Damian Thompson: James MacMillan puts Scottish bishops on the spot over Latin Masses and With his daring scheme for Anglicans, Benedict XVI fulfils the hopes of Cardinal Newman

Robert Moynihan: Letter #40, from Rome, Requiescat
Sad News: The mother of the Pope's personal secretary has passed away

Unlearning the CIA By CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM
The Education of Bob Baer

When Hollywood came calling after the success of “See No Evil” and Syriana went into production in 2004, Baer snagged a cameo role, playing an FBI agent. He had one line, demanding George Clooney give up his “passports” – in the plural – and he kept flubbing it. There are a lot of ex-CIA officers who tell me they’ve laughed at the Syriana version of the CIA, among them Bob Baer.

His future plans?

Baer’s dissenting voice is small in the scrum of interests in Washington. That’s why he’s in Silverton. He suggests the CIA transfer its headquarters to the mountains, to live in the hard cold winter and get a grip on reality, lose some fat. I get the impression he no longer believes in US power as currently configured. Perhaps he has come full circle from traveling the world with his mom. He tells me he might run for county sheriff and that his first official act is that he will “no longer enforce federal laws.” He tells me, “We're a country of isolationists. We don't do empires. So we come home. Build the perfect electric car, give away solar panels, retool the assholes on Wall Street to build public transportation.” He’s got his new daughter Khyber to take care of, and his wife Dayna. He has a new pair of skis. As we walked into the mountains, snow started falling. The peaks would soon be covered, and the valley. Baer could go skiing.

Challenging the Dollar Dictatorship By NIKOLAS KOZLOFF
An Interview with Economist Ethan Kaplan

Sustainable Agriculture Whitepaper (excerpt)

Jason Bradford, Phd. and Craig Wichner, Farmland LP

Developing a sustainable agriculture is a necessary part of creating a sustainable society. The root of the word sustainable is the verb, to sustain, which means to nourish and prolong. In social and environmental contexts we say something is sustainable when we believe it can persist indefinitely without exhausting resources or causing lasting damage.

The Thinking Houswife on The Unfaithful Wife.

Mike Whitney, The Great Dollar Collapse Debate

How Being The Slightest Bit Overqualified Can Cost You A Job

I was thinking of all money I could have saved if I hadn't moved into the room -- at least $12,000 over 2 years. Maybe that's insignificant compared to what most working people in California spend on rent, but that's still a big chunk of change to me. Even if I had to spend some of it on storage and other expenses, I'd probably have $8,000 left to save or to spend on other "more important" things. And if I hadn't been living in the room, I probably could have avoided certain setbacks that have delayed my entry into the "real world." These are not pleasant things to think about. Ah well, what can you do. Let's just see if I can get some things back on track.

Michael Shedlock: How Being The Slightest Bit Overqualified Can Cost You A Job

The Western Confucian posts some video clips featuring Korean chant: Korea's Inculturated Office of the Dead.

Zed @ The Spearhead: The Baby Bomb: How the Boomers were Used to Demolish a Culture

If there is anything missingn from the narrative, it is the story of the alliance between government and the wealthy, the oligopoly, and the centralization of political and economic power.

How does a website like this get its information (with people's addresses and phone numbers)? And by what right is it allowed to post this information on the Internet?

Sarge, you need to become a player for Bayern München.



Bayern Munich's striker Mario Gomez and his girlfriend Silvia Meichel, dressed in traditional Bavarian clothes, pose in a beer tent at the Oktoberfest during the Bayern Munich football team's annual visit to the famous beer festival, on October 4, 2009 in Munich, southern Germany. (Getty/Daylife)


Bayern Munich's midfielder Andreas Ottl and his girlfriend, dressed in traditional Bavarian clothes, pose at the Oktoberfest during the Bayern Munich football team's annual visit to the famous beer festival, on October 4, 2009 in Munich, southern Germany. (Getty/Daylife)

Bayern Munich's Dutch midfielder Mark van Bommel and his wife Andra, dressed in traditional Bavarian clothes, pose in a beer tent at the Oktoberfest during the Bayern Munich football team's annual visit to the famous beer festival, on October 4, 2009 in Munich, southern Germany. (Getty/Daylife)


Fußball-Club Bayern München

Asia Times: China's navy sails past India's dock
Three Chinese naval vessels do not make a fleet, but they do make a statement. By sending them to patrol off the coast of Somalia as part of the multinational force operating there, in effect, China is saying to India, "We're back." - Peter J Brown (Oct 21, '09)

Planning for Water Contingencies

Gail Tverberg, The Oil Drum

We know that fresh water is essential to life. While we can survive for weeks without food, even a few days without water can be a problem. One rule of thumb as to the amount of water needed for drinking is two quarts (1.9 liters) per person per day. If one includes uses other than drinking, obviously more is needed.

The Race Goes Not Always To The Fastest

Gene Logsdon, OrganicToBe.org

I am not a real farmer, my neighbors say, because I don’t do it for money. That’s almost funny because the economists are saying that nobody’s farming for money this year. Although the corn crop is good in most of the midwest, there’s not much profit in it. Some go as far as projecting that on average, corn farmers will lose $8 per acre over the whole midwest. If that is the case, I’m not a real farmer for sure because I figure on netting $550 an acre on my corn.

(original)

AmP: Background: Abp. Di Noia asked dominicans for Anglican reunification prayers


Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments attends a news conference at the Vatican, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009. Pope Benedict XVI approved a new church provision that will allow Anglicans to convert while maintaining many of their distinctive spiritual and liturgical traditions. The new Catholic church structures, called Personal Ordinariates, will be units of faithful established within local Catholic Churches, headed by former Anglican prelates who will provide spiritual care for Anglicans who wish to be Catholic. (AP/Daylife)

Cardinal William Levada, right, the Vatican's chief doctrinal official, flanked by Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, speaks at a news conference at the Vatican, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009. The Vatican has made it easier for Anglicans to join the Catholic Church, responding to the disillusionment of some Anglicans over the election of openly gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions. Pope Benedict XVI approved a new church provision that will allow Anglicans to convert while maintaining many of their distinctive spiritual and liturgical traditions, Cardinal William Levada, the Vatican's chief doctrinal official, told a news conference Tuesday. (AP/Daylife)

Hestia writes:

American women seem to age super-duper fast. What is up with that?
A carb heavy diet, a lack of healthful dietary fats, a lack of exercise, and an obsession with clean skin are all likely culprits. If you look at the beauty regimes used in other parts of the world, they focus on techniques and products that are beneficial for hygiene, good health, and aging gracefully. They include eating well, being well-hydrated, and moisturizing, moisturizing, moisturizing. Their lifestyles are also a bit more sane and health promoting than that of the typical American.

In America, beauty regimes don’t focus on these basic common sense must-dos. Instead, American women are all about obsessively cleansing their skin with harsh alcohol based toners and caustic soaps that strip the skin of beneficial oil. Sunscreen use is also not as prevalent in the US as it is in other parts of the world. Many women seem to think SPF 15 in their foundation is sufficient, when this doesn’t provide any real sun protection at all.

And then there is the obsession with tanning, both in the lying in the sun form and artificial tanning beds. Both cause immediate damage in the form of dry, irritated skin that becomes temperamental and out of balance and of course the long term wrinkles and damage that will result in later years.

The damage does come quicker than many realize. I’ve never laid out in the sun or went to a tanning bed and wear sun protection religiously, in the form of clothing, hats, and sunscreen. Many of my high school classmates did not and now at just 23-25ish, you can tell the difference between us. I’m even mistaken for being sixteen quite frequently. I’m not sure who these folks think the three year old child is…maybe my sister? LOL. In later years this will surely be more dramatic. My parents are both fair and have never sun worshiped either and they both look dramatically younger than their peers. My dad will be 58 this week and people routinely think he is in this forties. My mom turned fifty earlier this year and is mistaken for being much younger as well.

People in many countries also maintain a fitness level as part of their lifestyle, rather than focusing on the hardcore and damaging routines that are part of American fitness. Think of the many people wh0 walk or ride bikes as their usual form of transportation. If you do this in the States as I do (we only have one vehicle and my husband uses it; my vehicle is my bike with seat for my daughter, our feet, our the bus), you are a real oddity. Such a lifestyle is just not possible for many people, due to a lack of public transit or an area that is not walker friendly, but for many Americans, they are just too lazy to stroll 1/4 mile on a nice day to pick up a gallon of milk.

Fr. Z: Details about the new Compendium Eucharisticum

Sandro Magister on the Anglican ordinariates: Knock, and It Shall Be Opened to You. As Long As It's According to Tradition

Reuters: Modern man a wimp says anthropologist

JMG, Strange Bright Banners

The conventional wisdom, like most great fallacies, begins with a truth and stretches it until it becomes for all practical purposes a falsehood. The truth, one of the great achievements of the last three hundred years of thought, is the recognition that human life comprises a number of separate spheres that overlap solely in the life of the individual. Most of us have learned, for example, that when a religious leader makes statements concerning matters of scientific fact, those statements deserve no more (albeit no less) respect than those of any other interested layperson, and if the religious leader claims divine sanction for his opinions, he has overstepped the proper bounds of religion. (We are still in the process of learning that the reverse is also true, and a scientist who attempts to claim the prestige of science for an attack on religion is equally out of line.)

Except this denies the possibility of Divine Revelation.

Wind powered factories: history (and future) of industrial windmills

Kris De Decker, Low-tech Magazine

In the 1930s and 1940s, decades after steam engines had made wind power obsolete, Dutch researchers obstinately kept improving the – already very sophisticated – traditional windmill. The results were spectacular, and there is no doubt that today an army of ecogeeks could improve them even further. Would it make sense to revive the industrial windmill and again convert kinetic energy directly into mechanical energy?

(original)

NLM: Chant Camp by Anon. 4


I didn't go to the concert -- couldn't afford it. Ah well.

Pam Martens, The Next Financial Crisis Hits Wall Street: Judges Start Nixing Foreclosures

Rod Dreher: The financial and political oligarchy

Related links:
FRONTLINE: the warning: watch the full program online | PBS
Brooksley Born, Finally on the Record : CJR
Brooksley Born, the Cassandra of the Derivatives Crisis

STANFORD Magazine: March/April 2009 > Features > Brooksley Born