Redbelt Video Chat

@ IGN

DWTS Result Show - Week 8 - Julianne & Apolo

The champions return for the 100th episode.



alt; another

ET Coverage of DWTS 5.6.08


Apolo & Julianne Interview

Winslow T. Wheeler, Why More Money is Sinking America's Armed Forces

Why More Money is Sinking America's Armed Forces
Drowning in Dollars

By WINSLOW T. WHEELER

It includes a reference to Franklin C. Spinney's “Defense Death Spiral.”

Zenit: Papal Message on Disarmament, Development and Peace

Papal Message on Disarmament, Development and Peace

"Promote the Good of Every Man and of the Whole Man"

VATICAN CITY, MAY 7, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the message Benedict XVI addressed to Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. The message was sent on the occasion of an April 11-12 conference in Rome titled: "Disarmament, Development and Peace: Prospects for Integral Disarmament."

* * *

Venerable Brother
Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino
President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace

I have great pleasure in sending a cordial greeting to the participants in the International Seminar organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace on the theme: "Disarmament, Development and Peace. Prospects for Integral Disarmament", and express my deep appreciation of such a timely initiative. I assure you, Your Eminence, and all who are taking part of my spiritual closeness.

The subject on which you are intending to reflect is more topical than ever. Humanity has made formidable progress in science and technology. Human ingenuity has resulted in achievements that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. At the same time, some areas in the world are still without adequate human and material development; many peoples and people lack the most fundamental rights and freedoms. Even in regions of the world where there is a high standard of living, pockets of marginalization and poverty seem to be spreading. Although the worldwide globalization process has opened new horizons, it has not yet brought the hoped-for results. And although after all the horror of the Second World War the human family gave proof of a great civilization by founding the United Nations Organization, today the international community seems at a loss. In various areas of the world tension and war persist, and even where the tragedy of war is not being played out there is nonetheless a widespread feeling of fear and insecurity. Furthermore, phenomena such as terrorism on a world scale make the boundary between peace and war transient, seriously jeopardizing the hope of humanity's future.

How should we respond to these challenges? How can we recognize the "signs of the times"?

Joint action is certainly needed at the political, economic and juridical levels, but even before that we need to reflect together on the moral and spiritual level: the promotion of a "new humanism" seems to be ever more urgently necessary in order to enlighten human beings on the understanding of themselves and the meaning of their journey through history. In this regard the teaching of the Servant of God Pope Paul VI and his proposal of an integral humanism, which aims, in other words, "to promote the good of every man and of the whole man", is more timely than ever (Populorum Progressio, n. 14). Development cannot be reduced to mere economic growth: it must include the moral and spiritual dimensions. At the same time, an authentic and integral humanism can only consist of solidarity, and solidarity is one of the loftiest expressions of the human spirit; it is one of the natural duties of the human being (cf. Jas 2: 15-16), applicable to both individuals and peoples (cf. Gaudium et Spes, n. 86); the full development of peace depends on the implementation of this duty. Indeed, when man pursues material well-being alone, remaining absorbed in himself, he bars the way to his own total fulfilment and authentic happiness.

At your Seminar you are reflecting on three interdependent issues: disarmament, development and peace. Indeed, authentic and lasting peace is inconceivable without the development of every person and people; as Paul VI said: "The new name for peace is development" (Populorum Progressio, n. 87). Nor is a reduction of armaments conceivable without first eliminating violence at its root, that is, without humankind first being determined to seek peace, goodness and justice. Like any form of evil, war originates in the human heart (cf. Mt 15: 19; Mk 7: 20-23). In this sense, disarmament does not only refer to State armaments but involves every person who is called to disarm his own heart and be a peacemaker everywhere.

As long as there is a risk of offence, States will need to be armed for reasons of legitimate defence, which is a right that must be listed among the inalienable rights of States since it is also connected with the duty of States themselves to defend the security and peace of their peoples. Yet an excessive accumulation of arms does not appear legitimate to us, because "a State may possess only those means necessary to assure its legitimate defence" (Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, The International Arms Trade, Vatican City, 1994, p. 13). Lack of respect for this "principle of sufficiency" leads to the paradox by which States threaten the life and peace of the peoples they intend to defend, and, from being a guarantee of peace, arms for defence risk becoming a tragic preparation for war.

There is a close connection, then, between disarmament and development. The immense military expenditure, involving material and human resources and arms, is in fact detracted from development projects for peoples, especially the poorest who are most in need of aid. This is contrary to what is stated in the Charter of the United Nations, which engages the international community and States in particular "to promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion for armaments of the world's human and economic resources" (Article 26). In fact, in 1964 Paul VI was already asking States to reduce their military expenditure on armaments and to create a world fund with the amount saved for development projects for the neediest people and peoples (cf. Message to the World, Entrusted to Journalists, 4 December 1964). What, however, is being recorded is that the production and trade in arms are constantly growing and are becoming a driving force in the world economy. Indeed, this trend has resulted in civil and military economies overlapping, as is demonstrated by the continuous distribution of goods and knowledge "for a dual purpose", that is, for possible double use: civil and military. It is a grave risk in the biological, chemical and nuclear sectors, where civil programmes can never be assured without a general and complete renunciation of military programmes of confrontation. I therefore renew my appeal to States to reduce their military expenditure on weapons and to consider seriously the idea of creating a world fund to finance projects for the peaceful development of peoples.

A close relationship between development and peace also exists in a double sense. War can in fact break out because of serious violations of human rights, injustice and poverty, but one must not overlook the risk of true and proper "wars of well-being", in other words, wars caused by expansionist ambitions or in order to exercise economic control at the expense of others. Mere material well-being, without a consistent moral and spiritual development, can make man so blind as to incite him to kill his own brother (cf. Jas 4: 1ff.). Today, even more urgently than in the past, the International Community is required to make a decisive option for peace. At the economic level, it is vital to work to ensure that the economy is oriented to the service of the human person, to solidarity and not only to profit. At the juridical level, States are called in particular to renew their commitment to respect the international treaties in force on disarmament and the control of all types of weapons, as well as the ratification and consequent entry into force of the instruments already adopted, such as the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, and to the success of negotiations currently underway, such as those on banning cluster bombs, the trade in conventional weapons or fissionable material. Lastly, every effort is required to prevent the proliferation of light, small calibre weapons which encourage local wars and urban violence and kill too many people in the world every day.

It will nevertheless be difficult to find a solution to the various technical issues without man's conversion to goodness at the cultural, moral and spiritual levels. Every person, in any walk of life, is called to convert to goodness and to seek peace in his own heart, with his neighbour and in the world. In this regard the Magisterium of Bl. Pope John XXIII is still valid. He clearly pointed out the objective of integral disarmament, saying: "Unless this process of disarmament be thorough-going and complete, and reach men's very souls, it is impossible to stop the arms race or to reduce armaments.... Everyone must sincerely cooperate in the effort to banish fear and the anxious expectation of war from men's minds" (Pacem in Terris, 11 April 1963, n. 113 [Vatican Website version]). At the same time, the effect that armaments produce on the human psyche and behaviour should not be ignored. Arms, in fact, tend in turn to increase violence. Paul VI showed his very acute understanding of this aspect in his Discourse to the United Nations General Assembly in 1965. He said at their headquarters, where I am preparing to go in the next few days: "Those weapons, especially the terrible weapons that modern science has given you, long before they produce victims and ruins, cause bad dreams, foster bad feelings, create nightmares, distrust and sombre resolves; they demand enormous expenditure; they obstruct projects of solidarity and useful work; they falsify the very psychology of peoples" (n. 5).

As was said several times by my Predecessors, peace is a gift of God, a precious gift that must also be sought and preserved using human means. It thus requires the contribution of all. A unanimous dissemination of the culture of peace and a common education in peace are becoming more and more necessary, especially for the new generations for whom the adult generations have grave responsibility. Moreover, emphasizing every person's duty to build peace does not mean neglecting the existence of a true and proper human right to peace. It is a fundamental and inalienable right, indeed, one on which the exercise of all the other rights depends. "Peace is a good so great", St Augustine wrote, "that even in this earthly and mortal life there is no word we hear with such pleasure, nothing we desire with such zest or find to be more thoroughly gratifying" (City of God, XIX, 11).

Your Eminence and all of you who are taking part in the Seminar, in turning one's gaze to the concrete situations in which humanity lives today, one might be overcome by a justifiable uneasiness and resignation: in international relations, diffidence and solitude sometimes seem to prevail; peoples feel divided and are at odds with one another. Total war, from being a terrible prediction, risks turning into a tragic reality. Yet war is never inevitable and peace is always possible. Indeed, it is only right! The time has come to change the course of history, to recover trust, to cultivate dialogue, to nourish solidarity. These are the noble objectives that inspired the founders of the United Nations Organization, a real experience of friendship among peoples. Humanity's future depends on everyone's commitment. Only by following an integral and supportive humanism in whose context the question of disarmament takes on an ethical and spiritual nature, will humanity be able to walk towards the desired authentic and lasting peace. It will certainly not be an easy journey and will be subject to dangers, as my venerable Predecessor Paul VI already recognized 30 years ago in his Message to the First Special Session on Disarmament of the United Nations General Assembly: "The journey that leads to the construction of a new international order that can eliminate wars and their causes, hence, rendering weapons useless, will not on any account be a brief one" (n. 6). Believers find support in the Word of God that encourages us in faith and in hope, with a view to the definitive peace of the Kingdom of God where "mercy and truth will meet, justice and peace will embrace" (cf. Ps 85[84]: 11). Let us therefore with fervent prayers invoke from God the gift of peace for all humanity. With these sentiments, I renew my congratulations to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace on having promoted and organized this Meeting on such a delicate and urgent theme. I assure a particular remembrance in prayer for the success of your work and cordially impart a special Apostolic Blessing to you all.

From the Vatican, 10 April 2008

BENEDICTVS PP. XVI

© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Zenit: Pontiff's Words After Concert of Chinese Musical Groups

Pontiff's Words After Concert of Chinese Musical Groups

"Music Expresses Universal Human Sentiments"

VATICAN CITY, MAY 7, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the address Benedict XVI gave during a concert in Paul VI Hall offered in his honor by the Philharmonic Orchestra of China and the Choir of the Shanghai Opera House.

* * *

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends!

Another high-quality musical performance sees us gathered once again in the Paul VI Audience Hall. For me and for all of us here, it takes on a particular value and meaning. Since it is offered and performed by the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Shanghai Opera House Chorus, it puts us in touch, as it were, with the living reality of the world of China. I thank the choir and orchestra for this generous tribute and I congratulate the organizers and the artists for their skilful, refined and elegant performance of a musical work that forms part of the artistic heritage of all humanity. In a group of such accomplished artists, we see represented the great cultural and musical tradition of China, and this performance helps us to understand better the history of the Chinese people, their values and their noble aspirations. Heartfelt thanks for this gift! Thanks also for the music that is about to be performed! I extend sincere thanks not only to the promoters and the artists, but to all those who, in different ways, took part in arranging this truly unique event.

It is worth emphasizing that this performance by Chinese artists of one of Mozart's greatest works brings together their own musical talent and Western music. Conductor Long Yu, with his orchestra, the soloists and the Shanghai Opera House Chorus have comfortably risen to the challenge. Music, and art in general, can serve as a privileged instrument for encounter and reciprocal knowledge and esteem between different populations and cultures; a means attainable by all for valuing the universal language of art.

There is another aspect that I wish to emphasize. I note with pleasure the interest shown by your orchestra and choir in European religious music. This shows that it is possible, in different cultural settings, to enjoy and appreciate sublime manifestations of the spirit such as Mozart's Requiem which we have just heard, precisely because music expresses universal human sentiments, including the religious sentiment, which transcends the boundaries of every individual culture.

I should also like to say a word regarding this place where we have come together this evening. It is the great hall in which the Pope receives his guests and meets those who come to visit him. It is like a window opening onto the world, a place where people from all over the world often meet, with their own personal stories and their own culture, all of them welcomed with esteem and affection. In greeting you this evening, dear Chinese artists, the Pope intends to reach out to your entire people, with a special thought for those of your fellow citizens who share faith in Jesus and are united through a particular spiritual bond with the Successor of Peter. The Requiem came into being through this faith as a prayer to God, the just and merciful judge, and that is why it touches the hearts of all people, as an expression of humanity's universal aspirations. Finally, as I thank you once again for this most welcome tribute, I send my greetings, through you, to all the people of China as they prepare for the Olympic Games, an event of great importance for the entire human family.

[In Chinese]

I thank you all and I offer you my best wishes.

© Copyright 2008 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Dominican Compline II: The Processions

Another informative post from Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P.

More Voyager: Pathfinder and Endgame (series finale)

Reginald Barclay and Counselor Troi make an appearance in Pathfinder.

Troi looks ok in Pathfinder; her accent... whom does it remind me of? Emma Thompson? She looks better in Nemesis:


StarTrek.com episode synopsis
Pathfinder (episode) - Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki
Endgame (part 2)

She also shows up in Lifeline (along with Barclay):


Marina Sirtis The Official Site

Another favorite episode: Relativity (official synopsis). The timeship Relativity:


I liked the design since it got away from the standard Federation look.
Wells Timeship/Relativity, Bridge Commander Downloads, Bridge ...
Ex Astris Scientia - Future Ship Classes

BBC Early Music Show

I haven't gone to the website since moving away from Boston last year--looks like Andrew Manze is no longer one of the hosts. It should still be a good reason to tune into BBC Radio (programs are available online for one week after the broadcast).

Another program: Choral Evensong

Edit: The Choir

Ben Skinner, A Crime So Monstrous

From First Things: A Crime So Monstrous, by Logan Paul Gage--on contemporary slavery and human trafficking; based on the book of the same name as the title of his post.

Simon and Schuster; Amazon

More on A Crime So Monstrous, by Ben Skinner:
Ben Skinner Interview | The Progressive
Power Line: A Crime So Monstrous: A word from Ben Skinner
08030A The New Abolitionists
Blog for Human Rights: Modern Slaves: An Interview with Benjamin ...
Tavis Smiley . Archives . E. Benjamin Skinner . April 22, 2008 | PBS
Radio New Zealand National : Programmes A-Z : Sunday Morning with ...
Investigation into Modern-day Slavery | The News is NowPublic.com
AMISTAD America | Freedom Schooner Amistad | 2007-2008 Atlantic ...
A Crime So Monstrous (Discovery Blog)
Author Struggles to Stay Removed from Slave Trade : NPR
Human Events Book Service: A Crime So Monstrous by E. Benjamin Skinner
Modern slaves | Salon Books
Slavery in the Land of the Free | Christianpost.com
A Crime So Monstrous

The Story of Stuff

video

For the most part it's a great video, and suitable for those who have short attention spans. (Unless 20 minutes is too long for them to sit and watch a video.)

via The Distributist Review

Andrew Cusack notes the passing of a German hero

Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, 1917-2008

Compline in the Dominican Rite

From Fr. Augustine Thompson:

Compline for the Liturgy of the Hours: Dominican Use
Dominican Rite Compline I

Zenit: Armenian Patriarch to Visit Benedict XVI

Armenian Patriarch to Visit Benedict XVI

Churches Seek Unity After Split in 451

VATICAN CITY, MAY 6, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, is responding to an invitation from Benedict XVI to visit him in the Vatican.

The Pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, visited Armenia last March and was received by Karekin II. The Vatican official presented a handwritten letter from the Holy Father, inviting the Patriarch to the Vatican.

Karekin II, elected as the 132nd Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians in October 1999, arrived in Rome today and will participated in events through Sunday.

According to a communiqué released by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the patriarch will be accompanied by 18 bishops of the Catholicosate of all Armenians and by a group of 75 Armenian Apostolic faithful.

On Wednesday, the patriarch will pray at the tomb of St. Peter and visit the statue of St. Gregory the Illuminator, patron saint of Armenia, which is located in the north patio of the Vatican Basilica.

The Pontiff will welcome him at the beginning of the general audience in St. Peter's Square. In the afternoon, the Catholicos is to receive an honorary doctorate in the theology of pastoral care of youth from the Pontifical Salesian University.

On Thursday, the Patriarch will visit the Pontifical Armenian College and, during the afternoon, participate in an academic congress being held at the Pontifical Oriental Institute on "holy sacrifice in the Armenian tradition."

Friday morning, Karekin II and his entourage will visit the offices of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, after which Benedict XVI will receive the Catholicos in the Vatican Apostolic Palace. Following a private meeting between the two, the Pope will also receive the bishops accompanying the Patriarch. A celebration of the word of God is due to take place, jointly presided by the Pope and Karekin II, at which the Armenian Apostolic faithful of the Patriarch's entourage will also participate.

On Sunday evening, the Catholicos and his entourage will participate in the celebration of Vespers at the papal basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the final event of the Patriarch's visit to Rome.

In November 2000, scarcely a year after his election, Karekin II visited Pope John Paul II.

During that visit, the Pope and the Patriarch presided at a Liturgy of the Word in the Vatican Basilica during which John Paul II gave the Catholicos a relic of St. Gregory the Illuminator, which had been conserved for many years at the Convent of St. Gregory the Armenian in Naples, Italy.

In September 2001, John Paul II made a visit to Armenia and to the See of Etchmiadzin where the Catholicos resides. The Patriarch also came to Rome for the Polish Pontiff's funeral on April 8, 2005.

The communiqué concluded by explaining that, on the occasions of the various meetings between Bishops of Rome and the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, joint declarations have been signed on questions of great ecumenical importance in the historical, theological and pastoral fields.

More than 90% of Armenian Christians are under the Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate, which separated from Rome after the Council of Chalcedon in 451. A key step toward overcoming this division was taken in 1996 when Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Karekin I signed a joint declaration on the nature of Jesus.

Armenian Church: The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin
website for the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians (photos)
Armenian Church (America, Eastern diocese)
Armenian Church Western Diocese
The Armenian Church
Worldwide Armenian Church Directory - Armeniapedia.org
The Armenian Church
Origins of the Armenian Apostolic Church
Armenian Church
St. Vartanantz Armenian Church
St. James Armenian Apostolic Church in Los Angeles, California

Armenian Apostolic Church of America - The Armenian Prelacy
Armenian Apostolic Church Library Online

More on environments toxic for our children

Again, from Rod Dreher: Plastics, or Benjamin Braddock's Revenge

A while back there was amateur speculation that soy milk might lead to the feminization of boys due to the presence of plant estrogen. Do plastics have estrogen, and can this have an impact on pregnant women and developing children?

Estrogens in the Environment - The World & I Online Magazine

Fr. Daniel Mary of Jesus Crucified on Catholic Answers Live

Father Prior of the Wyoming Carmelites. Their website for selling coffee: Mystic Monk Coffee.

Catholic Answers Live calendar

Programming for Monday, May 5, 2008:

Time: 4:00 PM-5:00 PM Title: Carmelite Monastic Life Guest: Fr. Daniel Mary of Jesus Crucified Show ID: CA3707 Carmelite Monastic Life Fr. Daniel Mary of Jesus Crucified

mp3


From the first hour of the same day:
Time: 3:00 PM-4:00 PM
Title: The Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Guest: Marcellino D’Ambrosio
Description:
Show ID: CA3706
mp3

His website, Crossroads Initiative

InsideCatholic.com - The Last Carmelite Monks in America?
Deal W. Hudson : The Last Carmelite Monks in America
Buffalo Bill’s property to house the only Carmelite monks in America

One of the girls in Mrs. A's 2nd grade class has a babysitter. (A relative? but not her mom, unless she always refers to her mom as "her" as in "I'm with her." -- I had asked her if she was waiting to be picked up.) The girl looks like she is in her teens or just out of them, and reminds me of a student I used to see--but that student was at another school in the district, not at this one. Still, it could be her.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the kids I had 9 or 10 or 12 years ago were already moms, some still in their teens.

More than door-kickers
Special ops forces are misused as man-hunters, critics say
By Sean D. Naylor

(The article is from 2006--have things changed since then? Not according to Maj. General James A. Guest.)

Armed Forces Journal

ことみち / Kotomichi - Maaya Sakamoto

Kevin Phillips, Bubble and Bail

Bubble and Bail

For most of the 20th century, America manufactured things. For the past 30 years, though, it has chiefly manufactured debt. Here's how Wall Street, with the aid of both political parties, gravely damaged the economy.


Kevin Phillips | May 5, 2008



As of spring 2008, we're probably just a third of the way through the unfolding debacle in the housing, credit, and financial markets. In political and regulatory terms, the ultimate problems and remedies have only begun to define themselves.

We're not just looking at an ordinary recession. Since the 1970s, the United States has redefined itself from a manufacturing nation to a financial economy built on debt, leverage, and a considerable ratio of speculation. Both political parties have been complicit in this, and the downturn now beginning will be unusual and potentially tragic.

The case being made in some reform-minded and progressive circles -- that we are on the cusp of a grand political, ideological, and pro-regulatory opening such as that of 1933 -- has some logic but also merits a considerable amount of economic and historical caution. The plausible analogies deserve a quick run-through. To begin with, there is the prospect that, over the next few years, the largest credit bubble since the Roaring Twenties is going to unwind with at least some of the angst and pain of the Depression years. In 2007, total credit-market debt in the U.S. reached almost 340 percent of gross domestic product, far above the previous high-water mark of 287 percent a few years after 1929. Second, it is also becoming likely that the 2006?2010 decline in U.S. home prices will be the largest in three-quarters of a century.

However, there are also good economic reasons why the analogy should not be overindulged; today's U.S. political economy is quite different from that of 70 years ago in several ways. First, whereas the 1929 crash came in the wake of three to four years of strongly deflationary trends in the global commodity markets, today's international economy is caught up in what appear to be major inflationary pressures in global agricultural and energy prices. In its panic over deflation, today's Federal Reserve may be more likely to err in the direction of feeding inflation.

The second relevant caution is that finance is a far more dominant element in the current-day U.S. economy than anyone could have imagined in the era of Herbert Hoover. Even amid 1929 ballyhoo and tickertape, finance was overshadowed by manufacturing. In the 1990s, by contrast, financial services sprinted ahead of manufacturing as a share of U.S. GDP. By 2006, financial services counted for over 20 percent of the economy, and manufacturing just 12 percent. As of 2008, portions of this swollen sector -- mortgage finance, reckless securitization products like Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), and elements of the credit markets -- now threaten to implode. Still, even if the de-leveraging of the U.S. economy over the next few years is as painful as it was during the 1930s, that does not necessarily re-recommend the New Deal regulatory model. It will probably recommend some model that the 2008 political debate has not even touched upon.

The third relevant caveat is that the United States is now far more exposed to negative international actions and perceptions than it was in the 1920s and 1930s. Back then, the United States enjoyed three beneficial attributes: It was the world's leading energy producer, the world's leading manufacturer, and the world's leading creditor nation. So favored, the U.S. economy was able to survive the years of Herbert Hoover's inactive stewardship. Over the last decade, however, under the derelict management of George W. Bush, the United States has cemented its embarrassing status as the world's leading debtor nation, the No. 1 importer of foreign manufactured goods, and the No. 1 importer of foreign oil. As a result, the shrunken dollar has lost over 40 percent of its value against the euro since 2002. That shrinkage could even intensify if foreigners believe that the U.S. government, in particular the Federal Reserve Board, is committed to supplying liquidity to rescue reckless financial institutions at risk of inflation and at the expense of dollar holders.

The careful reader may now be saying: Ah, so in some ways, the next couple of years could be more trying than 1929?1932. Yes, at least insofar as this time we have a half-century of undisputed global economic hegemony to lose. However, the 1930s analogy may be a political illusion. New Deal-style interventionism, which succeeded in the largely domestic financial context of the 1930s, is probably not suited to the realigning global economic milieu of 2009-2112. Realistically, it will be a year or two before we have a good idea of what might be better suited. Still, the next administration will have to have a proactive international strategy with respect to oil and currency matters, two particular failures of the Bush regime.

My concern is that the U.S. economy truly faces its most serious difficulty since World War II or the Depression, and the established wisdom of Democratic and Republican gurus alike has little handle on the dilemma's causation or probable time frame. The last two presidential elections where major economic weakness was front and center -- 1980 and 1932 -- had ingredients and predicaments that dated back several years or more, and both out-parties had their election arguments reasonably at hand. Even so, the consequent economic reform and policy debate stretched out for two to three additional years. As of April 2008, we are further behind this new cycle's analysis-and-debate curve.

Without trying to frame a specific list of reforms, which I do not have, the new outline of economic- and financial-sector failures is somewhat easier to identify. Between the 1980s and the present, the United States moved in three unfortunate directions: first, the adoption of public and private debt as both an economic nostrum and culture; second, the pursuit of a neo-mercantilist policy (bailouts and other policy biases) that all but anointed finance (rather than high-value-added manufacturing) as the Washington-favored U.S. sector; and third, abetting an economic realignment through which manufacturing fell from some 25 percent of GDP in the 1970s to 12 percent in 2006, while financial services jumped from 12 percent in the 1970s to between 20 percent and 21 percent during the 2003-2006 period.

Was this three-fold change in direction ever debated in the public square or in the halls of Congress? Of course not. Most conservatives and many liberals in Washington were busy chanting a simplistic mantra -- government can't be allowed to pick winners -- while the Treasury Department's and Federal Reserve Board's favoritism toward and bailouts of finance amounted to essentially that.

Over the last quarter-century, under Republican and Democratic administrations alike, the two major tools of this transformation were debt and the socialization of risk (but not of profit). The second, of course, abetted the first. When reckless expansion of consumer, corporate, or financial debt would go sour, the government served up a bailout to help the financial sector come back, fatter and cockier than ever. To suggest "bubble and bail" as a description of U.S. economic policy over the past quarter-century is inelegant but by no means inaccurate. Obviously, this is not the way to manage a nation passing the peak of its global power and very much at risk from a reckless financial endgame.

Indeed, the historical precedents are chastening. Both of the last two leading world economic powers -- the Dutch from the 17th century into the early 18th and the British from the early 19th century to World War I -- did more or less the same thing. After they built their global economic clout they shaded away from making and trading things into a prideful emphasis on financial services and debt, and both ultimately took on international and military commitments they couldn't afford. The lesson is that global economic success breeds hubris and that hauteur breeds over-financialization.

As of spring 2008, these fat golden pheasants have come home to roost. The interaction of reckless finance and failed politics may well be bringing about the great global crisis of American capitalism. Back in the Spring of 2007, preening Wall Street strategists were heard to boast that financial output -- principally corporate bonds and structured financial products -- could in itself provide a lucrative enough export to offset most of the $800 billion yearly U.S. current account deficit. The latter principally reflected how the United States was obliged to import one-third of the manufactured goods it needed and almost two-thirds of the oil. By early 2008, however, this pretense of an eager world awaiting U.S. financial exports had collapsed alongside the credibility of CDOs and mortgage-backed securities. In 2006, foreign net acquisitions of long-term U.S. stocks and bonds came to $722 billion, but that dropped to $596 billion in 2007, because of plummeting overseas demand after the August credit-market panic. (Asian government funds that seem to be bailing out U.S. banks and investment firms are now insisting on actual ownership percentages, not just the speculative investment products that have put the U.S. financial sector into such disrepute.)

No sane parliament or Congress would ever vote to put the fate of a leading economic power at the top of its global trajectory in the hands of a sector given to manias, bubbles, panics, crashes, incessant speculation, rich-poor polarization, and roller-coaster movements in interest rates and credits. But that may well be what happened over the last quarter-century -- creating, however inadvertently, a debt bubble that dwarfs that of the 1920s.

***

What do we do now? What cannot work, alas, is any attempt to jump into a political time machine and reverse the political and economic decision to cast America's destiny with the ambitions of mega-finance. Better if we could reverse it -- better if debt had remained under control instead of making itself into a grand and lucrative industry. Better if housing in the United States had never been hot-wired to global credit markets. Better if financial services had been kept in the range of only 14 percent to 15 percent of GDP, while a vital manufacturing sector more akin to those in Germany, Japan, and Switzerland had been made into the 21st-century U.S. economic centerpiece.

That is no longer an option. And however satisfying the attempt might be, there is no way to whip an abusive financial sector back into shape in the 1933-1936 manner. By 1936, the financial sector was deflated and beaten, a small, shrunken lump on the Depression-era economy. As of early 2008, by contrast, the finance, insurance, and real estate sector, although somewhat trimmed, is still the largest sector in the private economy, and the financial markets remain the command center for much of the rest. Money still owns -- or at least rents -- U.S. politics. And more specifically, the financial sector -- including mortgage finance and the credit-card issuers -- is at the center of an unprecedented web of public and private debt that has been spun through and around the so-called real economy. Finance has become the real "real economy."

This is no vague abstraction. The growth of public and private (consumer, corporate, and financial) debt shown in the table at right is closely related to the rise of what the press has belatedly started to call the debt industry. Indeed, most financial-services conglomerates can list debt and credit instruments (cards, securities, and fees) as their principal products and services. For what is sometimes lumped together as Wall Street, the rise in total U.S. financial and non-financial debt from $2.4 trillion in 1974 to a staggering $44.7 trillion in 2006 was a vocational Comstock Lode.

It has been a commonplace in political Washington that "bad" debt is principally the public kind associated with federal budget deficits, and the rest of it doesn't matter that much. But however convenient this differentiation may be for members of Congress who receive 40 percent or 50 percent of their campaign funds from the financial-services industry, it is also deceptive. As the table shows, between 1974 and 2006, the biggest growth was not in public or non-financial business debt but in financial and consumer (principally mortgage and credit card) debt. In short, the decisive increase was in the facilitation of the debt and housing bubbles and the ballooning of the financial-services sector. Take particular note of the $10 trillion growth of financial debt between 1994 and 2006. This was a fair part of what skyrocketed financial assets, fueled the hedge funds, leveraged the financial sector into the economic catbird's seat, and transformed debt into a systemic booby trap.

The Federal Reserve Board's rapid money supply expansion aided and abetted the expansion of private debt, while the government's periodic bailouts -- of the Mexican peso in 1994 and Long-Term Capital management in 1998 -- minimized Wall Street's casualties. Together, these policies gave dangerous encouragement to the reckless elements of the financial sector. During the 1997-2001 period, this private debt boom nurtured the high-tech bubble along with such malefactors as Enron, WorldCom, and Global Crossing; then, between 2002 and 2006, it fed the malfeasance of mortgage lenders and Wall Street packagers of such exotic instruments as CDOs and deceptive mortgage-backed securities.

Both Democratic and Republican presidents pursued these policies. The Reagan administration and the first Bush administration indulged in deficit-ridden public finance and reckless lending practices in commercial banks and savings and loan institutions alike; the bailouts were notorious. The Clinton administration brought down the federal budget deficit but bailed out Wall Street repeatedly and abetted the private-debt orgy that nurtured the tech bubble. The second Bush administration, together with the Greenspan Fed, encouraged the blowing up of a giant mortgage and housing bubble to replace the stock-market bubble that imploded in 2000-2001. The Republicans may be more to blame over five presidential terms than the Democrats were during just two, but both parties seem to have pursued a common underlying financial mercantilism of bubble and bail.

Perhaps that is why, when the Federal Reserve Board threw any trace of classical free-market economics out the window to rescue Bear Stearns, to cut interest rates by three-quarters of a percent, and to open up its vaults to investment firms wallowing in the consequences of their own strategic misjudgment, the three major presidential hopefuls, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain, were uncritical and broadly supportive. The socialization of credit risk is now bipartisan public policy. The intimate collaboration of the federal government and the financial sector is now bipartisan public policy. A desperate attempt to patch leaks in the overgrown debt bubble is now bipartisan public policy. If anybody seems inclined to break with the bipartisan past, however, it is Obama.

The United States is not a second Japan, but the extent to which the U.S. government has also been drawn into financial mercantilism, subsidies and assets management not unlike that of the Japanese in the early 1990s, deserves serious attention. Certainly the senior officials of the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board are not going to be wearing the Adam Smith ties so naively sported by Reaganite economists in the early 1980s.

The diminished international reputation of both the United States and its battered currency remains a huge problem. The dollar -- the principal hostage to foreign perceptions of these massive U.S. shortcomings and dependencies in goods and energy -- has paid a steep price and may have further slippage ahead. The oil-producing nations and top manufacturing countries that hold large reserves in their central banks and sovereign wealth funds may be convinced to drop their commitments to the dollar. Some may doubt that the U.S. can straighten out its economic affairs. Others may conclude that pegging their own currencies to a slumping dollar is causing too much inflation, as it is currently in Hong Kong or the Persian Gulf.

Officials in Beijing, Singapore, Riyadh, or Brussels expecting U.S. politicians to confront this nation's fundamental problems during the 2008 election year will be waiting for Godot. Honesty about the American debt bubble or the failures of Washington or Wall Street will be intermittent, at best. If the Republicans are known as the party that kowtows to corporations, the Democrats are coming on strong with their own ties to finance. Not only do the Democrats lead in 2007-2008 contributions from the financial sector, hedge funds especially, but the political geography of their national coalition is increasingly centered in the cosmopolitan states that include the leading money centers: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. It is very hard to imagine a Democratic president or Congress reversing field to support stiff reforms of the sort sure to be opposed by financial-sector leaders. McCain presumably would be even less inclined.

Let me give some hypothetical examples of the problems crying out for deep reforms. Just as the 1990s leap of financial services ahead of manufacturing in the U.S. economy resembled the triumph of manufacturing over agriculture in the late 19th century, we see today another example of the initial inability of government regulation to deal with the new economic power axis. This most obvious failure came with respect to what bond billionaire Bill Gross calls the "shadow" financial system -- the new non-bank financial enterprises from hedge funds to structured investment vehicles and issuers of asset-backed securities -- that has grown up virtually unsupervised outside the existing bank regulatory framework. New legislation is in order, but nothing far-reaching can happen before the November elections.

In 1999, even the older elements of the financial sector -- banks, insurance companies, and the like -- flexed their new muscle successfully enough to repeal the federal Glass-Steagall Act, which had long separated deposit-taking banks from investment activities. Within a few years of repeal, banks, insurance firms, mortgage lenders, and investment companies had intertwined through mergers and holding companies and launched new innovations and experiments. One conspicuous example involved banks, real estate lenders, and issuers of mortgage-backed securities teaming up to offer slick, new, exotic financing to people who were at best marginally qualified homebuyers in order to be able to resell the mortgages en masse through mortgage-backed securities and CDOs. Anyone who expects the Democrats to take the lead in re-enacting portions of Glass-Steagall in 2009 should remember that the three most conspicuous proponents of repealing Glass-Steagall in 1999 were Democrats -- Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and Citigroup Chairman Sanford Weill.

As for the securitization process, regulators in Europe, Britain, and elsewhere appalled by the "opaque" products have called for international regulation that sets out enforceable descriptive criteria and perhaps even requires a necessary degree of standardization. There is a chance that other nations will insist that new standards be met. The Bush administration has shown no interest in this kind of solution, but little has been heard from Capitol Hill, either.

The next president will also need to confront the role of banks: If the important mega-banks are too big or too interconnected with the rest of the financial sector to be allowed to fail, then why are they allowed to indulge in every form of speculation and anti-social behavior, from counseling Enron on tax evasion to gouging on credit-card interest and fees? Martin Wolf, chief commentator of the Financial Times, has contended that "what we have [in banking] is a risk-loving industry guaranteed as a public utility." If banks are to be rescued because they are too big to fail, they should also become, in the manner of a public utility, too well-behaved and too responsible to fail.

***

Looking ahead, if the Federal Reserve Board fails in its attempt to favor, subsidize, and bail out the broad financial sector -- not just commercial banks but brokerage houses -- then the Fed itself could jump to the head of the list of institutions in need of regulatory reform. During the 1980s, conservative economist Milton Friedman called banking "a major sector of the economy in which no enterprise ever fails, no one ever goes broke. The banking industry has been a highly protected, sheltered industry. That's because the banks have been the constituency of the Federal Reserve."

If Friedman were alive today, he would have to enlarge his critique: The overall financial sector has now become the constituency of the Federal Reserve, which has guided and subsidized its slow but threatening takeover of the U.S. economy. To enlarge the Fed's role now, as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urges, is only to reward complicity and culpability.

Having raised these possibilities, I am not sanguine about change. The lesson of history is that previous leading world economic powers, from Rome and Imperial Spain to the Netherlands (back when New York was New Amsterdam) and early 20th-century Britain, have been unable to reform themselves in time to avoid decline. Politics has failed in the face of entrenched interests. In the process, excessive debt and dependence on finance rather than production has been front and center. New nations move to the head of the line -- and these days we can see Asia smiling.

Kevin Phillips is the author, most recently, of Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich.

NLM has a post on Painted English Rood Screens--see the comments... (especially this one: the arrangement of Western medieval churches)

Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda not linked, Pentagon says

"We fight them there so we don't have to fight them here." One of the great falsehoods from the administration and its cheerleaders in their attempts to justify the war in Iraq. It would appear that most of those associated with AQ in Iraq are natives who joined up and are probably 'upset' that we made a mess in their backyard.

New look at foreign fighters in Iraq

The report, which is based on data compiled by Al Qaeda and captured by coalition forces last fall, shows that the most violent acts in Iraq are typically carried out by foreign fighters. Their goals sometimes align with the group Al Qaeda in Iraq, which, estimates suggest, has between 5,000 and 8,000 people associated with it. The foreign fighters, however, represent just a small fraction of that group.

'Al Qaeda rolodex' found in Iraq - CNN.com

abu muqawama: Al-Qaeda's Arithmetic of Response
Bill Moyers Journal . AL QAEDA AND IRAQ | PBS (Oh no! Bill Moyers!)

A new model of education needed for boys?

Or perhaps an old one needs to be brought back?

What should be done about active boys between the ages of 6 and 9? How literate do they need to be before they can begin the "traditional" liberal arts curriculum at the age of 12 or 13? What should they be doing before then? Does the Montesorri method take into account sex differences? Would boys benefit from a more hands-on approach to primary learning, with more physical activities? Some time should be spent on language and grammar and calculation; how about the memorization of poems and such? And hearing the stories of heroes with whom they can identify?

Spending 5 weeks with one class has reminded me how quickly one can develop bad habits with regards to handling children (or people in general). If one becomes used to reacting strongly and having certain emotions, instead of focusing on remaining calm, this will carry over for a while, until one exerts some sort of effort to counter it.

Tomorrow is Teacher and Staff Appreciation Day at the school, sponsored by the local PTA. Breakfast snacks in the morning, KFC for lunch. Yum!

The False Promise of Classical Education by Lisa VanDamme
Written from the perspective of objectivism. 'Nuff said? Would it be a good intellectual exercise for one to go through such an essay and identify the problems from a rational viewpoint? Objectivism has roots in the Enlightenment. Fortunately the influence of Ayn Rand and the objectivist school is rather negligible in academia and in mainstream American culture as well.

What is Objectivism?
Ayn Rand and Objectivism Reference Center
Objectivist Living - Dedicated to Ayn Rand and the Art of Living ...

I remember reading The Fountainhead in high school for a scholarship essay. Truly, what bosh. This is probably the same contest; I learned about it from the CHS career center. Who runs the center now?

A Medieval education was not for everyone; neither was a Renaissance education (I suspect). How much differentiation between ability should there be at the primary level? What are the advantages and disadvantages of having students of different abilities in the same classroom? If there are too many students it is difficult to provide one-on-one attention and address the needs of individual students. Even among students of similar abilities, one must spend some time with each one to see if anything needs to be corrected. Wouldn't this process require even more time if the students had varying abilities?

Future reference:
Medieval Monastic Education, by George Ferzoco (Editor), Carolyn Muessig (Editor)
Medieval Schools: Roman Britain to Renaissance England, by Nicholas Orme
Medieval Education - Google Books Result
Medieval Education, edited by Ronald B. Begley, and Joseph W. Koterski, S. J.
Medieval Aspects of Renaissance Learning: Three Essays, by Professor Paul Oskar Kristeller
Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Tradition and Innovation in Latin Schools from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century, by Robert Black (Cambridge University Press)

and from PIMS:

Mulchahey, M. Michèle. “First the Bow is Bent in Study ...”: Dominican Education before 1350. ST 132. 1998; xxii, 618 pp. Casebound. ISBN 978–0–88844–132–4 • $110.00 • A detailed exploration of Dominican education in the first century of the order’s life.

Vives
Juan Luis Vives - Google Books Result
Vives: On Education: A Translation of the De Trandendis ... - Google Books Result
The Education of a Christian Woman: A Sixteenth-Century Manual - Google Books Result

Jeffrey Kaplan, The Gospel of Consumption

The Gospel of Consumption
And the better future we left behind
by Jeffrey Kaplan

More from EB:
Consumption and poverty - May 5
Staff, Energy Bulletin
The gospel of consumption and the better future we left behind
The coming collapse of the middle class
Middle class on the precipice
Asian leaders issue poverty warning

The just-in-time economy crumbles
Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
The realization that just-in-time methods have ceased to serve us well comes at a time when it is exceedingly difficult and expensive to build a stockpile of anything.

Chesterton Academy

website

via The Blue Boar: Chesterton Academy faculty announced!

Rod Dreher, China as Isengard

China as Isengard

Also worth mulling over: Toxic tots. Are we raising our children in healthy environments?