St. Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop, (444)
St. Apollonia, Martyr, (249)
St. Sabinus of Canosa, Bishop, (566)
St. Meingold, Martyr, (892)
St. Cuthman, Confessor, (900)
St. Elfleda, Abbess, (714)
From Al Jazeera: Israeli dig sparks protests
Israeli excavation work near a compound in Jerusalem that houses al-Aqsa mosque has sparked protests by Palestinians and condemnation from the Jordanian king.
King Abdullah says the dig is a “flagrant violation” of a 1994 peace treaty which recognises Jordan’s “historic role” in overseeing maintenance at Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.
Israeli assurances that the dig would not harm Islam’s third holiest site did little to stifle the anger as 11 Palestinians were arrested and crowds threw stones at Israeli soldiers in Bethlehem.
Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, said Israel was out to cause “direct harm” to al-Aqsa.
He said: “I appeal to all our Palestinian people to be united and to rise up together to protect al-Aqsa and the holy sites on the blessed land of Palestine.”
…
Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, said: “The activities being carried out do not harm … and will not harm any of the holy places.”
She accused Israel’s enemies of exploiting “every opportunity to stir the most radical emotions”…
Uh, yeah, like digging near the mosque wouldn’t do that.
Where exactly do Israelis think they live? I think that they imagine they are in some remote mountaintop country or on the moon, completely separated from their neighbors, by millions of miles. That’s about the only thing that could excuse this type of behavior.
Lord have mercy on us all. Lord, draw all men unto Thee.
I see that Bill Gates has is panties in a bunch over Apple’s new ads. Poor, poor rich man – can’t take it can he (I’m hearing Bugs Bunny now).
The Apple ads are funny, sarcastic, and true.
I installed Vista as I previously blogged. The Vista tester told me – no problem, go for it. My computer ran like an old Russian tractor. After the purchase of two additional gigs of RAM I’m pretty much ok.
The UAC prompts that pop up are the biggest pain. Imagine working along, several windows open, several different task going on, blogging your random thoughts, and boom, your screen goes black (at least they didn’t choose blue as in the BSoD). It then re-appears grayed-out with a prompt as to whether you want to allow the action to occur. Ummm, yeah, I just clicked on a program because I wanted to install, uninstall, or change it. Well there goes that thought out the window(s).
Vista is Windows on steroids trying to be a MAC. If I didn’t need my PC, I’d toss it.
In regard to Mr. Gates complaints against Apple and Mr. Jobs – at least Mr. Jobs is throwing some innovative stuff out there. See: Jobs Calls for End to Music Copy Protection. All Mr. Gates can do is gripe.
Kidnapped:
From the AP via the Boston Herald: U.S. behind kidnapping of diplomat, Iran claims
BAGHDAD – Iran is blaming the United States for the abduction Sunday of an Iranian diplomat by men wearing Iraqi Army uniforms.
The kidnapping of Jalal Sharafi threatens to escalate the tense standoff between Iran and the United States – and could become a major diplomatic crisis for Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government.
U.S. authorities deny any role in the disappearance of Sharafi, a second secretary at the Iranian embassy. The United States has accused Iran of supporting both Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias that run abduction operations.
The kidnapping occurred when uniformed gunmen blocked Sharafi’s car, forced him into a vehicle and sped away. Iraqi police then opened fire, disabling a second vehicle, arresting the four gunmen inside and taking them to a police station.
The next day, Iraqis in uniform appeared at the station, showed government badges and demanded the four suspects.
The authorities complied and the men disappeared. Spokesmen for both the Interior Ministry and the Defense Ministry, which together control Iraqi security forces, said they had no idea where the suspects went.
Shiite lawmakers said they believed Sharafi was detained in an operation carried out by the Iraqi Special Operations Command, an elite unit under the direct supervision of the U.S. military…
Just ticking up the tensions until someone snaps – then BOOM!!! (sound of a low yield nuclear weapon exploding)
More bodies:
From the NY Times: Military Wants More Civilians to Help in Iraq
WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 —” Senior military officers, including members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have told President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that the new Iraq strategy could fail unless more civilian agencies step forward quickly to carry out plans for reconstruction and political development.
The complaints reflect fresh tensions between the Pentagon and the State Department over personnel demands that have fallen most heavily on the military. But they also draw on a deeper reservoir of concerns among officers who have warned that a military buildup alone cannot solve Iraq’s problems, and who now fear that the military will bear a disproportionate burden if Mr. Bush’s strategy falls short.
Among particular complaints, the officers cited a request from the office of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that military personnel temporarily fill more than one-third of 350 new State Department jobs in Iraq that are to be created under the new strategy…
Hey, sign me up, I have a death wish (Dear Government watchdogs – note that this is sarcasm. I have no desire to die in a place no U.S. soldier or civilian should be in in the first place.)
Let’s see all the neo-con and Evangelical supporters of Bush’s war head over to represent and evangelize.
NEXT!
From All Headline News: Pentagon Decides To Establish African Command
Washington, D.C. (AHN) – After a thorough review, the U.S. Department of Defense will establish an African Command, to oversee American military operations on the continent.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates spoke on Capitol Hill, saying, “The President has decided to stand-up a new unified, combatant command, Africa Command, to oversee security cooperation, building partnership capability, defense support to non-military missions, and, if directed, military operations on the African continent.”
We gotta send our war weary troops somewhere to let off steam once they’re done (done for, done in) in Iraq.
Useless resolutions:
From VOA: US Senate Divided on Approach to Iraq War Debate
A day after Senate Republicans blocked a nonbinding resolution expressing disagreement over President Bush’s decision to send more troops to Iraq, the Democratic-led Senate Tuesday remained deadlocked over the best way to move the bipartisan measure to the Senate floor for a vote. VOA’s Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill.
Although Senate Democrats and Republicans say they want to be able to vote on nonbinding resolutions on the Iraq war, an issue that will likely influence the 2008 presidential and congressional elections, they have not been able to agree on how best to do it.
Democrats still hope to reach agreement with Republicans on allowing a Senate vote on a resolution sponsored by Senator John Warner of Virginia, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, which expresses disagreement with President Bush’s decision to increase troop strength in Iraq.
But Republicans, who blocked the measure from coming to a vote Monday, are demanding that at least one other Republican-sponsored resolution be allowed to go to the floor for a Senate vote along with the Warner measure. That other resolution, sponsored by Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, includes language saying Congress should not take any action that will endanger United States military forces in the field, including the elimination or reduction of funds…
We’re going to fight and haggle over meaningless resolutions, like Pilate washing his hands. If you’ve been elected to do something, doing something would be good; something in the traditional sense of something as in the concrete and real.
St. Richard the King, Confessor and King, (720)
St. Theodore of Heraclea, Martyr, (unknown)
St. Moses, Bishop, (372)
From the ChristianNewsWire: Province-in-Waiting’ Proposed to Primates by U. S. Orthodox Lay Group ‘To Stop the Bleeding’ If Key Dar-Es-Salaam Meeting Doesn’t Produce Solution
WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 /Christian Newswire/ — A temporary “province-in-waiting” plan to assist the Anglican Communion and its primates in their quest for a solution to “the U.S. problem” was offered last Saturday by an American lay group.
Primates received the supportive good-faith contingency measure as they prepared for their general meeting in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania, Feb. 13- 15.
Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Communion (LEAC) presented an “Interim Compact for Anglican Loyalty” last Saturday in support of Bishop Robert W. Duncan, moderator of Common Cause Partners and the primates’ designee to represent corporate orthodox U.S. interests at their meeting. Bishop Duncan also heads the Anglican Communion Network and the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh.
The document decried the accelerating “Balkanizing” of the American scene and growing flight of individual Episcopal communicants for safe haven from the “schismatic” U. S. province, which has “walked apart” and is now in broken communion with most of the 38 provinces. The estranged provinces comprise more than half of the 78 million members of the worldwide communion.
Since 2003, more than 100 U. S. parishes have established relationships with foreign provinces in order to remain in the Anglican Communion. They would not condone TEC’s schismatic crowning of an openly homosexual bishop and TEC’s refusing to repent and promise not to repeat that and other affronts to Anglican doctrine.
Most orthodox clergy and lay people and some court papers have declared that TEC has theologically abandoned the Anglican Communion by refusing to repent, as urged by the Communion’s “Windsor Report.” That is a paper calling the U. S. province back, in repentance and with a promise not to violate Anglican Communion doctrine again.
LEAC says the “Balkanizing” increases weekly, giving foreign primates an expanding presence in the dysfunctional U. S. province.
LEAC says it may take decades for the renewal orthodox church to undo the intrusions, while acknowledging that the intrusions are all done by foreign prelates with generous and compassionate pastoral purpose.
“If Dar-Es-Salaam comes and goes without a practical and effective stanching of the bleeding in America, we cannot wait until the next international meeting, which is more than a year away,” a LEAC spokesman said. While appreciating their great effort and love, we want the primates to understand our high sense of urgency and need for action.
“A prompt American solution is imperative. If necessary, Americans can solve the problem on an interim basis. While fervently supportive of Bishop Duncan, we offered up our unique plan respectfully. Most who have studied it as an interim contingency measure found it clearly a template for effective American governance.
“We have heard of no other plan which would assure prompt, positive renewal of a faithful robust national orthodox scene under American corporate governance.”
The plan calls for a new orthodox Anglican “federation” of dioceses, parishes and communicants, temporarily independent of the Anglican Communion but totally self-sufficient in the Anglican faith. It would operate on its own until the primates and communion complete the tasks of formally ridding the American Anglican landscape of the Episcopal Church and chartering a reliable replacement province reserved for orthodox clergy and communicants.
If activated promptly, the new system would be operating by November, on All Saints Day, an important annual Anglican celebration, the document sent to each primate said. It would have its own bishops, church organization and full administrative capability.
As a “province-in-waiting,” it would be ready to step back into an historic position in the Anglican Communion when that organization offers an acceptable permanent province.
LEAC said that in one conceptual approach the new federation would undertake a difficult “pan-Anglican” role, bringing disparate “Common Cause” offshoots into a “mosaic” of faithful dioceses. Some thinking, LEAC said, suggests that those wishing keep their own bishops in U. S. dioceses without boundaries could do so. Their churches would be located within but would not be part of new mainstream dioceses, with “pan-Anglican” bonding encouraged among all in scores of geographical “fellowship” areas overlaying the national map. One approach provides “local option” with respect to inclusion of women deacons and priests. LEAC has not recommended any particular organizational approach or operating policies.
The “mosaic,” if adopted, could be “a creative and altogether faithful 21st Century Anglican province,” LEAC said. Missions and churches in alliance with foreign provinces likely would be required to discontinue those parochial or diocesan relationships and rejoin “the mainstream” organization in most scenarios, LEAC said.
LEAC said it would provide administrative services it might be asked to perform but would not be part of the new Federation. It said it would continue to seek “for our brothers and sisters in the pews” greater influence than was possible in the TEC structure.
I’ll make two comments.
It seems to me that the ‘we can’t wait another year’ approach is counter productive.
Everyone should get their ducks in order and get on the same page. That takes time and thought. Now I understand that the Episcopal Church engages in debate and dialog ad infinitum, thus the push to get it done, but at least have a plan and a normative statement.
This leads to the second comment.
You cannot do any of that planning and getting on the same page because Balkanization results in a people with a bitterness so deep it’s nearly impossible to overcome.
In addition, the Anglican/Episcopal tradition has no unifying factor. The Churches Catholic have the liturgy, and Rome adds the Pope. Episcopalians have such varied degrees of operation that there is little if anything that can be used as a unifying factor. It is a Church replete with Balkanization – from Protestant Evangelicals to Anglo-Catholics and every shade in-between.
What are they going to agree on – except a few things they don’t like.
St. Titus, Bishop, (1st Century)
St. Dorothy, Martyr, (303)
St. Amand, Bishop, (679)
From EarthTimes – Report: Majority of Catholic priests in Poland want right to marry
Warsaw (dpa) – Sixty per cent of Roman Catholic priests in overwhelmingly Catholic Poland want the right the marry and have families of their own, according to a survey published by Poland’s respected Tygodnik Powszechny (TP) weekly.
As times change and the social status of and respect for the priesthood declines, more and more priests who feel lonely, isolated and misunderstood are considering leaving the priesthood, according to the weekly, which caters for Poland’s Catholic intelligentsia.
“Not everyone can cope with the fact that at the beginning of the 21st century priests are no longer regarded as the priest they knew in their youth,” Jesuit Father and psychologist Jacek Prusak told TP.
But according to an as yet unpublished study, so far only one third of young priests who quit the priesthood do so for the sake of a woman.
“The main reason (for quitting the priesthood ) are existential problems and ideals,” according to the study’s author Professor Jozef Baniak of Poznan’s Adam Mickiewicz university. “A woman, if she appears, is in the background.”
“First there is an crisis of the priest’s identity and then he looks for someone in whom he can confide his problem,” says Baniak.
Vatican statistics quoted by TP also show more and more Polish priest are deciding to quit. Whereas in 1998, some 32 priests left, in 2004 the figure shot up to 57…
Not news because many Polish R.C. priests are ‘married,’ just not in the legal sense. They have women and children, often provided for out of the coffers of the local parish, or in extreme cases, out of the diocese. Scandal erupts only when a priest leaves to do the right thing – that is he legally marries his wife and supports his wife and children. He stands by her as husband and father.
Unfortunately, far too many choose the easy road. Oh, honey, I can’t marry you. Look at my great job, the cars, the money, the clothes, the vacations, the status. But it’s ok, we’ll be together on certain evenings and every other weekend. Tell the kids I do care.
It’s a total fallacy. It’s playing to a man’s base instincts, have fun, don’t commit.
Choosing to leave the R.C. priesthood in Poland puts one at a severe disadvantage. Start with the family pressure, the social pressures in the local community, and the hint of scandal… The women (those who actually hold these men to a higher standard) are poorly regarded in comparison to those who take it and shut-up. In addition, the financial losses alone are huge – another base instinct that must be fought against if the man wishes to do right.
And, by-the-way, it is not the woman’s fault.
The 57 who left are the honest ones, the ones who take their faith seriously. The others who remain, seeking the right to marry, are simply seeking a normalization of what already exists.
These men are having problems with their identity, as Prof. Baniak points out, not because of an inherent disorder, but because the identity they live in is disordered to their natural calling – marriage, a spouse, and children.
As I’ve said before, celibacy is a gift given to some, not a gift that can be demanded of the Holy Spirit. Once the R.C. Church gets beyond demanding that its men ‘receive’ this gift, perhaps the gift will be given more freely.
Faith you know.