is to employ young Iraqi men or to keep detained insurgents out of circulation or to prevent militia penetration of the security forces by vetting the commanders of those forces. We have known these things -- but we have not done these things.
The creation of the Iraq Study Group reflects the vain hope that well-meaning, senior, former public officials can find ideas that have not already occurred to people inside government; that those new ideas can redeem incompetent execution and insufficient resources; that salvation can come from a Washington establishment whose wisdom was exaggerated in its heyday, and which has in any event succumbed to a kind of political-intellectual entropy since the 1960s; that a public commission can do the work of oversight that Congress has shirked for five years in the misguided belief that it would thus support an administration struggling to do its best in a difficult situation. This is no way to run a war, and most definitely, no way to win it.
*Copyright 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.
BTW, kiddies, if you ever need clear thinking and common sense on foreign policy and security issues, Professor Rummel's blog is a great place to start.
Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.
Today is the Feast of St. Lucy, virgin and martyr from Syracuse. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.
Today's reading for the Feast of St. Lucy is 2 Corinthians 10:17 - 11:2.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 31:3-4, 6, 7, 8, 17, 21.
Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 25:1-13.
Everyday links:
The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTN
National Coalition of Clergy and Laity (dedicated to action for a genuine Catholic Restoration)
The Catholic Calendar Page for Today
ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome
Just in case you are wondering what exactly Catholics believe, here is
The Apostles Creed
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.
Memorare
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.
St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.
Anima Christi
Soul of Christ, sanctify me; Body of Christ, save me; Blood of Christ, inebriate me; Water from Christ's side, wash me; Passion of Christ, strengthen me; O good Jesus, hear me; Within Thy wounds hide me; Suffer me not to be separated from Thee; From the malicious enemy defend me; In the hour of my death call me; And bid me come unto Thee; That I may praise Thee with Thy saints and with Thy angels Forever and ever. Amen.
Prayer to St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire
Dear St. Anthony, you became a Franciscan with the hope of shedding your blood for Christ. In God's plan for you, your thirst for martyrdom was never to be satisfied. St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire, pray that I may become less afraid to stand up and be counted as a follower of the Lord Jesus. Intercede also for my other intentions. (Name them.)
Prayer To Saint Michael The Archangel
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the divine power, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
Prayer to End Abortion
Lord God, I thank You today for the gift of my life, and for the lives of all my brothers and sisters. I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion, yet I rejoice that you have conquered death by the resurrection of Your Son. I am ready to do my part to end abortion. Today I commit myself never to be silent, never to be passive, and never to be forgetful of the unborn. I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement, and never stop defending life until all my brothers and sisters are protected and our nation once again becomes a nation with liberty and justice, not just for some, but for all. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Prayer For Vocations
Send forth your Spirit, Lord, into the hearts of your faithful people, that we may be conscious of our vocation to holiness and sevice to others. Grant that many of us may dedicate ourselves to You through the priesthood and the religious life.We pray especially for the needs of our own parish and diocese. Grant that we may always have sufficient good and holy priests, and dedicated Sisters to serve our commumities.We pray, too, for religious orders; that generous men may join them to become zealous missionaries in preaching the Gospel in word and action, especially to the poor and abandoned.We make this prayer through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Redeemer. Amen.
Prayer Before The Crucifix
Behold, O kind and gentle Jesus, I kneel before Thee and pray that Thou would impress upon my heart the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, with true repentance for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment. At the same time, with sorrow I meditate on Thy five precious wounds, having in mind the words which David spoke in prophecy: "They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones."
Divine Praises
Blessed be God.
Blessed be His Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be His most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be His most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints.
May the Heart of Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament
Be praised, adored and loved
With grateful affection at every moment
In all the tabernacles of the world
Even to the end of time. Amen.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Sanity in Seattle!
Breitbart: Christmas Trees Being Returned to Seattle Airport
Christmas trees are going back up at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Pat Davis, president of the Port of Seattle commission, which directs airport operations, said late Monday that maintenance staff would restore the 14 plastic holiday trees, festooned with red ribbons and bows, that were removed over the weekend because of a rabbi's complaint that holiday decor did not include a menorah.
Airport managers believed that if they allowed the addition of an 8- foot-tall menorah to the display, as Seattle Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky had requested, they would also have to display symbols of other religions and cultures, which was not something airport workers had time for during the busiest travel season of the year, Airport Director Mark Reis said earlier Monday.
Port officials received word Monday afternoon that Bogomilsky's organization would not file a lawsuit at this time over the placement of a menorah, Davis said in a statement.
"Given that, the holiday trees will be replaced as quickly as possible," he said.
Davis added that the rabbi "never asked us to remove the trees; it was the port's decision based on what we knew at the time."
There were no immediate plans to display a menorah, airport spokesman Bob Parker said, saying restoration of the trees was expected to take place overnight Monday.
"A key element in moving forward will be to work with the rabbi and other members of the community to develop a plan for next year's holiday decorations at the airport," the port statement said.
The rabbi has also offered to give the port an electric menorah to display, said his lawyer, Harvey Grad.
"We are not going to be the instrument by which the port holds Christmas hostage," Grad said, emphasizing the rabbi never sought removal of the trees, but addition of the menorah.
The rabbi had received "all kinds of calls and emails," many of them "odious," Grad said, adding he was "trying to figure out how this is consistent with the spirit of Christmas."
It is consistent with the spirit of people who see their religion under constant attack. You'd think Jews would understand that.
Thirteen trees had sat above foyers that lead outside to the airport drive. The largest tree, which Reis estimated to be 15 or 20 feet tall, was placed in a large lobby near baggage claim for international arrivals.
After the removal, some airline workers decorated ticketing counters with their own miniature Christmas trees.
Customer service agents with Frontier Airlines pooled their money Monday morning to buy four 1-foot-high Christmas trees, which they placed on the airline's ticketing counter. Atop a Delta counter, workers put up a tree several feet tall.
The airlines lease space for ticket counters from the airport, and can display trees there if they want, Reis said.
About Me
- TheChurchMilitant
- First of all, the word is SEX, not GENDER. If you are ever tempted to use the word GENDER, don't. The word is SEX! SEX! SEX! SEX! For example: "My sex is male." is correct. "My gender is male." means nothing. Look it up. What kind of sick neo-Puritan nonsense is this? Idiot left-fascists, get your blood-soaked paws off the English language. Hence I am choosing "male" under protest.