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<p>Editor’s note: The following address was given at a gathering of the St. Thomas More Society of the Diocese of Green Bay on October 24.</p>
<p>Let me begin by thanking my friend Judge Bill Griesbach for describing me here in Titletown U.S.A. as “the Aaron Rodgers of Catholic public intellectuals.” As a native of Baltimore with a long memory, I’ll be happy to accept that accolade if the good people of Green Bay will finally admit that Don Chandler shanked that field goal in the 1965 Colts/Packers playoff game.</p>
<p>Tonight, I want to violate the canons of after-dinner remarks, skip the requisite joke-every-two-paragraphs, and get right down to the business at hand: to drill beneath the surface of American public life in order to explore what’s going on down there; to examine how what’s going on down there shapes the controversies and arguments of the day; and to suggest how that bears on Catholics and other men and women whose consciences are formed by Great Tradition Christianity in these United States in the early 21st century.</p>
<p>But as an introduction to that heavy lifting, I’d like to begin on more familiar terrain, with the hymn we sang at the end of Mass this evening. Why? Because one of the less frequently sung verses of “America the Beautiful” strikes me with some force as an appropriate way to get into our topic:</p>
<p>O beautiful for pilgrim feet Whose stern, impassioned stress A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness! America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!</p>
<p>A Catholic knowledgeable about Christian history has to be struck by the irony of Catholics singing this stanza with gusto. For those “pilgrim feet” in the wilderness of the New World were running as far from Rome as possible; indeed, as one embodiment of what scholars call the “Radical Reformation,” the Pilgrims were running as far and as fast as they could from what they regarded as “Romanizing” forms of Protestantism. And when those who trod the wilderness on “pilgrim feet” got political power, they and their heirs often used it in ways that made life difficult for Catholics — as they did in my native Maryland, where the English colonies’ first experiment in religious toleration was ended by an influx of belligerent Virginia Protestants of a Cromwellian cast of mind.</p>
<p>Yet here Catholics are, singing about and celebrating the accomplishments of those who trod on pilgrim feet across the New World wilderness — and rightly so. For the linkages drawn by America’s Pilgrim and Puritan forebears between liberty and law, freedom and moral self-possession, freedom and moral nobility, all commend themselves to an authentically Catholic sensibility.</p>
<p>The great Jesuit theorist of the American democratic experiment, Father John Courtney Murray, S.J., caught this in 1960 when, in&#160; <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=%200742549011" type="external">We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition</a>, he wrote that “Catholic participation in the American consensus has been full and free, unreserved and unembarrassed, because the contents of this consensus — the ethical and political principles drawn from the tradition of natural law — approve themselves to the Catholic intelligence and conscience. Where this kind of language is talked, the Catholic joins the conversation with complete ease. It is his language. The ideas expressed are native to his universe of discourse. Even the accent, being American, suits his tongue.”</p>
<p>Today, though, Americans — or, at the very least, America’s cultural and political elites — seem to be speaking a different language.</p>
<p>The character of that change was brilliantly caught by the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre in his seminal book,&#160; <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=%200268035040" type="external">After Virtue</a>, which begins with an arresting thought experiment.</p>
<p>Imagine, MacIntyre writes, that a series of natural catastrophes have been blamed on scientists, who are then persecuted, even executed, by followers of a Know-Nothing political movement that seeks to destroy, not only scientists, but also their books and instruments. Science teaching is banned in schools and a great forgetting takes place. Later, when people calm down, an attempt is made to revive science — but those making the attempt don’t know what “science” is. All they have is fragments of books, charred pages of articles, broken instruments, and reports of experiments, none of which is any longer embedded in the context in which they made sense. Nevertheless, people pick up these fragments of a lost heritage and talk about “physics,” “biology,” and “chemistry,” arguing about the “theory of evolution” and the “theory of relativity” while their children learn bits and pieces of the periodic table of the elements and recite Euclidean theorems as chants. Very few people realize that none of this is “science” in any proper sense. They use the terms of science — “mass,” “specific gravity,” “neutrino,” and so forth — but in ways unrelated to the beliefs those expressions once presupposed. So there would seem to be a certain arbitrariness, even an element of “choice,” in the use of these terms. Various underlying and incommensurable premises that could not be demonstrated would multiply; some would propose subjectivist theories of science while others would argue that there is no computability between “science” and subjectivism. Looking at such a world, we, on the other hand, would say that, while the language of natural science is being used, it is gravely disordered.</p>
<p>And there, MacIntyre concluded 30 years ago, is the rub: “In the actual world we inhabit, the language of morality is in the same state of grave disorder as the language of natural science in the imaginary world which I described. What we possess . . . are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have — very largely, if not entirely — lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.”</p>
<p>My friend Rémi Brague, a distinguished French philosopher and recent winner of the Ratzinger Prize, would likely agree with Alasdair MacIntyre. But he would drive the analysis of our current discontents deeper. Thus in 2006, Brague made a suggestive proposal for periodizing modern Western political history.</p>
<p>The 19th century, he argued, was a period focused on Good-and-Evil: The “social question” — raised by the industrial revolution, urbanization, mass education, and the demise of traditional society — shaped the public landscape.</p>
<p>As for the 20th century, it was the century of True-and-False: The totalitarian ideologies, built on the foundations of desperately wrong-headed ideas of human beings and their origins, communities, and destiny, defined the contest for the human future that drove history from the aftermath of World War I (the event that began “the 20th century” as an epoch) through the Soviet crackup of 1991 (the event that ended “the 20th century” as a distinct political-historical period).</p>
<p>And the 21st century? That, Rémi Brague proposed, would be the century of Being-and-Nothingness — the epoch of the metaphysical question. It might seem, in comparison to Brague’s description of the 19th and 20th centuries, a rather abstract proposal. Yet Brague, in his French way, was being very practical, very concrete, in defining our times in those terms. For if there is nothing received and cherished by our culture that might be called the “grammar of the human,” if there are no Things As They Are, if everything is plastic, malleable, and subject to change by human willfulness, then everything is up for grabs, cacophony drowns out intelligent public debate, and politics is merely the will to power.</p>
<p>Having spent decades immersed in the study of Islamic philosophy and law, Rémi Brague is hardly unaware of the threat posed to the West by jihadism, both externally and internally. But in 2006, he insisted that there was a prior enemy-within-the-gates of our own making. It was nihilism: a kind of soured cynicism about the very mystery of Being and its goodness. Such cynicism drained life of meaning, foreshortened horizons of expectation, and rendered sacrifices for the common good risible. Brague found postmodern nihilism foreshadowed in the Enlightenment intellectual (left unnamed) who said that he did not have children because begetting children was a criminal act, a matter of condemning another human being to death. A similar nihilism may be found lurking today beneath the decline of the marriage culture in America (and indeed throughout the West), in the treatment of children as lifestyle accessories, in the trivialization of sexuality in advertising and entertainment, and in so many other expressions of the sexual revolution and the Gnostic ideology of Gender.</p>
<p>That is a non-hysterical, entirely plausible reading of American culture today. And if it feels slightly uncomfortable and unfamiliar to be a serious Catholic in America today, that is because the ambient public culture often denies the four fundamental truths on which, according to John Courtney Murray, America was built, truths that Catholics readily and happily affirmed even when Protestant bigots were questioning whether Catholics could be good citizens of the American democracy.</p>
<p>Americans once understood that God had inscribed moral truths into the world and into us, truths that could be known by reason. Today, the nation’s principal political newspaper, the&#160;Washington Post, editorially describes an appeal to those truths as an example of a new “language of racism, bias, and intolerance” — and does so in aid of the claim that government should recognize that Adam can “marry” Steve.</p>
<p>Americans once understood that our “rights” had to be tethered to a higher moral law, that just government was by the consent of the governed, and that democratic decision-making should, except in very rare circumstances, be made in legislative bodies by the people’s elected representatives. Today, we are increasingly governed by unelected Supreme Court justices and unaccountable regulators, many of whom seem to take their concept of freedom and human rights from that great moral philosopher, Frank Sinatra: “I did it&#160;my&#160;way.”</p>
<p>Americans once understood that the state existed to serve society, not the other way around. Today, we are governed by a federal administration that seems determined to shrink the size of civil society and vastly enlarge the sphere of state power, as it has done in the HHS contraceptive/abortifacient/sterilization mandate.</p>
<p>Americans once understood that, as Father Murray put it, “only a virtuous people can be free.” Today, freedom is too often reduced to a mantra of “choice,” and the urgent moral question “Choose&#160;what?” is rarely engaged; in fact, it is assiduously avoided by the pro-choice lobby in the aftermath of the Gosnell trial, and it was simply ignored by the president of the United States in a 2013 speech to Planned Parenthood.</p>
<p>All of this, and more, makes for an unfamiliar America for Catholics. It also makes for a great about-face in the consideration of Catholic history, and of the Catholic present and future, in the United States.</p>
<p>For decades, the classic historians of American Catholicism — John Gilmary Shea, Peter Guilday, Thomas McAvoy, John Tracy Ellis — framed the story of Catholicism in America around the issues of assimilation and acceptance — the question posed by those who, striding on “pilgrim feet” across the new republic, often made things difficult for Catholics. And, to be sure, reading the history of the Catholic Church in the United States as a centuries-long struggle for assimilation and acceptance sheds light on one dynamic in the development of the Church in America. Yet holding too tight a focus on the question “Is it possible to be a good Catholic and a good American?” is to play on the other guy’s turf. Once, the “other guy” challenging Catholics’ patriotic credentials was militant Protestantism; now, the “other guy” is militant secularism. But in either case, to play on the other guy’s turf is to concede at the outset that he sets the terms of debate: “We&#160;[militant Protestants/militant secularists] know what it means to be a good American;&#160;you&#160;[Catholics] have to prove yourselves to us.”</p>
<p>That’s not the game, however. It wasn’t even really the game from 1776 through the 1960 presidential campaign — when militant Protestantism was the aggressor — and it certainly isn’t the game today, when militant secularism is the aggressor. The real game involves different, deeper questions: “Who best understands the nature of the American experiment in ordered liberty? Who can best give a persuasive defense of the first freedom, which is religious freedom?”</p>
<p>The 19th-century U.S. bishops and Catholic intellectuals — whose enthusiasm for American democracy went over the top on occasion — did get one crucial point right: The American Founders “built better than they knew”; i.e., the Founders designed a democratic republic for which they couldn’t provide a durable moral and philosophical defense. But the long-despised (and now-despised-again) Catholics could: Catholics could (and can) give a robust, compelling account of American democracy and its commitments to human dignity, human rights, and ordered liberty.</p>
<p>Mid-20th-century Catholic scholars like John Courtney Murray and the historian Theodore Maynard picked up this theme and made it central to their reading of U.S. Catholic history. Murray presciently warned that, if Catholicism didn’t fill the cultural vacuum being created by a dying mainline Protestantism, the “noble, many-storeyed mansion of democracy [may] be dismantled, leveled to the dimensions of a flat majoritarianism, which is no mansion but a barn, perhaps even a tool shed in which the weapons of tyranny may be forged.”</p>
<p>That is the argument the U.S. bishops have mounted in their challenge to the Obama administration’s deconstruction of civil society through the HHS mandate on contraceptives, abortifacients, and sterilization: What is the nature of American democracy and the fundamental freedoms government exists to protect? Who are the true patriots, the men and women who can give an account of freedom’s moral character, an account capable of sustaining a genuine democracy against a rising dictatorship of relativism “in which the weapons of tyranny may be forged”?</p>
<p>The argument today isn’t about assimilation. The argument today is about who “gets” America: who understands the true character of America and the nature of freedom. And that puts Catholics — and those allies in the Evangelical Protestant, Mormon, and traditional Jewish worlds who, with serious Catholics, still hold to Murray’s four foundational truths of American democracy — in a challenging position. For the challenge now is to give America a new birth of freedom rightly understood as built upon those four truths; a new birth of freedom re-cemented to a foundation of transcendent moral truths about the human person, to the principle of government-by-consent, to a recognition of the priority of civil society over the state, and to an existential affirmation of the linkage between personal and civic virtue and liberty lived nobly.</p>
<p>This challenge will not be met by Catholic Lite. Indeed, one of the most powerful indicators that the Catholic Lite project is finished has been the uselessness of “progressive” Catholicism in the battle for religious freedom this past year and a half, a battle the stakes in which most Catholic “progressives” manifestly have not grasped.</p>
<p>The challenge also won’t be met by Catholic traditionalists retreating into auto-constructed catacombs.</p>
<p>The challenge can be met only by a robustly evangelical Catholicism that can boldly proclaim Jesus Christ as the answer to the question that is every human life, and can do so because conversion has been deepened by effective preaching, catechesis, and formation. That challenge can be met only by a demanding, full-time, and evangelically passionate Catholicism that models communities of compassion and nobility, communities whose lives pose a sharp contrast to the radical individualism and loneliness of postmodernity, so poignantly described in recent months by Pope Francis. That challenge can be met only by a public Catholicism that articulates in a compelling way the truths on which any civilized society rests, such as the truth of the inalienable right to life from conception until natural death, the truth about marriage, the truth that religious freedom is the first freedom, and the truth that each of us is bound to live our freedom in ways that serve the common good and the least of the Lord’s brethren.</p>
<p>That kind of evangelical Catholicism can help revivify civil society in America. That kind of evangelical Catholicism can help 21st-century America give a positive answer to Francis Scott Key’s 1814 question, as to whether the star-spangled banner still waves over a land of freedom and a home of bravery. Or to return to where we began:</p>
<p>O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears! . . .</p>
<p>America! America! May God thy gold refine Till all success be nobleness, And ev’ry gain divine!</p>
<p>George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and holds EPPC’s William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.</p> | false | 1 | editors note following address given gathering st thomas society diocese green bay october 24 let begin thanking friend judge bill griesbach describing titletown usa aaron rodgers catholic public intellectuals native baltimore long memory ill happy accept accolade good people green bay finally admit chandler shanked field goal 1965 coltspackers playoff game tonight want violate canons afterdinner remarks skip requisite jokeeverytwoparagraphs get right business hand drill beneath surface american public life order explore whats going examine whats going shapes controversies arguments day suggest bears catholics men women whose consciences formed great tradition christianity united states early 21st century introduction heavy lifting id like begin familiar terrain hymn sang end mass evening one less frequently sung verses america beautiful strikes force appropriate way get topic beautiful pilgrim feet whose stern impassioned stress thoroughfare freedom beat across wilderness america america god mend thine every flaw confirm thy soul selfcontrol thy liberty law catholic knowledgeable christian history struck irony catholics singing stanza gusto pilgrim feet wilderness new world running far rome possible indeed one embodiment scholars call radical reformation pilgrims running far fast could regarded romanizing forms protestantism trod wilderness pilgrim feet got political power heirs often used ways made life difficult catholics native maryland english colonies first experiment religious toleration ended influx belligerent virginia protestants cromwellian cast mind yet catholics singing celebrating accomplishments trod pilgrim feet across new world wilderness rightly linkages drawn americas pilgrim puritan forebears liberty law freedom moral selfpossession freedom moral nobility commend authentically catholic sensibility great jesuit theorist american democratic experiment father john courtney murray sj caught 1960 in160 hold truths catholic reflections american proposition wrote catholic participation american consensus full free unreserved unembarrassed contents consensus ethical political principles drawn tradition natural law approve catholic intelligence conscience kind language talked catholic joins conversation complete ease language ideas expressed native universe discourse even accent american suits tongue today though americans least americas cultural political elites seem speaking different language character change brilliantly caught philosopher alasdair macintyre seminal book160 virtue begins arresting thought experiment imagine macintyre writes series natural catastrophes blamed scientists persecuted even executed followers knownothing political movement seeks destroy scientists also books instruments science teaching banned schools great forgetting takes place later people calm attempt made revive science making attempt dont know science fragments books charred pages articles broken instruments reports experiments none longer embedded context made sense nevertheless people pick fragments lost heritage talk physics biology chemistry arguing theory evolution theory relativity children learn bits pieces periodic table elements recite euclidean theorems chants people realize none science proper sense use terms science mass specific gravity neutrino forth ways unrelated beliefs expressions presupposed would seem certain arbitrariness even element choice use terms various underlying incommensurable premises could demonstrated would multiply would propose subjectivist theories science others would argue computability science subjectivism looking world hand would say language natural science used gravely disordered macintyre concluded 30 years ago rub actual world inhabit language morality state grave disorder language natural science imaginary world described possess fragments conceptual scheme parts lack contexts significance derived possess indeed simulacra morality continue use many key expressions largely entirely lost comprehension theoretical practical morality friend rémi brague distinguished french philosopher recent winner ratzinger prize would likely agree alasdair macintyre would drive analysis current discontents deeper thus 2006 brague made suggestive proposal periodizing modern western political history 19th century argued period focused goodandevil social question raised industrial revolution urbanization mass education demise traditional society shaped public landscape 20th century century trueandfalse totalitarian ideologies built foundations desperately wrongheaded ideas human beings origins communities destiny defined contest human future drove history aftermath world war event began 20th century epoch soviet crackup 1991 event ended 20th century distinct politicalhistorical period 21st century rémi brague proposed would century beingandnothingness epoch metaphysical question might seem comparison bragues description 19th 20th centuries rather abstract proposal yet brague french way practical concrete defining times terms nothing received cherished culture might called grammar human things everything plastic malleable subject change human willfulness everything grabs cacophony drowns intelligent public debate politics merely power spent decades immersed study islamic philosophy law rémi brague hardly unaware threat posed west jihadism externally internally 2006 insisted prior enemywithinthegates making nihilism kind soured cynicism mystery goodness cynicism drained life meaning foreshortened horizons expectation rendered sacrifices common good risible brague found postmodern nihilism foreshadowed enlightenment intellectual left unnamed said children begetting children criminal act matter condemning another human death similar nihilism may found lurking today beneath decline marriage culture america indeed throughout west treatment children lifestyle accessories trivialization sexuality advertising entertainment many expressions sexual revolution gnostic ideology gender nonhysterical entirely plausible reading american culture today feels slightly uncomfortable unfamiliar serious catholic america today ambient public culture often denies four fundamental truths according john courtney murray america built truths catholics readily happily affirmed even protestant bigots questioning whether catholics could good citizens american democracy americans understood god inscribed moral truths world us truths could known reason today nations principal political newspaper the160washington post editorially describes appeal truths example new language racism bias intolerance aid claim government recognize adam marry steve americans understood rights tethered higher moral law government consent governed democratic decisionmaking except rare circumstances made legislative bodies peoples elected representatives today increasingly governed unelected supreme court justices unaccountable regulators many seem take concept freedom human rights great moral philosopher frank sinatra it160my160way americans understood state existed serve society way around today governed federal administration seems determined shrink size civil society vastly enlarge sphere state power done hhs contraceptiveabortifacientsterilization mandate americans understood father murray put virtuous people free today freedom often reduced mantra choice urgent moral question choose160what rarely engaged fact assiduously avoided prochoice lobby aftermath gosnell trial simply ignored president united states 2013 speech planned parenthood makes unfamiliar america catholics also makes great aboutface consideration catholic history catholic present future united states decades classic historians american catholicism john gilmary shea peter guilday thomas mcavoy john tracy ellis framed story catholicism america around issues assimilation acceptance question posed striding pilgrim feet across new republic often made things difficult catholics sure reading history catholic church united states centurieslong struggle assimilation acceptance sheds light one dynamic development church america yet holding tight focus question possible good catholic good american play guys turf guy challenging catholics patriotic credentials militant protestantism guy militant secularism either case play guys turf concede outset sets terms debate we160militant protestantsmilitant secularists know means good american160you160catholics prove us thats game however wasnt even really game 1776 1960 presidential campaign militant protestantism aggressor certainly isnt game today militant secularism aggressor real game involves different deeper questions best understands nature american experiment ordered liberty best give persuasive defense first freedom religious freedom 19thcentury us bishops catholic intellectuals whose enthusiasm american democracy went top occasion get one crucial point right american founders built better knew ie founders designed democratic republic couldnt provide durable moral philosophical defense longdespised nowdespisedagain catholics could catholics could give robust compelling account american democracy commitments human dignity human rights ordered liberty mid20thcentury catholic scholars like john courtney murray historian theodore maynard picked theme made central reading us catholic history murray presciently warned catholicism didnt fill cultural vacuum created dying mainline protestantism noble manystoreyed mansion democracy may dismantled leveled dimensions flat majoritarianism mansion barn perhaps even tool shed weapons tyranny may forged argument us bishops mounted challenge obama administrations deconstruction civil society hhs mandate contraceptives abortifacients sterilization nature american democracy fundamental freedoms government exists protect true patriots men women give account freedoms moral character account capable sustaining genuine democracy rising dictatorship relativism weapons tyranny may forged argument today isnt assimilation argument today gets america understands true character america nature freedom puts catholics allies evangelical protestant mormon traditional jewish worlds serious catholics still hold murrays four foundational truths american democracy challenging position challenge give america new birth freedom rightly understood built upon four truths new birth freedom recemented foundation transcendent moral truths human person principle governmentbyconsent recognition priority civil society state existential affirmation linkage personal civic virtue liberty lived nobly challenge met catholic lite indeed one powerful indicators catholic lite project finished uselessness progressive catholicism battle religious freedom past year half battle stakes catholic progressives manifestly grasped challenge also wont met catholic traditionalists retreating autoconstructed catacombs challenge met robustly evangelical catholicism boldly proclaim jesus christ answer question every human life conversion deepened effective preaching catechesis formation challenge met demanding fulltime evangelically passionate catholicism models communities compassion nobility communities whose lives pose sharp contrast radical individualism loneliness postmodernity poignantly described recent months pope francis challenge met public catholicism articulates compelling way truths civilized society rests truth inalienable right life conception natural death truth marriage truth religious freedom first freedom truth us bound live freedom ways serve common good least lords brethren kind evangelical catholicism help revivify civil society america kind evangelical catholicism help 21stcentury america give positive answer francis scott keys 1814 question whether starspangled banner still waves land freedom home bravery return began beautiful patriot dream sees beyond years thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed human tears america america may god thy gold refine till success nobleness evry gain divine george weigel distinguished senior fellow ethics public policy center washington dc holds eppcs william e simon chair catholic studies | 1,515 |
<p>Among the issues in American politics that inspire the most ideological fervor these days, stem cells and missile defense are at the top of the list. Missile defense has a long history: To conservative Republicans, it is a fixture of the Reagan legacy, of American strength, independence, and nuclear realism in the post-Cold War world. To liberal Democrats, missile defense is destabilizing, hegemonic, unworkable, and unwise. It will provoke a new arms race and a new age of nuclear brinkmanship. Besides which, terrorists can always attack us with nuclear car bombs anyway.</p>
<p>The issue of stem cells is new-a continuation of the moral and political divide over abortion, but with perhaps even greater complexity and significance. Pro-lifers see research on embryonic stem cells as involving the utilitarian destruction of the unborn. And they see it as the gateway to the darker, more ambitious modern genetic project of designing our descendants and challenging our mortality. Among the supporters of this research, the pro-capitalists and many “soft” pro-lifers foresee staggering benefits that far outweigh any associated evil. The pro-choicers see no evil at all, only a great humanitarian opportunity to extend individual health and autonomy.</p>
<p>What is interesting, though, are the parallel claims and counterclaims made by those who advocate or reject these emerging technologies. The advocates proclaim: If we lift the respective bans-the ABM treaty and the NIH regulations barring federal funding of embryonic stem cell research-technological miracles will follow. The skeptics proclaim: These technologies are untested, immoral, and irresponsible. On each issue, the pro-technology faction asserts not only the virtue of deploying either missile defense or stem cells, but the necessity of doing so-lest terrorists attack us or diseases kill us</p>
<p>And usually-here is perhaps the most interesting point of all-the advocates of one technology reject the other. That is, missile-defense hawks, who tend to be conservatives, are usually stem cell doves; stem cell hawks, who tend to be liberals, are usually missile-defense doves. There are exceptions, but the discontinuity is common enough to be worth considering.</p>
<p>Perhaps not surprisingly, the two subjects are seldom discussed in the same political breath. But the relationship between the politics of nuclear weapons and the politics of the new biology is fundamental: Both stem cell research and missile defense force concrete judgments about whether modern technology enhances life or threatens it, whether it expands freedom or destroys it. Both inspire grand fears about where modern technology is leading us. Both raise questions about whether we can control what we create and what we are, and about whether such control is desirable, undesirable, or tragically necessary.</p>
<p>For conservatives in particular, these issues present a riddle-especially for those who seek both to augment American greatness and power, on the one hand, and to demand of the nation a technological reticence, a reverence for the unmanageable mystery of creation, and a spirit of restraint and acceptance in the face of suffering, on the other. These conservatives seem to want a “just hegemony” in international affairs, built on America’s will to set the world right. But when it comes to the irrationalities and inevitability of suffering, disability, sickness, and death, they ask the nation to adopt, as bioethicist Gilbert Meilaender eloquently puts it, “the posture of one who waits, who knows his fundamental neediness and dependence.”</p>
<p>In short, they seek both the posture of the heroic statesman and the posture of man as witness. American conservatism, at its best, cultivates both, in deference to a paradox inherent in the human condition. But politically, it is not enough simply to lift the ban on weapons-builders and maintain the ban on medical researchers, declaring oneself pro-defense and pro-life. Rather, this conservative disposition must be seen to make sense.</p>
<p>For the fact is, as Meilaender and others have suggested, the philosophical problems posed by our willingness to fight just wars and our desire to cure diseases are not very different. Both endeavors confront us with seemingly impossible questions: When may we take life to affirm life? Can embryos ever be justly sacrificed to help the sick and dying? Are discarded embryos acceptable “collateral damage” in the war against disease? When does courage require of us that we endure our fate, and when that we exert the will to set the world right? How and when should we use power to extend the “pursuit of happiness,” be it American power overseas or medical power at home? In short: How much goodness and how much justice can men achieve here and now? And when does wisdom require a heroic acceptance of tragedy, forbearance rather than “progress” and “solutions”?</p>
<p>In my view, building a missile defense system and halting all embryonic stem cell research are the moral and realistic choices. But those who adopt this set of positions must recognize the grand wagers they rest on: namely, that a nuclear attack is possible but not inevitable; that missile defense is workable and will deter our enemies rather than embolden them; that the biological quest to overcome suffering-to set the world right by ending disease and perfecting imperfection-is somehow misguided; and that the further down this path we go, the less able we will be to accept, endure, and redeem our mortality and to love and honor the imperfect among us, which in the end means all of us. This treating of life as a problem to be solved has given us the modern capacity to cure disease, but also our increasing penchant for euthanasia, assisted suicide, mass Prozac, and selective abortions.</p>
<p>Certainly, these two conservative positions (pro-missile defense and American power, anti-embryonic stem cell research) are difficult to reconcile-the one a mobilization of modern technology, the other a call to rein it in. To acknowledge the force of the opposing views-the futility of fighting nuclear weapons with more weapons, the rightness of extending the lives of the sick and the dying even at the cost of destroying “mere cells”-is a necessity.</p>
<p>Perhaps the answer, if there is one, lies in America’s exceptional conservatism, which in the past has inspired both the will to fight tyranny and the wisdom to acknowledge man’s limits, and hence his longing for transcendent redemption or justice. To ask comfortable citizens to give their lives defending freedom around the world; to ask the sick and dying to love the mystery of life more than their own lives-both require a courageous commitment to something larger than self-interest. For a purely political conservatism oriented toward giving the voters what they want, such demands are a losing strategy. For a philosophically grounded conservatism willing to risk demanding from people the sacrifices of which they are capable, these issues are an exceptional opportunity.</p>
<p>Source Notes Copyright: 2001 The Weekly Standard</p> | false | 1 | among issues american politics inspire ideological fervor days stem cells missile defense top list missile defense long history conservative republicans fixture reagan legacy american strength independence nuclear realism postcold war world liberal democrats missile defense destabilizing hegemonic unworkable unwise provoke new arms race new age nuclear brinkmanship besides terrorists always attack us nuclear car bombs anyway issue stem cells newa continuation moral political divide abortion perhaps even greater complexity significance prolifers see research embryonic stem cells involving utilitarian destruction unborn see gateway darker ambitious modern genetic project designing descendants challenging mortality among supporters research procapitalists many soft prolifers foresee staggering benefits far outweigh associated evil prochoicers see evil great humanitarian opportunity extend individual health autonomy interesting though parallel claims counterclaims made advocate reject emerging technologies advocates proclaim lift respective bansthe abm treaty nih regulations barring federal funding embryonic stem cell researchtechnological miracles follow skeptics proclaim technologies untested immoral irresponsible issue protechnology faction asserts virtue deploying either missile defense stem cells necessity solest terrorists attack us diseases kill us usuallyhere perhaps interesting point allthe advocates one technology reject missiledefense hawks tend conservatives usually stem cell doves stem cell hawks tend liberals usually missiledefense doves exceptions discontinuity common enough worth considering perhaps surprisingly two subjects seldom discussed political breath relationship politics nuclear weapons politics new biology fundamental stem cell research missile defense force concrete judgments whether modern technology enhances life threatens whether expands freedom destroys inspire grand fears modern technology leading us raise questions whether control create whether control desirable undesirable tragically necessary conservatives particular issues present riddleespecially seek augment american greatness power one hand demand nation technological reticence reverence unmanageable mystery creation spirit restraint acceptance face suffering conservatives seem want hegemony international affairs built americas set world right comes irrationalities inevitability suffering disability sickness death ask nation adopt bioethicist gilbert meilaender eloquently puts posture one waits knows fundamental neediness dependence short seek posture heroic statesman posture man witness american conservatism best cultivates deference paradox inherent human condition politically enough simply lift ban weaponsbuilders maintain ban medical researchers declaring oneself prodefense prolife rather conservative disposition must seen make sense fact meilaender others suggested philosophical problems posed willingness fight wars desire cure diseases different endeavors confront us seemingly impossible questions may take life affirm life embryos ever justly sacrificed help sick dying discarded embryos acceptable collateral damage war disease courage require us endure fate exert set world right use power extend pursuit happiness american power overseas medical power home short much goodness much justice men achieve wisdom require heroic acceptance tragedy forbearance rather progress solutions view building missile defense system halting embryonic stem cell research moral realistic choices adopt set positions must recognize grand wagers rest namely nuclear attack possible inevitable missile defense workable deter enemies rather embolden biological quest overcome sufferingto set world right ending disease perfecting imperfectionis somehow misguided path go less able accept endure redeem mortality love honor imperfect among us end means us treating life problem solved given us modern capacity cure disease also increasing penchant euthanasia assisted suicide mass prozac selective abortions certainly two conservative positions promissile defense american power antiembryonic stem cell research difficult reconcilethe one mobilization modern technology call rein acknowledge force opposing viewsthe futility fighting nuclear weapons weapons rightness extending lives sick dying even cost destroying mere cellsis necessity perhaps answer one lies americas exceptional conservatism past inspired fight tyranny wisdom acknowledge mans limits hence longing transcendent redemption justice ask comfortable citizens give lives defending freedom around world ask sick dying love mystery life livesboth require courageous commitment something larger selfinterest purely political conservatism oriented toward giving voters want demands losing strategy philosophically grounded conservatism willing risk demanding people sacrifices capable issues exceptional opportunity source notes copyright 2001 weekly standard | 615 |
<p />
<p>If you happen to be a Palestinian government employee, chances are you will receive only half your usual salary this month. The other half will only be available when international donors find it in their hearts to make up for the huge shortage of funds currently facing the Palestinian Authority (PA).</p>
<p>With a deficit standing at around $640 million, the PA government of Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad is experiencing one of its worst ever financial crises. However, the Palestinian economy is not a real economy by universally recognized standards. It survives largely on handouts by donor countries. These funds have spared Israel much of its financial responsibility as an occupying power under the stipulations of the Fourth Geneva Convention. They have also propped up a Palestinian leadership that tries to secure its own survival by serving the interests of major donors.</p>
<p>The funds, however, are now drying up. This could be due to a political attempt to dissuade PA President Mahmoud Abbas from seeking recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN next September. PA officials have been greatly angered by the shift, blaming donor countries – including Arab countries – for failing to honor their financial commitments.</p>
<p>Yasser Abed Rabbo, Secretary-General of the PLO, spoke of an ‘unprecedented’ crisis to Voice of Palestine Radio. “The situation has become very complicated for the Palestinian Authority because of the failure of the Arab countries to fulfill their financial promises.”</p>
<p>Fayyad suggested it was an ‘irony’ that the current crisis comes at a time when the PA had reduced its reliance on foreign aid by almost half – from $1.8 billion in 2008 to $970m – according to the Jerusalem Post. Now, even this half is being slashed, as only $331m of the pledged $970m has been received.</p>
<p>Top PA officials are yet to openly connect the dots between the withholding of funds and the political reality in Palestine. Fayyad insisted that “the crisis does not cast doubt on our preparedness for the establishment of the state,” while Abed Rabbo asserted that the crisis would not halt PA efforts to seek an independent statehood along pre-1967 lines.</p>
<p>The PA undoubtedly understands the financial cost of any political adventure that is deemed unfavorable to Israel – especially since they are constantly reminded of the ‘historic ties’ and ‘shared values’ that unite Israel and the United States.</p>
<p>One such reminder was the huge margin at the US House of Representatives in July 2007. It was an “overwhelming 406-6 vote,” reported AFP, where US lawmakers “warned the Palestinians that they risk cuts in US aid if they pursue UN recognition of a future state not defined in direct talks with Israel.” The message echoed another vote on a similar resolution in the US Senate.</p>
<p>Such unquestioning support for Israel by the US serves to make life much easier for Israeli diplomats. They now need to focus less on the US than on European countries that have promised to back the PA statehood initiative.</p>
<p>The PA is of course very vulnerable to threats, despite their insistence to the contrary. Once the US and others start to wave the withholding-of-funds card, any solid PA political program usually falters into perplexing and even self-defeating political babble. The lack of certainty in the PA’s political language could be attributed to fear that a single decision to withhold funds coupled with an Israeli decision to hold taxes collected on behalf of the PA, the government would not last for more than mere weeks.</p>
<p>One ought to remember that the West Bank and East Jerusalem are Occupied Territories. Deprived from even a semblance of territorial sovereignty and presiding over a donation-based national economy, the PA has no political independence outside the permissible margins allowed by the US and Israel, countries that are hell-bent on defeating the Palestinian national project.</p>
<p>The PA has been grappling with this strange situation since its inception in 1994. Being a guardian of Palestinian national interests and simultaneously satisfying Israel’s political interests and US expectations is an impossible feat. That enigma has almost always been settled at the expense of the Palestinians themselves. The latest casualty has been the unity deal signed between Hamas and the PA’s ruling party, Fatah, in Egypt on April 27.</p>
<p>The unity was essential for a cohesive political program to be formed towards Palestinian rights and possible statehood. When the agreement was officially signed early May, it was assumed that various committees would be able to quickly finalize the process aimed at setting a date for future elections and bringing to a complete end the four-year feud between the two factions.</p>
<p>However, a counter Israeli strategy was immediately forged. On May 4, as Palestinians celebrated their unity, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led the counter campaign from London. “What happened today in Cairo is a tremendous blow to peace and a great victory for terrorism,” he told reporters (as reported by Reuters). The US echoed Netanyahu’s foreboding words, EU countries responded ‘cautiously’, and the arm-twisting began.</p>
<p>Once again, Abbas and the PA were faced with a dilemma around priorities. National unity in Palestine was to suffer yet another blow. “The Palestinian president does not want to wage two diplomatic battles for recognition of an alliance with the Islamic militants and for a U.N. nod to statehood at the same time,” said a PLO official (as quoted by the Associated Press and Ha’aretz).</p>
<p>The UN vote “would be a largely symbolic step that the Palestinians hope will nonetheless improve their leverage against Israel,” according to the AP report. ‘Symbolic’ maybe, but is a priority that Abbas feels comes ahead of urgently needed national unity and a unified political program.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, PA forces – trained and armed by the US and in constant coordination with the Israeli army – reportedly arrested 68 Hamas members in recent weeks, according to a report by Maan News Agency, citing a Hamas statement.</p>
<p>While Abbas is now leading a diplomatic mission to drum up support for his UN initiative, Fayyad is trying to collect funds to prop up the PA economy for a few more months. Meanwhile, Palestinian national unity – without which Palestinians will remain hopelessly fragmented and vulnerable to external pressures and foreign priorities – remains merely ink on paper.</p> | false | 1 | happen palestinian government employee chances receive half usual salary month half available international donors find hearts make huge shortage funds currently facing palestinian authority pa deficit standing around 640 million pa government prime minister salaam fayyad experiencing one worst ever financial crises however palestinian economy real economy universally recognized standards survives largely handouts donor countries funds spared israel much financial responsibility occupying power stipulations fourth geneva convention also propped palestinian leadership tries secure survival serving interests major donors funds however drying could due political attempt dissuade pa president mahmoud abbas seeking recognition palestinian state un next september pa officials greatly angered shift blaming donor countries including arab countries failing honor financial commitments yasser abed rabbo secretarygeneral plo spoke unprecedented crisis voice palestine radio situation become complicated palestinian authority failure arab countries fulfill financial promises fayyad suggested irony current crisis comes time pa reduced reliance foreign aid almost half 18 billion 2008 970m according jerusalem post even half slashed 331m pledged 970m received top pa officials yet openly connect dots withholding funds political reality palestine fayyad insisted crisis cast doubt preparedness establishment state abed rabbo asserted crisis would halt pa efforts seek independent statehood along pre1967 lines pa undoubtedly understands financial cost political adventure deemed unfavorable israel especially since constantly reminded historic ties shared values unite israel united states one reminder huge margin us house representatives july 2007 overwhelming 4066 vote reported afp us lawmakers warned palestinians risk cuts us aid pursue un recognition future state defined direct talks israel message echoed another vote similar resolution us senate unquestioning support israel us serves make life much easier israeli diplomats need focus less us european countries promised back pa statehood initiative pa course vulnerable threats despite insistence contrary us others start wave withholdingoffunds card solid pa political program usually falters perplexing even selfdefeating political babble lack certainty pas political language could attributed fear single decision withhold funds coupled israeli decision hold taxes collected behalf pa government would last mere weeks one ought remember west bank east jerusalem occupied territories deprived even semblance territorial sovereignty presiding donationbased national economy pa political independence outside permissible margins allowed us israel countries hellbent defeating palestinian national project pa grappling strange situation since inception 1994 guardian palestinian national interests simultaneously satisfying israels political interests us expectations impossible feat enigma almost always settled expense palestinians latest casualty unity deal signed hamas pas ruling party fatah egypt april 27 unity essential cohesive political program formed towards palestinian rights possible statehood agreement officially signed early may assumed various committees would able quickly finalize process aimed setting date future elections bringing complete end fouryear feud two factions however counter israeli strategy immediately forged may 4 palestinians celebrated unity israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu led counter campaign london happened today cairo tremendous blow peace great victory terrorism told reporters reported reuters us echoed netanyahus foreboding words eu countries responded cautiously armtwisting began abbas pa faced dilemma around priorities national unity palestine suffer yet another blow palestinian president want wage two diplomatic battles recognition alliance islamic militants un nod statehood time said plo official quoted associated press haaretz un vote would largely symbolic step palestinians hope nonetheless improve leverage israel according ap report symbolic maybe priority abbas feels comes ahead urgently needed national unity unified political program meanwhile pa forces trained armed us constant coordination israeli army reportedly arrested 68 hamas members recent weeks according report maan news agency citing hamas statement abbas leading diplomatic mission drum support un initiative fayyad trying collect funds prop pa economy months meanwhile palestinian national unity without palestinians remain hopelessly fragmented vulnerable external pressures foreign priorities remains merely ink paper | 603 |
<p>The Catholic Church has been a great supporter of labor and trade unions almost since they first emerged in the nineteenth century. Partly thanks to the American bishops’ input, Leo XIII described the roles of labor unions in his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum. Founded upon the natural right of free association, unions, at their best, embody the kind of social cooperation that fosters solidarity and builds lasting communities.</p>
<p>At their best, labor unions are models of the principle of subsidiarity: creating and maintaining an inhabitable space between the individual and the necessarily coercive action of the state. At their best, unions remind us that markets, however necessary and useful, must serve man, never the other way round. At their best, unions remind us that labor is not just another commodity but a vocation; through his work, man participates in God’s work of creation.</p>
<p>Unions remind us that individual gain and private interest are radically insufficient to build strong and meaningful communities. Unions provide stability for families by helping to ensure sufficient income and meaningful benefits for breadwinners. Unions, at their best, serve, promote, and uphold the common good.</p>
<p>But what happens when unions are not at their best? When they cross the line between acting as a check on capricious labor markets and become parasitic upon the very companies that provide their workers’ livelihoods? Or when unions ally with government, trading workers’ dues for political patronage and running roughshod over the principle of subsidiarity; become factious and partisan, trading solidarity in the community for lock-step conformity among the union rank and file; stop serving the interests of workers so much as the interests of union bosses and the politicians in their pockets; violate the rights of free association in favor of intimidation and even violence in pursuit of their ends?</p>
<p>What happens when unions become corrosive to the common good?</p>
<p>Everything good and bad just mentioned about unions could be said or asked of many other institutions as well, including businesses.</p>
<p>Justice applies to both sides of every transaction. Take the example of a just wage. The fact that a wage is agreed upon by both employer and employee does not make it just. A worker who takes a job doing hard labor for a dollar a day with no bathroom breaks may be agreeing to the terms of that employment, but that doesn’t make the compensation just. Likewise, a company may agree to a collective bargaining agreement that jeopardizes the firm’s long term viability in the face of union demands, but that doesn’t make the agreement just. Unions are no more immune from injustice than are the companies and corporations that employ union workers.</p>
<p>The occasion for injustice is greatly expanded, for both businesses and unions, when government patronage is added to the equation. Everyone knows that big business funnels millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of politicians of both parties. What is less often talked about is that labor unions spend more – far more, in fact – on political contributions than any big business or industrial lobby. ( <a href="http://www.antolin-davies.com/conventionalwisdom/lobbying.pdf" type="external">See these charts</a>.)</p>
<p>While it is not hard to imagine why these groups spend so much money – labor unions alone spent more than $144 million on <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/totals.php?cycle=2012&amp;ind=P" type="external">campaign contributions</a> and <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indus.php?id=P&amp;year=2010" type="external">lobbying</a> in 2010 according to the Center for Responsive Politics – it is hard to imagine how this is good for our democracy. Unions, like businesses, are very aware of the return they get on their investments. The way unions and businesses spend their money suggests that they find lobbying the politicians they help get elected to be more cost effective than collective bargaining with a determined opponent.</p>
<p>All of which brings us back to the principles of Catholic social teaching.</p>
<p>When legislation and government regulation become the primary means of “arbitration” between business and labor interests, government has overstepped its bounds to the detriment of subsidiarity. When this state of affairs comes about at the behest of businesses and unions themselves – a sort of labor law arms race – both business lobbies and unions share culpability.</p>
<p>Subsidiarity is not about exercising power at the lowest possible level so much as it is about locating responsibility in its proper place. In other words, subsidiarity can be violated from the “bottom up” as well as from the “top down.” If citizens – or businesses or labor unions – fail in their social obligations, then some other institution must pick up the slack. Usually, this means the state. But this always carries with it the real danger that, as the state takes on more and more of society’s unmet obligations, society will atrophy and grow dependent, making an already difficult situation even worse.</p>
<p>As Pope Benedict XVI wrote in Caritas in Veritate: “The principle of subsidiarity must remain closely linked to the principle of solidarity and vice versa, since the former without the latter gives way to social privatism, while the latter without the former gives way to paternalist social assistance that is demeaning to those in need.” (Original emphasis.)</p>
<p>Those conservatives who worry that “paternalist social assistance” on the part of the state is a clear and present danger to this country should also be concerned that labor unions – as well as businesses – are failing in their obligations to social solidarity, without which “top down” subsidiarity is impossible. Progressives who worry about a rise in “social privatism” might do well to spend less time pushing programs for trickle-down solidarity and pay more attention to the businesses – as well as unions – that willingly violate subsidiarity from the bottom up.</p>
<p>A complex lesson, but one much needed this Labor Day.</p>
<p>Stephen P. White is a fellow in the Catholic Studies Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and the coordinator of the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society. The views expressed here are strictly his own.</p>
<p>This article first appeared on “The Catholic Thing” (www.thecatholicthing.org), copyright 2011, all rights reserved.</p> | false | 1 | catholic church great supporter labor trade unions almost since first emerged nineteenth century partly thanks american bishops input leo xiii described roles labor unions 1891 encyclical rerum novarum founded upon natural right free association unions best embody kind social cooperation fosters solidarity builds lasting communities best labor unions models principle subsidiarity creating maintaining inhabitable space individual necessarily coercive action state best unions remind us markets however necessary useful must serve man never way round best unions remind us labor another commodity vocation work man participates gods work creation unions remind us individual gain private interest radically insufficient build strong meaningful communities unions provide stability families helping ensure sufficient income meaningful benefits breadwinners unions best serve promote uphold common good happens unions best cross line acting check capricious labor markets become parasitic upon companies provide workers livelihoods unions ally government trading workers dues political patronage running roughshod principle subsidiarity become factious partisan trading solidarity community lockstep conformity among union rank file stop serving interests workers much interests union bosses politicians pockets violate rights free association favor intimidation even violence pursuit ends happens unions become corrosive common good everything good bad mentioned unions could said asked many institutions well including businesses justice applies sides every transaction take example wage fact wage agreed upon employer employee make worker takes job hard labor dollar day bathroom breaks may agreeing terms employment doesnt make compensation likewise company may agree collective bargaining agreement jeopardizes firms long term viability face union demands doesnt make agreement unions immune injustice companies corporations employ union workers occasion injustice greatly expanded businesses unions government patronage added equation everyone knows big business funnels millions dollars campaign coffers politicians parties less often talked labor unions spend far fact political contributions big business industrial lobby see charts hard imagine groups spend much money labor unions alone spent 144 million campaign contributions lobbying 2010 according center responsive politics hard imagine good democracy unions like businesses aware return get investments way unions businesses spend money suggests find lobbying politicians help get elected cost effective collective bargaining determined opponent brings us back principles catholic social teaching legislation government regulation become primary means arbitration business labor interests government overstepped bounds detriment subsidiarity state affairs comes behest businesses unions sort labor law arms race business lobbies unions share culpability subsidiarity exercising power lowest possible level much locating responsibility proper place words subsidiarity violated bottom well top citizens businesses labor unions fail social obligations institution must pick slack usually means state always carries real danger state takes societys unmet obligations society atrophy grow dependent making already difficult situation even worse pope benedict xvi wrote caritas veritate principle subsidiarity must remain closely linked principle solidarity vice versa since former without latter gives way social privatism latter without former gives way paternalist social assistance demeaning need original emphasis conservatives worry paternalist social assistance part state clear present danger country also concerned labor unions well businesses failing obligations social solidarity without top subsidiarity impossible progressives worry rise social privatism might well spend less time pushing programs trickledown solidarity pay attention businesses well unions willingly violate subsidiarity bottom complex lesson one much needed labor day stephen p white fellow catholic studies program ethics public policy center washington dc coordinator tertio millennio seminar free society views expressed strictly article first appeared catholic thing wwwthecatholicthingorg copyright 2011 rights reserved | 553 |
<p>Vietnam won’t go away. Its ghosts still haunt the American psyche like fragments of a twisted nightmare.</p>
<p>Last March, six U.S. senators who had fought in the Vietnam War met in Washington to observe the 15th anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Standing before the wall with its 58,196 names of dead and missing chiseled in black granite, Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.). who was tortured and held prisoner by Hanoi for seven years, called it “a wonderful place of healing.” His wishful sentiments were echoed by his colleagues.</p>
<p>But the wall has not. and cannot, heal the painful breach in American’s historical memory until we recognize that the tragic Vietnam War was not fought in vain.</p>
<p>‘Imperfectly Pursued’</p>
<p>“We killed. We died. We died for less than nothing,” cried a protester at the memorial’s dedication in 1982. Six years later at the same shrine, President Reagan offered a different assessment: ”Who can doubt that the cause for which our men fought was just? It was–however imperfectly pursued–the cause of freedom.”</p>
<p>These two dramatically opposed interpretations of Vietnam are vying for acceptance in America’s consciousness. If our collective memory of pivotal events-like the Civil War or Vietnam – is split on ideological fault lines, it bodes ill for the future. A common understanding of such events allows history’s wounds to heal, creating a cohesive national psyche equipped to grapple with future crises. But when a vocal minority holds views contrary to those Or the less articulate majority, confusion and mischief follow.</p>
<p>The cynical view of our involvement in Vietnam became part of a larger culture of shame, guilt and self-flagellation that erupted in flag burning and other attacks on traditional institutions. It also helped spawn the “Vietnam Syndrome” that all but paralyzed America from using military force abroad. Thus, after the fall of Saigon, Leonid Brezhnev stepped up Soviet subversion in Africa and Central America and in 1979 brazenly invaded Afghanistan, confident that Washington would not act.</p>
<p>The Vietnam Syndrome was partially exorcized by Ronald Reagan’s mini invasion of communist Grenada in 1983 and by George Bush’s leadership in the Gulf War seven years later. But we have yet to recover fully our pre- Vietnam confidence and our willingness to shoulder the heavy burdens of a humane superpower.</p>
<p>And that will not happen until we openly acknowledge the contribution of the Vietnam War to peace and freedom, along with admitting our faults and miscalculations. The most pernicious demon to exorcize is the charge that Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon waged a racist, imperialist and thoroughly unjust war against a poor, nonwhite people. In truth, their purpose was noble and just–to prevent communist North Vietnam from conquering the South, just as Harry Truman had stopped communist North Korea from swallowing the South.</p>
<p>Too late, we learned that Vietnam was not as vital strategically as Korea, which is located in the vortex of three great powers–Japan, China and Russia. This strategic confusion was reinforced by zero-sum assumptions of the Cold War, stemming from George Kennan’s containment doctrine (which, incidentally, worked well enough in Europe).</p>
<p>And we were too often arrogant and overconfident in dealing with South Vietnam. Perhaps the worst blunder was John Kennedy’s complicity in the 1963 coup that killed Ngo Dinh Diem, the authoritarian but able civilian president. LBJ later admitted that ousting Diem was “the worst mistake we ever made.” The power vacuum created by Diem’s violent death led to protracted instability and hogtied Washington to Vietnam’s future.</p>
<p>But this is not the whole story. For despite political misperceptions and seriously flawed tactics, our involvement made a positive contribution to peace and freedom. Had we prevailed, or even held the line at the 17th parallel, a million or more lives might have been saved and tens of thousands of boat people spared the anguish of being cast adrift.</p>
<p>The fall of Saigon in April 1975 precipitated the Cambodian holocaust–the Khmer Rouge killed an estimated one million of the nation’s seven million people. The horrific bloodbaths there and in Laos, and the purges and concentration camps in South Vietnam, confirmed the much-maligned domino theory. Looking back, Norman Podhoretz said the “moral soundness” of our “imprudent idealism” was “overwhelmingly vindicated by the hideous consequences of our defeat.” But despite defeat, our involvement did strengthen security and freedom in three significant and largely overlooked ways.</p>
<p>First, Johnson and Nixon’s firmness under relentless and often cynical domestic attack reassured our allies around the world. An America that would not cut and run in far-off Vietnam would hardly abandon its key allies in Europe and the Pacific. Given the poisoned intellectual climate of the time, these sentiments were rarely expressed in public, but in retrospect we can see their crucial importance.</p>
<p>Second, our steadfastness In Vietnam strengthened nationalist and anticommunist forces elsewhere in Southeast Asia and the Pacific–notably in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, all of which have remained free and independent.</p>
<p>Third, holding the line in Indochina as long as we did eventually led to a balance of power favorable to the states in the region and to us, a point Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew repeatedly emphasizes. Last December in Washington he said that “by fighting and negotiating with the North Vietnamese, the [U.S.] enabled Southeast Asia to get its act together.” Without America’s intervention in Vietnam, Mr. Lee added, today’s “flourishing East Asia” would not have been possible.</p>
<p>Cohesive National Memory</p>
<p>The two diametrically opposed interpretations of Vietnam continue to vie for the American psyche. Until the issue is resolved, we will suffer from a kind of historical schizophrenia. To be healthy and courageous in facing the external world, we need to forge a more cohesive national memory of Vietnam approximating that of our three victorious major wars of this century: World War I restored peace to Europe, World War II stopped Nazi and Japanese conquest, and the Korean War prevented the North from enslaving the South.</p>
<p>If the more positive and nuanced view prevails–that our cause was eminently just, though imperfectly pursued–America will be better prepared to accept its heavy tragic and ironic elements. Vietnam helped us understand our limitations by dispelling what Denis Brogan once called “the illusion of American omnipotence”and, I would add, the illusion of American innocence.</p> | false | 1 | vietnam wont go away ghosts still haunt american psyche like fragments twisted nightmare last march six us senators fought vietnam war met washington observe 15th anniversary vietnam veterans memorial standing wall 58196 names dead missing chiseled black granite sen john mccain r ariz tortured held prisoner hanoi seven years called wonderful place healing wishful sentiments echoed colleagues wall heal painful breach americans historical memory recognize tragic vietnam war fought vain imperfectly pursued killed died died less nothing cried protester memorials dedication 1982 six years later shrine president reagan offered different assessment doubt cause men fought washowever imperfectly pursuedthe cause freedom two dramatically opposed interpretations vietnam vying acceptance americas consciousness collective memory pivotal eventslike civil war vietnam split ideological fault lines bodes ill future common understanding events allows historys wounds heal creating cohesive national psyche equipped grapple future crises vocal minority holds views contrary less articulate majority confusion mischief follow cynical view involvement vietnam became part larger culture shame guilt selfflagellation erupted flag burning attacks traditional institutions also helped spawn vietnam syndrome paralyzed america using military force abroad thus fall saigon leonid brezhnev stepped soviet subversion africa central america 1979 brazenly invaded afghanistan confident washington would act vietnam syndrome partially exorcized ronald reagans mini invasion communist grenada 1983 george bushs leadership gulf war seven years later yet recover fully pre vietnam confidence willingness shoulder heavy burdens humane superpower happen openly acknowledge contribution vietnam war peace freedom along admitting faults miscalculations pernicious demon exorcize charge lyndon johnson richard nixon waged racist imperialist thoroughly unjust war poor nonwhite people truth purpose noble justto prevent communist north vietnam conquering south harry truman stopped communist north korea swallowing south late learned vietnam vital strategically korea located vortex three great powersjapan china russia strategic confusion reinforced zerosum assumptions cold war stemming george kennans containment doctrine incidentally worked well enough europe often arrogant overconfident dealing south vietnam perhaps worst blunder john kennedys complicity 1963 coup killed ngo dinh diem authoritarian able civilian president lbj later admitted ousting diem worst mistake ever made power vacuum created diems violent death led protracted instability hogtied washington vietnams future whole story despite political misperceptions seriously flawed tactics involvement made positive contribution peace freedom prevailed even held line 17th parallel million lives might saved tens thousands boat people spared anguish cast adrift fall saigon april 1975 precipitated cambodian holocaustthe khmer rouge killed estimated one million nations seven million people horrific bloodbaths laos purges concentration camps south vietnam confirmed muchmaligned domino theory looking back norman podhoretz said moral soundness imprudent idealism overwhelmingly vindicated hideous consequences defeat despite defeat involvement strengthen security freedom three significant largely overlooked ways first johnson nixons firmness relentless often cynical domestic attack reassured allies around world america would cut run faroff vietnam would hardly abandon key allies europe pacific given poisoned intellectual climate time sentiments rarely expressed public retrospect see crucial importance second steadfastness vietnam strengthened nationalist anticommunist forces elsewhere southeast asia pacificnotably indonesia malaysia philippines singapore thailand remained free independent third holding line indochina long eventually led balance power favorable states region us point singapores prime minister lee kuan yew repeatedly emphasizes last december washington said fighting negotiating north vietnamese us enabled southeast asia get act together without americas intervention vietnam mr lee added todays flourishing east asia would possible cohesive national memory two diametrically opposed interpretations vietnam continue vie american psyche issue resolved suffer kind historical schizophrenia healthy courageous facing external world need forge cohesive national memory vietnam approximating three victorious major wars century world war restored peace europe world war ii stopped nazi japanese conquest korean war prevented north enslaving south positive nuanced view prevailsthat cause eminently though imperfectly pursuedamerica better prepared accept heavy tragic ironic elements vietnam helped us understand limitations dispelling denis brogan called illusion american omnipotenceand would add illusion american innocence | 628 |
<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kansas-City-Chiefs/" type="external">Kansas City Chiefs</a> stand as the NFL’s last unbeaten team, moving to 4-0 following their 29-20 win over the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Washington-Redskins/" type="external">Washington Redskins</a> Monday night, fueled by yet another fourth-quarter rally.</p>
<p>Head coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Andy_Reid/" type="external">Andy Reid</a> said that’s the identify of his team, a mix of veteran leaders who have seen almost everything and confident young players who have quickly earned the trust of their brethren.</p>
<p>“They’ll battle you,” Reid said Tuesday. “And that’s a nice thing to have, one of those intangible things that you appreciate it. They trust each other enough to think they’re always in the game.”</p>
<p>The Chiefs lead the NFL with 54 points in the fourth quarter, accounting for 44 percent of their offensive points. The team ranks tied for seventh in fourth-quarter scoring defense, allowing just 13 points this season.</p>
<p>Kansas City’s scoring margin is a mere five points through the third quarter of games this season. Yet, they outscore their opponents by 41 points in the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>Rooking running back Kareem Hunt leads the Chiefs in their fourth-quarter surge. He leads the NFL with 501 rushing yards through the first four weeks of the season. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/los-angeles-rams/" type="external">Los Angeles Rams</a> running back <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Todd-Gurley/" type="external">Todd Gurley</a> ranks second with 362 yards. Hunt has 372 yards rushing in the second half of games alone.</p>
<p>He did it again Monday night, rushing for 77 yards on 16 carries in the second half, including seven rushes for 40 yards in the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>“Up front, those guys stuck with it and kept on pushing,” Hunt said. “I just got better as the game went on. My reads got better and I just started running a little bit harder.”</p>
<p>The Chiefs have also proven effective at adjustments as the game progresses. Reid says offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, assistant head coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Brad_Childress/" type="external">Brad Childress</a> and himself pick and choose plays each week designed to cover every eventuality.</p>
<p>“We’ve been fortunate we’ve been able to do that,” Reid explained. “That’s what we attempt to do. If something isn’t looking too good, maybe you go a different direction. One of the neat things about this offense is that it’s always been this way, this isn’t something new, that you have flexibility within the offense and a lot of different choices.”</p>
<p>Reid also believes his team’s fourth-quarter success starts in the offseason with strong workouts leading into training camp and the preseason. But he also says his players’ faith in each other also sustains their confidence no matter the situation heading into the final drives of the game.</p>
<p>“It’s a mindset more than anything,” Reid said. “They have confidence in each other and they figure things out and then kind of settle down and go.”</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>Linebacker Reggie Ragland received his first NFL regular-season start Monday night, playing 21 snaps (42 percent). The Chiefs acquired Ragland from Buffalo via trade in August. The second-year linebacker missed his rookie season last year with a torn ACL. Head coach Andy Reid said the team wanted to give Ragland an opportunity, saying he brings good leadership and a physical presence to the team’s interior defense.</p>
<p>REPORT CARD VS. REDSKINS</p>
<p>—PASSING OFFENSE: B-minus — Quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Alex_Smith/" type="external">Alex Smith</a> and his receiving corps turned in stellar performances, but the injury-decimated offensive line struggled protecting Smith through much of the game. Smith turned in another fine performance, completing 27 of 37 passes for 293 yards and a touchdown. Tight end Travis Kelce caught seven passes for 111 yards and a touchdown, and Albert Wilson made several key grabs among his four receptions for 63 yards. But the offensive line surrendered four sacks and eight quarterback hits, not to mention the six times pressure forced Smith out of the pocket and numerous other times poor protection hurried his throws. Injured offensive linemen Mitch Morse and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif can’t get back quick enough for the Chiefs offense.</p>
<p>—RUSHING OFFENSE: B-plus — Rookie Kareem Hunt, the NFL’s leading rusher, again topped the 100-yard mark thanks to a strong second half. Hunt carried 16 times for 77 yards in the second half. The team rushed for 168 yards, thanks to quarterback Smith chipping in 56 yards on seven carries. The Chiefs continue struggling to establish much of a running game in the first half, which would help ease the burden on Smith and the team’s pass protection.</p>
<p>—PASS DEFENSE: B — Washington quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kirk-Cousins/" type="external">Kirk Cousins</a> bolted out to a quick start, completing 5 of 8 passes for 79 yards and a touchdown on his first two drives of the game. The Chiefs pass defense tightened up after that rough start, holding Cousins to just 141 yards on 9-of-16 passing the remaining three quarters. The Redskins offensive line frequently provided Cousins time to throw, but the Chiefs secondary largely held him in check, leading to the quarterback bolting from the pocket frequently late in the game. The biggest surprise of the night came on the success of Cousins throwing at All-Pro cornerback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Marcus-Peters/" type="external">Marcus Peters</a>, who surrendered two touchdown passes.</p>
<p>—RUSH DEFENSE: B-plus — Washington looked strong on the ground out of the gate early behind running back Rob Kelley, but the running game faltered in his absence. The Chiefs held Redskins’ running backs to 20 carries for 73 yards, with only 18 of those yards coming in the second half. Cousins scrambled seven times for 38 yards to lead the team in rushing and make the bottom line appear better than it was for Washington.</p>
<p>—SPECIAL TEAMS: A-minus — The Chiefs return game was mediocre at best and punter Dustin Colquitt struggled with a mere 28.3 net punting average. But rookie kicker Harrison Butker saved the special teams unit across the board. He put all six kickoffs through the end zone or deep enough for touchbacks. But it was his second-half performance that saved the Chiefs. Butker, making his NFL debut on Monday Night Football, connected on three second-half field goals, including the game-winning 43-yarder with four seconds remaining in the game. It was a clutch performance from the 22-year-old, who started the week on the practice squad of the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Carolina_Panthers/" type="external">Carolina Panthers</a>.</p>
<p>—COACHING: A-minus — Head coach Andy Reid pushed all the right buttons again in the second half, with both offensive and defensive units making adjustments countering Washington’s early success. Kansas City’s offense struggled early, especially following the injury to right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif. But the offensive line eventually found a rhythm, and Reid’s game plan worked to perfection down the stretch. The defense stiffened as well, aside from a few breakdowns in the passing game.</p> | false | 1 | kansas city mo kansas city chiefs stand nfls last unbeaten team moving 40 following 2920 win washington redskins monday night fueled yet another fourthquarter rally head coach andy reid said thats identify team mix veteran leaders seen almost everything confident young players quickly earned trust brethren theyll battle reid said tuesday thats nice thing one intangible things appreciate trust enough think theyre always game chiefs lead nfl 54 points fourth quarter accounting 44 percent offensive points team ranks tied seventh fourthquarter scoring defense allowing 13 points season kansas citys scoring margin mere five points third quarter games season yet outscore opponents 41 points fourth quarter rooking running back kareem hunt leads chiefs fourthquarter surge leads nfl 501 rushing yards first four weeks season los angeles rams running back todd gurley ranks second 362 yards hunt 372 yards rushing second half games alone monday night rushing 77 yards 16 carries second half including seven rushes 40 yards fourth quarter front guys stuck kept pushing hunt said got better game went reads got better started running little bit harder chiefs also proven effective adjustments game progresses reid says offensive coordinator matt nagy assistant head coach brad childress pick choose plays week designed cover every eventuality weve fortunate weve able reid explained thats attempt something isnt looking good maybe go different direction one neat things offense always way isnt something new flexibility within offense lot different choices reid also believes teams fourthquarter success starts offseason strong workouts leading training camp preseason also says players faith also sustains confidence matter situation heading final drives game mindset anything reid said confidence figure things kind settle go linebacker reggie ragland received first nfl regularseason start monday night playing 21 snaps 42 percent chiefs acquired ragland buffalo via trade august secondyear linebacker missed rookie season last year torn acl head coach andy reid said team wanted give ragland opportunity saying brings good leadership physical presence teams interior defense report card vs redskins passing offense bminus quarterback alex smith receiving corps turned stellar performances injurydecimated offensive line struggled protecting smith much game smith turned another fine performance completing 27 37 passes 293 yards touchdown tight end travis kelce caught seven passes 111 yards touchdown albert wilson made several key grabs among four receptions 63 yards offensive line surrendered four sacks eight quarterback hits mention six times pressure forced smith pocket numerous times poor protection hurried throws injured offensive linemen mitch morse laurent duvernaytardif cant get back quick enough chiefs offense rushing offense bplus rookie kareem hunt nfls leading rusher topped 100yard mark thanks strong second half hunt carried 16 times 77 yards second half team rushed 168 yards thanks quarterback smith chipping 56 yards seven carries chiefs continue struggling establish much running game first half would help ease burden smith teams pass protection pass defense b washington quarterback kirk cousins bolted quick start completing 5 8 passes 79 yards touchdown first two drives game chiefs pass defense tightened rough start holding cousins 141 yards 9of16 passing remaining three quarters redskins offensive line frequently provided cousins time throw chiefs secondary largely held check leading quarterback bolting pocket frequently late game biggest surprise night came success cousins throwing allpro cornerback marcus peters surrendered two touchdown passes rush defense bplus washington looked strong ground gate early behind running back rob kelley running game faltered absence chiefs held redskins running backs 20 carries 73 yards 18 yards coming second half cousins scrambled seven times 38 yards lead team rushing make bottom line appear better washington special teams aminus chiefs return game mediocre best punter dustin colquitt struggled mere 283 net punting average rookie kicker harrison butker saved special teams unit across board put six kickoffs end zone deep enough touchbacks secondhalf performance saved chiefs butker making nfl debut monday night football connected three secondhalf field goals including gamewinning 43yarder four seconds remaining game clutch performance 22yearold started week practice squad carolina panthers coaching aminus head coach andy reid pushed right buttons second half offensive defensive units making adjustments countering washingtons early success kansas citys offense struggled early especially following injury right guard laurent duvernaytardif offensive line eventually found rhythm reids game plan worked perfection stretch defense stiffened well aside breakdowns passing game | 700 |
<p>Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer praised President Donald Trump's decision to decertify the Iran nuclear deal, saying now that the deal is with Congress it will have 60 days to re-access many of the deals "sunset" provisions that put Israel and the rest of the world at risk.</p>
<p>On Friday, Trump "decertified" the deal, which is officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), stating that the Iranian regime had not only violated the 2015 international nuclear accord but also accused Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp of supporting terrorism around the world saying, "it has hijacked large portions of Iran’s economy and seized massive religious endowments to fund war and terror abroad." He added that the U.S. was imposing new terrorism-related sanctions on the IRGC and its affiliates.</p>
<p>Trump's strong stance against Iran's support of aiding terrorist proxies and stopping Iran's path to what opponents suggest would be an armed nuclear Iran was a signal to the rest of the world that the United States would no longer be pushed into bad deals, said Dermer, who spoke to Circa outside the Department of State Monday.</p>
<p>Trump's decision showed "leadership" because for months many people within the administration, some in the White House and the European Union tried to persuade him to continue to certify the Iran deal, the ambassador said. Israel wasn't the only nation praising Trump's decision to back out of the Iran deal but King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia made a call to the White House where he "praised President Trump for his visionary new Iran strategy and pledged to support American leadership," noted a statement released Saturday from the White House regarding a telephone call between the two leaders.</p>
<p>"The Iran deal put us on Cruise Control, heading over a cliff," Dermer said. "It's Israel, It's Saudi Arabia, it's the Emirates, and when Israel and the Arab states are on the same page that should tell you something...We were the guinea pigs in this experiment, and it's not working. So when your allies in the region are telling you how bad this deal is, how bad Iran's behavior is and they are applauding President Trump for taking a stand."</p>
<p>Dermer told Circa that Congress should take a careful look at the clauses and the “sunset provisions" buried in the Iran deal. The sunset provisions is an area most in contention by opponents, who state that when the restrictions imposed on Iran expire, the regime can continue its path to acquiring nuclear weapons. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an outspoken critic of the deal, said during the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 19, “in a few years, [nuclear] restrictions will be automatically removed...not by a change in Iran’s behavior, not by a lessening of its terror or its aggression—they’ll just be removed by a mere change in the calendar.”</p>
<p />
<p>"I hope Congress will seize the opportunity that President Trump gave them to fix what is a very bad deal," said Dermer. "And hopefully, turn a bad deal, with Iran, into a good policy, visa vi Iran and that's going to require Congress to make some of the changes, you know, the president himself can terminate this deal. He doesn't need Congress for that but actually to fix a lot of the problems, he does need Congress."</p>
<p>Another major issue Israeli and U.S. opponents of the deal stressed was Iran's ballistic missile program and in August, the AP reported that Iran's Parliament while chanting "Death to America" voted unanimously "to increase spending on its ballistic missile program and foreign operations" related to its IRGC. But by early October with the Iran deal hanging in the wind, the Iranian regime signaled to the six world powers its desire to talk about its ballistic missile arsenal, as <a href="http://https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-missiles-diplomacy/iran-open-to-talks-over-its-ballistic-missile-programme-sources-idUSKBN1CB22P" type="external">first reported by Reuters</a>.</p>
<p>"There are two parts to President Trump's policy - first, fix the problems of the deal, but also start pushing back on Iran's aggression and terrorism in the region and around the world," said Dermer. "That's why it is a comprehensive policy and we are fully supportive of it."</p>
<p>On Monday, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who is a big proponent of the deal, suggested Trump's decision had more to do with him playing to his base than the actual deal itself, saying in a statement to reporters "the EU is committed to the continued full and effective implementation of all parts" of the agreement, the European ministers said in a statement. They noted that the <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/crime-law-justice/international-atomic-energy-agency-ORGOV0000255-topic.html" type="external">International Atomic Energy Agency</a> has certified eight times that Iran was living up to its commitments. The deal has also been certified twice in the United States since Trump took office."</p>
<p>Dermer noted that the administration is going to work with members of the Senate to change the existing legislation and he added "I think there is also an effort underway to try and reach a secondary agreement with the Europeans as well to solve, and correct some of the fatal flaws of this deal."</p>
<p>As for U.S. Israel relations, Dermer said, "they have never been better than they are right now under President Trump."</p>
<p />
<p>"We are now lined up on the single most important and strategic security issue facing Israel, which is Iran and the dangers it poses to our future," he added.</p>
<p>Related Stories: <a href="" type="internal">The US is leaving UNESCO over its alleged 'anti-Israel bias'</a> <a href="" type="internal">Trump is decertifying the 'unacceptable' Iran nuclear deal</a> <a href="" type="internal">Here's what will happen if Trump doesn't recertify the Iran deal</a></p> | false | 1 | israeli ambassador united states ron dermer praised president donald trumps decision decertify iran nuclear deal saying deal congress 60 days reaccess many deals sunset provisions put israel rest world risk friday trump decertified deal officially called joint comprehensive plan action jcpoa stating iranian regime violated 2015 international nuclear accord also accused irans islamic revolutionary guard corp supporting terrorism around world saying hijacked large portions irans economy seized massive religious endowments fund war terror abroad added us imposing new terrorismrelated sanctions irgc affiliates trumps strong stance irans support aiding terrorist proxies stopping irans path opponents suggest would armed nuclear iran signal rest world united states would longer pushed bad deals said dermer spoke circa outside department state monday trumps decision showed leadership months many people within administration white house european union tried persuade continue certify iran deal ambassador said israel wasnt nation praising trumps decision back iran deal king salman bin abdulaziz saudi arabia made call white house praised president trump visionary new iran strategy pledged support american leadership noted statement released saturday white house regarding telephone call two leaders iran deal put us cruise control heading cliff dermer said israel saudi arabia emirates israel arab states page tell somethingwe guinea pigs experiment working allies region telling bad deal bad irans behavior applauding president trump taking stand dermer told circa congress take careful look clauses sunset provisions buried iran deal sunset provisions area contention opponents state restrictions imposed iran expire regime continue path acquiring nuclear weapons israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu outspoken critic deal said united nations general assembly sept 19 years nuclear restrictions automatically removednot change irans behavior lessening terror aggressiontheyll removed mere change calendar hope congress seize opportunity president trump gave fix bad deal said dermer hopefully turn bad deal iran good policy visa vi iran thats going require congress make changes know president terminate deal doesnt need congress actually fix lot problems need congress another major issue israeli us opponents deal stressed irans ballistic missile program august ap reported irans parliament chanting death america voted unanimously increase spending ballistic missile program foreign operations related irgc early october iran deal hanging wind iranian regime signaled six world powers desire talk ballistic missile arsenal first reported reuters two parts president trumps policy first fix problems deal also start pushing back irans aggression terrorism region around world said dermer thats comprehensive policy fully supportive monday european union foreign policy chief federica mogherini big proponent deal suggested trumps decision playing base actual deal saying statement reporters eu committed continued full effective implementation parts agreement european ministers said statement noted international atomic energy agency certified eight times iran living commitments deal also certified twice united states since trump took office dermer noted administration going work members senate change existing legislation added think also effort underway try reach secondary agreement europeans well solve correct fatal flaws deal us israel relations dermer said never better right president trump lined single important strategic security issue facing israel iran dangers poses future added related stories us leaving unesco alleged antiisrael bias trump decertifying unacceptable iran nuclear deal heres happen trump doesnt recertify iran deal | 517 |
<p>By Suzanne Barlyn and Catherine Ngai</p>
<p>(Reuters) – Insurers are scrambling to find inspectors in Texas and Florida after fierce hurricanes battered the states one after the other, causing tens of billions of dollars’ worth of property damage in less than two weeks.</p>
<p>Although insurers maintain some number of inspectors, known as claims adjusters, across the U.S. year-round, they must redeploy staff from other areas or hire contract workers to fill gaps when catastrophes like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma strike. The speed with which they can do so is critical to residents and business owners awaiting insurance payments.</p>
<p>“The one-two punch of Harvey and Irma is no question challenging to the industry,” said Kenneth Tolson, who heads the U.S. property and casualty division of Crawford &amp; Co, which provides claims adjusters and staff after disasters.</p>
<p>Adjusters investigate claims on behalf of property insurers like Travelers Cos Inc, Hartford Financial Services Group (NYSE:) Inc, Allstate Corp (NYSE:), State Farm and Farmers Insurance. Many other policies are backed by federal or state flood insurance programs.</p>
<p>Texas and Florida together have more than 340,000 licensed adjusters, according to state agencies, but it was unclear precisely how many were on the ground. Insurers and industry groups said thousands were headed to affected areas from other parts of the United States.</p>
<p>On Sunday afternoon, Hartford was prepared to send adjusters into Irma-battered areas “as authorities allow access,” spokeswoman Kelly Carter said. Hartford inspectors from Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky were poised to assist, she said.</p>
<p>Zurich Insurance Group AG had Florida-based claims adjusters riding out the storm locally on Sunday, with plans to begin visiting commercial properties as soon as possible, spokesman David Hilgen said.</p>
<p>Once Irma passes, a group of risk engineers at Zurich’s Tampa hub plan to fan out across South Florida to assess damage alongside forensic accountants, building consultants and mitigation contractors, he said.</p>
<p>Some are using drones to help.</p>
<p>Hazen, a Farmers adjuster and drone pilot, spoke to Reuters while inspecting a roof in Missouri City, Texas. The drone buzzed above the house for 11 minutes, a process that would have taken an hour otherwise, Hazen said.</p>
<p>“It is … safer because it means I don’t have to get up on the roof,” he said.</p>
<p>FACT OF LIFE</p>
<p>Insurers have been put to the test before. After Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy in 2005 and 2012, it took months for many property owners to receive payouts, partly because there were too few adjusters with the needed expertise.</p>
<p>Novice errors like not pulling off drywall to inspect for hidden damage, or not being familiar with software used for loss estimates, can reduce or delay insurance payments, adding to hardships residents are already facing.</p>
<p>“It’s a fact of life after every disaster that there’s a shortage of experienced adjusters,” said Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a consumer advocacy group.</p>
<p>The inspector shortage may be worse this time because insurers have not faced hurricanes of this magnitude – certainly not two in a row – in half a century, industry experts said.</p>
<p>Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide expects $10 billion in insured losses related to Harvey, and perhaps another $50 billion for Irma. Early estimates are likely to change, and do not include claims covered by the government.</p>
<p>Many large insurers use their own adjusters, while smaller and midsize rivals are more likely to hire outside help. For-hire inspectors can charge $1,000-$2,000 per claim in the aftermath of major disasters, industry sources said.</p>
<p>Work on the ground can be punishing.</p>
<p>After Hurricane Harvey, Steve Sherin, executive general adjuster for Zurich’s North American unit, spent five days in Houston. He left his hotel at 4:30 a.m. each day to begin long days surveying damage at commercial properties.</p>
<p>Last Thursday, he spent six hours walking through ankle-deep water and mud in one building, surrounded by the stench of dead fish decomposing on a parking garage floor and the loud noise of cleaning equipment. His workday lasted about 17 hours.</p>
<p>“It’s tiring beyond belief,” Sherin said, “but there’s a lot of purpose in what we do.”</p>
<p>LONG PROCESS</p>
<p>For property owners, an inspection is often the first step in a longer, paperwork-heavy process.</p>
<p>Few adjusters can immediately authorize payments, especially if policyholders are insured though state agencies or the National Flood Insurance Program.</p>
<p>Richard Campell, whose Houston home was flooded, said his inspector was armed with an iPad and estimating software. The adjuster measured rooms, asked about water levels and photographed mounds of ruined belongings in the yard, he said.</p>
<p>Campell, 67, must now submit an inventory with price replacement costs, including details like his refrigerator’s model and serial number. Still, he is grateful that the inspector reached his home in only five days.</p>
<p>“It was the luck of the draw,” he said.</p>
<p>Sean Maxwell, 27, also of Houston, had to leave her mother’s flooded home in a boat. An adjuster visited last week, and the family is now waiting for documents explaining the payout.</p>
<p>“The funny thing is, when it comes in the mail, I don’t know how we’re going to get it because we don’t live there,” Maxwell said.</p> | false | 1 | suzanne barlyn catherine ngai reuters insurers scrambling find inspectors texas florida fierce hurricanes battered states one causing tens billions dollars worth property damage less two weeks although insurers maintain number inspectors known claims adjusters across us yearround must redeploy staff areas hire contract workers fill gaps catastrophes like hurricanes harvey irma strike speed critical residents business owners awaiting insurance payments onetwo punch harvey irma question challenging industry said kenneth tolson heads us property casualty division crawford amp co provides claims adjusters staff disasters adjusters investigate claims behalf property insurers like travelers cos inc hartford financial services group nyse inc allstate corp nyse state farm farmers insurance many policies backed federal state flood insurance programs texas florida together 340000 licensed adjusters according state agencies unclear precisely many ground insurers industry groups said thousands headed affected areas parts united states sunday afternoon hartford prepared send adjusters irmabattered areas authorities allow access spokeswoman kelly carter said hartford inspectors georgia south carolina alabama tennessee kentucky poised assist said zurich insurance group ag floridabased claims adjusters riding storm locally sunday plans begin visiting commercial properties soon possible spokesman david hilgen said irma passes group risk engineers zurichs tampa hub plan fan across south florida assess damage alongside forensic accountants building consultants mitigation contractors said using drones help hazen farmers adjuster drone pilot spoke reuters inspecting roof missouri city texas drone buzzed house 11 minutes process would taken hour otherwise hazen said safer means dont get roof said fact life insurers put test hurricanes katrina sandy 2005 2012 took months many property owners receive payouts partly adjusters needed expertise novice errors like pulling drywall inspect hidden damage familiar software used loss estimates reduce delay insurance payments adding hardships residents already facing fact life every disaster theres shortage experienced adjusters said amy bach executive director united policyholders consumer advocacy group inspector shortage may worse time insurers faced hurricanes magnitude certainly two row half century industry experts said catastrophe modeling firm air worldwide expects 10 billion insured losses related harvey perhaps another 50 billion irma early estimates likely change include claims covered government many large insurers use adjusters smaller midsize rivals likely hire outside help forhire inspectors charge 10002000 per claim aftermath major disasters industry sources said work ground punishing hurricane harvey steve sherin executive general adjuster zurichs north american unit spent five days houston left hotel 430 day begin long days surveying damage commercial properties last thursday spent six hours walking ankledeep water mud one building surrounded stench dead fish decomposing parking garage floor loud noise cleaning equipment workday lasted 17 hours tiring beyond belief sherin said theres lot purpose long process property owners inspection often first step longer paperworkheavy process adjusters immediately authorize payments especially policyholders insured though state agencies national flood insurance program richard campell whose houston home flooded said inspector armed ipad estimating software adjuster measured rooms asked water levels photographed mounds ruined belongings yard said campell 67 must submit inventory price replacement costs including details like refrigerators model serial number still grateful inspector reached home five days luck draw said sean maxwell 27 also houston leave mothers flooded home boat adjuster visited last week family waiting documents explaining payout funny thing comes mail dont know going get dont live maxwell said | 538 |
<p>Nearly a year before ballots will be cast in Nevada’s midterm primary election, the political dominoes are beginning to fall.</p>
<p>The first drop for 2018 came Thursday, when Democrat U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen officially launched her campaign to challenge U.S. Sen. Dean Heller.</p>
<p>Rosen had no political experience until last year, when she was tapped by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid to run for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District. She won one of the most expensive House races in 2016, and believes that experience will help her unseat Heller.</p>
<p>“I think that I’ve shown I can win a tough race,” Rosen told the Review-Journal. “I did the analysis, I feel very good about this decision.”</p>
<p>Rosen’s announcement was expected, but it is a gamble for Democrats. If she loses to Heller and a Republican wins the congressional seat, Nevada Democrats lose their advantage in Washington. Winning both races, however, gives Democrats control of all but Rep. Mark Amodei’s Congressional District 2 seat — the safest Republican district in Nevada.</p>
<p>And Republicans are eager to pounce on the opening.</p>
<p>Nearly a half-dozen candidates — including a professional golfer from Henderson — are mulling or have announced a run for the seat. More contenders could emerge between now and the June 2018 primary election.</p>
<p>“It was going to be a top pickup opportunity even with Rosen running,” said Jack Pandol, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Rosen vacating it only increases our chances of picking up this seat.”</p>
<p>What it means for CD3</p>
<p>Even before Rosen’s announcement, Republicans eyed the district it as a potential flip.</p>
<p>Rosen beat Republican Danny Tarkanian by just over 1 point last year. The race was deemed by Opensecrets.com as the most expensive House race in the country in terms spending by outside groups.</p>
<p>Despite roughly 10,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in the district, Republicans have won the race in six of the last eight elections.</p>
<p>Professional golfer Natalie Gulbis, who lives in Henderson, told Fox Business she is strongly considering running.</p>
<p>“I’m not a career politician, I come with an outside, positive perspective and really just want to serve the people of that district,” Gulbis said.</p>
<p>State Sen. Scott Hammond, R-Las Vegas, filed candidacy paperwork Wednesday.</p>
<p>Tarkanian told the Review-Journal he’s weighing either a run for the House seat or a challenge to Heller in the Republican Senate primary.</p>
<p>Cresent Hardy, who served one term in 4th Congressional District before losing to Kihuen last year, has been eyeing Rosen’s seat for several months, according to several Republican sources.</p>
<p>Las Vegas City Councilman Stavros Anthony said Thursday he is considering bids in either the 3rd or 4th Congressional districts.</p>
<p>No prominent Democrat has publicly expressed interest in the seat, but Rosen said she believes her party will find a strong candidate.</p>
<p>Susie Lee, a philanthropist and education advocate, is said to be weighing a run for the seat. Lee lost in the 2016 Democratic primary to Kihuen.</p>
<p>The Senate race</p>
<p>Rosen, who is six months into her first elected office, said in an interview with the Review-Journal Thursday that she was encouraged to run for Senate by Reid, who helped recruit her for the 2016 congressional race.</p>
<p>The former computer programmer and synagogue president blasted Heller’s previous efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. She also balked at Heller’s recent opposition to the renewed push to repeal the ACA, saying he’s only taken that stance because he is up for re-election.</p>
<p>Heller, who will run for his second term next year, is considered one of the most vulnerable Republican senators on the 2018 ballot.</p>
<p>“Now that there’s a spotlight shining on him since he’s up for re-election, he seems to have taken a different tune,” Rosen said. “We need to hold him accountable for his record.”</p>
<p>Within hours of her announcement, Rosen received endorsements from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and U.S. Rep. Ruben Kihuen.</p>
<p>Rosen could be challenged in the primary by fellow Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, who represents Nevada’s 1st Congressional District.</p>
<p>Titus wasn’t willing to commit to the race on Thursday, however.</p>
<p>“It’s a personal and political decision. The election is 16 months away and I am evaluating in what role I can continue to best serve the citizens of Nevada,” she said in a statement.</p>
<p>Tommy Ferraro, Heller’s campaign spokesperson, compared Rosen to retired Nevada Sen. Harry Reid.</p>
<p>“Thought Nevada was free of Harry Reid? Think again,” Ferraro said on Heller’s campaign website.</p>
<p>Rosen’s announcement provoked an immediate comment from Michael McAdams, regional press secretary for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.</p>
<p>“She is already in the pocket of Nevada’s political puppet-master, Harry Reid, after he hand-picked her to run, and Jacky’s allegiance to Reid is even raising red flags within her own party,” McAdams said in a statement. “Rep. Dina Titus, who has taken on the Reid machine numerous times and won, publicly stated today she’s considering challenging Jacky in a primary.”</p>
<p>Contact Colton Lochhead at [email protected] or 702-383-4638. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.</p> | false | 1 | nearly year ballots cast nevadas midterm primary election political dominoes beginning fall first drop 2018 came thursday democrat us rep jacky rosen officially launched campaign challenge us sen dean heller rosen political experience last year tapped senate democratic leader harry reid run nevadas 3rd congressional district one expensive house races 2016 believes experience help unseat heller think ive shown win tough race rosen told reviewjournal analysis feel good decision rosens announcement expected gamble democrats loses heller republican wins congressional seat nevada democrats lose advantage washington winning races however gives democrats control rep mark amodeis congressional district 2 seat safest republican district nevada republicans eager pounce opening nearly halfdozen candidates including professional golfer henderson mulling announced run seat contenders could emerge june 2018 primary election going top pickup opportunity even rosen running said jack pandol spokesman national republican congressional committee rosen vacating increases chances picking seat means cd3 even rosens announcement republicans eyed district potential flip rosen beat republican danny tarkanian 1 point last year race deemed opensecretscom expensive house race country terms spending outside groups despite roughly 10000 registered democrats republicans district republicans race six last eight elections professional golfer natalie gulbis lives henderson told fox business strongly considering running im career politician come outside positive perspective really want serve people district gulbis said state sen scott hammond rlas vegas filed candidacy paperwork wednesday tarkanian told reviewjournal hes weighing either run house seat challenge heller republican senate primary cresent hardy served one term 4th congressional district losing kihuen last year eyeing rosens seat several months according several republican sources las vegas city councilman stavros anthony said thursday considering bids either 3rd 4th congressional districts prominent democrat publicly expressed interest seat rosen said believes party find strong candidate susie lee philanthropist education advocate said weighing run seat lee lost 2016 democratic primary kihuen senate race rosen six months first elected office said interview reviewjournal thursday encouraged run senate reid helped recruit 2016 congressional race former computer programmer synagogue president blasted hellers previous efforts repeal affordable care act also balked hellers recent opposition renewed push repeal aca saying hes taken stance reelection heller run second term next year considered one vulnerable republican senators 2018 ballot theres spotlight shining since hes reelection seems taken different tune rosen said need hold accountable record within hours announcement rosen received endorsements democratic senatorial campaign committee us sen catherine cortez masto us rep ruben kihuen rosen could challenged primary fellow democratic rep dina titus represents nevadas 1st congressional district titus wasnt willing commit race thursday however personal political decision election 16 months away evaluating role continue best serve citizens nevada said statement tommy ferraro hellers campaign spokesperson compared rosen retired nevada sen harry reid thought nevada free harry reid think ferraro said hellers campaign website rosens announcement provoked immediate comment michael mcadams regional press secretary national republican senatorial committee already pocket nevadas political puppetmaster harry reid handpicked run jackys allegiance reid even raising red flags within party mcadams said statement rep dina titus taken reid machine numerous times publicly stated today shes considering challenging jacky primary contact colton lochhead clochheadreviewjournalcom 7023834638 follow coltonlochhead twitter | 517 |
<p>The <a href="http://variety.com/t/eagles/" type="external">Eagles</a> have added 13 dates to their <a href="http://variety.com/2017/music/news/the-eagles-announce-2018-tour-dates-with-jimmy-buffett-james-taylor-chris-stapleton-1202620227/" type="external">2018 “An Evening with the Eagles” tour</a>, which kicks off on March 12 in Indianapolis, Indiana. New shows have been set for March 15 in Grand Rapids, MI at the Van Andel Arena; March 19 in Kansas City, MO at the Sprint Center; a second show in Nashville, TN at the Bridgestone Arena on March 24; April 8 in Columbus, OH at the Nationwide Arena; April 10 in Lexington, KY at the Rupp Arena; April 11 in Charlotte, NC at the Spectrum Center; April 16 in Columbia, SC at the Colonial Life Arena; April 17 in Raleigh, NC at the PNC Arena; April 19 in Birmingham, AL at the BJCC Arena; a second show in Vancouver, BC at the Rogers Arena on May 11;&#160; July 14 in Buffalo, NY at the KeyBank Center; a second show in Toronto, ON at the Air Canada Centre on July 17; and July 24 in Pittsburgh, PA at the PPG Paints Arena.&#160; In addition, a stadium concert has been added on Friday, June 15 in Houston, Texas at Minute Maid Park with <a href="http://variety.com/t/chris-stapleton/" type="external">Chris Stapleton</a> sharing the bill.</p>
<p>The group will be joined on the tour at certain dates by Stapleton, <a href="http://variety.com/t/jimmy-buffett/" type="external">Jimmy Buffett</a>&#160;and the Coral Reefer Band or <a href="http://variety.com/t/james-taylor/" type="external">James Taylor</a> &amp; His All-Star Band.</p>
<p>The reconfigured group – billed officially as “Don Henley, Joe Walsh &amp; Timothy B. Schmit, with Vince Gill and Deacon Frey” – is taking a measured approach to regaining altitude after the death of co-founder Glenn Frey, Deacon’s father, in January of last year, both in terms of timing and filling Frey’s enormous role.</p>
<p>Variety&#160; <a href="http://variety.com/2017/music/news/concert-review-classic-west-dodger-stadium-eagles-steely-dan-doobie-brothers-1202497063/" type="external">wrote of the first concert</a>: “If this was a test run for whether a post-Glenn Frey version of the <a href="http://variety.com/2017/music/news/eagles-grand-ole-opry-siriusxm-concert-1202577506/" type="external">Eagles</a> could pass muster, it augured well on that front, thanks to some smart choices about fill-ins for the late co-frontman. The most obvious live ringer was Frey’s 24-year-old son, Deacon,…looking and sounding spookily like the family patriarch in his most heartthrob-ish post-Troubadour days — and also put on some of the rowdier, earlier songs his father sang….Country great Gill provided as assured a recreation of Frey’s slick soulfulness on ‘Tequila Sunrise,’ ‘Lyin’ Eyes’ and ‘New Kid in Town’ as anyone could.”</p>
<p>Mon Mar 12&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Indianapolis, IN&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Bankers Life Fieldhouse</p>
<p>Wed Mar 14&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Chicago, IL&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;United Center</p>
<p>Thu Mar 15&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Grand Rapids, MI&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Van Andel Arena</p>
<p>Sun Mar 18&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;St. Louis, MO&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;&#160;Scottrade Center</p>
<p>Mon Mar 19&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Kansas City, MO&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Sprint Center</p>
<p>Wed Mar 21&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Des Moines, IA&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Wells Fargo Arena</p>
<p>Fri Mar 23&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Nashville, TN&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Bridgestone Arena</p>
<p>Sat Mar 24&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Nashville, TN&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Bridgestone Arena</p>
<p>Sun Apr 08&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Columbus, OH&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;&#160;Nationwide Arena</p>
<p>Tue Apr 10&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Lexington, KY&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;Rupp Arena</p>
<p>Wed Apr 11&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Charlotte, NC&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Spectrum Center</p>
<p>Sat Apr 14&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Orlando, FL&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Camping World Stadium (with <a href="http://variety.com/2017/music/reviews/escape-to-margaritaville-review-jimmy-buffett-1202612333/" type="external">Jimmy Buffett</a> and the Coral Reefer Band)</p>
<p>Mon Apr 16&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Columbia, SC&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;&#160;Colonial Life Arena</p>
<p>Tue Apr 17&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Raleigh, NC&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;PNC Arena</p>
<p>Thu Apr 19&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Birmingham, AL&#160;&#160; &#160;&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;&#160;BJCC Arena</p>
<p>Sat Apr 21&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Miami, FL&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Hard Rock Stadium (with Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band)</p>
<p>Thu May 10&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Vancouver, BC&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Rogers Arena</p>
<p>Fri May 11&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Vancouver, BC&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;&#160;Rogers Arena</p>
<p>Mon May 14&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Calgary, AB&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Scotiabank Saddledome</p>
<p>Tue May 15&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Edmonton, AB&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Rogers Place</p>
<p>Fri Jun 15&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Houston, TX&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Minute Maid Park (with <a href="http://variety.com/2017/music/news/cma-awards-tv-review-1202610714/" type="external">Chris Stapleton</a>)</p>
<p>Sun Jun 17&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Tulsa, OK&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;BOK Center</p>
<p>Wed Jun 20&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;New Orleans, LA&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Smoothie King Center</p>
<p>Sat Jun 23&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Arlington, TX&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;AT&amp;T Stadium (with Chris Stapleton)</p>
<p>Thu Jun 28&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Denver, CO&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Coors Field (with Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band)</p>
<p>Sat Jun 30&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Minneapolis, MN&#160;&#160; &#160;&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;&#160;Target Field (with Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band)</p>
<p>Sat Jul 14&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Buffalo, NY&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;KeyBank Center</p>
<p>Sun Jul 15&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Toronto, ON&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Air Canada Centre</p>
<p>Tue Jul 17&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Toronto, ON&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Air Canada Centre</p>
<p>Fri Jul 20&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Boston, MA&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;TD Garden</p>
<p>Tue Jul 24&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Pittsburgh, PA&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;PPG Paints Arena</p>
<p>Thu Jul 26&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Washington, DC&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Nationals Park (with <a href="http://variety.com/2016/biz/news/kennedy-center-honors-james-taylor-eagles-president-obama-1201933556/" type="external">James Taylor</a> &amp; His All-Star Band)</p>
<p>Sat Jul 28&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Philadelphia, PA&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Citizens Bank Park (with James Taylor &amp; His All-Star Band)</p> | false | 1 | eagles added 13 dates 2018 evening eagles tour kicks march 12 indianapolis indiana new shows set march 15 grand rapids mi van andel arena march 19 kansas city mo sprint center second show nashville tn bridgestone arena march 24 april 8 columbus oh nationwide arena april 10 lexington ky rupp arena april 11 charlotte nc spectrum center april 16 columbia sc colonial life arena april 17 raleigh nc pnc arena april 19 birmingham al bjcc arena second show vancouver bc rogers arena may 11160 july 14 buffalo ny keybank center second show toronto air canada centre july 17 july 24 pittsburgh pa ppg paints arena160 addition stadium concert added friday june 15 houston texas minute maid park chris stapleton sharing bill group joined tour certain dates stapleton jimmy buffett160and coral reefer band james taylor amp allstar band reconfigured group billed officially henley joe walsh amp timothy b schmit vince gill deacon frey taking measured approach regaining altitude death cofounder glenn frey deacons father january last year terms timing filling freys enormous role variety160 wrote first concert test run whether postglenn frey version eagles could pass muster augured well front thanks smart choices fillins late cofrontman obvious live ringer freys 24yearold son deaconlooking sounding spookily like family patriarch heartthrobish posttroubadour days also put rowdier earlier songs father sangcountry great gill provided assured recreation freys slick soulfulness tequila sunrise lyin eyes new kid town anyone could mon mar 12160160160160160160160160160160160160160160indianapolis in160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160bankers life fieldhouse wed mar 14160160160160160160160160160160160160160160chicago il160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160united center thu mar 15160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160grand rapids mi160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160van andel arena sun mar 18160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160st louis mo160160 160 160 160 160160160 160 160 160 160 160160160scottrade center mon mar 19160160160160160160160160160160160160160160kansas city mo160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160sprint center wed mar 21160160160160160160160160160160160160160160des moines ia160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160wells fargo arena fri mar 23160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160nashville tn160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160bridgestone arena sat mar 24160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160nashville tn160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160bridgestone arena sun apr 08160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160columbus oh160160 160 160 160160160 160 160 160 160 160160160nationwide arena tue apr 10160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160lexington ky160160 160 160 160 160160160 160 160 160 160 160160rupp arena wed apr 11160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160charlotte nc160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160spectrum center sat apr 14160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160orlando fl160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160camping world stadium jimmy buffett coral reefer band mon apr 16160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160columbia sc160160 160 160 160 160 160160160 160 160 160 160160160colonial life arena tue apr 17160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160raleigh nc160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160pnc arena thu apr 19160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160birmingham al160160 160160160 160 160 160 160 160160160bjcc arena sat apr 21160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160miami fl160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160hard rock stadium jimmy buffett coral reefer band thu may 10160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160vancouver bc160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160rogers arena fri may 11160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160vancouver bc160160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160160160rogers arena mon may 14160160160160160160160160160160160160160160calgary ab160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160scotiabank saddledome tue may 15160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160edmonton ab160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160rogers place fri jun 15160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160houston tx160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160minute maid park chris stapleton sun jun 17160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160tulsa ok160160 160 160160160 160 160 160 160 160160160 160 160 160 160 160160bok center wed jun 20160160160160160160160160160160160160160160new orleans la160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160smoothie king center sat jun 23160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160arlington tx160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160atampt stadium chris stapleton thu jun 28160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160denver co160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160coors field jimmy buffett coral reefer band sat jun 30160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160minneapolis mn160160 160160160 160 160 160 160160160target field jimmy buffett coral reefer band sat jul 14160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160buffalo ny160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160keybank center sun jul 15160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160toronto on160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160air canada centre tue jul 17160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160toronto on160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160air canada centre fri jul 20160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160boston ma160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160td garden tue jul 24160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160pittsburgh pa160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160ppg paints arena thu jul 26160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160washington dc160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160nationals park james taylor amp allstar band sat jul 28160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160philadelphia pa160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160citizens bank park james taylor amp allstar band | 517 |
<p>LANDOVER. Md. — The Oakland Raiders knew coming into the Sunday night game that Washington Redskins running back Chris Thompson was a weapon.</p>
<p>That didn’t make it any easier to stop him.</p>
<p>Thompson had six receptions for 150 yards and a touchdown, Kirk Cousins passed for 365 yards and three touchdowns, and the Redskins posted a convincing 27-10 win over the Raiders on Sunday night.</p>
<p>Thompson, Washington’s third-down back, caught a 22-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter and had a 74-yard, momentum-turning catch and run late in the third quarter. Thompson now has four touchdowns in three games.</p>
<p>“They’re paying me to win my one-on-one matchups and make plays and be a spark for this offense,” Thompson said. “Third downs especially, even in second-and-longs, I’m supposed to make plays … so I’ve got to just continue to be good for my team.”</p>
<p>For good measure, Thompson also rushed eight times for 38 yards.</p>
<p>“We certainly were aware he was somebody we needed to deal with,” Raiders coach Jack Del Rio said. “That said, we didn’t get it done anywhere near what it needs to be.”</p>
<p>Washington (2-1) outgained Oakland 472 yards to 128, and Raiders quarterback Derek Carr threw his first two interceptions of the season.</p>
<p>Oakland (2-1) was 0-for-11 on third downs, and its points came after two fumbles by the Redskins deep in their own end.</p>
<p>“I think it was as good a defensive performance that I’ve seen in a long time by anybody,” Redskins head coach Jay Gruden said. “I mean, it’s a great tribute to Coach (Greg) Manusky and the (defensive) staff, but the players were executing. Hustling. Making sure of tackles and getting the ball out when they had to.”</p>
<p>Tight end Vernon Davis and wide receiver Josh Doctson had touchdown catches for Washington.</p>
<p>Cousins, after struggling in the first two games, shined, completing 25 of 30 passes without an interception. All without his starting running back (Rob Kelley) and tight end (Jordan Reed.)</p>
<p>Carr finished 19 of 31 for 118 yards and a touchdown.</p>
<p>“We got our butts kicked,” Carr said.</p>
<p>Washington turned a 14-0 halftime advantage into a 21-0 cushion on the opening drive of the third quarter.</p>
<p>On first down from his 48, Cousins threw long down the right sideline. Oakland cornerback David Amerson had position, but Doctson outjumped him, made the catch at the 5-yard-line and scored on his first reception of the season.</p>
<p>“The receiver made a nice play and (Amerson) didn’t, and you give up the big one right there,” Del Rio said. “It could just as easily have been a pick. You need to make the plays when you have the opportunities, and they made a lot more plays.”</p>
<p>Oakland’s lifeless offense caught a break when Washington’s Jamison Crowder muffed a punt and the Raiders recovered at the Redskins 18-yard line. Two plays later, Carr hit tight end Jared Cook on a crossing route for a 21-yard touchdown, and Oakland was within 21-7 with 3:52 left in the third quarter.</p>
<p>The momentum appeared to be turning as Washington then faced third-and-19 from its 16. However, Cousins threw short to his left to Thompson, who broke a tackle, got free and ran 74 yards to the Oakland 10.</p>
<p>The Redskins settled for a 23-yard Dustin Hopkins field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>Washington coughed it up again when linebacker Cory James’ hit forced a Samaje Perine fumble. Oakland recovered at the 12, but despite a first-and-goal from the 4 after a penalty, settled for a field goal and trailed 24-10 with 11:54 remaining.</p>
<p>Hopkins made a 28-yard field goal to boost the advantage to 27-10 with 6:02 remaining.</p>
<p>The Redskins turned two Carr interceptions into 14 first-half points.</p>
<p>On the game’s first drive, Carr threw long on second-and-7 from his own 28 and his pass was intercepted by safety Montae Nicholson at the Washington 33. It was Oakland’s first turnover of the season.</p>
<p>Cousins led the Redskins 67 yards in eight plays, capping the drive with a 22-yard score to Thompson, who caught the pass around the 18 and scampered down the left sideline.</p>
<p>“Just being a play-caller, being an offensive/defensive coordinator is like a game of chess,” Thompson said. “(Gruden) called the right play where they ended up blitzing, and I was wide open.”</p>
<p>Early in the second quarter, Washington cornerback Kendall Fuller came down with a Carr pass at the Redskins 28.</p>
<p>This time, Cousins found Davis just behind the defender in the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown with 3:48 left before intermission.</p>
<p>Cousins was 17 of 19 for 173 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions in two quarters.</p>
<p>“They had a great game plan and they worked it,” Oakland linebacker James Cowser said of Washington.</p>
<p>NOTES: Redskins RB Samaje Perine sustained a hand contusion, but X-rays were negative. … Oakland WR Michael Crabtree left with a chest injury in the fourth quarter. … In addition to RB Rob Kelley (rib) and TE Jordan Reed (rib/sternum), the Redskins were without starting LB Mason Foster (shoulder). … With his first-quarter scoring pass to RB Chris Thompson, Kirk Cousins became the sixth Redskins quarterback to throw at least 75 touchdown passes with the team. … The last time Oakland QB Derek Carr had multiple interceptions in a game was Dec. 20, 2015, against the Green Bay Packers.</p> | false | 1 | landover md oakland raiders knew coming sunday night game washington redskins running back chris thompson weapon didnt make easier stop thompson six receptions 150 yards touchdown kirk cousins passed 365 yards three touchdowns redskins posted convincing 2710 win raiders sunday night thompson washingtons thirddown back caught 22yard touchdown pass first quarter 74yard momentumturning catch run late third quarter thompson four touchdowns three games theyre paying win oneonone matchups make plays spark offense thompson said third downs especially even secondandlongs im supposed make plays ive got continue good team good measure thompson also rushed eight times 38 yards certainly aware somebody needed deal raiders coach jack del rio said said didnt get done anywhere near needs washington 21 outgained oakland 472 yards 128 raiders quarterback derek carr threw first two interceptions season oakland 21 0for11 third downs points came two fumbles redskins deep end think good defensive performance ive seen long time anybody redskins head coach jay gruden said mean great tribute coach greg manusky defensive staff players executing hustling making sure tackles getting ball tight end vernon davis wide receiver josh doctson touchdown catches washington cousins struggling first two games shined completing 25 30 passes without interception without starting running back rob kelley tight end jordan reed carr finished 19 31 118 yards touchdown got butts kicked carr said washington turned 140 halftime advantage 210 cushion opening drive third quarter first 48 cousins threw long right sideline oakland cornerback david amerson position doctson outjumped made catch 5yardline scored first reception season receiver made nice play amerson didnt give big one right del rio said could easily pick need make plays opportunities made lot plays oaklands lifeless offense caught break washingtons jamison crowder muffed punt raiders recovered redskins 18yard line two plays later carr hit tight end jared cook crossing route 21yard touchdown oakland within 217 352 left third quarter momentum appeared turning washington faced thirdand19 16 however cousins threw short left thompson broke tackle got free ran 74 yards oakland 10 redskins settled 23yard dustin hopkins field goal first play fourth quarter washington coughed linebacker cory james hit forced samaje perine fumble oakland recovered 12 despite firstandgoal 4 penalty settled field goal trailed 2410 1154 remaining hopkins made 28yard field goal boost advantage 2710 602 remaining redskins turned two carr interceptions 14 firsthalf points games first drive carr threw long secondand7 28 pass intercepted safety montae nicholson washington 33 oaklands first turnover season cousins led redskins 67 yards eight plays capping drive 22yard score thompson caught pass around 18 scampered left sideline playcaller offensivedefensive coordinator like game chess thompson said gruden called right play ended blitzing wide open early second quarter washington cornerback kendall fuller came carr pass redskins 28 time cousins found davis behind defender end zone 18yard touchdown 348 left intermission cousins 17 19 173 yards two touchdowns interceptions two quarters great game plan worked oakland linebacker james cowser said washington notes redskins rb samaje perine sustained hand contusion xrays negative oakland wr michael crabtree left chest injury fourth quarter addition rb rob kelley rib te jordan reed ribsternum redskins without starting lb mason foster shoulder firstquarter scoring pass rb chris thompson kirk cousins became sixth redskins quarterback throw least 75 touchdown passes team last time oakland qb derek carr multiple interceptions game dec 20 2015 green bay packers | 551 |
<p>**Note:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Click here to&#160;download a copy of this transcript with complete footnotes</a>. **&#160;</p>
<p>A Faith &amp; Law Lecture Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C., 30 May 2008</p>
<p>I’d like to thank Faith &amp; Law for spoiling its hitherto spotless record of excellence by inviting me to present one of its lectures. As you know, Faith &amp; Law lectures are supposed to help Congressional staff better understand the implications of a Christian calling to the public square.</p>
<p>I spent ten years working in several offices on this very floor in the Rayburn House Office Building. I began at age 26 (about the same as many of you) working for then-Congressman Jack Kemp, who was trying to convince Ronald Reagan to make the Kemp-Roth marginal income tax rate cuts the economic centerpiece of his 1980 presidential campaign. When Reagan took office, Kemp was elected chairman of the House Republican Conference [caucus], and I stayed with him through both of Reagan’s terms, among other things developing the Kemp-Kasten plan (the GOP prototype for the Tax Reform Act of 1986; the Democratic version was the Bradley-Gephardt plan). The first year I also got married and began re-converting from college atheism to Christianity, first as a Methodist and ultimately what used to be called a “practicing” Catholic; which means simply that I keep practicing because I still don’t have it right.</p>
<p>Improbably enough, this experience furnished the skills I needed to make a living in the private sector for the past two decades, mostly as an economic and financial market forecaster and consultant to Wall Street money managers (though occasionally government policymakers). Three years ago I also started the Economics and Ethics Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center here in Washington, a think tank founded in 1976 with the unique mission of applying the Judeo-Christian tradition to American public policy.</p>
<p>Joe Manzari of Faith &amp; Law helpfully suggested I update a theme I once presented at a Princeton conference on Faith and the Challenges of Secularism, which was titled “The Economist as Preacher vs. The Preacher as Economist.”</p>
<p>“The Economist as Preacher” was the title essay of a book by University of Chicago economist (and later Nobel laureate) George J. Stigler, an able economist, but also the one most responsible for what I call “Smythology”: the myth that Adam Smith either “invented” or is somehow indispensable to understanding economics.</p>
<p>“The Preacher as Economist” is Thomas Aquinas, the most famous member of the (Dominican) Order of Preachers, who integrated previously disconnected elements from Aristotle and Augustine into the first complete outline of economic theory.</p>
<p>More broadly, these are two different ways of understanding what it means to be an economist, and for that matter what it means to be a preacher.</p>
<p>I don’t have time to tell the fascinating story of Stigler’s own reversal of attitude toward the history of economic theory. In 1950, he was arguing that economic theory advances by becoming simpler, by explaining more of the facts, and above all, by posing “refutable implications.”&#160; But in 1955, he had begun to argue that great economists are not those whose ideas turn out to be right, but rather “those who influence the profession as a whole”; and that, since “new ideas are even harder to sell than new products,” to become influential, economists must necessarily use the “techniques of the huckster”: “repetition, inflated claims, and disproportionate emphases.”&#160; Stigler eventually called this new approach “the economist as preacher,” and identified it with Adam Smith, to whom he had previously given either little or disparaging attention. Rather than being someone trying to discover the truth about certain things, according to Stigler, “A scholar is an evangelist seeking to convert his learned brethren to the new enlightenment he is preaching.” In 1969, Stigler told his fellow economists, in effect, to “abandon HoPE.” That is, his contribution to the first issue of the journal History of Political Economy (HoPE) was an essay posing the question, “Does Economics Have a Useful Past?” which he essentially answered in the negative.</p>
<p>I must begin with an important but (thanks to Stigler) widely overlooked fact: There have been three phases so far in the history of economics, and the logical and mathematical structures of scholastic, classical and today’s “neoclassical” economics differ fundamentally. Most students and even professors of economics are unaware of this fact because, starting in 1972 at the University of Chicago, Stigler succeeded in the national campaign he started in 1954 to abolish the requirement that students of economics master its history before being granted a degree.&#160; This is why all of us, including or especially economists, require a brief, remedial history of economics.</p>
<p>What is economics about? It describes from one angle what we do all day. Jesus once noted–I interpret this as an astute empirical observation, not divine revelation–that since the days of Noah and Lot, humans have been doing, and until the end of the world presumably will be doing, four kinds of things. He gave these examples: “planting and building,” “buying and selling,” “marrying and being given in marriage,” and “eating and drinking” (Luke 18:27-28). In other words, we produce, exchange, give, and use our human and nonhuman goods.</p>
<p>That’s the usual order in which we act: producing, exchanging, distributing, and consuming. But in planning we follow a different order: first, For Whom we intend to provide, which we will express by the distribution of our goods among them; next What to provide to express our love for those persons; and finally How to provide those means–through production (almost always) and (usually) exchange. So economics is essentially a theory of providence: It describes how we provide for ourselves and the other persons we love, using scarce means that have alternate uses. But as we’ll see, it has also concerned alternative theories of divine providence, two of which are contradict both reason and Christian faith.</p>
<p>Scholastic “AAA”&#160; economics (1250-1776) began in the mid-13th century when Aquinas first integrated these four elements (production, exchange, distribution and consumption), all drawn from Aristotle and Augustine, to describe personal, domestic and political economy within scholastic natural law–all normatively measured by the Two Great Commandments: “You shall love God with all your heart” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”&#160; The scholastic economic system is comprehensive, logically complete, can be stated mathematically, and is empirically verifiable.</p>
<p>The scholastic outline was taught at the highest university level for more than five centuries by Catholics and (after the Reformation) Protestants alike. Adam Smith himself was taught from Lutheran Samuel Pufendorf’s compendium On the Duty of Man and Citizen According to Natural Law,&#160; which as with Aquinas and the earlier scholastics, contains all four basic elements of economic theory, organized according to personal, domestic and political economy,&#160; and integrating normative with descriptive theory by the Two Great Commandments.&#160; The fact that Pufendorf was a Lutheran who wrote a critical history of the Catholic Church and that his theories were taught at the generally Calvinist University of Glasgow, demonstrates that the scholastic outline of economic theory was broadly known and accepted by both Catholics and Protestants. Pufendorf was widely read in the American colonies and recommended for example by Alexander Hamilton,&#160; who had penned two-thirds of the Federalist papers and as first Treasury Secretary would reject Smith’s specific economic advice in the Wealth of Nations to the United States.</p>
<p>Classical economics (1776-1871) began when Adam Smith, trying to explain what he called “division of labor” using production and exchange alone, chopped the four scholastic elements to two: dropping Augustine’s theory of utility (which describes consumption) and replacing both Augustine’s theory of personal distribution and Aristotle’s theory of social distribution with the mere assumption that everyone is motivated by self-love. This is how classical economics began with only two elements.</p>
<p>Today’s neoclassical economics (1871-c.2000) began when three economists&#160;dissatisfied with the failure of classical predictions independently but almost simultaneously reinvented the theory of utility, starting its reintegration with the theories of production and exchange. Personal gifts and distributive justice were both central to scholastic economic theory, early and late.&#160; Yet they are not taught in any neoclassical school (except by claiming them to be disguised consumption, production, or exchanges).</p>
<p>In a forthcoming book,&#160; I predict that Neoscholastic economics (c.2000–?) will revolutionize economics once again in coming decades by replacing its lost cornerstone, the theory of distribution: simply because, as with the theory of utility, including the element does a far better job of empirical description.</p>
<p>In understanding Adam Smith, therefore, we get off on the wrong foot if we begin by asking, “What did Adam Smith add to economic theory?” As Joseph Schumpeter concluded in his History of Economic Analysis, “The fact is that the Wealth of Nations does not contain a single analytic idea, principle or method that was entirely new in 1776.”</p>
<p>The real question is, “Why did Adam Smith subtract what he did from economic theory–and why was this subtraction popular for nearly a century?” The short answer is that this narrowing of the range of economic theory allowed classical economists after Smith to concentrate on developing the two elements he retained–production and equilibrium–to describe the increasingly obvious fact of economic growth. Later neoclassical economists found it necessary to abandon Smith’s revised outline for three related reasons: it made economists who used it unable to answer some important questions, led them to make empirical predictions that turned out to be spectacularly wrong about others, and fostered Karl Marx’s disastrously erroneous economic analysis.</p>
<p>Moral Newtonianism, philosophical Stoicism, and rhetorical Sophistry. There are three keys to understanding Smith, both as a philosopher and as an economist: his moral Newtonianism, his philosophical Stoicism, and his Sophistical view of rhetoric.</p>
<p>First, Smith was in friendly competition with his older friend David Hume to do for moral philosophy what he believed Isaac Newton had done for natural science: to reduce all its phenomena to a single familiar principle, like gravity. He was always aiming, as he put it in an unpublished manuscript, “to see the phenomena which we reckoned the most unaccountable all deduced from some principle (commonly a well-known) and all united in one chain.”&#160; He wanted an economic&#160; system with one basic element, not four.</p>
<p>Second, having rejected his Christian baptism well before writing the Wealth of Nations,&#160;Smith was a wholehearted convert to the ancient Stoic philosophy–and Stoics are pantheists.</p>
<p>There are two ways in which the providence of Stoic pantheism differs from the biblically orthodox version of Augustine and Aquinas. First, the Stoic god is not a creator, but the world-soul of an eternal and uncreated universe that goes through endless identical cycles of expansion and contraction.&#160; Second, it necessarily follows that humans are not creatures endowed with free will, but rather appendages of God fated to do everything they do, good or bad. According to Augustine’s more logically consistent theory of providence, the order in markets and society comes entirely from the virtue (itself a kind of order) that remains even in bad people as long as they exist.</p>
<p>Finally, Smith was much more proficient (and interested) in rhetoric than in logical, systematic analysis. When first hired by the University of Glasgow as Professor of Logic (he later became Professor of Moral Philosophy), he immediately changed the course to teach rhetoric instead of the prescribed logic and metaphysics.&#160; Moreover, as his lectures and unpublished papers make clear, Smith disagreed fundamentally with Aristotle about the nature of rhetoric.</p>
<p>According to Aristotle, the purpose of rhetoric “is not to persuade, but to discover the available means of persuasion in a given case.” Why? “In Rhetoric, as in Dialectic, we should be able to argue on either side of a question; not with a view to putting both sides into practice–we must not advocate evil–but in order that no aspect of the case may escape us, and that if our opponents make unfair use of the arguments, we may be able to refute them.”</p>
<p>Smith’s view of rhetoric, in contrast, resembled that of the Sophists who opposed Plato and Aristotle, by placing a higher value on whether a statement is useful to the speaker than whether it is an accurate description of reality. Smith taught his students, “The Rhetoricall [discourse] again endeavours by all means to perswade us; and for this purpose magnifies all the arguments on one side and diminishes or conceals those that might be brought on the side contrary to that which it is designed that we should favour.”&#160; And this, as we will see, is exactly how Smith presents his economic theory.</p>
<p>Smith’s moral Newtonianism induced him to oversimplify the economic theory he had inherited. In his earlier Theory of Moral Sentiments, he tried to reduce all moral philosophy to the single sentiment of sympathy; Smith attempted in the Wealth of Nations to explain all economic behavior by the single principle of labor–but he never achieved a theory that could reconcile these two.</p>
<p>Smith’s philosophical Stoicism accounts for his rejection of some elements of the scholastic outline and retention of others. In the Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith rejected the scholastic theories of final distribution and utility&#160; on the grounds that they presume rational, purposive behavior. In Smith’s view–and here the pantheism becomes apparent–decisions about ends and means, rather than being decided by human beings, are ultimately dictated to them by an inscrutable Stoic version of providence, which engages the vast majority of humankind in a “deception”&#160; about the “real satisfaction” afforded by economic goods. By systematically manipulating human emotion, the Stoic Author of Nature supposedly “rouses and keeps in continual motion the industry of mankind,” luring most people (except the Stoic sage) into vice. The rich are seduced by greed into “selfishness and rapacity,” while the “mob of mankind” is corrupted by envy of the rich. Yet all is for the best. To satisfy their “vain and insatiable desires,” the rich few must employ the envious mob, and so “they are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among its inhabitants.”</p>
<p>Smith’s famous “invisible hand,” therefore, is not a summary of his economic analysis; it is a rhetorical plug that he substitutes where the two elements of economic analysis that he eliminated are required: the scholastic theories of final distribution and utility. Moreover, “invisible hand” is a thoroughly apt metaphor: his philosophy reduces humans to puppets compelled to act by hidden manipulation.</p>
<p>Since Smith treats final distribution and utility by omission rather than revision, it is easy to overlook their significance when we come upon the passages in the Wealth of Nations in which their omission is signaled.</p>
<p>Smith’s elimination of Augustine’s theory of personal distribution from the outline of economic theory is signaled in the passage that includes his famous declaration: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages.”</p>
<p>In Augustine’s theory, the main reason the brewer or baker doesn’t serve his customers from beneficence is not exclusive self-love, but rather the fact of scarcity: if the baker shared his bread equally with every customer instead of charging for it, he would leave himself and his family too little to live on. Augustine’s theory also explains why the brewer or baker shares with his family or friends but not with his business customers: he loves his customers only with benevolence (wishing good to them) with both benevolence and beneficence (doing good to them). He sells his product to customers to earn the means to provide for himself and the rest of his family. Augustine’s theory of personal distribution explains the essential difference between a gift and an exchange, and provides a measure of how far each of us actually is motivated by self-love and how much by love of neighbor. By treating self-love as the only motive of economic behavior, Smith replaced Augustine’s empirically verifiable theory of personal distribution with an arbitrary and often false assumption: that no one ever shares his wealth with anyone else. Both classical and neoclassical economics implicitly assume that we’ve always already made our choice of persons–and have always chosen “number one”: ourselves.</p>
<p>Smith fails to grapple with the fact that charitable behavior simply does not fit into a theory that reduces all human transactions to exchange and self-love. He never explains why customers never expect their dinner from the butcher’s beneficence, yet his friends occasionally and his children always expect it.</p>
<p>Shortly after dismissing the scholastic theory of final distribution with this assertion about universal self-love, Smith dismisses the scholastic theory of utility by posing what is sometimes called the “paradox of value.”&#160; Without offering a solution to this apparent paradox, Smith rhetorically throws up his hands and abandons discussion of value in use, as if the concept were absurd.</p>
<p>This is a case in which Smith “endeavours by all means to perswade us; and for this purpose magnifies all the arguments on one side and diminishes or conceals those that might be brought on the side contrary to that which it is designed that we should favour.” Though Smith twitted Hume in the Theory of Moral Sentiments for retaining Augustine’s theory of utility, students’ lecture notes show that Smith continued teaching it for several years in his own university lectures, posing the same paradox involving diamonds and water he later raised in Wealth of Nations, and easily resolved it along scholastic lines, explaining the difference in value by the combination of utility and scarcity.</p>
<p>The Choice of 1776. By far the most influential piece of “Smythology” was Milton Friedman’s argument in Free to Choose (1980), linking Adam Smith’s philosophy with the meaning of the American Declaration of Independence: “The story of the United States is the story of an economic miracle and a political miracle that was made possible by the translation into practice of two sets of ideas–both, by a curious coincidence published in the same year, 1776.” According to Friedman, “the fundamental principles of our system [are] both the economic principles of Adam Smith…and the political principles expressed by Thomas Jefferson.”</p>
<p>I also found this persuasive, until I discovered that the “choice of 1776” was actually a divergence, not a convergence of those philosophical views.</p>
<p>When the Apostle Paul preached in the marketplace of Athens (probably in 51 A.D.), he prefaced the Gospel with a Biblically orthodox version of natural law that he adapted from Greco-Roman philosophy. The evangelist Luke tells us that “some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers argued with him” (Acts 17:18). The same dispute has continued over the centuries among (neo)scholastic, classical and neoclassical economists.</p>
<p>In the scholastic natural law, economics is a theory of rational providence, describing how we “rational,” “matrimonial” and “political animals” choose both persons as “ends,” expressed by our personal and collective gifts, and the scarce means to be used by or for those persons, made real through production and exchange. By dropping the scholastic economic theories of distribution and consumption that he had been learned, Smith expressed the Stoic pantheism that viewed the universe “to be itself a Divinity, an Animal”&#160; with God as its immanent soul, so that sentimental humans choose neither ends nor means rationally. By restoring consumption (the choice of means) but not distribution (the choice of ends), neoclassical economics expressed the Epicurean materialism that claims humans somehow evolved in an uncreated universe as semi-rational or clever animals: highly adept at calculating means but having no choice but self-gratification, since (in Hume’s words) “reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions.”&#160; Or as Ludwig von Mises would later put it, “The power to choose whether my actions and conduct shall serve myself or my fellow beings is not given to me.”&#160; The scholastic thinkers understood that it is.</p>
<p>A third event occurred in 1776, which crystallized the three-way debate and its implications for Christian faith: the death of David Hume. In a letter dated August 14, 1776, Smith wrote: “Poor David Hume is dying very fast, but with great chearfulness and good humour and with more real resignation to the necessary course of things, than any Whining Christian ever dyed with pretended resignation to the Will of God.”</p>
<p>The notion that “all men are by nature equal” is an old one. We find it in exactly, or almost exactly, those words in Plato,&#160; Zeno of Citium&#160; (the founder of Stoicism), Thomas Hobbes,&#160; Algernon Sidney,&#160; and John Locke.&#160;&#160; But to say “all men are created equal” was a much more specific, and one might say, inspired formulation. In itself, creation ex nihilo is a philosophical rather than religious idea. But it does not exist anywhere in ancient pagan philosophy or in the world-views implicit in classical and neoclassical economic theory. Smith’s Providence is the great “Conductor” or “Superintendant” of the universe, but not its Creator, and in the Epicurean philosophy there is no god and thus no providence–only (unexplained) matter and chance.</p>
<p>Therefore, in one thing at least, we are not “free to choose”: we can either have all men “created equal” as in the Declaration of Independence, or Smith’s “invisible hand” of Stoic pantheism, manipulating humans as God’s puppets–but not both. All men cannot be “created equal” unless all men are “created.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | false | 1 | note160 click to160download copy transcript complete footnotes 160 faith amp law lecture rayburn house office building washington dc 30 may 2008 id like thank faith amp law spoiling hitherto spotless record excellence inviting present one lectures know faith amp law lectures supposed help congressional staff better understand implications christian calling public square spent ten years working several offices floor rayburn house office building began age 26 many working thencongressman jack kemp trying convince ronald reagan make kemproth marginal income tax rate cuts economic centerpiece 1980 presidential campaign reagan took office kemp elected chairman house republican conference caucus stayed reagans terms among things developing kempkasten plan gop prototype tax reform act 1986 democratic version bradleygephardt plan first year also got married began reconverting college atheism christianity first methodist ultimately used called practicing catholic means simply keep practicing still dont right improbably enough experience furnished skills needed make living private sector past two decades mostly economic financial market forecaster consultant wall street money managers though occasionally government policymakers three years ago also started economics ethics program ethics public policy center washington think tank founded 1976 unique mission applying judeochristian tradition american public policy joe manzari faith amp law helpfully suggested update theme presented princeton conference faith challenges secularism titled economist preacher vs preacher economist economist preacher title essay book university chicago economist later nobel laureate george j stigler able economist also one responsible call smythology myth adam smith either invented somehow indispensable understanding economics preacher economist thomas aquinas famous member dominican order preachers integrated previously disconnected elements aristotle augustine first complete outline economic theory broadly two different ways understanding means economist matter means preacher dont time tell fascinating story stiglers reversal attitude toward history economic theory 1950 arguing economic theory advances becoming simpler explaining facts posing refutable implications160 1955 begun argue great economists whose ideas turn right rather influence profession whole since new ideas even harder sell new products become influential economists must necessarily use techniques huckster repetition inflated claims disproportionate emphases160 stigler eventually called new approach economist preacher identified adam smith previously given either little disparaging attention rather someone trying discover truth certain things according stigler scholar evangelist seeking convert learned brethren new enlightenment preaching 1969 stigler told fellow economists effect abandon hope contribution first issue journal history political economy hope essay posing question economics useful past essentially answered negative must begin important thanks stigler widely overlooked fact three phases far history economics logical mathematical structures scholastic classical todays neoclassical economics differ fundamentally students even professors economics unaware fact starting 1972 university chicago stigler succeeded national campaign started 1954 abolish requirement students economics master history granted degree160 us including especially economists require brief remedial history economics economics describes one angle day jesus notedi interpret astute empirical observation divine revelationthat since days noah lot humans end world presumably four kinds things gave examples planting building buying selling marrying given marriage eating drinking luke 182728 words produce exchange give use human nonhuman goods thats usual order act producing exchanging distributing consuming planning follow different order first intend provide express distribution goods among next provide express love persons finally provide meansthrough production almost always usually exchange economics essentially theory providence describes provide persons love using scarce means alternate uses well see also concerned alternative theories divine providence two contradict reason christian faith scholastic aaa160 economics 12501776 began mid13th century aquinas first integrated four elements production exchange distribution consumption drawn aristotle augustine describe personal domestic political economy within scholastic natural lawall normatively measured two great commandments shall love god heart shall love neighbor yourself160 scholastic economic system comprehensive logically complete stated mathematically empirically verifiable scholastic outline taught highest university level five centuries catholics reformation protestants alike adam smith taught lutheran samuel pufendorfs compendium duty man citizen according natural law160 aquinas earlier scholastics contains four basic elements economic theory organized according personal domestic political economy160 integrating normative descriptive theory two great commandments160 fact pufendorf lutheran wrote critical history catholic church theories taught generally calvinist university glasgow demonstrates scholastic outline economic theory broadly known accepted catholics protestants pufendorf widely read american colonies recommended example alexander hamilton160 penned twothirds federalist papers first treasury secretary would reject smiths specific economic advice wealth nations united states classical economics 17761871 began adam smith trying explain called division labor using production exchange alone chopped four scholastic elements two dropping augustines theory utility describes consumption replacing augustines theory personal distribution aristotles theory social distribution mere assumption everyone motivated selflove classical economics began two elements todays neoclassical economics 1871c2000 began three economists160dissatisfied failure classical predictions independently almost simultaneously reinvented theory utility starting reintegration theories production exchange personal gifts distributive justice central scholastic economic theory early late160 yet taught neoclassical school except claiming disguised consumption production exchanges forthcoming book160 predict neoscholastic economics c2000 revolutionize economics coming decades replacing lost cornerstone theory distribution simply theory utility including element far better job empirical description understanding adam smith therefore get wrong foot begin asking adam smith add economic theory joseph schumpeter concluded history economic analysis fact wealth nations contain single analytic idea principle method entirely new 1776 real question adam smith subtract economic theoryand subtraction popular nearly century short answer narrowing range economic theory allowed classical economists smith concentrate developing two elements retainedproduction equilibriumto describe increasingly obvious fact economic growth later neoclassical economists found necessary abandon smiths revised outline three related reasons made economists used unable answer important questions led make empirical predictions turned spectacularly wrong others fostered karl marxs disastrously erroneous economic analysis moral newtonianism philosophical stoicism rhetorical sophistry three keys understanding smith philosopher economist moral newtonianism philosophical stoicism sophistical view rhetoric first smith friendly competition older friend david hume moral philosophy believed isaac newton done natural science reduce phenomena single familiar principle like gravity always aiming put unpublished manuscript see phenomena reckoned unaccountable deduced principle commonly wellknown united one chain160 wanted economic160 system one basic element four second rejected christian baptism well writing wealth nations160smith wholehearted convert ancient stoic philosophyand stoics pantheists two ways providence stoic pantheism differs biblically orthodox version augustine aquinas first stoic god creator worldsoul eternal uncreated universe goes endless identical cycles expansion contraction160 second necessarily follows humans creatures endowed free rather appendages god fated everything good bad according augustines logically consistent theory providence order markets society comes entirely virtue kind order remains even bad people long exist finally smith much proficient interested rhetoric logical systematic analysis first hired university glasgow professor logic later became professor moral philosophy immediately changed course teach rhetoric instead prescribed logic metaphysics160 moreover lectures unpublished papers make clear smith disagreed fundamentally aristotle nature rhetoric according aristotle purpose rhetoric persuade discover available means persuasion given case rhetoric dialectic able argue either side question view putting sides practicewe must advocate evilbut order aspect case may escape us opponents make unfair use arguments may able refute smiths view rhetoric contrast resembled sophists opposed plato aristotle placing higher value whether statement useful speaker whether accurate description reality smith taught students rhetoricall discourse endeavours means perswade us purpose magnifies arguments one side diminishes conceals might brought side contrary designed favour160 see exactly smith presents economic theory smiths moral newtonianism induced oversimplify economic theory inherited earlier theory moral sentiments tried reduce moral philosophy single sentiment sympathy smith attempted wealth nations explain economic behavior single principle laborbut never achieved theory could reconcile two smiths philosophical stoicism accounts rejection elements scholastic outline retention others theory moral sentiments smith rejected scholastic theories final distribution utility160 grounds presume rational purposive behavior smiths viewand pantheism becomes apparentdecisions ends means rather decided human beings ultimately dictated inscrutable stoic version providence engages vast majority humankind deception160 real satisfaction afforded economic goods systematically manipulating human emotion stoic author nature supposedly rouses keeps continual motion industry mankind luring people except stoic sage vice rich seduced greed selfishness rapacity mob mankind corrupted envy rich yet best satisfy vain insatiable desires rich must employ envious mob led invisible hand make nearly distribution necessaries life would made earth divided equal portions among inhabitants smiths famous invisible hand therefore summary economic analysis rhetorical plug substitutes two elements economic analysis eliminated required scholastic theories final distribution utility moreover invisible hand thoroughly apt metaphor philosophy reduces humans puppets compelled act hidden manipulation since smith treats final distribution utility omission rather revision easy overlook significance come upon passages wealth nations omission signaled smiths elimination augustines theory personal distribution outline economic theory signaled passage includes famous declaration benevolence butcher brewer baker expect dinner regard interest address humanity selflove never talk necessities advantages augustines theory main reason brewer baker doesnt serve customers beneficence exclusive selflove rather fact scarcity baker shared bread equally every customer instead charging would leave family little live augustines theory also explains brewer baker shares family friends business customers loves customers benevolence wishing good benevolence beneficence good sells product customers earn means provide rest family augustines theory personal distribution explains essential difference gift exchange provides measure far us actually motivated selflove much love neighbor treating selflove motive economic behavior smith replaced augustines empirically verifiable theory personal distribution arbitrary often false assumption one ever shares wealth anyone else classical neoclassical economics implicitly assume weve always already made choice personsand always chosen number one smith fails grapple fact charitable behavior simply fit theory reduces human transactions exchange selflove never explains customers never expect dinner butchers beneficence yet friends occasionally children always expect shortly dismissing scholastic theory final distribution assertion universal selflove smith dismisses scholastic theory utility posing sometimes called paradox value160 without offering solution apparent paradox smith rhetorically throws hands abandons discussion value use concept absurd case smith endeavours means perswade us purpose magnifies arguments one side diminishes conceals might brought side contrary designed favour though smith twitted hume theory moral sentiments retaining augustines theory utility students lecture notes show smith continued teaching several years university lectures posing paradox involving diamonds water later raised wealth nations easily resolved along scholastic lines explaining difference value combination utility scarcity choice 1776 far influential piece smythology milton friedmans argument free choose 1980 linking adam smiths philosophy meaning american declaration independence story united states story economic miracle political miracle made possible translation practice two sets ideasboth curious coincidence published year 1776 according friedman fundamental principles system economic principles adam smithand political principles expressed thomas jefferson also found persuasive discovered choice 1776 actually divergence convergence philosophical views apostle paul preached marketplace athens probably 51 ad prefaced gospel biblically orthodox version natural law adapted grecoroman philosophy evangelist luke tells us epicurean stoic philosophers argued acts 1718 dispute continued centuries among neoscholastic classical neoclassical economists scholastic natural law economics theory rational providence describing rational matrimonial political animals choose persons ends expressed personal collective gifts scarce means used persons made real production exchange dropping scholastic economic theories distribution consumption learned smith expressed stoic pantheism viewed universe divinity animal160 god immanent soul sentimental humans choose neither ends means rationally restoring consumption choice means distribution choice ends neoclassical economics expressed epicurean materialism claims humans somehow evolved uncreated universe semirational clever animals highly adept calculating means choice selfgratification since humes words reason ought slave passions160 ludwig von mises would later put power choose whether actions conduct shall serve fellow beings given me160 scholastic thinkers understood third event occurred 1776 crystallized threeway debate implications christian faith death david hume letter dated august 14 1776 smith wrote poor david hume dying fast great chearfulness good humour real resignation necessary course things whining christian ever dyed pretended resignation god notion men nature equal old one find exactly almost exactly words plato160 zeno citium160 founder stoicism thomas hobbes160 algernon sidney160 john locke160160 say men created equal much specific one might say inspired formulation creation ex nihilo philosophical rather religious idea exist anywhere ancient pagan philosophy worldviews implicit classical neoclassical economic theory smiths providence great conductor superintendant universe creator epicurean philosophy god thus providenceonly unexplained matter chance therefore one thing least free choose either men created equal declaration independence smiths invisible hand stoic pantheism manipulating humans gods puppetsbut men created equal unless men created 160 | 1,978 |
<p>In a bleak political year, there comes a shaft of light in the form of an extraordinary new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fractured-Republic-Renewing-America%C2%92s-Individualism/dp/0465061966" type="external">The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism</a>.</p>
<p>The book is authored by my former White House and current Ethics and Public Policy Center colleague Yuval Levin. Yuval, editor of the quarterly magazine&#160;National Affairs, is among America’s most important and humane conservative thinkers.</p>
<p>The Fractured Republic has received glowing reviews from many different quarters, including <a href="http://time.com/4341423/trump-the-astute-salesman-has-seized-on-americas-prevailing-mood-nostalgic/" type="external">Time magazine’s Joe Klein</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/opinion/the-fragmented-society.html" type="external">David Brooks of the New York Times</a>, the Washington Post’s Michael Gerson and a <a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/forgetting-things-past/" type="external">review in COMMENTARY</a>&#160;by David Bahr. John Podhoretz <a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/new-theory-trump/" type="external">calls</a> The Fractured Republic “staggeringly brilliant,”&#160;while Brooks uses the adjective “fantastic.” All of which means you would be wise to read it.</p>
<p>The Fractured Republic argues that the politics of nostalgia is failing 21st-century Americans; that we have more choices in every realm of life but less security, stability, and national unity; and that our aim needs to be revitalizing what Levin calls the “middle layers of society” – families and communities, schools and churches, charities and associations, local governments, and markets.</p>
<p>It covers these matters with great insight, but I want to focus on just one aspect of the book, found in the chapter titled, “Subculture Wars.” In analyzing the deep cultural changes we have experienced, and their damaging effects, he writes:</p>
<p>Prophesying total meltdown is not the way to draw people’s attention to this failure to flourish. The problem we face is not the risk of cataclysm, but the acceptance of widespread despair and disorder in the lives of millions of our fellow citizens. We risk getting used to living in a society that denies a great many of its most vulnerable people the opportunity to thrive. Making the case against such acquiescence in the torpor and misery of so many would mean calling people’s attention to just what it is these Americans are being denied – to the possibility of flourishing, and to its appeal.</p>
<p>Levin goes on to say this:</p>
<p>Social conservatives must therefore make a positive case, not just a negative one. Rather than decrying the collapse of moral order, we must draw people’s eyes and hearts to the alternative: to the vast and beautiful “yes” for the sake of which an occasional narrow but insistent “no” is required.</p>
<p>This is a deep and important point. For reasons that are understandable but that were in many respects ultimately counterproductive, social conservatives heavily emphasized the “no” rather than the “yes.”</p>
<p>I say “understandable” because during the last half-century we have seen the transgression of all sorts of cultural boundaries and norms – in sexual ethics and attitudes toward marriage and family, in drug use, in what is accepted and celebrated in our popular culture, et cetera – that required people to say “no” in the name of maintaining moral order. “You have to push as hard as the age that pushes against you,” Flannery O’Connor <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zU9liqlCzmsC&amp;pg=PA229&amp;lpg=PA229&amp;dq=flannery+oconnor+push+as+hard+as+the+age+that+pushes+against+you&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=2CN_JIg8AZ&amp;sig=OQnbXDzVqB4PlUHrAy7s9kuEG9E&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiB19u70uvMAhUI4oMKHc5tCYgQ6AEIJjAB#v=onepage&amp;q=flannery%20oconnor%20push%20as%20hard%20as%20the%20age%20that%20pushes%20against%20you&amp;f=false" type="external">said in one of her letters</a>, and the modern/post-modern age has pushed hard in lots of ways. Pushing back sometimes requires responsible adults saying “no” and “stop.”</p>
<p>At the same time, there has been an undeniable disposition among some social and Christian conservatives – not all by any means, but some; and some high-profile ones — to curse the darkness rather than to light a candle; to speak in condemnatory and censorious ways; to show a lack of empathy and to embody un-grace.</p>
<p>These individuals seemed to take great pride in their self-assigned role as prophets of doom, of pronouncing judgment on evil across the land. As a result, there was a hardness and harshness to the message and to the messengers, a lack of kindness, a loss of joy. These people were drawn to and dwelt on the darkness rather than the light. But in the end, people are drawn not to darkness but to light. It’s little wonder that so many people refused the invitation to join the effort and even turned against it.</p>
<p>The greatest failure here may have been the failure to see the world not just as fallen but also as a place of inexhaustible beauty and delight; to see others not simply as sinners (as we all are) but also of inestimable worth, made in the image of God; and to engage the moral imagination of people.</p>
<p>In his book The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis, Alan Jacobs&#160; <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=U9D3xiDPIjAC&amp;pg=PR21&amp;lpg=PR21&amp;dq=Lewis%E2%80%99s+mind+was+above+all+characterized+by+a+willingness+to+be+enchanted&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=YNvsVHQuN4&amp;sig=5jYPZbW3p2GAGL2rTXu6oCleN20&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjTqvvRzO_MAhUJ0GMKHT7rAwIQ6AEIKTAC#v=onepage&amp;q=Lewis’s%20mind%20was%20above%20all%20characterized%20by%20a%20willingness%20to%20be%20enchanted&amp;f=false" type="external">writes</a>, “Lewis’s mind was above all characterized by a willingness to be enchanted and… it was this openness to enchantment that held together the various strands of his life–his delight in laughter, his willingness to accept a world made by a good and loving God, and (in some ways above all) his willingness to submit to the charms of a wonderful story.”</p>
<p>This “openness to enchantment” is a disposition, a way of approaching the world and others. Far too many of us lack it. We haven’t found a way to tell our story, our narrative, in ways that capture the heart of the hearer. This was one of the remarkable gifts of Lewis, who had the ability to articulate the positive, uplifting and winsome case for a morally ordered life. Lewis believed that there are certain givens in human nature and that true fulfillment means living in accord with rather than at war with moral truths. The good life, defined by Aristotle as the activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, is the path to true happiness. How best to say that and show that in 21st century America is where the real challenge lies.</p>
<p>Yuval Levin’s brilliant new book offers social conservatives a more effective approach to social engagement not only because it’s more positive but because it’s more true, because it appeals to people on a deeper level, because offering people a healing grace and hope is what is likely to be especially attractive and powerful in this time of disorientation, distemper, and confusion. To paraphrase Wordsworth, what we have loved others will love, but we must show them what is worthy of our love.</p>
<p>Peter Wehner is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times.</p> | false | 1 | bleak political year comes shaft light form extraordinary new book fractured republic renewing americas social contract age individualism book authored former white house current ethics public policy center colleague yuval levin yuval editor quarterly magazine160national affairs among americas important humane conservative thinkers fractured republic received glowing reviews many different quarters including time magazines joe klein david brooks new york times washington posts michael gerson review commentary160by david bahr john podhoretz calls fractured republic staggeringly brilliant160while brooks uses adjective fantastic means would wise read fractured republic argues politics nostalgia failing 21stcentury americans choices every realm life less security stability national unity aim needs revitalizing levin calls middle layers society families communities schools churches charities associations local governments markets covers matters great insight want focus one aspect book found chapter titled subculture wars analyzing deep cultural changes experienced damaging effects writes prophesying total meltdown way draw peoples attention failure flourish problem face risk cataclysm acceptance widespread despair disorder lives millions fellow citizens risk getting used living society denies great many vulnerable people opportunity thrive making case acquiescence torpor misery many would mean calling peoples attention americans denied possibility flourishing appeal levin goes say social conservatives must therefore make positive case negative one rather decrying collapse moral order must draw peoples eyes hearts alternative vast beautiful yes sake occasional narrow insistent required deep important point reasons understandable many respects ultimately counterproductive social conservatives heavily emphasized rather yes say understandable last halfcentury seen transgression sorts cultural boundaries norms sexual ethics attitudes toward marriage family drug use accepted celebrated popular culture et cetera required people say name maintaining moral order push hard age pushes flannery oconnor said one letters modernpostmodern age pushed hard lots ways pushing back sometimes requires responsible adults saying stop time undeniable disposition among social christian conservatives means highprofile ones curse darkness rather light candle speak condemnatory censorious ways show lack empathy embody ungrace individuals seemed take great pride selfassigned role prophets doom pronouncing judgment evil across land result hardness harshness message messengers lack kindness loss joy people drawn dwelt darkness rather light end people drawn darkness light little wonder many people refused invitation join effort even turned greatest failure may failure see world fallen also place inexhaustible beauty delight see others simply sinners also inestimable worth made image god engage moral imagination people book narnian life imagination cs lewis alan jacobs160 writes lewiss mind characterized willingness enchanted openness enchantment held together various strands lifehis delight laughter willingness accept world made good loving god ways willingness submit charms wonderful story openness enchantment disposition way approaching world others far many us lack havent found way tell story narrative ways capture heart hearer one remarkable gifts lewis ability articulate positive uplifting winsome case morally ordered life lewis believed certain givens human nature true fulfillment means living accord rather war moral truths good life defined aristotle activity soul accordance virtue path true happiness best say show 21st century america real challenge lies yuval levins brilliant new book offers social conservatives effective approach social engagement positive true appeals people deeper level offering people healing grace hope likely especially attractive powerful time disorientation distemper confusion paraphrase wordsworth loved others love must show worthy love peter wehner senior fellow ethics public policy center contributing opinion writer new york times | 541 |
<p />
<p>The recent historic address from imprisoned Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan sent political speculators scurrying to extol Turkey's prospects of finally obtaining a "real peace." While the latest efforts at peace between the Turkish government and Kurdish rebels may in fact be the most serious to date, the situation remains as fragile as ever. Much more than a ceasefire has to occur before a permanent armistice can take hold in the Kurdish region of Turkey. Both parties still face an uphill battle.</p>
<p>Ocalan's group of rebels, known as the PKK, has been waging war with the Turkish government for nearly 30 years. Originally, Ocalan called for the establishment of an independent Kurdish state, but of late the PKK has tempered its demands to include increased autonomy and political rights for the Kurdish people. A minority ethnic group residing primarily in the region straddling the borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, the Kurds make up an estimated 15 million of Turkey's total population of 80 million. They have long suffered discrimination and oppression at the hands of the Turkish government, the conflict with whom has left over 40,000 dead on both sides and trapped large portions of Turkey in residual poverty. Presently, the PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, including the United States.</p>
<p>In his latest statement from prison, Ocalan asked rebel fighters of the PKK to put an end to the ongoing violence and withdraw from Turkey completely. "Let guns be silenced and politics dominate," said Ocalan in a statement read in Diyarbakir by a pro-Kurdish politician.[1] "The stage has been reached where our armed forces should withdraw beyond the borders - It's not the end. It's the start of a new era."[2]</p>
<p>Despite the seemingly rosy overtones, however, this is not the first time the Kurdish rebels have declared a cease-fire. In the past, most Kurdish attempts at peace have been ignored by the government, which has vowed to fight the PKK until the bitter end. Turkish forces allegedly ambushed and massacred PKK combatants in 1999 as they retreated under orders from Ocalan, who first called for peace soon after his imprisonment. A similar incident occurred during another unilateral decision to capitulate in 2004. For many Kurds, these actions by the Turkish government speak louder than any appeals for peace from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Repeat reneging on the part of the Turks has left a bitter taste in the Kurdish mouth. Still, all hope is not lost: despite his 14-year incarceration in a prison island near Istanbul, Ocalan wields a lot of control over the PKK, and his calls for peace are not likely to fall on deaf ears. PKK commanders in Iraq have declared support for his peace initiative, and Kurdish fighters in Turkey will likely obey Ocalan's plea and withdraw.</p>
<p>For his part as well, Prime Minister Erdogan has cast his political clout behind Ocalan's efforts at peace. "If guns are put down, military operations will cease," he said in response to Ocalan.[3] A real peace promises to benefit more than just the repressed Kurdish people. Recent efforts at a lasting peace follow a surge in bloodshed last year that cost nearly a thousand lives on both sides and may have strengthened the resolve of the Turkish government to find a permanent solution to the conflict. Concurrently, a Kurdish group linked to the PKK has gained control in Syria in the midst of a bloody civil war, further worrying the Turkish government. Additionally, it comes as no surprise that Turkey's conflict with the PKK is hampering its economic and political ambitions in the region, as residual conflict has left large portions of the country mired in poverty.</p>
<p>The primary difference between this latest movement and previous efforts at peace centers on its transparency. Prior negotiations between the Turkish government and the PKK were conducted in secret, often going unnoticed by the public. This time, however, both sides aim to carry out talks in the open. In a gesture of goodwill, the PKK recently released eight Turkish hostages held captive by the guerillas since last year. The first concrete, tangible result of the peace talks has sparked renewed hope.</p>
<p>While speculators across the world may see a light at the end of the tunnel, many in the region share the sentiment that this is only the latest iteration in a string of many unfruitful peace initiatives. In the streets of the Kurdish region, skepticism abounds regarding the government's commitment to peace. Thirty years of strife and entire generations who know nothing but violence have left the Kurds with minimal trust in the government. Truthfully, the road to peace is fraught with obstacles. Ocalan is relying on his PKK colleagues who he hasn't seen in over a decade to toe his line. Erdogan, as well, faces political opposition from government hard-liners who resist any increases in Kurdish rights or autonomy. Hawks on both sides are likely to try and sabotage the peace process and resume the carnage. Despite the challenges, however, exasperated Kurds and Turks alike have little to do but cling to prospects of peace.</p>
<p>If the Turkish government can successfully navigate the many roadblocks that it will encounter in the coming months, they might just be able to capitalize on this opportunity for implementing a permanent solution to the Kurdish conflict. A ceasefire is a major step towards a resolution to one of Europe's longest conflicts, but laying down arms alone will not bring about enduring peace: both sides must follow through, and the slow wheels of democracy and constitutional change must turn. Peace will not happen overnight.</p> | false | 1 | recent historic address imprisoned kurdistan workers party pkk leader abdullah ocalan sent political speculators scurrying extol turkeys prospects finally obtaining real peace latest efforts peace turkish government kurdish rebels may fact serious date situation remains fragile ever much ceasefire occur permanent armistice take hold kurdish region turkey parties still face uphill battle ocalans group rebels known pkk waging war turkish government nearly 30 years originally ocalan called establishment independent kurdish state late pkk tempered demands include increased autonomy political rights kurdish people minority ethnic group residing primarily region straddling borders turkey iran iraq syria kurds make estimated 15 million turkeys total population 80 million long suffered discrimination oppression hands turkish government conflict left 40000 dead sides trapped large portions turkey residual poverty presently pkk considered terrorist organization turkey western allies including united states latest statement prison ocalan asked rebel fighters pkk put end ongoing violence withdraw turkey completely let guns silenced politics dominate said ocalan statement read diyarbakir prokurdish politician1 stage reached armed forces withdraw beyond borders end start new era2 despite seemingly rosy overtones however first time kurdish rebels declared ceasefire past kurdish attempts peace ignored government vowed fight pkk bitter end turkish forces allegedly ambushed massacred pkk combatants 1999 retreated orders ocalan first called peace soon imprisonment similar incident occurred another unilateral decision capitulate 2004 many kurds actions turkish government speak louder appeals peace prime minister recep tayyip erdogan repeat reneging part turks left bitter taste kurdish mouth still hope lost despite 14year incarceration prison island near istanbul ocalan wields lot control pkk calls peace likely fall deaf ears pkk commanders iraq declared support peace initiative kurdish fighters turkey likely obey ocalans plea withdraw part well prime minister erdogan cast political clout behind ocalans efforts peace guns put military operations cease said response ocalan3 real peace promises benefit repressed kurdish people recent efforts lasting peace follow surge bloodshed last year cost nearly thousand lives sides may strengthened resolve turkish government find permanent solution conflict concurrently kurdish group linked pkk gained control syria midst bloody civil war worrying turkish government additionally comes surprise turkeys conflict pkk hampering economic political ambitions region residual conflict left large portions country mired poverty primary difference latest movement previous efforts peace centers transparency prior negotiations turkish government pkk conducted secret often going unnoticed public time however sides aim carry talks open gesture goodwill pkk recently released eight turkish hostages held captive guerillas since last year first concrete tangible result peace talks sparked renewed hope speculators across world may see light end tunnel many region share sentiment latest iteration string many unfruitful peace initiatives streets kurdish region skepticism abounds regarding governments commitment peace thirty years strife entire generations know nothing violence left kurds minimal trust government truthfully road peace fraught obstacles ocalan relying pkk colleagues hasnt seen decade toe line erdogan well faces political opposition government hardliners resist increases kurdish rights autonomy hawks sides likely try sabotage peace process resume carnage despite challenges however exasperated kurds turks alike little cling prospects peace turkish government successfully navigate many roadblocks encounter coming months might able capitalize opportunity implementing permanent solution kurdish conflict ceasefire major step towards resolution one europes longest conflicts laying arms alone bring enduring peace sides must follow slow wheels democracy constitutional change must turn peace happen overnight | 543 |
<p>If music companies were brands, which labels did record nerds trust most?</p>
<p>The results are in via an informal poll of critics, influencers, music industry veterans, and vinyl enthusiasts conducted by Variety. Admittedly, the question asked was fairly basic — “what is your favorite record label from the 20th Century?” — and the pool that answered lacked some diversity within age, race and gender, but the results are no less interesting.</p>
<p>Many expressed nostalgia for their personal, musical coming-of-age. Some took a historical view towards the music industry — qualified by eras, musical genres and even indie vs. corporate contexts. Others went on sheer instinct citing revelatory inspirations, completist obsessions, aesthetic presentation, and taste-making consistency. A few felt it was impossible to answer — but answer they did.</p>
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<p>Of course, many of these record labels documented the birth and evolution of folk music, jazz, blues, hip-hop, soul, R&amp;B, country and rock ‘n’ roll, so passions sometimes ran high. Most people took the question seriously, and some had a difficult time deciding. New York tastemaker David J. Prince felt the question was redundant since record labels didn’t exist before the 20th Century and now mean something quite different in the current millennia. Also critiqued was the subjectivity of polling a favorite label, but we remain satisfied with this line of questioning. People can argue all day long over which label was the best, but you can’t really dispute someone else’s favorite. Can you?</p>
<p>And so the winners are in order of votes (which totaled more than 300):</p>
<p>Read some of the responses below, followed by the top 20 entries, and let us know: what’s your favorite and why?</p>
<p>“In terms of sheer, sustained and reverberating impact on global culture, and to reflect your desire for brevity, let’s say Chess. Or Sun. Chess. Both have Wolf……… But Chess.&#160; Ok. I’ll stick with that. Chess. Unless….no. Chess.”— Rob Miller, Bloodshot Records</p>
<p>There were over 140 different record labels suggested by those polled, with the majority of labels receiving less than five votes. Not surprisingly, some of the larger “corporate” labels dominated thanks to the quantity and quality of their products, as well as their ubiquitous distribution, radio play and advertising.</p>
<p>“That’s a hard one. If I’m going for a major label it would have to be <a href="http://variety.com/t/columbia-records/" type="external">Columbia Records</a> because of Cohen, Dylan, Cash, Aretha, Simon &amp; Garfunkel, Miles, and so many etceteras. <a href="http://variety.com/t/elektra/" type="external">Elektra</a> would come a close second.”&#160;— Sylvie Simmons, Author (“I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen”)</p>
<p>Naturally, building blocks of American rock and soul were held in high regard. Legendary music great Al Kooper picked Stax. Veteran writer John Swenson said Chess. Jazz guitarist John Scofield chose Columbia over Blue Note. Manager Danny Goldberg, NPR critic Ann Powers and impresario Andrew Loog Oldham all voted for Atlantic. Writer and Sirius XM host Dave Marsh said <a href="http://variety.com/t/motown/" type="external">Motown</a> and Fortune, and Lenny Kaye said Fortune too. Wales native Jon Langford stood up for Sun.</p>
<p>On the flip side, Independent post-punk labels like Twin Tone, Sub Pop, Sire, Matador and Amphetamine Reptile received limited but enthusiastic endorsements.</p>
<p>“That’s super easy. Sire. Sire’s catalog sort of wrecked me.”—Thom Monahan, Producer</p>
<p>“Either Casablanca or AmRep.”&#160;—Chuck Klosterman, Author</p>
<p>“Wow. Big question. AmRep is the one where I own practically everything.” &#160;—Tad Hendrickson, Journalist</p>
<p>Musician Richard Thompson and author David Hajdu (“Love for Sale: Pop Music in America”) both listed Paramount as their favorites, making us wonder if they had access to the massive Paramount Records Wonder-Cabinet (Third Man Records) that nobody could afford.</p>
<p>Industry rebels and sonic outsiders also had their say, reminding us how one small label with a maverick worldview could actually change the life of an obsessive music fan looking for clues.</p>
<p>“Impulse! until the late 70’s. And Warner Bros/Reprise 60’s till ’75. And short-lived Flying Dutchman. And short-lived Douglas Records. … Thinking of labels that one bought almost everything they put out.”—Hal Willner, Producer</p>
<p>“Corny I know, but ESP-Disk probably had more to do with bending my young mind than anything else.”—Byron Coley, Critic</p>
<p>“I’d like to say ESP but they still owe so many artists so much money!”—Bob Fass, Radio Unnamable</p>
<p>Author Barney Hoskyns (“Small Town Talk”) liked Bearsville. Veteran hipster David Amram preferred Columbia. Promoter Peter Shapiro (Brooklyn Bowl, Capitol Theater), music supervisor Zach Cowie (“Master of None”) and actor Bruce Greenwood all voted for Island; Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo picked Neutral; Dallas Good of Canadian rock band The Sadies went for Norton; “Wrecking Crew” director Denny Tedesco wisecracked K-TEL, and world music promoter Bill Bragin said Stiff. Guitarist Neal Casal (Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Hard Working Americans) and radio bohemian Bob Fass both listed too many labels to repeat here.</p>
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<p>In a surprising turn, jazz imprints Blue Note and ECM each garnered a large amount of votes (both boasted great album graphics and superb music, by the way). Moreover, four of our survey’s top labels were jazz oriented (we know a lot of jazz lovers).</p>
<p>“The easy answer would be (and still could be) Blue Note, but that ignores the first 20 years. ECM ignores the first 50 years, but that’s a helluva catalog.”—Neil Tesser, Critic</p>
<p>In any case, here are your Top 20 favorite record labels of the 20th Century. Please note that if we added the votes for Nonesuch to those cast for parent company Elektra, it would have pushed Elektra into the Top 5. We didn’t do anything like that, and stuck to the answers exactly as they were given.</p>
<p>If you want to join in the conversation, cast your vote in the comments below.</p> | false | 1 | music companies brands labels record nerds trust results via informal poll critics influencers music industry veterans vinyl enthusiasts conducted variety admittedly question asked fairly basic favorite record label 20th century pool answered lacked diversity within age race gender results less interesting many expressed nostalgia personal musical comingofage took historical view towards music industry qualified eras musical genres even indie vs corporate contexts others went sheer instinct citing revelatory inspirations completist obsessions aesthetic presentation tastemaking consistency felt impossible answer answer related content160 sun sets summer loves 50th anniversary jefferson airplanes grace slick gets candid course many record labels documented birth evolution folk music jazz blues hiphop soul rampb country rock n roll passions sometimes ran high people took question seriously difficult time deciding new york tastemaker david j prince felt question redundant since record labels didnt exist 20th century mean something quite different current millennia also critiqued subjectivity polling favorite label remain satisfied line questioning people argue day long label best cant really dispute someone elses favorite winners order votes totaled 300 read responses followed top 20 entries let us know whats favorite terms sheer sustained reverberating impact global culture reflect desire brevity lets say chess sun chess wolf chess160 ok ill stick chess unlessno chess rob miller bloodshot records 140 different record labels suggested polled majority labels receiving less five votes surprisingly larger corporate labels dominated thanks quantity quality products well ubiquitous distribution radio play advertising thats hard one im going major label would columbia records cohen dylan cash aretha simon amp garfunkel miles many etceteras elektra would come close second160 sylvie simmons author im man life leonard cohen naturally building blocks american rock soul held high regard legendary music great al kooper picked stax veteran writer john swenson said chess jazz guitarist john scofield chose columbia blue note manager danny goldberg npr critic ann powers impresario andrew loog oldham voted atlantic writer sirius xm host dave marsh said motown fortune lenny kaye said fortune wales native jon langford stood sun flip side independent postpunk labels like twin tone sub pop sire matador amphetamine reptile received limited enthusiastic endorsements thats super easy sire sires catalog sort wrecked methom monahan producer either casablanca amrep160chuck klosterman author wow big question amrep one practically everything 160tad hendrickson journalist musician richard thompson author david hajdu love sale pop music america listed paramount favorites making us wonder access massive paramount records wondercabinet third man records nobody could afford industry rebels sonic outsiders also say reminding us one small label maverick worldview could actually change life obsessive music fan looking clues impulse late 70s warner brosreprise 60s till 75 shortlived flying dutchman shortlived douglas records thinking labels one bought almost everything put outhal willner producer corny know espdisk probably bending young mind anything elsebyron coley critic id like say esp still owe many artists much moneybob fass radio unnamable author barney hoskyns small town talk liked bearsville veteran hipster david amram preferred columbia promoter peter shapiro brooklyn bowl capitol theater music supervisor zach cowie master none actor bruce greenwood voted island sonic youth guitarist lee ranaldo picked neutral dallas good canadian rock band sadies went norton wrecking crew director denny tedesco wisecracked ktel world music promoter bill bragin said stiff guitarist neal casal chris robinson brotherhood hard working americans radio bohemian bob fass listed many labels repeat related content160 tv review hbos dr dre jimmy iovine documentary defiant ones surprising turn jazz imprints blue note ecm garnered large amount votes boasted great album graphics superb music way moreover four surveys top labels jazz oriented know lot jazz lovers easy answer would still could blue note ignores first 20 years ecm ignores first 50 years thats helluva catalogneil tesser critic case top 20 favorite record labels 20th century please note added votes nonesuch cast parent company elektra would pushed elektra top 5 didnt anything like stuck answers exactly given want join conversation cast vote comments | 648 |
<p />
<p>Only the blind do not see that the US government is preparing to attack Iran. <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&amp;aid=28542" type="external">According to</a> Professor Michel Chossudovsky, “Active war preparations directed against Iran (with the involvement of Israel and NATO) were initiated in May 2003.”</p>
<p>Washington has deployed missiles directed at Iran in its oil emirate puppet states, Oman and the UAE, and little doubt in the other US puppet states in the Middle East. Washington has beefed up Saudi Arabia’s jet fighter force. Most recently, Washington has deployed 9,000 US troops to Israel to participate in “war games” designed to test the US/Israeli air defense system. As Iran represents no threat unless attacked, Washington’s war preparations signal Washington’s intention to attack Iran.</p>
<p>Another signal that Washington has a new war on its agenda is the raised level of Washington’s rhetoric and demonization of Iran. Judging by polls, Washington’s propaganda that Iran is threatening the US by developing a nuclear weapon has met with success. Half of the American public support a military attack on Iran in order to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear capability. Those of us who are trying to awaken our fellow citizens start from a deficit that the minds of half of the US population are under Big Brother’s control.</p>
<p>As the International Atomic Energy Agency’s reports from its inspectors on the ground in Iran have made clear for years, there is no evidence that Iran has diverted any enriched uranium from its nuclear energy program.&#160; The shrill hype coming from Washington and from the neoconservative media is groundless. It is the same level of lie as Washington’s claim that Saddam Hussein in Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Every US soldier who died in that war died in behalf of a lie.</p>
<p>It could not be more obvious that Washington’s war preparations against Iran have nothing to do with deterring Iran from a nuclear weapon.&#160; So, what are the war preparations about?</p>
<p>In my judgment, the US government’s war preparations are driven by three factors.</p>
<p>One is the neoconservative ideology adopted by the US government that calls for the US to use its superior military and economic position to achieve world hegemony. This goal appeals to American hubris and to the power and profit that it serves.</p>
<p>A second factor is Israel’s desire to eliminate all support for the Palestinians and for Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Israel’s goal is to seize all of Palestine and the water resources of southern Lebanon. Eliminating Iran removes all obstacles to Israel’s expansion.</p>
<p>A third factor is to deter or slow China’s rise as a military and economic power by controlling China’s access to energy. It was China’s oil investments in eastern Libya that led to the sudden move against Libya by the US and its NATO puppets, and it is China’s oil investments elsewhere in Africa that resulted in the Bush regime’s creation of the United States Africa Command, designed to counter China’s economic influence with US military influence.&#160; China has significant energy investments in Iran, and a substantial percentage of China’s oil imports are from Iran.&#160; Depriving China of independent access to oil is Washington’s way of restraining and boxing in China.</p>
<p>What we are witnessing is a replay of Washington’s policy toward Japan in the 1930s that provoked the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan’s bank balances in the West were seized, and Japan’s access to oil and raw materials was restricted. The purpose was to prevent or to slow Japan’s rise.&#160; The result was war.</p>
<p>Despite the hubris in which it wallows, Washington understands the vulnerability of its Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf and would not risk losing a fleet and 20,000 US naval personnel unless it was to gain an excuse for a nuclear attack on Iran. A nuclear attack on Iran would alert both China and Russia that they could suffer the same fate. The consequence would be that the world would face a higher risk of nuclear armageddon than existed in the mutually assured destruction of the US-Soviet standoff.</p>
<p>Washington is getting all of us in over our heads. Washington has declared the “Asia-Pacific” and the South China Sea to be areas of “America’s national interest.”&#160; What sense does this make?&#160; It makes the same sense as if China declared the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean Sea to be areas of China’s national interest.</p>
<p>Washington has deployed 2,500 Marines, promising more to come, to Australia in order to do what?&#160; Protect Australia from China or occupy Australia?&#160; Encircle China with 2,500 Marines?&#160; It would not mean anything to China if Washington deployed 25,000 Marines in Australia.</p>
<p>When you get right down to it, Washington’s tough talk is nothing but a silly pointless&#160;provocation of Washington’s largest creditor. What if Washington’s idiocy causes China to worry that Washington and its UK and European puppets will seize its bank balances and refuse to honor China’s holdings of $1 trillion in US Treasury bonds? Will China pull its balances from the weak US, UK, and European banks?&#160; Will China decide to strike first, not with nuclear weapons, but by selling its $1 trillion in Treasury bonds all at once?</p>
<p>It would be cheaper than war.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve would have to quickly print another $1 trillion dollars with which to buy the bonds, or US interest rates would shoot up.&#160; What would China do with the $1 trillion in newly printed paper?&#160; In my opinion, China would dump it all at once in the currency market, because the Federal Reserve cannot print euros, UK pounds, Japanese yen, Swiss francs, Russian rubles, and Chinese yuan with which to buy up its newly printed currency.</p>
<p>The US dollar would take a beating. US import prices—which now include, thanks to offshoring, almost everything Americans consume—would rise. The hard-pressed 90% would take a further beating, endearing their Washington oppressors to them to an even greater extent.&#160; The rest of the world, anticipating nuclear war, would flee the dollar, as Washington would be a primary attack target.</p>
<p>If the missiles aren’t launched, Americans would wake up the next day a bankrupt third world country. If the missiles were launched, few Americans would wake up.</p>
<p>We, as Americans, need to ask ourselves what all this is about?&#160; Why is our government so provocative toward Islam, Russia, China, Iran?&#160; What purpose, whose purpose is being served?&#160; Certainly not ours.</p>
<p>Who benefits from our bankrupt government starting yet more wars, picking this time not on defenseless countries like Iraq and Libya, but on China and Russia?&#160; Do the idiots in Washington think the Russian government does not know why Russia is being surrounded with missile bases and radar systems?&#160; Do the Washington morons really believe that the Russian government will fall for its lie that the missiles are directed against Iran?&#160; Only American idiots who sit in front of Fox “news” could possibly believe that the real issue is an Iranian nuclear weapon.</p>
<p>How much longer will the Russian government permit the US National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA front, to interfere in its elections by financing&#160;opposition parties led by the likes of Vladimir Kara-Murza, Boris Nemtsov, and Alexei Navalny, who <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=28571" type="external">organize protests</a> of every election that Putin’s party wins, alleging without any evidence whatsoever, but providing propaganda for Washington, who no doubt pays well, that the election will be and was stolen?</p>
<p>In the US, such activists would be declared to be “domestic extremists” and be subjected to rough treatment. In Amerika, even anti-war activists are subjected to home invasions by the FBI and grand jury investigations.</p>
<p>What this means is that “the criminal state of Russia” is a more tolerant democracy than the US, or for that matter, Amerika’s puppet states in Europe and the UK.</p>
<p>Where do we go from here?&#160; If not to nuclear destruction, Americans must wake up.&#160; Football games, porn, and shopping malls are one thing.&#160; Survival of human life is another.&#160; Washington, that is, “representative government,” consists only of a few powerful vested interests. These private interests, not the American people, control the US government.</p>
<p>That is why nothing that the US government does&#160;benefits the American people.</p>
<p>The current crop of presidential contenders, except for Ron Paul, represent the controlling interests. War and financial fraud are the only remaining American Values.</p>
<p>Will Americans again give the sheen of “democracy” to rule by a few by participating in the coming rigged elections?</p>
<p>If you have to vote, vote for Ron Paul or for a more extreme third party candidate. Show that you do not support the lie that is the system.</p>
<p>Stop watching television. Stop reading newspapers. Stop spending money. When you do any of these things, you are supporting evil.</p>
<p>This article was originally published at <a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/01/11/the-next-war-on-washingtons-agenda/" type="external">PaulCraigRoberts.org</a> and has been used here with permission.</p> | false | 1 | blind see us government preparing attack iran according professor michel chossudovsky active war preparations directed iran involvement israel nato initiated may 2003 washington deployed missiles directed iran oil emirate puppet states oman uae little doubt us puppet states middle east washington beefed saudi arabias jet fighter force recently washington deployed 9000 us troops israel participate war games designed test usisraeli air defense system iran represents threat unless attacked washingtons war preparations signal washingtons intention attack iran another signal washington new war agenda raised level washingtons rhetoric demonization iran judging polls washingtons propaganda iran threatening us developing nuclear weapon met success half american public support military attack iran order prevent iran acquiring nuclear capability us trying awaken fellow citizens start deficit minds half us population big brothers control international atomic energy agencys reports inspectors ground iran made clear years evidence iran diverted enriched uranium nuclear energy program160 shrill hype coming washington neoconservative media groundless level lie washingtons claim saddam hussein iraq weapons mass destruction every us soldier died war died behalf lie could obvious washingtons war preparations iran nothing deterring iran nuclear weapon160 war preparations judgment us governments war preparations driven three factors one neoconservative ideology adopted us government calls us use superior military economic position achieve world hegemony goal appeals american hubris power profit serves second factor israels desire eliminate support palestinians hezbollah southern lebanon israels goal seize palestine water resources southern lebanon eliminating iran removes obstacles israels expansion third factor deter slow chinas rise military economic power controlling chinas access energy chinas oil investments eastern libya led sudden move libya us nato puppets chinas oil investments elsewhere africa resulted bush regimes creation united states africa command designed counter chinas economic influence us military influence160 china significant energy investments iran substantial percentage chinas oil imports iran160 depriving china independent access oil washingtons way restraining boxing china witnessing replay washingtons policy toward japan 1930s provoked japanese attack pearl harbor japans bank balances west seized japans access oil raw materials restricted purpose prevent slow japans rise160 result war despite hubris wallows washington understands vulnerability fifth fleet persian gulf would risk losing fleet 20000 us naval personnel unless gain excuse nuclear attack iran nuclear attack iran would alert china russia could suffer fate consequence would world would face higher risk nuclear armageddon existed mutually assured destruction ussoviet standoff washington getting us heads washington declared asiapacific south china sea areas americas national interest160 sense make160 makes sense china declared gulf mexico mediterranean sea areas chinas national interest washington deployed 2500 marines promising come australia order what160 protect australia china occupy australia160 encircle china 2500 marines160 would mean anything china washington deployed 25000 marines australia get right washingtons tough talk nothing silly pointless160provocation washingtons largest creditor washingtons idiocy causes china worry washington uk european puppets seize bank balances refuse honor chinas holdings 1 trillion us treasury bonds china pull balances weak us uk european banks160 china decide strike first nuclear weapons selling 1 trillion treasury bonds would cheaper war federal reserve would quickly print another 1 trillion dollars buy bonds us interest rates would shoot up160 would china 1 trillion newly printed paper160 opinion china would dump currency market federal reserve print euros uk pounds japanese yen swiss francs russian rubles chinese yuan buy newly printed currency us dollar would take beating us import priceswhich include thanks offshoring almost everything americans consumewould rise hardpressed 90 would take beating endearing washington oppressors even greater extent160 rest world anticipating nuclear war would flee dollar washington would primary attack target missiles arent launched americans would wake next day bankrupt third world country missiles launched americans would wake americans need ask about160 government provocative toward islam russia china iran160 purpose whose purpose served160 certainly benefits bankrupt government starting yet wars picking time defenseless countries like iraq libya china russia160 idiots washington think russian government know russia surrounded missile bases radar systems160 washington morons really believe russian government fall lie missiles directed iran160 american idiots sit front fox news could possibly believe real issue iranian nuclear weapon much longer russian government permit us national endowment democracy cia front interfere elections financing160opposition parties led likes vladimir karamurza boris nemtsov alexei navalny organize protests every election putins party wins alleging without evidence whatsoever providing propaganda washington doubt pays well election stolen us activists would declared domestic extremists subjected rough treatment amerika even antiwar activists subjected home invasions fbi grand jury investigations means criminal state russia tolerant democracy us matter amerikas puppet states europe uk go here160 nuclear destruction americans must wake up160 football games porn shopping malls one thing160 survival human life another160 washington representative government consists powerful vested interests private interests american people control us government nothing us government does160benefits american people current crop presidential contenders except ron paul represent controlling interests war financial fraud remaining american values americans give sheen democracy rule participating coming rigged elections vote vote ron paul extreme third party candidate show support lie system stop watching television stop reading newspapers stop spending money things supporting evil article originally published paulcraigrobertsorg used permission | 836 |
<p>ALAMEDA, Calif. — Whether quarterback EJ Manuel can get the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Oakland-Raiders/" type="external">Oakland Raiders</a> back on track while <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Derek-Carr/" type="external">Derek Carr</a> heals remains to be seen, but it’s clear the franchise is much better equipped to handle such a loss than it was late last season.</p>
<p>When Carr broke his right fibula last Christmas Eve and backup <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Matt-McGloin/" type="external">Matt McGloin</a> didn’t make it through the Denver game before being injured, the Raiders were forced to rely on rookie third-stringer Connor Cook.</p>
<p>To put it mildly, it didn’t end well.</p>
<p>“Last year in the playoff game we had a rookie making his first start,” head coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jack_Del_Rio/" type="external">Jack Del Rio</a> said. “Obviously, it’s a lot better situation. We have a guy who’s taken snaps in the league, started games and has time to prepare. So, I think it’s a lot different scenario. The bottom line is as a football team, we have to find a way.”</p>
<p>Manuel came in Sunday and completed his first eight passes en route to an 11-of-17, 116-yard performance in relief of Carr, who left with a back injury that will keep him out two to six weeks.</p>
<p>For the most part, up to the point where he threw an interception at the 8-yard line intended for <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Amari-Cooper/" type="external">Amari Cooper</a> and stolen by Denver safety Justin Simmons, Manuel liked what he saw on film.</p>
<p>He said, “I saw fast decision-making. I saw accuracy. I just wanted to help us win. That was the biggest thing going through my head. Have solid footwork, things I practice day in and day out.</p>
<p>“I’m really proud of the preparation weeks beforehand because I never know when I’ll have the opportunity to play.”</p>
<p>Manuel felt the team rallied around him and expects the same when the Raiders host the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Baltimore-Ravens/" type="external">Baltimore Ravens</a> Sunday.</p>
<p>“The O-line, the receivers, everybody was very receptive and like, ‘Hey man, you got it. Let’s go.’ It gave me that added confidence,” Manuel said. “Watching the tape, the only issue was the pick at the end. I wish I would have took it down and ran, or maybe checked it down. Or threw the ball outside a little more for Coop to help him out. Other than that, I thought it was solid.”</p>
<p>Center <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Rodney-Hudson/" type="external">Rodney Hudson</a>, who played with Manuel at Florida State, said, ‘He did a good job. He had command at the line of scrimmage and did really well.”</p>
<p>Running back <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jalen-Richard/" type="external">Jalen Richard</a> said Manuel came in expecting to do well.</p>
<p>“He wasn’t rattled at all,” Richard said. “He came in with his rhythm, ‘OK, let’s get this thing going.’ He’s played in this league, started in this league. This is nothing new to him and he knows it.”</p>
<p>Tight end <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Lee_Smith/" type="external">Lee Smith</a> was a teammate of Manuel in Buffalo and believes a stronger supporting cast will help him be successful as the Raiders’ starter.</p>
<p>“Not to say we were terrible back in the Buffalo days, but EJ definitely didn’t have what he has here,” Smith said. “He was a 22-year-old with a lot of expectations being a first-round draft pick. It definitely wasn’t the best situation for him, but he always handled it like a pro.”</p>
<p>SERIES HISTORY: 10th regular-season meeting. Ravens lead series, 6-3, but Raiders have won the last two. Last season in Baltimore, Derek Carr threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Michael_Crabtree/" type="external">Michael Crabtree</a> as the Raiders prevailed 28-27. When the teams met at the Coliseum in 2015, Carr completed 30 of 45 passes and had a game-winning touchdown pass to Seth Roberts in a 37-33 Raiders win. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Joe_Flacco/" type="external">Joe Flacco</a> passed for 384 yards for the Ravens.</p>
<p>–Head coach Jack Del Rio is more concerned with fixing problems than assessing blame.</p>
<p>And the Raiders are having their issues, particularly on offense.</p>
<p>“I think for the fan right now, it’s probably more about, ‘Hey, who can I blame right now and get pissed at,'” Del Rio said. “That’s not how we’re going to operate. We’re all looking to make it better. It starts with what we call, when we call it, how we execute the call.</p>
<p>“Coaches coach, players play. We’re going to coach and do better at coaching. The players are going to play and do better at playing and executing. We’re going to be better. It hasn’t been good enough and it’s led directly to two losses.”</p>
<p>–Wide receiver Amari Cooper was targeted eight times against Denver and finished with two catches for 9 yards and a drop. That came on the heels of a one-catch, 6-yard game against Washington in which he was the intended receiver five times.</p>
<p>It’s been a rough start for the fourth overall pick of the 2015 draft, who has come out of the gate strong in each of his first two seasons and faded at the end.</p>
<p>Quarterback EJ Manuel hopes to get Cooper involved in the action early against Baltimore.</p>
<p>“I think we can do a great job of allowing Coop to be who he is,” Manuel said. “There’s no pressure on him because we know he’s a great player. We definitely want to get him rolling, get his confidence going and get him some touches early so we can make some plays.”</p>
<p>Cooper is hopeful of getting some early looks, but won’t go out of his way to push for them.</p>
<p>“I think it’s always good to get a ball early,” Cooper said. “I don’t ask for it, I just try to stay within the offense.”</p>
<p>–After gaining 289 yards on the ground in their first two games, the Raiders have gained 58 yards on 26 carries in losses to Washington and Denver.</p>
<p>The NFL’s No. 6 rushing team a year ago, the Raiders are currently ranked 24th at 86.2 yards per game and leading rusher <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Marshawn_Lynch/" type="external">Marshawn Lynch</a> has 45 carries for 151 yards and is averaging 3.4 yards per carry.</p>
<p>“It’s like a combination. Maybe a missed block here, maybe the back doesn’t hit the hole. Maybe they beat us on scheme,” Del Rio said. “Maybe they had a better call against that scheme.</p>
<p>“I know we have big, powerful guys up front. We’ve got backs that are very capable. We have to put it together to make it work.”</p>
<p>NOTES: WR Michael Crabtree, who missed the Denver game with a bruised lung, was a limited participant in practice Wednesday. … CB Gareon Conley, inactive against Denver with a shin injury, did not participate Wednesday but is expected to be on the field Thursday. … G Gabe Jackson did not participate in practice with a foot injury. …DL Mario Edwards Jr. did not participate in practice with a back injury. …CB <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/David-Amerson/" type="external">David Amerson</a> was limited with a concussion and has yet been cleared to play. … QB Derek Carr did not practice with a fracture in his back. …RB <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/DeAndre-Washington/" type="external">DeAndre Washington</a> did not practice with a hamstring injury.</p> | false | 1 | alameda calif whether quarterback ej manuel get oakland raiders back track derek carr heals remains seen clear franchise much better equipped handle loss late last season carr broke right fibula last christmas eve backup matt mcgloin didnt make denver game injured raiders forced rely rookie thirdstringer connor cook put mildly didnt end well last year playoff game rookie making first start head coach jack del rio said obviously lot better situation guy whos taken snaps league started games time prepare think lot different scenario bottom line football team find way manuel came sunday completed first eight passes en route 11of17 116yard performance relief carr left back injury keep two six weeks part point threw interception 8yard line intended amari cooper stolen denver safety justin simmons manuel liked saw film said saw fast decisionmaking saw accuracy wanted help us win biggest thing going head solid footwork things practice day day im really proud preparation weeks beforehand never know ill opportunity play manuel felt team rallied around expects raiders host baltimore ravens sunday oline receivers everybody receptive like hey man got lets go gave added confidence manuel said watching tape issue pick end wish would took ran maybe checked threw ball outside little coop help thought solid center rodney hudson played manuel florida state said good job command line scrimmage really well running back jalen richard said manuel came expecting well wasnt rattled richard said came rhythm ok lets get thing going hes played league started league nothing new knows tight end lee smith teammate manuel buffalo believes stronger supporting cast help successful raiders starter say terrible back buffalo days ej definitely didnt smith said 22yearold lot expectations firstround draft pick definitely wasnt best situation always handled like pro series history 10th regularseason meeting ravens lead series 63 raiders last two last season baltimore derek carr threw 23yard touchdown pass michael crabtree raiders prevailed 2827 teams met coliseum 2015 carr completed 30 45 passes gamewinning touchdown pass seth roberts 3733 raiders win joe flacco passed 384 yards ravens head coach jack del rio concerned fixing problems assessing blame raiders issues particularly offense think fan right probably hey blame right get pissed del rio said thats going operate looking make better starts call call execute call coaches coach players play going coach better coaching players going play better playing executing going better hasnt good enough led directly two losses wide receiver amari cooper targeted eight times denver finished two catches 9 yards drop came heels onecatch 6yard game washington intended receiver five times rough start fourth overall pick 2015 draft come gate strong first two seasons faded end quarterback ej manuel hopes get cooper involved action early baltimore think great job allowing coop manuel said theres pressure know hes great player definitely want get rolling get confidence going get touches early make plays cooper hopeful getting early looks wont go way push think always good get ball early cooper said dont ask try stay within offense gaining 289 yards ground first two games raiders gained 58 yards 26 carries losses washington denver nfls 6 rushing team year ago raiders currently ranked 24th 862 yards per game leading rusher marshawn lynch 45 carries 151 yards averaging 34 yards per carry like combination maybe missed block maybe back doesnt hit hole maybe beat us scheme del rio said maybe better call scheme know big powerful guys front weve got backs capable put together make work notes wr michael crabtree missed denver game bruised lung limited participant practice wednesday cb gareon conley inactive denver shin injury participate wednesday expected field thursday g gabe jackson participate practice foot injury dl mario edwards jr participate practice back injury cb david amerson limited concussion yet cleared play qb derek carr practice fracture back rb deandre washington practice hamstring injury | 630 |
<p>The job of a music supervisor is largely misunderstood, according to panelists at the <a href="http://variety.com/t/guild-of-music-supervisors/" type="external">Guild of Music Supervisors</a> State of Music in Media Conference, who said their role is as much about detective and curatorial work as it is about sound-tracking. “I love creating something new with audio and picture, but it’s a lot more than that,” said Maggie Phillips, who handles song chores for the FX series “Fargo.” &#160;Speaking last night at USC’s Bovard Auditorium as part of the “Emmy TV Music Supervision Deep Dive,” Phillips said people considering a career as a music supervisor need to know “it’s not a sexy job.”</p>
<p>Although the field attracts people who are passionate about music, compromise is a key skill, according to Zach Cowie, who with Kerri Drootin supervises the Netflix series “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/master-of-none/" type="external">Master of None</a>.” “Having your awesome mix tape does help, but you’ll rarely get to use those songs, because the project you’re working on doesn’t have room.” The third annual GMS Conference was a curtain-raiser on a new partnership between the guild and USC, which is developing a masters degree in music supervision that may be offered as soon as next year, according Paul Young, chair of the USC Thornton School of Music’s Music Industry Program.</p>
<p>Cowie urged audience of 500 to “teach yourself something about music every single day.” When “ <a href="http://variety.com/2017/scene/vpage/wgaw-sublime-primetime-master-of-none-lena-waithe-duffer-brothers-stranger-things-1202561344/" type="external">Master of None</a>” co-creator and star Aziz Ansari became a fan of the&#160;᾿60s Italian pop singer Mina and made her “the guiding voice for the season” it helped that Cowie was steeped in scores of Ennio Morricone and could even recommend some obscure Italian tunes.</p>
<p>One song, Lucio Battisti’s “Amarsi Un Po,” wound up closing an episode that was in turn named for the song. “That was a really big deal to me, but what was even more important was the guy, Battisti, who was &#160;as popular as the Beatles in Italy in the&#160;᾿60s through&#160;᾿80s, never allowed his music to be licensed outside of Italy,” Cowie said, describing how Drootin spent months chasing &#160;rights. “We cleared it the&#160;day&#160;before we had to mix the episode,” Cowie said.</p>
<p>“Atlanta” music supervisor Jen Malone described a similar challenge clearing “Let Me Find Out” by Doe B two years after the artist was killed. “It came out on a mix tape on Warner, which didn’t own the publishing, but I managed to track it down on Instagram, then find the lawyers for the estate, who didn’t really understand the process, so we weren’t sure if it was gonna happen.”</p>
<p>The importance of a fallback plan was something on which all panelists agreed. “As supervisors we’re not only curators but we are trying to deliver an idea,” said SuperMusicVision chief Thomas Golubić, who oversees tracks on “Better Call Saul” and “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/the-walking-dead/" type="external">The Walking Dead</a>” and was recently named president of the <a href="http://variety.com/2016/music/news/straight-outta-compton-carol-music-supervisors-awards-1201685660/" type="external">Guild of Music Supervisors</a>. “There are times we can’t get the song either because there’s a publisher that’s unwilling to work with us, or has unrealistic notions of the value is of the copyright, or an artist says no. It’s an ecosystem. You need to have many solutions.”</p>
<p>As a composer, Jeff Russo – who just won the Emmy for original series music for “Fargo” after being nominated for each of its three years– said art of his job is to fill in any music gaps.&#160; “Maybe the music doesn’t need to score to scene, but to help the scene rather than moving around with the picture, so treating [score] more like a song, where it stands on its own.” Russo said he’s been asked f a license falls through, sometimes score can step up. “I’ve been asked to replace a song because either they couldn’t clear the song, didn’t have enough money for the song or never found the right song.”</p>
<p>As professionals, most supervisors have learned not to get too passionately attached to the idea of a particular song “because the odds of it not working out always exist,” Cowie added. That’s not to say diligence doesn’t pay off. Pursuing Tupac Shakur was an exercise in working obscure channels, including distant relatives. “Uncle Tony, who I’d never met, runs a hip hop recording studio in New York and it all worked out,” shared Drootin (prompting moderator John Horn, host of KPCC’s 89.3’s “The Frame,” to observe “there’s a fine line between being a music supervisor and a stalker!”).</p>
<p>Manish Raval, a music supervisor on USA’s “Mr. Robot” and HBO’s “Girls,” has also coordinated music for several <a href="http://variety.com/t/peter-and-bobby-farrelly/" type="external">Peter and Bobby Farrelly</a> films. Raval recalled trying to license Steely Dan songs for the&#160;risqué&#160;1998 comedy “There’s Something About Mary.” “We sent them the script, and the response was ‘Are you kidding?’ Then movie came out and it was huge. The next Farrelly brothers film was ‘Me, Myself and Irene,’ so we went back and said, ‘We want to do all Steely Dan covers,’ and they said ‘Sure!’”</p>
<p>Use of music to help actors understand a character or create a mood on-set is becoming somewhat standard for certain types of project. Since “Master of None” show runners Alan Yang and Ansari “are such music people, they use music on the set a lot to get actors to the right place quickly,” Cowie said, noting, there were lots of songs “we knew would never get into the show” that would nonetheless wind up on make mix tapes to help actors “get into the zone.”</p>
<p>Golubić cautions that can come with risks.&#160;‟Sometimes they’ll record a scene with music in the background that hasn’t been cleared. If it can be removed in post, great. If not, they can’t use that scene, and they’re like ‘Who is the idiot that sent over a Kanye West song?’ It can be nerve-wracking, but if the team is professional it can be very exciting to have music inform what’s happening on the set,” Golubić said.</p>
<p>The importance of music editors was also emphasized.&#160;‟Cold Case” composer Michael Levine, a Television Academy music governor, recalled one instance where the show learned they’d been turned down on the license for a key piece of music “on the stage the last day of mixing the dub.” Levine suggested a substitute from a friend’s independent album. “She owned both sides, the publishing and the performance. Everyone loved it, but there was one problem: it had the F-bomb in the lyric, but the music editor was able to artfully work around it.”</p>
<p>“Atlanta” music editor Isaac Hagy memorably selected Outkast’s “Elevators (Me &amp; You)” to play over the closing moments of the season one finale. In general, the music pros agreed they prefer to use songs they’re introducing to the show’s audience. “We like to be contrarians and find music people haven’t heard,” Hagy said. “This was the opposite, but by saving that song for the final moment of the season, I kind of felt like we earned it.” Hagy “tried to undermine” the song’s celebrity “by cutting out at certain points then bringing it back in, and holding off on the chorus till the very end.”</p>
<p>“Atlanta” music supervisor Jen Malone said showcasing indie artists is “something we love to do.” Indie songs can help define a series, and inclusion can be a life-changing event for the performer, she said. Cowie, who named his company Dust and Grooves, also spoke up for the role of record stores in fueling creativity. “I’m in a record store three or four times a week,” said the Chicago native, who estimates he owns 10,000 vinyl albums. “I’m going to Japan&#160;on Saturday&#160;strictly to shop for records. Record stores are still here and they’re kind of better than ever because they have to be to survive all this.”</p> | false | 1 | job music supervisor largely misunderstood according panelists guild music supervisors state music media conference said role much detective curatorial work soundtracking love creating something new audio picture lot said maggie phillips handles song chores fx series fargo 160speaking last night uscs bovard auditorium part emmy tv music supervision deep dive phillips said people considering career music supervisor need know sexy job although field attracts people passionate music compromise key skill according zach cowie kerri drootin supervises netflix series master none awesome mix tape help youll rarely get use songs project youre working doesnt room third annual gms conference curtainraiser new partnership guild usc developing masters degree music supervision may offered soon next year according paul young chair usc thornton school musics music industry program cowie urged audience 500 teach something music every single day master none cocreator star aziz ansari became fan the16060s italian pop singer mina made guiding voice season helped cowie steeped scores ennio morricone could even recommend obscure italian tunes one song lucio battistis amarsi un po wound closing episode turn named song really big deal even important guy battisti 160as popular beatles italy the16060s through16080s never allowed music licensed outside italy cowie said describing drootin spent months chasing 160rights cleared the160day160before mix episode cowie said atlanta music supervisor jen malone described similar challenge clearing let find doe b two years artist killed came mix tape warner didnt publishing managed track instagram find lawyers estate didnt really understand process werent sure gon na happen importance fallback plan something panelists agreed supervisors curators trying deliver idea said supermusicvision chief thomas golubić oversees tracks better call saul walking dead recently named president guild music supervisors times cant get song either theres publisher thats unwilling work us unrealistic notions value copyright artist says ecosystem need many solutions composer jeff russo emmy original series music fargo nominated three years said art job fill music gaps160 maybe music doesnt need score scene help scene rather moving around picture treating score like song stands russo said hes asked f license falls sometimes score step ive asked replace song either couldnt clear song didnt enough money song never found right song professionals supervisors learned get passionately attached idea particular song odds working always exist cowie added thats say diligence doesnt pay pursuing tupac shakur exercise working obscure channels including distant relatives uncle tony id never met runs hip hop recording studio new york worked shared drootin prompting moderator john horn host kpccs 893s frame observe theres fine line music supervisor stalker manish raval music supervisor usas mr robot hbos girls also coordinated music several peter bobby farrelly films raval recalled trying license steely dan songs the160risqué1601998 comedy theres something mary sent script response kidding movie came huge next farrelly brothers film irene went back said want steely dan covers said sure use music help actors understand character create mood onset becoming somewhat standard certain types project since master none show runners alan yang ansari music people use music set lot get actors right place quickly cowie said noting lots songs knew would never get show would nonetheless wind make mix tapes help actors get zone golubić cautions come risks160sometimes theyll record scene music background hasnt cleared removed post great cant use scene theyre like idiot sent kanye west song nervewracking team professional exciting music inform whats happening set golubić said importance music editors also emphasized160cold case composer michael levine television academy music governor recalled one instance show learned theyd turned license key piece music stage last day mixing dub levine suggested substitute friends independent album owned sides publishing performance everyone loved one problem fbomb lyric music editor able artfully work around atlanta music editor isaac hagy memorably selected outkasts elevators amp play closing moments season one finale general music pros agreed prefer use songs theyre introducing shows audience like contrarians find music people havent heard hagy said opposite saving song final moment season kind felt like earned hagy tried undermine songs celebrity cutting certain points bringing back holding chorus till end atlanta music supervisor jen malone said showcasing indie artists something love indie songs help define series inclusion lifechanging event performer said cowie named company dust grooves also spoke role record stores fueling creativity im record store three four times week said chicago native estimates owns 10000 vinyl albums im going japan160on saturday160strictly shop records record stores still theyre kind better ever survive | 729 |
<p>U.S. airline investors, already absorbing the worst monthly stock performance in a year, are bracing for more disappointment.</p>
<p>A Standard &amp; Poor’s index of the five biggest U.S. airlines plunged about 7.5 percent in August, wiping out about $10 billion in market value. Shares fell as a price war that started between United Continental Holdings Inc. and heavy discounters spread to more carriers and markets.</p>
<p>Analysts see more pain ahead. Delta Air Lines Inc. on Tuesday cut its third-quarter guidance for&#160;a closely watched gauge of pricing power — revenue for each seat flown a mile — as well as for operating margin. UBS Group AG predicts the latest skirmish will force some other carriers to do the same. The trend is worrisome because the major airlines have been boasting that industry consolidation would lead to steadier profits and smoother shareholder returns, not repeated fare battles with low-cost rivals.</p>
<p>“We’ve taken it on the chin the last 30, 45 days, because there’s no question United started cutting fares to ward off Spirit, Frontier, whoever, and I guess it’s spread among all the airlines cutting fares,” said Gary Bradshaw, a portfolio manager at Hodges Capital Management in Dallas, which owns stakes in the major airlines. “It happened overnight almost.”</p>
<p>For more on the latest airline price war, click <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-29/united-s-fare-cuts-spread-fueling-risk-of-new-airline-price-war" type="external">here</a></p>
<p>Hurricane Harvey, which shuttered Houston’s airports for several days last week, will be another drag on earnings because of flight cancellations and a spike in jet-fuel prices.</p>
<p>Delta’s unit revenue this quarter is now seen rising 2 percent to 3 percent, instead of the previous 2.5 percent to 4.5 percent. Operating margin is expected at 16.5 percent to 17.5 percent instead of as much as 20 percent earlier. Delta blamed “a slow recovery in domestic” ticket prices purchased close to travel and higher fuel costs linked to the hurricane a year earlier.</p>
<p>Delta slipped 0.6 percent at 9:59 a.m. in New York, while American fell 0.2 percent and Southwest 0.5 percent.</p>
<p>United and Southwest Airlines Co. will probably have to cut their third-quarter unit revenue forecasts the most, said&#160;Darryl Genovesi, a UBS analyst.</p>
<p>The fare battle that started this summer between United and heavy discounters like Spirit Airlines Inc. and Frontier Airlines Inc. has since spread to others, including American and Southwest. The S&amp;P airlines index has dropped more than 14 percent since June 30.</p>
<p>Industry pricing declined in July from the previous month, and August “appears to have deteriorated further,” Cowen &amp; Co. analyst Helane Becker said in a note, citing meetings with airlines last week. While carriers expect improvement in the last three months of the year compared with this quarter, “the pricing trends are currently not favorable.”&#160;</p>
<p>Hurricane Harvey</p>
<p>Hurricane Harvey is only expected to exacerbate the industry’s woes. Jet-fuel prices jumped 26 percent from Harvey’s Aug. 25 landfall in Texas through Sept. 1, after the shutdown of two pipelines carrying fuel and refined products from the U.S. Gulf Coast. Jet fuel usually is the second-largest operating expense for airlines, behind employee compensation.</p>
<p>Airlines “can truck in fuel, potentially look to other pipelines as a source, but that’s another headache for the industry to try to deal with,” Southwest Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said in an interview last week. While there’s no immediate danger of a shortage, Kelly said he was “absolutely” concerned by the pipeline closures.</p>
<p>Some carriers are expected to use a Cowen transportation conference that starts Sept. 6 in Boston to update outlooks for third-quarter revenue for each seat flown a mile, most likely to the low end of earlier guidance, Becker said. Others may include updates on the gauge, known as unit revenue, in monthly traffic reports this week.</p>
<p>Optimist’s View</p>
<p>The current price competition probably won’t lead to a long downturn for the major airlines, said Sanford C. Bernstein &amp; Co. analyst David Vernon. Many of the battles are on the most competitive routes, including New York to South Florida, that already had lower fares.</p>
<p>Wall Street “is looking at the most competitive part of the market and using that as an analog for the entire industry,” Vernon said.</p>
<p>The advent of discounted “basic economy” fares should allow the major airlines to compete selectively with Spirit and others without lowering fares across a wide range of routes and price categories, he said.</p>
<p>Hodges is taking a bullish approach. Instead of cutting airline shares, the firm added to its position, Bradshaw said. He said that Delta boosted its dividend by 50 percent earlier this year, which suggests the airline is confident it won’t be dragged down by a fare war.</p>
<p>“They’re telling you that these earnings are going to continue to stay strong, continue to grow,” Bradshaw said.</p>
<p>United currently expects unit revenue to be somewhere between down 1 percent from a year earlier to up 1 percent, while Southwest sees the measure up 1 percent. Investors were disappointed by both forecasts, made in July, and by Southwest’s plan to grow more quickly than expected. United President Scott Kirby declined to comment on the unit-revenue outlook in an interview last week, but confirmed the carrier would provide an update this week.</p>
<p>American has said the measure will be up in a range of 0.5 percent to 2.5 percent from a year earlier, while Delta expects up 2.5 percent to 4.5 percent.</p>
<p>Matching Discounts</p>
<p>American and United will continue to match heavily discounted fares at their hub airports, executives from both carriers said. Basic economy, which allows passengers to bring only a small carry-on item, helps dull the impact because airlines limit the number made available.</p>
<p>“We are going to compete against anyone that chooses to compete head-to-head against us,” Kirby said in an interview last week. “That’s the right strategy.”</p>
<p>United’s website Thursday showed a $50 one-way basic economy fare between Newark, New Jersey, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for a Sept. 7 flight. A round-trip economy ticket on the same route was $139.50 before tax, departing Sept. 7 and returning Sept. 12. Southwest offered a $122.38 round-trip price, excluding taxes and fees, on the same dates and routes. Deeply discounted fares have limited availability.</p> | false | 1 | us airline investors already absorbing worst monthly stock performance year bracing disappointment standard amp poors index five biggest us airlines plunged 75 percent august wiping 10 billion market value shares fell price war started united continental holdings inc heavy discounters spread carriers markets analysts see pain ahead delta air lines inc tuesday cut thirdquarter guidance for160a closely watched gauge pricing power revenue seat flown mile well operating margin ubs group ag predicts latest skirmish force carriers trend worrisome major airlines boasting industry consolidation would lead steadier profits smoother shareholder returns repeated fare battles lowcost rivals weve taken chin last 30 45 days theres question united started cutting fares ward spirit frontier whoever guess spread among airlines cutting fares said gary bradshaw portfolio manager hodges capital management dallas owns stakes major airlines happened overnight almost latest airline price war click hurricane harvey shuttered houstons airports several days last week another drag earnings flight cancellations spike jetfuel prices deltas unit revenue quarter seen rising 2 percent 3 percent instead previous 25 percent 45 percent operating margin expected 165 percent 175 percent instead much 20 percent earlier delta blamed slow recovery domestic ticket prices purchased close travel higher fuel costs linked hurricane year earlier delta slipped 06 percent 959 new york american fell 02 percent southwest 05 percent united southwest airlines co probably cut thirdquarter unit revenue forecasts said160darryl genovesi ubs analyst fare battle started summer united heavy discounters like spirit airlines inc frontier airlines inc since spread others including american southwest sampp airlines index dropped 14 percent since june 30 industry pricing declined july previous month august appears deteriorated cowen amp co analyst helane becker said note citing meetings airlines last week carriers expect improvement last three months year compared quarter pricing trends currently favorable160 hurricane harvey hurricane harvey expected exacerbate industrys woes jetfuel prices jumped 26 percent harveys aug 25 landfall texas sept 1 shutdown two pipelines carrying fuel refined products us gulf coast jet fuel usually secondlargest operating expense airlines behind employee compensation airlines truck fuel potentially look pipelines source thats another headache industry try deal southwest chief executive officer gary kelly said interview last week theres immediate danger shortage kelly said absolutely concerned pipeline closures carriers expected use cowen transportation conference starts sept 6 boston update outlooks thirdquarter revenue seat flown mile likely low end earlier guidance becker said others may include updates gauge known unit revenue monthly traffic reports week optimists view current price competition probably wont lead long downturn major airlines said sanford c bernstein amp co analyst david vernon many battles competitive routes including new york south florida already lower fares wall street looking competitive part market using analog entire industry vernon said advent discounted basic economy fares allow major airlines compete selectively spirit others without lowering fares across wide range routes price categories said hodges taking bullish approach instead cutting airline shares firm added position bradshaw said said delta boosted dividend 50 percent earlier year suggests airline confident wont dragged fare war theyre telling earnings going continue stay strong continue grow bradshaw said united currently expects unit revenue somewhere 1 percent year earlier 1 percent southwest sees measure 1 percent investors disappointed forecasts made july southwests plan grow quickly expected united president scott kirby declined comment unitrevenue outlook interview last week confirmed carrier would provide update week american said measure range 05 percent 25 percent year earlier delta expects 25 percent 45 percent matching discounts american united continue match heavily discounted fares hub airports executives carriers said basic economy allows passengers bring small carryon item helps dull impact airlines limit number made available going compete anyone chooses compete headtohead us kirby said interview last week thats right strategy uniteds website thursday showed 50 oneway basic economy fare newark new jersey fort lauderdale florida sept 7 flight roundtrip economy ticket route 13950 tax departing sept 7 returning sept 12 southwest offered 12238 roundtrip price excluding taxes fees dates routes deeply discounted fares limited availability | 658 |
<p />
<p>So far most commentary on Ahmet Davutoğlu’s selection as Turkey’s new Prime Minister has been focused on what will be his relationship with the country’s new president, Recip Teyyip Erdoğan. Especially opponents of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) tend to portray Davutoğlu as certain to play second fiddle to Erdoğan who is both fiercely resented and feared, and regarded as a ‘Turkish Putin.’ The fact that Erdoğan seems to have handpicked Davutoğlu to succeed him at party leader and prime minister and acted deliberately to sideline the popular prior president, Abdullah Gul, adds to the concern about what to expect from a government led by Davutoğlu. I believe that such speculation is profoundly wrong, that Davutoğlu is an admirable person of strong beliefs and an adherent of a political vision that has evolved over the years on the basis of study and experience. In my view, Davutoğlu will turn out to be a historically significant Turkish leader by virtue of his thoughtful style of governance and through the assertion of his own priorities and programs. Few countries can claim leadership of the quality provided and record achieved by Erdoğan, Davutoğlu, and Gul over the last twelve years.</p>
<p>For Davutoğlu to reach the peak of political power is the latest stage in his remarkable ascent within governing circles in Ankara. Coming to government after a deep immersion in the scholarly life of a university professor is unusual enough, but to rise to such a level of prominence and influence without casting aside his academic demeanor is unprecedented, not only in Turkey but anywhere.</p>
<p>Searching for recent comparisons, I can think only of Henry Kissinger, and he never rose above the level of Secretary of State, although he did serve as architect of American foreign policy during Richard Nixon’s presidency, a period of undoubted global leadership. Unlike Davutoglu, Kissinger treated the moral and legal dimensions of foreign policy as instruments of propaganda rather than as matters of principle.&#160;Kissinger as a scholar never achieved the distinction nor&#160;the national impact that resulted from Davutoğlu’s Strategic Depth, which incidentally, was planned to be the first of three monumental studies, the other two being devoted to historical depth and cultural depth. One of the costs of entering government has been the deferral of this project, which if completed, is almost certain to be a work of exceptional significance.</p>
<p>Starting out in 2003 as Chief Advisor to the Foreign Minister, and later to the Prime Minister, Davutolğu’s role as a highly influential and respected expert was quickly recognized. Long before Davutoğlu became Foreign Minister in 2009, he was widely respected in Turkey as the architect of its energetic and effective foreign policy, which was causing a stir in the region and around the world.</p>
<p>Davutoğlu’s contributions were particularly notable in three domains of foreign policy. First, he understood and clearly articulated the importance for Turkey to adapt to the new regional setting created by the end of the Cold War, appreciating that it was now possible and desirable for Turkey to be an independent actor in the Middle East and beyond without awaiting clearance from Washington.</p>
<p>Secondly, Davutoğlu from almost the beginning of his role in government became Ankara’s chief emissary in trying to clear the path to Turkish membership in the European Union, working out the important ‘Copenhagen Criteria’ that turned out to be also useful as a roadmap for desired domestic reform. This functioned as an important mandate that was linked to a domestic program of reform, which included protecting human rights and featured the containment of the deep state in Turkey during the early years of AKP leadership when relations with the armed forces were tense, and rumors of an impending coup were in the air. Satisfying the EU requirements gave Erdoğan the justification he needed for impressively strengthening the civilian control of government in Turkey. Because of its private sector interests, the Turkish military turned out to be as eager for EU membership as was the AKP, and even the harsh Kemalist opposition went along with this part of the AKP program.</p>
<p>Thirdly, these moves to civilianize the Turkish government removed altogether the earlier role played by the Turkish armed forces as custodian of the republic through the medium of coups against elected political leaders. In retrospect, substantially removing the armed forces from the political life was a great step forward in democratizing Turkey even if this momentous development was not acknowledged in Brussels, and elsewhere in Europe. For quite independently Islamophobic reasons, Europe was becoming adamantly opposed to accepting Turkey as a member of the EU, no matter how successful the Turkish government might be in satisfying the standards laid down for accession. It might also be noted that the secular opposition in Turkey also has never credited Erdoğan with this achievement, which might turn out to have be his greatest contribution to Turkey’s political development as a vibrant constitutional democracy. While praising this central achievement, it needs to be noted that the overall record of the AKP on human rights is mixed, with particularly regrettable encroachments on political freedoms via the imprisonment of journalists, pro-Kurdish activists, and others.</p>
<p>From the outset of his time in government, Davutoğlu was also extremely active in doing everything possible to resolve the Israel/Palestinian/Syrian conflicts, and led a comprehensive Turkish effort to bring peace to the region. Davutoğlu’s attempt to have Hamas treated as a normal and legitimate political player after its 2006 electoral victory in Gaza would have saved much grief in the Middle East had it been accepted in Washington and Tel Aviv. After these conflict-resolving initiatives collapsed, Turkey has almost alone in the region played a principled and constructive role by challenging the Israeli blockade of Gaza and seeking to end the collective punishment and humanitarian ordeal of the Palestinian population. This role was resented in the centers of Western power and even in most Arab capitals, but it has endeared Turkey and its leaders to the peoples of the region and beyond. It also gave expression to Davutoğlu’s insistence that a successful Turkish foreign policy should be as principled as possible while at the same time being creatively opportunistic, promoting national interests and values, and in all possible situations seeking engagement rather than confrontation.</p>
<p>More famously, and controversially, Davutoğlu saw the opportunities for Turkish outreach in the Arab world, and beyond. Unlike the failed efforts in the 1990s to incorporate the newly independent Central Asian republics in a Turkish sphere of influence, the AKP effectively approached the expansion of trade, investment, and cultural exchanges throughout the region, an approach given the now notorious doctrinal label by Davutoğlu of ‘zero problems with neighbors’ after he became Foreign Minister in 2009. At first ZPN seemed like a brilliant diplomatic stroke, a dramatic effort to rest Turkey’s ambitions on the dynamics of ‘soft power geopolitics,’ that is, providing benefits, attracting others, and not depending for influence on military prowess or coercive diplomacy. Given what appeared to be the frozen authoritarian political realities in the region, constructive engagement with mutual benefits seemed superior to postures of hostility, tension, and non-involvement that had for so long been characteristic of Turkish foreign policy, and descriptive of the sterile political atmosphere throughout the Middle East.</p>
<p>Then in early 2011 came the Arab Spring that surprised everyone, including Turkey. It created excitement and turbulence throughout the region, but also the promise of far greater democratic and more patterns of governance. Davutoğlu as much as any statesman in the world welcomed these Arab anti-authoritarian upheavals as benevolent happenings, pointing especially to the extraordinary events in Tunisia and Egypt in early 2011 that overthrew two long serving authoritarian and corrupt leaders by relying on largely nonviolent mass mobilization. Davutoğlu was especially impressed by Arab youth as a revolutionary force that he believed was well attuned to the changing tides of history.</p>
<p>This optimism did not last long. Events in Libya, Syria, Bahrain, and Yemen made it clear that there was not going to take place the smooth and quick transitions that deceptively seemed to be taking place in Egypt and Tunisia. It was soon clear that it would become necessary for Turkey to choose sides as between the authoritarian elites seeking to hold onto or restore their power and the earlier Ankara approach of accommodating the governing authorities of Arab states without passing judgment on how these governments treated their own citizenry.</p>
<p>Syria posed the most severe challenge in this respect. The Assad regime in Damascus had earlier been the poster child of ZPN, and now dramatized the non-viability of such a posture as the Damascus regime became responsible for committing one atrocity after another against its own people. Turkey abruptly switched sides, losing trust in Assad, and aligning itself with rebel forces. Both the pro and anti-Assad postures proved controversial in Turkey. The main secular opposition party, CHP, accusing Erdoğan of playing sectarian politics by supporting in Syria an insurgency that was increasingly dominated by Sunni militants associated with a Syrian version of the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>Davutoğlu skillfully and reasonably reformulated his ZPN by saying that when a government shoots its own citizens in large numbers, Turkey will side with the people, not the governmental leadership, which lost its legitimacy through its actions. From now on the doctrine associated with his outlook could be more accurately understood as ‘zero problems with people,’ of ZPP. The same logic guided Turkey in its eventual support of the NATO intervention in Libya as the Qaddafi regime seemed poised to engage in genocidal onslaught against the entrapped population of Benghazi to quell a popular uprising. The mass mobilization against the elected Morsi government in Egypt illustrated another kind of difficulty, leading Turkey to stand out in the region, joined only by Qatar, in its refusal to give its blessings to the military coup that brought General Sisi come to power in July 2013.</p> | false | 1 | far commentary ahmet davutoğlus selection turkeys new prime minister focused relationship countrys new president recip teyyip erdoğan especially opponents justice development party akp tend portray davutoğlu certain play second fiddle erdoğan fiercely resented feared regarded turkish putin fact erdoğan seems handpicked davutoğlu succeed party leader prime minister acted deliberately sideline popular prior president abdullah gul adds concern expect government led davutoğlu believe speculation profoundly wrong davutoğlu admirable person strong beliefs adherent political vision evolved years basis study experience view davutoğlu turn historically significant turkish leader virtue thoughtful style governance assertion priorities programs countries claim leadership quality provided record achieved erdoğan davutoğlu gul last twelve years davutoğlu reach peak political power latest stage remarkable ascent within governing circles ankara coming government deep immersion scholarly life university professor unusual enough rise level prominence influence without casting aside academic demeanor unprecedented turkey anywhere searching recent comparisons think henry kissinger never rose level secretary state although serve architect american foreign policy richard nixons presidency period undoubted global leadership unlike davutoglu kissinger treated moral legal dimensions foreign policy instruments propaganda rather matters principle160kissinger scholar never achieved distinction nor160the national impact resulted davutoğlus strategic depth incidentally planned first three monumental studies two devoted historical depth cultural depth one costs entering government deferral project completed almost certain work exceptional significance starting 2003 chief advisor foreign minister later prime minister davutolğus role highly influential respected expert quickly recognized long davutoğlu became foreign minister 2009 widely respected turkey architect energetic effective foreign policy causing stir region around world davutoğlus contributions particularly notable three domains foreign policy first understood clearly articulated importance turkey adapt new regional setting created end cold war appreciating possible desirable turkey independent actor middle east beyond without awaiting clearance washington secondly davutoğlu almost beginning role government became ankaras chief emissary trying clear path turkish membership european union working important copenhagen criteria turned also useful roadmap desired domestic reform functioned important mandate linked domestic program reform included protecting human rights featured containment deep state turkey early years akp leadership relations armed forces tense rumors impending coup air satisfying eu requirements gave erdoğan justification needed impressively strengthening civilian control government turkey private sector interests turkish military turned eager eu membership akp even harsh kemalist opposition went along part akp program thirdly moves civilianize turkish government removed altogether earlier role played turkish armed forces custodian republic medium coups elected political leaders retrospect substantially removing armed forces political life great step forward democratizing turkey even momentous development acknowledged brussels elsewhere europe quite independently islamophobic reasons europe becoming adamantly opposed accepting turkey member eu matter successful turkish government might satisfying standards laid accession might also noted secular opposition turkey also never credited erdoğan achievement might turn greatest contribution turkeys political development vibrant constitutional democracy praising central achievement needs noted overall record akp human rights mixed particularly regrettable encroachments political freedoms via imprisonment journalists prokurdish activists others outset time government davutoğlu also extremely active everything possible resolve israelpalestiniansyrian conflicts led comprehensive turkish effort bring peace region davutoğlus attempt hamas treated normal legitimate political player 2006 electoral victory gaza would saved much grief middle east accepted washington tel aviv conflictresolving initiatives collapsed turkey almost alone region played principled constructive role challenging israeli blockade gaza seeking end collective punishment humanitarian ordeal palestinian population role resented centers western power even arab capitals endeared turkey leaders peoples region beyond also gave expression davutoğlus insistence successful turkish foreign policy principled possible time creatively opportunistic promoting national interests values possible situations seeking engagement rather confrontation famously controversially davutoğlu saw opportunities turkish outreach arab world beyond unlike failed efforts 1990s incorporate newly independent central asian republics turkish sphere influence akp effectively approached expansion trade investment cultural exchanges throughout region approach given notorious doctrinal label davutoğlu zero problems neighbors became foreign minister 2009 first zpn seemed like brilliant diplomatic stroke dramatic effort rest turkeys ambitions dynamics soft power geopolitics providing benefits attracting others depending influence military prowess coercive diplomacy given appeared frozen authoritarian political realities region constructive engagement mutual benefits seemed superior postures hostility tension noninvolvement long characteristic turkish foreign policy descriptive sterile political atmosphere throughout middle east early 2011 came arab spring surprised everyone including turkey created excitement turbulence throughout region also promise far greater democratic patterns governance davutoğlu much statesman world welcomed arab antiauthoritarian upheavals benevolent happenings pointing especially extraordinary events tunisia egypt early 2011 overthrew two long serving authoritarian corrupt leaders relying largely nonviolent mass mobilization davutoğlu especially impressed arab youth revolutionary force believed well attuned changing tides history optimism last long events libya syria bahrain yemen made clear going take place smooth quick transitions deceptively seemed taking place egypt tunisia soon clear would become necessary turkey choose sides authoritarian elites seeking hold onto restore power earlier ankara approach accommodating governing authorities arab states without passing judgment governments treated citizenry syria posed severe challenge respect assad regime damascus earlier poster child zpn dramatized nonviability posture damascus regime became responsible committing one atrocity another people turkey abruptly switched sides losing trust assad aligning rebel forces pro antiassad postures proved controversial turkey main secular opposition party chp accusing erdoğan playing sectarian politics supporting syria insurgency increasingly dominated sunni militants associated syrian version muslim brotherhood davutoğlu skillfully reasonably reformulated zpn saying government shoots citizens large numbers turkey side people governmental leadership lost legitimacy actions doctrine associated outlook could accurately understood zero problems people zpp logic guided turkey eventual support nato intervention libya qaddafi regime seemed poised engage genocidal onslaught entrapped population benghazi quell popular uprising mass mobilization elected morsi government egypt illustrated another kind difficulty leading turkey stand region joined qatar refusal give blessings military coup brought general sisi come power july 2013 | 933 |
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<p>BEIRUT — “My friends and I like Iran. Maybe they will ask their friends in Lebanon to help baba (daddy) to be allowed to work and our family allowed to own a home outside the camps.” Hanadi, a precocious youngster at Shatila Camp’s Shabiba center on learning last week from her teacher that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warmly welcomed Palestinian leaders to Tehran during the33rdanniversary celebrations of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and that both committed Iran to a “religious and moral duty to alleviate the effects on Palestinian refugees of the Nakba’s ethnic cleansing.”</p>
<p>Around noon on Tuesday September 14, 1982, the day before Israel green lighted the launch of the three day Sabra-Shatila massacre, two white vans pulled into Rue Sabra, diagonal from Akka Palestinian Hospital (PCRS), the main Shatila camp road.</p>
<p>Mrs. Halabi, a Palestinian teacher thought the four foreigners who exited the vehicles near the current Martyrs cemetery, were from a European NGO because the four men carried detailed maps of Shatila camp and she hoped that they might be assessing camp needs for an infrastructure project.</p>
<p>“Can you show us all the camp shelters?” she recalls one of the heavily accented men asking.</p>
<p>“Yes of course,” Mrs.Halabi replied, and as the men followed her and took notes and photos, she explained that the shelters were too small to be of much use during “bombardments.”</p>
<p>“We understand”, said the apparent group leader, the only one their Palestinian guide recalls speaking during their visit, and then he added, “Why does this place smell so foul?&#160; Embarrassed by the question, Mrs. Halabi explained that the sewers in Palestinian camps, especially Shatila and nearby Burj al Barajneh are always in need of repair.”</p>
<p>We now know that the “European NGO delegation’ members were in reality two Israeli intelligence agents accompanied by two Phalange intelligence operatives including their chief, Elie Hobeika. They arrived at Shatila camp for the purpose of identifying shelters where Palestinians would likely try to hide during the coming days.</p>
<p>And they succeeded.</p>
<p>It was to the 11 shelters inside and on the edge of Shatila camp that the first arriving Christian militiamen found their way through unfamiliar alleys and began their 46 hours of non-stop slaughter. With very few exceptions all of the hundreds of refugees who huddled into the identified shelters were among the first to be massacred.</p>
<p>The Mossad-organized group was not the only one to complain about the sewer gases from Shatila. For weeks, the Israeli troops sharing with Hobeika’s troops the HQ west of the camp at the Kuwaiti Embassy also complained to journalists that when the wind came off the mountains to the east and swept through the camp toward the sea behind them that they “could actually smell the Palestinian terrorists.”</p>
<p>30 years since the massacre at Sabra-Shatila, the camp sewer problem persists.&#160; When the wind blows eastward from the sea across Shatila camp the Hezbollah dominated Ghouberi Municipality offices located where the former Algerian Embassy stood in 1982 can smell the Shatila camp sewers just as the Israelis did three decades earlier.&#160; During the Sabra-Shatila massacre, the then Algerian Embassy gave sanctuary to refugees lucky enough to flee to the diplomatic compound which is about 50 meters from the eastern edge of Shatila camp.&#160; To do so, the survivors had to dodge five Israeli tanks positioned along the airport road to in order to seal camp residents inside Shatila. Those who were caught were forced by Israel soldiers back into the death camp.</p>
<p>And those who today work to the east of Shatila in the Ghouberi Municipality offices and live nearby are not alone.&#160; If the wind happens to blow from north to south across Shatila camp and the Bir Hassan neighborhood it is the Iranian Embassy that receives the wafting foul air.</p>
<p>While the overwhelmed and broken camp sewers, lack of electricity, inadequate clean water, no heat in winter, no AC in summer, absence of sun light and fresh air, intense over-crowding-sometimes eight persons to a room, inadequate nutrition and health care, sky-rocketing respiratory diseases, high student dropout rates, increased drug usage, are among the seemingly endless problems in the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and impact every life, every day, recent words of solidarity from Iran are much appreciated.</p>
<p>According to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iran endorses the creation of a Palestinian state, regarding Israel as Palestine under occupation by the “Zionist regime”. Iran rejects a two state solution and considers that Palestine is indivisible and inseparable, probably reflecting a majority opinion today as support for Zionist Israel plummets globally.</p>
<p>“Iran does not expect anything except endurance from Palestine’s resistance,” Khamenei was quoted as telling a visiting delegation led by Hamas officials.</p>
<p>President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had a very successful visit to Lebanon last year, repeated his call for a free referendum for the entire Palestinian population, including Arab citizens of Israel, to determine the type of government for the future Palestinian state. He reiterated that establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel would “never mean an endorsement of the Israeli occupation”.</p>
<p>Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told visiting Palestinians Iran would aid those suffering in the camps and spoke of “the need for Palestinian adherence to the basic principles of resistance as the key ingredient for their victory against Israel,” according to the official Iranian PRESS TV news agency.</p>
<p>Evolving PLO-Iranian Relations</p>
<p>Before the Iranian revolution there was no Palestinian embassy in Iran. The Shah was much more interested in maintaining good relations with Israel and the United States, than in the Palestinians or in the Arab-Israeli peace process. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) developed close ties with the Iranian opposition, training Iranian dissidents at PLO camps in Lebanon.</p>
<p>The PLO backed the 1979 revolution, and several days after the revolution, PLO chief Yasser Arafat became the first Arab leader to visit Tehran to congratulate the country’s leadership on their success and he led a 58 member Palestinian delegation. The Iranian Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan hosted an official welcome ceremony for Arafat, where the keys to the former Israeli embassy were symbolically handed over to the PLO.</p>
<p>However, the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini while supporting the Palestinian cause did not warm much to Arafat.&#160; During an intense two-hour meeting on Feb. 18, 1979, the ayatollah criticized the PLO for what he considered its limited nationalist and pan-Arab agenda. He urged Arafat to model the PLO on the principles of the Islamic revolution. While Arafat was an observant Muslim, he told aides why he rejected some of the ideas of Khomeini. Arafat and Khomeini never met again.</p>
<p>As with most countries in the region, PLO Iranian relations fluctuated, sometimes dramatically.&#160; The Iran-PLO relations deteriorated fast when Arafat supported Iraq during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war and again when Saddam invaded Kuwait.&#160; Iran condemned Arafat in 1988, after he recognized Israel, renounced terrorism, and called for peace talks with Israel. In 1989, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Arafat a “traitor and an idiot” and while the PLO maintained diplomatic relations with Tehran, Iran did not aid the PLO again until 2000.</p>
<p>Figuratively speaking, will Iran help fix the sewers in Lebanon’s camps?&#160;&#160; And crucially, will the Iranian leadership ask their close Lebanese friends to enact the right to work and repeal the 2001 law that outlaws home ownership for Palestinians in Lebanon?&#160; Quite frankly, the absence of these very basic human rights in Lebanon negatively affects Palestinian lives day after day even more that the goal of liberating Al Aqsa on Temple Mount, however essential that is to achieve.</p>
<p>No right to work or home ownership please, they’re Palestinians!</p>
<p>“Miss International”, Zeinab al Hajj, born and raised in Shatila camp, regularly explains to visitors from Iran:&#160; “If we are allowed to work and own a home our capacity to engage in the liberation of Palestine will grow fast. As part of an economic middle class we could do more than scavenging to put bread on our table for our children.&#160; We will have the energy and more time to resist the Zionist occupation of our country.&#160; Currently we are so forlorn who among us has the energy to do more than just try to survive, not really live mind you,&#160; but try to survive and barely keep our families together.”</p>
<p>A bit more than words of solidarity are needed from Iranian friends of Palestine to help them escape the sewers in which they exist not far from where their Muslim sisters and brothers and all foreigners in Lebanon enjoy full civil rights.</p>
<p>During this 33 Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the 30th anniversary of the 1982 Massacre at Sabra-Shatila, for the Iranian government to give solid achievement to its words and to facilitate the right to work and to own a home for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon would require only the cost of one phone call or email from Tehran to Dahiyeh.</p>
<p>Specifically, a communication from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to Sayeed Hassan Nasrallah, Sec-Gen. of Hezbollah, to work for Parliament to meet its Lebanese Constitutionally mandated and its internationally required obligation. And they are to immediately grant the basic human right to legally work and to own a home to Lebanon’s quarter million Palestinian refugees in Lebanon just until they are able to return to their own country, Palestine.</p> | false | 1 | beirut friends like iran maybe ask friends lebanon help baba daddy allowed work family allowed home outside camps hanadi precocious youngster shatila camps shabiba center learning last week teacher irans supreme leader ali khamenei president mahmoud ahmadinejad warmly welcomed palestinian leaders tehran the33rdanniversary celebrations 1979 islamic revolution committed iran religious moral duty alleviate effects palestinian refugees nakbas ethnic cleansing around noon tuesday september 14 1982 day israel green lighted launch three day sabrashatila massacre two white vans pulled rue sabra diagonal akka palestinian hospital pcrs main shatila camp road mrs halabi palestinian teacher thought four foreigners exited vehicles near current martyrs cemetery european ngo four men carried detailed maps shatila camp hoped might assessing camp needs infrastructure project show us camp shelters recalls one heavily accented men asking yes course mrshalabi replied men followed took notes photos explained shelters small much use bombardments understand said apparent group leader one palestinian guide recalls speaking visit added place smell foul160 embarrassed question mrs halabi explained sewers palestinian camps especially shatila nearby burj al barajneh always need repair know european ngo delegation members reality two israeli intelligence agents accompanied two phalange intelligence operatives including chief elie hobeika arrived shatila camp purpose identifying shelters palestinians would likely try hide coming days succeeded 11 shelters inside edge shatila camp first arriving christian militiamen found way unfamiliar alleys began 46 hours nonstop slaughter exceptions hundreds refugees huddled identified shelters among first massacred mossadorganized group one complain sewer gases shatila weeks israeli troops sharing hobeikas troops hq west camp kuwaiti embassy also complained journalists wind came mountains east swept camp toward sea behind could actually smell palestinian terrorists 30 years since massacre sabrashatila camp sewer problem persists160 wind blows eastward sea across shatila camp hezbollah dominated ghouberi municipality offices located former algerian embassy stood 1982 smell shatila camp sewers israelis three decades earlier160 sabrashatila massacre algerian embassy gave sanctuary refugees lucky enough flee diplomatic compound 50 meters eastern edge shatila camp160 survivors dodge five israeli tanks positioned along airport road order seal camp residents inside shatila caught forced israel soldiers back death camp today work east shatila ghouberi municipality offices live nearby alone160 wind happens blow north south across shatila camp bir hassan neighborhood iranian embassy receives wafting foul air overwhelmed broken camp sewers lack electricity inadequate clean water heat winter ac summer absence sun light fresh air intense overcrowdingsometimes eight persons room inadequate nutrition health care skyrocketing respiratory diseases high student dropout rates increased drug usage among seemingly endless problems 12 palestinian refugee camps lebanon impact every life every day recent words solidarity iran much appreciated according supreme leader ali khamenei iran endorses creation palestinian state regarding israel palestine occupation zionist regime iran rejects two state solution considers palestine indivisible inseparable probably reflecting majority opinion today support zionist israel plummets globally iran expect anything except endurance palestines resistance khamenei quoted telling visiting delegation led hamas officials president mahmoud ahmadinejad successful visit lebanon last year repeated call free referendum entire palestinian population including arab citizens israel determine type government future palestinian state reiterated establishment palestinian state alongside israel would never mean endorsement israeli occupation irans foreign minister ali akbar salehi told visiting palestinians iran would aid suffering camps spoke need palestinian adherence basic principles resistance key ingredient victory israel according official iranian press tv news agency evolving ploiranian relations iranian revolution palestinian embassy iran shah much interested maintaining good relations israel united states palestinians arabisraeli peace process palestinian liberation organization plo developed close ties iranian opposition training iranian dissidents plo camps lebanon plo backed 1979 revolution several days revolution plo chief yasser arafat became first arab leader visit tehran congratulate countrys leadership success led 58 member palestinian delegation iranian prime minister mehdi bazargan hosted official welcome ceremony arafat keys former israeli embassy symbolically handed plo however leader islamic revolution ayatollah khomeini supporting palestinian cause warm much arafat160 intense twohour meeting feb 18 1979 ayatollah criticized plo considered limited nationalist panarab agenda urged arafat model plo principles islamic revolution arafat observant muslim told aides rejected ideas khomeini arafat khomeini never met countries region plo iranian relations fluctuated sometimes dramatically160 iranplo relations deteriorated fast arafat supported iraq 19801988 iraniraq war saddam invaded kuwait160 iran condemned arafat 1988 recognized israel renounced terrorism called peace talks israel 1989 ayatollah ali khamenei called arafat traitor idiot plo maintained diplomatic relations tehran iran aid plo 2000 figuratively speaking iran help fix sewers lebanons camps160160 crucially iranian leadership ask close lebanese friends enact right work repeal 2001 law outlaws home ownership palestinians lebanon160 quite frankly absence basic human rights lebanon negatively affects palestinian lives day day even goal liberating al aqsa temple mount however essential achieve right work home ownership please theyre palestinians miss international zeinab al hajj born raised shatila camp regularly explains visitors iran160 allowed work home capacity engage liberation palestine grow fast part economic middle class could scavenging put bread table children160 energy time resist zionist occupation country160 currently forlorn among us energy try survive really live mind you160 try survive barely keep families together bit words solidarity needed iranian friends palestine help escape sewers exist far muslim sisters brothers foreigners lebanon enjoy full civil rights 33 anniversary islamic revolution iran 30th anniversary 1982 massacre sabrashatila iranian government give solid achievement words facilitate right work home palestinian refugees lebanon would require cost one phone call email tehran dahiyeh specifically communication supreme leader ali khamenei sayeed hassan nasrallah secgen hezbollah work parliament meet lebanese constitutionally mandated internationally required obligation immediately grant basic human right legally work home lebanons quarter million palestinian refugees lebanon able return country palestine | 925 |
<p>There’s only one possible answer: transfer payments to persons who are not employed; “Rueff’s Law” holds up for 70 years.</p>
<p>How can the trend of unemployment rise while the share of income received by employed workers keeps shrinking? Unless policymakers can answer that question when they meet in Detroit March 14-15 for their “jobs summit,” they must admit they don’t know how to cure workers’ biggest problem, which has been worsening for a generation. Indeed, the most striking feature of the jobs summit is its air of pessimism, particularly among those most busily launching new initiatives. President Clinton’s economic advisers, it turns out, don’t even see the problem.</p>
<p>A little thought (confirmed by the facts) reveals that the problem has only one possible cause — the growing wedge of income earned by employed workers but paid to persons who are not employed. Without such “transfer payments,” the combination of rising unemployment and relatively falling take-home pay is flatly impossible. This must also explain much of the inequality of income and slowdown in the growth of real national income since 1973. The good news is that the problem can be cured by throwing the same process into reverse. The bad news is that President Clinton’s plans to expand such transfer payments — particularly through universal health coverage — must worsen the plight of American workers.</p>
<p>European Union President Jacques Delors summarized not only his own massive White Paper on unemployment, but also the attitude of most policymakers heading to the “jobs summit” in Detroit, when he snapped, “If there were a miracle cure, it would not have gone unnoticed.” EU policymakers openly admit that their welfare states have caused unemployment to rise even more sharply than in the U.S. But they fear that trimming lavish benefits would create low-wage economies of their own.</p>
<p>President Clinton, meanwhile, has consistently treated his own initiatives, not as a means of curing workers’ biggest problem, but only of coping with it. “There is no power to protect the people of this country from the changes sweeping the global economy,” he said recently. “I mean, the average 18-year-old is going to change work eight times in a lifetime, anyway, whatever we do. But we do have an obligation to help them.”</p>
<p>The first report of the Clinton Council of Economic Advisers reveals the source of Mr. Clinton’s curious ambivalence. The CEA finds that real growth of national income (not just labor income) has slowed since 1973, and that the distribution of this income has become more unequal — for example, because of differing skills and education. But the CEA does not acknowledge that the income of workers as a group has slipped in relative terms — or that this could explain increasing income inequality. The CEA asserts that “most of the increase in average unemployment over the 1970s and 1980s was due to slack aggregate demand” (page 129). Otherwise, it sees no evidence of declining job security, suggesting that this “perception” is caused by “media accounts” or by “a constant rate of job loss combined with greater income inequality” (page 126). Yet the CEA’s own forecast expects the minimum unemployment rate to be higher once again in this business cycle than in the last.</p>
<p>Commentators who do see the problem have variously speculated that it is due to: the greed of the owners of capital, who are said to be hogging a larger share of national income; the pressures of international trade in equalizing wage rates among countries; the decline of labor unions; investment or total demand which is insufficient to achieve full employment; insufficient national saving; rapid technological change; poor education and training; or an “underclass” promoted and perpetuated by welfare.</p>
<p>Some of these theories could explain a fraction of the slowdown in real growth of total national income, or a fraction of any increased inequality of incomes. (The CEA report cites most of them on this score.) Some are simply false. But none can possibly explain how unemployment can rise while the relative income of workers declines. In fact, classical, Keynesian and neoclassical economics all agree in requiring exactly the opposite.</p>
<p>John Maynard Keynes began his General Theory by saying: “Thus I am not disputing this vital fact which the classical economists have (rightly) asserted as indefeasible. In a given state of organization, equipment and technique, the real wage earned by a unit of labour has a unique (inverse) correlation with the volume of employment” (Harbinger, New York, 1965, p. 17).</p>
<p>The main reason — it is essential to grasp — is the diminishing returns from hiring more labor to produce with any given equipment. If all else is the same, two carpenters with only one hammer may build more houses in a year than one carpenter with one hammer — but not twice as many. But labor and capital receive incomes equal to their contributions to any change in output, or “marginal product.” Therefore as Keynes agreed), “any means of increasing employment must lead at the same time to a diminution of the marginal product and hence of the rate of wages measured in terms of this product” (p. 18).</p>
<p>Moreover, the real wage rate must stop falling once full employment is reached: if no more labor is forthcoming, output can’t increase, so real wage rates can’t fall any more.</p>
<p>So how is it even possible to have an unbroken relative decline in take-home pay while unemployment rises? Must we throw out all labor-market theory, or what? No: to understand what’s going on we must only recognize two important facts.</p>
<p>First, real wage rates can rise, without reducing employment, thanks to improved or increased “organization, equipment and technique” (which were assumed constant in the theory just cited). This means that the unemployment rate varies, not with real wage rates measured in absolute terms, but with the relative price of labor, which is equivalent to labor’s share of the total income resulting from production.</p>
<p>Second, there is a difference between wages and labor income. Standard theory treats the two as interchangeable, and perhaps this simplification was justifiable 60 or 70 years ago. But today we cannot ignore all the taxes and subsidies which are specifically designed to transfer income between and among the owners of labor and capital. To calculate the relative price of labor accurately, we must take taxes and subsidies into account. Yet every labor cost calculation you have ever read assumes, in effect, that workers and owners of capital ignore most taxes, transfer payments, and many costs of earning income. Such calculations assume that labor income is equal to pre-tax pay and fringe benefits plus employers’ payroll taxes; when in fact labor income must equal take-home pay plus transfer payments. Thus neither total labor income nor the income actually received by employed workers has (to my knowledge) been accurately measured — although this would seem to be the crux of the current debate.</p>
<p>To estimate labor income on this basis, I went to the national income and product accounts, and added pretax employment income (including fringe benefits actually received by employed workers, and the government’s estimate of self-employed labor income, which had to be reconstructed before 1947), plus transfer payments to persons, minus labor’s share of personal and payroll taxes. The take-home pay of employed workers will equal total labor income minus after-tax transfer payments to persons who are not currently employed. Because of data limitations, especially going back in time, such a calculation can be only approximate. But it is extremely enlightening.</p>
<p>Graph 1 shows that, exactly as theory requires, there is an extremely close correlation between labor’s share of national income and the unemployment rate. Whenever labor’s share of income increases, unemployment goes up; whenever labor’s share decreases, unemployment goes down. Labor’s share of national income exceeded 90% at the depth of the Great Depression; at the same time, unemployment peaked at 25%.</p>
<p>Moreover, again as theory predicts, there is a limit, set by full employment, below which labor’s share of national income cannot fall. The lowest share of national income ever received by labor since 1929 was about 64% — and it corresponded to the lowest unemployment rate on record: 1% at the peak of the World War II boom. Since then, the upward trend in labor’s share of national income has been mirrored by the rising trend in unemployment. On average, each 1% rise in labor’s share of national income has been accompanied by about a 0.8-percentage-point rise in the unemployment rate.</p>
<p>Yet while labor’s share of national income has risen by 7 percentage points since the war, the share received by employed wage-earners has declined by 9 percentage points. The entire difference is due to transfer payments to persons who are not employed. This is exactly what theory requires: without such transfer payments, any increase in unemployment must be associated with a rise in take-home pay as a share of national income. (That’s what happened during the Great Depression.)</p>
<p>In the graphs I have omitted veterans’ benefits (which are not universally available based simply on work status or need), to show the effect of civilian transfer payments. But either way, the correlation between unemployment and labor’s share of national income is about 90 percent (Graph 2), and the correlation of changes in both is almost as high (Graph 3).</p>
<p>The statistical relationship between the relative price of labor and unemployment is not new; it was known in the 1930s and 1940s as “Rueff’s Law,” because French economist Jacques Rueff first used it in 1925 to explain Great Britain’s unprecedented post-World War I unemployment (“Les variations du chomage en Angleterre,” Revue Politique et Parlementaire, December 1925). Other researchers quickly found the same relationship (despite poor data) in at least a dozen other countries (Jean Denuc, “Les fluctuations comparees du chomage et des salaires dans quelques pays de 1919 a 1929,” Bulletin de la Statistique Generale de la France, April-June 1930). This impressed Keynes, among others, who cited the relationship in his General Theory (p. 276). (How the American economics profession came in the 1960s to believe in a “Phillips Curve” tradeoff between unemployment and inflation — first suggested by Irving Fisher in 1926 [“A Statistical Relation Between Unemployment and Price Changes,” International Labor Review, June 1926] but refuted by Rueff — is one of life’s little mysteries.)</p>
<p>Since all this is exactly what theory would predict, “the astonishing thing is not that this relationship exists,” as Rueff remarked, “but that it should astonish anyone” (De L’Aube au Crepuscule, PLON, Paris, 1977, p. 96). However, conventional labor cost calculations — typically defined as gross labor compensation as a share of business-sector GDP — have been unable to explain most of the variations in unemployment, simply because they ignore most taxes and subsidies (Graph 4). All that I have done here is to calculate Rueff’s Law for the United States, taking taxes and transfer payments into account: a calculation which anyone can verify (or, indeed, refine).</p>
<p>Transfer payments alone explain the relative decline of take-home pay for workers as a group; but they do not entirely explain the relative decline of take-home pay for the average worker. Since the mid-1960s, the workforce has grown more than 20% relative to the total U.S. population — due the Baby Boom’s size, increased labor force participation, and reduced birth rate. Therefore, take-home pay per worker has fallen by about 20% more, relative to national income per capita, than is explained by the decline of take-home pay as a share of national income.</p>
<p>However, such comparisons can be misleading, especially when they involve a change in labor force participation. Suppose a one-earner family earns a net $40,000 in wages, and then the other spouse gets a job netting $20,000. Average income per worker has fallen from $40,000 to $30,000, or by 25%; but average wages per capita have risen from $20,000 to $30,000, or by 50%. (Of course, neither statistic reflects the non-monetary costs and benefits of the change.) There is some demographic effect on wages from the size of the Baby Boom; it should now be at its peak and decline over the next 25 years, because the following generation is much smaller. But to be accurate in assessing the income of workers as a group, rather than some class of workers, it is better to use workers’ share of national income rather than comparing average income per worker with national income per capita.</p>
<p>The increase in labor’s relative share of national income is related to the sharp slowing of real national and labor income in absolute terms. This is because not only wage rates and employment, but also output and income, are all tied in a unique relationship. Wage rates and employment are inversely related; but output and income (including labor income) are positively related to employment. Therefore, whatever caused the rise in labor’s share of national income must have caused not only the rise in unemployment, but also much of the slowing of real output and income growth relative to the long-term trend.</p>
<p>We can gauge this effect by comparing labor’s share of national income with the deviation of real national income from its 1929-93 growth trend (an annual average of about 1.8% per capita). (See Graph 5.) Whenever labor’s share of national income rose by 1 percent, national income fell an average of about 2 percent. This is just as apparent when comparing changes in national income with change in labor’s share of national income (Graph 6). The correlation is about 90 percent, and would be nearly perfect if we used a slightly curved trend line. But this means that whenever labor’s share of national income rises by 1 percent, real labor income falls by 1 percent. That is, real labor income and take-home pay are positively related to national income, and inversely related to labor’s share of national income (Graph 7).</p>
<p>Together with our earlier findings on unemployment, this confirms “Okun’s Law,” which relates employment to output: Okun’s Law says that when real output (and therefore income) rises 2% faster than the trend, unemployment falls 0.7 to 0.8 percentage points (Graph 8). But theory, as well as our calculation, shows that Okun’s Law cannot “work” without Rueff’s Law: both the change in output and the change in employment are necessarily related to an opposite change in labor’s share of national income. (In fact, the statistical evidence for Rueff’s Law is even stronger than for Okun’s Law.)</p>
<p>Thus, whatever has caused labor’s share of national income to rise, by about 7 percentage points above its minimum observed level, has not only raised unemployment about 6 percentage points, but also reduced national income about 14 percent, and labor income about 7 percent, below the long-term trend.</p>
<p>But what is the cause? It is easy to show that the rising postwar trend of unemployment is due to efforts by governments to legislate wage rates in real, not just money terms.</p>
<p>The two main methods of legislating wage rates are minimum wage laws and transfer payments to the unemployed. Both put a floor under market wage rates, which requires employment (and therefore output and national income) to be cut back until labor’s contribution to any change in output equals the legislated wage rate. Transfer payments to employed workers or to persons outside the labor force reduce hours worked voluntarily, but do not increase unemployment, since receiving the benefits requires either having a job or leaving the labor force.</p>
<p>Therefore, when we look at transfer payments, we should find that transfer payments to the unemployed raise labor’s share of national income, while transfer payments to persons outside the labor force reduce take-home pay as a share of national income. (Both should reduce employment and lower real national income.) And this is in fact what the data tell us. This is exactly what Graph 9 shows. Most of the rise in labor’s share of national income since the Second World War is due to the rise in transfer payments to the unemployed (unemployment insurance and welfare to the able-bodied); while the decline in take-home pay as a share of national income is due to the rise of transfer payments to persons outside the labor force (chiefly Social Security, Medicare, other government retirement pensions, and benefits to the disabled).</p>
<p>With the help of Rueff’s Law, we can pin down the causes of the rise in unemployment in the United States still more precisely. The role of specific benefits to the unemployed in causing unemployment, will be revealed by the share of such benefits in national income. Similarly, the role of the minimum wage in causing unemployment is revealed by calculating aggregate wages paid at the minimum wage as a share of national income.</p>
<p>As Graph 10 shows, the entire upward trend of labor’s share of national income since 1960 is accounted for by welfare to the able-bodied. Unemployment insurance has no upward trend as a share of national income, and in fact has added nothing to unemployment since its institution. Except in 1975, when benefits were temporarily expanded to an unusual degree, the entire unemployment insurance system has never added more than about 1 percentage point to the unemployment rate. But welfare to the able-bodied has mushroomed. Based on its share of national income, welfare now adds more than 3 percentage points to unemployment: more than 2 percentage points have been added since the 1960s. And more than 1 percentage point of unemployment was added just since 1988 — thanks in large measure to the Bush administration’s acquiescence to large benefit increases, particularly for Medicaid.</p>
<p>Figures on aggregate wages paid at the minimum wage are available only since 1979. They show that the minimum wage added about 1 percentage point to unemployment in 1980, but that this effect virtually disappeared by 1990 as the result of “benign neglect” — holding the wage constant at $3.35 an hour while national and labor income rose. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 1990 fewer than 1 percent of all American workers were paid at the minmum wage, representing only a fraction of a percent of national income. (Some workers, exempt from the minimum wage, were paid less, but most were paid more.) The minimum-wage hike from $3.35 to $4.25 in 1990-91, again under the Bush administration, added about half a percentage point to theunemployment rate. But this effect should decline over time, as long as the minimum wage is not raised or indexed.</p>
<p>The remaining variation of labor’s share of national income — and therefore of unemployment — shows a cyclical variation, but no significant upward trend since the Second World War. Without the effect of all transfer payments to the unemployed, the unemployment rate would not have exceeded 4 percent during the last business cycle, and would have fallen as low as 2-1/2 percent.</p>
<p>Now, as we saw, President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers argues that “most of the increase in average unemployment over the 1970s and 1980s was due to slack aggregate demand.” If true, this would mean that unemployment could be reduced, and national income substantially increased in real (not just dollar) terms — albeit at the cost of higher inflation — merely by printing and spending more money. And in fact, the Clinton people have spent much effort lately telling our trading partners to put aside labor-market reforms and instead — you guessed it — “stimulate aggregate demand.”</p>
<p>But the rising postwar trend of unemployment — above all during the record peacetime inflation of the 1970s and early 1980s — cannot possibly be explained by “slack aggregate demand.” The last person who would agree to such a notion is John Maynard Keynes. It’s true that Keynes and his adversaries disagreed about what caused fluctuations in national income and output, and that it had something to do with aggregate demand. But that argument doesn’t apply here.</p>
<p>Crudely put, the classical economists argued that unemployment was caused by the failure of money wage rates to adjust to the existing level of money spending; while Keynes argued that it was a failure of policy to adjust total money spending to the existing level of money wage rates. Stripped of secondary complications, the two theories amount to the same thing in relative terms (as we saw, both involve a decline in labor’s share of national income as the necessary complement to rising employment, wages and national income) — but with very different price levels and social consequences. The postwar “neoclassical synthesis” tried to combine both possibilities into a single theory.</p>
<p>During the early 1930s, when the collapse of the international monetary system caused prices to fall sharply, Keynes’s view was more correct in practical terms — in the sense that it would have been better to prevent the 50% deflation of prices than to expect money wages to adjust to it, even temporarily.</p>
<p>But that’s not the case now — and not only because prices have been continuously rising. The big difference is that in Keynes’s day, minimum wage laws and unemployment benefits were fixed in money terms: the British “dole” was so many shillings a week, for example. A fall in the price level (for example, after Great Britain returned to the pre-World War I gold value of the pound) would raise the “real” value of the dole or the minimum wage, increasing unemployment; a rise in prices would lower the minimum wage or benefits in real terms, reducing unemployment. Engineering a deliberate rise in prices, as Keynes in effect proposed, instead of changing wage and benefit laws, may have been messy and perhaps cynical — but it was effective in reducing the unemployment caused by those laws.</p>
<p>But such a strategy was effective only until people (understandably) tried to gain legal protection from the inflation caused by “demand management” policies. Since the early 1970s in most countries, minimum wage laws and especially transfer payments have been indexed to the price level, or else (as with medical benefits) provided “in kind” regardless of the money cost. This effectively fixes wage rates in real terms, no matter what happens to prices.</p>
<p>Keynes himself predicted the result: “If, as in Australia, an attempt were made to fix real wages by legislation, then there would be a certain level of employment corresponding to that level of real wages,” he wrote in his General Theory. This is why the “Phillips Curve” tradeoff between inflation and unemployment seemed to work for awhile, and then disappeared altogether in the inflationary 1970s — that is, once indexing became almost universal.</p>
<p>Keynes stated explicitly that fixing real wage rates would render “Keynesian” policies useless for anything but causing inflation: “Moreover, it would, in this event, be impossible to increase employment by increasing expenditure in terms of money; for money-wages would rise proportionately to the increased money expenditure, so that there would be no increased expenditure in terms of wage-units and consequently no increase in employment.”</p>
<p>Thus, it is fair to call the Clinton Administration’s view of labor markets idiosyncratic; but to call it “unreconstructed Keynesianism” is to miss the whole point. The Clinton labor-market strategy was designed, as it were, by the first generation of Keynesians who never read Keynes.</p>
<p>The Clinton strategy violates three simple rules which, if followed, would restore full employment, raise real national income and increase workers’ share of it. The first is that transfer payments, though sometimes necessary, must always be a last resort, not the normal source of income. The second is that all benefits must be fixed in money terms, not indexed or provided in kind. The third is that policies designed to provide a “living family wage” must avoid fixing wage rates and be tied to current employment.</p>
<p>First, transfer payments must be a last resort simply because every real benefit has a real cost. As we saw, benefits to the unemployed increase unemployment; benefits to persons who are employed or outside the labor force reduce hours worked. In every case this means lower employment, lower national income and lower labor income. To the extent that transfer payments substitute for provision out of private saving, insurance, or mutual family aid, they reduce real income in another way: by reducing investment in physical or human capital (e.g., purchasing equipment or raising families). And transfer payments always squeeze employed workers in relative terms, because they require that provision for human needs come out of labor’s rather than capital’s share of national income.</p>
<p>Second, benefits must be fixed in money terms. As we saw, if benefits to the unemployed are indexed, then real wage rates are fixed — and this fixes employment, output and income at a lower level. If benefits to those outside the labor force are indexed, it means that non-workers have protection from inflation which employed workers — whose take-home pay is reduced dollar-for-dollar — do not. Both fairness and efficiency demand that benefits be fixed in money terms and raised only when it can be afforded. That’s how Social Security was run for almost 40 years.</p>
<p>Third, a “living family wage” is achievable — as long as benefits are conditioned on being employed and do not seek to fix wage rates. In this case, unemployment and the shares of labor income and take-home pay in national income will remain unchanged. In the final analysis, benefits for lower-income workers are paid by upper-income workers. Examples of this principle which have been supported by the Clinton administration are the earned income tax credit and work requirements for welfare to the able-bodied.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, these positive initiatives are outweighed and nullified by other proposals. Labor Secretary Robert Reich’s proposal to raise and index the minimum wage must not only increase unemployment; it must guarantee the failure of welfare reform — because few trying to leave welfare could find employment at such a wage.</p>
<p>Likewise, some positive plans to speed re-employment are overshadowed by the Administration’s attempt to transform the whole principle of unemployment insurance — from a “tiding-over” of temporary unemployment, into an open-ended “dole” for long-term unemployment. That was exactly the fatal mistake that turned the British system after World War I and the European systems in the 1970s into unemployment traps for millions of workers. Precisely because of its limited and temporary benefits, the current U.S. unemployment insurance system is the best in the world, providing a safety net without destroying the habit of work.</p>
<p>Finally, the Clinton plan for universal health care scores a hat trick by violating all three principles of sound policy. First, transfer payments are made the normal means of providing for health care, not a last resort. Second, benefits are guaranteed in kind, which guarantees that there can be no dollar-cost containment. Third, the plan’s benefits would fix real wage rates and are not tied to employment — and so must further raise unemployment and reduce take-home pay as a share of national income.</p>
<p>If health benefits, like the earned income tax credit, were conditioned on being employed, there would be no increase in unemployment or change in the share of national income received by employed workers as a group — though higher-income workers would once again be socked, and total hours worked would decline.</p>
<p>But the Clinton health plan is not a means of achieving a “living family wage”: it offers a minimum income, whether or not the recipient is employed. “Universal” health care means that a package of benefits, currently worth up to $6,000 a year, will be extended not only to workers but also to the unemployed and to those outside the labor force. Yet the entire cost must come out of the earnings of employed workers. This is why the Clinton health plan cannot avoid increasing the unemployment rate and further reducing take-home pay as a share of national income.</p>
<p>Thus the First Lady was poorly advised in claiming that there is “no evidence whatsover” that either raising the minimum wage or enacting universal health care would have such effects. Mrs. Clinton is free to opine that universal health coverage is worth the cost of higher unemployment and lower take-home pay; but it’s absurd to deny that there is such a cost. (If there’s no cost, why palter? Why not a minimum wage of $500 an hour, and health benefits worth $50,000 apiece?)</p>
<p>Even those who may share many of President Clinton’s goals are forced to paraphrase Bosquet’s remark on the Charge of the Light Brigade: It’s magnificent, but it’s not economics.</p>
<p>In fairness, this blindness is not limited to the administration. As we saw, the past damage has been done under Republican and Democratic administrations alike. And many conservatives, like the Clinton CEA, somehow manage to ignore or at least downplay the very real relative slippage of workers’ incomes. Boilerplate language about “full employment” is in both parties’ platforms — but when was the last time you heard a politician in either party actually mention it as a desirable and achievable goal?</p>
<p>It’s time for policymakers to snap out of their funk. As an explanation of the postwar rise in unemployment there is simply no such thing as “natural” or “structural” unemployment — in the sense of unemployment arising out of the nature or structure of the economy, and therefore beyond the reach of policymakers. There is such a thing as “institutional unemployment” — but it comes precisely from misguided policies which legislate real wage rates, and necessarily lower real labor income. To confuse the two (as is now becoming fashionable) is a counsel of despair: abandon hope, ye who enter the labor market.</p>
<p>Nonsense. An unemployment rate of, say, 3% is eminently achievable, both in America and in Europe, merely by following time-tested principles. And doing so must always raise, not lower, workers’ real incomes, in both absolute and relative terms: Europe, take note.</p>
<p>All that is required is for policymakers to stop moping around “jobs summits,” pull up their socks, and change the misguided policies which, alone, have caused the combination of rising unemployment and relative decline in workers’ real incomes.</p>
<p>John Mueller is a principal of Lehrman Bell Mueller Cannon, Inc., an Arlington, Va., financial market forecasting firm.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Appendix 1</p>
<p>Calculating Labor’s Share of National Income&#160;Net of Taxes and Transfer Payments</p>
<p>The validity of any theory depends on the ability of anyone to test it against reality. Rueff’s Law is no exception. The purpose of this appendix is to describe how to reproduce the calculations of labor income in the foregoing text.</p>
<p>Most of the data come from the National Income and Product Accounts. In the notation, NIPA table and line numbers are used. For example, 1.1.1 means NIPA Table 1.1, line 1.</p>
<p>Total labor income equals wages and salaries, plus other labor income, plus the BLS estimate of self-employed labor income, plus net transfers to persons, minus personal contributions for social insurance, minus labor’s share of personal taxes. (Employers’ contributions for social insurance are ignored, since they are, in effect, already included as one means of financing transfer payments to persons.) In the graphs, we also exclude veteran’s benefits, though this makes a noticeable difference only in the few years immediately after World War II. Thus the calculation of labor’s share of national income is: (1.14.3 + 1.14.8 + 2.1.15 – 2.1.29 – 2.1.23 – [2.1.24 x labor’s share of personal taxes] + BLS self-employed labor income – 3.12.19 – 3.12.16)/1.14.1.</p>
<p>Self-employed labor income is the difference between business-sector compensation as figured by the BLS for labor cost calculations, and business-sector compensation in the NIPA (1.14.5 + 1.14.7 + 1.14.8). Before 1947, self-employed labor income is calculated as the sum of the products of the corresponding lines in NIPA tables 6.6A and 6.7A, times 1.035 (a grossing-up factor, designed to match the BLS estimate of self-employed labor income for 1947).</p>
<p>Labor’s share of personal taxes is assumed to be proportional to labor’s share of labor’s and capital’s combined taxable income. Labor’s taxable income includes total wages and salaries plus self-employed labor income plus taxable transfer payments. Capital’s taxable income includes proprietors’ income other than self-employed labor income, personal dividends, personal interest, personal rental income, and capital income included in adjusted gross income which is not included in personal income. Labor’s share of personal taxes is therefore (1.14.3 + self-employed labor income + 2.1.15 – 8.24.3)/(8.24.10 – 2.1.23 + 1.14.3 + 1.14.9 + 2.1.13 + 2.1.14 + 1.14.7 + 2.1.15 – 8.24.3). Before 1947, all government transfer payments are assumed to be untaxed, and capital income included in AGI but not in personal income is assumed to equal 1.9% of personal income (2.1.1), as in 1947.</p>
<p>Employed workers’ income is equal to total labor income, minus net transfer payments to persons other than veterans’ benefits (2.1.15 – 2.1.29 – 3.12.16 – 3.12.19). This requires adding the tax on transfer payments to persons, which equals personal taxes (2.1.24) times the fraction of taxable transfer payments (2.1.15 – 8.24.3) in total taxable labor and capital income (see the previous paragraph).</p>
<p>Unemployment benefits equal 3.12.6. Welfare benefits assumed to go primarily to the able-bodied unemployed include Food Stamps (3.12.23), state &amp; local public assistance (3.12.34), and “other” Federal transfer payments (3.12.28), but exclude payments primarily to aged, blind or disabled, such as SSI, Black Lung benefits, etc., and exclude payments to the employed, such as the earned income tax credit.</p>
<p>Figures on population and the labor force used in per capita and per worker comparisons are from the Census Bureau, Commerce Department, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.</p>
<p>Appendix 2</p>
<p>Trade Unions and Take-Home Pay</p>
<p>Many different theories have been put forward to explain how the trend of unemployment can rise while the share of national income going to employed workers declines. Because there is only one possible explanation — transfer payments to persons not currently employed — it is not necessary to refute the other arguments one by one. But it is certainly possible to do so.</p>
<p>For example, it is sometimes argued that the relative decline of workers’ incomes is due to the decline of trade unions. For example, John B. Judis recently asserted in the New Republic: “The unfashionable truth is that the decline of American wages has been largely a result of the decline of American labor unions” (“Why Your Wages Keep Falling,” February 14, 1994).</p>
<p>Now, it is one thing to say that a combination of workers, buttressed by legal privileges, creates a wage premium for unionized workers relative to other workers; but something else again to claim that this increases take-home pay for workers as a group.</p>
<p>Keynes contradicted this idea in his General Theory: “In other words, the struggle about money-wages primarily affects the distribution of the aggregate real wage between different labour-groups, and not its average amount per unit of employment, which depends, as we shall see, on a different set of forces. The effect of combination on the part of a group of workers is to protect their relative real wage. The general level of real wages depends on other forces in the economic system” (p. 14). [emphasis in original]</p>
<p>As Graph 11 shows, the relative decline of real take-home pay per worker does bear a striking relationship to trade union membership. The trouble is that, at least since the Wagner Act of 1935, significant changes in trade union membership have always followed major changes in real take-home pay, by one to three years.</p>
<p>I suggest that the decline of trade union membership is not the cause but the result of the relative decline of workers’ real income. History shows that workers join unions when employment and wages are relatively high — that is, when they have the least to lose — and they desert unions when employment and pay are relatively low. This ought to be good news for unions, since it means there is nothing at all inevitable about the decline of union membership. For better or worse, union membership will rise again if we ever solve the problems of American workers.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, efforts to improve the plight of American workers are hampered precisely by the fact that the interests of workers are represented, if at all, by union leaders rather than by labor leaders. The prevalent attitude among union leaders is that “what’s good for the UAW is good for American workers” — which, I suggest, has no more validity than “what’s good for General Motors is good for America.”</p>
<p>Union leaders on the whole support universal health care — despite the fact that it must necessarily raise unemployment some more and further lower take-home pay of employed workers as a share of national income. If unions do sign on to the massive legislation now congealing in Congress, it may turn out to be the longest suicide note ever written.</p> | false | 1 | theres one possible answer transfer payments persons employed rueffs law holds 70 years trend unemployment rise share income received employed workers keeps shrinking unless policymakers answer question meet detroit march 1415 jobs summit must admit dont know cure workers biggest problem worsening generation indeed striking feature jobs summit air pessimism particularly among busily launching new initiatives president clintons economic advisers turns dont even see problem little thought confirmed facts reveals problem one possible cause growing wedge income earned employed workers paid persons employed without transfer payments combination rising unemployment relatively falling takehome pay flatly impossible must also explain much inequality income slowdown growth real national income since 1973 good news problem cured throwing process reverse bad news president clintons plans expand transfer payments particularly universal health coverage must worsen plight american workers european union president jacques delors summarized massive white paper unemployment also attitude policymakers heading jobs summit detroit snapped miracle cure would gone unnoticed eu policymakers openly admit welfare states caused unemployment rise even sharply us fear trimming lavish benefits would create lowwage economies president clinton meanwhile consistently treated initiatives means curing workers biggest problem coping power protect people country changes sweeping global economy said recently mean average 18yearold going change work eight times lifetime anyway whatever obligation help first report clinton council economic advisers reveals source mr clintons curious ambivalence cea finds real growth national income labor income slowed since 1973 distribution income become unequal example differing skills education cea acknowledge income workers group slipped relative terms could explain increasing income inequality cea asserts increase average unemployment 1970s 1980s due slack aggregate demand page 129 otherwise sees evidence declining job security suggesting perception caused media accounts constant rate job loss combined greater income inequality page 126 yet ceas forecast expects minimum unemployment rate higher business cycle last commentators see problem variously speculated due greed owners capital said hogging larger share national income pressures international trade equalizing wage rates among countries decline labor unions investment total demand insufficient achieve full employment insufficient national saving rapid technological change poor education training underclass promoted perpetuated welfare theories could explain fraction slowdown real growth total national income fraction increased inequality incomes cea report cites score simply false none possibly explain unemployment rise relative income workers declines fact classical keynesian neoclassical economics agree requiring exactly opposite john maynard keynes began general theory saying thus disputing vital fact classical economists rightly asserted indefeasible given state organization equipment technique real wage earned unit labour unique inverse correlation volume employment harbinger new york 1965 p 17 main reason essential grasp diminishing returns hiring labor produce given equipment else two carpenters one hammer may build houses year one carpenter one hammer twice many labor capital receive incomes equal contributions change output marginal product therefore keynes agreed means increasing employment must lead time diminution marginal product hence rate wages measured terms product p 18 moreover real wage rate must stop falling full employment reached labor forthcoming output cant increase real wage rates cant fall even possible unbroken relative decline takehome pay unemployment rises must throw labormarket theory understand whats going must recognize two important facts first real wage rates rise without reducing employment thanks improved increased organization equipment technique assumed constant theory cited means unemployment rate varies real wage rates measured absolute terms relative price labor equivalent labors share total income resulting production second difference wages labor income standard theory treats two interchangeable perhaps simplification justifiable 60 70 years ago today ignore taxes subsidies specifically designed transfer income among owners labor capital calculate relative price labor accurately must take taxes subsidies account yet every labor cost calculation ever read assumes effect workers owners capital ignore taxes transfer payments many costs earning income calculations assume labor income equal pretax pay fringe benefits plus employers payroll taxes fact labor income must equal takehome pay plus transfer payments thus neither total labor income income actually received employed workers knowledge accurately measured although would seem crux current debate estimate labor income basis went national income product accounts added pretax employment income including fringe benefits actually received employed workers governments estimate selfemployed labor income reconstructed 1947 plus transfer payments persons minus labors share personal payroll taxes takehome pay employed workers equal total labor income minus aftertax transfer payments persons currently employed data limitations especially going back time calculation approximate extremely enlightening graph 1 shows exactly theory requires extremely close correlation labors share national income unemployment rate whenever labors share income increases unemployment goes whenever labors share decreases unemployment goes labors share national income exceeded 90 depth great depression time unemployment peaked 25 moreover theory predicts limit set full employment labors share national income fall lowest share national income ever received labor since 1929 64 corresponded lowest unemployment rate record 1 peak world war ii boom since upward trend labors share national income mirrored rising trend unemployment average 1 rise labors share national income accompanied 08percentagepoint rise unemployment rate yet labors share national income risen 7 percentage points since war share received employed wageearners declined 9 percentage points entire difference due transfer payments persons employed exactly theory requires without transfer payments increase unemployment must associated rise takehome pay share national income thats happened great depression graphs omitted veterans benefits universally available based simply work status need show effect civilian transfer payments either way correlation unemployment labors share national income 90 percent graph 2 correlation changes almost high graph 3 statistical relationship relative price labor unemployment new known 1930s 1940s rueffs law french economist jacques rueff first used 1925 explain great britains unprecedented postworld war unemployment les variations du chomage en angleterre revue politique et parlementaire december 1925 researchers quickly found relationship despite poor data least dozen countries jean denuc les fluctuations comparees du chomage et des salaires dans quelques pays de 1919 1929 bulletin de la statistique generale de la france apriljune 1930 impressed keynes among others cited relationship general theory p 276 american economics profession came 1960s believe phillips curve tradeoff unemployment inflation first suggested irving fisher 1926 statistical relation unemployment price changes international labor review june 1926 refuted rueff one lifes little mysteries since exactly theory would predict astonishing thing relationship exists rueff remarked astonish anyone de laube au crepuscule plon paris 1977 p 96 however conventional labor cost calculations typically defined gross labor compensation share businesssector gdp unable explain variations unemployment simply ignore taxes subsidies graph 4 done calculate rueffs law united states taking taxes transfer payments account calculation anyone verify indeed refine transfer payments alone explain relative decline takehome pay workers group entirely explain relative decline takehome pay average worker since mid1960s workforce grown 20 relative total us population due baby booms size increased labor force participation reduced birth rate therefore takehome pay per worker fallen 20 relative national income per capita explained decline takehome pay share national income however comparisons misleading especially involve change labor force participation suppose oneearner family earns net 40000 wages spouse gets job netting 20000 average income per worker fallen 40000 30000 25 average wages per capita risen 20000 30000 50 course neither statistic reflects nonmonetary costs benefits change demographic effect wages size baby boom peak decline next 25 years following generation much smaller accurate assessing income workers group rather class workers better use workers share national income rather comparing average income per worker national income per capita increase labors relative share national income related sharp slowing real national labor income absolute terms wage rates employment also output income tied unique relationship wage rates employment inversely related output income including labor income positively related employment therefore whatever caused rise labors share national income must caused rise unemployment also much slowing real output income growth relative longterm trend gauge effect comparing labors share national income deviation real national income 192993 growth trend annual average 18 per capita see graph 5 whenever labors share national income rose 1 percent national income fell average 2 percent apparent comparing changes national income change labors share national income graph 6 correlation 90 percent would nearly perfect used slightly curved trend line means whenever labors share national income rises 1 percent real labor income falls 1 percent real labor income takehome pay positively related national income inversely related labors share national income graph 7 together earlier findings unemployment confirms okuns law relates employment output okuns law says real output therefore income rises 2 faster trend unemployment falls 07 08 percentage points graph 8 theory well calculation shows okuns law work without rueffs law change output change employment necessarily related opposite change labors share national income fact statistical evidence rueffs law even stronger okuns law thus whatever caused labors share national income rise 7 percentage points minimum observed level raised unemployment 6 percentage points also reduced national income 14 percent labor income 7 percent longterm trend cause easy show rising postwar trend unemployment due efforts governments legislate wage rates real money terms two main methods legislating wage rates minimum wage laws transfer payments unemployed put floor market wage rates requires employment therefore output national income cut back labors contribution change output equals legislated wage rate transfer payments employed workers persons outside labor force reduce hours worked voluntarily increase unemployment since receiving benefits requires either job leaving labor force therefore look transfer payments find transfer payments unemployed raise labors share national income transfer payments persons outside labor force reduce takehome pay share national income reduce employment lower real national income fact data tell us exactly graph 9 shows rise labors share national income since second world war due rise transfer payments unemployed unemployment insurance welfare ablebodied decline takehome pay share national income due rise transfer payments persons outside labor force chiefly social security medicare government retirement pensions benefits disabled help rueffs law pin causes rise unemployment united states still precisely role specific benefits unemployed causing unemployment revealed share benefits national income similarly role minimum wage causing unemployment revealed calculating aggregate wages paid minimum wage share national income graph 10 shows entire upward trend labors share national income since 1960 accounted welfare ablebodied unemployment insurance upward trend share national income fact added nothing unemployment since institution except 1975 benefits temporarily expanded unusual degree entire unemployment insurance system never added 1 percentage point unemployment rate welfare ablebodied mushroomed based share national income welfare adds 3 percentage points unemployment 2 percentage points added since 1960s 1 percentage point unemployment added since 1988 thanks large measure bush administrations acquiescence large benefit increases particularly medicaid figures aggregate wages paid minimum wage available since 1979 show minimum wage added 1 percentage point unemployment 1980 effect virtually disappeared 1990 result benign neglect holding wage constant 335 hour national labor income rose according bureau labor statistics 1990 fewer 1 percent american workers paid minmum wage representing fraction percent national income workers exempt minimum wage paid less paid minimumwage hike 335 425 199091 bush administration added half percentage point theunemployment rate effect decline time long minimum wage raised indexed remaining variation labors share national income therefore unemployment shows cyclical variation significant upward trend since second world war without effect transfer payments unemployed unemployment rate would exceeded 4 percent last business cycle would fallen low 212 percent saw president clintons council economic advisers argues increase average unemployment 1970s 1980s due slack aggregate demand true would mean unemployment could reduced national income substantially increased real dollar terms albeit cost higher inflation merely printing spending money fact clinton people spent much effort lately telling trading partners put aside labormarket reforms instead guessed stimulate aggregate demand rising postwar trend unemployment record peacetime inflation 1970s early 1980s possibly explained slack aggregate demand last person would agree notion john maynard keynes true keynes adversaries disagreed caused fluctuations national income output something aggregate demand argument doesnt apply crudely put classical economists argued unemployment caused failure money wage rates adjust existing level money spending keynes argued failure policy adjust total money spending existing level money wage rates stripped secondary complications two theories amount thing relative terms saw involve decline labors share national income necessary complement rising employment wages national income different price levels social consequences postwar neoclassical synthesis tried combine possibilities single theory early 1930s collapse international monetary system caused prices fall sharply keyness view correct practical terms sense would better prevent 50 deflation prices expect money wages adjust even temporarily thats case prices continuously rising big difference keyness day minimum wage laws unemployment benefits fixed money terms british dole many shillings week example fall price level example great britain returned preworld war gold value pound would raise real value dole minimum wage increasing unemployment rise prices would lower minimum wage benefits real terms reducing unemployment engineering deliberate rise prices keynes effect proposed instead changing wage benefit laws may messy perhaps cynical effective reducing unemployment caused laws strategy effective people understandably tried gain legal protection inflation caused demand management policies since early 1970s countries minimum wage laws especially transfer payments indexed price level else medical benefits provided kind regardless money cost effectively fixes wage rates real terms matter happens prices keynes predicted result australia attempt made fix real wages legislation would certain level employment corresponding level real wages wrote general theory phillips curve tradeoff inflation unemployment seemed work awhile disappeared altogether inflationary 1970s indexing became almost universal keynes stated explicitly fixing real wage rates would render keynesian policies useless anything causing inflation moreover would event impossible increase employment increasing expenditure terms money moneywages would rise proportionately increased money expenditure would increased expenditure terms wageunits consequently increase employment thus fair call clinton administrations view labor markets idiosyncratic call unreconstructed keynesianism miss whole point clinton labormarket strategy designed first generation keynesians never read keynes clinton strategy violates three simple rules followed would restore full employment raise real national income increase workers share first transfer payments though sometimes necessary must always last resort normal source income second benefits must fixed money terms indexed provided kind third policies designed provide living family wage must avoid fixing wage rates tied current employment first transfer payments must last resort simply every real benefit real cost saw benefits unemployed increase unemployment benefits persons employed outside labor force reduce hours worked every case means lower employment lower national income lower labor income extent transfer payments substitute provision private saving insurance mutual family aid reduce real income another way reducing investment physical human capital eg purchasing equipment raising families transfer payments always squeeze employed workers relative terms require provision human needs come labors rather capitals share national income second benefits must fixed money terms saw benefits unemployed indexed real wage rates fixed fixes employment output income lower level benefits outside labor force indexed means nonworkers protection inflation employed workers whose takehome pay reduced dollarfordollar fairness efficiency demand benefits fixed money terms raised afforded thats social security run almost 40 years third living family wage achievable long benefits conditioned employed seek fix wage rates case unemployment shares labor income takehome pay national income remain unchanged final analysis benefits lowerincome workers paid upperincome workers examples principle supported clinton administration earned income tax credit work requirements welfare ablebodied unfortunately positive initiatives outweighed nullified proposals labor secretary robert reichs proposal raise index minimum wage must increase unemployment must guarantee failure welfare reform trying leave welfare could find employment wage likewise positive plans speed reemployment overshadowed administrations attempt transform whole principle unemployment insurance tidingover temporary unemployment openended dole longterm unemployment exactly fatal mistake turned british system world war european systems 1970s unemployment traps millions workers precisely limited temporary benefits current us unemployment insurance system best world providing safety net without destroying habit work finally clinton plan universal health care scores hat trick violating three principles sound policy first transfer payments made normal means providing health care last resort second benefits guaranteed kind guarantees dollarcost containment third plans benefits would fix real wage rates tied employment must raise unemployment reduce takehome pay share national income health benefits like earned income tax credit conditioned employed would increase unemployment change share national income received employed workers group though higherincome workers would socked total hours worked would decline clinton health plan means achieving living family wage offers minimum income whether recipient employed universal health care means package benefits currently worth 6000 year extended workers also unemployed outside labor force yet entire cost must come earnings employed workers clinton health plan avoid increasing unemployment rate reducing takehome pay share national income thus first lady poorly advised claiming evidence whatsover either raising minimum wage enacting universal health care would effects mrs clinton free opine universal health coverage worth cost higher unemployment lower takehome pay absurd deny cost theres cost palter minimum wage 500 hour health benefits worth 50000 apiece even may share many president clintons goals forced paraphrase bosquets remark charge light brigade magnificent economics fairness blindness limited administration saw past damage done republican democratic administrations alike many conservatives like clinton cea somehow manage ignore least downplay real relative slippage workers incomes boilerplate language full employment parties platforms last time heard politician either party actually mention desirable achievable goal time policymakers snap funk explanation postwar rise unemployment simply thing natural structural unemployment sense unemployment arising nature structure economy therefore beyond reach policymakers thing institutional unemployment comes precisely misguided policies legislate real wage rates necessarily lower real labor income confuse two becoming fashionable counsel despair abandon hope ye enter labor market nonsense unemployment rate say 3 eminently achievable america europe merely following timetested principles must always raise lower workers real incomes absolute relative terms europe take note required policymakers stop moping around jobs summits pull socks change misguided policies alone caused combination rising unemployment relative decline workers real incomes john mueller principal lehrman bell mueller cannon inc arlington va financial market forecasting firm 160 appendix 1 calculating labors share national income160net taxes transfer payments validity theory depends ability anyone test reality rueffs law exception purpose appendix describe reproduce calculations labor income foregoing text data come national income product accounts notation nipa table line numbers used example 111 means nipa table 11 line 1 total labor income equals wages salaries plus labor income plus bls estimate selfemployed labor income plus net transfers persons minus personal contributions social insurance minus labors share personal taxes employers contributions social insurance ignored since effect already included one means financing transfer payments persons graphs also exclude veterans benefits though makes noticeable difference years immediately world war ii thus calculation labors share national income 1143 1148 2115 2129 2123 2124 x labors share personal taxes bls selfemployed labor income 31219 312161141 selfemployed labor income difference businesssector compensation figured bls labor cost calculations businesssector compensation nipa 1145 1147 1148 1947 selfemployed labor income calculated sum products corresponding lines nipa tables 66a 67a times 1035 grossingup factor designed match bls estimate selfemployed labor income 1947 labors share personal taxes assumed proportional labors share labors capitals combined taxable income labors taxable income includes total wages salaries plus selfemployed labor income plus taxable transfer payments capitals taxable income includes proprietors income selfemployed labor income personal dividends personal interest personal rental income capital income included adjusted gross income included personal income labors share personal taxes therefore 1143 selfemployed labor income 2115 824382410 2123 1143 1149 2113 2114 1147 2115 8243 1947 government transfer payments assumed untaxed capital income included agi personal income assumed equal 19 personal income 211 1947 employed workers income equal total labor income minus net transfer payments persons veterans benefits 2115 2129 31216 31219 requires adding tax transfer payments persons equals personal taxes 2124 times fraction taxable transfer payments 2115 8243 total taxable labor capital income see previous paragraph unemployment benefits equal 3126 welfare benefits assumed go primarily ablebodied unemployed include food stamps 31223 state amp local public assistance 31234 federal transfer payments 31228 exclude payments primarily aged blind disabled ssi black lung benefits etc exclude payments employed earned income tax credit figures population labor force used per capita per worker comparisons census bureau commerce department bureau labor statistics appendix 2 trade unions takehome pay many different theories put forward explain trend unemployment rise share national income going employed workers declines one possible explanation transfer payments persons currently employed necessary refute arguments one one certainly possible example sometimes argued relative decline workers incomes due decline trade unions example john b judis recently asserted new republic unfashionable truth decline american wages largely result decline american labor unions wages keep falling february 14 1994 one thing say combination workers buttressed legal privileges creates wage premium unionized workers relative workers something else claim increases takehome pay workers group keynes contradicted idea general theory words struggle moneywages primarily affects distribution aggregate real wage different labourgroups average amount per unit employment depends shall see different set forces effect combination part group workers protect relative real wage general level real wages depends forces economic system p 14 emphasis original graph 11 shows relative decline real takehome pay per worker bear striking relationship trade union membership trouble least since wagner act 1935 significant changes trade union membership always followed major changes real takehome pay one three years suggest decline trade union membership cause result relative decline workers real income history shows workers join unions employment wages relatively high least lose desert unions employment pay relatively low ought good news unions since means nothing inevitable decline union membership better worse union membership rise ever solve problems american workers unfortunately efforts improve plight american workers hampered precisely fact interests workers represented union leaders rather labor leaders prevalent attitude among union leaders whats good uaw good american workers suggest validity whats good general motors good america union leaders whole support universal health care despite fact must necessarily raise unemployment lower takehome pay employed workers share national income unions sign massive legislation congealing congress may turn longest suicide note ever written | 3,590 |
<p>The short-story composite is among the most athletic feats of literary adaptation. In the best of them, like Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts,” a sense of temporal and cosmic connection is forged between scattered narratives bound only by an authorial voice; once viewed, it should be hard to imagine the strands unbraided. Drawn from an entire collection by American author Richard Bausch, relocated to the coastal city of Nice, <a href="http://variety.com/t/gilles-bourdos/" type="external">Gilles Bourdos</a>’s wriggly, mutable “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/endangered-species/" type="external">Endangered Species</a>” doesn’t quite pull off the trick, but it’s charged and vibrant all the same. Variously reflecting on the turbulent power dynamics between parents and adult children, its unequally weighted story threads range from gut-wrenching to glib, never fully woven into the same world. Making up for the film’s structural wobbles, however, is its gorgeous, agile visual language: Thanks to cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-bing’s indelible image-making, the material gains a tactility distinct from what the written word can achieve.</p>
<p>On the strength of its rich sensory pleasures, U.S. literary roots and a strong ensemble of familiar French stalwarts and notable up-and-comers, “Endangered Species” should score some international distribution after its domestic release on September 27; it’s unlikely, however, to travel as far or as lucratively as Bourdos and Lee’s previous collaboration, the suitably incandescent, Oscar-submitted artist biopic “Renoir.” Putting Bourdos back on the contemporary, psychologically fraught turf of earlier films “Afterwards” and the Ruth Rendell adaptation “A Sight for Sore Eyes,” this is, tonally and thematically, his most off-kilter work to date: None of its mini-narratives are thrillers per se, but the uncertain way they bump into each other lends the film a persistent, humming anxiety.</p>
<p>Adapting the stories (all drawn from the 2003 collection “The Stories of Richard Bausch”) with his regular writing partner Michel Spinosa, Bourdos isn’t at great pains to disguise the screenplay’s divided origins. The film begins with two extended, seemingly disparate set pieces that could practically be self-standing short films. A dazzling introductory aerial shot — a cinematic endorphin rush that the film never tops — introduces us to young, beautiful, reckless newlyweds Josephine (Alice Isaaz) and Tomas (Vincent Rottiers), speeding and hooting down the motorway in their “just married” pickup, trailed by billowing clouds of carmine-colored smoke. Once in their hotel honeymoon suite, however, Tomas lurches from pillow talk to protracted mind games that presage a toxic turn in their marriage.</p>
<p>Next, Bourdos cuts to another intense, wholly unconnected conversation — this one conducted over the phone — between middle-aged Vincent (Eric Elmosnino) and his adult daughter Melanie (Alice de Lencquesaing). She’s pregnant by a man of whom Vincent doesn’t approve, and the lengthy dialogue implicitly spills so many salient details of their family history that it’s flummoxing when the film barely returns to their story, instead making Josephine and Tomas’s increasingly abusive relationship the film’s narrative locus.</p>
<p>After those two slow-burning scenes at the outset, the film switches to a more conventionally restless ensemble structure, alternating appointments with its core characters: Josephine and Tomas; her despairing parents (Grégory Gadebois and Suzanne Clément), whose own marital problems are exacerbated by knowledge of their daughter’s predicament; and, in the most outlying of the film’s strands, Anthony (Damien Chapelle), a tender-hearted, lovelorn young man struggling with the fallout of his parents’ wildly acrimonious breakup, followed by the confinement of his mother (Brigitte Catillon) to a psychiatric ward. All are tonally contrasting variations on a substantial theme: the growing powerlessness of parents to correct their children’s grown-up mistakes, and vice versa.</p>
<p>The more “Endangered Species” works to contrive literal connections — a fender-bender, a neighborly dispute — between these lost souls, the less credible it becomes, while the transitions can be disorienting: Anthony’s story plays in a far more whimsical register than Josephine’s harrowing plight, though both are performed with the same level of conviction. As a terrified victim of domestic violence who just can’t bring herself to ask for help, the highly promising Isaaz (recently seen in “Elle”) has the heftiest, most lacerating emoting to do here, though she first among equals in the cast; Gadebois, as a handcuffed parent resorting to panicked measures to protect his daughter, and Catillon, as a woman at once liberated and frustrated by her own mental breakdown, work wonders with characters written in shorthand.</p>
<p>Still, it’s Lee’s electric lensing that might be the star of the entire enterprise, awash with color and sweeping motion that democratically finds beauty in Nice’s highways and underexposed working-class residences, not just its Riviera money-shot locales. Working against the current trend for dusky, underlit social realism, Lee shoots even the film’s most downbeat sequences in dominant tones of citrus and fierce vermilion: No life in this tangle of human error is too insignificant to be blazingly illuminated.</p>
<p>Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (Orizzonti), Aug. 31, 2017. Running time: 104 MIN.&#160;(Original title: “Espèces menacées”)</p>
<p>(France-Belgium) A Les Films du Lendemain, Les Films du Fleuve presentation. (International sales: Wild Bunch, Paris.) Producer: Kristina Larsen. Co-producers: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Delphine Tomson.</p>
<p>Director: Gilles Bourdos. Screenplay: Bourdos, Michel Spinosa, adapted from the short story collection “The Stories of Richard Bausch” by Richard Bausch. Camera (color, widescreen): Mark Lee Ping-bing. Editor: Yannick Kergoat.</p>
<p>Alice Isaaz, Vincent Rottiers, Grégory Gadebois, Suzanne Clément, Eric Elmosnino, Alice de Lencquesaing, Carlo Brandt, Agathe Dronne, Damien Chapelle, Brigitte Catillon, Pauline Etienne, Frédéric Pierrot.</p> | false | 1 | shortstory composite among athletic feats literary adaptation best like robert altmans short cuts sense temporal cosmic connection forged scattered narratives bound authorial voice viewed hard imagine strands unbraided drawn entire collection american author richard bausch relocated coastal city nice gilles bourdoss wriggly mutable endangered species doesnt quite pull trick charged vibrant variously reflecting turbulent power dynamics parents adult children unequally weighted story threads range gutwrenching glib never fully woven world making films structural wobbles however gorgeous agile visual language thanks cinematographer mark lee pingbings indelible imagemaking material gains tactility distinct written word achieve strength rich sensory pleasures us literary roots strong ensemble familiar french stalwarts notable upandcomers endangered species score international distribution domestic release september 27 unlikely however travel far lucratively bourdos lees previous collaboration suitably incandescent oscarsubmitted artist biopic renoir putting bourdos back contemporary psychologically fraught turf earlier films afterwards ruth rendell adaptation sight sore eyes tonally thematically offkilter work date none mininarratives thrillers per se uncertain way bump lends film persistent humming anxiety adapting stories drawn 2003 collection stories richard bausch regular writing partner michel spinosa bourdos isnt great pains disguise screenplays divided origins film begins two extended seemingly disparate set pieces could practically selfstanding short films dazzling introductory aerial shot cinematic endorphin rush film never tops introduces us young beautiful reckless newlyweds josephine alice isaaz tomas vincent rottiers speeding hooting motorway married pickup trailed billowing clouds carminecolored smoke hotel honeymoon suite however tomas lurches pillow talk protracted mind games presage toxic turn marriage next bourdos cuts another intense wholly unconnected conversation one conducted phone middleaged vincent eric elmosnino adult daughter melanie alice de lencquesaing shes pregnant man vincent doesnt approve lengthy dialogue implicitly spills many salient details family history flummoxing film barely returns story instead making josephine tomass increasingly abusive relationship films narrative locus two slowburning scenes outset film switches conventionally restless ensemble structure alternating appointments core characters josephine tomas despairing parents grégory gadebois suzanne clément whose marital problems exacerbated knowledge daughters predicament outlying films strands anthony damien chapelle tenderhearted lovelorn young man struggling fallout parents wildly acrimonious breakup followed confinement mother brigitte catillon psychiatric ward tonally contrasting variations substantial theme growing powerlessness parents correct childrens grownup mistakes vice versa endangered species works contrive literal connections fenderbender neighborly dispute lost souls less credible becomes transitions disorienting anthonys story plays far whimsical register josephines harrowing plight though performed level conviction terrified victim domestic violence cant bring ask help highly promising isaaz recently seen elle heftiest lacerating emoting though first among equals cast gadebois handcuffed parent resorting panicked measures protect daughter catillon woman liberated frustrated mental breakdown work wonders characters written shorthand still lees electric lensing might star entire enterprise awash color sweeping motion democratically finds beauty nices highways underexposed workingclass residences riviera moneyshot locales working current trend dusky underlit social realism lee shoots even films downbeat sequences dominant tones citrus fierce vermilion life tangle human error insignificant blazingly illuminated reviewed venice film festival orizzonti aug 31 2017 running time 104 min160original title espèces menacées francebelgium les films du lendemain les films du fleuve presentation international sales wild bunch paris producer kristina larsen coproducers jeanpierre dardenne luc dardenne delphine tomson director gilles bourdos screenplay bourdos michel spinosa adapted short story collection stories richard bausch richard bausch camera color widescreen mark lee pingbing editor yannick kergoat alice isaaz vincent rottiers grégory gadebois suzanne clément eric elmosnino alice de lencquesaing carlo brandt agathe dronne damien chapelle brigitte catillon pauline etienne frédéric pierrot | 571 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">The Faith Angle Forum</a>&#160;is a semi-annual conference which brings together a select group of 20 nationally respected journalists with 3-5 distinguished scholars on areas of religion, politics &amp; public life.</p>
<p>“Obama’s Favorite Theologian? A Short Course on Reinhold Niebuhr”</p>
<p>Key West, Florida</p>
<p>Speaker:</p>
<p>Dr. Wilfred M. McClay,&#160;SunTrust Bank Chair of Excellence in Humanities, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga</p>
<p>Respondent:</p>
<p>E.J. Dionne, Columnist, The Washington Post; Senior Advisor, Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion &amp; Public Life</p>
<p>Moderator:</p>
<p>Michael Cromartie, Vice President, Ethics &amp; Public Policy Center</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Michael Cromartie</p>
<p>MICHAEL CROMARTIE:&#160; For our session this afternoon, you may be wondering: “Why Reinhold Niebuhr?” And here’s the answer: E.J. Dionne and David Brooks, for three or four years, have been saying we must do a session on Reinhold Niebuhr. But we didn’t have a hook. We used to say we think you all should know about Niebuhr. But then David had an interview with Barack Obama and toward the end of the interview something wasn’t clicking. And David said, “Well, what do you think of Reinhold Niebuhr?” That just followed.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>And Obama went on for 25 minutes about his admiration for Reinhold Niebuhr. And then David did a column on Niebuhr and then we got an excuse to do Niebuhr. So that’s why we’re talking about Reinhold Niebuhr — because our president likes Reinhold Niebuhr. But we thought you wanted to know about him anyway. So our session is really not about President Obama; it’s about Reinhold Niebuhr. But we used that teaser “Obama’s Favorite Theologian?” just to get your attention. And I’m sure the president’s name will come up in our conversation.</p>
<p>Bill McClay is an intellectual historian who’s taught at Tulane and Georgetown universities and now is an endowed chair at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Bill has, if you look at his bio, written some very important books. One is called The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America, which was the winner of a best-book award — the Merle Curti Award in intellectual history — in 1995. Remind me, Bill, who was Merle Curti?</p>
<p>DR. WILFRED M. McCLAY:&#160; He was a great intellectual historian.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Okay.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; From the University of Wisconsin.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Okay, good, well you won his award in 1995 and that’s why we invited you. Now ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to hear from Bill McClay and then E.J. Dionne is going to read to us from about five different books by Niebuhr that he has stacked over here.</p>
<p>E.J. DIONNE:&#160; Even a thriller. How do you like that? I have a thriller on my list.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; And you’re going to do all that in 15 minutes?</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; Twenty, you gave me.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Twenty, okay.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; I’ll probably do it in 15.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Okay. Bill, we look forward. Thank you.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Thanks. This is really quite a change. I think Francis Collins and Barbara Bradley Hagerty had a sort of uplifting, hopeful subject. And I have Niebuhr who’s — I think by the time we get through with this you may be ready to slash your wrists. (Laughter.) But I hope not. I hope not.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Do you have a song about that — suicide? (Laughter.)</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; “Stormy Weather.” I’m leaning with “Stormy Weather.” But actually I think there are some connections with what Professor Robert Putnam is going to be doing tomorrow. So I think you will see some linkages. Niebuhr is a theologian. He’s also a student of power politics and a great admirer of the saying of Lord Acton, that the power corrupts and PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>Dr. Wilfred M. McClay</p>
<p>But now, there are souls who — let me finish — there are souls who are pure enough, children of light, as Niebuhr might say, who can — actually that’s a double-edged thing, you’ll see — but who can do it. But I’m not one of them. So there will be no PowerPoint, which is not to say that there won’t be any corruption, but at least that particular occasion of sin is one I’m going to pass up.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />Mike’s right: The occasion for this — the hook — is this <a href="http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/opinion/26brooks.html?_r=1" type="external">discussion</a> between David Brooks and then-Senator Obama, which was in 2007, actually. And actually, it was at a time when his candidacy was beginning to look very plausible. And it’s interesting — this may or may not be significant — but he said that Niebuhr was one of his favorite philosophers, according to David’s transcription — not one of his favorite theologians.</p>
<p>So that may or may not have any significance. And of course, David did say that Obama gave a sort of perfect description of the book in perfect sentences and perfect paragraph structure for 20 minutes, which does suggest that he knew the book in question, The Irony of American History, which is one of the books I’m going to talk about.</p>
<p>Obama’s not the first American president to declare his fondness for Niebuhr. Jimmy Carter notably did, and both before and after his election. Some people think that the famous <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/filmmore/ps_crisis.html" type="external">“malaise” speech</a> had some Niebuhrian input, and certainly it was influenced by Christopher Lasch’s book The Culture of Narcissism, although in ways that Lasch didn’t particularly like. It always tends to happen, when politicians use your books in speeches — all of a sudden you’re not so thrilled to see it happening. And I think Niebuhr would have been, probably, no exception.</p>
<p>In any event, as Mike has said, I’m not really going to talk very much about Obama. I have a feeling you all would want to, and between E.J. and myself, we may have some thoughts. And certainly, I’m not going to get into the question of whether his interest — Obama’s interest in Niebuhr — is genuine or not, whether he really understands Niebuhr or not. That’s unrelated to my pay grade. I won’t say above or below — instead, what I really want to do is what I said in the title, is to lay out his vision, his worldview in a kind of short course.</p>
<p>And obviously, if there’s an agenda here, it’s simply to indicate that his thinking, although it does develop — and whose doesn’t — has a core of consistency. There is a core to Niebuhr that seems to me carries through some three decades of concentrated work. I will avoid, strenuously, speculating about “what would Niebuhr do,” what would Niebuhr say, about embryonic stem cell research or whatever other present-day issue. I think there’s plenty to talk about, just with respect to what he did say and think. And I’ll lay that out and then we can speculate.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />Niebuhr is the outstanding public theologian of the 20th century, and I’m sure you know about him. You may not know much about him. He has become a figure of obscurity in recent decades, and that’s partly because the term “public theologian” has come to represent something of a null set in recent times. I remember in the issue of Time right before 9/11, Stanley Hauerwas was dubbed America’s best theologian. But he’s not really a theologian who, whatever his other virtues, has much of practical import to say about political life.</p>
<p>But Niebuhr had an unusually long and productive career. He turned out many books, many articles; wrote journalistically; wrote highly, densely scholarly works. He was engaged. He was involved in the politics of the day, from World War I all the way to the Vietnam War. So he was not only a theologian of great distinction, but also a public intellectual who addressed himself to the full range of public concerns and had an enormously capacious mind that really could take in all kinds of issues that he wouldn’t necessarily have discussed in his books.</p>
<p>His importance in his time tells you something about his time. It was a time when theologians were important people. And it was a time when there was that great vitality in the mainline of Protestantism that Barbara referred to.</p>
<p>It’s an indication of the severe attenuation of that influence that the closest thing to Niebuhr in recent years has been the <a href="" type="internal">late Father Richard John Neuhaus</a>&#160;— who converted to Catholicism —</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>— and who had very low regard for the Protestant mainline. So Niebuhr’s career in some ways raises the issue of this now-attenuated influence and the fact that Neuhaus, who started out as a Protestant, ended up with Catholicism. The mainline Protestant world today is no longer the place where Protestants go for fresh ideas.</p>
<p>Also, as a general observation, Niebuhr is something of a counterpuncher as an intellectual, and what I mean by that term I think will become evident; but in short, it’s hard to know what he thinks about somebody or about some subject unless he’s reacting to them. That’s when he truly discloses himself: in taking exception to or responding to other thinkers, which is why I think it’s very important to see him in context and be very careful about what we can extract and use for all occasions.</p>
<p>One thing about the context is, I think it’s impossible to imagine him operating in anything other than a modern, Western, liberal environment, where there’s a strong tradition of science, of belief in the idea of progress — a society that is in some ways poised on the cusp of a transformation into secularity, or at any rate a world in which a secular option exists. He was very much a creature of that historical moment and a critic of liberalism from within liberalism, a breed that flourished particularly in the late ’40s and ’50s — and doesn’t seem to exist, at least in the same form, today.</p>
<p>The issues that he struggled with are quintessentially related to problems of advanced modernity, and science is one of them. I wouldn’t necessarily have emphasized this — but with Francis Collins here — his talk made me think again and again about how his own perspective on science represents an advance over the dilemma that Niebuhr saw us in.</p>
<p>Niebuhr upholds the idea of progress and remorselessly critiques it at the same time. I might add something else that you may know Niebuhr for — what’s called the “ <a href="http://bartleby.com/73/1472.html" type="external">serenity prayer</a>,” which goes something like “God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things that can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other.” I’m reciting from memory. But the interesting thing is what — to me anyway, as someone of conservative disposition — is what he leaves out, and that is preserving the things that need to be preserved. (Laughter.) It’s a striking omission! But it shows how thoroughgoing a progressive he was. There’s no hint of this in the serenity prayer — I don’t know whether anybody’s ever observed this about it, but —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; It could be a first.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; It’s a first and last. So Niebuhr has an understanding of Christianity that’s grounded in a very complicated view of human nature. Actually, a lot of his persuasiveness derives from the fact that this view is more complicated and adequate than its secular equivalents. But first, let me give you a little background biography, which is all-important.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />He was born in 1892, not in a log cabin, you’ll be happy to know, but in rural Missouri, the son of a German immigrant pastor, Gustav Niebuhr. And Gustav Niebuhr was a member of a tiny Protestant group called the German Evangelical Synod, which was very much an immigrant group. He really grew up in a German-speaking enclave, which was actually rather common in that part of the Midwest — Missouri and Illinois in late 19th- or early 20th-century farm communities.</p>
<p>Dr. Wilfred M. McClay</p>
<p>By the way, an interesting side point: The German Evangelical Synod eventually became part of the United Church of Christ, which is the same Protestant denomination that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright belongs to. So there’s a sort of odd little connection there.</p>
<p>Reinhold inherited from his father this sense of pastoral vocation and a keen interest in social and political affairs. He built on this with two years at Yale Divinity School, and so he began his career as a theologian and pastor as an advocate of what was called the “ <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/monkeytrial/peopleevents/e_gospel.html" type="external">social gospel</a>.” The social gospel was a movement within liberal Protestantism which located the meaning of the Christian Gospel in its promise as a blueprint for progressive social reform, rather than its assertions about supernatural reality.</p>
<p>A few words about the social gospel, because it’s very important to this story. It arose out of a crisis within, particularly, Protestantism — although Catholicism had its own version of this — in response to industrialization and urbanization. In the Protestant case, particularly salient were the challenges to biblical authority rising out of these things, but more so out of Darwinism — Darwin and Darwinism.</p>
<p>And not so much the idea of evolution per se, which was a doctrine that easily comported with Christian faith, but the specific idea of natural selection. It was the randomness of the process of natural selection that was viewed as particularly threatening. And an equally powerful threat came from the so-called “higher criticism” of the Bible, which deconstructed the Bible, for all intents and purposes, into a collection of redactions of successive texts by multiple authors over long periods of time, and therefore not a text that should be regarded as having any kind of organic or authorial unity.</p>
<p>So all of these things were terribly threatening, especially to Protestants. Why Protestants? Because the whole basis of the Protestant Reformation, to oversimplify grandly, was to see the authority of the Bible as overriding — as superseding — the authority of the historical institutional church. There are some qualifications you’d need to make to that statement, but basically that is a fair assessment. So that tremendous weight is placed on the authority of that text, and if its authority falls into question, then the entire foundation of Protestantism is threatened.</p>
<p>So the social gospel was one way of responding to this problem. Social gospelers were modernists. They had dismissed the notion that the Bible should be read authoritatively in the way that, say, fundamentalists — the fundamentalist movement was just getting going at this time — read the Bible, or even the historical creeds. But the social gospelers insisted that what they thought of as the heart of the Christian Gospel was very much valid and alive and worth preserving. It could be preserved by dispensing with these supernatural problematic elements and instead socializing the Gospel, i.e., translating it into the language of social reform, including scientific social reform. They saw very little sense of antagonism between science and reform. And in the general optimism of the period, there were seen to be very few limits on what could be achieved.</p>
<p>Walter Rauschenbusch, who was perhaps the leading figure in the social gospel movement, put it this way — and forgive me, I’m going to have to read more quotes than I would normally read to give you a sense of these thinkers. But here’s Rauschenbusch: “We have the possibility of so directing religious energy by scientific knowledge that a comprehensive and continuous reconstruction of social life in the name of God is within the bounds of human possibility.” So this idea of progress, the idea of perfectibility of the human condition, of man himself, to use that term in a generic sense, is very much at the core of it all.</p>
<p>By the way, one of the ways American sociology differed dramatically from, say, German sociology is that from the very beginning it had an astonishingly religious content to it. Albion Small, who was the chairman of the department of sociology at the University of Chicago, the founder of the first sociology journal in the United States, the president of the American Sociological Association, and so on and so forth, wrote the following: “Sociology is a science … of God’s image … a moral philosophy conscious of its task,” which was nothing less than “an approximation of the ideal of social life contained in the Gospels.” Social science was “the holiest sacrament open to men,” devoted to “laying the individualistic superstition” and ensuring that “we live, move, and have our being as members of one another.” In other words, the kingdom of God is not reserved for the beyond or the end of time, but can be created in the here and now by social scientists and ministers working hand-in-hand together.</p>
<p>Although Niebuhr is my subject, I’m going to make a few little interjections about Obama at appropriate points. And I think that certainly one of the things that one could speculate on is the degree to which Obama has been influenced by the social gospel, as I think his pastor Jeremiah Wright very clearly was. There is a lot of evidence that he has been. For example, there was the famous speech that Obama gave in South Carolina, during the campaign, in which he declared his desire to be an “instrument of God” — and declared, quote, “I am confident that we can create a kingdom right here on Earth.” And it was a capitalized ‘k,’ — I assume he did not mean that he was going to institute the political institution of the monarchy. So definitely, echoes of the social gospel were there.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />So Niebuhr initially bought into this. He bought into the social gospel movement. It fit with his upbringing. It fit with his reformist inclinations. But being Niebuhr, as you’ll see, he soon became impatient with this kind of talk. He became uneasy with the progressive movement. He found it and the social gospel to be utterly naïve about human nature, about the intractability of human nature, and inadequate to the task of explaining the nature of power relations as they existed in the real world.</p>
<p>Sin was not just a word that we use to describe bad institutions that can be corrected. Sin, he thought, was something much deeper, an intrinsic part of the human condition, something that social reform was powerless to do much, if anything, about. And — I just had to throw this in for E.J. — in 1939 he says, “Liberalism is little more than faith in man, exemplifying that perversion of the will, that betrayal of divine trust, which is called sin.” Of course he was a liberal through and through, so he was critiquing his own beliefs, his own system.</p>
<p>What was arguably his most important book came out in 1932, with the revealing title Moral Man and Immoral Society. Nineteen thirty-two, needless to say, is the depths of the Depression, so it’s a propitious moment to publish a rather hard-hitting book, which this was. Niebuhr turned the social gospelers’ view on its head or on its feet — whichever Marxian analogy you like — and argued that in fact there was a disjuncture between the morality of individuals and the morality of groups. And the latter — the morality of groups — that morality was generally inferior to the morality of individuals. I’ll explain that in a moment.</p>
<p>This was, he thought, a fixed condition, a fixed dynamic of human life. Individuals could, once in a while, in rare instances, transcend their self-interest for the sake of a larger good. But groups of individuals, especially groups like nations, never could. So in fact, groups made individuals worse rather than better because the work of collectives was invariably governed by a logic of self-interest.</p>
<p>So Niebuhr rejected the progressives’ belief in the plasticity or semi-plasticity of human nature. He thought sin was a better explanation. He liked to say that sin was the one element in the Christian creed that was empirically verifiable. (Laughter.) And he also took aim — and I think this is more radical than people appreciate — he took aim at the very concept of socialization, which for the progressives was so central.</p>
<p>John Dewey was a frequent target — in Moral Man and Immoral Society he just goes after him every chance he gets. John Dewey argued that “The lost individual will re-find inner wholeness … by subduing himself to the forces of organization at work in externals.” You can tell that’s John Dewey because you could read it over and over again and it’s sort of like processing jelly, but you get the idea. (Laughter.) Niebuhr thought almost the opposite was true. As I said before, men have little enough goodness in themselves and socialization makes them worse because the reason for being, for all social groups, is to pursue the shared self-interest of the members. So that self-interest is triumphant.</p>
<p>He dismissed as sentimentality the progressive hope that the wages of individual sin could be overcome by intelligent reform and that there we could transform into a loving fellowship of like-minded comrades holding hands beside the campfire. Instead, the pursuit of good ends in the arenas of national and international politics had to take full account of the un-loveliness of human nature, and the un-loveliness of power. The implications for Christians who wanted to do good in the world were fairly stark in his view. They had to be willing to get their hands dirty — very dirty, for existing social relations were held together by coercion and only counter-coercion could change them.</p>
<p>Social change was brought about not by persuasion, diplomacy, pedagogy, intelligence or sweetness, but by — to use a term that he uses repeatedly in the book — “emotionally potent oversimplifications.” Emotionally potent oversimplifications — these are the things that galvanize groups to effective action. You see why I say this is a rather depressing outlook —</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>— and it doesn’t get any better.</p>
<p>A quotation: “Our contemporary culture fails to realize the power, extent and persistence of group egoism in human relations.” So the idea of solidarity — the campfire — is an illusion. Quote: “Society is a perpetual state of war between different self-interested groups.” Jesus Christ, meet Thomas Hobbes. Quote: “The only way a society can maintain itself is by the coercion of dominant groups who go on to invent romantic and moral interpretations of the facts, and the peace lasts only as long as the underdogs are kept down. Then when they are able to successfully challenge and coerce a new peace, they impose another set of romantic and moral interpretations of the facts.”</p>
<p>So only power can counter power in his view — and power, as Henry Adams said, is poison. It’s a formulation that doesn’t —</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>— that doesn’t lead to an attractive conclusion. His conclusion was that the exercise of power was always morally dangerous, but also always morally necessary. You had to act in the world. You couldn’t take the option of opting out. Hence, the need for a dualism in morals, since — and I quote again — “The selfishness of human communities must be regarded as an inevitability and can only be countered by competing assertions of interests.” So that’s James Madison — (laughs) — along with Hobbes. But in none of this is there a release from the moral requirements of Christianity. I’ll come back to that.</p>
<p>This rather stark view extends very much to the nation-state. And this was a response on his part to the social gospel, to the progressive movement and to a rather long strain in American ideas — progressive ideas — about solidarity. Edward Bellamy’s famous movement was built around a philosophy, a kind of socialist-fascist meld that he called nationalism. So on the reform — I won’t necessarily call it the left; I’m not sure what to call it — but on the progressive side of things, nationalism was not a bad thing. But to Niebuhr it was.</p>
<p>Niebuhr wrote an article in 1916 in The Atlantic called “ <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/191611/niebuhr-individual" type="external">The Nation’s Crime Against the Individual</a>,” a nice, subtle title. And the idea here was, and this is before American entry into the first world war, which he strongly supported, that the nation cheats the soldier because it takes his loyalty, his willingness to die and sacrifice, for its own purposes without being able to hallow that sacrifice. Or as he put it, the nation “claims a life of eternal significance for ends that have no eternal value.” Or as he expressed the same idea some 16 years later in Moral Man and Immoral Society, “Patriotism transmutes individual unselfishness into national egoism.” It is “the unselfishness of the individuals [that] makes for the selfishness of nations,” which “is why the hope of solving the larger social problems of mankind, merely by extending the social sympathies of individuals, is so vain.” So much for empathy.</p>
<p>But there’s an interesting twist here; it is that all of this rejection of the social gospel, affirmation of original sin and so on, did not mean that he gave up on social reform. And Niebuhr was a man of the left and he remained a man of the left always. Maybe not enough left to suit some people, but he certainly was never a conservative. And he believed Christians were obligated to work actively for progressive social causes, for the realization of justice and righteousness, but they had to do this in a way that, as he characteristically put it, abandoned their illusions, not least in the way they thought about themselves.</p>
<p>The pursuit of social justice would involve them in acts of sin and acts of imperfection. Even the most surgical action, one might say, involves collateral damage. But the Christian faith, just as inexorably, called its adherents to a life of perfect righteousness, a calling that would seem to give no quarter to dirty hands. So we’re left with the feeling that Niebuhr is calling Christians to the impossible and, in a sense, he is. He insists original sin is true. He insists that its probative value is confirmed every day. Yet he insists at the same time that human beings are splendidly endowed by their Creator, still capable of acts of nobility and generosity or truth, still able to advance the cause of social improvement. All of these things he insisted are true at the same time and all have an equivalent claim. So he’s correcting the social gospel. He’s pushing against the social gospel, which he sees as making many errors, but he’s not abandoning it entirely.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />These ideas would continue to develop. In 1938, he was invited to give the Gifford Lectures at St. Andrews University, very prestigious lectures in natural theology. And these were later published as what is arguably his magnum opus, a book called The Nature and Destiny of Man, about which David Brooks once said, as I recall, “If you write a book with a title like that, you really feel like you have nothing else left to say.” (Laughter.) And that appeared in 1943. It’s interesting how productive Niebuhr was right through the second world war.</p>
<p>And this book is really a grand tour of the entire intellectual history of the West and ultimately, I think, it’s really a book about the idea of progress itself and about the question of whether human history can be meaningful. I want to stress that last point. One of Niebuhr’s great antagonists was Henry Ford. He hated Henry Ford, loathed him for his treatment of his workers. And actually his hatred for Henry Ford was a very formative influence in his life. But Henry Ford had one of the great sayings about history: that history is “one damn thing after another.” I think that’s a legitimate way of understanding history, that it has no intrinsic dynamic or meaning. But Niebuhr wanted to struggle with that, of course.</p>
<p>And as a thinking Christian he had to see some meaning in history. Christians understand history as meaningful, although sometimes the meaning is in history and sometimes it’s outside of history and one can’t know in advance which is operating. So it’s another one of these hazardous but necessary operations. What he felt had happened, however, in modern times, was that there was a secularized idea of progress that saw an immanent order, or as he called it, “an immanent logos,” that was no longer related to a transcendent meaning, but was inherent in history itself. And this idea of progress was something that had emerged out of Christianity, that was in some sense an outgrowth of Christianity’s worldview and ethos, but that had threatened to negate Christianity. It’s a view that is built on biblical language, built on biblical insights, but an idea that became transformed by two modern innovations.</p>
<p>First, there was the elimination of the notion that grace, meaning the supernatural intervention of divine power to give meaning to history, was necessary. And second, the thinkers who laid the foundation of modernity — and this I think is really where you get to the heart of Niebuhr — failed to see that the dynamism of history was a double-edged thing. These thinkers assumed that all development means the advancement of the good, but in so assuming, they failed to recognize — and this I think he sees as characteristic of all modernity — that, and I quote, “every heightened potency of human existence may also represent a possibility of evil.” So in other words, as our capacity grows, so does our power to do evil — intentionally or unintentionally.</p>
<p>Dr. Wilfred M. McClay</p>
<p>Everything that has its being within history is involved, on every level, in contradicting the eternal. And so the tendency is, as he says, to complete the system of meaning falsely in a way that makes either the individual or the group the center of the system. And then Niebuhr goes on and says, “It’s not possible for any philosophy to escape this error … but it is possible to have a philosophy, or at least a theology, grounded in faith, which understands the error will be committed and that it is analogous to all these presumptions of history which defy the majesty of God.”</p>
<p>So he sees progress as a factor of history, a facet of history. He sees that it’s right to conceive of history dynamically. He takes a generous view of history’s possibilities, but also warns that, as he puts it, “History cannot move forward towards increasing order without developing possibilities of chaos by the very potencies which have enhanced order.” In other words, we’re never out of the woods. That’s my redaction there. And the danger only increases as we progress.</p>
<p>Man’s capacity for evil advances with his progress towards the good. Hence, the greater the progress, the greater the need for vigilance, the greater the need for some metaphysical check on human pride. The image I like to use to describe this is of a tightrope, one that is always going higher and higher and, as you know, with a tightrope, you have to keep moving forward. You can’t stop moving. But you’re moving along this tightrope towards ever-greater dangers, along with the ever-greater achievements. And that I think is the vision that he’s operating with.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />I was going to say a little bit about The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness, but I think I’m running out of time. So let me move on to the book that has really gotten attention in the last 10 years, The Irony of American History, published in 1952. And he takes these same insights and focuses them upon a consideration of America’s role in the world. Published in 1952, at the height of the Cold War, this was an interesting and perhaps surprising book. It was a stinging attack on communism and at the same time a stinging attack on America, on the moral complacency of America, a warning against the moral failings that would make America vulnerable.</p>
<p>That’s Niebuhr — typically, as always, fighting on two fronts at once. Nobody can top Niebuhr for his anticommunism, but he also believed the United States resembled its antagonists more than it cared to imagine. And much of the book is devoted to making that case. He criticizes the communists for their philosophical materialism, but then points out that Americans are guilty of the same thing in practice. Here’s a statement that I think rings just as true today as in 1952: “Despite the constant emphasis upon the ‘dignity of man’ in our own liberal culture, its predominant naturalistic bias frequently results in views of human nature in which the dignity of man is not very clear.”</p>
<p>And this tendency towards materialism was not even the greatest of America’s dangers. Even more perilous, he thought, was one of our principal points of pride, the entrenched idea that America has a providential mission in the world and our nation’s rendered uniquely virtuous and innocent by the blessings of that history. And he goes through a discussion of this, locating the beginnings of it in the Calvinist Puritan tradition, and then the Jeffersonian tradition, which saw America’s as nature’s nation, free from the encumbrances of the old world. It was the place of the new man, of the democratic future.</p>
<p>America was, so to speak, the land of the great reset button, presumably labeled in the correct manner. (Laughs.) Even Abraham Lincoln, who was not a dewy-eyed fellow, called America “the last best hope of mankind,” words that certainly, if nothing else, convey a kind of cosmic significance to American history.</p>
<p>Niebuhr didn’t reject these things completely; he didn’t see them as having no basis. He did not reject the greatness of America, but he insisted that the American belief that America had turned its back on history and made a new beginning for humankind was naïve and dangerous, laying America open to the sins of spiritual pride. It was a source of strength that turned into a source of weakness. And that is what he meant by the irony of American history, the tendency of American civilization to allow decent motives and noble intentions to blind it to the sins and errors to which it’s prone and thereby let its virtue become the source of its vice.</p>
<p>It was an irony because it was unintended, inadvertent, unconscious and a consequence of good intentions, rather than doing evil for the sake of a larger good, which he called tragedy, not irony. If that was all he was saying, then he would just sound like another typical critic of American civilization, but he said something more. He said America had to act in the world and do so effectively. It had no choice but to do so. In the same way that the sinful imperfect Christian is required to act in the world and get his or her hands dirty in working for the cause of good, so a morally imperfect America was obliged to employ its power in the world.</p>
<p>Now, opting out was not an option, or rather it was an option that was just as perilous as the alternatives it would avoid. And let me just read you a couple of passages that illustrate this, and then I’ll stop: “Our culture knows little of the use and abuse of power; but we have to use power in global terms. Our idealists are divided between those who would renounce the responsibilities of power for the sake of preserving the purity of our soul and those who are ready to cover every ambiguity of good and evil in our actions by the frantic insistence that any measure taken in a good cause must be unequivocally virtuous.” Fairly timely words, I think.</p>
<p>Needless to say, he rejects both of these options and continues this way: “We take, and must continue to take, morally hazardous actions to preserve our civilization. We must exercise our power. But we ought neither to believe that a nation is capable of perfect disinterestedness in its exercise, nor become complacent about particular degrees of interest and passion which corrupt the justice by which the exercise of power is legitimated.” And I will stop there.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; No, that’s great. We’ll just keep it rolling. Everybody here knows E.J. Dionne. I know you’ve spoken on Niebuhr a lot and we’re delighted to have you respond to Bill. Thank you.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; Thank you, Mike. I was thinking that maybe Barbara would explain it as some peculiar part of my brain, but it actually makes me happy to talk about Reinhold Niebuhr —</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>— and to do some research on him. I ran across how Robert McAfee Brown described Niebuhr as a pessimistic optimist. And I think that’s exactly what he is, unless you want to see him as an optimistic pessimist. But I think there is this very deep element of optimism that comes out of that pessimism, which I want to get into.</p>
<p>E.J. Dionne</p>
<p>Before I say anything, I just want to thank Mike for running these things for 10 years. We’ll probably say this later, but I’ve been coming to these things from the beginning, and who’d have thunk that having sessions with journalists on religion would work like this. Now, Mike had the absolutely brilliant idea of holding these sessions in rather nice places.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>But for me it’s not only been the meetings, but also all the friends I have met through this. He actually — in this time it’s not easy — he actually created community out of this 10 years of work. So I thank him and the Pew Charitable Trusts. (Applause.)</p>
<p>And I also want to say it’s a great honor to be with Bill McClay. One of my very favorite essays on the general subject of religion in politics is a piece Bill wrote in 2003 called “ <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/journal_of_policy_history/v013/13.1mcclay.pdf" type="external">Two Concepts of Secularism</a>,” which I commend to everyone. And he wrote a great essay right after 9/11 called “ <a href="http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=1975&amp;var_recherche=mcclay+irony" type="external">The Continuing Irony of American History</a>” in First Things. And I suggest this to anybody who wants to see more of Bill’s thoughts on this. It’s a very interesting read in the wake — all these years later.</p>
<p>Just to pick up two quick points that Bill made and then I just want to say a few things. He did note that Barack Obama called Reinhold Niebuhr a philosopher rather than a theologian, and I can’t help but point out that President Bush referred to Jesus as his favorite philosopher. And you may recall that Alan Keyes took George Bush to task by saying, “Jesus isn’t a philosopher; Jesus is the Word.” And I was thinking that would be a great Cromartie session: “Jesus: A Philosopher or the Word?” So I hope Mike gets refunded. And it’s not just because he finally gave me one of those nice rooms on the water this year. (Laughter.)</p>
<p>And I’m really glad that Bill did point out that Niebuhr got all this attention in Time magazine. Can you think of a talk show that would book Reinhold Niebuhr now? I was thinking about that. “Tell us, Reinhold, what do you mean by the irony of American history?” “Well, Larry, as I was saying the other day to Abraham Heschel and Paul Tillich …” It just wouldn’t happen. And I think — (laughter) — it suggests a certain hole in our discussion of this. Colbert would have him on; absolutely, absolutely.</p>
<p>And I was reminded of the omnipresence of Reinhold Niebuhr when I picked up one of my favorite thriller writers Philip Kerr — I highly recommend him. His hero is a perfect Niebuhrian character. He is a German detective in Nazi Germany. He’s anti-Nazi. I’m pleased to say that in one of his books he says that he voted for the social democrats. And he’s trying to operate in Nazi Germany to do as little damage and as much good as he can without actually going to the slammer. And I opened my Philip Kerr and there right at the beginning is the serenity prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr. So we were destined to have this discussion.</p>
<p>In 1987, so 22 years ago, the late Father Richard Neuhaus organized a conference on Reinhold Niebuhr. It was funded — you will be surprised — by the Pew Charitable Trusts. It is written that the Pew Trusts will always be with us. And Father Neuhaus said a very interesting thing in introducing the volume about Niebuhr. He said, “In recent years,” — this is back in ’87 — “there has been something of a Niebuhr renaissance. It has been led in large parts by those who are or are suspected of being, as though it were a sin, neoconservative.” And then he adds — and this part I very much agree with — “Attempting to capture Niebuhr for any partisan agenda, however, would be a great disservice both to Niebuhr and to what he can help us do today.”</p>
<p>And I think it says something about Niebuhr that this new Niebuhr revival, which I think we are seeing right now, is not being led primarily by neoconservatives, but actually by liberals and certain dissident conservatives like our friend David Brooks. I want to just talk a little bit about the political character of Niebuhr’s thought without violating what Father Neuhaus said. I do think in the end he is unmistakably, or if you have the other view, irredeemably, a liberal in the end. I wouldn’t use the word “irredeemably,” but it is something worth talking about because it’s very much a question of how his view of original sin fits in with a liberal worldview.</p>
<p>How do you sort of get at what being a Niebuhrian is? My original example was going to be about a baseball player, but in deference to our resident hockey star Clare Duffy, I decided to use a hockey player instead. A Niebuhrian hockey player tries to win the game, but does not assume victory renders him superior to his opponent and would admit that he may have won unfairly when he high-sticked Clare Duffy and got away with it. That’s a Niebuhrian hockey player. A Niebuhrian wagering in Vegas plays the odds intelligently and tries to win, but always admits that perhaps luck or God’s grace, not his system, is why he won.</p>
<p>A Niebuhrian will get into a fistfight if it’s absolutely necessary, but would be acutely conscious of the pain his blows are inflicting on his opponent and know that the very fact the fight is happening is proof of the fallen nature of both himself and the person he is fighting. (Laughter.) And a proper Niebuhrian will have a sense of humor about all of these things, understanding the profound ironies involved in trying to act effectively in the world and trying to act morally at the same time. And that’s why I love Reinhold Niebuhr.</p>
<p>I went back to the canonical text, which is David Brooks’ famous interview with Barack Obama, and I just think it’s worth to recalling. It was actually just a short statement by Obama, but it’s worth quoting to provide a context for the headline that Mike put on our discussion. David asked, “Have you ever read Reinhold Niebuhr?” Obama replied, “I love him. He’s one of my favorite philosophers.” And David asked what Obama took take away from Niebuhr. And here’s what Obama actually said. “I take away the compelling idea that there’s serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief that we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard, and not swinging from naïve idealism to bitter realism.”</p>
<p>That is actually a pretty good description of Reinhold Niebuhr. And whether Barack Obama, the politician, was pandering to David Brooks’ well-known love for Niebuhr or whether he was reflecting something deep in him, it sounded pretty deep and I think it’s actually not a bad description of the way Obama views the world. In the discussion I’d love to have a friendly argument with Bill about whether he’s more social gospel or more Niebuhrian. I think he’s actually more Niebuhrian. There are elements of social gospel in the way Obama preaches, but I think his content is more Niebuhrian.</p>
<p>E.J. Dionne</p>
<p>Niebuhr — and this is probably why I like him — is much more a “both/and” guy. He’s a “yes, but” guy. His favorite words are “paradox” and “irony.” He is a 1940s liberal and that’s why there is the big debate between liberals and neocons because a lot of neocons say they are 1940s liberals. I think Niebuhr, later in life, suggested that he did not take the same path as some of his neoconservative friends, particularly with his very early support for the civil rights movement — although a lot of them supported the civil rights movement — but also with his strong opposition to the Vietnam War. But that’s just a piece of history that we can talk about. What I like about him is that he believes what he believes passionately, but with a sense of humility. I got some Niebuhr in Francis Collins’ presentation today.</p>
<p>Why are there Niebuhr revivals? Niebuhr is the person we turn to for balance. We turn to him when things get out of hand. He is a critic of the left’s utopianism and he’s a critic of the right’s tendency to deify our own country. His critique of original sin I think applies neatly at different times to both the right and the left in our politics. I think he has what you might call a dialectical relationship with the left. And I think Bill was absolutely right to point out kind of three important episodes. He reacted against the social gospel not because he opposed the economic or social programs of the social gospel but because he had a different understanding of human nature. He thought liberals had too optimistic a view of human nature.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />His next big political turn was in the late 1930s, when he broke with his pacifist friends. The Christian Century, as you know, is still around, but he broke with The Christian Century and formed another magazine called Christianity and Crisis to argue that we needed to go to war against Hitler and Nazism. And then he made his mark again in politics, with a liberal anticommunism that made him one of the founders of Americans for Democratic Action with Arthur Schlesinger Jr. And I’m going to cite Schlesinger before I close.</p>
<p>Niebuhr never stopped being a liberal, but he was a liberal critic. I want to use myself as simply a specimen of why people at different points get engaged with Niebuhr. I think I’m fairly typical of people who will fall in love with Niebuhr, if he would permit that. I’m not even sure he would. (Laughter.)</p>
<p>I read The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness, which is the first Niebuhr I read, in the early-to-mid-’70s. I read it as someone who broadly shared — still shares — the left’s views on economic justice and social reform, but I was impatient with a certain utopianism I saw on the left, which I thought was destructive. And I was also impatient with some parts of the left that seemed not to believe in the disciplines and limits placed upon our aspirations by the need to persuade majorities and to build consensus in democratic societies. I was and still am turned off by self-righteous moralism disguised as morality.</p>
<p>Mike Novak is someone who’s written very well on that over the years and I think that tendency to be moralistic rather than moral afflicts the right, the center, the left and even parts of the self-satisfied center. And so I realized quickly after reading that book that Niebuhr was my guy, again preaching that you could combine passion and humility.</p>
<p>I see two major reasons for the revival of interest in Niebuhr among liberals. One, I think some of the criticism by Christian moderates and liberals of what we would see as a hyper-politicized Christian right square very much with some of Niebuhr’s criticism of a certain style of Christianity, a kind of revivalism that he was critical of in his own time. Niebuhr enjoined the believer to understand that “the worst corruption is a corrupt religion.”</p>
<p>We need a sense of modesty about the virtue, wisdom and power available to us and a sense of contrition about the common human frailties and foibles which lie at the foundation of both the enemy’s demonry and our vanities. Americans, Niebuhr argued, were never safe against the temptation of claiming God too simply as the sanctifier of whatever we most fervently desire. One great Niebuhrian quote should hang over all seminars. Niebuhr once said that “we must always seek the truth in our opponents’ error and the error in our own truth.” And that is also classic Niebuhr.</p>
<p>I think the paradox is that — and my friend Bill Galston really called this to my attention — one of the paradoxes is that Niebuhr encourages us to doubt and the kind of doubt that Niebuhr encourages is the kind of doubt that faith ought to encourage. If faith is defined solely as a demand that everyone assent, without reservation, to a long and particular list of propositions, that’s an odd idea. But I think this is an inadequate understanding of the Christian and Jewish traditions, which always call us to a form of moral doubt that, as Bill Galston has said, calls upon us to question our motivations and pretensions to special virtue.</p>
<p>Niebuhr said, “No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint.” He argued that some of the greatest perils to democracy arise from the fanaticism of moral idealists who are not conscious of the corruption of self-interest. And in his assertion, which might usefully have guided us during our debate over the war in Iraq, Niebuhr warned, “A nation with an inordinate degree of political power is doubly tempted to exceed the bounds of historical possibilities, if it is informed by an idealism which does not understand the limits of man’s wisdom and volition.”</p>
<p>David Brooks and I did a <a href="http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/obamas-theologian/" type="external">session</a> on Niebuhr recently, and one point that emerged clearly is that it is not surprising that Niebuhr really came to popularity in a period when he was writing about Nazism and Stalinism, which were ideologies that justified despotic pretensions in the name of creating new human beings and perfect societies. Niebuhr had a strong sense of human nature as a constant. He was very skeptical of projects designed to create a new humanity and was very aware of how terrible these projects could become.</p>
<p>This is religion’s essentially moderating role, which is far removed from ideology and from many claims that religion can provide a detailed textbook for creating the perfect society here on Earth. Even the religious left’s talk of our obligation to build the kingdom of God’s justice on earth emphasizes a constant act of creation — building — not a final outcome that human beings can achieve on our own.</p>
<p>It’s very important to understand that Niebuhr imported Saint Augustine into liberalism. And a friend of many of ours, Jean Elshtain, captured this very well. She wrote — and this is a totally Niebuhrian thought on Jean’s part — that if Augustine is “a thorn in the side of those who would cure the universe once and for all, he similarly torments critics who disdain any project of human community or justice or possibility.” “Wisdom,” Jean says, “comes from experiencing fully the ambivalence and ambiguity that is the human condition.”</p>
<p>When David and I recently did the session on Niebuhr, at one point, I blurted out that maybe we were talking about the marriage of Madison, Lincoln and Niebuhr. And then I looked up and I said, wait a minute. That is polygamy. (Laughter.) And I don’t know what Niebuhr would think of that. But one of Niebuhr’s — and I think Bill alluded to this — one of Niebuhr’s favorite public statements by any politician is Lincoln’s second inaugural address. And you all remember the key passage in Lincoln’s second inaugural, when he said: “Both sides read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.”</p>
<p>Niebuhr said that this passage puts the relationship of our moral commitments in history to our religious reservations about the partiality of our own commitments more precisely than any statement or theologian has put them. Think about it. If anybody could have claimed that he was on the right side of history or even that he was on God’s side, it was Abraham Lincoln fighting slavery during the Civil War. Yet, Lincoln himself refused in this extreme instance to presume an identification of his will with God’s will. And I think that Lincoln demonstrated as clearly as any statesman, which is why he is a Niebuhrian figure, that it is possible to undertake great tasks in politics with firmness, commitment, principle and courage and still not pretend to absolute certainty about one’s course, one’s intentions or the purity of one’s motives. And I should note that I have learned much about this point from Congressman David Price of North Carolina, who is a divinity school grad and has written very powerfully about the relationship between Lincoln’s thought and Niebuhr’s.</p>
<p>So I just want to do two quick things and then close with one Niebuhrian thought. And I want to thank Bill because I know he’s very fond of the same passage I’m going to read to close out my remarks, and I’m grateful that he didn’t read it, so I could use it.</p>
<p>I’d like to call attention to two essays on Niebuhr that I think remain very important, and they show the reach Reinhold Niebuhr had — and continues to have — across philosophical lines.</p>
<p>Mike Novak, back in 1972, wrote a great essay for Commentary called “ <a href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/needing-niebuhr-again-5115" type="external">Needing Niebuhr Again</a>,” in which he drew on two Niebuhrian thoughts that I think are particularly revealing. Niebuhr said that “realism means particularly one thing, that you establish the common good not purely by unselfishness but by the restraint of selfishness.” That sounds an awful lot like James Madison.</p>
<p>In The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness, Niebuhr said famously: “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” One of the reasons Mike liked him — Mike then was still a liberal, but in transit over to the conservative side — is because Novak was very critical of what he saw as a new-class kind of privileged liberal. And he thought that Niebuhr called the bluff of those folks.</p>
<p>Mike wrote: “Pure intentions, high goals and unblemished radicalism of mind did not absolve men of the ambiguous consequences of what they estimate to be their most morally radiant actions. Political life does not follow the form of a morality play. It is tragic, and that is a Niebuhrian view.”</p>
<p>The other essay that’s worth looking up is one Arthur Schlesinger wrote, a beautiful <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/books/review/18schlesinger.html" type="external">piece</a> in The New York Times magazine in 2005, an essay in which I think Schlesinger successfully claims Niebuhr back for the liberals.</p>
<p>Remember that Schlesinger and Niebuhr founded Americans for Democratic Action together, and were great political allies throughout their lives. Schlesinger used some of Niebuhr’s criticisms of the pretensions of American power as a critique of the Iraq war, and spoke of how liberals profited from an awareness of original sin that Niebuhr taught them.</p>
<p>E.J. Dionne</p>
<p>This is Schlesinger: “The notion of sinful man was uncomfortable for my generation. We had been brought up to believe in human innocence and even in human perfectibility. This was less a liberal delusion than an expression of an all-American DNA. Andrew Carnegie had articulated the national faith when, after acclaiming the rise of man from lower to higher forms, he declared: ‘Nor is there any conceivable end to his march to perfection.’ In 1939, Charles E. Merriam of the University of Chicago, dean of American political scientists, wrote in The New Democracy and the New Despotism: ‘There is a constant trend in human affairs toward the perfectibility of mankind. This was plainly stated at the time of the French Revolution and has been reasserted ever since that time, and with increasing plausibility.’ Human ignorance and unjust institutions remained the only obstacles to a more perfect world.”</p>
<p>This is Schlesinger again: “If proper education of individuals and proper reform of institutions did their job, such obstacles would be removed. For the heart of man was OK.”</p>
<p>Yet Schlesinger said that this notion became absurd for liberals when they confronted the evils of both Nazism and Stalinism. Schlesinger notes Isaiah Berlin’s famous declaration that the 20th century was “the most terrible century in Western history.” And this is Schlesinger: “The belief in human perfectibility had not prepared us for Hitler and Stalin. The death camps and the gulags proved that men were capable of infinite depravity. The heart of man is obviously not OK. Niebuhr’s analysis of human nature and history came as a vast illumination. His argument had the double merit of accounting for Hitler and Stalin and for the necessity of standing up to them.” And I think that is at the heart of The Irony of American History.</p>
<p>I’ll close there and we can get into a debate about Obama and Niebuhr, if we want, later on. But I just want to close with this thought. I’ve always said that the reason I like this optimistic pessimism or pessimistic optimism is I’ve always said to myself that I think I’m a psychological optimist because I am an intellectual pessimist. I am not shocked when people do bad things. I’m actually amazed at how well people do under the circumstances, so perhaps it’s worth noting Gene Debs’ great line that there should be another beatitude: Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed.</p>
<p>But I think a Niebuhrian view of the world insists that you can hold on to hope, that good Obama word, even with a realistic view of the capacity of human beings to make mistakes, and even, at times, to perform great acts of evil. It is possible, as Jesse Jackson likes to say, to keep hope alive. So this is my concluding prayer, really from Reinhold Niebuhr.</p>
<p>He wrote in The Irony of American History: “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.” I hope you will forgive in that spirit any flaws in this presentation. (Laughter.)</p>
<p>And now you can understand why I love Reinhold Niebuhr and why he fills me with happiness. Thank you very much.</p>
<p>(Applause)</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Well, I didn’t know whether it was the topic of Reinhold Niebuhr or the fact that you had a lavaliere neck mic on, E.J. I’ve never seen you preach so much like that. That was great. Thank you. And thank you, Bill. David, you’re up first.</p>
<p>David Van Biema</p>
<p>DAVID VAN BIEMA, Time:&#160; This is both for Professor McClay and also for E.J. And so E.J. remembers it’s for him, I’m going to pervert one of his metaphors by saying that waterboarding is the ultimate form of high-sticking. And I don’t know much about Niebuhr. And the answer to this may be so obvious as to not make it enlightening, but if I understand you correctly and he believed in the necessity of acting, and getting one’s hands dirty and exerting power, while at the same time believing that inevitably there would be problems with pride and that the state was particularly apt to fall into the sin of delusion of special virtue, where would he come down in the torture debate?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Part of what I was getting to in this overlong talk that I’ve prepared was the list of things that I think are wrong with Niebuhr, or are inadequate, and one of them may address this. And I actually think of E.J.’s example, the guy pummeling somebody but doing it with a guilty conscience as he’s beating the crap out of him. It’s awfully hard to tell whether a leader is acting in a Niebuhrian way or just in an unscrupulous way. You know, a lot of it has to do with an inner disposition that’s not visible to us. And that’s a problem, especially in political life where you have to deal with external standards and principles that, particularly in a democratic society, ought to be open to general scrutiny.</p>
<p>So a great example of this is — and I get this all the time from people on all sides because I’m a great admirer of Niebuhr and I’m happy about this revival — but when it comes to more general issues of war. For obvious reasons pacifists don’t like Niebuhr. I don’t even need to explain that. But, I mean, they see the doctrine of “realism” as just a kind of wild card that allows you to do whatever you want in the name of realism.</p>
<p>But equally vehement about Niebuhr are some of the people who defend just-war theory. Their argument is, look, we have a whole set of criteria that often are hard to nail down in particular instances, but at least as principles they are worth observing and worth trying to follow as a way of taming and legitimizing warfare in a civilized world. And in their view Niebuhr chucks all that, and says, well, you are going to get your hands dirty, bad things have to happen, but you’ve got to exercise power and innocents have to die, and eggs have to be broken to make omelets. He would never say that in that way, of course.</p>
<p>But you get my point, that there is some way in which what he writes can be very powerful in dealing with this way that “power is poison,” in Henry Adams’ terms – that it’s just inescapable. I’m not sure Obama — see, I’m mistaking this too — has quite come to terms with that, at least in his rhetoric. But that’s where I think the real test will come. But back to this issue of torture and war. I think that the problem with Niebuhr is he doesn’t give you clear standards by which to make judgments and have it legitimated in the public arena.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; He emphasizes ambiguity while at the same time saying, use the power.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; I can’t prove this, although I do have a quotation that I think suggests it. I think if you look back at some of the things Niebuhr said about the Vietnam War, they suggest that he would have opposed waterboarding. I think he would have ended up on the side of those who said, we must fight the terrorists but we can’t use every method and that those methods demean us and hurt us.</p>
<p>And my support for that — again, we can’t know for certain — are the very last words of The Irony of American History. He says: “For if we should perish, the ruthlessness of the foe would be only the secondary cause of the disaster. The primary cause would be that the strength of a giant nation was directed by eyes too blind to see all the hazards of the struggle; and the blindness would be induced not by some accident of nature or history but by hatred and vainglory.” If you want to make a case against waterboarding, that’s a pretty good text to cite.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; I was just going to say, since we’re going to play this “what would Reinhold say” game, I want to go in with all four limbs. I think that, certainly, if you were updating The Irony of American History, there would be a discussion of the ways in which the jihadists have elements of truth in their critique of American culture. Astonishing as it may sound, I think he would raise that issue. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it.</p>
<p>Ross Douthat</p>
<p>ROSS DOUTHAT, The New York Times:&#160; Just to bounce one alternative possibility, especially off you E.J.: I wonder what you think of the idea that maybe what Niebuhr would say is that the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in 2003 is the kind of forgivable excess that you expect from governments, but that the torture memos of 2005 are the kind of thing that shouldn’t be forgiven. And I don’t know. What do you think about that kind of distinction, the sort of institutionalization versus the sort of crisis mentality, getting your hands dirty with an individual case?</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; First of all, Bill is fundamentally right. The “what would Niebuhr say and do” debate is pretty tough to carry out.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT:&#160; And all the questions are going to — (inaudible)</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: &#160; And so, that’s fair enough. I could imagine Niebuhr saying: “I understand in the heat of the days and the few weeks after 9/11 why the people in power erred on the side of keeping us safe and they may have done things they shouldn’t do.” I still find it hard — again, we can debate this.</p>
<p>I still think he would have ended up on the critical side because what’s so fascinating about Niebuhr is the neocons have always sort of liked him, as Father Neuhaus suggests, because he always talked about the legitimacy of using American power in the world. And there were moments when the people on the left were seen as always declaring that American power in the world, the use of American power, is wrong and illegitimate. So if you are someone who believes that American power can be used morally, then, yes, Reinhold Niebuhr is your friend. But, he was also always very wary of jingoism, of our tendency not to look at our own flaws, the danger of overreach, the danger of doing things that were immoral in a moral cause.</p>
<p>And those are two sides of Niebuhr, and in some ways, you can say it’s an ambiguity, but I think fundamentally it actually holds together; you know, a shorthand is: American power can be used morally but it should be used with fear and trembling and we have to be very careful about how we use it. I don’t know. Would Bill disagree with that summary?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY: &#160; Yes. What I would say is, one of the fundamental building blocks of the argument in The Irony of American History is that Americans are utterly bedazzled by this notion of innocence, desire for innocence. And I don’t know what he would say about this, but I think he might react to the current kind of orgy of interest in this subject that has to come up on every occasion.</p>
<p>And I’m not criticizing you for bringing it up, and there has been a lot of this, I think, in the early months of this administration, this pushing the reset button, this desire to kind of scapegoat and exorcise the past. This is contrary to the spirit of Niebuhr. There’s no basis in Niebuhr for thinking that America was ever innocent, that any administration is innocent or that there’s any reset button that any administration can ever push to make itself innocent.</p>
<p>So that doesn’t answer the specific question about this one issue, but I think it’s reasonable to deduce from his work — given that I don’t know what he’d say — but it’s reasonable to deduce that he might think that the emphasis on whether sending John Yoo and Jay Bybee to prison is going to atone for our national sins, over a war that began as a very broadly popular undertaking but later became a great burden to the national psyche, is a morally misplaced emphasis. Whether that’s an appropriate deduction — that’s a different question. I think they’re connected.</p>
<p>MICHAEL GERSON, The Washington Post:&#160; I’ll change the subject. I think I played this role before in this kind of setting. But let me maybe defend the social gospel —</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; I love that.</p>
<p>Michael Gerson</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />MR. GERSON:&#160;&#160;— at least properly understood, against the Niebuhrians, and ask your opinion on one point. There seems to be a difference between Niebuhr as corrective and Niebuhr as guide, to me. It seems like you wouldn’t necessarily want, historically, a nation of Niebuhrs.</p>
<p>You look at the way social progress took place in America. It was often true believers, patriots who believed we were a new order for the ages, or William Lloyd Garrison who believed in absolute social equality between blacks and whites when no one else did, for purely religious reasons, or William Jennings Bryan, who had this kind of fundamentalist social gospel because he believed in it absolutely. You know, true believers in this context.</p>
<p>Clearly, there are risks and these were often eccentric people with kind of odd views, easy to make fun of. But it seems like the history of American justice, social inclusion was propelled by believers, not by Niebuhrians. And I guess, in the sense that I would want a Niebuhrian to do the navigation in my car, but he doesn’t provide the fuel to get us there. The fuel is a belief in justice and truth in American history. So I’m wondering how you combine that kind of respect for Niebuhr as corrective with a recognition that that has not been the motivating principle of either the founding of our country or the progress of justice?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Well, I think that there’s a big difference between that and the kind of reform impulse growing out of 19th-century evangelicalism, which was oriented toward social reform but also had a strong emphasis on conversion. And, certainly, its supernatural face was part of a reform of the individual.</p>
<p>And there’s a way in which the social gospel moves against that notion of individual conversion and individual accountability towards simply seeing the Christian faith as a kind of mythic version of what we, through greater and great advances in social science, know about the way that social structures form the individual psyche. So I think —</p>
<p>MR. GERSON:&#160; If I could, Bill, you’re missing the question: religiously, the more motivated moral idealism of American politics rather than just the social gospel.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; Ambiguity.</p>
<p>MR. GERSON:&#160; It’s hard to regard William Jennings Bryan, who had a fundamentalist theology, as evidence of the social gospel, but he was, certainly, probably politically more influential of any of the advocates of the social gospel in changing the definition of the Democratic Party and doing all sorts of other things. Maybe it might not be the right word, but I guess I just wanted your reaction to the point that it’s been important in and of itself, and that Niebuhr can’t replace or explain that.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; Now I see what you mean. Let me just say — Bill, do you want to —</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Go ahead.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; What I want to say, first of all, is bless you for defending the social gospelers, because I have affection for them too, and in particular for their critique of the society that surrounded them.</p>
<p>But I think you shortchange Niebuhr in terms of his own passion for justice. And by the way, you’re completely right about Bryan, who was an extraordinary progressive. We forget how everybody sees him in light of the Scopes trial and forgets that he rejected Darwinism because he hated social Darwinism and how Darwin was used to justify radical inequality. So I identify with all that.</p>
<p>But I think you’re shortchanging Niebuhr in terms of his concern for justice. Richard Fox talks about how well into the 1950s Niebuhr could be very passionate in his critique of how capitalism actually works. In 1954, he wrote that capitalism had again become too complacent. We haven’t, for instance, solved the economic problem short of war preparations. There was a passion in him for justice. His critique of the social gospelers was not against their mission. And he certainly did not lack for a willingness to fight for labor, or for Social Security, or for all kinds of corrections to a system of unfettered capitalism.</p>
<p>I think he was critical of social gospelers on two grounds. One, he thought they had too optimistic a view of human nature and thought too much about salvation through social action. They forgot about sin along the way. And that in turn led to sort of a politics that didn’t work. He was not against the original motives of the social gospelers.</p>
<p>I think Obama shares the social gospelers’ goals, but with a kind of Niebuhrian correction. You know, in that famous <a href="http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=news.display_article&amp;mode=C&amp;NewsID=5454" type="external">speech</a> at Sojourners, he talked a lot about social injustice, but then, he also talked about individual accountability and responsibilities. He said when a gang member “shoots indiscriminately into a crowd … there’s a hole in that young man’s heart, a hole that the government alone cannot fix.”</p>
<p>Contraception could reduce teen pregnancy rates, he said, but he also talked about faith and guidance, which “help fortify a young woman’s sense of self, a young man’s sense of responsibility, and a sense of reverence that all young people should have for the act of sexual intimacy.” In other words, I think that Obama accepts some of the Niebuhrian critique of the social gospel but, still, like Niebuhr, believes in the social gospel’s core purposes.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Quick comment? Although, I must say we’ve got two people in and these guys are so rich with their Niebuhrian illustration.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; Or they don’t shut up.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; I would only say that one of the things that Niebuhr insisted on, and it was another source of his criticism of the social gospel because it was so completely subservient to the idea of the nation, was the idea that an emphasis upon the collectivity over the individual could easily lend support to a kind of quasi-totalitarianism.</p>
<p>And he says explicitly in his later book The Self and the Dramas of History that you have to have some source of value standing above the values inherent in history in order for those values to have validity.</p>
<p>And even though he was himself very much of a theological liberal, he worried that the social gospel dispensed unwisely with the entire supernatural element of faith, which not only was necessary as a driving force for reform, but kept that balance, serving as a corrective to the tendency of all social aggregates to tyrannize the individual.</p>
<p>Lauren Green</p>
<p>LAUREN GREEN, Fox News:&#160; I’ve not studied Niebuhr, so please forgive my ignorance if I say something that is so obvious that you’ll laugh or something. But it seems to me that Niebuhr has this incredible understanding of the paradigm of the original sin, the fall, that we live in a broken world; but also of this narrative of redemption that there is definitely hope out there, this understanding that there are two prodigal sons, not just one. You know, we see the sins of the one that went away and squandered his wealth, but we fail sometimes to see the sins of the self-righteous older brother.</p>
<p>One of the things that is obvious is that his understanding of morality appeared in the context of the time: communism, the Nazis. What would he view as the evil today? What would his position be on the economic crisis? But also, is his effect on policy quantifiable? Did he have access to presidents like a Billy Graham did? Is there any quantifiable effect of him on American policy in any kind of administration?</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />DR. McCLAY:&#160; On the last part, I don’t think so. Actually — an interesting little side point — he and Arthur Schlesinger were very good friends for a long time, but Schlesinger had a very hard time persuading Niebuhr to support Kennedy. Niebuhr finally did, but with some reluctance. He was no fan of the family. He hated, he just absolutely loathed and distrusted Bobby. And the father, Joseph Kennedy, of course was awful, in Niebuhr’s view. JFK was OK, by comparison, but the thing he really held against JFK — and this is all amply documented in correspondence — were his sexual dalliances —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; He knew about them?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY: &#160; Oh, yes. Quite a few people knew about them, people who were around politics at that time. Yes, absolutely. And Niebuhr was very, very concerned not only about the sorts of risks that this would entail in terms of blackmail and national security, which he was very savvy about, but also what it said about the character of the man. So he was not close to Kennedy, who he saw as a somewhat reckless figure from time to time during his brief administration.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: &#160; Niebuhr, however, despite that, was very important in supporting Kennedy against anti-Catholicism. Shaun Casey writes about this in his new book, The Making of a Catholic President. Not all liberal Protestants were comfortable with having a Catholic president, and within liberal Protestantism, Niebuhr was passionately opposed to bigotry against Catholics, and he played a very important role there. So despite his doubts, he was there.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; That’s right.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; I think, when you think about his impact on policy over the whole period — his work in the labor movement, his support for the civil rights movement and all the work around Americans for Democratic Action — he was engaged in all of the core social reform movements of the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s. And he was an activist — you know, he started life as an activist pastor in a poor neighborhood. He wasn’t a community organizer, but he almost was.</p>
<p>So, I think it’s just hard to get into our heads the notion of this very serious theologian as a celebrity. He really was a celebrity in that period, of a certain kind. So I don’t know how much he went in and out of the White House. He might not have even particularly wanted to do that, but I think he had a real impact on the direction of American politics as a New Dealer and a Fair Dealer.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />DR. McCLAY:&#160; Well, one area in which I think you can document influence is in the way that the doctrine of containment came to be formulated. Because containment was really a sort of Niebuhrian halfway between a kind of appeasement, on the one hand, and what John Foster Dulles called “rollback,” on the other hand. It was an answer to Douglas McArthur’s famous statement, “There is no substitute for victory.” You know, it was this notion that containing — which is actually a very Lincoln-esque strategy — containing the expansion of communism, not rolling it back but containing it, would eventually lead to the destruction, the internal unraveling and destruction of the system.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/cwr/17601.htm" type="external">Containment</a> is a very difficult doctrine because it forswears those kind of big victories and upbeat parades that wars generally have been about. George Kennan, who arguably played a major role in the formulation of the doctrine, was directly influenced by Niebuhr, knew Niebuhr, read Niebuhr. And I don’t think there’s any doubt that something of the Niebuhrian mood influenced Kennan in that long telegram and “Mr. X” article and these other documents that ended up becoming formative to containment — the way those policies and perspectives became formulated. So that’s a big influence.</p>
<p>MS. GREEN:&#160; But the other part about the great evil — what would he see as the great evil today?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; That I just don’t know. He’d be very concerned about biotechnology, I suspect. He already was. In The Irony of American History there are already passages about it. So I think he’d be very concerned about that.</p>
<p>Naomi Schaefer Riley</p>
<p>NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY, The Wall Street Journal:&#160; I’ll try to be quick. Writing about religion for The Wall Street Journal, I always look for openings to talk about economics.</p>
<p>So I wanted to press you, E.J., and you, Bill, a little more on his views on economics. It was interesting to me that from the quote you read from Obama, he seemed right away to want to talk about Niebuhr’s view of economics, and I think a lot of us tend to think about his views of foreign policy as the most formative ones. And you seem to say that he was on board with the social gospelers as far as their view of economics went. And, if you can clarify that, that would be great.</p>
<p>And then, I guess the second half of that question is, if he saw institutions as so inherently sinful, even more so than individuals, I wonder what he thought about the potential for institutions to solve economic problems like poverty as opposed to individuals sort of bringing themselves out of it.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; I think his instincts were socialist. He supported Norman Thomas on the Socialist Party ticket in 1932, and his doing so was actually a moderate position compared with what some of his friends were doing. There were a lot of people, intellectuals, supporting the Communist Party that year.</p>
<p>However, I do think you can deduce from Niebuhr some support for free market principles, simply because really, by the time he writes The Irony of American History, he’s completely sold on the structure and dynamics of the U.S. Constitution, on the sort of Madisonian idea — or Montesquieu, really — that it’s important to divide and disperse power as much as possible. But he’s clearly sold on all of that. I think economics is one area in which he could be a little formulaic and weak and just kind of go with the journalism of the day rather than thinking and reading deeply into it, and thinking independently.</p>
<p>I think you can deduce free market principles, or at least mixed-capitalist, mixed-economy kinds of principles from his view of politics. But I think it would be anachronistic to go too far with that. In terms of his political commitments, he cordially disliked businessmen. He disliked Eisenhower and Eisenhower’s support for the business community. He was much more of an Adlai Stevenson kind of guy.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; A quick concrete answer that parallels this. He was either a liberal or a social democrat. This is from Richard Fox’s biography. Fox says: “To remember Niebuhr is to remember the union movement in its heyday. For most of his life, the word ‘justice,’ a term constantly on his lips, meant justice for workers, especially industrial workers. Only at the very end of his life did ‘justice’ come to mean racial justice to the same degree that it meant industrial justice.” Although he was still earlier than most in supporting civil rights.</p>
<p>“When Niebuhr tried to give concrete content to his notion of justice, he instinctively thought about equalizing standards of living, reducing job insecurity and enacting social insurance schemes. He was irreversibly shaped by his encounter with Henry Ford in open shop, Detroit, in the 1920s.” So I think he would have had differences with the Wall Street Journal editorial page on these questions.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />CARL CANNON, PoliticsDaily.com: &#160; I was interested in what other presidents thought of Niebuhr. Bill mentioned Jimmy Carter. Three presidents have mentioned Reinhold Niebuhr. Lyndon Johnson gave him a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Bill Clinton gave a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Joseph Rauh and mentioned that he worked for Niebuhr. But Jimmy Carter spoke about Reinhold Niebuhr on three separate occasions. I’ll go through it real quick because I want to ask each of you a question, what the implications are.</p>
<p>One was in May of 1978. Carter was talking to the Los Angeles Bar Association and he said, “As a governor and as a president” — and this made me think that he was thinking about Niebuhr even when he was governor — he said that he’d learned that “as Reinhold Niebuhr said, it is the sad duty of politics to establish justice in a sinful world.”</p>
<p>In March 1978, he said, “From the experience of the urban renewal program of the 1950s, we learned to be skeptical about what Reinhold Niebuhr called ‘the doctrine of salvation through bricks’ — the idea that we can bulldoze away our urban problems.” That was a bit of a straw man. Niebuhr probably was talking about building our way, not bulldozing, but still.</p>
<p>And then, in June, same year, he actually quoted and named Moral Man in Immoral Society, and Carter went on this riff, and he said that Niebuhr “pointed out the difference between a society and people. The expectations and demands on a person are a much higher standard. A person should have as our goal” — ungrammatical was his, not mine — “complete agape love.” The sitting president. He just went on this riff. “The most we can expect from a society is to institute simple justice.”</p>
<p>So my question for Bill is, what does this tell us about a president who embraces Niebuhr in this way and keeps coming back to him? And then, I would ask you, E.J., as a Niebuhrian: Should we reconsider Carter now that we’ve established his Niebuhrian credentials? Carter was Mike Gerson’s candidate in 1976, it should be pointed out.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Carl, what was your source? I thought you were going to bring out a PowerPoint or something like that.</p>
<p>MR. CANNON:&#160; No. Trust me on those quotes.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Okay. You were just quoting.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>MR. CANNON:&#160; From the public papers of the president.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; You brought them with you?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; I think those are fairly anodyne observations by Carter that have Reinhold Niebuhr’s name tacked onto the end of them. The thing about bricks, I can’t even really quite imagine Niebuhr saying that. But he wrote so much that it’s quite possible he did.</p>
<p>I think Carter may have at some point been a serious student of Niebuhr. I just don’t know. But there’s a kind of Niebuhr line that you can embrace which is to say, well, you can’t expect the same things of institutions that you do of individuals. True, but that seems fairly obvious. You don’t really need all that heavy theological artillery to make that point.</p>
<p>And the belief that one should have a sense of humility about oneself as a leader — I don’t know whether this came before or after he identified himself as born-again, which scandalized the press corps. Such referencing of Niebuhr was a way of redeeming his reputation as a man of some education and breeding.</p>
<p>I don’t want to be too harsh about it. But if you look at Carter’s presidency, I think, in fact, many of the criticisms that Niebuhr makes of the children of light — that they have a kind of conviction about their virtuousness and the virtuousness of their cause, and that by being virtuous and showing their virtue they will sway the opinions of others — this just doesn’t work in Niebuhr’s view. The biblical passage —</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; The children of darkness are wiser in this world than the children of light.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; In this generation. Yes.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; Yes. In this generation.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; And it comes from the parable of the dishonest steward in the Bible, which is one of the most perplexing things in the entire New Testament. I never have known what it means. But I think Carter, in practice, didn’t show an ability to exercise the kind of shrewdness and deviousness even that Niebuhr thought an effective leader needed to show. He hadn’t really taken in all of Moral Man and Immoral Society. By the way, as we were talking I did think of something else in Niebuhr: that he was a tremendous influence on Martin Luther King.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; Yes. I was going to say that. That’s really important.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Because if you look back — I believe it’s the last chapter of Moral Man and Immoral Society — there’s a discussion of non-violent resistance that’s a blueprint for what King does, and King evidently read it and was very influenced by it. King is not an example of a political leader, but an example of a social leader, a movement leader.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; And I just wanted to underscore too, that if you talk about somebody’s influence — “by their fruits shall ye know them” — King did a lot of his academic work on Niebuhr. Richard Fox says Niebuhr didn’t see race as early as he saw the injustice of labor, but he was pretty early in understanding how important racial equality was.</p>
<p>And in terms of Jimmy Carter: Jimmy Carter was, and is, an intellectually serious believer and he’s an intellectually serious believer of a certain age. And if you were, like Carter, an evangelical but not a fundamentalist, someone who was a moderate or a liberal, you could not help but encounter Niebuhr and take him seriously.</p>
<p>You can debate, as Bill suggested, exactly how he applied Niebuhr. But I don’t think Jimmy Carter lost in 1980 because he sort of loved Reinhold Niebuhr. I don’t think it changes our view of him. I think we knew that he was a thoughtful Christian. He lost because of stagflation and the hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. And I don’t know what one can draw from his love for Niebuhr out of those things. I don’t mean to be glib about it. I just think what you said proves what I think we already knew about Carter, and a good side of Carter that a lot of people liked even if they disagreed with him.</p>
<p>Amy Sullivan</p>
<p>AMY SULLIVAN, Time:&#160; Professor McClay, you warned us at the beginning that Niebuhr often wrote as a counterpuncher — speaking in reaction to other people. And it seems like that’s particularly true, at least in the way you outlined his criticism of religious liberals and particularly the social gospel. You could be excused for coming away from that thinking that he wasn’t that different and that he believed Christians still should be engaged in efforts to make the world a better place and progress in social causes. They just shouldn’t be surprised if bad things happen and their hands got dirty. But there must be more to it than that. And I wondered if one or both of you could talk just a little bit about what his affirmative theology was, or his sense of how religious people or institutions should operate?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Well, I’m afraid this is going to sound like I’m rehashing what I said but maybe I didn’t say it well enough. I think that Niebuhr wanted to stress — and yes, he is counterpunching when he does this — that there is no resolution to the problems of politics in this life. You can ameliorate suffering here and there, and you are obliged to try to do so. But the notion that history is somehow moving towards some sort of omega point where frictionless social relations will come into being, where the self-realization of individuals is going to occur in an unimpeded way, that it’s possible to imagine that the interests of different individuals and different groups are not going to clash, and clash in a way that’s more or less permanent in character, that those interests may shift around in complexion but will not clash — that’s an illusion.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; He was anti-utopian.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Yes.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; That’s a concise word.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Yes. I don’t believe in being concise. They pay me by the word. But you know, I’m trying to unpack what anti-utopian means in this context. It doesn’t just mean having moderate expectations. It doesn’t mean that perfection can only be approached asymptotically, and is not achievable for us here below. For Niebuhr, it is something much more disturbing. It’s the notion that the more we progress, the more we put ourselves in danger. That’s a very scary but very powerful principle. And I think that’s very different from the kind of progressive view that the social gospelers, by and large, took. But there’s an argument to be made that he oversimplifies people like Walter Rauschenbusch, who are not quite as blithe and naïve as he makes them out to be. And John Dewey even.</p>
<p>MS. SULLIVAN:&#160; I guess my question, which I may not have made clear, is what do Christians then do with that? That may be the view, but then, how should they proceed?</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; See, I think that he assumed that Christians — it was a deep assumption reflected in the way he lived his life and the way he was a pastor — that Christians would be, should be engaged in social action. When you were a minister in a poor parish in Detroit — a place you love — at a time of union organizing, low wages and all the struggles going on. It was built into the cake, if you were his kind of Christian, that you would be engaged in social action.</p>
<p>What he was about was trying to think through not only what was the most effective form of social action, but also how should one think about that social action as a Christian. He came to believe — he started out as a socialist, and still maintained some of the socialist aspirations — nonetheless he came to see utopianism as both theoretically flawed and also as ineffectual in politics.</p>
<p>Larry O’Brien, who was an aide to Kennedy and a Democratic National Committee chairman, had a great book title for his memoirs. The book title was No Final Victories. And I think that’s an excellent view of democratic — small ‘d’ — politics. I suppose, for that matter, capital ‘d’ too. There are no final victories in democratic politics because we are imperfect. The world is imperfect. All political systems are imperfect, so you have to just keep fighting. And you shouldn’t give up because you don’t win a final victory.</p>
<p>It’s a philosophy of constant improvement and accepting that setbacks happen along the way. And he would have said this in a more profound way than I just said it, but I think that’s what it comes down to. And, at least to me, that is probably the most rational way to approach democratic politics.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Can I say one other thing? I think I’m getting a better feel for what you’re really asking. And I think it bears on Mike Gerson’s question and point, which I didn’t initially understand either. Niebuhr lived in a time when you could count on Christian culture as a propulsive force, when your real task was how to channel that, how to correct it, how to keep it from its worst excesses and make it more self-aware and self-critical.</p>
<p>This is one of the problems about reviving Niebuhr — the fact that his time isn’t the one we live in now. Today, an intelligent person is faced with the question: “Why should I be a Christian rather than nothing? Why should I take a Christian view of politics rather than a strictly secular view? What does the Christian modifier contribute to all of this?” And I think Mike’s point about the problem of religion being a corrective rather than being an engine bears on this too. These are questions that Niebuhr didn’t really have to face.</p>
<p>Dan Gilgoff</p>
<p>DAN GILGOFF, U.S. News &amp; World Report: &#160; It struck me that so far, a lot of the conversation about Niebuhr has centered on his enduring, or perhaps not-so-enduring, influence on American politics and on policymakers both current and past.</p>
<p>And I’m wondering if you could talk a little bit about whether that influence is discernable at all in American Christianity today, given that that was the realm in which he was operating.</p>
<p>And also, I know you both do a lot more in terms of examining politics and theologians’ influence on it besides Niebuhr. Looking at Obama, his public statements, the degree to which he invokes the Bible, or religion, or father, or morality, do you see any other specific figures besides Niebuhr and traditions like the social gospel shining through his words? And I don’t know if you’d go so far as to say actions. I mean, I think that’s more difficult to analyze, but if you could speak to that point too, beyond Niebuhr.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />DR. McCLAY:&#160; Well, let me make one observation to start with, and I think E.J. would be better on Obama than I am. One thing that’s curious about all of this, and I think it tells you something about the times we’re living in too, is that — I think I mentioned this in passing — if you venture into the seminaries, what you will find is that Niebuhr is almost universally held in low esteem. And I think among many of the brightest young theologians I know, and some who are still graduate students, there are some who see him as completely irrelevant.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Is it because they don’t like the ambiguity?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; I think they don’t like the ambiguity, and, in some ways, they don’t see him as being bold enough. He’s tailored too much for a secularist worldview. <a href="http://www.divinity.duke.edu/portal_memberdata/shauerwas" type="external">Stanley Hauerwas</a> is —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; A theologian at Duke University.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; — is, in some ways, far more influential. And Stanley Hauerwas — to talk about a counterpuncher — he has pretty much made a career out of eviscerating Reinhold Niebuhr at every turn, including in his own Gifford lectures. So what’s odd is that people in the position of David Brooks and E.J. and others — I suspect E.J. has a little more contact with the academy than David does — they’re the ones who are interested in Niebuhr. And people like me. I’m a historian. I’m not even in a theological world. But the theologians, I think they see him as a back number.</p>
<p>Now, what that means, I don’t know. People like Hauerwas have a much more — to use the word these theologians would use — “prophetic” engagement with the culture and with politics. One way of translating “prophetic” means without any sort of acknowledgement of the sort of half-measures and compromises and acquiescence that you need to make to be politically effective. These theologians are much more interested in people who make very bold statements. And in that sense, ambiguity is indeed part of the complaint.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Let me just ask, Bill, before E.J. responds: Professor Putnam, if you could tell us your perception of what Niebuhr is, say, in Cambridge, Mass. Or at least, if you know, in the divinity school or in the political science world in which you work.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY: &#160; Well, there is a Reinhold Niebuhr chair at Union Theological Seminary, where he taught. And the guy who occupies it —</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; He’s a great guy. Gary Dorrien.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Yes. He’s a big critic of Niebuhr.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: &#160; He’s an affectionate critic of Niebuhr.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Professor Putnam, you don’t have to answer the question, but I was just thinking, as we are talking about Niebuhr in the academy, what you might want to tell us.</p>
<p>DR. ROBERT PUTNAM, Harvard University:&#160; This is what will cause you to withdraw the invitation to me to speak here even tomorrow because actually, I have relatively little contact with the divinity school at Harvard and almost no contact with theologians. It’s not a matter of principle. (Laughter.)</p>
<p>In my own field, political science, when I was growing up, which was actually a long time ago in the ’60s, Niebuhr was a major figure actually. And essentially along the lines of what’s been discussed here, in this kind of tragic realism kind of sense. So, probably, most political scientists of my generation know a little bit about Niebuhr. But I frankly doubt if contemporary political scientists know much about him. And maybe they should, I think, from a political-science point of view, not from a theological point of view.</p>
<p>This recent Niebuhr revival is actually quite interesting because I do think it reflects a little bit of what’s happening religiously, but mostly what’s happening sociologically, in America. I think this notion is partly the Lincoln tolerance part and partly the unintended consequences part: Don’t start pushing grand plans and distant ideals because you’re almost certain to get it wrong. That part, along with the hope part. I don’t know if that fits theologically or not now, but I think I see it as a little bit of the ethos of our times. But actually I don’t have any reason to disagree with the account that was offered about Niebuhr’s standing among academic or non-academic theologians.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: &#160; Can I have a different view than —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; I know you do, but I want —</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; It’s overlapping but different.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: &#160; Okay. Here it is.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; Bill, you may not completely disagree with this. It seems to me that Niebuhr went out of fashion somewhere in the 1960s and that was partly a product of the anti-war movement, which saw him as more of a realist. And, you know, there was a rebellion against realism. He wasn’t left-wing enough.</p>
<p>And also, when you think back to some of the theological trends in the late ’60s and ’70s, the death of God movement, the theology of hope, the theology of liberation — I would love to know what Niebuhr would have made of liberation theology; what he would have agreed with, what he would have critiqued.</p>
<p>I think that the journalistic and political comeback of Niebuhr has some parallels now in the academy. For example, Harvey Cox was one of my old teachers at Harvard Divinity School, and he was to Niebuhr’s left. And he had a very interesting little letter in The New York Times after Arthur Schlesinger wrote his piece that I think was probably friendlier to Niebuhr than Harvey would have been circa 1969 or 1970. I want to ask Cox about this. I think it reflects Niebuhr’s resurrection — a good theme for a Christian theologian — and the new engagement with Niebuhr that’s going on now.</p>
<p>Bill is absolutely right about Hauerwas. Hauerwas, by the way, played a big role in the symposium about Niebuhr I quoted earlier. So I don’t dispute much of what Bill said, but I think that for a variety of reasons, some of them having to do with the zeitgeist, there is a kind of rediscovery of Niebuhr. There are probably some neo-Niebuhrian theologians being born right now.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Just one quick thing. One of the appeals of Hauerwas, and I think one of the concerns — this is a Putnam-esque theme, that’s why I’m bringing it up — Niebuhr really was in his heyday in the ’30s through the ’50s. Living in those years, it is not surprising that individualism and what might be called the sort of defense of the integrity of the individual over against collectivities and groups of any kind became one of his greatest themes.</p>
<p>That is not, it seems to me, so large a concern now. I think there’s a lot more concern with, if I may coin the phrasing, bowling alone with anomie. To take it to a theological level, one sees a lot of concern, particularly among the young, that our churches are not organizations in which people really are experiencing community, being bound together. And I think there is a lot more interest, particularly among the younger people, with finding a more vibrant and vital form of community than Niebuhr really has to offer, because Niebuhr is very guarded. He offers a very low level of social trust, Niebuhr. He’s always looking out for the ways the individual can be captured and co-opted by groups, and trying to maintain that individual’s independence.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; Ten seconds — just 10 quick seconds on that. There’s a debate over whether the Niebuhr of Moral Man and Immoral Society, which is decidedly against the collective — but remember, he’s writing in a moment when Hitler and Stalin are rising — whether that emphasis is quite as strong in some of the later work. And I’d argue that there is a greater concern for community in the Niebuhr of the ’40s and ’50s than there was in that particular book.</p>
<p>DR. PUTNAM:&#160; People around the table have also observed that Niebuhr is primarily a counterpuncher. The culture and theology against which he was counterpunching then is just very different from the kind of theology and society in which it would be useful to have counterpunching now. That’s my view, and I guess that’s close to what you were just saying.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: &#160; He is more than a counterpuncher.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>MCCLAY:&#160; And I agree with that, too.</p>
<p>Lynn Sweet</p>
<p>LYNN SWEET, Chicago Sun-Times: My question is aimed at you, professor: How did the Holocaust influence Niebuhr? As you said — or as E.J. might have said — he was in his heyday during this period, and I know he certainly was a supporter of the state of Israel and all that, but you know, you often don’t get these great figures who are working real-time with one of the great issues of the world happening. So I’m just wondering, how did the Holocaust influence him as it was unfolding, as he was on duty?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; You mean during the’40s? Well, I don’t know. I can’t answer for that. I think it’s not a theme that figures all that prominently in his work, but I think — and this is sort of a cliché, but I think it’s true — that it was really after the ’67 and ’73 wars that the Holocaust as a theme becomes much more prominent in American Jewish consciousness and in American public life. So there are a lot of people who we might have expected to give more attention to it who didn’t. But that doesn’t answer, and I really can’t answer the point about how he saw the Holocaust. I mean, he was very aware of issues like the firebombing of Dresden and strategic bombing in general and the use of nuclear weapons and the moral calculus involved in those things.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; He was a very, very strong opponent of anti-Semitism, a very early person in inter-religious dialogue, and one of the reasons he broke with his pacifist friends is because he believed Nazism was evil. And his whole critique of Nazism was rooted in the idea that it was demonic in general, but in particular, demonic in its treatment of the Jews.</p>
<p>So I don’t know what he was. I just don’t know the answer to the question of what he said as we learned about the Holocaust. But everything in his history — all of his associations with people like Abraham Heschel and lots of other Jewish leaders, and his writing about Nazis, says this was all very important to him. I don’t have in front of me more detail than that. But it mattered to him. It mattered to him enormously.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; How close was he to Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Were they close at all?</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; I don’t know if they knew each other. They may well have.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Someone asked me about that yesterday. I’m going to look it up actually. I have Fox’s biography so I’m going to look it up. I think they met when Bonhoeffer came to America, but I don’t think —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: &#160; It was brief. It was brief.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; Can you pass that?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Yeah.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; We’re moving the Niebuhr library books back and forth.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Can I say something? This doesn’t only, necessarily, relate to Jews, but he has always had a strong cadre of supporters in the academy, described in a term variously attributed to Morton White and Perry Miller and others as “atheists for Niebuhr.” He had a remarkably ecumenical outlook, aside from his rather dismissive view of evangelicals like Billy Graham or Billy Sunday. But he had very good relations with Jews, both religious and secular.</p>
<p>There’s a story about the Niebuhr family place in a little town called Heath, near Stockbridge in western Massachusetts, where they spent a lot of time. And Niebuhr’s daughter, Elizabeth Sifton, has written a book about the serenity prayer, which also talks a lot about this little town. Felix Frankfurter came out there once and went to a service that Niebuhr conducted where he preached, and as he was leaving, he shook Niebuhr’s hand and said, “Thank you for preaching such a wonderful sermon that really warmed the heart of a believing unbeliever.” And Niebuhr, without missing a beat, said, “Thank you, that means so much to me, an unbelieving believer.” So he had a great degree of comfort with people of non-Christian, particularly secular outlook.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; Just to answer the question from Fox’s biography: Niebuhr actually wrote a piece for The Nation called “ <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=FVO42sr4u2QC&amp;pg=PA132&amp;lpg=PA132&amp;dq=Jews+after+the+war+reinhold+niebuhr&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=Sq5REbTw5h&amp;sig=-v8qkYB65QBNXTRPaSZyMBj18lg&amp;hl=en&amp;ei=QJxCSsucNIOktgfCy72aCQ&amp;sa=X&amp;oi=book_result&amp;ct=result&amp;resnum=2" type="external">Jews after the War</a>.” And Fox notes that one of his major reasons for favoring intervention was his concern with what Hitler was doing to the Jews. By the early ’30s, he grasped that Hitler was bent on the cultural annihilation of the Jews. From that time on, he was a firm, though sometimes qualified, backer of the Zionist cause. So it was a big part of him.</p>
<p>Fred Barnes</p>
<p>FRED BARNES, The Weekly Standard:&#160; What was Niebuhr’s objection to Billy Graham?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; I think it was part of this sort of critique that people like Will Herberg made of American religion in the ’50s: that it was too culturally complacent, too adapted to American life. I mean, Billy Graham was, in a sense, the quintessence of the emphasis on individual conversion and nothing else, at least in Niebuhr’s view. And let me quickly add that this was not at all fair to Billy Graham. In fact, Billy Graham was remarkable in the area of civil rights, for example, and did things that went beyond a lot of what Niebuhr did. But that was Niebuhr’s view. And it’s true that Graham didn’t challenge social structures. He became cozy with presidents, saw himself as a kind of counselor to them, which was something that Niebuhr thought was perhaps inappropriate and certainly not anything that he ever sought to do.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Actually let me add quickly, if I could here, that Graham tried to meet with Niebuhr in New York because Niebuhr was very critical of Graham’s New York crusade. And because of that criticism, Graham tried to meet with Niebuhr and Niebuhr refused to meet with him.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; Mike Gerson will like this. This is from Fox’s book: “Niebuhr found himself pushed to a defense of the same liberal social gospel he had been repudiating for decades by Graham. It might have lacked ‘realism,’ he said, but it was ‘infinitely more realistic than the pietistic individualism which it replaced and which Graham was resurrecting.’ Graham was certainly better, Niebuhr urged, than the popular religious therapists who dispensed with a God of judgment altogether,” but Fox quotes Niebuhr — this is about Graham — “‘Evangelism has a blandness which befits the Eisenhower era.'”</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />ADRIAN WOOLRIDGE, The Economist:&#160; I’m going to ask two questions. One is about Niebuhr’s influence outside the United States. We have a very American-centric view of things. I wonder if he had much influence in Britain or Europe? And the second is about this other character who seems to have suffered the same fate as a lot of people in the politburo when they fell out of favor, sort of being written completely out of history — Jeremiah Wright. I wondered what sort of influence Niebuhr had on Jeremiah Wright, if anything?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Oh yeah, I wouldn’t know about the second one. I mean, my sense of Jeremiah Wright is that he’s much more influenced by James Cone and by black liberation theology, although I’m sure he had some contact. You don’t associate a whole lot of ambiguity with Reverend Wright, but —</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>— I really don’t know that much about him other than the Cone influence.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; What about British influence?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Well, Niebuhr was part of this transatlantic group of liberal anticommunists, membership in which ended up being part of what counts for a decline in his reputation, too. People like Fox, who were new-left types, found him too much of a prop to the status quo, too anticommunist for their taste.</p>
<p>But he was part of the Congress for Cultural Freedom crowd, and wrote for Encounter magazine occasionally, and well you get the picture. So he was part of that world and was read all over Europe, not just in Great Britain. And there’s a bit of a revival of Niebuhr going on in the U.K. now. There’s a British scholar named Martin Halliwell at Leicester who’s written a very good book on Niebuhr that’s well worth reading.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: &#160; Is it a biography or an explication of him?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; It’s more of an explication. It has biographical elements.</p>
<p>MR. WOOLRIDGE:&#160; Is it more than 700 pages?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; No, I think it’s about 400.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />MR. DIONNE:&#160; You know, I think that’s right. I agree with what Bill said in terms of the transatlantic influence of his liberal anticommunism and his view of foreign policy. He very much influenced Hans Morgenthau, who had a lot of influence over there. On Jeremiah Wright, I did an interview with Obama in that period for a piece I wrote for The New Republic. Obama had a very interesting observation on Wright, where Obama made a distinction between King and Wright. He noted that in his early stage King had the combination that was all about — publicly, especially — reconciliation, but that King was angrier toward the end of his life, particularly about the Vietnam War, and that Wright came along in that late stage and was much more influenced by the period of disillusionment at the end of the civil rights years than by the spirit of hope at the beginning of the civil rights years.</p>
<p>And so my hunch is that, just as Bill said, Wright clearly was influenced by James Cone and his black liberation theology, which was part of all those post-liberal theological developments in divinity schools that led to more radical forms of theology. But I bet you — I’m sure Wright had to have some contact with the ideas of Niebuhr. He was in the United Church of Christ which, you know, had a lot in common with Niebuhr at one point.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Well, he may well have introduced President Obama to Niebuhr’s work, one would think.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; That’s an interesting question.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Well, you know who did read Niebuhr was Malcolm X, who clearly is a major influence on Jeremiah Wright. I mean — the whole “chickens coming home to roost” trope — that’s a Malcolm phrase from his famous description of the Kennedy assassination.</p>
<p>DAN HARRIS, ABC News: &#160; The second part of the question about beyond Niebuhr, who are the theologians, religious figures, religious traditions that you see, you know, embodied in some of Obama’s rhetoric or perhaps beyond that, if you’re daring enough to read it into his actual policies. Just to kind of get beyond Niebuhr while still on the subject of Obama.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: &#160; I have tried to figure out who has influenced him. If you read the Sojourners speech, he’s clearly spent some time, or somebody has, looking at the whole debate around John Rawls: What are the obligations of the religious person in the public square in making arguments that are accessible to those who do not share the same religious commitments? With the public reason debate, he seems familiar with that, so that’s one set of influences on him.</p>
<p>I think the formative influences, both rhetorically and to some degree substantively, are all the traditions of civil rights Christianity. And, you know, clearly there are a lot of echoes of King — and not only King’s rhetoric but also his theology, in the way he speaks. And in some ways, what I see in Obama is an effort to go back to civil rights Christianity as part of his way of reformulating a sort of progressive gospel — to make a link between that and Niebuhr, which is quite a natural link since King himself was influenced by Niebuhr in a lot of his language. But beyond that, I don’t know. I’d be very curious. It’s a good question.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Bill, you have anything to add to that?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Well I’m sure you’re right about that and this is just something I don’t know enough about. But I’ve read The Audacity of Hope and the other autobiographical book and I don’t think his rhetoric has the kind of yeastiness of a lot of the ’60s-era civil rights people who were really coming right out of the black Baptist church. You know that book by David Chappell, A Stone of Hope? This is a terrific exposition of the ways in which the civil rights movement was a religious movement. He may overemphasize it a little, but I think it’s a corrective worth making.</p>
<p>And you know, someone like Fannie Lou Hamer — who admittedly is hardly typical — everything she says sounds like it comes out of the Bible or out of a black sermon. And Obama is much more of a guy who went to prep school, who went to elite colleges and universities and wants to kind of draw on that religious language and imagery, but I just don’t know that it steers him.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; A book that I think is really important in understanding King is Jonathan Rieder’s The Word of the Lord is Upon Me, and the subtitle is The Righteous Performance of Martin Luther King Jr. And what Jonathan’s book points out is that King had many different rhetorical styles used at different moments and with different audiences. And I think it’s a really good account of King taken whole. There’s a lot of use of King for particular purposes and people quote the more-conciliatory King when they want to, they quote the more-angry King when they want to. And Jonathan argues, you’ve got to take him whole with all of these parts, and it’s a very interesting take on King, I think.</p>
<p>MR. GERSON:&#160; Follow-up on that question to maybe return it to Niebuhr a little bit. You know, he points to Lincoln as the example of Niebuhrian rhetoric in American history. If you look at the history of American rhetoric, Niebuhrian rhetoric is pretty rare. I mean, during World War II, Franklin Roosevelt didn’t use it — he used The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness. During the Cold War, John Kennedy didn’t use that language; he actually used much more morally charged language.</p>
<p>And a lot of King’s rhetoric, whatever his influences by Niebuhr, were certainly more in the social justice tradition. You know, the kingdom of God on Earth. But I think there’s a misinterpretation of Lincoln in a lot of ways. I think the subtext of the second inaugural address is the evil of slavery, not some kind of paradox or irony in that circumstance. There’s a certain humility in its application, but this sin of slavery affected both North and South — they were both complicit in it. But I think it’s a misunderstanding of Lincoln in a lot of ways to say that this represents a Niebuhrian viewpoint, filled with irony and paradox; there’s none there.</p>
<p>But what does it say that when people need to motivate in American history — if you’re Franklin Roosevelt and you’re engaged in the long twilight struggle, that you don’t use Niebuhrian language — that it isn’t even a rhetorical option in American history? You call people to grand purposes and moral missions and American exceptionalism and a lot of other things — and how did Niebuhr himself kind of deal with that notion?</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />MR. DIONNE:&#160; Just on Lincoln: I don’t think there’s any ambiguity in Niebuhr’s view about slavery. The paradox and irony around and about slavery — the paradox and irony are that even though you are engaged in a just struggle against slavery, you may nonetheless be inveigled in its evils, as you suggest. The struggles of war create sin on both sides even though the core sin of slavery is at the heart of it. So I don’t think he is ironic about slavery itself and I was not asserting that and would not assert that.</p>
<p>MR. GERSON:&#160; And I guess my point was not necessarily to assert that. I think, actually, if you look at Lincoln’s rhetoric and actions on these issues, it was a fairly extreme course that he took in these situations, insisting essentially on certain views at the cost of the Union and, you know, the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives on moral principle. That had a terrible cost, which he realized. But he was willing to do those things. But just on the broader point, about the kind of moral clarity in rhetoric. I mean, how would he diagnose that? Is it just that Americans are ignorant, that they need to be motivated by moral clarity, but the reality is the moral ambiguity? I’m just curious about the level of rhetoric.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; I think it’s worth pointing out that at the time that he gave the second inaugural, there was no doubt about who was going to win and that it was going to happen very soon. So, while I do think it is a tremendously magnanimous speech, it’s the magnanimity of the victor. And that’s important to note, but the other thing is that there is a different task that the rhetorician is called upon to play in that instance, in calling the nation to a task that has yet to be performed — to heal, to reconcile. Particularly in the case of this particular war, the point is not just to crush the South; it’s to bring the South back into the Union, into this sort of family that they had thought to extricate themselves from, for whatever reason.</p>
<p>So the strategy that they use, the Niebuhrian part, I think, comes in — maybe E.J. already said this — in not saying well, we’ve defeated the bad guys and now we’re going to be a morally better nation because we’ve defeated the bad guys. What he says is, that this is a national sin for which we all bear some responsibility; it is a mark upon all of is, and maybe this war came because of the need to expiate the sin of slavery, and if it has to go on and on and on, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. So he’s —</p>
<p>(Cross talk)</p>
<p>MR. GERSON:&#160; Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned Lincoln, because, you know, that’s a different debate.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; The point —</p>
<p>MR. GERSON:&#160; The point is the difference between Niebuhr’s diagnosis of the moral conflicts of the Cold War or World War II. Maybe one of the reasons, to just put it bluntly, that Niebuhr’s influence waned in the aftermath of that is that he was talking about the ironies of American history just at the point that America was on the verge of some of the greatest moral achievements in human history. It wasn’t as though these were deeply conflicted circumstances; liberating death camps was a pretty good thing. Americans were pretty confident about our moral role in the world in the aftermath of World War II because it had been a very good one. The Cold War was conducted with a language of moral certainty —</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: &#160; Can we go back and forth on this? Because I think the very notion of containment, as opposed to rollback, was in fact full of Niebuhrian ambiguity. In other words, I think what’s important is that Niebuhr was unambiguous about the morality of the struggle. And it’s good, actually, that you brought up Lincoln, because Niebuhr, just so we get him on the record correctly, said that Lincoln’s brooding sense of charity was derived from a religious awareness of another dimension of meaning than that of immediate political conflict.</p>
<p>This combination — a moral resoluteness — about the immediate issues with a religious awareness of another dimension of meaning and judgment must be regarded as almost a perfect model of the difficult but not impossible task of remaining loyal and responsible toward the moral treasures of a free civilization on the one hand, while yet having some religious vantage point over the struggle on the other. Niebuhr was at his high tide in the ’40s and ’50s because he believed in the struggle against the Nazis, the liberation of death camps and anticommunism. But he was not a jingoist. He did not believe America was automatically moral or always right.</p>
<p>And the very idea that he was in favor of containment as opposed to rollback says that we can behave in the world in a way that is responsible in confronting communism but does not carry all the risks that rollback would entail. I think possibly — and we would probably both have to look this up and then we could debate the text — I do think some of Kennedy’s rhetoric had some of that in it. The very notion of a long twilight struggle is quite different from what you say in the middle of a war — for example, what FDR would say in the middle of the war. Kennedy’s <a href="http://www1.media.american.edu/speeches/Kennedy.htm" type="external">speech</a> in favor of disarmament at American University in 1963, I think, has some Niebuhrian elements.</p>
<p>And then Obama going to Europe and saying, we Americans have sometimes been arrogant, but you Europeans have engaged in a kind of anti-Americanism that’s dangerous. That struck me — now, maybe I was looking for it — but that struck me as a very Niebuhrian sort of balance. I thought it was a good thing to say. Others didn’t think it was a good thing to say. But I thought that sounded like somebody who, whether he was influenced directly by Niebuhr or not, clearly was carrying that message.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />JOHN SINIFF, USA Today:&#160; Last night there were a few of us who were having a discussion about the office of faith-based initiatives, or whatever it has become under President Obama, and I realized that at the end we came to this unsatisfactory, very Niebuhrian conclusion as to what he’s trying to do to with this office. And I wondered, E.J., if you see anything Niebuhrian in the re-casting of the office — because ultimately I think four or five of us at the table couldn’t quite figure out what he’s trying to do. Maybe that’s the purpose. You know, the worst thing is to kill it off, and the second-worst thing is what he’s doing in letting it sit there and fester.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE:&#160; As far as I can tell Niebuhr has no direct influence or indirect influence on Obama’s thinking on the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>God knows what Niebuhr would think of this, and he does, but we don’t know.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>I think what Obama is trying to do is walk a line between not wanting to overturn it and thinking there is good work done here; and in fact, partnerships between government and faith-based groups pre-date President Bush. I think that it distorts the debate on both sides if liberals say, this is a Bush creation and we’re against it. Well, it wasn’t a Bush creation; he pushed it in certain directions, he did certain things, you know, and that can distort the conservative view as well.</p>
<p>And I think Obama is trying to figure out, “How can I be true to things I say or believe about church-state separation and religious liberty and still keep this thing going?” So I think they’re still struggling toward resolving that, and he’s clearly kicked down the road the hardest question, which is the religious hiring issue, and he’s clearly tried to fudge that for a while, and my impression is that he’s going to fudge it for a while longer.</p>
<p>I think he’s going to have to confront it, but the shrewd thing I think he did — shrewd because I thought he did the right thing — was to say we don’t want this whole effort to get blown up immediately in a debate over this hiring issue when we know there is quite a lot of common ground on these partnerships. Bill Clinton had some of the first faith-based offices at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other parts of the administration. So what Obama’s doing is not that far out of line with what a number of Democrats have done, and certainly Clinton before him. And so I think they’re still figuring it out, is the short answer.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; You have anything to add to that, Bill?</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; I agree about the continuity with Clinton. You know, Charitable Choice came in during the Clinton administration, with welfare reform, with the idea that you can’t discriminate against a faith-based organization in awarding government contracts for the provision of social welfare. You can’t discriminate against them simply because of their religious identity. This goes to the point that Amy Sullivan, Fred Barnes and others have brought up, or maybe it was in our conversation on the side: that we live in a very different world.</p>
<p>I mean, at one time in the past correctives seemed to have been needed to protect the secular, to keep the religious realm from overwhelming the secular. Now, it seems to me both Democratic and Republican administrations have seen the need to push back the other way, to some extent. Whether Obama will sustain that or not, I don’t know. But I agree with E.J.; this has lasted for a while, even if it hasn’t always been so effective.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: &#160; Well, on that note of heated agreement —</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY:&#160; Raging moderation.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; — raging moderation and heated agreement, you are allowed to continue these conversations, I promise you. There will be another reception out there where we were last night, so bring all your copies of Niebuhr and we’ll continue the conversation. Join me in thanking both these gentlemen for their time.</p>
<p>(Applause)</p>
<p>This transcript has been edited for clarity, accuracy, spelling and grammar.</p> | false | 1 | faith angle forum160is semiannual conference brings together select group 20 nationally respected journalists 35 distinguished scholars areas religion politics amp public life obamas favorite theologian short course reinhold niebuhr key west florida speaker dr wilfred mcclay160suntrust bank chair excellence humanities university tennessee chattanooga respondent ej dionne columnist washington post senior advisor pew research centers forum religion amp public life moderator michael cromartie vice president ethics amp public policy center 160 michael cromartie michael cromartie160 session afternoon may wondering reinhold niebuhr heres answer ej dionne david brooks three four years saying must session reinhold niebuhr didnt hook used say think know niebuhr david interview barack obama toward end interview something wasnt clicking david said well think reinhold niebuhr followed laughter obama went 25 minutes admiration reinhold niebuhr david column niebuhr got excuse niebuhr thats talking reinhold niebuhr president likes reinhold niebuhr thought wanted know anyway session really president obama reinhold niebuhr used teaser obamas favorite theologian get attention im sure presidents name come conversation bill mcclay intellectual historian whos taught tulane georgetown universities endowed chair university tennessee chattanooga bill look bio written important books one called masterless self society modern america winner bestbook award merle curti award intellectual history 1995 remind bill merle curti dr wilfred mcclay160 great intellectual historian mr cromartie160 okay laughter dr mcclay160 university wisconsin mr cromartie160 okay good well award 1995 thats invited ladies gentlemen going hear bill mcclay ej dionne going read us five different books niebuhr stacked ej dionne160 even thriller like thriller list mr cromartie160 youre going 15 minutes mr dionne160 twenty gave mr cromartie160 twenty okay mr dionne160 ill probably 15 mr cromartie160 okay bill look forward thank dr mcclay160 thanks really quite change think francis collins barbara bradley hagerty sort uplifting hopeful subject niebuhr whos think time get may ready slash wrists laughter hope hope mr cromartie160 song suicide laughter dr mcclay160 stormy weather im leaning stormy weather actually think connections professor robert putnam going tomorrow think see linkages niebuhr theologian hes also student power politics great admirer saying lord acton power corrupts powerpoint corrupts absolutely laughter dr wilfred mcclay souls let finish souls pure enough children light niebuhr might say actually thats doubleedged thing youll see im one powerpoint say wont corruption least particular occasion sin one im going pass mikes right occasion hook discussion david brooks thensenator obama 2007 actually actually time candidacy beginning look plausible interesting may may significant said niebuhr one favorite philosophers according davids transcription one favorite theologians may may significance course david say obama gave sort perfect description book perfect sentences perfect paragraph structure 20 minutes suggest knew book question irony american history one books im going talk obamas first american president declare fondness niebuhr jimmy carter notably election people think famous malaise speech niebuhrian input certainly influenced christopher laschs book culture narcissism although ways lasch didnt particularly like always tends happen politicians use books speeches sudden youre thrilled see happening think niebuhr would probably exception event mike said im really going talk much obama feeling would want ej may thoughts certainly im going get question whether interest obamas interest niebuhr genuine whether really understands niebuhr thats unrelated pay grade wont say instead really want said title lay vision worldview kind short course obviously theres agenda simply indicate thinking although develop whose doesnt core consistency core niebuhr seems carries three decades concentrated work avoid strenuously speculating would niebuhr would niebuhr say embryonic stem cell research whatever presentday issue think theres plenty talk respect say think ill lay speculate niebuhr outstanding public theologian 20th century im sure know may know much become figure obscurity recent decades thats partly term public theologian come represent something null set recent times remember issue time right 911 stanley hauerwas dubbed americas best theologian hes really theologian whatever virtues much practical import say political life niebuhr unusually long productive career turned many books many articles wrote journalistically wrote highly densely scholarly works engaged involved politics day world war way vietnam war theologian great distinction also public intellectual addressed full range public concerns enormously capacious mind really could take kinds issues wouldnt necessarily discussed books importance time tells something time time theologians important people time great vitality mainline protestantism barbara referred indication severe attenuation influence closest thing niebuhr recent years late father richard john neuhaus160 converted catholicism laughter low regard protestant mainline niebuhrs career ways raises issue nowattenuated influence fact neuhaus started protestant ended catholicism mainline protestant world today longer place protestants go fresh ideas also general observation niebuhr something counterpuncher intellectual mean term think become evident short hard know thinks somebody subject unless hes reacting thats truly discloses taking exception responding thinkers think important see context careful extract use occasions one thing context think impossible imagine operating anything modern western liberal environment theres strong tradition science belief idea progress society ways poised cusp transformation secularity rate world secular option exists much creature historical moment critic liberalism within liberalism breed flourished particularly late 40s 50s doesnt seem exist least form today issues struggled quintessentially related problems advanced modernity science one wouldnt necessarily emphasized francis collins talk made think perspective science represents advance dilemma niebuhr saw us niebuhr upholds idea progress remorselessly critiques time might add something else may know niebuhr whats called serenity prayer goes something like god grant us serenity accept things change courage change things changed wisdom know one im reciting memory interesting thing anyway someone conservative disposition leaves preserving things need preserved laughter striking omission shows thoroughgoing progressive theres hint serenity prayer dont know whether anybodys ever observed mr cromartie160 could first dr mcclay160 first last niebuhr understanding christianity thats grounded complicated view human nature actually lot persuasiveness derives fact view complicated adequate secular equivalents first let give little background biography allimportant born 1892 log cabin youll happy know rural missouri son german immigrant pastor gustav niebuhr gustav niebuhr member tiny protestant group called german evangelical synod much immigrant group really grew germanspeaking enclave actually rather common part midwest missouri illinois late 19th early 20thcentury farm communities dr wilfred mcclay way interesting side point german evangelical synod eventually became part united church christ protestant denomination rev jeremiah wright belongs theres sort odd little connection reinhold inherited father sense pastoral vocation keen interest social political affairs built two years yale divinity school began career theologian pastor advocate called social gospel social gospel movement within liberal protestantism located meaning christian gospel promise blueprint progressive social reform rather assertions supernatural reality words social gospel important story arose crisis within particularly protestantism although catholicism version response industrialization urbanization protestant case particularly salient challenges biblical authority rising things darwinism darwin darwinism much idea evolution per se doctrine easily comported christian faith specific idea natural selection randomness process natural selection viewed particularly threatening equally powerful threat came socalled higher criticism bible deconstructed bible intents purposes collection redactions successive texts multiple authors long periods time therefore text regarded kind organic authorial unity things terribly threatening especially protestants protestants whole basis protestant reformation oversimplify grandly see authority bible overriding superseding authority historical institutional church qualifications youd need make statement basically fair assessment tremendous weight placed authority text authority falls question entire foundation protestantism threatened social gospel one way responding problem social gospelers modernists dismissed notion bible read authoritatively way say fundamentalists fundamentalist movement getting going time read bible even historical creeds social gospelers insisted thought heart christian gospel much valid alive worth preserving could preserved dispensing supernatural problematic elements instead socializing gospel ie translating language social reform including scientific social reform saw little sense antagonism science reform general optimism period seen limits could achieved walter rauschenbusch perhaps leading figure social gospel movement put way forgive im going read quotes would normally read give sense thinkers heres rauschenbusch possibility directing religious energy scientific knowledge comprehensive continuous reconstruction social life name god within bounds human possibility idea progress idea perfectibility human condition man use term generic sense much core way one ways american sociology differed dramatically say german sociology beginning astonishingly religious content albion small chairman department sociology university chicago founder first sociology journal united states president american sociological association forth wrote following sociology science gods image moral philosophy conscious task nothing less approximation ideal social life contained gospels social science holiest sacrament open men devoted laying individualistic superstition ensuring live move members one another words kingdom god reserved beyond end time created social scientists ministers working handinhand together although niebuhr subject im going make little interjections obama appropriate points think certainly one things one could speculate degree obama influenced social gospel think pastor jeremiah wright clearly lot evidence example famous speech obama gave south carolina campaign declared desire instrument god declared quote confident create kingdom right earth capitalized k assume mean going institute political institution monarchy definitely echoes social gospel niebuhr initially bought bought social gospel movement fit upbringing fit reformist inclinations niebuhr youll see soon became impatient kind talk became uneasy progressive movement found social gospel utterly naïve human nature intractability human nature inadequate task explaining nature power relations existed real world sin word use describe bad institutions corrected sin thought something much deeper intrinsic part human condition something social reform powerless much anything throw ej 1939 says liberalism little faith man exemplifying perversion betrayal divine trust called sin course liberal critiquing beliefs system arguably important book came 1932 revealing title moral man immoral society nineteen thirtytwo needless say depths depression propitious moment publish rather hardhitting book niebuhr turned social gospelers view head feet whichever marxian analogy like argued fact disjuncture morality individuals morality groups latter morality groups morality generally inferior morality individuals ill explain moment thought fixed condition fixed dynamic human life individuals could rare instances transcend selfinterest sake larger good groups individuals especially groups like nations never could fact groups made individuals worse rather better work collectives invariably governed logic selfinterest niebuhr rejected progressives belief plasticity semiplasticity human nature thought sin better explanation liked say sin one element christian creed empirically verifiable laughter also took aim think radical people appreciate took aim concept socialization progressives central john dewey frequent target moral man immoral society goes every chance gets john dewey argued lost individual refind inner wholeness subduing forces organization work externals tell thats john dewey could read sort like processing jelly get idea laughter niebuhr thought almost opposite true said men little enough goodness socialization makes worse reason social groups pursue shared selfinterest members selfinterest triumphant dismissed sentimentality progressive hope wages individual sin could overcome intelligent reform could transform loving fellowship likeminded comrades holding hands beside campfire instead pursuit good ends arenas national international politics take full account unloveliness human nature unloveliness power implications christians wanted good world fairly stark view willing get hands dirty dirty existing social relations held together coercion countercoercion could change social change brought persuasion diplomacy pedagogy intelligence sweetness use term uses repeatedly book emotionally potent oversimplifications emotionally potent oversimplifications things galvanize groups effective action see say rather depressing outlook laughter doesnt get better quotation contemporary culture fails realize power extent persistence group egoism human relations idea solidarity campfire illusion quote society perpetual state war different selfinterested groups jesus christ meet thomas hobbes quote way society maintain coercion dominant groups go invent romantic moral interpretations facts peace lasts long underdogs kept able successfully challenge coerce new peace impose another set romantic moral interpretations facts power counter power view power henry adams said poison formulation doesnt laughter doesnt lead attractive conclusion conclusion exercise power always morally dangerous also always morally necessary act world couldnt take option opting hence need dualism morals since quote selfishness human communities must regarded inevitability countered competing assertions interests thats james madison laughs along hobbes none release moral requirements christianity ill come back rather stark view extends much nationstate response part social gospel progressive movement rather long strain american ideas progressive ideas solidarity edward bellamys famous movement built around philosophy kind socialistfascist meld called nationalism reform wont necessarily call left im sure call progressive side things nationalism bad thing niebuhr niebuhr wrote article 1916 atlantic called nations crime individual nice subtle title idea american entry first world war strongly supported nation cheats soldier takes loyalty willingness die sacrifice purposes without able hallow sacrifice put nation claims life eternal significance ends eternal value expressed idea 16 years later moral man immoral society patriotism transmutes individual unselfishness national egoism unselfishness individuals makes selfishness nations hope solving larger social problems mankind merely extending social sympathies individuals vain much empathy theres interesting twist rejection social gospel affirmation original sin mean gave social reform niebuhr man left remained man left always maybe enough left suit people certainly never conservative believed christians obligated work actively progressive social causes realization justice righteousness way characteristically put abandoned illusions least way thought pursuit social justice would involve acts sin acts imperfection even surgical action one might say involves collateral damage christian faith inexorably called adherents life perfect righteousness calling would seem give quarter dirty hands left feeling niebuhr calling christians impossible sense insists original sin true insists probative value confirmed every day yet insists time human beings splendidly endowed creator still capable acts nobility generosity truth still able advance cause social improvement things insisted true time equivalent claim hes correcting social gospel hes pushing social gospel sees making many errors hes abandoning entirely ideas would continue develop 1938 invited give gifford lectures st andrews university prestigious lectures natural theology later published arguably magnum opus book called nature destiny man david brooks said recall write book title like really feel like nothing else left say laughter appeared 1943 interesting productive niebuhr right second world war book really grand tour entire intellectual history west ultimately think really book idea progress question whether human history meaningful want stress last point one niebuhrs great antagonists henry ford hated henry ford loathed treatment workers actually hatred henry ford formative influence life henry ford one great sayings history history one damn thing another think thats legitimate way understanding history intrinsic dynamic meaning niebuhr wanted struggle course thinking christian see meaning history christians understand history meaningful although sometimes meaning history sometimes outside history one cant know advance operating another one hazardous necessary operations felt happened however modern times secularized idea progress saw immanent order called immanent logos longer related transcendent meaning inherent history idea progress something emerged christianity sense outgrowth christianitys worldview ethos threatened negate christianity view built biblical language built biblical insights idea became transformed two modern innovations first elimination notion grace meaning supernatural intervention divine power give meaning history necessary second thinkers laid foundation modernity think really get heart niebuhr failed see dynamism history doubleedged thing thinkers assumed development means advancement good assuming failed recognize think sees characteristic modernity quote every heightened potency human existence may also represent possibility evil words capacity grows power evil intentionally unintentionally dr wilfred mcclay everything within history involved every level contradicting eternal tendency says complete system meaning falsely way makes either individual group center system niebuhr goes says possible philosophy escape error possible philosophy least theology grounded faith understands error committed analogous presumptions history defy majesty god sees progress factor history facet history sees right conceive history dynamically takes generous view historys possibilities also warns puts history move forward towards increasing order without developing possibilities chaos potencies enhanced order words never woods thats redaction danger increases progress mans capacity evil advances progress towards good hence greater progress greater need vigilance greater need metaphysical check human pride image like use describe tightrope one always going higher higher know tightrope keep moving forward cant stop moving youre moving along tightrope towards evergreater dangers along evergreater achievements think vision hes operating going say little bit children light children darkness think im running time let move book really gotten attention last 10 years irony american history published 1952 takes insights focuses upon consideration americas role world published 1952 height cold war interesting perhaps surprising book stinging attack communism time stinging attack america moral complacency america warning moral failings would make america vulnerable thats niebuhr typically always fighting two fronts nobody top niebuhr anticommunism also believed united states resembled antagonists cared imagine much book devoted making case criticizes communists philosophical materialism points americans guilty thing practice heres statement think rings true today 1952 despite constant emphasis upon dignity man liberal culture predominant naturalistic bias frequently results views human nature dignity man clear tendency towards materialism even greatest americas dangers even perilous thought one principal points pride entrenched idea america providential mission world nations rendered uniquely virtuous innocent blessings history goes discussion locating beginnings calvinist puritan tradition jeffersonian tradition saw americas natures nation free encumbrances old world place new man democratic future america speak land great reset button presumably labeled correct manner laughs even abraham lincoln dewyeyed fellow called america last best hope mankind words certainly nothing else convey kind cosmic significance american history niebuhr didnt reject things completely didnt see basis reject greatness america insisted american belief america turned back history made new beginning humankind naïve dangerous laying america open sins spiritual pride source strength turned source weakness meant irony american history tendency american civilization allow decent motives noble intentions blind sins errors prone thereby let virtue become source vice irony unintended inadvertent unconscious consequence good intentions rather evil sake larger good called tragedy irony saying would sound like another typical critic american civilization said something said america act world effectively choice way sinful imperfect christian required act world get hands dirty working cause good morally imperfect america obliged employ power world opting option rather option perilous alternatives would avoid let read couple passages illustrate ill stop culture knows little use abuse power use power global terms idealists divided would renounce responsibilities power sake preserving purity soul ready cover every ambiguity good evil actions frantic insistence measure taken good cause must unequivocally virtuous fairly timely words think needless say rejects options continues way take must continue take morally hazardous actions preserve civilization must exercise power ought neither believe nation capable perfect disinterestedness exercise become complacent particular degrees interest passion corrupt justice exercise power legitimated stop mr cromartie160 thats great well keep rolling everybody knows ej dionne know youve spoken niebuhr lot delighted respond bill thank mr dionne160 thank mike thinking maybe barbara would explain peculiar part brain actually makes happy talk reinhold niebuhr laughter research ran across robert mcafee brown described niebuhr pessimistic optimist think thats exactly unless want see optimistic pessimist think deep element optimism comes pessimism want get ej dionne say anything want thank mike running things 10 years well probably say later ive coming things beginning whod thunk sessions journalists religion would work like mike absolutely brilliant idea holding sessions rather nice places laughter meetings also friends met actually time easy actually created community 10 years work thank pew charitable trusts applause also want say great honor bill mcclay one favorite essays general subject religion politics piece bill wrote 2003 called two concepts secularism commend everyone wrote great essay right 911 called continuing irony american history first things suggest anybody wants see bills thoughts interesting read wake years later pick two quick points bill made want say things note barack obama called reinhold niebuhr philosopher rather theologian cant help point president bush referred jesus favorite philosopher may recall alan keyes took george bush task saying jesus isnt philosopher jesus word thinking would great cromartie session jesus philosopher word hope mike gets refunded finally gave one nice rooms water year laughter im really glad bill point niebuhr got attention time magazine think talk show would book reinhold niebuhr thinking tell us reinhold mean irony american history well larry saying day abraham heschel paul tillich wouldnt happen think laughter suggests certain hole discussion colbert would absolutely absolutely reminded omnipresence reinhold niebuhr picked one favorite thriller writers philip kerr highly recommend hero perfect niebuhrian character german detective nazi germany hes antinazi im pleased say one books says voted social democrats hes trying operate nazi germany little damage much good without actually going slammer opened philip kerr right beginning serenity prayer reinhold niebuhr destined discussion 1987 22 years ago late father richard neuhaus organized conference reinhold niebuhr funded surprised pew charitable trusts written pew trusts always us father neuhaus said interesting thing introducing volume niebuhr said recent years back 87 something niebuhr renaissance led large parts suspected though sin neoconservative adds part much agree attempting capture niebuhr partisan agenda however would great disservice niebuhr help us today think says something niebuhr new niebuhr revival think seeing right led primarily neoconservatives actually liberals certain dissident conservatives like friend david brooks want talk little bit political character niebuhrs thought without violating father neuhaus said think end unmistakably view irredeemably liberal end wouldnt use word irredeemably something worth talking much question view original sin fits liberal worldview sort get niebuhrian original example going baseball player deference resident hockey star clare duffy decided use hockey player instead niebuhrian hockey player tries win game assume victory renders superior opponent would admit may unfairly highsticked clare duffy got away thats niebuhrian hockey player niebuhrian wagering vegas plays odds intelligently tries win always admits perhaps luck gods grace system niebuhrian get fistfight absolutely necessary would acutely conscious pain blows inflicting opponent know fact fight happening proof fallen nature person fighting laughter proper niebuhrian sense humor things understanding profound ironies involved trying act effectively world trying act morally time thats love reinhold niebuhr went back canonical text david brooks famous interview barack obama think worth recalling actually short statement obama worth quoting provide context headline mike put discussion david asked ever read reinhold niebuhr obama replied love hes one favorite philosophers david asked obama took take away niebuhr heres obama actually said take away compelling idea theres serious evil world hardship pain humble modest belief eliminate things shouldnt use excuse cynicism inaction take away sense make efforts knowing hard swinging naïve idealism bitter realism actually pretty good description reinhold niebuhr whether barack obama politician pandering david brooks wellknown love niebuhr whether reflecting something deep sounded pretty deep think actually bad description way obama views world discussion id love friendly argument bill whether hes social gospel niebuhrian think hes actually niebuhrian elements social gospel way obama preaches think content niebuhrian ej dionne niebuhr probably like much bothand guy hes yes guy favorite words paradox irony 1940s liberal thats big debate liberals neocons lot neocons say 1940s liberals think niebuhr later life suggested take path neoconservative friends particularly early support civil rights movement although lot supported civil rights movement also strong opposition vietnam war thats piece history talk like believes believes passionately sense humility got niebuhr francis collins presentation today niebuhr revivals niebuhr person turn balance turn things get hand critic lefts utopianism hes critic rights tendency deify country critique original sin think applies neatly different times right left politics think might call dialectical relationship left think bill absolutely right point kind three important episodes reacted social gospel opposed economic social programs social gospel different understanding human nature thought liberals optimistic view human nature next big political turn late 1930s broke pacifist friends christian century know still around broke christian century formed another magazine called christianity crisis argue needed go war hitler nazism made mark politics liberal anticommunism made one founders americans democratic action arthur schlesinger jr im going cite schlesinger close niebuhr never stopped liberal liberal critic want use simply specimen people different points get engaged niebuhr think im fairly typical people fall love niebuhr would permit im even sure would laughter read children light children darkness first niebuhr read earlytomid70s read someone broadly shared still shares lefts views economic justice social reform impatient certain utopianism saw left thought destructive also impatient parts left seemed believe disciplines limits placed upon aspirations need persuade majorities build consensus democratic societies still turned selfrighteous moralism disguised morality mike novak someone whos written well years think tendency moralistic rather moral afflicts right center left even parts selfsatisfied center realized quickly reading book niebuhr guy preaching could combine passion humility see two major reasons revival interest niebuhr among liberals one think criticism christian moderates liberals would see hyperpoliticized christian right square much niebuhrs criticism certain style christianity kind revivalism critical time niebuhr enjoined believer understand worst corruption corrupt religion need sense modesty virtue wisdom power available us sense contrition common human frailties foibles lie foundation enemys demonry vanities americans niebuhr argued never safe temptation claiming god simply sanctifier whatever fervently desire one great niebuhrian quote hang seminars niebuhr said must always seek truth opponents error error truth also classic niebuhr think paradox friend bill galston really called attention one paradoxes niebuhr encourages us doubt kind doubt niebuhr encourages kind doubt faith ought encourage faith defined solely demand everyone assent without reservation long particular list propositions thats odd idea think inadequate understanding christian jewish traditions always call us form moral doubt bill galston said calls upon us question motivations pretensions special virtue niebuhr said virtuous act quite virtuous standpoint friend foe standpoint argued greatest perils democracy arise fanaticism moral idealists conscious corruption selfinterest assertion might usefully guided us debate war iraq niebuhr warned nation inordinate degree political power doubly tempted exceed bounds historical possibilities informed idealism understand limits mans wisdom volition david brooks session niebuhr recently one point emerged clearly surprising niebuhr really came popularity period writing nazism stalinism ideologies justified despotic pretensions name creating new human beings perfect societies niebuhr strong sense human nature constant skeptical projects designed create new humanity aware terrible projects could become religions essentially moderating role far removed ideology many claims religion provide detailed textbook creating perfect society earth even religious lefts talk obligation build kingdom gods justice earth emphasizes constant act creation building final outcome human beings achieve important understand niebuhr imported saint augustine liberalism friend many jean elshtain captured well wrote totally niebuhrian thought jeans part augustine thorn side would cure universe similarly torments critics disdain project human community justice possibility wisdom jean says comes experiencing fully ambivalence ambiguity human condition david recently session niebuhr one point blurted maybe talking marriage madison lincoln niebuhr looked said wait minute polygamy laughter dont know niebuhr would think one niebuhrs think bill alluded one niebuhrs favorite public statements politician lincolns second inaugural address remember key passage lincolns second inaugural said sides read bible pray god invokes aid may seem strange man dare ask gods assistance wringing bread sweat mens faces let us judge judged prayers could answered neither answered fully niebuhr said passage puts relationship moral commitments history religious reservations partiality commitments precisely statement theologian put think anybody could claimed right side history even gods side abraham lincoln fighting slavery civil war yet lincoln refused extreme instance presume identification gods think lincoln demonstrated clearly statesman niebuhrian figure possible undertake great tasks politics firmness commitment principle courage still pretend absolute certainty ones course ones intentions purity ones motives note learned much point congressman david price north carolina divinity school grad written powerfully relationship lincolns thought niebuhrs want two quick things close one niebuhrian thought want thank bill know hes fond passage im going read close remarks im grateful didnt read could use id like call attention two essays niebuhr think remain important show reach reinhold niebuhr continues across philosophical lines mike novak back 1972 wrote great essay commentary called needing niebuhr drew two niebuhrian thoughts think particularly revealing niebuhr said realism means particularly one thing establish common good purely unselfishness restraint selfishness sounds awful lot like james madison children light children darkness niebuhr said famously mans capacity justice makes democracy possible mans inclination injustice makes democracy necessary one reasons mike liked mike still liberal transit conservative side novak critical saw newclass kind privileged liberal thought niebuhr called bluff folks mike wrote pure intentions high goals unblemished radicalism mind absolve men ambiguous consequences estimate morally radiant actions political life follow form morality play tragic niebuhrian view essay thats worth looking one arthur schlesinger wrote beautiful piece new york times magazine 2005 essay think schlesinger successfully claims niebuhr back liberals remember schlesinger niebuhr founded americans democratic action together great political allies throughout lives schlesinger used niebuhrs criticisms pretensions american power critique iraq war spoke liberals profited awareness original sin niebuhr taught ej dionne schlesinger notion sinful man uncomfortable generation brought believe human innocence even human perfectibility less liberal delusion expression allamerican dna andrew carnegie articulated national faith acclaiming rise man lower higher forms declared conceivable end march perfection 1939 charles e merriam university chicago dean american political scientists wrote new democracy new despotism constant trend human affairs toward perfectibility mankind plainly stated time french revolution reasserted ever since time increasing plausibility human ignorance unjust institutions remained obstacles perfect world schlesinger proper education individuals proper reform institutions job obstacles would removed heart man ok yet schlesinger said notion became absurd liberals confronted evils nazism stalinism schlesinger notes isaiah berlins famous declaration 20th century terrible century western history schlesinger belief human perfectibility prepared us hitler stalin death camps gulags proved men capable infinite depravity heart man obviously ok niebuhrs analysis human nature history came vast illumination argument double merit accounting hitler stalin necessity standing think heart irony american history ill close get debate obama niebuhr want later want close thought ive always said reason like optimistic pessimism pessimistic optimism ive always said think im psychological optimist intellectual pessimist shocked people bad things im actually amazed well people circumstances perhaps worth noting gene debs great line another beatitude blessed expect nothing shall disappointed think niebuhrian view world insists hold hope good obama word even realistic view capacity human beings make mistakes even times perform great acts evil possible jesse jackson likes say keep hope alive concluding prayer really reinhold niebuhr wrote irony american history nothing worth achieved lifetime therefore must saved hope nothing true beautiful good makes complete sense immediate context history therefore must saved faith nothing however virtuous accomplished alone therefore saved love virtuous act quite virtuous standpoint friend foe standpoint therefore must saved final form love forgiveness hope forgive spirit flaws presentation laughter understand love reinhold niebuhr fills happiness thank much applause mr cromartie160 well didnt know whether topic reinhold niebuhr fact lavaliere neck mic ej ive never seen preach much like great thank thank bill david youre first david van biema david van biema time160 professor mcclay also ej ej remembers im going pervert one metaphors saying waterboarding ultimate form highsticking dont know much niebuhr answer may obvious make enlightening understand correctly believed necessity acting getting ones hands dirty exerting power time believing inevitably would problems pride state particularly apt fall sin delusion special virtue would come torture debate dr mcclay160 part getting overlong talk ive prepared list things think wrong niebuhr inadequate one may address actually think ejs example guy pummeling somebody guilty conscience hes beating crap awfully hard tell whether leader acting niebuhrian way unscrupulous way know lot inner disposition thats visible us thats problem especially political life deal external standards principles particularly democratic society ought open general scrutiny great example get time people sides im great admirer niebuhr im happy revival comes general issues war obvious reasons pacifists dont like niebuhr dont even need explain mean see doctrine realism kind wild card allows whatever want name realism equally vehement niebuhr people defend justwar theory argument look whole set criteria often hard nail particular instances least principles worth observing worth trying follow way taming legitimizing warfare civilized world view niebuhr chucks says well going get hands dirty bad things happen youve got exercise power innocents die eggs broken make omelets would never say way course get point way writes powerful dealing way power poison henry adams terms inescapable im sure obama see im mistaking quite come terms least rhetoric thats think real test come back issue torture war think problem niebuhr doesnt give clear standards make judgments legitimated public arena mr cromartie160 emphasizes ambiguity time saying use power mr dionne160 cant prove although quotation think suggests think look back things niebuhr said vietnam war suggest would opposed waterboarding think would ended side said must fight terrorists cant use every method methods demean us hurt us support cant know certain last words irony american history says perish ruthlessness foe would secondary cause disaster primary cause would strength giant nation directed eyes blind see hazards struggle blindness would induced accident nature history hatred vainglory want make case waterboarding thats pretty good text cite dr mcclay160 going say since going play would reinhold say game want go four limbs think certainly updating irony american history would discussion ways jihadists elements truth critique american culture astonishing may sound think would raise issue dont think theres doubt ross douthat ross douthat new york times160 bounce one alternative possibility especially ej wonder think idea maybe niebuhr would say waterboarding khalid sheikh mohammed 2003 kind forgivable excess expect governments torture memos 2005 kind thing shouldnt forgiven dont know think kind distinction sort institutionalization versus sort crisis mentality getting hands dirty individual case mr dionne160 first bill fundamentally right would niebuhr say debate pretty tough carry mr douthat160 questions going inaudible mr dionne 160 thats fair enough could imagine niebuhr saying understand heat days weeks 911 people power erred side keeping us safe may done things shouldnt still find hard debate still think would ended critical side whats fascinating niebuhr neocons always sort liked father neuhaus suggests always talked legitimacy using american power world moments people left seen always declaring american power world use american power wrong illegitimate someone believes american power used morally yes reinhold niebuhr friend also always wary jingoism tendency look flaws danger overreach danger things immoral moral cause two sides niebuhr ways say ambiguity think fundamentally actually holds together know shorthand american power used morally used fear trembling careful use dont know would bill disagree summary dr mcclay 160 yes would say one fundamental building blocks argument irony american history americans utterly bedazzled notion innocence desire innocence dont know would say think might react current kind orgy interest subject come every occasion im criticizing bringing lot think early months administration pushing reset button desire kind scapegoat exorcise past contrary spirit niebuhr theres basis niebuhr thinking america ever innocent administration innocent theres reset button administration ever push make innocent doesnt answer specific question one issue think reasonable deduce work given dont know hed say reasonable deduce might think emphasis whether sending john yoo jay bybee prison going atone national sins war began broadly popular undertaking later became great burden national psyche morally misplaced emphasis whether thats appropriate deduction thats different question think theyre connected michael gerson washington post160 ill change subject think played role kind setting let maybe defend social gospel mr dionne160 love michael gerson mr gerson160160 least properly understood niebuhrians ask opinion one point seems difference niebuhr corrective niebuhr guide seems like wouldnt necessarily want historically nation niebuhrs look way social progress took place america often true believers patriots believed new order ages william lloyd garrison believed absolute social equality blacks whites one else purely religious reasons william jennings bryan kind fundamentalist social gospel believed absolutely know true believers context clearly risks often eccentric people kind odd views easy make fun seems like history american justice social inclusion propelled believers niebuhrians guess sense would want niebuhrian navigation car doesnt provide fuel get us fuel belief justice truth american history im wondering combine kind respect niebuhr corrective recognition motivating principle either founding country progress justice dr mcclay160 well think theres big difference kind reform impulse growing 19thcentury evangelicalism oriented toward social reform also strong emphasis conversion certainly supernatural face part reform individual theres way social gospel moves notion individual conversion individual accountability towards simply seeing christian faith kind mythic version greater great advances social science know way social structures form individual psyche think mr gerson160 could bill youre missing question religiously motivated moral idealism american politics rather social gospel mr dionne160 ambiguity mr gerson160 hard regard william jennings bryan fundamentalist theology evidence social gospel certainly probably politically influential advocates social gospel changing definition democratic party sorts things maybe might right word guess wanted reaction point important niebuhr cant replace explain mr dionne160 see mean let say bill want dr mcclay160 go ahead mr dionne160 want say first bless defending social gospelers affection particular critique society surrounded think shortchange niebuhr terms passion justice way youre completely right bryan extraordinary progressive forget everybody sees light scopes trial forgets rejected darwinism hated social darwinism darwin used justify radical inequality identify think youre shortchanging niebuhr terms concern justice richard fox talks well 1950s niebuhr could passionate critique capitalism actually works 1954 wrote capitalism become complacent havent instance solved economic problem short war preparations passion justice critique social gospelers mission certainly lack willingness fight labor social security kinds corrections system unfettered capitalism think critical social gospelers two grounds one thought optimistic view human nature thought much salvation social action forgot sin along way turn led sort politics didnt work original motives social gospelers think obama shares social gospelers goals kind niebuhrian correction know famous speech sojourners talked lot social injustice also talked individual accountability responsibilities said gang member shoots indiscriminately crowd theres hole young mans heart hole government alone fix contraception could reduce teen pregnancy rates said also talked faith guidance help fortify young womans sense self young mans sense responsibility sense reverence young people act sexual intimacy words think obama accepts niebuhrian critique social gospel still like niebuhr believes social gospels core purposes mr cromartie160 quick comment although must say weve got two people guys rich niebuhrian illustration mr dionne160 dont shut dr mcclay160 would say one things niebuhr insisted another source criticism social gospel completely subservient idea nation idea emphasis upon collectivity individual could easily lend support kind quasitotalitarianism says explicitly later book self dramas history source value standing values inherent history order values validity even though much theological liberal worried social gospel dispensed unwisely entire supernatural element faith necessary driving force reform kept balance serving corrective tendency social aggregates tyrannize individual lauren green lauren green fox news160 ive studied niebuhr please forgive ignorance say something obvious youll laugh something seems niebuhr incredible understanding paradigm original sin fall live broken world also narrative redemption definitely hope understanding two prodigal sons one know see sins one went away squandered wealth fail sometimes see sins selfrighteous older brother one things obvious understanding morality appeared context time communism nazis would view evil today would position economic crisis also effect policy quantifiable access presidents like billy graham quantifiable effect american policy kind administration dr mcclay160 last part dont think actually interesting little side point arthur schlesinger good friends long time schlesinger hard time persuading niebuhr support kennedy niebuhr finally reluctance fan family hated absolutely loathed distrusted bobby father joseph kennedy course awful niebuhrs view jfk ok comparison thing really held jfk amply documented correspondence sexual dalliances mr cromartie160 knew dr mcclay 160 oh yes quite people knew people around politics time yes absolutely niebuhr concerned sorts risks would entail terms blackmail national security savvy also said character man close kennedy saw somewhat reckless figure time time brief administration mr dionne 160 niebuhr however despite important supporting kennedy anticatholicism shaun casey writes new book making catholic president liberal protestants comfortable catholic president within liberal protestantism niebuhr passionately opposed bigotry catholics played important role despite doubts dr mcclay160 thats right mr dionne160 think think impact policy whole period work labor movement support civil rights movement work around americans democratic action engaged core social reform movements 30s 40s 50s activist know started life activist pastor poor neighborhood wasnt community organizer almost think hard get heads notion serious theologian celebrity really celebrity period certain kind dont know much went white house might even particularly wanted think real impact direction american politics new dealer fair dealer dr mcclay160 well one area think document influence way doctrine containment came formulated containment really sort niebuhrian halfway kind appeasement one hand john foster dulles called rollback hand answer douglas mcarthurs famous statement substitute victory know notion containing actually lincolnesque strategy containing expansion communism rolling back containing would eventually lead destruction internal unraveling destruction system containment difficult doctrine forswears kind big victories upbeat parades wars generally george kennan arguably played major role formulation doctrine directly influenced niebuhr knew niebuhr read niebuhr dont think theres doubt something niebuhrian mood influenced kennan long telegram mr x article documents ended becoming formative containment way policies perspectives became formulated thats big influence ms green160 part great evil would see great evil today dr mcclay160 dont know hed concerned biotechnology suspect already irony american history already passages think hed concerned naomi schaefer riley naomi schaefer riley wall street journal160 ill try quick writing religion wall street journal always look openings talk economics wanted press ej bill little views economics interesting quote read obama seemed right away want talk niebuhrs view economics think lot us tend think views foreign policy formative ones seem say board social gospelers far view economics went clarify would great guess second half question saw institutions inherently sinful even individuals wonder thought potential institutions solve economic problems like poverty opposed individuals sort bringing dr mcclay160 think instincts socialist supported norman thomas socialist party ticket 1932 actually moderate position compared friends lot people intellectuals supporting communist party year however think deduce niebuhr support free market principles simply really time writes irony american history hes completely sold structure dynamics us constitution sort madisonian idea montesquieu really important divide disperse power much possible hes clearly sold think economics one area could little formulaic weak kind go journalism day rather thinking reading deeply thinking independently think deduce free market principles least mixedcapitalist mixedeconomy kinds principles view politics think would anachronistic go far terms political commitments cordially disliked businessmen disliked eisenhower eisenhowers support business community much adlai stevenson kind guy mr dionne160 quick concrete answer parallels either liberal social democrat richard foxs biography fox says remember niebuhr remember union movement heyday life word justice term constantly lips meant justice workers especially industrial workers end life justice come mean racial justice degree meant industrial justice although still earlier supporting civil rights niebuhr tried give concrete content notion justice instinctively thought equalizing standards living reducing job insecurity enacting social insurance schemes irreversibly shaped encounter henry ford open shop detroit 1920s think would differences wall street journal editorial page questions laughter carl cannon politicsdailycom 160 interested presidents thought niebuhr bill mentioned jimmy carter three presidents mentioned reinhold niebuhr lyndon johnson gave presidential medal freedom bill clinton gave presidential medal freedom joseph rauh mentioned worked niebuhr jimmy carter spoke reinhold niebuhr three separate occasions ill go real quick want ask question implications one may 1978 carter talking los angeles bar association said governor president made think thinking niebuhr even governor said hed learned reinhold niebuhr said sad duty politics establish justice sinful world march 1978 said experience urban renewal program 1950s learned skeptical reinhold niebuhr called doctrine salvation bricks idea bulldoze away urban problems bit straw man niebuhr probably talking building way bulldozing still june year actually quoted named moral man immoral society carter went riff said niebuhr pointed difference society people expectations demands person much higher standard person goal ungrammatical mine complete agape love sitting president went riff expect society institute simple justice question bill tell us president embraces niebuhr way keeps coming back would ask ej niebuhrian reconsider carter weve established niebuhrian credentials carter mike gersons candidate 1976 pointed mr cromartie160 carl source thought going bring powerpoint something like mr cannon160 trust quotes mr cromartie160 okay quoting laughter mr cannon160 public papers president mr cromartie160 brought dr mcclay160 think fairly anodyne observations carter reinhold niebuhrs name tacked onto end thing bricks cant even really quite imagine niebuhr saying wrote much quite possible think carter may point serious student niebuhr dont know theres kind niebuhr line embrace say well cant expect things institutions individuals true seems fairly obvious dont really need heavy theological artillery make point belief one sense humility oneself leader dont know whether came identified bornagain scandalized press corps referencing niebuhr way redeeming reputation man education breeding dont want harsh look carters presidency think fact many criticisms niebuhr makes children light kind conviction virtuousness virtuousness cause virtuous showing virtue sway opinions others doesnt work niebuhrs view biblical passage mr dionne160 children darkness wiser world children light dr mcclay160 generation yes mr dionne160 yes generation dr mcclay160 comes parable dishonest steward bible one perplexing things entire new testament never known means think carter practice didnt show ability exercise kind shrewdness deviousness even niebuhr thought effective leader needed show hadnt really taken moral man immoral society way talking think something else niebuhr tremendous influence martin luther king mr dionne160 yes going say thats really important dr mcclay160 look back believe last chapter moral man immoral society theres discussion nonviolent resistance thats blueprint king king evidently read influenced king example political leader example social leader movement leader mr dionne160 wanted underscore talk somebodys influence fruits shall ye know king lot academic work niebuhr richard fox says niebuhr didnt see race early saw injustice labor pretty early understanding important racial equality terms jimmy carter jimmy carter intellectually serious believer hes intellectually serious believer certain age like carter evangelical fundamentalist someone moderate liberal could help encounter niebuhr take seriously debate bill suggested exactly applied niebuhr dont think jimmy carter lost 1980 sort loved reinhold niebuhr dont think changes view think knew thoughtful christian lost stagflation hostage crisis soviet invasion afghanistan dont know one draw love niebuhr things dont mean glib think said proves think already knew carter good side carter lot people liked even disagreed amy sullivan amy sullivan time160 professor mcclay warned us beginning niebuhr often wrote counterpuncher speaking reaction people seems like thats particularly true least way outlined criticism religious liberals particularly social gospel could excused coming away thinking wasnt different believed christians still engaged efforts make world better place progress social causes shouldnt surprised bad things happen hands got dirty must wondered one could talk little bit affirmative theology sense religious people institutions operate dr mcclay160 well im afraid going sound like im rehashing said maybe didnt say well enough think niebuhr wanted stress yes counterpunching resolution problems politics life ameliorate suffering obliged try notion history somehow moving towards sort omega point frictionless social relations come selfrealization individuals going occur unimpeded way possible imagine interests different individuals different groups going clash clash way thats less permanent character interests may shift around complexion clash thats illusion mr dionne160 antiutopian dr mcclay160 yes mr dionne160 thats concise word dr mcclay160 yes dont believe concise pay word know im trying unpack antiutopian means context doesnt mean moderate expectations doesnt mean perfection approached asymptotically achievable us niebuhr something much disturbing notion progress put danger thats scary powerful principle think thats different kind progressive view social gospelers large took theres argument made oversimplifies people like walter rauschenbusch quite blithe naïve makes john dewey even ms sullivan160 guess question may made clear christians may view proceed mr dionne160 see think assumed christians deep assumption reflected way lived life way pastor christians would engaged social action minister poor parish detroit place love time union organizing low wages struggles going built cake kind christian would engaged social action trying think effective form social action also one think social action christian came believe started socialist still maintained socialist aspirations nonetheless came see utopianism theoretically flawed also ineffectual politics larry obrien aide kennedy democratic national committee chairman great book title memoirs book title final victories think thats excellent view democratic small politics suppose matter capital final victories democratic politics imperfect world imperfect political systems imperfect keep fighting shouldnt give dont win final victory philosophy constant improvement accepting setbacks happen along way would said profound way said think thats comes least probably rational way approach democratic politics dr mcclay160 say one thing think im getting better feel youre really asking think bears mike gersons question point didnt initially understand either niebuhr lived time could count christian culture propulsive force real task channel correct keep worst excesses make selfaware selfcritical one problems reviving niebuhr fact time isnt one live today intelligent person faced question christian rather nothing take christian view politics rather strictly secular view christian modifier contribute think mikes point problem religion corrective rather engine bears questions niebuhr didnt really face dan gilgoff dan gilgoff us news amp world report 160 struck far lot conversation niebuhr centered enduring perhaps notsoenduring influence american politics policymakers current past im wondering could talk little bit whether influence discernable american christianity today given realm operating also know lot terms examining politics theologians influence besides niebuhr looking obama public statements degree invokes bible religion father morality see specific figures besides niebuhr traditions like social gospel shining words dont know youd go far say actions mean think thats difficult analyze could speak point beyond niebuhr dr mcclay160 well let make one observation start think ej would better obama one thing thats curious think tells something times living think mentioned passing venture seminaries find niebuhr almost universally held low esteem think among many brightest young theologians know still graduate students see completely irrelevant mr cromartie160 dont like ambiguity dr mcclay160 think dont like ambiguity ways dont see bold enough hes tailored much secularist worldview stanley hauerwas mr cromartie160 theologian duke university dr mcclay160 ways far influential stanley hauerwas talk counterpuncher pretty much made career eviscerating reinhold niebuhr every turn including gifford lectures whats odd people position david brooks ej others suspect ej little contact academy david theyre ones interested niebuhr people like im historian im even theological world theologians think see back number means dont know people like hauerwas much use word theologians would use prophetic engagement culture politics one way translating prophetic means without sort acknowledgement sort halfmeasures compromises acquiescence need make politically effective theologians much interested people make bold statements sense ambiguity indeed part complaint mr cromartie160 let ask bill ej responds professor putnam could tell us perception niebuhr say cambridge mass least know divinity school political science world work dr mcclay 160 well reinhold niebuhr chair union theological seminary taught guy occupies mr dionne160 hes great guy gary dorrien dr mcclay160 yes hes big critic niebuhr mr dionne 160 hes affectionate critic niebuhr mr cromartie160 professor putnam dont answer question thinking talking niebuhr academy might want tell us dr robert putnam harvard university160 cause withdraw invitation speak even tomorrow actually relatively little contact divinity school harvard almost contact theologians matter principle laughter field political science growing actually long time ago 60s niebuhr major figure actually essentially along lines whats discussed kind tragic realism kind sense probably political scientists generation know little bit niebuhr frankly doubt contemporary political scientists know much maybe think politicalscience point view theological point view recent niebuhr revival actually quite interesting think reflects little bit whats happening religiously mostly whats happening sociologically america think notion partly lincoln tolerance part partly unintended consequences part dont start pushing grand plans distant ideals youre almost certain get wrong part along hope part dont know fits theologically think see little bit ethos times actually dont reason disagree account offered niebuhrs standing among academic nonacademic theologians mr dionne 160 different view mr cromartie160 know want mr dionne160 overlapping different mr cromartie 160 okay mr dionne160 bill may completely disagree seems niebuhr went fashion somewhere 1960s partly product antiwar movement saw realist know rebellion realism wasnt leftwing enough also think back theological trends late 60s 70s death god movement theology hope theology liberation would love know niebuhr would made liberation theology would agreed would critiqued think journalistic political comeback niebuhr parallels academy example harvey cox one old teachers harvard divinity school niebuhrs left interesting little letter new york times arthur schlesinger wrote piece think probably friendlier niebuhr harvey would circa 1969 1970 want ask cox think reflects niebuhrs resurrection good theme christian theologian new engagement niebuhr thats going bill absolutely right hauerwas hauerwas way played big role symposium niebuhr quoted earlier dont dispute much bill said think variety reasons zeitgeist kind rediscovery niebuhr probably neoniebuhrian theologians born right dr mcclay160 one quick thing one appeals hauerwas think one concerns putnamesque theme thats im bringing niebuhr really heyday 30s 50s living years surprising individualism might called sort defense integrity individual collectivities groups kind became one greatest themes seems large concern think theres lot concern may coin phrasing bowling alone anomie take theological level one sees lot concern particularly among young churches organizations people really experiencing community bound together think lot interest particularly among younger people finding vibrant vital form community niebuhr really offer niebuhr guarded offers low level social trust niebuhr hes always looking ways individual captured coopted groups trying maintain individuals independence mr dionne160 ten seconds 10 quick seconds theres debate whether niebuhr moral man immoral society decidedly collective remember hes writing moment hitler stalin rising whether emphasis quite strong later work id argue greater concern community niebuhr 40s 50s particular book dr putnam160 people around table also observed niebuhr primarily counterpuncher culture theology counterpunching different kind theology society would useful counterpunching thats view guess thats close saying mr dionne 160 counterpuncher laughter mcclay160 agree lynn sweet lynn sweet chicago suntimes question aimed professor holocaust influence niebuhr said ej might said heyday period know certainly supporter state israel know often dont get great figures working realtime one great issues world happening im wondering holocaust influence unfolding duty dr mcclay160 mean the40s well dont know cant answer think theme figures prominently work think sort cliché think true really 67 73 wars holocaust theme becomes much prominent american jewish consciousness american public life lot people might expected give attention didnt doesnt answer really cant answer point saw holocaust mean aware issues like firebombing dresden strategic bombing general use nuclear weapons moral calculus involved things mr dionne160 strong opponent antisemitism early person interreligious dialogue one reasons broke pacifist friends believed nazism evil whole critique nazism rooted idea demonic general particular demonic treatment jews dont know dont know answer question said learned holocaust everything history associations people like abraham heschel lots jewish leaders writing nazis says important dont front detail mattered mattered enormously mr cromartie160 close dietrich bonhoeffer close mr dionne160 dont know knew may well dr mcclay160 someone asked yesterday im going look actually foxs biography im going look think met bonhoeffer came america dont think mr cromartie 160 brief brief mr dionne160 pass dr mcclay160 yeah mr cromartie160 moving niebuhr library books back forth laughter dr mcclay160 say something doesnt necessarily relate jews always strong cadre supporters academy described term variously attributed morton white perry miller others atheists niebuhr remarkably ecumenical outlook aside rather dismissive view evangelicals like billy graham billy sunday good relations jews religious secular theres story niebuhr family place little town called heath near stockbridge western massachusetts spent lot time niebuhrs daughter elizabeth sifton written book serenity prayer also talks lot little town felix frankfurter came went service niebuhr conducted preached leaving shook niebuhrs hand said thank preaching wonderful sermon really warmed heart believing unbeliever niebuhr without missing beat said thank means much unbelieving believer great degree comfort people nonchristian particularly secular outlook mr dionne160 answer question foxs biography niebuhr actually wrote piece nation called jews war fox notes one major reasons favoring intervention concern hitler jews early 30s grasped hitler bent cultural annihilation jews time firm though sometimes qualified backer zionist cause big part fred barnes fred barnes weekly standard160 niebuhrs objection billy graham dr mcclay160 think part sort critique people like herberg made american religion 50s culturally complacent adapted american life mean billy graham sense quintessence emphasis individual conversion nothing else least niebuhrs view let quickly add fair billy graham fact billy graham remarkable area civil rights example things went beyond lot niebuhr niebuhrs view true graham didnt challenge social structures became cozy presidents saw kind counselor something niebuhr thought perhaps inappropriate certainly anything ever sought mr cromartie160 actually let add quickly could graham tried meet niebuhr new york niebuhr critical grahams new york crusade criticism graham tried meet niebuhr niebuhr refused meet mr dionne160 mike gerson like foxs book niebuhr found pushed defense liberal social gospel repudiating decades graham might lacked realism said infinitely realistic pietistic individualism replaced graham resurrecting graham certainly better niebuhr urged popular religious therapists dispensed god judgment altogether fox quotes niebuhr graham evangelism blandness befits eisenhower era adrian woolridge economist160 im going ask two questions one niebuhrs influence outside united states americancentric view things wonder much influence britain europe second character seems suffered fate lot people politburo fell favor sort written completely history jeremiah wright wondered sort influence niebuhr jeremiah wright anything dr mcclay160 oh yeah wouldnt know second one mean sense jeremiah wright hes much influenced james cone black liberation theology although im sure contact dont associate whole lot ambiguity reverend wright laughter really dont know much cone influence mr cromartie160 british influence dr mcclay160 well niebuhr part transatlantic group liberal anticommunists membership ended part counts decline reputation people like fox newleft types found much prop status quo anticommunist taste part congress cultural freedom crowd wrote encounter magazine occasionally well get picture part world read europe great britain theres bit revival niebuhr going uk theres british scholar named martin halliwell leicester whos written good book niebuhr thats well worth reading mr cromartie 160 biography explication dr mcclay160 explication biographical elements mr woolridge160 700 pages dr mcclay160 think 400 mr dionne160 know think thats right agree bill said terms transatlantic influence liberal anticommunism view foreign policy much influenced hans morgenthau lot influence jeremiah wright interview obama period piece wrote new republic obama interesting observation wright obama made distinction king wright noted early stage king combination publicly especially reconciliation king angrier toward end life particularly vietnam war wright came along late stage much influenced period disillusionment end civil rights years spirit hope beginning civil rights years hunch bill said wright clearly influenced james cone black liberation theology part postliberal theological developments divinity schools led radical forms theology bet im sure wright contact ideas niebuhr united church christ know lot common niebuhr one point mr cromartie160 well may well introduced president obama niebuhrs work one would think mr dionne160 thats interesting question dr mcclay160 well know read niebuhr malcolm x clearly major influence jeremiah wright mean whole chickens coming home roost trope thats malcolm phrase famous description kennedy assassination dan harris abc news 160 second part question beyond niebuhr theologians religious figures religious traditions see know embodied obamas rhetoric perhaps beyond youre daring enough read actual policies kind get beyond niebuhr still subject obama mr dionne 160 tried figure influenced read sojourners speech hes clearly spent time somebody looking whole debate around john rawls obligations religious person public square making arguments accessible share religious commitments public reason debate seems familiar thats one set influences think formative influences rhetorically degree substantively traditions civil rights christianity know clearly lot echoes king kings rhetoric also theology way speaks ways see obama effort go back civil rights christianity part way reformulating sort progressive gospel make link niebuhr quite natural link since king influenced niebuhr lot language beyond dont know id curious good question mr cromartie160 bill anything add dr mcclay160 well im sure youre right something dont know enough ive read audacity hope autobiographical book dont think rhetoric kind yeastiness lot 60sera civil rights people really coming right black baptist church know book david chappell stone hope terrific exposition ways civil rights movement religious movement may overemphasize little think corrective worth making know someone like fannie lou hamer admittedly hardly typical everything says sounds like comes bible black sermon obama much guy went prep school went elite colleges universities wants kind draw religious language imagery dont know steers mr dionne160 book think really important understanding king jonathan rieders word lord upon subtitle righteous performance martin luther king jr jonathans book points king many different rhetorical styles used different moments different audiences think really good account king taken whole theres lot use king particular purposes people quote moreconciliatory king want quote moreangry king want jonathan argues youve got take whole parts interesting take king think mr gerson160 followup question maybe return niebuhr little bit know points lincoln example niebuhrian rhetoric american history look history american rhetoric niebuhrian rhetoric pretty rare mean world war ii franklin roosevelt didnt use used children light children darkness cold war john kennedy didnt use language actually used much morally charged language lot kings rhetoric whatever influences niebuhr certainly social justice tradition know kingdom god earth think theres misinterpretation lincoln lot ways think subtext second inaugural address evil slavery kind paradox irony circumstance theres certain humility application sin slavery affected north south complicit think misunderstanding lincoln lot ways say represents niebuhrian viewpoint filled irony paradox theres none say people need motivate american history youre franklin roosevelt youre engaged long twilight struggle dont use niebuhrian language isnt even rhetorical option american history call people grand purposes moral missions american exceptionalism lot things niebuhr kind deal notion mr dionne160 lincoln dont think theres ambiguity niebuhrs view slavery paradox irony around slavery paradox irony even though engaged struggle slavery may nonetheless inveigled evils suggest struggles war create sin sides even though core sin slavery heart dont think ironic slavery asserting would assert mr gerson160 guess point necessarily assert think actually look lincolns rhetoric actions issues fairly extreme course took situations insisting essentially certain views cost union know cost hundreds thousands lives moral principle terrible cost realized willing things broader point kind moral clarity rhetoric mean would diagnose americans ignorant need motivated moral clarity reality moral ambiguity im curious level rhetoric dr mcclay160 think worth pointing time gave second inaugural doubt going win going happen soon think tremendously magnanimous speech magnanimity victor thats important note thing different task rhetorician called upon play instance calling nation task yet performed heal reconcile particularly case particular war point crush south bring south back union sort family thought extricate whatever reason strategy use niebuhrian part think comes maybe ej already said saying well weve defeated bad guys going morally better nation weve defeated bad guys says national sin bear responsibility mark upon maybe war came need expiate sin slavery go judgments lord true righteous altogether hes cross talk mr gerson160 maybe shouldnt mentioned lincoln know thats different debate dr mcclay160 point mr gerson160 point difference niebuhrs diagnosis moral conflicts cold war world war ii maybe one reasons put bluntly niebuhrs influence waned aftermath talking ironies american history point america verge greatest moral achievements human history wasnt though deeply conflicted circumstances liberating death camps pretty good thing americans pretty confident moral role world aftermath world war ii good one cold war conducted language moral certainty mr dionne 160 go back forth think notion containment opposed rollback fact full niebuhrian ambiguity words think whats important niebuhr unambiguous morality struggle good actually brought lincoln niebuhr get record correctly said lincolns brooding sense charity derived religious awareness another dimension meaning immediate political conflict combination moral resoluteness immediate issues religious awareness another dimension meaning judgment must regarded almost perfect model difficult impossible task remaining loyal responsible toward moral treasures free civilization one hand yet religious vantage point struggle niebuhr high tide 40s 50s believed struggle nazis liberation death camps anticommunism jingoist believe america automatically moral always right idea favor containment opposed rollback says behave world way responsible confronting communism carry risks rollback would entail think possibly would probably look could debate text think kennedys rhetoric notion long twilight struggle quite different say middle war example fdr would say middle war kennedys speech favor disarmament american university 1963 think niebuhrian elements obama going europe saying americans sometimes arrogant europeans engaged kind antiamericanism thats dangerous struck maybe looking struck niebuhrian sort balance thought good thing say others didnt think good thing say thought sounded like somebody whether influenced directly niebuhr clearly carrying message john siniff usa today160 last night us discussion office faithbased initiatives whatever become president obama realized end came unsatisfactory niebuhrian conclusion hes trying office wondered ej see anything niebuhrian recasting office ultimately think four five us table couldnt quite figure hes trying maybe thats purpose know worst thing kill secondworst thing hes letting sit fester mr dionne160 far tell niebuhr direct influence indirect influence obamas thinking white house office faithbased neighborhood partnerships laughter god knows niebuhr would think dont know laughter think obama trying walk line wanting overturn thinking good work done fact partnerships government faithbased groups predate president bush think distorts debate sides liberals say bush creation well wasnt bush creation pushed certain directions certain things know distort conservative view well think obama trying figure true things say believe churchstate separation religious liberty still keep thing going think theyre still struggling toward resolving hes clearly kicked road hardest question religious hiring issue hes clearly tried fudge impression hes going fudge longer think hes going confront shrewd thing think shrewd thought right thing say dont want whole effort get blown immediately debate hiring issue know quite lot common ground partnerships bill clinton first faithbased offices department housing urban development parts administration obamas far line number democrats done certainly clinton think theyre still figuring short answer mr cromartie160 anything add bill dr mcclay160 agree continuity clinton know charitable choice came clinton administration welfare reform idea cant discriminate faithbased organization awarding government contracts provision social welfare cant discriminate simply religious identity goes point amy sullivan fred barnes others brought maybe conversation side live different world mean one time past correctives seemed needed protect secular keep religious realm overwhelming secular seems democratic republican administrations seen need push back way extent whether obama sustain dont know agree ej lasted even hasnt always effective mr cromartie 160 well note heated agreement laughter dr mcclay160 raging moderation mr cromartie160 raging moderation heated agreement allowed continue conversations promise another reception last night bring copies niebuhr well continue conversation join thanking gentlemen time applause transcript edited clarity accuracy spelling grammar | 10,882 |
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<p>Homs Palestinian Camp, SYRIA — Jihadists are entering Syria at an accelerating pace, according to Syrian, UNWRA, and Palestinian officials, as well as residents in the refugee camps here. For the estimated 7,000 imported foreign fighters, Palestinian camps are seen as optimal locales for setting up bases across Syria.</p>
<p>“Syria’s Palestinian camps have become theaters of war,” said UNWRA Commissioner Filippo Grandi.</p>
<p>The Syrian people compassionately host 10 official UN-mandated Palestinian camps, along with three unofficial ones, whose populations total at least 230,000. Eight of these are “Nakba” (“catastrophe”) camps, organized soon after Palestinians were expelled from their homes in 1948, while two, Qabr Essit and Dera’a (emergency camp), are “Naksa” (“day of setback”) camps. The latter were set up in 1967 as a result of the internationally condemned Zionist-colonial aggression against the two sister-Arab-nationalist regions—Palestine’s West Bank and Syria’s Golan Heights.</p>
<p>And it was on the Ides of March of the year 2011 we saw an explosion of violence near one of these camps, the Dera’a camp established in 1950, in the south near the Jordanian border.</p>
<p>But first, perhaps a simple listing of the camps, along with their populations and dates of establishment, would be in order here:</p>
<p>As of October 8, seven of the camps—two in the north and five in the Damascus area and in the south of Syria—are presently with their throats under the jackboot of foreign Salafi-Jihadists. These jihadist cells moved against the camps early in the current crisis for purposes of forced recruitment, to benefit from a supply of noncombatant human shields, to shakedown the residents and take over UNWRA facilities, and to make use of the erstwhile “refugee camp security zones.” All these steps were precursory to the setting up of military bases from which to launch operations aimed at toppling the current government of the Syrian Arab Republic.</p>
<p>How do the jihadists infiltrate the camps?</p>
<p>How is it possible that more than half of the Palestinian camps in Syria not only fell, but did so, regrettably, without all that much resistance, to the point at which we see them now—dominated by largely foreign jihadists who continue to impose their unwanted extremist religious beliefs on a largely progressive secular Palestinian community? It is a subject currently much discussed here.</p>
<p>This observer has deduced from a number of conversations—with former and current camp residents, as well as members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, Palestinian NGO’s, and also with academics—that there is a ‘model of occupation’ metastasizing in Syria in a manner strikingly similar to what we saw six years ago at Nahr al Bared Palestinian camp near Tripoli Lebanon. The stories we hear today are quite similar to those from among the nearly 30,000 refugees at Nahr al Bared who were forced to flee to the nearby Badawi camp or to Lebanon’s ten other camps—reports related to this observer in visits to Nahr al Bared in May of 2007.</p>
<p>What we hear today in Syria bears an almost uncanny likeness. For instance, one lady, whose family is from Safad in occupied Palestine, explained: “First they (the intruders) appeared only a few in number. We noticed them and that some had ‘foreign’ accents and wore conservative clothes, most had beards. They were polite and friendly. Then more arrived, a few followed by women and children. They stayed to themselves at first and they began using the local mosque—even being welcomed at first by local sheiks who sometimes expressed admiration for the sincerity and devoutness. Then some of them began to preach their versions of the Koran, and at some point their gentle teaching became more strident, and soon these men were commenting on how some of the Palestinian women dressed in an un-Islamic fashion and even lectured young women about modesty and that they must change their ways, including stop smoking, and to leave public meetings if they were the only women present, and wear a full hijab.”</p>
<p>The lady’s sister interrupted: “Then guns appeared and some of the men appeared to be very skilled when they would use, for example, a school or playground to train. They were so serious and seemed to be in a trance of some kind. There was no possibility to talk or reason with them. All they seemed to want was martyrdom! Some actually believe that Syria was Palestine and they were here to liberate Al Quds!”</p>
<p>Upon some in the camps it began to dawn that the newcomers intended imposing their ideas, and that they fully intended that camp residents should submit to “pure Islam,” as they view it. Some resistance began to jell from camp residents, but the camp popular committees did not have the power to confront them, and a few actually joined them. The fighting with Syrian government troops accelerated the takeover process, and soon the camp residents were presented with a demand: join the gunmen and “liberate” the camps.</p>
<p>With respect to Ahmad Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command—and no offense meant to them and their officials, with whom this observer met in July and early August—several of their best Palestinian patriot commanders jumped ship in protest against the plan to “liberate” Yarmouk. At the same time, many of the PFLP-GC rank-and-file fighters split and joined the opposition for various reasons, including better pay and wanting to be on the presumed winning side. That being said, however, camp residents overwhelmingly rejected the PFLP-GC “defense” project, and insisted that their camp was neutral, that it was to be maintained as a safe zone for its residents, who were guests in Syria pending their return to still-occupied Palestine.</p>
<p>Again, this chain of events is singularly similar to what we saw (too late as it turned out) in Lebanon’s Nahr al Bared, a process which, like the one unfolding now in Syria, was accelerated by the civil war raging here.</p>
<p>There is fear that the Syrian army will sooner or later attack and destroy the camps in order to confront the rebel militias—similar to what the Lebanese army did during the 75 days of shelling in 2007. At that time, it took vengeance on the camp and demolished it in an unjustifiable frenzy of shelling for the criminal attack and killing of some Lebanese troops, an attack that had been carried out by camp invaders, not Palestinians. For Palestinians in Syria, it is the all too familiar fate of outsiders entering and seeking to control their camps, coupled with the threat of a host army attacking them to confront the invaders. The residents are once more killed or forced to flee and their homes are destroyed.</p>
<p>Here once more comes to mind the cliché: Where is the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Council, the EU, or the UN? Where’s Waldo?</p>
<p>In order to gain control of the camps in Syria, two main processes appear to be made use of by the al Qaeda affiliates. One is what this observer labels the “Nahr al Bared model”. A Popular Committee member from Yarmouk, who just barely escaped the camp before his home was destroyed by a direct hit mortar round, put it this way: “Some come bearing gifts. They usually set up small problem solving centers. Maybe a little cash, offers of medical aid, bread distribution, pledges of camp security, these sorts of currently absent social services.”</p>
<p />
<p /> | false | 1 | homs palestinian camp syria jihadists entering syria accelerating pace according syrian unwra palestinian officials well residents refugee camps estimated 7000 imported foreign fighters palestinian camps seen optimal locales setting bases across syria syrias palestinian camps become theaters war said unwra commissioner filippo grandi syrian people compassionately host 10 official unmandated palestinian camps along three unofficial ones whose populations total least 230000 eight nakba catastrophe camps organized soon palestinians expelled homes 1948 two qabr essit deraa emergency camp naksa day setback camps latter set 1967 result internationally condemned zionistcolonial aggression two sisterarabnationalist regionspalestines west bank syrias golan heights ides march year 2011 saw explosion violence near one camps deraa camp established 1950 south near jordanian border first perhaps simple listing camps along populations dates establishment would order october 8 seven campstwo north five damascus area south syriaare presently throats jackboot foreign salafijihadists jihadist cells moved camps early current crisis purposes forced recruitment benefit supply noncombatant human shields shakedown residents take unwra facilities make use erstwhile refugee camp security zones steps precursory setting military bases launch operations aimed toppling current government syrian arab republic jihadists infiltrate camps possible half palestinian camps syria fell regrettably without much resistance point see nowdominated largely foreign jihadists continue impose unwanted extremist religious beliefs largely progressive secular palestinian community subject currently much discussed observer deduced number conversationswith former current camp residents well members democratic front liberation palestine popular front liberation palestine popular front liberation palestinegeneral command palestinian ngos also academicsthat model occupation metastasizing syria manner strikingly similar saw six years ago nahr al bared palestinian camp near tripoli lebanon stories hear today quite similar among nearly 30000 refugees nahr al bared forced flee nearby badawi camp lebanons ten campsreports related observer visits nahr al bared may 2007 hear today syria bears almost uncanny likeness instance one lady whose family safad occupied palestine explained first intruders appeared number noticed foreign accents wore conservative clothes beards polite friendly arrived followed women children stayed first began using local mosqueeven welcomed first local sheiks sometimes expressed admiration sincerity devoutness began preach versions koran point gentle teaching became strident soon men commenting palestinian women dressed unislamic fashion even lectured young women modesty must change ways including stop smoking leave public meetings women present wear full hijab ladys sister interrupted guns appeared men appeared skilled would use example school playground train serious seemed trance kind possibility talk reason seemed want martyrdom actually believe syria palestine liberate al quds upon camps began dawn newcomers intended imposing ideas fully intended camp residents submit pure islam view resistance began jell camp residents camp popular committees power confront actually joined fighting syrian government troops accelerated takeover process soon camp residents presented demand join gunmen liberate camps respect ahmad jibrils popular front liberation palestinegeneral commandand offense meant officials observer met july early augustseveral best palestinian patriot commanders jumped ship protest plan liberate yarmouk time many pflpgc rankandfile fighters split joined opposition various reasons including better pay wanting presumed winning side said however camp residents overwhelmingly rejected pflpgc defense project insisted camp neutral maintained safe zone residents guests syria pending return stilloccupied palestine chain events singularly similar saw late turned lebanons nahr al bared process like one unfolding syria accelerated civil war raging fear syrian army sooner later attack destroy camps order confront rebel militiassimilar lebanese army 75 days shelling 2007 time took vengeance camp demolished unjustifiable frenzy shelling criminal attack killing lebanese troops attack carried camp invaders palestinians palestinians syria familiar fate outsiders entering seeking control camps coupled threat host army attacking confront invaders residents killed forced flee homes destroyed comes mind cliché arab league organization islamic council eu un wheres waldo order gain control camps syria two main processes appear made use al qaeda affiliates one observer labels nahr al bared model popular committee member yarmouk barely escaped camp home destroyed direct hit mortar round put way come bearing gifts usually set small problem solving centers maybe little cash offers medical aid bread distribution pledges camp security sorts currently absent social services | 665 |
<p>Review: Admirable Evasions: How Psychology Undermines Morality, by Theodore Dalrymple (Encounter, 128 pp., $21.50)</p>
<p>Theodore Dalrymple begins this anti-psychology polemic with a quote from the great 17th-century memoirist François de La Rochefoucauld: “In the misfortunes of our friends, there is something not entirely unpleasing.” Dalrymple cites this shrewd and biting insight into the complexities of the human heart for two reasons. First, it serves as a reminder that psychological understanding long predated Sigmund Freud, B. F. Skinner, and other 20th-century chieftains of the “science” called psychology. Older insights into the mind and heart were often as perceptive as modern pseudoscientific explanations, if not more so. They were also considerably less excusing and rationalizing.</p>
<p>It is the latter tendency in modern life at which Dalrymple, a psychiatrist himself, takes steady aim. Though he acknowledges that psychology has made some modest contributions to the alleviation of suffering, he offers that the following is, at best, an open question: “If all the antidepressants and anxiolytics . . . were thrown into the sea,” “all textbooks of psychology were withdrawn and pulped,” “all psychologists ceased to practice,” and “all psychological terms were excised from everyday speech, would Mankind be the loser or the gainer”?</p>
<p>That Freud was at best a philosopher and at worst a fraud is now pretty widely acknowledged. His work was completely unscientific — that is, unmeasurable, untestable, and founded upon nothing more than speculation enforced by dogma. Freud debunkers have filled whole bookshelves. The id, the ego, penis envy, the Oedipus complex — all have been consigned to the intellectual trash. Still, because the man Vladimir Nabokov dismissed as “that Viennese quack” has cast such a long shadow over our times — W. H. Auden said that Freud was not just a man, but “a whole climate of opinion” — Dalrymple attends to filleting him with a few swift strokes. Freud was a “self-aggrandizing mythologist and a shameless manipulator of people. . . . He was the founder of a doctrinaire sect and a searcher-out and avenger of heresy . . . who called down anathema on infidels as intolerantly as Mohammed.”</p>
<p>Though Freud was “undoubtedly brilliant,” Dalrymple rejects utterly the notion that he originated such concepts as ambivalence, projection, and unconscious motivation. A quick glance at Shakespeare undermines Freud’s pretensions, and Dalrymple deploys King Lear to good effect:</p>
<p>Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip</p>
<p>thine own back.</p>
<p>Thou hotly lust’st to use her in that</p>
<p>kind</p>
<p>For which thou whipp’st her.</p>
<p>Worse than Freud’s lack of scientific foundation, and much more significant than any of his personal shortcomings, was the effect his odd and baseless theories had on our civilization. Though Freud didn’t necessarily intend this result (he was personally quite conventional in most respects), the effect, Dalrymple writes, was to “loosen Man’s sense of responsibility for his own actions, freedom from responsibility being the most highly valued freedom of all.” Freud’s message, warped to be sure by oversimplification, became profoundly subversive. Dalrymple explains: “That desire, if not fulfilled, will lead to pathology makes self-indulgence man’s highest goal. It is a kind of treason to the self, and possibly to others, to deny oneself anything.” The author quotes one of his patients, a murderer: “I had to kill her, doctor, or I don’t know what I would have done.”</p>
<p>So psychoanalysis was bunk — and culturally destructive bunk at that; but what of the more scientific branches of psychology? Did they too help to undermine morality?</p>
<p>The behaviorists dispensed with the unconscious and infantile sexuality, but in its place they erected a new theory that was supposed to explain with one blinding insight all of the complexity of human experience. It was, according to John B. Watson, B. F. Skinner, and others, all a matter of stimulus and response. “What started as methodology became ontology,” writes Dalrymple, in one of the dozens of memorable aphorisms that enliven nearly every page of this book. While behaviorism (unlike psychoanalysis) could claim some clinical successes, such as treating phobias, it proved absurdly reductionist as a guide to understanding human behavior as a whole. The behaviorists treated human beings as laboratory animals, whose thoughts and conduct could be controlled by the correct administration of food pellets and electric shocks.</p>
<p>Dalrymple allows that cognitive behavioral therapy has helped some, but he cannot help wondering “whether many conditions . . . such as eating disorders . . . spread in proportion as they are known about.” Surely the pharmaceutical companies that advertise cures for such conditions as “overactive bladder,” “premenstrual dysphoric disorder,” and “low T” are counting on creating as much as discovering sufferers.</p>
<p>Writing of the “Werther effect” — which was named for the rash of suicides that followed the publication of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, and refers to the predictable copycat acts that follow the suicides of celebrities — Dalrymple notes that human beings are awfully susceptible to suggestion. “No statement that a psychological disturbance has such-and-such a prevalence in such-and-such a population should be taken at face value, especially when it is a plea, as it so often is, explicit or implicit as the case may be, for more resources to treat it, the supposed prevalence having risen shockingly in the last few years. It is not merely that epidemiological searchers in this field can find what they are looking for; it is that they can provoke what they are looking for.”</p>
<p>While psychology diligently (and not selflessly) creates more and more categories of illness — the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual lists some 300 maladies — the social-welfare and tort systems in America and other countries encourage and reward victim status. Many bad behaviors, such as alcoholism or drug abuse, are labeled as mental illnesses and thus placed beyond moral censure. “There can be nothing morally to choose between the disordered conduct of a person with a brain tumor or dementia on the one hand, and a person who has intoxicated himself with drugs on the other.” Also, once the apparatus for diagnosing and treating self-reported psychological ailments is in place, with caregivers and sufferers alike benefiting financially, the “virtue of resilience or fortitude” becomes a “sworn enemy.”</p>
<p>This approach has bizarre consequences:</p>
<p>The expansion of psychiatric diagnoses leads paradoxically and simultaneously to overtreatment and undertreatment. The genuinely disturbed get short shrift: Those with chronic schizophrenia, which seems most likely to be a genuine pathological malfunction of the brain, are left to molder in doorways, streets, and stations of large cities, while untold millions have their fluctuating preoccupations attended to with the kind of attention that an overconcerned mother gives her spoiled child with more or less the same results.</p>
<p>Psychology’s code is roughly that of the French proverb: “To understand all is to forgive all.” Psychology has served up one excuse after another for bad behavior — our terrible childhoods, our genes, our neurotransmitters, our addictions. In each case, and often with extremely unscientific reasoning, we are offered absolution. None of us is really responsible for our behavior. The whole psychological enterprise, Dalrymple argues, has had the effect of excusing poor choices and bad character. “Virtue is not manifested in one’s behavior, always so difficult and tedious to control, but in one’s attitude to victims.”</p>
<p>It’s a powerful argument, studded throughout with chiseled gems of observation and reflection.</p>
<p>Admirable Evasions is actually an indictment of modern culture, with its moral laxity and sloppy thinking. It may be a little too hard on psychology and psychiatry. Though it is beyond question that psychological thinking has damaged our culture by elevating non-judgmentalism to the highest plane, it isn’t clear, at least to me, that mankind would truly be better off without anti-psychotic drugs, antidepressants, and other mood-altering substances. Animals are now commonly trained with rewards (positive reinforcement) rather than punishments, and so, in many cases, are children (with punishment as backup). That seems to be a humane advance. And while many therapists may deliver nothing but warm sympathy to their clients (which probably does no harm), some are able to help their patients attain true insight — the kind that requires painful honesty about one’s actions.</p>
<p>I would not chuck the entire corpus of psychology and all the psychotropic drugs into the sea. But I would recommend that anyone interested in where the field, and our culture, has frequently gone wrong read this incisive little book.</p>
<p>– Mona Charen is a syndicated columnist and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p> | false | 1 | review admirable evasions psychology undermines morality theodore dalrymple encounter 128 pp 2150 theodore dalrymple begins antipsychology polemic quote great 17thcentury memoirist françois de la rochefoucauld misfortunes friends something entirely unpleasing dalrymple cites shrewd biting insight complexities human heart two reasons first serves reminder psychological understanding long predated sigmund freud b f skinner 20thcentury chieftains science called psychology older insights mind heart often perceptive modern pseudoscientific explanations also considerably less excusing rationalizing latter tendency modern life dalrymple psychiatrist takes steady aim though acknowledges psychology made modest contributions alleviation suffering offers following best open question antidepressants anxiolytics thrown sea textbooks psychology withdrawn pulped psychologists ceased practice psychological terms excised everyday speech would mankind loser gainer freud best philosopher worst fraud pretty widely acknowledged work completely unscientific unmeasurable untestable founded upon nothing speculation enforced dogma freud debunkers filled whole bookshelves id ego penis envy oedipus complex consigned intellectual trash still man vladimir nabokov dismissed viennese quack cast long shadow times w h auden said freud man whole climate opinion dalrymple attends filleting swift strokes freud selfaggrandizing mythologist shameless manipulator people founder doctrinaire sect searcherout avenger heresy called anathema infidels intolerantly mohammed though freud undoubtedly brilliant dalrymple rejects utterly notion originated concepts ambivalence projection unconscious motivation quick glance shakespeare undermines freuds pretensions dalrymple deploys king lear good effect dost thou lash whore strip thine back thou hotly lustst use kind thou whippst worse freuds lack scientific foundation much significant personal shortcomings effect odd baseless theories civilization though freud didnt necessarily intend result personally quite conventional respects effect dalrymple writes loosen mans sense responsibility actions freedom responsibility highly valued freedom freuds message warped sure oversimplification became profoundly subversive dalrymple explains desire fulfilled lead pathology makes selfindulgence mans highest goal kind treason self possibly others deny oneself anything author quotes one patients murderer kill doctor dont know would done psychoanalysis bunk culturally destructive bunk scientific branches psychology help undermine morality behaviorists dispensed unconscious infantile sexuality place erected new theory supposed explain one blinding insight complexity human experience according john b watson b f skinner others matter stimulus response started methodology became ontology writes dalrymple one dozens memorable aphorisms enliven nearly every page book behaviorism unlike psychoanalysis could claim clinical successes treating phobias proved absurdly reductionist guide understanding human behavior whole behaviorists treated human beings laboratory animals whose thoughts conduct could controlled correct administration food pellets electric shocks dalrymple allows cognitive behavioral therapy helped help wondering whether many conditions eating disorders spread proportion known surely pharmaceutical companies advertise cures conditions overactive bladder premenstrual dysphoric disorder low counting creating much discovering sufferers writing werther effect named rash suicides followed publication goethes sorrows young werther refers predictable copycat acts follow suicides celebrities dalrymple notes human beings awfully susceptible suggestion statement psychological disturbance suchandsuch prevalence suchandsuch population taken face value especially plea often explicit implicit case may resources treat supposed prevalence risen shockingly last years merely epidemiological searchers field find looking provoke looking psychology diligently selflessly creates categories illness latest diagnostic statistical manual lists 300 maladies socialwelfare tort systems america countries encourage reward victim status many bad behaviors alcoholism drug abuse labeled mental illnesses thus placed beyond moral censure nothing morally choose disordered conduct person brain tumor dementia one hand person intoxicated drugs also apparatus diagnosing treating selfreported psychological ailments place caregivers sufferers alike benefiting financially virtue resilience fortitude becomes sworn enemy approach bizarre consequences expansion psychiatric diagnoses leads paradoxically simultaneously overtreatment undertreatment genuinely disturbed get short shrift chronic schizophrenia seems likely genuine pathological malfunction brain left molder doorways streets stations large cities untold millions fluctuating preoccupations attended kind attention overconcerned mother gives spoiled child less results psychologys code roughly french proverb understand forgive psychology served one excuse another bad behavior terrible childhoods genes neurotransmitters addictions case often extremely unscientific reasoning offered absolution none us really responsible behavior whole psychological enterprise dalrymple argues effect excusing poor choices bad character virtue manifested ones behavior always difficult tedious control ones attitude victims powerful argument studded throughout chiseled gems observation reflection admirable evasions actually indictment modern culture moral laxity sloppy thinking may little hard psychology psychiatry though beyond question psychological thinking damaged culture elevating nonjudgmentalism highest plane isnt clear least mankind would truly better without antipsychotic drugs antidepressants moodaltering substances animals commonly trained rewards positive reinforcement rather punishments many cases children punishment backup seems humane advance many therapists may deliver nothing warm sympathy clients probably harm able help patients attain true insight kind requires painful honesty ones actions would chuck entire corpus psychology psychotropic drugs sea would recommend anyone interested field culture frequently gone wrong read incisive little book mona charen syndicated columnist senior fellow ethics public policy center | 766 |
<p>The Trump administration considered a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border, according to a draft memo obtained by The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Staffers in the Department of Homeland Security said the proposal had been discussed as recently as last Friday.</p>
<p>The 11-page document calls for the unprecedented militarization of immigration enforcement as far north as Portland, Oregon, and as far east as New Orleans, Louisiana.</p>
<p>Four states that border on Mexico were included in the proposal — California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — but it also encompasses seven states contiguous to those four — Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.</p>
<p>Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said he was aware of the report but hadn’t seen the memo for himself. During a break at a Nevada homeland security commission meeting, Sandoval told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he would not activate the Nevada National Guard for immigration enforcement and deportations.</p>
<p>“I’m not sure it’s even legal,” Sandoval said.</p>
<p>White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Friday the document was “not a White House document.”</p>
<p>“There is no effort to do what is potentially suggested,” he said. Spicer called the AP report “100 percent not true, adding that there was “no effort at all to utilize the National Guard to round up unauthorized immigrants.”</p>
<p>A DHS official described the document as a very early draft that was not seriously considered and never brought to the secretary for approval.</p>
<p>“The Department is not considering mobilizing the National Guard,” Gillian Christensen, Department of Homeland Security acting press secretary, told Bloomberg News in an email.</p>
<p>The AP had sought comment from the White House beginning Thursday and DHS earlier Friday and had not received a response from either.</p>
<p>Governors in the 11 states would have had a choice whether to have their guard troops participate, according to the memo, which bears the name of U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general.</p>
<p>While National Guard personnel have been used to assist with immigration-related missions on the U.S.-Mexico border before, they have never been used as broadly or as far north.</p>
<p>The memo was addressed to the then-acting heads of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It would have served as guidance to implement the wide-ranging executive order on immigration and border security that President Donald Trump signed Jan. 25. Such memos are routinely issued to supplement executive orders.</p>
<p>Also dated Jan. 25, the draft memo says participating troops would be authorized “to perform the functions of an immigration officer in relation to the investigation, apprehension and detention of aliens in the United States.” It describes how the troops would be activated under a revived state-federal partnership program, and states that personnel would be authorized to conduct searches and identify and arrest any unauthorized immigrants.</p>
<p>If implemented, the impact could have been significant. Nearly one-half of the 11.1 million people residing in the U.S. without authorization live in the 11 states, according to Pew Research Center estimates based on 2014 Census data.</p>
<p>Use of National Guard troops would greatly increase the number of immigrants targeted in one of Trump’s executive orders last month, which expanded the definition of who could be considered a criminal and therefore a potential target for deportation. That order also allows immigration agents to prioritize removing anyone who has “committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense.”</p>
<p>Under current rules, even if the proposal is implemented, there would not be immediate mass deportations. Those with existing deportation orders could be sent back to their countries of origin without additional court proceedings. But deportation orders generally would be needed for most other unauthorized immigrants.</p>
<p>The troops would not be nationalized, remaining under state control.</p>
<p>Spokespeople for the governors of Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Colorado, Oklahoma, Oregon and New Mexico said they were unaware of the proposal, and either declined to comment or said it was premature to discuss whether they would participate. The other three states did not immediately respond to the AP.</p>
<p>The proposal would extend the federal-local partnership program that President Barack Obama’s administration began scaling back in 2012 to address complaints that it promoted racial profiling.</p>
<p>The 287(g) program, which Trump included in his immigration executive order, gives local police, sheriff’s deputies and state troopers the authority to assist in the detection of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally as a regular part of their law enforcement duties on the streets and in jails.</p>
<p>The draft memo also mentions other items included in Trump’s executive order, including the hiring of an additional 5,000 border agents, which needs financing from Congress, and his campaign promise to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.</p>
<p>The order signed by Trump contained no mention of the possible use of state National Guard troops.</p>
<p>According to the draft memo, the militarization effort would be proactive, specifically empowering Guard troops to solely carry out immigration enforcement, not as an add-on the way local law enforcement is used in the program.</p>
<p>Allowing Guard troops to operate inside non-border states also would go far beyond past deployments.</p>
<p>In addition to responding to natural or man-made disasters or for military protection of the population or critical infrastructure, state Guard forces have been used to assist with immigration-related tasks on the U.S.-Mexico border, including the construction of fences.</p>
<p>In the mid-2000s, President George W. Bush twice deployed Guard troops on the border to focus on non-law enforcement duties to help augment the Border Patrol as it bolstered its ranks. And in 2010, then-Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced a border security plan that included Guard reconnaissance, aerial patrolling and military exercises.</p>
<p>In July 2014, then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry ordered 1,000 National Guard troops to the border when the surge of migrant children fleeing violence in Central America overwhelmed U.S. officials responsible for their care. The Guard troops’ stated role on the border at the time was to provide extra sets of eyes but not make arrests.</p>
<p>Bush initiated the federal 287(g) program — named for a section of a 1996 immigration law — to allow specially trained local law enforcement officials to participate in immigration enforcement on the streets and check whether people held in local jails were in the country illegally. ICE trained and certified roughly 1,600 officers to carry out those checks from 2006 to 2015.</p>
<p>The memo describes the program as a “highly successful force multiplier” that identified more than 402,000 “removable aliens.”</p>
<p>But federal watchdogs were critical of how DHS ran the program, saying it was poorly supervised and provided insufficient training to officers, including on civil rights law. Obama phased out all the arrest power agreements in 2013 to instead focus on deporting recent border crossers and immigrants in the country illegally who posed a safety or national security threat.</p>
<p>Trump’s immigration strategy emerges as detentions at the nation’s southern border are down significantly from levels seen in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Last year, the arrest tally was the fifth-lowest since 1972. Deportations of people living in the U.S. illegally also increased under the Obama administration, though Republicans criticized Obama for setting prosecution guidelines that spared some groups from the threat of deportation, including those brought to the U.S. illegally as children.</p>
<p>Last week, ICE officers arrested more than 680 people around the country in what Kelly said were routine, targeted operations; advocates called the actions stepped-up enforcement under Trump.</p>
<p>Colton Lochhead contributed to this report.</p> | false | 1 | trump administration considered proposal mobilize many 100000 national guard troops round unauthorized immigrants including millions living nowhere near mexico border according draft memo obtained associated press staffers department homeland security said proposal discussed recently last friday 11page document calls unprecedented militarization immigration enforcement far north portland oregon far east new orleans louisiana four states border mexico included proposal california arizona new mexico texas also encompasses seven states contiguous four oregon nevada utah colorado oklahoma arkansas louisiana nevada gov brian sandoval said aware report hadnt seen memo break nevada homeland security commission meeting sandoval told las vegas reviewjournal would activate nevada national guard immigration enforcement deportations im sure even legal sandoval said white house spokesman sean spicer said friday document white house document effort potentially suggested said spicer called ap report 100 percent true adding effort utilize national guard round unauthorized immigrants dhs official described document early draft seriously considered never brought secretary approval department considering mobilizing national guard gillian christensen department homeland security acting press secretary told bloomberg news email ap sought comment white house beginning thursday dhs earlier friday received response either governors 11 states would choice whether guard troops participate according memo bears name us homeland security secretary john kelly retired fourstar marine general national guard personnel used assist immigrationrelated missions usmexico border never used broadly far north memo addressed thenacting heads us immigration customs enforcement us customs border protection would served guidance implement wideranging executive order immigration border security president donald trump signed jan 25 memos routinely issued supplement executive orders also dated jan 25 draft memo says participating troops would authorized perform functions immigration officer relation investigation apprehension detention aliens united states describes troops would activated revived statefederal partnership program states personnel would authorized conduct searches identify arrest unauthorized immigrants implemented impact could significant nearly onehalf 111 million people residing us without authorization live 11 states according pew research center estimates based 2014 census data use national guard troops would greatly increase number immigrants targeted one trumps executive orders last month expanded definition could considered criminal therefore potential target deportation order also allows immigration agents prioritize removing anyone committed acts constitute chargeable criminal offense current rules even proposal implemented would immediate mass deportations existing deportation orders could sent back countries origin without additional court proceedings deportation orders generally would needed unauthorized immigrants troops would nationalized remaining state control spokespeople governors arizona utah nevada california colorado oklahoma oregon new mexico said unaware proposal either declined comment said premature discuss whether would participate three states immediately respond ap proposal would extend federallocal partnership program president barack obamas administration began scaling back 2012 address complaints promoted racial profiling 287g program trump included immigration executive order gives local police sheriffs deputies state troopers authority assist detection immigrants us illegally regular part law enforcement duties streets jails draft memo also mentions items included trumps executive order including hiring additional 5000 border agents needs financing congress campaign promise build wall us mexico order signed trump contained mention possible use state national guard troops according draft memo militarization effort would proactive specifically empowering guard troops solely carry immigration enforcement addon way local law enforcement used program allowing guard troops operate inside nonborder states also would go far beyond past deployments addition responding natural manmade disasters military protection population critical infrastructure state guard forces used assist immigrationrelated tasks usmexico border including construction fences mid2000s president george w bush twice deployed guard troops border focus nonlaw enforcement duties help augment border patrol bolstered ranks 2010 thenarizona gov jan brewer announced border security plan included guard reconnaissance aerial patrolling military exercises july 2014 thentexas gov rick perry ordered 1000 national guard troops border surge migrant children fleeing violence central america overwhelmed us officials responsible care guard troops stated role border time provide extra sets eyes make arrests bush initiated federal 287g program named section 1996 immigration law allow specially trained local law enforcement officials participate immigration enforcement streets check whether people held local jails country illegally ice trained certified roughly 1600 officers carry checks 2006 2015 memo describes program highly successful force multiplier identified 402000 removable aliens federal watchdogs critical dhs ran program saying poorly supervised provided insufficient training officers including civil rights law obama phased arrest power agreements 2013 instead focus deporting recent border crossers immigrants country illegally posed safety national security threat trumps immigration strategy emerges detentions nations southern border significantly levels seen late 1990s early 2000s last year arrest tally fifthlowest since 1972 deportations people living us illegally also increased obama administration though republicans criticized obama setting prosecution guidelines spared groups threat deportation including brought us illegally children last week ice officers arrested 680 people around country kelly said routine targeted operations advocates called actions steppedup enforcement trump colton lochhead contributed report | 789 |
<p />
<p>Canada’s Conservative leader, Stephen Harper, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/read-the-full-text-of-harpers-historic-speech-to-israels-knesset/article16406371/?page=3" type="external">spoke</a> earlier this week in front of the Israeli Knesset.&#160; It was a short speech, beginning with homilies, platitudes, and economic references and then turned towards the righteous values he deems paramount in both Canada and Israel.</p>
<p>In his introduction, he talked about Jewish Canadians: “[Jewish Canadians] are also immensely proud of what the people of Israel have accomplished here, of your courage in war, of your generosity in peace, and of the bloom that the desert has yielded, under your stewardship…”</p>
<p>Notice that he only referenced Jewish Canadians in his speech. There are many Canadians who would consider the statement to be hypocritical if not an outright lie.&#160; Courage in war is arguable, considering the overall propensity of Israel to use pre-emptive attacks on neighboring countries and to use the military to control the occupied Palestinian territories. Beyond that, the Israeli use of chemical weapons (white phosphorous) and other weapons targeting from helicopters, drones, and fighter jets hardly smells of courage.</p>
<p>I would wish for some references for their generosity in peace, which may be true if there were a peace to behold.&#160; As for the desert blooming under their stewardship, this buys into the mythological Israeli narrative that the land was empty desert before the Jewish immigrants arrived. The Palestinians had a healthy agricultural society working before the advent of the European settlers.</p>
<p>Harper continues, “the Jewish people deserve their own homeland and deserve to live safely and peacefully in that homeland.”</p>
<p>Okay, well and good, but here is a double standard: why do not all the Palestinians, now subject to martial law in the occupied territories and apartheid laws (more on this later) in Israel 48, deserve the same?</p>
<p>Shortly thereafter Harper speaks another platitude from his Conservative political platform, “a Canadian tradition to stand for what is principled and just, regardless of whether it is convenient or popular.”</p>
<p>Well, no, that is not exactly a Canadian tradition, as much as Harper would like it to be.&#160; Canada has in most cases followed the lead of the U.S. in world foreign&#160; affairs, has aligned itself with the corporate agenda of&#160; “free trade”, and is one of the leaders of mistreating indigenous populations abroad for corporate mining rights (not to mention right here in Canada).&#160; Oh, okay, yeah, that is not really popular, perhaps convenient.</p>
<p>Finally Harper gets to the heart of his Islamophobia, his fear of his invented word, Islamicism.&#160; Although he never says the word in his speech (too close to the killing grounds?) it is implicit in what he says, “support today for the Jewish state of Israel is more than a moral imperative it is also of strategic importance, also a matter of our own, long-term interests.”</p>
<p>Hmm, strategic importance, undefined, but rest assured it is a reference to the Islamic menace he see threatening everyone from everywhere.&#160;&#160; Before adding more to this he provides more of his beloved homilies, “Israel is the only country in the Middle East, which has long anchored itself in the ideals of freedom, democracy and the rule of law. They are the things that, over time and against all odds, have proven to be the only ground in which human rights, political stability, and economic prosperity, may flourish.”</p>
<p>Anchored in human rights?&#160; Oh please…..!&#160; Israel has consistently denied the human rights of the Palestinian people.&#160; Their land has been expropriated, annexed, stolen.&#160; They are subject to martial law and apartheid law.&#160; The “wall” is condemned as a violation of human rights.&#160; They have destroyed vast areas of agricultural land, destroyed civic institutions such as hospitals, education, and power generation, and not allowed their reconstitution.&#160; Israel has assassinated many of the Palestinian leaders and then complained they have no one to negotiate with.&#160; They have unilaterally broken ceasefires and then attacked the people of Gaza and Lebanon with overwhelming force (and underwhelming results).</p>
<p>That pretty much eliminates democracy as well, as one cannot be a violent occupier and a violent initiator of military attacks and call oneself democratic.&#160; The rule of law may be there for some people, but whose rules?&#160; Whose laws?&#160; Those arbitrarily made up by the military?&#160; And in green line Israel, why are there so many rules that prohibit the movement and freedoms of the Arab people living there?</p>
<p>Having extolled the virtues of the Israeli human rights record, Harper then continues with his Islamophobia, “Those who scorn modernity, who loathe the liberty of others, and who hold the differences of peoples and cultures in contempt. Those who, often begin by hating the Jews, but, history shows us, end up hating anyone who is not them. Those forces, which have threatened the state of Israel every single day of its existence, and which, today, as 9/11 graphically showed us, threaten us all. And so, either we stand up for our values and our interests, here, in Israel, stand up for the existence of a free, democratic and distinctively Jewish state or the retreat of our values and our interests in the world will begin.”</p>
<p>It is obvious to Canadians, if not the world, that Harper’s implication here is that the Muslim world is the world of evil (as many other right wing Christian dominionists also see it), lacking modernity (whatever that is; they seem to use modern communications and weapons quite well, as well as being able to work their way around the financial parameters of our society – i.e. oil and U.S. fiat reserve currency), and obviously threatening us all.&#160; Global polls indicate that Israel and the U.S. are perceived to be the main threats to world peace.</p>
<p>Harper makes a short reference to the Palestinians being able to have the same kind of state as Israel, “a sincere hope that the Palestinian people and their leaders… will choose a viable, democratic, Palestinian state, committed to living peacefully alongside the Jewish state of Israel.”</p>
<p>This of course references the idea of a two state solution, an idea that is becoming extremely doubtful as more and more settlements are built on stolen Palestinian land. It always has been doubtful as the so-called peace talks over the past thirty years have been used mainly as a cover for the Israelis to continue building more and more settlements. There is no real contiguous land left for the Palestinians to have their own sovereign state, just bits and pieces of bantustans.</p>
<p>A two state solution is possible, it is just that it is overwhelmingly improbable.&#160; It would take a true miracle to make the settlers give up their settlements and benefits to return to Israel ‘proper’.&#160;&#160; The two main remaining solutions are quite different to each other.</p>
<p>One solution is a free and democratic state with equality in law for all peoples.&#160; This initiates the great demographic fear as the Palestinian population is increasing faster than the Israeli population, even after the huge Russian immigration of the 1990s.&#160; A subset of this idea is a binational state with separate institutions (education, civic laws et al) within a larger society of equal rights before the law.&#160; Another possible solution is the status quo, with the small Palestinian bantustans remaining forever as apartheid settlements while Israel develops the land around them, hoping that eventually the Palestinians will tire of their suffering and move out.</p>
<p>Mr. Harper finishes with what is obviously becoming a growing concern for the Israelis, that of the appellation of Israel as an apartheid state, and the growing success of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, both here and around the world:</p>
<p>“People who would never say they hate and blame the Jews for their own failings or the problems of the world, instead declare their hatred of Israel and blame the only Jewish state for the problems of the Middle East. As once Jewish businesses were boycotted, some civil-society leaders today call for a boycott of Israel. On some campuses, intellectualized arguments against Israeli policies thinly mask the underlying realities, such as the shunning of Israeli academics and the harassment of Jewish students.</p>
<p>“Most disgracefully of all, some openly call Israel an apartheid state. Think about that. Think about the twisted logic and outright malice behind that: a state, based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law, that was founded so Jews can flourish, as Jews, and seek shelter from the shadow of the worst racist experiment in history, that is condemned, and that condemnation is masked in the language of anti-racism.</p>
<p>“But this is the face of the new anti-Semitism. It targets the Jewish people by targeting Israel and attempts to make&#160; the old bigotry acceptable for a new generation. Of course, criticism of Israeli government policy is not in and of itself necessarily anti-Semitic. But what else can we call criticism that selectively condemns only the Jewish state and effectively denies its right to defend itself while systematically ignoring – or excusing – the violence and oppression all around it?”</p>
<p>Two things are occurring here.&#160; One is the attempt to redefine anti-Semitism as being anyone speaking against the state of Israel for whatever reason.&#160; That is simply not a realistic definition.</p>
<p>The other is the “Why Israel?” question, referring to the critics that are “ignoring…the violence and oppression all around it.”&#160; It is a telling charge in that it implicitly accepts the charges that Israel is racist and apartheid, but why are you criticizing us when so many others are doing the same or worse?</p>
<p>I do not selectively condemn Israel, as I am aware of all kinds of oppression and violence occurring in the region and around the world:&#160; U.S. attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan; U.S. support of al-Qaeda in Syria and of fundamentalist regimes in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Coast states; China in Tibet; U.S. covert operations in Africa and Latin America too numerous to label here.</p>
<p>It is interesting how often the U.S. comes up in these references, and yes, they do deserve and get as much time as Israel for criticism.&#160; Which leads into the next quotation: “If you act to defend yourselves, you will suffer widespread condemnation, over and over again. But neither Israel’s existence nor its policies are responsible for the instability in the Middle East today. One must look beyond Israel’s borders to find the causes of the relentless oppression, poverty and violence in much of the region, of the heartbreaking suffering of Syrian refugees, of sectarian violence and the fears of religious minorities, especially Christians, and of the current domestic turmoil in so many states.”</p>
<p>The first statement about acting to defend oneself and then suffer widespread condemnation over and over again—is simply the narrative Israel has written for the Palestinians.&#160; What follows next is an outright lie, as the instability in the Middle East is a direct result of British colonial efforts to settle Jewish people in Palestine, an effort supported greatly by Canada, and, after the creation of the state of Israel, supported by the U.S. as an outpost against communism and then against the terror that they instigated in the first place by their colonial resource extractive means.</p>
<p>Yes, anyone can look beyond Israel’s borders to see the havoc created by the interventions of&#160; the European states into the region, artificially dividing up the fallen Ottoman empire, supporting dictators and demagogues as long as they followed western guidelines; fighting wars to keep those same demagogues and dictators in line when they became a bit too “uppity” for the neo-colonial bosses, to keep the oil flowing, to keep the dollar as the reserve currency, to inflate the vote domestically.</p>
<p>Before the final platitudes and gratitudes, Harper mentions the Iranian threat of nuclear weapons.&#160; This is readily discounted as a double standard as Israel has an estimated 80 – 200 deliverable nuclear warheads (depending on the source) while Iran has zero, and has not in the past several hundred years attacked anyone.&#160; It is another threat to create the ‘victim’ attitude that is made to raise some sympathy for their own survival and to excuse their own violence against the Palestinians and other Arabs.</p>
<p>Mr. Harper does not speak for the majority of Canadians.&#160; Unfortunately for the meantime, he holds power in Canada’s parliament and tends to use it absolutely, turning Canada into a petro-state essentially under corporate rule (as with all our so-called “free trade” agreements).&#160; Canada suffers its own apartheid with its indigenous population and Harper’s conservatives are doing their best to further disenfranchise them.&#160; These are the values that Canada shares with Israel:&#160; corporate control over the economy, and the extraction of resource wealth at the expense of the indigenous people.&#160; Harper does not speak for me.</p> | false | 1 | canadas conservative leader stephen harper spoke earlier week front israeli knesset160 short speech beginning homilies platitudes economic references turned towards righteous values deems paramount canada israel introduction talked jewish canadians jewish canadians also immensely proud people israel accomplished courage war generosity peace bloom desert yielded stewardship notice referenced jewish canadians speech many canadians would consider statement hypocritical outright lie160 courage war arguable considering overall propensity israel use preemptive attacks neighboring countries use military control occupied palestinian territories beyond israeli use chemical weapons white phosphorous weapons targeting helicopters drones fighter jets hardly smells courage would wish references generosity peace may true peace behold160 desert blooming stewardship buys mythological israeli narrative land empty desert jewish immigrants arrived palestinians healthy agricultural society working advent european settlers harper continues jewish people deserve homeland deserve live safely peacefully homeland okay well good double standard palestinians subject martial law occupied territories apartheid laws later israel 48 deserve shortly thereafter harper speaks another platitude conservative political platform canadian tradition stand principled regardless whether convenient popular well exactly canadian tradition much harper would like be160 canada cases followed lead us world foreign160 affairs aligned corporate agenda of160 free trade one leaders mistreating indigenous populations abroad corporate mining rights mention right canada160 oh okay yeah really popular perhaps convenient finally harper gets heart islamophobia fear invented word islamicism160 although never says word speech close killing grounds implicit says support today jewish state israel moral imperative also strategic importance also matter longterm interests hmm strategic importance undefined rest assured reference islamic menace see threatening everyone everywhere160160 adding provides beloved homilies israel country middle east long anchored ideals freedom democracy rule law things time odds proven ground human rights political stability economic prosperity may flourish anchored human rights160 oh please160 israel consistently denied human rights palestinian people160 land expropriated annexed stolen160 subject martial law apartheid law160 wall condemned violation human rights160 destroyed vast areas agricultural land destroyed civic institutions hospitals education power generation allowed reconstitution160 israel assassinated many palestinian leaders complained one negotiate with160 unilaterally broken ceasefires attacked people gaza lebanon overwhelming force underwhelming results pretty much eliminates democracy well one violent occupier violent initiator military attacks call oneself democratic160 rule law may people whose rules160 whose laws160 arbitrarily made military160 green line israel many rules prohibit movement freedoms arab people living extolled virtues israeli human rights record harper continues islamophobia scorn modernity loathe liberty others hold differences peoples cultures contempt often begin hating jews history shows us end hating anyone forces threatened state israel every single day existence today 911 graphically showed us threaten us either stand values interests israel stand existence free democratic distinctively jewish state retreat values interests world begin obvious canadians world harpers implication muslim world world evil many right wing christian dominionists also see lacking modernity whatever seem use modern communications weapons quite well well able work way around financial parameters society ie oil us fiat reserve currency obviously threatening us all160 global polls indicate israel us perceived main threats world peace harper makes short reference palestinians able kind state israel sincere hope palestinian people leaders choose viable democratic palestinian state committed living peacefully alongside jewish state israel course references idea two state solution idea becoming extremely doubtful settlements built stolen palestinian land always doubtful socalled peace talks past thirty years used mainly cover israelis continue building settlements real contiguous land left palestinians sovereign state bits pieces bantustans two state solution possible overwhelmingly improbable160 would take true miracle make settlers give settlements benefits return israel proper160160 two main remaining solutions quite different one solution free democratic state equality law peoples160 initiates great demographic fear palestinian population increasing faster israeli population even huge russian immigration 1990s160 subset idea binational state separate institutions education civic laws et al within larger society equal rights law160 another possible solution status quo small palestinian bantustans remaining forever apartheid settlements israel develops land around hoping eventually palestinians tire suffering move mr harper finishes obviously becoming growing concern israelis appellation israel apartheid state growing success boycott divestment sanctions bds movement around world people would never say hate blame jews failings problems world instead declare hatred israel blame jewish state problems middle east jewish businesses boycotted civilsociety leaders today call boycott israel campuses intellectualized arguments israeli policies thinly mask underlying realities shunning israeli academics harassment jewish students disgracefully openly call israel apartheid state think think twisted logic outright malice behind state based freedom democracy rule law founded jews flourish jews seek shelter shadow worst racist experiment history condemned condemnation masked language antiracism face new antisemitism targets jewish people targeting israel attempts make160 old bigotry acceptable new generation course criticism israeli government policy necessarily antisemitic else call criticism selectively condemns jewish state effectively denies right defend systematically ignoring excusing violence oppression around two things occurring here160 one attempt redefine antisemitism anyone speaking state israel whatever reason160 simply realistic definition israel question referring critics ignoringthe violence oppression around it160 telling charge implicitly accepts charges israel racist apartheid criticizing us many others worse selectively condemn israel aware kinds oppression violence occurring region around world160 us attacks iraq afghanistan us support alqaeda syria fundamentalist regimes saudi arabia gulf coast states china tibet us covert operations africa latin america numerous label interesting often us comes references yes deserve get much time israel criticism160 leads next quotation act defend suffer widespread condemnation neither israels existence policies responsible instability middle east today one must look beyond israels borders find causes relentless oppression poverty violence much region heartbreaking suffering syrian refugees sectarian violence fears religious minorities especially christians current domestic turmoil many states first statement acting defend oneself suffer widespread condemnation againis simply narrative israel written palestinians160 follows next outright lie instability middle east direct result british colonial efforts settle jewish people palestine effort supported greatly canada creation state israel supported us outpost communism terror instigated first place colonial resource extractive means yes anyone look beyond israels borders see havoc created interventions of160 european states region artificially dividing fallen ottoman empire supporting dictators demagogues long followed western guidelines fighting wars keep demagogues dictators line became bit uppity neocolonial bosses keep oil flowing keep dollar reserve currency inflate vote domestically final platitudes gratitudes harper mentions iranian threat nuclear weapons160 readily discounted double standard israel estimated 80 200 deliverable nuclear warheads depending source iran zero past several hundred years attacked anyone160 another threat create victim attitude made raise sympathy survival excuse violence palestinians arabs mr harper speak majority canadians160 unfortunately meantime holds power canadas parliament tends use absolutely turning canada petrostate essentially corporate rule socalled free trade agreements160 canada suffers apartheid indigenous population harpers conservatives best disenfranchise them160 values canada shares israel160 corporate control economy extraction resource wealth expense indigenous people160 harper speak | 1,109 |
<p>WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is rejecting yet another call to decide whether Americans have a constitutional right to carry guns with them outside their homes.</p>
<p>The justices on Monday left in place an appeals court ruling that upheld the San Diego sheriff’s strict limits on issuing permits for concealed weapons.</p>
<p>The high court decided in 2008 that the Constitution guarantees the right to a gun, at least for self-defense at home.</p>
<p>But the justices have refused repeated pleas to spell out the extent of gun rights in the United States, allowing permit restrictions and assault weapons bans to remain in effect in some cities and states.</p>
<p>More than 40 states already broadly allow gun owners to be armed in public.</p>
<p>Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch said the court should have reviewed the appellate ruling. Thomas said the decision not to hear the case “reflects a distressing trend: the treatment of the Second Amendment as a disfavored right.”</p>
<p>The high court also turned away a second case involving guns and the federal law that bars people convicted of crimes from owning guns.</p>
<p>The Trump administration had urged the court to review an appellate ruling that restored the rights of two men who had been convicted of non-violent crimes to own guns.</p>
<p>The federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled for the two men. The crimes were classified as misdemeanors, which typically are less serious, but carried potential prison sentences of more than a year. Such prison terms typically are for felonies, more serious crimes.</p>
<p>Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor said they would have heard the administration’s appeal.</p>
<p>Church win</p>
<p>Churches have the same right as other charitable groups to seek state money for new playground surfaces and other non-religious needs, the court ruled.</p>
<p>By a 7-2 vote, the justices sided with Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Missouri, which had sought a grant to put a soft surface on its preschool playground. The church was denied any money even though its application was ranked fifth out of 44 submissions.</p>
<p>Chief Justice John Roberts said for the court that the state violated the First Amendment by denying a public benefit to an otherwise eligible recipient solely on account of its religious status. He called it “odious to our Constitution” to exclude the church from the grant program, even though the consequences are only “a few extra scraped knees.”</p>
<p>The case arose from an application the church submitted in 2012 to take part in Missouri’s scrap tire grant program, which reimburses the cost of installing a rubberized playground surface made from recycled tires. The money comes from a fee paid by anyone who buys a new tire. The church’s application to resurface the playground for its preschool and daycare ranked fifth out of 44 applicants.</p>
<p>But the state’s Department of Natural Resources rejected the application, pointing to the part of the state constitution that says “no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect or denomination of religion.”</p>
<p>A recycled scrap tire is not religious, the church said in its Supreme Court brief. “It is wholly secular,” the church said.</p>
<p>In dissent, Justice Sonya Sotomayor said the ruling weakens the nation’s longstanding commitment to separation of church and state.</p>
<p>“This case is about nothing less than the relationship between religious institutions and the civil government — that is, between church and state,” she said, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “The Court today profoundly changes that relationship by holding, for the first time, that the Constitution requires the government to provide public funds directly to a church.”</p>
<p>Arkansas birth certificates</p>
<p>The court overturned a state court ruling that allowed Arkansas to refuse to list both same-sex spouses on birth certificates, a decision that helps clarify the scope of protections provided by the high court’s landmark 2015 decision legalizing gay marriage.</p>
<p>The justices ruled in favor of lesbian couples by throwing out a December ruling by the Arkansas Supreme Court decision that upheld state officials’ refusal to name the wives of the birth mothers as parents on birth certificates.</p>
<p>The Arkansas court said state officials do not have to list both same-sex spouses as named parents on birth certificates, even though state law allows a birth mother’s opposite-sex husband to be listed when the baby is not biologically related to him. Both couples received the birth certificates they wanted when they won in trial court.</p>
<p>Conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, saying the lower court decision should not have been reversed.</p>
<p>Two gay married couples who live in Arkansas, Marisa and Terrah Pavan and Leigh and Jana Jacobs, were turned down by the Arkansas Department of Health to include both parents’ names on their babies’ birth certificates. In each case, only the birth parent was listed on the certificate.</p>
<p>Both couples sued in state court, and a trial judge ruled that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide required that the same-sex spouses be named on the birth certificates.</p>
<p>Whistleblower protection</p>
<p>The court agreed on Monday to consider whether corporate insiders who blow the whistle on their employers are shielded from retaliation if they only report alleged misconduct internally rather than to the government’s Securities and Exchange Commission.</p>
<p>The justices will hear Digital Realty Trust Inc.’s appeal of a lower court ruling in favor of Paul Somers, an executive fired by the San Francisco-based company after he complained internally about alleged misconduct by his supervisor but never reported the matter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.</p>
<p>The case hinges on the SEC’s whistleblower protection rules required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.</p>
<p>The court agreed to take up the case on the last day of a nine-month session. The court will hear the case during the next term that starts in October.</p>
<p>If the Supreme Court ultimately sides with the company, then it would force corporate whistleblowers to report wrongdoing to the SEC in order to be protected from retaliation.</p>
<p>No Kennedy retirement announcement</p>
<p>The last day of the Supreme Court’s term was notable not only for what was announced but also for what wasn’t.</p>
<p>There had been speculation that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy could reveal his retirement from the court Monday. But the court recessed without any announcement. Kennedy could still announce his retirement at any time, though the last day of the term was seen as an opportune moment.</p>
<p>Kennedy had given no public sign that he would step down this year and give President Donald Trump his second high court pick.</p>
<p>But Kennedy turns 81 next month and has been on the court for nearly 30 years. Several of his former law clerks have said they think he is contemplating stepping down in the next year or so. In addition, Kennedy and his clerks gathered over the weekend for a reunion pushed up a year earlier than normal. The decision to hold an early reunion helped spark talk he might be leaving the court.</p> | false | 1 | washington supreme court rejecting yet another call decide whether americans constitutional right carry guns outside homes justices monday left place appeals court ruling upheld san diego sheriffs strict limits issuing permits concealed weapons high court decided 2008 constitution guarantees right gun least selfdefense home justices refused repeated pleas spell extent gun rights united states allowing permit restrictions assault weapons bans remain effect cities states 40 states already broadly allow gun owners armed public justices clarence thomas neil gorsuch said court reviewed appellate ruling thomas said decision hear case reflects distressing trend treatment second amendment disfavored right high court also turned away second case involving guns federal law bars people convicted crimes owning guns trump administration urged court review appellate ruling restored rights two men convicted nonviolent crimes guns federal appeals court philadelphia ruled two men crimes classified misdemeanors typically less serious carried potential prison sentences year prison terms typically felonies serious crimes justices ruth bader ginsburg sonia sotomayor said would heard administrations appeal church win churches right charitable groups seek state money new playground surfaces nonreligious needs court ruled 72 vote justices sided trinity lutheran church columbia missouri sought grant put soft surface preschool playground church denied money even though application ranked fifth 44 submissions chief justice john roberts said court state violated first amendment denying public benefit otherwise eligible recipient solely account religious status called odious constitution exclude church grant program even though consequences extra scraped knees case arose application church submitted 2012 take part missouris scrap tire grant program reimburses cost installing rubberized playground surface made recycled tires money comes fee paid anyone buys new tire churchs application resurface playground preschool daycare ranked fifth 44 applicants states department natural resources rejected application pointing part state constitution says money shall ever taken public treasury directly indirectly aid church sect denomination religion recycled scrap tire religious church said supreme court brief wholly secular church said dissent justice sonya sotomayor said ruling weakens nations longstanding commitment separation church state case nothing less relationship religious institutions civil government church state said joined justice ruth bader ginsburg court today profoundly changes relationship holding first time constitution requires government provide public funds directly church arkansas birth certificates court overturned state court ruling allowed arkansas refuse list samesex spouses birth certificates decision helps clarify scope protections provided high courts landmark 2015 decision legalizing gay marriage justices ruled favor lesbian couples throwing december ruling arkansas supreme court decision upheld state officials refusal name wives birth mothers parents birth certificates arkansas court said state officials list samesex spouses named parents birth certificates even though state law allows birth mothers oppositesex husband listed baby biologically related couples received birth certificates wanted trial court conservative justices neil gorsuch samuel alito clarence thomas dissented saying lower court decision reversed two gay married couples live arkansas marisa terrah pavan leigh jana jacobs turned arkansas department health include parents names babies birth certificates case birth parent listed certificate couples sued state court trial judge ruled us supreme courts 2015 obergefell v hodges decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide required samesex spouses named birth certificates whistleblower protection court agreed monday consider whether corporate insiders blow whistle employers shielded retaliation report alleged misconduct internally rather governments securities exchange commission justices hear digital realty trust incs appeal lower court ruling favor paul somers executive fired san franciscobased company complained internally alleged misconduct supervisor never reported matter us securities exchange commission case hinges secs whistleblower protection rules required 2010 doddfrank wall street reform law court agreed take case last day ninemonth session court hear case next term starts october supreme court ultimately sides company would force corporate whistleblowers report wrongdoing sec order protected retaliation kennedy retirement announcement last day supreme courts term notable announced also wasnt speculation supreme court justice anthony kennedy could reveal retirement court monday court recessed without announcement kennedy could still announce retirement time though last day term seen opportune moment kennedy given public sign would step year give president donald trump second high court pick kennedy turns 81 next month court nearly 30 years several former law clerks said think contemplating stepping next year addition kennedy clerks gathered weekend reunion pushed year earlier normal decision hold early reunion helped spark talk might leaving court | 701 |
<p>A newly formed PAC launched an attack last week on two Las Vegas City Council candidates for their opposition to the controversial Badlands golf course development.</p>
<p>A mailer circulating in the western valley’s Ward 2 urges voters to say no to what it calls a $250 million tax, contending that denying development on the course would result in inverse condemnation. That occurs when government action causes private property values to plunge, often resulting in the owner suing over the financial loss.</p>
<p>“These two opportunist candidates want you the taxpayers to foot the bill to benefit a few wealthy homeowners in the lavish Queensridge neighborhood,” the mailer says about Christina Roush and Steve Seroka.</p>
<p>Citizens for Better Neighborhoods, a political action committee that formed last month, funded the mailer.</p>
<p>RESIDENTS, DEVELOPER FIGHT</p>
<p>The closed 250-acre course winds through the well-to-do Queensridge development, where neighbors have fought developer EHB Companies’ plans to put homes on the course.</p>
<p>The Badlands issue looms large in the City Council race, where Roush and Seroka are aiming to unseat Councilman Bob Beers. The mailer does not name Beers and says it was not authorized by any candidate or their campaign.</p>
<p>The City Council on Feb. 15 narrowly approved a pared-down plan for the course’s eastern edge. Beers was among the four yes votes for 435 for-sale condominiums at the corner of Rampart Boulevard and Alta Drive, which was an eleventh-hour reduction from 720 rental units.</p>
<p>But the fate of the rest of the course remains unclear, and some city officials have said they won’t get behind “piecemeal development.”</p>
<p>Roush and Seroka both spoke against the development at that council meeting and a Las Vegas Planning Commission meeting where commissioners discussed a proposal to build homes on another segment of the golf course.</p>
<p>THE PAC FORMS</p>
<p>Less than a week later, on Feb. 21, the PAC filed its registration paperwork with the Nevada secretary of state’s office.</p>
<p>“The PAC is clearly funded by the developer,” Seroka’s campaign manager, Jim Ferrence, said Friday, adding that the “mailer is tantamount to coming from the incumbent. They’re hand in glove, the developer and Beers.”</p>
<p>Beers said Friday that he had seen the mailer but does not know who is behind it.</p>
<p>“It is unfortunate that the same developers who are lining the pockets of Bob Beers are now spreading their lies under a misleading name of ‘Citizens for Better Neighborhoods,’” the Roush campaign said in a statement to the Review-Journal.</p>
<p>The Roush team called the mailer “the perfect example of smoke-and-mirror politics” and “a desperate attempt by the developers to confuse voters with legal jargon.”</p>
<p>EHB Companies responded that Roush was put in the race to circumvent the city’s decision-making process.</p>
<p>“It’s interesting Christina Roush, a planted candidate by her business partners and wealthy friends in Queensridge, wants to blame anyone and everyone to further her own personal agenda,” EHB Companies’ statement said.</p>
<p>Beers has repeatedly raised inverse condemnation throughout the city’s consideration of the Badlands proposal. The issue came up at a candidate forum Tuesday, where Roush told Beers to quit raising the idea because “you know it’s not true.”</p>
<p>“She’s either badly confused or making it up,” Beers said Friday of Roush’s stance on inverse condemnation.</p>
<p>Roush and Seroka “want the city of Las Vegas to buy the closed golf course, so these wealthy homeowners, who are supporting their campaigns, don’t lose their view,” states the mailer, which misspelled Seroka’s name.</p>
<p>THE MONEY TO THE PAC</p>
<p>In a campaign contribution and expense report filed with the secretary of state’s office last week, the PAC lists three different $5,000 contributions, all made Feb. 24, from Level CM; Sahara LLC; and Summer DeHart. The latter contribution lists the associated address as EHB Cos.’ Las Vegas headquarters as listed on the company website.</p>
<p>The PAC does not list expenses in its most recent report, but exactly how it’s spending that $15,000 should become clearer by March 31, when the next round of reports are due to the secretary of state.</p>
<p>The city primary is April 4. Early voting began Saturday and runs through March 31.</p>
<p>Contact Jamie Munks at [email protected] or 702-383-0340. Find <a href="http://www.twitter.com/JamieMunksRJ" type="external">@JamieMunksRJ</a> on Twitter.</p>
<p>PAC FACTS</p>
<p>— Any group of people or entities that solicits or receives contributions from other people and groups with the intention to spend that money to exert election influence is required to register as a political action committee with the state of Nevada.</p>
<p>— PACs must register with the secretary of state’s office before engaging in any activity within the state.</p>
<p>— PACs are required to file contributions and expense reports when they receive contributions that exceed $1,000 or when they make any expenditures for or against a candidate.</p>
<p>— Each PAC is required to appoint a registered agent who lives in Nevada.</p>
<p>Source: Nevada secretary of state’s office.</p>
<p>RELATED</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Future of Badlands golf course in limbo after another contentious City Council meeting</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Badlands golf course development in Las Vegas leads to bad blood</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Developers decide to trim Badlands Golf Course project — for now</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Opponents of proposed Las Vegas development accused of extortion</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Fight between Badlands developer, residents has Las Vegas council caught in crossfire</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Controversial Badlands Golf Course development on 90-day hold</a></p>
<p /> | false | 1 | newly formed pac launched attack last week two las vegas city council candidates opposition controversial badlands golf course development mailer circulating western valleys ward 2 urges voters say calls 250 million tax contending denying development course would result inverse condemnation occurs government action causes private property values plunge often resulting owner suing financial loss two opportunist candidates want taxpayers foot bill benefit wealthy homeowners lavish queensridge neighborhood mailer says christina roush steve seroka citizens better neighborhoods political action committee formed last month funded mailer residents developer fight closed 250acre course winds welltodo queensridge development neighbors fought developer ehb companies plans put homes course badlands issue looms large city council race roush seroka aiming unseat councilman bob beers mailer name beers says authorized candidate campaign city council feb 15 narrowly approved pareddown plan courses eastern edge beers among four yes votes 435 forsale condominiums corner rampart boulevard alta drive eleventhhour reduction 720 rental units fate rest course remains unclear city officials said wont get behind piecemeal development roush seroka spoke development council meeting las vegas planning commission meeting commissioners discussed proposal build homes another segment golf course pac forms less week later feb 21 pac filed registration paperwork nevada secretary states office pac clearly funded developer serokas campaign manager jim ferrence said friday adding mailer tantamount coming incumbent theyre hand glove developer beers beers said friday seen mailer know behind unfortunate developers lining pockets bob beers spreading lies misleading name citizens better neighborhoods roush campaign said statement reviewjournal roush team called mailer perfect example smokeandmirror politics desperate attempt developers confuse voters legal jargon ehb companies responded roush put race circumvent citys decisionmaking process interesting christina roush planted candidate business partners wealthy friends queensridge wants blame anyone everyone personal agenda ehb companies statement said beers repeatedly raised inverse condemnation throughout citys consideration badlands proposal issue came candidate forum tuesday roush told beers quit raising idea know true shes either badly confused making beers said friday roushs stance inverse condemnation roush seroka want city las vegas buy closed golf course wealthy homeowners supporting campaigns dont lose view states mailer misspelled serokas name money pac campaign contribution expense report filed secretary states office last week pac lists three different 5000 contributions made feb 24 level cm sahara llc summer dehart latter contribution lists associated address ehb cos las vegas headquarters listed company website pac list expenses recent report exactly spending 15000 become clearer march 31 next round reports due secretary state city primary april 4 early voting began saturday runs march 31 contact jamie munks jmunksreviewjournalcom 7023830340 find jamiemunksrj twitter pac facts group people entities solicits receives contributions people groups intention spend money exert election influence required register political action committee state nevada pacs must register secretary states office engaging activity within state pacs required file contributions expense reports receive contributions exceed 1000 make expenditures candidate pac required appoint registered agent lives nevada source nevada secretary states office related future badlands golf course limbo another contentious city council meeting badlands golf course development las vegas leads bad blood developers decide trim badlands golf course project opponents proposed las vegas development accused extortion fight badlands developer residents las vegas council caught crossfire controversial badlands golf course development 90day hold | 534 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal">&lt;img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-15684" title="RomneyWailingWall" src="https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/RomneyWailingWall.jpg" alt="Romney at the Wailing Wall" width="388" height="262" srcset="https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/RomneyWailingWall.jpg 388w, https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/RomneyWailingWall-150x101.jpg 150w, https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/RomneyWailingWall-300x203.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 388px) 100vw, 388px" /&gt;</a></p>
<p>BEIRUT - According to the Obama Presidential campaign issues staff, temporarily operating out of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at 430 South Capitol Street, SE in Washington, D.C., Team Obama scored an electoral coup again rival Mitt Romney this week by moving fast to pull the rug from Romney's hoped for advantage from his obsequious Israel trip. That visit, which ranks among the all-time-most-groveling led to even Zionist media outlets including the New York Times and Washington Post dissing Mitt's trip as "un-presidential."</p>
<p>Obama operative James Carville boasted this week&#160; that "Romney &amp; Co. ain't ready for no major league Presidential campaigning and we're gonna keep whupping em real bad&#160; til November 6th."</p>
<p>"Slick Jimmy", as Mr. Carville is fondly known back home in Big Easy bars along Bourbon Street, as well as some of his associates are explaining why:</p>
<p>The Republican National Committee, now essentially part of the Romney campaign, even though it is supposed to stay neutral until the party chooses its nominees at the August 27-30 Tampa, Florida Republican Convention, had worked for&#160; over a month with AIPAC and Florida&#160; Republican Congresswoman Ileana&#160; Ros-Lehtinen to help deliver pro-Israel votes and cash to Romney.</p>
<p>The plan was to cap off Romney's Israel trip with another round of sanctions against Iran which he would promote at a major photo op while bashing Syria in the process. This was to be achieved via yet another law, this time H. R. 1905 named by AIPAC as The Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012.</p>
<p>It was last December the Iran Threat Reduction Act draft law on the House side heaped more sanctions on Iran. The problem was that the White House was then tepid and US Senate Foreign Relation Committee Chair, John Kerry (D-Mass), did not cooperate as he continues to work to launch a diplomatic initiative with Tehran on behalf of Obama.</p>
<p>The current AIPAC version has emerged from Israel lobby dominated House-Senate negotiations and it includes the most flagrant layers of sanctions ever enacted to undermine the economy of any country. Congressman Ron Paul rose to speak in strong opposition to H.R. 1905 on August 1, labeling it a "declaration of war against Iran even though Iran has no nuclear weapons program".&#160; And so it is.</p>
<p>H.R. 1905 sponsor and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) was almost giddy as she promised to deliver Florida to Romney and gushed: "This bipartisan, bicameral Iran sanctions legislation strengthens current U.S. law by leaps and bounds and it updates and expands U.S. sanctions, and counters Iran's efforts to evade them. The bill sends a clear message to the Iranian mullahs that the U.S. is committed, through the use of sanctions, to preventing Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold."&#160; She reminded the media that Romney told Israeli officials in Jerusalem that the Obama administration was not doing enough to stop Iran's nuclear program and that:&#160; "Essentially president Obama is doing nothing!"</p>
<p>H.R. 1905 is a catch-all frenzied election year gimmick that lumps together legislative initiatives of all sorts in order to corral votes for Romney immediately after his Israel trip, which left little doubt that Israeli leaders believe that Israel will have less leverage to squeeze the US to take on yet another big military action if Obama is re-elected than if Romney wins.</p>
<p>H.R. 1905:</p>
<p>In its letter to Congressmen, designed to aid Mitt Romney, AIPAC writes:&#160; "America and our allies must unite in a tough response to Iran's belligerent approach. We must continue to send a strong message to Tehran that it will face unremitting pressure until it complies with its international obligations and end its nuclear weapons quest. We strongly support The Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act (H.R. 1905) and urge you to vote YES."</p>
<p>The letter is signed by the following AIPAC supporters of Romney: Howard Kohr, Executive Director; Marvin Feuer, Director, Policy &amp; Government Affairs; and Brad Gordon, Director of Special Campaigns.</p>
<p>Learning what the Israeli lobby was attempting from its contacts at AIPAC, Obama campaign strategists moved fast and decided to have their candidate use his constitutional powers and undercut the Romney strategists toute de suite. Obama did so and angered AIPAC and Republican leaders in Congress before the lopsided House vote on July 12, when the White House quickly invited supporters of Israel to a media event at which the President issued an Executive Order, which he explained included "Two major actions to further isolate and penalize Iran for its refusal to live up to its international obligations regarding its nuclear program and to hold accountable financial institutions that knowingly provide financial services to Iranian banks."</p>
<p>As a result of pre-empting AIPAC's H.R. 1905, and despite "feel good"&#160; further action by Congress on H.R. 1905, the Obama campaign says they gutted the AIPAC/Republican/Romney scheme while once more assuring Israel and its lobby of Obama's willingness to use all his Constitutional powers on Israel's behalf and to target its "existential threat" Iran.</p>
<p>According to two congressional insiders, the quick-witted maneuver by the Obama campaign is a key reason their candidate currently leads in the swing states of Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania while reminding the media that no presidential candidate since 1960 has won the White House without carrying two of these three states.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Romney operatives are seeking alternative ways to convince Israel to maintain its support and cash for his campaign during the next nine weeks of what "Slick Jimmy" is calling, "American Democracy at work."</p> | false | 1 | ltimg classaligncenter sizefull wpimage15684 titleromneywailingwall srchttpswwwforeignpolicyjournalcomwpcontentuploads201208romneywailingwalljpg altromney wailing wall width388 height262 srcsethttpswwwforeignpolicyjournalcomwpcontentuploads201208romneywailingwalljpg 388w httpswwwforeignpolicyjournalcomwpcontentuploads201208romneywailingwall150x101jpg 150w httpswwwforeignpolicyjournalcomwpcontentuploads201208romneywailingwall300x203jpg 300w sizesmaxwidth 388px 100vw 388px gt beirut according obama presidential campaign issues staff temporarily operating democratic national committee headquarters 430 south capitol street se washington dc team obama scored electoral coup rival mitt romney week moving fast pull rug romneys hoped advantage obsequious israel trip visit ranks among alltimemostgroveling led even zionist media outlets including new york times washington post dissing mitts trip unpresidential obama operative james carville boasted week160 romney amp co aint ready major league presidential campaigning gon na keep whupping em real bad160 til november 6th slick jimmy mr carville fondly known back home big easy bars along bourbon street well associates explaining republican national committee essentially part romney campaign even though supposed stay neutral party chooses nominees august 2730 tampa florida republican convention worked for160 month aipac florida160 republican congresswoman ileana160 roslehtinen help deliver proisrael votes cash romney plan cap romneys israel trip another round sanctions iran would promote major photo op bashing syria process achieved via yet another law time h r 1905 named aipac iran threat reduction syria human rights act 2012 last december iran threat reduction act draft law house side heaped sanctions iran problem white house tepid us senate foreign relation committee chair john kerry dmass cooperate continues work launch diplomatic initiative tehran behalf obama current aipac version emerged israel lobby dominated housesenate negotiations includes flagrant layers sanctions ever enacted undermine economy country congressman ron paul rose speak strong opposition hr 1905 august 1 labeling declaration war iran even though iran nuclear weapons program160 hr 1905 sponsor house foreign affairs committee chairwoman ileana roslehtinen rfla almost giddy promised deliver florida romney gushed bipartisan bicameral iran sanctions legislation strengthens current us law leaps bounds updates expands us sanctions counters irans efforts evade bill sends clear message iranian mullahs us committed use sanctions preventing iran crossing nuclear threshold160 reminded media romney told israeli officials jerusalem obama administration enough stop irans nuclear program that160 essentially president obama nothing hr 1905 catchall frenzied election year gimmick lumps together legislative initiatives sorts order corral votes romney immediately israel trip left little doubt israeli leaders believe israel less leverage squeeze us take yet another big military action obama reelected romney wins hr 1905 letter congressmen designed aid mitt romney aipac writes160 america allies must unite tough response irans belligerent approach must continue send strong message tehran face unremitting pressure complies international obligations end nuclear weapons quest strongly support iran threat reduction syria human rights act hr 1905 urge vote yes letter signed following aipac supporters romney howard kohr executive director marvin feuer director policy amp government affairs brad gordon director special campaigns learning israeli lobby attempting contacts aipac obama campaign strategists moved fast decided candidate use constitutional powers undercut romney strategists toute de suite obama angered aipac republican leaders congress lopsided house vote july 12 white house quickly invited supporters israel media event president issued executive order explained included two major actions isolate penalize iran refusal live international obligations regarding nuclear program hold accountable financial institutions knowingly provide financial services iranian banks result preempting aipacs hr 1905 despite feel good160 action congress hr 1905 obama campaign says gutted aipacrepublicanromney scheme assuring israel lobby obamas willingness use constitutional powers israels behalf target existential threat iran according two congressional insiders quickwitted maneuver obama campaign key reason candidate currently leads swing states florida ohio pennsylvania reminding media presidential candidate since 1960 white house without carrying two three states meanwhile romney operatives seeking alternative ways convince israel maintain support cash campaign next nine weeks slick jimmy calling american democracy work | 604 |
<p>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump told the nation’s governors Monday that “nobody knew health care could be so complicated” as Republicans in Congress and the administration continued to grapple with repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act.</p>
<p>Trump met with the governors on the final day of their three-day annual conference amid concerns that states could be stuck with increased costs if Congress repeals the health care act without replacing it with another plan to provide coverage and funds for expanded Medicaid coverage.</p>
<p>“It’s still a work in progress,” Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican and vice chairman of the National Governors Association, said of the effort to craft a replacement.</p>
<p />
<p>Nevada expanded Medicaid under the health care act that was signed into law by former President Barack Obama and dubbed Obamacare by congressional Republicans who have vowed to repeal it.</p>
<p>About 32 million people receive their health care through insurance exchanges created under the health care act or Medicaid expansion in states that opted in under a provision of the law, according to the Urban Institute.</p>
<p>MEDICAID COVERAGE A CONCERN</p>
<p>Sandoval said about 300,000 people in Nevada are covered under the Medicaid expansion.</p>
<p>“I want to make sure those people maintain coverage,” he said at a news conference at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.</p>
<p>Earlier, Trump admitted there are challenges ahead, but he vowed to work with congressional leaders to surmount them.</p>
<p>“Obamacare has been a disaster, and it’s only getting worse,” Trump said.</p>
<p>The president also met with the heads of major health insurance providers at the White House Monday and told them that he had asked Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to work with them to stabilize markets and create a new plan.</p>
<p>“The new plan will be a great plan for the patients, for the people and hopefully for the companies,” Trump said.</p>
<p>But the White House has yet to release details on a replacement plan or throw its support behind various replacement proposals being floated on Capitol Hill by Republican lawmakers.</p>
<p>Those plans include a variety of mechanisms to fund health insurance coverage and the expansion of coverage under Medicaid, the health care program for the nation’s elderly and poor.</p>
<p>Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat and the chairman of the governors association, said plans to fund Medicaid expansion through new block grants would be a nonstarter for many states.</p>
<p>McAuliffe said block grants would save the federal government and likely push the expense to states, most of which expanded Medicaid to take advantage of federal funds offered to help cover the most needy of populations.</p>
<p>Sandoval said a payment mechanism through per-capita grants to the states also could be problematic. He said federal benchmarks on population would have to be up to date to reflect the fact that Nevada is one of the fastest-growing states in the U.S.</p>
<p>A benchmark three years old, Sandoval said, “would penalize my state.”</p>
<p>McAuliffe said an analysis by a health research and consulting firm presented to the governors showed that changing the funding mechanism could have a huge financial impact on some states and result in decreased coverage.</p>
<p>But Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican, said his state, with a younger population, could fare better under a block grant system for Medicaid or changes that give tax credits based on income instead of age.</p>
<p>Herbert said that, with the current system, there is a concern about sustainability. He said what is good for Arizona, with its large retirement population, would not be good for Utah.</p>
<p>SANDOVAL ENCOURAGED BY DIALOGUE</p>
<p>Despite the divisions in the GOP, Sandoval said he was encouraged that lawmakers were talking with governors about replacement plans and that continuing care is part of the discussion.</p>
<p>Just recently, McAuliffe said, “We were worried about straight out repeal.”</p>
<p>The ACA bill passed the House and Senate in 2010 on a strict party vote, with no GOP lawmakers supporting the legislation.</p>
<p>Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told the National Press Club on Monday that Republican attempts to repeal the bill could face opposition from their own party.</p>
<p>Schumer said it is uncertain Republicans even have the votes in the Senate to repeal the law.</p>
<p>Republicans hold a slim 52-48 majority in the Senate. If they settle on a replacement that strips funding for Planned Parenthood or keeps a tax on generous health plans offered by businesses and unions similar to one imposed by the ACA, that could cost GOP votes, he said.</p>
<p>U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., is leading <a href="" type="internal">a bipartisan effort</a> in the Senate to repeal the so-called “Cadillac tax” in the Obamacare legislation. That tax, which is scheduled to take effect in 2020, has drawn opposition from Republicans and Democrats alike.</p>
<p>But Schumer said Republicans may come to favor a replacement plan that includes such a tax as a way of keeping more Americans insured, which would in turn cost them support from the GOP’s fiscal conservatives.</p>
<p>Contact Gary Martin at 202-662-7390 or [email protected]. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/garymartindc" type="external">@garymartindc</a> on Twitter.</p>
<p>President meets with state leaders, including Gov. Sandoval of Nevada, to update them on plan to repeal and replace Obamacare and hear their concerns.</p>
<p /> | false | 1 | washington president donald trump told nations governors monday nobody knew health care could complicated republicans congress administration continued grapple repeal replacement affordable care act trump met governors final day threeday annual conference amid concerns states could stuck increased costs congress repeals health care act without replacing another plan provide coverage funds expanded medicaid coverage still work progress nevada gov brian sandoval republican vice chairman national governors association said effort craft replacement nevada expanded medicaid health care act signed law former president barack obama dubbed obamacare congressional republicans vowed repeal 32 million people receive health care insurance exchanges created health care act medicaid expansion states opted provision law according urban institute medicaid coverage concern sandoval said 300000 people nevada covered medicaid expansion want make sure people maintain coverage said news conference dirksen senate office building capitol hill earlier trump admitted challenges ahead vowed work congressional leaders surmount obamacare disaster getting worse trump said president also met heads major health insurance providers white house monday told asked health human services secretary tom price work stabilize markets create new plan new plan great plan patients people hopefully companies trump said white house yet release details replacement plan throw support behind various replacement proposals floated capitol hill republican lawmakers plans include variety mechanisms fund health insurance coverage expansion coverage medicaid health care program nations elderly poor virginia gov terry mcauliffe democrat chairman governors association said plans fund medicaid expansion new block grants would nonstarter many states mcauliffe said block grants would save federal government likely push expense states expanded medicaid take advantage federal funds offered help cover needy populations sandoval said payment mechanism percapita grants states also could problematic said federal benchmarks population would date reflect fact nevada one fastestgrowing states us benchmark three years old sandoval said would penalize state mcauliffe said analysis health research consulting firm presented governors showed changing funding mechanism could huge financial impact states result decreased coverage utah gov gary herbert republican said state younger population could fare better block grant system medicaid changes give tax credits based income instead age herbert said current system concern sustainability said good arizona large retirement population would good utah sandoval encouraged dialogue despite divisions gop sandoval said encouraged lawmakers talking governors replacement plans continuing care part discussion recently mcauliffe said worried straight repeal aca bill passed house senate 2010 strict party vote gop lawmakers supporting legislation senate minority leader charles schumer dny told national press club monday republican attempts repeal bill could face opposition party schumer said uncertain republicans even votes senate repeal law republicans hold slim 5248 majority senate settle replacement strips funding planned parenthood keeps tax generous health plans offered businesses unions similar one imposed aca could cost gop votes said us sen dean heller rnev leading bipartisan effort senate repeal socalled cadillac tax obamacare legislation tax scheduled take effect 2020 drawn opposition republicans democrats alike schumer said republicans may come favor replacement plan includes tax way keeping americans insured would turn cost support gops fiscal conservatives contact gary martin 2026627390 gmartinreviewjournalcom follow garymartindc twitter president meets state leaders including gov sandoval nevada update plan repeal replace obamacare hear concerns | 520 |
<p>About a month into the Trump presidency, Steve Bannon, a senior White House adviser at the time,&#160; <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/02/23/stephen_bannon_pillar_of_trumps_platform_is_deconstruction_of_the_administrative_state.html" type="external">identified</a>&#160;“deconstruction of the administrative state” as one of the administration’s three core policy goals (protecting national security and reviving the economy, including trade, were the other two). Having&#160; <a href="http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/02/the-administrative-state-whats-that.php" type="external">no clear sense</a>&#160;of what Bannon was talking about, the media at the time treated “deconstruction of the administrative state” as either a synonym for traditional Republican opposition to big government, or&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/us/politics/stephen-bannon-cpac-speech.html" type="external">code</a>&#160;for some sinister authoritarian populism. Virtually no-one in the mainstream press understood, or cared to fairly present, the gist of the growing conservative critique of the administrative state.</p>
<p>That&#160; <a href="http://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2017/08/03/trump_and_the_fate_of_the_administrative_state_110319.html" type="external">critique</a>&#160;focuses on a runaway bureaucracy’s&#160; <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/06/11/confronting_the_administrative_power_grab_134128.html" type="external">threat</a>&#160;to constitutional government. Congress has improperly delegated much of its law-making power to bureaucrats, who in turn have abusively expanded this authority. The courts, for their part, have turned a blind eye to the administrative power-grab. Meanwhile, agencies staffed by unelected bureaucrats now operate de facto courts. In effect, these agencies negate the separation of powers by simultaneously exercising legislative, executive, and judicial functions, the very definition of authoritarian rule. On top of that, administrative adjudication commonly evades constitutionally protected due process rights.</p>
<p>President Obama aggravated these problems in more ways than one. When Congress declined to endorse his proposals, he sought to accomplish essentially legislative goals through regulation. Even duly passed laws like health-care, Dodd-Frank, and the stimulus created administrative structures designed to evade congressional authority, or authorized spending later used to federalize matters properly left to states and localities. While the constitutional critique of the administrative state has been gestating for years, the Obama administration’s executive overreach stimulated its development and lent it force and urgency. This constitutional critique, shared not only by Bannon but by the president’s top legal advisors and judicial appointees (Justice Gorsuch very much included), is seldom explained to the public by the press.</p>
<p>As we approach the end of President Trump’s first year, however,&#160; <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-vs-the-deep-regulatory-state-1510952431" type="external">thoughtful</a>&#160;observers have been&#160; <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/11/26/trump-s-assault-on-administrative-state-will-benefit-america.html" type="external">counting</a>&#160;up the many steps he’s taken to rein in the administrative state. Those steps include working with Congress to rescind many Obama-era regulations via the heretofore little-used Congressional Review Act; introducing “regulatory budgeting” designed to remove several outdated rules for each new one put in place; as well as major deregulatory moves at the FDA, FCC (ending net neutrality), EPA (ending the Clean Power Plan), the Departments of Education (withdrawing guidance documents on Title IX), and Interior (reducing federal restrictions on public land use). Some of these deregulatory moves are high profile, while others play out behind the scenes. In any event, Trump’s deregulation has unshackled the economy and helped spur growth, even before to the advent of tax reform.</p>
<p>What are the politics of all this? The taming of the administrative state unites Republicans and dismays Democrats. Should the economy continue to improve, Trump’s deregulatory moves will be seen as part of that success story, thus extending their appeal from Republicans to Independents.</p>
<p>But what if something more is at stake? What if battles over the size, scope, and constitutional legitimacy of the administrative state were to become the centerpiece of our politics, energizing populist movements on both right and left? Or is this process already underway? And will intraparty divisions hold the key to this issue?</p>
<p>An important new book by Emmett McGroarty, Jane Robbins, and Erin Tuttle,&#160; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Deconstructing-Administrative-Emmett-McGroarty-Robbins/dp/1545621667/ref=sr_1_1/137-2376117-9423126?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1515000358&amp;sr=1-1" type="external">Deconstructing the Administrative State: The Fight for Liberty</a>, turns us toward these questions. McGroarty, Robbins, and Tuttle change the debate over the administrative state by shifting our angle of vision. As senior fellows at the American Principles Project (APP), McGroarty and Robbins helped lead the grassroots movement against the Common Core education standards. Tuttle, now a research fellow at APP, is one of the Indiana mothers who helped ignite the anti-Common Core movement in the states. Whereas critiques of the administrative state generally focus on history or law, McGroarty, Robbins, and Tuttle draw on their background to highlight the frustrating and sometimes ugly day-to-day politics of the administrative state, examining the state and local levels, as well as the federal. They also throw light on Republicans’ internal divisions over the administrative state. So after a quick survey of&#160;Deconstructing the Administrative State, we can return to the big political issues with new eyes.</p>
<p>Whereas recent commentary has focused on our unaccountable bureaucracy’s damaging effects on the economy, McGroarty, Robbins, and Tuttle spotlight the administrative state’s assault on the constitutional authority of the states. Sad to say, vast swathes of state policy are now effectively controlled by anonymous federal technocrats.</p>
<p>Former Nebraska Governor Ben Nelson once said, “I honestly wondered if I was actually elected governor or just branch manager of the state of Nebraska for the federal government.” The extent of this federal influence is often hidden behind state and local agencies, which function like field offices of the central government, and are themselves built up and sometimes even created by federal programs. In consequence, federal intrusion on state policy often needs no defense, because the public has no idea it’s happening. Even governors and state legislators can be unaware of policy end-runs imposed by federal agreements with a state’s own bureaucrats. At both the state and federal levels, then, bureaucracy has broken loose and effectively turned into a national fourth branch of government. McGroarty, Robbins, and Tuttle expose the complex web of incentives and relationships that constitute this undemocratic governing structure. As they see it, when it comes to federalism, the administrative state is winning and the Constitution is on the ropes.</p>
<p>The Founders designed our federalist system to secure liberty by dividing and disbursing power, and by ensuring that local and state governments would remain more accountable to citizens than a distant federal government ever could. In fundamental ways, however, the modern practice of conditioning federal grants on state acceptance of federal dictates undermines the Founders’ intent. Taxing state residents and then conditioning the receipt of these funds on states’ acceptance of federal demands is “coercive, confiscatory, and profoundly corrosive to the federal structure of our Constitution,” say McGroarty et al.</p>
<p>Even supposedly flexible “block grants” are subject to endless regulations. The Obama administration specialized in tying such grants to highly controlling regulatory schemes. State legislatures, which operate on compressed time schedules with few staffers, are poorly positioned even to understand these schemes, let alone resist them. In the Indiana General Assembly, for example, four state representatives share a single legislative aide. Above all, cash-strapped states’ fear of losing federal funds generally overcomes substantive policy concerns.</p>
<p>McGroarty, Robbins, and Tuttle also take an original look at the intellectual armature of the administrative state: government-sponsored research. While some of this research has value, plenty of federally-sponsored “research” merely enshrines the policy preferences of progressive bureaucrats and their academic allies. Too often, government research assumes favored policy positions, rather than offering neutral evaluations of key alternatives. And since state and local governments can’t match billions of dollars of federally-funded education research, for example, de facto federal control of education often follows. Ironically, education experiments launched by questionable “research” can achieve near immortality without ever having shown hard evidence of their effectiveness.</p>
<p>So not only overreaching regulations but a vast federal research apparatus tainted by funding-induced bias and phony objectivity buttresses the administrative state. Much of this research is authorized by “independent” boards insulated from control by political appointees. Unfortunately, these boards and the academics they fund have political biases of their own.</p>
<p>McGroarty, Robbins, and Tuttle highlight many other issues that ought to be part of our debates over the administrative state: efforts by federal bureaucrats to turn just about every policy they favor into a “public health” issue; federal control over the lion’s share of Western lands, politicized K-12 science curricula that prime students to support the administrative state, and more. They also draw on my account of Obama’s sweeping Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation (AFFH), but go beyond this to treat what they call regional “ghost governments.”</p>
<p>Yet the most controversial theme McGroarty, Robbins, and Tuttle treat is business’s role in expanding the administrative state. While business favors the Trump regulatory rollback at the federal level, many businesses are allied with progressive activists seeking to expand the federal bureaucracy’s hold over states and localities.</p>
<p>Businesses favor an unconstitutional federal takeover of education because they want national markets for textbooks and testing software. Businesses support the dumbed-down Common Core standards advocated by many progressives because they’re more interested in “workforce development” than classic liberal education for citizenship. Businesses favor federal attempts to force dense housing and public transportation on the suburbs when that means access to federal subsidies for building projects.</p>
<p>This brings us to business’s relationship with the political establishment in Congress. McGroarty, Robbins, and Tuttle show how desirable committee assignments and leadership positions are tied to fundraising, which in turn pulls the GOP’s congressional leadership in the direction of businesses that benefit from the largesse of the administrative state. So if business opposition to regulation at the national level separates Republicans from Democrats, the affinity of business for the regulatory state, especially at the state and local levels, separates the GOP establishment from the base.</p>
<p>McGroarty, Robbins, and Tuttle offer a battery of steps to tame the administrative state, from passage of the REINS Act (requiring congressional approval of major regulations), to prohibitions on the federal government making grants to state subdivisions, to bans on federal determination of the membership of state and local boards or commissions, and many other recommendations. Above all, they call for a movement of the people rise up and demand these reforms.</p>
<p>A populist wave on behalf of regulatory reform may sound far-fetched, yet in the last decade populist movements supporting or opposing the administrative state have moved to the center of American politics. The Tea Party was a constitutionally-themed populist response to the Obama administration’s executive overreach. Grassroots resistance to Common Core likewise foregrounded the constitutional ban on federal control of education. Candidate Trump’s repeated attacks on Obamacare and Common Core summoned the energy of those movements, while his promise to “drain the swamp” was a swipe at the bipartisan alliance of lobbyists and the political establishment. So the growing critique of the administrative state by conservative lawyers and academics is merely the tip of a populist iceberg. Likewise, a populist wave on the left during the Obama years mobilized around demands to regulate an oil pipeline (and ultimately the entire fossil-fuel industry) out of existence.</p>
<p>So the administrative state is already a populist rallying cry, even if not by that name. If some regulatory decisions still play out behind the scenes, the public has spotted the problem. Voters understand they’re being cut out of the loop by unaccountable bureaucrats, and they’re angry about it. Similarly, movements on the left have grown adept at elevating regulatory issues like approval for the Keystone XL pipeline into hinge-points of global destiny. We have entered an era in which abstruse questions like net neutrality are the stuff of late night TV. Even the Russia investigation has popularized the idea of a “deep state” bureaucracy at war with the president. The foundation-stones of a populist war over the administrative state have been laid.</p>
<p>Where is all of this going in the Trump era and beyond? On the left, Tom Steyer, who bankrolled the movement against the Keystone XL pipeline, now leads the crusade to impeach President Trump. Impeachment might not sound like a regulatory issue, but Steyer’s advocacy spends as much time on issues like&#160; <a href="https://www.needtoimpeach.com/letter" type="external">DACA and the EPA</a>&#160;as on alleged collusion. It’s disturbing to see mere policy disagreements used as impeachment fodder, yet revealing as well. Should Mueller come up empty handed, or Republicans retain the House, expect Trump’s regulatory policies to refocus populist resistance on the left.</p>
<p>Steyer’s climate crusaders were at the core of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 coalition, and for them Sanders’ socialism was a feature not a bug. An ever-more-openly-socialist Democratic Party will not be shy about demanding expansion of the regulatory state. Obama’s executive overreach, with its galvanizing effect on conservative populism, is unlikely to be a mere passing phase.</p>
<p>On the right, conservatives of all stripes are pleased by the president’s deregulatory moves, yet are far from staging the populist rebellion against the administrative state called for by McGroarty, Robbins, and Tuttle. Conservatives can only get but so worked up over issues like net neutrality and the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Health care mobilizes conservative voters in ways that most business regulation does not, as do federal intrusions on local control of education, housing, and transportation. These latter issues hit voters where they live, literally. Yet this is also where the intraparty split kicks in. While the Chamber of Commerce went all out against Obamacare, it stayed quiet, or even supported Obama administration intrusions into state and local government. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Trump administration has yet to move systematically either to weaken Common Core and restore local control over education, or to repeal Obama’s takeover of local government via AFFH.</p>
<p>If President Trump wants to mobilize the Republican base, he could announce major moves to restore local control over education and to repeal AFFH. Trump’s constantly reiterated campaign promise to free the states from Common Core has yet to be fulfilled. At the same time, he could summon voters to prevent these abuses from ever happening again by rising up to demand passage of the REINS Act and other legislative reforms of the sort recommended by McGroarty, Robbins, and Tuttle.</p>
<p>Failing this, such a movement will likely arise of its own accord once the next Democratic president re-seizes pen and phone on the Obama model. We are about a decade into an era of see-saw political battles over constitutionally questionable and vastly ambitious regulatory schemes. Increasingly, if perhaps without us yet quite recognizing it, the battle over the scope and legitimacy of the administrative state has moved out of the shadows and into the very center of our political life.</p>
<p>Stanley Kurtz is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He can be reached at&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | false | 1 | month trump presidency steve bannon senior white house adviser time160 identified160deconstruction administrative state one administrations three core policy goals protecting national security reviving economy including trade two having160 clear sense160of bannon talking media time treated deconstruction administrative state either synonym traditional republican opposition big government or160 code160for sinister authoritarian populism virtually noone mainstream press understood cared fairly present gist growing conservative critique administrative state that160 critique160focuses runaway bureaucracys160 threat160to constitutional government congress improperly delegated much lawmaking power bureaucrats turn abusively expanded authority courts part turned blind eye administrative powergrab meanwhile agencies staffed unelected bureaucrats operate de facto courts effect agencies negate separation powers simultaneously exercising legislative executive judicial functions definition authoritarian rule top administrative adjudication commonly evades constitutionally protected due process rights president obama aggravated problems ways one congress declined endorse proposals sought accomplish essentially legislative goals regulation even duly passed laws like healthcare doddfrank stimulus created administrative structures designed evade congressional authority authorized spending later used federalize matters properly left states localities constitutional critique administrative state gestating years obama administrations executive overreach stimulated development lent force urgency constitutional critique shared bannon presidents top legal advisors judicial appointees justice gorsuch much included seldom explained public press approach end president trumps first year however160 thoughtful160observers been160 counting160up many steps hes taken rein administrative state steps include working congress rescind many obamaera regulations via heretofore littleused congressional review act introducing regulatory budgeting designed remove several outdated rules new one put place well major deregulatory moves fda fcc ending net neutrality epa ending clean power plan departments education withdrawing guidance documents title ix interior reducing federal restrictions public land use deregulatory moves high profile others play behind scenes event trumps deregulation unshackled economy helped spur growth even advent tax reform politics taming administrative state unites republicans dismays democrats economy continue improve trumps deregulatory moves seen part success story thus extending appeal republicans independents something stake battles size scope constitutional legitimacy administrative state become centerpiece politics energizing populist movements right left process already underway intraparty divisions hold key issue important new book emmett mcgroarty jane robbins erin tuttle160 deconstructing administrative state fight liberty turns us toward questions mcgroarty robbins tuttle change debate administrative state shifting angle vision senior fellows american principles project app mcgroarty robbins helped lead grassroots movement common core education standards tuttle research fellow app one indiana mothers helped ignite anticommon core movement states whereas critiques administrative state generally focus history law mcgroarty robbins tuttle draw background highlight frustrating sometimes ugly daytoday politics administrative state examining state local levels well federal also throw light republicans internal divisions administrative state quick survey of160deconstructing administrative state return big political issues new eyes whereas recent commentary focused unaccountable bureaucracys damaging effects economy mcgroarty robbins tuttle spotlight administrative states assault constitutional authority states sad say vast swathes state policy effectively controlled anonymous federal technocrats former nebraska governor ben nelson said honestly wondered actually elected governor branch manager state nebraska federal government extent federal influence often hidden behind state local agencies function like field offices central government built sometimes even created federal programs consequence federal intrusion state policy often needs defense public idea happening even governors state legislators unaware policy endruns imposed federal agreements states bureaucrats state federal levels bureaucracy broken loose effectively turned national fourth branch government mcgroarty robbins tuttle expose complex web incentives relationships constitute undemocratic governing structure see comes federalism administrative state winning constitution ropes founders designed federalist system secure liberty dividing disbursing power ensuring local state governments would remain accountable citizens distant federal government ever could fundamental ways however modern practice conditioning federal grants state acceptance federal dictates undermines founders intent taxing state residents conditioning receipt funds states acceptance federal demands coercive confiscatory profoundly corrosive federal structure constitution say mcgroarty et al even supposedly flexible block grants subject endless regulations obama administration specialized tying grants highly controlling regulatory schemes state legislatures operate compressed time schedules staffers poorly positioned even understand schemes let alone resist indiana general assembly example four state representatives share single legislative aide cashstrapped states fear losing federal funds generally overcomes substantive policy concerns mcgroarty robbins tuttle also take original look intellectual armature administrative state governmentsponsored research research value plenty federallysponsored research merely enshrines policy preferences progressive bureaucrats academic allies often government research assumes favored policy positions rather offering neutral evaluations key alternatives since state local governments cant match billions dollars federallyfunded education research example de facto federal control education often follows ironically education experiments launched questionable research achieve near immortality without ever shown hard evidence effectiveness overreaching regulations vast federal research apparatus tainted fundinginduced bias phony objectivity buttresses administrative state much research authorized independent boards insulated control political appointees unfortunately boards academics fund political biases mcgroarty robbins tuttle highlight many issues ought part debates administrative state efforts federal bureaucrats turn every policy favor public health issue federal control lions share western lands politicized k12 science curricula prime students support administrative state also draw account obamas sweeping affirmatively furthering fair housing regulation affh go beyond treat call regional ghost governments yet controversial theme mcgroarty robbins tuttle treat businesss role expanding administrative state business favors trump regulatory rollback federal level many businesses allied progressive activists seeking expand federal bureaucracys hold states localities businesses favor unconstitutional federal takeover education want national markets textbooks testing software businesses support dumbeddown common core standards advocated many progressives theyre interested workforce development classic liberal education citizenship businesses favor federal attempts force dense housing public transportation suburbs means access federal subsidies building projects brings us businesss relationship political establishment congress mcgroarty robbins tuttle show desirable committee assignments leadership positions tied fundraising turn pulls gops congressional leadership direction businesses benefit largesse administrative state business opposition regulation national level separates republicans democrats affinity business regulatory state especially state local levels separates gop establishment base mcgroarty robbins tuttle offer battery steps tame administrative state passage reins act requiring congressional approval major regulations prohibitions federal government making grants state subdivisions bans federal determination membership state local boards commissions many recommendations call movement people rise demand reforms populist wave behalf regulatory reform may sound farfetched yet last decade populist movements supporting opposing administrative state moved center american politics tea party constitutionallythemed populist response obama administrations executive overreach grassroots resistance common core likewise foregrounded constitutional ban federal control education candidate trumps repeated attacks obamacare common core summoned energy movements promise drain swamp swipe bipartisan alliance lobbyists political establishment growing critique administrative state conservative lawyers academics merely tip populist iceberg likewise populist wave left obama years mobilized around demands regulate oil pipeline ultimately entire fossilfuel industry existence administrative state already populist rallying cry even name regulatory decisions still play behind scenes public spotted problem voters understand theyre cut loop unaccountable bureaucrats theyre angry similarly movements left grown adept elevating regulatory issues like approval keystone xl pipeline hingepoints global destiny entered era abstruse questions like net neutrality stuff late night tv even russia investigation popularized idea deep state bureaucracy war president foundationstones populist war administrative state laid going trump era beyond left tom steyer bankrolled movement keystone xl pipeline leads crusade impeach president trump impeachment might sound like regulatory issue steyers advocacy spends much time issues like160 daca epa160as alleged collusion disturbing see mere policy disagreements used impeachment fodder yet revealing well mueller come empty handed republicans retain house expect trumps regulatory policies refocus populist resistance left steyers climate crusaders core bernie sanders 2016 coalition sanders socialism feature bug evermoreopenlysocialist democratic party shy demanding expansion regulatory state obamas executive overreach galvanizing effect conservative populism unlikely mere passing phase right conservatives stripes pleased presidents deregulatory moves yet far staging populist rebellion administrative state called mcgroarty robbins tuttle conservatives get worked issues like net neutrality structure consumer financial protection bureau health care mobilizes conservative voters ways business regulation federal intrusions local control education housing transportation latter issues hit voters live literally yet also intraparty split kicks chamber commerce went obamacare stayed quiet even supported obama administration intrusions state local government perhaps coincidentally trump administration yet move systematically either weaken common core restore local control education repeal obamas takeover local government via affh president trump wants mobilize republican base could announce major moves restore local control education repeal affh trumps constantly reiterated campaign promise free states common core yet fulfilled time could summon voters prevent abuses ever happening rising demand passage reins act legislative reforms sort recommended mcgroarty robbins tuttle failing movement likely arise accord next democratic president reseizes pen phone obama model decade era seesaw political battles constitutionally questionable vastly ambitious regulatory schemes increasingly perhaps without us yet quite recognizing battle scope legitimacy administrative state moved shadows center political life stanley kurtz senior fellow ethics public policy center reached at160 commentskurtznationalreviewcom | 1,433 |
<p>In his&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hillary-clintons-short-circuited-apology/2016/08/08/6046563c-5d8b-11e6-9d2f-b1a3564181a1_story.html" type="external">column on&#160;August 9, 2016</a>, Michael Gerson of the&#160;Washington Post&#160;reflected on the “ritual of apology and forgiveness” in public life, and cited this talk by Dr. L. Gregory Jones at the November 2013&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Faith Angle Forum</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>“Spinning Sorrow: The Uses and Abuses of Forgiveness in the Public Sphere”</p>
<p>South Beach, Florida</p>
<p>November 2013</p>
<p>Speaker:&#160;Dr. L. Gregory Jones,&#160;Professor of Theology at Duke University Divinity School and Strategic Director of the Laity Lodge Leadership Initiative</p>
<p>Moderator:&#160;Michael Cromartie, Vice-President, Ethics and Public Policy Center</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Click here to listen to an audio recording of this event.</a></p>
<p>SUMMARY:&#160;The failure to forgive has profound personal and interpersonal consequences that affect us more permanently than we realize. Though repentance and forgiveness are individual processes, these key expressions of grace must also play out in community and public contexts if they are to resonate and endure. In this deeply meaningful talk, Dr. Gregory Jones points to a trend in American culture: political manipulation of the public’s capacity to forgive. Politicians who have made grave mistakes regularly use insincere public apologies to bolster their images and further their careers. On the converse, he cites powerful examples of real forgiveness throughout the world, from South Africa to Rwanda to Yugoslavia to Nickel Mines, telling the stories of individuals and communities. This discussion teaches readers important lessons about the human need to live with clarity and compassion.</p>
<p>KEY QUOTES:&#160;</p>
<p>“In American culture, we have this phenomenon where forgiveness is often used as a way to excuse the past and to spin sorrow, largely as a PR way of managing a crisis, which has very little to do with any kind of changed behavior, or ultimately any accountability for the past.”</p>
<p>“It is often the case that when we are wounded and we harbor bitterness and vengeance, we nonetheless let our own souls get eaten away.”</p>
<p>“What forgiveness is about is learning to remember differently and well in a context of a story, and the confessional culture that we’re in in this exhibitionist kind of way is disconnected from any narrative where you could learn to remember well.”</p>
<p>Michael Cromartie</p>
<p>MICHAEL CROMARTIE:&#160; Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 23rd Faith Angle Forum. We’ve been doing this since 1999 and this is actually number 23. We hope you all will come for the 25th anniversary in a year or so from now.</p>
<p>Now, Dr. Jones — you have his bio in your packet, so I am not one of those who reads the bio back to you. I think you have already read it, but Eerdmans Publishing was kind enough to give us a copy of his famous book on forgiveness, so you have a copy there called Embodying Forgiveness. And when I wrote Dr. Jones, who is Professor of Theology at Duke University Divinity School, where he did his PhD in Theology, I told him about the fact that we would not talk only about forgiveness, but talk about it in a political context.</p>
<p>The invitation came at a time when Mark Sanford was running for Congress, several men in New York were running for mayor, several presidential candidates had made some mistakes in their past and were oftentimes using theological categories to advance forward, and so I thought, what better person than Dr. Gregory Jones, who has written two books on forgiveness and reconciliation, to address this.</p>
<p>I gave him a generic title and he came back with this wonderful title, “Spinning Sorrow: The Use and Abuse of Forgiveness in the Public Sphere,” and there is not anyone better in the country to address this question than Dr. Gregory Jones of Duke University. Dr. Jones, welcome.</p>
<p>Dr. L. Gregory Jones</p>
<p>DR. L. GREGORY JONES:&#160; Thank you, Michael. It’s great to be with you. I loved being here in March as an observer and am glad to be with you today.</p>
<p>This is a huge topic to take up. When I teach courses on it or when I speak on it I note that — when I first wrote Embodying Forgiveness I thought I was just getting one book out of my system, and realized it’s a topic that actually cuts into all kinds of issues — personal, political, cultural, social, religious — and so I am going to be barely skating the surface in the comments that I’m going to offer today.</p>
<p>And I’m happy to entertain questions. If you happened to scan Embodying Forgiveness at all, you’ll notice a number of footnotes at which I punt on big issues and say that would take another book which somebody else, hopefully, will write.</p>
<p>But it’s an important issue because it touches on some of our most intimate, personal relations, as well as some of the largest public issues.</p>
<p>I want to begin by just describing a cartoon from one of our — the last generation’s great thinkers and theologians, Charles Shultz. He frequently had insightful things to say and one of his recurring strips was when Lucy and Charlie Brown were playing baseball. They may be the only team more hapless than my beloved Chicago Cubs, and that may be because Lucy was the star outfielder and Charlie Brown was the manager.</p>
<p>In one particular strip — I’m embellishing the actual strip a little bit in the story — but Charlie Brown pitches the ball, it’s hit out to center field, and Lucy is in perfect position to catch the ball, and then it hits her on the head, falls to the ground, and the batter gets a homerun.</p>
<p>Lucy brings the brings the ball back up to Charlie Brown, and she says, “I’m sorry, manager, I really wanted to catch it this time, but as the ball came down I started thinking about all those other times.”&#160; As she hands him the ball, she says, “I guess you could say the past got in my eyes.”</p>
<p>“The past got in my eyes.” That seems to me to be one of the ways of talking about why forgiveness is such a haunting issue. Even when we become interested in change — as I’m going to talk about forgiveness being inextricably linked to a commitment to change the behavior that would lead to a different way of life, and hopefully not repeating the event — the past gets in our eyes.</p>
<p>It haunts us whether we’re the perpetrator, whether we’re the victim, or some complicated set of dynamics thereby. You see this in all kinds of political contexts.</p>
<p>In the former Yugoslavia you had people who had been living next door to each other, who had been marrying their children off to one another, who all of a sudden, in the midst of conflict, erupted into violence, where people started saying, “Your people killed my people five hundred years ago or so.”</p>
<p>Similar kinds of things between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda. It is part of the animating challenges of the Middle East conflict. It’s the sense of a long history that can be mobilized for vengeance often at the drop of a hat.</p>
<p>And yet, in American culture, we have this phenomenon where forgiveness is often used as a way to excuse the past and to spin sorrow, largely as a PR way of managing a crisis, which has very little to do with any kind of changed behavior, or ultimately any accountability for the past. So I’m going to talk a little bit in a moment about what forgiveness is and how it’s connected to redeeming the past.</p>
<p>But this phenomenon of spinning sorrow is so prevalent and recurring that it has become its own trope in American culture.</p>
<p>I coined the phrase “Spinning Sorrow” during an interview after Pete Rose had come out and finally confessed, largely because he was wanting to get into the Hall of Fame and the number of eligible years of voting in the regular process were about to disappear and he was not going to get in, and so he came clean. But he made it clear that he didn’t really think that there was any problem that he needed to correct or any behavior that needed to change. He just said, “Well, yeah, but it wasn’t really any big deal.”</p>
<p>It was all staged and planned by his PR consultants to manage public perception, and as Michael was referring to in the political sphere, it seems like we have it almost monthly that somebody spins sorrow in a carefully managed way.</p>
<p>We have it also in religious traditions. You remember Jimmy Swaggart and others who have very well-staged and sometimes dramatic apologies that seem disconnected from any particular practice of forgiveness and repentance.</p>
<p>I think one of the problems we have in the public sphere has to do with the fact that a lot of the characters who spin their sorrow are actually narcissists, and the problem is that narcissism makes forgiveness and repentance exceedingly difficult because the person lacks the capacity for empathy.</p>
<p>In order to actually apologize in a meaningful way, to repent, to seek forgiveness and reconciliation, you have to have a capacity to understand things from the other’s perspective. And so when you have a narcissist for whom the world revolves around “me,” as is often the case — and so, you know, when you think they’re going to engage somebody else, they say, “What did you think of my latest book?” Then we have a problem with even the capacity for the individual to understand what repentance and forgiveness might look like.</p>
<p>But there’s a broader issue, I think, that afflicts American culture and probably Western European culture as well, particularly in the British context, and that is an image that comes from Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, who in a book that was published in 2002, called Lost Icons, he makes an argument that in Western culture we’ve lost some background languages that actually are really important to the well-being of any society or culture.</p>
<p>This was a book without any explicit religious argument; it’s really about just what he calls the background languages that are important to sustaining culture. The first one he talks about is childhood, an interesting phenomenon on how we’ve politicized childhood and not given the kind of space away from the spotlight for children to experiment. The last one he talks about is the loss of the language of soul and how it impoverishes our culture to lose that.</p>
<p>But the third one that he talks about — the second one is about charity and the kind of carnival gatherings designed to relativize inequality and distinction through public celebrations.</p>
<p>The third one he talks about is remorse, and he argues that we’ve actually lost the language of remorse as a serious practice in our culture, at all levels.</p>
<p>So, you know, to talk about Mark Sanford or the candidates in New York City — or in the religious sphere — or Lance Armstrong — all the kinds of big celebrity environments. You have it also occurring at the local level in communities where politicians and fairly public figures also engage in the same kind of spinning of sorrow that lacks that genuine sense of remorse and that genuine sense of accountability, but also not really an authentic offering of forgiveness on the side of the victims who will say, “I forgive you,” while nonetheless arming again for the next battle — that we’ve lost that sense of what are the practices that are necessary to be sustained in local communities.</p>
<p>I think this is actually what undermined South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was notable in the 90’s for being the first time when a Truth Commission actually explicitly had reconciliation as a part of its aim. And so it was focused explicitly on the goal of reconciliation, which included amnesty for people who confessed, and there were some very moving and dramatic confessions that were offered in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.</p>
<p>But in talking with both commissioners and people in local communities, what really seemed to undermine it was that in the original planning stages of those who envisioned it, it was to be a national commission that was then replicated in local communities throughout the country because what was needed was ways of acknowledging the brokenness and the difficulty in local congregations, in town halls, in communities all across the country.</p>
<p>And what happened instead were a few very celebrated national examples with the commission at the national level with Desmond Tutu as the head — and it failed ever to get into the lifeblood of the local communities. And so what you had in the local context was this seething sense that — and the past getting in their eyes without any vehicles, without any real rituals and practices to engage in — something that I think people in Rwanda learned from, but it’s still been imperfect because it’s very hard to plan and coordinate something at that many levels down.</p>
<p>But ultimately we’re talking about — when we’re talking about forgiveness — is something that has to be contextualized often outside the public spotlight in the ongoing hard work of conversation, repentance, forgiveness, that is engaged between and among diverse peoples.</p>
<p>Well, what would it look like then if we were to say forgiveness was to be not so much used and abused for self-interested purposes and political purposes, but what would an authentic practice of forgiveness look like? I think actually that, as Williams suggests about remorse, there is a secular way to articulate what religious traditions understand forgiveness to be.</p>
<p>Religious traditions — and there’s more overlap between particularly Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, I think, than divergence — but I think those religious traditions articulate and name it in a more fulsome way that are necessary to sustain the account more broadly, but I’m not one who believes that you have to believe in God or it requires convictions of a particular sort in order for forgiveness and reconciliation to work.</p>
<p>At its deepest — and this is part of what I mean when I’m talking about what has to happen in local communities — forgiveness has to be understood as a way of life. It’s not something you put in your hip pocket and pull out when you want to. In the New Testament, Peter asks, “How many times do I have to forgive my brother or sister? As many as seven times?”</p>
<p>You think that Peter is expecting to be patted on the head like a teacher’s pet because — I don’t know about you, but I’m good for maybe one, occasionally two, but you mess me over twice and I’m ready to end the relationship, if not bring bodily harm to you.</p>
<p>So Peter says as many as seven times, and he’s ready to be patted on the head. And Jesus says, “No,” — depending on how you translate the Greek — either 70 times seven, or 77 — the actual number isn’t the issue. What Jesus is saying there is you have to be prepared to do it always. It’s a way of life. It’s not something that you can count.</p>
<p>Back in the old days there was this movie, Billy Jack. I don’t know if you remember that movie from the early ’70’s, but Mad Magazine had a thing — because Billy Jack was supposedly in this Native American reservation that was all about peace — and Mad Magazine had a thing where Bill Jack said, “I don’t ever use violence. I count to a thousand instead,” and then about two thirds of the way he’s going, “998, 999,” and then he hauls off and wails on everybody.</p>
<p>There’s sometimes you think that, okay, if it’s 77 times, I’m going to keep notches on my wall and when I get to 77, then I can wail away. That’s what he’s talking about. It’s about a way of life, and that way of life means that you’ve got to shape not just what you think or what you do or how you feel, but all of them bound up together.</p>
<p>So a commitment to forgiveness is a commitment to a way of life that involves tutoring your thinking, your feeling, and your living in their interrelations. So it’s not something you can just — that’s the problem with the way we do it in politics: We think it’s something you have in your hip pocket, that your PR has a way to manage, when it’s really something that requires habits and practices that have to be cultivated offstage. It’s a lot like trying to come up to bat in the 7th game of the World Series and you haven’t been taking any batting practice beforehand. It just doesn’t work coming out cold.</p>
<p>So it requires tutoring of the ways you think, the ways you feel, and the ways you live, which is why it has to be learned in local contexts in families, in communities, in churches and synagogues and mosques; that it’s a way of living where you learn that the aim is toward the restoration of relationship.</p>
<p>Now, what I would say is that that way of life is rooted in a sense that I think — in a way that would be shared by the monotheistic traditions, the Abrahamic religions — is that forgiveness is the means by which God’s love moves toward reconciliation in the wake of sin, evil, and brokenness. So that forgiveness is the means; it’s the face which love takes in the wake of brokenness and sin and evil, and so, what you’re learning to do is to tutor your thinking, your feeling, and your actions.</p>
<p>Now sometimes — and it depends on the temperament — I know people for whom words come easy but the emotions and the actions lag way behind. I know other people for whom the words don’t come at all, but the emotions lead and the actions lag behind. And then there are people for whom the actions may be easy, but the emotions and the words don’t come. And the trouble is, if you focus only on one of those things, the other two can undermine even your actions or your feelings or your thoughts.</p>
<p>So, you know, when my kids — I have two boys and a girl — the boys are close enough in age that I can tell you Cain and Abel is an empirically verifiable story — and there would be times when my younger son, when they were little kids, one day would just haul off and whack his brother on the side of the head for no apparent reason. And I’d say, “Ben, you need to apologize to your brother.” And he’d have the words right there. He’d say, “I’m sorry,” but his fists were clenched and you could tell he was about ready to haul off and cold-cock his brother again. The words were there, but the emotions were going to undermine any capacity for that relationship.</p>
<p>Sometimes the emotions may lead. Susan, my wife, when she was a pastor in Baltimore, had a retired Marine colonel who was estranged from his daughter. If he said two words to you when he greeted you it was an incredibly intimate moment, and he didn’t know how to say anything to her, but his heart really wanted to reestablish a relationship, and he didn’t know how to do it because he didn’t have the language. So the emotions were there, but the words were lacking.</p>
<p>Sometimes it’s actions that may lead. This is part of the significance of religious rituals. In the Jewish tradition, getting ready for Yom Kippur, you’re obligated to go three times to those from whom you’re estranged. In the Christian tradition, it’s the passing of the peace during worship, or getting ready to come to the Eucharist, the sacrament in the Catholic tradition of reconciliation, penance, whatever you want to describe it.</p>
<p>But it’s about weaving together thoughts, emotions, and actions, which means it’s going to take rehearsal and practice in a local context that equips you then to be able to act gracefully in a political or public context because then it’s a natural behavior.</p>
<p>Just to show you how broad-minded I am I’ll use Michael Jordan as the example, a UNC grad. When we see Michael Jordan play basketball, what would we say? Look how graceful he is. Why? Because he had all the practices and the habits that had gone on in rehearsal, in practice, that enabled it to look natural in the public sphere.</p>
<p>What I think you see, for example, when John Paul II went to the prison after the attempted assassination of him. It seemed natural.</p>
<p>The same thing with the current Pope Francis. You see an embodiment of a way of life that’s been nurtured in habits and practices, in quieter settings, that now can be drawn on.</p>
<p>That’s dramatically different than an Eliot Spitzer, or a Mark Sanford, or a Pete Rose, or a Lance Armstrong, all of a sudden trying to do 180° and manage a new kind of perception from a narcissistic kind of perspective. So it’s a way of life.</p>
<p>A couple of other key things: It’s hard work. It’s challenging. A Welsh poet put it this way: “Forgiveness involves walking through thorns to stand by your enemy’s side.” You’re going to get hurt. Not just emotionally. It’s going to have a cost, and so it’s challenging.</p>
<p>One of my favorite sermons from Saint Augustine, when he’s preaching just to his ordinary folks in Egypt — he has this wonderful passage where he says to the parishioners, “Friends, you see that Jesus says you’re supposed to pray for your enemies, and so I noticed that you do. You pray they’ll die.”&#160; He says, “I don’t think that is what Jesus meant.”</p>
<p>It’s hard work, and we don’t really want to be involved in that work of either apologizing or offering forgiveness.</p>
<p>It’s not only hard work and challenging, it’s timeful. The process takes time. C.S. Lewis, in one of his letters to Malcolm, “chiefly on prayer,” says this: “Last night while at prayer, I finally discovered that I had forgiven someone after 30 years of praying and trying that I might.” Thirty years. Ronald Reagan was President in his first term 30 years ago.&#160; You just think about that, and then you think, okay — and C.S. Lewis actually had habits and practices that, I don’t know about you, but I would say were far more virtuous than my typical habits and practices, and yet he said it took 30 years of praying and trying that he might.</p>
<p>So it’s a timeful process and the ways we sometimes short-circuit — I’ll come back to the Amish community at Nickel Mines. Susan and I had the privilege of spending an evening with them before I spoke at the 5th anniversary of the school shooting. And one of the things that was striking was the guilt that some of the Amish parents had, that the world thought that forgiveness comes easily and quickly because that’s how it was presented to the world during that week.</p>
<p>And they actually talked about having gone down to Virginia Tech to be with people in the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting, and a father at Virginia Tech said, “I don’t think it will be as easy for me as it was for you.” And that’s when he said, “Oh, my goodness. What kind of message is out there?” Because one of the couples told us that it took them 22 months before they laughed. Twenty-two months to laugh. And when they finally laughed — we actually had an interesting experience of them sharing with us inner Amish humor, which was quite enjoyable — but 22 months to laugh gives you a sense of the timefulness that is involved in this work.</p>
<p>And yet forgiveness is also necessary. You probably know Annie Dillard’s wonderful line that “refusing to forgive is like taking a poison pill yourself and waiting for the other person to die.” That it is often the case that when we are wounded and we harbor bitterness and vengeance, we nonetheless let our own souls get eaten away. There’s a poignant —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Say that again? Annie Dillard?</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Annie Dillard. “The refusal to forgive is like taking a poison pill yourself and then waiting for the other person to die.”</p>
<p>There’s a poignant episode in the book Dead Man Walking. The movie is well done, too, but the book is much more powerful because it actually portrays two different fathers and two different sets of dynamics, but one father you empathize with all along the way because he’s rightly wanting justice against the perpetrator of the murder against this man’s step-daughter. And the killer is unrepentant and he’s a real jerk. He actually spits on the father during one of the pretrial hearings. And the father –so you empathize with him all along the way. And when the guy is finally executed, the father feels empty, and he says, “I have become a shell of the man I used to be.”</p>
<p>Even though you empathize with his concern for justice, and even — in my case I kind of felt like he was right to want some vengeance — he became a shell of the man he used to be. And so, you see that it’s — we’re made to want reconciliation, even though it’s often challenging.</p>
<p>The next thing I’d say is it requires a rich interior life. It requires a rich interior life, both to apologize and to offer forgiveness.</p>
<p>This is the problem of narcissists: They lack that kind of interior capacity to empathize with another, to take the perspective of another, to listen to another, to feel what another feels in those sorts of ways.</p>
<p>The most compelling tale on this topic that I would commend to you is Kazuo Ishiguro’s book, The Remains of the Day, and the book is ten times better than the movie in this case because the butler in the book is trying to come to terms late in life with the fact that he had been serving the wrong lord — with a small “l” — the lord in England who turned out to be a Nazi sympathizer.</p>
<p>But the trouble and the pathos of the book is that the butler can only speak of himself in the third person. He doesn’t have an interior life that is capable of absorbing that sense of remorse and regret and thus repentance. He lacks that interior life.</p>
<p>Now, in the Jewish and Christian traditions this would be deeply connected with the virtue of humility, of that sort of interior life. The Book of Numbers, in Chapter 12, has this wonderful theme where Miriam and Aaron are complaining about why Moses is the one who has been chosen to be the leader, and the narrator says, describing God’s response, “Well, it’s because of his humility” and you think, have we been reading the same stuff in Exodus about Moses?&#160; That’s not the word that comes to mind, but it’s about an intimacy with God that is what is at the heart of that conviction about humility, that the closer you are to God the more you are aware that you are not God, something narcissists have a hard time imagining.</p>
<p>And that humility conveys that sense of an interior life that actually has a rich, symbolic, and powerful political effect. Just think of the effect of a John Paul II, or now of Francis, and that sense of humility and how that is conveyed.</p>
<p>Forgiveness both presumes and recreates a culture of trust — part of the problem we have in American culture — but it presumes and it recreates so that it works when there’s been a culture of trust that’s now been breached. And what forgiveness does slowly over time is recreate a context of trust. And finally what it does is — Desmond Tutu’s book, No Future Without Forgiveness suggests, at its heart, it creates a possibility for the future not bound by the brokenness of the past. It enables a future not bound by the brokenness of the past. So what it does is create the context in which you can find a genuine and authentic future, though it’s hard work. And it’s hard work because there’s a tension between forgiveness and repentance, and this is a place where particularly Judaism and Christianity have some tensions about how much forgiveness ought to be offered, even in the absence of repentance.</p>
<p>But the heart of the problem is that the person who is wrong and is, let’s say, explicit about wanting to repent, is probably going to take longer to do it than the person who is wanting the person to repent.</p>
<p>So the victim expects to see a transformation overnight. The perpetrator is probably, even at their best, in a process that’s going to take months if not years where there’s going to be some backsliding, because in all likelihood, it’s not just a one-time thing, but it’s been repeated over time. And so, unlearning a bad or destructive habit is going to take time. C.S. Lewis also said he thought it would be easier to forgive a single murder than to forgive 20 years of accumulated slights.</p>
<p>The real problems are in relationships where you see a pattern, and the other person, even if they become sincere — now there’s the problem of the prisoner’s con, which goes back to spinning sorrow. You know, the ways in which prisoners all of a sudden get religion and become repentant right around the time of the parole board hearing, and parole boards are quite appropriately cynical about whether there’s any authenticity to it. The convicts often are spinning sorrow to try to get parole in the same way that public figures are doing it to try to manage their reputation and maintain power. So how you actually can discern that the repentance is authentic is a timeful process.</p>
<p>When Jesus at the beginning of the gospel announces the kingdom of God is at hand — most English translations say “Repent and believe in the gospel,” which is actually a bad translation in the sense that the Greek verb there is better translated, “Keep on repenting and keep on believing in the gospel,” that it’s a process — that’s a daily process — so that if you receive forgiveness it becomes a commitment to a way of life where you are going to need to repent daily, not as a burden but as a desire not to repeat the destructive and broken habits, so it’s around that positive sense.</p>
<p>An authentic sense of forgiveness in the political or public sphere always will involve some measure of accountability. There needs to be some way that you indicate that you’re serious about changing the conditions.</p>
<p>Forgiveness doesn’t merely look backwards at managing the past, it also looks forward to changing the conditions that existed. I just happened to be reading Sports Illustrated on the plane down here and there was a story about Notre Dame’s quarterback from last year who is not playing this year — Everett Golson — and what was remarkable about the story is a 20-year old guy who has owned that he cheated, that he was suspended from school, he’s taking the autumn to actually improve both his studies and his play, and wants to reenroll at Notre Dame. He’s accepted the accountability. He’s accepted the wrongdoing. He’s admitting it. There are no excuses, and now he’s looking for the second chance.</p>
<p>I applaud that kind of serious sense of accountability without this kind of just spin of, “oh, mistakes were made” — all the kind of, “I’m sorry if you were offended,” — all the ways we spin things as if there’s really nothing to be responsible for.</p>
<p>You know, Kathleen Sebelius last week in her testimony about Healthcare.gov just said, “I’m sorry.” Full stop. Now, the evidence is whether or not there’s accountability and improvement and whether or not that’s just a measure of competency, or whether there was other forms of wrongdoing. But there’s something to the power of owning the responsibility and taking accountability and accepting that there are consequences to that that’s involved in learning forgiveness in a new way.</p>
<p>I want to just highlight a couple of examples of communities that I think have public significance for how you think about learning forgiveness and what it means to look at that on the public stage.</p>
<p>The first is the Amish community at Nickel Mines. We all were transfixed when that happened — the grandfather talking about forgiveness. They were quite clear — if you go back to my saying, it’s a way of life and it involves thoughts, emotions and actions — they were very clear that their emotions were a mess.</p>
<p>Five years later one of the fathers said to Susan and me that the last five years have been a rollercoaster of emotions. He was saying that five years later, so there was an awful lot of work. But it was a commitment they made because they felt they were obligated to that — so that there was the public statement that was acknowledging a commitment to a way of life of relationships.</p>
<p>Interestingly — and here you get into the relationships of perpetrators and victims — the shooter’s mother took responsibility and was so troubled by it that she’s developed a relationship with the families, with the Amish families. She goes every Thursday night to bathe one of the victims who’s in a wheelchair and has significant brain damage. She goes every Thursday night to feed and bathe her.</p>
<p>When I talked, the mother of the shooter was sitting with the families in the front row of the hall. It’s an extraordinary story of new relationships being formed, but it’s hard work that’s been done, largely out of the public eye. It’s carried them, they said, into new vocations. So, you know, Amish folks don’t like to travel, but they went down to Virginia Tech because they felt obligated in the first instance to pass on a peace quilt that had been sent to them from people in Katrina who sent the peace quilt up to them, and they felt obliged to pass it on to people in Virginia Tech. They developed relationships with the parents of some of the Virginia Tech victims. Two of the fathers and the mother of the shooter travelled in a van to go up to, I believe it was New Hampshire, where there had been a murder in a community that had divided the town, and they went there just to share their story.</p>
<p>Even though they don’t like to travel — they’re not really drawn to being in the public eye — it was part of what it means for them to learn a new way of life and to share that with others. It’s quite an extraordinary story and much more complicated in terms of the dynamics of forgiveness and healing than we as a culture imagine because as soon as the funerals were done, people were off to other stories and other activities and other work.</p>
<p>The second community that I want to point to is Homeboys in Los Angeles. Father Greg Boyle, a Jesuit priest, was appointed to a Catholic Parish in L.A. that had significant gang issues. What he has done is to create a community that’s also involved with economic empowerment to try to change the conditions so that these kids don’t feel like they have to be involved in gangs. He’s got a wonderful memoir called Tattoos on the Heart that talks about his relationships with these young people.</p>
<p>They started Homeboy Industries that has a bakery, a silkscreen t-shirt, and all sorts of different activities. He says there was one business that didn’t work. He tried Homeboy Plumbing and he found out that most people didn’t want gang members coming into their homes with copper wiring involved, so that business didn’t work so well.</p>
<p>But what he’s done is he’s called people out of a gang way of life and loved them into a new relationship. There’s accountability, but he says to the kids, “There is nothing you can do that would ever make me stop loving you.” And you know, for a lot of these kids, they don’t believe that because many of them come from really troubled environments. But he’s created a community and a culture and he does the kinds of things that involve walking through thorns to stand by the enemy’s side. He got two guys from rival gangs to both commit to drive up with him from L.A. to San Francisco to sell t-shirts at an event Boyle was going to be speaking at, and he didn’t tell either one they were going to be in the car for however many hours it takes to go from L.A. to San Francisco, and they had to figure out how to get along. Now they work together.</p>
<p>But he’s been involved in this very concrete, specific work on the ground —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Say his name again?</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Greg Boyle, B-O-Y-L-E.&#160; Father Gregory Boyle.</p>
<p>There’s an interesting story also in Fast Company about how — Greg Boyle’s an amazing guy and very generous; he’s a horrible business man and Homeboy was about to go bankrupt, and then a guy named Bruce Karatz, who is an accountant who had gotten himself into trouble with the law, came along. He started volunteering for Homeboy Industries and actually has put it on a solid business model and actually helped reform Karatz’s life. He started out wanting to do it as a way to try to get out of prison time, but then he became so convinced of the value of this project that he stayed on and worked with it.</p>
<p>The third example I just want to gesture toward is the village of Nyamirambo — I think it’s pronounced — N-Y-A-M-I-R-A-M-B-O.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Spell that one more time.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; N-Y-A-M-I-R-A-M-B-O. It’s a Muslim community in the heart of Kigali, Rwanda, and it was known as the safest place in all of Rwanda during the genocide. Ironically, it was a Muslim minority community that was the place that was the safest place for Christian Hutus or Tutsis to flee. We have talked with people who fled to their church where their priest or their pastor allowed the violence to come in — in one case, actually, a bulldozer to bulldoze the church. We met a guy who had fallen out of the bell tower and somehow had been able to survive, and it was his pastor who was the one who was implicated as the primary person who killed the rest of his family.</p>
<p>But this Muslim community in Nyamirambo that was the safest place — they took their Muslim identity to be more important than being either Hutu or Tutsi. They had cultivated those habits and practices, a way of life that enabled them in a crisis to offer a different kind of vision and relationship.</p>
<p>I want to just conclude by pointing to several examples of artistic renderings in the public sphere because I think there’s an awful lot of power in the arts in terms of displaying the power of forgiveness in some of the themes that I’m talking about what forgiveness is, why it matters, what’s at stake for it in a variety of ways. And the first is a novel that I commend to you to read during December just because it’s a beautiful story and it was written by a friend of mine who died just a few weeks ago named Oscar Hijuelos.</p>
<p>Oscar won the Pulitzer Prize for “The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love,” and then he wrote a novel called Mr. Ives’ Christmas. It’s a beautiful story about a man learning to develop a relationship with the teenager who killed his son somewhat randomly on the streets of New York City right before Christmas.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Spell his name.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; H-I-J-U-E-L-O-S, Hijuelos. Oscar just died I think about two weeks ago.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; And the book is called?</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Mr. Ives’ Christmas. It’s an incredible story, and the scene toward the end when Mr. Ives actually encounters — he corresponds with his son’s killer in prison, and then when the guy is released there’s several overtures for him to meet the perpetrator and he doesn’t want to do it, and he doesn’t want to do it, and then he finally does it. And the scene, as Hijuelos describes it, is absolutely stunning because it describes Mr. Ives some decades later meeting this guy for the first time, who he’s already forgiven in letters and he’s developed a relationship with and correspondence with over time, and when he finally sees him face-to-face, he says his stomach was turning flip flops. Was it rage, pity, forgiveness?</p>
<p>That’s the complexity of the emotions. You don’t always know when you actually come face-to-face what those emotions are going to be, and yet the habits that he had developed over time are quite extraordinary. And, by the way, there’s also a beautiful description of the struggle between Mr. Ives and his wife, who have different dispositions about how to deal with their grief, and at one point the narrator says the marriage had dissolved into a partnership, a corporate partnership. It was no longer that intimate relationship, and it was because they had contrasting ways of dealing with their sorrow and their grief.</p>
<p>In terms of movies, I’d lift up Invictus, the story of Nelson Mandela actually “playing” the enemy. Playing the Enemy is the book on which the movie is drawn — it’s going to sound like I always prefer the book, which tends to be the case. But Invictus describes this extraordinary event where Nelson Mandela quite publically and symbolically dons a rugby jersey. Rugby was identified with the Afrikaner community, with the white community, and he quite publicly identifies with the white community as President. In the book there are also some extraordinary stories about when, in a highly charged political environment right before the election, one of the right wing Afrikaners calls into a radio show live with Mandela and just starts reaming him out. And this is a time when violence was about to erupt and it was just at its most fragile, and this guy starts just going after Mandela, calling him all sorts of names. Mandela recognizes the guy’s name, and he says, “Well, you know, come on. I suspect if we got a cup of coffee and talked, we could probably find common ground and we could find a way to move forward for the sake of the country.”&#160; And the guy is so disarmed by that he goes, “Uh, uh, I guess we could have a cup of coffee.”</p>
<p>Now, that’s something you can’t invent on the spot. That requires practice where that becomes the natural response. Nobody was surprised that Mandela responded that way because he had developed those habits while he was in prison — those sorts of perspectives.</p>
<p>In terms of musicals, here again, I like the musical better than the movie — Les Miserables. You have this extraordinary story of the Bishop forgiving Jean Valjean, but then it takes him some time, but ultimately he becomes an agent of forgiveness that Javert can’t sustain, that Javert ends up committing suicide because he can’t bear to live in a world where forgiveness is that real.</p>
<p>There are two pieces of music that are extraordinary and they come from very different genres. One of them is a setting called “Seven Last Words from the Cross,” where the Scottish composer James MacMillan has sacred chants, that are set — the music to those sacred chants are the background, and they are juxtaposed with Ariel Dorfman’s poetry from Chile of the Mothers of the Disappeared. So it’s poetry about mothers who have lost their children, and what you have is this extraordinary juxtaposition of sacred music pointing toward Christ and the cross linked to this unresolved pain of mothers, laid bare by Ariel Dorfman, the great Chilean poet and writer. It’s an exceptional piece that draws that together.</p>
<p>And then I wanted to lift up a piece from the hip hop art world. The Canadian hip hop artist Shad, S-H-A-D, has a remarkable piece you can find on YouTube. The lyrics are called, “I’ll Never Understand.” Shad is from Kenya, born to Rwandan parents, and his mother has poetry that he then sets to music and he juxtaposes it. And Shad begins with his mother saying:</p>
<p>The killers You’ve invaded my nights Singing your haunting lullaby Drowning other voices Choking, suffocating, numbing Sending me to sleep</p>
<p>You’ve awakened me many mornings Like an unexpected alarm Shattering my dreams Confusing, terrorizing, traumatizing I’ve talked to you in tears and anger Spat on you in rage Whispered to you in sorrow Tied you in chains Thrown you in jail</p>
<p>I’ve pulled you out Asked you many questions Knowing there would be no answers…</p>
<p>And then Shad has this musical refrain: “I’ll never understand,” and he goes through it all, and then his mother has another series, and then he has another refrain, and then here’s the last stanza of what he sings:</p>
<p>I’ll never understand how people can go on and live The miracle of finding the strength the forgive To resurrect peace, to close up wounds so deep They pierce souls beneath heart beats To be a willful slave to a loving God’s commands The key to a freedom that I’ll never understand</p>
<p>There you get out of hip hop culture an extraordinary mashing together of the pain of a woman who saw many of her family die, juxtaposed to a sense that there is a key to freedom, and he’s not going to understand it and yet he yearns for it.</p>
<p>I suspect that the biggest problem we have is that now culturally, politically, in local communities as well as nationally and internationally, there are lots of reasons why the past gets in our eyes.</p>
<p>And that creates hauntings of memory, that the past gets in our eyes. It doesn’t work to spin sorrow. It doesn’t work to try to manage it and pretend it wasn’t all that big a deal. What’s a little wrongdoing among friends?&#160; What’s a little brokenness?</p>
<p>The pain is real and it gets reanimated often in forms of vengeance and violence and destructiveness. And yet, I would suggest that the religious sensibility shared by multiple religious traditions is that we are created for reconciliation, and the great challenge and opportunity is to find ways in which we can nurture that for the sake then of finding a future that’s not haunted or bound by the destructiveness of the past.</p>
<p>(Applause)</p>
<p>Karen Tumulty</p>
<p>KAREN TUMULTY, The Washington Post:&#160; I was sort of interested in forgiveness in the public sphere in the way that we have seen it with politicians. You know, a lot of them can’t get by with it, but we’ve seen Mark Sanford, we’ve seen David Vitter. Many years ago it was Gerry Studds, the Congressman from Massachusetts, who did not show even a hint of contrition about having had a sexual relationship with an underage page, and yet keeps getting reelected.</p>
<p>So my first question is, is in fact what’s going on in the electorate anything akin to this process of forgiveness, or is this just people divorcing public behavior from private behavior, or deciding that a flawed guy from my party is better than a perfect guy from the other party?</p>
<p>And the second thing I’m interested in is sort of forgiveness validators, because one thing we keep seeing in the political sphere, and something that I personally find revolting, is the sad-faced wife standing next to the politician, the message being, “I forgive him so you should too.”</p>
<p>So how does — is this in fact a process of forgiveness with politicians or is it something else going on?</p>
<p>DR. JONES: &#160;No, I think it’s not a process of forgiveness, it’s a devil’s bargain that we have in American culture that because we don’t know how to practice it in personal, local contexts, we don’t know how to understand it in public context. And so you see it — it’s largely assumed that forgiveness involves excuse, and so we actually don’t think it has much power, and I think it’s largely — that’s what I mean by spinning sorrow — it’s a PR staged event and the wife — it’s usually the wife — I can’t think of any notable event where it was a woman who — maybe with financial wrongdoing, but hardly ever with sexual misconduct.</p>
<p>But as near as I can tell, it’s clearly just a kind of excuse that’s reflective of the ways in which forgiveness language is a trope in our culture, but is disconnected from remorse or repentance in any meaningful sense, and so we’ve trivialized it.</p>
<p>It’s not only an American phenomenon. I mean, this is not unrelated to what Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship in the 1930’s about cheap grace. He said that’s where German Christians go to have their sins forgiven in one hour a week on Sunday morning. It’s completely disconnected from the rest of life.</p>
<p>And so I think it’s the fact that we now still have the language and we’ve lost any sense of the seriousness of the practices or the cost that is entailed thereby, and I think the validators are there to help stage that in a way that says — the wife says, “Well, I’ve forgiven him,” and so then who am I not to do the same, in that same kind of context.</p>
<p>And so what you do is you get — if you don’t have a wife who is ready to do it then you get a couple of friends who become — you know, it’s almost like the spin doctors. After a political debate you have all the people who are ready with their talking points —</p>
<p>After Lance Armstrong’s interview with Oprah — he didn’t have a wife because his ex-wife and his girlfriend both were part of the accusers against him — so he had a couple of friends who were ready to go out on the next morning’s talk shows and try to spin his side of the story.</p>
<p>But it’s all an elaborately staged ruse in my view. It has nothing to do with authentic practices of forgiveness.</p>
<p>MS. TUMULTY:&#160; And therefore you don’t think that what goes on with the public is anything that resembles forgiveness?</p>
<p>DR. JONES: &#160;No, because it communicates to others there’s no risk and there’s no consequence to the behavior.</p>
<p>Now, I would add I do think that it’s also the case of what you said about “I’d rather vote for the guy in my party than the other guy.”</p>
<p>A good friend of mine’s parents live in Sanford’s district in South Carolina, and they’re devout Christians, and my friend tried to persuade them — but my friend was trying to persuade them that on Christian grounds they ought not vote for Sanford, that this was just really problematic.</p>
<p>And they said, “Yes, he’s a louse and we don’t believe anything about his character, but we’ll never vote for a Democrat.” So there’s some of that, too — at least in some circumstances.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Tim Dalrymple and then David, and then Peter.</p>
<p>Timothy Dalrymple</p>
<p>TIMOTHY DALRYMPLE, Patheos.com:&#160; I was just curious, amongst public figures, whether there are any in recent years that you think have done a laudable job, not managed it expertly, but who have shown some authenticity in their public repentance?</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Could you repeat that? It was muffled at first.</p>
<p>MR. DALRYMPLE:&#160; Yeah, whether amongst public figures there have been some more noteworthy efforts at public repentance?</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; I’ve thought a lot about that, trying to — I suppose you could — I’d probably give a small amount of credit to Clinton, long after multiple failed efforts, and I thought that — I wrote a piece actually comparing his famous four-minute apology on TV to Psalm 51 in David, and suggesting that they were kind of like mirror images of each other because Clinton’s was carefully worded and managed, whereas David was “Create in me a clean heart, oh, God, a broken and contrite spirit you will not despise.” And I thought actually kind of the low point for Clinton.</p>
<p>And I think that part of the difficulty I have — not to be too cynical — is that we tend, in our culture, to be drawing into the public arena and featuring more and more people who bear narcissistic tendencies, and so that’s a — that makes it harder to give a positive answer to Tim’s question.</p>
<p>That’s why I ended up talking about the Notre Dame quarterback. There’s a guy who took accountability and was admirable, but I don’t see as many examples of it, so if there are examples, I’d love to celebrate them.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; David Rennie, you’re next, and then William Saletan. I’m sorry, David’s up, then Peter, then William.</p>
<p>David Rennie</p>
<p>DAVID RENNIE, The Economist:&#160; I’d like to ask you to explore the denominational sort of breakdown of this because — I cover politics on four continents, and I’m back in the States for my second time.</p>
<p>When I see someone like Sanford, there’s a very sort of born-again sort of aspect to the way that it’s presented. You know, when he says, “God is a forgiving God,” that looks like a very sort of American born-again kind of model.</p>
<p>When I was covering politics in Brussels for a few years, it was very striking that the big divide in terms of political scandals and forgiveness was around attitudes to hypocrisy. I remember an example of — the top European official who was in charge of climate change and regulating greenhouse gasses turned out to drive an enormous SUV, and this was reported in sort of furious terms by the German, the Dutch, the Swedish, the Brits.</p>
<p>He was from Portugal, and the Southern Europeans just couldn’t get it. They just didn’t understand what the fuss about because — and it was explained to me by this guy’s sort of top flack that this was in his view a Protestant/Catholic divide. The Catholics take to view that everyone is a sinner, and the guy was passing good laws and regulations which were going to improve climate change, so how could it possibly matter what he drove, one car?</p>
<p>Whereas the hypocrisy drove Northern Europeans — Protestant Europeans — kind of crazy, and I think even within that you can see the difference between secular in the U.K, where I’m from. I’d say Newt Gingrich is a classic example of a politician who would have no chance of any comeback in the U.K.</p>
<p>The politicians who have just been kicked out of Parliament for expenses scandals in the U.K. will never come back because of the secular kind of — originally sort of Protestant acts, Protestant tradition, there’s no tolerance for hypocrisy. There are no comebacks.&#160; So tell me about the American context and the sort of denominational aspect of that.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Well, I want to complicate your question. It’s a great question. I want to complicate it slightly because I think there’s both the cultural and a theological set of dimensions to it.</p>
<p>So the question about hypocrisy has cultural contexts that may overlap with religious or denominational sensibilities, but I’m not sure it is quite as clean as the notion that it’s because he’s Catholic and the difference between Catholic and Protestant.</p>
<p>I do think that there’s a problem, particularly in American culture, of a kind of born-again rhetoric, where what really matters is what you say about your conversion that goes back to the revivalist tendencies across the American frontier, where it’s what you say on the day you’re saved, not how you live afterwards. And so there’s a peculiar Protestant problem that’s born out of this notion that you don’t want to talk about habits, you don’t want to talk about virtues, and so — I remember one guy once said to me, “I don’t care how high somebody jumps the day they’re saved, I want to know how they walk once they land.” And that’s something that Protestants have a peculiar aversion to talk about, whereas Catholics actually are far more bound up with habits and practices, and you know, sacramental penance or reconciliation.</p>
<p>And so I think that there is something. It’s not so much a question that Catholics think everybody’s a sinner and Protestants don’t. I actually would have thought the sensibilities would have been described rather differently. The Protestants tend to think more about everybody being a sinner. It’s more about the kind of rhetoric that accompanies it.</p>
<p>Now, the question of hypocrisy is an interesting one because I think there is a sense of sincerity and earnestness in a certain kind of evangelical Protestant culture that seems to substitute for actual behavior. How can I be wrong when I’m so sincere? And so if you have this kind of sincere rhetoric you can get away with other sorts of things. There are problems that would be correlative with Catholic tradition, though in terms of confession.</p>
<p>One of the great scenes, by the way, in Dead Man Walking is an early scene where the Catholic Priest, who is the chaplain in the prison — and this guy goes and he finally wants to unburden himself of all of his sin and so he asks to go see the chaplain. And so the chaplain says, “What known sins have you committed since your last confession?” And the guy starts in and he says something like, “Well, rape and murder and arson, and rape, and another murder,” and then the chaplain, just kind of going through the formula says, “And have you had any impure thoughts?” No, those were all pure.</p>
<p>But I think that the notion — I actually think that both in the public sphere politically, and also in private life, if we don’t have a certain tolerance for what hypocrisy, or inconsistency — I mean, hypocrisy is a pretty loaded term. But all of us are inconsistent. I hold views about all sorts of things that I don’t practice very well in my daily life. I have convictions about wealth and poverty that I don’t live into very faithfully. Does that make me a hypocrite? Well, at some level. It also makes me human in that sense.</p>
<p>And so there’s a greater sense of I’d say relaxed communal life in more established cultures. That would be the case, I think, in particular parts of Europe, for example, whereas we have a kind of petty moralism that is peculiar because, in terms of anybody — Mark Sanford, or whoever — there are only some things that really count as sins for which you might get into trouble. There are all sorts of other activities that people don’t seem to have any hesitation or worry about. In America it’s largely sexual misconduct that will get you into the deepest waters, although that now is changing with Sanford.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; I have a little dilemma here because we’ve got like ten people on the list and some of you want in right on something you just said just now. I get that sense from you Jennifer, but Peter has been waiting. And if you’d pull the mike up to yourself, Peter. I’ve got you on the list, Jennifer, and don’t lose that thought.</p>
<p>Dr. Peter Skerry</p>
<p>DR. PETER SKERRY, Boston College:&#160; I apologize for my over-eagerness. Perhaps you should have a session on professional competitiveness and etiquette, and I could lead it or follow it.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>Well, speaking into the mike won’t help that. So, Professor Jones, I appreciated your comments but I’m left a little confused because I grabbed onto what you said in the beginning about the past getting into our eyes, but it seems to me that in the United States today — and I don’t know if this is unique to the United States or it’s got to do more with advanced industrial societies, but I think it’s unique to us that we forget quickly — and you’ve kind of alluded to this — and I’m not sure the past looms that large for lots of us.</p>
<p>Every time I see Al Sharpton on MSNBC I am struck that we are a very forgiving culture, and I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. In many ways it’s a good thing. So, I’m not sure whether you’re talking — I’m not sure how you would deal with that.</p>
<p>And then related to it is that you weave back and forth between personal stories of forgiveness and public and political stories of forgiveness, and those clearly have to have very different dynamics. I wished you would sort of reflect a bit and delineate how those dynamics are different. What everyone thinks about the healthcare rollout — Secretary Sebelius may be guilty, but her guilt as the head of a large bureaucratic organization is a whole lot different than Al Sharpton’s.</p>
<p>So, how do you reflect on those two sorts of dimensions?</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Sure. Great questions. I would say that amnesia is actually the mirror image of haunting past, that they actually are mirror images and that it’s not a forgiving culture, the fact that we just ignore what Al Sharpton has said and done in the past or whomever. I don’t think that’s actually a sign of a forgiving culture, I think it’s a sign of amnesia, which is dangerous. And so I think those are actually mirror images of each other and that we’re are still haunted as American culture in very deep ways. I haven’t yet seen the movie, but Twelve Years a Slave is going to have this eruption of the haunting in a variety of ways.</p>
<p>I had a friend from South Africa who came to the U.S. who said, “You all pretend to keep moving on in a way that seems forgetful,” and yet if you just go about six inches below the surface there’s all this toxic waste that starts seeping into the public sphere.</p>
<p>So I don’t actually think that our amnesia is a sign of forgiveness. I think it’s actually the mirror image and reflects some of the dynamics of the haunting.</p>
<p>I think the haunting and the past getting in our eyes has more valence and power for persons, except it erupts in very public ways and it is a way in which, you know, you get initiated into particular traditions in American culture, but also around the world. And this is part of the reference to the former Yugoslavia — or when I was in Israel and heard the Israeli guide point over there and say, “That’s where we lost the battle,” and somebody else said 1973 or 1967? And he said, “No, the Maccabees.”</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>But it was spoken as if it was yesterday. And so there’s a certain sense in which you get initiated into traditions of conflict that are part of that haunting.</p>
<p>I do think that the speed at which things are happening is creating more amnesia, but I don’t think it’s actually taking away the hauntedness.</p>
<p>Yes, there are — well, I debated even mentioning Sebelius because I think that’s a very different dynamic, and part of what we have to do a lot better is spend a lot more time distinguishing forms of failure — moral failure from incompetence, and experimental failure — and there are different dynamics and there are different kinds of responsibility that ought to be — but that would be a whole different set of conversations. Partly I was just trying to gesture toward somebody taking accountability in a full-stop sort of way.</p>
<p>But I think that there are different dynamics, I think it’s not just a public versus personal because part of what I was talking about learning forgiveness is also pointing to communities that I think are really key because it’s in local contexts that you’re most likely to see forgiveness learned and practiced and lived in powerful ways.</p>
<p>And so that’s why I talked about the Amish, or Homeboy, or the Muslims in Rwanda, because there are powerful examples of how it is learned and lived in local contexts that actually enable, then, public figures to embody things in much more symbolic ways.</p>
<p>I think Mandela in South Africa is an example. He actually talks about what he learned as a child going to Methodist schools in the 1930’s as having helped to shape certain patterns and habits and dispositions that he drew on then when he was in prison. And so it’s focusing less on just heroic persons.</p>
<p>When Robert Coles told the story about little Ruby during the desegregation struggles in New Orleans — and you remember little Ruby as six years old and going to school and there were Klansmen and other folks on the other side of the street shouting all sorts of racial epithets at her — and Coles saw this little African America girl walking alone, looking like she was mumbling, so Coles went and interviewed her because he was worried that she was kind of unstable.</p>
<p>And he said, “What are you saying?” and she said, “I just keep repeating, Father, forgive them. They know not what they’re doing.” And everybody went, wow, what an exceptional story, and it was just kind of lifted up as this heroic little girl. And people didn’t spend much time talking about the fact that she knew those words because she spent so much time in her African American congregation week by week where she learned those words as a part of a prayer, and so those were what came to her lips.</p>
<p>So what we tend to do is either lift out this heroic person doing something in the public sphere and say, wow, look at that, or else we say everybody needs to be doing something.</p>
<p>We lose the formative power of local communities and of families that shape dispositions and habits and learn languages, and so what happens around the dinner table has huge implications.</p>
<p>How you raise your children to interact with each other has huge implications for what then happens more broadly.</p>
<p>I think there’s something really important about the symbolic power of public forgiveness by people in really significant places.</p>
<p>When the Irish and British Cardinals both had a joint gesture of apology; when a Black Pentecostal Bishop and a White Pentecostal Bishop washed each other’s feet; there’s something that’s powerfully symbolic about that. When John Paul II went into the prison cell and you know, the cover of every magazine that week was a sign of that — I think there’s something powerful about those sorts of things that are different than what happens offstage.</p>
<p>But I want to highlight the significance of what you might call mediating communities as the formative context, so that we don’t juxtapose in these false ways that it’s either personal or public, because if we privatize forgiveness, then we end up with a public sphere in which it’s all a sham, or we think violence is the only legitimate answer.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Thank you for that answer there, and I have others on the list.</p>
<p>William Saletan</p>
<p>WILLIAM SALETAN, Slate:&#160; Okay. First of all, Dr. Jones, thank you for your presentation, which I thought was moving and perceptive, full of insights. Let me give you two questions. Answer whichever one you feel like answering.</p>
<p>One is about politicians and this builds on what some others have said. The conditions that you’ve outlined for authentic remorse and repentance — I just scribbled down a couple of things you said — that it needs to be — things need to happen offstage, that there needs to be humility, there needs to be empathy, not narcissism.</p>
<p>These conditions — I’m not going to say politicians can’t do it, but the political system almost makes it impossible. It seems to attract, cultivate, even enforce a degree of narcissism that — I mean, we’ve all know politicians who are nice people, but if you won’t take credit for things and won’t think enough about yourself, you almost can’t do the job or get the job.</p>
<p>So should we expect that — and certainly if you are giving a press conference to talk about your adultery, you’re already on stage, right?&#160; Should we expect that there will — what we see on TV will never be authentic remorse and repentance, that whatever is authentic would be happening offstage? And are there things we can do in the political system to change to attract a different kind of character or cultivate a different kind of character, even make possible the kind of character that could have authentic remorse and repentance? So that’s the political question.</p>
<p>If you’re sick of talking about politics I’ll ask you one about religion.&#160; Is there — on the subject of narcissism, is there a streak of narcissism in certain kinds of Christianity — where the idea of God’s love for you becomes less about God, less about others, and more about you — that cultivates or permits the wrong kind of character? It does not allow the cultivation of the kind of habits you are talking about, and does that have some connection to these TV preachers that we see whose repentance seems no more authentic than the politicians?</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; I’d like you to answer both those questions, please.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; I plan to answer both of them.</p>
<p>There are honorable politicians who have the kind of character we’re talking about. They typically aren’t in positions where they have to go public with their adultery because they actually live faithful lives. So we don’t notice them.</p>
<p>I did a retreat a number of years ago that was off the record with a number of representatives from Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, that we held at Mepkin Abbey, the Trappist Monastery in &#160;South Carolina, and it was one of the most moving three days. It was around issues of forgiveness, and they opened up. And these were incredibly honorable and gifted people, many of whom are still there in Congress, and they probably don’t agree on the color of the sky most days, at least some of them with each other, but it was an incredibly moving context, and they actually lamented the culture of Washington on a whole bunch of different fronts.</p>
<p>So one of the things I would say is that the decline of people actually living in Washington — and one of them who had been in Congress for a very long time and is still there said that when he first arrived you spent a lot of time with members of the opposite party at soccer games, at dinner parties, at activities, where you just spent time talking about life. You talked about, “Did you like the movie?” or “How about the Redskins?” or whatever. But those sorts of relationships mattered, and he said with newer members of Congress they come in Tuesday morning and are gone Thursday night, and everything is political and everything is focused on votes.</p>
<p>Now, take it away from the political sphere. When I was Dean, when the faculty only gathered for votes it drives a dividing line between people. People are going to focus on whether you’re for it or against it, and so you then define people in oppositional terms.</p>
<p>If you’re spending time and you get to know people — John Courtney Murray, the great Jesuit Theologian of the middle 20th-century had a wonderful line. He said what he longed for most was a meaningful disagreement.</p>
<p>That’s actually an accomplishment and you think about — you know, I mean, I was struck when Teddy Kennedy died just thinking about how many bills were Hatch-Kennedy, or Kennedy-Hatch, two guys who don’t agree on much and yet they found ways to do legislation together, I suspect because they developed a relationship over time, and I think that’s part of what has to happen in the political culture.</p>
<p>To your point about remorse and you know, how much of that is going to just inevitably be the case, I would love to see some people who are willing to take a stand and lose, and just not think that winning at all costs is what matters.</p>
<p>That’s what we’ve gotten into, you know, testing what the polls say and being afraid of what’s going to happen in the next election.</p>
<p>I think that right now we’re getting the politicians that we deserve so I don’t blame the politicians, I blame us as a culture in terms of what we’re looking for and what we don’t pay attention to.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s inevitable. I think we have had periods where we recruited and encouraged more people who were actually motivated by public service. I think we’ve gone through a cycle of incredible cynicism about what it means to serve the public good. I see it in college students who are less inspired by the idea of public good in a variety of circumstances largely because the ways we’ve —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Greg, what about his theological question about —</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; I’m getting to theological question.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Oh, you’re coming to that? Okay.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; I actually think you’re right that — and I would say it’s not that there are peculiar forms of it in most traditions, but there is a peculiar form that is associated particularly with the prosperity gospel, and a certain kind of entertainment kind of rooted Christianity, which is way more about “me” than it is about God, and it leads and fuels a narcissism that I think is very dangerous and self-destructive, but it seems to be pretty popular.</p>
<p>So, yes, I think there is that, and I think it’s actually more prevalent than I would wish to admit. And the ministry is drawing too many people who are narcissistic.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; William seems like he has a follow-up.</p>
<p>MR. SALETAN:&#160; I find that last comment, which suggested that instead of — that we could transplant over from the church to politics in terms of the cultivation of the people, it’s going the other way.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; I wouldn’t say it’s going the other way, but there are too many people that worry me on that score.</p>
<p>I do think actually — I think Pope Francis is going to have a huge impact because I think he is enchanting.&#160; I’ve had conversations with undergraduates, who have no background in Catholicism, who are just really enchanted and perplexed by this guy who seems to actually live his faith and who seems to be concerned about what God’s concerned about.</p>
<p>And so I think that that is a — young people are going to look at what’s out there, available on offer as public kind of exemplars, and we’re not going through a great stretch, or haven’t in recent years.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; We’re about to go into a break, so Clare, you’ll give the last question before we go into the break, and then I’ve got everybody else on the list.</p>
<p>Clare Duffy</p>
<p>CLARE DUFFY, NBC News:&#160; I’m wondering if there is —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Please pull the mike closer.</p>
<p>MS. DUFFY:&#160; Sorry. I’m wondering if in this discussion there is ever any justification for grudge holding?</p>
<p>This seems to impose a huge burden on either the victim or the witness to the wrongdoing to have a sort of — like you mentioned in many of your examples, in the Amish community, what have you — a limitless capacity to turn away from holding a grudge and it just makes me think of the expression about the Irish, which is obvious by my name — you know, Irish Alzheimer’s — you forget everything but the grudges.</p>
<p>This is part of human nature. Is there ever a point — or like the Dillard quote, is it the poison pill that’s going to kill us? How do you see the act of grudge holding and can it ever be justified?</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Great question. I was going to remind you of the Dillard quote, so you did it for me. I do think that if you’re justifying grudge holding, you’re taking the poison pill. However, I think we need to acknowledge the appropriateness of the suffering and pain that leads to grudges, that you don’t justify but you acknowledge.</p>
<p>So part of the point of the Lewis quote — about 30 years — is to say that for a significant part of that time he would have seen the other as an enemy. That doesn’t mean that he’s going to be reconciled. What he struggles to do is to pray for him, to learn to love him, but that may take ten years just to get to that point.</p>
<p>Now, when you start justifying the grudge holding, the door is no longer open and that’s where I get worried. I actually think that if it’s — I also think it’s the case that there will be people, both personally and more broadly, with whom we are never reconciled in this life, save a miracle — and I mean that literally.</p>
<p>And so, I think that to talk about loving enemies is actually a really important dimension in the whole picture, but it’s loving not hating, not grudge holding in that sense.</p>
<p>But what I would say is that part of that door opening — for me, as a Christian, it’s — you know, the commitment to reconciliation is 2nd Corinthians 5, that we don’t have any — we are not permitted any justifications that close the door.</p>
<p>Now, sometimes it’s hoping against hope, and sometimes it’s going to take a miracle, but then I think, you know, if you think at the public political level, in 1987 if you had told me that within a couple of years the Berlin wall would come down and South Africa would begin a peaceful transition to democracy, I’d have said you were crazy.</p>
<p>And a friend of mine in South Africa actually saw two confidential documents from the late 1980’s, both of which predicted a civil war in South Africa, one from the Afrikaner government, one from the ANC. &#160;Both predicted a civil war. Both predicted several million people — more than 10% of the population would die in the civil war before their side was victorious.</p>
<p>So both sides were prepared for civil war. Both sides expect a pretty high cost before they became victorious.</p>
<p>Three years later Nelson Mandela walks out of Pollsmoor Prison in an incredible public gesture that doesn’t seem to be motivated by hate or anything else — and you know, I don’t know if any of you have gone to Robben Island and seen his prison cell and heard the stories of the limestone pits where sometimes he was buried up to his neck and the guards would urinate on his face. The treatment that he received over three decades in those prisons, it’s astonishing to me that he walked out the way he did. I’m just amazed, but there was a miracle.</p>
<p>And so I don’t think grudge holding can be justified. It does need to be acknowledged, and if we — whether in journalism in the media, or pastors, or anyone else — put pressure on people to forgive prematurely, it’s a big mistake.</p>
<p>It’s a way of saying you need to be open to this process, but that’s what I mean when I say it takes time, because if we say, you know, “Oh, your child was just murdered, are you going to forgive?” &#160;It’s raw and it’s a mistake to press it prematurely.</p>
<p>I love the phrase in Ephesians, “Be angry, but do not sin.” I actually am more worried about people who think that being angry is always wrong, because anger is a sign of protest against injustice, against wrongdoing. It ought to fuel — if there’s not a sense of outrage — I mean, the Prophet Amos — the Jewish scholar, Michael Fishbane says that basically what Amos is is a story of God’s shriek against injustice, and so there ought to be that.</p>
<p>I’m more worried about people who have come to just passively or icily accept what has happened because then you’ve lost the passion that can be turned into life-giving passion. And so I think that we need to acknowledge the propriety of anger, but also worry about the ways in which that can flip into bitterness that’s the poison pill.</p>
<p>Mollie Hemingway</p>
<p>MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, The Federalist:&#160; One of the things I was struck by with your examples of communities that do a good job of practicing forgiveness is that they seem to be communities that have very robust understandings of sin, what is a sin and what is not a sin.</p>
<p>And I was thinking about how our culture doesn’t seem to have much of a shared understanding of what a sin is, and we also might have a revulsion toward calling something a sin. And I’m curious how you forgive in such a context? How do you forgive a sin when you don’t believe in sin?</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; That’s a great question. Karl Menninger wrote a famous book about 40 years ago called Whatever Became of Sin which I don’t think was a commentary on how virtuous we all had become. It said we’d lost the language to note wrongdoing.</p>
<p>It actually gets to the issues around understanding of the self, and for me, the heart of sin is not pride or its reverse, the lack of a sense of self; it’s actually self-deception, which is the ways in which we mistakenly understand who we are, which can be thinking too highly of yourself, too lowly of yourself, or just problematically.</p>
<p>But that’s at the heart of the challenge, which is why I emphasize the importance of community because it seems to me that when you think about the people who are most formative in your life — they’re what Susan and I call the “holy friends” — and the way we describe what “holy friends” are is people who challenge the sins we’ve come to love, affirm the gifts we’re afraid to claim, and help us dream dreams we otherwise wouldn’t have dreamed.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Say those again, please.</p>
<p>DR. JONES: &#160;“Holy friends” are those who challenge the sins you’ve come to love, affirm the gifts you’re afraid to claim, and help you dream dreams you otherwise wouldn’t have dreamed.</p>
<p>You know, the first part of that is your question, Mollie, about sin — but if you only have people who are around to help remind you that you are doing bad things, you may need them, but you don’t want them around.</p>
<p>The people who really are gifts are people who also help you affirm gifts you’re afraid to claim, who see possibilities you wouldn’t otherwise see, and help you dream dreams in that way.</p>
<p>And so I think that’s what you’re describing as a robust sense of sin because, you know, part of what happens is in the course of developing community and friendship, you only learn what sin is over time because part of the self-deception we have is we redescribe things as if they’re not really sinful. And so it’s just expressing myself — it’s all sorts of ways in which we find excuses and ways to describe things in other ways.</p>
<p>I don’t suffer from workaholism, I’m doing the Lord’s work. We redescribe it so it sounds really nice and flowery, and then I don’t have to repent of it, except my wife usually will remind me after I get sick with this really nice little phrase that if you don’t observe the Sabbath, sickness becomes your Sabbath, which is a really annoying thing to hear when you’ve just gotten sick.</p>
<p>But it’s nonetheless the case that we’re creatures created for rhythms of work, rest, and play, and if we don’t pay attention to those rhythms of play and rest, we’re likely to not only get sick, we’re also likely to do really destructive things to ourselves. That’s where a lot of bad behavior comes, is out of some of that workaholism. And so I think that there’s a — there are a lot of — for both Jews and Christians, the injunction about the Sabbath isn’t a suggestion in the Bible, it’s actually a commandment, and that’s something we’re hard-wired for.</p>
<p>So you don’t even have to get to a shared sense of sin about adultery, just think about the rhythms of the week and whether or not we honor them. And I think we’re uncomfortable because it sounds problematic, but the problem really is that we’ve become so moralistic about sin. So we don’t get to the deeper issues.</p>
<p>I sometimes joke about what I call the regionality of sin. I grew up in Denver in the shadow of Coors Brewery, so out there, everybody who went to church drank, but smoking was the sin. Then I moved to North Carolina to go to Duke, and in the shadow of Liggett &amp; Myers — and everybody smoked outside of church, but drinking was the sin. And then I moved to Baltimore and they said, “Smoking, drinking, hey, what’s the problem?” So different regions of the country have different senses of what — but it’s a kind of petty moralism that somehow drinking was a deep problem, but racism wasn’t. And you kind of go, really?</p>
<p>So we’ve got to get away from the kind of moralism to a deeper sense, which will raise profoundly moral questions because there are conditions that are necessary to human flourishing, but we’ve got to figure out ways not to just turn it into the conventional ways that we get obsessed with particular things while we’re — we’re picking the speck out of our brother’s and sister’s eyes, and not noticing the logs in our own.</p>
<p>I agree with you. A rich sense of community and what — I would say friendships — in a deeply significant way. Remember, Aristotle and Aquinas both thought that friendship was the heart of the moral life, and it’s very difficult to learn to be a friend in a morally significant way.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Thank you, Greg. I think part of her question, though, however, also was what do you do — not just among the religious believing community — but what do you do in a culture that doesn’t share the same framework you do about what is and is not sin. So you’re asking somebody for an apology that doesn’t believe that what they did was wrong in the first place.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Well, I think we’ve got to have a — we need more kind of social criticism of the order that Christopher Lasch was well-known for, that actually kind of gets at some of these deeper issues that expose the challenges that we have and that can find the vehicles to break through, and I don’t think that’s a particularly religiously specific way. I think it’s a public role.</p>
<p>I was actually saying to Michael Gerson, I thought the piece wrote about the Tea Party as the mirror image of occupy Wall Street, and how both are opposed to a conservative temperament was a hugely important, very short piece that points to reclaiming moral traditions that we’ve lost in the kind of political context that lacked the kind of depth and sustainable argument about what it means to legislate, what it means to improve the world in which we live, which means that we’ve got to — even the language in invoking community is often reified into this static kind of nostalgia for some time that never was, and we’ve got to get into a much more robust sense of what communities are like, which is why I described these three rather very different communities.</p>
<p>To say the Amish — I’m not going to live like the Amish. Homeboy?&#160; I’m not going to live like Homeboy.&#160; The Muslim community in Rwanda?&#160; I’m not going to live like that. But somehow at the intersection of all of those is something extraordinarily powerful that suggests what communal life ought to be, that can point to, then, what is wrongdoing?</p>
<p>If you think of Rwanda, how is it that a country that was roughly 92% Christian, that was written in mission textbooks in 1990 as an example of the Christianization of Africa — it was kind of the signal image — nonetheless erupted in a genocide.</p>
<p>Well, it’s because it had become Christian rhetorically and on a superficial level, but it hadn’t gotten into the cultivation of the habits and practices of communities, and that’s what’s going to have to happen.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Kirsten Powers, and then Paul Edwards, and then Dan Harris, and Jennifer. Kirsten?</p>
<p>Kirsten Powers</p>
<p>KIRSTEN POWERS, The Daily Beast, USA Today, Fox News:&#160; Thank you so much for this. This is really fascinating.</p>
<p>One of the things that I often think about when we have these public displays of forgiveness is this uniquely an American thing, because it seems to me that it is, and why do we expect our public officials, whether their church leaders — take church leaders out of it — let’s just say public officials — to have to ask for forgiveness of us for something that is really a private situation between them and their spouse?&#160; We’re talking about infidelity — and should we expect them to do it?</p>
<p>To me it seems really something that should be private and we’re not trotting people out repent for their pride, or greediness, or sloth, or anything else, so why do we force them to go through this?</p>
<p>And you know, you said something about — people say, “Oh, well, the wife forgave. Who am I not to forgive?” Who are we to even think that it’s our job to forgive? Should we think that?</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; That’s an important question. I don’t think it’s uniquely American, I think it’s distinctively so, but I would say that actually there’s a — in those countries that are both influenced by Western culture and Christianity in particular, there’s this kind of — so you see it happening. South Africa has gone through it with a number of high profile people, including Jacob Zuma, who arguably has the kind of most bizarre history — well, I don’t know; that’s a high bar for what’s most bizarre — but he certainly has a distinctively complicated sexual history as a political leader.</p>
<p>So the particularly American feature is that we want somehow — there is implicit — it’s fading but it’s still there — that our leaders, political leaders included, will represent Judeo-Christian values in some amorphous, complicated way.</p>
<p>And so what it points to is I think an ambivalence that we have about what’s the relationship between character and leadership? To what extent is leadership just being able to get things done, and to what extent is it a good person, a morally good person?</p>
<p>And so, you can think of people who are effective politicians and who weren’t particularly upstanding people, and you can think of upstanding people who weren’t effective politicians. So it’s not a hand in glove kind of dynamic, but it is an important set of convictions.</p>
<p>When you bracket church leaders that’s a particularly complicated issue because their character does seem to be assumed there.</p>
<p>But I do think that generally — I would say politically — in virtually any organization, there is classically understood the notion of leadership as occupying an office, and that there is a dignity to the office that matters beyond the private relationship of the spouses.</p>
<p>And so somebody who sullies the dignity of the office, it actually has a symbolic importance that’s relevant to the larger community. So I don’t think it’s just a private matter. I do think we’ve turned it into a bizarre kind of voyeurism into the bedroom in that sense.</p>
<p>MS. POWERS:&#160; On that point, though — but it’s our business if it’s sexual, but it’s not our business if it’s —</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Well, that’s where I was just going to go. The problem is that we think that only sexual misconduct sullies the dignity of the office. We don’t actually think greed or sloth or other sorts of things —</p>
<p>MS. POWERS:&#160; But you’re not suggesting that we should be trotting out our leaders and making them repent for these other things.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Well, I think I’d be happier if we had some kind of loose but ongoing evaluation that included that way more centrally — I actually think greed is a much more worrisome problem, or the kind of peculiar form of Washington politics that everybody I know — I shouldn’t say everybody — almost everybody who claims to meet fiscal discipline are perfectly happy to create pork projects for their home.</p>
<p>MS. POWERS:&#160; Right.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; I’m more worried about those sorts of hypocrisy than I am sexual.</p>
<p>MS. POWERS:&#160; Yeah. I know I’m hogging a lot of time and I’ll stop after this, but it’s just that — in my experience of people who come to repentance, it’s not surprising that someone doesn’t repent within 24 hours of getting caught doing something.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Sure.</p>
<p>MS. POWERS: Repentance is a long process, even for very Godly, very — people filled with integrity — it can take a long time.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Yeah.</p>
<p>MS. POWERS: &#160;So I just don’t understand why this is done in the public and why we even expect it from people, and why we wouldn’t just expect people to be flawed individuals, especially as Christians, right?&#160; We should just expect people to do bad things and to repent for them and try to move on. So, yeah, I’m just —</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Yeah. No, I don’t want —</p>
<p>MS. POWERS:&#160; I’m just mystified by the fact that Christians in particular seem to be looking for this, whereas I feel like Christians, of all people, should understand and expect this, actually.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Yeah, except that I don’t want to expect it in a sense that excuses it because — that’s why I do want there to be ongoing evaluation.</p>
<p>I mean, I want people around me, if I’m in a position of leadership, who hold me accountable. This is the kind of “holy friends” principle. I don’t think it’s primarily something you air in a press conference.&#160; We’ve turned it into a public spectacle when most of the work happens in local communities, and I think if we actually had a richer sense of the practices of what happens in local communities, and if you have friends who hold you accountable out of the public sphere, you’re much less likely to engage in the sorts of destructive behavior.</p>
<p>Because, I mean, I think that — I know David Brooks is working on a book on humility, and I’m really eager to read it because I think that humility is a profoundly important virtue for public leadership, and it’s one that we have largely lost and don’t have any rich understanding of what are the conditions that cultivate humility in public leaders.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Okay. Paul Edwards and then Dan Harris and Jennifer.</p>
<p>Paul Edwards</p>
<p>PAUL EDWARDS, Deseret News:&#160; We’ve talked a lot today about forgiveness or mercy in the public sphere. I’d like to look at some institutions.</p>
<p>I think it’s quite interesting what you’ve said about the strong psychic benefits and so on of forgiveness, and the benefits that it brings when it’s, in your words, it’s learned, it’s practiced, and it’s lived. And you’ve talked about that in terms of symbols and culture and community. I want to talk about it in terms of institutions because all of those things can be institutionalized. For something to be lived and practiced and learned, and so on, that can happen within institutions, and so this is very broad, and this could be three different books. But I’m curious to know if you see particular uses for forgiveness that could be institutionalized in places like criminal justice, civil litigation, and then organizational life.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; It’s a great question and I love it because I actually think that one of the deepest forms of pathos in American culture is that we have broken institutions pretty much across the board.</p>
<p>Niall Ferguson wrote a little book this summer called The Great Degeneration —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Who is that?</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Niall Ferguson, and he has four chapters, one on politics, one on economics, one on law, and one of civil society, and I think that whether you’re thinking about — the current politics aside — you think government, healthcare, education, religion, economics — the Greg Smith memo of Goldman Sachs was, you know, that investment banks have kind of lost their purpose as an institution. We need investment banks to kind of provide the kind of infrastructure for our society, but they’ve lost their purpose in those ways, and so I think there’s a deep institutional problem that we need to rehabilitate. And I actually think that forgiveness is one of the mechanisms by which healthy institutions recreate and cultivate trust. And so that’s included in the practices of any great culture and any good organization.</p>
<p>Take your third example of organizational life. I think that any healthy organization has rituals of forgiveness built into it and means to both hold people accountable and restore people along the way. Unfortunately, we’ve turned them into — Ferguson, in his chapter on the law, says we’ve substituted the rule of law with the rule of lawyers, and I think that’s — we’ve substituted organizational culture with the rule of HR, which undermines the practices that are conducive to that.</p>
<p>Your first point was about criminal justice, and I think there are huge opportunities — alternative dispute resolution is a really significant movement within the law, and I think that there are a number of people involved in finding alternatives to straight incarceration, particularly among juveniles, in terms of restitution, in terms of rehabilitation and in terms of alternative sentencing methods.</p>
<p>There’s a program out in San Francisco called Delancey Street that offers an alternative to incarceration where you commit to going and living in a community that sounds an awful lot like a secular monastery. And what’s amazing is without a penny of state funding or federal funding — without a penny — they are self-sustaining because the people become a part of a community where there’s accountability and new possibilities. They are expected to work. The older people in the community mentor the younger people, and the recidivism rate is dramatically lower than for people that go to prison. We don’t know enough about those kinds of stories and those kinds of examples, and we need to be doing way more of that sort of work.</p>
<p>Interestingly, I’ve been involved with a project in Houston that works with gang kids, younger kids, who are already in crisis, so they’re already involved in the criminal justice system, and the leader, who’s working with them, has partnered with the juvenile justice system and part of what they recognize is that in order to get these kids out of gang life you have to provide them with alternative communities with alternative rituals.</p>
<p>So you can’t just say, “Don’t do that anymore,” you’ve got to provide an alternative set of communities — so this is where broken institutions is a problem. They are now working with KIPP schools because they realize that even if they gave them alternative communities with alternative rituals, if they spent most of their day in dysfunctional public schools it was going to put them in jeopardy again.</p>
<p>And so this is where — those local communities — but we’ve got to find ways to create the institutions that actually enable that kind of life to be lived. Healthy institutions cultivate much healthier people than we otherwise would be.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Dan Harris, you’re up next. Please pull the mike up. It’s right back here. Dan Harris.</p>
<p>Dan Harris</p>
<p>DAN HARRIS, ABC News:&#160; I apologize that my question may be a little nebulous —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Give it a try.</p>
<p>MR. HARRIS:&#160; Yeah, I’ll try. But I was struck by something in the line from that Canadian Rapper. Michael and I were struck that there was a thriving hip hop scene in Canada. See, Michael is actually a big fan of Newfoundland rap.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>About the freedom associated with forgiveness — I have a personal interest in Buddhism and there’s a lot of talk about, at its best in Buddhism, of creating habits of mind that lead to freedom, and I wonder what — if you see any connection between what’s talked about mental, psychological freedom in Buddhism and the things you can do to get there, and what you can do in this area of forgiveness that leads to some sort of free movement through life.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Yeah. That’s a great question and I think there’s something profoundly important there.</p>
<p>I think what you would characterize in Buddhism or in various forms of prayer and meditation, there’s a kind of unselfing that eliminates whatever is binding you or holding you down or chaining you, in a sense, and that’s, I think, what he is pointing to. And it goes back to Clare’s question about a grudge, that even if you’re holding a grudge, it’s got a hold of you, too. And the kind of freedom that he’s writing about is a sense of liberation, that you’re not having to be held by or to hold onto anything that has psychological implications.</p>
<p>It’s associated in the same way that sometimes sin is associated with sickness or with grief. There’s a physiological association of that, that when you experience the freedom it actually is a liberation in really deep and profound ways, and I think it’s born out of that mindfulness, that unselfing in a profound way.</p>
<p>My friend Peter Storey in South Africa was a chaplain on Robben Island in the early days of Mandela’s imprisonment. There’s a poignant story about Robert Sobukwe. Sobukwe, you may remember, was the main leader of the Sharpeville demonstration that led to the Sharpeville massacre that kind of launched the most repressive period in Apartheid.</p>
<p>And Sobukwe was arrested and he was put on Robben Island, and there’s a house where he was made to live by himself and he wasn’t allowed any visitors, typically, during the day, so actually his vocal cords atrophied because he didn’t have people to interact with.</p>
<p>Sobukwe was a Methodist lay preacher in South Africa, and Peter Storey, when he was chaplain on Robben Island, was the one person who was given permission to visit Sobukwe. He would go periodically to visit Sobukwe, and he was in a house that had a large fence around it with high bars so he couldn’t escape.</p>
<p>And when Susan and I were at Sobukwe’s house with Peter, he told us the story. If you’re standing at Sobukwe’s house you can see Cape Town over the water from the house. And as Peter was getting ready to leave one day with Sobukwe, he said to him, “You know how painful it is for me to walk out of these gates and hear the gates clang, and know that I can leave a free man and you remain imprisoned in this house?” And Sobukwe looked at him and said — and pointed to the halls of Parliament and Cape Town, which are red-roofed and you can see quite visibly across the ocean — he said, “No, those are the people who are imprisoned. I will always be free.” And I think he was pointing precisely to what Shad is saying and what you’re asking about that Buddhist practice.</p>
<p>This is a guy who had no communication most days, but he had developed a sense of mindfulness and prayer and unselfing, that he thought he was freer than the Afrikaners who were legislating in the halls of Parliament in Cape Town.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Okay. Thank you. Jennifer, and then Erica.</p>
<p>Dr. Jennifer Wiseman</p>
<p>DR. JENNIFER WISEMAN, American Association for the Advancement of Science:&#160; I think the flow of the conversation has now moved beyond the question that I had, but — and you may have already addressed it — but I am concerned that we don’t, in our religious communities and in our society, don’t really understand what forgiveness is in terms of whether it’s simply dismissing the idea that what’s been done was really significantly wrong, or whether it is fully acknowledging that something terrible has happened, from the victim’s point of view, and yet still embracing some sort of release toward the person who has perpetrated it.</p>
<p>And I think about the biblical example that you brought up where Jesus says forgive 70×7 or 77 times — but in the context, the person says, “If my brother comes and asks me for forgiveness,” — or something — “then should I forgive him?”</p>
<p>Well, what about in the context where the person is not acknowledging that they’ve done anything wrong and is not asking for forgiveness, and is there a sense that just to have sort of psychological peace there needs to be an acknowledgement that wrongdoing is truly wrong, harmful, something terrible has happened and it was bad, and yet forgiveness does not in any sense diminish that severity of the wrongdoing, while releasing the wrongdoer from being continually held in ire by the victim?</p>
<p>And it think you may have already addressed some of this, but if there’s anything more along that line you want to say, that would be helpful.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; I think it’s absolutely crucial the seriousness of the wrongdoing is named as such. Without that, you lose what Mollie was pointing to — you lose any acknowledgement that there is such a thing as sin or wrongdoing. This is my worry about the kind of amnesia of our culture. We let people get away with stuff where it doesn’t really matter.</p>
<p>So, if I were a politician, you know, in a southern state, I’d be less worried about whether getting caught in adultery meant I was going to lose my job in the wake of Mark Sanford.</p>
<p>So I think it’s absolutely critical. Forgiveness doesn’t say what you did wasn’t that bad after all; it says what you did was awful and I’m still going to stay in relationship with you.</p>
<p>And the worse it is — and by worse it doesn’t necessarily mean the more extreme the one incident is.&#160; Remember Lewis’ comment about “harder to forgive accumulated slights than one single murder.” The more habitual something has been the harder it is to forgive and to actually trust because the more — and this is a huge issue in domestic violence because there are cycles that get created by abusers who presume that the victim is going to forgive because they are Christian, or Jewish, or whatever — but mostly Christian, usually Evangelical. And so there’s this cycle where the presumption of forgiveness actually perversely “justifies” the violence — the cycle intensifies and gets worse. Authentic forgiveness has got to say, “This is wrong.”</p>
<p>In the absence of repentance, it may be absolutely critical to create space because the other person is a continuing threat.</p>
<p>All of that being said, though, this is where the offer of forgiveness needs to stay open and where I get worried about justifying a grudge or justifying — or demonizing the other. It doesn’t allow room for the fact that miracles do happen and people do repent.</p>
<p>And if we don’t keep the door open to that, if we harden ourselves, we’re the ones who actually end up suffering the most. That’s Dillard’s poison pill. And so I think it’s absolutely critical that we name it and identify it, and then figure out now what’s the best way to restore the person back into the community.</p>
<p>The logic — this is where culturally — and I know a lot of Catholics have gotten bad at it — the logic of excommunication in the Catholic church — even the logic of shunning in Amish or Anabaptist communities is not about just rejecting people. The logic of it is excluding them for the sake of them coming to repentance to be reinserted back into the community.</p>
<p>It’s practiced horribly in many cases, but the logic of it is naming it as such so that like the younger son in the parable of what I prefer to call “The Forgiving Father” — because there are two sinful sons in that story — but the younger son, when he comes to himself — and part of that is recognizing, “Oh, I screwed up.”</p>
<p>We don’t have very good practices, even in families, of saying, “Yes, you screwed up, and I love you.&#160; Let’s kill the fatted calf.” We have to say both things because sometimes there are families that say, “Yes, you screwed up and here is your Scarlet A, and we’re going to make sure you’re reminded of it for the rest of your life.”</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; You must have been a preacher, too. Erica, you’re up next, and then Daniel and Michelle.</p>
<p>Erica Grieder</p>
<p>ERICA GRIEDER, Texas Monthly:&#160; Thank you. This actually is related to Jennifer’s question, and maybe I’ll try to ask it from a different angle.</p>
<p>When I think about forgiveness and repentance, I think of them as separate processes that often coincide or are caused by the same event, but if I’m trying to forgive somebody it’s because I was forgiven, and will be forgiven, from a religious perspective, not because of their actions.</p>
<p>So to your point about the importance of naming the injustice or the cause — maybe the way to ask it is do you expect the person who names the injustice to be the person who needs to repent? Or do you think it’s okay to separate those things so somebody else can say, you’re right, that was a — you’re right to be hurt, here’s why you’re hurt, without any expectation of what they’re going to do — the person who might eventually or might not repent?</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; They are distinct, but I don’t think there is — at least religiously understood (and I would argue it ought to be the case generally) but clearly with Jewish and Christian traditions, it is a conceptual mistake to think there can be the fullness of forgiveness without repentance. It’s a conceptual mistake.</p>
<p>I mean, 1st John actually raises the question of how is sin after baptism possible because there’s a certain logical error if you understood what you’re doing and what you’re engaged in.</p>
<p>So Karl Barth once said, “Repent not because you must but because you may.” If you understand what it means to receive forgiveness, you’re actually — you would want to repent because you’ve come to realize that what I’ve done harmed another person or myself, or both, in a way that I ought to want to repent.</p>
<p>Now, in the complexities of human life there will be cases where the person who helps you name what you’ve done may not be the person who also is best able to help you learn to live into that. So that’s why there are communities of people and people play different roles along the way.</p>
<p>And you know, ironically, it’s also the case that forgiveness is often discovered as a gift in the context of other practices, so it’s not always the case when you just say, “Here’s what you did and let’s sit down and have a kind of Geneva conference and reach an accord.”</p>
<p>I mean, there’s the old Rabbinic tradition of the two Rabbis getting ready for Yom Kippur and the first one — they’ve been at odds forever — and so the first one comes to the second one and doesn’t want to really get too far out on a limb, and he says, “I wish for you what you wish for me.” And the other one says, “There you go again.”</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>Often when you get into actually kind of coming together, misunderstandings and misinterpretations of even good intensions happen.</p>
<p>So actually, the discovery of forgiveness sometimes happens apart from the person who was wronged, and sometimes apart from explicitly focusing on it.</p>
<p>I think of how often in the music that I experience during worship, my heart will thaw about something that has absolutely nothing to do with anybody in that context.</p>
<p>Or in the great movie, Babette’s Feast, it’s in the sharing of a feast that Babette has prepared that these Danish Lutherans in this isolated community actually start to discover forgiveness with one another, and you see cinematically that the color comes back into their cheeks in extraordinary ways.</p>
<p>So, yes, forgiveness and repentance are distinct and sometimes there are people who can help us repent who may not have been part of the original situation at all. What I don’t want to have happen is to either completely separate forgiveness from repentance, or forgiveness from reconciliation, because it’s too easy.</p>
<p>I had a guy I was estranged from in high school and I convinced myself that I forgave him and I was very happy about that and just kind of put it out of my mind, and then went back for my tenth high school reunion and he walked in, and I felt every bone in my body and every muscle tense up, and I wanted to go over and smack him.</p>
<p>You know, that suggests I maybe wasn’t really all that forgiving — because I can play all sorts of mind games myself, so I want to connect it to the potential, at least, for the restoration of the relationship.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Thank you. Daniel Burke?</p>
<p>Daniel Burke</p>
<p>DANIEL BURKE, CNN:&#160; Many of the traditions and examples you’ve given of personal forgiveness are deeply rooted in religion and we know that —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Into the mike, Daniel.</p>
<p>MR. BURKE:&#160; Sorry.&#160; One of the fastest growing groups in the country is the Nones — and so I’m wondering — these are people who are not attached to —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; N-O-N-E-S.</p>
<p>MR. BURKE:&#160; Right. Exactly. And are there secular examples of forgiveness that the Nones can draw on and do you see any of the newer Atheists or humanist groups that are popping up at college campuses or in big cities doing that?</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; That’s a great question. The first thing I’d say is that I would distinguish between the Nones and Atheists, because actually the evidence — and this is actually something that Luis Lugo talked about in March, that actually if you probe very deeply into the Nones, what you find out is they are actually not Atheists, they’re just not involved in any particular religious tradition.</p>
<p>So they have a kind of spiritual disposition, in many cases —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Remind everybody of the category again? The Nones are people who check off –when you ask their religious affiliation, they simply say “None.” And this has risen from like 8% to 20% in American society.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Yeah. And particularly prevalent in the Northwest, where it’s growing very rapidly. So I just want to distinguish that from the kind of Atheist — convinced Richard Dawkins-kinds of folks — although even Dawkins seems to have backpedaled a little bit recently. He talks about how much he likes the Church of England’s liturgy and so there’s a kind of curious cultural — he’s not sure he wants to give up the culture that the Church of England has helped foster in England. It’s a peculiar position that is only, I think, possible in England, as near as I can tell — that kind of view, but —</p>
<p>There actually was a story once when I was in England of a church that was changing its membership requirements for people who believed this stuff, and there was a great outcry of having membership tied to actual belief. It was a — it was one of those funny kind of notions.</p>
<p>But anyway, back to your question. Sorry. There are — I think Mandela is actually an example of a Secular. In his later years he has great appreciation for his Methodist upbringing, but I am not sure he would consider himself a practicing Christian.</p>
<p>So I think he actually fits fairly closely into the kind of None tradition of somebody who would characterize themselves as vaguely spiritual, but I don’t think he’d consider himself in any serious way a practicing religious person.</p>
<p>I think there are — I’d actually say that I admire the kind of organizational culture — to go back to Paul’s question about organizations, there’s a very strong organizational culture that’s linked to accountability and forgiveness that I’ve seen embodied in Mike Krzyzewski’s basketball teams at Duke.</p>
<p>There’s plenty of wrongdoing, but he doesn’t tend to —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; It’s also at Carolina, too.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; That’s a little more dubious these days, my friend, both in football and basketball, if you read the papers. I used to believe that — Dean Smith had it, I’ll grant you that, but it’s in tatters currently in that school eight miles away.</p>
<p>But it’s a way of — now, I’d say his is religiously informed — I mean, Coach K is a practicing Catholic, but it’s not as if he expects all his players to be such — and it’s rooted in the ethos of a sports team, but he has ways of dealing with wrongdoing that I know happened and the ways he deals with it actually are pretty admirable and he finds way to restore people into the team, he just does it outside of calling a press conference, and so often you don’t know.</p>
<p>I’ve got a fairly recent example of a kid that I’ve worked with who will be playing on the team this year who went through that process with him, and it’s a pretty extraordinary example.</p>
<p>I think the military secular example is actually — the military, because it has more of a culture of honor, actually has better practices of how you deal with forgiveness issues than a culture — to go back to Mollie’s point — that doesn’t have any notion of honor and so no notion of sin.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Okay.&#160; Michelle Cottle, you’re up next.</p>
<p>Michelle Cottle</p>
<p>MICHELLE COTTLE, The Daily Beast:&#160; Okay. So you were talking —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; And then John.</p>
<p>MS. COTTLE:&#160; You were talking earlier about a strain, a culture, within Evangelicalism that kind of focuses on, you know, these flamboyant professions of faith or redemption and how that might play into things, like when Mark Sanford has to get up and give his mea culpa.</p>
<p>But kind of playing off what Kirsten was asking about, do you think that because just in general we are an increasingly confessional culture, that the public is going to come more and more to expect these things, whether it’s religion-based or just, you know, like Jersey Shore? We like to know, kind of, and share, and we want to over share and we expect our public figures to over share as well, especially when they’ve done something as juicy as some of these guys do?</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; I hope not, but you’re probably right. I actually think that one of the great needs we have is for a significantly greater measure of reserve, of not thinking that everything needs to be shared.</p>
<p>I mean, I was telling Michael, a lot of the stuff I read in essays and other forms are links that I find on Facebook or other kinds of social media, but I am so sick of finding out what people have for dinner and what they — I mean the level of telling me stuff that I’m just astonished by, and that’s from the trivial to the moral.</p>
<p>And, you know, I think one of the problems with reality TV is it’s confessional in a kind of exhibitionist way without any context of a story.</p>
<p>It’s kind of a funny notion, but if you think about the schlocky TV of a generation or two before, even the little ditties at the beginning were kind of mini stories, so even Gilligan’s Island had the people go on a three hour tour. You know, and Jed found black Texas tea, whatever it was called, for the Beverly Hillbillies.</p>
<p>You got a little bit of a story and you had a sense that you were participating in a story. The exhibitionism of our popular media now is devoid of any narrative.</p>
<p>Forgiveness makes sense within the context of a narrative, within the context of a story, partly because you want to see how — what difference does it make? How is it lived and embodied tomorrow? Does the person do the same thing? Are they just a repeat offender?</p>
<p>And so in the context of a story, you are much more likely to be reserved because you know that what you say is going to have implication tomorrow. This comes back to the amnesia that Peter asked about earlier. I think that, you know, the moral significance of remembering is deeply connected to forgiveness.</p>
<p>I hate the phrase “forgive and forget” because it’s psychologically impossible, it’s morally problematic and theologically confused, but other than that, it’s okay.</p>
<p>What forgiveness is about is learning to remember differently and well in a context of a story, and the confessional culture that we’re in in this exhibitionist kind of way is disconnected from any narrative where you could learn to remember well.</p>
<p>If you want to know the best moral manual I can think of, it’s actually the Benedictine Rules. Why?&#160; Because those were people who were committed to a vow of stability, so they were going to be accountable to each other for life. And if you’re going to be accountable to each other for life, you’re going to be careful what you say and do because people can remember it for the rest of your life.</p>
<p>The way we try to pretend, although in a perverse way — the other trend of our culture is that because of the Internet, now there is not the anonymity of being able to do stuff and then it get forgotten.</p>
<p>I was just reading about a woman who got fired as a teacher in Dallas, I think, because of Playboy pictures she had done in college, and she said, “Well, it was harmless.” But people can still access it, and so, you know, what students put on their Facebook page, or what they do is going to be tracked, and so it’s not going to be as easily forgotten by anybody who has a search engine.</p>
<p>I’m really depressed about the confessional culture, but I’m afraid you may be right that it’s going to get worse before it gets better.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Andy Ferguson? You want to pass?</p>
<p>ANDREW FERGUSON, The Weekly Standard:&#160; Kirsten asked my question.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Who asked it?</p>
<p>MR. FERGUSON:&#160; Kirsten.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; She did? Because you told me a different one during the break.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>Okay. Well, if it comes back in the way you expressed it, please come back to me. John Green, you’re up next, and then Mindy.</p>
<p>Dr. John Green</p>
<p>DR. JOHN GREEN, University of Akron:&#160; I was very impressed by your argument about communities being the appropriate place for forgiveness to take place, but that got me thinking about our public figures, particularly politicians, but maybe other kinds of public figures.</p>
<p>What’s the appropriate community for a political figure? I mean, is it their spiritual community, or religious community? Is it other politicians? Is it the voters in their district? Is it the news media that cover them? So I wonder if you could talk about that a little bit.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Sure. I don’t think it’s the latter two groups. I do think — I mean, there is this phenomenon that Michael Lindsay writes about in Faith in the Halls of Power, that the more people in a variety of vocations rise in their positions of leadership and power, the less likely they are to be involved in a local religious community, at least a Christian community, in his argument.</p>
<p>I think that’s a problem, but it’s an understandable one because the complexities of the stuff they deal with are often stuff that increasingly, unfortunately, pastors tend to either not understand, if you put it charitably, or be absolutely dismissive of, if you put it uncharitably, and so I think that’s a problem.</p>
<p>Ideally, I would say that any person of significant influence ought to be involved in a local religious community. That would be the ideal. And one with a certain measure of intimacy and accountability.</p>
<p>I would say that’s likely to be supplemented, hopefully by a community of what I call “holy friends,” who likely share at least some understanding of the peculiar circumstances they face, and also cross sectors, so it doesn’t just become a complaint session about how hard our life is.</p>
<p>So it would be a small group where you have someone who is a political leader, connected to an educational leader, connected to a business leader, so that there are people who are at a certain level of understanding of the complexity.</p>
<p>Because these jobs are hard. I remember visiting the Bush library of George W. Bush in Dallas a few months ago, and there’s a great simulation where you have choice of dealing with different crises that were faced, and our group chose Katrina.</p>
<p>And we were given options to push buttons and get information from things in real-time, and you know, you’re doing it, and I just pushed the button to find out what the Attorney General was going to give advice about the law, and then breaking news hit. The levies had broken, and it was like, darn it, I want this button — I was trying to get the information and I couldn’t get it.</p>
<p>And then you reach a point where you have to make a decision, and at the end I was like, whew, what am I going to do?</p>
<p>Well, I know that from my own experience, where you’ve got partial information, you’re struggling and you’re just trying to figure it out. Sometimes you make big mess ups in those ways. My level of empathy for what a president’s decision making process is like went way up.</p>
<p>Well, you need other people who can help you come to terms with both the good and the bad of the decisions that you face, and so you need people at that kind of level that can share that perspective of the difficulty.</p>
<p>So I’d say it’s a multiple sense of communities, that you want some people who share that sense of the scale and scope of the decisions and issues you’re wrestling with, or the temptations that you wrestle with, and also some ordinary people.</p>
<p>One of my favorite comments from George Bush, the elder, when he gave the commencement address at Duke — we were standing in the tunnel getting ready to walk in, and somebody said to him, “Oh, I’m just so thrilled to meet such an important person,” and he said, “Excuse me, I’m an ordinary person who held an important office for a period of time.”</p>
<p>And we all need an environment where we’re reminded that we’re all human beings, and local religious communities — or there are other vehicles that can be alternatives to that — but local communities where you’re just dealing with other people in a very ordinary way.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Now, Greg, you’re aware, of course, of the fact that in Washington we do have this problem where we have what are called little fellowship groups that meet, and now certain politicians actually want everybody to know what the brothers are — the brothers are walking — “walking with” — and being accountable to, and they actually want it publicly known that I meet in this group with these people.</p>
<p>There’s a problem where a person is actually saying I am in a community — in a community — and there’s not a lot of accountability.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; The more anybody has to advertise what they’re doing, the worse it is.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Yes.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; And I would actually say — that’s why I said also “crossing sectors,” because the communities tend increasingly I think to be like-minded people, and so it’s going to be less that cross-cutting accountability, and different sectors where, you know, you’ve got to have somebody who can say, “Why do you do it that way?” and that sort of dynamic.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Okay. We’re charging up to lunch and we’ve got three more people, and I want to get them all in. So, Mindy Belz, you’re up — and we might want to accumulate the questions, in fact, Greg, and let you answer all three.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; Okay.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; It’s Mindy, and Molly, and Patton.</p>
<p>Mindy Belz</p>
<p>MINDY BELZ, World Magazine:&#160; Bear in mind this is a departure from some of the good discussion, but I’ll try anyhow. You mention the overlap between Judaism and Islam and Christianity, in talking about this whole idea of forgiveness.</p>
<p>It’s my observation from covering wars in the near east, attending a lot of dialog sessions between Christians and Muslims following 9/11, that kind of thing, that really, Westerners and people in the Muslim world seem to be talking past each other when you get to this whole idea of forgiveness.</p>
<p>It doesn’t — it isn’t apparent that it’s a concept in the Muslim world, and we see that being played out, not only in terms of terrorism against the United States, but what’s happening among Sunnis and Shiites right now.</p>
<p>It just seems to me a really huge issue that we aren’t dealing with and we don’t have a good understanding, and so I’m intrigued to ask if you can help us have a better idea of the concept of forgiveness in Islam, and is anyone talking about this within Islam? Are there places for journalists to go to get a better understanding of that?</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; We don’t need to accumulate. I want to hear the answer to that right away.</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; I don’t mean to suggest there aren’t differences and there aren’t tensions, but there’s plenty of material in the Quran — and I would not in the first instance want to claim to be an expert on Islam, so you ought to ask a Muslim, actually, on this.</p>
<p>But I would say there is plenty of material in the Quran that overlaps with both Jewish and Christian understanding. There are also tensions between how Jews and Christians talk about it.</p>
<p>I was actually part of a really fascinating conference in Jerusalem, of all places, at the Tantur Institute, which brought Jews, Christians, and Muslims together to talk about forgiveness.</p>
<p>It was an incredibly poignant and challenging set of issues, which ironically included some self-examination of the ways in which each tradition has developed practices which impoverish our own understanding. So it was a Rabbi from Jerusalem who was saying, “You know, we Jews aren’t very good at forgiveness.” And it was a Muslim Imam who said, you know, “We just don’t know how to practice forgiveness.” It wasn’t that we don’t believe in it, it’s just that we aren’t good at it. And then it was me and another Christian who said, “You know, we’re not so great at it as Christians.”</p>
<p>I think that part of the difficulty that we have to separate is the kind of dominant cultures in which Islam is being practiced. I would compare, perhaps with hesitation because there are other dynamics to the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, where the battle is not a religious battle, it’s really an ethnic battle that started with some different religious sensibilities.</p>
<p>But they’re not actually arguing about theological matters. This is now a politically charged set of battles that’s way more ethnically rooted than it is theologically framed, and I think something similar is happening within Islam and the ways in which Islam and the West has gotten framed.</p>
<p>I have a Muslim friend who talked about his house being targeted by other Muslims when he was living in South Africa, and he was bombed — he said — he draws the association to Martin Luther King being bombed by the Klan. Now, King being bombed by the Klan was in the name of Christianity, so to speak, of a certain sort. Well, that’s what happened to this guy, whose understanding of Islamic law deviated from these extremist Muslims. I think the problem is that what we understand to be Islam is associated with a kind of extremist understanding that has unfortunately become quite prevalent and dangerous and influential. So I don’t mean to suggest that we ought to just pretend that Islam is a simply a peace-loving religion without extremists, in a way similar to Christianity.</p>
<p>I think it’s bound up — a larger topic — it would be how forgiveness and power are related, and unfortunately — Andy Crouch has a wonderful new book out on Christian understandings of power called Playing God that I commend to you.</p>
<p>But part of the difficulty we have around forgiveness in thinking about Christianity and Islam and all the kind of big political cross-cultural issues is bound up with ways in which we’re not very good at thinking about the Christian exercise of power, which I think is connected also to forgiveness.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; If we had time we could find out from you — and we don’t have time — about the group in Rwanda that was the safest place to be whose name we cannot pronounce — Nyamirambo — but we can’t go there now because we have less than five minutes.</p>
<p>Molly, and then Pat.</p>
<p>Molly Ball</p>
<p>MOLLY BALL, The Atlantic:&#160; My question is, how are we as journalists, to handle public officials’ demands for forgiveness?</p>
<p>You started out talking about spin and about this sort of charade of forgiveness that politicians go through, and this is always something that we have a hard time with is how do we approach that with the appropriate degree of cynicism and hold those people accountable without devolving into this sort of petty, prurient — sort of petty morality that you’ve talked about?</p>
<p>You know, I think too often we would just run a sort of thumb-sucky think piece about what forgiveness means in modern life, and call up Dr. Gregory Jones, who would give a quote saying, “Forgiveness is a process. It takes a lot of time.”</p>
<p>How do we afford these people their human capacity for absolution, while also not letting them off the hook?</p>
<p>DR. JONES:&#160; That’s a good question. I think in the first instance I would recommend finding ways to do stories that aren’t reactive to the latest celebrity scandal of the moment.</p>
<p>The trouble is, if it’s always a reactive story, the terms are always defined by the person and whatever their particular episode is.</p>
<p>And so it’s a reactive mode where I think there’s actually a larger horizon of cultivating a conversation about what are the relationships between trust, wrongdoing, and forgiveness that actually narrate stories that set a different context, so then when an episode occurs, whoever the latest person is, there’s a larger context to return to.</p>
<p>It’s kind of like — we’ve turned debates about forgiveness almost into the notion that sexual ethics is what you talk about in terms of the backseat of a car. That’s the last time you want to talk about it because the emotions are intense.</p>
<p>What you really want to be doing is setting a context so that when there’s actually inflamed emotions on one side or the other, you actually have something back to appeal to.</p>
<p>And there’s a larger horizon and a larger context that we ought to be figuring out ways to communicate more effectively, and we ought to be doing that in print, on video, in movies, in all kinds of settings, partly to lift up the really positive stories.</p>
<p>Karen came up at the break and suggested Chuck Colson as an example of somebody, and I think that’s a good example. He wasn’t an elected politician, but nonetheless did an incredible amount of good, and that made me think of Jeb Magruder, another guy from Watergate days who became a Presbyterian Pastor, largely out of the limelight.</p>
<p>But, we ought to be lifting up and narrating and finding ways to tell those kinds of stories, not in the kind of schlocky, sentimental ways, but in ways that actually are serious contributions to what we think is the cultivation of the kind of public goods that we care about as a culture, and then we’re in a position to be way less shocked — there’s gambling here — kinds of reactions when the latest celebrity goes through it.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Well, Patton, you are going to take us right into lunch, and you can tell a good session, ladies and gentlemen, when we go overtime.</p>
<p>PATTON DODD, The Washington Post: &#160;Molly’s question was very much like mine, so I think we’re good, actually. I think he just spoke to it.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; What a guy. That’s terrific.</p>
<p>MR. DODD:&#160; We can all go eat.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE:&#160; Okay, ladies and gentleman, our lunch is where we had breakfast, right out the door here, and then we’re back in here at 1:00 o’clock. So thanks again to Dr. Jones.</p>
<p>(Applause)</p>
<p>This transcript has been edited for clarity, accuracy, spelling, and grammar.</p> | false | 1 | his160 column on160august 9 2016 michael gerson the160washington post160reflected ritual apology forgiveness public life cited talk dr l gregory jones november 2013160 faith angle forum160 spinning sorrow uses abuses forgiveness public sphere south beach florida november 2013 speaker160dr l gregory jones160professor theology duke university divinity school strategic director laity lodge leadership initiative moderator160michael cromartie vicepresident ethics public policy center click listen audio recording event summary160the failure forgive profound personal interpersonal consequences affect us permanently realize though repentance forgiveness individual processes key expressions grace must also play community public contexts resonate endure deeply meaningful talk dr gregory jones points trend american culture political manipulation publics capacity forgive politicians made grave mistakes regularly use insincere public apologies bolster images careers converse cites powerful examples real forgiveness throughout world south africa rwanda yugoslavia nickel mines telling stories individuals communities discussion teaches readers important lessons human need live clarity compassion key quotes160 american culture phenomenon forgiveness often used way excuse past spin sorrow largely pr way managing crisis little kind changed behavior ultimately accountability past often case wounded harbor bitterness vengeance nonetheless let souls get eaten away forgiveness learning remember differently well context story confessional culture exhibitionist kind way disconnected narrative could learn remember well michael cromartie michael cromartie160 ladies gentlemen welcome 23rd faith angle forum weve since 1999 actually number 23 hope come 25th anniversary year dr jones bio packet one reads bio back think already read eerdmans publishing kind enough give us copy famous book forgiveness copy called embodying forgiveness wrote dr jones professor theology duke university divinity school phd theology told fact would talk forgiveness talk political context invitation came time mark sanford running congress several men new york running mayor several presidential candidates made mistakes past oftentimes using theological categories advance forward thought better person dr gregory jones written two books forgiveness reconciliation address gave generic title came back wonderful title spinning sorrow use abuse forgiveness public sphere anyone better country address question dr gregory jones duke university dr jones welcome dr l gregory jones dr l gregory jones160 thank michael great loved march observer glad today huge topic take teach courses speak note first wrote embodying forgiveness thought getting one book system realized topic actually cuts kinds issues personal political cultural social religious going barely skating surface comments im going offer today im happy entertain questions happened scan embodying forgiveness youll notice number footnotes punt big issues say would take another book somebody else hopefully write important issue touches intimate personal relations well largest public issues want begin describing cartoon one last generations great thinkers theologians charles shultz frequently insightful things say one recurring strips lucy charlie brown playing baseball may team hapless beloved chicago cubs may lucy star outfielder charlie brown manager one particular strip im embellishing actual strip little bit story charlie brown pitches ball hit center field lucy perfect position catch ball hits head falls ground batter gets homerun lucy brings brings ball back charlie brown says im sorry manager really wanted catch time ball came started thinking times160 hands ball says guess could say past got eyes past got eyes seems one ways talking forgiveness haunting issue even become interested change im going talk forgiveness inextricably linked commitment change behavior would lead different way life hopefully repeating event past gets eyes haunts us whether perpetrator whether victim complicated set dynamics thereby see kinds political contexts former yugoslavia people living next door marrying children one another sudden midst conflict erupted violence people started saying people killed people five hundred years ago similar kinds things hutus tutsis rwanda part animating challenges middle east conflict sense long history mobilized vengeance often drop hat yet american culture phenomenon forgiveness often used way excuse past spin sorrow largely pr way managing crisis little kind changed behavior ultimately accountability past im going talk little bit moment forgiveness connected redeeming past phenomenon spinning sorrow prevalent recurring become trope american culture coined phrase spinning sorrow interview pete rose come finally confessed largely wanting get hall fame number eligible years voting regular process disappear going get came clean made clear didnt really think problem needed correct behavior needed change said well yeah wasnt really big deal staged planned pr consultants manage public perception michael referring political sphere seems like almost monthly somebody spins sorrow carefully managed way also religious traditions remember jimmy swaggart others wellstaged sometimes dramatic apologies seem disconnected particular practice forgiveness repentance think one problems public sphere fact lot characters spin sorrow actually narcissists problem narcissism makes forgiveness repentance exceedingly difficult person lacks capacity empathy order actually apologize meaningful way repent seek forgiveness reconciliation capacity understand things others perspective narcissist world revolves around often case know think theyre going engage somebody else say think latest book problem even capacity individual understand repentance forgiveness might look like theres broader issue think afflicts american culture probably western european culture well particularly british context image comes rowan williams former archbishop canterbury book published 2002 called lost icons makes argument western culture weve lost background languages actually really important wellbeing society culture book without explicit religious argument really calls background languages important sustaining culture first one talks childhood interesting phenomenon weve politicized childhood given kind space away spotlight children experiment last one talks loss language soul impoverishes culture lose third one talks second one charity kind carnival gatherings designed relativize inequality distinction public celebrations third one talks remorse argues weve actually lost language remorse serious practice culture levels know talk mark sanford candidates new york city religious sphere lance armstrong kinds big celebrity environments also occurring local level communities politicians fairly public figures also engage kind spinning sorrow lacks genuine sense remorse genuine sense accountability also really authentic offering forgiveness side victims say forgive nonetheless arming next battle weve lost sense practices necessary sustained local communities think actually undermined south africas truth reconciliation commission notable 90s first time truth commission actually explicitly reconciliation part aim focused explicitly goal reconciliation included amnesty people confessed moving dramatic confessions offered truth reconciliation commission talking commissioners people local communities really seemed undermine original planning stages envisioned national commission replicated local communities throughout country needed ways acknowledging brokenness difficulty local congregations town halls communities across country happened instead celebrated national examples commission national level desmond tutu head failed ever get lifeblood local communities local context seething sense past getting eyes without vehicles without real rituals practices engage something think people rwanda learned still imperfect hard plan coordinate something many levels ultimately talking talking forgiveness something contextualized often outside public spotlight ongoing hard work conversation repentance forgiveness engaged among diverse peoples well would look like say forgiveness much used abused selfinterested purposes political purposes would authentic practice forgiveness look like think actually williams suggests remorse secular way articulate religious traditions understand forgiveness religious traditions theres overlap particularly islam judaism christianity think divergence think religious traditions articulate name fulsome way necessary sustain account broadly im one believes believe god requires convictions particular sort order forgiveness reconciliation work deepest part mean im talking happen local communities forgiveness understood way life something put hip pocket pull want new testament peter asks many times forgive brother sister many seven times think peter expecting patted head like teachers pet dont know im good maybe one occasionally two mess twice im ready end relationship bring bodily harm peter says many seven times hes ready patted head jesus says depending translate greek either 70 times seven 77 actual number isnt issue jesus saying prepared always way life something count back old days movie billy jack dont know remember movie early 70s mad magazine thing billy jack supposedly native american reservation peace mad magazine thing bill jack said dont ever use violence count thousand instead two thirds way hes going 998 999 hauls wails everybody theres sometimes think okay 77 times im going keep notches wall get 77 wail away thats hes talking way life way life means youve got shape think feel bound together commitment forgiveness commitment way life involves tutoring thinking feeling living interrelations something thats problem way politics think something hip pocket pr way manage really something requires habits practices cultivated offstage lot like trying come bat 7th game world series havent taking batting practice beforehand doesnt work coming cold requires tutoring ways think ways feel ways live learned local contexts families communities churches synagogues mosques way living learn aim toward restoration relationship would say way life rooted sense think way would shared monotheistic traditions abrahamic religions forgiveness means gods love moves toward reconciliation wake sin evil brokenness forgiveness means face love takes wake brokenness sin evil youre learning tutor thinking feeling actions sometimes depends temperament know people words come easy emotions actions lag way behind know people words dont come emotions lead actions lag behind people actions may easy emotions words dont come trouble focus one things two undermine even actions feelings thoughts know kids two boys girl boys close enough age tell cain abel empirically verifiable story would times younger son little kids one day would haul whack brother side head apparent reason id say ben need apologize brother hed words right hed say im sorry fists clenched could tell ready haul coldcock brother words emotions going undermine capacity relationship sometimes emotions may lead susan wife pastor baltimore retired marine colonel estranged daughter said two words greeted incredibly intimate moment didnt know say anything heart really wanted reestablish relationship didnt know didnt language emotions words lacking sometimes actions may lead part significance religious rituals jewish tradition getting ready yom kippur youre obligated go three times youre estranged christian tradition passing peace worship getting ready come eucharist sacrament catholic tradition reconciliation penance whatever want describe weaving together thoughts emotions actions means going take rehearsal practice local context equips able act gracefully political public context natural behavior show broadminded ill use michael jordan example unc grad see michael jordan play basketball would say look graceful practices habits gone rehearsal practice enabled look natural public sphere think see example john paul ii went prison attempted assassination seemed natural thing current pope francis see embodiment way life thats nurtured habits practices quieter settings drawn thats dramatically different eliot spitzer mark sanford pete rose lance armstrong sudden trying 180 manage new kind perception narcissistic kind perspective way life couple key things hard work challenging welsh poet put way forgiveness involves walking thorns stand enemys side youre going get hurt emotionally going cost challenging one favorite sermons saint augustine hes preaching ordinary folks egypt wonderful passage says parishioners friends see jesus says youre supposed pray enemies noticed pray theyll die160 says dont think jesus meant hard work dont really want involved work either apologizing offering forgiveness hard work challenging timeful process takes time cs lewis one letters malcolm chiefly prayer says last night prayer finally discovered forgiven someone 30 years praying trying might thirty years ronald reagan president first term 30 years ago160 think think okay cs lewis actually habits practices dont know would say far virtuous typical habits practices yet said took 30 years praying trying might timeful process ways sometimes shortcircuit ill come back amish community nickel mines susan privilege spending evening spoke 5th anniversary school shooting one things striking guilt amish parents world thought forgiveness comes easily quickly thats presented world week actually talked gone virginia tech people wake virginia tech shooting father virginia tech said dont think easy thats said oh goodness kind message one couples told us took 22 months laughed twentytwo months laugh finally laughed actually interesting experience sharing us inner amish humor quite enjoyable 22 months laugh gives sense timefulness involved work yet forgiveness also necessary probably know annie dillards wonderful line refusing forgive like taking poison pill waiting person die often case wounded harbor bitterness vengeance nonetheless let souls get eaten away theres poignant mr cromartie160 say annie dillard dr jones160 annie dillard refusal forgive like taking poison pill waiting person die theres poignant episode book dead man walking movie well done book much powerful actually portrays two different fathers two different sets dynamics one father empathize along way hes rightly wanting justice perpetrator murder mans stepdaughter killer unrepentant hes real jerk actually spits father one pretrial hearings father empathize along way guy finally executed father feels empty says become shell man used even though empathize concern justice even case kind felt like right want vengeance became shell man used see made want reconciliation even though often challenging next thing id say requires rich interior life requires rich interior life apologize offer forgiveness problem narcissists lack kind interior capacity empathize another take perspective another listen another feel another feels sorts ways compelling tale topic would commend kazuo ishiguros book remains day book ten times better movie case butler book trying come terms late life fact serving wrong lord small l lord england turned nazi sympathizer trouble pathos book butler speak third person doesnt interior life capable absorbing sense remorse regret thus repentance lacks interior life jewish christian traditions would deeply connected virtue humility sort interior life book numbers chapter 12 wonderful theme miriam aaron complaining moses one chosen leader narrator says describing gods response well humility think reading stuff exodus moses160 thats word comes mind intimacy god heart conviction humility closer god aware god something narcissists hard time imagining humility conveys sense interior life actually rich symbolic powerful political effect think effect john paul ii francis sense humility conveyed forgiveness presumes recreates culture trust part problem american culture presumes recreates works theres culture trust thats breached forgiveness slowly time recreate context trust finally desmond tutus book future without forgiveness suggests heart creates possibility future bound brokenness past enables future bound brokenness past create context find genuine authentic future though hard work hard work theres tension forgiveness repentance place particularly judaism christianity tensions much forgiveness ought offered even absence repentance heart problem person wrong lets say explicit wanting repent probably going take longer person wanting person repent victim expects see transformation overnight perpetrator probably even best process thats going take months years theres going backsliding likelihood onetime thing repeated time unlearning bad destructive habit going take time cs lewis also said thought would easier forgive single murder forgive 20 years accumulated slights real problems relationships see pattern person even become sincere theres problem prisoners con goes back spinning sorrow know ways prisoners sudden get religion become repentant right around time parole board hearing parole boards quite appropriately cynical whether theres authenticity convicts often spinning sorrow try get parole way public figures try manage reputation maintain power actually discern repentance authentic timeful process jesus beginning gospel announces kingdom god hand english translations say repent believe gospel actually bad translation sense greek verb better translated keep repenting keep believing gospel process thats daily process receive forgiveness becomes commitment way life going need repent daily burden desire repeat destructive broken habits around positive sense authentic sense forgiveness political public sphere always involve measure accountability needs way indicate youre serious changing conditions forgiveness doesnt merely look backwards managing past also looks forward changing conditions existed happened reading sports illustrated plane story notre dames quarterback last year playing year everett golson remarkable story 20year old guy owned cheated suspended school hes taking autumn actually improve studies play wants reenroll notre dame hes accepted accountability hes accepted wrongdoing hes admitting excuses hes looking second chance applaud kind serious sense accountability without kind spin oh mistakes made kind im sorry offended ways spin things theres really nothing responsible know kathleen sebelius last week testimony healthcaregov said im sorry full stop evidence whether theres accountability improvement whether thats measure competency whether forms wrongdoing theres something power owning responsibility taking accountability accepting consequences thats involved learning forgiveness new way want highlight couple examples communities think public significance think learning forgiveness means look public stage first amish community nickel mines transfixed happened grandfather talking forgiveness quite clear go back saying way life involves thoughts emotions actions clear emotions mess five years later one fathers said susan last five years rollercoaster emotions saying five years later awful lot work commitment made felt obligated public statement acknowledging commitment way life relationships interestingly get relationships perpetrators victims shooters mother took responsibility troubled shes developed relationship families amish families goes every thursday night bathe one victims whos wheelchair significant brain damage goes every thursday night feed bathe talked mother shooter sitting families front row hall extraordinary story new relationships formed hard work thats done largely public eye carried said new vocations know amish folks dont like travel went virginia tech felt obligated first instance pass peace quilt sent people katrina sent peace quilt felt obliged pass people virginia tech developed relationships parents virginia tech victims two fathers mother shooter travelled van go believe new hampshire murder community divided town went share story even though dont like travel theyre really drawn public eye part means learn new way life share others quite extraordinary story much complicated terms dynamics forgiveness healing culture imagine soon funerals done people stories activities work second community want point homeboys los angeles father greg boyle jesuit priest appointed catholic parish la significant gang issues done create community thats also involved economic empowerment try change conditions kids dont feel like involved gangs hes got wonderful memoir called tattoos heart talks relationships young people started homeboy industries bakery silkscreen tshirt sorts different activities says one business didnt work tried homeboy plumbing found people didnt want gang members coming homes copper wiring involved business didnt work well hes done hes called people gang way life loved new relationship theres accountability says kids nothing would ever make stop loving know lot kids dont believe many come really troubled environments hes created community culture kinds things involve walking thorns stand enemys side got two guys rival gangs commit drive la san francisco sell tshirts event boyle going speaking didnt tell either one going car however many hours takes go la san francisco figure get along work together hes involved concrete specific work ground mr cromartie160 say name dr jones160 greg boyle boyle160 father gregory boyle theres interesting story also fast company greg boyles amazing guy generous hes horrible business man homeboy go bankrupt guy named bruce karatz accountant gotten trouble law came along started volunteering homeboy industries actually put solid business model actually helped reform karatzs life started wanting way try get prison time became convinced value project stayed worked third example want gesture toward village nyamirambo think pronounced nyamirambo mr cromartie160 spell one time dr jones160 nyamirambo muslim community heart kigali rwanda known safest place rwanda genocide ironically muslim minority community place safest place christian hutus tutsis flee talked people fled church priest pastor allowed violence come one case actually bulldozer bulldoze church met guy fallen bell tower somehow able survive pastor one implicated primary person killed rest family muslim community nyamirambo safest place took muslim identity important either hutu tutsi cultivated habits practices way life enabled crisis offer different kind vision relationship want conclude pointing several examples artistic renderings public sphere think theres awful lot power arts terms displaying power forgiveness themes im talking forgiveness matters whats stake variety ways first novel commend read december beautiful story written friend mine died weeks ago named oscar hijuelos oscar pulitzer prize mambo kings play songs love wrote novel called mr ives christmas beautiful story man learning develop relationship teenager killed son somewhat randomly streets new york city right christmas mr cromartie160 spell name dr jones160 hijuelos hijuelos oscar died think two weeks ago mr cromartie160 book called dr jones160 mr ives christmas incredible story scene toward end mr ives actually encounters corresponds sons killer prison guy released theres several overtures meet perpetrator doesnt want doesnt want finally scene hijuelos describes absolutely stunning describes mr ives decades later meeting guy first time hes already forgiven letters hes developed relationship correspondence time finally sees facetoface says stomach turning flip flops rage pity forgiveness thats complexity emotions dont always know actually come facetoface emotions going yet habits developed time quite extraordinary way theres also beautiful description struggle mr ives wife different dispositions deal grief one point narrator says marriage dissolved partnership corporate partnership longer intimate relationship contrasting ways dealing sorrow grief terms movies id lift invictus story nelson mandela actually playing enemy playing enemy book movie drawn going sound like always prefer book tends case invictus describes extraordinary event nelson mandela quite publically symbolically dons rugby jersey rugby identified afrikaner community white community quite publicly identifies white community president book also extraordinary stories highly charged political environment right election one right wing afrikaners calls radio show live mandela starts reaming time violence erupt fragile guy starts going mandela calling sorts names mandela recognizes guys name says well know come suspect got cup coffee talked could probably find common ground could find way move forward sake country160 guy disarmed goes uh uh guess could cup coffee thats something cant invent spot requires practice becomes natural response nobody surprised mandela responded way developed habits prison sorts perspectives terms musicals like musical better movie les miserables extraordinary story bishop forgiving jean valjean takes time ultimately becomes agent forgiveness javert cant sustain javert ends committing suicide cant bear live world forgiveness real two pieces music extraordinary come different genres one setting called seven last words cross scottish composer james macmillan sacred chants set music sacred chants background juxtaposed ariel dorfmans poetry chile mothers disappeared poetry mothers lost children extraordinary juxtaposition sacred music pointing toward christ cross linked unresolved pain mothers laid bare ariel dorfman great chilean poet writer exceptional piece draws together wanted lift piece hip hop art world canadian hip hop artist shad shad remarkable piece find youtube lyrics called ill never understand shad kenya born rwandan parents mother poetry sets music juxtaposes shad begins mother saying killers youve invaded nights singing haunting lullaby drowning voices choking suffocating numbing sending sleep youve awakened many mornings like unexpected alarm shattering dreams confusing terrorizing traumatizing ive talked tears anger spat rage whispered sorrow tied chains thrown jail ive pulled asked many questions knowing would answers shad musical refrain ill never understand goes mother another series another refrain heres last stanza sings ill never understand people go live miracle finding strength forgive resurrect peace close wounds deep pierce souls beneath heart beats willful slave loving gods commands key freedom ill never understand get hip hop culture extraordinary mashing together pain woman saw many family die juxtaposed sense key freedom hes going understand yet yearns suspect biggest problem culturally politically local communities well nationally internationally lots reasons past gets eyes creates hauntings memory past gets eyes doesnt work spin sorrow doesnt work try manage pretend wasnt big deal whats little wrongdoing among friends160 whats little brokenness pain real gets reanimated often forms vengeance violence destructiveness yet would suggest religious sensibility shared multiple religious traditions created reconciliation great challenge opportunity find ways nurture sake finding future thats haunted bound destructiveness past applause karen tumulty karen tumulty washington post160 sort interested forgiveness public sphere way seen politicians know lot cant get weve seen mark sanford weve seen david vitter many years ago gerry studds congressman massachusetts show even hint contrition sexual relationship underage page yet keeps getting reelected first question fact whats going electorate anything akin process forgiveness people divorcing public behavior private behavior deciding flawed guy party better perfect guy party second thing im interested sort forgiveness validators one thing keep seeing political sphere something personally find revolting sadfaced wife standing next politician message forgive fact process forgiveness politicians something else going dr jones 160no think process forgiveness devils bargain american culture dont know practice personal local contexts dont know understand public context see largely assumed forgiveness involves excuse actually dont think much power think largely thats mean spinning sorrow pr staged event wife usually wife cant think notable event woman maybe financial wrongdoing hardly ever sexual misconduct near tell clearly kind excuse thats reflective ways forgiveness language trope culture disconnected remorse repentance meaningful sense weve trivialized american phenomenon mean unrelated dietrich bonhoeffer wrote cost discipleship 1930s cheap grace said thats german christians go sins forgiven one hour week sunday morning completely disconnected rest life think fact still language weve lost sense seriousness practices cost entailed thereby think validators help stage way says wife says well ive forgiven kind context get dont wife ready get couple friends become know almost like spin doctors political debate people ready talking points lance armstrongs interview oprah didnt wife exwife girlfriend part accusers couple friends ready go next mornings talk shows try spin side story elaborately staged ruse view nothing authentic practices forgiveness ms tumulty160 therefore dont think goes public anything resembles forgiveness dr jones 160no communicates others theres risk theres consequence behavior would add think also case said id rather vote guy party guy good friend mines parents live sanfords district south carolina theyre devout christians friend tried persuade friend trying persuade christian grounds ought vote sanford really problematic said yes hes louse dont believe anything character well never vote democrat theres least circumstances mr cromartie160 tim dalrymple david peter timothy dalrymple timothy dalrymple patheoscom160 curious amongst public figures whether recent years think done laudable job managed expertly shown authenticity public repentance mr cromartie160 could repeat muffled first mr dalrymple160 yeah whether amongst public figures noteworthy efforts public repentance dr jones160 ive thought lot trying suppose could id probably give small amount credit clinton long multiple failed efforts thought wrote piece actually comparing famous fourminute apology tv psalm 51 david suggesting kind like mirror images clintons carefully worded managed whereas david create clean heart oh god broken contrite spirit despise thought actually kind low point clinton think part difficulty cynical tend culture drawing public arena featuring people bear narcissistic tendencies thats makes harder give positive answer tims question thats ended talking notre dame quarterback theres guy took accountability admirable dont see many examples examples id love celebrate mr cromartie160 david rennie youre next william saletan im sorry davids peter william david rennie david rennie economist160 id like ask explore denominational sort breakdown cover politics four continents im back states second time see someone like sanford theres sort bornagain sort aspect way presented know says god forgiving god looks like sort american bornagain kind model covering politics brussels years striking big divide terms political scandals forgiveness around attitudes hypocrisy remember example top european official charge climate change regulating greenhouse gasses turned drive enormous suv reported sort furious terms german dutch swedish brits portugal southern europeans couldnt get didnt understand fuss explained guys sort top flack view protestantcatholic divide catholics take view everyone sinner guy passing good laws regulations going improve climate change could possibly matter drove one car whereas hypocrisy drove northern europeans protestant europeans kind crazy think even within see difference secular uk im id say newt gingrich classic example politician would chance comeback uk politicians kicked parliament expenses scandals uk never come back secular kind originally sort protestant acts protestant tradition theres tolerance hypocrisy comebacks160 tell american context sort denominational aspect dr jones160 well want complicate question great question want complicate slightly think theres cultural theological set dimensions question hypocrisy cultural contexts may overlap religious denominational sensibilities im sure quite clean notion hes catholic difference catholic protestant think theres problem particularly american culture kind bornagain rhetoric really matters say conversion goes back revivalist tendencies across american frontier say day youre saved live afterwards theres peculiar protestant problem thats born notion dont want talk habits dont want talk virtues remember one guy said dont care high somebody jumps day theyre saved want know walk land thats something protestants peculiar aversion talk whereas catholics actually far bound habits practices know sacramental penance reconciliation think something much question catholics think everybodys sinner protestants dont actually would thought sensibilities would described rather differently protestants tend think everybody sinner kind rhetoric accompanies question hypocrisy interesting one think sense sincerity earnestness certain kind evangelical protestant culture seems substitute actual behavior wrong im sincere kind sincere rhetoric get away sorts things problems would correlative catholic tradition though terms confession one great scenes way dead man walking early scene catholic priest chaplain prison guy goes finally wants unburden sin asks go see chaplain chaplain says known sins committed since last confession guy starts says something like well rape murder arson rape another murder chaplain kind going formula says impure thoughts pure think notion actually think public sphere politically also private life dont certain tolerance hypocrisy inconsistency mean hypocrisy pretty loaded term us inconsistent hold views sorts things dont practice well daily life convictions wealth poverty dont live faithfully make hypocrite well level also makes human sense theres greater sense id say relaxed communal life established cultures would case think particular parts europe example whereas kind petty moralism peculiar terms anybody mark sanford whoever things really count sins might get trouble sorts activities people dont seem hesitation worry america largely sexual misconduct get deepest waters although changing sanford mr cromartie160 little dilemma weve got like ten people list want right something said get sense jennifer peter waiting youd pull mike peter ive got list jennifer dont lose thought dr peter skerry dr peter skerry boston college160 apologize overeagerness perhaps session professional competitiveness etiquette could lead follow laughter well speaking mike wont help professor jones appreciated comments im left little confused grabbed onto said beginning past getting eyes seems united states today dont know unique united states got advanced industrial societies think unique us forget quickly youve kind alluded im sure past looms large lots us every time see al sharpton msnbc struck forgiving culture im sure thats bad thing many ways good thing im sure whether youre talking im sure would deal related weave back forth personal stories forgiveness public political stories forgiveness clearly different dynamics wished would sort reflect bit delineate dynamics different everyone thinks healthcare rollout secretary sebelius may guilty guilt head large bureaucratic organization whole lot different al sharptons reflect two sorts dimensions dr jones160 sure great questions would say amnesia actually mirror image haunting past actually mirror images forgiving culture fact ignore al sharpton said done past whomever dont think thats actually sign forgiving culture think sign amnesia dangerous think actually mirror images still haunted american culture deep ways havent yet seen movie twelve years slave going eruption haunting variety ways friend south africa came us said pretend keep moving way seems forgetful yet go six inches surface theres toxic waste starts seeping public sphere dont actually think amnesia sign forgiveness think actually mirror image reflects dynamics haunting think haunting past getting eyes valence power persons except erupts public ways way know get initiated particular traditions american culture also around world part reference former yugoslavia israel heard israeli guide point say thats lost battle somebody else said 1973 1967 said maccabees laughter spoken yesterday theres certain sense get initiated traditions conflict part haunting think speed things happening creating amnesia dont think actually taking away hauntedness yes well debated even mentioning sebelius think thats different dynamic part lot better spend lot time distinguishing forms failure moral failure incompetence experimental failure different dynamics different kinds responsibility ought would whole different set conversations partly trying gesture toward somebody taking accountability fullstop sort way think different dynamics think public versus personal part talking learning forgiveness also pointing communities think really key local contexts youre likely see forgiveness learned practiced lived powerful ways thats talked amish homeboy muslims rwanda powerful examples learned lived local contexts actually enable public figures embody things much symbolic ways think mandela south africa example actually talks learned child going methodist schools 1930s helped shape certain patterns habits dispositions drew prison focusing less heroic persons robert coles told story little ruby desegregation struggles new orleans remember little ruby six years old going school klansmen folks side street shouting sorts racial epithets coles saw little african america girl walking alone looking like mumbling coles went interviewed worried kind unstable said saying said keep repeating father forgive know theyre everybody went wow exceptional story kind lifted heroic little girl people didnt spend much time talking fact knew words spent much time african american congregation week week learned words part prayer came lips tend either lift heroic person something public sphere say wow look else say everybody needs something lose formative power local communities families shape dispositions habits learn languages happens around dinner table huge implications raise children interact huge implications happens broadly think theres something really important symbolic power public forgiveness people really significant places irish british cardinals joint gesture apology black pentecostal bishop white pentecostal bishop washed others feet theres something thats powerfully symbolic john paul ii went prison cell know cover every magazine week sign think theres something powerful sorts things different happens offstage want highlight significance might call mediating communities formative context dont juxtapose false ways either personal public privatize forgiveness end public sphere sham think violence legitimate answer mr cromartie160 thank answer others list william saletan william saletan slate160 okay first dr jones thank presentation thought moving perceptive full insights let give two questions answer whichever one feel like answering one politicians builds others said conditions youve outlined authentic remorse repentance scribbled couple things said needs things need happen offstage needs humility needs empathy narcissism conditions im going say politicians cant political system almost makes impossible seems attract cultivate even enforce degree narcissism mean weve know politicians nice people wont take credit things wont think enough almost cant job get job expect certainly giving press conference talk adultery youre already stage right160 expect see tv never authentic remorse repentance whatever authentic would happening offstage things political system change attract different kind character cultivate different kind character even make possible kind character could authentic remorse repentance thats political question youre sick talking politics ill ask one religion160 subject narcissism streak narcissism certain kinds christianity idea gods love becomes less god less others cultivates permits wrong kind character allow cultivation kind habits talking connection tv preachers see whose repentance seems authentic politicians mr cromartie160 id like answer questions please dr jones160 plan answer honorable politicians kind character talking typically arent positions go public adultery actually live faithful lives dont notice retreat number years ago record number representatives congress republicans democrats held mepkin abbey trappist monastery 160south carolina one moving three days around issues forgiveness opened incredibly honorable gifted people many still congress probably dont agree color sky days least incredibly moving context actually lamented culture washington whole bunch different fronts one things would say decline people actually living washington one congress long time still said first arrived spent lot time members opposite party soccer games dinner parties activities spent time talking life talked like movie redskins whatever sorts relationships mattered said newer members congress come tuesday morning gone thursday night everything political everything focused votes take away political sphere dean faculty gathered votes drives dividing line people people going focus whether youre define people oppositional terms youre spending time get know people john courtney murray great jesuit theologian middle 20thcentury wonderful line said longed meaningful disagreement thats actually accomplishment think know mean struck teddy kennedy died thinking many bills hatchkennedy kennedyhatch two guys dont agree much yet found ways legislation together suspect developed relationship time think thats part happen political culture point remorse know much going inevitably case would love see people willing take stand lose think winning costs matters thats weve gotten know testing polls say afraid whats going happen next election think right getting politicians deserve dont blame politicians blame us culture terms looking dont pay attention dont think inevitable think periods recruited encouraged people actually motivated public service think weve gone cycle incredible cynicism means serve public good see college students less inspired idea public good variety circumstances largely ways weve mr cromartie160 greg theological question dr jones160 im getting theological question mr cromartie160 oh youre coming okay dr jones160 actually think youre right would say peculiar forms traditions peculiar form associated particularly prosperity gospel certain kind entertainment kind rooted christianity way god leads fuels narcissism think dangerous selfdestructive seems pretty popular yes think think actually prevalent would wish admit ministry drawing many people narcissistic mr cromartie160 william seems like followup mr saletan160 find last comment suggested instead could transplant church politics terms cultivation people going way dr jones160 wouldnt say going way many people worry score think actually think pope francis going huge impact think enchanting160 ive conversations undergraduates background catholicism really enchanted perplexed guy seems actually live faith seems concerned gods concerned think young people going look whats available offer public kind exemplars going great stretch havent recent years mr cromartie160 go break clare youll give last question go break ive got everybody else list clare duffy clare duffy nbc news160 im wondering mr cromartie160 please pull mike closer ms duffy160 sorry im wondering discussion ever justification grudge holding seems impose huge burden either victim witness wrongdoing sort like mentioned many examples amish community limitless capacity turn away holding grudge makes think expression irish obvious name know irish alzheimers forget everything grudges part human nature ever point like dillard quote poison pill thats going kill us see act grudge holding ever justified dr jones160 great question going remind dillard quote think youre justifying grudge holding youre taking poison pill however think need acknowledge appropriateness suffering pain leads grudges dont justify acknowledge part point lewis quote 30 years say significant part time would seen enemy doesnt mean hes going reconciled struggles pray learn love may take ten years get point start justifying grudge holding door longer open thats get worried actually think also think case people personally broadly never reconciled life save miracle mean literally think talk loving enemies actually really important dimension whole picture loving hating grudge holding sense would say part door opening christian know commitment reconciliation 2nd corinthians 5 dont permitted justifications close door sometimes hoping hope sometimes going take miracle think know think public political level 1987 told within couple years berlin wall would come south africa would begin peaceful transition democracy id said crazy friend mine south africa actually saw two confidential documents late 1980s predicted civil war south africa one afrikaner government one anc 160both predicted civil war predicted several million people 10 population would die civil war side victorious sides prepared civil war sides expect pretty high cost became victorious three years later nelson mandela walks pollsmoor prison incredible public gesture doesnt seem motivated hate anything else know dont know gone robben island seen prison cell heard stories limestone pits sometimes buried neck guards would urinate face treatment received three decades prisons astonishing walked way im amazed miracle dont think grudge holding justified need acknowledged whether journalism media pastors anyone else put pressure people forgive prematurely big mistake way saying need open process thats mean say takes time say know oh child murdered going forgive 160its raw mistake press prematurely love phrase ephesians angry sin actually worried people think angry always wrong anger sign protest injustice wrongdoing ought fuel theres sense outrage mean prophet amos jewish scholar michael fishbane says basically amos story gods shriek injustice ought im worried people come passively icily accept happened youve lost passion turned lifegiving passion think need acknowledge propriety anger also worry ways flip bitterness thats poison pill mollie hemingway mollie hemingway federalist160 one things struck examples communities good job practicing forgiveness seem communities robust understandings sin sin sin thinking culture doesnt seem much shared understanding sin also might revulsion toward calling something sin im curious forgive context forgive sin dont believe sin dr jones160 thats great question karl menninger wrote famous book 40 years ago called whatever became sin dont think commentary virtuous become said wed lost language note wrongdoing actually gets issues around understanding self heart sin pride reverse lack sense self actually selfdeception ways mistakenly understand thinking highly lowly problematically thats heart challenge emphasize importance community seems think people formative life theyre susan call holy friends way describe holy friends people challenge sins weve come love affirm gifts afraid claim help us dream dreams otherwise wouldnt dreamed mr cromartie say please dr jones 160holy friends challenge sins youve come love affirm gifts youre afraid claim help dream dreams otherwise wouldnt dreamed know first part question mollie sin people around help remind bad things may need dont want around people really gifts people also help affirm gifts youre afraid claim see possibilities wouldnt otherwise see help dream dreams way think thats youre describing robust sense sin know part happens course developing community friendship learn sin time part selfdeception redescribe things theyre really sinful expressing sorts ways find excuses ways describe things ways dont suffer workaholism im lords work redescribe sounds really nice flowery dont repent except wife usually remind get sick really nice little phrase dont observe sabbath sickness becomes sabbath really annoying thing hear youve gotten sick nonetheless case creatures created rhythms work rest play dont pay attention rhythms play rest likely get sick also likely really destructive things thats lot bad behavior comes workaholism think theres lot jews christians injunction sabbath isnt suggestion bible actually commandment thats something hardwired dont even get shared sense sin adultery think rhythms week whether honor think uncomfortable sounds problematic problem really weve become moralistic sin dont get deeper issues sometimes joke call regionality sin grew denver shadow coors brewery everybody went church drank smoking sin moved north carolina go duke shadow liggett amp myers everybody smoked outside church drinking sin moved baltimore said smoking drinking hey whats problem different regions country different senses kind petty moralism somehow drinking deep problem racism wasnt kind go really weve got get away kind moralism deeper sense raise profoundly moral questions conditions necessary human flourishing weve got figure ways turn conventional ways get obsessed particular things picking speck brothers sisters eyes noticing logs agree rich sense community would say friendships deeply significant way remember aristotle aquinas thought friendship heart moral life difficult learn friend morally significant way mr cromartie160 thank greg think part question though however also among religious believing community culture doesnt share framework sin youre asking somebody apology doesnt believe wrong first place dr jones160 well think weve got need kind social criticism order christopher lasch wellknown actually kind gets deeper issues expose challenges find vehicles break dont think thats particularly religiously specific way think public role actually saying michael gerson thought piece wrote tea party mirror image occupy wall street opposed conservative temperament hugely important short piece points reclaiming moral traditions weve lost kind political context lacked kind depth sustainable argument means legislate means improve world live means weve got even language invoking community often reified static kind nostalgia time never weve got get much robust sense communities like described three rather different communities say amish im going live like amish homeboy160 im going live like homeboy160 muslim community rwanda160 im going live like somehow intersection something extraordinarily powerful suggests communal life ought point wrongdoing think rwanda country roughly 92 christian written mission textbooks 1990 example christianization africa kind signal image nonetheless erupted genocide well become christian rhetorically superficial level hadnt gotten cultivation habits practices communities thats whats going happen mr cromartie160 kirsten powers paul edwards dan harris jennifer kirsten kirsten powers kirsten powers daily beast usa today fox news160 thank much really fascinating one things often think public displays forgiveness uniquely american thing seems expect public officials whether church leaders take church leaders lets say public officials ask forgiveness us something really private situation spouse160 talking infidelity expect seems really something private trotting people repent pride greediness sloth anything else force go know said something people say oh well wife forgave forgive even think job forgive think dr jones160 thats important question dont think uniquely american think distinctively would say actually theres countries influenced western culture christianity particular theres kind see happening south africa gone number high profile people including jacob zuma arguably kind bizarre history well dont know thats high bar whats bizarre certainly distinctively complicated sexual history political leader particularly american feature want somehow implicit fading still leaders political leaders included represent judeochristian values amorphous complicated way points think ambivalence whats relationship character leadership extent leadership able get things done extent good person morally good person think people effective politicians werent particularly upstanding people think upstanding people werent effective politicians hand glove kind dynamic important set convictions bracket church leaders thats particularly complicated issue character seem assumed think generally would say politically virtually organization classically understood notion leadership occupying office dignity office matters beyond private relationship spouses somebody sullies dignity office actually symbolic importance thats relevant larger community dont think private matter think weve turned bizarre kind voyeurism bedroom sense ms powers160 point though business sexual business dr jones160 well thats going go problem think sexual misconduct sullies dignity office dont actually think greed sloth sorts things ms powers160 youre suggesting trotting leaders making repent things dr jones160 well think id happier kind loose ongoing evaluation included way centrally actually think greed much worrisome problem kind peculiar form washington politics everybody know shouldnt say everybody almost everybody claims meet fiscal discipline perfectly happy create pork projects home ms powers160 right dr jones160 im worried sorts hypocrisy sexual ms powers160 yeah know im hogging lot time ill stop experience people come repentance surprising someone doesnt repent within 24 hours getting caught something dr jones160 sure ms powers repentance long process even godly people filled integrity take long time dr jones160 yeah ms powers 160so dont understand done public even expect people wouldnt expect people flawed individuals especially christians right160 expect people bad things repent try move yeah im dr jones160 yeah dont want ms powers160 im mystified fact christians particular seem looking whereas feel like christians people understand expect actually dr jones160 yeah except dont want expect sense excuses thats want ongoing evaluation mean want people around im position leadership hold accountable kind holy friends principle dont think primarily something air press conference160 weve turned public spectacle work happens local communities think actually richer sense practices happens local communities friends hold accountable public sphere youre much less likely engage sorts destructive behavior mean think know david brooks working book humility im really eager read think humility profoundly important virtue public leadership one largely lost dont rich understanding conditions cultivate humility public leaders mr cromartie160 okay paul edwards dan harris jennifer paul edwards paul edwards deseret news160 weve talked lot today forgiveness mercy public sphere id like look institutions think quite interesting youve said strong psychic benefits forgiveness benefits brings words learned practiced lived youve talked terms symbols culture community want talk terms institutions things institutionalized something lived practiced learned happen within institutions broad could three different books im curious know see particular uses forgiveness could institutionalized places like criminal justice civil litigation organizational life dr jones160 great question love actually think one deepest forms pathos american culture broken institutions pretty much across board niall ferguson wrote little book summer called great degeneration mr cromartie160 dr jones160 niall ferguson four chapters one politics one economics one law one civil society think whether youre thinking current politics aside think government healthcare education religion economics greg smith memo goldman sachs know investment banks kind lost purpose institution need investment banks kind provide kind infrastructure society theyve lost purpose ways think theres deep institutional problem need rehabilitate actually think forgiveness one mechanisms healthy institutions recreate cultivate trust thats included practices great culture good organization take third example organizational life think healthy organization rituals forgiveness built means hold people accountable restore people along way unfortunately weve turned ferguson chapter law says weve substituted rule law rule lawyers think thats weve substituted organizational culture rule hr undermines practices conducive first point criminal justice think huge opportunities alternative dispute resolution really significant movement within law think number people involved finding alternatives straight incarceration particularly among juveniles terms restitution terms rehabilitation terms alternative sentencing methods theres program san francisco called delancey street offers alternative incarceration commit going living community sounds awful lot like secular monastery whats amazing without penny state funding federal funding without penny selfsustaining people become part community theres accountability new possibilities expected work older people community mentor younger people recidivism rate dramatically lower people go prison dont know enough kinds stories kinds examples need way sort work interestingly ive involved project houston works gang kids younger kids already crisis theyre already involved criminal justice system leader whos working partnered juvenile justice system part recognize order get kids gang life provide alternative communities alternative rituals cant say dont anymore youve got provide alternative set communities broken institutions problem working kipp schools realize even gave alternative communities alternative rituals spent day dysfunctional public schools going put jeopardy local communities weve got find ways create institutions actually enable kind life lived healthy institutions cultivate much healthier people otherwise would mr cromartie160 dan harris youre next please pull mike right back dan harris dan harris dan harris abc news160 apologize question may little nebulous mr cromartie160 give try mr harris160 yeah ill try struck something line canadian rapper michael struck thriving hip hop scene canada see michael actually big fan newfoundland rap laughter freedom associated forgiveness personal interest buddhism theres lot talk best buddhism creating habits mind lead freedom wonder see connection whats talked mental psychological freedom buddhism things get area forgiveness leads sort free movement life dr jones160 yeah thats great question think theres something profoundly important think would characterize buddhism various forms prayer meditation theres kind unselfing eliminates whatever binding holding chaining sense thats think pointing goes back clares question grudge even youre holding grudge got hold kind freedom hes writing sense liberation youre held hold onto anything psychological implications associated way sometimes sin associated sickness grief theres physiological association experience freedom actually liberation really deep profound ways think born mindfulness unselfing profound way friend peter storey south africa chaplain robben island early days mandelas imprisonment theres poignant story robert sobukwe sobukwe may remember main leader sharpeville demonstration led sharpeville massacre kind launched repressive period apartheid sobukwe arrested put robben island theres house made live wasnt allowed visitors typically day actually vocal cords atrophied didnt people interact sobukwe methodist lay preacher south africa peter storey chaplain robben island one person given permission visit sobukwe would go periodically visit sobukwe house large fence around high bars couldnt escape susan sobukwes house peter told us story youre standing sobukwes house see cape town water house peter getting ready leave one day sobukwe said know painful walk gates hear gates clang know leave free man remain imprisoned house sobukwe looked said pointed halls parliament cape town redroofed see quite visibly across ocean said people imprisoned always free think pointing precisely shad saying youre asking buddhist practice guy communication days developed sense mindfulness prayer unselfing thought freer afrikaners legislating halls parliament cape town mr cromartie160 okay thank jennifer erica dr jennifer wiseman dr jennifer wiseman american association advancement science160 think flow conversation moved beyond question may already addressed concerned dont religious communities society dont really understand forgiveness terms whether simply dismissing idea whats done really significantly wrong whether fully acknowledging something terrible happened victims point view yet still embracing sort release toward person perpetrated think biblical example brought jesus says forgive 707 77 times context person says brother comes asks forgiveness something forgive well context person acknowledging theyve done anything wrong asking forgiveness sense sort psychological peace needs acknowledgement wrongdoing truly wrong harmful something terrible happened bad yet forgiveness sense diminish severity wrongdoing releasing wrongdoer continually held ire victim think may already addressed theres anything along line want say would helpful dr jones160 think absolutely crucial seriousness wrongdoing named without lose mollie pointing lose acknowledgement thing sin wrongdoing worry kind amnesia culture let people get away stuff doesnt really matter politician know southern state id less worried whether getting caught adultery meant going lose job wake mark sanford think absolutely critical forgiveness doesnt say wasnt bad says awful im still going stay relationship worse worse doesnt necessarily mean extreme one incident is160 remember lewis comment harder forgive accumulated slights one single murder habitual something harder forgive actually trust huge issue domestic violence cycles get created abusers presume victim going forgive christian jewish whatever mostly christian usually evangelical theres cycle presumption forgiveness actually perversely justifies violence cycle intensifies gets worse authentic forgiveness got say wrong absence repentance may absolutely critical create space person continuing threat said though offer forgiveness needs stay open get worried justifying grudge justifying demonizing doesnt allow room fact miracles happen people repent dont keep door open harden ones actually end suffering thats dillards poison pill think absolutely critical name identify figure whats best way restore person back community logic culturally know lot catholics gotten bad logic excommunication catholic church even logic shunning amish anabaptist communities rejecting people logic excluding sake coming repentance reinserted back community practiced horribly many cases logic naming like younger son parable prefer call forgiving father two sinful sons story younger son comes part recognizing oh screwed dont good practices even families saying yes screwed love you160 lets kill fatted calf say things sometimes families say yes screwed scarlet going make sure youre reminded rest life mr cromartie160 must preacher erica youre next daniel michelle erica grieder erica grieder texas monthly160 thank actually related jennifers question maybe ill try ask different angle think forgiveness repentance think separate processes often coincide caused event im trying forgive somebody forgiven forgiven religious perspective actions point importance naming injustice cause maybe way ask expect person names injustice person needs repent think okay separate things somebody else say youre right youre right hurt heres youre hurt without expectation theyre going person might eventually might repent dr jones160 distinct dont think least religiously understood would argue ought case generally clearly jewish christian traditions conceptual mistake think fullness forgiveness without repentance conceptual mistake mean 1st john actually raises question sin baptism possible theres certain logical error understood youre youre engaged karl barth said repent must may understand means receive forgiveness youre actually would want repent youve come realize ive done harmed another person way ought want repent complexities human life cases person helps name youve done may person also best able help learn live thats communities people people play different roles along way know ironically also case forgiveness often discovered gift context practices always case say heres lets sit kind geneva conference reach accord mean theres old rabbinic tradition two rabbis getting ready yom kippur first one theyve odds forever first one comes second one doesnt want really get far limb says wish wish one says go laughter often get actually kind coming together misunderstandings misinterpretations even good intensions happen actually discovery forgiveness sometimes happens apart person wronged sometimes apart explicitly focusing think often music experience worship heart thaw something absolutely nothing anybody context great movie babettes feast sharing feast babette prepared danish lutherans isolated community actually start discover forgiveness one another see cinematically color comes back cheeks extraordinary ways yes forgiveness repentance distinct sometimes people help us repent may part original situation dont want happen either completely separate forgiveness repentance forgiveness reconciliation easy guy estranged high school convinced forgave happy kind put mind went back tenth high school reunion walked felt every bone body every muscle tense wanted go smack know suggests maybe wasnt really forgiving play sorts mind games want connect potential least restoration relationship mr cromartie160 thank daniel burke daniel burke daniel burke cnn160 many traditions examples youve given personal forgiveness deeply rooted religion know mr cromartie160 mike daniel mr burke160 sorry160 one fastest growing groups country nones im wondering people attached mr cromartie160 nones mr burke160 right exactly secular examples forgiveness nones draw see newer atheists humanist groups popping college campuses big cities dr jones160 thats great question first thing id say would distinguish nones atheists actually evidence actually something luis lugo talked march actually probe deeply nones find actually atheists theyre involved particular religious tradition kind spiritual disposition many cases mr cromartie160 remind everybody category nones people check ask religious affiliation simply say none risen like 8 20 american society dr jones160 yeah particularly prevalent northwest growing rapidly want distinguish kind atheist convinced richard dawkinskinds folks although even dawkins seems backpedaled little bit recently talks much likes church englands liturgy theres kind curious cultural hes sure wants give culture church england helped foster england peculiar position think possible england near tell kind view actually story england church changing membership requirements people believed stuff great outcry membership tied actual belief one funny kind notions anyway back question sorry think mandela actually example secular later years great appreciation methodist upbringing sure would consider practicing christian think actually fits fairly closely kind none tradition somebody would characterize vaguely spiritual dont think hed consider serious way practicing religious person think id actually say admire kind organizational culture go back pauls question organizations theres strong organizational culture thats linked accountability forgiveness ive seen embodied mike krzyzewskis basketball teams duke theres plenty wrongdoing doesnt tend mr cromartie160 also carolina dr jones160 thats little dubious days friend football basketball read papers used believe dean smith ill grant tatters currently school eight miles away way id say religiously informed mean coach k practicing catholic expects players rooted ethos sports team ways dealing wrongdoing know happened ways deals actually pretty admirable finds way restore people team outside calling press conference often dont know ive got fairly recent example kid ive worked playing team year went process pretty extraordinary example think military secular example actually military culture honor actually better practices deal forgiveness issues culture go back mollies point doesnt notion honor notion sin mr cromartie160 okay160 michelle cottle youre next michelle cottle michelle cottle daily beast160 okay talking mr cromartie160 john ms cottle160 talking earlier strain culture within evangelicalism kind focuses know flamboyant professions faith redemption might play things like mark sanford get give mea culpa kind playing kirsten asking think general increasingly confessional culture public going come expect things whether religionbased know like jersey shore like know kind share want share expect public figures share well especially theyve done something juicy guys dr jones160 hope youre probably right actually think one great needs significantly greater measure reserve thinking everything needs shared mean telling michael lot stuff read essays forms links find facebook kinds social media sick finding people dinner mean level telling stuff im astonished thats trivial moral know think one problems reality tv confessional kind exhibitionist way without context story kind funny notion think schlocky tv generation two even little ditties beginning kind mini stories even gilligans island people go three hour tour know jed found black texas tea whatever called beverly hillbillies got little bit story sense participating story exhibitionism popular media devoid narrative forgiveness makes sense within context narrative within context story partly want see difference make lived embodied tomorrow person thing repeat offender context story much likely reserved know say going implication tomorrow comes back amnesia peter asked earlier think know moral significance remembering deeply connected forgiveness hate phrase forgive forget psychologically impossible morally problematic theologically confused okay forgiveness learning remember differently well context story confessional culture exhibitionist kind way disconnected narrative could learn remember well want know best moral manual think actually benedictine rules why160 people committed vow stability going accountable life youre going accountable life youre going careful say people remember rest life way try pretend although perverse way trend culture internet anonymity able stuff get forgotten reading woman got fired teacher dallas think playboy pictures done college said well harmless people still access know students put facebook page going tracked going easily forgotten anybody search engine im really depressed confessional culture im afraid may right going get worse gets better mr cromartie160 andy ferguson want pass andrew ferguson weekly standard160 kirsten asked question mr cromartie160 asked mr ferguson160 kirsten mr cromartie160 told different one break laughter okay well comes back way expressed please come back john green youre next mindy dr john green dr john green university akron160 impressed argument communities appropriate place forgiveness take place got thinking public figures particularly politicians maybe kinds public figures whats appropriate community political figure mean spiritual community religious community politicians voters district news media cover wonder could talk little bit dr jones160 sure dont think latter two groups think mean phenomenon michael lindsay writes faith halls power people variety vocations rise positions leadership power less likely involved local religious community least christian community argument think thats problem understandable one complexities stuff deal often stuff increasingly unfortunately pastors tend either understand put charitably absolutely dismissive put uncharitably think thats problem ideally would say person significant influence ought involved local religious community would ideal one certain measure intimacy accountability would say thats likely supplemented hopefully community call holy friends likely share least understanding peculiar circumstances face also cross sectors doesnt become complaint session hard life would small group someone political leader connected educational leader connected business leader people certain level understanding complexity jobs hard remember visiting bush library george w bush dallas months ago theres great simulation choice dealing different crises faced group chose katrina given options push buttons get information things realtime know youre pushed button find attorney general going give advice law breaking news hit levies broken like darn want button trying get information couldnt get reach point make decision end like whew going well know experience youve got partial information youre struggling youre trying figure sometimes make big mess ups ways level empathy presidents decision making process like went way well need people help come terms good bad decisions face need people kind level share perspective difficulty id say multiple sense communities want people share sense scale scope decisions issues youre wrestling temptations wrestle also ordinary people one favorite comments george bush elder gave commencement address duke standing tunnel getting ready walk somebody said oh im thrilled meet important person said excuse im ordinary person held important office period time need environment reminded human beings local religious communities vehicles alternatives local communities youre dealing people ordinary way mr cromartie160 greg youre aware course fact washington problem called little fellowship groups meet certain politicians actually want everybody know brothers brothers walking walking accountable actually want publicly known meet group people theres problem person actually saying community community theres lot accountability dr jones160 anybody advertise theyre worse mr cromartie160 yes dr jones160 would actually say thats said also crossing sectors communities tend increasingly think likeminded people going less crosscutting accountability different sectors know youve got somebody say way sort dynamic mr cromartie160 okay charging lunch weve got three people want get mindy belz youre might want accumulate questions fact greg let answer three dr jones160 okay mr cromartie160 mindy molly patton mindy belz mindy belz world magazine160 bear mind departure good discussion ill try anyhow mention overlap judaism islam christianity talking whole idea forgiveness observation covering wars near east attending lot dialog sessions christians muslims following 911 kind thing really westerners people muslim world seem talking past get whole idea forgiveness doesnt isnt apparent concept muslim world see played terms terrorism united states whats happening among sunnis shiites right seems really huge issue arent dealing dont good understanding im intrigued ask help us better idea concept forgiveness islam anyone talking within islam places journalists go get better understanding mr cromartie160 dont need accumulate want hear answer right away dr jones160 dont mean suggest arent differences arent tensions theres plenty material quran would first instance want claim expert islam ought ask muslim actually would say plenty material quran overlaps jewish christian understanding also tensions jews christians talk actually part really fascinating conference jerusalem places tantur institute brought jews christians muslims together talk forgiveness incredibly poignant challenging set issues ironically included selfexamination ways tradition developed practices impoverish understanding rabbi jerusalem saying know jews arent good forgiveness muslim imam said know dont know practice forgiveness wasnt dont believe arent good another christian said know great christians think part difficulty separate kind dominant cultures islam practiced would compare perhaps hesitation dynamics protestants catholics northern ireland battle religious battle really ethnic battle started different religious sensibilities theyre actually arguing theological matters politically charged set battles thats way ethnically rooted theologically framed think something similar happening within islam ways islam west gotten framed muslim friend talked house targeted muslims living south africa bombed said draws association martin luther king bombed klan king bombed klan name christianity speak certain sort well thats happened guy whose understanding islamic law deviated extremist muslims think problem understand islam associated kind extremist understanding unfortunately become quite prevalent dangerous influential dont mean suggest ought pretend islam simply peaceloving religion without extremists way similar christianity think bound larger topic would forgiveness power related unfortunately andy crouch wonderful new book christian understandings power called playing god commend part difficulty around forgiveness thinking christianity islam kind big political crosscultural issues bound ways good thinking christian exercise power think connected also forgiveness mr cromartie160 time could find dont time group rwanda safest place whose name pronounce nyamirambo cant go less five minutes molly pat molly ball molly ball atlantic160 question journalists handle public officials demands forgiveness started talking spin sort charade forgiveness politicians go always something hard time approach appropriate degree cynicism hold people accountable without devolving sort petty prurient sort petty morality youve talked know think often would run sort thumbsucky think piece forgiveness means modern life call dr gregory jones would give quote saying forgiveness process takes lot time afford people human capacity absolution also letting hook dr jones160 thats good question think first instance would recommend finding ways stories arent reactive latest celebrity scandal moment trouble always reactive story terms always defined person whatever particular episode reactive mode think theres actually larger horizon cultivating conversation relationships trust wrongdoing forgiveness actually narrate stories set different context episode occurs whoever latest person theres larger context return kind like weve turned debates forgiveness almost notion sexual ethics talk terms backseat car thats last time want talk emotions intense really want setting context theres actually inflamed emotions one side actually something back appeal theres larger horizon larger context ought figuring ways communicate effectively ought print video movies kinds settings partly lift really positive stories karen came break suggested chuck colson example somebody think thats good example wasnt elected politician nonetheless incredible amount good made think jeb magruder another guy watergate days became presbyterian pastor largely limelight ought lifting narrating finding ways tell kinds stories kind schlocky sentimental ways ways actually serious contributions think cultivation kind public goods care culture position way less shocked theres gambling kinds reactions latest celebrity goes mr cromartie160 well patton going take us right lunch tell good session ladies gentlemen go overtime patton dodd washington post 160mollys question much like mine think good actually think spoke mr cromartie160 guy thats terrific mr dodd160 go eat mr cromartie160 okay ladies gentleman lunch breakfast right door back 100 oclock thanks dr jones applause transcript edited clarity accuracy spelling grammar | 11,081 |
<p>The human brain is wired in an interesting way. We create shortcuts. Some are conscious, many are not. Consider a “fight or flight” response. It’s a situation that may come up from time to time, but it developed in an era when mankind lived in caves and had to go out hunting—sometimes being hunted themselves by other predators.</p>
<p>Our brain hasn’t quite evolved with the pace of society in the past few thousand years, let alone the past few decades. Considering the increasing complexity of the financial system, it’s amazing we can undertake intelligent decisions at all.</p>
<p>Today, we’re just as likely to fall prey to the dangers of our mental shortcuts—known as heuristics—than we are to benefit from them.</p>
<p>When thinking about finance, we’re often thinking about the future. Will a company’s next product be a hit or a flop? One of the most recurring errors I see in finance relates to those future projections.</p>
<p>Consider a company that’s been doing well and is growing at a rapid rate. Its products are in demand and are continuing to grow. It’d be nice to project increasing growth endlessly into the future, wouldn’t it? It sounds great, and it would man you’d just have to buy the stock now and expect it to go up. But that wouldn’t be accurate.</p>
<p>What if the product in question were Crocs (CROC) shoes? And what if this were 2006, when that was still a new, hot item? Projecting current growth into the future would have made no sense. Once everyone who wanted a pair of the rubber footwear had one, the growth was gone. It’s no surprise that the company went public during the mania, zoomed high, then crashed as sales fell off a cliff. But hey, at least they got to the publicly-traded phase of being a fad, unlike the pet rock.</p>
<p>Getting around these mental shortcuts can prove tough. It’s hard-wired into our brain from our caveman days. And where it isn’t hardwired in, we softwire it in. In 2008, I sat for the Level 1 CFA exam. That was a bad year to be talking about efficient markets. On multiple different days in October 2008 alone, stocks gyrated at levels that, statistically, should only occur once every 10,000 years.</p>
<p>Markets aren’t as efficient as we’re meant to believe. After all, the housing bubble got priced in somehow. Were markets being efficient then, or were our caveman brains simply seeing rising housing prices and acting accordingly without stopping to think about why they were going up so much, so fast? A few folks called it.</p>
<p>I wasn’t really one of them, but I also wasn’t finding the kind of valuations in the market that I want to see before investing. That kept me out of the worst of the decline. I was right to be out of the market, but not for the reason that became the most obvious in hindsight. That was fortunate, possibly even lucky. I still consider it an oversight on my part.</p>
<p>Mental indolence also leaves us unprepared for giant technological leaps. Our brains want to connect the dots from A to Z. The idea of going from A to B to Q is nearly incomprehensible.</p>
<p>It’s no surprise that tech stocks are the big winners in the markets. They’re the ones making disruptive changes to the status quo. The internet has upended (but not destroyed) centuries of physical creations from books to newspapers. Ride-sharing companies have destroyed the centuries-long taxi industry, a private-public sector endeavor where quantity was limited to keep prices high.</p>
<p>All these technological changes drive options and choices up, and costs down. That’s a good thing for society as a whole, even if it leaves some individuals worse off because of the changes. Even though change is truly the only constant in the universe, our brains have a challenging time with changes to the status quo.</p>
<p>Even knowing that, I have a difficult time with tech stocks as an investor. They don’t always fit into a growth box, and they hardly ever fit into a value box on the financials. Consider a company like Amazon (AMZN). 20 years ago, it was a humble book reseller on the internet. Today, it’s considered the big killer of the brick and mortar retail space. Yet they’re going into that space as well.</p>
<p>What has Amazon really done when you think about it? They’ve commoditized retail. It doesn’t matter if you buy a DVD from them or Best Buy (BBY). Both companies will price-match the other, offer free shipping, and basically forego big profit margins to make the sale. That’s why I see a future for retail that features Amazon and a competitor per category it operates in. The profit margins are too low for anything else, and a duopoly provides enough competition to prevent the huge potential profits of a monopoly.</p>
<p>It’s hard to come up with one key idea when thinking about how our brains are ill-equipped to handle the complexity of today’s investment world. Thanks, brain.</p>
<p>If I had to pick one takeaway, however, it’d be that it’s important not to get boxed in. I’m a value guy at heart, but even I own shares of companies like Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), and Apple (AAPL). It’s where the disruption is, and that can be hugely profitable. The future will hold a lot more in store for these companies.</p>
<p>Value still has its place, too though. And you can get better returns buying something out of favor… provided it eventually comes back into favor. I wouldn’t go hog-wild on anyone one trade, but I’d bet that some of the beaten-down names in retail will survive to compete with Amazon. Some of them may even come up with an idea or two you’d expect from a tech giant instead.</p>
<p>That’s part of the randomness of innovation. Embrace the randomness and think outside your own mental box. Be willing to invest in something you think is crazy, but could work out well from time to time. The results may surprise you.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Insiders/AndrewPacker/bio-120/" type="external">Andrew Packer</a> is a Senior Financial Editor with Newsmax Media. He currently writes the Insider Hotline investment advisory, serves as investment director for the Financial Braintrust, and writes the monthly newsletter Crisis Point Investor.</p> | false | 1 | human brain wired interesting way create shortcuts conscious many consider fight flight response situation may come time time developed era mankind lived caves go huntingsometimes hunted predators brain hasnt quite evolved pace society past thousand years let alone past decades considering increasing complexity financial system amazing undertake intelligent decisions today likely fall prey dangers mental shortcutsknown heuristicsthan benefit thinking finance often thinking future companys next product hit flop one recurring errors see finance relates future projections consider company thats well growing rapid rate products demand continuing grow itd nice project increasing growth endlessly future wouldnt sounds great would man youd buy stock expect go wouldnt accurate product question crocs croc shoes 2006 still new hot item projecting current growth future would made sense everyone wanted pair rubber footwear one growth gone surprise company went public mania zoomed high crashed sales fell cliff hey least got publiclytraded phase fad unlike pet rock getting around mental shortcuts prove tough hardwired brain caveman days isnt hardwired softwire 2008 sat level 1 cfa exam bad year talking efficient markets multiple different days october 2008 alone stocks gyrated levels statistically occur every 10000 years markets arent efficient meant believe housing bubble got priced somehow markets efficient caveman brains simply seeing rising housing prices acting accordingly without stopping think going much fast folks called wasnt really one also wasnt finding kind valuations market want see investing kept worst decline right market reason became obvious hindsight fortunate possibly even lucky still consider oversight part mental indolence also leaves us unprepared giant technological leaps brains want connect dots z idea going b q nearly incomprehensible surprise tech stocks big winners markets theyre ones making disruptive changes status quo internet upended destroyed centuries physical creations books newspapers ridesharing companies destroyed centurieslong taxi industry privatepublic sector endeavor quantity limited keep prices high technological changes drive options choices costs thats good thing society whole even leaves individuals worse changes even though change truly constant universe brains challenging time changes status quo even knowing difficult time tech stocks investor dont always fit growth box hardly ever fit value box financials consider company like amazon amzn 20 years ago humble book reseller internet today considered big killer brick mortar retail space yet theyre going space well amazon really done think theyve commoditized retail doesnt matter buy dvd best buy bby companies pricematch offer free shipping basically forego big profit margins make sale thats see future retail features amazon competitor per category operates profit margins low anything else duopoly provides enough competition prevent huge potential profits monopoly hard come one key idea thinking brains illequipped handle complexity todays investment world thanks brain pick one takeaway however itd important get boxed im value guy heart even shares companies like amazon amzn google goog apple aapl disruption hugely profitable future hold lot store companies value still place though get better returns buying something favor provided eventually comes back favor wouldnt go hogwild anyone one trade id bet beatendown names retail survive compete amazon may even come idea two youd expect tech giant instead thats part randomness innovation embrace randomness think outside mental box willing invest something think crazy could work well time time results may surprise andrew packer senior financial editor newsmax media currently writes insider hotline investment advisory serves investment director financial braintrust writes monthly newsletter crisis point investor | 554 |
<p>During her stint at the BBC, a rite of passage for many British TV execs, Sophie Turner Laing was charged with helping implement former chief Greg Dyke’s Making It Happen campaign, a drive to change the culture at the pubcaster. “I still have the yellow card that says, ‘Cut the crap,’ which Greg gave us all to use,” she says. Fifteen years later, Turner Laing is CEO of Endemol Shine Group — and part of a remarkable generation of women in Britain who have continued to cut the crap and make it happen.</p>
<p>Many of the most powerful executive suites in the U.K.-based television industry today are occupied by women — a far cry from the male-dominated glass offices of Hollywood. These female pioneers have overseen production and distribution of some of the biggest shows in the world, from “Got Talent” and “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/sherlock/" type="external">Sherlock</a>” to “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/american-gods/" type="external">American Gods</a>” and “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/big-brother/" type="external">Big Brother</a>.” Two of the most important jobs in British broadcasting have also recently gone to women: Alex Mahon has just taken the reins&#160;at Channel 4, and Carolyn McCall becomes CEO of ITV in January.</p>
<p>Not that problems with gender equality don’t persist. On-screen there are disparities in roles and salaries. The BBC recently revealed a chasm between its top-earning men and women and an overall gender pay gap of 9.3%. And the recent sexual harassment scandals have pointed up the problems of male privilege in the entertainment industry.</p>
<p>But with more and more women in key leadership roles — such as FremantleMedia CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz and BBC director of content Charlotte Moore — the outlook is positive in Britain.</p>
<p>“I certainly have more contemporaries and peers that are female than I did when I started,” says All3Media CEO Jane Turton, who counted off the names of several of them.&#160;“We are making progress on gender.”</p>
<p>A recent study by British media regulator Ofcom found that most of the Big 5 TV companies in the U.K. employ more women than men. Despite the inroads of women at the very top of the industry, the numbers fall when it comes to senior posts more generally, and also with regard to older women. Viacom ranks best, with women making up 48% of its senior staff, ahead of ITV (42%), the BBC (39%), Channel 4 (36%) and Sky (31%).</p>
<p>Veteran producer Beryl Vertue wrote the script for female TV execs in Britain, forging transatlantic links as far back as the 1960s and paving the way for “All in the Family” and “Sanford and Son,” both remakes of British shows. “It was the beginning of the feminist movement, and I used to fly from England and fly out again, and in the U.S. they used to find that quite intriguing,” she says. “I’m known as the originator of the format deal. It was quite exciting.”</p>
<p>Vertue went on to chair the producers’ trade group Pact, and was involved in the effort to allow British producers to keep rights to their programs, which was enshrined into law in 2003. Her daughters, Sue and Debbie, are part of family-owned Hartswood Films, which gave the world “ <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/sherlock-team-reuniting-for-dracula-series-1202472312/" type="external">Sherlock</a>” and is now developing “Dracula.”</p>
<p>“It’s tricky,” Sue Vertue says of TV’s gender issue. “Management is not doing badly, but when you start getting into crew, it’s harder for women and rarer to find them. You feel proud when you say you’ve just had a female director.”</p>
<p>Like Beryl Vertue, Turner Laing worked her way up from the ground floor, and says she never found doors were closed because of her gender. “I’ve been fortunate, but that doesn’t mean everybody else in the industry has been, and I am conscious of that,” she says. A stuffed Kermit the Frog in her West London office is a reminder of her start in TV, under Jim Henson. “He was like the talent whisperer. Everybody wanted to work&#160;with him, and we would have all lain in the street for him,” she says of the beloved Muppets master.</p>
<p>Turner Laing put in time at both the BBC and Sky, steering the latter into original programming. She was instrumental in the launch of Sky Atlantic, the home of HBO shows in Britain. When Endemol and Shine merged three years ago, creating one of the world’s biggest production and distribution groups, she was brought in to head the new operation, working alongside Mahon, then boss of Shine, to get it up and running.</p>
<p>“There was lots of uncertainty. You could see people thinking, ‘Should I come up with my best idea if I don’t know if I’ll like Sophie or where the company is going?’” Turner Laing recalls. Since then, Endemol Shine has continued to nurture unscripted hits such as “MasterChef” and “ <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/big-brother-celebrity-edition-winter-cbs-1202551190/" type="external">Big Brother</a>,” and scripted shows including “Peaky Blinders” and “Black Mirror.”</p>
<p>FremantleMedia’s Frot-Coutaz also oversees a global TV business, with operations in 31 countries. Although she never got one of his yellow “Cut the crap” cards, she counts former BBC chief Dyke as someone who helped her get ahead. “I worked with Greg Dyke, Tony Cohen and David Lyle, who were all supersmart and generous executives and fantastic mentors. They never, ever made me feel anything other than valued,” she says.</p>
<p>“Have I been discriminated against? I don’t think so. Maybe I was and I just chose to override it,” Frot-Coutaz adds. “My back always goes up a little bit when people say, ‘As a woman, how did you find it?’ I say, ‘Fine, but I don’t know what it would have been like if I was a man!’”</p>
<p>Equal pay is an issue in Britain and, to varying degrees, in other countries, Frot-Coutaz acknowledges. She is well-placed to know, given her company’s boots on the ground around the world, which springs from her belief that TV is a local business with a global dimension, and not vice versa. FremantleMedia boasts formats such as “Got Talent,” “Idol” and “The X Factor” and high-end scripted series including “ <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/american-gods-helps-drive-strong-q2-rtl-group-1202542582/" type="external">American Gods</a>,” “Picnic at Hanging Rock” and “Hard Sun,” which will air on Hulu in the U.S. and on the BBC in the U.K.</p>
<p>The British pubcaster has yet to hire a female director-general. But it has its first female deputy DG, Anne Bulford, and Moore, as director of content, holds one of the Beeb’s most senior posts.</p>
<p>Moore previously worked at Channel 4 and as an indie producer, and she sees gender as one component of a larger issue of diversity that affects the BBC’s output. “If you’re going to have a&#160;diversity&#160;of stories, you need a&#160;diversity&#160;of talent telling them, and that will lead to a richer and more creative industry,” she says. “There are not enough women in senior positions, and that’s something we’ll all continue to work at and encourage [change]. As a woman, you are often very good at getting things done and being organized, and there was a moment when people said, ‘You would be a great producer or production manager, but we’re not sure about the creative side.’ … You can get pigeonholed.”</p>
<p>“It was the beginning of the feminist movement, and I used to fly from England and fly out again, and in the U.S. they used to find that quite intriguing.”Producer Beryl Vertue</p>
<p>Adds Moore, who greenlit “The Great British Bake Off,” one of the U.K.’s most popular shows: “There are now lots of very strong women that I hope can inspire people.”</p>
<p>Many of these women are recognized on both sides of the Atlantic, including All3Media’s Turton, who took on the CEO’s mantle at the company when Discovery and Liberty bought it from Permira. Playing on a bigger stage has meant focusing on “talent, talent, talent,” she says, assembling the right team of producers and executives, who are now commissioning widely.</p>
<p>Her outfit is behind “Midsomer Murders,” “Gogglebox” and most of star chef Gordon Ramsay’s TV output, as well as new dramas “Rellik,” for Cinemax and the BBC, and “Liar,” for ITV. Turton has big ambitions in the U.S. market, which accounts for about a third of All3-Media’s business, a proportion she wants to drive up to 40% to 50%, possibly through producer start-ups. “It’s not a thing the American market has tended to do, but it’s something we are looking at,” she says.</p>
<p>Likewise, former BBC head of drama and BBC Worldwide exec Jane Tranter, who set up “Torchwood” and “Da Vinci’s Demons” while based in Los Angeles, now shuttles between the U.K. and the U.S. Her new production company, Bad Wolf, is teeing up adaptations of author Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy for the BBC and Deborah Harkness’ “A Discovery of Witches” for Sky.</p>
<p>Tranter has an encouraging message for women now coming through the ranks: “If I got to do that, running all that stuff at the BBC, then going to America, and then Bad Wolf, then you can do it. And there is a way to do it and have children,” she says. “While I have a precarious work-life balance, I’m not like that when it comes to my children.”</p>
<p>Georgia Brown, one of Britain’s rising stars, had feared that starting a family could derail her career at Amazon before it even began. “While negotiating with Amazon, I became pregnant, and having that conversation was the most terrifying moment of my career. I assumed they wouldn’t want to continue,” says Brown, the company’s new head of original programming in Europe. Fortunately, it turned out not to be a problem.</p>
<p>For the current crop of top female leaders like Turner Laing and Frot-Coutaz, mentors have mostly been men — unsurprising given the industry’s makeup during the early part of their careers. But that’s unlikely to be the case for the next generation. Brown cut her teeth at BBC Worldwide, FremantleMedia and Shine and had plenty of women to look up to along the way.</p>
<p>“I learned so much from them all — not just about the mechanics of running a business but how to treat people and encourage a culture of creative freedom and risk-taking. It was incredibly special to see women at the top of their game, encouraging other women, which is something I also strive to do,” she says. “It has never crossed my mind that I won’t be able to achieve my goals because of my gender.”</p> | false | 1 | stint bbc rite passage many british tv execs sophie turner laing charged helping implement former chief greg dykes making happen campaign drive change culture pubcaster still yellow card says cut crap greg gave us use says fifteen years later turner laing ceo endemol shine group part remarkable generation women britain continued cut crap make happen many powerful executive suites ukbased television industry today occupied women far cry maledominated glass offices hollywood female pioneers overseen production distribution biggest shows world got talent sherlock american gods big brother two important jobs british broadcasting also recently gone women alex mahon taken reins160at channel 4 carolyn mccall becomes ceo itv january problems gender equality dont persist onscreen disparities roles salaries bbc recently revealed chasm topearning men women overall gender pay gap 93 recent sexual harassment scandals pointed problems male privilege entertainment industry women key leadership roles fremantlemedia ceo cecile frotcoutaz bbc director content charlotte moore outlook positive britain certainly contemporaries peers female started says all3media ceo jane turton counted names several them160we making progress gender recent study british media regulator ofcom found big 5 tv companies uk employ women men despite inroads women top industry numbers fall comes senior posts generally also regard older women viacom ranks best women making 48 senior staff ahead itv 42 bbc 39 channel 4 36 sky 31 veteran producer beryl vertue wrote script female tv execs britain forging transatlantic links far back 1960s paving way family sanford son remakes british shows beginning feminist movement used fly england fly us used find quite intriguing says im known originator format deal quite exciting vertue went chair producers trade group pact involved effort allow british producers keep rights programs enshrined law 2003 daughters sue debbie part familyowned hartswood films gave world sherlock developing dracula tricky sue vertue says tvs gender issue management badly start getting crew harder women rarer find feel proud say youve female director like beryl vertue turner laing worked way ground floor says never found doors closed gender ive fortunate doesnt mean everybody else industry conscious says stuffed kermit frog west london office reminder start tv jim henson like talent whisperer everybody wanted work160with would lain street says beloved muppets master turner laing put time bbc sky steering latter original programming instrumental launch sky atlantic home hbo shows britain endemol shine merged three years ago creating one worlds biggest production distribution groups brought head new operation working alongside mahon boss shine get running lots uncertainty could see people thinking come best idea dont know ill like sophie company going turner laing recalls since endemol shine continued nurture unscripted hits masterchef big brother scripted shows including peaky blinders black mirror fremantlemedias frotcoutaz also oversees global tv business operations 31 countries although never got one yellow cut crap cards counts former bbc chief dyke someone helped get ahead worked greg dyke tony cohen david lyle supersmart generous executives fantastic mentors never ever made feel anything valued says discriminated dont think maybe chose override frotcoutaz adds back always goes little bit people say woman find say fine dont know would like man equal pay issue britain varying degrees countries frotcoutaz acknowledges wellplaced know given companys boots ground around world springs belief tv local business global dimension vice versa fremantlemedia boasts formats got talent idol x factor highend scripted series including american gods picnic hanging rock hard sun air hulu us bbc uk british pubcaster yet hire female directorgeneral first female deputy dg anne bulford moore director content holds one beebs senior posts moore previously worked channel 4 indie producer sees gender one component larger issue diversity affects bbcs output youre going a160diversity160of stories need a160diversity160of talent telling lead richer creative industry says enough women senior positions thats something well continue work encourage change woman often good getting things done organized moment people said would great producer production manager sure creative side get pigeonholed beginning feminist movement used fly england fly us used find quite intriguingproducer beryl vertue adds moore greenlit great british bake one uks popular shows lots strong women hope inspire people many women recognized sides atlantic including all3medias turton took ceos mantle company discovery liberty bought permira playing bigger stage meant focusing talent talent talent says assembling right team producers executives commissioning widely outfit behind midsomer murders gogglebox star chef gordon ramsays tv output well new dramas rellik cinemax bbc liar itv turton big ambitions us market accounts third all3medias business proportion wants drive 40 50 possibly producer startups thing american market tended something looking says likewise former bbc head drama bbc worldwide exec jane tranter set torchwood da vincis demons based los angeles shuttles uk us new production company bad wolf teeing adaptations author philip pullmans dark materials trilogy bbc deborah harkness discovery witches sky tranter encouraging message women coming ranks got running stuff bbc going america bad wolf way children says precarious worklife balance im like comes children georgia brown one britains rising stars feared starting family could derail career amazon even began negotiating amazon became pregnant conversation terrifying moment career assumed wouldnt want continue says brown companys new head original programming europe fortunately turned problem current crop top female leaders like turner laing frotcoutaz mentors mostly men unsurprising given industrys makeup early part careers thats unlikely case next generation brown cut teeth bbc worldwide fremantlemedia shine plenty women look along way learned much mechanics running business treat people encourage culture creative freedom risktaking incredibly special see women top game encouraging women something also strive says never crossed mind wont able achieve goals gender | 917 |
<p>As an economist, I can't identify in history any economy whose affairs have been so badly managed and prospects so severely damaged as that of the USA.</p>
<p>Do the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page editors read their own newspaper?</p>
<p>The frontpage headline story for the Labor Day weekend was “Low Wage Growth Challenges Fed.” Despite an alleged 4.4% unemployment rate, which is full employment, there is no real growth in wages. The front page story pointed out correctly that an economy alleged to be expanding at full employment, but absent any wage growth or inflation, is “a puzzle that complicates Federal Reserve policy decisions.”</p>
<p>On the editorial page itself, under “letters to the editor,” Professor Tony Lima of California State University points out what I have stressed for years: “The labor-force participation rate remains at historic lows. Much of the decrease is in the 18-34 age group, while participation rates have increased for those 55 and older.” Professor Lima points out that more evidence that the American worker is not in good shape comes from the rising number of Americans who can only find part-time work, which leaves them with truncated incomes and no fringe benefits, such as health care.</p>
<p>Positioned right next to this factual letter is the lead editorial written by someone who read neither the front page story nor the professor’s letter.&#160;The lead editorial declares: “The biggest labor story this Labor Day is the trouble that employers are having finding workers across the country.” The Journal’s editorial page editors believe the solution to the alleged labor shortage is Senator Ron Johnson’s (R.Wis.) bill to permit the states to give 500,000 work visas to foreigners.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>I have reported on a number of occasions that according to Federal Reserve studies, more Americans in the 24-34 age group live at home with parents than independently, and that it is those 55 and older who are taking the part time jobs. Why is this? The answer is that part time jobs do not pay enough to support an independent existence, and the Federal Reserve’s decade long zero interest rate policy forces retirees to enter the work force as their retirement savings produce no income. It is not only the manufacturing jobs of the middle class blue collar workers that have been given to foreigners in order to cut labor costs and thus maximize payouts to executives and shareholders, but also tradable professional skill jobs such as software engineering, design, accounting, and IT—jobs that Americans expected to get in order to pay off their student loans.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal editorial asserts that the young are not in the work force because they are on drugs, or on disability, or because of their poor education. However, all over the country there are college graduates with good educations who cannot find jobs because the jobs have been offshored. To worsen the crisis, a Republican Senator from Wisconsin wants to bring in more foreigners on work permits to drive US wages down lower so that no American can survive on the wage, and the Wall Street Journal editorial page editors endorse this travesty!</p>
<p>The foreigners on work visas are paid one-third less than the going US wage. They live together in groups in cramped quarters. They have no employee rights. They are exploited in order to raise executive bonuses and shareholder capital gains. I have exposed this scheme at length in my book, <a href="https://amzn.to/2x3hWOJ" type="external">The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism</a> (Clarity Press, 2013).</p>
<p>When Trump said he was going to bring the jobs home, he resonated, but, of course, he will not be permitted to bring them home, any more than he has been permitted to normalize relations with Russia.</p>
<p>In America, Government is not in the hands of its people. Government is in the hands of a ruling oligarchy. Oligarchic rule prevails regardless of electoral outcomes. The American people are entering a world of slavery more severe than anything that previously existed. Without jobs, dependent on their masters for trickle-down benefits that are always subject to being cut, and without voice or representation, Americans, except for the One Percent, are becoming the most enslaved people in history.</p>
<p>Americans carry on by accumulating debt and becoming debt slaves. Many can only make the minimum payment on their credit card and thus accumulate debt. The Federal Reserve’s policy has exploded the prices of financial assets. The result is that the bulk of the population lacks discretionary income, and those with financial assets are wealthy until values adjust to reality.</p>
<p>As an economist I cannot identify in history any economy whose affairs have been so badly managed and prospects so severely damaged as the economy of the United States of America. In the short/intermediate run policies that damage the prospects for the American work force benefit what is called the One Percent as jobs offshoring reduces corporate costs and financialization transfers remaining discretionary income in interest and fees to the financial sector. But as consumer discretionary incomes disappear and debt burdens rise, aggregate demand falters, and there is nothing left to drive the economy.</p>
<p>What we are witnessing in the United States is the first country to reverse the development process and to go backward by giving up industry, manufacturing, and tradable professional skill jobs. The labor force is becoming Third World with lowly paid domestic service jobs taking the place of high-productivity, high-value added jobs.</p>
<p>The initial response was to put wives and mothers into the work force, but now even many two-earner families experience stagnant or falling material living standards. New university graduates are faced with substantial debts without jobs capable of producing sufficient income to pay off the debts.</p>
<p>Now the US is on a course of travelling backward at a faster rate. Robots are to take over more and more jobs, displacing more people. Robots don’t buy houses, furniture, appliances, cars, clothes, food, entertainment, medical services, etc. Unless Robots pay payroll taxes, the financing for Social Security and Medicare will collapse. And it goes on down from there. Consumer spending simply dries up, so who purchases the goods and services supplied by robots?</p>
<p>To find such important considerations absent in public debate suggests that the United States will continue on the country’s de-industrialization, de-manufacturing trajectory. ­</p>
<p>This article was originally published at&#160; <a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/09/29/us-economy-failing-paul-craig-roberts/" type="external">PaulCraigRoberts.org</a>&#160;on September 29, 2017.</p> | false | 1 | economist cant identify history economy whose affairs badly managed prospects severely damaged usa wall street journals editorial page editors read newspaper frontpage headline story labor day weekend low wage growth challenges fed despite alleged 44 unemployment rate full employment real growth wages front page story pointed correctly economy alleged expanding full employment absent wage growth inflation puzzle complicates federal reserve policy decisions editorial page letters editor professor tony lima california state university points stressed years laborforce participation rate remains historic lows much decrease 1834 age group participation rates increased 55 older professor lima points evidence american worker good shape comes rising number americans find parttime work leaves truncated incomes fringe benefits health care positioned right next factual letter lead editorial written someone read neither front page story professors letter160the lead editorial declares biggest labor story labor day trouble employers finding workers across country journals editorial page editors believe solution alleged labor shortage senator ron johnsons rwis bill permit states give 500000 work visas foreigners reported number occasions according federal reserve studies americans 2434 age group live home parents independently 55 older taking part time jobs answer part time jobs pay enough support independent existence federal reserves decade long zero interest rate policy forces retirees enter work force retirement savings produce income manufacturing jobs middle class blue collar workers given foreigners order cut labor costs thus maximize payouts executives shareholders also tradable professional skill jobs software engineering design accounting itjobs americans expected get order pay student loans wall street journal editorial asserts young work force drugs disability poor education however country college graduates good educations find jobs jobs offshored worsen crisis republican senator wisconsin wants bring foreigners work permits drive us wages lower american survive wage wall street journal editorial page editors endorse travesty foreigners work visas paid onethird less going us wage live together groups cramped quarters employee rights exploited order raise executive bonuses shareholder capital gains exposed scheme length book failure laissez faire capitalism clarity press 2013 trump said going bring jobs home resonated course permitted bring home permitted normalize relations russia america government hands people government hands ruling oligarchy oligarchic rule prevails regardless electoral outcomes american people entering world slavery severe anything previously existed without jobs dependent masters trickledown benefits always subject cut without voice representation americans except one percent becoming enslaved people history americans carry accumulating debt becoming debt slaves many make minimum payment credit card thus accumulate debt federal reserves policy exploded prices financial assets result bulk population lacks discretionary income financial assets wealthy values adjust reality economist identify history economy whose affairs badly managed prospects severely damaged economy united states america shortintermediate run policies damage prospects american work force benefit called one percent jobs offshoring reduces corporate costs financialization transfers remaining discretionary income interest fees financial sector consumer discretionary incomes disappear debt burdens rise aggregate demand falters nothing left drive economy witnessing united states first country reverse development process go backward giving industry manufacturing tradable professional skill jobs labor force becoming third world lowly paid domestic service jobs taking place highproductivity highvalue added jobs initial response put wives mothers work force even many twoearner families experience stagnant falling material living standards new university graduates faced substantial debts without jobs capable producing sufficient income pay debts us course travelling backward faster rate robots take jobs displacing people robots dont buy houses furniture appliances cars clothes food entertainment medical services etc unless robots pay payroll taxes financing social security medicare collapse goes consumer spending simply dries purchases goods services supplied robots find important considerations absent public debate suggests united states continue countrys deindustrialization demanufacturing trajectory article originally published at160 paulcraigrobertsorg160on september 29 2017 | 606 |
<p>Republicans ought&#160;to be familiar with the concept of temptation. Resisting temptation is a big theme in Christianity, as the Lord’s Prayer reminds us, and the modern GOP has long been the preferred party for the observant Christian. Yet when it comes to the central politico-economic question of our time—the declining wages available to the unskilled or semiskilled worker—many on the right succumb all too easily.</p>
<p>If it seems odd to think of temptation in the context of economic policy, then try and put yourself in the shoes of a Republican politician. You have campaigned on the premise that a vibrant, entrepreneurial private sector lifts all boats. You have argued that lower taxes, less regulation and fewer government services are the elixir that brings growth to life. And yet when you go home for reelection, you are besieged by many voters who feel they have been falling behind in good times and drowning in bad ones.</p>
<p>That politician invariably is tempted to ignore these complaints, to refuse to see what is plainly before his eyes. He is thus tempted to oppose Medicaid expansion, food-stamp caseload growth and other income transfers that replace some part of these people’s declining wages. He is afraid that otherwise he simply would become a modern Rockefeller Republican—a “me too” politician of the sort the modern conservative movement was formed to abolish.</p>
<p>It is tempting, therefore, to imitate Nancy Reagan and “just say no.” But those who do this, however, are following the wrong Reagan. These voters do need help, and they will vote for people who seem to understand their plight and will do something about it. They might not like the heavy hand of government, as their distrust of Obamacare demonstrates, but if the only alternative they are presented with is “just say no,” they will, reluctantly, support the politician who seems to care about people like them.</p>
<p>Instead, conservatives should follow the right Reagan, Nancy’s famous husband Ronnie. They need to begin by acknowledging the reality of economic stagnation for the bottom half of the American workforce. This development is already straining the safety net. But many of those working-class voters are located precisely in the two places a Republican presidential candidate needs to carry to win the White House: the industrial Midwest and the immigrant hotbeds of the Southwest and Florida. Most Republican politicians in these states are either “just saying no” or saying “me too” to government attempts to ameliorate these realities through liberal redistribution, moves that allow liberals to define both the problem and the solution for those affected. A better approach would be for GOP conservatives to recognize the very real difficulties these voters face and seek to devise innovative ways to address them. By doing this, Republicans can do what Ronald Reagan would do if he were alive today in order to address their decades-long empathy gap and recover their historic role as the natural home for the American worker.</p>
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<p>INFLATION-ADJUSTED HOUSEHOLD income for most Americans peaked at the end of the Clinton administration. One would certainly expect that income would be lower today after the Great Recession and the modest recovery that has followed it. But even prior to the recession, most families’ incomes remained below their 1999–2000 peak. The least educated Americans—those with only a high-school diploma or less—saw their real incomes decline.</p>
<p>A close examination of Census Bureau data makes this clear. Americans who have either graduated from high school or dropped out of college without a degree comprise roughly half of U.S. households (53.5 million out of 116.1 million). Their real median incomes rose in the 1990s but fell during the Bush boom. Americans in these groups saw their incomes decline even during the growth years of 2003–2007 and plummet even more after the Great Recession.</p>
<p>It’s possible that these statistics are misleading due to Americans’ increasing educational attainment. Each group of eighteen-year-olds is more educated than the last, and this can affect the data above in two ways. First, the oldest Americans are also the least educated. As more of them retire, their incomes will naturally go down. This could drag down the median incomes for those groups, thereby hiding growing incomes for the portion that remains of working age. Second, it’s natural to assume that those young people who “move up” the educational ladder are, on average, less productive than those who match their parents’ education level. This lowers both educational groups’ median incomes: the most productive members of the less educated group leave that group’s statistics, lowering the income for that group, but they are less productive than the average member of the new group, which also lowers that group’s median income.</p>
<p>Looking at median income by age cohort should control for each of these effects. If each age cohort is more educated than the preceding one, its median income should rise, since income tracks educational attainment. It also controls for the aging of America by only comparing like to like: the less educated elderly are only compared with earlier groups of elderly, who were in turn less educated than the current group. Thus, if economic growth were distributed according to America’s historical pattern, the age-cohort approach should show median incomes rose for all age groups between 2003 and 2007.</p>
<p>That, however, was not the case. Median real incomes increased only for people fifty-five or older. Younger Americans did not fare so well. Real incomes for all of the younger age cohorts peaked in 1999 or 2000. Americans younger than thirty-five saw their incomes modestly recover between 2003 and 2007 but remain below their Clinton-era peak, while those between thirty-five and forty-four saw their incomes stagnate. Americans between forty-five and fifty-four, historically the highest-earning Americans, saw their real incomes decline throughout the Bush years.</p>
<p>These data were the worst for these age cohorts of any since the Census Bureau started keeping these records in 1967. During each preceding business cycle, real incomes rose during years of growth and fell during recessions. Incomes in each trough were almost always no lower than in the preceding trough, and incomes at each peak were almost always higher than at the preceding peak. The post-2000 divergence from this pattern strongly suggests that incomes did stagnate or decline.</p>
<p>A third Census Bureau data set confirms this finding. This set looks at the upper income bound for each household family quintile. If real incomes are rising for Americans of all skill levels, the upper real limit for each quintile should rise. That’s because the quintile approach measures where each American household stands in relation to others, regardless of the overall level. If all boats are rising, the upper limit for each quintile should also rise. Prior to the 2001–2007 period, this had in fact happened: during every period of growth, the upper limit for each quintile from the richest to the poorest also rose, and with one exception also always exceeded its previous high.</p>
<p>This stopped in the last decade. The upper income limit for each of the bottom three quintiles reached their peaks in 1999 or 2000 and never regained their pre–Great Recession level. The upper limit of the fourth quintile was up only 1 percent over its 1999 peak, by far the weakest showing in the past fifty years. For the bottom 80 percent of the American income distribution, the first decade of the twenty-first century was truly lost.</p>
<p>The story is even worse today for those at the bottom. While the Great Recession significantly reduced median incomes for all quintiles, it was especially destructive at the bottom. The upper limits for the bottom two quintiles in 2012, the last year for which we have data, are equivalent to those from 1994–1995. If you are a low-skilled, nonimmigrant American, chances are you have not seen a real raise in twenty years.</p>
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<p>THIS ECONOMIC fact has serious policy implications for conservatives and Republicans. Declining real incomes and extended bouts of unemployment intersect with the structure of America’s safety net to increase the number of people eligible for existing programs. This also creates greater demand for some government redistribution, resulting in greater popular appeal for extensions of the American welfare state.</p>
<p>Economic stagnation also increases pressure on the existing safety net because many programs condition their eligibility on household income, not on work status. Food stamps, for example, are available to any household with a gross income up to 130 percent of the federal poverty limit. In 2014, that equaled $31,005 for a four-person household, meaning that adults could earn just shy of $15 an hour for full-time, year-round work and still be eligible. Since the poverty limit climbs each year, stagnating wages result in greater eligibility. Families with college-aged children can qualify for Pell Grants or Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants with incomes well into the lower ranges of the middle class. Federally financed health-insurance programs, like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), also are available based on household income rather than work status, so stagnating wages for those at the bottom of the economic ladder also result in greater eligibility for these programs.</p>
<p>The incongruous result is that workers in some of America’s best-known and most profitable companies are deriving benefits from safety-net programs. According to the Dayton Daily News, 117,890 people working at one of the fifty largest firms in Ohio were receiving food stamps, and 141,182 were on Medicaid in February 2013. The list of employers with large numbers of workers receiving benefits was dominated by restaurant chains (McDonald’s, Burger King, Bob Evans and Wendy’s), large grocery chains (Kroger) and Walmart. Nearly 30 percent of Walmart employees received food stamps, according to the report.</p>
<p>Stagnating incomes at the bottom also make federal programs conditioned on nonwork more attractive. The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program is a case in point. SSDI was created in 1956 to ensure that Americans who could not work because of serious disability would not become poor. Over the years, the definition of serious disability was expanded so that it now includes general complaints of pain and mental issues such as depression. Vocational factors such as the applicant’s ability to get a job given one’s age, education and work history are also part of the disability determination. The result, combined with the economic difficulties facing low-skilled workers, has been dramatic.</p>
<p>SSDI caseloads have exploded in the last twenty years, and especially in the last decade. In 1989, about three million Americans received SSDI. Today, it’s almost ten million, and about eleven million if you include children and spouses of disabled workers. No one who looks at the program believes the large spike in caseloads is because America’s workplaces have become less safe. Instead, most observers contend that it is because the expanded definitions of disability have intersected with declining opportunities for good jobs for low-skilled, older workers to give rise to a massive temptation for those people.</p>
<p>Consider the case of a man in his fifties whose factory closes. SSDI offers him a steady check of about $1,000 a month. He is also eligible for Medicare if he has been disabled for two years, and the long backlog to process SSDI claims means most applicants can expect to receive Medicare immediately upon enrollment. So, if this worker says, “I can work,” he has to struggle to find a job that may not pay more after tax than the $1,000 a month and may not offer health insurance. If he says, “I can’t,” he gets a low but secure payment for life. And he can qualify based on very subjective, difficult-to-disprove criteria that take his lack of job opportunities into account.</p>
<p>Given this, it should be no surprise that SSDI applications soared in the last decade, even prior to the Great Recession. While SSDI applications have risen and fallen based on the unemployment rate for some time, annual applications remained below two million until 2001. They rose by almost 50 percent between 2001 and 2004, and remained at historically record levels until the Great Recession. They rose another 33 percent between 2008 and 2010 to hit nearly three million. Nearly 1.75 million people have been added on net to the SSDI rolls since 2008. Many observers have noted that labor-force-participation rates are at thirty-year lows; the opportunity to do as well or better on SSDI than in the economy surely has had an important impact on that.</p>
<p>The cost for the American taxpayer for this is huge and rising. SSDI benefits alone were $140 billion in 2013, or a bit less than 1 percent of SSDI. Medicaid payments for disabled people, which mainly include people receiving benefits from another disability program, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), were another $167 billion (at both the state and federal levels) in fiscal year 2012. Medicare spent yet another $68 billion on disabled, nonelderly recipients in 2012, more than double what was spent in 2001. And SSI, which serves mainly disabled children, the elderly and the blind, spent another $56.2 billion in fiscal year 2014. Together, this means that taxpayers pay at least $441 billion in benefits or services for disabled people, or over 2.5 percent of GDP.</p>
<p>This growing reliance on the safety net is likely to increase dramatically under Obamacare. By chance or design, that measure’s key features are most directly beneficial to working Americans with below-median incomes. The Medicaid expansion allows states to extend coverage for all adults in households making less than 138 percent of the poverty level, or $32,918 for a family of four. Households making above that level can get health insurance through state or federal exchanges. If these households choose the cheapest, “bronze” plan, they would receive family health insurance without having to pay any premiums. This is big money for these families. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation’s online subsidy calculator, a family of four in Marietta, Ohio, making just above the cutoff for Medicaid eligibility would receive over $7,000 in tax credits for a bronze plan.</p>
<p>This tremendous subsidy is available even for households earning much more. The Kaiser website tells us that this Marietta family would still receive a free bronze plan if it earned up to $53,000, slightly higher than the national median income of $51,000. Even a family of four earning $65,000 would pay only about $1,900 for a bronze plan, receiving over $5,100 in federal subsidies.</p>
<p>Other exchanges in political swing states are not as generous, but in Iowa (Dubuque), Wisconsin (Wausau), Colorado (Pueblo) and Nevada (North Las Vegas), bronze plans are free or cost less than $150 a year for families of four earning up to $39,000 annually.</p>
<p>It is easy to see why the safety net and Obamacare are enormously important for low-skilled Americans making below the median income. Nationally, these people are still outnumbered by those who are making more than $65,000 a year and the elderly. What makes this a particularly difficult political challenge for conservatives to address is the fact that the very states they need to gain to win back the presidency benefit disproportionally from these programs.</p>
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<p>THE LIST of battleground states hasn’t changed much in the past twenty years, and is unlikely to change much before 2016. That means the next Republican nominee must pick up the electoral votes needed to win from a small group of states: Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Nevada. Virginia is a special case because of the large number of highly educated Northern Virginia voters attracted to Washington, DC, by the federal government. In each other case, GOP hopes rest on persuading larger numbers of white or Hispanic working-class voters to support the party’s nominee.</p>
<p>Colorado, Florida and Nevada all contain large, Democratic-leaning Hispanic populations that provided President Obama with his victory margins in 2008 and 2012. In 2012, their electorates were each between 14 and 19 percent Hispanic, and the president took between 60 (Florida) and 75 (Colorado) percent of those votes. The Hispanic population in each state continues to grow and in 2016 their share of the vote will be even higher.</p>
<p>Exit polls show that the growth or change in voting preference of the Hispanic community was the sole reason Mitt Romney lost each state. We can see this by comparing the share of the white vote obtained by both George W. Bush, who carried each of these states, and Romney. In 2004, Bush received 57 percent of the white vote in Colorado, 55 percent in Nevada and 57 percent in Florida. Romney received 54 percent in Colorado, 56 percent in Nevada and 61 percent in Florida. However, in each state the share of whites as a percentage of the electorate declined—by 3 percent in Florida, 8 percent in Colorado and a huge 13 percent in Nevada.</p>
<p>That decline was matched by large increases in each state’s Hispanic population. The share of the Hispanic vote in Colorado rose from 8 percent in 2004 to 14 percent in 2012; in Nevada from 10 percent to 19 percent; and in Florida from 15 percent to 17 percent. It’s true that Romney did much worse among Hispanics in these states and nationwide than did Bush, but even if Romney had matched Bush’s showing he would only have picked up Florida. By nearly doubling in size in only eight years, the Hispanic vote in Colorado and Nevada turned what had been reliably Republican states for decades into Democratic-leaning outposts.</p>
<p>Hispanic voters are overwhelmingly non-college-educated and earn below the median income. According to the Census Bureau, only 13 percent of Hispanics had a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2011. Thirty percent had no health insurance, and the Hispanic median income was only a shade over $38,000, significantly below the U.S. national median. Opinion surveys also show that Hispanics are much likelier than whites to support larger government and more services over smaller government and lower taxes. Any conservative effort to win back Colorado and Nevada must take notice of these facts.</p>
<p>A conservative GOP nominee may seek to counter these trends by relying on the swing states of the Northeast and Midwest. These states have few Hispanics and, except for Ohio, have much lower percentages of African Americans and Asians than the rest of the country. They are dominated, however, by blue-collar voters that are not evangelicals. Exit polls from 2008 show that whites without a college degree were a majority of the electorate in Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa, and 45 percent in New Hampshire. This was much higher than their 39 percent national share. Moreover, blue-collar whites in these states are much likelier to be Catholic or Lutheran than they are nationally. Accordingly, President Obama carried the white working class in Wisconsin, Iowa and New Hampshire in 2008, losing it only in Ohio, where a larger percentage is neither Catholic nor Lutheran.</p>
<p>The president retained most of these voters in 2012 despite the poor economy. Journalist Ron Brownstein calculated that Obama carried whites without college degrees again in Iowa and ran even with Romney among them in New Hampshire. He carried 45 percent of them in Wisconsin and 42 percent in Ohio, high enough in each state to allow his urban coalition of blacks and liberal, well-educated whites to carry him to victory.</p>
<p>Data compiled by political scientist Larry Bartels show that the president’s support among non-college-educated whites came largely from the working and lower-middle classes, exactly the people most affected by the Great Recession and the wage pressures of the preceding decade. Bartels’s analysis shows that non-Southern whites making less than about $45,000 a year voted for the president in 2012, and those making between $45,000 and $62,500 gave him more than 45 percent of their votes. Conservative analysts may decry the dependency safety-net programs engender, but clearly those voters who have struggled for decades were not so concerned.</p>
<p>These facts have not gone unnoticed by these states’ Republican governors. Every GOP governor in these states except Wisconsin’s Scott Walker has either expanded Medicaid or endorsed expansion, and even Walker reformed his state’s generous Medicaid program to expand insurance coverage by nearly one hundred thousand people without taking new federal money. Ohio governor John Kasich was so intent on expanding Medicaid prior to his 2014 reelection vote that he used his appointees to an obscure state board to get around opposition from Republicans in his state legislature to expand the program. The nation’s two Hispanic Republican governors, Nevada’s Brian Sandoval and New Mexico’s Susana Martinez, also took leading roles in establishing their state’s exchanges pursuant to Obamacare. Republican governors in Michigan and Pennsylvania, two other potential swing states that lean slightly Democratic, also endorsed Medicaid expansion.</p>
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<p>INDIANA REPUBLICAN governor Mike Pence’s 2014 announcement that he, too, would seek to expand Medicaid further shows how strong the political pressure is. Pence is so conservative that as a congressman he was one of just twenty-one GOP stalwarts not to vote for President Bush’s bill creating prescription-drug coverage for seniors. Yet Indiana is another state politically dominated by whites without college degrees. This group comprised 56 percent of the 2008 electorate, the highest percentage of any midwestern state. While this group also has a significantly larger evangelical Christian portion than elsewhere in the Midwest, Pence has surely recognized that the same economic pressures that make Medicaid expansion tempting for low-income whites elsewhere apply to Hoosiers as well.</p>
<p>Pence’s proposal is slightly different, and as such offers a lens through which one can view the options conservatives have in crafting an original response to these pressures. The largely hostile reception his idea has met among conservative intellectuals, however, shows that the “just say no” impetus remains strong on the right.</p>
<p>Pence’s idea builds on a program serving a part of the Medicaid population started by his predecessor, Mitch Daniels. The Daniels plan, called the Healthy Indiana Program (HIP), created Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) for forty thousand recipients. The state funded part of the recipient’s HSA, so long as the recipient also contributed. The state used its own funds for the HSA financing, although it continued to rely on a mix of state and federal funds for the underlying basic health-insurance coverage.</p>
<p>Pence’s idea would take this concept and expand it to over 330,000 able-bodied adults earning between 100 and 138 percent of the federal poverty limit. This is also the limit for expanded Medicaid eligibility under Obamacare, and Pence’s plan would use the money available for Obamacare expansion to pay for the HIP expansion. It would change the HIP plan significantly, lowering the amount of money recipients would be asked to pay into their HSAs and dropping any requirement they pay completely (those who would not contribute would get a less comprehensive plan). It would, however, add a premium-support component so that Hoosiers eligible for the new program who also could take employer coverage could use HSA dollars to pay their share of the premium in the employer-offered program.</p>
<p>Conservative opposition to Pence’s plan covers a host of issues, but essentially boils down to two: cost and dependency. The Heritage Foundation’s Nina Owcharenko focused on the first complaint in her attack, arguing that even if the state could, as it says, fully fund the expansion through 2020, “original estimates are likely not the true full cost.” Furthermore, since federal promises to pay a high portion of the expansion could be changed in the future, Indiana taxpayers could be legally stuck with paying a higher share of a much more costly program.</p>
<p>Owcharenko’s cost argument has been essentially echoed by many other critics, such as the Mercatus Center’s Veronique de Rugy. Unlike Owcharenko, however, de Rugy raises the issue of increasing dependency. Reducing dependence on government is increasingly cited by many conservatives as justification for opposing Obamacare, increased food-stamp usage, and a host of other safety-net or entitlement programs. This term is rarely clearly defined (the Heritage Foundation’s annual Index of Dependence on Government, which it published for over a decade before discontinuing it in 2014, included Social Security and Medicare as dependency-inducing programs, a claim virtually no conservative politician will seriously echo). It does, however, clearly include the receipt of government checks or in-kind services such as health insurance by able-bodied people of working age. The most vociferous conservative opposition to Pence’s proposal and, indeed, to Medicaid expansion generally, comes from this idea.</p>
<p>This is best elucidated by a blistering critique penned by the Foundation for Government Accountability’s Josh Archambault and his colleagues. They argued that Pence’s plan “creates a new entitlement largely for able-bodied, non-working adults.” They cite data showing that half of Indiana adults earning less than 138 percent of the federal poverty limit do not work at all, and only 14 percent work full-time and year-round. They contend that Medicaid expansion discourages work, citing studies showing that Medicaid expansion previously has reduced full-time employment and the likelihood of working at all by up to 11 percent. “This is particularly troubling given the fact that full-time employment moves people off of government dependence and into self-sufficiency [emphasis added].”</p>
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<p>THIS ASSERTION brings us back to the original point, which is that the economic changes of the past fifteen years increasingly mean that full-time employment for the low-skilled does not create self-sufficiency, if by that term we mean relatively secure access to basic housing, medical care, transportation and food without government assistance. The federal poverty limit for a family of four is currently $23,850. A single earner working forty hours a week, fifty-two weeks a year would have to make $11.50 per hour to barely exceed that amount. Millions of people today can work full-time and still not lift themselves out of poverty.</p>
<p>The state of Ohio maintains detailed data breaking down hourly wages by occupation. Of twenty-two typical low-skilled occupations in the data set,[1] only two pay enough that a person making the occupation’s median wage and working full-time, all year could support a family of four above the poverty line. Most fall much short of that, earning less than $10 an hour.</p>
<p>These jobs are not a trivial part of the economy. In Ohio, over one million people have such jobs, nearly 20 percent of the state’s total employment. This means that over half a million people in Ohio work in jobs that don’t allow them to provide for themselves. And this is before benefits are mentioned; surely many of these jobs do not offer health insurance or retirement plans of the sort most of the readers of this article are accustomed to.</p>
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<p>OF COURSE, in many families there are two adults and both could work to bring their household above the poverty line. Given the reality of children, however, it is highly unlikely that both adults would work full-time, or at least full-time at the same time of day. Most families in this situation can’t afford child care without government subsidy, so it makes economic sense for one member of the family to work part-time so that person can take care of the children before and after school. Shockingly, it is precisely this arrangement that Archambault and his colleagues also attack.</p>
<p>They note that Indiana data show that nearly half of all people in households earning less than 138 percent of the poverty limit do not currently work. They further note that only 14 percent work full-time all year round (whether that is by choice or because of unemployment they don’t say). Another 11 percent work full-time for part of the year, while another 26 percent work part-time for some or all of the year. Since they have previously argued that Medicaid reduces work, they use this data to contend that Pence’s proposal would make a bad situation worse.</p>
<p>Really? A single person without dependents who chooses to work less so he can play more is clearly morally distinguishable from a harried mom who chooses to work less to be at home when her kids get there. Not to distinguish between these different cases is very problematic, yet it is all too common for some in the “just say no” faction to fall prey to this temptation.</p>
<p>Pence’s proposal is trying to solve a very real problem. According to Archambault and his colleagues’ own data, 37.3 percent of Hoosiers in a household earning less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level are uninsured. That figure is 32.9 percent even among those working full-time, all year. Any children in these uninsured households are already eligible for publicly funded insurance through Medicaid or CHIP, so the question to answer is whether society should work to help adults have the same benefit.</p>
<p>Conservatives who “just say no” to this question ignore the political and economic realities of our time. They also ignore the manner in which conservative principles can be used to help address this problem without the sort of one-size-fits-all programs conservatives rightly decry. In this, they can draw on the principles elucidated by Ronald Reagan for guidance.</p>
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<p>FEW PEOPLE would argue that Reagan was a fan of the modern welfare state. He burst onto the national political scene with “A Time for Choosing,” a televised address endorsing Barry Goldwater. The speech frequently equated American liberals with socialists and castigated people for trading liberty for the “soup kitchen of the welfare state.” Even then, however, Reagan did not oppose all federal efforts to help needy Americans. Indeed, this famous speech includes an oft-overlooked middle portion that provides prescient guidance for today’s conservatives who seek an alternative to “just say no” policies.</p>
<p>In that part, Reagan asserted that the federal government should ensure that no old person would become “destitute” because of old age, and that “no one in this country should be denied medical care because of a lack of funds.” In other words, he endorsed the principle that justifies Social Security and Medicare. He was critical of both programs, however, because they were “compulsory government program[s]” that did not allow individuals to make choices that would benefit themselves without compromising the purpose of the programs. Assistance for people who need it and private provision for people who don’t were the linchpins of Reagan’s approach to redistribution.</p>
<p>Today, these principles could be used to significantly reform the entitlement and welfare programs conservatives decry without heartlessly ignoring those in need. Health insurance for adults working at or near the poverty line, for example, could be provided on a premium-support model that gives workers a subsidy to purchase private-sector insurance. This could be significantly different from the exchanges under Obamacare because the policies available on those websites are heavily regulated by the federal government, with a whole set of mandated benefits and standardized coverage clauses that force people to buy insurance they neither want nor need. A conservative alternative would be much more flexible and permit people to buy all sorts of policies that better meet their health and financial goals. A Reagan-inspired conservative approach could also permit individuals receiving such financial aid to use it to meet their portions of any employer-offered policy.</p>
<p>Other programs like food stamps, unemployment insurance, SSDI and SSI could also be reformed to provide the right help to the right people in the right manner. For the low-skilled person who is not fully incapacitated, these programs could be changed along the lines of the 1990s-era welfare-reform bill conservatives of all stripes normally champion. That bill established firm work requirements so that able-bodied adults who could work in some way were required to work. It also provided work supports such as child-care vouchers, vocational counseling and tax credits for employers who hired welfare-eligible mothers so that discouraged but capable moms could have the right assistance to find and keep jobs. Contemporaneous expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) also functioned as an effective wage subsidy to ensure that single mothers working in low-skilled, low-pay jobs had their earnings raised so they weren’t financially tempted to give up.</p>
<p>SSDI and SSI, for example, could be reformed so that applicants on the margin (i.e., those physically and mentally able to do some work) received counseling and medication to treat their issues instead of being ruled incapable of performing any work whatsoever. If jobs were scarce in their cities, the federal government could offer relocation allowances to encourage them to move to more economically vibrant locations. (Unemployment insurance could also be reformed to permit this.) The money spent on food stamps for these people could be shifted, as proposed by Senator Marco Rubio, to some form of formal wage subsidy along the lines of a revised EITC. In each case, these types of reforms would make it easier for the challenged, low-skilled person to say “yes, I can” rather than “no, I can’t.” By embracing some form of federal assistance for these people in need, conservatives would likely reduce dependency more than they would under the “just say no” approach.</p>
<p>This approach would also begin to address conservatives’ long-standing political nemesis, compassion. Polls for decades have shown voters rate Democrats as being more compassionate than either Republicans or conservatives. Compassion was the issue in 2012, as is demonstrated by the exit polls. Voters were asked which of four qualities was most important to them in a president. Mitt Romney won among voters selecting three of these qualities: “Shares my values,” “is a strong leader” and “has a vision for the future.” Fully 74 percent of the voters chose one of these three qualities, and Romney won them handily by between nine and twenty-three points. He isn’t president today because he lost among the 21 percent who chose the fourth quality by sixty-three points. That quality: “Cares about people like me.”</p>
<p>Conservatives often fret about the gender gap, the racial gap and the marriage gap. But these gaps, large as they are, are probably driven as much by one underlying concern as they are by separate issues. Conservatives need to address the empathy gap, and “just say no” is precisely the wrong way to do it.</p>
<p>“The dreams of people may differ,” Ronald Reagan once said, “but everyone wants their dreams to come true.” For tens of millions of low-skilled Americans, their dreams are not coming true. For too many, they are turning into nightmares. American conservatism at its best embraces Reagan’s thought, combining a love of liberty with an overriding love of all people. In the present crisis, antigovernment fundamentalism threatens to place the two at odds with one another, to fatal effect for conservatism and for the country.</p>
<p>Henry Olsen is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p> | false | 1 | republicans ought160to familiar concept temptation resisting temptation big theme christianity lords prayer reminds us modern gop long preferred party observant christian yet comes central politicoeconomic question timethe declining wages available unskilled semiskilled workermany right succumb easily seems odd think temptation context economic policy try put shoes republican politician campaigned premise vibrant entrepreneurial private sector lifts boats argued lower taxes less regulation fewer government services elixir brings growth life yet go home reelection besieged many voters feel falling behind good times drowning bad ones politician invariably tempted ignore complaints refuse see plainly eyes thus tempted oppose medicaid expansion foodstamp caseload growth income transfers replace part peoples declining wages afraid otherwise simply would become modern rockefeller republicana politician sort modern conservative movement formed abolish tempting therefore imitate nancy reagan say however following wrong reagan voters need help vote people seem understand plight something might like heavy hand government distrust obamacare demonstrates alternative presented say reluctantly support politician seems care people like instead conservatives follow right reagan nancys famous husband ronnie need begin acknowledging reality economic stagnation bottom half american workforce development already straining safety net many workingclass voters located precisely two places republican presidential candidate needs carry win white house industrial midwest immigrant hotbeds southwest florida republican politicians states either saying saying government attempts ameliorate realities liberal redistribution moves allow liberals define problem solution affected better approach would gop conservatives recognize real difficulties voters face seek devise innovative ways address republicans ronald reagan would alive today order address decadeslong empathy gap recover historic role natural home american worker 160 inflationadjusted household income americans peaked end clinton administration one would certainly expect income would lower today great recession modest recovery followed even prior recession families incomes remained 19992000 peak least educated americansthose highschool diploma lesssaw real incomes decline close examination census bureau data makes clear americans either graduated high school dropped college without degree comprise roughly half us households 535 million 1161 million real median incomes rose 1990s fell bush boom americans groups saw incomes decline even growth years 20032007 plummet even great recession possible statistics misleading due americans increasing educational attainment group eighteenyearolds educated last affect data two ways first oldest americans also least educated retire incomes naturally go could drag median incomes groups thereby hiding growing incomes portion remains working age second natural assume young people move educational ladder average less productive match parents education level lowers educational groups median incomes productive members less educated group leave groups statistics lowering income group less productive average member new group also lowers groups median income looking median income age cohort control effects age cohort educated preceding one median income rise since income tracks educational attainment also controls aging america comparing like like less educated elderly compared earlier groups elderly turn less educated current group thus economic growth distributed according americas historical pattern agecohort approach show median incomes rose age groups 2003 2007 however case median real incomes increased people fiftyfive older younger americans fare well real incomes younger age cohorts peaked 1999 2000 americans younger thirtyfive saw incomes modestly recover 2003 2007 remain clintonera peak thirtyfive fortyfour saw incomes stagnate americans fortyfive fiftyfour historically highestearning americans saw real incomes decline throughout bush years data worst age cohorts since census bureau started keeping records 1967 preceding business cycle real incomes rose years growth fell recessions incomes trough almost always lower preceding trough incomes peak almost always higher preceding peak post2000 divergence pattern strongly suggests incomes stagnate decline third census bureau data set confirms finding set looks upper income bound household family quintile real incomes rising americans skill levels upper real limit quintile rise thats quintile approach measures american household stands relation others regardless overall level boats rising upper limit quintile also rise prior 20012007 period fact happened every period growth upper limit quintile richest poorest also rose one exception also always exceeded previous high stopped last decade upper income limit bottom three quintiles reached peaks 1999 2000 never regained pregreat recession level upper limit fourth quintile 1 percent 1999 peak far weakest showing past fifty years bottom 80 percent american income distribution first decade twentyfirst century truly lost story even worse today bottom great recession significantly reduced median incomes quintiles especially destructive bottom upper limits bottom two quintiles 2012 last year data equivalent 19941995 lowskilled nonimmigrant american chances seen real raise twenty years 160 economic fact serious policy implications conservatives republicans declining real incomes extended bouts unemployment intersect structure americas safety net increase number people eligible existing programs also creates greater demand government redistribution resulting greater popular appeal extensions american welfare state economic stagnation also increases pressure existing safety net many programs condition eligibility household income work status food stamps example available household gross income 130 percent federal poverty limit 2014 equaled 31005 fourperson household meaning adults could earn shy 15 hour fulltime yearround work still eligible since poverty limit climbs year stagnating wages result greater eligibility families collegeaged children qualify pell grants supplemental education opportunity grants incomes well lower ranges middle class federally financed healthinsurance programs like medicaid childrens health insurance program chip also available based household income rather work status stagnating wages bottom economic ladder also result greater eligibility programs incongruous result workers americas bestknown profitable companies deriving benefits safetynet programs according dayton daily news 117890 people working one fifty largest firms ohio receiving food stamps 141182 medicaid february 2013 list employers large numbers workers receiving benefits dominated restaurant chains mcdonalds burger king bob evans wendys large grocery chains kroger walmart nearly 30 percent walmart employees received food stamps according report stagnating incomes bottom also make federal programs conditioned nonwork attractive social security disability insurance ssdi program case point ssdi created 1956 ensure americans could work serious disability would become poor years definition serious disability expanded includes general complaints pain mental issues depression vocational factors applicants ability get job given ones age education work history also part disability determination result combined economic difficulties facing lowskilled workers dramatic ssdi caseloads exploded last twenty years especially last decade 1989 three million americans received ssdi today almost ten million eleven million include children spouses disabled workers one looks program believes large spike caseloads americas workplaces become less safe instead observers contend expanded definitions disability intersected declining opportunities good jobs lowskilled older workers give rise massive temptation people consider case man fifties whose factory closes ssdi offers steady check 1000 month also eligible medicare disabled two years long backlog process ssdi claims means applicants expect receive medicare immediately upon enrollment worker says work struggle find job may pay tax 1000 month may offer health insurance says cant gets low secure payment life qualify based subjective difficulttodisprove criteria take lack job opportunities account given surprise ssdi applications soared last decade even prior great recession ssdi applications risen fallen based unemployment rate time annual applications remained two million 2001 rose almost 50 percent 2001 2004 remained historically record levels great recession rose another 33 percent 2008 2010 hit nearly three million nearly 175 million people added net ssdi rolls since 2008 many observers noted laborforceparticipation rates thirtyyear lows opportunity well better ssdi economy surely important impact cost american taxpayer huge rising ssdi benefits alone 140 billion 2013 bit less 1 percent ssdi medicaid payments disabled people mainly include people receiving benefits another disability program supplemental security income ssi another 167 billion state federal levels fiscal year 2012 medicare spent yet another 68 billion disabled nonelderly recipients 2012 double spent 2001 ssi serves mainly disabled children elderly blind spent another 562 billion fiscal year 2014 together means taxpayers pay least 441 billion benefits services disabled people 25 percent gdp growing reliance safety net likely increase dramatically obamacare chance design measures key features directly beneficial working americans belowmedian incomes medicaid expansion allows states extend coverage adults households making less 138 percent poverty level 32918 family four households making level get health insurance state federal exchanges households choose cheapest bronze plan would receive family health insurance without pay premiums big money families according henry j kaiser family foundations online subsidy calculator family four marietta ohio making cutoff medicaid eligibility would receive 7000 tax credits bronze plan tremendous subsidy available even households earning much kaiser website tells us marietta family would still receive free bronze plan earned 53000 slightly higher national median income 51000 even family four earning 65000 would pay 1900 bronze plan receiving 5100 federal subsidies exchanges political swing states generous iowa dubuque wisconsin wausau colorado pueblo nevada north las vegas bronze plans free cost less 150 year families four earning 39000 annually easy see safety net obamacare enormously important lowskilled americans making median income nationally people still outnumbered making 65000 year elderly makes particularly difficult political challenge conservatives address fact states need gain win back presidency benefit disproportionally programs 160 list battleground states hasnt changed much past twenty years unlikely change much 2016 means next republican nominee must pick electoral votes needed win small group states florida virginia ohio iowa colorado wisconsin new hampshire nevada virginia special case large number highly educated northern virginia voters attracted washington dc federal government case gop hopes rest persuading larger numbers white hispanic workingclass voters support partys nominee colorado florida nevada contain large democraticleaning hispanic populations provided president obama victory margins 2008 2012 2012 electorates 14 19 percent hispanic president took 60 florida 75 colorado percent votes hispanic population state continues grow 2016 share vote even higher exit polls show growth change voting preference hispanic community sole reason mitt romney lost state see comparing share white vote obtained george w bush carried states romney 2004 bush received 57 percent white vote colorado 55 percent nevada 57 percent florida romney received 54 percent colorado 56 percent nevada 61 percent florida however state share whites percentage electorate declinedby 3 percent florida 8 percent colorado huge 13 percent nevada decline matched large increases states hispanic population share hispanic vote colorado rose 8 percent 2004 14 percent 2012 nevada 10 percent 19 percent florida 15 percent 17 percent true romney much worse among hispanics states nationwide bush even romney matched bushs showing would picked florida nearly doubling size eight years hispanic vote colorado nevada turned reliably republican states decades democraticleaning outposts hispanic voters overwhelmingly noncollegeeducated earn median income according census bureau 13 percent hispanics bachelors degree higher 2011 thirty percent health insurance hispanic median income shade 38000 significantly us national median opinion surveys also show hispanics much likelier whites support larger government services smaller government lower taxes conservative effort win back colorado nevada must take notice facts conservative gop nominee may seek counter trends relying swing states northeast midwest states hispanics except ohio much lower percentages african americans asians rest country dominated however bluecollar voters evangelicals exit polls 2008 show whites without college degree majority electorate ohio wisconsin iowa 45 percent new hampshire much higher 39 percent national share moreover bluecollar whites states much likelier catholic lutheran nationally accordingly president obama carried white working class wisconsin iowa new hampshire 2008 losing ohio larger percentage neither catholic lutheran president retained voters 2012 despite poor economy journalist ron brownstein calculated obama carried whites without college degrees iowa ran even romney among new hampshire carried 45 percent wisconsin 42 percent ohio high enough state allow urban coalition blacks liberal welleducated whites carry victory data compiled political scientist larry bartels show presidents support among noncollegeeducated whites came largely working lowermiddle classes exactly people affected great recession wage pressures preceding decade bartelss analysis shows nonsouthern whites making less 45000 year voted president 2012 making 45000 62500 gave 45 percent votes conservative analysts may decry dependency safetynet programs engender clearly voters struggled decades concerned facts gone unnoticed states republican governors every gop governor states except wisconsins scott walker either expanded medicaid endorsed expansion even walker reformed states generous medicaid program expand insurance coverage nearly one hundred thousand people without taking new federal money ohio governor john kasich intent expanding medicaid prior 2014 reelection vote used appointees obscure state board get around opposition republicans state legislature expand program nations two hispanic republican governors nevadas brian sandoval new mexicos susana martinez also took leading roles establishing states exchanges pursuant obamacare republican governors michigan pennsylvania two potential swing states lean slightly democratic also endorsed medicaid expansion 160 indiana republican governor mike pences 2014 announcement would seek expand medicaid shows strong political pressure pence conservative congressman one twentyone gop stalwarts vote president bushs bill creating prescriptiondrug coverage seniors yet indiana another state politically dominated whites without college degrees group comprised 56 percent 2008 electorate highest percentage midwestern state group also significantly larger evangelical christian portion elsewhere midwest pence surely recognized economic pressures make medicaid expansion tempting lowincome whites elsewhere apply hoosiers well pences proposal slightly different offers lens one view options conservatives crafting original response pressures largely hostile reception idea met among conservative intellectuals however shows say impetus remains strong right pences idea builds program serving part medicaid population started predecessor mitch daniels daniels plan called healthy indiana program hip created health savings accounts hsas forty thousand recipients state funded part recipients hsa long recipient also contributed state used funds hsa financing although continued rely mix state federal funds underlying basic healthinsurance coverage pences idea would take concept expand 330000 ablebodied adults earning 100 138 percent federal poverty limit also limit expanded medicaid eligibility obamacare pences plan would use money available obamacare expansion pay hip expansion would change hip plan significantly lowering amount money recipients would asked pay hsas dropping requirement pay completely would contribute would get less comprehensive plan would however add premiumsupport component hoosiers eligible new program also could take employer coverage could use hsa dollars pay share premium employeroffered program conservative opposition pences plan covers host issues essentially boils two cost dependency heritage foundations nina owcharenko focused first complaint attack arguing even state could says fully fund expansion 2020 original estimates likely true full cost furthermore since federal promises pay high portion expansion could changed future indiana taxpayers could legally stuck paying higher share much costly program owcharenkos cost argument essentially echoed many critics mercatus centers veronique de rugy unlike owcharenko however de rugy raises issue increasing dependency reducing dependence government increasingly cited many conservatives justification opposing obamacare increased foodstamp usage host safetynet entitlement programs term rarely clearly defined heritage foundations annual index dependence government published decade discontinuing 2014 included social security medicare dependencyinducing programs claim virtually conservative politician seriously echo however clearly include receipt government checks inkind services health insurance ablebodied people working age vociferous conservative opposition pences proposal indeed medicaid expansion generally comes idea best elucidated blistering critique penned foundation government accountabilitys josh archambault colleagues argued pences plan creates new entitlement largely ablebodied nonworking adults cite data showing half indiana adults earning less 138 percent federal poverty limit work 14 percent work fulltime yearround contend medicaid expansion discourages work citing studies showing medicaid expansion previously reduced fulltime employment likelihood working 11 percent particularly troubling given fact fulltime employment moves people government dependence selfsufficiency emphasis added 160 assertion brings us back original point economic changes past fifteen years increasingly mean fulltime employment lowskilled create selfsufficiency term mean relatively secure access basic housing medical care transportation food without government assistance federal poverty limit family four currently 23850 single earner working forty hours week fiftytwo weeks year would make 1150 per hour barely exceed amount millions people today work fulltime still lift poverty state ohio maintains detailed data breaking hourly wages occupation twentytwo typical lowskilled occupations data set1 two pay enough person making occupations median wage working fulltime year could support family four poverty line fall much short earning less 10 hour jobs trivial part economy ohio one million people jobs nearly 20 percent states total employment means half million people ohio work jobs dont allow provide benefits mentioned surely many jobs offer health insurance retirement plans sort readers article accustomed 160 course many families two adults could work bring household poverty line given reality children however highly unlikely adults would work fulltime least fulltime time day families situation cant afford child care without government subsidy makes economic sense one member family work parttime person take care children school shockingly precisely arrangement archambault colleagues also attack note indiana data show nearly half people households earning less 138 percent poverty limit currently work note 14 percent work fulltime year round whether choice unemployment dont say another 11 percent work fulltime part year another 26 percent work parttime year since previously argued medicaid reduces work use data contend pences proposal would make bad situation worse really single person without dependents chooses work less play clearly morally distinguishable harried mom chooses work less home kids get distinguish different cases problematic yet common say faction fall prey temptation pences proposal trying solve real problem according archambault colleagues data 373 percent hoosiers household earning less 138 percent federal poverty level uninsured figure 329 percent even among working fulltime year children uninsured households already eligible publicly funded insurance medicaid chip question answer whether society work help adults benefit conservatives say question ignore political economic realities time also ignore manner conservative principles used help address problem without sort onesizefitsall programs conservatives rightly decry draw principles elucidated ronald reagan guidance 160 people would argue reagan fan modern welfare state burst onto national political scene time choosing televised address endorsing barry goldwater speech frequently equated american liberals socialists castigated people trading liberty soup kitchen welfare state even however reagan oppose federal efforts help needy americans indeed famous speech includes oftoverlooked middle portion provides prescient guidance todays conservatives seek alternative say policies part reagan asserted federal government ensure old person would become destitute old age one country denied medical care lack funds words endorsed principle justifies social security medicare critical programs however compulsory government programs allow individuals make choices would benefit without compromising purpose programs assistance people need private provision people dont linchpins reagans approach redistribution today principles could used significantly reform entitlement welfare programs conservatives decry without heartlessly ignoring need health insurance adults working near poverty line example could provided premiumsupport model gives workers subsidy purchase privatesector insurance could significantly different exchanges obamacare policies available websites heavily regulated federal government whole set mandated benefits standardized coverage clauses force people buy insurance neither want need conservative alternative would much flexible permit people buy sorts policies better meet health financial goals reaganinspired conservative approach could also permit individuals receiving financial aid use meet portions employeroffered policy programs like food stamps unemployment insurance ssdi ssi could also reformed provide right help right people right manner lowskilled person fully incapacitated programs could changed along lines 1990sera welfarereform bill conservatives stripes normally champion bill established firm work requirements ablebodied adults could work way required work also provided work supports childcare vouchers vocational counseling tax credits employers hired welfareeligible mothers discouraged capable moms could right assistance find keep jobs contemporaneous expansion earned income tax credit eitc also functioned effective wage subsidy ensure single mothers working lowskilled lowpay jobs earnings raised werent financially tempted give ssdi ssi example could reformed applicants margin ie physically mentally able work received counseling medication treat issues instead ruled incapable performing work whatsoever jobs scarce cities federal government could offer relocation allowances encourage move economically vibrant locations unemployment insurance could also reformed permit money spent food stamps people could shifted proposed senator marco rubio form formal wage subsidy along lines revised eitc case types reforms would make easier challenged lowskilled person say yes rather cant embracing form federal assistance people need conservatives would likely reduce dependency would say approach approach would also begin address conservatives longstanding political nemesis compassion polls decades shown voters rate democrats compassionate either republicans conservatives compassion issue 2012 demonstrated exit polls voters asked four qualities important president mitt romney among voters selecting three qualities shares values strong leader vision future fully 74 percent voters chose one three qualities romney handily nine twentythree points isnt president today lost among 21 percent chose fourth quality sixtythree points quality cares people like conservatives often fret gender gap racial gap marriage gap gaps large probably driven much one underlying concern separate issues conservatives need address empathy gap say precisely wrong way dreams people may differ ronald reagan said everyone wants dreams come true tens millions lowskilled americans dreams coming true many turning nightmares american conservatism best embraces reagans thought combining love liberty overriding love people present crisis antigovernment fundamentalism threatens place two odds one another fatal effect conservatism country henry olsen senior fellow ethics public policy center | 3,381 |
<p>The Congressional Budget Office’s re-scoring of Obamacare in light of the Supreme Court’s decision was <a href="http://cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/43472-07-24-2012-CoverageEstimates.pdf" type="external">released today</a>. It projects that the effect of the Court’s decision would not be very large—about 3 million fewer Americans insured in ten years, and about $84 billion less in spending over the next ten years (out of a total of about $1.7 trillion in spending on the law’s coverage provisions) than would otherwise have happened.</p>
<p>The methods by which CBO chose to determine these figures and to present them—for instance, avoiding offering specific state-decision scenarios on the Medicaid expansion and instead offering an average of an unknown number of scenarios with an unpublished range of outcomes—helps to minimize the appearance of uncertainty and the sense that the Court decision dramatically affected the range of plausible outcomes, though it surely did.</p>
<p>Moreover, CBO chose to assume that the Court’s reconfiguration of the individual mandate into a tax would have essentially no effect on compliance with the mandate. I actually think (as James Capretta and I <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/309441/mandate-after-court-james-c-capretta" type="external">noted</a>&#160;on NRO last week) that it’s basically true that the Court’s decision won’t have a major effect on actual compliance in the real world, but that it should have a significant effect on CBO’s estimate of that compliance because the CBO’s original estimate was far, far too optimistic and relied in part on a premise that the Court’s decision should have badly undermined.</p>
<p>The insurance reforms in Obamacare create huge incentives for young and healthy Americans to avoid purchasing health insurance until they get sick. CBO originally projected that the vast majority of these people would still buy coverage, despite the mandate’s low penalty (relative to the cost of insurance), and in doing so the agency relied to a significant extent on evidence from behavioral economics suggesting that people obey legal requirements even when the penalty for doing otherwise is low. The Roberts decision last month, for all its considerable incoherence, would seem to close off that particular argument, since it plainly stated that the mandate could no longer be understood as a mandate but only as a tax on the uninsured. Would a $695 tax make you buy a $5,000 insurance policy if you knew you could get the policy for the same price later if you needed it?</p>
<p>Today’s CBO re-score insists that nothing has changed, however, and it does so by ignoring the nature and character of the Court’s decision. The report states that:</p>
<p>The Supreme Court’s decision upholding the constitutionality of the ACA’s provision requiring most individuals to obtain insurance coverage or pay a penalty tax does not change CBO and JCT’s assessment of the mandate’s effect on coverage.</p>
<p>But in fact, the Roberts decision specifically rejected this understanding of the mandate. Roberts wrote:</p>
<p>The Federal Government does not have the power to order people to buy health insurance. Section 5000A would therefore be unconstitutional if read as a command. The Federal Government does have the power to impose a tax on those without health insurance. Section 5000A is therefore constitutional, because it can reasonably be read as a tax.</p>
<p>So as reinterpreted by the Court, the mandate is not “a provision requiring most individuals to obtain insurance coverage or pay a penalty tax” but is rather just a tax. By the CBO’s own prior reckoning, the fact of the requirement was a significant driver of compliance, so if it’s not a requirement then compliance would be diminished. The agency’s health-care analysts were aware of the problem in the course of this re-scoring, but in the end evidently decided they would do best to pretend it did not exist and report no significant effect on compliance.</p>
<p>As always, we have to approach CBO analyses with an appreciation for the enormous complexity of the tasks assigned to the agency—it is expected to predict the effects of impossibly convoluted legislation, and is required to do so under assumptions that bear little relation to reality. This re-score in light of the Court’s decision is not all that much less reasonable than the original score the agency provided before the Congress voted on Obamacare: Both involve some quite implausibly hopeful assumptions about how politicians, citizens, and businesses will behave in the future, and the agency had no choice but to adopt such assumptions. In this case as in many others, the particular figures in the report matter less than the general trend—no one can predict exactly how things will work out if Obamacare is permitted to take effect, but CBO lays out a broad trajectory.</p>
<p>In light of that fact, it’s worth noting how grim the basics are, even using CBO’s implausibly hopeful scenarios. The agency projects that the federal government will spend about $1.7 trillion, increase taxes by about a trillion dollars, and cut Medicare spending by more than $700 billion without any real structural reforms of the program (though it’s hard imagine that last one would actually happen in practice). It will create yet another unsustainable health-care entitlement program, expand the existing ones, micromanage the insurance industry in ways likely to make it even less efficient, employ even heavier price controls of the sort that have always failed in Medicare, and (especially through its taxes) stifle employment, investment, and medical research. And after all this, even the CBO’s very optimistic assumptions leave it concluding that 30 million Americans will be uninsured a decade from now—we will have gone from today’s 80% coverage to 89% in 2023. If that’s what the Left means by universal coverage, there are far, far less costly and counterproductive ways to get there.</p>
<p>That 30 million uninsured figure in today’s CBO report put me in mind of a passage from Confidence Men, Ron Suskind’s 2011 book about President Obama’s early domestic and economic policy decisions. Suskind describes Obama’s early resistance to including an individual mandate in the health-care bill (he had, after all, run against the idea in the 2008 election). His advisors were firmly in favor of a mandate. In April 2009, Nancy-Ann DeParle, who was leading the White House health-reform effort, sent the president a memo expressly making the case for a mandate as essential to reducing the number of uninsured Americans. Suskind writes:</p>
<p>Obama, never much for the mandate, was concerned about legal challenges to it but was impressed by DeParle’s coverage numbers. Without the mandate, the still-sketchy Obama plan would leave twenty-eight million Americans uninsured; with the mandate, the estimates of the number left uninsured were well below ten million.</p>
<p>Today’s CBO report projects that Obamacare with the individual mandate (or tax, or whatever) would leave 30 million Americans uninsured—more than the number that Obama was told the law would leave uninsured without the mandate, and which he considered so appalling as to justify a move that he believed risked a constitutional challenge (and which indeed resulted in one). You have to wonder if in his heart of hearts the president is not as disappointed with Obamacare as most Americans are.</p>
<p>There’s a way out, Mr. President: You just have to vote for the other guy.</p>
<p>Yuval Levin is Hertog fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and editor of National Affairs.</p> | false | 1 | congressional budget offices rescoring obamacare light supreme courts decision released today projects effect courts decision would largeabout 3 million fewer americans insured ten years 84 billion less spending next ten years total 17 trillion spending laws coverage provisions would otherwise happened methods cbo chose determine figures present themfor instance avoiding offering specific statedecision scenarios medicaid expansion instead offering average unknown number scenarios unpublished range outcomeshelps minimize appearance uncertainty sense court decision dramatically affected range plausible outcomes though surely moreover cbo chose assume courts reconfiguration individual mandate tax would essentially effect compliance mandate actually think james capretta noted160on nro last week basically true courts decision wont major effect actual compliance real world significant effect cbos estimate compliance cbos original estimate far far optimistic relied part premise courts decision badly undermined insurance reforms obamacare create huge incentives young healthy americans avoid purchasing health insurance get sick cbo originally projected vast majority people would still buy coverage despite mandates low penalty relative cost insurance agency relied significant extent evidence behavioral economics suggesting people obey legal requirements even penalty otherwise low roberts decision last month considerable incoherence would seem close particular argument since plainly stated mandate could longer understood mandate tax uninsured would 695 tax make buy 5000 insurance policy knew could get policy price later needed todays cbo rescore insists nothing changed however ignoring nature character courts decision report states supreme courts decision upholding constitutionality acas provision requiring individuals obtain insurance coverage pay penalty tax change cbo jcts assessment mandates effect coverage fact roberts decision specifically rejected understanding mandate roberts wrote federal government power order people buy health insurance section 5000a would therefore unconstitutional read command federal government power impose tax without health insurance section 5000a therefore constitutional reasonably read tax reinterpreted court mandate provision requiring individuals obtain insurance coverage pay penalty tax rather tax cbos prior reckoning fact requirement significant driver compliance requirement compliance would diminished agencys healthcare analysts aware problem course rescoring end evidently decided would best pretend exist report significant effect compliance always approach cbo analyses appreciation enormous complexity tasks assigned agencyit expected predict effects impossibly convoluted legislation required assumptions bear little relation reality rescore light courts decision much less reasonable original score agency provided congress voted obamacare involve quite implausibly hopeful assumptions politicians citizens businesses behave future agency choice adopt assumptions case many others particular figures report matter less general trendno one predict exactly things work obamacare permitted take effect cbo lays broad trajectory light fact worth noting grim basics even using cbos implausibly hopeful scenarios agency projects federal government spend 17 trillion increase taxes trillion dollars cut medicare spending 700 billion without real structural reforms program though hard imagine last one would actually happen practice create yet another unsustainable healthcare entitlement program expand existing ones micromanage insurance industry ways likely make even less efficient employ even heavier price controls sort always failed medicare especially taxes stifle employment investment medical research even cbos optimistic assumptions leave concluding 30 million americans uninsured decade nowwe gone todays 80 coverage 89 2023 thats left means universal coverage far far less costly counterproductive ways get 30 million uninsured figure todays cbo report put mind passage confidence men ron suskinds 2011 book president obamas early domestic economic policy decisions suskind describes obamas early resistance including individual mandate healthcare bill run idea 2008 election advisors firmly favor mandate april 2009 nancyann deparle leading white house healthreform effort sent president memo expressly making case mandate essential reducing number uninsured americans suskind writes obama never much mandate concerned legal challenges impressed deparles coverage numbers without mandate stillsketchy obama plan would leave twentyeight million americans uninsured mandate estimates number left uninsured well ten million todays cbo report projects obamacare individual mandate tax whatever would leave 30 million americans uninsuredmore number obama told law would leave uninsured without mandate considered appalling justify move believed risked constitutional challenge indeed resulted one wonder heart hearts president disappointed obamacare americans theres way mr president vote guy yuval levin hertog fellow ethics public policy center editor national affairs | 665 |
<p>Randy Boyagoda set out to write a “sympathetic yet critical-minded” book and he has done just that.&#160; His new biography, Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square, takes seriously the Christian faith according to which Fr Neuhaus ordered his life and work. The result is an authentic and compelling portrait of a man who had as much influence as any in the 20th century on the place of religion in American public life.</p>
<p>Boyagoda’s success is no small feat considering the particulars of the life in question. Neuhaus was a prominent public figure for the better part of five decades—from the 1960s until his death in 2009. His writings are voluminous and cover a remarkable breadth of subjects. So wide and varied are the events and controversies in which Neuhaus played a part that it would be easy for an author to lose his subject, or his readers, amidst all the twists and turns.</p>
<p>Through a complicated and wide-ranging biography—a childhood in small-town, depression-era Canada; boarding school in Nebraska (he was “asked not to come back”); “knocking about” in Cisco, Texas (Neuhaus owned and operated a gas station at age 16); back to school; to seminary in St Louis; to a poor parish in Brooklyn; and eventually to a long tenure on the national stage—Richard John Neuhaus comes more clearly in focus, not less. This is a credit to Boyagoda’s sensibilities as a writer and storyteller and to his willingness to take seriously Neuhaus’ own accounting for his life and work.</p>
<p>That life and work played out in the service of many causes and was marked by several important conversions. He was a Lutheran pastor—the son of a Lutheran pastor—who converted to Catholicism in his sixth decade. He first came to national prominence during the civil rights movement as the outspoken pastor of a poor black church in Brooklyn. He agitated, marched, pledged, and protested—for social justice and against the Vietnam War—even getting arrested during the tumultuous 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. He saw the pro-life movement as a natural corollary to the civil rights movement and was a fierce defender of the unborn.</p>
<p>As Neuhaus watched liberal Christianity hollow itself out from the inside, he found himself more and more at odds with the movements (and politics) that had brought him to prominence. By the time he published The Naked Public Square in 1984, he was at the forefront of a growing, largely conservative, resistance to what he saw as the theological denuding of American public life. It was his founding and editing of the journal First Things, the goal of which was and is the articulation of an alternative, that stands as his greatest contribution to American public life.</p>
<p>Neuhaus was fond of quoting T.S. Eliot’s line: “If we take the widest and wisest view of a Cause, there is no such thing as a Lost Cause, because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause.” The many causes to which Neuhaus joined his efforts were always secondary when considered against the background of “the widest and wisest view”—an unmistakably religious vantage point, he would insist.</p>
<p>All this emerges poignantly in an interview Neuhaus gave in 1975, when he was in mid-shift from political left to right. Neuhaus spoke about the greatest influences on his thinking (as told by Boyagoda):</p>
<p>“Paul, above all Paul, always Paul: I Corinthians 4:5 is the style, Romans 14:8 is the bedrock of confidence.” For style, in other words, it’s Paul’s admission “Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts.” For the bedrock, it’s Paul’s assurance that “whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.” (p. 187)</p>
<p>Here we find the first (and last) thing about Richard John Neuhaus, and the lens Boyagoda uses to bring the many public facets of Neuhaus into a coherent and focused portrait. As the final chapter of the book movingly attests, Fr Neuhaus died as he lived: as a Christian pastor whose only true solace came in the firm knowledge that “whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.”</p>
<p>Readers looking for a thorough evaluation of Neuhaus’ legacy will not find it in this book. The book ends immediately, almost abruptly, with Neuhaus’ death on January 8, 2009.</p>
<p>That the ongoing debates over the role of religion in public life have only intensified in the years since his death serves to underscore and confirm Neuhaus’ insight into the necessary role of religion in public life and the myriad threats to that role. Unless informed by the truth about man—a truth that is distinctively, irreducibly religious—our political, economic, and social institutions will crumble under their own weight.</p>
<p>The faithful Christian, then, is not just a good citizen but the best—acting for both the worldly and ultimate good of his neighbor, and living the virtues necessary for freedom to be lived well. In the last analysis, a Christian who fails to labor for the political good, fails in charity.</p>
<p>The generation now coming into its own is one whose experience of American life consists of costly wars overseas and the unravelling of family and economic life (to say nothing of religious freedom) at home. &#160;This is a generation that stands to learn a great deal from the life of Richard John Neuhaus, and his insistence—in word and deed—that the world cannot afford for us to forget wherein our true hope lies.</p>
<p>Stephen P. White is a fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC and coordinator of the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society.</p> | false | 1 | randy boyagoda set write sympathetic yet criticalminded book done that160 new biography richard john neuhaus life public square takes seriously christian faith according fr neuhaus ordered life work result authentic compelling portrait man much influence 20th century place religion american public life boyagodas success small feat considering particulars life question neuhaus prominent public figure better part five decadesfrom 1960s death 2009 writings voluminous cover remarkable breadth subjects wide varied events controversies neuhaus played part would easy author lose subject readers amidst twists turns complicated wideranging biographya childhood smalltown depressionera canada boarding school nebraska asked come back knocking cisco texas neuhaus owned operated gas station age 16 back school seminary st louis poor parish brooklyn eventually long tenure national stagerichard john neuhaus comes clearly focus less credit boyagodas sensibilities writer storyteller willingness take seriously neuhaus accounting life work life work played service many causes marked several important conversions lutheran pastorthe son lutheran pastorwho converted catholicism sixth decade first came national prominence civil rights movement outspoken pastor poor black church brooklyn agitated marched pledged protestedfor social justice vietnam wareven getting arrested tumultuous 1968 democratic convention chicago saw prolife movement natural corollary civil rights movement fierce defender unborn neuhaus watched liberal christianity hollow inside found odds movements politics brought prominence time published naked public square 1984 forefront growing largely conservative resistance saw theological denuding american public life founding editing journal first things goal articulation alternative stands greatest contribution american public life neuhaus fond quoting ts eliots line take widest wisest view cause thing lost cause thing gained cause many causes neuhaus joined efforts always secondary considered background widest wisest viewan unmistakably religious vantage point would insist emerges poignantly interview neuhaus gave 1975 midshift political left right neuhaus spoke greatest influences thinking told boyagoda paul paul always paul corinthians 45 style romans 148 bedrock confidence style words pauls admission judge nothing time lord come bring light hidden things darkness make manifest counsels hearts bedrock pauls assurance whether live live unto lord whether die die unto lord whether live therefore die lords p 187 find first last thing richard john neuhaus lens boyagoda uses bring many public facets neuhaus coherent focused portrait final chapter book movingly attests fr neuhaus died lived christian pastor whose true solace came firm knowledge whether live therefore die lords readers looking thorough evaluation neuhaus legacy find book book ends immediately almost abruptly neuhaus death january 8 2009 ongoing debates role religion public life intensified years since death serves underscore confirm neuhaus insight necessary role religion public life myriad threats role unless informed truth mana truth distinctively irreducibly religiousour political economic social institutions crumble weight faithful christian good citizen bestacting worldly ultimate good neighbor living virtues necessary freedom lived well last analysis christian fails labor political good fails charity generation coming one whose experience american life consists costly wars overseas unravelling family economic life say nothing religious freedom home 160this generation stands learn great deal life richard john neuhaus insistencein word deedthat world afford us forget wherein true hope lies stephen p white fellow catholic studies ethics public policy center washington dc coordinator tertio millennio seminar free society | 517 |
<p>Son of the Bride, written by Fernando Castets and Juan José Campanella, who also directed, is an&#160;utterly captivating little&#160;Argentine/Spanish co-production. Set in present day&#160;Buenos Aires, it tells the story of Rafael Belvedere (Ricardo Darín), a divorced, law-school drop-out of 42 who&#160;now runs, rather successfully, the up-scale restaurant his mother and father started when he was a child. His father Nino (Héctor Alterio) still drops in on the restaurant from time to time and makes his incomparable tiramasu, but his mother, Norma (Norma Aleandro), is now in a nursing home, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Rafael rarely visits her, but her presence looms large in his life. Her disappointment on his dropping out of law-school still rankles, and he is embittered by the fact that, now he has at last achieved some success in life, she is beyond feeling proud of him, as indeed she is beyond everything else.</p>
<p>Perhaps the film’s greatest achievement is the sense it is able to convey to us of what an impressive woman Señora Belvedere once was while showing her only in the ravages of old age. It does so partly by showing us the devotion to her of her son and husband, in their very different ways, and partly by the remarkable performance of Norma Aleandro as the ruin of something much grander. The nonsense phrase she keeps repeating in an ill-natured way, a propos of nothing, is “Look at this mess,” and we can well believe that here is a woman who has spent her life cleaning up messes with terrifying efficiency, though without much sympathy for those who caused them. In fact, the film begins with the young Rafael and a friend picking a fight with some older boys and his mother — represented only by her midriff — getting them out of it and chasing the boys away.</p>
<p>In their play, Rafael is Zorro, his friend the sidekick, Sgt Garcia. But that youthful sense of idealism, the desire to right wrongs and do noble deeds, has long since been forgotten. When we meet him 34 years later, his drive for efficiency and his impatience with employees and suppliers as he constantly barks down his cell-phone, calling everyone “moron,” is meant to give us the idea, I think, that he is his mother’s son, though he rarely goes to see her. He is obviously on bad terms with his ex-wife (Claudia Fontán) and his charming young daughter, Vicky (Gimena Nóbile), is afraid of him and unwilling to spend the court-mandated time with him that her father expects but does not enjoy.</p>
<p>One day a policeman comes into the restaurant and starts asking awkward questions. Rafael is prepared to bribe him, after the custom of the country, but the man takes off his sunglasses and reveals himself as his best friend from childhood, Juan Carlos (Eduardo Blanco) — an actor now who is playing a joke on him — with whom he has long since lost touch. Sergeant Garcia has come back into his life. Other things begin happening to Rafael at about the same time. A big corporation tries to buy him out of his little family restaurant, his father announces that, after 44 years of marriage, he wants to marry his mother in church, as she always wanted, he begins to have doubts about his relationship with his strikingly beautiful Spanish girlfriend, Nati (Natalia Verbeke), and he has a heart attack.</p>
<p>At this point, a number of uses might have been made of the Zorro motif, most notably given the Argentine setting and hints of corruption and bribery, a political one. In the press materials, Campanella and Castets claim that among their purposes was a commentary upon the economic and political troubles currently affecting Argentina, but unless they intend to make a connection between the public stage and the private life of their hero too subtle for me to grasp the movie turns in quite a different direction. Juan Carlos is no longer a sidekick but an adviser and counselor in the art of living. He, we learn, has lost his wife and daughter in a road accident and almost went to pieces before pulling himself together with a new appreciation for the preciousness of life. Obviously, his importance to a man who has lost wife and daughter in a less irrevocable sense is considerable.</p>
<p>The opportunity for cheap uplift is not quite ignored as the heart attack gives Rafael the sort of opportunity given to Juan Carlos by his bereavement — the opportunity to stand back and take stock of his life. But it is telling that his first impulse is a false one, namely to sell up and drop out and go off, alone, to Mexico and raise horses. Nati is devastated, realizing that there is no place for her in this scheme, but the ex-wife laughs at him. “What do you know about horses — except for Mr. Ed?” she asks the man whose only leisure-time activity up until this point appears to be watching TV. She is of course right to laugh. And it doesn’t take long for Rafael to realize too that the change he must make is not by running away but by running towards what he has already forsaken.</p>
<p>It is less the heart attack or his friend’s bereavement, however, than it is his father’s quixotic project of getting married in church, in which Rafael becomes reluctantly involved, that effects the necessary change in his life, his attitude, and his relationships with others, especially Nati and Vicky. There is a marvelous scene in which Rafael is arguing with a priest whose duty it has been to tell him that the church cannot sanction the marriage of his father and his mother because his mother, in her present condition, lacks one of the three conditions necessary for celebrating a marriage: discernment.</p>
<p>“Discernment!” exclaims Rafael. “Do you think every couple you marry has discernment? You should have asked me for discernment when I was in my 20s and mad with impatience to get married.” It makes a nice comparison between the kinds of madnesses that affect the beginnings and the ends of our lives, and it helps set the stage for the funny but moving scene of the wedding, in which Juan Carlos is given the job of impersonating a priest. Somehow the idea that either of those who had loved her most could, if only for a moment, penetrate the terrible fog of Norma’s declining age and make human contact once more comes to stand for much more — perhaps for every moment of awakening in our somnambulistic lives when, at last and unexpectedly, we see things as they really are.</p> | false | 1 | son bride written fernando castets juan josé campanella also directed an160utterly captivating little160argentinespanish coproduction set present day160buenos aires tells story rafael belvedere ricardo darín divorced lawschool dropout 42 who160now runs rather successfully upscale restaurant mother father started child father nino héctor alterio still drops restaurant time time makes incomparable tiramasu mother norma norma aleandro nursing home suffering alzheimers disease rafael rarely visits presence looms large life disappointment dropping lawschool still rankles embittered fact last achieved success life beyond feeling proud indeed beyond everything else perhaps films greatest achievement sense able convey us impressive woman señora belvedere showing ravages old age partly showing us devotion son husband different ways partly remarkable performance norma aleandro ruin something much grander nonsense phrase keeps repeating illnatured way propos nothing look mess well believe woman spent life cleaning messes terrifying efficiency though without much sympathy caused fact film begins young rafael friend picking fight older boys mother represented midriff getting chasing boys away play rafael zorro friend sidekick sgt garcia youthful sense idealism desire right wrongs noble deeds long since forgotten meet 34 years later drive efficiency impatience employees suppliers constantly barks cellphone calling everyone moron meant give us idea think mothers son though rarely goes see obviously bad terms exwife claudia fontán charming young daughter vicky gimena nóbile afraid unwilling spend courtmandated time father expects enjoy one day policeman comes restaurant starts asking awkward questions rafael prepared bribe custom country man takes sunglasses reveals best friend childhood juan carlos eduardo blanco actor playing joke long since lost touch sergeant garcia come back life things begin happening rafael time big corporation tries buy little family restaurant father announces 44 years marriage wants marry mother church always wanted begins doubts relationship strikingly beautiful spanish girlfriend nati natalia verbeke heart attack point number uses might made zorro motif notably given argentine setting hints corruption bribery political one press materials campanella castets claim among purposes commentary upon economic political troubles currently affecting argentina unless intend make connection public stage private life hero subtle grasp movie turns quite different direction juan carlos longer sidekick adviser counselor art living learn lost wife daughter road accident almost went pieces pulling together new appreciation preciousness life obviously importance man lost wife daughter less irrevocable sense considerable opportunity cheap uplift quite ignored heart attack gives rafael sort opportunity given juan carlos bereavement opportunity stand back take stock life telling first impulse false one namely sell drop go alone mexico raise horses nati devastated realizing place scheme exwife laughs know horses except mr ed asks man whose leisuretime activity point appears watching tv course right laugh doesnt take long rafael realize change must make running away running towards already forsaken less heart attack friends bereavement however fathers quixotic project getting married church rafael becomes reluctantly involved effects necessary change life attitude relationships others especially nati vicky marvelous scene rafael arguing priest whose duty tell church sanction marriage father mother mother present condition lacks one three conditions necessary celebrating marriage discernment discernment exclaims rafael think every couple marry discernment asked discernment 20s mad impatience get married makes nice comparison kinds madnesses affect beginnings ends lives helps set stage funny moving scene wedding juan carlos given job impersonating priest somehow idea either loved could moment penetrate terrible fog normas declining age make human contact comes stand much perhaps every moment awakening somnambulistic lives last unexpectedly see things really | 562 |
<p>Janet Yellen, the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve, may be entering the final stretch of a tenure defined by her deft navigation of the U.S. economy and the first steps toward exiting crisis-era policies that kept interest rates near zero for the better part of a decade.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump said in July that Yellen is “absolutely” in the running to remain at the helm of the U.S. central bank when her term expires in February. That doesn’t mean he’ll pick her, or that&#160;she even wants a second term. Yellen has declined to comment on the topic. The White House is also considering other candidates.</p>
<p>Whatever happens, the Yellen Fed has already had a far-reaching impact. Unemployment has fallen to around a 16-year low on her watch without sparking the runaway inflation that some feared. In fact, one of the most serious criticisms of her tenure may be that inflation has failed to rise as expected, and remains well below the Fed’s 2 percent target.</p>
<p>Yellen has also presided over the end of the Fed’s emergency-era bond purchases and mapped out a path to gradually shrink its $4.5 trillion balance sheet—both without repeating the market-roiling taper tantrum of predecessor Ben Bernanke. Some 71 percent of 42 economists in a Bloomberg News survey conducted Sept. 12-14 expect the Fed to announce when it will start the runoff at the conclusion of its meeting Wednesday.</p>
<p>Some of Yellen’s steps would be difficult for a successor to undo. What follows is a graphic&#160;look at Yellen’s legacy.</p>
<p>From the first moment she took office, Yellen let it be known that labor market improvement was a high priority.</p>
<p>“The unemployment rate represents millions of individuals who are eager to work but struggling to provide for themselves and their families,” Yellen said at her March 5, 2014, swearing-in ceremony.</p>
<p>In her first major speech as chair a few weeks later, Yellen indicated she was going to look at a broader set of labor market indicators.</p>
<p>She mentioned workers in part-time jobs that wanted full-time work, the number of voluntary quits, low growth rates in compensation&#160;and the share of unemployed who hah&#160;been out of work six months or longer.</p>
<p>“The pre-crisis Fed was of the belief that the unemployment rate served as an excellent proxy for labor market activity,” said Rob Martin, U.S. economist at UBS and a former member of the Fed Board staff. “She is the one that said, ‘Just because the unemployment rate is falling doesn’t mean there still aren’t a lot of people who were pushed outside of the labor market,’” he added.</p>
<p>Even after broader measures of labor market slack began to fall, Yellen captained a strategy that kept rate hikes at a very slow pace.</p>
<p>A key element in the gradual rate hikes—there have been only four in her term, so far—was the chair’s intuition that lower rates of unemployment would pull in more labor supply.</p>
<p>“She was practically a lone voice,” said Andrew Levin, a Dartmouth College professor and former adviser to Yellen. “By contrast, other Fed officials never even mentioned the possibility that a lot of people might rejoin the labor force as the economy strengthened.”</p>
<p>Labor force participation was in decline as aging baby boomers retired. Yellen gambled that some of that decline was cyclical, due to people being marooned without the right skills or opportunities after the recession.</p>
<p>The hunch was vindicated. People who weren’t participating in the labor force started to come back.</p>
<p>Yellen came into office in a time of expansion&#160;and hasn’t presided over a recession. All three of her predecessors did. But the job had its challenges. The economy was in transition to a new pattern of growth, and monetary policy had to be rethought to fit it.</p>
<p>Productivity, a measure of output per hour, was lower. Businesses in 2014 and 2015 were reluctant to invest. Credit was tighter. Inflation has missed the Fed’s 2 percent target during most of the past five years.</p>
<p>There were also shocks during her term, ranging from a slowing growth rate in China to an oil price bust.</p>
<p>“The models we have fit the Great Moderation; they didn’t fit this period,” said Jon Faust, an economist at Johns Hopkins University and former Fed Board adviser, referring to a period of low inflation and steady growth in the 1990s and 2000s.</p>
<p>Under Yellen, the Fed didn’t pre-judge the economy. In 2015 and 2016, the Federal Open Market Committee set aside the more aggressive rate-hiking assumptions it started with, raising just one time in each year.</p>
<p>“A hallmark of her regime has been exquisite patience,” said Nathan Sheets, the former director of the Fed’s international division who is now chief economist at asset manager PGIM Inc., a division of Prudential Financial Inc., in Newark, New Jersey. “This policy has generated hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of more jobs than we otherwise would have had,” Sheets added. “There is a real economic dividend.”</p>
<p>In June, nearly two dozen economists published a letter suggesting a review of the Fed’s 2 percent inflation target.</p>
<p>A month later, at her semi-annual congressional testimony, Yellen said the target is not under review.</p>
<p>Yellen is part of a generation of economists who came of age as inflation began to surge in the U.S. Altering inflation expectations looks risky to her.</p>
<p>“In general, they have been very inconsistent in their inflation message,” said Julia Coronado, president of Macropolicy Perspectives LLC in New York. “She does still have scar tissue from the inflation-conquering phase of central banking.” At the start of 2016, the FOMC clarified that its 2 percent inflation target was “symmetric,” meaning it would resist inflation that was too low, as well as too high.</p>
<p>The Fed has raised interest rates twice this year, with inflation still below target, counting on a tight labor market to push up compensation and then prices.</p>
<p>Low inflation “is a global story,” said Michael Gapen, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital. He said that the next round of central bank chiefs may need to strive for a deeper understanding of the inflation process and adopt a policy response.</p>
<p>The immediate risk is that if inflation remains low, interest rates remain low, and the Fed is likely to hit zero after a few cuts in the next recession. Further stimulus would again require bond purchases, which have been unpopular.</p>
<p>“Getting committee consensus around unconventional policy is much harder,” Coronado said.</p>
<p>An additional criticism of Yellen’s tenure is that the Fed’s steady campaign of greater transparency has slowed to a crawl. That may be because all the low-hanging fruit has been harvested.</p>
<p>Still, the Fed hasn’t explained well the distributional consequences, or economic drags, of new financial regulations that it and other regulators have put in place.</p>
<p>“Regulatory goals conflicted with monetary policy, and they didn’t want to recognize that in a forthright way,” Gapen said.</p>
<p>After sparring with Congress for years over monetary policy rules, only this past January did the Fed&#160;include a special presentation in its monetary policy report on the topic. Earlier engagement might&#160;have mitigated House legislation which, in effect, calls for an audit of Fed monetary policy decisions.</p> | false | 1 | janet yellen first woman chair federal reserve may entering final stretch tenure defined deft navigation us economy first steps toward exiting crisisera policies kept interest rates near zero better part decade president donald trump said july yellen absolutely running remain helm us central bank term expires february doesnt mean hell pick that160she even wants second term yellen declined comment topic white house also considering candidates whatever happens yellen fed already farreaching impact unemployment fallen around 16year low watch without sparking runaway inflation feared fact one serious criticisms tenure may inflation failed rise expected remains well feds 2 percent target yellen also presided end feds emergencyera bond purchases mapped path gradually shrink 45 trillion balance sheetboth without repeating marketroiling taper tantrum predecessor ben bernanke 71 percent 42 economists bloomberg news survey conducted sept 1214 expect fed announce start runoff conclusion meeting wednesday yellens steps would difficult successor undo follows graphic160look yellens legacy first moment took office yellen let known labor market improvement high priority unemployment rate represents millions individuals eager work struggling provide families yellen said march 5 2014 swearingin ceremony first major speech chair weeks later yellen indicated going look broader set labor market indicators mentioned workers parttime jobs wanted fulltime work number voluntary quits low growth rates compensation160and share unemployed hah160been work six months longer precrisis fed belief unemployment rate served excellent proxy labor market activity said rob martin us economist ubs former member fed board staff one said unemployment rate falling doesnt mean still arent lot people pushed outside labor market added even broader measures labor market slack began fall yellen captained strategy kept rate hikes slow pace key element gradual rate hikesthere four term farwas chairs intuition lower rates unemployment would pull labor supply practically lone voice said andrew levin dartmouth college professor former adviser yellen contrast fed officials never even mentioned possibility lot people might rejoin labor force economy strengthened labor force participation decline aging baby boomers retired yellen gambled decline cyclical due people marooned without right skills opportunities recession hunch vindicated people werent participating labor force started come back yellen came office time expansion160and hasnt presided recession three predecessors job challenges economy transition new pattern growth monetary policy rethought fit productivity measure output per hour lower businesses 2014 2015 reluctant invest credit tighter inflation missed feds 2 percent target past five years also shocks term ranging slowing growth rate china oil price bust models fit great moderation didnt fit period said jon faust economist johns hopkins university former fed board adviser referring period low inflation steady growth 1990s 2000s yellen fed didnt prejudge economy 2015 2016 federal open market committee set aside aggressive ratehiking assumptions started raising one time year hallmark regime exquisite patience said nathan sheets former director feds international division chief economist asset manager pgim inc division prudential financial inc newark new jersey policy generated hundreds thousands millions jobs otherwise would sheets added real economic dividend june nearly two dozen economists published letter suggesting review feds 2 percent inflation target month later semiannual congressional testimony yellen said target review yellen part generation economists came age inflation began surge us altering inflation expectations looks risky general inconsistent inflation message said julia coronado president macropolicy perspectives llc new york still scar tissue inflationconquering phase central banking start 2016 fomc clarified 2 percent inflation target symmetric meaning would resist inflation low well high fed raised interest rates twice year inflation still target counting tight labor market push compensation prices low inflation global story said michael gapen chief us economist barclays capital said next round central bank chiefs may need strive deeper understanding inflation process adopt policy response immediate risk inflation remains low interest rates remain low fed likely hit zero cuts next recession stimulus would require bond purchases unpopular getting committee consensus around unconventional policy much harder coronado said additional criticism yellens tenure feds steady campaign greater transparency slowed crawl may lowhanging fruit harvested still fed hasnt explained well distributional consequences economic drags new financial regulations regulators put place regulatory goals conflicted monetary policy didnt want recognize forthright way gapen said sparring congress years monetary policy rules past january fed160include special presentation monetary policy report topic earlier engagement might160have mitigated house legislation effect calls audit fed monetary policy decisions | 703 |
<p>[This summer, on eight successive Tuesday evenings, I am presenting a series of films under the rubric of “Crime and Punishment” at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington. (go to www.eppc.org/movies for details or to register to attend). The fifth film in the series, Touch of Evil by Orson Welles, was screened yesterday evening, July 14, 2009. My introduction appears below.]</p>
<p>Last week, in our discussion of A Place in the Sun, we noticed the film’s considerable interest in what its hero was thinking. Where was his heart? The question of his guilt or innocence depended on it, and when the priest concluded, “in your heart was murder,” his verdict was masked by the much more significant fact, cinematically speaking, that in his heart there was love. It was the love for Elizabeth Taylor’s Angela (so the image on the screen of their passionate embrace tells us) that created the “murder” in his heart by driving out his normal human compassion for the drowning Alice. In this sense, in spite of the ostensible claim that justice was done, that movie appears to me to have been designed to defend a moral indulgence of what I like to call “true psychic reality”: in other words, that inner self at whose altar so many of us worship today and whose demands it becomes the project of our lives to gratify. Another obeisance to this new god was offered up recently by the ostensibly Christian governor of South Carolina when he publicly celebrated his discovery of an adulterous “soul mate” in Argentina.</p>
<p>This week we are coming at the question of true psychic reality from another angle. Orson Welles in Touch of Evil of 1958 plays Hank Quinlan, an aging police captain who relies on his “intuition” rather than the law to punish wrong-doing. His absolute belief in his own inner promptings is presented to us critically, in one way, since it leads Quinlan into corruption and murder, and Hollywood had at that point not yet sunk so low as to celebrate these things. But at the same time “intuition” or something like it must form the basis for Quinlan’s only conceivable claim to the tragic stature that Welles, who also directed the film, wants to confer upon him. There is a sort of heroic authenticity to him because he is so completely what he is, and because this has led him to a position of great power and won him the admiration of others – seemingly everyone at first. His fall is presented to us as the fall of a great man, and his greatness is like that of a Homeric hero, in that it is all to do with his power and nothing to do with the morality or civic responsibility that other movies of the period continued to celebrate. Welles was always said to be ahead of his time.</p>
<p>This impression of greatness is created by the film partly through Welles’s performance. Though later in life he became very fat, at this time he was only 42 and comparatively svelte. What we see of him here was created with the help of a fat suit and a lot of makeup, including a false nose, all of which is designed to show us a man, literally, larger than life. Nobody in American movies could do the grandiose better than Welles, and the grandiose in the movies often shows up as the grand. The problem is that Hank Quinlan, despite his size, just isn’t a great enough man for his fall to inspire us with the pity and terror that Aristotle thought appropriate to tragedy. We are often told, especially by the hero-worshiping Sergeant Pete Menzies played by Joseph Calleia, that Quinlan was a great man. Menzies loves him so much – perhaps because he famously “stopped a bullet” that was intended for him – that he has apparently remained determinedly blind to his corruption for decades. The fulcrum on which the plot turns comes only when he himself finds the chief’s cane, left at the murder scene, which confirms the overwhelming evidence that Charlton Heston’s “Mike” Vargas has already presented to him.</p>
<p>But we really have to take Menzies’s word for it about Quinlan’s greatness. Or his and the words of a few others of his admirers. Marlene Dietrich’s Tanya’s summing up in the final lines, “He was some kind of a man,” remains deliberately ambiguous. Perhaps she still sees something of an earlier greatness, but we do not. We only see his venality, his appetite and his animal cunning. Partly to make up for this, perhaps, Welles tries to confer tragic stature on Quinlan not only through his acting but through the sheer artistry of his direction, which is now more celebrated than it was at the time. Once again, Welles was ahead of his time. Indeed, this film was so unconventional by Hollywood’s standards that it was disastrously re-cut by the studio, prompting Welles to write a now-famous 58-page memo to the studio heads which has formed the basis for the reconstruction of the film that was completed in 1998, 40 years after it was released in its studio-garbled form and thirteen years after Welles’s death in 1985. This is the version that we will be seeing this evening.</p>
<p>Those of you who have seen Welles’s Citizen Kane of 1941, which is often spoken of (though not by me) as the greatest film ever made, will probably recognize a lot of the same directorial and photographic tricks, particularly its use of light and shadow to create atmosphere. But there is another similarity between Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil and that lies in the conception of greatness in their central figures, both of them played by the director himself. Both, that is, are great but deeply flawed public men but with an imperfectly hidden human side, a secret sorrow which, to Welles and his admirers seems to make their lives unbearably poignant. In Kane’s case his sentimental weakness was apparently his opera-singing girlfriend but was really the mystery of “Rosebud” revealed in the closing frames of the film. In Quinlan’s case it is the longing for his dead wife whom he can’t help thinking about, drunk or sober, every waking hour.</p>
<p>Such a model of tender-hearted greatness must have been something in the cultural air for artists of the mid-20th century, for the sentiment is also expressed in a poem by W.H. Auden titled “Who’s Who” –</p>
<p>A shilling life will give you all the facts: How Father beat him, how he ran away, What were the struggles of his youth, what acts Made him the greatest figure of his day; Of how he fought, fished, hunted, worked all night, Though giddy, climbed new mountains; named a sea; Some of the last researchers even write Love made him weep his pints like you and me.</p>
<p>With all his honours on, he sighed for one Who, say astonished critics, lived at home; Did little jobs about the house with skill And nothing else; could whistle; would sit still Or potter round the garden; answered some Of his long marvellous letters but kept none.</p>
<p>A characteristically vulgarized version of the same model is to be found in Michael Mann’s treatment of John Dillinger in Public Enemies. I think this kind of neo-heroic figure with the tender heart exerted the kind of fascination he did and still does – perhaps more on critics than popular audiences – because of the post-war vogue for psychology. Once again, as in A Place in the Sun, it is that secret inner life, the hero’s true psychic reality, which is meant to be the object of our attention, partly if not chiefly on account of the high contrast it makes with the public self, which is accordingly devalued. The film noir, after all, is defined by its high contrasts.</p>
<p>The fallen hero with a sentimental side to him also must have appealed to Welles because he saw himself in the same mold. It wasn’t just his vanity as an actor that led him to play his own hero in both these films. He was in many ways the first – again, ahead of his time – artist-hero of the movie business. Or at least the first in America. We are constantly aware of his directorial presence in the film as the real ce nter of attention in a way that has since become common, even in commercial movies, but was then quite unusual. The director, that is, is always calling attention to his own artistry, as in the famous opening scene of Touch of Evil which is a three and a half minute tracking shot, the longest in cinema history up to that point. The studio, which in Welles’s view, ruined his picture by re-cutting and re-shooting bits of it to conform more to the conventions of movie story-telling at the time, slapped the opening credits over this mind-boggling (to cinéastes) opening shot, in order to show their contempt for it. To the studio heads, Welles was just “showing off.”</p>
<p>It goes very much against the grain of critical orthodoxy these days, but I think they had a point. Such self-conscious artistry was often in the future to come at the expense of the story, and it does here too. In fact, there isn’t much story to Touch of Evil. Or, rather, what story there is is present only in hints and fragments. We see a bomb being planted in a car in that opening scene, but we never find out for sure who planted it. Or why. Or what it has to do with the film’s main characters and their struggles. The plot against Rudy Linnekar which sets everything in motion actually produces little dramatic conflict of its own and is soon forgotten, along with his exploding car. This is what Hitchcock called “the McGuffin” – the necklace or the secret papers the attempt to obtain which produces all the events of the film without its being of any intrinsic interest. Perhaps the most famous example occurs in Hitchcock’s film of the following year, North by Northwest, where we never do learn what the spies are after, and it somehow never seems very important.</p>
<p>In favor of Welles the artist is the enormous influence he has had on subsequent film-makers, including Hitchcock. You can draw a straight line from the moment when a frantic Vargas announces: “I’m no cop now. I’m a husband!” and starts beating up a bunch of Mexican kids dressed as American “juvenile delinquents,” who seem oddly unprovided with weapons, to the scene of Batman roughing up the Joker in last year’s Dark Knight. Then as now, this must have appealed to Hollywood’s idea of profundity: the cop and bad guy have something in common! They both use violence! Since Welles’s day, of course, this has become a tiresome cliché, but it must have seemed fresh and interesting – rather like psychology – at the time. Fans of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, which came out two years later and which also evinced an interest in psychology, might notice the influence of Touch of Evil too. Not only is there in both pictures a lonely motel with a crazy night clerk and only one guest, a woman being terrorized by locals, but even the woman is the same, Janet Leigh.</p>
<p>Andrew Sarris, was quoted as saying of Psycho in Sunday’s New York Times something else that could with equal justice be said of Touch of Evil: “Besides making previous horror films look like variations of Pollyanna, Psycho is overlaid with a richly symbolic commentary on the modern world as a public swamp in which human feelings and passions are flushed down the drain.” In the same way, whatever is going on among the businessmen and criminals of the Texas border town in Touch of Evil – “all border towns bring out the worst in a country” says Vargas to Janet Leigh’s Suzy – is of less interest to the film than the fact that the businessmen and criminals and, yes, the cops too, are all getting mixed up with each other and impossible to tell apart. This is that “public swamp” that Mr. Sarris referred to, and that makes such a poor showing of itself next to the pristine world of private feeling. It also brings up an important point about the position this movie occupies in American cultural history.</p>
<p>As I so often do, I’d like especially to stress the date of this film. To my mind, 1958 stands at the extreme limit of what, up to now in our series, we have called film noir, in deference not only to the French critics who invented the term but also to a whole mythology that has grown up around it, both in American film criticism and in cultural criticism generally. Noir is a term that is instantly understood, even by non-critics, as conveying just this kind of “public swamp” where the bad guys and the good guys get all mixed up together in a tangled web of deception and betrayal in which the only thing that counts is private and personal feelings and the authenticity that they betoken. But I think that true noir film actually died out at around this time – perhaps with Touch of Evil. The noir of the films we have already seen in this series, especially Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice, depended absolutely on the popular sense of right and wrong, innocence and guilt, cop and crook, even if its aim was – as, indeed, it very often was – to create in you a sense of sympathy for the crook.</p>
<p>With Touch of Evil we begin to see what has remained true of Hollywood movies from that day to this, namely an abdication of this moral purpose, a truly swamp-like muddying of the distinction between cop and crook and, accordingly, the whole spectrum of moral behavior – which, thus, gradually drops out of American movies in any meaningful sense. Pictures like The Dark Knight or Public Enemies have lost all interest in the ordinary moral dimension of crime and punishment and so have lost what I consider to be an essential connection to the values and rationale of civil authority which alone is what stands between us and – it is not too much to say – barbarism. In fact, barbarism is a good way to describe what all these films celebrate – a vicious, nightmarish world of competing wills which, as I have suggested already, tries to offer us something of a latter-day equivalent to that of Homeric heroes but without their sense of honor or piety. This is a world where questions of morality and civic virtue are pretty much irrelevant.</p>
<p>In Touch of Evil it also has to do to some extent with the sense of place that I mentioned last week. This is a border town. This isn’t the real Mexico. That idea sets up a rather strained irony, though one that would have been piquant for a 1950s audience, in the fact that the corruption was on the American side of the border while the representative of civic and legal probity comes from the Mexican side. Quinlan, on the Mexican side, says, “Lets get back to civilization,” while Suzy wants to get back onto the American side of the border because “I will be safe there.” Of course the opposite proves to be the case. The savagery to which civilization is contrasted is mostly on the American side, the humanity and idealism (in the form of Vargas’s respect for the rule of law) on the Mexican side.</p>
<p>In America, what we see is a scene of cultural collapse that matches and is perhaps meant to confirm the fall of a great man. To me it is also interesting that Welles associates that collapse with sex, drugs and rock’n’roll – the popular culture of the 1950s that he was not alone in seeing in apocalyptic terms. We can’t help noting the contrast between the raucous music played by the violent, reefer-smoking teens and the pianola in Tanya’s gypsy establishment – “It’s so old it’s new” – that evokes for Quinlan a romantic past which may have had some room for a man to be truly great in. At any rate, in hinting at what these kids portended for the popular culture that lay ahead between his time and ours, Welles could be said once again to have been ahead of his time. The fraternity of modernist film critics to whom he was a hero has a lot to answer for in paving the way for that popular culture by bringing to an end the flowering of the popular arts which took place in Hollywood between 1930 and 1960. But they were also responsible for t he restoration of this movie to the work of art you will see tonight. I wonder if you’ll think they did us any more of a favor in the one case than in the other?</p> | false | 1 | summer eight successive tuesday evenings presenting series films rubric crime punishment ethics public policy center washington go wwweppcorgmovies details register attend fifth film series touch evil orson welles screened yesterday evening july 14 2009 introduction appears last week discussion place sun noticed films considerable interest hero thinking heart question guilt innocence depended priest concluded heart murder verdict masked much significant fact cinematically speaking heart love love elizabeth taylors angela image screen passionate embrace tells us created murder heart driving normal human compassion drowning alice sense spite ostensible claim justice done movie appears designed defend moral indulgence like call true psychic reality words inner self whose altar many us worship today whose demands becomes project lives gratify another obeisance new god offered recently ostensibly christian governor south carolina publicly celebrated discovery adulterous soul mate argentina week coming question true psychic reality another angle orson welles touch evil 1958 plays hank quinlan aging police captain relies intuition rather law punish wrongdoing absolute belief inner promptings presented us critically one way since leads quinlan corruption murder hollywood point yet sunk low celebrate things time intuition something like must form basis quinlans conceivable claim tragic stature welles also directed film wants confer upon sort heroic authenticity completely led position great power admiration others seemingly everyone first fall presented us fall great man greatness like homeric hero power nothing morality civic responsibility movies period continued celebrate welles always said ahead time impression greatness created film partly welless performance though later life became fat time 42 comparatively svelte see created help fat suit lot makeup including false nose designed show us man literally larger life nobody american movies could grandiose better welles grandiose movies often shows grand problem hank quinlan despite size isnt great enough man fall inspire us pity terror aristotle thought appropriate tragedy often told especially heroworshiping sergeant pete menzies played joseph calleia quinlan great man menzies loves much perhaps famously stopped bullet intended apparently remained determinedly blind corruption decades fulcrum plot turns comes finds chiefs cane left murder scene confirms overwhelming evidence charlton hestons mike vargas already presented really take menziess word quinlans greatness words others admirers marlene dietrichs tanyas summing final lines kind man remains deliberately ambiguous perhaps still sees something earlier greatness see venality appetite animal cunning partly make perhaps welles tries confer tragic stature quinlan acting sheer artistry direction celebrated time welles ahead time indeed film unconventional hollywoods standards disastrously recut studio prompting welles write nowfamous 58page memo studio heads formed basis reconstruction film completed 1998 40 years released studiogarbled form thirteen years welless death 1985 version seeing evening seen welless citizen kane 1941 often spoken though greatest film ever made probably recognize lot directorial photographic tricks particularly use light shadow create atmosphere another similarity citizen kane touch evil lies conception greatness central figures played director great deeply flawed public men imperfectly hidden human side secret sorrow welles admirers seems make lives unbearably poignant kanes case sentimental weakness apparently operasinging girlfriend really mystery rosebud revealed closing frames film quinlans case longing dead wife cant help thinking drunk sober every waking hour model tenderhearted greatness must something cultural air artists mid20th century sentiment also expressed poem wh auden titled whos shilling life give facts father beat ran away struggles youth acts made greatest figure day fought fished hunted worked night though giddy climbed new mountains named sea last researchers even write love made weep pints like honours sighed one say astonished critics lived home little jobs house skill nothing else could whistle would sit still potter round garden answered long marvellous letters kept none characteristically vulgarized version model found michael manns treatment john dillinger public enemies think kind neoheroic figure tender heart exerted kind fascination still perhaps critics popular audiences postwar vogue psychology place sun secret inner life heros true psychic reality meant object attention partly chiefly account high contrast makes public self accordingly devalued film noir defined high contrasts fallen hero sentimental side also must appealed welles saw mold wasnt vanity actor led play hero films many ways first ahead time artisthero movie business least first america constantly aware directorial presence film real ce nter attention way since become common even commercial movies quite unusual director always calling attention artistry famous opening scene touch evil three half minute tracking shot longest cinema history point studio welless view ruined picture recutting reshooting bits conform conventions movie storytelling time slapped opening credits mindboggling cinéastes opening shot order show contempt studio heads welles showing goes much grain critical orthodoxy days think point selfconscious artistry often future come expense story fact isnt much story touch evil rather story present hints fragments see bomb planted car opening scene never find sure planted films main characters struggles plot rudy linnekar sets everything motion actually produces little dramatic conflict soon forgotten along exploding car hitchcock called mcguffin necklace secret papers attempt obtain produces events film without intrinsic interest perhaps famous example occurs hitchcocks film following year north northwest never learn spies somehow never seems important favor welles artist enormous influence subsequent filmmakers including hitchcock draw straight line moment frantic vargas announces im cop im husband starts beating bunch mexican kids dressed american juvenile delinquents seem oddly unprovided weapons scene batman roughing joker last years dark knight must appealed hollywoods idea profundity cop bad guy something common use violence since welless day course become tiresome cliché must seemed fresh interesting rather like psychology time fans alfred hitchcocks psycho came two years later also evinced interest psychology might notice influence touch evil pictures lonely motel crazy night clerk one guest woman terrorized locals even woman janet leigh andrew sarris quoted saying psycho sundays new york times something else could equal justice said touch evil besides making previous horror films look like variations pollyanna psycho overlaid richly symbolic commentary modern world public swamp human feelings passions flushed drain way whatever going among businessmen criminals texas border town touch evil border towns bring worst country says vargas janet leighs suzy less interest film fact businessmen criminals yes cops getting mixed impossible tell apart public swamp mr sarris referred makes poor showing next pristine world private feeling also brings important point position movie occupies american cultural history often id like especially stress date film mind 1958 stands extreme limit series called film noir deference french critics invented term also whole mythology grown around american film criticism cultural criticism generally noir term instantly understood even noncritics conveying kind public swamp bad guys good guys get mixed together tangled web deception betrayal thing counts private personal feelings authenticity betoken think true noir film actually died around time perhaps touch evil noir films already seen series especially double indemnity postman always rings twice depended absolutely popular sense right wrong innocence guilt cop crook even aim indeed often create sense sympathy crook touch evil begin see remained true hollywood movies day namely abdication moral purpose truly swamplike muddying distinction cop crook accordingly whole spectrum moral behavior thus gradually drops american movies meaningful sense pictures like dark knight public enemies lost interest ordinary moral dimension crime punishment lost consider essential connection values rationale civil authority alone stands us much say barbarism fact barbarism good way describe films celebrate vicious nightmarish world competing wills suggested already tries offer us something latterday equivalent homeric heroes without sense honor piety world questions morality civic virtue pretty much irrelevant touch evil also extent sense place mentioned last week border town isnt real mexico idea sets rather strained irony though one would piquant 1950s audience fact corruption american side border representative civic legal probity comes mexican side quinlan mexican side says lets get back civilization suzy wants get back onto american side border safe course opposite proves case savagery civilization contrasted mostly american side humanity idealism form vargass respect rule law mexican side america see scene cultural collapse matches perhaps meant confirm fall great man also interesting welles associates collapse sex drugs rocknroll popular culture 1950s alone seeing apocalyptic terms cant help noting contrast raucous music played violent reefersmoking teens pianola tanyas gypsy establishment old new evokes quinlan romantic past may room man truly great rate hinting kids portended popular culture lay ahead time welles could said ahead time fraternity modernist film critics hero lot answer paving way popular culture bringing end flowering popular arts took place hollywood 1930 1960 also responsible restoration movie work art see tonight wonder youll think us favor one case | 1,393 |
<p>It’s hard to follow 12 years on television as the same character, but that was what <a href="http://variety.com/tag/matt-leblanc/" type="external">Matt LeBlanc</a> had to think about after playing Joey Tribbiani, first on “Friends” for a decade and then on his “Joey” spin-off for another two. What character could stand a chance of being as iconic? Luckily, he didn’t end up having to look too far. In 2011, David Crane, who executive produced both of LeBlanc’s NBC shows, and his partner Jeffrey Klarik, wanted to do a show set in Hollywood around a problematic actor. And they wanted LeBlanc to play that character as a version of himself.</p>
<p>“I did have a reservation in the beginning. I wasn’t comfortable playing myself,” LeBlanc tells Variety. “But&#160;they said, ‘Well, we’re not making a documentary. If there’s anything you’re uncomfortable with, we’ll change it. We’ll get through it together.’ And it was because of my history with them that I really felt comfortable. I don’t know that I would have played that part with someone that I had a new relationship with. It was because of the trust that I said OK. I felt safe in their hands.”</p>
<p>Now, seven years and five seasons later, LeBlanc is saying good-bye to the fictionalized version of himself that he played on-screen on Showtime. Ahead of the <a href="http://variety.com/tag/series-finale/" type="external">series finale</a>, LeBlanc talks with&#160;Variety about ending the show and how art imitated his life along the way.</p>
<p>What do you remember most intrigued you about working on “ <a href="http://variety.com/tag/episodes/" type="external">Episodes</a>” years ago?</p>
<p>It was a very unique idea in how it made fun of Hollywood. There were shows that were about the business before, but this one really did it in an original way. There was a device in the show —&#160;the fact that Sean and Beverly were new to Hollywood, it allowed the show to explain Hollywood to them and therefore the viewer, so that it didn’t feel too “inside.” It could sort of lay things out, and it would feel like just any other industry. But yet it’s a crazy one. They made an industry that’s not relatable at all, really relatable. Because at the end of the day, it’s stories about these people, and that was what was intriguing.</p>
<p>What do you think you’ll miss most about “ <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/tv-shows-to-watch-oct-2-2017-scandal-episodes-1202576044/" type="external">Episodes</a>”?</p>
<p>When we’d get the scripts, the whole cast would be unable to put them down. We’d fire through them, it was great. They wrote the scripts in advance, so every year we’d get all of the scripts for each season and shoot it like a big film. We’d do a table read in the beginning of the production year of every episode, all at once. It was an all-day thing because it was nine episodes, and it was read one after another and another, and it was always fantastic. All of the actors, even the bit-part players, would sit down, do their thing, and it was just so much fun to do. The Showtime network execs would always fly over because we’d do it at the production office in London, and I remember David Nevins saying his sides hurt from laughing. “Episodes” will always hold a special place in my heart, regardless of any shows I do in the future, because of working again with David and Jeffrey and that connection to “Friends” in it and the trust factor. Those relationships, and their writing, that’s very special, and it was a lot of fun to do all these years.</p>
<p>David and Jeffrey told Variety why they wanted to end the show now, but did you agree, or could you have seen it going another two, three, four years?</p>
<p>We talked about it, but they felt they told their story. And there’s always the fear of jumping the shark. I definitely wouldn’t have entered into a situation where if they didn’t want to be a part of it anymore we’d do it with some other writers because then it wouldn’t be the same show. We always said we were in it together. The three of us&#160;— David, Jeffrey, and myself&#160;— always said anyone wanted out, that’s the way we’d handle it.</p>
<p>Having such a close working relationship with David and Jeffrey, how much input into how Matt’s story would be wrapped up did you have?</p>
<p>David and Jeffrey have got the story handled. They know exactly what they want to say and what stories they want to tell, and I don’t think I’m qualified to argue with them about what stories to tell. They’re so friggin’ capable!</p>
<p>Was it important to you to see him have a moment of growth before the end?</p>
<p>I don’t really know that he’s come that far. I think that he’s maybe a little more accepting of himself, but I think he probably always was. He’s sort of this island. And so am I, and so was Joey Tribbiani in that sense of he marches to the beat of his own drum.</p>
<p>But when his dad passes away, it does hit him harder than many may have expected, and you got to play more drama than for which the show usually allowed.</p>
<p>I don’t think he saw that moment coming, and I think that caught him by surprise, and I think what was nice about it was he really did love his father in that moment, and he feels the loss. I remember shooting all that stuff, and it was very, very tricky. I have a less-than-spectacular relationship with my own dad, so that was loosely based on that. I guess he’s grown in a sense, but I think it really catches him off-guard, and then after that he’s back to his old ways. I don’t think it changes him, but he cared more than he thought he did.</p>
<p>Alex Rocco was supposed to be in the season, but he passed away, so they decided to write it in, and I knew that was coming. What a great guy he was to work with! Just a sweetheart of a guy, it’s a shame. But it’s very typical of the way they write, that scene. They’ll take a very poignant moment, and they’ll build it up and build it up and build it up, and then they’ll undercut it with a joke at the end. So in retrospect if you look at it, it’s all a set-up for the punchline, but the set-up was so good you didn’t see the punchline coming. They’re brilliant at that, maybe the best. I can’t say enough good things about the way they write. I’ve just been so, so lucky to be a part of it.</p>
<p>Over the years, how much of that art imitating life aspect has come into the show?&#160;</p>
<p>The whole stalker thing. I did have a stalker in the hotel in London. There was a girl who was staying there while we were shooting, and she’d sit in the lobby every day from eight o’clock to six o’clock, but she didn’t realize I was leaving at like six and getting home at nine. So I had no idea, and the hotel security guys thought it was funny. I said they clearly couldn’t let that happen, but as a joke, I told David and Jeffrey that I went out with her, and they got so nervous. They got so upset that I kept it going for a few days before I told them I was kidding, and that’s how they got the idea that I’d have a stalker on the show. The part about her being a Make-A-Wish kid who never died was all them. They’ll take a seed of an idea, and it will grow.</p>
<p>How do you feel about how the show ends?&#160;</p>
<p>I thought it was a really nice twist at the end, what they’re writing and how my character ends up in it, too. He goes with his hat in his hand, so to speak, and he really has an ulterior motive, and they call him on it, and he doesn’t care. He’s shameless.&#160;What I like most about the end is that Sean, Beverly, and Matt are working together.</p> | false | 1 | hard follow 12 years television character matt leblanc think playing joey tribbiani first friends decade joey spinoff another two character could stand chance iconic luckily didnt end look far 2011 david crane executive produced leblancs nbc shows partner jeffrey klarik wanted show set hollywood around problematic actor wanted leblanc play character version reservation beginning wasnt comfortable playing leblanc tells variety but160they said well making documentary theres anything youre uncomfortable well change well get together history really felt comfortable dont know would played part someone new relationship trust said ok felt safe hands seven years five seasons later leblanc saying goodbye fictionalized version played onscreen showtime ahead series finale leblanc talks with160variety ending show art imitated life along way remember intrigued working episodes years ago unique idea made fun hollywood shows business one really original way device show 160the fact sean beverly new hollywood allowed show explain hollywood therefore viewer didnt feel inside could sort lay things would feel like industry yet crazy one made industry thats relatable really relatable end day stories people intriguing think youll miss episodes wed get scripts whole cast would unable put wed fire great wrote scripts advance every year wed get scripts season shoot like big film wed table read beginning production year every episode allday thing nine episodes read one another another always fantastic actors even bitpart players would sit thing much fun showtime network execs would always fly wed production office london remember david nevins saying sides hurt laughing episodes always hold special place heart regardless shows future working david jeffrey connection friends trust factor relationships writing thats special lot fun years david jeffrey told variety wanted end show agree could seen going another two three four years talked felt told story theres always fear jumping shark definitely wouldnt entered situation didnt want part anymore wed writers wouldnt show always said together three us160 david jeffrey myself160 always said anyone wanted thats way wed handle close working relationship david jeffrey much input matts story would wrapped david jeffrey got story handled know exactly want say stories want tell dont think im qualified argue stories tell theyre friggin capable important see moment growth end dont really know hes come far think hes maybe little accepting think probably always hes sort island joey tribbiani sense marches beat drum dad passes away hit harder many may expected got play drama show usually allowed dont think saw moment coming think caught surprise think nice really love father moment feels loss remember shooting stuff tricky lessthanspectacular relationship dad loosely based guess hes grown sense think really catches offguard hes back old ways dont think changes cared thought alex rocco supposed season passed away decided write knew coming great guy work sweetheart guy shame typical way write scene theyll take poignant moment theyll build build build theyll undercut joke end retrospect look setup punchline setup good didnt see punchline coming theyre brilliant maybe best cant say enough good things way write ive lucky part years much art imitating life aspect come show160 whole stalker thing stalker hotel london girl staying shooting shed sit lobby every day eight oclock six oclock didnt realize leaving like six getting home nine idea hotel security guys thought funny said clearly couldnt let happen joke told david jeffrey went got nervous got upset kept going days told kidding thats got idea id stalker show part makeawish kid never died theyll take seed idea grow feel show ends160 thought really nice twist end theyre writing character ends goes hat hand speak really ulterior motive call doesnt care hes shameless160what like end sean beverly matt working together | 601 |
<p>The fallout from last <a href="https://sinclairstoryline.com/news/nation-world/report-trump-denigrates-protections-for-immigrants-from-shole-countries" type="external">Thursday's White House meeting</a> on immigration reform cast a dark shadow over bipartisan attempts to address the fate of more than 700,000 "dreamers," immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. As of March 5, those individuals who were shielded from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival Act face an uncertain fate if Congress fails to find a solution.</p>
<p>This week, the bipartisan "gang of six" members of the Senate are pushing to include a DACA resolution in a must-pass government spending bill, that will be voted on this week. However, President Donald Trump's reported use of profanity, referring to " <a href="https://sinclairstoryline.com/news/nation-world/trump-defends-vulgar-immigrant-comments-partly-denies-them" type="external">s***hole countries</a>" during a Thursday Oval Office meeting with lawmakers and his <a href="https://sinclairstoryline.com/news/nation-world/trump-blasts-dicky-durbin-as-daca-fight-shutdown-deadline-loom" type="external">subsequent tweets</a>disparaging a DACA deal, have raised new questions about whether a bipartisan fix for DACA recipients can be found in time and whether it will be acceptable for Republicans, Democrats and the White House.</p>
<p>Over the weekend, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., reportedly worked out a compromise bill that will be made public on Wednesday. The hope, according to Sen. Durbin, is that the bill will be acceptable to both sides and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will include it in the government spending bill that the Senate must vote on by Friday.</p>
<p>"We think we have a bill that is well-balanced and supported by Democrats and Republicans," Durbin said of the bill he crafted with Sen. Graham. "It addresses not just the critical issue of the future of DACA but also addresses the issues of border security, family unification and the future of the diversity visa."</p>
<p>Sen. Durbin says someone on the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WhiteHouse?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">#WhiteHouse</a> staff poisoned the effort to work with Pres. <a href="https://twitter.com/Trump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">@Trump</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/immigration?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">#immigration</a> agreement: "Any effort to kill immigration reform usually has Mr. Miller's fingerprints on it." <a href="https://t.co/tLuwxVnJnx" type="external">pic.twitter.com/tLuwxVnJnx</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/newnewspage?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">@newnewspage</a></p>
<p>Those issues are what Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen referred to on Tuesday as the "four pillars" of immigration policy that the administration believes "are the minimum we need to secure our country."</p>
<p>Even as Democrats and Republicans appear to be moving closer to an agreement, both Graham and Durbin expressed concern that members of the White House staff are working to undermine the immigration negotiations, specifically Trump's senior policy adviser Stephen Miller.</p>
<p>During an oversight hearing on Tuesday with DHS Secretary Nielsen, Graham noted there were "two Trumps": the Trump who presided over an open, productive White House immigration meeting last Tuesday, and the Trump on Thursday, who reportedly used profanity to describe an entire continent and moved to a hardline position.</p>
<p>"Tuesday we had a president I was proud to golf with and call my friend, who understood immigration had to be bipartisan and we had to have border security, essentially with a wall but also understood the idea that we had to do it with compassion," Graham said. "I don't know where that guy went, but I want him back."</p>
<p>Previously, Trump agreed to a two-phase approach to immigration reform, first dealing with DACA and elements of border security, and later addressing his more controversial demands, like ending the diversity visa, ending chain migration, and securing full funding for the border wall. Those issues and "comprehensive immigration reform" to address the status of approximately 11 million immigrants currently in the country illegally, would be taken up in phase two.</p>
<p>Graham said he wanted to understand why the president's views had evolved between Tuesday and Thursday, to his current position that the diversity visa, the border wall and ending chain migration had to be included in any DACA deal.</p>
<p>Following the hearing, Graham suggested to reporters that the White House staff was to blame for the president's hardline views expressed in the Thursday meeting and after on social media. Specifically he pointed to Stephen Miller's influence on the president.</p>
<p>Durbin agreed with the sentiment that Trump had been "poisoned" by members of White House staff, Miller in particular.</p>
<p>"Any effort to kill immigration reform usually has Mr. Miller's fingerprints on it," Durbin told reporters.</p>
<p>The White House disputed the senators' characterization. Press secretary Sarah Sanders insisted that "the president is running the show," not Steve Miller.</p>
<p>Sanders continued that Trump realized the initial round of talks on Tuesday produced a result that "was simply a complete failure in terms of a good deal based on what the president had laid out and based on what he needed to see in a piece of legislation."</p>
<p>Specifically, she said the president took issue with the inadequate funding Congress provided to DHS, which amounted to only one-tenth of the agency's 2018 budget request.</p>
<p>According to Sen. Durbin, the new compromise bill addresses those problems. It will fully meet the department's 2018 funding request for border security, he said. The bill will reportedly provide $1.6 billion for walls, barriers and fences and an additional $1 billion for technology.</p>
<p>That money, which has already been approved in the House, is essentially a down payment on Trump's long-promised border wall and would be used to upgrade existing fencing and build new barriers along 722 miles of the southern border.</p>
<p>Four other senators, Republicans Jeff Flake of Arizona Cory Gardner of Colorado and Democrats Michael Bennet of Colorado and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, are part of the so-called gang of six working on the final details of the bill.</p>
<p>Over the weekend, Trump took to social media to express his tougher position on an immigration deal and chastize Democrats, whose support is needed to fix DACA.</p>
<p>"DACA is probably dead," Trump tweeted, "because the Democrats don’t really want it, they just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our Military."</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Trump followed up insisting on "a great WALL" on the southern border, a non-starter for Democrats.</p>
<p>It is not clear at this point whether the president will return to the more open position on immigration reform he expressed last Tuesday, when he told lawmakers that if Congress agreed to a compromise deal on immigration, he would sign the bill even if it was not perfect. "If they come to me with things I'm not in love with, I'm going to do it," he said. "because I respect them."</p>
<p>Even if the Senate holds a test-vote on the Graham-Durbin immigration bill this week and finds support for the bipartisan compromise, the House of Representatives is less inclined to agree to a watered-down version of the president's tough immigration policies.</p>
<p>House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Calif. and head of the Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., introduced a bill that has yet to earn any support from Democrats.</p>
<p>The Securing America's Future Act would end the diversity visa program, end chain migration for anyone other than spouses and minor children, cut legal immigration levels by 25 percent and move towards merit-based immigration system. The bill also calls for the construction of Trump's border wall along with additional technology, and an additional 10,000 Border Patrol Agents and Customs and Border Patrol officers.</p>
<p>Somewhere in the middle, there will have to be a compromise.</p>
<p>Following a meeting with members of the Senate, White House legislative director Marc Short expressed optimism that a deal to address the legal status of DACA recipients could be reached, but he said that getting it done by the end of the week would be a "herculean" task.</p>
<p /> | false | 1 | fallout last thursdays white house meeting immigration reform cast dark shadow bipartisan attempts address fate 700000 dreamers immigrants brought country illegally children march 5 individuals shielded deportation deferred action childhood arrival act face uncertain fate congress fails find solution week bipartisan gang six members senate pushing include daca resolution mustpass government spending bill voted week however president donald trumps reported use profanity referring shole countries thursday oval office meeting lawmakers subsequent tweetsdisparaging daca deal raised new questions whether bipartisan fix daca recipients found time whether acceptable republicans democrats white house weekend sen dick durbin dill sen lindsey graham rsc reportedly worked compromise bill made public wednesday hope according sen durbin bill acceptable sides senate majority leader mitch mcconnell include government spending bill senate must vote friday think bill wellbalanced supported democrats republicans durbin said bill crafted sen graham addresses critical issue future daca also addresses issues border security family unification future diversity visa sen durbin says someone whitehouse staff poisoned effort work pres trump immigration agreement effort kill immigration reform usually mr millers fingerprints pictwittercomtluwxvnjnx newnewspage issues department homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen referred tuesday four pillars immigration policy administration believes minimum need secure country even democrats republicans appear moving closer agreement graham durbin expressed concern members white house staff working undermine immigration negotiations specifically trumps senior policy adviser stephen miller oversight hearing tuesday dhs secretary nielsen graham noted two trumps trump presided open productive white house immigration meeting last tuesday trump thursday reportedly used profanity describe entire continent moved hardline position tuesday president proud golf call friend understood immigration bipartisan border security essentially wall also understood idea compassion graham said dont know guy went want back previously trump agreed twophase approach immigration reform first dealing daca elements border security later addressing controversial demands like ending diversity visa ending chain migration securing full funding border wall issues comprehensive immigration reform address status approximately 11 million immigrants currently country illegally would taken phase two graham said wanted understand presidents views evolved tuesday thursday current position diversity visa border wall ending chain migration included daca deal following hearing graham suggested reporters white house staff blame presidents hardline views expressed thursday meeting social media specifically pointed stephen millers influence president durbin agreed sentiment trump poisoned members white house staff miller particular effort kill immigration reform usually mr millers fingerprints durbin told reporters white house disputed senators characterization press secretary sarah sanders insisted president running show steve miller sanders continued trump realized initial round talks tuesday produced result simply complete failure terms good deal based president laid based needed see piece legislation specifically said president took issue inadequate funding congress provided dhs amounted onetenth agencys 2018 budget request according sen durbin new compromise bill addresses problems fully meet departments 2018 funding request border security said bill reportedly provide 16 billion walls barriers fences additional 1 billion technology money already approved house essentially payment trumps longpromised border wall would used upgrade existing fencing build new barriers along 722 miles southern border four senators republicans jeff flake arizona cory gardner colorado democrats michael bennet colorado robert menendez new jersey part socalled gang six working final details bill weekend trump took social media express tougher position immigration deal chastize democrats whose support needed fix daca daca probably dead trump tweeted democrats dont really want want talk take desperately needed money away military tuesday trump followed insisting great wall southern border nonstarter democrats clear point whether president return open position immigration reform expressed last tuesday told lawmakers congress agreed compromise deal immigration would sign bill even perfect come things im love im going said respect even senate holds testvote grahamdurbin immigration bill week finds support bipartisan compromise house representatives less inclined agree watereddown version presidents tough immigration policies house homeland security chairman mike mccaul rcalif head judiciary committee bob goodlatte rva introduced bill yet earn support democrats securing americas future act would end diversity visa program end chain migration anyone spouses minor children cut legal immigration levels 25 percent move towards meritbased immigration system bill also calls construction trumps border wall along additional technology additional 10000 border patrol agents customs border patrol officers somewhere middle compromise following meeting members senate white house legislative director marc short expressed optimism deal address legal status daca recipients could reached said getting done end week would herculean task | 716 |
<p>Weighing in at a gargantuan 261 pages, Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”) is, by my quick reckoning, the longest such document in the history of the papal magisterium, and by a good 10 percent or more. Its sheer size suggests the wisdom — although probably the futility, too — of Pope Francis’s plea that his apostolic exhortation “on love in the family” be read “patiently and carefully,” piece by piece, and then pondered as a whole.</p>
<p>The futility comes from the fact that various pre-exhortation Catholic spin machines have set a context for the reception of Amoris Laetitia that the world media will find irresistible, by focusing almost exclusive attention on the question of whether the pope would endorse one or other of Walter Cardinal Kasper’s proposals for admitting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to holy communion (quick preview: Francis doesn’t). So look in the early going for a vast, global argument over whether a “door has been opened” or a “first step taken” to vindicating Kasper. Those who will say that Kasper has not been vindicated seem to me to have the better of the argument, on a close reading of the text of the exhortation. But that won’t prevent others, including German-speaking bishops and theologians who don’t seem capable of recognizing that their proposals were rejected by two synods of bishops, from claiming victory.</p>
<p>The other problem with the Pope’s plea for patience and care in reading Amoris Laetitia is that most Catholics (not to mention others) are simply not going to wade through a text of this length. And that is a shame, because the exhortation says many important things about love, marriage, the family, and the current cultural crisis of a world in which the imperial autonomous Self is running roughshod over just about everything, leaving a lot of human unhappiness in its wake.</p>
<p>Thus it might be a useful orientation for those who are going to take a cut at reading this vast, sprawling text to highlight some of what impress me as the exhortation’s most striking arguments — which may also serve as a mini-summary for those who have neither the time nor the inclination to read Amoris Laetitia (hereafter, AL) in full.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>THE BIBLE SETS THE STAGE</p>
<p>At last October’s second synod on the family, the working document prepared by the synod office was severely criticized for beginning with some second-rate sociology rather than with the Word of God. Pope Francis evidently heard that criticism, for AL begins with a rich reflection on the Bible, which, as the Pope says, “is full of families, births, love stories, and family crises.” Francis then speaks movingly of “the majestic early chapters of Genesis,” which “present the human couple in its deepest reality.” Which is to say, the Biblical story of Adam and Eve is not a pious myth with no relevance for the 21st century; it speaks a truth about our being made male and female, and about the complementarity built into our difference, that is ageless and enduring. Moreover, Francis reminds us (following John Paul II), “the couple that loves and begets life is a true, living icon&#160;.&#160;.&#160;.&#160;capable of revealing God the Creator and Savior.” This even sheds light on that most unfathomable of Christian mysteries, the Holy Trinity, for “the couple’s fruitful relationship becomes an image for understanding and describing the mystery of God himself.&#160;.&#160;.&#160;.&#160;The triune God is a communion of love, and the family is its living reflection.”</p>
<p>Francis goes on to celebrate the Bible’s speaking of “the gift of children” and shows how, in primitive Christianity, the family was thought of as the “domestic Church, a setting for the Eucharist, the presence of Christ seated at the table.” But the Bible also speaks of the pain and suffering involved in family life, which is, like many other sorrows in the human condition, the result of the will to power run amok. Those biblical accounts of family struggle help us to understand something important: that “the word of God is not a series of abstract ideas but rather a source of comfort and companionship for every family that experiences difficulties or suffering.” If 21st-century Christians can learn to see the world through a lens ground by Biblical faith, they will see the truth about love, marriage, and the family clearly: that despite our tendency to make a mess of things, families are called to “become a communion of persons in the image of the union of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Then Christians can live in the sure confidence that the end of their journey is that Kingdom where God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore” (Rev. 21:4).</p>
<p>THE CONTEMPORARY CRISIS OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY</p>
<p>Francis’s catalogue of the cultural factors gnawing away at marriage and the family is comprehensive and, it seems to me, acute. It includes “extreme individualism,” the “pace of life” that militates against decisions for permanent relationships, and the mantra of “choice” as the highest of human goods, all of which lead to “an inability to give oneself generously to others.” Confused ideas of freedom –&#160;“that each individual can act arbitrarily, as if there were no truths, values, and principles to provide guidance, and everything [is] possible and permissible” –&#160;intensify the crisis.</p>
<p>The Pope cautions against a Church “on the defensive, wasting pastoral energy on denouncing a decadent world without being proactive in proposing ways of finding true happiness.” Which is true enough, in those sectors of the Church, rare in my experience, where such doomsaying is the plat du jour. But then Francis himself goes on to deplore the “narcissism” that “makes people incapable of looking beyond themselves,” which is surely one major factor in the contemporary meltdown of marriage and the family. So, too, he writes, is that “great poverty of contemporary culture” which is “loneliness, arising from the absence of God in a person’s life and the fragility of relationships.”</p>
<p>AL then discusses the challenges posed to marriage and the family by economic dislocation, migration, human trafficking, the abuse of women, the sexual abuse of children, dire poverty, a rapidly evolving global economy, and an “ideology of gender.” But over and beyond those undoubted scourges is “a failure to realize that only the exclusive and indissoluble union between a man and a woman has a plenary role to play in society as a stable commitment that bears fruit in new life.” And that ignorance is leading to “a legal deconstruction of the family, tending to adopt models based almost exclusively on the autonomy of the individual will.” (Justice Anthony Kennedy, please call the Vatican.)</p>
<p>Yet the bad news is not all the news there is. Thus Francis concludes this section of AL with a prayer: “I thank God that many families, which are far from considering themselves perfect, live in love, fulfill their calling, and keep moving forward, even if they may fall many times along the way.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>CHRIST AND THE FAMILY</p>
<p>The Christian family, the pope writes, “can be fully understood only in the light of the Father’s infinite love revealed in Christ, who gave himself for our sake and who continues to live in our midst&#160;.&#160;.&#160;.&#160;at the heart of so many love stories.” This means that the Christian family is, was, and always will be countercultural: not to be different for difference’s sake, but to offer a model of a nobler way of living. That way is rooted in God’s original plan for humanity and reaches its perfection in “marriage and the family&#160;.&#160;.&#160;.&#160;redeemed by Christ and restored in the image of the Holy Trinity, the mystery from which all true love flows.”</p>
<p>That is why the Catholic Church believes and teaches — and will always believe and teach — that marriage is indissoluble, sacramental, and ordered to both the sanctification of the spouses and the begetting and rearing of children. Francis applauds Blessed Paul VI for Humanae Vitae, the 1968 encyclical on the morally appropriate means of regulating fertility, recommends Saint John Paul II’s theology of the body for its “vision of the vocation of men and women to love,” and notes that Benedict XVI found in the family that place where “we learn the experience of the common good.”</p>
<p>Thus Christians must always propose marriage as something far more, and far deeper, than “a social convention, an empty ritual, or merely the outward sign of a commitment.” Marriage is a “vocation, inasmuch as it is a response to a specific call to experience conjugal love as an imperfect sign of the love between Christ and the Church.” So&#160;the decision to marry, like the decision to seek ordination or enter consecrated religious life, “ought to be the fruit of a process of vocational discernment.” That, in turn, means that marriage preparation ought to be one crucial instrument in the Church’s work of evangelization, as pastors help those preparing for marriage to enter into the “nuptial mystery.”</p>
<p>AL’s celebration of the gift of children also includes what may be Pope Francis’s most ringing affirmation of the right to life of the unborn: “I feel it urgent to state that, if the family is the sanctuary of life, the place where life is conceived and cared for, it is a horrendous contradiction when it becomes a place where life is rejected and destroyed. So great is the value of a human life, and so inalienable the right to life of an innocent child growing in its mother’s womb, that no alleged right to one’s own body can justify a decision to terminate that life, which is an end in itself and which can never be considered the ‘property’ of another human being.”</p>
<p>The pope then explicates this Christ-centered understanding of love in marriage in an entire chapter given to a sentence-by-sentence exegesis of Saint Paul’s hymn to love as the “more excellent way” in I Corinthians 13:4-7. After looking at how each of the qualities that Paul ascribes to genuine love as “the greatest of these” ought to shape a marriage, Francis notes that the “mystery of marriage” is that “God makes of the two spouses one single existence.” There, husband and wife, through conjugal love, participate in what Thomas Aquinas called “the greatest form of friendship,” in which passion is “always directed to an ever more stable and intense union,” and in which sex is understood as “an interpersonal language in which the other is taken seriously, in his or her sacred and inviolable dignity.” As for those young people scared by the idea of permanent commitment, the Pope offers this counsel: Marriage is “the means to ensure that [your] love will truly grow and endure.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>THE FRUITFULNESS OF MARRIAGE, THE PLAGUE OF DIVORCE, AND EDUCATION</p>
<p>AL celebrates&#160;the procreative character of marriage and the family and discusses in a touching way how adoption expands the fruitfulness of marriage. The pope who not infrequently cites his grandmother in his homilies also lifts up the beauty of the generationally extended family. The “family,” in Francis’s view, is a network of relationships, in which the young and the elderly have responsibilities toward each other, as do brothers and sisters.</p>
<p>Beyond marriage preparation, AL calls for the Church to accompany young married couples in their first years of marriage, as they begin their families, and as they experience crises. Marital crisis too easily leads to marital breakdown; thus the pope urges all to see that “each crisis has a lesson to teach us; we need to learn to listen for it with the ear of the heart.”</p>
<p>The Church’s care must also extend to those who have been abandoned by their spouse, who are separated, or who are divorced, and refers pastors to the revised procedures for determining whether a first marriage did not in fact exist (usually referred to as an “annulment”). But there is no suggestion here that divorce is a minor matter, not least because of its bad effects on children. Rather, the pope writes, “divorce is an evil and the increasing number of divorces is very troubling. Hence our most important pastoral task with regard to families is to strengthen their love, helping to heal wounds, and working to prevent the spread of this drama of our times.”</p>
<p>AL offers a strong affirmation of “sex education,” but makes clear that this is not a sub-discipline of plumbing. Rather, education in human sexuality ought to take place “within the broader framework of an education for love, for mutual self-giving.” How this might be done in, say, American public schools will be an interesting topic of discussion down the line.</p>
<p>PASTORAL ACCOMPANIMENT IN DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES</p>
<p>The eighth chapter of AL, which takes up the question of the Church’s care for those in broken marriages and those who have been divorced and civilly remarried, will doubtless be the focus of extended discussion. That this will happen is due in no small part to the hijacking of the synods of 2014 and 2015 by northern European bishops who seem to think that a radical change in the Church’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage and on worthiness to receive holy communion is a magic solution to the death of their local Churches, where regular Mass attendance is now in the mid single digits.</p>
<p>As this discussion unfolds, it will be important to keep in mind that AL cites the Final Report of the 2015 Synod on the key point: that all pastoral accompaniment of the divorced and civilly remarried, including discernment of ways in which they can be better integrated into the life of the Catholic community, is to take place “according to the teaching of the Church” — which means, in this context, the Church’s settled teaching on indissolubility and on worthiness to receive holy communion. It will also be important to keep in mind, as this discussion continues, that the kind of pastoral accompaniment and discernment so strongly urged by Pope Francis is in fact what goes on in the Catholic parishes and dioceses with which I’m most familiar. There are exceptions, I’m sure, and I’ve heard my share of horror stories about unfeeling and incompetent priests — and they are horrific, and disgraceful. But the priests and bishops I know bend every possible effort to be sensitive to difficult situations, and to see how they might be resolved in ways that serve both mercy and truth.</p>
<p>Failure is not something new in the Church; failure has been part of the Christian story from the beginning. If the Church has failed to make sufficiently clear that we are all sinners, that we all live by the divine mercy, and that, at the end, we have only the merits of Christ to plead on our behalf, then it is good to be reminded, as Pope Francis so regularly reminds us, of these truths. At the same time, the pope of mercy is the pope of a “Church permanently in mission,” as he put it in the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. And the most vital, evangelically assertive parts of the world Church today are those that have neither abandoned mercy in the name of abstract truth, nor abandoned the patrimony of truth bequeathed to the Church by Christ for the sake of a thin notion of mercy that is more sentimental than divine. Truth and mercy always go together. Pope Francis knows that. And the discussion of AL’s proposals on dealing with the most complex situations will be well served if the discussants keep that indissoluble dyad in mind.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>QUESTIONS FOR THE FUTURE</p>
<p>At the very outset of this lengthy document, Pope Francis writes that it is not his purpose to settle everything, and that there is a “need for continued open discussion of a number of doctrinal, moral, spiritual, and pastoral questions.”</p>
<p>Among them might be the question of how the unity of the Church coheres with the proposal that “each country or region&#160;.&#160;.&#160;.&#160;can seek solutions better suited to its culture and sensitive to its traditions and local needs.” There’s an obvious truth in that; but there is also truth in the observation, made during the 2015 synod, that what is a grave sin in Poland cannot be a source of grace on the German side of the Polish–German border. What, then, are the boundaries of the “inculturation” of truth and mercy, such that the Church remains the Church, and faithful to Christ, wherever she is?</p>
<p>Then there is AL’s regular use of the term “ideal” to describe the Church’s full understanding of marriage. Here, too, is an obvious truth. But one wonders whether it wouldn’t be better to describe that “ideal” as the “full” truth of marriage to which we aspire in our lives. Part of the genius of John Paul II with young people was that he knew the young want to be challenged to lead lives of heroic virtue — just as he knew that no one always lives that “ideal.” That is why he stressed the importance of confession and the sacrament of reconciliation as a means to keep seeking noble and heroic goals.</p>
<p>Amoris Laetitia will also keep the theologians busy, analyzing its moral theology and its reading of Church tradition. All of this churning, I think we must believe, will finally work out to the good of the Church and the advance of its mission of evangelization and service — and to the good of a world that badly needs to hear the truths the pope teaches. But that will happen only if AL is read in full, with the care and patience its author requests, and with these striking two sentences from the document as the framework for the ongoing discussion: “To show understanding in the face of exceptional situations never implies dimming the light of the fuller ideal, or proposing less than what Jesus offers to human beings. Today, more important than the pastoral care of failures is the pastoral effort to strengthen marriages and thus to prevent their breakdown.”</p>
<p>– George&#160;Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.</p> | false | 1 | weighing gargantuan 261 pages amoris laetitia joy love quick reckoning longest document history papal magisterium good 10 percent sheer size suggests wisdom although probably futility pope franciss plea apostolic exhortation love family read patiently carefully piece piece pondered whole futility comes fact various preexhortation catholic spin machines set context reception amoris laetitia world media find irresistible focusing almost exclusive attention question whether pope would endorse one walter cardinal kaspers proposals admitting divorced civilly remarried catholics holy communion quick preview francis doesnt look early going vast global argument whether door opened first step taken vindicating kasper say kasper vindicated seem better argument close reading text exhortation wont prevent others including germanspeaking bishops theologians dont seem capable recognizing proposals rejected two synods bishops claiming victory problem popes plea patience care reading amoris laetitia catholics mention others simply going wade text length shame exhortation says many important things love marriage family current cultural crisis world imperial autonomous self running roughshod everything leaving lot human unhappiness wake thus might useful orientation going take cut reading vast sprawling text highlight impress exhortations striking arguments may also serve minisummary neither time inclination read amoris laetitia hereafter al full 160 bible sets stage last octobers second synod family working document prepared synod office severely criticized beginning secondrate sociology rather word god pope francis evidently heard criticism al begins rich reflection bible pope says full families births love stories family crises francis speaks movingly majestic early chapters genesis present human couple deepest reality say biblical story adam eve pious myth relevance 21st century speaks truth made male female complementarity built difference ageless enduring moreover francis reminds us following john paul ii couple loves begets life true living icon160160160160capable revealing god creator savior even sheds light unfathomable christian mysteries holy trinity couples fruitful relationship becomes image understanding describing mystery god himself160160160160the triune god communion love family living reflection francis goes celebrate bibles speaking gift children shows primitive christianity family thought domestic church setting eucharist presence christ seated table bible also speaks pain suffering involved family life like many sorrows human condition result power run amok biblical accounts family struggle help us understand something important word god series abstract ideas rather source comfort companionship every family experiences difficulties suffering 21stcentury christians learn see world lens ground biblical faith see truth love marriage family clearly despite tendency make mess things families called become communion persons image union father son holy spirit christians live sure confidence end journey kingdom god wipe away every tear eyes death shall neither shall mourning crying pain anymore rev 214 contemporary crisis marriage family franciss catalogue cultural factors gnawing away marriage family comprehensive seems acute includes extreme individualism pace life militates decisions permanent relationships mantra choice highest human goods lead inability give oneself generously others confused ideas freedom 160that individual act arbitrarily truths values principles provide guidance everything possible permissible 160intensify crisis pope cautions church defensive wasting pastoral energy denouncing decadent world without proactive proposing ways finding true happiness true enough sectors church rare experience doomsaying plat du jour francis goes deplore narcissism makes people incapable looking beyond surely one major factor contemporary meltdown marriage family writes great poverty contemporary culture loneliness arising absence god persons life fragility relationships al discusses challenges posed marriage family economic dislocation migration human trafficking abuse women sexual abuse children dire poverty rapidly evolving global economy ideology gender beyond undoubted scourges failure realize exclusive indissoluble union man woman plenary role play society stable commitment bears fruit new life ignorance leading legal deconstruction family tending adopt models based almost exclusively autonomy individual justice anthony kennedy please call vatican yet bad news news thus francis concludes section al prayer thank god many families far considering perfect live love fulfill calling keep moving forward even may fall many times along way 160 christ family christian family pope writes fully understood light fathers infinite love revealed christ gave sake continues live midst160160160160at heart many love stories means christian family always countercultural different differences sake offer model nobler way living way rooted gods original plan humanity reaches perfection marriage family160160160160redeemed christ restored image holy trinity mystery true love flows catholic church believes teaches always believe teach marriage indissoluble sacramental ordered sanctification spouses begetting rearing children francis applauds blessed paul vi humanae vitae 1968 encyclical morally appropriate means regulating fertility recommends saint john paul iis theology body vision vocation men women love notes benedict xvi found family place learn experience common good thus christians must always propose marriage something far far deeper social convention empty ritual merely outward sign commitment marriage vocation inasmuch response specific call experience conjugal love imperfect sign love christ church so160the decision marry like decision seek ordination enter consecrated religious life ought fruit process vocational discernment turn means marriage preparation ought one crucial instrument churchs work evangelization pastors help preparing marriage enter nuptial mystery als celebration gift children also includes may pope franciss ringing affirmation right life unborn feel urgent state family sanctuary life place life conceived cared horrendous contradiction becomes place life rejected destroyed great value human life inalienable right life innocent child growing mothers womb alleged right ones body justify decision terminate life end never considered property another human pope explicates christcentered understanding love marriage entire chapter given sentencebysentence exegesis saint pauls hymn love excellent way corinthians 1347 looking qualities paul ascribes genuine love greatest ought shape marriage francis notes mystery marriage god makes two spouses one single existence husband wife conjugal love participate thomas aquinas called greatest form friendship passion always directed ever stable intense union sex understood interpersonal language taken seriously sacred inviolable dignity young people scared idea permanent commitment pope offers counsel marriage means ensure love truly grow endure 160 fruitfulness marriage plague divorce education al celebrates160the procreative character marriage family discusses touching way adoption expands fruitfulness marriage pope infrequently cites grandmother homilies also lifts beauty generationally extended family family franciss view network relationships young elderly responsibilities toward brothers sisters beyond marriage preparation al calls church accompany young married couples first years marriage begin families experience crises marital crisis easily leads marital breakdown thus pope urges see crisis lesson teach us need learn listen ear heart churchs care must also extend abandoned spouse separated divorced refers pastors revised procedures determining whether first marriage fact exist usually referred annulment suggestion divorce minor matter least bad effects children rather pope writes divorce evil increasing number divorces troubling hence important pastoral task regard families strengthen love helping heal wounds working prevent spread drama times al offers strong affirmation sex education makes clear subdiscipline plumbing rather education human sexuality ought take place within broader framework education love mutual selfgiving might done say american public schools interesting topic discussion line pastoral accompaniment difficult circumstances eighth chapter al takes question churchs care broken marriages divorced civilly remarried doubtless focus extended discussion happen due small part hijacking synods 2014 2015 northern european bishops seem think radical change churchs teaching indissolubility marriage worthiness receive holy communion magic solution death local churches regular mass attendance mid single digits discussion unfolds important keep mind al cites final report 2015 synod key point pastoral accompaniment divorced civilly remarried including discernment ways better integrated life catholic community take place according teaching church means context churchs settled teaching indissolubility worthiness receive holy communion also important keep mind discussion continues kind pastoral accompaniment discernment strongly urged pope francis fact goes catholic parishes dioceses im familiar exceptions im sure ive heard share horror stories unfeeling incompetent priests horrific disgraceful priests bishops know bend every possible effort sensitive difficult situations see might resolved ways serve mercy truth failure something new church failure part christian story beginning church failed make sufficiently clear sinners live divine mercy end merits christ plead behalf good reminded pope francis regularly reminds us truths time pope mercy pope church permanently mission put apostolic exhortation evangelii gaudium vital evangelically assertive parts world church today neither abandoned mercy name abstract truth abandoned patrimony truth bequeathed church christ sake thin notion mercy sentimental divine truth mercy always go together pope francis knows discussion als proposals dealing complex situations well served discussants keep indissoluble dyad mind 160 questions future outset lengthy document pope francis writes purpose settle everything need continued open discussion number doctrinal moral spiritual pastoral questions among might question unity church coheres proposal country region160160160160can seek solutions better suited culture sensitive traditions local needs theres obvious truth also truth observation made 2015 synod grave sin poland source grace german side polishgerman border boundaries inculturation truth mercy church remains church faithful christ wherever als regular use term ideal describe churchs full understanding marriage obvious truth one wonders whether wouldnt better describe ideal full truth marriage aspire lives part genius john paul ii young people knew young want challenged lead lives heroic virtue knew one always lives ideal stressed importance confession sacrament reconciliation means keep seeking noble heroic goals amoris laetitia also keep theologians busy analyzing moral theology reading church tradition churning think must believe finally work good church advance mission evangelization service good world badly needs hear truths pope teaches happen al read full care patience author requests striking two sentences document framework ongoing discussion show understanding face exceptional situations never implies dimming light fuller ideal proposing less jesus offers human beings today important pastoral care failures pastoral effort strengthen marriages thus prevent breakdown george160weigel distinguished senior fellow washingtons ethics public policy center holds william e simon chair catholic studies | 1,556 |
<p>When it comes to voting for television series and stars at the <a href="http://variety.com/t/golden-globes/" type="external">Golden Globes</a>, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. is often applauded for thinking outside the usual box and recognizing a broad cross-section of small screen talent, and being the first to reward new shows with awards acclaim.</p>
<p>It’s hard to imagine last year’s drama winner “The Crown” not getting a repeat nom — just as Emmy winner “The Handmaid’s Tale” is a lock for a dramatic nom of its own. Comedy king “Atlanta” and its star Donald Glover are not eligible this time around since the second season still has yet to debut, though the ratings juggernaut return of “Will &amp; Grace” will undoubtedly slide into its place.</p>
<p>Here, Variety predicts which names may be read aloud come official nominations on the morning of Dec. 11.</p>
<p>DRAMA SERIES</p>
<p>“The Crown”&#160;— NetflixRecounting the story of a young Queen Elizabeth, this is one contender that truly puts the foreign in HFPA. Besides its setting on the other side of the pond, the story has international appeal due to its grand scope, both in production design and storytelling. As last year’s winner, it’s almost guaranteed to be recognized again.</p>
<p>“The Deuce” — HBOThe subject matter may be gritty, but the HBO period drama, which meticulously chronicles the rise of the porn industry in ’70s New York City, hails from acclaimed showrunner David Simon (“The Wire”). It also boasts a deep cast of HFPA favorites — from James Franco, who plays twins, to Maggie Gyllenhaal, who delivers a bravura performance.</p>
<p>“Game of Thrones” — HBOThe spectacular fantasy series scored four previous noms from the HFPA, including one just last year, so another seems a given, despite the anti-genre bias typical of the Globes. The latest season didn’t disappoint, with deafening buzz from the consummation of Jon and Daenerys’ relationship, as well as the loss of one of Daenerys’ dragons.</p>
<p>“The Good Doctor” — ABCIt’s hard to imagine the HFPA passing up the opportunity to be the first to celebrate the No.1 new drama of the TV season. The David Shore-led series for the Alphabet centers on Freddie Highmore as a medical professional with autism and savant syndrome, putting a new emotional twist on a traditional (medical) format.</p>
<p>“The Good Fight” — CBS All AccessRobert and Michelle King’s “The Good Wife” was a favorite of the HFPA, nominated three times during its seven-year run. With the spinoff’s stellar ensemble cast, strong storytelling structure and new platform, the freshman legal drama just may break through.</p>
<p>“The Handmaid’s Tale” — HuluThe dystopian drama based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name was immediately hailed when it premiered, due to its timely parallels to our troubled political climate. The accolades have only increased since, as it went on to win the Emmy Award for best drama — the first trophy for a streaming service in the category.</p>
<p>“Stranger Things” — NetflixThe HFPA honored the nostalgic sci-fi drama with a nom for its first season last year, and with strong reviews for the recently debuted second season, its voters might be remiss not to tout it again. The sophomore installment didn’t disappoint, offering more humor, character development, and supernatural scares.</p>
<p>“This Is Us” — NBCAfter a first season that garnered a Globe nom and put broadcast back on the map in the awards race, the Peacock’s family drama came back for seconds, scoring again with viewers with more emotional stories — adoption, addiction, surprise pregnancy, secret family members — and more hints about Jack’s (Milo Ventimiglia) death during its sophomore run, now underway.</p>
<p>DRAMA ACTOR</p>
<p>Jason Bateman — “Ozark”The actor-turned-producer proved he’s got dramatic flair as well as comedy chops, as he dove deep for the role of a mild-mannered family man going to extreme lengths to launder half a billion dollars to keep his family safe from a drug cartel in this Netflix series.</p>
<p>Sterling K. Brown — “This Is Us”Last year he scored a nom for his portrayal of the real life Christopher Darden, but this year his Emmy-winning turn as Randall Pearson, a man with a seemingly perfect life but secret, deep-seated vulnerability, will help him go for gold.</p>
<p>Joseph Fiennes — “The Handmaid’s Tale”The Emmy Awards may have snubbed him, but the international-leaning HFPA may well want to recognize for Fiennes for his portrayal of the conflicted Fred Waterford, the man to whom Elisabeth Moss’ titular handmaid is assigned to bear a child.</p>
<p>James Franco — “The Deuce”Franco pulled double duty as twin brothers in HBO’s ’70s-set period drama, and that kind of acting heavy-lifting is often cause to celebrate. Franco flipped effortlessly between decent and degenerate to bring to life two very different men struggling to succeed.</p>
<p>Freddie Highmore — “The Good Doctor”Highmore was never nominated for his performance as Norman Bates on A&amp;E’s “Bates Motel,” but that may well be rectified with his nuanced star turn as Dr. Shaun Murphy, a character who has autism and savant syndrome.</p>
<p>Rami Malek — “Mr. Robot”The former Emmy winner didn’t get a nom this year from the Academy, but the HFPA has always celebrated his intense work as the unstable hacker Elliot. And in the third season, Malek dives deeper into Elliot’s ever-more fractured psyche.</p>
<p>Tim Roth — “Tin Star”If last year’s nominations are any sign, the HFPA is having a love affair with Amazon. This year may be Roth’s turn, with his work as an expat police officer who goes to extreme lengths to protect his family when his past comes back to haunt him.</p>
<p>Liev Schreiber — “Ray Donovan”Schreiber has been an HFPA favorite for a few years now, so it’s hard to imagine the voting members wouldn’t keep him on the ballot for a season that saw such deep, emotional and traumatic work as Ray fighting for his wife’s life as she struggled with cancer.</p>
<p>Milo Ventimiglia — “This Is Us”The HFPA usually prefers to set the trend, rather than follow it, but given that voters passed up the chance to nom Ventimiglia last season, they may not be able to resist following the Emmys lead and recognizing his work as the ever-more-troubled heart of the NBC hit.</p>
<p>DRAMA ACTRESS</p>
<p>Caitriona Balfe — “Outlander”She was nommed last year for her work as time-traveling Claire on the Starz drama and is likely to return. This time out, her character has been put through the wringer more than usual, and her emotional performance of love, loss and longing may prove hard to ignore.</p>
<p>Christine Baranski&#160;— “The Good Fight”Baranski’s Diane Lockhart stepped into a new firm on the CBS All Access spinoff of the often-nominated “The Good Wife,” and Baranski herself stepped up as the lead of the show, giving the voters a chance to honor her commanding performance.</p>
<p>Millie Bobby Brown&#160;— “Stranger Things”Brown earned an Emmy nom for the first season of the sci-fi drama as a preteen with limited vocabulary but outsized supernatural abilities. The second season challenges her even more, as it delves into her troubled past and explores her blossoming relationships.</p>
<p>Carrie Coon&#160;— “The Leftovers”A critical darling, Coon delivered two of the year’s most talked about performances — a wise-cracking cop in FX’s “Fargo” and the haunted Nora in the final season of HBO’s “The Leftovers.” Perhaps the HFPA will take the opportunity to finally recognize the critically acclaimed series.</p>
<p>Claire Foy&#160;— “The Crown”As the reigning champion in the category, there is little doubt voters will want to honor Foy again — especially for a season during which so much crumbles down around her but she still rises above it all with dignity and grace.</p>
<p>Maggie Gyllenhaal&#160;— “The Deuce”As Eileen aka Candy, a prostitute who finds entrepreneurial inspiration in the world of adult films, Gyllenhaal is not only the center of the HBO drama but also its heart. She makes a character that could have been a cliche multifaceted and utterly captivating.</p>
<p>Mandy Moore&#160;— “This Is Us”The Pearson matriarch may not have had the showiest of episodes designed to dive deep into Rebecca’s struggles and backstory (yet) but the actress does a lot with even the smallest moments, like when recoiling at the idea of that her family is not right to adopt Randall because they’re white.</p>
<p>Elisabeth Moss&#160;— “The Handmaid’s Tale”Given that Moss claimed the Emmy for lead actress in a drama for her stoic work as Offred, formerly June, in Hulu’s dystopian drama, the HFPA would be utterly remiss not to recognize her groundbreaking work.</p>
<p>COMEDY SERIES</p>
<p>“Better Things”&#160;— FXBoosted by her Emmy nomination, Pamela Adlon’s series has won even more praise in its second season, continuing to pull no punches with its searingly honest, yet hilarious, take on the life and struggles of a single mother in Hollywood.</p>
<p>“Black-ish”&#160;— ABCLast year was the first the Alphabet’s family comedy received a nomination from the HFPA, and it deserves a slot on the ballot again, given its headline-grabbing perspectives on everything from revisionist history to family game nights.</p>
<p>“Catastrophe”&#160;— AmazonIs this the year that the Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney-led relationship comedy finally breaks into the Globes race? Given that its third season features a final guest starring performance from Carrie Fisher, it certainly seems ripe for a nom.</p>
<p>“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”&#160;— AmazonAmy Sherman-Palladino’s new period piece — about a ’50s-era woman who launches an unlikely career as a standup comic — premieres just in time for the HFPA to be the first to recognize it. Given its voters’ love of quirky Amazon comedies, they should be all in.</p>
<p>“Master of None” — NetflixThe series somehow escaped a nom in its freshman outing, but it would be a crime for the HFPA to ignore the even bolder sophomore season of Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang’s comedy, which broke format and structure with a subtitled black-and-white episode, and that much-talked about Thanksgiving episode.</p>
<p>“SMILF”&#160;— ShowtimeVoters have had a love affair with auteur comedies, which bodes well for this effort from writer-producer-director-star Frankie Shaw. The premium cable comedy offers an idiosyncratic take on single motherhood.</p>
<p>“Veep”&#160;— HBOThe Emmy champion has only been nominated for a Golden Globe for comedy series twice before, but it certainly seems like a lock for another, especially given the strength of this past season — and the sly political overtones.</p>
<p>“Will &amp; Grace”&#160;— NBCDuring its original run on the Peacock, the sitcom earned six noms for comedy series but never took home the top prize. In its second life, though, that all could change. The revival of the “must see” comedy is scoring with its topical stories like gay marriage while still keeping the heart and humor of the core relationships.</p>
<p>COMEDY ACTOR</p>
<p>Anthony Anderson&#160;— “Black-ish”Anderson broke through with the Globes last year and deserves another nod now, as his Johnson family patriarch Dre took on new layers this year, from becoming a new dad again to fearing his mother might have dementia.</p>
<p>Aziz Ansari&#160;— “Master of None”Multi-hyphenate Ansari has earned kudos for his work on every aspect of the show, including his acting. Nommed last year, Ansari deserves another shot for the second season, which saw him show off his culinary skills as well as his fluency in Italian.</p>
<p>Iain Armitage&#160;— “Young Sheldon”The HFPA loves to crown fresh faces, and there may be no one fresher than the young star of “The Big Bang Theory’s” spinoff, who is finding new dimensions into a long-beloved character.</p>
<p>Larry David&#160;— “Curb Your Enthusiasm”After six years away, David returned to his HBO comedy to pick up the mantle of his neurotic and indignant satire of himself and the entertainment industry. The HFPA may want to use a nomination to thank him for that return.</p>
<p>Eric McCormack&#160;— “Will &amp; Grace”A Globes favorite from the original run of the NBC sitcom — he was nominated five times in the early aughts — McCormack has seamlessly slipped back into lovable but nitpicky Will Truman’s suits.</p>
<p>COMEDY ACTRESS</p>
<p>Pamela Adlon&#160;— “Better Things”Last year Adlon’s compelling performance as multifaceted single mom Sam may have slipped under the radar because it premiered so close to noms, so this time around the voters may want to correct that wrong.</p>
<p>Rachel Bloom&#160;— “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”A two-time nominee and previous winner, Bloom may continue to capture voters’ attention, if not hearts, with her increasingly layered performance of a woman who inches closer to facing her mental issues. And breaks into song.</p>
<p>Rachel Brosnahan&#160;— “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”Brosnahan stars as Amy Sherman-Palladino’s latest fast-talking leading lady: a single mother and up-and-coming stand up comedienne who’s tasked with finding her voice on stage and in life.</p>
<p>Julia Louis-Dreyfus&#160;— “Veep”&#160;The reigning Emmy queen — and HFPA favorite — had another stellar year peeling back narcissistic layers of Selina Meyer to find more crudeness underneath. With the show coming to an end, voters will want to take advantage of all opportunities to recognize her.</p>
<p>Debra Messing&#160;— “Will &amp; Grace”The actress has been nominated for eight Globes in the past, including six for the original run of this NBC sitcom. And she’s still as charming as ever as the newly woke neurotic designer Grace Adler.</p>
<p>Issa Rae&#160;— “Insecure”The freshman face of last year’s <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/seth-meyers-golden-globes-host-nbc-1202616082/" type="external">Golden Globes</a> should be a shoo-in to be on the ballot once again after delivering a second season that saw her character newly single for the first time and exploring new romantic and comedic adventures.</p>
<p>Gina Rodriguez&#160;— “Jane the Virgin”Previous winner Rodriguez is a voter favorite in the category and will likely be again. After digging deep to explore the grief of losing her husband, this season finds her more hopeful and playful in exploring new love and a blossoming career.</p>
<p>Tracee Ellis Ross&#160;— “Black-ish”Last year’s winner has proven she’s still in it to win it. This season sees Rainbow Johnson facing real-life issues as she grapples with postpartum depression following the birth of her fifth baby.</p>
<p>Frankie Shaw&#160;— “SMILF”With her freshman series debuting just in time for noms, Shaw seems like the perfect choice for this year’s fresh face in the comedy race. Not to mention she’s a quadruple threat: writer, producer, director and star.</p>
<p>LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE</p>
<p>“Big Little Lies”&#160;— HBOIt’s been months since it debuted, but this premium cable project’s star power has hardly dimmed. Featuring rare small-screen appearances by Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, the multiple Emmy winning limited series tackles hot-button topics such as domestic abuse.</p>
<p>“Black Mirror” — NetflixDropping its fourth season just before the eligibility period closed, Charlie Brooker’s futuristic anthology drama has a few awards-worthy offerings, including “Arkangel,” “Black Museum” and “USS Callister.”</p>
<p>“Fargo”&#160;— FXLed by an award-worthy turn by Ewan McGregor in dual roles, the third season of Noah Hawley’s anthology drama expanded its universe but still maintained its sly sense of dark humor. With noms for its two previous seasons, it seems a lock.</p>
<p>“Feud: Bette and Joan”&#160;— FXThe HFPA will find it hard to resist Ryan Murphy’s paean to old Hollywood: Its powerful profiles of two screen legends (Joan Crawford and Bette Davis) by two screen legends (Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon) is prime awards bait.</p>
<p>“The Long Road Home”&#160;— National GeographicThis military drama stands out for its ripped-from-the-headlines nature and savvy balance of storytelling between the platoon and their loved ones back home.</p>
<p>“The Sinner”&#160;— USAThe cable drama provided a showcase for Jessica Biel as a young woman who brutally murdered a seeming stranger on an ordinary day — and then painstakingly unraveled some dark secrets from her past.</p>
<p>“Top of the Lake: China Girl”&#160;— SundanceElisabeth Moss and Nicole Kidman delivered haunting performances in the second installment of Jane Campion’s intricate character study disguised as a crime mystery. Moss won a Globe and the show a nom for its first outing.</p>
<p>“Twin Peaks”&#160;— ShowtimeMore than just nostalgia, the “Twin Peaks” revival from David Lynch and Mark Frost kept viewers on the edge of their seats — trying to figure out what was happening on screen, and what would happen next.</p>
<p>LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE ACTOR</p>
<p>Robert De Niro&#160;— “The Wizard of Lies”De Niro is no stranger to the HFPA, first Globes nominated for 1976’s “Taxi Driver.” His forceful work as Bernie Madoff in HBO’s original movie may just get him on the ballot again.</p>
<p>Michael Kelly&#160;— “The Long Road Home”Kelly’s potent turn as real-life soldier Gary Volesky, who earned a Silver Star for his bravery during 2004’s “Black Sunday” in Baghdad could earn him a spot on the ballot.</p>
<p>Kyle MacLachlan&#160;— “Twin Peaks”MacLachlan put a new spin on Dale Cooper for the series revival. Even if voters didn’t always understand what was going on with him, it was impossible to resist watching MacLachlan embrace the quirks.</p>
<p>Ewan McGregor&#160;— “Fargo”HFPA voters got double the McGregor in the dual roles of twin brothers on Noah Hawley’s anthology drama. The dichotomy of such different personalities may cement his nom.</p>
<p>Jesse Plemons&#160;— “Black Mirror” “USS Callister”A critical favorite from limited series “Fargo,” Plemons perfectly encaptures how the socially awkward can turn sinister with his power play set in space in the fourth season of “Black Mirror.”</p>
<p>Geoffrey Rush — “Genius”Rush not only recreated Albert Einstein’s iconic look for NatGeo’s new anthology but also humanized the fascinating but flawed man we all thought we knew.</p>
<p>LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE ACTRESS</p>
<p>Jessica Biel&#160;— “The Sinner”USA has a good track record with the HFPA, boding well for Biel, never better as a murderer who kept secrets close and learned even darker things about herself.</p>
<p>Carrie Coon&#160;— “Fargo”Coon is as beloved by critics for her portrayal of the disconnected police chief in Noah Hawley’s anthology drama as she was for her role on “The Leftovers.” The HFPA has a chance to celebrate her for both, something the Television Academy did not — and odds are good voters will take it.</p>
<p>Edie Falco&#160;— “Law &amp; Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders”Falco has been nominated 11 times across drama and comedy (and won twice for drama), so it seems safe to expect a limited nod for taking on the larger-than-life defense attorney Leslie Abramson, an abrasive woman whom Falco infused with maternal humanity.</p>
<p>Sarah Gadon&#160;— “Alias Grace”She may have been acting for half her life, but she’s a relative newcomer in the eyes of the HFPA, breaking out now for her haunting portrayal in Netflix’s period drama based on Margaret Atwood’s novel.</p>
<p>Nicole Kidman&#160;— “Big Little Lies”Kidman has three Globe wins for her film work, and could notch a TV nom for her work in this HBO series. She shone a grounded but frightening light on domestic abuse with her performance, taking home the Emmy for it.</p>
<p>Jessica Lange — “Feud: Bette and Joan”A HFPA favorite for her work on Ryan Murphy’s other anthology series, “American Horror Story,” Lange simultaneously infused a larger-than-life legend with grace and vulnerability. That is almost impossible to overlook.</p>
<p>Susan Sarandon&#160;—&#160;“Feud: Bette and Joan”It’s hard to imagine the HFPA recognizing one brilliant performance from this Hollywood period piece without recognizing the other. Sarandon delivered a striking and intimate performance as a woman known for being over-the-top.</p>
<p>Reese Witherspoon — “Big Little Lies”Witherspoon’s archetypal Type-A mother displayed surprising depth and irresistible charm in HBO’s sudsy limited series, which she executive produced.</p> | false | 1 | comes voting television series stars golden globes hollywood foreign press assn often applauded thinking outside usual box recognizing broad crosssection small screen talent first reward new shows awards acclaim hard imagine last years drama winner crown getting repeat nom emmy winner handmaids tale lock dramatic nom comedy king atlanta star donald glover eligible time around since second season still yet debut though ratings juggernaut return amp grace undoubtedly slide place variety predicts names may read aloud come official nominations morning dec 11 drama series crown160 netflixrecounting story young queen elizabeth one contender truly puts foreign hfpa besides setting side pond story international appeal due grand scope production design storytelling last years winner almost guaranteed recognized deuce hbothe subject matter may gritty hbo period drama meticulously chronicles rise porn industry 70s new york city hails acclaimed showrunner david simon wire also boasts deep cast hfpa favorites james franco plays twins maggie gyllenhaal delivers bravura performance game thrones hbothe spectacular fantasy series scored four previous noms hfpa including one last year another seems given despite antigenre bias typical globes latest season didnt disappoint deafening buzz consummation jon daenerys relationship well loss one daenerys dragons good doctor abcits hard imagine hfpa passing opportunity first celebrate no1 new drama tv season david shoreled series alphabet centers freddie highmore medical professional autism savant syndrome putting new emotional twist traditional medical format good fight cbs accessrobert michelle kings good wife favorite hfpa nominated three times sevenyear run spinoffs stellar ensemble cast strong storytelling structure new platform freshman legal drama may break handmaids tale huluthe dystopian drama based margaret atwoods novel name immediately hailed premiered due timely parallels troubled political climate accolades increased since went win emmy award best drama first trophy streaming service category stranger things netflixthe hfpa honored nostalgic scifi drama nom first season last year strong reviews recently debuted second season voters might remiss tout sophomore installment didnt disappoint offering humor character development supernatural scares us nbcafter first season garnered globe nom put broadcast back map awards race peacocks family drama came back seconds scoring viewers emotional stories adoption addiction surprise pregnancy secret family members hints jacks milo ventimiglia death sophomore run underway drama actor jason bateman ozarkthe actorturnedproducer proved hes got dramatic flair well comedy chops dove deep role mildmannered family man going extreme lengths launder half billion dollars keep family safe drug cartel netflix series sterling k brown uslast year scored nom portrayal real life christopher darden year emmywinning turn randall pearson man seemingly perfect life secret deepseated vulnerability help go gold joseph fiennes handmaids talethe emmy awards may snubbed internationalleaning hfpa may well want recognize fiennes portrayal conflicted fred waterford man elisabeth moss titular handmaid assigned bear child james franco deucefranco pulled double duty twin brothers hbos 70sset period drama kind acting heavylifting often cause celebrate franco flipped effortlessly decent degenerate bring life two different men struggling succeed freddie highmore good doctorhighmore never nominated performance norman bates aampes bates motel may well rectified nuanced star turn dr shaun murphy character autism savant syndrome rami malek mr robotthe former emmy winner didnt get nom year academy hfpa always celebrated intense work unstable hacker elliot third season malek dives deeper elliots evermore fractured psyche tim roth tin starif last years nominations sign hfpa love affair amazon year may roths turn work expat police officer goes extreme lengths protect family past comes back haunt liev schreiber ray donovanschreiber hfpa favorite years hard imagine voting members wouldnt keep ballot season saw deep emotional traumatic work ray fighting wifes life struggled cancer milo ventimiglia usthe hfpa usually prefers set trend rather follow given voters passed chance nom ventimiglia last season may able resist following emmys lead recognizing work evermoretroubled heart nbc hit drama actress caitriona balfe outlandershe nommed last year work timetraveling claire starz drama likely return time character put wringer usual emotional performance love loss longing may prove hard ignore christine baranski160 good fightbaranskis diane lockhart stepped new firm cbs access spinoff oftennominated good wife baranski stepped lead show giving voters chance honor commanding performance millie bobby brown160 stranger thingsbrown earned emmy nom first season scifi drama preteen limited vocabulary outsized supernatural abilities second season challenges even delves troubled past explores blossoming relationships carrie coon160 leftoversa critical darling coon delivered two years talked performances wisecracking cop fxs fargo haunted nora final season hbos leftovers perhaps hfpa take opportunity finally recognize critically acclaimed series claire foy160 crownas reigning champion category little doubt voters want honor foy especially season much crumbles around still rises dignity grace maggie gyllenhaal160 deuceas eileen aka candy prostitute finds entrepreneurial inspiration world adult films gyllenhaal center hbo drama also heart makes character could cliche multifaceted utterly captivating mandy moore160 usthe pearson matriarch may showiest episodes designed dive deep rebeccas struggles backstory yet actress lot even smallest moments like recoiling idea family right adopt randall theyre white elisabeth moss160 handmaids talegiven moss claimed emmy lead actress drama stoic work offred formerly june hulus dystopian drama hfpa would utterly remiss recognize groundbreaking work comedy series better things160 fxboosted emmy nomination pamela adlons series even praise second season continuing pull punches searingly honest yet hilarious take life struggles single mother hollywood blackish160 abclast year first alphabets family comedy received nomination hfpa deserves slot ballot given headlinegrabbing perspectives everything revisionist history family game nights catastrophe160 amazonis year sharon horgan rob delaneyled relationship comedy finally breaks globes race given third season features final guest starring performance carrie fisher certainly seems ripe nom marvelous mrs maisel160 amazonamy shermanpalladinos new period piece 50sera woman launches unlikely career standup comic premieres time hfpa first recognize given voters love quirky amazon comedies master none netflixthe series somehow escaped nom freshman outing would crime hfpa ignore even bolder sophomore season aziz ansari alan yangs comedy broke format structure subtitled blackandwhite episode muchtalked thanksgiving episode smilf160 showtimevoters love affair auteur comedies bodes well effort writerproducerdirectorstar frankie shaw premium cable comedy offers idiosyncratic take single motherhood veep160 hbothe emmy champion nominated golden globe comedy series twice certainly seems like lock another especially given strength past season sly political overtones amp grace160 nbcduring original run peacock sitcom earned six noms comedy series never took home top prize second life though could change revival must see comedy scoring topical stories like gay marriage still keeping heart humor core relationships comedy actor anthony anderson160 blackishanderson broke globes last year deserves another nod johnson family patriarch dre took new layers year becoming new dad fearing mother might dementia aziz ansari160 master nonemultihyphenate ansari earned kudos work every aspect show including acting nommed last year ansari deserves another shot second season saw show culinary skills well fluency italian iain armitage160 young sheldonthe hfpa loves crown fresh faces may one fresher young star big bang theorys spinoff finding new dimensions longbeloved character larry david160 curb enthusiasmafter six years away david returned hbo comedy pick mantle neurotic indignant satire entertainment industry hfpa may want use nomination thank return eric mccormack160 amp gracea globes favorite original run nbc sitcom nominated five times early aughts mccormack seamlessly slipped back lovable nitpicky trumans suits comedy actress pamela adlon160 better thingslast year adlons compelling performance multifaceted single mom sam may slipped radar premiered close noms time around voters may want correct wrong rachel bloom160 crazy exgirlfrienda twotime nominee previous winner bloom may continue capture voters attention hearts increasingly layered performance woman inches closer facing mental issues breaks song rachel brosnahan160 marvelous mrs maiselbrosnahan stars amy shermanpalladinos latest fasttalking leading lady single mother upandcoming stand comedienne whos tasked finding voice stage life julia louisdreyfus160 veep160the reigning emmy queen hfpa favorite another stellar year peeling back narcissistic layers selina meyer find crudeness underneath show coming end voters want take advantage opportunities recognize debra messing160 amp gracethe actress nominated eight globes past including six original run nbc sitcom shes still charming ever newly woke neurotic designer grace adler issa rae160 insecurethe freshman face last years golden globes shooin ballot delivering second season saw character newly single first time exploring new romantic comedic adventures gina rodriguez160 jane virginprevious winner rodriguez voter favorite category likely digging deep explore grief losing husband season finds hopeful playful exploring new love blossoming career tracee ellis ross160 blackishlast years winner proven shes still win season sees rainbow johnson facing reallife issues grapples postpartum depression following birth fifth baby frankie shaw160 smilfwith freshman series debuting time noms shaw seems like perfect choice years fresh face comedy race mention shes quadruple threat writer producer director star limited seriestv movie big little lies160 hboits months since debuted premium cable projects star power hardly dimmed featuring rare smallscreen appearances nicole kidman reese witherspoon multiple emmy winning limited series tackles hotbutton topics domestic abuse black mirror netflixdropping fourth season eligibility period closed charlie brookers futuristic anthology drama awardsworthy offerings including arkangel black museum uss callister fargo160 fxled awardworthy turn ewan mcgregor dual roles third season noah hawleys anthology drama expanded universe still maintained sly sense dark humor noms two previous seasons seems lock feud bette joan160 fxthe hfpa find hard resist ryan murphys paean old hollywood powerful profiles two screen legends joan crawford bette davis two screen legends jessica lange susan sarandon prime awards bait long road home160 national geographicthis military drama stands rippedfromtheheadlines nature savvy balance storytelling platoon loved ones back home sinner160 usathe cable drama provided showcase jessica biel young woman brutally murdered seeming stranger ordinary day painstakingly unraveled dark secrets past top lake china girl160 sundanceelisabeth moss nicole kidman delivered haunting performances second installment jane campions intricate character study disguised crime mystery moss globe show nom first outing twin peaks160 showtimemore nostalgia twin peaks revival david lynch mark frost kept viewers edge seats trying figure happening screen would happen next limited seriestv movie actor robert de niro160 wizard liesde niro stranger hfpa first globes nominated 1976s taxi driver forceful work bernie madoff hbos original movie may get ballot michael kelly160 long road homekellys potent turn reallife soldier gary volesky earned silver star bravery 2004s black sunday baghdad could earn spot ballot kyle maclachlan160 twin peaksmaclachlan put new spin dale cooper series revival even voters didnt always understand going impossible resist watching maclachlan embrace quirks ewan mcgregor160 fargohfpa voters got double mcgregor dual roles twin brothers noah hawleys anthology drama dichotomy different personalities may cement nom jesse plemons160 black mirror uss callistera critical favorite limited series fargo plemons perfectly encaptures socially awkward turn sinister power play set space fourth season black mirror geoffrey rush geniusrush recreated albert einsteins iconic look natgeos new anthology also humanized fascinating flawed man thought knew limited seriestv movie actress jessica biel160 sinnerusa good track record hfpa boding well biel never better murderer kept secrets close learned even darker things carrie coon160 fargocoon beloved critics portrayal disconnected police chief noah hawleys anthology drama role leftovers hfpa chance celebrate something television academy odds good voters take edie falco160 law amp order true crime menendez murdersfalco nominated 11 times across drama comedy twice drama seems safe expect limited nod taking largerthanlife defense attorney leslie abramson abrasive woman falco infused maternal humanity sarah gadon160 alias graceshe may acting half life shes relative newcomer eyes hfpa breaking haunting portrayal netflixs period drama based margaret atwoods novel nicole kidman160 big little lieskidman three globe wins film work could notch tv nom work hbo series shone grounded frightening light domestic abuse performance taking home emmy jessica lange feud bette joana hfpa favorite work ryan murphys anthology series american horror story lange simultaneously infused largerthanlife legend grace vulnerability almost impossible overlook susan sarandon160160feud bette joanits hard imagine hfpa recognizing one brilliant performance hollywood period piece without recognizing sarandon delivered striking intimate performance woman known overthetop reese witherspoon big little lieswitherspoons archetypal typea mother displayed surprising depth irresistible charm hbos sudsy limited series executive produced | 1,944 |
<p>As the dust settles on the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court/2013/06/26/f0039814-d9ab-11e2-a016-92547bf094cc_story.html" type="external">Supreme Court</a>’s <a href="http://www.nationformarriage.org/" type="external">marriage</a> rulings, <a href="http://www.marriageuniqueforareason.org/" type="external">Catholics</a> and other defenders of traditional marriage have stepped forward with new energy and comprehensive <a href="http://www.redstate.com/ryantanderson/2013/07/02/what-three-dissents-signal-for-marriages-future/?utm_source=RTA+SCOTUS+RedState&amp;utm_campaign=winstorg&amp;utm_medium=email" type="external">strategies</a> to preserve <a href="" type="external">marriage</a> as the union of one man and one woman.</p>
<p>On <a href="http://www.redstate.com/ryantanderson/2013/07/02/what-three-dissents-signal-for-marriages-future/?utm_source=RTA+SCOTUS+RedState&amp;utm_campaign=winstorg&amp;utm_medium=email" type="external">Redstate.com</a>, Ryan T. Anderson sees the dissenting opinions of Supreme Court Justices Alito, Roberts, and Scalia in the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) ruling as “flares signaling the path that marriage proponents must take from here.”</p>
<p>From those dissents, Anderson sketches his own vision for strengthening marriage. We need “to start living out the truth about marriage…to insist that the government respect those who continue to stand for marriage as the union of a man and a woman…[and] to redouble our efforts at explaining&#160; <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/03/marriage-what-it-is-why-it-matters-and-the-consequences-of-redefining-it" type="external">what marriage is, why marriage matters and what the consequences are of redefining marriage</a>…We should frame our message, strengthen coalitions, devise strategies and bear witness. We must develop and multiply our artistic, pastoral and&#160; <a href="http://whatismarriagebook.com/" type="external">reasoned defenses of the conjugal view</a>&#160;as the truth about marriage, and to make ever plainer&#160; <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/03/marriage-what-it-is-why-it-matters-and-the-consequences-of-redefining-it" type="external">our policy reasons for enacting it</a>.”</p>
<p>A huge task, to be sure, but a cogent vision nonetheless.</p>
<p>Let me offer a few thoughts on one part of that task, the challenge of bringing the marriage message home to Catholics.</p>
<p>Anderson highlights <a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/06/10455/" type="external">Justice Alito’s view</a> that the marriage debate is a contest between two ideas, “the conjugal view of marriage: a ‘comprehensive, exclusive, permanent union that is intrinsically ordered to producing children,’” and “the consent-based idea that marriage is a commitment marked by emotional union.”</p>
<p>These dueling ideas square off in Supreme Court briefs, intellectual spaces like <a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/" type="external">Public Discourse</a> or <a href="http://www.firstthings.com/article/2011/09/whither-marriage-1" type="external">First Things</a>, and in the ‘New Conversation about Marriage’ at the <a href="http://www.americanvalues.org/" type="external">Institute for American Values</a>.</p>
<p>But for many ordinary Americans—already conditioned by the sexual revolution to separate babies from sex and sex from marriage—Justice Alito’s ‘contest of ideas’ over marriage is all but invisible. (And in this respect, Catholics are no different from their fellow Americans.)</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Sundering Sex and Procreation</p>
<p>Heterosexual marriage has been functioning for decades now as a commitment based on love. Children? Optional. It’s a mindset primed to accept homosexual coupling and same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>Back in 2005, liberal historian Stephanie Coontz <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/opinion/05coontz.html?_r=1&amp;" type="external">observed</a> that the deconstruction of traditional marriage (and the growing acceptance of same-sex marriage) was a predictable consequence of the separation of sex and procreation.</p>
<p>Heterosexuals were the upstarts who turned marriage into a voluntary love relationship rather than a mandatory economic and political institution. Heterosexuals were the ones who made procreation voluntary, so that some couples could choose childlessness, and who adopted assisted reproduction so that even couples who could not conceive could become parents. And heterosexuals subverted the long-standing rule that every marriage had to have a husband who played one role in the family and a wife who played a completely different one. Gays and lesbians simply looked at the revolution heterosexuals had wrought and noticed that with its new norms, marriage could work for them, too.</p>
<p>If Coontz, Co-Chair of the <a href="http://www.contemporaryfamilies.org/member-bios/coontz.html" type="external">Council on Contemporary Families</a> and a supporter of same-sex marriage, could name the problem (the separation of sex from procreation) back then, why couldn’t we? More precisely, why didn’t we?</p>
<p>Our priests didn’t preach and our teachers didn’t teach because contraception was the unmentionable sin-that-wasn’t. Why risk alienating parishioners (and donors) by condemning The Pill and other sundry methods? Makes things a tad awkward over coffee and donuts later in the cafeteria. Besides, no one wants to be “that guy,” the rube at a Manhattan cocktail party, bumbling, ridiculous, and very uncool.</p>
<p>So our congregations sat comfortably in their pews, undisturbed by truth. Let’s own this fact: Silence paved the way for Catholics’ ‘progressive’ march from yesterday’s contraception to today’s same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>Perhaps that’s an impolitic thing to say.</p>
<p>But until we name the problem correctly, we can’t fix it. At least in Catholic circles, if we hope to defend “the conjugal view as the truth about marriage,” we’ve got to teach anew the truth about sex. Why? Because the truth about sexuality is the basis for the truth about marriage.</p>
<p>Successful arguments in the public square may or may not begin in the same place.</p>
<p>But within our own families, parishes, and Catholic communities, Catholics need to hear that gender matters–that sexual complementarity, designed by God, tells us something about the sexual act, its purpose, and the moral norms that govern it. Catholics need to reconnect sex and reproduction, to realize that all ‘kinds’ of sex aren’t “equal” (some, in fact, are immoral), and to understand marriage in relation to these truths.</p>
<p>Catholics need to hear the big picture, to see the coherence of the entire truth. They need to know that the Church’s teaching against contraception is not an outlier among Catholic teachings, an outdated asterisk with little relevance to modern sexuality. (Nor is it some patriarchal plot to ensure that Catholic women produce lots of little Catholics.) On the contrary, the Church’s teaching on contraception flows from an integrated view of the human person, human dignity and sexuality—and that same truth provides the reason why marriage can only be the union of one man and one woman.</p>
<p>According to the Catholic women I’ve been interviewing over the past year, few Catholics hear much of anything from the pulpit about the Church’s teachings on sexuality and contraception. Although an increasing number hear the Church’s message that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, many aren’t buying it. The latest Barna Group <a href="https://www.barna.org/barna-update/culture/618-america-s-change-of-mind-on-same-sex-marriage-and-lgbtq-rights" type="external">polling</a> shows that only 50% of practicing Catholics define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. ( <a href="https://www.barna.org/barna-update/culture/618-america-s-change-of-mind-on-same-sex-marriage-and-lgbtq-rights" type="external">Barna</a> defined “practicing Catholics” as those who attend Church at least once a month and consider their faith very important in their lives.)</p>
<p>We’ve got to understand why these Catholics don’t accept the truth about marriage: it’s because they don’t accept the truth about sex. And that’s the underlying problem we must address.</p>
<p>Today’s Catholics, especially younger Catholics, are by and large the products of public schools and a sexually corrupt culture. They’ve been taught (without hearing any countervailing voices in their parish) that gender is fluid and sex is only about pleasure. Every kind of sexual activity—anal, oral, vaginal, twosomes, threesomes, etc. —becomes an equally valid choice for consenting adults. (Newly released <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/162689/record-high-say-gay-lesbian-relations-morally.aspx?utm_source=alert&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=syndication&amp;utm_content=morelink&amp;utm_term=USA" type="external">Gallup data</a> shows that 68% of Catholics overall say that gay and lesbian sexual relations are morally acceptable, while just 29% believes those relations are morally wrong. Even among weekly church-goers, almost one-third believes homosexual sex is moral.)</p>
<p>Today’s Catholics also have learned—often from Catholic voices—that reproduction is a deliberate add-on to the sexual relationship, not an intrinsic aspect of sexual love, and indeed might be accomplished best in a petri dish miles away from the marriage bed.</p>
<p>It doesn’t take much, then, for Catholics to see marriage through minimalist eyes, as society’s validation of a couple’s commitment status and, not incidentally, as a vehicle that confer benefits. From that perspective, restricting marriage to one man and one woman seems little more than a hoary tradition—the vestige of a less enlightened era—that becomes hurtful and discriminatory to those excluded from it. And that’s where a huge percentage of Catholics are today.</p>
<p>Defending marriage is a vast and vital task. We need to work on all fronts, as <a href="http://www.redstate.com/ryantanderson/2013/07/02/what-three-dissents-signal-for-marriages-future/?utm_source=RTA+SCOTUS+RedState&amp;utm_campaign=winstorg&amp;utm_medium=email" type="external">Ryan Anderson</a> argued so persuasively. But in our outreach to the larger society, let’s not overlook the extensive “in-house” work that needs to be done with our fellow Catholics.</p>
<p>If silence paved the way for Catholics’ ‘progressive’ march from yesterday’s contraception to today’s same-sex marriage, then it’s not hard to see the remedy. Catholics, be not afraid to teach, preach, and live the truth—especially the truth about sex and contraception.</p>
<p>Mary Rice Hasson is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p> | false | 1 | dust settles supreme courts marriage rulings catholics defenders traditional marriage stepped forward new energy comprehensive strategies preserve marriage union one man one woman redstatecom ryan anderson sees dissenting opinions supreme court justices alito roberts scalia defense marriage act doma ruling flares signaling path marriage proponents must take dissents anderson sketches vision strengthening marriage need start living truth marriageto insist government respect continue stand marriage union man womanand redouble efforts explaining160 marriage marriage matters consequences redefining marriagewe frame message strengthen coalitions devise strategies bear witness must develop multiply artistic pastoral and160 reasoned defenses conjugal view160as truth marriage make ever plainer160 policy reasons enacting huge task sure cogent vision nonetheless let offer thoughts one part task challenge bringing marriage message home catholics anderson highlights justice alitos view marriage debate contest two ideas conjugal view marriage comprehensive exclusive permanent union intrinsically ordered producing children consentbased idea marriage commitment marked emotional union dueling ideas square supreme court briefs intellectual spaces like public discourse first things new conversation marriage institute american values many ordinary americansalready conditioned sexual revolution separate babies sex sex marriagejustice alitos contest ideas marriage invisible respect catholics different fellow americans 160 sundering sex procreation heterosexual marriage functioning decades commitment based love children optional mindset primed accept homosexual coupling samesex marriage back 2005 liberal historian stephanie coontz observed deconstruction traditional marriage growing acceptance samesex marriage predictable consequence separation sex procreation heterosexuals upstarts turned marriage voluntary love relationship rather mandatory economic political institution heterosexuals ones made procreation voluntary couples could choose childlessness adopted assisted reproduction even couples could conceive could become parents heterosexuals subverted longstanding rule every marriage husband played one role family wife played completely different one gays lesbians simply looked revolution heterosexuals wrought noticed new norms marriage could work coontz cochair council contemporary families supporter samesex marriage could name problem separation sex procreation back couldnt precisely didnt priests didnt preach teachers didnt teach contraception unmentionable sinthatwasnt risk alienating parishioners donors condemning pill sundry methods makes things tad awkward coffee donuts later cafeteria besides one wants guy rube manhattan cocktail party bumbling ridiculous uncool congregations sat comfortably pews undisturbed truth lets fact silence paved way catholics progressive march yesterdays contraception todays samesex marriage perhaps thats impolitic thing say name problem correctly cant fix least catholic circles hope defend conjugal view truth marriage weve got teach anew truth sex truth sexuality basis truth marriage successful arguments public square may may begin place within families parishes catholic communities catholics need hear gender mattersthat sexual complementarity designed god tells us something sexual act purpose moral norms govern catholics need reconnect sex reproduction realize kinds sex arent equal fact immoral understand marriage relation truths catholics need hear big picture see coherence entire truth need know churchs teaching contraception outlier among catholic teachings outdated asterisk little relevance modern sexuality patriarchal plot ensure catholic women produce lots little catholics contrary churchs teaching contraception flows integrated view human person human dignity sexualityand truth provides reason marriage union one man one woman according catholic women ive interviewing past year catholics hear much anything pulpit churchs teachings sexuality contraception although increasing number hear churchs message marriage union one man one woman many arent buying latest barna group polling shows 50 practicing catholics define marriage union one man one woman barna defined practicing catholics attend church least month consider faith important lives weve got understand catholics dont accept truth marriage dont accept truth sex thats underlying problem must address todays catholics especially younger catholics large products public schools sexually corrupt culture theyve taught without hearing countervailing voices parish gender fluid sex pleasure every kind sexual activityanal oral vaginal twosomes threesomes etc becomes equally valid choice consenting adults newly released gallup data shows 68 catholics overall say gay lesbian sexual relations morally acceptable 29 believes relations morally wrong even among weekly churchgoers almost onethird believes homosexual sex moral todays catholics also learnedoften catholic voicesthat reproduction deliberate addon sexual relationship intrinsic aspect sexual love indeed might accomplished best petri dish miles away marriage bed doesnt take much catholics see marriage minimalist eyes societys validation couples commitment status incidentally vehicle confer benefits perspective restricting marriage one man one woman seems little hoary traditionthe vestige less enlightened erathat becomes hurtful discriminatory excluded thats huge percentage catholics today defending marriage vast vital task need work fronts ryan anderson argued persuasively outreach larger society lets overlook extensive inhouse work needs done fellow catholics silence paved way catholics progressive march yesterdays contraception todays samesex marriage hard see remedy catholics afraid teach preach live truthespecially truth sex contraception mary rice hasson fellow ethics public policy center | 755 |
<p>WASHINGTON — At nearly 3 a.m. on Nov. 9, Donald Trump spoke to the world after TV networks declared him the victor in the presidential election. His remarks were short. Trump praised his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. He even reached out to those who had not supported him and asked for their guidance and “help so that we can work together and unify our great country.”</p>
<p>Brief, gracious and unifying, Trump’s acceptance speech might seem like the perfect template for the inaugural address the Republican will deliver Friday. Trump spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters Friday to expect the victory remarks’ theme of “uniting and bringing all Americans together,” with a focus on restoring pride in America, American jobs and “the role he sees every American playing in making the country better.”</p>
<p>The inauguration, however, lacks the element of surprise that often charges Trump productions. When the GOP nominee swept the Electoral College but lost the popular vote, most political observers found themselves on terra incognita as Trump emerged praising his opponent and detractors in a way that showed a different — read: more presidential — presidential hopeful.</p>
<p>Since that high moment, said Democratic strategist and CNN commentator Maria Cardona, Trump has returned to his Twitter wars and occasional Clinton bashing. “I think he was magnanimous the night he won,” Cardona said, “but that is when the feeling ended.”</p>
<p>Bill Whalen, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, sees a president-elect who takes office with many voters “not liking him and not planning to like him.” The latest Gallup poll reported that only 44 percent of voters approve of Trump’s transition, while 51 percent disapprove. The inauguration provides Trump with a chance to win over skeptics — or drive them further away.</p>
<p>Ken Khachigian, who wrote President Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural address, has some advice for the Trump team. Avoid the mistake most speechwriters make when they are working on a president’s first inaugural address. Don’t, as Khachigian started to do, “read Lincoln’s inaugural” and then think you “need to write for the ages.”</p>
<p>Leave soaring eloquence for past presidents, Khachigian advised. Trump should not “try to be someone he’s not.”</p>
<p>MESSAGE OF UNIFICATION</p>
<p>“I do not expect it to be particularly historically significant,” Whalen said, as few inaugural addresses are. The best course would be for Trump to “very directly declare where he sees America’s standing in the world” and standing on its own. Let Trump save the policy pronouncements for his State of the Union speech on Feb. 21.</p>
<p>“I think it would help him to try to bring a message of unification and calm,” Khachigian said, “not in a groveling, pandering way, but in a straightforward way that shows he’s prepared to work with his counterparts in government and be responsive to the public as well.” Also, Trump has to keep in mind, “it’s not a rally.”</p>
<p>This is where Cardona expects Trump to stumble. “He continues on this very misguided belief that he won and that the people who don’t support him need to get over it,” she said.</p>
<p>Cardona cited Trump’s Cabinet picks — they’re mostly white and male — as indicators that Trump does not recognize the ill will that he has brewed as one of the hurdles he must surmount if he truly wants to unite the country. And “he thinks it’s somebody else’s fault that we’re not united.”</p>
<p>The inaugural stage presents unique optics, Whalen observed. Rather than being surrounded by his die-hard boosters as he was election night, Trump will take the oath of office below the Capitol, where he will be surrounded by the very people he so brutally vanquished. Former presidents will attend. That means Bill and Hillary Clinton, aka “Crooked Hillary,” will stand nearby, as will George W. Bush, whose brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Trump, Trump destroyed when he labeled him “low-energy.”</p>
<p>SORE WINNER?</p>
<p>Also expected are his defeated GOP rivals in the Senate — Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, aka “Little Marco,” “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, whose looks Trump mocked, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Long after the campaign ended, Trump continued to trash-talk his rivals. At Wednesday’s press conference, Trump quipped that he’d been competing with Graham for years and one day Graham “is going to crack that 1 percent barrier.” On Friday, Trump tweeted that Hillary Clinton was “guilty as hell.”</p>
<p>There’s a potential, as Cardona put it, that Trump will come across as a “sore winner.”</p>
<p>The inauguration also will draw countless protesters and hecklers. Whalen expects Trump to keep his cool this time. “We tend to lose sight of this with Trump,” he noted. “When people overdo it with Trump, Trump gets the better of the exchange.”</p>
<p>Perhaps the same dynamic will work with Democratic House members like Reps. Barbara Lee of California and John Lewis of Georgia, who have announced they will boycott the ceremony. The tables have turned. Just last year, the Clinton campaign took on Trump for saying the election was “rigged.” “You must accept the outcome,” Clinton’s campaign scolded. For her part, Lee pledged to spend Friday “preparing for the resistance.” Lewis declared that Trump is not “a legitimate president.”</p>
<p>On Friday on the Capitol steps, Trump will take the oath of office. He will assume office with the sure support of an enthusiastic plurality. But what of the majority of voters who did not support him but want to root for him to succeed? America will learn the answer at noon.</p>
<p>Contact Debra J. Saunders at [email protected] or at 202-662-7391. Follow <a href="http://www.twitter.com/DebraJSaunders" type="external">@DebraJSaunders</a> on Twitter.</p> | false | 1 | washington nearly 3 nov 9 donald trump spoke world tv networks declared victor presidential election remarks short trump praised democratic opponent hillary clinton even reached supported asked guidance help work together unify great country brief gracious unifying trumps acceptance speech might seem like perfect template inaugural address republican deliver friday trump spokesman sean spicer told reporters friday expect victory remarks theme uniting bringing americans together focus restoring pride america american jobs role sees every american playing making country better inauguration however lacks element surprise often charges trump productions gop nominee swept electoral college lost popular vote political observers found terra incognita trump emerged praising opponent detractors way showed different read presidential presidential hopeful since high moment said democratic strategist cnn commentator maria cardona trump returned twitter wars occasional clinton bashing think magnanimous night cardona said feeling ended bill whalen fellow stanford universitys hoover institution sees presidentelect takes office many voters liking planning like latest gallup poll reported 44 percent voters approve trumps transition 51 percent disapprove inauguration provides trump chance win skeptics drive away ken khachigian wrote president ronald reagans first inaugural address advice trump team avoid mistake speechwriters make working presidents first inaugural address dont khachigian started read lincolns inaugural think need write ages leave soaring eloquence past presidents khachigian advised trump try someone hes message unification expect particularly historically significant whalen said inaugural addresses best course would trump directly declare sees americas standing world standing let trump save policy pronouncements state union speech feb 21 think would help try bring message unification calm khachigian said groveling pandering way straightforward way shows hes prepared work counterparts government responsive public well also trump keep mind rally cardona expects trump stumble continues misguided belief people dont support need get said cardona cited trumps cabinet picks theyre mostly white male indicators trump recognize ill brewed one hurdles must surmount truly wants unite country thinks somebody elses fault united inaugural stage presents unique optics whalen observed rather surrounded diehard boosters election night trump take oath office capitol surrounded people brutally vanquished former presidents attend means bill hillary clinton aka crooked hillary stand nearby george w bush whose brother former florida gov jeb trump trump destroyed labeled lowenergy sore winner also expected defeated gop rivals senate sens marco rubio florida aka little marco lyin ted cruz texas rand paul kentucky whose looks trump mocked lindsey graham south carolina long campaign ended trump continued trashtalk rivals wednesdays press conference trump quipped hed competing graham years one day graham going crack 1 percent barrier friday trump tweeted hillary clinton guilty hell theres potential cardona put trump come across sore winner inauguration also draw countless protesters hecklers whalen expects trump keep cool time tend lose sight trump noted people overdo trump trump gets better exchange perhaps dynamic work democratic house members like reps barbara lee california john lewis georgia announced boycott ceremony tables turned last year clinton campaign took trump saying election rigged must accept outcome clintons campaign scolded part lee pledged spend friday preparing resistance lewis declared trump legitimate president friday capitol steps trump take oath office assume office sure support enthusiastic plurality majority voters support want root succeed america learn answer noon contact debra j saunders dsaundersreviewjournalcom 2026627391 follow debrajsaunders twitter | 536 |
<p>Variety approached five foreign-language directors who have been to the awards circuit before about the changes in their lives and their show business careers since their previous visit to the kudos rodeo whether it was five or 15 years earlier. For some technological advances were in the forefront while for others it was financing. We also asked them if they were interested in taking a path others had before them to Hollywood. The answers may surprise, or enlighten as each director has a unique take on new technology, recognition and of course the motivation and inspiration behind their current films.</p>
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/ruben-ostlund/" type="external">RUBEN OSTLUND</a>There was a time in the Oscar foreign-language category’s not-too-distant history when the nominating committee fell for films about the sentimental bond between a grandfatherly old man and the bright-eyed boy he takes under his wing — feel-good films such as “Kolya” and “Cinema Paradiso.”</p>
<p>Ruben Ostlund’s “The Square” is not that movie. In fact, it’s very nearly the opposite, hinging on the standoff between Christian (Claes Bang), the liberal-minded director of a Swedish art museum, and the immigrant child he falsely accuses of stealing his wallet. It’s a confrontation that goes unresolved, leaving Christian (and the audience) to cope with his guilt.</p>
<p>That’s hardly the formula for an Oscar nominations, and yet, Östlund came close (he was shortlisted in 2015) with his provocative film “Force Majeure.” Plus, the jury at this year’s Cannes clearly responded to Ostlund’s provocation (which includes a scene in which a performance artist takes his monkey-imitation shtick too far among a crowd of donors wearing gowns and tuxedos, which the director knew would premiere in a room full of people wearing gowns and tuxedos), awarding “The Square” the Palme d’Or.</p>
<p>“This chief curator, Christian, can support these humanistic values when it comes to the art museum, but I wanted to make it a little bit harder in his own life,” Ostlund says. “I see myself as Christian very much. I don’t look at him as hypocritical. I thought it was interesting to ask, how do we deal with these ideals on a practical level? I think that when we look at situations where we fail, we can actually understand a lot about ourselves.”</p>
<p>“The Square” toys with this idea in various ways, using a relatively simplistic narrative (involving the theft of Christian’s wallet and its consequences) as a frame of sorts in which to pose a number of uneasy sociological micro-dramas, inspired either by personal experience or anecdotes shared by friends (the scene in which the crowd reacts as a man with Tourette Syndrome disrupts a museum interview actually happened at a play Ostlund attended). Through it all, the common theme is the disconnect between how liberal-minded people aspire to behave and where they fall short when tested by real-life situations.</p>
<p>The Oscar, like all consensus prizes, tends to shy away from confrontation, although there are exceptions, such as Luis Buñuel, whose 1972 winner “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” Ostlund looks to as an inspiration (though he prefers the title to the film itself). By setting “The Square” in the museum world, Ostlund underscores how art is supposed to challenge — something the director sets out to accomplish in terms of both content and form (hence the loose plot interrupted by uncomfortable real-time sketches).</p>
<p>The version released in theaters has been tightened slightly since Cannes.</p>
<p>“I was provoked by these people saying, ‘It’s too long, it’s too long,’” Ostlund says. “I thought, ‘But come on! Your kids are watching “Harry Potter” and it’s three hours long.’ As soon as it comes to adult cinema, and you’re dealing with contemporary things that are important, then you don’t have two hours and 25 minutes. So I said in the interviews that I am going to make the film longer.”</p>
<p>According to Ostlund, he held five test screenings after Cannes in which he studied the crowd’s reaction (a process he swears by in order to perfect the pacing), after which he made a few small adjustments. “Actually, the film is shorter now.”</p>
<p>After the near-nomination of “Force Majeure,” Ostlund was approached about making a studio movie in Hollywood. “I was offered ‘Passengers,’” confides the director, who was intrigued by what he describes as its “existential setup,” though the producers rejected his take, which imagined Chris Pratt’s character as a father, debating whether to wake his wife and kids, or else choose another woman to be his companion. “Because then it becomes so much more interesting,” he says.</p>
<p>Although open to the idea, Ostlund is somewhat wary of working in Hollywood, especially after what happened to fellow Swedish helmer Tomas Alfredson on “The Snowman,” and prefers to develop material through his production company, over which he has control. For now, he teases just the milieu (the fashion industry, where his photographer wife works) and title of his next project, “Triangle of Sadness,” which refers to the wrinkles that appear between the brows of those who have suffered in life — nothing that a little Botox can’t fix, he teases.</p>
<p>MICHAEL R. ROSKAM</p>
<p>For anyone who wants proof of what an Academy Award nomination can do for a foreign filmmaker, look no further than “The Racer and the Jailbird” director Michael R. Roskam.</p>
<p>In 2011, Roskam’s film “Bullhead” was selected as Belgium’s official Oscar submission, and the director flew to Los Angeles to support the film — a trip full of screenings and soirées that led to landing an agent, pitching at various studios and meeting one of his filmmaking gods, Michael Mann.“‘Heat’ is one of my favorite movies. I think I must have seen it 20 times,” says Roskam.</p>
<p>Mann had been tapped by Academy foreign language committee chair Mark Johnson to serve on his elite selection team, and by all reports, Mann was blown away by “Bullhead,” giving a glowing speech on its behalf.</p>
<p>“He became a kind of mentor, the person who represents your film at the Oscar ceremony when you get the certificate,” Roskam says.</p>
<p>Not all foreign directors want to work in Hollywood, but for Roskam, meeting both Mann and Johnson immediately opened that door.</p>
<p>Together, the trio hatched a television project for HBO, tentatively called “Buda Bridge,” to be shot in Belgium by Roskam with “Bullhead” star Matthias Schoenaerts.</p>
<p>For various reasons, the project fell through, but not before giving Roskam a chance to work with his idol.</p>
<p>“I had an office there, and I was constantly writing and analyzing [with Mann]. It was like some kind of master class in series writing,” Roskam says. “He had just made ‘Luck,’ which I thought was just fantastic.”</p>
<p>At that point, Roskam already had the idea for “Racer and the Jailbird,” about an amour fou between two daredevils: She drives dangerously fast for a living, he robs banks.</p>
<p>But all the Oscar momentum created another opportunity that Roskam seized first: Fox Searchlight was looking for someone to direct crime thriller “The Drop,” from a Dennis Lehane script.</p>
<p>Roskam stuck around and made that movie in Boston, learning how the American film production system works.</p>
<p>“Filmmaking here is a different culture,” Roskam says. “You’ve got to fight for your ideas, but you also have to be aware that the producers are part of the makers’ team, and you share control with them. A lot of European directors don’t know how to deal with it. But in the end, ‘The Drop’ turned out exactly the way I wanted it.”</p>
<p>Among the multiple projects Roskam is developing at the moment, he is writing an original script for Searchlight.</p>
<p>Looking back, Roskam thinks it’s for the best that he didn’t tackle “Racer and the Jailbird” immediately after “Bullhead,” since the experience of working on “The Drop” made it possible for him to raise the money for what, by Belgium standards at least, is a relatively expensive film.</p>
<p>Plus, he now had the confidence to stage several bravura set pieces, including a spectacular, nearly all-practical, single-shot armored car heist that rivals nearly any scene in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” — although, of course, it was Mann he was thinking of.</p>
<p>“For me, it’s like ‘Heat’ turned inside-out, in a way,” Roskam says. “In ‘Heat,’ we see crime under pressure from love, whereas in ‘Racer and the Jailbird,’ it’s the other way around: It’s a love story that is receiving pressure from crime.”</p>
<p>Schoenaerts plays a thrill-seeking bandit who falls for a sexy young racecar driver (“Blue Is the Warmest Color” star Adèle Exarchopoulos), but as the couple gets serious, his criminal activity threatens to sabotage their romance.</p>
<p>Roskam saw the movie as an homage to film noir, one that reached back to the roots of the genre.</p>
<p>“At the very origin of film noir, before things turned all hard-boiled, the films were melodramatic love stories,” he says, though he was also determined to give it a slick, 21st century twist, while also tipping his hat to the likes of directors such as Jean-Pierre Melville and Claude Lelouch and his swoon-worthy classic “A Man and a Woman.”</p>
<p>“This film is my fantasma of absolute love,” says Roskam, explaining how the script was inspired by a rash of over-the-top real-life robberies in and around Brussels during the 1980s and ’90s.</p>
<p>“They all had these notorious love stories, so the ladies were always present, and their lives were often just as interesting as the bandits.”</p>
<p>ANDREY ZVYAGINTZEVThe golden globe win and Oscar nomination for 2014’s “Leviathan” became an opportunity for helmer Zvyagintsev “to move forward as an artist and feel freer in terms of the scope of the projects that I pursue,” he says. “Not that I was ever constrained in that respect, but still, it helps me think about bigger stories and this is the only way that awards affect my work.”</p>
<p>His producer Alexander Rodnyansky says: “The screenplay award in Cannes, multiple prizes at other important film festivals, the Golden Globe win and the Oscar nomination that ‘Leviathan’ received opened a lot of doors for us. First and foremost it made our negotiations with potential investors, both private and institutional, significantly easier.</p>
<p>“It allowed us to ditch [Russian] state financing altogether and structure ‘Loveless’ as a European co-production with some of the financing provided by a private investor, Gleb Fetisov. Also, ‘Loveless’ got much more attention from the press and the distributors than ‘Leviathan’ did. Even before Cannes was over, ‘Loveless’ was sold to almost every country.”</p>
<p>Discussing the state of the film biz in Russia, Zvyagintsev says: “As a director my priority is the level of freedom that is allowed to an artist, so that he can speak freely about the times that he lives in and to tell the truth about it. Both young and established Russian filmmakers made some very important films recently. They weren’t supported by the state, which supports only the films that glorify it, but until the free voice of an artist can be heard, I think it is a duty to speak only the truth.”</p>
<p>Rodnyansky adds: “The Russian film industry is getting in better shape with each year. In 2017 we already had two Russian films crossing the 1 billion rubles [$17 million] benchmark at the box office and another three did over [$8.55 million] at home. Independent filmmaking also got a boost with a couple of really good films that were screened at Russian festivals and got theatrical distribution.</p>
<p>“Overall it seems that Russian filmmakers finally found their way to the local audience. Now the industry is poised for international integration. It is definitely ready for international co-productions for TV or streaming services, and in a few years it might also be ready for feature films.”</p>
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/michael-haneke/" type="external">MICHAEL HANEKE</a>Michael Haneke’s “Happy End,” Austria’s submission for in the foreign-language film category, comes five years after his Oscar-winning “Amour.”Haneke says his latest work, a dark family farce, was inspired by a chilling crime that took place in Japan as well as by some of the themes he explored in “Amour.”</p>
<p>While the role of social media and digital communication is central to the story of “Happy End,” the filmmaker says he’s not judging internet-based technologies but rather simply illustrating their ubiquitousness in modern life.</p>
<p>“You only need to go into a restaurant or a coffee house and look at the people,” Haneke says. “Most people sitting there are not talking to the person across from them but are looking at their phones. It wasn’t my intention to judge social media; it’s simply that it’s become an integral part of life.”</p>
<p>Haneke argues that social media has even taken over the role of the church and confession in particular.</p>
<p>“It used to be that when you did something bad you’d go to a priest, confess and seek forgiveness. Today you go on an online forum and confess there with the same anonymity.”</p>
<p>For Haneke, it is the internet that has had an immense impact not only on today’s society but also on the film industry.</p>
<p>“The internet has changed the world in a manner never before seen in the history of humanity. The invention of the printing press took much longer to change the world. The internet has changed the entire world with such speed — it’s incredible, it’s incomprehensible.”</p>
<p>Digital technologies, and visual effects in particular, have facilitated many aspects of filmmaking, Haneke says, pointing to sequence in “Happy End” that depicts a catastrophic construction site accident.</p>
<p>“We wouldn’t have been able to do that a few years ago.”</p>
<p>Years of success have made it easier for Haneke to make films, particularly in securing financing.</p>
<p>“For me personally, however, it’s not at all easier because my own aspirations grow and its just as difficult for me to make a film now as it was 40 years ago,” the 75-year-old director says.</p>
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/fatih-akin/" type="external">FATIH AKIN</a>Director <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/awards/fatih-akins-in-the-fade-selected-german-oscar-entry-1202537835/" type="external">fatih akin</a> is again representing Germany with his Oscar submission “In the Fade” a decade after the country selected his drama “The Edge of Heaven.”Akin’s latest work, starring Diane Kruger, tackles the issue of neo-Nazi terrorism — a topic the filmmaker had long wanted to explore.</p>
<p>It was the real-life case of the far-right National Socialist Underground (NSU) terrorist cell, which allegedly murdered 10 people, most of them of Turkish or Kurdish origin, and committed 14 bank robberies between 2000 and 2011, that inspired his thriller about a woman seeking vengeance following a race-hate attack.</p>
<p>“For many years the police and the media thought that these crimes were done by the Turkish or Kurdish mafia,” Akin says. “Once it came out that they were done by neo-Nazis, I was very angry. This anger was the motor that drove me to sit down and write.”</p>
<p>Looking for an actress outside Germany’s “usual suspects” and someone who could help the film break out, Akin approached Kruger about the project. “Working with her was a very beautiful experience in every manner.”</p>
<p>Akin has been making films for two decades and he’s seen many changes in the industry. One of the biggest was the transition from 35mm film to digital, namely the ARRI Alexa.</p>
<p>“Also the change from the Steenbeck [flatbed editor] to digital — the first two features I edited with Andrew Bird were done on the Steenbeck. And working now in digital, that was the transformation that I witnessed. That was a revolution. It still is. People like Sean Baker can take their iPhone and go out and shoot and do these masterpieces for almost nothing. That has made film really become an art form.</p>
<p>“The other change is television. Television is really challenging cinema in terms of quality, in terms of quality of writing.”</p>
<p>Looking at his own work today, Akin says, “I have learned that I have to stay with small budgets. Five million [euros] in Germany is a middle budget. I do everything to not cross that line. If films are too expensive, they’re not profitable.”</p>
<p>Leo Barraclough contributed to this report.</p> | false | 1 | variety approached five foreignlanguage directors awards circuit changes lives show business careers since previous visit kudos rodeo whether five 15 years earlier technological advances forefront others financing also asked interested taking path others hollywood answers may surprise enlighten director unique take new technology recognition course motivation inspiration behind current films ruben ostlundthere time oscar foreignlanguage categorys nottoodistant history nominating committee fell films sentimental bond grandfatherly old man brighteyed boy takes wing feelgood films kolya cinema paradiso ruben ostlunds square movie fact nearly opposite hinging standoff christian claes bang liberalminded director swedish art museum immigrant child falsely accuses stealing wallet confrontation goes unresolved leaving christian audience cope guilt thats hardly formula oscar nominations yet Östlund came close shortlisted 2015 provocative film force majeure plus jury years cannes clearly responded ostlunds provocation includes scene performance artist takes monkeyimitation shtick far among crowd donors wearing gowns tuxedos director knew would premiere room full people wearing gowns tuxedos awarding square palme dor chief curator christian support humanistic values comes art museum wanted make little bit harder life ostlund says see christian much dont look hypocritical thought interesting ask deal ideals practical level think look situations fail actually understand lot square toys idea various ways using relatively simplistic narrative involving theft christians wallet consequences frame sorts pose number uneasy sociological microdramas inspired either personal experience anecdotes shared friends scene crowd reacts man tourette syndrome disrupts museum interview actually happened play ostlund attended common theme disconnect liberalminded people aspire behave fall short tested reallife situations oscar like consensus prizes tends shy away confrontation although exceptions luis buñuel whose 1972 winner discreet charm bourgeoisie ostlund looks inspiration though prefers title film setting square museum world ostlund underscores art supposed challenge something director sets accomplish terms content form hence loose plot interrupted uncomfortable realtime sketches version released theaters tightened slightly since cannes provoked people saying long long ostlund says thought come kids watching harry potter three hours long soon comes adult cinema youre dealing contemporary things important dont two hours 25 minutes said interviews going make film longer according ostlund held five test screenings cannes studied crowds reaction process swears order perfect pacing made small adjustments actually film shorter nearnomination force majeure ostlund approached making studio movie hollywood offered passengers confides director intrigued describes existential setup though producers rejected take imagined chris pratts character father debating whether wake wife kids else choose another woman companion becomes much interesting says although open idea ostlund somewhat wary working hollywood especially happened fellow swedish helmer tomas alfredson snowman prefers develop material production company control teases milieu fashion industry photographer wife works title next project triangle sadness refers wrinkles appear brows suffered life nothing little botox cant fix teases michael r roskam anyone wants proof academy award nomination foreign filmmaker look racer jailbird director michael r roskam 2011 roskams film bullhead selected belgiums official oscar submission director flew los angeles support film trip full screenings soirées led landing agent pitching various studios meeting one filmmaking gods michael mannheat one favorite movies think must seen 20 times says roskam mann tapped academy foreign language committee chair mark johnson serve elite selection team reports mann blown away bullhead giving glowing speech behalf became kind mentor person represents film oscar ceremony get certificate roskam says foreign directors want work hollywood roskam meeting mann johnson immediately opened door together trio hatched television project hbo tentatively called buda bridge shot belgium roskam bullhead star matthias schoenaerts various reasons project fell giving roskam chance work idol office constantly writing analyzing mann like kind master class series writing roskam says made luck thought fantastic point roskam already idea racer jailbird amour fou two daredevils drives dangerously fast living robs banks oscar momentum created another opportunity roskam seized first fox searchlight looking someone direct crime thriller drop dennis lehane script roskam stuck around made movie boston learning american film production system works filmmaking different culture roskam says youve got fight ideas also aware producers part makers team share control lot european directors dont know deal end drop turned exactly way wanted among multiple projects roskam developing moment writing original script searchlight looking back roskam thinks best didnt tackle racer jailbird immediately bullhead since experience working drop made possible raise money belgium standards least relatively expensive film plus confidence stage several bravura set pieces including spectacular nearly allpractical singleshot armored car heist rivals nearly scene christopher nolans dark knight although course mann thinking like heat turned insideout way roskam says heat see crime pressure love whereas racer jailbird way around love story receiving pressure crime schoenaerts plays thrillseeking bandit falls sexy young racecar driver blue warmest color star adèle exarchopoulos couple gets serious criminal activity threatens sabotage romance roskam saw movie homage film noir one reached back roots genre origin film noir things turned hardboiled films melodramatic love stories says though also determined give slick 21st century twist also tipping hat likes directors jeanpierre melville claude lelouch swoonworthy classic man woman film fantasma absolute love says roskam explaining script inspired rash overthetop reallife robberies around brussels 1980s 90s notorious love stories ladies always present lives often interesting bandits andrey zvyagintzevthe golden globe win oscar nomination 2014s leviathan became opportunity helmer zvyagintsev move forward artist feel freer terms scope projects pursue says ever constrained respect still helps think bigger stories way awards affect work producer alexander rodnyansky says screenplay award cannes multiple prizes important film festivals golden globe win oscar nomination leviathan received opened lot doors us first foremost made negotiations potential investors private institutional significantly easier allowed us ditch russian state financing altogether structure loveless european coproduction financing provided private investor gleb fetisov also loveless got much attention press distributors leviathan even cannes loveless sold almost every country discussing state film biz russia zvyagintsev says director priority level freedom allowed artist speak freely times lives tell truth young established russian filmmakers made important films recently werent supported state supports films glorify free voice artist heard think duty speak truth rodnyansky adds russian film industry getting better shape year 2017 already two russian films crossing 1 billion rubles 17 million benchmark box office another three 855 million home independent filmmaking also got boost couple really good films screened russian festivals got theatrical distribution overall seems russian filmmakers finally found way local audience industry poised international integration definitely ready international coproductions tv streaming services years might also ready feature films michael hanekemichael hanekes happy end austrias submission foreignlanguage film category comes five years oscarwinning amourhaneke says latest work dark family farce inspired chilling crime took place japan well themes explored amour role social media digital communication central story happy end filmmaker says hes judging internetbased technologies rather simply illustrating ubiquitousness modern life need go restaurant coffee house look people haneke says people sitting talking person across looking phones wasnt intention judge social media simply become integral part life haneke argues social media even taken role church confession particular used something bad youd go priest confess seek forgiveness today go online forum confess anonymity haneke internet immense impact todays society also film industry internet changed world manner never seen history humanity invention printing press took much longer change world internet changed entire world speed incredible incomprehensible digital technologies visual effects particular facilitated many aspects filmmaking haneke says pointing sequence happy end depicts catastrophic construction site accident wouldnt able years ago years success made easier haneke make films particularly securing financing personally however easier aspirations grow difficult make film 40 years ago 75yearold director says fatih akindirector fatih akin representing germany oscar submission fade decade country selected drama edge heavenakins latest work starring diane kruger tackles issue neonazi terrorism topic filmmaker long wanted explore reallife case farright national socialist underground nsu terrorist cell allegedly murdered 10 people turkish kurdish origin committed 14 bank robberies 2000 2011 inspired thriller woman seeking vengeance following racehate attack many years police media thought crimes done turkish kurdish mafia akin says came done neonazis angry anger motor drove sit write looking actress outside germanys usual suspects someone could help film break akin approached kruger project working beautiful experience every manner akin making films two decades hes seen many changes industry one biggest transition 35mm film digital namely arri alexa also change steenbeck flatbed editor digital first two features edited andrew bird done steenbeck working digital transformation witnessed revolution still people like sean baker take iphone go shoot masterpieces almost nothing made film really become art form change television television really challenging cinema terms quality terms quality writing looking work today akin says learned stay small budgets five million euros germany middle budget everything cross line films expensive theyre profitable leo barraclough contributed report | 1,433 |
<p>CARSON CITY</p>
<p>Jason Frierson’s first question when he came to Nevada in 1988 was how long he would stay after being offered a football scholarship at the University of Nevada, Reno.</p>
<p>“My only question was, ‘Is this a five-year scholarship?’ ” Frierson recalled in a recent interview in the Legislative Building. “They said yes and I said, ‘where do I sign up?’”</p>
<p>The 46-year-old Frierson, who grew up in a tough neighborhood in Compton, California, has come a long way since that day.</p>
<p />
<p>Nearly 30 years later, the Assemblyman from District 8 in Las Vegas has made Nevada his home.</p>
<p>And on Monday, he will make history by becoming the first African-American speaker of the state Assembly.</p>
<p>Frierson, who is married with two children, ages 2 and 4, said leaving his family to serve in the session is difficult. He returns home every chance he gets, and the family enjoys just spending time together, he said.</p>
<p>While he looks back at his initiation to Nevada, Frierson is focused on the future. Now he has a chance to give back to his adopted state as the leader of the 42-member Assembly in the 2017 session.</p>
<p>Nevada has been good to me,” Frierson said. “I have always said we are one Nevada, and that will always be the case.”</p>
<p />
<p>His political career could have been cut short back in 2014, when he lost re-election by 40 votes in what became a GOP juggernaut in Nevada. But Frierson said he wanted to return to the Assembly because he had more to offer, and he did so in the 2016 election.</p>
<p>Democrats picked up 10 seats in 2016, bringing their number to 27 and retaking the majority.</p>
<p>FORMER SPEAKER OFFERS PRAISE</p>
<p>Former Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley said Frierson will be a terrific speaker.</p>
<p>”He is smart and dedicated and truly passionate about improving our state,” she said. “He is also a great communicator and respected by both parties. I felt honored when he chose to run in my Assembly seat after I retired, and as the first woman speaker in the state’s history, I will be equally proud when he is sworn in as the state’s first African-American speaker.”</p>
<p>Frierson enjoyed his football experiences, including helping win the NCAA Division 1-AA national championship over Boise State in 1990, but the running back injured his knee and he focused on his academic career, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in health science.</p>
<p>ON TO LAW SCHOOL</p>
<p>After a suggestion from former UNR President Joe Crowley, Frierson moved to Las Vegas to attend the charter class of the new Boyd Law School at UNLV, graduating in 2001. He clerked for former Nevada Supreme Court Justice Myron Leavitt and later became a deputy attorney general before working as a chief deputy public defender. Frierson is now in private practice.</p>
<p>So as Frierson ascends to the top ranking position in the Assembly, he comes to the job with knowledge of and links to both ends of the state.</p>
<p>“I learned from some real statesmen who cared about this institution and this gives me an opportunity to bring back those values,” Frierson said of his impending appointment. “I was Bill Raggio’s bank teller in college. I got to watch him and learn who he was. Politics aside, he was a statesman.”</p>
<p>The late Bill Raggio of Reno served as majority leader of the state Senate for decades and was known for his political acumen and love of the state and its institutions.</p>
<p>ON THE AGENDA</p>
<p>Frierson said there are a number of policy issues he wants to address in the 120-day session. At the top of his list is bringing back integrity to the Legislature and its processes.</p>
<p>He said there were problems in the 2015 session, when Republicans took control of the Assembly for the first time in 30 years.</p>
<p>“I don’t think it has as much to do with specific people as it does when you have a large number of new people who don’t know the value of productive structure and process,” he said. “There is no reason to ever repeat that, and violate protocol, respect for the institution and respect for each other.”</p>
<p>On the policy side, Frierson said legislative efforts will reflect the Democrat’s core priorities.</p>
<p>“Equal pay, getting people back to work, removing barriers to work, improving government transparency and efficiencies, these are all things that we’ve always fought for,” he said. “Protecting both women and members of the LBGTQ community and minority communities from harmful practices and policies.”</p>
<p>Frierson, who has known Gov. Brian Sandoval since 2003 when Sandoval was attorney general, said much of the state of the state address reflects shared values that Democrats endorse.</p>
<p>“But we have to get into the weeds of it and see how his budget reflects our core values.” he said. “There may be areas of higher priority for us.”</p>
<p>After the budget cuts and struggles for many of the past eight years, Nevada is in a better place than it has been in a long time, Frierson said.</p>
<p>The Legislature is expected to take up a variety of issues, including potential tweaks to the state property tax sought by some local governments and the controversial Education Savings Accounts, he said.</p>
<p>Despite a statement from state Sen. Michael Roberson, R-Henderson, that a property tax discussion is a nonstarter, Frierson said the system needs to reviewed.</p>
<p>Frierson is also open to a discussion of the GOP-supported Education Savings Accounts. Sandoval has proposed spending $60 million on the program to give parents up to $5,100 to send their children to private school, including religious schools.</p>
<p>But the pre-session rhetoric isn’t helping, Frierson said.</p>
<p>“So I think once we are able to sit down we may discover some common ground,” Frierson said. “We haven’t been able to do that because folks draw a line in the sand before the session starts.</p>
<p>“Choice is a broad term. There are a lot of things that comprise choice and true choice for everybody.”</p>
<p>NOT DEFINED BY OFFICE</p>
<p>Frierson said he “got the bug” to get into politics because of the ability to make a positive difference. Buckley and others recruited him to run for his first term in 2010.</p>
<p>Frierson won a second term in 2012, and he stayed involved during the 2015 session when he was not in elective office. While he has a lot yet to accomplish, Frierson said he won’t have any trouble walking away when the time comes.</p>
<p>“We have a citizens’ Legislature and anybody who is defined by this is in it for the wrong reasons,” he said. “You do as much good as you can do and leave it better than you found it. And whenever it is over you sail off and continue your life in whatever path that takes you.”</p>
<p>Contact Sean Whaley at [email protected] or 775-461-3820. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/seanw801" type="external">@seanw801</a> on Twitter.</p> | false | 1 | carson city jason friersons first question came nevada 1988 long would stay offered football scholarship university nevada reno question fiveyear scholarship frierson recalled recent interview legislative building said yes said sign 46yearold frierson grew tough neighborhood compton california come long way since day nearly 30 years later assemblyman district 8 las vegas made nevada home monday make history becoming first africanamerican speaker state assembly frierson married two children ages 2 4 said leaving family serve session difficult returns home every chance gets family enjoys spending time together said looks back initiation nevada frierson focused future chance give back adopted state leader 42member assembly 2017 session nevada good frierson said always said one nevada always case political career could cut short back 2014 lost reelection 40 votes became gop juggernaut nevada frierson said wanted return assembly offer 2016 election democrats picked 10 seats 2016 bringing number 27 retaking majority former speaker offers praise former assembly speaker barbara buckley said frierson terrific speaker smart dedicated truly passionate improving state said also great communicator respected parties felt honored chose run assembly seat retired first woman speaker states history equally proud sworn states first africanamerican speaker frierson enjoyed football experiences including helping win ncaa division 1aa national championship boise state 1990 running back injured knee focused academic career graduating bachelors degree health science law school suggestion former unr president joe crowley frierson moved las vegas attend charter class new boyd law school unlv graduating 2001 clerked former nevada supreme court justice myron leavitt later became deputy attorney general working chief deputy public defender frierson private practice frierson ascends top ranking position assembly comes job knowledge links ends state learned real statesmen cared institution gives opportunity bring back values frierson said impending appointment bill raggios bank teller college got watch learn politics aside statesman late bill raggio reno served majority leader state senate decades known political acumen love state institutions agenda frierson said number policy issues wants address 120day session top list bringing back integrity legislature processes said problems 2015 session republicans took control assembly first time 30 years dont think much specific people large number new people dont know value productive structure process said reason ever repeat violate protocol respect institution respect policy side frierson said legislative efforts reflect democrats core priorities equal pay getting people back work removing barriers work improving government transparency efficiencies things weve always fought said protecting women members lbgtq community minority communities harmful practices policies frierson known gov brian sandoval since 2003 sandoval attorney general said much state state address reflects shared values democrats endorse get weeds see budget reflects core values said may areas higher priority us budget cuts struggles many past eight years nevada better place long time frierson said legislature expected take variety issues including potential tweaks state property tax sought local governments controversial education savings accounts said despite statement state sen michael roberson rhenderson property tax discussion nonstarter frierson said system needs reviewed frierson also open discussion gopsupported education savings accounts sandoval proposed spending 60 million program give parents 5100 send children private school including religious schools presession rhetoric isnt helping frierson said think able sit may discover common ground frierson said havent able folks draw line sand session starts choice broad term lot things comprise choice true choice everybody defined office frierson said got bug get politics ability make positive difference buckley others recruited run first term 2010 frierson second term 2012 stayed involved 2015 session elective office lot yet accomplish frierson said wont trouble walking away time comes citizens legislature anybody defined wrong reasons said much good leave better found whenever sail continue life whatever path takes contact sean whaley swhaleyreviewjournalcom 7754613820 follow seanw801 twitter | 612 |
<p>BDS has, thus far, been the most successful strategy and tactic to support Palestinian Resistance.</p>
<p>A foray of condemnations of the boycott of Israel seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Calls from Western governments, originating from the UK, the US, Canada and others, to criminalize the boycott of Israel have hardly slowed down the momentum of the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). On the contrary, it has accelerated.</p>
<p>It is as if history is repeating itself. Western governments took on the pro-South African Anti-Apartheid Movement, fighting it at every corner and branding its leaders. Nelson Mandela and many of his comrades were called terrorists.</p>
<p>Once he passed away in 2013, top US politicians vied for the opportunity to list the late African leader’s great qualities in their many press conferences, speaking of his commitment to justice and human rights. However, Mandela’s name was <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/other/us-government-considered-nelson-mandela-terrorist-until-2008-f2D11708787" type="external">not removed from the US terrorism watch list till 2008.</a></p>
<p>The Reagan administration called the African National Congress—the main platform for the anti-apartheid struggle—a terrorist group, as well. The ANC’s strategy against the Apartheid government was “calculated terror”, the administration said in 1986.</p>
<p>Many South Africans would tell you that the fight for equality is far from over, and that the struggle against institutional apartheid has been replaced by equally pressing matters. Corruption, neoliberal economics, and disproportionate allocation of wealth are only a few such challenges.</p>
<p>But aside from those who are still holding on to the repellent dream of racial superiority, the vast majority of humanity looks back at South Africa’s Apartheid era with revulsion.</p>
<p>The South Africa experience, which is still fresh in the memory of most people, is now serving as a frame of reference in the struggle against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine, where Jews have been designated as a privileged race, and Palestinian Muslims and Christians are poorly treated, oppressed and occupied.</p>
<p>While racism is, unfortunately, a part of life and is practiced, observed and reported on in many parts of the world, institutionalized racism through calculated governmental measures is only practiced—at least, openly—in a few countries around the world: Burma is one of them. However, no country is as adamant and open about its <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-makdisi-israel-apartheid-20140518-story.html" type="external">racially-motivated laws and apartheid rules</a> as the Israeli government. Almost every measure taken by the Israeli Knesset that pertains to Arabs is influenced by this mindset: Palestinians must remain inferior, and Jews must ensure their superiority at any cost.</p>
<p>The outcome of Israel’s racist pipe dream has been a tremendous amount of violence, palpable inequality, massive walls, trenches, Jews-only roads, military occupation, and even laws that outlaw the very questioning of these practices.</p>
<p>Yet, the greater its failure to suppress Palestinian Resistance and to slow down the flow of solidarity from around the world with the oppressed people, the more Israel labors to ensure its dominance and invest in racial segregation.</p>
<p>“The whole world is against us,” is quite a <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2016/03/09/Israel-is-losing-friends-in-high-places.html" type="external">common justification</a> in Israel itself, of the international reaction to Israel’s Apartheid practices. With time, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and feeds on past notions that are no longer applicable. No matter how many <a href="http://www.palestinechronicle.com/eu-companies-demand-made-in-occupied-territories-label-on-settlement-products/" type="external">companies divest from Israel</a>—the latest being the <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/bds-victory-security-company-g4s-announces-plans-to-exit-israeli-market/" type="external">world’s largest security corporation G4S</a>—and, no matter how many universities and churches vote to boycott Israel, Israeli society remains entrenched behind the slogan and its disconcerting sense of victimization.</p>
<p>Many Israelis believe that their country is a ‘villa in a jungle’—a notion that is constantly enforced by top Israeli leaders. Right-wing Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is purposely advancing the crippling fear in his own society. Unable to see the unmistakable crimes he has carried out against Palestinians for years, he continues to perpetuate the idea of the purity of Israel and the wickedness of everyone else.</p>
<p>In February, he spoke of the need to create yet more fences to keep his ‘villa in the jungle’ safe, and, to quote, “to <a href="http://972mag.com/what-about-us-beasts-living-inside-the-villa-in-the-jungle/117302/" type="external">defend ourselves against the wild beasts</a>” in neighboring countries. The statement was made only a few weeks before the launch of the annual Israel Apartheid Week in numerous cities around the world. It is as if the Israeli leader wished to <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.702562" type="external">contribute to the global campaign</a> which is successfully making a case against Israel as being an Apartheid state that ought to be boycotted.</p>
<p>Israel is, of course, no ‘villa in the jungle’. Since its inception over the ruins of destroyed and occupied Palestine, it has meted out tremendous violence, provoked wars and harshly responded to any resistance carried out by its victims. Similar to the US and the UK designation of Mandela as a ‘terrorist’, Palestinian Resistance and its leaders are also branded, shunned, and imprisoned. Israel’s so-called ‘targeted killings’—the assassination of hundreds of Palestinians in recent years have often been applauded by the US and other Israeli allies as victories in their ‘war on terror.’</p>
<p>Comforted by the notion that the US and other western governments are on their side, most Israelis are not worried about exhibiting their racism and calling for more violence against Palestinians. According to <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4775861,00.html" type="external">a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center</a> and revealed on March 8, nearly half of Israel’s Jewish population wants to expel Palestinians to outside of their historic homeland.</p>
<p>The study was conducted between October 2014 and May 2015—months before the current Intifada began in October 2015—and is described as a first-of-its-kind survey as it reached out to over 5,600 Israeli adults and touched on myriads of issues, including religion and politics.&#160; 48% of all Israeli Jews want to exile Arabs.&#160; However, the number is significantly higher—71%—among those who define themselves as ‘religious’.</p>
<p>What options are then left for Palestinians, who have been victimized and ethnically cleansed from their own historic homeland for 68 years, when they are described and treated as ‘beasts’, killed at will, and suffer under a massive system of apartheid and racial discrimination that has never ceased after all of these years?</p>
<p><a href="http://bdsmovement.net/" type="external">BDS has, thus far, been the most successful strategy</a> and tactic to support Palestinian Resistance and steadfastness while, at the same time, holding Israel accountable for its progressively worsening policies of apartheid.&#160; The main objective behind BDS, an entirely non-violent movement that is championed by civil society across the globe, is not to punish ordinary Israelis, but to raise awareness of the suffering of Palestinians and to create a moral threshold that must be achieved if a just peace is ever to be realized.</p>
<p>That moral threshold has already been delineated in the relationship between Palestinians and South Africans when Mandela himself said, “We know all too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”</p>
<p>He was not trying to be cordial or diplomatic. He meant every word. And, finally, many around the world are making the same connection, and are wholeheartedly in agreement.</p> | false | 1 | bds thus far successful strategy tactic support palestinian resistance foray condemnations boycott israel seems fallen deaf ears calls western governments originating uk us canada others criminalize boycott israel hardly slowed momentum propalestinian boycott divestment sanctions movement bds contrary accelerated history repeating western governments took prosouth african antiapartheid movement fighting every corner branding leaders nelson mandela many comrades called terrorists passed away 2013 top us politicians vied opportunity list late african leaders great qualities many press conferences speaking commitment justice human rights however mandelas name removed us terrorism watch list till 2008 reagan administration called african national congressthe main platform antiapartheid strugglea terrorist group well ancs strategy apartheid government calculated terror administration said 1986 many south africans would tell fight equality far struggle institutional apartheid replaced equally pressing matters corruption neoliberal economics disproportionate allocation wealth challenges aside still holding repellent dream racial superiority vast majority humanity looks back south africas apartheid era revulsion south africa experience still fresh memory people serving frame reference struggle israeli apartheid palestine jews designated privileged race palestinian muslims christians poorly treated oppressed occupied racism unfortunately part life practiced observed reported many parts world institutionalized racism calculated governmental measures practicedat least openlyin countries around world burma one however country adamant open raciallymotivated laws apartheid rules israeli government almost every measure taken israeli knesset pertains arabs influenced mindset palestinians must remain inferior jews must ensure superiority cost outcome israels racist pipe dream tremendous amount violence palpable inequality massive walls trenches jewsonly roads military occupation even laws outlaw questioning practices yet greater failure suppress palestinian resistance slow flow solidarity around world oppressed people israel labors ensure dominance invest racial segregation whole world us quite common justification israel international reaction israels apartheid practices time becomes selffulfilling prophecy feeds past notions longer applicable matter many companies divest israelthe latest worlds largest security corporation g4sand matter many universities churches vote boycott israel israeli society remains entrenched behind slogan disconcerting sense victimization many israelis believe country villa junglea notion constantly enforced top israeli leaders rightwing prime minister benjamin netanyahu purposely advancing crippling fear society unable see unmistakable crimes carried palestinians years continues perpetuate idea purity israel wickedness everyone else february spoke need create yet fences keep villa jungle safe quote defend wild beasts neighboring countries statement made weeks launch annual israel apartheid week numerous cities around world israeli leader wished contribute global campaign successfully making case israel apartheid state ought boycotted israel course villa jungle since inception ruins destroyed occupied palestine meted tremendous violence provoked wars harshly responded resistance carried victims similar us uk designation mandela terrorist palestinian resistance leaders also branded shunned imprisoned israels socalled targeted killingsthe assassination hundreds palestinians recent years often applauded us israeli allies victories war terror comforted notion us western governments side israelis worried exhibiting racism calling violence palestinians according recent survey conducted pew research center revealed march 8 nearly half israels jewish population wants expel palestinians outside historic homeland study conducted october 2014 may 2015months current intifada began october 2015and described firstofitskind survey reached 5600 israeli adults touched myriads issues including religion politics160 48 israeli jews want exile arabs160 however number significantly higher71among define religious options left palestinians victimized ethnically cleansed historic homeland 68 years described treated beasts killed suffer massive system apartheid racial discrimination never ceased years bds thus far successful strategy tactic support palestinian resistance steadfastness time holding israel accountable progressively worsening policies apartheid160 main objective behind bds entirely nonviolent movement championed civil society across globe punish ordinary israelis raise awareness suffering palestinians create moral threshold must achieved peace ever realized moral threshold already delineated relationship palestinians south africans mandela said know well freedom incomplete without freedom palestinians trying cordial diplomatic meant every word finally many around world making connection wholeheartedly agreement | 617 |
<p />
<p>It is common within early U.S. history to describe the communications from the white settlers to the indigenous population as being done with a “forked tongue,” as described clearly by Wikipedia:</p>
<p>The phrase “speaks with a forked tongue” means to say one thing and mean another or, to be hypocritical, or act in a duplicitous manner. In the longstanding tradition of many Native American tribes, “speaking with a forked tongue” has meant lying, and a person was no longer considered worthy of trust, once he had been shown to “speak with a forked tongue”.</p>
<p>The U.S. tradition of speaking with a forked tongue is long and dishonorable, as the actions taken by the U.S. for its imperial and foreign policies are as indicated hypocritical, duplicitous, and untrue. Friday’s vote at the UN continued this manner of dialogue as Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN tries to explain why the U.S. vetoed the UN vote on settlements. Her arguments and reasoning, while rhetorically sounding firm, are at best duplicitous and at worst lying by evasion.</p>
<p>Rice begins saying, “The United States strongly opposed continued Israeli settlement activity so our objection was not on that point.” Okay, so why then over the history of the ongoing settlements has the U.S. not done anything within its power to prevent the settlements? Words are fine, but as the Palestinians have learned on one side of the fence and the Israelis have learned on both sides of the fence, words simply allow more settlements to be built, more Palestinian land to be expropriated. If the U.S. actually wanted to do something, they could have held back many or all of the billions in dollars of aid that it forwards each year, and could have held back much or most or all of the military equipment and technology it has transferred over each year. Actions like those would speak much louder than words.</p>
<p>Rice continued, “The question for us was would this resolution and its adoption advance that goal of achieving an independent Palestinian state or cause one or both parties to dig in and make it even harder to resume the very necessary process of direct negotiation?” Well, yes, it would, as it would signal that perhaps the U.S. is finally reading world opinion more correctly and is at minimum willing to change some of its rhetoric if not its actions. Two problems remain. First, the Israelis are already dug in, literally, as they have built their settlements, have built their barriers, have built their bypass roads, have built their waterworks and gas lines. They are literally dug into the Palestinian territories, as the Palestinians are slowly being ethnically cleansed from their own land. Secondly, the “process of direct negotiations” has always been and always will be a failure, as one side with no power of any kind cannot “negotiate” with a side that has all the power, and further has all the complicit and tacit support of the world’s largest and most powerful military and economic empire. That is sheer and utter hypocrisy — pretending to be good, moral, and ethical, while stealing what one wants – as the U.S. did in its imperial drive against the indigenous peoples of North America and as they continue to do so alongside Israel within the Palestinian territories.</p>
<p>On the limitations of the UN Rice says, “The United Nations cannot create an independent state of Palestine. It won’t happen. It has to be negotiated between the two parties.” This is an interesting statement as it is part of the Israeli narrative of their creation that — apart from biblical claims and following on the Balfour Declaration — the UN “legitimized” Israel when it proposed the UN partition plan [Editor’s note: the <a href="../../../../../2010/10/26/the-myth-of-the-u-n-creation-of-israel/" type="external">partition plan offered no legal basis</a> for the subsequent unilateral declaration of the establishment of the state of Israel]. The UN also created a series of mandates in the Middle East that the world did not seem to have too much trouble with, mainly because they carved the region up for the sake of mainly the British and French imperial interests of the time. There is no reason, other than U.S. obstructionism, that the UN could not make a declaration that there is a state of Palestine in such and such an area. Many countries of the world, more recently the South American countries, have given recognition to a Palestine using the ‘green line’ of the 1948 war as the border. The green line is an amazing concession of territory on the part of the Palestinians, giving up eighty per cent of their territory for peace and a small remnant of their former territory.</p>
<p>I have already discussed the uselessness of negotiations. In addition to my earlier comments, the recent exposure of the Palestine Papers by Al-Jazeera should demonstrate that, yes, there were partners for peace, and even more, partners for capitulation. The Palestinian Authority does not have legitimate authority to negotiate a settlement on behalf of any of the Palestinian people other than its own cronies and quislings attempting to preserve their elite and relatively more powerful and wealthy positions while being subservient to the Israelis. There is no legitimate authority at the moment to negotiate with — not because there are no “partners for peace” as the Israelis and U.S. have always claimed, but because the Palestinians have not been allowed to create a truly democratic and representative bargaining committee consisting of representatives of the common people of Palestine.</p>
<p>As for the UN declaration, Rice says, “We can have declaration after declaration but at the end of the day they don’t create facts on the ground.” Well, truthfully they do, Israeli facts on the ground, as the U.S. provides a smokescreen of useless rhetoric and the lie of neutrality.</p>
<p>Twice Rice phrases a timeline during which the U.S. has been “clear” and “consistent” with its comments on the settlements. That much the world knows, and — pardon the constant reiteration (it is what the U.S. is also very good at) — is what allows the settlements to continue unabated. She says, “The United States has for six administrations been very clear we do not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity. There’s no question about that. We have been clear and unequivocal.” Later she adds, “This is not the view of the Obama administration, this is the view of the United States. We do not and have not for thirty years accepted the legitimacy of Israeli settlement activity.”</p>
<p>This can only be read as that the duplicity, lies, and dishonesty are consistent traits of all U.S. administrations. And even though Obama campaigned on “hope” and “change”, and then made a sort of wonderfully conciliatory speech in Cairo (and the world knows what is happening there and elsewhere in the Arab world) he too has accepted as part of his worldview that speaking with a forked tongue works well in the world of U.S. diplomacy.</p>
<p>When questioned on the difference between “legitimacy” and “legality”, Rice came up with the latter statement above on the thirty years of forked tongue speaking. The reality of international law is that the settlements are illegal, under several sections of the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions. Part of international law, developing from the Nuremberg trials, is that being passive in the face of internationally illegal activities makes a party complicit with the crime. The U.S. is guilty of international crimes by supporting the Israeli crimes in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza both materially and politically, as well as supporting their illegal attacks on Lebanon.</p>
<p>The goal of the U.S. as stated by Rice is laughable, “The goal is to achieve a viable, independent, contiguous, and democratic Palestinian state.” Let’s work backwards on this one. When a democratic vote was taken in Palestine in 2006, Canada (being the first), the U.S., the U.K., the E.U., and other U.S. mercenary states disallowed the vote and took concrete actions, in the form of money transfers and training of the PA militias in security measures that could be used against their own people. The U.S. plays loose and fancy with democracy, and again recent events in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, and Yemen among others demonstrates the lie of the U.S. rhetoric on democracy (with U.S. puppet regime of Saudi Arabia remaining silent).</p>
<p>Next, a contiguous state is declared the goal. This is total denial of the hypocrisy, the double standards, the basic ignorant stupidity of all other statements about stopping settlement activity. There is no contiguous state, only a series of cantons or bantustans, or enclaves, perhaps prisons will do. This will not be undone through a series of false front negotiations that the Israelis will gladly continue for the next sixty years as they continue to claim Palestinian land. Viability and independence are next. Another set of impossibilities for negotiations, and another full on ridiculous statement in light of the so called peace process and its total failure to do anything but create more Israeli inhabited territory.</p>
<p>The U.S. has continually used its forked tongue for its own benefit in any “negotiations” it has carried out. This originated from the first negotiated treaties with the indigenous people of North America — at least those that were not simply outlawed and made subject to massacres and murder without recourse to any law of any kind. It continues today with its UN rhetoric and with its rhetoric about its concerns for Palestine and Israel. No matter how nice and kind and civilized its word, its actions are illegal under international law, and basically barbaric when it comes to human common sense. As the empire unravels, even with the violence that accompanies that, it will be better than the violence of the forked tongue empire.</p> | false | 1 | common within early us history describe communications white settlers indigenous population done forked tongue described clearly wikipedia phrase speaks forked tongue means say one thing mean another hypocritical act duplicitous manner longstanding tradition many native american tribes speaking forked tongue meant lying person longer considered worthy trust shown speak forked tongue us tradition speaking forked tongue long dishonorable actions taken us imperial foreign policies indicated hypocritical duplicitous untrue fridays vote un continued manner dialogue susan rice us ambassador un tries explain us vetoed un vote settlements arguments reasoning rhetorically sounding firm best duplicitous worst lying evasion rice begins saying united states strongly opposed continued israeli settlement activity objection point okay history ongoing settlements us done anything within power prevent settlements words fine palestinians learned one side fence israelis learned sides fence words simply allow settlements built palestinian land expropriated us actually wanted something could held back many billions dollars aid forwards year could held back much military equipment technology transferred year actions like would speak much louder words rice continued question us would resolution adoption advance goal achieving independent palestinian state cause one parties dig make even harder resume necessary process direct negotiation well yes would would signal perhaps us finally reading world opinion correctly minimum willing change rhetoric actions two problems remain first israelis already dug literally built settlements built barriers built bypass roads built waterworks gas lines literally dug palestinian territories palestinians slowly ethnically cleansed land secondly process direct negotiations always always failure one side power kind negotiate side power complicit tacit support worlds largest powerful military economic empire sheer utter hypocrisy pretending good moral ethical stealing one wants us imperial drive indigenous peoples north america continue alongside israel within palestinian territories limitations un rice says united nations create independent state palestine wont happen negotiated two parties interesting statement part israeli narrative creation apart biblical claims following balfour declaration un legitimized israel proposed un partition plan editors note partition plan offered legal basis subsequent unilateral declaration establishment state israel un also created series mandates middle east world seem much trouble mainly carved region sake mainly british french imperial interests time reason us obstructionism un could make declaration state palestine area many countries world recently south american countries given recognition palestine using green line 1948 war border green line amazing concession territory part palestinians giving eighty per cent territory peace small remnant former territory already discussed uselessness negotiations addition earlier comments recent exposure palestine papers aljazeera demonstrate yes partners peace even partners capitulation palestinian authority legitimate authority negotiate settlement behalf palestinian people cronies quislings attempting preserve elite relatively powerful wealthy positions subservient israelis legitimate authority moment negotiate partners peace israelis us always claimed palestinians allowed create truly democratic representative bargaining committee consisting representatives common people palestine un declaration rice says declaration declaration end day dont create facts ground well truthfully israeli facts ground us provides smokescreen useless rhetoric lie neutrality twice rice phrases timeline us clear consistent comments settlements much world knows pardon constant reiteration us also good allows settlements continue unabated says united states six administrations clear accept legitimacy continued settlement activity theres question clear unequivocal later adds view obama administration view united states thirty years accepted legitimacy israeli settlement activity read duplicity lies dishonesty consistent traits us administrations even though obama campaigned hope change made sort wonderfully conciliatory speech cairo world knows happening elsewhere arab world accepted part worldview speaking forked tongue works well world us diplomacy questioned difference legitimacy legality rice came latter statement thirty years forked tongue speaking reality international law settlements illegal several sections un charter geneva conventions part international law developing nuremberg trials passive face internationally illegal activities makes party complicit crime us guilty international crimes supporting israeli crimes palestinian territories west bank gaza materially politically well supporting illegal attacks lebanon goal us stated rice laughable goal achieve viable independent contiguous democratic palestinian state lets work backwards one democratic vote taken palestine 2006 canada first us uk eu us mercenary states disallowed vote took concrete actions form money transfers training pa militias security measures could used people us plays loose fancy democracy recent events egypt tunisia bahrain yemen among others demonstrates lie us rhetoric democracy us puppet regime saudi arabia remaining silent next contiguous state declared goal total denial hypocrisy double standards basic ignorant stupidity statements stopping settlement activity contiguous state series cantons bantustans enclaves perhaps prisons undone series false front negotiations israelis gladly continue next sixty years continue claim palestinian land viability independence next another set impossibilities negotiations another full ridiculous statement light called peace process total failure anything create israeli inhabited territory us continually used forked tongue benefit negotiations carried originated first negotiated treaties indigenous people north america least simply outlawed made subject massacres murder without recourse law kind continues today un rhetoric rhetoric concerns palestine israel matter nice kind civilized word actions illegal international law basically barbaric comes human common sense empire unravels even violence accompanies better violence forked tongue empire | 821 |
<p>Francis Eugene George was many things: a dedicated missionary priest; a first-rate intellectual; a shrewd observer of the public square; the first native of the Windy City to be named archbishop of Chicago; a great reformer of the Archdiocese of Chicago. But when word of his death came early this afternoon, my first thought was that he was, in the Lord’s mercy, no longer in pain.</p>
<p>His sister once told a Chicago priest that, if he wanted to understand her brother, he should remember that “he’s always in pain.” A polio survivor from the days of the iron lung, Francis George spent his entire adult life with his legs encased in dozens of pounds of steel. Then he was struck by bladder cancer and lived for years with what he called, ruefully, a “neo-bladder.” He beat that challenge, but then another form of cancer struck, and his last years were filled with new pain, more pain, different pain. Yet not once, since I first met him three decades ago when he was Father Francis George, did I ever hear him complain about the pain — or about the sometimes strange ways God has with those He has blessed in so many other facets of their lives. Francis George could live in chronic pain because he conformed his life to Christ and the Cross. And now, I firmly believe, he is pain-free. For the Lord he served so long and well has welcomed home his good and faithful servant.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most appropriate Gospel passage to ponder at times like this, and when thinking about lives like that of Cardinal George, is the story of the Transfiguration. For in preserving the memory of the transfigured Christ, whose “face shone like the sun” and whose “garments became white as light” (Matthew 17:2), the first generation of Christians was bearing witness to its hope for the human future. The transfigured Christ not only prefigured the Risen Christ, in whose Eastertide Francis George died; the transfigured Christ prefigures the life that awaits the friends of the Risen One in his Kingdom, at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. There, there is no polio, and no post-polio syndrome. There, there is no cancer, no gut-wrenching chemotherapy, no diminishment of vigor. There, there is only fullness of life, with palsied limbs made whole in a wholly new way.</p>
<p>That is the future in which Cardinal Francis George believed. That that is the future in which he now shares is the consolation of those who loved and admired him.</p>
<p>The American hierarchy has not, these past two centuries, been noted for scholar-bishops — unlike, say, the Catholic Church in Germany. But in Francis Eugene George, the Catholic Church in the United States found itself with a leader of world-class intellect, with two earned doctorates yet with none of the intellectual deformities associated with the contemporary academy. He was, in the best sense of the term, a free thinker: one who thought independently of the reigning shibboleths, yet within the tradition of the Church and its intellectual heritage. His was a thoroughly modern intellect; yet how appropriate that he died on the day when the Church reads the Johannine account of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000, with the Lord’s admonition to “gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost” (John 6:12), for Cardinal George’s fidelity to the tradition was in response to that admonition. He knew that the tradition had something to teach us today; he practiced what Chesterton called “the democracy of the dead.”</p>
<p>That Johannine reference works in other ways, too. For when Francis George became archbishop of Chicago in 1997, there were a lot of fragments to be gathered up. Six months after his appointment, we were together in Rome, and I asked him what he’d learned so far about what had long considered itself &#160;the flagship archdiocese of the United States. “I’m 60 years old,” he said, “and in the 15 years I’ve got left I’ve got to get people going back to Mass again and I’ve got to get priests hearing confessions again.” He worked hard to do that, and he did so with effect. And if some of the notoriously difficult Chicago clergy never quite got it, a lot of the people of the Archdiocese of Chicago did — and in the brief months of his retirement, the cardinal often remarked in our conversations on how touched he was by people coming up to him in parishes and thanking him for what he had done for the archdiocese.</p>
<p>We spoke several times since, but what turned out to be our final meeting &#160;was last November at Mundelein Seminary, which he had thoroughly reformed. (Something of the flavor of the larger-than-life quality of old Chicago Catholicism can be gleaned from the story about the coat&#160;of&#160;arms of Cardinal George William Mundelein, founder of the seminary. The motto on his arms read Deus Adjutor Meus [God Is My Help], which local clerical wags translated as “God Is My Auxiliary [Bishop].”) The current rector, Father Robert Barron, had built a new daily-Mass chapel for the growing seminary community. The chapel was to be dedicated to the newly canonized Pope St. John Paul II, and Father Barron had invited me to give a public lecture on the late pope after Cardinal George consecrated the chapel — which he did, walking with difficulty on crutches, rubbing great swaths of holy chrism into the altar and then celebrating the first Mass offered there. It was another example of Cardinal George’s extraordinary physical courage — but he was determined to keep his commitment to consecrate the chapel, in no small part because of his love and esteem for John Paul II.</p>
<p>Like the Polish pope — another man determined to “gather up the fragments” and then re-knead them into a contemporary synthesis of Catholic faith and practice — Cardinal George was a keen observer (and critic) of the Western-civilization project. And his concerns about the trajectory on which that project seemed headed were neatly captured in a sound&#160;bite, excerpted from a lengthy discussion with his priests, in which the cardinal said that he expected to die in bed; he expected his successor to die in prison; and he expected the following archbishop of Chicago to be a martyr in the public square.</p>
<p>It was a deliberately provocative formulation, intended to get the priests of Chicago thinking seriously about the challenges posed by what Pope Benedict XVI had called the “dictatorship of relativism.” To some it bespoke resignation, even surrender. That misimpression was due to the fact that the cardinal’s hypothetical was always cut short in the reporting of it. For what he said, in full, was that he expected to die in bed; his successor would die in prison; that man’s successor would be publicly executed; and his successor would “pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the Church has done so often in human history.”</p>
<p>Like John Paul II, Francis George knew that the Catholic Lite project — the unhappy dumbing down of the vibrant progressive Chicago Catholicism of the 1930s and 1940s — was unfit either to fight the zeitgeist in the name of freedom rightly understood, or to “gather up the fragments” and help rebuild the American experiment after the zeitgeist had done its worst. But it would be a great disservice to his memory to suggest, as some undoubtedly will, that Francis George was at war with “liberal” Catholicism. In the first place, he refused to think of the Church as something that could be defined in terms of “liberal” or “conservative.” As he said at his first Chicago press conference in 1997, the Church is about true and false, not left and right. Moreover, he knew that Catholic Lite was dying of its own implausibility, so why waste energy battling it? Rather, “gather up the fragments” — including the fragments of good in the once-vital reform Catholicism of Chicago — and get on with the task of re-evangelizing both the Church and the Great American City.</p>
<p>That could be done, the cardinal was convinced, only by what you might call All-In Catholicism: a Church that offered both mercy and truth; a Church that was both pro-life and committed to the effective empowerment of the poor; a Church that could make Catholicism compelling in a culture that was too often simply indifferent to what religious communities had to say. That apathy would not be met by surrendering core Catholic understandings of what makes for human happiness to the zeitgeist. But neither would it be met by argument alone. Arguments were important, this man of intellect and culture knew; but so was witness, and that was why he put such energy into defending the Church’s institutions for empowering the poor — its schools, health-care facilities, and social-service centers — against the encroachments of a government trying to use the Church for its own purposes.</p>
<p>When the U.S. bishops elected Cardinal George their president in 2007, they were acknowledging a change in the dynamics of Catholic life in America that is irreversible. The liveliest centers of Catholicism in America — the parishes, the dioceses, the seminaries, the lay renewal movements, the growing orders of consecrated religious life — are those that have embraced what John Paul II called the “New Evangelization” and what Pope Francis has called a “Church permanently in mission.” The old post-conciliar battles are, largely, over, and the course has been set. Francis George helped set that course. And when it comes time to write his story in full, he will be remembered as the most consequential archbishop of Chicago in the modern history of the Church — and a leader in American Catholicism whose intellectual and physical courage was instrumental in making the Church in the United States, for all its challenges and problems, the most vital in the developed world.</p>
<p>He is now where he has always wanted to be. He is without pain, whole and healed. He has met Christ the Lord, and he is living in the presence of the Thrice-Holy God — to whom I give thanks for his life, his witness, and our friendship.</p>
<p>— George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.&#160;</p> | false | 1 | francis eugene george many things dedicated missionary priest firstrate intellectual shrewd observer public square first native windy city named archbishop chicago great reformer archdiocese chicago word death came early afternoon first thought lords mercy longer pain sister told chicago priest wanted understand brother remember hes always pain polio survivor days iron lung francis george spent entire adult life legs encased dozens pounds steel struck bladder cancer lived years called ruefully neobladder beat challenge another form cancer struck last years filled new pain pain different pain yet since first met three decades ago father francis george ever hear complain pain sometimes strange ways god blessed many facets lives francis george could live chronic pain conformed life christ cross firmly believe painfree lord served long well welcomed home good faithful servant perhaps appropriate gospel passage ponder times like thinking lives like cardinal george story transfiguration preserving memory transfigured christ whose face shone like sun whose garments became white light matthew 172 first generation christians bearing witness hope human future transfigured christ prefigured risen christ whose eastertide francis george died transfigured christ prefigures life awaits friends risen one kingdom wedding feast lamb polio postpolio syndrome cancer gutwrenching chemotherapy diminishment vigor fullness life palsied limbs made whole wholly new way future cardinal francis george believed future shares consolation loved admired american hierarchy past two centuries noted scholarbishops unlike say catholic church germany francis eugene george catholic church united states found leader worldclass intellect two earned doctorates yet none intellectual deformities associated contemporary academy best sense term free thinker one thought independently reigning shibboleths yet within tradition church intellectual heritage thoroughly modern intellect yet appropriate died day church reads johannine account jesus feeding 5000 lords admonition gather fragments left nothing may lost john 612 cardinal georges fidelity tradition response admonition knew tradition something teach us today practiced chesterton called democracy dead johannine reference works ways francis george became archbishop chicago 1997 lot fragments gathered six months appointment together rome asked hed learned far long considered 160the flagship archdiocese united states im 60 years old said 15 years ive got left ive got get people going back mass ive got get priests hearing confessions worked hard effect notoriously difficult chicago clergy never quite got lot people archdiocese chicago brief months retirement cardinal often remarked conversations touched people coming parishes thanking done archdiocese spoke several times since turned final meeting 160was last november mundelein seminary thoroughly reformed something flavor largerthanlife quality old chicago catholicism gleaned story coat160of160arms cardinal george william mundelein founder seminary motto arms read deus adjutor meus god help local clerical wags translated god auxiliary bishop current rector father robert barron built new dailymass chapel growing seminary community chapel dedicated newly canonized pope st john paul ii father barron invited give public lecture late pope cardinal george consecrated chapel walking difficulty crutches rubbing great swaths holy chrism altar celebrating first mass offered another example cardinal georges extraordinary physical courage determined keep commitment consecrate chapel small part love esteem john paul ii like polish pope another man determined gather fragments reknead contemporary synthesis catholic faith practice cardinal george keen observer critic westerncivilization project concerns trajectory project seemed headed neatly captured sound160bite excerpted lengthy discussion priests cardinal said expected die bed expected successor die prison expected following archbishop chicago martyr public square deliberately provocative formulation intended get priests chicago thinking seriously challenges posed pope benedict xvi called dictatorship relativism bespoke resignation even surrender misimpression due fact cardinals hypothetical always cut short reporting said full expected die bed successor would die prison mans successor would publicly executed successor would pick shards ruined society slowly help rebuild civilization church done often human history like john paul ii francis george knew catholic lite project unhappy dumbing vibrant progressive chicago catholicism 1930s 1940s unfit either fight zeitgeist name freedom rightly understood gather fragments help rebuild american experiment zeitgeist done worst would great disservice memory suggest undoubtedly francis george war liberal catholicism first place refused think church something could defined terms liberal conservative said first chicago press conference 1997 church true false left right moreover knew catholic lite dying implausibility waste energy battling rather gather fragments including fragments good oncevital reform catholicism chicago get task reevangelizing church great american city could done cardinal convinced might call allin catholicism church offered mercy truth church prolife committed effective empowerment poor church could make catholicism compelling culture often simply indifferent religious communities say apathy would met surrendering core catholic understandings makes human happiness zeitgeist neither would met argument alone arguments important man intellect culture knew witness put energy defending churchs institutions empowering poor schools healthcare facilities socialservice centers encroachments government trying use church purposes us bishops elected cardinal george president 2007 acknowledging change dynamics catholic life america irreversible liveliest centers catholicism america parishes dioceses seminaries lay renewal movements growing orders consecrated religious life embraced john paul ii called new evangelization pope francis called church permanently mission old postconciliar battles largely course set francis george helped set course comes time write story full remembered consequential archbishop chicago modern history church leader american catholicism whose intellectual physical courage instrumental making church united states challenges problems vital developed world always wanted without pain whole healed met christ lord living presence thriceholy god give thanks life witness friendship george weigel distinguished senior fellow washingtons ethics public policy center holds william e simon chair catholic studies160 | 886 |
<p>EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — On a night when the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New_York_Giants/" type="external">New York Giants</a> honored their 2007 Super Bowl championship team at halftime, the current Giants once again looked like chumps.</p>
<p>Detroit rookie Jamal Agnew returned a punt 88 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown, and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Matthew_Stafford/" type="external">Matthew Stafford</a> threw two touchdown passes to help the Lions earn a 24-10 win over New York on Monday night at Met Life Stadium.</p>
<p>Agnew’s punt return, the fifth longest in team history, broke open the game. The touchdown gave the Lions (2-0) a 14-point lead.</p>
<p>“We put this game on me,” said Giants coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ben-McAdoo/" type="external">Ben McAdoo</a>, who saw his team flop not just on special teams but on offense and defense as well while falling to 0-2.</p>
<p>“We talk about playing complete, complementary football, but by no stretch of the imagination did we get that done tonight. We put ourselves in a hole. We have to find a way to get better and better in a hurry.”</p>
<p>Stafford finished 15 of 21 for 122 yards with no interceptions. Both his touchdown passes came on third-and-long plays in the first half and gave his team a 17-7 halftime lead.</p>
<p>The Giants, who have now gone eight consecutive games scoring fewer than 20 points, got a third-quarter, 25-yard field goal by kicker Aldrick Rosas, cutting the deficit to 17-10.</p>
<p>New York might have had more on that possession, but after driving all the way to the Lions 1-yard line, the Giants had a series of miscues that began with left guard Brett Jones being flagged for holding.</p>
<p>The Giants made up most of the penalty yardage, getting back to the 2-yard line, but on fourth down with the offense prepared to go for it, quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Eli_Manning/" type="external">Eli Manning</a> was flagged for a delay-of-game penalty. That led to the field goal.</p>
<p>New York did have opportunities to keep it closer but failed to cash in.</p>
<p>In the second quarter, the defense forced and then recovered a fumble by Stafford, who was sacked and stripped of the ball by defensive end <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jason-Pierre-Paul/" type="external">Jason Pierre-Paul</a>. But on the ensuing possession, the Giants gave the ball right back to the Lions when Manning’s pass intended for <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Evan-Engram/" type="external">Evan Engram</a> was picked off by Tahir Whitehead.</p>
<p>The biggest missed opportunity for the Giants came in the fourth quarter. Receiver <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Brandon_Marshall/" type="external">Brandon Marshall</a>, who had his man beat on a long pass that would have put the Giants deep into Lions territory, dropped the ball. After the Giants failed to extend that drive, Agnew scored his punt-return touchdown.</p>
<p>“That was the biggest play of the game,” Marshall said of his drop. “I got an opportunity to make a big play and change the momentum, and I lost it.”</p>
<p>Marshall said that he lost the ball momentarily in the stadium lights.</p>
<p>“It was a perfect pass and I beat the guy,” he said. “I knew the ball was coming but lost it in the light and then I picked it back up and I dropped it when it came down.</p>
<p>“That can’t happen. When you get a big opportunity in a big game like this, in that situation when you’re down and you have an opportunity to go down the field and score, that can’t happen.”</p>
<p>Stafford, who was 12 of 17 for 107 yards at the half, connected with tight end <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Eric-Ebron/" type="external">Eric Ebron</a> on a 7-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. The drive was set up when by the Whitehead interception.</p>
<p>Manning finished 22 of 32 for 239 yards with one touchdown and one interception.</p>
<p>Ebron was Detroit’s leading receiver, catching all five of his first-half pass targets for 42 yards and a touchdown. He did not have any receptions in the second half.</p>
<p>The Lions also managed to sack Manning five times, three of which were recorded by defensive end <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ziggy-Ansah/" type="external">Ziggy Ansah</a>, who abused Giants left tackle Ereck Flowers.</p>
<p>“I think anytime you end up getting that kind of pressure and getting five sacks against a very explosive offense with weapons they have, it’s a good thing,” Lions coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jim_Caldwell/" type="external">Jim Caldwell</a> said. “We were not only able to get pressure consistently, but push the pocket, but they’re a tough team to handle.”</p>
<p>Stafford praised his defensive teammates for making his job easier this week.</p>
<p>“They’re doing a heck of a job,” Stafford said. “Getting after the quarterback a bunch, shutting down the run early and creating turnovers and close on a couple more. Guys made big-time plays.”</p>
<p>The Lions’ first score of the game came in the first quarter when Stafford avoided pressure by New York’s defensive front and gained 13 yards up the middle. Three plays later, Stafford hit receiver <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Marvin-Jones/" type="external">Marvin Jones</a> for a 27-yard TD and a 7-0 lead.</p>
<p>Giants receiver <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Odell-Beckham/" type="external">Odell Beckham</a> Jr., who was active after recovering from an ankle injury, had a quiet game, finishing with four catches for 36 yards.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Engram caught New York’s lone touchdown pass, that coming in the first half. However, he then hurt his team when he drew an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty following the score, a mistake that was further exacerbated by a Rosas kickoff that went out of bounds.</p>
<p>Lions kicker <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Matt_Prater/" type="external">Matt Prater</a> nailed a 56-yard field goal with 45 seconds left in the half, the ball hitting the cross bar and bouncing over.</p>
<p>The Giants will head out to the road for the next two weeks, starting with a trip down the turnpike to visit the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Philadelphia-Eagles/" type="external">Philadelphia Eagles</a> (1-1). The Lions will be home in Week 3 to host the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Atlanta-Falcons/" type="external">Atlanta Falcons</a> (2-0).</p>
<p>NOTES: Giants starting RT Bobby Hart, who came into the game with an injured ankle, lasted two plays before having to leave the game. Justin Pugh moved from left guard to right tackle, and Brett Hones replaced Pugh at left guard. The last time Pugh played at tackle was in Week 17 of the 2015 season, when then-starting RT <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Marshall-Newhouse/" type="external">Marshall Newhouse</a> was injured. … With the touchdown catch by Eric Ebron in the second quarter, the Lions now have as many touchdown receptions by tight ends (one) as they did in the entire 2016 season. … Lions DE Ziggy Ansah, who recorded three sacks, now has seven career regular-season games in which he has recorded multiple sacks. Ansah also had multiple sacks in the NFC wild-card game last year.</p> | false | 1 | east rutherford nj night new york giants honored 2007 super bowl championship team halftime current giants looked like chumps detroit rookie jamal agnew returned punt 88 yards fourthquarter touchdown matthew stafford threw two touchdown passes help lions earn 2410 win new york monday night met life stadium agnews punt return fifth longest team history broke open game touchdown gave lions 20 14point lead put game said giants coach ben mcadoo saw team flop special teams offense defense well falling 02 talk playing complete complementary football stretch imagination get done tonight put hole find way get better better hurry stafford finished 15 21 122 yards interceptions touchdown passes came thirdandlong plays first half gave team 177 halftime lead giants gone eight consecutive games scoring fewer 20 points got thirdquarter 25yard field goal kicker aldrick rosas cutting deficit 1710 new york might possession driving way lions 1yard line giants series miscues began left guard brett jones flagged holding giants made penalty yardage getting back 2yard line fourth offense prepared go quarterback eli manning flagged delayofgame penalty led field goal new york opportunities keep closer failed cash second quarter defense forced recovered fumble stafford sacked stripped ball defensive end jason pierrepaul ensuing possession giants gave ball right back lions mannings pass intended evan engram picked tahir whitehead biggest missed opportunity giants came fourth quarter receiver brandon marshall man beat long pass would put giants deep lions territory dropped ball giants failed extend drive agnew scored puntreturn touchdown biggest play game marshall said drop got opportunity make big play change momentum lost marshall said lost ball momentarily stadium lights perfect pass beat guy said knew ball coming lost light picked back dropped came cant happen get big opportunity big game like situation youre opportunity go field score cant happen stafford 12 17 107 yards half connected tight end eric ebron 7yard touchdown pass second quarter drive set whitehead interception manning finished 22 32 239 yards one touchdown one interception ebron detroits leading receiver catching five firsthalf pass targets 42 yards touchdown receptions second half lions also managed sack manning five times three recorded defensive end ziggy ansah abused giants left tackle ereck flowers think anytime end getting kind pressure getting five sacks explosive offense weapons good thing lions coach jim caldwell said able get pressure consistently push pocket theyre tough team handle stafford praised defensive teammates making job easier week theyre heck job stafford said getting quarterback bunch shutting run early creating turnovers close couple guys made bigtime plays lions first score game came first quarter stafford avoided pressure new yorks defensive front gained 13 yards middle three plays later stafford hit receiver marvin jones 27yard td 70 lead giants receiver odell beckham jr active recovering ankle injury quiet game finishing four catches 36 yards meanwhile engram caught new yorks lone touchdown pass coming first half however hurt team drew unsportsmanlikeconduct penalty following score mistake exacerbated rosas kickoff went bounds lions kicker matt prater nailed 56yard field goal 45 seconds left half ball hitting cross bar bouncing giants head road next two weeks starting trip turnpike visit philadelphia eagles 11 lions home week 3 host atlanta falcons 20 notes giants starting rt bobby hart came game injured ankle lasted two plays leave game justin pugh moved left guard right tackle brett hones replaced pugh left guard last time pugh played tackle week 17 2015 season thenstarting rt marshall newhouse injured touchdown catch eric ebron second quarter lions many touchdown receptions tight ends one entire 2016 season lions de ziggy ansah recorded three sacks seven career regularseason games recorded multiple sacks ansah also multiple sacks nfc wildcard game last year | 605 |
<p />
<p>In my understanding, silence is passivity as a way of being. Silence can be much more than the avoidance of speech and utterance, and is most poignantly expressed through evasions of body, heart, and soul. Despite the frustrations and defeats of the period, America was different during the years of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. It was then that alienated gun-wielders assassinated those among us who were sounding the clearest calls for justice and sending messages of hope. In a perverse reaction, Washington’s custodians of our insecurity went to work, and the sad result is this deafening silence!</p>
<p>&lt;img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-19651" src="https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/richard-falk-300x162.jpg" alt="Richard Falk" width="300" height="162" /&gt; I have long felt that most American ‘citizens’ increasingly behave as ‘subjects,’ blithely acting as if a love of country is exhibited more by obedience than conscience. In my view the opportunity to be a citizen is a precious reality, a byproduct of past struggles. Genuine citizenship remains possible in the United States, but has become marginal, and is not much in evidence these days. I am identifying the citizen as an ethically sensitive and responsible member of a political community, most significantly of a sovereign state. In contrast, the subject conceives of upright standing in a political community by the willingness to go along with the group and to obey the directives of government and those exercising formal authority.</p>
<p>The moral substance at the core of genuine citizenship only exists if the political structure allows opposition without imposing a severe punishment. If citizenship is possible, then it automatically gives rise to responsibility to act accordingly, that is, by honoring the imperatives of conscience. Unfortunately, considerations of prudence, career, and social propriety make it more attractive these days for most Americans to behave as subjects living within a rigid set of constraints. Citizens are those who not only proclaim the virtues of freedom, but act responsively to the vectors of conscience even if these go against the established public order and prevailing cultural norms.</p>
<p>[adrotate banner=”57″]Thomas Jefferson at the birth of the republic understood that liberty is a process, not an event, which can only flourish if the citizenry as a whole is actively engaged, and above all is vigilant in relation to abuses attributable to the state. Citizenship was better understood in the late 18th century when the struggle against the pretensions of monarchy was vibrant. Today, it is irresistibly tempting for ambitious political leaders to encroach upon the liberties of the people by insisting that national ‘unity’ and ‘patriotism’ are practical necessities at times when the country is at war or confronting enemies. And by a convenient Orwellian trope, wartime has become the norm rather than the exception, and peacetime is mainly a memory of ancient times that even the oldest citizen now alive never really experienced. Arguably, the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 ended once and for all the illusions of peace as the normal condition of a democratic society. Even the collapse of the Soviet Union did not restore ‘peace’ except in the misleading senses of the absence of war. This enthronement of war in the permanent collective imagination of the country was vividly re-inscribed by the 9/11 attacks and the Bush response of declaring a global war on terror and terrorists. Bush’s instinctive stroke of political ingenuity was to devise a new kind of war that never needs to end. Obama despite some ritual reassurances to the contrary has not broken faith with the militarist mentality and seems comfortable with treating war as the new normal.</p>
<p>This vulnerability of democracy to the siren song of security has been effectively exploited by power-wielders for decades in the United States. Not only do politicians and militarists sing this song, but also private sector moguls whose primary amoral motivation seems to be the maximization of profits. This weakening of the substance, structures, and spirit of American democracy partly reflected the militarizing impacts of World War II and its Cold War sequel, but also the related extension of the American sphere of direct concern and involvement to all corners of the earth. This unprecedented global force projection coincided with the collapse of European colonialism, the ideological consensus affirming neoliberalism, and the backdrop of a globalizing world in which critical resources, sea lanes, and markets needed to be protected if the world economy was to flourish. This American transformation from being ‘a hemispheric state’ to becoming ‘a global state’ has had an extraordinary impact on national identity, especially giving rise to a self-anointing mission of global leadership that depends on military dominance. Such a mission has also witnessed a promiscuous reliance on ‘American exceptionalism,’ often at the expense of respect for the authority of the United Nations and international law. The claim is that America can set aside rules of behavior at will to meet the challenges confronting the country and the world, but that antagonistic others cannot.</p>
<p>It is true that early in the American experience the proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine (1823) signaled a national ambition to reign supreme in the Western Hemisphere (except for Canada), which expressed an early refusal by the U.S. Government to confine its definition of national interests to the territorial boundaries associated with being a normal sovereign state. But the strains of extra-territoriality were minimal compared what they became in the 20th century, especially with the onset of World War II. For one thing, the challenge of imposing control was far simpler and cheaper in the era of ‘gunboat diplomacy,’ which enabled a small input of military power to achieve the political objectives of intervention under most circumstances. Since 1945, the mobilization of national resistance around the world has been very effective in raising the costs and risks of intervention, and neutralizing many of the advantages that had made it so easy to translate military superiority into desired political results during the colonial era.</p>
<p>Also relevant for a discussion of the deteriorating quality of democratic life in the United States are expansions of scale and surveillance as byproducts of becoming a global state. To project power globally requires a global network of military bases numbering in the hundreds, a navy that patrols every ocean, missiles that can strike the most distant targets, attack drones that can be programmed to kill anyone anywhere on the planet, and the most extensive information-gathering capability that technology can provide and money can buy. This raises to astronomic levels the investment of energy and resources in sustaining such a global role. Unsurprisingly there are byproducts, including a militarized state at home and the assumption of associated custodial duties related to the protection of the American people against real and imagined enemies and the pursuit of national interests relating to wealth, influence, and prestige. To enhance security in this global setting pushes surveillance toward totalization as the Snowden disclosures began to reveal. It also creates a logic that views domestic opposition with grave suspicion, and leads to finding and destroying ‘the enemy within’ before it gains the leverage to unleash its assault of the established order.</p>
<p>The American global state is different than past empires, which were explicit in projecting their hard power, and insisting upon overt allegiance of those whom they rule. As Rumsfeld succinctly remarked some years ago, “we do not do empire.” What do we do? It is to manage a global state that seeks to meet hostile challenges wherever they emerge, and give a high priority to the maintenance of a trade, investment, and navigational framework that reflects the guiding assumptions of neoliberalism in the networked digital age. And because the most threatening hostile challenges seem currently mounted by non-state actors that have no particular territorial base of operations, the battlefield has been quietly globalized to encompass the economy, the surveillance panopticon, and the counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation sites of intervention and resistance.</p>
<p>What then does American citizenship mean under these altered domestic and global conditions? It should be acknowledged that not all recent developments are negative with respect to the quality of democratic life in America: slavery was overcome, racism diminished, women’s rights strengthened, sexual preferences increasingly respected. Taking these concerns into account has meant that there many avenues that remain open for the expression of conscience in the United States, which entails the non-acceptance of various facets of the status quo: struggles against militarism, surveillance, plutocracy, global warming, poverty, inequality, human insecurity, class warfare, as well as the residues of racism and patriarchy.&#160;&#160; Citizens should be selectively active in response to these challenges, while the subject is passive or a regressive champion of the status quo, and at best an advocate of incremental change (as Yeats reminded the world almost a century ago, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” The most effective forms of citizen action depend on popular mobilization and the adoption of nonviolent forms of collective action. The subject stands by sullenly, applauding the suppression of dissent and resistance by security forces.</p>
<p>The French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, referred to ‘the democracy to come’ as achieving a far higher degree of social justice than has ever existed in any country. In my view, fulfilling this potentiality would mean the enlargement of the role of the citizen, the decline of the subject, and a much more critical interplay between society and the state, making democracy a participatory process that did not consider itself fulfilled by periodic free elections and functioning representative institutions. Such practices associated with procedural democracy have recently lost most of their charm due to deforming impacts of money, lobbying by special interests, and the virtual disappearance from the political landscape of a progressive option. In effect, the future of American democracy will necessarily now depend on the activity of people of conscience, and the rebirth of a progressive vision that is made attractive across class, race, and geographic lines.</p>
<p>Such a prescription for hope has its own shortcomings and difficulties. Are not the members of the Tea Party composed of those whose conscience leads them to defy the state? Are they not fulfilling the role of citizen, shunning the passivity of the subject? There exists an inevitable clash of values between those who seek a compassionate government that is inclusive as to its nonviolent ethos of hospitality and those who seek an ethnically delimited social order that is xenophobic, exclusivist, and militia-minded in its orientation. In the end such a clash involves sorting out the balance of passions that shape the political culture at a given point in an unfolding national narrative. And this balance may not turn out very well for progressive citizens of conscience, depending on the mix of attitudes and fears that animate the masses at a given historical time.</p>
<p>There is one further consideration bearing on the democracy to come. It must not only be spatially minded about the world, it must also be temporally oriented about past and future. It must learn from the glorious and inglorious episodes of the past, but even more importantly, be alert to the need to live beyond the present, to take responsibility for ensuring that the future is not being diminished in serious and irreversible ways by current policies and practices. Such temporal urgency is currently especially compelling in relation to the environment, the treatment of animals, and above all, the multiple challenges of climate change. Humanity is faced at this juncture with a choice of heeding the scientific consensus on the need to reduce sharply the emission of greenhouse gasses or to live in the false consciousness of pretending that the future can be safely secured by either a technological fix (often described as geo-engineering) or by a guardian god or gods that will not permit an apocalyptic catastrophe to doom the human species. In other words, the conscience of the progressive citizen in our time must not only be globalized in the form of being a ‘world citizen;’ it must also be projected through time, adopting futurist modes of feeling, thinking, and acting,</p>
<p>It is against this background that I have previously suggested an identity shaped through an appreciative reference to ‘the citizen pilgrim,’ that is, to the citizen whose conscience is directed at others without heeding boundaries of space or time, or such contingent features of identity as nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, class. The citizen pilgrim is embarked upon what is essentially a spiritual journey or pilgrimage, seeking an inspirational future that seems neither feasible nor impossible. Such an inspirational dedication also minimizes the imaginative foreclosures of mortality, making the certainty of death a part of life, and accepting this destiny without seeking the comfort of metaphysical fictions, and thus not deeply disconcerted by ‘the dying of the light.’</p> | false | 1 | understanding silence passivity way silence much avoidance speech utterance poignantly expressed evasions body heart soul despite frustrations defeats period america different years vietnam war civil rights movement alienated gunwielders assassinated among us sounding clearest calls justice sending messages hope perverse reaction washingtons custodians insecurity went work sad result deafening silence ltimg classalignleft sizemedium wpimage19651 srchttpswwwforeignpolicyjournalcomwpcontentuploads201402richardfalk300x162jpg altrichard falk width300 height162 gt long felt american citizens increasingly behave subjects blithely acting love country exhibited obedience conscience view opportunity citizen precious reality byproduct past struggles genuine citizenship remains possible united states become marginal much evidence days identifying citizen ethically sensitive responsible member political community significantly sovereign state contrast subject conceives upright standing political community willingness go along group obey directives government exercising formal authority moral substance core genuine citizenship exists political structure allows opposition without imposing severe punishment citizenship possible automatically gives rise responsibility act accordingly honoring imperatives conscience unfortunately considerations prudence career social propriety make attractive days americans behave subjects living within rigid set constraints citizens proclaim virtues freedom act responsively vectors conscience even go established public order prevailing cultural norms adrotate banner57thomas jefferson birth republic understood liberty process event flourish citizenry whole actively engaged vigilant relation abuses attributable state citizenship better understood late 18th century struggle pretensions monarchy vibrant today irresistibly tempting ambitious political leaders encroach upon liberties people insisting national unity patriotism practical necessities times country war confronting enemies convenient orwellian trope wartime become norm rather exception peacetime mainly memory ancient times even oldest citizen alive never really experienced arguably attack pearl harbor 1941 ended illusions peace normal condition democratic society even collapse soviet union restore peace except misleading senses absence war enthronement war permanent collective imagination country vividly reinscribed 911 attacks bush response declaring global war terror terrorists bushs instinctive stroke political ingenuity devise new kind war never needs end obama despite ritual reassurances contrary broken faith militarist mentality seems comfortable treating war new normal vulnerability democracy siren song security effectively exploited powerwielders decades united states politicians militarists sing song also private sector moguls whose primary amoral motivation seems maximization profits weakening substance structures spirit american democracy partly reflected militarizing impacts world war ii cold war sequel also related extension american sphere direct concern involvement corners earth unprecedented global force projection coincided collapse european colonialism ideological consensus affirming neoliberalism backdrop globalizing world critical resources sea lanes markets needed protected world economy flourish american transformation hemispheric state becoming global state extraordinary impact national identity especially giving rise selfanointing mission global leadership depends military dominance mission also witnessed promiscuous reliance american exceptionalism often expense respect authority united nations international law claim america set aside rules behavior meet challenges confronting country world antagonistic others true early american experience proclamation monroe doctrine 1823 signaled national ambition reign supreme western hemisphere except canada expressed early refusal us government confine definition national interests territorial boundaries associated normal sovereign state strains extraterritoriality minimal compared became 20th century especially onset world war ii one thing challenge imposing control far simpler cheaper era gunboat diplomacy enabled small input military power achieve political objectives intervention circumstances since 1945 mobilization national resistance around world effective raising costs risks intervention neutralizing many advantages made easy translate military superiority desired political results colonial era also relevant discussion deteriorating quality democratic life united states expansions scale surveillance byproducts becoming global state project power globally requires global network military bases numbering hundreds navy patrols every ocean missiles strike distant targets attack drones programmed kill anyone anywhere planet extensive informationgathering capability technology provide money buy raises astronomic levels investment energy resources sustaining global role unsurprisingly byproducts including militarized state home assumption associated custodial duties related protection american people real imagined enemies pursuit national interests relating wealth influence prestige enhance security global setting pushes surveillance toward totalization snowden disclosures began reveal also creates logic views domestic opposition grave suspicion leads finding destroying enemy within gains leverage unleash assault established order american global state different past empires explicit projecting hard power insisting upon overt allegiance rule rumsfeld succinctly remarked years ago empire manage global state seeks meet hostile challenges wherever emerge give high priority maintenance trade investment navigational framework reflects guiding assumptions neoliberalism networked digital age threatening hostile challenges seem currently mounted nonstate actors particular territorial base operations battlefield quietly globalized encompass economy surveillance panopticon counterterrorism counterproliferation sites intervention resistance american citizenship mean altered domestic global conditions acknowledged recent developments negative respect quality democratic life america slavery overcome racism diminished womens rights strengthened sexual preferences increasingly respected taking concerns account meant many avenues remain open expression conscience united states entails nonacceptance various facets status quo struggles militarism surveillance plutocracy global warming poverty inequality human insecurity class warfare well residues racism patriarchy160160 citizens selectively active response challenges subject passive regressive champion status quo best advocate incremental change yeats reminded world almost century ago best lack conviction worst full passionate intensity effective forms citizen action depend popular mobilization adoption nonviolent forms collective action subject stands sullenly applauding suppression dissent resistance security forces french philosopher jacques derrida referred democracy come achieving far higher degree social justice ever existed country view fulfilling potentiality would mean enlargement role citizen decline subject much critical interplay society state making democracy participatory process consider fulfilled periodic free elections functioning representative institutions practices associated procedural democracy recently lost charm due deforming impacts money lobbying special interests virtual disappearance political landscape progressive option effect future american democracy necessarily depend activity people conscience rebirth progressive vision made attractive across class race geographic lines prescription hope shortcomings difficulties members tea party composed whose conscience leads defy state fulfilling role citizen shunning passivity subject exists inevitable clash values seek compassionate government inclusive nonviolent ethos hospitality seek ethnically delimited social order xenophobic exclusivist militiaminded orientation end clash involves sorting balance passions shape political culture given point unfolding national narrative balance may turn well progressive citizens conscience depending mix attitudes fears animate masses given historical time one consideration bearing democracy come must spatially minded world must also temporally oriented past future must learn glorious inglorious episodes past even importantly alert need live beyond present take responsibility ensuring future diminished serious irreversible ways current policies practices temporal urgency currently especially compelling relation environment treatment animals multiple challenges climate change humanity faced juncture choice heeding scientific consensus need reduce sharply emission greenhouse gasses live false consciousness pretending future safely secured either technological fix often described geoengineering guardian god gods permit apocalyptic catastrophe doom human species words conscience progressive citizen time must globalized form world citizen must also projected time adopting futurist modes feeling thinking acting background previously suggested identity shaped appreciative reference citizen pilgrim citizen whose conscience directed others without heeding boundaries space time contingent features identity nationality ethnicity race religion gender class citizen pilgrim embarked upon essentially spiritual journey pilgrimage seeking inspirational future seems neither feasible impossible inspirational dedication also minimizes imaginative foreclosures mortality making certainty death part life accepting destiny without seeking comfort metaphysical fictions thus deeply disconcerted dying light | 1,148 |
<p>It is time for Palestinian communities everywhere to surmount ideological, factional and political divides.</p>
<p>Waiting on Israeli society to change from within is a colossal waste of time, during which the suffering of an entire nation—torn between an occupied home and a harsh diaspora—will not cease. But what are Palestinians and the supporters of a just peace in Palestine and Israel to do? Plenty.</p>
<p>Those who counted on some sort of a miracle to emerge from the outcome of the recent Israeli elections have only themselves to blame. Neither logic nor numbers were on their side, nor the long history laden with disappointing experiences of “leftist” Israelis unleashing wars and cementing occupation. Despite a few differences between Israel’s right and the so-called left on internal matters, their positions are almost identical regarding all major issues related to Palestine. These include the Right of Return and the status of occupied Jerusalem to the illegal settlements.</p>
<p>But Palestinians are not without options. Sure, the odds against them are great, but such is the fate of the oppressed as they are left between two options: either a perpetual fight for justice or unending humiliation and servitude.</p>
<p>First, the most difficult obstacle to overcome is the stronghold of Mahmoud Abbas and his corrupt circle on Palestine’s political discourse at home. This is not an outcome of Abbas’s particular savvy or the genius of his class. The post-Oslo circle only exists to maintain the status quo: US interests and involvement as a mediator in the conflict, Israel’s security—thus the constant crackdown on Palestinian opposition and resistance—and ensuring that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has a reason to exist for the sake of ensuring the many privileges that come with the job.</p>
<p>Second, for that to take place, the very ailments that have afflicted Palestinian society for years, leading to the creation of the ineffectual PA in the first place, would have to be confronted heads on. One such condition is factionalism, which has to be overpowered by a collective that defines itself first and foremost as Palestinian.</p>
<p>Factionalism, in its current form, has destroyed much of the social fabric of Palestine. It has divided the already divided people into fragments making them easy to be controlled, manipulated, suppressed—and when necessary—besieged. Sixty-seven years is just too long a period for a nation that lives mostly in exile, trapped or confined behind walls, to sustain its political identity and remain unified around the same “constants” without proper leadership.</p>
<p>Third, such seismic change cannot come easily. It must be gradual and part of a national initiative. It must be a conversation that brings friends and rivals not to divide material perks, useless “ministries” and worthless “government” posts, but rather to mend the broken unanimity that once existed. In fact, once upon a time, Palestinians were not united or disjointed around the frivolous “peace process,” but instead around “national constants,” where the Right of Return took central stage.</p>
<p>The transition from disunity and chaos into something visionary and not confined by short-term political interests, must be smooth, calculated and led by respected Palestinian figures, not those with hands soiled by blood and corruption.</p>
<p>Fourth, one major issue that must dominate the new political discourse is the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees, guaranteed by international law. The issue is not only essential in its centrality in the lives of millions of Palestinians suffering in Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere, but is also essential to any sensible understanding of the conflict and its resolution.</p>
<p>The struggle in Palestine doesn’t date back to the war of 1967, but the Zionist takeover of Palestine between 1947-48 that resulted in nearly a million refugees, the expropriation of their land, homes, rights and the attempt at erasing any evidence of their existence.</p>
<p>By marginalizing the Right of Return, one diminishes the very roots of the conflict, and any serious attempt at reconciling the painful past with the equally agonizing present.</p>
<p>Fifth, Palestine ’48 must be fully incorporated into national agenda. The Palestinians of 1948 have always, and will remain a major component of the Palestine question and the Palestinian struggle for freedom and human rights. The fragmentation between the communities were imposed by calculated political realities, enforced by Israel or circumstances. That said, the issues have never been truly separated: the plight of Palestinians in Israel, those under military occupation in the occupied territories, and refugees in the diaspora all go back to the same historical point of reference—the Nakba of ’48. These common struggles continue to be sustained by Israel, its racist laws, its military occupation and its refusal to adhere to international law.</p>
<p>Without the Palestinians of ’48, the Palestinian national identity will remain politically fragmented and scarred. The persistence and collective strength of that population is an important asset, and their struggles are part and parcel of the struggle and resistance of Palestinians in the occupied territories and those in the diaspora.</p>
<p>Sixth, resistance must be respected.</p>
<p>The term “resistance” once dominated references made by Palestinian leaders in yesteryears, but was purposely marginalized following the signing of Oslo in 1993. That was driven by two subtle understandings that resistance was ineffective, and that to achieve a degree of validity and stateliness in the eyes of their US benefactors, the new rulers of Palestine needed to abandon seemingly unsophisticated references to a bygone era.</p>
<p>Yet without resistance there is only submission and defeat, which is precisely what took place. Only popular resistance in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the steadfastness of ’48 Palestinians, crowned by the legendary resistance of Palestinians in Gaza under a harsh siege and repeated wars, continue to frustrate Israel. Yet, the harsher Israel tries to destroy Palestinian resistance, the more emboldened Palestinians become, for resistance is a culture, not a political choice.</p>
<p>Seventh, BDS must continue to grow, bridge gaps. Resistance is part and parcel of the ongoing global campaign, to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel. The outcome of the Israeli elections, and the rise of a more self-assertive Palestinian political collective by ’48 Palestinians, would mean that BDS must enlarge its mission, not just rhetorically by practically as well.</p>
<p>The BDS movement had already emphasized equality for ’48 Palestinians as a main objective that is as vital as all other objectives. The Joint List Arab party which won 13 seats in the Knesset solidified the relationship between Palestinian Arab communities within Israel as the BDS movement has to a large extent solidified the rapport between Palestinian communities across political and geographical divides. But more is needed. The new self-assertive Palestinian community in Israel deserves greater engagement.</p>
<p>Finally, one State must become the rally cry for equality and freedom.</p>
<p>The more empowered and racist Israel becomes, and the deeper it digs into the roots of its Apartheid and racist institutions and walls, the more obvious the answer becomes: a state for two peoples with equal rights. Both Palestinians and Jews exist in that very space, but they are governed by two sets of laws that make peaceful co-existence impossible. In order to speed up the achievement of that moment and lessen suffering, Palestinians have some urgent work to do.</p>
<p>It is time for Palestinian communities everywhere to surmount ideological, factional and political divides, reach out to one another, unite their ranks, and harness their energies, for no matter how deep the divide, Palestine is, should and will always be one..</p> | false | 1 | time palestinian communities everywhere surmount ideological factional political divides waiting israeli society change within colossal waste time suffering entire nationtorn occupied home harsh diasporawill cease palestinians supporters peace palestine israel plenty counted sort miracle emerge outcome recent israeli elections blame neither logic numbers side long history laden disappointing experiences leftist israelis unleashing wars cementing occupation despite differences israels right socalled left internal matters positions almost identical regarding major issues related palestine include right return status occupied jerusalem illegal settlements palestinians without options sure odds great fate oppressed left two options either perpetual fight justice unending humiliation servitude first difficult obstacle overcome stronghold mahmoud abbas corrupt circle palestines political discourse home outcome abbass particular savvy genius class postoslo circle exists maintain status quo us interests involvement mediator conflict israels securitythus constant crackdown palestinian opposition resistanceand ensuring palestinian authority pa reason exist sake ensuring many privileges come job second take place ailments afflicted palestinian society years leading creation ineffectual pa first place would confronted heads one condition factionalism overpowered collective defines first foremost palestinian factionalism current form destroyed much social fabric palestine divided already divided people fragments making easy controlled manipulated suppressedand necessarybesieged sixtyseven years long period nation lives mostly exile trapped confined behind walls sustain political identity remain unified around constants without proper leadership third seismic change come easily must gradual part national initiative must conversation brings friends rivals divide material perks useless ministries worthless government posts rather mend broken unanimity existed fact upon time palestinians united disjointed around frivolous peace process instead around national constants right return took central stage transition disunity chaos something visionary confined shortterm political interests must smooth calculated led respected palestinian figures hands soiled blood corruption fourth one major issue must dominate new political discourse right return palestinian refugees guaranteed international law issue essential centrality lives millions palestinians suffering syria lebanon elsewhere also essential sensible understanding conflict resolution struggle palestine doesnt date back war 1967 zionist takeover palestine 194748 resulted nearly million refugees expropriation land homes rights attempt erasing evidence existence marginalizing right return one diminishes roots conflict serious attempt reconciling painful past equally agonizing present fifth palestine 48 must fully incorporated national agenda palestinians 1948 always remain major component palestine question palestinian struggle freedom human rights fragmentation communities imposed calculated political realities enforced israel circumstances said issues never truly separated plight palestinians israel military occupation occupied territories refugees diaspora go back historical point referencethe nakba 48 common struggles continue sustained israel racist laws military occupation refusal adhere international law without palestinians 48 palestinian national identity remain politically fragmented scarred persistence collective strength population important asset struggles part parcel struggle resistance palestinians occupied territories diaspora sixth resistance must respected term resistance dominated references made palestinian leaders yesteryears purposely marginalized following signing oslo 1993 driven two subtle understandings resistance ineffective achieve degree validity stateliness eyes us benefactors new rulers palestine needed abandon seemingly unsophisticated references bygone era yet without resistance submission defeat precisely took place popular resistance west bank jerusalem steadfastness 48 palestinians crowned legendary resistance palestinians gaza harsh siege repeated wars continue frustrate israel yet harsher israel tries destroy palestinian resistance emboldened palestinians become resistance culture political choice seventh bds must continue grow bridge gaps resistance part parcel ongoing global campaign boycott divest sanction israel outcome israeli elections rise selfassertive palestinian political collective 48 palestinians would mean bds must enlarge mission rhetorically practically well bds movement already emphasized equality 48 palestinians main objective vital objectives joint list arab party 13 seats knesset solidified relationship palestinian arab communities within israel bds movement large extent solidified rapport palestinian communities across political geographical divides needed new selfassertive palestinian community israel deserves greater engagement finally one state must become rally cry equality freedom empowered racist israel becomes deeper digs roots apartheid racist institutions walls obvious answer becomes state two peoples equal rights palestinians jews exist space governed two sets laws make peaceful coexistence impossible order speed achievement moment lessen suffering palestinians urgent work time palestinian communities everywhere surmount ideological factional political divides reach one another unite ranks harness energies matter deep divide palestine always one | 675 |
<p />
<p>Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and third Chairperson of Pakistan People's Party (PPP), is almost a forgotten chapter within the government of her widower, Asif Ali Zardari. While her pictures are being used to promote various developmental and social projects, demands for a complete local investigation into her assassination seem only an agitation for Pakistan's rulers.</p>
<p>A First Investigation Report (FIR) filed by the slain leader before the Sindh High Court after an October 18 bomb attack that caused over 150 deaths in Karachi's Karsaz locality has been either closed or ignored. Bhutto's assassination, carried out in a well-planned manner and with evidence being removed from the scene shortly after, has received the same treatment.</p>
<p>It's known that the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush were keen to have a power sharing deal between Benazir Bhutto and General Pervez Musharraf. The original deal was initiated by the Islamabad-based former High Commissioner of the United Kingdom Mike Lyall Grant, but later on the initiative was grabbed by two top U.S. officials, Richard Boucher and John Negroponte.</p>
<p>Musharraf was apparently in a hurry to get the deal signed and keep Benazir Bhutto out of Pakistan during the election that had been announced for January 18, 2008. He held a meeting with Bhutto in Dubai but nothing has been spoken about what transpired there.</p>
<p>Finally during the summer of 2007, General Musharraf sent his Chief of Staff Retired Lt. Gen. Hamid Javaid to London to conclude the deal, which he did. But upon arrival in Islamabad, he was absent from public meetings. He reappeared on the day Negroponte was in Rawalpindi and tendered his resignation.</p>
<p>Everybody in Pakistan had expected Benazir Bhutto's electoral success. She pulled crowds but sought to broaden her political base by forging greater alliances with regional parties, but refused any political arrangement with extreme Islamic parties and prevailed upon her arch rival Mian Nawaz Sharif to participate in the general election.</p>
<p>Sharif was still in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and while he was awaiting permission to travel back to Pakistan, Bhutto insisting that under the National Reconciliation Ordinance Sharif should be allowed to return.</p>
<p>Bhutto faced an initial assassination attempt on her life on October 18, 2007, when she was leading a massive caravan through Karachi after ending her exile. The suicide bombing killed more than 120, but Bhutto was unhurt.</p>
<p>General Musharraf openly stated that Bhutto's participation in the election was not part of the power sharing deal. In his pursuit to perpetuate his autocratic rule, Musharraf on November 3, 2007, once again sacked the Chief Justice, claimed emergency powers, and appointed a judge of his own choice who would not contest his reelection to the presidency by the outgoing National Assembly while still in uniform.</p>
<p>At the same time Musharraf claimed a state of emergency, Bhutto was in Dubai. She made an air dash to Pakistan, started agitation against emergency rule, lent her party's support for the deposed Chief Justice, and geared her party for the upcoming general elections.</p>
<p>All that time, Sharif remained in Jeddah and weighed lending the support of his Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) to Benazir Bhutto for her struggle for a fair election. He wrote a letter to Bhutto seeking clarifications on a united agenda, in which he said, "It is my resolute conviction that after Pervez Musharraf's abrogation of the Constitution on November 3, 2007, and the sacking of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry together with other Supreme and High Court judges through a Provisional Constitutional Order, the necessity of the opposition parties taking a united stand against the brutal actions of Pervez Musharraf has become inevitable."</p>
<p>Sharif was finally allowed to return to Pakistan. Bhutto was asked repeatedly by Musharraf and his close associates not to hold public rallies, while Musharraf's main allies in the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) (PML-Q) had adopted a very aggressive tone towards Bhutto in their public rallies. And PML-N's candidate Chaudhry Pervez Elahi went on to say that the "Queen of Corruption" was back.</p>
<p>When Zardari was in Musharraf's custody in 2004, his Director General of Military Intelligence Nadeem Taj and PPP leader Qasim Zia tried to convince Benazir Bhutto to let her husband be in the driving seat. Zardari was freed and went to Dubai before returning to Lahore to test the waters and gauge his popularity. But the stalwarts of the PPP still favored Benazir Bhutto and blamed charges of corruption against her on Zardari. Upon&#160; her&#160; return&#160; Benazir&#160; Bhutto&#160; had&#160; complete&#160; control&#160; over&#160; her&#160; party.</p>
<p>Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007. The Director General of the Interior Ministry Javed Iqbal Cheema has repeatedly said her death was caused by her head striking a blunt lever in the vehicle Bhutto was travelling in following a bomb blast that has been blamed on the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Baitullah Mehsud.</p>
<p>But Bhutto's former Interior Minister Naseerrullah Babar not only publically denied Mehsud's involvement but said that after the first failed assassination attempt on Bhutto, Mehsud had twice conveyed the message to the PPP through emissaries that she was not his enemy and he had nothing to do with the attack.</p>
<p>Former President General Musharraf has also stated that Baitullah Mehsud was responsible for Benazir Bhutto's muder. But where were top officials of the Rawalpindi police, including the District Coordination Officer and the Deputy Inspector General, who were supposed to be present on duty as protocol for the security of a former Prime Minister?</p> | false | 1 | benazir bhutto daughter zulfikar ali bhutto third chairperson pakistan peoples party ppp almost forgotten chapter within government widower asif ali zardari pictures used promote various developmental social projects demands complete local investigation assassination seem agitation pakistans rulers first investigation report fir filed slain leader sindh high court october 18 bomb attack caused 150 deaths karachis karsaz locality either closed ignored bhuttos assassination carried wellplanned manner evidence removed scene shortly received treatment known administration us president george w bush keen power sharing deal benazir bhutto general pervez musharraf original deal initiated islamabadbased former high commissioner united kingdom mike lyall grant later initiative grabbed two top us officials richard boucher john negroponte musharraf apparently hurry get deal signed keep benazir bhutto pakistan election announced january 18 2008 held meeting bhutto dubai nothing spoken transpired finally summer 2007 general musharraf sent chief staff retired lt gen hamid javaid london conclude deal upon arrival islamabad absent public meetings reappeared day negroponte rawalpindi tendered resignation everybody pakistan expected benazir bhuttos electoral success pulled crowds sought broaden political base forging greater alliances regional parties refused political arrangement extreme islamic parties prevailed upon arch rival mian nawaz sharif participate general election sharif still jeddah saudi arabia awaiting permission travel back pakistan bhutto insisting national reconciliation ordinance sharif allowed return bhutto faced initial assassination attempt life october 18 2007 leading massive caravan karachi ending exile suicide bombing killed 120 bhutto unhurt general musharraf openly stated bhuttos participation election part power sharing deal pursuit perpetuate autocratic rule musharraf november 3 2007 sacked chief justice claimed emergency powers appointed judge choice would contest reelection presidency outgoing national assembly still uniform time musharraf claimed state emergency bhutto dubai made air dash pakistan started agitation emergency rule lent partys support deposed chief justice geared party upcoming general elections time sharif remained jeddah weighed lending support pakistan muslim leaguen pmln benazir bhutto struggle fair election wrote letter bhutto seeking clarifications united agenda said resolute conviction pervez musharrafs abrogation constitution november 3 2007 sacking chief justice iftikhar muhammad chaudhry together supreme high court judges provisional constitutional order necessity opposition parties taking united stand brutal actions pervez musharraf become inevitable sharif finally allowed return pakistan bhutto asked repeatedly musharraf close associates hold public rallies musharrafs main allies pakistan muslim league q pmlq adopted aggressive tone towards bhutto public rallies pmlns candidate chaudhry pervez elahi went say queen corruption back zardari musharrafs custody 2004 director general military intelligence nadeem taj ppp leader qasim zia tried convince benazir bhutto let husband driving seat zardari freed went dubai returning lahore test waters gauge popularity stalwarts ppp still favored benazir bhutto blamed charges corruption zardari upon160 her160 return160 benazir160 bhutto160 had160 complete160 control160 over160 her160 party bhutto assassinated december 27 2007 director general interior ministry javed iqbal cheema repeatedly said death caused head striking blunt lever vehicle bhutto travelling following bomb blast blamed leader tehrikitaliban pakistan ttp baitullah mehsud bhuttos former interior minister naseerrullah babar publically denied mehsuds involvement said first failed assassination attempt bhutto mehsud twice conveyed message ppp emissaries enemy nothing attack former president general musharraf also stated baitullah mehsud responsible benazir bhuttos muder top officials rawalpindi police including district coordination officer deputy inspector general supposed present duty protocol security former prime minister | 536 |
<p>The glossary of inadmissible words in 21st-century American society has shrunk to what seems, at times, a null set. Deprecations and excretory references that once got kids’ mouths washed out with soap are dropped with aplomb and immunity, and not just in Quentin Tarantino films. On the rare occasions when the Federal Communications Commission chastises a broadcaster for letting an expletive pass uncensored or unbleeped, cries of repression ricochet from sea to shining sea, quickly followed by passionate defenses of the First Amendment.</p>
<p>But the set of inadmissible words is not quite null just yet. For, to paraphrase St. Paul, there still abideth metaphysics. Indeed, 21st-century post-modern culture does not simply shun the word “metaphysics.” It dismisses out of hand the very notion that there is a morally significant givenness to reality: a structure of The Way Things Are that can be discerned by reason and that, being known, discloses certain truths about the way we should live. In 21st-century America, and throughout the 21st-century West, what the founders would have called “the pursuit of happiness” has become a function of the autonomous will of the individual, and that willfulness can legitimately attach itself to any object so long as no one gets hurt.</p>
<p>The drastic attenuation of these three great ideas — that there are truths built into the world, into human beings, and into human relationships; that these truths can be known by reason; and that knowledge of these truths is essential to living virtuously, which means living happily — has taken place over a very long period of time. A good argument can be made that one of the prime villains of the piece was the 14th-century philosopher William of Ockham, whose voluntarism shifted the locus of Western moral reflection from the intellect (which was to discover moral truths in reality) to the will (which could impose, or even invent, its own moral reality). The wedge that the 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume tried to drive between “is” and “ought” — an effort that accelerated Western philosophy’s lurch into subjectivism — was surely part of the problem, as was the failure of Immanuel Kant’s “categorical imperative” to meet Hume’s challenge and re-ground serious thought and moral judgment in something other than the insides of our heads. Twentieth-century analytical philosophies that reduced thought about the human condition to a variety of language games didn’t help matters either.</p>
<p>But if the philosophers had gotten themselves caught in what Polish thinker Wojciech Chudy once called the “trap of reflection,” what about the impact of reality itself? One might have thought that the mass slaughters perpetrated by the mid-20th century totalitarianisms would have compelled a general cultural revulsion against a will to power unchecked by ideas of true and false, good and evil. But even that experience of awfulness doesn’t seem to have bent the curve of cultural history away from self-absorption and willfulness, as that cultural history is manifest in the world of ideas.</p>
<p>Perhaps it should not have been surprising that American higher learning shifted gears rather readily from John Dewey to Jacques Derrida — from the anorexic philosophy of pragmatism to a post-modern insouciance about (and indeed hostility to) any notion of deep truths embedded in the world and in us. The native-born American professoriate hadn’t been scarred by the experience of gulags and extermination camps, and in any event American higher education, largely dissenting-Protestant in origin, had never been securely grounded in the classic verities of the metaphysical sensibility that grew out of Aristotle as mediated by Catholic medieval thinkers like Aquinas.</p>
<p>What is surprising, though — and what ought to be deeply disturbing — is the rapidity with which university life behind the old Iron Curtain turned on a dime from Marxism to post-modernism in the aftermath of the Cold War. It took the University of California, Berkeley, a full century to become Berkeley. It took the venerable Jagiellonian University in Kraków (founded in 1364) less than a decade to become a Central European simulacrum of Berkeley in its adherence to post-modern canons of epistemological skepticism, moral relativism, and metaphysical nihilism. That blink-of-an-eye transformation suggests that there is a deep cultural turbulence beneath the surface of Western civilization in this second decade of the 21st century. To describe it in the terms above, however, is not to suggest that this disturbance is a problem for philosophers only. Quite the contrary.</p>
<p>That Western democratic bodies ranging from the Greek Parliament to the Italian Chamber of Deputies to the United States Congress and the California State Assembly find it impossible to craft and adopt public policies that meet the pressing demands of the moment (while frittering away their time in various forms of political theater) suggests that the deterioration of Western thought about Things As They Are has had dramatic public-policy consequences and could eventually have the gravest civilizational consequences. That the politics of the Western democracies are often in gridlock is not simply because there are deeply different views of personal freedom and public goods in competition in public life; that has always been the case. The difference today is that there are no agreed-upon, reality-based reference points to which the contending parties can appeal in order to settle the argument about whose concept of the public good, and how it ought to be achieved, is the course to be followed.</p>
<p>Public policy that fosters individual human flourishing and the common good must take account of reality, and realities. When a culture loses confidence in its capacity to say, with conviction, “this is The Way Things Are,” its capacity to devise ways and means of addressing The Way Things Ought To Be is severely eroded. In a culture without metaphysics, the one trump card in public life becomes individual willfulness. And then, because politics is an expression of culture, both the citizenry and its political leaders increasingly come to resemble Lewis Carroll’s White Queen, who “believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”</p>
<p>Reality contact, it seems, is important not only for personal mental health. Reality contact is essential to making democracy work. Yet an insistence on avoiding reality is more or less the organizing principle of our political life these days. It lies at the center of a great many of our public problems, and it connects them to one another.</p>
<p>The desire to separate those problems and handle them individually — say, to “put aside the social issues” and just worry about the budget deficit, as many a well-meaning advisor to today’s Republican Party now suggests — is no less naïve and unreal an approach to political life than is the desire to ignore the substance of each problem and pretend we can inhabit a world of our own imagination. Responsible, democratic self-governance, and effective public policy that addresses rather than postpones problems, begins by accepting reality. That this seems awfully difficult for many of our fellow citizens these days is perhaps the most grave of our problems.</p>
<p>THE NEW GNOSTICISM</p>
<p>There is another, parallel, way to think about these deeper cultural currents that are helping make it extremely difficult for even serious political leaders (with which the West is not exactly replete in 2013) to connect the dots between, say, certain public goods (financial security for increasingly elderly populations and quality medical care for all) and certain fiscal realities (this is how much money we can raise through taxation without destroying economic initiative and this is how much we can responsibly borrow). And that is to understand that, for the past half-century or so, the United States and the rest of the West have been living through an intense Gnostic revival: a powerful recrudescence of an ancient heresy that has erupted time and again over the past two millennia and that is very much with us today.</p>
<p>Gnosticism is a protean cultural virus that has taken many forms over time. Wherever and whenever it has appeared, however, Gnosticism has sought the good outside of reality as we perceive it through the materials of this world. In the Gnostic view, human flourishing (to reach for a contemporary term) comes from the possession of a gnosis, a knowledge, which will lift men and women out of the grubbiness of the quotidian and into the purified realm of truth. Reality, in the Gnostic view, is antithetical to “the pursuit of happiness”; reality is to be rejected, and thereby overcome.</p>
<p>Contemporary Gnosticism, which is most powerfully embodied in the sexual revolution, has given all of this a new twist by masking its essential deprecation of The Way Things Are by what appears, at first blush, to be a hyper-materialism: a cult of sensuality über alles in which sexual gratification, in any form among consenting adults, is the highest of goods and the most inalienable of personal liberties. But the deeper dimension of the new Gnosticism, especially as it manifests itself through the sexual revolution, is the conviction that there are no Things As They Are. None. Everything in the human condition is plastic and malleable. Everything can (and ought to be allowed to) be bent to human willfulness, which is to say, to human desire. As for the notion that some desires are untoward, even wicked, because they lead to self-degradation and thus frustrate the natural quest for happiness: Well, if there are no Things As They Are, how can anyone say that this desire or that is unnatural, dehumanizing, or wrong?</p>
<p>In this respect, the most powerful expression of the ancient cultural toxin of Gnosticism in the 21st-century West is the ideology of gender — the body of thought that quite naturally occupied the cultural vacuum left when metaphysics and any sense of reality-grounded thinking about the human condition collapsed, when technology made it possible to sunder sex from procreation readily and inexpensively, and when the law built a high wall of protection around sexual encounters between consenting adults. The sexual revolution imagined itself, at the outset, to be liberating men and women from hoary religious constraints and their attendant psychological catarrhs. Yet the cultural transformation that the sexual revolution unleashed would turn out to have far more profound consequences than those imagined by its early propagandists, who seem to have imagined sex as just another contact sport.</p>
<p>For within a very short span of time, less than two generations, two aspects of the human condition that had been understood for millennia to be the very quintessence of givenness — maleness and femaleness — were no longer taken to be given at all. “Male” and “female” were not The Way Things Are. “Male” and “female” were “cultural constructs,” usually manipulated by those in power for purposes of domination (Gnosticism thus adding a soupçon of Marxism to its ideology of plasticity).</p>
<p>The beginnings of this path of radical, Gnostic cultural transformation may have been marked by Playboy and the pill. Where it was all heading became clear when Spain’s Zapatero government enacted, in 2007, legislation allowing men to change themselves into women (and vice versa) by a simple declaration at a Civil Register office (and without any surgical folderol) — after which affirmation a new national identity card, noting the new gender, would be issued. It is hard to imagine a more explicit expression of personal willfulness overpowering natural givenness.</p>
<p>Gnostic anthropology — the Gnostic view of the human person and the human condition — is the antithesis of the Biblical view of men and women and their possibilities, which has long been one of the foundation stones of the Western civilizational project. Thus it was no accident — although it seemed to many a happy and perhaps strategically important cultural development — that when the premier intellectual in early 21st-century Christianity took up the cudgels against the radical cultural transformation wrought by the new Gnosticism and raised a warning flag about its public implications, he cited the anti-Gnostic critique of the ideology of gender by a prominent Jewish leader.</p>
<p>As French president François Hollande pressed a same-sex marriage bill in the National Assembly in the fall of 2012, the chief rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, offered the French government a detailed critique of Hollande’s proposal in a 25-page essay that caught the attention of Pope Benedict XVI. Then, when Benedict gave his annual Christmas address to the senior officials of the Roman Curia on December 21, 2012, he noted the dramatic decline of the marriage culture of the West, warned that this presaged a social world in which “man remains closed in on himself and keeps his ‘I’ ultimately for himself, without really rising above it,” and then buttressed his argument by adopting Rabbi Bernheim’s critique as a summary of the counter-case to the Gnostic gender revolution.</p>
<p>“While up to now we regarded a false understanding of the nature of human freedom as one cause of the crisis of the family,” Benedict told his audience, “it is now becoming clear that the very notion of being — of what being human really means — is being called into question.” He continued:</p>
<p>[Rabbi Bernheim] quotes the famous saying of Simone de Beauvoir: “One is not born a woman, one becomes so” [On ne naît pas femme, on le devient]. These words lay the foundation for what is put forward today under the term “gender” as a new philosophy of sexuality. According to this philosophy, sex is no longer a given element of nature that man has to accept and personally make sense of: It is a social role that we choose for ourselves, while in the past it was chosen for us by society.</p>
<p>The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious. People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves. According to the biblical creation account, being created by God as male and female pertains to the essence of the human creature. This duality is an essential aspect of what being human is all about, as ordained by God. This very duality as something previously given is what is now disputed. The words of the creation account: “male and female he created them” [Genesis 1:27] no longer apply. No, what now applies is this: it was not God who created them male and female — hitherto society did this, now we decide for ourselves. Man and woman as created realities, as the nature of the human being, no longer exist. Man calls his nature into question. From now on he is merely spirit and will.</p>
<p>To imagine that we live in such a self-created world is not only to imagine that we owe nothing to our given nature but also to believe that we owe no attention or response to the problems that arise when we ignore that nature. Such a warped sensibility not only makes any moral order impossible: It makes political order untenable, too.</p>
<p>GOVERNING AN UNREAL WORLD</p>
<p>Some who share the concerns of Pope-emeritus Benedict and Rabbi Bernheim will nonetheless suggest that these are essentially matters of the private sphere, with little discernible consequence for public policy and public life beyond some adjustments to civil-marriage law. Others, perhaps also sympathetic in theory or sentiment, will sigh and argue that the debate has been lost, that the sexual revolution has won, and that arguments about public policy — on issues ranging from tax reform to entitlement reform to health care to foreign policy — must now be conducted on their own merits, absent the distractions of these fevered questions of sex, gender, and so forth. This idea that the “social issues” can be put aside so that other issues can be taken up has been frequently championed as the prudent course for American conservatives and for the Republican Party in the wake of last November’s disastrous election.</p>
<p>Yet if politics really is an expression of culture (as political theory is an extension of ethics), then the Gnostic revolution and the decline of cultural confidence in The Way Things Are must be, in fact, at the very center of our politics. A people convinced that all is plastic and malleable in the human condition — that nothing simply is, even when it comes to such seemingly elementary givens as maleness and femaleness and their natural complementarity — is going to perceive politics in a distinctive, and likely distorting, way. For even those who have never heard of Gnosticism, much less imagined themselves as its adherents, are nonetheless going to think in Gnostic categories.</p>
<p>The most obvious example of this is the course that has been taken by the same-sex marriage debate. Now, to be sure, the Human Rights Campaign and other same-sex marriage advocates have been shrewd in battening on the American civil-rights movement as the icon of their own activism and in not publicly pressing that activism toward its logical conclusion (which is the legalization of polygamy and polyandry, already being bruited in elite law journals). But these shrewd political tactics have worked because the political culture had been previously softened up (and dumbed down) by the new Gnostic revolution.</p>
<p>Thus a patently false analogy — legal bans on gay marriage are exactly the same as the anti-miscegenation laws of the era of racial segregation — has been successfully sold because a culture unaccustomed to the idea that some realities just are will easily swallow the rhetorical bait. Such a culture is then utterly befuddled when the most intellectually sophisticated Catholic bishop in American history, Francis Cardinal George of Chicago, writes in his archdiocesan newspaper that Illinois’s proposed same-sex marriage legislation “is less a threat to religion than it is an affront to human reason and the common good of society. It means that we all are to pretend to accept something we know is physically impossible. The Legislature might just as well repeal the law of gravity.”</p>
<p>But the new Gnosticism warps our politics in other ways that ought to concern those thinkers, commentators, and politicians now counseling their fellow conservatives to admit that the sexual revolution has triumphed, to get over it, and to move on. For that counsel prompts an urgent question: Move on how? If people are prepared to believe (or, even worse, if people are prepared to insist as a matter of fundamental civil rights) the unreal claim that marriage can encompass two men or two women, why should those same people not believe that America can continue to run trillion-dollar deficits with impunity? Or that the centralization and vast regulatory apparatus to be created by Obamacare will not inevitably lead to the rationing of end-of-life care? Or that the federal budget deficit has primarily to do with the wealthy not paying “their fair share”?</p>
<p>Every serious analyst of the impending federal fiscal crisis, from the right and the left alike, understands that there are very hard choices to be made in building an American future that combines financial responsibility with justice and compassion. But how can such difficult choices and policies be sold, on the basis of the realities that are self-evidently clear from the numbers, to a population culturally conditioned to think that nothing is as is, that everything is malleable and plastic? Why, for example, should a population that thinks of children primarily as a lifestyle choice aimed at enhancing parental satisfaction take seriously the grave moral problem of saddling future generations (as well as current ones) with unpayable, and perhaps even unserviceable, amounts of public debt?</p>
<p>Foreign policy is also imperiled by the new Gnosticism and its reality-denying effects on personal and public perceptions. Putting aside the question of whether the World War II generation was the greatest American generation — what about the founders? — surely the greatness of the generation that fought and beat Nazism and Japanese imperialism was that it accepted the duty to do just that as an imperative imposed by reality. Throughout World War II, there was very little of the flag-waving, chest-thumping, martial romanticism that had characterized the American entry into the First World War. As William Manchester, Paul Fussell, and others have observed, Americans approached the Second World War as a dirty, necessary job that had to be done, period. That same generation understood, when given serious political leadership by reality-grounded men like Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, that more sacrifices were required to fight what John Kennedy called “the long twilight struggle” against another totalitarian threat. But today?</p>
<p>If Americans perceive the world through cultural lenses that are distorted by Gnosticism, how can we think strategically and wisely about the normality of conflict in international affairs? How can we grasp that foreign policy is a matter of crafting incentives and disincentives to get others to behave as we would like them to behave? How can a people accustomed to thinking of the world as fungible and elastic possibly comprehend the threat posed by religiously-inspired apocalyptics whose idea of changing the world is to end the world as we know it? The link between the new Gnosticism and foreign policy “resets” may not immediately be evident, but the dots are there, and those dots can be connected if “resetting” has become a deeply ingrained (and publicly celebrated) cultural habit.</p>
<p>America tried a flight from harsh international realities in the 1990s during the Clinton administration, which was the first significant embodiment of the Gnostic temperament in the history of the presidency. The result was the chaotic, ghastly, and still unresolved dissolution of Yugoslavia, the refusal to see reality for what it was in the Rwandan genocide, the scuttle from Somalia, the naïveté of “Oslo” as the magic solution to the Middle East’s problems, the bombings of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the attack of the U.S.S. Cole — and, ultimately, 9/11.</p>
<p>That same flight from reality, shaped in part by the same Gnosticism (filtered in this instance through certain New Left confusions), led in President Obama’s first term to a revival of Russian power and a new Russian aggressiveness east of the old Iron Curtain. It produced the betrayal of American allies like Poland and the Czech Republic, the expulsion of American pro-democracy groups from both the Middle East and Russia, continued Iranian pursuit of nuclear weapons, and no discernible change of perspective among the Palestinian political leadership. Ultimately, this unwillingness to accept Things As They Are brought about the murder of a U.S. ambassador and American diplomatic staff in Benghazi.</p>
<p>Reality may be, and often is, unpleasant. But policies rooted in a failure to grasp reality are dangerous, and too often deadly. Those conservatives who imagine that there is no linkage between the unreality embodied in the sexual revolution and the ideology of gender and the unreality embodied in the fiscal, health-care, social-welfare, and foreign policies they oppose might well think again. A culture convinced that everything is malleable and that there are no givens in personal or public life is not a culture likely to sustain serious debates about serious public-policy options. Those who find such debates lacking at the beginning of President Obama’s second term — which is to say, anyone paying serious attention — had best start thinking about the deeper roots of the problem that lie in the loss of a cultural grip on Things As They Are.</p>
<p>THE GRAMMAR OF THE HUMAN</p>
<p>In 2006, the distinguished French philosopher and historian of ideas Rémi Brague made a suggestive proposal for periodizing modern Western political history. The 19th century, he argued, was a period focused on good-and-evil: The “social question” — prompted by the Industrial Revolution, urbanization, mass education, and the demise of traditional society — shaped the public landscape.</p>
<p>The 20th century, meanwhile, had been the century of true-and-false: The totalitarian ideologies, built on the foundations of desperately wrong-headed ideas of human beings, their origins, communities, and destiny, defined the contest for the human future that drove history from the aftermath of World War I (the event that began “the 20th century” as an epoch) through the Soviet crack-up of 1991 (the event that ended “the 20th century” as a distinctive political-historical period).</p>
<p>And the 21st century? That, Brague proposed, would be the century of being-and-nothingness — the epoch of the metaphysical question. This might seem, in comparison to Brague’s descriptions of the 19th and 20th centuries, a rather abstract notion. Yet Brague, in his French way, was being very practical and concrete in defining our times in those terms. For if there is nothing received and cherished by our culture that might be called the “grammar of the human” — if there are no Things As They Are — then everything is up for grabs, cacophony drowns out intelligent public debate, and politics is merely the will to power.</p>
<p>Having spent decades immersed in the study of Islamic philosophy and law, Rémi Brague was hardly unaware of the threat posed to the West by jihadism, both externally and internally. But he insisted that there was a prior “enemy within the gates” of our own making. It was nihilism: a kind of soured cynicism about the very mystery of being and its goodness. Such cynicism drains life of meaning, foreshortens horizons of expectation, and renders sacrifices for the common good risible.</p>
<p>Brague found it foreshadowed in the Enlightenment intellectual (left unnamed) who once said that he did not have children because begetting children was a criminal act, a matter of condemning another human being to death. A similar nihilism may be found at the root of today’s diminishing marriage culture, in the treatment of children as lifestyle accessories, in the trivialization of sexuality in advertising and entertainment, and in so many other expressions of the Gnostic ideology of gender and the sexual revolution.</p>
<p>The question, then, is being. Serious thought about the political future of the Western democracies will not end, or perhaps even begin, with metaphysics. But serious reflection on the future of America and the West cannot ignore the grammar of the human, because it will be impossible to address what ails us — our politics and our civilization — without first accepting the reality of Things As They Are.</p>
<p>George Weigel is the Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies. He is the author of, more recently, <a href="" type="internal">Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church</a>. This essay is adapted from his 12th William E. Simon Lecture, delivered in Washington on February 5, 2013.</p> | false | 1 | glossary inadmissible words 21stcentury american society shrunk seems times null set deprecations excretory references got kids mouths washed soap dropped aplomb immunity quentin tarantino films rare occasions federal communications commission chastises broadcaster letting expletive pass uncensored unbleeped cries repression ricochet sea shining sea quickly followed passionate defenses first amendment set inadmissible words quite null yet paraphrase st paul still abideth metaphysics indeed 21stcentury postmodern culture simply shun word metaphysics dismisses hand notion morally significant givenness reality structure way things discerned reason known discloses certain truths way live 21stcentury america throughout 21stcentury west founders would called pursuit happiness become function autonomous individual willfulness legitimately attach object long one gets hurt drastic attenuation three great ideas truths built world human beings human relationships truths known reason knowledge truths essential living virtuously means living happily taken place long period time good argument made one prime villains piece 14thcentury philosopher william ockham whose voluntarism shifted locus western moral reflection intellect discover moral truths reality could impose even invent moral reality wedge 18thcentury scottish enlightenment philosopher david hume tried drive ought effort accelerated western philosophys lurch subjectivism surely part problem failure immanuel kants categorical imperative meet humes challenge reground serious thought moral judgment something insides heads twentiethcentury analytical philosophies reduced thought human condition variety language games didnt help matters either philosophers gotten caught polish thinker wojciech chudy called trap reflection impact reality one might thought mass slaughters perpetrated mid20th century totalitarianisms would compelled general cultural revulsion power unchecked ideas true false good evil even experience awfulness doesnt seem bent curve cultural history away selfabsorption willfulness cultural history manifest world ideas perhaps surprising american higher learning shifted gears rather readily john dewey jacques derrida anorexic philosophy pragmatism postmodern insouciance indeed hostility notion deep truths embedded world us nativeborn american professoriate hadnt scarred experience gulags extermination camps event american higher education largely dissentingprotestant origin never securely grounded classic verities metaphysical sensibility grew aristotle mediated catholic medieval thinkers like aquinas surprising though ought deeply disturbing rapidity university life behind old iron curtain turned dime marxism postmodernism aftermath cold war took university california berkeley full century become berkeley took venerable jagiellonian university kraków founded 1364 less decade become central european simulacrum berkeley adherence postmodern canons epistemological skepticism moral relativism metaphysical nihilism blinkofaneye transformation suggests deep cultural turbulence beneath surface western civilization second decade 21st century describe terms however suggest disturbance problem philosophers quite contrary western democratic bodies ranging greek parliament italian chamber deputies united states congress california state assembly find impossible craft adopt public policies meet pressing demands moment frittering away time various forms political theater suggests deterioration western thought things dramatic publicpolicy consequences could eventually gravest civilizational consequences politics western democracies often gridlock simply deeply different views personal freedom public goods competition public life always case difference today agreedupon realitybased reference points contending parties appeal order settle argument whose concept public good ought achieved course followed public policy fosters individual human flourishing common good must take account reality realities culture loses confidence capacity say conviction way things capacity devise ways means addressing way things ought severely eroded culture without metaphysics one trump card public life becomes individual willfulness politics expression culture citizenry political leaders increasingly come resemble lewis carrolls white queen believed many six impossible things breakfast reality contact seems important personal mental health reality contact essential making democracy work yet insistence avoiding reality less organizing principle political life days lies center great many public problems connects one another desire separate problems handle individually say put aside social issues worry budget deficit many wellmeaning advisor todays republican party suggests less naïve unreal approach political life desire ignore substance problem pretend inhabit world imagination responsible democratic selfgovernance effective public policy addresses rather postpones problems begins accepting reality seems awfully difficult many fellow citizens days perhaps grave problems new gnosticism another parallel way think deeper cultural currents helping make extremely difficult even serious political leaders west exactly replete 2013 connect dots say certain public goods financial security increasingly elderly populations quality medical care certain fiscal realities much money raise taxation without destroying economic initiative much responsibly borrow understand past halfcentury united states rest west living intense gnostic revival powerful recrudescence ancient heresy erupted time past two millennia much us today gnosticism protean cultural virus taken many forms time wherever whenever appeared however gnosticism sought good outside reality perceive materials world gnostic view human flourishing reach contemporary term comes possession gnosis knowledge lift men women grubbiness quotidian purified realm truth reality gnostic view antithetical pursuit happiness reality rejected thereby overcome contemporary gnosticism powerfully embodied sexual revolution given new twist masking essential deprecation way things appears first blush hypermaterialism cult sensuality über alles sexual gratification form among consenting adults highest goods inalienable personal liberties deeper dimension new gnosticism especially manifests sexual revolution conviction things none everything human condition plastic malleable everything ought allowed bent human willfulness say human desire notion desires untoward even wicked lead selfdegradation thus frustrate natural quest happiness well things anyone say desire unnatural dehumanizing wrong respect powerful expression ancient cultural toxin gnosticism 21stcentury west ideology gender body thought quite naturally occupied cultural vacuum left metaphysics sense realitygrounded thinking human condition collapsed technology made possible sunder sex procreation readily inexpensively law built high wall protection around sexual encounters consenting adults sexual revolution imagined outset liberating men women hoary religious constraints attendant psychological catarrhs yet cultural transformation sexual revolution unleashed would turn far profound consequences imagined early propagandists seem imagined sex another contact sport within short span time less two generations two aspects human condition understood millennia quintessence givenness maleness femaleness longer taken given male female way things male female cultural constructs usually manipulated power purposes domination gnosticism thus adding soupçon marxism ideology plasticity beginnings path radical gnostic cultural transformation may marked playboy pill heading became clear spains zapatero government enacted 2007 legislation allowing men change women vice versa simple declaration civil register office without surgical folderol affirmation new national identity card noting new gender would issued hard imagine explicit expression personal willfulness overpowering natural givenness gnostic anthropology gnostic view human person human condition antithesis biblical view men women possibilities long one foundation stones western civilizational project thus accident although seemed many happy perhaps strategically important cultural development premier intellectual early 21stcentury christianity took cudgels radical cultural transformation wrought new gnosticism raised warning flag public implications cited antignostic critique ideology gender prominent jewish leader french president françois hollande pressed samesex marriage bill national assembly fall 2012 chief rabbi france gilles bernheim offered french government detailed critique hollandes proposal 25page essay caught attention pope benedict xvi benedict gave annual christmas address senior officials roman curia december 21 2012 noted dramatic decline marriage culture west warned presaged social world man remains closed keeps ultimately without really rising buttressed argument adopting rabbi bernheims critique summary countercase gnostic gender revolution regarded false understanding nature human freedom one cause crisis family benedict told audience becoming clear notion human really means called question continued rabbi bernheim quotes famous saying simone de beauvoir one born woman one becomes ne naît pas femme le devient words lay foundation put forward today term gender new philosophy sexuality according philosophy sex longer given element nature man accept personally make sense social role choose past chosen us society profound falsehood theory anthropological revolution contained within obvious people dispute idea nature given bodily identity serves defining element human deny nature decide something previously given make according biblical creation account created god male female pertains essence human creature duality essential aspect human ordained god duality something previously given disputed words creation account male female created genesis 127 longer apply applies god created male female hitherto society decide man woman created realities nature human longer exist man calls nature question merely spirit imagine live selfcreated world imagine owe nothing given nature also believe owe attention response problems arise ignore nature warped sensibility makes moral order impossible makes political order untenable governing unreal world share concerns popeemeritus benedict rabbi bernheim nonetheless suggest essentially matters private sphere little discernible consequence public policy public life beyond adjustments civilmarriage law others perhaps also sympathetic theory sentiment sigh argue debate lost sexual revolution arguments public policy issues ranging tax reform entitlement reform health care foreign policy must conducted merits absent distractions fevered questions sex gender forth idea social issues put aside issues taken frequently championed prudent course american conservatives republican party wake last novembers disastrous election yet politics really expression culture political theory extension ethics gnostic revolution decline cultural confidence way things must fact center politics people convinced plastic malleable human condition nothing simply even comes seemingly elementary givens maleness femaleness natural complementarity going perceive politics distinctive likely distorting way even never heard gnosticism much less imagined adherents nonetheless going think gnostic categories obvious example course taken samesex marriage debate sure human rights campaign samesex marriage advocates shrewd battening american civilrights movement icon activism publicly pressing activism toward logical conclusion legalization polygamy polyandry already bruited elite law journals shrewd political tactics worked political culture previously softened dumbed new gnostic revolution thus patently false analogy legal bans gay marriage exactly antimiscegenation laws era racial segregation successfully sold culture unaccustomed idea realities easily swallow rhetorical bait culture utterly befuddled intellectually sophisticated catholic bishop american history francis cardinal george chicago writes archdiocesan newspaper illinoiss proposed samesex marriage legislation less threat religion affront human reason common good society means pretend accept something know physically impossible legislature might well repeal law gravity new gnosticism warps politics ways ought concern thinkers commentators politicians counseling fellow conservatives admit sexual revolution triumphed get move counsel prompts urgent question move people prepared believe even worse people prepared insist matter fundamental civil rights unreal claim marriage encompass two men two women people believe america continue run trilliondollar deficits impunity centralization vast regulatory apparatus created obamacare inevitably lead rationing endoflife care federal budget deficit primarily wealthy paying fair share every serious analyst impending federal fiscal crisis right left alike understands hard choices made building american future combines financial responsibility justice compassion difficult choices policies sold basis realities selfevidently clear numbers population culturally conditioned think nothing everything malleable plastic example population thinks children primarily lifestyle choice aimed enhancing parental satisfaction take seriously grave moral problem saddling future generations well current ones unpayable perhaps even unserviceable amounts public debt foreign policy also imperiled new gnosticism realitydenying effects personal public perceptions putting aside question whether world war ii generation greatest american generation founders surely greatness generation fought beat nazism japanese imperialism accepted duty imperative imposed reality throughout world war ii little flagwaving chestthumping martial romanticism characterized american entry first world war william manchester paul fussell others observed americans approached second world war dirty necessary job done period generation understood given serious political leadership realitygrounded men like harry truman dwight eisenhower sacrifices required fight john kennedy called long twilight struggle another totalitarian threat today americans perceive world cultural lenses distorted gnosticism think strategically wisely normality conflict international affairs grasp foreign policy matter crafting incentives disincentives get others behave would like behave people accustomed thinking world fungible elastic possibly comprehend threat posed religiouslyinspired apocalyptics whose idea changing world end world know link new gnosticism foreign policy resets may immediately evident dots dots connected resetting become deeply ingrained publicly celebrated cultural habit america tried flight harsh international realities 1990s clinton administration first significant embodiment gnostic temperament history presidency result chaotic ghastly still unresolved dissolution yugoslavia refusal see reality rwandan genocide scuttle somalia naïveté oslo magic solution middle easts problems bombings embassies kenya tanzania attack uss cole ultimately 911 flight reality shaped part gnosticism filtered instance certain new left confusions led president obamas first term revival russian power new russian aggressiveness east old iron curtain produced betrayal american allies like poland czech republic expulsion american prodemocracy groups middle east russia continued iranian pursuit nuclear weapons discernible change perspective among palestinian political leadership ultimately unwillingness accept things brought murder us ambassador american diplomatic staff benghazi reality may often unpleasant policies rooted failure grasp reality dangerous often deadly conservatives imagine linkage unreality embodied sexual revolution ideology gender unreality embodied fiscal healthcare socialwelfare foreign policies oppose might well think culture convinced everything malleable givens personal public life culture likely sustain serious debates serious publicpolicy options find debates lacking beginning president obamas second term say anyone paying serious attention best start thinking deeper roots problem lie loss cultural grip things grammar human 2006 distinguished french philosopher historian ideas rémi brague made suggestive proposal periodizing modern western political history 19th century argued period focused goodandevil social question prompted industrial revolution urbanization mass education demise traditional society shaped public landscape 20th century meanwhile century trueandfalse totalitarian ideologies built foundations desperately wrongheaded ideas human beings origins communities destiny defined contest human future drove history aftermath world war event began 20th century epoch soviet crackup 1991 event ended 20th century distinctive politicalhistorical period 21st century brague proposed would century beingandnothingness epoch metaphysical question might seem comparison bragues descriptions 19th 20th centuries rather abstract notion yet brague french way practical concrete defining times terms nothing received cherished culture might called grammar human things everything grabs cacophony drowns intelligent public debate politics merely power spent decades immersed study islamic philosophy law rémi brague hardly unaware threat posed west jihadism externally internally insisted prior enemy within gates making nihilism kind soured cynicism mystery goodness cynicism drains life meaning foreshortens horizons expectation renders sacrifices common good risible brague found foreshadowed enlightenment intellectual left unnamed said children begetting children criminal act matter condemning another human death similar nihilism may found root todays diminishing marriage culture treatment children lifestyle accessories trivialization sexuality advertising entertainment many expressions gnostic ideology gender sexual revolution question serious thought political future western democracies end perhaps even begin metaphysics serious reflection future america west ignore grammar human impossible address ails us politics civilization without first accepting reality things george weigel distinguished senior fellow ethics public policy center holds william e simon chair catholic studies author recently evangelical catholicism deep reform 21stcentury church essay adapted 12th william e simon lecture delivered washington february 5 2013 | 2,317 |
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<p>According to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, more than 90,000 children from Mexico and Central America will be forcibly displaced by the end of the year.&#160; 90,000 Children. Behind these children are 90,000 individual tragedies. Children being killed and traumatized by gang violence, children with broken families, forced to abandon their homes and avail themselves from the protection of another state.</p>
<p>The responsibility of this situation lies in the poor governance of the governments of El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. These Central American countries have some of the highest murder rates in the world and their governments’ inability to subdue the violence has caused this situation to reach its current state. These children are not seeking economic benefit; they are fleeing because the violence and instability in their home country has escalated to the degree that warrants them international protection and the status of asylum seekers.&#160; They are escaping due to a well-founded fear of being killed and hurt because their own government cannot provide for their safety and security and thus they must avail themselves from the shelter of another state. The issue has escalated to the point that this is no longer an immigration story but a refugee crisis.</p>
<p>The heart drenching stories behind the refugee crisis range from an 11 year old abandoning Guatemala to help support his bedridden dying mother to a possible 17 year old with a curiosity that could have unravel the world yet statistically he is bound to get sucked into the violence of cartels. In a world in which human beings should enjoy freedom from prosecution, freedom from want and economy security, protecting refugees needs to be proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the international community and the common people.&#160; We need to remind the governments of El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico that they have a responsibility to these children and many others who might consider fleeing their home country. They have the responsibility to build up their social structure and provide the basic needs, shelter and structure needed for a stable and safe society.&#160; Politicians, judges and polices forces can no longer ignore their duty. They have to stop the immunity and the extortion and start protecting. These governments have to ensure that if given a choice children would never abandon their homes… because to these 90,000 children that fled, staying was no longer a choice.</p>
<p>The core concern in this situation should not be a concern with borders but a concern with the life and dignity of these children. Although the responsibility of this inflow of unaccompanied minors clearly lies within their home government this does not mean the governments where these children are seeking refugee should shy away from their responsibilities under international law. The children arriving to the US borders are living a life of terror. They fear for themselves, they worry about the family members they left behind. They are scared of getting trafficked and sucked into the violence. They want to avoid drugs and death. Among these children are girls that do not want to get kidnapped, beaten and raped by gangs. Girls that are seen as sexual objects and threatened if they don’t obey. At the tender age of 14 they fear the unknown dangers and uncertainty hunts them. &#160;Some of these refugees are orphans, some are teenagers escaping the cross fire and gang violence, others are escaping the vestige of a failed system that could not provide for them; whatever they are fleeing from it is clear that to them staying was no longer a choice.</p>
<p>The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees defines a “refugee” as any person who is outside their country of origin and unable or unwilling to return there or to avail themselves of its protection.These children long for a better world, some want to be writers others engineers yet they grew up in a world of violence where their dreams are unattainable and a death a day is considered normality. The principle of non refoulement, considered a norm of customary international law, states that a state may not oblige a person to return to a territory where the person will be exposed to persecution and the violation of its dignity. Returning these children back to their home country would not only expose them to danger but it would be the same as granting them a death sentence. Furthermore the 1966 Bangkok Principles on Status and Treatment of Refugees expands the definition of a refugee to include a person fleeing “external aggression, or events seriously disturbing public order (such as those happening in Central America) in either part or the whole of [their] country of origin’ and their lawful dependents.” Children have a pure heart, they don’t understand politics or immigration laws but they do understand humanity and, despite everything they have endured, they believe that there is still hope in the world for them. They see this hope in the United States, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama and that is why they come here. The convention and the declaration thus grant these children the rights to seek a safe haven and simultaneously oblige the signatory countries to grant them asylum.</p>
<p>The fundamental responsibility to these children is not admitting them here or there or sending them away but to assist them through democratic attachments and constitutional norms. Under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees the states agree to provide assistance to refugees such as administrative assistance, legal identity papers, travel document, and the ability to naturalize as citizens.&#160; In regards to basic human rights, article IV of the conventions provides for the&#160; “treatment no less favorable than that generally accorded to aliens in similar circumstances, with due regard to basic human rights as recognized in generally accepted international instruments.” The 90,000 children are not only in their right to be granted asylum and protection but to be treated with respect and dignity.</p>
<p>What is then the role of the U.S in this situation? The media attention has been focused on how the United States has responded to the massive influx of refugees at its borders. It is important to remind the United States that rather than being an immigration problem, this is a refugee crisis and thus the United States must respond to the petitions and needs of these children accordingly.The United States is not the only country receiving asylum seekers due to this crisis, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, countries with smaller resources, have all reported receiving an increase in asylum seekers yet the United States is the only country turning them down.</p>
<p>The United States needs to be reminded that asylum seekers have rights, and ultimately the right to asylum is stipulated under international law as a human right; thus spontaneous acts of humanitarianism will not suffice to define the institutional commitments democracies have to aid these children. In other words, according to international law regarding refugee policy the United States, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama do not only have a moral duty to help these children but an obligation to do so. When a state complies with international agreements it is not a mere act of compassion or humanitarian kindness but rather a duty and a responsibility because above all nationality, humanity comes first and furthermost.&#160; If there is a category of asylum seekers that might make states more inclined to abide by international law agreements, then children traveling alone definitely meets this criteria.</p>
<p>The White House has stated that most unaccompanied minors arriving to the border are unlikely to qualify for humanitarian relief and thus will have no legal basis to stay in the country; yet the United States is a signatory to various conventions that specifically reflect the principle of non refoulment, thus, in fact, granting the children a legal basis to stay in the country as asylum seekers.&#160; Statements made by Homeland Security stating that the flood of unaccompanied minors crossing the border is a legal and a humanitarian dilemma further back up the status of the children as asylum seekers. Additionally, section 207(b) of the Immigration &amp; Nationality Act, 8 U.S. Code Sec.1157 (b) states that if an unforeseen emergency refugee situation exists, then the admission of certain refugees in response to the emergency refugee situation is justified by grave humanitarian concern. Under this code the president of the United States has the ability to rightfully declare these children as refugees. Failing to grant asylum to these unaccompanied minors would violate this code, and deporting them would be breaking international law and would also violate the Trafficking and Victims Re-authorization Act of 2008, and more importantly the Homeland Security Act of 2002. According to the law of the United States; citizens from a non bordering states most be taken by the Border Patrol and transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and because most of these children are coming from Honduras and El Salvador, any deportation currently made is deemed illegal. &#160;By deporting these children the United States is not only knowingly violation international law but its very own national law as well. In order to settle the humanitarian issues this crisis has brought; respecting international as well as national asylum and refugee laws is necessity.</p>
<p>In the following weeks, when the U.S decides the fate of these children, it needs to keep in mind that any decision to strengthen the border needs to also include protection from sending children back to places where they might face violence as specified in the international conventions and agreements the United States is a signatory to. The government’s policies need to be strengthened to not only encompass immigration reform but also a clear and concise policy in abiding by international asylum law principles. It needs to set up well-established institutional settings and legal procedures that actively abide to asylum law and practices. Asylum officers and judges need to be trained to actively deal with these traumatized children, border patrol agents need to adequately screen children and identify those fleeing persecution, traffickers, and sexual exploitation.&#160; They need to be protected and ensured full protection and rights granted to them as asylum seekers, they need to be represented by lawyers and granted the whole spectrum of due process. The United States has a moral duty to ensure that they are protecting these children rather than just handing death sentences. The United States thus needs to abide by the principle of non-refoulment, which forbids the rendering of a victim back to a place where they might be persecuted or where their lives or freedoms could be threatened.</p>
<p>How the United State reacts to the political risks associated with asylum, the management of forced migration and its responsibility, the role of intermediate actors, asylum interviewers, local governments, immigration judges, and security staff will ultimately determine its success in solving the crisis. &#160;Ultimately, in order to help consolidate the Central American crisis the United States needs to inspire a doctrine that respect asylum laws and that is consistent with American laws and the values on which the country was founded. The United States is known as a humanitarian nation, a nation with character, the land of the free, founded on taking in the poor, the hungry, the tired, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. As the symbol of the Unite States stands “a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name, Mother of Exiles,”now is the time for the United States to lift its lamp besides the golden door.</p>
<p>As for the role of the common people, the majority of us keep humanity in high regard in principle but we have no time to give it a meaning of our own. The refugee crisis in Central America means that over 90,000 lives are being uprooted. These are 90,000 desperate souls trying to find refuge away from home and we have a responsibility to care and be concerned about the actions and policies of our governments regarding other humans. Our focus should be to protect and assist these innocent children caught in the midst of the conflict. Human security pertains above all to the safety and well being of all the people everywhere. Human security is not about states and nations, but about individuals and people. A policy in regards to the crisis in Central America needs to shift away from nationalistic concerns. We need to ensure these refugees are protected and granted basic rights because above all nationality; humanity needs to be our first concern. There is a human face to the US border crisis; these are 90,000 children that, had we not been lucky enough, could have ultimately been our own.</p> | false | 1 | according united nations high commissioner refugees 90000 children mexico central america forcibly displaced end year160 90000 children behind children 90000 individual tragedies children killed traumatized gang violence children broken families forced abandon homes avail protection another state responsibility situation lies poor governance governments el salvador honduras guatemala mexico central american countries highest murder rates world governments inability subdue violence caused situation reach current state children seeking economic benefit fleeing violence instability home country escalated degree warrants international protection status asylum seekers160 escaping due wellfounded fear killed hurt government provide safety security thus must avail shelter another state issue escalated point longer immigration story refugee crisis heart drenching stories behind refugee crisis range 11 year old abandoning guatemala help support bedridden dying mother possible 17 year old curiosity could unravel world yet statistically bound get sucked violence cartels world human beings enjoy freedom prosecution freedom want economy security protecting refugees needs proclaimed highest aspiration international community common people160 need remind governments el salvador honduras mexico responsibility children many others might consider fleeing home country responsibility build social structure provide basic needs shelter structure needed stable safe society160 politicians judges polices forces longer ignore duty stop immunity extortion start protecting governments ensure given choice children would never abandon homes 90000 children fled staying longer choice core concern situation concern borders concern life dignity children although responsibility inflow unaccompanied minors clearly lies within home government mean governments children seeking refugee shy away responsibilities international law children arriving us borders living life terror fear worry family members left behind scared getting trafficked sucked violence want avoid drugs death among children girls want get kidnapped beaten raped gangs girls seen sexual objects threatened dont obey tender age 14 fear unknown dangers uncertainty hunts 160some refugees orphans teenagers escaping cross fire gang violence others escaping vestige failed system could provide whatever fleeing clear staying longer choice 1951 convention relating status refugees defines refugee person outside country origin unable unwilling return avail protectionthese children long better world want writers others engineers yet grew world violence dreams unattainable death day considered normality principle non refoulement considered norm customary international law states state may oblige person return territory person exposed persecution violation dignity returning children back home country would expose danger would granting death sentence furthermore 1966 bangkok principles status treatment refugees expands definition refugee include person fleeing external aggression events seriously disturbing public order happening central america either part whole country origin lawful dependents children pure heart dont understand politics immigration laws understand humanity despite everything endured believe still hope world see hope united states nicaragua costa rica panama come convention declaration thus grant children rights seek safe simultaneously oblige signatory countries grant asylum fundamental responsibility children admitting sending away assist democratic attachments constitutional norms 1951 convention relating status refugees states agree provide assistance refugees administrative assistance legal identity papers travel document ability naturalize citizens160 regards basic human rights article iv conventions provides the160 treatment less favorable generally accorded aliens similar circumstances due regard basic human rights recognized generally accepted international instruments 90000 children right granted asylum protection treated respect dignity role us situation media attention focused united states responded massive influx refugees borders important remind united states rather immigration problem refugee crisis thus united states must respond petitions needs children accordinglythe united states country receiving asylum seekers due crisis nicaragua costa rica panama countries smaller resources reported receiving increase asylum seekers yet united states country turning united states needs reminded asylum seekers rights ultimately right asylum stipulated international law human right thus spontaneous acts humanitarianism suffice define institutional commitments democracies aid children words according international law regarding refugee policy united states nicaragua costa rica panama moral duty help children obligation state complies international agreements mere act compassion humanitarian kindness rather duty responsibility nationality humanity comes first furthermost160 category asylum seekers might make states inclined abide international law agreements children traveling alone definitely meets criteria white house stated unaccompanied minors arriving border unlikely qualify humanitarian relief thus legal basis stay country yet united states signatory various conventions specifically reflect principle non refoulment thus fact granting children legal basis stay country asylum seekers160 statements made homeland security stating flood unaccompanied minors crossing border legal humanitarian dilemma back status children asylum seekers additionally section 207b immigration amp nationality act 8 us code sec1157 b states unforeseen emergency refugee situation exists admission certain refugees response emergency refugee situation justified grave humanitarian concern code president united states ability rightfully declare children refugees failing grant asylum unaccompanied minors would violate code deporting would breaking international law would also violate trafficking victims reauthorization act 2008 importantly homeland security act 2002 according law united states citizens non bordering states taken border patrol transferred office refugee resettlement children coming honduras el salvador deportation currently made deemed illegal 160by deporting children united states knowingly violation international law national law well order settle humanitarian issues crisis brought respecting international well national asylum refugee laws necessity following weeks us decides fate children needs keep mind decision strengthen border needs also include protection sending children back places might face violence specified international conventions agreements united states signatory governments policies need strengthened encompass immigration reform also clear concise policy abiding international asylum law principles needs set wellestablished institutional settings legal procedures actively abide asylum law practices asylum officers judges need trained actively deal traumatized children border patrol agents need adequately screen children identify fleeing persecution traffickers sexual exploitation160 need protected ensured full protection rights granted asylum seekers need represented lawyers granted whole spectrum due process united states moral duty ensure protecting children rather handing death sentences united states thus needs abide principle nonrefoulment forbids rendering victim back place might persecuted lives freedoms could threatened united state reacts political risks associated asylum management forced migration responsibility role intermediate actors asylum interviewers local governments immigration judges security staff ultimately determine success solving crisis 160ultimately order help consolidate central american crisis united states needs inspire doctrine respect asylum laws consistent american laws values country founded united states known humanitarian nation nation character land free founded taking poor hungry tired huddled masses yearning breathe free symbol unite states stands mighty woman torch whose flame imprisoned lightning name mother exilesnow time united states lift lamp besides golden door role common people majority us keep humanity high regard principle time give meaning refugee crisis central america means 90000 lives uprooted 90000 desperate souls trying find refuge away home responsibility care concerned actions policies governments regarding humans focus protect assist innocent children caught midst conflict human security pertains safety well people everywhere human security states nations individuals people policy regards crisis central america needs shift away nationalistic concerns need ensure refugees protected granted basic rights nationality humanity needs first concern human face us border crisis 90000 children lucky enough could ultimately | 1,123 |
<p>EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Philip_Rivers/" type="external">Philip Rivers</a> threw two of his three touchdown passes in the second half and the final one brought the Los Angeles Chargers from behind for a 27-22 win over the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New_York_Giants/" type="external">New York Giants</a> on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.</p>
<p>Both teams were winless coming into the game.</p>
<p>The Chargers’ winning score came after Los Angeles defensive end <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Melvin-Ingram/" type="external">Melvin Ingram</a> sacked and stripped New York quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Eli_Manning/" type="external">Eli Manning</a> to give his team the ball on the 11-yard line.</p>
<p>Three plays later, Rivers found running back <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Melvin-Gordon/" type="external">Melvin Gordon</a> in the end zone for the 10-yard touchdown.</p>
<p>The Giants (0-5) jumped out to a 9-0 first-quarter lead, which included their first points scored on offense in the opening quarter since a 22-yard field goal by <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Robbie_Gould/" type="external">Robbie Gould</a> in the 2016 regular-season finale against Washington.</p>
<p>Running back Orleans Darkwa, who started in place of injured <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Paul-Perkins/" type="external">Paul Perkins</a>, had a 23-yard touchdown run.</p>
<p>Before Darkwa’s score, the Giants got a safety when Chargers center Spencer Pulley snapped the ball before Rivers was ready. Rivers, who was at his 7-yard line, alertly batted the ball out of the back of the end zone for the safety.</p>
<p>The Giants’ running game, in fact, was a bright spot. They finished with 152 yards on 25 carries with the one touchdown.</p>
<p>“I thought there was some good and some bad, but more good,” Giants head coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ben-McAdoo/" type="external">Ben McAdoo</a> said about the running game. “I thought we took a step in the run game. I thought we played physical. We needed a little bit more later in the game, but I thought our run game took a step forward today.”</p>
<p>Rookie <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Wayne-Gallman/" type="external">Wayne Gallman</a>, who finished with 11 carries for 57 yards, said the running backs felt good about where they were headed this week.</p>
<p>“Just practiced the run really hard this past week. We knew that we would be able to put in the work and you saw the result. We just have to continue to finish,” he said.</p>
<p>The Chargers (1-4) got on the board in the second quarter thanks in part to 20 penalty yards racked up by the Giants defense that included a 15-yard unsportsmanlike call against linebacker B.J. Goodson.</p>
<p>Rivers capped the Chargers’ eight-play, 77-yard scoring drive with a 6-yard pass to Gordon to cut the Giants’ lead to 9-7.</p>
<p>He then took advantage of another offside penalty against Giants defensive end <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jason-Pierre-Paul/" type="external">Jason Pierre-Paul</a> in the red zone to extend a 12-play, 49-yard scoring drive culminating in a 20-yard field goal by <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Nick_Novak/" type="external">Nick Novak</a> to give the Chargers a 10-9 lead at the half.</p>
<p>After a Rivers interception, the Giants marched 80 yards and Manning connected with receiver <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Roger_Lewis/" type="external">Roger Lewis</a> on a 29-yard strike for a touchdown.</p>
<p>On their next possession, the Chargers responded with a 12-play, 92-yard scoring drive in which Rivers connected with tight end <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hunter-Henry/" type="external">Hunter Henry</a> on a 25-yard touchdown to make it 17-16 Los Angeles at the end of the third quarter.</p>
<p>The Giants answered with a 48-yard touchdown pass from Manning to receiver <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Odell-Beckham/" type="external">Odell Beckham</a> Jr. to make it 22-17. However, the Giants were hit with a delay of game penalty when they tried to line up for the two-point conversion, and after the penalty, Manning’s pass to Beckham failed.</p>
<p>The Chargers made it 22-20 on a 31-yard field goal by Novak before taking the lead for good on the Rivers to Gordon 10-yard strike.</p>
<p>The Giants tried one last time to snatch the game from the jaws of defeat. On their final possession, Manning drove his offense to the Chargers’ 48, but his fourth-down pass intended for tight end <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Evan-Engram/" type="external">Evan Engram</a> was picked off by safety Tre Boston to seal the deal.</p>
<p>“That was big. That’s what you have to do as a defense,” Chargers nose tackle Damion Square said. “Great teams do that. When you play on a great defense, you find a way to do something like that to seal the game. Even when everyone is getting nervous that the same thing will happen again, someone on the field finds a way to make that play and he did.”</p>
<p>Chargers head coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Anthony-Lynn/" type="external">Anthony Lynn</a>, who has seen his team come close to winning this season only to be thwarted at the last moment, lauded his team for its resilience and its fight throughout the second half when the lead changed hands four times.</p>
<p>“This is a very resilient team — I saw that in training camp, I saw that in OTAs,” Lynn said. “This is a high-character group. They don’t quit; they keep coming and coming … I’m just so happy that we found a way to get one.”</p>
<p>The Giants lost four receivers to injuries, the most serious of which was Beckham, who suffered a broken left ankle as it twisted underneath him after making a catch late in the fourth quarter. Beckham had to be carted off the field.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Sterling-Shepard/" type="external">Sterling Shepard</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Brandon_Marshall/" type="external">Brandon Marshall</a> both suffered ankle injuries in the second quarter, and Dwayne Harris suffered a broken foot in the third quarter.</p>
<p>With the Giants’ season seemingly lost, McAdoo said the team is left with little choice but to keep at it to find that first win.</p>
<p>“You just keep working,” he said when asked where they go from here. “You look in the mirror. You learn a lot about yourself in times like these. So you’ve got to work for yourself and work for your teammates.</p>
<p>“We’re all pros — this is what we get paid to do. We get paid to win, just not compete. So we’ve got to find a way to win.”</p>
<p>NOTES: Chargers DE <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Joey-Bosa/" type="external">Joey Bosa</a>‘s first sack of the game was the first allowed by the Giants’ offensive line in 122 pass attempts by QB Eli Manning. Bosa, who came into the game with 2.5 sacks, had 2.0 in the game, both coming against Giants RT Bobby Hart. … Giants CB Eli Apple was apparently benched for the team’s first three defensive series. Apple made his debut on defense on the Chargers’ fourth offensive series. … Giants RB Orleans Darkwa’s 23-yard touchdown is the longest of his career. … Chargers QB Philip Rivers passed <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Fran_Tarkenton/" type="external">Fran Tarkenton</a> for 10th place on the career passing yards list. Rivers now has 47,198 passing yards. … Hunter Henry became the sixth opposing tight end to score a touchdown against the Giants’ defense this season.</p> | false | 1 | east rutherford nj philip rivers threw two three touchdown passes second half final one brought los angeles chargers behind 2722 win new york giants sunday metlife stadium teams winless coming game chargers winning score came los angeles defensive end melvin ingram sacked stripped new york quarterback eli manning give team ball 11yard line three plays later rivers found running back melvin gordon end zone 10yard touchdown giants 05 jumped 90 firstquarter lead included first points scored offense opening quarter since 22yard field goal robbie gould 2016 regularseason finale washington running back orleans darkwa started place injured paul perkins 23yard touchdown run darkwas score giants got safety chargers center spencer pulley snapped ball rivers ready rivers 7yard line alertly batted ball back end zone safety giants running game fact bright spot finished 152 yards 25 carries one touchdown thought good bad good giants head coach ben mcadoo said running game thought took step run game thought played physical needed little bit later game thought run game took step forward today rookie wayne gallman finished 11 carries 57 yards said running backs felt good headed week practiced run really hard past week knew would able put work saw result continue finish said chargers 14 got board second quarter thanks part 20 penalty yards racked giants defense included 15yard unsportsmanlike call linebacker bj goodson rivers capped chargers eightplay 77yard scoring drive 6yard pass gordon cut giants lead 97 took advantage another offside penalty giants defensive end jason pierrepaul red zone extend 12play 49yard scoring drive culminating 20yard field goal nick novak give chargers 109 lead half rivers interception giants marched 80 yards manning connected receiver roger lewis 29yard strike touchdown next possession chargers responded 12play 92yard scoring drive rivers connected tight end hunter henry 25yard touchdown make 1716 los angeles end third quarter giants answered 48yard touchdown pass manning receiver odell beckham jr make 2217 however giants hit delay game penalty tried line twopoint conversion penalty mannings pass beckham failed chargers made 2220 31yard field goal novak taking lead good rivers gordon 10yard strike giants tried one last time snatch game jaws defeat final possession manning drove offense chargers 48 fourthdown pass intended tight end evan engram picked safety tre boston seal deal big thats defense chargers nose tackle damion square said great teams play great defense find way something like seal game even everyone getting nervous thing happen someone field finds way make play chargers head coach anthony lynn seen team come close winning season thwarted last moment lauded team resilience fight throughout second half lead changed hands four times resilient team saw training camp saw otas lynn said highcharacter group dont quit keep coming coming im happy found way get one giants lost four receivers injuries serious beckham suffered broken left ankle twisted underneath making catch late fourth quarter beckham carted field sterling shepard brandon marshall suffered ankle injuries second quarter dwayne harris suffered broken foot third quarter giants season seemingly lost mcadoo said team left little choice keep find first win keep working said asked go look mirror learn lot times like youve got work work teammates pros get paid get paid win compete weve got find way win notes chargers de joey bosas first sack game first allowed giants offensive line 122 pass attempts qb eli manning bosa came game 25 sacks 20 game coming giants rt bobby hart giants cb eli apple apparently benched teams first three defensive series apple made debut defense chargers fourth offensive series giants rb orleans darkwas 23yard touchdown longest career chargers qb philip rivers passed fran tarkenton 10th place career passing yards list rivers 47198 passing yards hunter henry became sixth opposing tight end score touchdown giants defense season | 616 |
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/signature-theater/" type="external">Signature Theater</a> keeps finding new ways to support and nurture worthy playwrights and to showcase their work with true (i.e., non-commercial) integrity. This season, artistic director Paige Evans and departing executive director Erika Mallin have made it possible for <a href="http://variety.com/t/suzan-lori-parks/" type="external">Suzan-Lori Parks</a>, the <a href="http://variety.com/t/pulitzer/" type="external">Pulitzer</a> Prize-winning writer of “Topdog/Underdog” and other highly original and consistently provocative plays, to revive two of her older dramas for separate simultaneous productions.</p>
<p>That’s a first for Signature. In another first for audiences, the dual productions present the rare opportunity to see in tandem the playwright’s distinctive responses to themes raised by Nathanial Hawthorne in “The Scarlet Letter.” In that classic novel, set in Puritan New England, Hester Prynne bears an illegitimate lovechild and is made to wear the scarlet letter “A” over her breast, so that decent people will recognize her as an adulteress and shun her company.&#160; Although both her vengeful husband and her lily-livered lover add to Hester’s wretchedness, she outlasts them both.</p>
<p>When she got the idea for these two plays, Parks says she hadn’t even read “The Scarlet Letter.” Which only goes to prove that certain symbols are so powerful they become programmed in our DNA. &#160;A yellow star will always bring to mind the branding of European Jews in wartime; a scarlet “A” will always identify the adulteress in a society. In the same way, almost 20 years after she wrote these two plays, the festering wound of the abortionist in “F—ing A” and the hateful name that drove an earth mother to violence in “In the Blood” — and more than 150 years after Hawthorne wrote “The Scarlet Letter: A Romance” — the same words, the same symbols, the same damning letter can still make women weep with shame and rage.</p>
<p>“In the Blood,” originally produced by the Public Theater and a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize, is set in the present day. Saycon Sengbloh (“Eclipsed”) gives a remarkable performance as Hester, an illiterate homeless woman who lives under a bridge with her five beloved children (“My treasures! My joy!”), each fathered by a different man. Like the heroine in Hawthorne’s novel, Hester is used and abused by people – her lovers, her social worker, her pastor, her best friend — who hypocritically profess to care for her. Unlike Hawthorne’s heroine, this Hester allows herself to be exploited, unwisely trusting that her carnal generosity will be rewarded.</p>
<p>“F—ing A” is set in some nameless lawless country in some long-ago (or possibly futuristic) era. Director Jo Bonney runs with the play’s sense of menace, working with designers Rachel Hauck (sets), Jeff Croiter (lighting), and Darron L. West (sound) to create an eerie landscape not unlike Brecht’s surreal American cities where evil runs rampant and anything goes. It’s a savage world where only the strong survive. <a href="http://variety.com/t/christine-lahti/" type="external">Christine Lahti</a>’s fiercely drawn Hester is a survivor, but so consumed with equally balanced passions of love and hate you can’t tear your eyes away from her.</p>
<p>Like Hawthorne’s Hester and the Hester of “In the Blood,” this Hester is a devoted mother, saving every coin she makes as an abortionist to buy her boy’s freedom from prison – or at least a precious afternoon where she might bring him a picnic lunch. Although sunk in misery, Hester is not without human resources. The neighborhood butcher (a wonderfully warm Raphael Nash Thompson) is in love with her and the Mayor’s saucy mistress, Canary Mary (Joaquina Kalukango, full of life), is a kindred soul and a true friend. &#160;“Like me, you perform one of those disrespectable but most necessary services,” she consoles Hester.</p>
<p>But this Hester is hell-bent on vengeance, full of blinding rage for the Mayor’s wife (Elizabeth Stanley), who had Hester’s son sent to prison for stealing food from her household. Hester’s curses would make the Devil faint, and Lahti chews them with gritted teeth before spitting them out. With her wild hair and blood-soaked apron, she’s a maddened avenging angel.</p>
<p>Parks is ultimately much tougher on her Hesters than Hawthorne is on Hester Prynne. While no jury would ever convict these women for revenging themselves on their tormentors, their passions drive them to unspeakable violent acts that cost them what they love most. Hester Prynne would be horrified.</p>
<p>Signature Theater Center; “In the Blood” (199 seats) “F—ing A” (199 seats); $30 top.&#160; “In the Blood”: Opened Sept. 17, 2016; reviewed Sept. 13. Running time: ONE HOUR, 55 MIN. “F—ing A”: Opened Sept. 11, 2017; reviewed Sept. 7. Running time: TWO HOURS, 20 MIN.</p>
<p>A Signature Theater production of two plays in one act (“In the Blood”) and two acts (“F—ing A”) by Suzan-Lori Parks.</p>
<p>“In the Blood”: Directed by Sarah Benson. Sets, Louisa Thompson; costumes, Montana Levi Blanco; lighting, Yi Zhao; sound, Matt Tierney; original song, Suzan-Lori Parks; choreographer, Annie-B Parson; fight director, J. David Brimmer; production stage manager, Terri K. Kohler. “F—ing A”: Directed by Jo Bonney. Sets, Rachel Hauck; costumes, Emilio Sosa; lighting, Jeff Croiter; sound, Darron L. West; projections, Rocco Disanti; original songs, Suzan-Lori Parks; music direction, Todd Almond; choreographer, Tanya Birl; fight director, Thomas Schall; production stage manager, Evangeline Rose Whitlock.</p>
<p>“In the Blood”: Jocelyn Bioh, Michael Braun, Russell G. Jones, Ana Reeder, Saycon Sengbloh, Frank Wood. “F—ing A”: Cameron Barnett, Brandon Victor Dixon, Ben Horner, Joaquina Kalukango, Marc Kudisch, Christine Lahti, Ruibo Qian, Elizabeth Stanley, Raphael Nash Thompson.</p> | false | 1 | signature theater keeps finding new ways support nurture worthy playwrights showcase work true ie noncommercial integrity season artistic director paige evans departing executive director erika mallin made possible suzanlori parks pulitzer prizewinning writer topdogunderdog highly original consistently provocative plays revive two older dramas separate simultaneous productions thats first signature another first audiences dual productions present rare opportunity see tandem playwrights distinctive responses themes raised nathanial hawthorne scarlet letter classic novel set puritan new england hester prynne bears illegitimate lovechild made wear scarlet letter breast decent people recognize adulteress shun company160 although vengeful husband lilylivered lover add hesters wretchedness outlasts got idea two plays parks says hadnt even read scarlet letter goes prove certain symbols powerful become programmed dna 160a yellow star always bring mind branding european jews wartime scarlet always identify adulteress society way almost 20 years wrote two plays festering wound abortionist fing hateful name drove earth mother violence blood 150 years hawthorne wrote scarlet letter romance words symbols damning letter still make women weep shame rage blood originally produced public theater finalist 2000 pulitzer prize set present day saycon sengbloh eclipsed gives remarkable performance hester illiterate homeless woman lives bridge five beloved children treasures joy fathered different man like heroine hawthornes novel hester used abused people lovers social worker pastor best friend hypocritically profess care unlike hawthornes heroine hester allows exploited unwisely trusting carnal generosity rewarded fing set nameless lawless country longago possibly futuristic era director jo bonney runs plays sense menace working designers rachel hauck sets jeff croiter lighting darron l west sound create eerie landscape unlike brechts surreal american cities evil runs rampant anything goes savage world strong survive christine lahtis fiercely drawn hester survivor consumed equally balanced passions love hate cant tear eyes away like hawthornes hester hester blood hester devoted mother saving every coin makes abortionist buy boys freedom prison least precious afternoon might bring picnic lunch although sunk misery hester without human resources neighborhood butcher wonderfully warm raphael nash thompson love mayors saucy mistress canary mary joaquina kalukango full life kindred soul true friend 160like perform one disrespectable necessary services consoles hester hester hellbent vengeance full blinding rage mayors wife elizabeth stanley hesters son sent prison stealing food household hesters curses would make devil faint lahti chews gritted teeth spitting wild hair bloodsoaked apron shes maddened avenging angel parks ultimately much tougher hesters hawthorne hester prynne jury would ever convict women revenging tormentors passions drive unspeakable violent acts cost love hester prynne would horrified signature theater center blood 199 seats fing 199 seats 30 top160 blood opened sept 17 2016 reviewed sept 13 running time one hour 55 min fing opened sept 11 2017 reviewed sept 7 running time two hours 20 min signature theater production two plays one act blood two acts fing suzanlori parks blood directed sarah benson sets louisa thompson costumes montana levi blanco lighting yi zhao sound matt tierney original song suzanlori parks choreographer annieb parson fight director j david brimmer production stage manager terri k kohler fing directed jo bonney sets rachel hauck costumes emilio sosa lighting jeff croiter sound darron l west projections rocco disanti original songs suzanlori parks music direction todd almond choreographer tanya birl fight director thomas schall production stage manager evangeline rose whitlock blood jocelyn bioh michael braun russell g jones ana reeder saycon sengbloh frank wood fing cameron barnett brandon victor dixon ben horner joaquina kalukango marc kudisch christine lahti ruibo qian elizabeth stanley raphael nash thompson | 574 |
<p>BOSTON — A rookie hitter, a veteran hitter and a veteran starter-turned-reliever gave the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Boston-Red-Sox/" type="external">Boston Red Sox</a> new life on Sunday.</p>
<p>Rafael Devers delivered a go-ahead, two-run home run in the third inning, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hanley_Ramirez/" type="external">Hanley Ramirez</a> came up with some timely hits, and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/David_Price/" type="external">David Price</a> tossed four scoreless innings out of the bullpen to help Boston avoid elimination with a 10-3 win over the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Houston-Astros/" type="external">Houston Astros</a> in Game 3 of the American League Division Series.</p>
<p>Houston, which won both Game 1 and 2 by a score of 8-2, leads the best-of-five series 2-1. Game 4 is Monday afternoon in Boston.</p>
<p>“They changed the momentum before I came in with the hits we had,” Price said. “Devers, with that big hit, Hanley, one of his four (hits), our offense, they responded back.”</p>
<p>Indeed, the Red Sox found themselves in an early three-run hole before rallying. Devers’ homer gave them Boston a 4-3 lead, its first advantage of the series.</p>
<p>The homer was the Devers’ first in the playoffs, making him the youngest Red Sox player ever (20 years, 349 days) to homer in a playoff game and just the sixth player in major league history to homer in the postseason before turning 21.</p>
<p>“He’s an extremely talented kid, and I think we marvel at the fact that he’s 20 years of age,” Red Sox manager <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John-Farrell/" type="external">John Farrell</a> said.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jackie-Bradley/" type="external">Jackie Bradley</a> Jr. hit a three-run homer, also his first career playoff blast, while Ramirez went 4-for-4 with three RBIs and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Sandy-Leon/" type="external">Sandy Leon</a> drove in another run for the Red Sox.</p>
<p>Price gave up just four hits and walk while striking out four to keep the Red Sox in front in a close game early on.</p>
<p>“It feels good to put up zeros in the playoffs,” said Price, who has thrown 6 2/3 scoreless innings of relief with six strikeouts in two appearances this series. “That’s why I signed here.”</p>
<p>Joe Kelly (1-0) earned the win after tossing 1 2/3 scoreless innings in relief of starter <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Doug_Fister/" type="external">Doug Fister</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Carlos-Correa/" type="external">Carlos Correa</a> hit a two-run homer, his second of the series, and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Josh-Reddick/" type="external">Josh Reddick</a> added an RBI for the Astros.</p>
<p>“We’re going to be fine. We’ll bounce back out of this and come back and play hard,” Astros manager <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/A.J._Hinch/" type="external">A.J. Hinch</a> said. “But this is playoff baseball. If anybody thought the Red Sox were going to lay down, (they should) probably rethink it.”</p>
<p>The winner of the Astros-Red Sox series will face either the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Cleveland-Indians/" type="external">Cleveland Indians</a> or <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New-York-Yankees/" type="external">New York Yankees</a> in the AL Championship Series. Cleveland led its series with New York 2-0 entering Game 3 on Sunday night.</p>
<p>“The Red Sox, it’s an unbelievable team and it’s a winning team. It’s about winning here,” Ramirez said of the team’s approach.</p>
<p>Fister was pulled after giving up three runs in 1 1/3 innings, marking the shortest postseason outing for a Red Sox starter since <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Bret_Saberhagen/" type="external">Bret Saberhagen</a> lasted one inning on Oct. 11, 1999.</p>
<p>Fister allowed four hits, walked one and struck out one.</p>
<p>In the series, Boston’s starting rotation of <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Chris-Sale/" type="external">Chris Sale</a>, Drew Pomeranz and Fister has allowed a combined 14 runs over 8 1/3 innings for a 15.12 ERA.</p>
<p>Houston starter Brad Peacock departed after 2 2/3 innings. He allowed three runs on six hits with one walk and four strikeouts in his first career postseason appearance.</p>
<p>Astros reliever <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Francisco_Liriano/" type="external">Francisco Liriano</a> (0-1) gave up the go-ahead homer to Devers and took the loss.</p>
<p>“We’re up 2-1 in the series, and our main focus is to win it,” said Houston’s Lance McCullers, who gave up two runs in three innings of relief. “It doesn’t matter how it’s done. So we’ll come back (Monday), clean slate and try to get it done.”</p>
<p>Houston enjoyed another fast start against a shaky Fister, scoring three runs in the first inning.</p>
<p>Reddick’s RBI single two batters into the game opened the scoring and was followed by Correa’s blast of approximately 385 feet to center field the next at-bat to make it 3-0.</p>
<p>Fister’s first-inning ERA in his starts this season ballooned to 10.13.</p>
<p>Boston got one run back on Leon’s single with the bases loaded and nobody out in the second, but Peacock retired the next three batters to escape the jam.</p>
<p>The Astros’ 3-1 lead after two innings made them the first team in major league history to hold a lead for the first 20 innings of any postseason series.</p>
<p>In the third, Ramirez brought the Red Sox within a run on his two-out RBI single before Devers delivered his homer of an estimated 430 feet over the bullpens in right-center to put Boston ahead.</p>
<p>A bases-loaded double with nobody out in the seventh by Ramirez and a bloop RBI single from Devers the next at-bat put Boston ahead 7-3.</p>
<p>Bradley smacked his homer to right two batters later to make it 10-3. Houston right fielder Reddick got the ball in his glove up against the wall, but it bounced out into the stands.</p>
<p>“It was very unfortunate for myself and the team. Nothing you can do,” Reddick said of the play.</p>
<p>NOTES: Boston RF <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mookie-Betts/" type="external">Mookie Betts</a> was back in the lineup and batting cleanup after leaving Game 2 on Friday in the eighth inning with a left wrist flare-up. … Houston RF Josh Reddick, a left-handed batter, hit out of the two-hole against RHP Doug Fister with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Carlos_Beltran/" type="external">Carlos Beltran</a> serving as the DH. “I love having Reddick in between (George) Springer and (Jose) Altuve with a right-handed starter,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. … Red Sox manager John Farrell dispelled rumors about his job security should the team lose back-to-back AL Division Series. “(The media) reminds me how often it comes up, but it hasn’t changed my approach with our guys at all,” Farrell said. … Security personnel roamed the upper-deck roofs throughout the game amid heightened safety concerns after reports that the Las Vegas mass shooter had considered <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Fenway_Park/" type="external">Fenway Park</a> as a potential target. … Astros RHP <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Charlie_Morton/" type="external">Charlie Morton</a> (14-7, 3.62 ERA) opposes Red Sox RHP <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Rick_Porcello/" type="external">Rick Porcello</a> (11-17, 4.65 ERA) in Game 4.</p> | false | 1 | boston rookie hitter veteran hitter veteran starterturnedreliever gave boston red sox new life sunday rafael devers delivered goahead tworun home run third inning hanley ramirez came timely hits david price tossed four scoreless innings bullpen help boston avoid elimination 103 win houston astros game 3 american league division series houston game 1 2 score 82 leads bestoffive series 21 game 4 monday afternoon boston changed momentum came hits price said devers big hit hanley one four hits offense responded back indeed red sox found early threerun hole rallying devers homer gave boston 43 lead first advantage series homer devers first playoffs making youngest red sox player ever 20 years 349 days homer playoff game sixth player major league history homer postseason turning 21 hes extremely talented kid think marvel fact hes 20 years age red sox manager john farrell said jackie bradley jr hit threerun homer also first career playoff blast ramirez went 4for4 three rbis sandy leon drove another run red sox price gave four hits walk striking four keep red sox front close game early feels good put zeros playoffs said price thrown 6 23 scoreless innings relief six strikeouts two appearances series thats signed joe kelly 10 earned win tossing 1 23 scoreless innings relief starter doug fister carlos correa hit tworun homer second series josh reddick added rbi astros going fine well bounce back come back play hard astros manager aj hinch said playoff baseball anybody thought red sox going lay probably rethink winner astrosred sox series face either cleveland indians new york yankees al championship series cleveland led series new york 20 entering game 3 sunday night red sox unbelievable team winning team winning ramirez said teams approach fister pulled giving three runs 1 13 innings marking shortest postseason outing red sox starter since bret saberhagen lasted one inning oct 11 1999 fister allowed four hits walked one struck one series bostons starting rotation chris sale drew pomeranz fister allowed combined 14 runs 8 13 innings 1512 era houston starter brad peacock departed 2 23 innings allowed three runs six hits one walk four strikeouts first career postseason appearance astros reliever francisco liriano 01 gave goahead homer devers took loss 21 series main focus win said houstons lance mccullers gave two runs three innings relief doesnt matter done well come back monday clean slate try get done houston enjoyed another fast start shaky fister scoring three runs first inning reddicks rbi single two batters game opened scoring followed correas blast approximately 385 feet center field next atbat make 30 fisters firstinning era starts season ballooned 1013 boston got one run back leons single bases loaded nobody second peacock retired next three batters escape jam astros 31 lead two innings made first team major league history hold lead first 20 innings postseason series third ramirez brought red sox within run twoout rbi single devers delivered homer estimated 430 feet bullpens rightcenter put boston ahead basesloaded double nobody seventh ramirez bloop rbi single devers next atbat put boston ahead 73 bradley smacked homer right two batters later make 103 houston right fielder reddick got ball glove wall bounced stands unfortunate team nothing reddick said play notes boston rf mookie betts back lineup batting cleanup leaving game 2 friday eighth inning left wrist flareup houston rf josh reddick lefthanded batter hit twohole rhp doug fister carlos beltran serving dh love reddick george springer jose altuve righthanded starter astros manager aj hinch said red sox manager john farrell dispelled rumors job security team lose backtoback al division series media reminds often comes hasnt changed approach guys farrell said security personnel roamed upperdeck roofs throughout game amid heightened safety concerns reports las vegas mass shooter considered fenway park potential target astros rhp charlie morton 147 362 era opposes red sox rhp rick porcello 1117 465 era game 4 | 638 |
<p />
<p>The New York Times is putting out its standard fare on Iran’s nuclear program as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) releases its latest report. Under the headline “ <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/world/middleeast/26iran.html" type="external">Atomic Agency is Pressed on Iran Records</a>”, the Times reported last week that the U.S. is “pressing” the IAEA “to make public evidence that they believe points toward an Iranian drive to gain the ability to build a nuclear weapon, part of a broad effort to build a case for far more punishing sanctions against the country.”</p>
<p>&lt;img class="size-full wp-image-1950 alignleft" style="margin: 5px;" title="iaea_iran_300x200" src="https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/iaea_iran_300x200.jpg" alt="The IAEA and Iran (Image: IAEA website)" width="270" height="180" srcset="https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/iaea_iran_300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/iaea_iran_300x200-150x100.jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px" /&gt; This information is from “documents and computer files” that Iran insists “are fabrications”. But the IAEA, “according to current and former officials there, has studied them with care and determined that they are probably genuine.”</p>
<p>The Times continues: “‘What we and all the allies are pressing for is for the full case to be laid out, in public,’ one senior Obama administration official said last week, speaking anonymously because he was discussing intelligence data.”</p>
<p>We learn that “The Obama administration’s effort to make the case public contrasts with the approach of President George W. Bush”, because “Bush administration officials said they lacked the credibility to make public the evidence about Iran’s nuclear efforts. Mr. Bush admitted as much in 2005, saying that the case would have to be made quietly.”</p>
<p>Furthermore, under Bush, “American intelligence agencies had balked at publishing some of their most sensitive discoveries, including data stripped from a laptop computer slipped out of the country by an Iranian nuclear engineer.”</p>
<p>The Director General of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, we are told, has “resisted a public airing” of the damning information against Iran, “fearing that such a presentation would make the agency appear biased toward the West in the effort to impose what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently called ‘crippling’ sanctions.”</p>
<p>Moreover, ElBaradei “has argued for allowing Iran to maintain a token capacity to produce uranium under strict inspection”. And he “has said that the evidence does not create an airtight case against Iran.” And while “a high-level dispute had broken out” at the IAEA “over whether the report should include” this information, “Dr. ElBaradei has remained cautious,” and so “it was unlikely that much of the material would be included in the report.”</p>
<p>Some of this damning information, the Times informs us, was shared with member countries by the IAEA in a closed meeting in February of last year. But news of the meeting “quickly leaked” and we learned that the IAEA official presenting the information said it was “not consistent with any application other than the development of a nuclear weapon”.</p>
<p>So, you see, in the version of reality fit for print, the IAEA is keeping credible evidence from the public that shows that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. The U.S. itself has admittedly kept this information under wraps in the past, but now there is a change of course under the Obama administration, which wants this information made public. The head of the IAEA, on the other hand, supports Iran’s efforts to enrich uranium, despite having knowledge of this evidence that they are trying to build the bomb.</p>
<p>And so, if we draw the proper conclusion (which is to say, the conclusion we are supposed to arrive at), when the IAEA’s report doesn’t find Iran in breach of its obligations under the non-proliferation treaty (NPT), we will know that it is because the IAEA is engaged in a cover up.</p>
<p>This is a truly remarkable version of events, given the actual facts, which are uncontroversial and acknowledged by the Times either here or elsewhere. The “evidence” in question is information purported to have come from a laptop computer that was purportedly smuggled out of Iran and obtained by U.S. intelligence. The U.S. insists the laptop documents show strong evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. The IAEA refers to them in their reports as “the alleged studies”, appropriately (if we disbelieve the new official version, that is).</p>
<p>There are alternative versions out there. For example, Gareth Porter <a href="http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48213" type="external">explained</a> last week that “new evidence came to light last year suggesting that some of the key documents were fabricated or doctored to support the accusation that Iran was working on nuclear weapons. A Vienna-based diplomatic source close to the IAEA told IPS that the reason ElBaradei has never endorsed the ‘alleged studies’ documents is that they have not met his rigorous standards of evidence.”</p>
<p>This is quite a different standard from the one we are told by the Times that ElBaradei &#160;has adopted, which is that the evidence should be “airtight” and not merely reasonably credible or verifiable. The two versions are, needless to say, irreconcilable. Only one can have a basis in reality.</p>
<p>This alternate and now unofficial version presented by Porter has, incidentally, been endorsed by the New York Times in the past. In an article in March last year, for instance, entitled “ <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/world/middleeast/03nuke.html?pagewanted=print" type="external">Meeting on Arms Data Reignites Iran Debate</a>”, the Times disclosed that “While American and energy agency officials say the documents appear real, they cannot definitively authenticate them or tie them to Iran.”</p>
<p>But for the updated version, this becomes an IAEA determination “that they are probably genuine”; not exactly the same thing, but close enough for the Times.</p>
<p>Other elements of the story have been updated, too. For instance, the Bush administration had “decided to let the atomic energy agency confront Iran with what it says is the best evidence of Iranian weapons work”, but only behind closed doors. Back then, “the Bush administration has refused requests”—including, though the Times doesn’t mention it, by the IAEA—“to make it public.”</p>
<p>This past U.S. refusal is acknowledged in the new version. What has changed is that, back then, what the IAEA did with this information was dictated by the will of Washington, whereas now we have a rogue IAEA that is defying the Obama administration in keeping the evidence out of the limelight.</p>
<p>The Times makes no effort whatsoever to explain the glaring contradictions in this updated version. For instance, why, if the U.S. wants the IAEA to make this information public, must senior administration officials speak anonymously when discussing the “intelligence data”? We may assume that the reason for anonymity is that this data is still classified, but we learned in the 2008 version of events that “the data has been declassified”.</p>
<p>We are apparently also meant to presume that the IAEA is now, in a complete role reversal, dictating to the Obama administration what it can or cannot do with its own intelligence information. But it’s even better if we put such pestering questions out of mind and refrain from drawing conclusions or attempting to reconcile contradictions. The IAEA is being bad. That is all we really need to know.</p> | false | 1 | new york times putting standard fare irans nuclear program international atomic energy agency iaea releases latest report headline atomic agency pressed iran records times reported last week us pressing iaea make public evidence believe points toward iranian drive gain ability build nuclear weapon part broad effort build case far punishing sanctions country ltimg classsizefull wpimage1950 alignleft stylemargin 5px titleiaea_iran_300x200 srchttpswwwforeignpolicyjournalcomwpcontentuploads200908iaea_iran_300x200jpg altthe iaea iran image iaea website width270 height180 srcsethttpswwwforeignpolicyjournalcomwpcontentuploads200908iaea_iran_300x200jpg 300w httpswwwforeignpolicyjournalcomwpcontentuploads200908iaea_iran_300x200150x100jpg 150w sizesmaxwidth 270px 100vw 270px gt information documents computer files iran insists fabrications iaea according current former officials studied care determined probably genuine times continues allies pressing full case laid public one senior obama administration official said last week speaking anonymously discussing intelligence data learn obama administrations effort make case public contrasts approach president george w bush bush administration officials said lacked credibility make public evidence irans nuclear efforts mr bush admitted much 2005 saying case would made quietly furthermore bush american intelligence agencies balked publishing sensitive discoveries including data stripped laptop computer slipped country iranian nuclear engineer director general iaea mohamed elbaradei told resisted public airing damning information iran fearing presentation would make agency appear biased toward west effort impose secretary state hillary rodham clinton recently called crippling sanctions moreover elbaradei argued allowing iran maintain token capacity produce uranium strict inspection said evidence create airtight case iran highlevel dispute broken iaea whether report include information dr elbaradei remained cautious unlikely much material would included report damning information times informs us shared member countries iaea closed meeting february last year news meeting quickly leaked learned iaea official presenting information said consistent application development nuclear weapon see version reality fit print iaea keeping credible evidence public shows iran nuclear weapons program us admittedly kept information wraps past change course obama administration wants information made public head iaea hand supports irans efforts enrich uranium despite knowledge evidence trying build bomb draw proper conclusion say conclusion supposed arrive iaeas report doesnt find iran breach obligations nonproliferation treaty npt know iaea engaged cover truly remarkable version events given actual facts uncontroversial acknowledged times either elsewhere evidence question information purported come laptop computer purportedly smuggled iran obtained us intelligence us insists laptop documents show strong evidence iranian nuclear weapons program iaea refers reports alleged studies appropriately disbelieve new official version alternative versions example gareth porter explained last week new evidence came light last year suggesting key documents fabricated doctored support accusation iran working nuclear weapons viennabased diplomatic source close iaea told ips reason elbaradei never endorsed alleged studies documents met rigorous standards evidence quite different standard one told times elbaradei 160has adopted evidence airtight merely reasonably credible verifiable two versions needless say irreconcilable one basis reality alternate unofficial version presented porter incidentally endorsed new york times past article march last year instance entitled meeting arms data reignites iran debate times disclosed american energy agency officials say documents appear real definitively authenticate tie iran updated version becomes iaea determination probably genuine exactly thing close enough times elements story updated instance bush administration decided let atomic energy agency confront iran says best evidence iranian weapons work behind closed doors back bush administration refused requestsincluding though times doesnt mention iaeato make public past us refusal acknowledged new version changed back iaea information dictated washington whereas rogue iaea defying obama administration keeping evidence limelight times makes effort whatsoever explain glaring contradictions updated version instance us wants iaea make information public must senior administration officials speak anonymously discussing intelligence data may assume reason anonymity data still classified learned 2008 version events data declassified apparently also meant presume iaea complete role reversal dictating obama administration intelligence information even better put pestering questions mind refrain drawing conclusions attempting reconcile contradictions iaea bad really need know | 614 |
<p>WASHINGTON — Speaking to a group of workers recently in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, President Donald Trump said his proposed tax cut package “will be rocket fuel” for the economy.</p>
<p>It was Trump’s sly way of reinforcing a message that the White House has sent since it first rolled out a framework for the tax cut in April. The message: Instead of adding to the $20 trillion national debt, the GOP tax cut will pay for itself. There’s no need to produce some $5 trillion in savings over the next decade to pay for the cuts.</p>
<p>Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin uttered that mantra after the rollout when he told the Institute of International Finance, “The plan will pay for itself with growth.”</p>
<p>The current package would lower the corporate tax rate from 38.9 percent to 20 percent and lower personal income taxes; the top rate would fall from 39.6 percent to 35 percent. That should mean a bigger deficit, right?</p>
<p>No, supporters maintain, because the package would eliminate a number of deductions and that would broaden the tax base and generate some new revenue. The rest would come from growth as corporations, spurred by tax cuts, buy more equipment and hire more workers.</p>
<p>The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget supports tax reform but has observed that tax cuts in 1981 and the early 2000s widened deficits and figured that for every dollar in cuts, economic activity would have to produce $5 to pay for itself. Don’t hold your breath on that score.</p>
<p>“I think that very few economists would agree that the revenue loss would be fully offset with revenue growth,” budget expert Alan Viard of the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute told The Hill.</p>
<p>Two caveats</p>
<p>The Tax Policy Center estimated that the framework would reduce revenue — read: add to the deficit — by $2.4 trillion in its first 10 years.</p>
<p>There are two caveats that go with any estimate. The first is that the plan drafted by GOP leaders offers few details. While the nine-page framework boasts three new tax rates — 12 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent — it does not delineate what the tax brackets would be.</p>
<p>The second caveat is that it is not clear or even likely that Congress will stick with provisions that would remove tax deductions, like the deduction for state and local taxes, in order to finance lower tax rates. The state and local deductions add up to $1.3 trillion over a decade, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. Already the pressure is on lawmakers from high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and Maryland to refuse to support the package unless the GOP leadership restores the status quo.</p>
<p>With Trump in the Oval Office, all of a sudden GOP senators and representatives don’t see deficit spending as being wasteful as they framed it under President Barack Obama. Also, GOP lawmakers have little incentive to try to cut spending, given that Trump never has been a fiscal conservative and likely would oppose cuts.</p>
<p>No budget hawk, Trump campaigned on not messing with Social Security. “We’re not going to raise the age and we’re not going to do all the things that everybody else is talking about doing. They’re all talking about doing it and you don’t have to,” he said on the campaign trail. “We’re going to bring our jobs backs.”</p>
<p>Stock market growth</p>
<p>In office, Trump has become even more inclined to magical thinking when it comes to other people’s money.</p>
<p>Trump told a gathering of truckers in Harrisburg that the stock market had grown by $5.2 trillion since he won election — “that’s a quarter of the $20 trillion that we owe.”</p>
<p>Then Trump apparently multiplied the $5 trillion by the four years of his first term and figured, “I’ve increased the value of your U.S. assets by more than the $20 trillion that we currently owe.”</p>
<p>Wrong, responded Patrick Newton of the Committee for a Responsible Budget.</p>
<p>“Stock market gains benefit investors,” he said. “They do not pay down the debt.”</p>
<p>Republicans aren’t all wet when they talk up the dynamic powers that tax cuts can have. The GOP plan would allow corporations to write off equipment purchases in the year they are made, an incentive to buy equipment. A lower tax on corporate profits overseas could persuade CEOs to return offshore dollars to the United States.</p>
<p>But can it make a rabbit disappear? In a recent phone call for Not One Penny, a Democratic-leaning group that opposes the GOP plan, venture capitalist Nick Hanauer scoffed at the notion that tax cuts for wealthy individuals will increase dynamism and growth.</p>
<p>“It is extraordinary that they continue to try to sell this nonsense to the American people,” he said. He likened the approach to “giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”</p>
<p>Contact Debra J. Saunders at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a> or 202-662-7391. Follow <a href="http://www.twitter.com/@DebraJSaunders" type="external">@DebraJSaunders</a> on Twitter.</p>
<p>Study: Corporate tax cut would result in income gains</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — Slashing corporate tax rates, the Trump administration said Monday, will give the average U.S. household an estimated $4,000 more a year.</p>
<p>This claim of a 5 percent increase was met with skepticism from tax experts and Democratic lawmakers, who said the math was flawed.</p>
<p>An analysis by Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, states that the considerably lower rate would spur more investment by companies, which would then boost hiring and worker productivity. The average income gains from the reduced rate would range from $4,000 to as high as $9,000, the administration said.</p>
<p>Those figures, however, rely on research arguing that workers — rather than investors — would primarily benefit from the lower corporate rates.</p>
<p>Outside economists said the income growth projected by Hassett appears to assume that workers seemingly bear more than 100 percent of the burden of U.S. corporate taxes, a mathematical impossibility.</p>
<p>The Associated Press</p>
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<p>Market vs. debt</p>
<p>“Gains in the stock market and change in the national debt are two completely different things. While an improving market may have indirect benefits for the budget, there is no sense where rising stock value translate to nominal reductions in the government’s gross debt.”</p>
<p>— Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget</p>
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<p /> | false | 1 | washington speaking group workers recently harrisburg pennsylvania president donald trump said proposed tax cut package rocket fuel economy trumps sly way reinforcing message white house sent since first rolled framework tax cut april message instead adding 20 trillion national debt gop tax cut pay theres need produce 5 trillion savings next decade pay cuts treasury secretary steven mnuchin uttered mantra rollout told institute international finance plan pay growth current package would lower corporate tax rate 389 percent 20 percent lower personal income taxes top rate would fall 396 percent 35 percent mean bigger deficit right supporters maintain package would eliminate number deductions would broaden tax base generate new revenue rest would come growth corporations spurred tax cuts buy equipment hire workers committee responsible federal budget supports tax reform observed tax cuts 1981 early 2000s widened deficits figured every dollar cuts economic activity would produce 5 pay dont hold breath score think economists would agree revenue loss would fully offset revenue growth budget expert alan viard rightleaning american enterprise institute told hill two caveats tax policy center estimated framework would reduce revenue read add deficit 24 trillion first 10 years two caveats go estimate first plan drafted gop leaders offers details ninepage framework boasts three new tax rates 12 percent 25 percent 35 percent delineate tax brackets would second caveat clear even likely congress stick provisions would remove tax deductions like deduction state local taxes order finance lower tax rates state local deductions add 13 trillion decade according joint committee taxation already pressure lawmakers hightax states like new york new jersey maryland refuse support package unless gop leadership restores status quo trump oval office sudden gop senators representatives dont see deficit spending wasteful framed president barack obama also gop lawmakers little incentive try cut spending given trump never fiscal conservative likely would oppose cuts budget hawk trump campaigned messing social security going raise age going things everybody else talking theyre talking dont said campaign trail going bring jobs backs stock market growth office trump become even inclined magical thinking comes peoples money trump told gathering truckers harrisburg stock market grown 52 trillion since election thats quarter 20 trillion owe trump apparently multiplied 5 trillion four years first term figured ive increased value us assets 20 trillion currently owe wrong responded patrick newton committee responsible budget stock market gains benefit investors said pay debt republicans arent wet talk dynamic powers tax cuts gop plan would allow corporations write equipment purchases year made incentive buy equipment lower tax corporate profits overseas could persuade ceos return offshore dollars united states make rabbit disappear recent phone call one penny democraticleaning group opposes gop plan venture capitalist nick hanauer scoffed notion tax cuts wealthy individuals increase dynamism growth extraordinary continue try sell nonsense american people said likened approach giving whiskey car keys teenage boys contact debra j saunders dsaundersreviewjournalcom 2026627391 follow debrajsaunders twitter study corporate tax cut would result income gains washington slashing corporate tax rates trump administration said monday give average us household estimated 4000 year claim 5 percent increase met skepticism tax experts democratic lawmakers said math flawed analysis kevin hassett chairman white house council economic advisers states considerably lower rate would spur investment companies would boost hiring worker productivity average income gains reduced rate would range 4000 high 9000 administration said figures however rely research arguing workers rather investors would primarily benefit lower corporate rates outside economists said income growth projected hassett appears assume workers seemingly bear 100 percent burden us corporate taxes mathematical impossibility associated press market vs debt gains stock market change national debt two completely different things improving market may indirect benefits budget sense rising stock value translate nominal reductions governments gross debt committee responsible federal budget | 617 |
<p>Stock prices climbing ever higher as interest rates and volatility plumb rock bottom: for some of the world’s top asset managers, the investment outlook is as good as it gets.</p>
<p>But look closer and clouds are forming that may put a dampener on this sunny outlook.</p>
<p>Investors should beware a rise in bond yields, a downturn in economic data or a policy misstep in a large emerging market.</p>
<p>As the big money managers outline their recommendations for the rest of 2017, several have highlighted stocks and local currency emerging market debt as likely winners.</p>
<p>The reasons aren’t difficult to find.</p>
<p>A collapse in market volatility to record lows across currencies, fixed income and equities means carry trade strategies, in which investors borrow in a low-yielding currency to invest in a higher-yielding one, have proven very rewarding.</p>
<p>The JPMorgan emerging market currency index is up more than 8.5 percent this year, on track for its best yearly performance since 2010, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>A structural decline in inflation despite years of monetary stimulus pursued by the world’s biggest central banks has also meant that holding cash or government bonds would actually leach money from portfolios.</p>
<p>Strategists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimate inflation is rising in only 11 percent of developed markets compared with 72 percent in February.</p>
<p>Small wonder that some investors believe these may be the best conditions to buy equities as the biggest industrialized economies are enjoying low but persistent growth, near full-employment and declining inflation.</p>
<p>EARNINGS</p>
<p>A favorite chart with investment houses is the growing premium offered by earnings yields over bond yields. At a chunky 6 percent, it suggests investors would do well to buy stocks.</p>
<p>With earnings recovering and interest rates at record lows, Blackrock strategists say they see “less reason” to expect equity valuation metrics to fall back to historical means in such a world.</p>
<p>But portfolio managers such as Julian Chillingworth, CIO of Rathbone Unit Trust Management, say substantial flows into European stocks from exchange-traded funds and passive investors have pushed valuations to a point where they are beginning to look a bit stretched.</p>
<p>“We feel that we’ve seen some very good economic data, but wonder whether or not we may be close to a peak in this series of economic data and so consequently we could see the economy not dipping dramatically, but rolling over,” he said.</p>
<p>Deutsche Bank equity strategists say the recent surge in European purchasing manager indexes (PMIs) is not supported by lending surveys or other data, suggesting economic momentum may weaken in the coming months and weigh on equities.</p>
<p>Fading economic momentum combined with rising bond yields would be the worst possible combination for equities as it could squeeze that gap between stock and bond yields.</p>
<p>German 10-year bond yields have doubled to more than 53 basis points in the last month and may rise further if the European Central Bank does more to lay the ground for the withdrawal of its policy stimulus.</p>
<p>POCKETS OF EXUBERANCE</p>
<p>Whatever the reason for their caution, investors are buying downside protection in markets even as global stock markets scale record highs.</p>
<p>An analysis of more than 400 global equity and European active fund holdings by Barclays strategists indicates conviction levels among fund managers are low and cash levels high relative to historical averages, indicating some skepticism about the sustainability of the market rally.</p>
<p>And portfolio managers at Wells Fargo Asset Managers pointed to a gap between the record low in the CBOE’s VIX “fear gauge” of implied volatility in the S&amp;P 500 U.S. stocks index and its SKEW index, which indicates what investors are paying to protect themselves against the risk of a big sell-off.</p>
<p>“Even though implied volatility is very low, the VIX skew on the implied probability of a large move down in equity prices is historically quite high – which shows market less ‘complacent’ than you may think,” they said.</p>
<p>But pockets of unabashed exuberance exist.</p>
<p>For example, 12-month price-to-earnings multiples in India are above 18 times, more than one standard deviation over their long-term median, indicating markets may be frothy and vulnerable if the central bank misreads inflation data and cuts interest rates aggressively, potentially fueling a bubble.</p>
<p>Some parts of the global credit markets remain richly valued: a JPMorgan index of global emerging market debt trading near its lowest levels on record while Deutsche Bank strategists say downside protection on German stocks are at record lows.</p>
<p>“Investors have already made double digit returns on their portfolios this year and now is a good time to take some money off the table rather than add positions into a potentially volatile period,” said a strategist at an Asian private bank in Hong Kong.</p>
<p>GRAPHIC: <a href="http://reut.rs/2uhd7By" type="external">Stocks vs bond yields</a>&#160;</p>
<p>GRAPHIC: <a href="http://reut.rs/2upAeNv" type="external">Global earnings growth</a></p>
<p>GRAPHIC: <a href="http://http://tmsnrt.rs/2vG3Cvg" type="external">India stock market valuations</a></p>
<p>GRAPHIC: <a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2udfDsB" type="external">Global Fixed Income</a></p> | false | 1 | stock prices climbing ever higher interest rates volatility plumb rock bottom worlds top asset managers investment outlook good gets look closer clouds forming may put dampener sunny outlook investors beware rise bond yields downturn economic data policy misstep large emerging market big money managers outline recommendations rest 2017 several highlighted stocks local currency emerging market debt likely winners reasons arent difficult find collapse market volatility record lows across currencies fixed income equities means carry trade strategies investors borrow lowyielding currency invest higheryielding one proven rewarding jpmorgan emerging market currency index 85 percent year track best yearly performance since 2010 according thomson reuters data structural decline inflation despite years monetary stimulus pursued worlds biggest central banks also meant holding cash government bonds would actually leach money portfolios strategists bank america merrill lynch estimate inflation rising 11 percent developed markets compared 72 percent february small wonder investors believe may best conditions buy equities biggest industrialized economies enjoying low persistent growth near fullemployment declining inflation earnings favorite chart investment houses growing premium offered earnings yields bond yields chunky 6 percent suggests investors would well buy stocks earnings recovering interest rates record lows blackrock strategists say see less reason expect equity valuation metrics fall back historical means world portfolio managers julian chillingworth cio rathbone unit trust management say substantial flows european stocks exchangetraded funds passive investors pushed valuations point beginning look bit stretched feel weve seen good economic data wonder whether may close peak series economic data consequently could see economy dipping dramatically rolling said deutsche bank equity strategists say recent surge european purchasing manager indexes pmis supported lending surveys data suggesting economic momentum may weaken coming months weigh equities fading economic momentum combined rising bond yields would worst possible combination equities could squeeze gap stock bond yields german 10year bond yields doubled 53 basis points last month may rise european central bank lay ground withdrawal policy stimulus pockets exuberance whatever reason caution investors buying downside protection markets even global stock markets scale record highs analysis 400 global equity european active fund holdings barclays strategists indicates conviction levels among fund managers low cash levels high relative historical averages indicating skepticism sustainability market rally portfolio managers wells fargo asset managers pointed gap record low cboes vix fear gauge implied volatility sampp 500 us stocks index skew index indicates investors paying protect risk big selloff even though implied volatility low vix skew implied probability large move equity prices historically quite high shows market less complacent may think said pockets unabashed exuberance exist example 12month pricetoearnings multiples india 18 times one standard deviation longterm median indicating markets may frothy vulnerable central bank misreads inflation data cuts interest rates aggressively potentially fueling bubble parts global credit markets remain richly valued jpmorgan index global emerging market debt trading near lowest levels record deutsche bank strategists say downside protection german stocks record lows investors already made double digit returns portfolios year good time take money table rather add positions potentially volatile period said strategist asian private bank hong kong graphic stocks vs bond yields160 graphic global earnings growth graphic india stock market valuations graphic global fixed income | 517 |
<p>WASHINGTON/NEW YORK — Several leading members of Donald Trump’s Republican Party and key ally Britain rebuked the U.S. president Wednesday after he insisted white nationalists and protesters opposed to them <a href="" type="internal">were both to blame for deadly violence</a> in the Virginia city of Charlottesville.</p>
<p>Trump’s remarks Tuesday, a more vehement reprisal of what had been widely seen as his inadequate initial response to Saturday’s bloodshed around a white nationalist rally, reignited a storm of criticism and strained ties with his own party.</p>
<p>The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, issued a statement that did not mention Trump by name but said “messages of hate and bigotry” from white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups should not be welcome anywhere in the United States.</p>
<p>“We can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred. There are no good neo-Nazis, and those who espouse their views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms. We all have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence, wherever it raises its evil head,” McConnell said.</p>
<p>Trump last week lambasted McConnell for the Senate’s failure to pass healthcare legislation backed by the president, and did not dismiss the idea of McConnell stepping down.</p>
<p>In his comments at a heated news conference in New York on Tuesday, Trump said “there is blame on both sides” of the violence in Charlottesville, and that there were “very fine people” on both sides.</p>
<p>Ohio Governor John Kasich said there was no moral equivalency between the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and anybody else.</p>
<p>“This is terrible. The president of the United States needs to condemn these kind of hate groups,” Kasich said on NBC’s “Today” show. Failure to do so gave such organizations a sense of victory and license to hold more events elsewhere, said Kasich, one of Trump’s rivals for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election.</p>
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<p>A 20-year-old Ohio man said to have harbored Nazi sympathies <a href="" type="internal">was charged with murder</a> after the car he was driving plowed into counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. Heyer was being remembered on Wednesday at a memorial service in Charlottesville.</p>
<p>Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, long a critic of the president, took direct aim, saying in a statement aimed at Trump, “Your words are dividing Americans, not healing them.”</p>
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<p>Other Republicans to criticize Trump’s remarks included former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, also a Trump rival in the 2016 campaign.</p>
<p>Republican former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush said in a joint statement: “America must always reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred in all forms.”</p>
<p>Criticism from May</p>
<p>In London, British Prime Minister Theresa May offered a rare rebuke of Trump by one of the United States’ closest foreign allies.</p>
<p>“I see no equivalence between those who propound fascist views and those who oppose them and I think it is important for all those in positions of responsibility to condemn far-right views wherever we hear them,” May told reporters when asked to comment on Trump’s stance.</p>
<p>May has been widely criticized by political opponents in Britain for her efforts to cultivate close ties with Trump since he took office in January.</p>
<p>Senior U.S. military officers usually stay clear of politics, but two more of the U.S. military’s top officers weighed in on Wednesday, without mentioning Trump.</p>
<p>U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley wrote on Twitter, “The Army doesn’t tolerate racism, extremism, or hatred in our ranks. It’s against our Values and everything we’ve stood for since 1775.”</p>
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<p>Air Force Chief of Staff General Dave Goldfein‏ said on Twitter that “I stand with my fellow service chiefs in saying we’re always stronger together.”</p>
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<p>Their comments followed similar ones from the top officers of the Navy and Marine Corps.</p>
<p>White nationalists called the rally in Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, commander of the pro-slavery Confederate army during the U.S. Civil War. Many protesters were seen carrying firearms, sticks, shields, and lit torches. Some wore helmets. Counter-protesters came equipped with sticks, helmets and shields.</p>
<p>Trump’s comments on Tuesday followed a statement on Monday in which he had bowed to political pressure over his initial response that talked of “many sides” being involved, and had explicitly denounced the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and white supremacists.</p>
<p>Ronna Romney McDaniel, head of the Republican National Committee, said on Wednesday that Trump had simply acknowledged there had been violent individuals on both sides of the clashes in Charlottesville. But she assigned the blame to the white nationalists who mounted the rally, saying, “We have no place in our party for KKK, anti-Semitism … racism, bigotry.”</p>
<p>Amid the fraying ties with his party, Trump planned a rally next Tuesday in Arizona, home state of two Republican U.S. senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, who have been particularly critical of him.</p>
<p>In a staff decision Wednesday, Hope Hicks, a close aide to Trump, <a href="" type="internal">has been named as interim White House director of</a> <a href="" type="internal">communications</a>, temporarily taking the post left vacant after <a href="" type="internal">Anthony Scaramucci was fired last</a> <a href="" type="internal">month</a>, a senior White House official said.</p> | false | 1 | washingtonnew york several leading members donald trumps republican party key ally britain rebuked us president wednesday insisted white nationalists protesters opposed blame deadly violence virginia city charlottesville trumps remarks tuesday vehement reprisal widely seen inadequate initial response saturdays bloodshed around white nationalist rally reignited storm criticism strained ties party senate majority leader mitch mcconnell issued statement mention trump name said messages hate bigotry white supremacists ku klux klan neonazi groups welcome anywhere united states tolerance ideology racial hatred good neonazis espouse views supporters american ideals freedoms responsibility stand hate violence wherever raises evil head mcconnell said trump last week lambasted mcconnell senates failure pass healthcare legislation backed president dismiss idea mcconnell stepping comments heated news conference new york tuesday trump said blame sides violence charlottesville fine people sides ohio governor john kasich said moral equivalency ku klux klan neonazis anybody else terrible president united states needs condemn kind hate groups kasich said nbcs today show failure gave organizations sense victory license hold events elsewhere said kasich one trumps rivals republican nomination 2016 presidential election 20yearold ohio man said harbored nazi sympathies charged murder car driving plowed counterprotesters killing 32yearold heather heyer injuring 19 others heyer remembered wednesday memorial service charlottesville republican senator lindsey graham long critic president took direct aim saying statement aimed trump words dividing americans healing republicans criticize trumps remarks included former massachusetts governor 2012 republican presidential candidate mitt romney us senator marco rubio also trump rival 2016 campaign republican former presidents george hw bush george w bush said joint statement america must always reject racial bigotry antisemitism hatred forms criticism may london british prime minister theresa may offered rare rebuke trump one united states closest foreign allies see equivalence propound fascist views oppose think important positions responsibility condemn farright views wherever hear may told reporters asked comment trumps stance may widely criticized political opponents britain efforts cultivate close ties trump since took office january senior us military officers usually stay clear politics two us militarys top officers weighed wednesday without mentioning trump us army chief staff general mark milley wrote twitter army doesnt tolerate racism extremism hatred ranks values everything weve stood since 1775 air force chief staff general dave goldfein said twitter stand fellow service chiefs saying always stronger together comments followed similar ones top officers navy marine corps white nationalists called rally charlottesville protest planned removal statue robert e lee commander proslavery confederate army us civil war many protesters seen carrying firearms sticks shields lit torches wore helmets counterprotesters came equipped sticks helmets shields trumps comments tuesday followed statement monday bowed political pressure initial response talked many sides involved explicitly denounced ku klux klan neonazis white supremacists ronna romney mcdaniel head republican national committee said wednesday trump simply acknowledged violent individuals sides clashes charlottesville assigned blame white nationalists mounted rally saying place party kkk antisemitism racism bigotry amid fraying ties party trump planned rally next tuesday arizona home state two republican us senators john mccain jeff flake particularly critical staff decision wednesday hope hicks close aide trump named interim white house director communications temporarily taking post left vacant anthony scaramucci fired last month senior white house official said | 523 |
<p>Will 1000 American ‘human shields’ stop another criminal war?</p>
<p>DAMASCUS — A sort of roller coaster atmosphere pervades Damascus these days with “good” and “bad” news rising and falling, often by the quarter hour. Much of the population is monitoring closely the news and quickly expressing their interpretations of the latest media reports and rumors as well as predicting the fairly precise timing of the now assumed American attack on their country.</p>
<p>In the very popular and normally crowded Abaa Coffee House on the edge of the old city, in what is called the Sarugha section, students and others enjoy the fine cool mist, as Damascenes have done for years, that is sprayed from ceiling pipes to provide welcome relief from the 37 degree Celsius (98 degrees F) outside temperatures. Many are clued to their laptops and/or in animated conversation analyzing the likely extent and timing of the soon believed to be arriving American missiles.</p>
<p>This observer often meets interlocutors in the Abaa because it’s very pleasant, large with dozens of tables, cheap and two blocks from my hotel.&#160; I have noticed that common greetings are changing from “kif hallack” &#160;(how are you?) &#160;and “Arak lahekan” (see you later) &#160;to “Get &#160;home safely” and “Good luck with the checkpoints.”</p>
<p>But there is also a distinct growing esprit de corps and a broad coming together of much of the population here as the countdown to the American attack on Syria begins.&#160; An evident rallying around the Assad regime, which one presumes is the opposite of what the White House was hoping would result from its threats.</p>
<p>A good friend from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society (SARCS), a humanitarian organization doing amazing rescue and medical services for Syrians and Palestinians during this expanding crisis, described one way that her friends are preparing for the American attack.&#160; “We gathered our important documents, birth, marriage certificate and passport and made photo copies.&#160; Then we leave them with friends in ‘safe’ areas or even bury them somewhere. No one knows how bad the Americans will bomb us. At work we have been told during our final practice drill last Saturday that the next siren will be the ‘real thing’ and we will do as we have planned for.”</p>
<p>She added, “Many of my friends and family are leaving but it’s not easy and is very expensive now to go to Lebanon and they don’t want us—and my family has decided to stay in our home no matter what happens in the coming days.”</p>
<p>One common topic being discussed is the reluctance of the American public to attack Syria and how Obama can ignore it.&#160;“What kind of Democracy do you have that your President can ignore the will of the American public?” this observer is frequently asked.</p>
<p>One soldier who is stationed with his unit just outside my hotel seemed to speak from his heart: “You Americans claim you are trying to help the Syrian people.&#160; Every child knows, both here and in your country I think, that the coming attack will make things much worse for the Syrian people and many others. The American people are good and we hope they can control their government, but we are preparing for the worst and there will be consequences you will come to regret as with Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.”</p>
<p>The government here is assuring the public that Syria is ready for the American attack and that public services will continue.&#160; TV channels show around the clock images of heroic Syrian army exploits with marital and patriotic music. Youngsters, students and workers are gathering at presumed targets offering themselves as Human Shields in solidarity with their countrymen while challenging President Obama to bomb their beloved Syria.</p>
<p>Interestingly, an International Human Shield movement is coalescing according to informed sources here and abroad. One initiative is to bring 1,000 Americans and thousands of others to Syria within the next ten days to guard likely bomb sites, reminding one of the International Solidarity Movement international volunteer’s efforts in Occupied Palestine in order to try to protect homes of Palestinians from Government bulldozing.</p>
<p>Some redacted specifics have been disclosed to this observer from an international organizing committee working around the clock on this Human Shield initiative.</p>
<p>Some descriptive excerpts:</p>
<p>“International Human Shields are planning on coming to Syria in solidarity with the Syrian people and in an effort to send a global message and hopefully deter an American attack next week.”</p>
<p>“Timing – While moves can be made fast and with all other key elements in place, time is not in our favor.&#160; Ten mores days for preparation would be ideal. The HS initiative assumes that it must be done in such a way that very little time lapse from the official announcement of the action to the actual arrival of the Human Shields on the ground in Syria.”</p>
<p>“Impact – In order to achieve a significant impact having at least 1,000 Americans and several thousand international Human Shields deployed in Syria is the objective. With ideally at least one representative from every UN Member State, as evidence of the true ‘international community’ opposing the American attack.”</p>
<p>The US activist-based steering committee is quickly bringing together professionals in IT, marketing, logistical planning and implementation, spokesperson(s), public relations, accounting, documentarians, and experienced project managers. Ferries from European ports are to be arranged to carry significant numbers of Human Shields from Major European cities. Ideally, several jumbo jets will be chartered to carry human shields from some of the world’s major cities and use of land convoys are under consideration.</p>
<p>More excerpts:</p>
<p>“HS/Government Relations – The first objective of the enemies of Syria will be to portray Human Shields as nothing more than pawns of President Bashar al-Assad. This was precisely what the mainstream media did in 2003, presenting Human Shields as pawns of Saddam. &#160;In order for the Human Shields to have power they must be seen as independent supporters of the people of Syria who represent the will of the vast majority of people around the world who oppose the pending US-led western attack. The HS should however work with prominent leaders in the civilian sector of Syrian society and great effort should be made to produce daily news stories of the Human Shields and Syrian people working together to protect Syria from the ongoing foreign instigated aggression. There are once again many details here and these would need to be discussed and agreed if any action will be able to reach its full potential.”</p>
<p>“Strategy – The sites that Human Shields deploy to must be very well publicized and these sites must be identified as protected sites under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The White House is saying that they are not going to attack infrastructure (as they did with Iraq in 2003), but they must attack the infrastructure as the goal is to drive Syria into the stone age and make it so weak that Israel will through its agents eventually take Syria over. They know that the Syrian people and military cannot be defeated without massive attacks on the infrastructure.</p>
<p>“So it is absolutely vital that all power plants, water treatment facilities, bomb shelters (if they exist), civilian communications sites, food storage sites and other such sites that are critical to the civilian population are the primary if not sole focus of sites for the HS to deploy. They cannot deploy to military sites, although I personally feel this is morally defensible, it will neutralize the power of the HS in the public relations realm and intelligent public relations is absolutely critical.</p>
<p>“A comprehensive list of protected sites is to be produced immediately and these sites will need to be verified by the most independent sources we can manage to obtain. UN representatives or former representatives would be great, human rights attorneys, legal experts and others of this type are very useful.</p>
<p>“There will be room to deploy to sites not specifically listed in the Fourth Geneva Convention, such as with ethnic and religious minority communities who are deathly afraid of the foreign invaders/terrorist. Special emphasis should be placed on Christian populations as the western audience sadly has more sympathy for Christians than Muslims.”</p>
<p>“Our goal is to personalize the people of Syria and show their suffering through the eyes of the HS with effective daily reports to be uploaded on the Internet and reported by legitimate news agencies such as Press TV, RT and Telesur. A massive effort must be made to educate the public about the reasons for the Fourth Geneva Convention (FGC) and the imperial powers undeniable record of knowingly destroying the lives of ‘protected persons’ as defined in the FGC. There must be high quality, well-spoken Arabic/English speaking spokespersons.</p>
<p>“We should be ready to provide evidence of any attack on such sites the moment it happens and have legal briefs prepared to immediately charge the aggressors with war crimes. This is why it is critical that the HS are almost exclusively at sites that are protected by the FGC.”</p>
<p>The Action Plan concludes: “We cannot necessarily stop them from doing what they intend to do, but we can make their aggression harm them far more than Syria and its people in the end. Herein lays the power, using the enemy’s momentum against him in the most powerful way possible.”</p>
<p>Time will tell which Americans will arrive first in Syria, the military or the American public.&#160; Many Syrian are today praying it will be the latter and have pledged to join them to defeat the coming aggression.</p> | false | 1 | 1000 american human shields stop another criminal war damascus sort roller coaster atmosphere pervades damascus days good bad news rising falling often quarter hour much population monitoring closely news quickly expressing interpretations latest media reports rumors well predicting fairly precise timing assumed american attack country popular normally crowded abaa coffee house edge old city called sarugha section students others enjoy fine cool mist damascenes done years sprayed ceiling pipes provide welcome relief 37 degree celsius 98 degrees f outside temperatures many clued laptops andor animated conversation analyzing likely extent timing soon believed arriving american missiles observer often meets interlocutors abaa pleasant large dozens tables cheap two blocks hotel160 noticed common greetings changing kif hallack 160how 160and arak lahekan see later 160to get 160home safely good luck checkpoints also distinct growing esprit de corps broad coming together much population countdown american attack syria begins160 evident rallying around assad regime one presumes opposite white house hoping would result threats good friend syrian arab red crescent society sarcs humanitarian organization amazing rescue medical services syrians palestinians expanding crisis described one way friends preparing american attack160 gathered important documents birth marriage certificate passport made photo copies160 leave friends safe areas even bury somewhere one knows bad americans bomb us work told final practice drill last saturday next siren real thing planned added many friends family leaving easy expensive go lebanon dont want usand family decided stay home matter happens coming days one common topic discussed reluctance american public attack syria obama ignore it160what kind democracy president ignore american public observer frequently asked one soldier stationed unit outside hotel seemed speak heart americans claim trying help syrian people160 every child knows country think coming attack make things much worse syrian people many others american people good hope control government preparing worst consequences come regret afghanistan iraq libya government assuring public syria ready american attack public services continue160 tv channels show around clock images heroic syrian army exploits marital patriotic music youngsters students workers gathering presumed targets offering human shields solidarity countrymen challenging president obama bomb beloved syria interestingly international human shield movement coalescing according informed sources abroad one initiative bring 1000 americans thousands others syria within next ten days guard likely bomb sites reminding one international solidarity movement international volunteers efforts occupied palestine order try protect homes palestinians government bulldozing redacted specifics disclosed observer international organizing committee working around clock human shield initiative descriptive excerpts international human shields planning coming syria solidarity syrian people effort send global message hopefully deter american attack next week timing moves made fast key elements place time favor160 ten mores days preparation would ideal hs initiative assumes must done way little time lapse official announcement action actual arrival human shields ground syria impact order achieve significant impact least 1000 americans several thousand international human shields deployed syria objective ideally least one representative every un member state evidence true international community opposing american attack us activistbased steering committee quickly bringing together professionals marketing logistical planning implementation spokespersons public relations accounting documentarians experienced project managers ferries european ports arranged carry significant numbers human shields major european cities ideally several jumbo jets chartered carry human shields worlds major cities use land convoys consideration excerpts hsgovernment relations first objective enemies syria portray human shields nothing pawns president bashar alassad precisely mainstream media 2003 presenting human shields pawns saddam 160in order human shields power must seen independent supporters people syria represent vast majority people around world oppose pending usled western attack hs however work prominent leaders civilian sector syrian society great effort made produce daily news stories human shields syrian people working together protect syria ongoing foreign instigated aggression many details would need discussed agreed action able reach full potential strategy sites human shields deploy must well publicized sites must identified protected sites fourth geneva convention white house saying going attack infrastructure iraq 2003 must attack infrastructure goal drive syria stone age make weak israel agents eventually take syria know syrian people military defeated without massive attacks infrastructure absolutely vital power plants water treatment facilities bomb shelters exist civilian communications sites food storage sites sites critical civilian population primary sole focus sites hs deploy deploy military sites although personally feel morally defensible neutralize power hs public relations realm intelligent public relations absolutely critical comprehensive list protected sites produced immediately sites need verified independent sources manage obtain un representatives former representatives would great human rights attorneys legal experts others type useful room deploy sites specifically listed fourth geneva convention ethnic religious minority communities deathly afraid foreign invadersterrorist special emphasis placed christian populations western audience sadly sympathy christians muslims goal personalize people syria show suffering eyes hs effective daily reports uploaded internet reported legitimate news agencies press tv rt telesur massive effort must made educate public reasons fourth geneva convention fgc imperial powers undeniable record knowingly destroying lives protected persons defined fgc must high quality wellspoken arabicenglish speaking spokespersons ready provide evidence attack sites moment happens legal briefs prepared immediately charge aggressors war crimes critical hs almost exclusively sites protected fgc action plan concludes necessarily stop intend make aggression harm far syria people end herein lays power using enemys momentum powerful way possible time tell americans arrive first syria military american public160 many syrian today praying latter pledged join defeat coming aggression | 875 |
<p>In the final weeks of 2013, most of the&#160;Obamacare&#160;focus was on the disastrous launch of the federal and state exchanges, followed by the frenzied effort to get the websites up to a minimum level of functionality before December 1. Almost forgotten in the tumult was the unpleasant reality that the highly controversial&#160;“HHS&#160;mandate” was about to go live on January 1, along with the rest of&#160;Obamacare. The mandate is the requirement that all employer-sponsored insurance plans, including those offered by employers with strong religious objections to the mandate, must provide&#160;“free”&#160;contraceptives,&#160;abortifacient&#160;drugs, and sterilization procedures to their workers and their workers’ families.</p>
<p>Employers who object to the mandate hadn’t forgotten about it, of course. They had been looking ahead to January 1, 2014, with dread for nearly three years, knowing that this might be the moment when they would have to choose between violating their consciences and accepting large financial penalties for sticking to their principles. The scores of lawsuits filed in federal court since the mandate was finalized last year are an indication of how seriously these employers are taking the issue.</p>
<p>This week, Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor thrust the issue back into the headlines by&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/01/us/politics/justice-sotomayor-blocks-contraception-mandate-in-health-law.html" type="external">blocking the imposition of the mandate</a>, at least temporarily, on the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of Catholic nuns that, among other things, runs a nursing home in Denver, Colo. Sotomayor’s order had the effect of providing a short-term reprieve for the nuns while they await a required response from the Department of Justice,&#160; <a href="http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/LittleSistersDOJSCOTUS.pdf" type="external">filed</a>&#160;with the court late last week.&#160;Now, Sotomayor and her colleagues on the Court could decide to extend the stay until the lower-court case filed by the Little Sisters has run its course, or she could lift the stay during the lower-court proceedings.</p>
<p>But even if the Little Sisters of the Poor win a longer reprieve while their case is being heard, that won’t spare many other religious nonprofits, including the University of Notre Dame.&#160; <a href="http://www.wndu.com/home/headlines/Notre-Dame-issues-statement-on-contraceptive-care-injunction-denial-238301211.html?device=phone" type="external">They are already being forced by the courts to comply with the mandate</a>&#160;while their cases are under consideration. (Although Notre Dame lost its bid for injunctive relief, most of the religious nonprofits that have filed suits against the mandate have been given temporary relief by the courts pending resolution of their cases.) So the HHS mandate is no longer just a theoretical possibility. It is now being imposed on real institutions, in clear violation of their religious-liberty rights.</p>
<p>As the legal wrangling continues, it’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming that this clash between sweeping health-policy objectives and religious freedom was inevitable at some point, and that a judicial remedy can help define where the lines should be drawn going forward.</p>
<p>But this is far too benign a view of how this issue came about. There was nothing inevitable about this fight. The truth is that the Obama administration manufactured this confrontation and did so for entirely political reasons. Prior to 2011, the Obama administration never argued that the lack of access to “free” contraceptives and sterilization procedures, especially among women, was a burning national crisis that demanded immediate attention. The administration never raised this as an issue because there was no such crisis. Contraceptives have long been readily available and inexpensive in this country. The federal government subsidizes large numbers of clinics that provide these products essentially at no direct cost to consumers or for very low cost.</p>
<p>But in 2011 and early 2012, the Obama administration decided that access to “free” contraception, abortifacient drugs, and sterilization procedures was such an important American “right” that it necessitated forcing all employers, including those with religious objections, to facilitate access to these products and services for their workers. When the inevitable objections were voiced, the Obama administration and its political allies pounced. Here was the divisive social issue they were looking for in the run-up to the 2012 election. Democrats condemned opponents of the mandate for engaging in a heretofore never mentioned “war on women” — the aim of which was supposedly to deny women access to their contraceptive methods. These political attacks were so preposterous that they were laughable. But the Obama campaign team wasn’t easily embarrassed in 2012. They drove this theme, pitched to certain segments of women voters, all the way to Election Day.</p>
<p>The legal and political standoff that exists today is a direct result of the administration’s decision to use the issue as a political weapon in the 2012 election. Having picked this fight, the administration could not back down and provide a reasonable exemption for all employers with religious objections because that would offend the group of supporters it courted so assiduously in the 2012 campaign.</p>
<p>This explains the pathetic “accommodation” now at issue in so many of the court cases brought by Catholic organizations and institutions. The Obama administration is contending that nonprofit religious institutions don’t have to provide access to the products and services they find objectionable. They only have to “self-certify” that they have an objection, at which point the insurance plans they work with will be required to provide the coverage without the involvement of the employers.</p>
<p>But this is a farce. A Catholic employer signing such a “self-certification” notice will know in advance that doing so will trigger coverage by the contracted insurer of the products and services the employer wants to avoid &#160;(third-party administrators working with employers that self-insure will act in the place of the insurers under the administration’s regulation). In other words, the moral effect is the same as if the employer were required to provide the coverage directly through its insurance plan. The administration’s “accommodation” is thus a non-solution intended to obfuscate rather than solve the problem. That some Catholic organizations have provided cover for the administration by&#160; <a href="http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/catholic-health-association-pleased-with-hhs-mandate-rule/" type="external">supporting this charade</a>, despite the clear opposition of the U.S. Catholic bishops, speaks volumes. These groups have shown yet again that it is far more important to them to stay within the good graces of the Democratic party than to practice genuine fidelity to those responsible for shepherding the church.</p>
<p>At this point, there is reason to be hopeful that the courts will remedy this sad situation. It is hard to read the facts of these cases and not see a gross violation of religious liberty. But it should never have reached the point where court intervention was necessary. This was a manufactured political confrontation, intended to sway some voters in the 2012 election. That it has the potential to cause lasting damage to one of the most cherished rights under the Constitution would seem to matter little to those who would pursue political ends at all costs.</p>
<p>James C. Capretta is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.</p> | false | 1 | final weeks 2013 the160obamacare160focus disastrous launch federal state exchanges followed frenzied effort get websites minimum level functionality december 1 almost forgotten tumult unpleasant reality highly controversial160hhs160mandate go live january 1 along rest of160obamacare mandate requirement employersponsored insurance plans including offered employers strong religious objections mandate must provide160free160contraceptives160abortifacient160drugs sterilization procedures workers workers families employers object mandate hadnt forgotten course looking ahead january 1 2014 dread nearly three years knowing might moment would choose violating consciences accepting large financial penalties sticking principles scores lawsuits filed federal court since mandate finalized last year indication seriously employers taking issue week supreme court justice sonya sotomayor thrust issue back headlines by160 blocking imposition mandate least temporarily little sisters poor order catholic nuns among things runs nursing home denver colo sotomayors order effect providing shortterm reprieve nuns await required response department justice160 filed160with court late last week160now sotomayor colleagues court could decide extend stay lowercourt case filed little sisters run course could lift stay lowercourt proceedings even little sisters poor win longer reprieve case heard wont spare many religious nonprofits including university notre dame160 already forced courts comply mandate160while cases consideration although notre dame lost bid injunctive relief religious nonprofits filed suits mandate given temporary relief courts pending resolution cases hhs mandate longer theoretical possibility imposed real institutions clear violation religiousliberty rights legal wrangling continues easy fall trap assuming clash sweeping healthpolicy objectives religious freedom inevitable point judicial remedy help define lines drawn going forward far benign view issue came nothing inevitable fight truth obama administration manufactured confrontation entirely political reasons prior 2011 obama administration never argued lack access free contraceptives sterilization procedures especially among women burning national crisis demanded immediate attention administration never raised issue crisis contraceptives long readily available inexpensive country federal government subsidizes large numbers clinics provide products essentially direct cost consumers low cost 2011 early 2012 obama administration decided access free contraception abortifacient drugs sterilization procedures important american right necessitated forcing employers including religious objections facilitate access products services workers inevitable objections voiced obama administration political allies pounced divisive social issue looking runup 2012 election democrats condemned opponents mandate engaging heretofore never mentioned war women aim supposedly deny women access contraceptive methods political attacks preposterous laughable obama campaign team wasnt easily embarrassed 2012 drove theme pitched certain segments women voters way election day legal political standoff exists today direct result administrations decision use issue political weapon 2012 election picked fight administration could back provide reasonable exemption employers religious objections would offend group supporters courted assiduously 2012 campaign explains pathetic accommodation issue many court cases brought catholic organizations institutions obama administration contending nonprofit religious institutions dont provide access products services find objectionable selfcertify objection point insurance plans work required provide coverage without involvement employers farce catholic employer signing selfcertification notice know advance trigger coverage contracted insurer products services employer wants avoid 160thirdparty administrators working employers selfinsure act place insurers administrations regulation words moral effect employer required provide coverage directly insurance plan administrations accommodation thus nonsolution intended obfuscate rather solve problem catholic organizations provided cover administration by160 supporting charade despite clear opposition us catholic bishops speaks volumes groups shown yet far important stay within good graces democratic party practice genuine fidelity responsible shepherding church point reason hopeful courts remedy sad situation hard read facts cases see gross violation religious liberty never reached point court intervention necessary manufactured political confrontation intended sway voters 2012 election potential cause lasting damage one cherished rights constitution would seem matter little would pursue political ends costs james c capretta senior fellow ethics public policy center visiting fellow american enterprise institute | 591 |
<p />
<p>Beirut, Aug. 6 — Jamal is a Lebanese driver in his late 50’s. He appeared unshaven and terribly exhausted as he drove his old passenger van from the airport in Beirut to the Bekaa Valley.&#160; Although it was not a particularly arduous trip, it was made more grueling by the way Jamal drove, negotiating the elevation, the hectic traffic and the many army vehicles speeding by.</p>
<p>In Lebanon, a sense of urgency always seems to prevail, even when there are no urgent matters to tend to. Jamal’s driving style has probably changed little through the successive Israeli wars and bombardments of Lebanon in past years (the last being the 2006 war, which destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure and killed hundreds of civilians).</p>
<p>Although no bombs were falling now, Jamal could feel something in the air. “They are cooking something big,” he said, “but what it is, no one really knows for sure.”</p>
<p>Jamal was referring to a joint historic visit to Lebanon by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on July 30. President al-Assad joined King Abdullah in his plane, where they stayed for a few hours and lunched with Lebanese leaders. The occasion marks the first visit by a Saudi King to Lebanon since 1957, and also al-Assad’s first trip to Beirut since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005. While both these fact are important, what is most interesting is the fact that Syria and Saudi Arabia once stood at complete odds over the rivalry in Lebanon between two collations – the ruling March 14 Coalition and the one comprising the opposition under Hezbollah’s leadership, the March 8 Coalition.</p>
<p>While Jamal was puzzled by the July 30 visit, he is hardly confused about where he stands. He remains unquestionably a fervent supporter of Hezbollah, the Shia group that led the Lebanese resistance that forced an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. Many believe it also defeated the Israeli forces that attacked Lebanon in 2006, and see the group as a symbol of Arab resistance against Israeli threats. But Jamal, like many of Hezbollah’s supporters in Lebanon is not Shia. He is a Sunni.</p>
<p>Jamal’s wife of many years died two months ago. He saw her as his life partner and his “only love in life.” As he spoke about her, he breathed in the smoke from his cheap cigarette – as if carbon dioxide might somehow help to rejuvenate memory. He held in the smoke as he began searching for something on his duck-taped cell phone.&#160; As if the frenzy on the road was not dangerous enough, Jamal then paused to locate a photo of his wife, a shy and kindly-looking woman in a white headscarf. She was 55 when she died of cancer. For a poor man like Jamal, medical treatment would normally be confined to whatever public hospitals had to offer. But private hospitals subsided by Hezbollah made it possible for Jamal to ensure that his wife received the best in medical technology. Although she eventually succumbed to her illness, she was shielded from pain under the care of competent and respectful doctors and nurses.</p>
<p>No, there should be no ‘eureka’ moments here. Jamal’s passionate support of Hezbollah is not simply self-serving. He is very clear on his ideological affiliations and is not hesitant to point out their shortcomings. Also, if he was seeking personal benefit, he would surely be driving a better car, wearing a nicer shirt, and smoking fancier cigarettes. “Hezbollah made it possible for a man like me to be proud again,” he said. According to him, Hezbollah’s heroism in the battle field, and unconditional social services provided mostly to the poor in Beirut and elsewhere restored his pride and dignity. But Jamal himself is a self-declared Arab-Nationalist, a Nasserite even.</p>
<p>Unlike other cities, Beirut doesn’t convey one overall impression and experience. The photos of the war martyrs – with most recent victims having newer and larger posters – are mixed with many signs of globalization. While Jamal’s car seemed commonplace in West Beirut, in East Beirut, the worn-out vehicle seemed to fight for an ever-shrinking space among newer models. But Jamal didn’t sound intimidated or disturbed by his comparative poverty. His language is revolutionary, laden with terminology affiliated with various ideological brands: Islamist, Socialist, Pan-Arabist. There are many like him in Lebanon, emboldened by the impressive victories of the resistance, and the failures of all who attempted to co-opt it.</p>
<p>Still, cultural differences remain. There are many others, who, although Arab, prefer to speak in French. Indeed, the conflict in Lebanon cannot be reduced to mere groups and individuals, but is also a cultural clash. The party that will eventually prevail will ultimately define Lebanon: as an Arab country or some other imagined entity.</p>
<p>There is much haste here, as the clash is expected, once more, to come to head. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which was set up in the wake of Hariri’s assassination is expected to reveal its findings soon. It is feared that the investigation will blame “rogue elements” of Hezbollah for the killing, as disclosed by the leader of Hezbollah himself, Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah. Many here believe that STL has been largely compromised and politicized, and is a Western-Israeli platform intended to destabilize Lebanon and extract concessions from Hezbollah. The outcome of its investigation is likely to also be political. Many are worried, although some are comforted by the fact that Hezbollah is just too strong to be undermined by STL’s findings.</p>
<p>“This bridge is the highest in the Middle East,” Jamal said proudly, as we crossed the massive and very high concrete edifice. I nodded admiringly, thinking he was proud simply of an architectural achievement. He continued, “Israel destroyed it in the war, and two months ago it was re-opened. It is much more impressive than before.”</p>
<p>“They destroy, we rebuild,” he reminisced, words that accentuate the wisdom of generations. “This is what resistance is all about.”</p>
<p>He pulled in another deep breath of smoke, and held it in for a while. Then he slowly released it, as we finally crossed the bridge.</p> | false | 1 | beirut aug 6 jamal lebanese driver late 50s appeared unshaven terribly exhausted drove old passenger van airport beirut bekaa valley160 although particularly arduous trip made grueling way jamal drove negotiating elevation hectic traffic many army vehicles speeding lebanon sense urgency always seems prevail even urgent matters tend jamals driving style probably changed little successive israeli wars bombardments lebanon past years last 2006 war destroyed much countrys infrastructure killed hundreds civilians although bombs falling jamal could feel something air cooking something big said one really knows sure jamal referring joint historic visit lebanon saudi arabias king abdullah syrian president bashar alassad july 30 president alassad joined king abdullah plane stayed hours lunched lebanese leaders occasion marks first visit saudi king lebanon since 1957 also alassads first trip beirut since assassination former lebanese prime minister rafic hariri 2005 fact important interesting fact syria saudi arabia stood complete odds rivalry lebanon two collations ruling march 14 coalition one comprising opposition hezbollahs leadership march 8 coalition jamal puzzled july 30 visit hardly confused stands remains unquestionably fervent supporter hezbollah shia group led lebanese resistance forced israeli withdrawal lebanon 2000 many believe also defeated israeli forces attacked lebanon 2006 see group symbol arab resistance israeli threats jamal like many hezbollahs supporters lebanon shia sunni jamals wife many years died two months ago saw life partner love life spoke breathed smoke cheap cigarette carbon dioxide might somehow help rejuvenate memory held smoke began searching something ducktaped cell phone160 frenzy road dangerous enough jamal paused locate photo wife shy kindlylooking woman white headscarf 55 died cancer poor man like jamal medical treatment would normally confined whatever public hospitals offer private hospitals subsided hezbollah made possible jamal ensure wife received best medical technology although eventually succumbed illness shielded pain care competent respectful doctors nurses eureka moments jamals passionate support hezbollah simply selfserving clear ideological affiliations hesitant point shortcomings also seeking personal benefit would surely driving better car wearing nicer shirt smoking fancier cigarettes hezbollah made possible man like proud said according hezbollahs heroism battle field unconditional social services provided mostly poor beirut elsewhere restored pride dignity jamal selfdeclared arabnationalist nasserite even unlike cities beirut doesnt convey one overall impression experience photos war martyrs recent victims newer larger posters mixed many signs globalization jamals car seemed commonplace west beirut east beirut wornout vehicle seemed fight evershrinking space among newer models jamal didnt sound intimidated disturbed comparative poverty language revolutionary laden terminology affiliated various ideological brands islamist socialist panarabist many like lebanon emboldened impressive victories resistance failures attempted coopt still cultural differences remain many others although arab prefer speak french indeed conflict lebanon reduced mere groups individuals also cultural clash party eventually prevail ultimately define lebanon arab country imagined entity much haste clash expected come head special tribunal lebanon stl set wake hariris assassination expected reveal findings soon feared investigation blame rogue elements hezbollah killing disclosed leader hezbollah sayyed hasan nasrallah many believe stl largely compromised politicized westernisraeli platform intended destabilize lebanon extract concessions hezbollah outcome investigation likely also political many worried although comforted fact hezbollah strong undermined stls findings bridge highest middle east jamal said proudly crossed massive high concrete edifice nodded admiringly thinking proud simply architectural achievement continued israel destroyed war two months ago reopened much impressive destroy rebuild reminisced words accentuate wisdom generations resistance pulled another deep breath smoke held slowly released finally crossed bridge | 558 |
<p>As Britain’s love affair with state secrecy collides yet again with public demands for transparency, RT asks what exactly Her Majesty’s Government has to hide.</p>
<p>Rather than release a trove of documents under the 30-year disclosure rule, the British government says it will keep many of its secret files under wraps, citing ongoing national security interests.</p>
<p>A number of files from 1986 and 1987 had been due for release to the National Archives at Kew, west London. But, not for the first time, government departments decided to exercise their right under transparency laws to withhold documents.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>A shadowy loophole, called Section 3(4) of the Public Records Act 1958, allows departments to retain files “if, in the opinion of the person who is responsible for them, they are required for administrative purposes or ought to be retained for any other special reason.”</p>
<p>These include 40 on UK arms sales to India, 15 on similar dealings with Saudi Arabia, and 27 relating to a visit to the Middle Each by the Prince of Wales and his late former wife, Diana.</p>
<p>Some 986 documents were retained this year – up 460 on 2013 figures.</p>
<p>Condemning the decision on Tuesday <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/national-archives-documents-kept-secret-whitehall-government-democracy-a7874181.html" type="external">in an interview</a> with the Times, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said Britain’s obsession with secrecy is an “affront to our democratic ideals.”</p>
<p>As questions hang over the contents of these files, RT examines some of the British establishment’s dirty secrets it doesn’t want you to know about.</p>
<p>Many of the most contentious files being withheld relate to UK activities under the leadership of late Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.</p>
<p>Among these are files covering the al-Yamamah deal in the 1980s – the biggest arms deal in British history – in which the UK saw off French competition to secure a contract to sell Hawk and Tornado jets to the Saudis.</p>
<p>One key set of files, called ‘Mark Thatcher and the Omanis; other allegations against Mark Thatcher,’ have been retained, potentially indefinitely.</p>
<p>The files are thought to relate to Sir Mark Thatcher, the PM’s son, and his involvement in the deal.</p>
<p>Files involving another major arms deal with India from the same period have also been retained.</p>
<p>Documents thought to relate to a 1984 massacre at a Sikh temple in India have also been kept back.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/365339-sikh-sas-massacre-archives/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Campaigners have long lobbied for the truth about the Golden Temple incident, in which Indian troops killed up to 400 Sikhs, according to official estimates. Others claim the number of deaths was in the thousands.</p>
<p>It has long been rumored that the massacre occurred under the watch of Operation Bluestar, led by UK special forces advisers from the SAS.</p>
<p>A partial release of documents in 2014 confirmed that an SAS officer had indeed planned Bluestar, which was designed to dislodge Sikh ‘militants’ who had occupied the temple.</p>
<p>One of those papers, a memo from a Foreign Office official, read: “We have impressed upon the Indians the need for security; and knowledge of the SAS officer’s visit and of his plan has been tightly held both in India and in London.”</p>
<p>While many documents are retained to keep them out of public view, there is a consistent tendency for others to go missing entirely from government archives.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/396920-funding-terrorist-theresa-may/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Accusations of skulduggery were levelled at the government when in 2014 it was reported by the Home Office that 114 files relating to alleged high-profile child abusers had disappeared.</p>
<p>RT reported at the time that the lost files were part of a dossier compiled in the 1980s by the now deceased Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens. This dossier was passed to then-Home Secretary Leon Brittan.</p>
<p>Dickens, who died in 1995, told his family he had details in the dossier that would “blow the lid off,” naming powerful and famous child abusers.</p>
<p>Mark Sedwill, who served as permanent secretary to the Home Office in 2014, admitted that the Home Office had lost, destroyed or simply “not found” more than 100 of these potentially relevant files.</p>
<p>While many files date back decades and have been withheld under a loophole in the 30-year rule, other important information which could shed light on more recent events has been retained.</p>
<p>This includes the findings of a government-sponsored inquiry into UK terrorism funding which was due to be published in 2017.</p>
<p>It paid particular attention to the means by which UK-terrorist groups finance themselves with money from abroad.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>However, the Home Office announced in May that the “very sensitive” nature of the findings meant the report would not be released.</p>
<p>It is widely rumored that the report tuned up substantial evidence that Britain’s major Middle East ally and arms customer Saudi Arabia is deeply involved in sponsoring Islamist extremism and was kept from view to protect UK/Saudi relations.</p>
<p>Britain outwardly claims to be a purveyor of fundamental human rights, including the right to open justice and legal accountability.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/377584-belhaj-libya-torture-case/" type="external" /></p>
<p>In reality, the UK has become deeply attached to closed and secret courts, where the needs of national security can be used as justification.</p>
<p>One example of this is the case of Abdelhakim Belhaj, a Libyan dissident who was kidnapped from southeast Asia with British help and returned to his North African homeland to be tortured by the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. His then-pregnant wife Fadima Boudchar was also rendered.</p>
<p>Belhaj is <a href="http://www.reprieve.org.uk/case-study/abdul-hakim-belhaj/" type="external">currently suing the UK government</a> for the symbolic sum of £1. Yet his plan to expose high-profile political figures linked to his rendition – including Tony Blair-era Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and former MI6 chief Mark Allen – was scuppered when the High Court ruled that the civil case should be heard in secret.</p>
<p>Justice Popplewell, presiding over the matter on July 21, accepted the seriousness of the case but ruled that it would be heard in secret as the details “would cause significant damage to the interests of national security … irrespective of the current sensitivity of the intelligence itself.”</p> | false | 1 | britains love affair state secrecy collides yet public demands transparency rt asks exactly majestys government hide rather release trove documents 30year disclosure rule british government says keep many secret files wraps citing ongoing national security interests number files 1986 1987 due release national archives kew west london first time government departments decided exercise right transparency laws withhold documents embedded content shadowy loophole called section 34 public records act 1958 allows departments retain files opinion person responsible required administrative purposes ought retained special reason include 40 uk arms sales india 15 similar dealings saudi arabia 27 relating visit middle prince wales late former wife diana 986 documents retained year 460 2013 figures condemning decision tuesday interview times liberal democrat leader vince cable said britains obsession secrecy affront democratic ideals questions hang contents files rt examines british establishments dirty secrets doesnt want know many contentious files withheld relate uk activities leadership late tory prime minister margaret thatcher among files covering alyamamah deal 1980s biggest arms deal british history uk saw french competition secure contract sell hawk tornado jets saudis one key set files called mark thatcher omanis allegations mark thatcher retained potentially indefinitely files thought relate sir mark thatcher pms son involvement deal files involving another major arms deal india period also retained documents thought relate 1984 massacre sikh temple india also kept back read campaigners long lobbied truth golden temple incident indian troops killed 400 sikhs according official estimates others claim number deaths thousands long rumored massacre occurred watch operation bluestar led uk special forces advisers sas partial release documents 2014 confirmed sas officer indeed planned bluestar designed dislodge sikh militants occupied temple one papers memo foreign office official read impressed upon indians need security knowledge sas officers visit plan tightly held india london many documents retained keep public view consistent tendency others go missing entirely government archives read accusations skulduggery levelled government 2014 reported home office 114 files relating alleged highprofile child abusers disappeared rt reported time lost files part dossier compiled 1980s deceased conservative mp geoffrey dickens dossier passed thenhome secretary leon brittan dickens died 1995 told family details dossier would blow lid naming powerful famous child abusers mark sedwill served permanent secretary home office 2014 admitted home office lost destroyed simply found 100 potentially relevant files many files date back decades withheld loophole 30year rule important information could shed light recent events retained includes findings governmentsponsored inquiry uk terrorism funding due published 2017 paid particular attention means ukterrorist groups finance money abroad embedded content however home office announced may sensitive nature findings meant report would released widely rumored report tuned substantial evidence britains major middle east ally arms customer saudi arabia deeply involved sponsoring islamist extremism kept view protect uksaudi relations britain outwardly claims purveyor fundamental human rights including right open justice legal accountability read reality uk become deeply attached closed secret courts needs national security used justification one example case abdelhakim belhaj libyan dissident kidnapped southeast asia british help returned north african homeland tortured regime colonel muammar gaddafi thenpregnant wife fadima boudchar also rendered belhaj currently suing uk government symbolic sum 1 yet plan expose highprofile political figures linked rendition including tony blairera foreign secretary jack straw former mi6 chief mark allen scuppered high court ruled civil case heard secret justice popplewell presiding matter july 21 accepted seriousness case ruled would heard secret details would cause significant damage interests national security irrespective current sensitivity intelligence | 568 |
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/jayson-dinsmore/" type="external">Jayson Dinsmore</a> is departing <a href="http://variety.com/t/cmt/" type="external">CMT</a> after six years leading development at the Viacom-owned cable channel. The move comes as Viacom continues to reorganize the executive leadership within its television group.</p>
<p>Dinsmore joined CMT as exec VP of programming in 2011 from NBC, where he had served as senior VP of alternative development. He helped lead CMT’s transition from a country-music channel to a strategy that emphasized original programming with broader appeal. That approach first relied on reality series such as “Party Down South.” In recent years Dinsmore and CMT pivoted to scripted programming with the acquisition of drama series “Nashville” after it was canceled by ABC, the development of the channel’s first scripted comedy in “Still the King” starring Billy Ray Cyrus, and ambitious event miniseries “Sun Records.”</p>
<p>“During his seven-year tenure, he helped evolve CMT from a music video channel to a fully realized brand,” CMT general manager said Frank Tanki wrote Monday in a memo to staff announcing Dinsmore’s departure. “In our short time working together, I’ve come to quickly admire his creative energy and instincts, as well as his love for CMT and every one of you.”</p>
<p>CMT has been in a continuous state of leadership transition since before February, when Viacom CEO Bob Bakish rolled out new strategy for the media company that included rebranding Spike TV as Paramount Network. The relaunched channel would serve as one of what Bakish identified as six core cable brands to which Viacom is shifting resources — along with BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nick Jr., and Nickelodeon.</p>
<p>CMT, TV Land, VH1, Logo and other channels, were relegated to supporting status. Those channels still generate significant revenue for Viacom and are not slated to disappear, but neither are they expected to be the recipients of major investment from the parent company going forward.</p>
<p>Ahead of Bakish’s strategy announcement, oversight of TV Land and CMT were given to Spike president Kevin Kay, who would continue to lead that channel as it transitions to Paramount Network.</p>
<p>TV Land and CMT, which longtime Spike TV president Kay was given oversight of ahead of the strategy announcement, are set to be relegated to secondary status in the new structure. In June, longtime CMT president Brian Philips stepped down, with Tanki coming aboard as GM and Keith Cox, president of programming and development for Paramount Network and TV Land, taking charge of development for CMT.</p>
<p>Read the full memos from Tanki and Dinsmore below. From Tanki:</p>
<p>Team- I have an update on the development front. We’re taking the next steps in centralizing the development teams for Paramount, CMT and TV Land under Keith Cox. As part of this transition, Jayson Dinsmore will step down as CMT’s head of development.</p>
<p>Kevin and I want to commend Jayson for his tremendous contributions. During his seven-year tenure, he helped evolve CMT from a music video channel to a fully realized brand. In our short time working together, I’ve come to quickly admire his creative energy and instincts, as well as his love for CMT and every one of you. He embodies the spirit of the channel and we will build upon his strong legacy by continuing to create memorable stories and characters that showcase the best attributes of our audience.</p>
<p>Jayson leaves us in fantastic shape. Thanks to all of your hard work, CMT is rounding out its best fiscal year since 2014. We’re currently at 9 months of consecutive ratings growth and are finishing a strong quarter. In total day, we’re up 15 % percent with adults and a stellar 20% with women.</p>
<p>Looking to the future, our goal is to build upon this success to position Paramount, CMT and TV Land as the preeminent destinations for adult viewers. To succeed, we will need to create a unified voice while also maintaining each brand’s unique personality and attributes. By streamlining these development teams, we’ll be able to explore multi-brand talent development and first-look deals, while creating one focal point for the creative community. We’ll also be able to work more closely with marketing and ad sales to find creative synergies and opportunities at the group and brand levels.</p>
<p>CMT has a strong and proven development team that will now report directly into Keith, who has been leading the charge for CMT since June. A Kentucky native, he’s returning to his roots as he immerses himself in the brand with the goal of building upon our success to further capitalize on the new and growing fan-base we cultivated this year. We’re actively fast-tracking several projects and will announce new programming in the coming months.</p>
<p>I’ve had the privilege of working closely with Keith this year over at TV Land. He’s smart, highly creative, loves his teams and above all else, creating bold stories and characters. I look forward to bringing him to Nashville soon to meet each and every one of you.</p>
<p>Thank you, Jayson, and thanks to each of you for your unwavering hard work and support as we build toward a strong future.</p>
<p>Frank</p>
<p>From Dinsmore:</p>
<p>CMT Family-</p>
<p>One of my biggest dreams came true by being given the opportunity to work alongside each and every one of you.</p>
<p>Together, we saved “Nashville,” witnessed mind-blowing music events, produced critically acclaimed documentaries, introduced the birth of rock ‘n’ roll to a new generation, revived the mullet (or rather tried to), broke some skulls and did more than our share of “Partying Down South.”</p>
<p>CMT is an amazing and important place. Music is your heart and soul, but more importantly you are a true family.</p>
<p>Thanks to my incredible team in LA and Nashville. You’ve pushed me creatively and made me a better person.</p>
<p>Nashville has become my home-away-from-home. I will miss the frequent flyer miles, but most importantly, walking the halls and laughing with each of you.</p>
<p>I’ve had the privilege to learn from legendary creative forces…Brian, Van and Cyma. I am lucky to count this crew as mentors… and thankful to call them my friends. And call I will!</p>
<p>I’ve really enjoyed my time with Kevin, Frank and Keith, who’ve been great partners and strong advocates for the brand. I know they will continue to work closely with Suzanne, Anthony, Kurt and Leslie to build a great future.</p>
<p>I’ll be cheering you on. Thank you for allowing me to crash your party for 7 crazy beautiful years.</p>
<p>Much love – Jayson</p> | false | 1 | jayson dinsmore departing cmt six years leading development viacomowned cable channel move comes viacom continues reorganize executive leadership within television group dinsmore joined cmt exec vp programming 2011 nbc served senior vp alternative development helped lead cmts transition countrymusic channel strategy emphasized original programming broader appeal approach first relied reality series party south recent years dinsmore cmt pivoted scripted programming acquisition drama series nashville canceled abc development channels first scripted comedy still king starring billy ray cyrus ambitious event miniseries sun records sevenyear tenure helped evolve cmt music video channel fully realized brand cmt general manager said frank tanki wrote monday memo staff announcing dinsmores departure short time working together ive come quickly admire creative energy instincts well love cmt every one cmt continuous state leadership transition since february viacom ceo bob bakish rolled new strategy media company included rebranding spike tv paramount network relaunched channel would serve one bakish identified six core cable brands viacom shifting resources along bet comedy central mtv nick jr nickelodeon cmt tv land vh1 logo channels relegated supporting status channels still generate significant revenue viacom slated disappear neither expected recipients major investment parent company going forward ahead bakishs strategy announcement oversight tv land cmt given spike president kevin kay would continue lead channel transitions paramount network tv land cmt longtime spike tv president kay given oversight ahead strategy announcement set relegated secondary status new structure june longtime cmt president brian philips stepped tanki coming aboard gm keith cox president programming development paramount network tv land taking charge development cmt read full memos tanki dinsmore tanki team update development front taking next steps centralizing development teams paramount cmt tv land keith cox part transition jayson dinsmore step cmts head development kevin want commend jayson tremendous contributions sevenyear tenure helped evolve cmt music video channel fully realized brand short time working together ive come quickly admire creative energy instincts well love cmt every one embodies spirit channel build upon strong legacy continuing create memorable stories characters showcase best attributes audience jayson leaves us fantastic shape thanks hard work cmt rounding best fiscal year since 2014 currently 9 months consecutive ratings growth finishing strong quarter total day 15 percent adults stellar 20 women looking future goal build upon success position paramount cmt tv land preeminent destinations adult viewers succeed need create unified voice also maintaining brands unique personality attributes streamlining development teams well able explore multibrand talent development firstlook deals creating one focal point creative community well also able work closely marketing ad sales find creative synergies opportunities group brand levels cmt strong proven development team report directly keith leading charge cmt since june kentucky native hes returning roots immerses brand goal building upon success capitalize new growing fanbase cultivated year actively fasttracking several projects announce new programming coming months ive privilege working closely keith year tv land hes smart highly creative loves teams else creating bold stories characters look forward bringing nashville soon meet every one thank jayson thanks unwavering hard work support build toward strong future frank dinsmore cmt family one biggest dreams came true given opportunity work alongside every one together saved nashville witnessed mindblowing music events produced critically acclaimed documentaries introduced birth rock n roll new generation revived mullet rather tried broke skulls share partying south cmt amazing important place music heart soul importantly true family thanks incredible team la nashville youve pushed creatively made better person nashville become homeawayfromhome miss frequent flyer miles importantly walking halls laughing ive privilege learn legendary creative forcesbrian van cyma lucky count crew mentors thankful call friends call ive really enjoyed time kevin frank keith whove great partners strong advocates brand know continue work closely suzanne anthony kurt leslie build great future ill cheering thank allowing crash party 7 crazy beautiful years much love jayson | 628 |
<p>By Thomas Escritt</p>
<p>BERLIN (Reuters) – Nihan Sen’s grandmother came to Germany in the 1960s but still speaks no German. By contrast, Nihan herself is a star of German youth culture, with 783,000 followers for her YouTube channel. Yet she acknowledges: “I really do like a bit of Turkish television.”</p>
<p>She is not alone. Turkish broadcasters have an 84 percent market share among Germany’s three million people of Turkish background, and 40 percent of them watch no German television at all, according to market researcher Data4U.</p>
<p>As a captive audience of television broadcast from Ankara, Germany’s Turkish citizens are caught in a tug-of-war for their loyalty ahead of a German national election on Sept. 24.</p>
<p>Turkey’s president, Tayyip Erdogan, has called on German voters of Turkish background to reject Germany’s mainstream political parties, saying they are “unfriendly to Turkey”.</p>
<p>The parties worry that Erdogan has more access to Turkish-speaking German voters than they do.</p>
<p>Green Party co-leader Cem Ozdemir, the most prominent German politician of Turkish descent, has called for Germany’s public media to start broadcasting a Turkish channel for the benefit of Turks, both in Germany and in Turkey.</p>
<p>“We need a German-Turkish broadcaster,” he told the Rheinische Post newspaper in March. “For years we’ve neglected to help people from Turkey find a new political homeland, also politically, and now we’re seeing the fruits of that.”</p>
<p>Traditionally, Turks in Germany have voted mainly for the Social Democrats or the Greens, the main center-left parties, which are known for being friendly to immigrants. But Erdogan has repeatedly urged them instead to reject both those parties, as well as Merkel’s ruling conservatives.</p>
<p>“The majority, because they only watch Turkish TV, are informed very one-sidedly,” said Joachim Schulte, head of Data 4U, which specializes in polling Germany’s Turks. Schulte believes Erdogan’s call could sway 300,000 votes — a quarter of the Germans of Turkish descent who are eligible to vote.</p>
<p>(For a graphic on German federal elections click http://tmsnrt.rs/2h0NqCT)</p>
<p>For now, voters of Turkish descent who turn away from the Social Democrats and Greens have few other choices. Schulte said those who become disaffected are more likely to stay home than back rival parties. But that could still affect the outcome in an election that is likely to be hard fought for every vote.</p>
<p>A change in Germany’s citizenship law in 2000 means the number of ethnic Turks with the right to vote has nearly doubled over the past decade, increasing their importance as a bloc. Polls show most Turks in Germany backed Erdogan when voting as expatriates in Turkish elections.</p>
<p>For Erdogan, having influence over voters in Germany provides a chance to settle scores with German politicians he sees as enemies, while burnishing his credentials at home as a defender of Turks everywhere.</p>
<p>“STAND WITH THEM!”</p>
<p>Germany’s mainstream parties have been outspoken critics of Turkey’s crackdown since a failed coup last year, in which thousands of Turks have been jailed, including around a dozen who hold German citizenship. Turkey also demands that Germany hand over asylum seekers it accuses of involvement in the coup.</p>
<p>For the Social Democrats and Greens, losing the Turkish vote poses a real risk: even a small swing could weaken them in potential talks with the conservatives about setting up a government after the vote.</p>
<p>In recent weeks, a new party, the Alliance of German Democrats, led by ethnic Turks, has campaigned with a poster of Erdogan. “Friends of Turkey,” it reads. “Stand with them!”</p>
<p>So far the new party is polling below one percent nationally and fielding candidates only in North Rhine-Westphalia, the big Western state home to more than a fifth of Germany’s population.</p>
<p>The national prospects for a minority ethnic party may be limited in a country with a 5 percent threshold to win seats, but a party appealing directly to Turks could undermine the bigger parties.</p>
<p>“Our poster was a quote from Erdogan: he was criticizing German politics and saying we should vote for parties that are our friends,” said party spokesman Ertan Toker. “Unlike the other German parties that are always negative about Erdogan, we are not. We saw this as him encouraging us to vote.”</p>
<p>Among the causes the new party has taken up: making it easier for ethnic Turks in Germany, most of whom still don’t have the right to vote, to gain it. That struck a chord for Rascha, a 17-year-old Turkish girl in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia.</p>
<p>“I was born here and I still don’t have a German passport,” she said. “The process for getting one is long and bureaucratic. There’s a new party that wants to give all permanent residents voting rights.”</p>
<p>Turkish community leaders from the big political parties say Erdogan’s interventions into German politics are undoing decades of work on promoting integration.</p>
<p>“The political climate is poisoned by this,” said Cansel Kiziltepe, Social Democrat parliamentary candidate in Berlin’s multi-ethnic Kreuzberg district, where the Social Democrats, Greens and conservatives are all fielding candidates with Turkish roots. “President Erdogan has torn down what we have built up over decades.”</p>
<p>“We get threats, e-mails as ethnic Turkish lawmakers saying we aren’t sufficiently loyal as ‘Turks’,” Kiziltepe said. “But I am a German politician and I do politics for Germany and for all people who live here.”</p>
<p>Timur Husein of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union was categorical about his loyalties: “I am German, only German,” said the son of a Turkish father and a Croatian mother.</p>
<p>For YouTube personality Nihan, who confessed her passion for Turkish TV during an interview with Social Democrat leader Martin Schulz, the worry was that some Turks would end up alienated from wider German society.</p>
<p>“What can we do to stop parallel societies from emerging?” she asked Schulz.</p>
<p>Schulz was reassuring. “It’s not bad, or even hard, to have two identities. Why should you deny your roots?”</p> | false | 1 | thomas escritt berlin reuters nihan sens grandmother came germany 1960s still speaks german contrast nihan star german youth culture 783000 followers youtube channel yet acknowledges really like bit turkish television alone turkish broadcasters 84 percent market share among germanys three million people turkish background 40 percent watch german television according market researcher data4u captive audience television broadcast ankara germanys turkish citizens caught tugofwar loyalty ahead german national election sept 24 turkeys president tayyip erdogan called german voters turkish background reject germanys mainstream political parties saying unfriendly turkey parties worry erdogan access turkishspeaking german voters green party coleader cem ozdemir prominent german politician turkish descent called germanys public media start broadcasting turkish channel benefit turks germany turkey need germanturkish broadcaster told rheinische post newspaper march years weve neglected help people turkey find new political homeland also politically seeing fruits traditionally turks germany voted mainly social democrats greens main centerleft parties known friendly immigrants erdogan repeatedly urged instead reject parties well merkels ruling conservatives majority watch turkish tv informed onesidedly said joachim schulte head data 4u specializes polling germanys turks schulte believes erdogans call could sway 300000 votes quarter germans turkish descent eligible vote graphic german federal elections click httptmsnrtrs2h0nqct voters turkish descent turn away social democrats greens choices schulte said become disaffected likely stay home back rival parties could still affect outcome election likely hard fought every vote change germanys citizenship law 2000 means number ethnic turks right vote nearly doubled past decade increasing importance bloc polls show turks germany backed erdogan voting expatriates turkish elections erdogan influence voters germany provides chance settle scores german politicians sees enemies burnishing credentials home defender turks everywhere stand germanys mainstream parties outspoken critics turkeys crackdown since failed coup last year thousands turks jailed including around dozen hold german citizenship turkey also demands germany hand asylum seekers accuses involvement coup social democrats greens losing turkish vote poses real risk even small swing could weaken potential talks conservatives setting government vote recent weeks new party alliance german democrats led ethnic turks campaigned poster erdogan friends turkey reads stand far new party polling one percent nationally fielding candidates north rhinewestphalia big western state home fifth germanys population national prospects minority ethnic party may limited country 5 percent threshold win seats party appealing directly turks could undermine bigger parties poster quote erdogan criticizing german politics saying vote parties friends said party spokesman ertan toker unlike german parties always negative erdogan saw encouraging us vote among causes new party taken making easier ethnic turks germany still dont right vote gain struck chord rascha 17yearold turkish girl duisburg north rhinewestphalia born still dont german passport said process getting one long bureaucratic theres new party wants give permanent residents voting rights turkish community leaders big political parties say erdogans interventions german politics undoing decades work promoting integration political climate poisoned said cansel kiziltepe social democrat parliamentary candidate berlins multiethnic kreuzberg district social democrats greens conservatives fielding candidates turkish roots president erdogan torn built decades get threats emails ethnic turkish lawmakers saying arent sufficiently loyal turks kiziltepe said german politician politics germany people live timur husein merkels christian democratic union categorical loyalties german german said son turkish father croatian mother youtube personality nihan confessed passion turkish tv interview social democrat leader martin schulz worry turks would end alienated wider german society stop parallel societies emerging asked schulz schulz reassuring bad even hard two identities deny roots | 564 |
<p>SEATTLE — Legal challenges against President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban mounted Thursday as Washington state said it would renew its request to block the executive order and a judge granted Oregon’s request to join the case.</p>
<p>The events happened a day after Hawaii launched its own lawsuit, and Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said New York state also asked to join his state’s legal effort. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said the state is joining fellow states in challenging the revised travel ban.</p>
<p>Washington was the first state to sue over the original ban, which resulted in Judge James Robart in Seattle halting its implementation around the country. Ferguson said the state would ask Robart to rule that his temporary restraining order against the first ban applies to Trump’s revised action.</p>
<p>“My message to President Trump is — not so fast,” Ferguson told reporters. “After spending more than a month to fix a broken order that he rushed out the door, the President’s new order reinstates several of the same provisions and has the same illegal motivations as the original.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Robart on Thursday granted Oregon’s request to join Washington and Minnesota in the case opposing the travel ban.</p>
<p>Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said the executive order has hurt Oregon, its residents, employers, agencies, educational institutions, health care system and economy.</p>
<p>Trump’s revised ban bars new visas for people from six predominantly Muslim countries: Somalia, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen. It also temporarily shuts down the U.S. refugee program.</p>
<p>Unlike the initial order, the new one says current visa holders won’t be affected, and removes language that would give priority to religious minorities.</p>
<p>Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin said that the state could not stay silent on Trump’s travel ban because of Hawaii’s unique culture and history. Hawaii depends heavily on tourism, and the revised ban would hurt the state’s economy, he said.</p>
<p>The courts need to hear “that there’s a state where ethnic diversity is the norm, where people are welcomed with aloha and respect,” Chin said.</p>
<p>He noted that the new travel ban order comes just after the 75th anniversary of the Feb. 19, 1942, executive order by President Franklin Roosevelt that sent Japanese Americans to internment camps during World War II. That order was put in place after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Hawaii had an internment camp.</p>
<p>Ferguson said it’s not the government, but the court, that gets to decide whether the revised order is different enough that it would not be covered by previous temporary restraining order.</p>
<p>“It cannot be a game of whack-a-mole for the court,” he said.</p>
<p>White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Thursday the administration believed the revised travel ban will stand up to legal scrutiny.</p>
<p>“We feel very confident with how that was crafted and the input that was given,” Spicer said.</p>
<p>Ferguson said he was pleased that attorneys general from New York and Oregon had sought to take part in the legal action.</p>
<p>“We have a strong case and they are willing to join our efforts,” he said of his fellow Democrats. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a statement called the executive order “a Muslim ban by another name.”</p>
<p>Other states that have filed briefs supporting Washington’s initial lawsuit include California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia.</p>
<p>In his initial lawsuit Ferguson said the original ban was unconstitutional and hurt the state’s businesses and universities.</p>
<p>A federal appellate court later upheld a temporary restraining order issued against the first travel ban.</p>
<p>The Trump administration says the old order will be revoked once the new one goes into effect on March 16.</p>
<p>In filing a lawsuit Wednesday night, Hawaii said the revised order would harm its Muslim population, tourism and foreign students.</p>
<p>Attorneys for Hawaii filed the lawsuit against the U.S. government in federal court in Honolulu. The state had previously sued over Trump’s initial travel ban, but that lawsuit was put on hold while other cases played out across the country.</p>
<p>Hawaii’s complaint says it is suing to protect its residents, businesses and schools, as well as its “sovereignty against illegal actions of President Donald J. Trump and the federal government.”</p>
<p>Imam Ismail Elshikh of the Muslim Association of Hawaii is a plaintiff in the state’s challenge. The ban will prevent his Syrian mother-in-law from visiting him, he said.</p>
<p>The mam is a U.S. citizen, has rights and would be prevented from seeing his mother-in-law, Chin said. The mother-in-law is awaiting approval of a visa to see her relatives in Hawaii.</p>
<p>The woman and others have become victims because of the ban’s “standardless set of waivers and exceptions that weren’t set by Congress,” Chin said.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Hawaii’s lawsuit challenging the travel ban focuses on damage to the state’s economy and mainly tourism. Chin says the tourism angle is unique because the state relies heavily on visitors and Hawaii officials have a right to defend the economy.</p>
<p>He said people may fear traveling even within Hawaii because they would be forced to encounter a federal agent every time they get on a plane to visit a neighboring island.</p> | false | 1 | seattle legal challenges president donald trumps revised travel ban mounted thursday washington state said would renew request block executive order judge granted oregons request join case events happened day hawaii launched lawsuit washington state attorney general bob ferguson said new york state also asked join states legal effort massachusetts attorney general maura healey said state joining fellow states challenging revised travel ban washington first state sue original ban resulted judge james robart seattle halting implementation around country ferguson said state would ask robart rule temporary restraining order first ban applies trumps revised action message president trump fast ferguson told reporters spending month fix broken order rushed door presidents new order reinstates several provisions illegal motivations original robart thursday granted oregons request join washington minnesota case opposing travel ban oregon attorney general ellen rosenblum said executive order hurt oregon residents employers agencies educational institutions health care system economy trumps revised ban bars new visas people six predominantly muslim countries somalia iran syria sudan libya yemen also temporarily shuts us refugee program unlike initial order new one says current visa holders wont affected removes language would give priority religious minorities hawaii attorney general douglas chin said state could stay silent trumps travel ban hawaiis unique culture history hawaii depends heavily tourism revised ban would hurt states economy said courts need hear theres state ethnic diversity norm people welcomed aloha respect chin said noted new travel ban order comes 75th anniversary feb 19 1942 executive order president franklin roosevelt sent japanese americans internment camps world war ii order put place japanese attack pearl harbor hawaii internment camp ferguson said government court gets decide whether revised order different enough would covered previous temporary restraining order game whackamole court said white house spokesman sean spicer said thursday administration believed revised travel ban stand legal scrutiny feel confident crafted input given spicer said ferguson said pleased attorneys general new york oregon sought take part legal action strong case willing join efforts said fellow democrats new york attorney general eric schneiderman statement called executive order muslim ban another name states filed briefs supporting washingtons initial lawsuit include california connecticut delaware illinois iowa maine maryland new mexico pennsylvania rhode island vermont virginia initial lawsuit ferguson said original ban unconstitutional hurt states businesses universities federal appellate court later upheld temporary restraining order issued first travel ban trump administration says old order revoked new one goes effect march 16 filing lawsuit wednesday night hawaii said revised order would harm muslim population tourism foreign students attorneys hawaii filed lawsuit us government federal court honolulu state previously sued trumps initial travel ban lawsuit put hold cases played across country hawaiis complaint says suing protect residents businesses schools well sovereignty illegal actions president donald j trump federal government imam ismail elshikh muslim association hawaii plaintiff states challenge ban prevent syrian motherinlaw visiting said mam us citizen rights would prevented seeing motherinlaw chin said motherinlaw awaiting approval visa see relatives hawaii woman others become victims bans standardless set waivers exceptions werent set congress chin said hawaiis lawsuit challenging travel ban focuses damage states economy mainly tourism chin says tourism angle unique state relies heavily visitors hawaii officials right defend economy said people may fear traveling even within hawaii would forced encounter federal agent every time get plane visit neighboring island | 546 |
<p>When President Obama decided to take the political low road and demonize House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan’s Medicare-reform plan in his <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/04/13/remarks-president-fiscal-policy" type="external">budget speech last month</a>, it wasn’t really surprising. President Obama already demonstrated that he was a <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/265327/obamacare-s-cruel-and-inhumane-inflation-indexed-vouchers-james-c-capretta" type="external">world-class practitioner of shamelessly dishonest political attacks</a> when he went after Sen. John McCain in the 2008 campaign for proposing a change in the tax treatment of health insurance—and then pushed for a change himself once he was elected. Given this track record, there was every reason to believe he would jump on the chance to demagogue on health care again if the opportunity presented itself. And boy, has he. It’s now clear, based on four weeks of a relentless barrage, that his reelection effort will be based heavily on creating fear in the electorate, and specifically among seniors, about the supposed negative consequences of the Ryan Medicare plan. So much for an administration devoted to hope and change.</p>
<p>But what exactly is the substantive basis for the president’s attack on Ryan’s proposal? Here’s the key passage from the speech: “[The Ryan plan is] a vision that says America can’t afford to keep the promise we’ve made to care for our seniors. It says that ten years from now, if you’re a 65-year-old who’s eligible for Medicare, you should have to pay nearly $6,400 more than you would today.”</p>
<p>Where did the $6,400 figure come from?</p>
<p>Best as anyone can tell (the president didn’t cite a source), it seems to have been derived from the Congressional Budget Office’s April 5 <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/121xx/doc12128/04-05-Ryan_Letter.pdf" type="external">analysis</a> of the Ryan budget. On page 22 of that report, CBO (always so helpful!) provided its assessment of what it would cost an average 65-year-old to enroll in a private health plan compared with what it would cost that same average 65-year-old to stay in traditional Medicare. It’s an illuminating piece of work on the part of CBO, but perhaps not for the reasons CBO intended.</p>
<p>The mechanics appear to be as follows: CBO says the Ryan plan would provide an $8,000 “premium support credit” for average-health 65-year-olds in 2022, which would cover only 39 percent of the total cost of providing a standard Medicare package of services to such beneficiaries. That puts the total cost of the private plan at $20,500, of which the beneficiaries would be required to cover $12,500 out of their own pockets.</p>
<p>By contrast, CBO says the traditional Medicare program could provide the same standard package of services for just $14,800 in 2022 (in what’s called the “alternative fiscal scenario”). Under current law, the government would cover about $8,600 of the total cost, leaving a little under $6,200 for the beneficiaries to cover themselves. With rounding, the difference between what it would cost the average 65-year-old under the Ryan plan compared to what it would cost under current law is “nearly $6,400” in 2022, or so it would seem from CBO’s numbers.</p>
<p>Ironically, this analysis from CBO actually tells us much more about CBO than it does about what the Ryan plan will mean for seniors in 2022.</p>
<p>There are two key assumptions underlying the numbers that are highly implausible and reveal a systematic tilt toward government-run health care.</p>
<p>First, CBO says that in 2022 government-run Medicare could provide the standard package of health coverage for just 72 percent of what it would cost a private plan to do so. How could that possibly be? Simple: price controls, and especially the deep cuts in Medicare’s fixed prices imposed under Obamacare. If one assumes that there are no consequences whatsoever to paying ever-lower rates of reimbursement for medical services, then, sure, government-run Medicare, and for that matter government-run health care more generally, would look cheaper on paper than private health insurance.</p>
<p>And, in fact, this is not a new development. Health-care price controls have always looked good on CBO tables, which is a huge problem in the policymaking process. But they never look quite so good in the real world. Consider Medicaid. State governments have imposed extremely low rates for most medical services, and the program’s participants often have a difficult time securing access to needed care. Far too often, it’s insurance on paper and not in practice. Moreover, because the rates are so low, the quality of care provided to the Medicaid population is well below what most Americans would find acceptable.</p>
<p>CBO’s analysis makes none of these quality distinctions. Price-controlled Medicare, with payment rates as low as Medicaid’s today relative to private insurance, is assumed to provide the same quality of care as private coverage. It’s absurd.</p>
<p>Incidentally, it should be noted that in Medicare Advantage, private-sector HMOs were able in 2010 to provide the standard package of Medicare services for less than what government-run Medicare costs ( <a href="http://www.medpac.gov/chapters/Jun10DataBookSec10.pdf" type="external">according to MedPAC data</a>). And that’s in spite of the price controls imposed by government-run Medicare. The reason is that government-run Medicare is a massively inefficient operation. Yes, it pays very little per service, but the volume of services provided has been soaring on an annual basis for years and years.</p>
<p>The second crucial assumption is that competition in Medicare has no effect whatsoever on the efficiency or cost of the options offered to Medicare participants. The whole point of the Ryan plan is to build a functioning marketplace, in which plans have to compete for the business of cost-conscious consumers. Ryan rightly believes that this is the key to genuine “delivery-system reform,” by which those delivering the services to patients find new, better, and more efficient ways of providing needed services at less cost. But CBO’s assessment assumes nothing will change at all.</p>
<p>Those who have been pushing for a market-based solution for health care have long complained that CBO’s analyses inevitably favor a command-and-control approach. This latest analysis only confirms that point of view. Unfortunately, it’s a sad reality that genuine reform of the nation’s health entitlements and broader health system&#160;is likely to be enacted in spite of analyses from CBO, not because of them.</p>
<p>James C. Capretta is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He was an associate director of the Office of Management and Budget from 2001 to 2004.</p> | false | 1 | president obama decided take political low road demonize house budget committee chairman paul ryans medicarereform plan budget speech last month wasnt really surprising president obama already demonstrated worldclass practitioner shamelessly dishonest political attacks went sen john mccain 2008 campaign proposing change tax treatment health insuranceand pushed change elected given track record every reason believe would jump chance demagogue health care opportunity presented boy clear based four weeks relentless barrage reelection effort based heavily creating fear electorate specifically among seniors supposed negative consequences ryan medicare plan much administration devoted hope change exactly substantive basis presidents attack ryans proposal heres key passage speech ryan plan vision says america cant afford keep promise weve made care seniors says ten years youre 65yearold whos eligible medicare pay nearly 6400 would today 6400 figure come best anyone tell president didnt cite source seems derived congressional budget offices april 5 analysis ryan budget page 22 report cbo always helpful provided assessment would cost average 65yearold enroll private health plan compared would cost average 65yearold stay traditional medicare illuminating piece work part cbo perhaps reasons cbo intended mechanics appear follows cbo says ryan plan would provide 8000 premium support credit averagehealth 65yearolds 2022 would cover 39 percent total cost providing standard medicare package services beneficiaries puts total cost private plan 20500 beneficiaries would required cover 12500 pockets contrast cbo says traditional medicare program could provide standard package services 14800 2022 whats called alternative fiscal scenario current law government would cover 8600 total cost leaving little 6200 beneficiaries cover rounding difference would cost average 65yearold ryan plan compared would cost current law nearly 6400 2022 would seem cbos numbers ironically analysis cbo actually tells us much cbo ryan plan mean seniors 2022 two key assumptions underlying numbers highly implausible reveal systematic tilt toward governmentrun health care first cbo says 2022 governmentrun medicare could provide standard package health coverage 72 percent would cost private plan could possibly simple price controls especially deep cuts medicares fixed prices imposed obamacare one assumes consequences whatsoever paying everlower rates reimbursement medical services sure governmentrun medicare matter governmentrun health care generally would look cheaper paper private health insurance fact new development healthcare price controls always looked good cbo tables huge problem policymaking process never look quite good real world consider medicaid state governments imposed extremely low rates medical services programs participants often difficult time securing access needed care far often insurance paper practice moreover rates low quality care provided medicaid population well americans would find acceptable cbos analysis makes none quality distinctions pricecontrolled medicare payment rates low medicaids today relative private insurance assumed provide quality care private coverage absurd incidentally noted medicare advantage privatesector hmos able 2010 provide standard package medicare services less governmentrun medicare costs according medpac data thats spite price controls imposed governmentrun medicare reason governmentrun medicare massively inefficient operation yes pays little per service volume services provided soaring annual basis years years second crucial assumption competition medicare effect whatsoever efficiency cost options offered medicare participants whole point ryan plan build functioning marketplace plans compete business costconscious consumers ryan rightly believes key genuine deliverysystem reform delivering services patients find new better efficient ways providing needed services less cost cbos assessment assumes nothing change pushing marketbased solution health care long complained cbos analyses inevitably favor commandandcontrol approach latest analysis confirms point view unfortunately sad reality genuine reform nations health entitlements broader health system160is likely enacted spite analyses cbo james c capretta fellow ethics public policy center associate director office management budget 2001 2004 | 580 |
<p>WASHINGTON — Embracing his clemency powers like never before, President Barack Obama is planning more commutations in his final days in office after a dramatic move to cut short convicted leaker Chelsea Manning’s sentence.</p>
<p>Obama became the president to have granted more commutations than any other when he announced Tuesday that <a href="" type="internal">Manning will be freed in</a> <a href="" type="internal">May</a>, almost 30 years ahead of schedule. Manning, the transgender Army intelligence analyst who leaked more than 700,000 U.S. documents, was one of 273 people receiving clemency on a single day.</p>
<p>Receiving pardons from the president were retired Gen. James Cartwright, who was charged with making false statements during another leak probe, and San Francisco Giants Hall of Famer Willie McCovey, sentenced in 1996 on tax evasion charges. Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Lopez Rivera’s 55-year sentence was commuted.</p>
<p>But Obama is not finished. The White House said Obama would grant more commutations Thursday — the day before his presidency ends — though officials said those would focus on drug offenders and would not likely include any other famous names.</p>
<p>Neil Eggleston, Obama’s White House counsel, said the individuals were learning “that our nation is a forgiving nation, where hard work and a commitment to rehabilitation can lead to a second chance, and where wrongs from the past will not deprive an individual of the opportunity to move forward.”</p>
<p>The actions are permanent, and cannot be undone by President-elect Donald Trump.</p>
<p>With his last-minute clemency for Manning and Cartwright, Obama appeared to be softening what has been a hard-line approach to prosecuting leakers.</p>
<p>Manning has been serving a 35-year sentence for leaking classified government and military documents to WikiLeaks, along with some battlefield video. She was convicted in military court of violating the Espionage Act and other offenses and spent more than six years behind bars. She asked Obama last November to commute her sentence to time served.</p>
<p>Her case has pitted LGBT rights activists, who warned about her mental health and treatment as a transgender woman living in a men’s prison, against national security hawks who said she did devastating damage to U.S. interests. The former cheered Obama’s move, while the latter called it an outrageous act that set a dangerous precedent.</p>
<p>Obama did not grant a pardon to another prominent leaker, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, whom the U.S. has been unable to extradite from Russia. Snowden hasn’t formally applied for clemency, though his supporters have called for it. Yet the White House drew a distinction between the unapologetic Snowden and Manning. Manning, officials noted, has expressed remorse and served several years already for her crime.</p>
<p>Known as Bradley Manning at the time of her 2010 arrest, Manning came out as transgender after being sentenced. She was held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she attempted suicide twice last year, according to her lawyers. Manning has acknowledged leaking the documents, but has said she did it to raise public awareness about the effects of war on civilians.</p>
<p>“We are all better off knowing that Chelsea Manning will walk out of prison a free woman,” said Chase Strangio, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Manning, adding that Obama’s action could “quite literally save Chelsea’s life.”</p>
<p>House Speaker Paul Ryan called the move “just outrageous,” and added, “Chelsea Manning’s treachery put American lives at risk and exposed some of our nation’s most sensitive secrets.”</p>
<p>Obama’s press secretary, Josh Earnest, told CNN’s “New Day” on Wednesday that Obama believes Manning received “an appropriate punishment.” Earnest said the time Manning had served was consistent with the sentence imposed on others who committed similar crimes ‘but got less attention for committing them.”</p>
<p>Manning, Lopez and many of the others will be released in May, in line with standard procedure allowing a period for re-entry. Obama also pardoned hotelier Ian Schrager, who was sentenced in 1980 to 20 months for tax evasion.</p>
<p>Commutations reduce sentences being served, but don’t erase convictions. Pardons generally restore civil rights, such as voting, often after a sentence has been served.</p>
<p>Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had pleaded guilty in October to making false statements during an investigation into a leak of classified information about a covert cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Prosecutors said Cartwright falsely told investigators that he did not provide information contained in a news article and in a book by New York Times journalist David Sanger, and said he also misled prosecutors about classified information shared with another journalist, Daniel Klaidman.</p>
<p>The Justice Department sought a sentence of two years, saying employees of the U.S. government are entrusted each day with sensitive classified information.</p>
<p>Puerto Ricans had long demanded the release of Lopez, who was sentenced to 55 years in prison for his role in a violent struggle for independence for the U.S. island territory. Lopez had belonged to the ultranationalist Armed Forces of National Liberation, which has claimed responsibility for more than 100 bombings at public and commercial buildings in U.S. cities during the 1970s and 1980s.</p>
<p>The White House noted that absent a commutation, the 74-year-old Lopez likely would have died in prison.</p>
<p>Obama’s commutation for Manning also raised fresh questions about the future of another figure involved in the Army leaker’s case: Julian Assange.</p>
<p>WikiLeaks had earlier pledged, via tweet, that its founder would agree to U.S. extradition if Obama granted clemency to Manning. Holed up for more than four years at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Assange has refused to meet prosecutors in Sweden, where he’s wanted on a rape allegation, fearing he would be extradited to the U.S. to face espionage charges if he leaves the embassy.</p>
<p>But the Justice Department has never announced any indictment of Assange. WikiLeaks lawyer Melinda Taylor said U.S. and British authorities refuse to say whether the U.S. has requested extradition. Though she praised the commutation for Manning, Taylor made no mention of Assange’s earlier promise to agree to extradition.</p>
<p>White House officials said neither Assange’s fate nor separate concerns about WikiLeaks’ role in Russian hacking of the election factored into the decision to commute Manning’s sentence. The officials briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>Any action that Justice Department officials may take regarding Assange “is something that they would do independent of the White House,” Earnest told CNN.</p> | false | 1 | washington embracing clemency powers like never president barack obama planning commutations final days office dramatic move cut short convicted leaker chelsea mannings sentence obama became president granted commutations announced tuesday manning freed may almost 30 years ahead schedule manning transgender army intelligence analyst leaked 700000 us documents one 273 people receiving clemency single day receiving pardons president retired gen james cartwright charged making false statements another leak probe san francisco giants hall famer willie mccovey sentenced 1996 tax evasion charges puerto rican nationalist oscar lopez riveras 55year sentence commuted obama finished white house said obama would grant commutations thursday day presidency ends though officials said would focus drug offenders would likely include famous names neil eggleston obamas white house counsel said individuals learning nation forgiving nation hard work commitment rehabilitation lead second chance wrongs past deprive individual opportunity move forward actions permanent undone presidentelect donald trump lastminute clemency manning cartwright obama appeared softening hardline approach prosecuting leakers manning serving 35year sentence leaking classified government military documents wikileaks along battlefield video convicted military court violating espionage act offenses spent six years behind bars asked obama last november commute sentence time served case pitted lgbt rights activists warned mental health treatment transgender woman living mens prison national security hawks said devastating damage us interests former cheered obamas move latter called outrageous act set dangerous precedent obama grant pardon another prominent leaker former national security agency contractor edward snowden us unable extradite russia snowden hasnt formally applied clemency though supporters called yet white house drew distinction unapologetic snowden manning manning officials noted expressed remorse served several years already crime known bradley manning time 2010 arrest manning came transgender sentenced held fort leavenworth kansas attempted suicide twice last year according lawyers manning acknowledged leaking documents said raise public awareness effects war civilians better knowing chelsea manning walk prison free woman said chase strangio american civil liberties union attorney representing manning adding obamas action could quite literally save chelseas life house speaker paul ryan called move outrageous added chelsea mannings treachery put american lives risk exposed nations sensitive secrets obamas press secretary josh earnest told cnns new day wednesday obama believes manning received appropriate punishment earnest said time manning served consistent sentence imposed others committed similar crimes got less attention committing manning lopez many others released may line standard procedure allowing period reentry obama also pardoned hotelier ian schrager sentenced 1980 20 months tax evasion commutations reduce sentences served dont erase convictions pardons generally restore civil rights voting often sentence served cartwright former vice chairman joint chiefs staff pleaded guilty october making false statements investigation leak classified information covert cyberattack irans nuclear facilities prosecutors said cartwright falsely told investigators provide information contained news article book new york times journalist david sanger said also misled prosecutors classified information shared another journalist daniel klaidman justice department sought sentence two years saying employees us government entrusted day sensitive classified information puerto ricans long demanded release lopez sentenced 55 years prison role violent struggle independence us island territory lopez belonged ultranationalist armed forces national liberation claimed responsibility 100 bombings public commercial buildings us cities 1970s 1980s white house noted absent commutation 74yearold lopez likely would died prison obamas commutation manning also raised fresh questions future another figure involved army leakers case julian assange wikileaks earlier pledged via tweet founder would agree us extradition obama granted clemency manning holed four years ecuadorian embassy london assange refused meet prosecutors sweden hes wanted rape allegation fearing would extradited us face espionage charges leaves embassy justice department never announced indictment assange wikileaks lawyer melinda taylor said us british authorities refuse say whether us requested extradition though praised commutation manning taylor made mention assanges earlier promise agree extradition white house officials said neither assanges fate separate concerns wikileaks role russian hacking election factored decision commute mannings sentence officials briefed reporters condition anonymity action justice department officials may take regarding assange something would independent white house earnest told cnn | 654 |
<p>One of your presentation topics was ‘The Leadership of John Paul II and the Lessons for Political History of the 21st Century’. What were your main points?</p>
<p>I stressed that the Pope had a dramatically different view of history and what makes history work and move. Pope John Paul II understood the importance of economics and politics, but he believed that culture was at the heart of history and that culture could change history in a more humane direction. If culture informs conscience, then consciences are aroused, and new forms of political and economic activity emerge from that. The great example of this is the rise of the solidarity movement in Poland in the wake of the Pope’s first pastoral visit to the country in June 1979. During that visit, the Pope ignited a revolution of conscience that made possible the solidarity movement that eventually led to the collapse of communism.</p>
<p>The second point is that the Pope, as he laid out in the encyclical Centesimus Annus (1991), had a clear view that democracy and the free economy are not machines that can run by themselves. It takes a certain kind of people possessed with certain virtues to make that machinery work and to allow free politics and free economies to lead to genuine human flourishing, as opposed to decadence and degradation.</p>
<p>The third point is that the Pope, at the end of his life, was deeply concerned that Europe’s attempt to build the 21st century European Union without any recognition of the historical role of Christianity in forming what we know today as the West, and without religiously informed moral arguments in public life, would lead to real trouble; that the effort to create what I call an ’empty shrine’ at the heart of Europe was going to have a severe effect on democratic political culture, and on individuals. And I think all of that is being borne out in the crisis of the European Union today.</p>
<p>You also presented on the topic ‘Western Civilisation and the Moral Challenges of the 21st century’. Can you elaborate?</p>
<p>In addition to the above points I want to emphasise that societies which measure the worth of human beings by utilitarian criteria rather than dignitarian criteria are headed for trouble. It turns out that the really prescient novel about dystopias of the future was not 1984; rather it was Brave New World. Brave New World leads us into a reflection on a manufactured and remanufactured humanity which is now within our technical grasp because of the revolution of genetics and biotechnology. It takes a society possessed of a deeper set of values, a deeper grasp of moral truths than you get to by simply asking the question, ‘does it work?’, in order to manage this explosion of knowledge and possibility, so that it does not end us up in the brave new world. If the only question we can ask and debate publicly is, ‘does it work?’, then we’re cooked.</p>
<p>In what way is religious freedom being threatened today?</p>
<p>The single most aggressive and biggest threat to religious freedom in the Western world today is the determination of homosexual activists to use coercive state power to redefine fundamental human relationships. This is a perfect example of what Pope Benedict XVI means by the dictatorship of relativism and the use of coercive state power to impose a relativist moral agenda upon all of society. And part of that agenda means driving religious conviction to the far margins of public life so that religious life becomes a mere lifestyle choice of no public consequence.</p>
<p>There are other problems. There is a kind of, quite frankly stupid, ‘laïcité’ as the French say, at work in the European Union; the notion that separation of religious and political authority somehow means the separation of the legislative from moral conviction in public life. This is complete rubbish and it is anti-democratic. If you tell people of religious conviction that they cannot bring the sources of their deepest commitments into their lives as citizens, you’ve done a very undemocratic thing. And we need to say that. We need to call to account the radical secularists for the undemocratic ideals that they uphold.</p>
<p>And then in First-World terms, there’s a huge problem with aggressive Islam. It’s not a question of whether Christians are persecuted in Muslim societies. The only question is how badly they are persecuted. And I don’t know any approach that makes sense except very assertive reassertion of the fundamental right of religious freedom. And that is going to require governments to confront the anti-Christian policies of Islamic states and also to confront otherwise well functioning democracies, such as India, which allow this persecution to take place.</p>
<p>Why was Pope John Paul II such an effective and strong leader?</p>
<p>All leadership begins with conviction, and then the question comes: is the conviction attached to something true or something false? Lenin was a very strong leader, but his leadership was attached to false objects. Pope John Paul II was in possession of, and had a real grasp of, certain key truths about the human person and the human condition and he was prepared to follow through on the implications of those truths in shaping his leadership of the Church and his work in the world.</p>
<p>Above all, what made Pope John Paul II the remarkable figure that he was, is that he was a radically converted Christian disciple. Everything he did, from the time of World War II on, whether in his priestly ministry, his literary work, his philosophical work, his work as a bishop, his work at the Second Vatican Council, his work as Archbishop of Krakow, as pope or as a statesman, it was an expression in several different ways of his radical conversion to Christ.</p>
<p>How did Pope John Paul II envisage the ‘New Evangelisation’?</p>
<p>Pope John Paul II believed that the Second Vatican Council was not an accident of the intuition of Blessed Pope John XXIII. Rather it was a providential gathering of the world Church on the edge of the third millennium, in order to prepare the Church for a new millennium of evangelical energy. With the benefit of hindsight now – it will be 50 years since the beginning of Vatican II next year – we can see the Council as the pivotal point between Counter-Reformation Catholicism (somewhat defensive, focused on institutional maintenance, defending what is ours against the Reformation and attacks from secular modernity) to Evangelical Catholicism.</p>
<p>Evangelical Catholicism is the Catholicism of the third millennium, in which the Church understands itself to be a missionary enterprise once again and in which everybody and everything in the Church is measured by mission effectiveness. This is a huge change. It is a more demanding form of Catholicism; it requires a fully engaged and educated laity. It means a more deeply prayerful Church, a more deeply sacramental Church and a more biblical Church, but it’s the Church of the future. And where Catholicism is growing in the developed world, it is because this evangelical Catholicism has taken hold. Where the Church is in trouble, it’s because people are still locked into the old paradigm of Counter-Reformation Catholicism and arguing uselessly over traditionalist interpretations of that, or so-called progressive interpretations of that. All of that is ancient history now, and we’re moving into a wholly new phase.</p>
<p>How has Pope Benedict XVI developed this work in his pontificate?</p>
<p>Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI are men of the Second Vatican Council. They played significant roles at the Council and are both formed by the mid 20th century Catholic Renaissance that led to the Second Vatican Council. Therefore it is be expected that their pontificates should be in dynamic continuity with each other; it is all one package. Changes in pontificates are not like going from Julia Gillard to Tony Abbott; it’s not a change of policy. The policy is the policy, and the Church is the Church and popes are servants of the tradition. They don’t create the tradition, they don’t make this up. Each pope of course gives a unique personal presentation of the basic truths of faith, but the pope is the servant of the Creed. He is not the master of the Creed; he is its custodian.</p>
<p>And this comes down through the hierarchy, to the bishops throughout the world. The notion that a bishop is some kind of discussion-group moderator, whose job is to keep everybody happy and in the conversation, is a false notion of the role of bishop. A bishop is supposed to be a teacher of the truths of the Catholic faith and the most effective bishops in the world today are those who do precisely that.</p>
<p>It can be very difficult being Catholic in what seems to be an increasingly secular culture. What words of encouragement do you have?</p>
<p>We need to recognise that the secular project is over; that the attempt to create humane, democratic, prosperous societies on the basis of that empty shrine I spoke about earlier has failed. We’re already seeing the first act of that failure playing out in Europe today. It’s time for us to get out of this defensive crouch and engage. We have nothing to be embarrassed about in putting the Gospel at the centre of not only our individual lives and our family lives, but of our lives as citizens as well. That’s the first trick that needs to be won here; to understand that we should be on the offence and not on the defence.</p>
<p>In those countries where Catholicism is declining, I think it has been a failure of the Church to preach the Gospel. For the young ones coming through, you don’t have to fight all the old battles we’ve been fighting for the past 50 years. It’s time to get on with the real revolution: the Evangelical Catholic revolution that brings people to Church, that produces vocations and good marriages.</p>
<p>Things can turn very quickly. For instance, the Church in English-speaking Canada is in a far better condition now than it was five years ago because of a series of very strong appointments to the major cities. All these men are men of Evangelical Catholicism, so bishops are crucial. But this is going to be a lay-led evangelisation, in business, in labour, in culture, in media, and in politics. We all have a role to play, so there is reason for hope.</p>
<p>George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and holds EPPC’s William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.</p> | false | 1 | one presentation topics leadership john paul ii lessons political history 21st century main points stressed pope dramatically different view history makes history work move pope john paul ii understood importance economics politics believed culture heart history culture could change history humane direction culture informs conscience consciences aroused new forms political economic activity emerge great example rise solidarity movement poland wake popes first pastoral visit country june 1979 visit pope ignited revolution conscience made possible solidarity movement eventually led collapse communism second point pope laid encyclical centesimus annus 1991 clear view democracy free economy machines run takes certain kind people possessed certain virtues make machinery work allow free politics free economies lead genuine human flourishing opposed decadence degradation third point pope end life deeply concerned europes attempt build 21st century european union without recognition historical role christianity forming know today west without religiously informed moral arguments public life would lead real trouble effort create call empty shrine heart europe going severe effect democratic political culture individuals think borne crisis european union today also presented topic western civilisation moral challenges 21st century elaborate addition points want emphasise societies measure worth human beings utilitarian criteria rather dignitarian criteria headed trouble turns really prescient novel dystopias future 1984 rather brave new world brave new world leads us reflection manufactured remanufactured humanity within technical grasp revolution genetics biotechnology takes society possessed deeper set values deeper grasp moral truths get simply asking question work order manage explosion knowledge possibility end us brave new world question ask debate publicly work cooked way religious freedom threatened today single aggressive biggest threat religious freedom western world today determination homosexual activists use coercive state power redefine fundamental human relationships perfect example pope benedict xvi means dictatorship relativism use coercive state power impose relativist moral agenda upon society part agenda means driving religious conviction far margins public life religious life becomes mere lifestyle choice public consequence problems kind quite frankly stupid laïcité french say work european union notion separation religious political authority somehow means separation legislative moral conviction public life complete rubbish antidemocratic tell people religious conviction bring sources deepest commitments lives citizens youve done undemocratic thing need say need call account radical secularists undemocratic ideals uphold firstworld terms theres huge problem aggressive islam question whether christians persecuted muslim societies question badly persecuted dont know approach makes sense except assertive reassertion fundamental right religious freedom going require governments confront antichristian policies islamic states also confront otherwise well functioning democracies india allow persecution take place pope john paul ii effective strong leader leadership begins conviction question comes conviction attached something true something false lenin strong leader leadership attached false objects pope john paul ii possession real grasp certain key truths human person human condition prepared follow implications truths shaping leadership church work world made pope john paul ii remarkable figure radically converted christian disciple everything time world war ii whether priestly ministry literary work philosophical work work bishop work second vatican council work archbishop krakow pope statesman expression several different ways radical conversion christ pope john paul ii envisage new evangelisation pope john paul ii believed second vatican council accident intuition blessed pope john xxiii rather providential gathering world church edge third millennium order prepare church new millennium evangelical energy benefit hindsight 50 years since beginning vatican ii next year see council pivotal point counterreformation catholicism somewhat defensive focused institutional maintenance defending reformation attacks secular modernity evangelical catholicism evangelical catholicism catholicism third millennium church understands missionary enterprise everybody everything church measured mission effectiveness huge change demanding form catholicism requires fully engaged educated laity means deeply prayerful church deeply sacramental church biblical church church future catholicism growing developed world evangelical catholicism taken hold church trouble people still locked old paradigm counterreformation catholicism arguing uselessly traditionalist interpretations socalled progressive interpretations ancient history moving wholly new phase pope benedict xvi developed work pontificate pope john paul ii pope benedict xvi men second vatican council played significant roles council formed mid 20th century catholic renaissance led second vatican council therefore expected pontificates dynamic continuity one package changes pontificates like going julia gillard tony abbott change policy policy policy church church popes servants tradition dont create tradition dont make pope course gives unique personal presentation basic truths faith pope servant creed master creed custodian comes hierarchy bishops throughout world notion bishop kind discussiongroup moderator whose job keep everybody happy conversation false notion role bishop bishop supposed teacher truths catholic faith effective bishops world today precisely difficult catholic seems increasingly secular culture words encouragement need recognise secular project attempt create humane democratic prosperous societies basis empty shrine spoke earlier failed already seeing first act failure playing europe today time us get defensive crouch engage nothing embarrassed putting gospel centre individual lives family lives lives citizens well thats first trick needs understand offence defence countries catholicism declining think failure church preach gospel young ones coming dont fight old battles weve fighting past 50 years time get real revolution evangelical catholic revolution brings people church produces vocations good marriages things turn quickly instance church englishspeaking canada far better condition five years ago series strong appointments major cities men men evangelical catholicism bishops crucial going layled evangelisation business labour culture media politics role play reason hope george weigel distinguished senior fellow ethics public policy center washington dc holds eppcs william e simon chair catholic studies | 884 |
<p>The president and his defenders know the truth won’t work, so dishonesty it is.</p>
<p>In the last three weeks, President Obama and his apologists have been incredulous that the Romney-Ryan campaign would have the audacity to attack them over Medicare. How dare they? That’s what we do, not them!</p>
<p>As my colleague Yuval Levin <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/313825/obamacare-changed-everything-yuval-levin" type="external">has already explained</a>, these Democrats don’t seem to realize that Obamacare changed everything. The new health-care law cut Medicare by $716 billion over a decade to partially finance the cost of expanding entitlement benefits for other Americans. Put simply, Medicare was squeezed to grease the way for the president’s main first-term ambition — enactment of a government takeover of American health care. That’s a fact, and it’s one that doesn’t sit well with many voters, especially seniors. Romney and Ryan are helpfully reminding the electorate about this matter, as they should.</p>
<p>Those coming to the president’s aid in this debate — and the usual suspects have certainly stepped up to the plate, including <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/opinion/Krugman.html" type="external">Paul Krugman</a>, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-20/private-market-tooth-fairy-can-t-cut-medicare-cost.html" type="external">Peter Orszag</a>, <a href="http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/evidence-vs-ideology-in-the-medicare-debate/" type="external">Laura D’Andrea Tyson</a>, and most recently former president <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/bill-clintons-convention-remarks_651796.html" type="external">Bill Clinton</a>&#160;— have offered up a number of different arguments on the president’s behalf, some based on defending his record, and others aimed at changing the subject to the supposed defects of the Romney-Ryan Medicare reform plan. All of these arguments have been thoroughly rebutted elsewhere (see especially Grace-Marie Turner <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/316156/health-care-clinton-skirts-facts-grace-marie-turner" type="external">debunking Clinton’s claims</a>&#160;and Senator Jim DeMint and his staff at the Joint Economic Committee <a href="http://www.demint.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=freedom-on-call&amp;ContentRecord_id=61fb8d46-ecfc-4e97-9dfc-04c3fd931204&amp;ContentType_id=e915486e-a0be-46eb-9fff-75dc61f28710&amp;Group_id=78a5977a-062b-4259-ae04-d82a78579699" type="external">doing likewise</a>). But because the Democratic propaganda machine is now in high gear, and will remain so all the way to November 6, it is important to confront these arguments often to prevent them from becoming conventional wisdom.</p>
<p>Defenders of the president’s record generally begin by admitting that, well, yes, the Medicare cuts in Obamacare do total $716 billion over ten years. But they then say that these cuts won’t do any harm because they come at the expense of insurance companies and waste in the health-care sector, not benefits for seniors. This is demonstrably false. One of the largest cuts in Obamacare is in the payments made to Medicare Advantage plans. Today, some 13 million seniors are signed up with these plans. Very often, these are seniors with modest incomes who are attracted to the better coverage provided by Medicare Advantage, including reduced cost-sharing, without the expense of a Medigap plan. The Medicare trustees <a href="http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/ReportsTrustFunds/Downloads/TR2012.pdf" type="external">expect</a>&#160;that the Obamacare cuts will drive 4 million seniors out of Medicare Advantage by 2018. This is a direct violation of the president’s tattered promise that, under Obamacare, Americans who like their current insurance plans would get to keep them.</p>
<p>The cuts to Medicare Advantage will drive up costs for all 13 million enrollees. They will have fewer benefits covered by their plans, and their premiums and cost-sharing will go up in direct proportion to the payment rates’ going down. That’s a fact. Indeed, it’s a direct consequence of the Medicare law, which requires the insurance plans to pay out in benefits any amounts that they receive from Medicare that are above the bids submitted by the plans for covering basic Medicare. <a href="http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2010/pdf/bg2464.pdf" type="external">In a study I co-authored with Robert Book</a>, we estimated that the average reduction in benefits for seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans would reach $3,700 in 2017. In addition to providing the average cut by state, that study also calculated the average cut by <a href="http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2010/pdf/MA_County_Results_Summary.pdf" type="external">county</a>&#160;and <a href="http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2010/pdf/MA_Congressional_District_Results_Summary.pdf" type="external">congressional district</a>.</p>
<p>Obamacare also imposes large cuts in reimbursement rates for hospitals, nursing homes, home-health-care agencies, and other providers of medical services. These cuts will hinder access to care for millions of seniors. Medicare’s chief actuary has repeatedly warned that these cuts are not sustainable, because they would drive so many hospitals and other institutions out of the program. <a href="http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/ReportsTrustFunds/Downloads/TR2012.pdf" type="external">According to the latest Medicare trustees’ report</a>, the cuts in Medicare are so deep that 15 percent of hospitals would be forced to stop admitting Medicare patients by the end of the decade, and 25 percent would be in that position by 2030. The idea that these cuts in Medicare payments will not harm care for seniors does not stand up to the slightest scrutiny.</p>
<p>Having failed to make a persuasive case that these cuts are painless, the president’s apologists next assert that Paul Ryan also supports these cuts, by virtue of the fact that his budget plan did not undo the savings associated with them. And it is certainly true that the Ryan budget’s numbers for Medicare did not assume the undoing of the cuts, largely because the committee was unable to find enough offsetting cuts elsewhere in the budget. But that does not mean the Ryan budget endorsed the Medicare cuts in Obamacare. Far from it. <a href="http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/pathtoprosperity2013.pdf" type="external">The Ryan budget</a>&#160;allowed for substituting sensible savings in Medicare for the blunt and irrational cuts contained in Obamacare.</p>
<p>More importantly, the Ryan budget did not use the Medicare savings to pay for a new entitlement elsewhere in the federal budget. Instead, the savings were used exclusively to replenish the Medicare trust fund (and thereby reduce the federal budget deficit, too).</p>
<p>But even these points are now no longer relevant because Governor Romney has made it clear that his budget will undo these cuts in their entirety. As president and vice president, Romney and Ryan will have much greater ability to find other spending cuts throughout the rest of the federal budget that are more sensible than the Obamacare cuts in Medicare.</p>
<p>In an attempt to change the subject from these uncomfortable facts, the president’s defenders have also regurgitated the tired and empty attacks on Paul Ryan’s plan to reform Medicare the right way.</p>
<p>To begin with, those attacking Ryan have resorted to silly name-calling (“VoucherCare,” “CouponCare”) in an attempt to discredit the idea of Medicare premium support. But premium support — which, by the way, has a long bipartisan history, including support from Democratic senator Ron Wyden — cannot be considered a “voucher” program any more than the prescription-drug benefit in Medicare is a voucher program. Under the drug benefit, the federal government accepts bids from private insurers wishing to offer coverage to the beneficiaries. The government’s contribution toward coverage is based on the weighted average of those bids. Every beneficiary in a given market area is entitled to the same level of governmental support. The govern ment provides an organized format to assist the beneficiaries in their choice of plans. And once a beneficiary decides on a plan, the government’s contribution is sent directly to the insurer. No voucher is ever issued. That’s exactly how a <a href="http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/wydenryan.pdf" type="external">Wyden-Ryan premium-support plan</a>&#160;would work in the rest of Medicare.</p>
<p>Then there is the line of attack that the Ryan Medicare reform will increase costs for seniors. Ironically, these attacks are based on two studies that contradict each other. The first, <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/121xx/doc12128/04-05-Ryan_Letter.pdf" type="external">from the Congressional Budget Office</a>(CBO), examined the Ryan budget plan from 2011 (rather than 2012), so this study is now outdated. In it, the CBO said that private insurance plans would cost more than the traditional, government-administered Medicare option, and thus eliminating that option would drive up costs for seniors by $6,400 annually. The second study, <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1273025" type="external">published in TheJournal of the American Medical Association</a>, said that the private plans would cost less than the traditional government option in many parts of the country, and thus seniors who wanted to stay in the traditional option would be forced to pay higher premiums.</p>
<p>So which is it? Are private plans less expensive or more expensive than the traditional program? The truth is that, despite claims to the contrary, private plans are able to deliver the Medicare benefit package at much lower costs than the traditional program in many parts of the country. And that shouldn’t be surprising, because the traditional program is incredibly inefficient. This has been confirmed by <a href="http://www.medpac.gov/chapters/Jun12DataBookSec9.pdf" type="external">data collected by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC)</a>&#160;over many years. In its latest “data book,” MedPAC estimates that the average HMO offering coverage to Medicare beneficiaries in the current Medicare Advantage program can provide the statutory set of Medicare benefits for 5 percent less than the traditional program.</p>
<p><a href="http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/wydenryan.pdf" type="external">Under the Wyden-Ryan reform plan</a>&#160;(which formed the basis of the Medicare reform in Ryan’s 2012 budget plan), the government’s contribution toward coverage would be set at the second-lowest bid in a region. As indicated by the MedPAC data, that would almost certainly be a private plan in many parts of the country, but in rural areas it is entirely possible that the traditional, fee-for-service program could be the lowest-cost option. Regardless, however, beneficiaries will always have access to at least two plans that would not increase their premiums at all above what current law would require. So it is completely false that seniors would have to pay more. The proposal is designed explicitly to ensure that seniors will not have to pay more unless they decide on their own to sign up for more expensive insurance.</p>
<p>Finally, there is the issue of whether premium support will work to slow the pace of rising costs. The president’s defenders have argued that competitive pressures will never work and that the only solution is more government regulation and price controls. It is of course the height of hypocrisy to make this argument now, because less than two years ago the president’s apologists sold Obamacare to the American people on the (false) claim that it would harness competitive pressures in the state-based exchanges. Now that Ryan and others are arguing that competition is needed to control Medicare costs, Obamacare’s defenders are showing their true colors — which is to say they have abandoned their supposed support for competition and are now arguing that the only solution is central government regulation over the entire system.</p>
<p>But the evidence shows otherwise. The Medicare drug benefit, which truly is a premium-support plan, continues to work incredibly well. <a href="http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2012pres/08/20120806b.html/" type="external">The average beneficiary premium in 2013 will be just $30</a>, the same as it was in 2012 and 2011, <a href="http://www.medpac.gov/chapters/Jun07DataBookSec11.pdf" type="external">and just $7 more than it was in 2006</a>. Overall, spending on the program is coming in more than 40 percent below initial projections. Competition and transparency in pricing are putting downward pressure on premiums and the costs of individual prescriptions. Seniors like the program, and competition remains vigorous.</p>
<p>As the New York Times recently <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/us/private-medicare-plans-find-success-despite-democrats-warnings.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">reported</a>, at the time the drug benefit was enacted, Nancy Pelosi said, “Most seniors will be worse off,” and “This is the beginning of the end of Medicare as we know it.” She couldn’t have been more wrong, as are those attacking Ryan today.</p>
<p>In the end, the debate over Medicare is no different from the debate about health care more generally. Who is in control? Is it the federal government? Or is it American consumers and their families, working with their physicians? President Obama’s plan would lead inevitably to diminished quality in American health care, and eventually to rationing and waiting lists for services. That is always the byproduct of a centrally managed system. The Romney-Ryan vision is very different. They want a patient-centered system that fosters life-saving innovation and disciplines costs without sacrificing quality. When the debate is seen this way, there is little doubt which approach the American electorate would choose.</p>
<p>James C. Capretta isa fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and was an associate director at the Office of Management and Budget from 2001 to 2004.</p> | false | 1 | president defenders know truth wont work dishonesty last three weeks president obama apologists incredulous romneyryan campaign would audacity attack medicare dare thats colleague yuval levin already explained democrats dont seem realize obamacare changed everything new healthcare law cut medicare 716 billion decade partially finance cost expanding entitlement benefits americans put simply medicare squeezed grease way presidents main firstterm ambition enactment government takeover american health care thats fact one doesnt sit well many voters especially seniors romney ryan helpfully reminding electorate matter coming presidents aid debate usual suspects certainly stepped plate including paul krugman peter orszag laura dandrea tyson recently former president bill clinton160 offered number different arguments presidents behalf based defending record others aimed changing subject supposed defects romneyryan medicare reform plan arguments thoroughly rebutted elsewhere see especially gracemarie turner debunking clintons claims160and senator jim demint staff joint economic committee likewise democratic propaganda machine high gear remain way november 6 important confront arguments often prevent becoming conventional wisdom defenders presidents record generally begin admitting well yes medicare cuts obamacare total 716 billion ten years say cuts wont harm come expense insurance companies waste healthcare sector benefits seniors demonstrably false one largest cuts obamacare payments made medicare advantage plans today 13 million seniors signed plans often seniors modest incomes attracted better coverage provided medicare advantage including reduced costsharing without expense medigap plan medicare trustees expect160that obamacare cuts drive 4 million seniors medicare advantage 2018 direct violation presidents tattered promise obamacare americans like current insurance plans would get keep cuts medicare advantage drive costs 13 million enrollees fewer benefits covered plans premiums costsharing go direct proportion payment rates going thats fact indeed direct consequence medicare law requires insurance plans pay benefits amounts receive medicare bids submitted plans covering basic medicare study coauthored robert book estimated average reduction benefits seniors enrolled medicare advantage plans would reach 3700 2017 addition providing average cut state study also calculated average cut county160and congressional district obamacare also imposes large cuts reimbursement rates hospitals nursing homes homehealthcare agencies providers medical services cuts hinder access care millions seniors medicares chief actuary repeatedly warned cuts sustainable would drive many hospitals institutions program according latest medicare trustees report cuts medicare deep 15 percent hospitals would forced stop admitting medicare patients end decade 25 percent would position 2030 idea cuts medicare payments harm care seniors stand slightest scrutiny failed make persuasive case cuts painless presidents apologists next assert paul ryan also supports cuts virtue fact budget plan undo savings associated certainly true ryan budgets numbers medicare assume undoing cuts largely committee unable find enough offsetting cuts elsewhere budget mean ryan budget endorsed medicare cuts obamacare far ryan budget160allowed substituting sensible savings medicare blunt irrational cuts contained obamacare importantly ryan budget use medicare savings pay new entitlement elsewhere federal budget instead savings used exclusively replenish medicare trust fund thereby reduce federal budget deficit even points longer relevant governor romney made clear budget undo cuts entirety president vice president romney ryan much greater ability find spending cuts throughout rest federal budget sensible obamacare cuts medicare attempt change subject uncomfortable facts presidents defenders also regurgitated tired empty attacks paul ryans plan reform medicare right way begin attacking ryan resorted silly namecalling vouchercare couponcare attempt discredit idea medicare premium support premium support way long bipartisan history including support democratic senator ron wyden considered voucher program prescriptiondrug benefit medicare voucher program drug benefit federal government accepts bids private insurers wishing offer coverage beneficiaries governments contribution toward coverage based weighted average bids every beneficiary given market area entitled level governmental support govern ment provides organized format assist beneficiaries choice plans beneficiary decides plan governments contribution sent directly insurer voucher ever issued thats exactly wydenryan premiumsupport plan160would work rest medicare line attack ryan medicare reform increase costs seniors ironically attacks based two studies contradict first congressional budget officecbo examined ryan budget plan 2011 rather 2012 study outdated cbo said private insurance plans would cost traditional governmentadministered medicare option thus eliminating option would drive costs seniors 6400 annually second study published thejournal american medical association said private plans would cost less traditional government option many parts country thus seniors wanted stay traditional option would forced pay higher premiums private plans less expensive expensive traditional program truth despite claims contrary private plans able deliver medicare benefit package much lower costs traditional program many parts country shouldnt surprising traditional program incredibly inefficient confirmed data collected medicare payment advisory commission medpac160over many years latest data book medpac estimates average hmo offering coverage medicare beneficiaries current medicare advantage program provide statutory set medicare benefits 5 percent less traditional program wydenryan reform plan160which formed basis medicare reform ryans 2012 budget plan governments contribution toward coverage would set secondlowest bid region indicated medpac data would almost certainly private plan many parts country rural areas entirely possible traditional feeforservice program could lowestcost option regardless however beneficiaries always access least two plans would increase premiums current law would require completely false seniors would pay proposal designed explicitly ensure seniors pay unless decide sign expensive insurance finally issue whether premium support work slow pace rising costs presidents defenders argued competitive pressures never work solution government regulation price controls course height hypocrisy make argument less two years ago presidents apologists sold obamacare american people false claim would harness competitive pressures statebased exchanges ryan others arguing competition needed control medicare costs obamacares defenders showing true colors say abandoned supposed support competition arguing solution central government regulation entire system evidence shows otherwise medicare drug benefit truly premiumsupport plan continues work incredibly well average beneficiary premium 2013 30 2012 2011 7 2006 overall spending program coming 40 percent initial projections competition transparency pricing putting downward pressure premiums costs individual prescriptions seniors like program competition remains vigorous new york times recently reported time drug benefit enacted nancy pelosi said seniors worse beginning end medicare know couldnt wrong attacking ryan today end debate medicare different debate health care generally control federal government american consumers families working physicians president obamas plan would lead inevitably diminished quality american health care eventually rationing waiting lists services always byproduct centrally managed system romneyryan vision different want patientcentered system fosters lifesaving innovation disciplines costs without sacrificing quality debate seen way little doubt approach american electorate would choose james c capretta isa fellow ethics public policy center associate director office management budget 2001 2004 | 1,043 |
<p>#CircaCampus</p>
<p>Texas State University joins three other schools this year that have indefinitely suspended Greek life. This announcement comes after the tragic death of <a href="http://cbsaustin.com/news/local/criminal-charges-possible-in-death-of-texas-state-student" type="external">sophomore fraternity pledge, Matthew Ellis,</a> on Monday, November 13.</p>
<p>Twenty-year old Ellis, attended an off-campus event the night before that was held by members of the university’s fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, and died from what preliminary investigations suggest are alcohol-induced causes. Toxicology results will confirm the exact cause, according to police reports.</p>
<p>In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Texas State University President Dr. Denise Trauth said, "As a result of this tragedy, I have suspended activities of all Greek fraternity and sorority chapters at Texas State.” The <a href="http://greekaffairs.dos.txstate.edu/" type="external">31 Greek organizations</a>at the university, Trauth continued, "Are prohibited from holding new-member events, chapter meetings, social functions and philanthropic activities until a thorough review of the Greek Affairs system is completed."</p>
<p>Earlier this year in February, sophomore student, Timothy Piazza, drank an excessive amount of alcohol during an activity known as the "gauntlet,” a ritual to induct pledges into the Beta Theta Pi chapter at Penn State. Piazza died, however, not from alcohol poisoning, but rather from multiple head injuries, along with Class IV hemorrhagic shock and a lacerated spleen, after violently tumbling down a flight of stairs.</p>
<p>The kid was a lightweight. Stop blaming the fraternities! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/hazing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">#hazing</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreekLife?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">#GreekLife</a></p>
<p>His death was captured on a surveillance video camera back in February, and recovered for a court trial hearing in November. Other pieces of what went down that night in question before Piazza’s death have since emerged in the finding of the video footage: Piazza was given at least <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/us/penn-state-fraternity-hazing.html" type="external">18 drinks in the span of 82 minutes</a>. At least 27 defendants have been incriminated as the outcome of this extended period of investigations. Five members of the fraternity, currently face involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault charges filed by the Centre County DA, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/charges-penn-state-hazing-death/story?id=51112120" type="external">reports ABC News</a>.</p>
<p>The recent charges against the young men allegedly responsible for Piazza’s death were made in the shadows of two other high-profile fatalities, one at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/us/florida-state-fraternity-sorority-suspension.html" type="external">Florida State University,</a> with Pi Kappa Phi, and the other at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/us/lsu-hazing-arrests.html" type="external">Louisiana State University,</a> with Phi Delta Theta.</p>
<p>In mid-September, at Louisiana State University, Maxwell Gruver died after becoming severely intoxicated.</p>
<p>And after FSU student, 20-year-old <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-state-fraternity-member-andrew-coffey-death-police-investigate/" type="external">Andrew Coffey</a> died at an off-campus house party, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/11/06/florida-state-university-bans-greek-life-after-student-death/836890001/" type="external">Florida State University President John Thrasher</a> announced that fraternities and sororities will be “indefinitely suspended” effective immediately.</p>
<p>In a statement, President Thrasher stipulated that for the suspension to end, “there will need to be a new normal for Greek life at the university. There must be a new culture, and our students must be full participants in creating it.” Of the FSU undergraduates, 22% belonged to one of the <a href="https://union.fsu.edu/ofsl/" type="external">28 fraternities and 26 sororities</a>. That’s about 7,588 students for the 2017-2018 school year.</p>
<p>While Greek life has become an institution on campuses, with a large corpus of alum and the ability to annually generate about $7 million in funding, it comes with a grave caveat, explains a leading expert on hazing in collegiate groups, Professor Hank Nuwer. Nuwer writes, “Hazing has claimed the life of at least one initiate (and often more than one) <a href="http://www.hanknuwer.com/hazing-deaths/" type="external">every year since 1969</a> -- the vast majority in fraternities.” Since circa 1838 to 2017, the numbers of total deaths have far exceeded 200. In the past decade alone, he finds that there have been <a href="http://www.hanknuwer.com/hazing-deaths/" type="external">33 hazing-related fatalities</a>, about 3 a year.</p>
<p>Pulling the most recent 2017 raw data from Prof. Nuwer’s tracking of death incidents, The Economist generated a map:</p>
<p>The numbers shown here require a human element, however, to put the deaths in perspective at a time when, according to the <a href="http://thefraternityadvisor.com/greek-life-statistics/" type="external">Fraternity Advisor</a>, Greek membership is estimated at “750,000 undergraduate members in 12,000 chapters on more than 800 campuses in the USA and Canada.”</p>
<p>Before Coffey and Gruver, much like Piazza, there was also eighteen-year-old Ryan Abele, a pledge to Sigma Nu at the University of Nevada, Reno, who died in 2016, and Tucker Hipps, a pledge to Sigma Phi Epsilon, who died in 2014. And even as far back as 2013 and October of that year, when Peter Tran at San Francisco State University and Michael Deng at Baruch College died from their respective fraternity’s hazing rituals. Earlier in May of this year, four frat brothers pleaded guilty to Deng’s hazing-related death, and their sentencing is set for later this year on December 4th.</p>
<p />
<p>The inception of Greek life goes back to the 1800s, when fraternities were popularly perceived as a corrective to the conservative culture of academia. While the popularity of the organization may have ebbed over time, the <a href="http://time.com/4976836/fraternity-hazing-deaths-reform-tim-piazza/" type="external">Times</a> reports that an increase in membership didn’t begin until the 1980’s, right when the legal drinking age was set at 21. Underage students resorted to other means to quench their thirst, looking to the Greek scene for their supply of alcohol -- where, according to researchers at the University of Rhode Island, other Greek members are likely to engage in similar drinking habits.</p>
<p />
<p>Earlier on November 9, 2017, University of Michigan’s Inter-fraternity council suspended all Greek Life, though not officially. But this could very well pose some needed changes to the culture of Greek life on campuses, in addition to the efforts of other regulatory entities that watch over Greek fraternities and sororities -- such as the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors, the National Panhellenic Council and the North-American Inter-fraternity Conference. Prof. Nuwer discovered that 1968 was the last year in the modern era during which no college student died from a hazing-related death.</p>
<p />
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<p>Take a look at some other great videos from Circa Campus: <a href="" type="internal">Freedom of Speech in America</a> <a href="" type="internal">The hefty price of campus protests</a> <a href="" type="internal">He stole a truck to save a life in the Vegas mass shooting</a>LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK --- WEIGH IN BELOW</p>
<p /> | false | 1 | circacampus texas state university joins three schools year indefinitely suspended greek life announcement comes tragic death sophomore fraternity pledge matthew ellis monday november 13 twentyyear old ellis attended offcampus event night held members universitys fraternity phi kappa psi died preliminary investigations suggest alcoholinduced causes toxicology results confirm exact cause according police reports statement tuesday afternoon texas state university president dr denise trauth said result tragedy suspended activities greek fraternity sorority chapters texas state 31 greek organizationsat university trauth continued prohibited holding newmember events chapter meetings social functions philanthropic activities thorough review greek affairs system completed earlier year february sophomore student timothy piazza drank excessive amount alcohol activity known gauntlet ritual induct pledges beta theta pi chapter penn state piazza died however alcohol poisoning rather multiple head injuries along class iv hemorrhagic shock lacerated spleen violently tumbling flight stairs kid lightweight stop blaming fraternities hazing greeklife death captured surveillance video camera back february recovered court trial hearing november pieces went night question piazzas death since emerged finding video footage piazza given least 18 drinks span 82 minutes least 27 defendants incriminated outcome extended period investigations five members fraternity currently face involuntary manslaughter aggravated assault charges filed centre county da reports abc news recent charges young men allegedly responsible piazzas death made shadows two highprofile fatalities one florida state university pi kappa phi louisiana state university phi delta theta midseptember louisiana state university maxwell gruver died becoming severely intoxicated fsu student 20yearold andrew coffey died offcampus house party florida state university president john thrasher announced fraternities sororities indefinitely suspended effective immediately statement president thrasher stipulated suspension end need new normal greek life university must new culture students must full participants creating fsu undergraduates 22 belonged one 28 fraternities 26 sororities thats 7588 students 20172018 school year greek life become institution campuses large corpus alum ability annually generate 7 million funding comes grave caveat explains leading expert hazing collegiate groups professor hank nuwer nuwer writes hazing claimed life least one initiate often one every year since 1969 vast majority fraternities since circa 1838 2017 numbers total deaths far exceeded 200 past decade alone finds 33 hazingrelated fatalities 3 year pulling recent 2017 raw data prof nuwers tracking death incidents economist generated map numbers shown require human element however put deaths perspective time according fraternity advisor greek membership estimated 750000 undergraduate members 12000 chapters 800 campuses usa canada coffey gruver much like piazza also eighteenyearold ryan abele pledge sigma nu university nevada reno died 2016 tucker hipps pledge sigma phi epsilon died 2014 even far back 2013 october year peter tran san francisco state university michael deng baruch college died respective fraternitys hazing rituals earlier may year four frat brothers pleaded guilty dengs hazingrelated death sentencing set later year december 4th inception greek life goes back 1800s fraternities popularly perceived corrective conservative culture academia popularity organization may ebbed time times reports increase membership didnt begin 1980s right legal drinking age set 21 underage students resorted means quench thirst looking greek scene supply alcohol according researchers university rhode island greek members likely engage similar drinking habits earlier november 9 2017 university michigans interfraternity council suspended greek life though officially could well pose needed changes culture greek life campuses addition efforts regulatory entities watch greek fraternities sororities association fraternitysorority advisors national panhellenic council northamerican interfraternity conference prof nuwer discovered 1968 last year modern era college student died hazingrelated death take look great videos circa campus freedom speech america hefty price campus protests stole truck save life vegas mass shootinglet us know think weigh | 587 |
<p>By Alastair Macdonald and Gabriela Baczynska</p>
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union leaders are ready to hand Theresa May an olive branch in deadlocked Brexit negotiations next week by launching their own internal preparations for a transition to a new relationship with Britain.</p>
<p>A draft statement prepared for next Friday’s talks and sent out for approval on Thursday to the 27 other EU governments made final Brussels’ rejection of opening free trade talks now, but gave the beleaguered British prime minister hope that they would do so in December — and that, if she ups her offers on divorce terms, the EU will be ready to start talking almost right away.</p>
<p>With nerves fraying and threats flying about walking out without a deal come the March 2019 deadline for departure, the pound took a knock when EU negotiator Michel Barnier said a new round of talks this week had ended in continued deadlock over a British refusal to clarify how much it will pay on leaving.</p>
<p>But it rallied on word that, despite tough demands from EU governments on what they want from London, the Union is ready to talk about how to avoid a “hard Brexit” and to ease Britain out with less disruption — probably by agreeing to keep it in the single market for a couple of years, diplomats say.</p>
<p>The draft of conclusions which would be issued by leaders of the 27 next Friday, a day after meeting May in a full EU summit, still have to be agreed. Envoys, including from heavyweights Germany and France, objected last week to a suggestion from Barnier that the EU should start working on transition plans.</p>
<p>But EU officials noted that summit chair Donald Tusk has spoken to almost all 27 leaders in recent days — he briefed May by telephone on his preparations on Thursday. Envoys and ministers from the 27 will discuss the draft in the coming days.</p>
<p>A senior EU official closely involved in the negotiations said Brussels did not expect major changes to the summit text.</p>
<p>“INTERNAL PREPARATORY DISCUSSIONS”</p>
<p>The first version, seen by Reuters, confirms what Barnier and others have said this month: that there is not “sufficient progress” on agreeing three key elements of a withdrawal treaty for leaders to agree now to open the trade talks May wants.</p>
<p>But in an effort to defuse accusations in Britain about EU intransigence, the leaders would welcome progress to date on their three key issues: the rights of 3 million EU citizens in Britain; protecting peace in Northern Ireland from the effect of a new border on the island; and Britain’s outstanding payments.</p>
<p>They would pledge to reassess things at their next summit in mid-December — Barnier on Thursday spoke of making progress in the next two months. And in order not to waste time once they do decide to launch talks on a post-Brexit future, they would ask Barnier and their envoys to start preparing now for a transition — albeit without actually starting talking to Britain about it.</p>
<p>“The European Council invites the Council (Article 50) together with the Union negotiator to start internal preparatory discussions,” the draft read. Another EU official said that would avoid weeks of delay in launching a new phase by the new year — which business leaders say is vital if they are to make informed investment decisions in 2018 for the time after Brexit.</p>
<p>Without a good idea by early next year of what a transition period will look like, international businesses in Britain would start to “vote with their feet” and move operations to the continent for fear of a “hard Brexit”, some have warned.</p>
<p>The uncertain grip May, who campaigned last year against Brexit, has over her party and hardliners demanding she resist EU demands and be ready to walk out with no deal, has left Europeans unsure of where negotiations may lead. The gesture to May reflects some willingness to help reinforce her in office.</p>
<p>“DEADLOCK” OVER MONEY</p>
<p>Barnier and his British counterpart, Brexit Secretary David Davis, told reporters there had been some progress this week on citizens’ rights and the Irish border question. Davis renewed his call for EU leaders to give a green light to trade talks next week but that has long been a forlorn hope.</p>
<p>Barnier made clear that despite new momentum from May’s concessions in a speech at Florence last month, British proposals still failed the “sufficient progress” test, notably on tens of billions of euros the EU says London owes.</p>
<p>May said Britain would ensure the other 27 countries did not lose out financially from Brexit in the current EU budget period to 2020 and would honor commitments — but Barnier said London was failing to spell out just what it was ready to pay.</p>
<p>“There was no negotiation on this, but we did have technical discussions which were useful,” he said. “We are, therefore, at a deadlock on this question. This is extremely worrying for European taxpayers and those who benefit from EU policies.”</p>
<p>Nonetheless, he offered hope: “I am still convinced that, with political will, decisive progress is within reach in the coming two months. With David Davis, we will organize several negotiating meetings between now and the end of the year.”</p>
<p>May herself said there had been “good progress” and welcomed Barnier’s talk of further progress “over the coming weeks”.</p> | false | 1 | alastair macdonald gabriela baczynska brussels reuters european union leaders ready hand theresa may olive branch deadlocked brexit negotiations next week launching internal preparations transition new relationship britain draft statement prepared next fridays talks sent approval thursday 27 eu governments made final brussels rejection opening free trade talks gave beleaguered british prime minister hope would december ups offers divorce terms eu ready start talking almost right away nerves fraying threats flying walking without deal come march 2019 deadline departure pound took knock eu negotiator michel barnier said new round talks week ended continued deadlock british refusal clarify much pay leaving rallied word despite tough demands eu governments want london union ready talk avoid hard brexit ease britain less disruption probably agreeing keep single market couple years diplomats say draft conclusions would issued leaders 27 next friday day meeting may full eu summit still agreed envoys including heavyweights germany france objected last week suggestion barnier eu start working transition plans eu officials noted summit chair donald tusk spoken almost 27 leaders recent days briefed may telephone preparations thursday envoys ministers 27 discuss draft coming days senior eu official closely involved negotiations said brussels expect major changes summit text internal preparatory discussions first version seen reuters confirms barnier others said month sufficient progress agreeing three key elements withdrawal treaty leaders agree open trade talks may wants effort defuse accusations britain eu intransigence leaders would welcome progress date three key issues rights 3 million eu citizens britain protecting peace northern ireland effect new border island britains outstanding payments would pledge reassess things next summit middecember barnier thursday spoke making progress next two months order waste time decide launch talks postbrexit future would ask barnier envoys start preparing transition albeit without actually starting talking britain european council invites council article 50 together union negotiator start internal preparatory discussions draft read another eu official said would avoid weeks delay launching new phase new year business leaders say vital make informed investment decisions 2018 time brexit without good idea early next year transition period look like international businesses britain would start vote feet move operations continent fear hard brexit warned uncertain grip may campaigned last year brexit party hardliners demanding resist eu demands ready walk deal left europeans unsure negotiations may lead gesture may reflects willingness help reinforce office deadlock money barnier british counterpart brexit secretary david davis told reporters progress week citizens rights irish border question davis renewed call eu leaders give green light trade talks next week long forlorn hope barnier made clear despite new momentum mays concessions speech florence last month british proposals still failed sufficient progress test notably tens billions euros eu says london owes may said britain would ensure 27 countries lose financially brexit current eu budget period 2020 would honor commitments barnier said london failing spell ready pay negotiation technical discussions useful said therefore deadlock question extremely worrying european taxpayers benefit eu policies nonetheless offered hope still convinced political decisive progress within reach coming two months david davis organize several negotiating meetings end year may said good progress welcomed barniers talk progress coming weeks | 513 |
<p>SPOILER ALERT: Do not read on unless you’ve seen Season 7, episode 11 of “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/american-horror-story/" type="external">American Horror Story</a>,” titled “Great Again.”&#160;</p>
<p>It’s hard to imagine that Ryan Murphy could have predicted how relevant the “female rage” would be currently when plotting out the arc for “Cult.” Of course, there were the Women’s March after the election, the fury over the “p—y-grabber-in-chief,” but “Great Again,” the finale of “Cult,” debuts at a time when Hollywood is at a reckoning for all sexual abusers. And though she has her flaws, in this context, it’s satisfying to see a reborn Ally (Sarah Paulson) take victory from the hands of the misogynistic <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/remote-controlled-evan-peters-american-horror-story-cult-1202605827/" type="external">Kai (Evan Peters)</a>.</p>
<p>But give Kai this: he’s nothing if not resourceful. We find him in prison in 2018, having a pinky power scene with a guard, Gloria (Liz Jenkins), and imploring her to “show me them biker chick t-tties.” A couple of inmates pull him aside, and one of them beats the crap out of him for upsetting the simple order of the penitentiary with his “silver-tongued bulls—.” Lo and behold, this isn’t where Kai dies. The other guard kills Kai’s adversary, but has nothing to show for it. Goaded on by a hallucinatory Charles Manson, he kills another one of his loyal followers, telling him, like he told Gary (Chaz Bono), that he would be a “martyr for the cause.” Devotion to Kai gets you nowhere, folks.</p>
<p>If only someone could have told Trevor, the young, cowardly inmate in for killing a child while drunk-driving in his daddy’s Tesla. He makes a deal with the devil in joining Kai’s prison cult — an army of men while women “ruin the world outside” — in exchange for protection. Little does he know Kai has no interest in protecting him.</p>
<p>First, though, we need to learn how Kai got himself thrown in the joint. Back in 2017, Kai panics over Speedwagon (the real mole, if <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/american-horror-story-recap-season-7-episode-10-charles-manson-in-charge-ahs-cult-1202609732/" type="external">you remember last week’s episode</a>)’s absence. He pulls it together to describe “The Night of 100 Tates” — it turns out he bit off more than he could chew when he proposed “The Night of 1,000 Tates,” logistically speaking. There’s an element of humor, but it’s still disturbing to see the men practice killing pregnant women by stabbing watermelons with glee. Meanwhile, Beverly (Adina Porter) is on edge and doesn’t see how she can go on, but Ally encourages her to keep going. The Night of 100 Tates will indeed be glorious, but not for the reasons that Kai thinks.</p>
<p>Kai still has to worry about Speedwagon, though. Ally reveals to him that she found his recorder, and that he killed Winter (Billie Lourd) for no reason. He’s heartbroken, but Ally encourages him to go forward with the big night, and so he does. The next night, the men are all set with their meticulously planned “kill kits” to murder the pregnant women, their babies, and their husbands, when Ally leaves… to let in the FBI. After an intense shootout, Kai is finally apprehended, Ally’s triumphant face the last thing he sees before the FBI truck’s doors slam.</p>
<p>Months later, Ally is seen as a hero. In the Butchery, where business is booming, she politely turns down a photo op, and is surprised to be visited by Beverly, who wonders when the other shoe will drop, paranoid about her own reckoning. Ally reveals that, while she was receiving psychiatric treatment, the FBI offered her immunity if she helped bring down the cult. And why turn Beverly in? She never saw her commit a crime. Ally still denies <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/american-horror-story-recap-season-7-episode-9-drink-the-kool-aid-ahs-cult-1202603943/" type="external">killing Ivy (Alison Pill)</a> — though it’s the only murder Kai didn’t take credit for — and puts on a good show, tearing up as she talks about honoring her late wife’s memory. It’s clearly practiced. But Ally’s got a new life now: she has a girlfriend, and the two of them invite Beverly to Oz’s birthday party.</p>
<p>At that birthday party, we get another glimpse into Ally’s new life. She’s turned down interview requests from Rachel Maddow and, in a fun “AHS” crossover, even Lana Winters: Paulson’s character from “Asylum” who gained fame as a Barbara Walters-esque journalist. But she also gets a call from Kai, where she boasts that she’s a “legit feminist icon” and rubs it in his face that he’s not Oz’s father as Kai foams at the mouth, threatening her.</p>
<p>As Kai has sex with Gloria in prison, he watches a press conference (what better way to set the mood?) that announces Ally’s run for Senate. She’s running on a platform of disbanding the “cults” of the two-party system — fitting, if you remember that she did vote for a third-party candidate in the 2016 election. Her campaign ad scored high marks, but Beverly, who’s advising her now, tells her that the people think she lacks strength. She’s still tied to Kai, and the only way she can show her strength is by dominating the upcoming debate versus incumbent Senator Jackson, Kai’s former rival.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Gloria helps Kai escape from prison. He’s procured a guard’s outfit, and murdered Trevor, who is also a white man with a body shape similar to Kai’s. To finish the job, before Gloria escorts him out of the prison, they cut off Trevor’s face to give the impression that the dead body is Kai’s, and it works. News that Kai is dead breaks right before the debate, but Ally remains unshaken, sounding strong as she stops Jackson from mansplaining to her and elicits cheers from the audience.</p>
<p>But just as she’s gaining momentum, Kai bursts in, grabbing a gun from Gloria, terrifying the audience, and waltzing toward Ally as he belittles her, telling her that she’s just a symbol that women will rise from pay inequality, abuse, and general disrespect. And maybe she’s a fitting one, right now: as Kai tries to shoot her, he fires blanks. Ally had beat him to the punch, used his cruelty against him, and got Gloria on her side, who provided him with a faulty weapon. Beverly steps in to shoot Kai, and just like that, Ally’s won… in more ways than one.</p>
<p>She won the Michigan Senate seat, securing 80% of the female vote, no less. Plus, she and Oz seem to be in a good place. As she explains governing to him, he vows that he’ll be a better man than those who came before him. But Ally has to run off into the night, as she’s meeting with some “empowered women who want to change the system.” Alone, she throws a hood over her head — is she the new Valerie Solanas? It seems that Bebe Babbitt (Frances Conroy) may have accomplished her mission after all.</p>
<p>And so caps another season of “ <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/american-horror-story-cheyenne-jackson-dr-rudy-vincent-1202599436/" type="external">American Horror Story</a>.” The most topical yet, “Cult” focused less on Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as individuals, instead commenting on how the political divide has made monsters of people on both sides. And all in all, it provided a fierce showcase for the show’s two stars, Paulson and Peters. Consider this a fitting bow on the twisted “love story” Murphy teased months ago.</p> | false | 1 | spoiler alert read unless youve seen season 7 episode 11 american horror story titled great again160 hard imagine ryan murphy could predicted relevant female rage would currently plotting arc cult course womens march election fury pygrabberinchief great finale cult debuts time hollywood reckoning sexual abusers though flaws context satisfying see reborn ally sarah paulson take victory hands misogynistic kai evan peters give kai hes nothing resourceful find prison 2018 pinky power scene guard gloria liz jenkins imploring show biker chick ttties couple inmates pull aside one beats crap upsetting simple order penitentiary silvertongued bulls lo behold isnt kai dies guard kills kais adversary nothing show goaded hallucinatory charles manson kills another one loyal followers telling like told gary chaz bono would martyr cause devotion kai gets nowhere folks someone could told trevor young cowardly inmate killing child drunkdriving daddys tesla makes deal devil joining kais prison cult army men women ruin world outside exchange protection little know kai interest protecting first though need learn kai got thrown joint back 2017 kai panics speedwagon real mole remember last weeks episodes absence pulls together describe night 100 tates turns bit could chew proposed night 1000 tates logistically speaking theres element humor still disturbing see men practice killing pregnant women stabbing watermelons glee meanwhile beverly adina porter edge doesnt see go ally encourages keep going night 100 tates indeed glorious reasons kai thinks kai still worry speedwagon though ally reveals found recorder killed winter billie lourd reason hes heartbroken ally encourages go forward big night next night men set meticulously planned kill kits murder pregnant women babies husbands ally leaves let fbi intense shootout kai finally apprehended allys triumphant face last thing sees fbi trucks doors slam months later ally seen hero butchery business booming politely turns photo op surprised visited beverly wonders shoe drop paranoid reckoning ally reveals receiving psychiatric treatment fbi offered immunity helped bring cult turn beverly never saw commit crime ally still denies killing ivy alison pill though murder kai didnt take credit puts good show tearing talks honoring late wifes memory clearly practiced allys got new life girlfriend two invite beverly ozs birthday party birthday party get another glimpse allys new life shes turned interview requests rachel maddow fun ahs crossover even lana winters paulsons character asylum gained fame barbara waltersesque journalist also gets call kai boasts shes legit feminist icon rubs face hes ozs father kai foams mouth threatening kai sex gloria prison watches press conference better way set mood announces allys run senate shes running platform disbanding cults twoparty system fitting remember vote thirdparty candidate 2016 election campaign ad scored high marks beverly whos advising tells people think lacks strength shes still tied kai way show strength dominating upcoming debate versus incumbent senator jackson kais former rival meanwhile gloria helps kai escape prison hes procured guards outfit murdered trevor also white man body shape similar kais finish job gloria escorts prison cut trevors face give impression dead body kais works news kai dead breaks right debate ally remains unshaken sounding strong stops jackson mansplaining elicits cheers audience shes gaining momentum kai bursts grabbing gun gloria terrifying audience waltzing toward ally belittles telling shes symbol women rise pay inequality abuse general disrespect maybe shes fitting one right kai tries shoot fires blanks ally beat punch used cruelty got gloria side provided faulty weapon beverly steps shoot kai like allys ways one michigan senate seat securing 80 female vote less plus oz seem good place explains governing vows hell better man came ally run night shes meeting empowered women want change system alone throws hood head new valerie solanas seems bebe babbitt frances conroy may accomplished mission caps another season american horror story topical yet cult focused less donald trump hillary clinton individuals instead commenting political divide made monsters people sides provided fierce showcase shows two stars paulson peters consider fitting bow twisted love story murphy teased months ago | 651 |
<p>FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Atlanta-Falcons/" type="external">Atlanta Falcons</a> found a win in Detroit on a controversial weekend with reigning most valuable player <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Matt_Ryan/" type="external">Matt Ryan</a>, not on top of his game.</p>
<p>“What a team effort yesterday,” Falcons head coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Dan_Quinn/" type="external">Dan Quinn</a> said on Monday. “I was really pumped about the defense and its resiliency, coming back and making some stops in some really opportune times. We knew it was going to take everything (we had).”</p>
<p>The Falcons will host the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Buffalo-Bills/" type="external">Buffalo Bills</a> on Sunday before receiving the early bye week. After the bye, they will face the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New_England_Patriots/" type="external">New England Patriots</a> on the road in a rematch of Super Bowl LI, a game they led 28-3 before losing 34-28 in overtime.</p>
<p>“There’s no doubt that we have to be better with the ball,” Quinn said.</p>
<p>Ryan opened on fire against the Lions, but cooled off and threw three interceptions that the Lions used to rally and nearly pull out the victory.</p>
<p>He was having his way with the Lions’ defense until free safety Glover Quinn stepped in front of his 17th pass attempt and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown.</p>
<p>Ryan hadn’t thrown an interception over his last 211 passes. He was victimized on the other two when running back <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Tevin-Coleman/" type="external">Tevin Coleman</a> and wide receiver <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mohamed-Sanu/" type="external">Mohamed Sanu</a> had passes clank off their hands and into the waiting arms of <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Darius-Slay/" type="external">Darius Slay</a>.</p>
<p>“It comes down to taking care of the football, for sure,” Ryan said. “We talk about that all the time. When you’re minus-3 in the turnover differential, it’s tough to overcome that. We were able to do it (against the Lions), but that’s certainly something that we have to clean up moving forward.”</p>
<p>Ryan hadn’t thrown three interceptions in a game since doing it against Indianapolis in a 24-21 loss on Nov. 22, 2015. Ryan has thrown at least three interceptions in a game eight times during his career. Ryan was 24 of 35 for 294 yards and two touchdowns. He finished with a 77.6 passer rating.</p>
<p>Ryan opened the game by throwing a bomb to <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Julio-Jones/" type="external">Julio Jones</a> that was incomplete. The Falcons called pass plays on nine of the first 12 plays in the opening drive, which culminated with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Sanu.</p>
<p>After the Falcons loosened up the Lions with all of those passes, the offensive line was able to maul them in the running game. Running back <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Devonta-Freeman/" type="external">Devonta Freeman</a> rushed for 106 yards on 21 carries and scored a touchdown and Coleman rushed for 46 yards on six carries.</p>
<p>“I’ll just say we’re getting better and better every week,” Freeman said. “You know what I mean? It’s a process, and next week we’re going to get better. And we’re going to rest the next week, and the next week coming back, we’re going to try to continue to get better.”</p>
<p>Freeman caught three passes for 32 yards and Coleman had three for 43 yards. Combined, the running backs had 33 touches from scrimmage for 227 yards and a touchdown.</p>
<p>“I thought we played well offensively,” Ryan said. “Our offensive line did a fantastic job today, we ran the ball extremely efficiently, had some explosive chunk runs.”</p>
<p>Right tackle Ty Sambrailo, who was starting for Ryan Schraeder, gave up two sacks, but overall Ryan was pleased.</p>
<p>“They did a great job in pass protection against a defense who’s been getting a lot of pass pressure, pass rush the first two weeks,” Ryan said. “So, I was proud of the way our offensive line played.”</p>
<p>Jones caught seven passes on 12 targets for 91 yards. But slot receiver <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Taylor-Gabriel/" type="external">Taylor Gabriel</a> had an electrifying 40-yard touchdown on a screen pass. He finished with five catches for 79 yards.</p>
<p>“It was good to have Taylor (Gabriel) back, he really made some plays today,” Quinn said. “I thought on third downs, a nice touchdown on the screen, so for him, dealing with an injury in the offseason, it was awesome to see him back in action today. Kind of looking how all of us are accustomed to seeing that kind of speed.”</p>
<p>The Falcons’ offense recorded a season high 428 total yards, including 151 yards on the ground, also a season high. It was the second straight game the Falcons had rushed for more than 125 yards.</p>
<p>The Falcons also had two scoring drives of 10 plays or more, and now have seven drives of 10 plays or more this season.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>For Grady Jarrett and Dontari Poe, it was a simple decision to kneel during the national anthem on Sunday after President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Donald_Trump/" type="external">Donald Trump</a> referred to any NFL player who has protested racial and social injustice by taking a knee as a “son of bitch.”</p>
<p>“I felt like me, myself, Grady Jarrett is the son of a Queen and that’s my message,” Jarrett said after the game.</p>
<p>Jarrett had been thinking about protesting for a while, but the comments by Trump pushed him to do more.</p>
<p>“My spirit moved me in a way and it was on my mind,” Jarrett said. “It was on my mind man, and … it is so awesome because having the support of your brothers and support of an organization like this, this has been, this is truly a blessing. It’s truly a blessing. And I’m just thankful.”</p>
<p>Poe knelt to make a statement against racial and social injustice in the country and said he intended no disrespect to the flag or the military.</p>
<p>“I know people (in the military),” Poe said. “I have a girl friend who’s in the Air Force. She’s in the reserves now. I’m not disrespecting that at all. I wouldn’t disrespect her like that. At the same time, I felt it wasn’t disrespecting the flag, but I was just standing up for what I believe in.”</p>
<p>Poe said he was moved by teammate <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Adrian-Clayborn/" type="external">Adrian Clayborn</a>‘s speech about the diversity on the team and how he wished the country was like the Falcons’ locker room. The team often refers to itself as “The Brotherhood.”</p>
<p>“He put it in such great words,” Poe said. “It was something that I paid close attention to. It was all truth in it. Basically, he wishes the outside world was like our locker room, with people of all different colors and creeds … we’re fighting together. We are a Brotherhood.</p>
<p>“We don’t look at nothing else but that. He said he wished the world was like that and that it would be much better place. I totally agree with him.”</p>
<p>Clayborn was the only player on the team to respond to the tweets from President Trump. He spoke to the issues of privilege in the nation.</p>
<p>“It so diverse in football,” Clayborn said. “We come from everywhere and it’s a shame we can’t all get along. I wish we could be like that, but it probably will never be. If it was, it would be a way better place.”</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>Teams across the league protested President Trump and labeled his tweets “divisive” to the fabric of the country. Falcons owner <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Arthur_Blank/" type="external">Arthur Blank</a> and Lions owner Martha Ford, who is 92 years old, both stood on the sidelines with their teams.</p>
<p>“I’m not going to lie,” Clayborn said. “It was hard pre-game, just trying to focus on the actual game. But once it started I was locked in. Thank God I got my brain locked in. When you get so much hate and so many people hate your guts because of something you believe in, it’s crazy. But we locked in. We got it done.”</p>
<p>Clayborn, who is from St. Louis where they’ve had two police officers acquitted in high-profile shooting cases of African-Americans, has become the socially conscious member of the team.</p>
<p>“It was a team meeting,” Clayborn said. “It’s our brotherhood coming together. People are saying nasty things about us and we have to stick together. It’s coming in hot.”</p>
<p>Falcons head coach Dan Quinn stood during the national anthem and supported having Blank on the field with the team.</p>
<p>“I’d like to recognize Arthur being down on the field with the team prior to the game and showing his solidarity for not just the Falcons, but for the NFL in general,” Quinn said. “He continues to demonstrate what a class act he is to all of the players and staff and coaches. We really appreciate him.”</p>
<p>Blank was fine with players’ decisions.</p>
<p>“What they do is their choice,” Blank said. “I’m supportive of our players. I’m certainly supportive of their rights to express their freedom of speech. I don’t think … the people that fought for this country going back several hundred years primarily weren’t fighting for geography. They were fighting for way of life, and part of that is reflected in the freedom of speech and the ability to speak up and speak out on issues.”</p>
<p>Blank was not pleased with the comments of President Trump about players who have elected to kneel during the national anthem.</p>
<p>“It’s unfortunate that the president chose to go in that direction and speak out the way he has,” Blank said. “Love conquers and that kind of divisiveness and calling out accomplishes nothing, satisfies nothing.”</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>Blank was not one of seven NFL owners who donated $1 million to Trump’s campaign. Blank was a strong supporter of President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Barack_Obama/" type="external">Barack Obama</a>.</p>
<p>Players around the league have been protesting social and racial injustice in the country.</p>
<p>“The issues that they point to are legitimate issues,” Blank said. “They need to be talked about it. We need to make progress as a country moving forward with them. We don’t do it by creating walls. We don’t build walls. That doesn’t create better listening or better responses or connections.”</p>
<p>Blank noted that the Falcons are one of the busiest teams when it comes to doing community service.</p>
<p>“I think our players love this country,” Blank said. “They not only play this game, but they work their fannies off physically and financially giving back in a variety of ways to our communities throughout the National Football League. We are the first to step up and do very significant things. They do it day in and day out. I see it every day with our players.”</p>
<p>Blank believes the players’ issues should be addressed.</p>
<p>“Opening up thoughtful and positive discussions based on inclusiveness and not based on divisiveness,” Blank said. “Divisiveness is never going to solve anything in a positive way. It never has in the history of this country.”</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>The Falcons held the Lions to 71 rushing yards and sacked Lions quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Matthew_Stafford/" type="external">Matthew Stafford</a> twice.</p>
<p>Defensive end Adrian Clayborn recorded his second sack of the season.</p>
<p>Rookie defensive end Takk McKinley recorded his first career sack.</p>
<p>The defense has recorded a sack in 18 straight games.</p>
<p>The defense also recorded five hits on the quarterback and they currently are tied for first in the NFL with 22 hits on the quarterback.</p>
<p>NOTES: K <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Matt_Bryant/" type="external">Matt Bryant</a> went three-for-three on field goals, including two 40-plus-yard field goals. Bryant is first in the league with eight made field goals.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>WR Julio Jones had seven catches for 91 yards, but sustained a back injury. He’s limited in practice, but is expected to play against Buffalo. … FS Ricardo Allen is in the league’s concussion protocol. … RT Ryan Schraeder is in the league’s concussion protocol and head coach Dan Quinn hopes to have him back for the Buffalo game. … RB Devonta Freeman crossed the 100-yard mark for the first time this season. He also scored his fourth rushing touchdown of the season and 27th of his career. The Falcons are 16-2 when Freeman rushes for a touchdown. He finished the game with 21 carries for 106 yards. … RB Tevin Coleman had 89 total yards. He and Freeman combined for 227 total yards against the Lions. That is the seventh time the duo has reached 200-plus combined yards and the team is 7-0 when the two running backs reach that mark. … WR Taylor Gabriel recorded his first touchdown reception of the season. The 40-yard touchdown catch was Gabriel’s sixth career touchdown of 30-plus yards and his seventh touchdown reception of 25-plus yards.</p>
<p>REPORT CARD VS. LIONS</p>
<p>—PASSING OFFENSE: B – Matt Ryan entered the game having not thrown an interception over his last 195 passes. He had 16 more attempts in the game without an interception before Lions free safety Glover Quinn stepped in front of a pass intended for Julio Jones and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown. Lions cornerback Darius Slay intercepted Ryan in the third quarter and picked off another one that bounced of Mohamed Sanu’s hands. Ty Sambrailo was overpowered twice in pass protection and gave up two sacks while subbing for Ryan Schraeder, who is in the concussion protocol. Ryan hadn’t thrown three interceptions in a game since doing it against Indianapolis in a 24-21 loss on Nov. 22, 2015. Ryan has thrown at least three interceptions in a game eight times over his career. Ryan was 24 of 35 for 294 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.</p>
<p>—RUSHING OFFENSE: B-plus – Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman gashed the Lions early and that opened up things for the offense. Freeman added his fourth rushing touchdown of the season. The Falcons found some success running inside against the Lions, who were without rookie middle linebacker <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jarrad-Davis/" type="external">Jarrad Davis</a>. Freeman rushed 21 times for 106 yards and one touchdown. Tevin Coleman added 46 yards rushing on six carries.</p>
<p>—PASS DEFENSE: B – Lions wide receiver Golden Tate was flanked out to the left and came across the middle with the Falcons playing zone. He caught the ball and scored the Lions’ first offensive touchdown from 11 yards out with 4:51 left in the third quarter to make the score 23-20. Defensive ends Adrian Clayborn and Takkarist McKinley had a sack each. McKinley tipped Stafford’s pass on third down in the fourth quarter that forced Detroit to settle for a field goal. Tate was stopped by <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Brian_Poole/" type="external">Brian Poole</a> on the game’s final play at the 1-yard line.</p>
<p>—RUSH DEFENSE: A – The Falcons held Lions running back <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ameer-Abdullah/" type="external">Ameer Abdullah</a> in check. He was coming off rushing for a career-high 86 yards against the Giants. He rushed 14 times for 47 yards. The strong play against the run kept the Lions out of the red zone until under 7:00 was left in the third quarter.</p>
<p>—SPECIAL TEAMS: A — Matt Bryant made all of his extra points and field goals of 36, 48 and 40 yards. The kickoff return team was stuffed in the third quarter after the Lions closed to within three, 23-20. Matt Bosher didn’t have his first punt until there was 3:26 left in the game. Andre Roberts had a 27-yard punt return and a 38-yard kickoff return.</p>
<p>—COACHING: B-plus – The coaching staff was able to get the team focused enough to win on the road during a controversial weekend. The defense made enough plays and had three stops down the stretch to secure the win after the offense started to sputter. Offensive coordinator <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Steve-Sarkisian/" type="external">Steve Sarkisian</a> came out throwing. He called passes on nine of the first 12 plays. Ryan completed eight and was sacked on one.</p> | false | 1 | flowery branch ga atlanta falcons found win detroit controversial weekend reigning valuable player matt ryan top game team effort yesterday falcons head coach dan quinn said monday really pumped defense resiliency coming back making stops really opportune times knew going take everything falcons host buffalo bills sunday receiving early bye week bye face new england patriots road rematch super bowl li game led 283 losing 3428 overtime theres doubt better ball quinn said ryan opened fire lions cooled threw three interceptions lions used rally nearly pull victory way lions defense free safety glover quinn stepped front 17th pass attempt returned 37 yards touchdown ryan hadnt thrown interception last 211 passes victimized two running back tevin coleman wide receiver mohamed sanu passes clank hands waiting arms darius slay comes taking care football sure ryan said talk time youre minus3 turnover differential tough overcome able lions thats certainly something clean moving forward ryan hadnt thrown three interceptions game since indianapolis 2421 loss nov 22 2015 ryan thrown least three interceptions game eight times career ryan 24 35 294 yards two touchdowns finished 776 passer rating ryan opened game throwing bomb julio jones incomplete falcons called pass plays nine first 12 plays opening drive culminated 4yard touchdown pass sanu falcons loosened lions passes offensive line able maul running game running back devonta freeman rushed 106 yards 21 carries scored touchdown coleman rushed 46 yards six carries ill say getting better better every week freeman said know mean process next week going get better going rest next week next week coming back going try continue get better freeman caught three passes 32 yards coleman three 43 yards combined running backs 33 touches scrimmage 227 yards touchdown thought played well offensively ryan said offensive line fantastic job today ran ball extremely efficiently explosive chunk runs right tackle ty sambrailo starting ryan schraeder gave two sacks overall ryan pleased great job pass protection defense whos getting lot pass pressure pass rush first two weeks ryan said proud way offensive line played jones caught seven passes 12 targets 91 yards slot receiver taylor gabriel electrifying 40yard touchdown screen pass finished five catches 79 yards good taylor gabriel back really made plays today quinn said thought third downs nice touchdown screen dealing injury offseason awesome see back action today kind looking us accustomed seeing kind speed falcons offense recorded season high 428 total yards including 151 yards ground also season high second straight game falcons rushed 125 yards falcons also two scoring drives 10 plays seven drives 10 plays season grady jarrett dontari poe simple decision kneel national anthem sunday president donald trump referred nfl player protested racial social injustice taking knee son bitch felt like grady jarrett son queen thats message jarrett said game jarrett thinking protesting comments trump pushed spirit moved way mind jarrett said mind man awesome support brothers support organization like truly blessing truly blessing im thankful poe knelt make statement racial social injustice country said intended disrespect flag military know people military poe said girl friend whos air force shes reserves im disrespecting wouldnt disrespect like time felt wasnt disrespecting flag standing believe poe said moved teammate adrian clayborns speech diversity team wished country like falcons locker room team often refers brotherhood put great words poe said something paid close attention truth basically wishes outside world like locker room people different colors creeds fighting together brotherhood dont look nothing else said wished world like would much better place totally agree clayborn player team respond tweets president trump spoke issues privilege nation diverse football clayborn said come everywhere shame cant get along wish could like probably never would way better place teams across league protested president trump labeled tweets divisive fabric country falcons owner arthur blank lions owner martha ford 92 years old stood sidelines teams im going lie clayborn said hard pregame trying focus actual game started locked thank god got brain locked get much hate many people hate guts something believe crazy locked got done clayborn st louis theyve two police officers acquitted highprofile shooting cases africanamericans become socially conscious member team team meeting clayborn said brotherhood coming together people saying nasty things us stick together coming hot falcons head coach dan quinn stood national anthem supported blank field team id like recognize arthur field team prior game showing solidarity falcons nfl general quinn said continues demonstrate class act players staff coaches really appreciate blank fine players decisions choice blank said im supportive players im certainly supportive rights express freedom speech dont think people fought country going back several hundred years primarily werent fighting geography fighting way life part reflected freedom speech ability speak speak issues blank pleased comments president trump players elected kneel national anthem unfortunate president chose go direction speak way blank said love conquers kind divisiveness calling accomplishes nothing satisfies nothing blank one seven nfl owners donated 1 million trumps campaign blank strong supporter president barack obama players around league protesting social racial injustice country issues point legitimate issues blank said need talked need make progress country moving forward dont creating walls dont build walls doesnt create better listening better responses connections blank noted falcons one busiest teams comes community service think players love country blank said play game work fannies physically financially giving back variety ways communities throughout national football league first step significant things day day see every day players blank believes players issues addressed opening thoughtful positive discussions based inclusiveness based divisiveness blank said divisiveness never going solve anything positive way never history country falcons held lions 71 rushing yards sacked lions quarterback matthew stafford twice defensive end adrian clayborn recorded second sack season rookie defensive end takk mckinley recorded first career sack defense recorded sack 18 straight games defense also recorded five hits quarterback currently tied first nfl 22 hits quarterback notes k matt bryant went threeforthree field goals including two 40plusyard field goals bryant first league eight made field goals wr julio jones seven catches 91 yards sustained back injury hes limited practice expected play buffalo fs ricardo allen leagues concussion protocol rt ryan schraeder leagues concussion protocol head coach dan quinn hopes back buffalo game rb devonta freeman crossed 100yard mark first time season also scored fourth rushing touchdown season 27th career falcons 162 freeman rushes touchdown finished game 21 carries 106 yards rb tevin coleman 89 total yards freeman combined 227 total yards lions seventh time duo reached 200plus combined yards team 70 two running backs reach mark wr taylor gabriel recorded first touchdown reception season 40yard touchdown catch gabriels sixth career touchdown 30plus yards seventh touchdown reception 25plus yards report card vs lions passing offense b matt ryan entered game thrown interception last 195 passes 16 attempts game without interception lions free safety glover quinn stepped front pass intended julio jones returned 37 yards touchdown lions cornerback darius slay intercepted ryan third quarter picked another one bounced mohamed sanus hands ty sambrailo overpowered twice pass protection gave two sacks subbing ryan schraeder concussion protocol ryan hadnt thrown three interceptions game since indianapolis 2421 loss nov 22 2015 ryan thrown least three interceptions game eight times career ryan 24 35 294 yards two touchdowns three interceptions rushing offense bplus devonta freeman tevin coleman gashed lions early opened things offense freeman added fourth rushing touchdown season falcons found success running inside lions without rookie middle linebacker jarrad davis freeman rushed 21 times 106 yards one touchdown tevin coleman added 46 yards rushing six carries pass defense b lions wide receiver golden tate flanked left came across middle falcons playing zone caught ball scored lions first offensive touchdown 11 yards 451 left third quarter make score 2320 defensive ends adrian clayborn takkarist mckinley sack mckinley tipped staffords pass third fourth quarter forced detroit settle field goal tate stopped brian poole games final play 1yard line rush defense falcons held lions running back ameer abdullah check coming rushing careerhigh 86 yards giants rushed 14 times 47 yards strong play run kept lions red zone 700 left third quarter special teams matt bryant made extra points field goals 36 48 40 yards kickoff return team stuffed third quarter lions closed within three 2320 matt bosher didnt first punt 326 left game andre roberts 27yard punt return 38yard kickoff return coaching bplus coaching staff able get team focused enough win road controversial weekend defense made enough plays three stops stretch secure win offense started sputter offensive coordinator steve sarkisian came throwing called passes nine first 12 plays ryan completed eight sacked one | 1,415 |
<p>By Sanjeev Miglani</p>
<p>NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The Trump administration is pushing security ties between the United States, India, Japan and Australia, but the revival of the Asian “Quad” must overcome lingering mistrust in New Delhi towards its allies that hampers genuine military cooperation.</p>
<p>Joint naval drills have been at the heart of a relationship that analysts widely see as a move to counterbalance China’s rising power by binding the region’s leading democracies more closely together.</p>
<p>But while the navies of the United States, Japan and Australia can easily operate together – based on common U.S.-designed combat systems and data links – India is the outlier.</p>
<p>Not only are most of its ships and warplanes Russian-made, its government and military remain deeply reluctant to share data and open up sensitive military communications systems.</p>
<p>The United States has carried out more naval exercises with India than any other nation. But naval sources and experts say these are more about “cultural familiarization” than drills for joint combat.</p>
<p>Because India will not sign an agreement on sharing data, naval exercises are conducted through voice and text commands with rudimentary SMS-style data exchange, Indian and Japanese military sources said.</p>
<p>“Think of it as directing your friend to your house in the 1980s. Your left may be his right, neither of you have situational awareness,” said Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, a senior fellow at New Delhi’s Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies who has tracked the military exercises.</p>
<p>“What the Americans want is 2017 – drop a pin on Google (NASDAQ:) maps and hit share. You know where your friend is and he knows where your house is and how to get to it.”</p>
<p>The Indian defense ministry did not respond to a request for a comment.</p>
<p>ANNUAL DRILLS</p>
<p>The so-called Quad to discuss and cooperate on security emerged briefly as an initiative a decade ago – much to the annoyance of China – and was revived recently, with an officials-level meeting this month on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Manila.</p>
<p>The Trump administration has talked up cooperation with India as part of efforts for a “free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific”.</p>
<p>Describing the Indian and Pacific Oceans as a “single strategic arena”, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described India and the United States as regional “bookends”.</p>
<p>“In concrete terms, it will lead to great co-ordination between the Indian, Japanese and American militaries including maritime domain awareness, anti-submarine warfare, amphibious warfare, and humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and search and rescue,” he said.</p>
<p>To be sure, India and the United States have steadily been bringing more powerful ships into their annual “Malabar” drills that have been expanded to include Japan in recent years.</p>
<p>This year the USS Nimitz carrier group was deployed for the maneuvers off India’s eastern coast, along with an aircraft carrier from India and a helicopter carrier from Japan.</p>
<p>But a Japanese Maritime Self Defence Forces official said when Japan conducts drills with the Indian navy, communication is done mostly through voice transmission. There is no satellite link that would allow the two navies to access information and share monitor displays in on-board command centers.</p>
<p>Communication is usually the most difficult aspect of any joint drill, he said.</p>
<p>BUILDING BLOCKS</p>
<p>The exercises are meant to lay the ground for joint patrols that the U.S. eventually wants to conduct with India and its allies across the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.</p>
<p>U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman, said better interoperability was a goal of the exercises and noted that India’s enhanced role as a major U.S. defense partner would help boost the relationship.</p>
<p>“The designation of India as a major defense partner is significant and is intended to elevate defense trade and technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of our closest allies and partners,” he said.</p>
<p>“As this relationship matures so will the level of interoperability.”</p>
<p>Last year, India signed a military logistics pact with the United States after a decade of wrangling, but two other agreements are stuck.</p>
<p>The United States says the Communication and Information Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) would allow it to supply India with encrypted communications equipment and systems. The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement is the other pact that would set a framework through which the United States could share sensitive data to aid targeting and navigation with India.</p>
<p>India is concerned that agreeing to the CISMOA would open up its military communications to the United States, and even allow it to listen in on operations where Indian and U.S. interests may not coincide – such as against arch-rival Pakistan, military officials in New Delhi say.</p>
<p>RADARS TURNED OFF</p>
<p>Captain Gurpreet Khurana, executive director at the government-funded National Maritime Foundation, said India’s underlying concern was having its autonomy constrained by binding its military into U.S. codes and operating procedures.</p>
<p>Once, the Americans proposed a portable “suitcase” communications system called the CENTRIXS which could transmit full situational awareness data to Indian ships while the two navies practised together. India refused to allow it to be plugged in for the duration of the exercise, citing operational security, according to an Indian source briefed on the planning of the exercises.</p>
<p>Even the joint air exercises that the two countries are conducting as a follow-on to Malabar are severely restricted, the source said.</p>
<p>India sends its Russian-acquired Sukhoi jets to the drills, but their radars and jammers are turned off.</p>
<p>David Shear, who served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia under President Barack Obama, said U.S. forces, particularly the Navy, were well aware of the interoperability constraints to interacting with India.</p>
<p>“They understand what the obstacles are and that this is going to be a long-term project,” he said.</p> | false | 1 | sanjeev miglani new delhi reuters trump administration pushing security ties united states india japan australia revival asian quad must overcome lingering mistrust new delhi towards allies hampers genuine military cooperation joint naval drills heart relationship analysts widely see move counterbalance chinas rising power binding regions leading democracies closely together navies united states japan australia easily operate together based common usdesigned combat systems data links india outlier ships warplanes russianmade government military remain deeply reluctant share data open sensitive military communications systems united states carried naval exercises india nation naval sources experts say cultural familiarization drills joint combat india sign agreement sharing data naval exercises conducted voice text commands rudimentary smsstyle data exchange indian japanese military sources said think directing friend house 1980s left may right neither situational awareness said abhijit iyermitra senior fellow new delhis institute peace conflict studies tracked military exercises americans want 2017 drop pin google nasdaq maps hit share know friend knows house get indian defense ministry respond request comment annual drills socalled quad discuss cooperate security emerged briefly initiative decade ago much annoyance china revived recently officialslevel meeting month sidelines regional gathering manila trump administration talked cooperation india part efforts free open thriving indopacific describing indian pacific oceans single strategic arena us secretary state rex tillerson described india united states regional bookends concrete terms lead great coordination indian japanese american militaries including maritime domain awareness antisubmarine warfare amphibious warfare humanitarian assistance disaster relief search rescue said sure india united states steadily bringing powerful ships annual malabar drills expanded include japan recent years year uss nimitz carrier group deployed maneuvers indias eastern coast along aircraft carrier india helicopter carrier japan japanese maritime self defence forces official said japan conducts drills indian navy communication done mostly voice transmission satellite link would allow two navies access information share monitor displays onboard command centers communication usually difficult aspect joint drill said building blocks exercises meant lay ground joint patrols us eventually wants conduct india allies across indian ocean pacific us marine corps lieutenant colonel christopher logan pentagon spokesman said better interoperability goal exercises noted indias enhanced role major us defense partner would help boost relationship designation india major defense partner significant intended elevate defense trade technology sharing india level commensurate closest allies partners said relationship matures level interoperability last year india signed military logistics pact united states decade wrangling two agreements stuck united states says communication information security memorandum agreement cismoa would allow supply india encrypted communications equipment systems basic exchange cooperation agreement pact would set framework united states could share sensitive data aid targeting navigation india india concerned agreeing cismoa would open military communications united states even allow listen operations indian us interests may coincide archrival pakistan military officials new delhi say radars turned captain gurpreet khurana executive director governmentfunded national maritime foundation said indias underlying concern autonomy constrained binding military us codes operating procedures americans proposed portable suitcase communications system called centrixs could transmit full situational awareness data indian ships two navies practised together india refused allow plugged duration exercise citing operational security according indian source briefed planning exercises even joint air exercises two countries conducting followon malabar severely restricted source said india sends russianacquired sukhoi jets drills radars jammers turned david shear served assistant secretary defense asia president barack obama said us forces particularly navy well aware interoperability constraints interacting india understand obstacles going longterm project said | 560 |
<p>Less than 72 hours after Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych seemed to back off from his Ministry of Culture’s&#160; <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/368420/exhaust-fumes-stalinism-george-weigel" type="external">threat to decertify</a>&#160;the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and put this largest of the Eastern Catholic Churches in legal limbo, the Yanukovych-controlled Ukrainian parliament, on January 16, rammed through eleven new laws aimed at curbing, and eventually crushing, the EuroMaidan civic-renewal movement,&#160;muzzling its calls for political and economic reform by constraining the movement’s exercise of basic civil liberties.</p>
<p>Within hours of the parliamentary farce in the Ukrainian Rada on January 16, both the European Union’s ambassador to Ukraine, Jan Tombinski, and the U.S. ambassador to Kiev, Geoffrey Pyatt, publicly raised sharp questions about the procedural deficiencies by which these laws were summarily adopted. But while there is no question that parliamentary procedure was, to put it gently, stretched beyond the breaking point in order to pass the new laws, what ought to be of deepest concern to supporters of Ukraine’s courageous efforts at civic self-renewal is the legislation’s substance. For were these laws to be signed by President Yanukoych and then implemented, the net effort would be to hollow out Ukrainian democracy by shredding the fabric of the new, vital, but still nascent Ukrainian civil society that has been aborning throughout the country in the various EuroMaidan protests.</p>
<p>In classic Stalinist fashion, with modifications adopted from Vladimir Putin’s efforts to reduce Russian civil-society associations to vassals of the Russian state, the new laws combine the sinister with the seemingly silly. As of January 16, five-car “columns” of cars are forbidden without explicit police permission. (Why? Because convoys have been organized to spread the EuroMaidan movement throughout Ukraine from its Kievan epicenter). As of January 16, parliamentary immunity may be revoked in the cases of what are deemed to be obstreperous opposition politicians, who would be subject to legal penalties for their dissent from the Yanukoych line. “Violations of peaceful assembly” (which would presumably include classic nonviolent resistance against the thugs of the security services) is now punishable by ten days under arrest. “Failure to comply with the legitimate demands” of the security services now gets you a major monetary fine. An entirely new legal ban on “blocking access to housing” will get you six years in prison.</p>
<p>“Slander” has been brought back into the Ukrainian criminal code, punishable by up to two years in prison. An anti-“rioting” law, clearly aimed at the EuroMaidans (which have been remarkably peaceful, despite violent provocations) carries a prison sentence of ten to 15 years. Three years in prison await those “gathering information” about the security services and regime-compliant judges. Churches are forbidden “extremist activities,” the nature of which is, of course, left to the discretion of the authoritarians. Internet and mobile-phone providers are now required to obtain equipment that records the activities of their clients and to make the information available to the police. And members of the Berkut, the “Golden Eagle” security services, are exempt from prosecution for assaults against EuroMaidan activists, some of which have involved bludgeoning activists into unconsciousness. Yet wearing a helmet during a protest is now illegal.</p>
<p>Following recent Russian precedents, one of the new laws “against extremism” also attempts to cut civil-society activists and their organizations off from their Western allies:</p>
<p>A civic association functioning as a foreign agent is [any] civic association that receives monetary funds or in-kind donations for its activities from foreign states, their state institutions [organs], non-governmental organizations of other states, international nongovernmental organizations, foreign citizens, persons without citizenship or their representatives who receive monetary funds or other in-kind materials from the mentioned sources, or who participate in political activity on the territory of Ukraine, also in the interest of foreign states.</p>
<p>The language may be a bit baroque, but the intent is clear enough: Any Ukrainian civil-society organization that accepts funds for civil-society or pro-democracy work from, say, the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (full disclosure: I serve on the NED board), the European Endowment for Democracy, the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Center for International Private Enterprise, or the American political parties’ international institutes will be considered a “foreign agent.” It must identify itself as “as a civil association performing the functions of a foreign agent.” It must submit monthly financial and program reports to the state, and it must now pay income taxes.</p>
<p>As for “political activity on the territory of Ukraine,” well, one can only imagine what a regime capable of passing such a law would consider as falling under that rubric. Take, for example, the Chicago-based Ukrainian Catholic Educational Foundation, a U.S.-based charity established to support the work of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, whose students and faculty have been deeply involved in both education for long-term civic renewal and the recent EuroMaidan protests. Should these new laws be signed and enforced, the only Catholic institution of higher learning in the former Soviet space, and one of the most admired institutions in Ukraine, could be considered a “foreign agent” because it held a public seminar on the moral-cultural foundations of democracy (an obviously “political activity” according to the lights of those who wrote these new laws) with funds provided by a foundation in Chicago.</p>
<p>Throughout the weeks of the EuroMaidan protsts, Ukrainian president Yanukovych has not indicated any willingness to compromise with reformers. Annoyed by the persistence of the people of the EuroMaidans, he seems now to have adopted the anti–civil society tactics pioneered by Vladimir Putin, the neo-czar who is providing something of a financial lifeline to the economically strapped Ukrainian government, thereby advancing his project of reconstituting the old Soviet space de facto if not de iure. Yanukovych, for his part, is interested in one thing: power, and maintaining it beyond the March 2015 Ukrainian presidential elections. Fearful that if he loses next year he will end up in prison (if he stays in the country), he and his parliamentary satraps&#160;evidently used the long Ukrainian Christmas season, which with its New Calendar and Old Calendar celebrations runs well into January, to prepare the legislative package that was muscled through the Rada on January 16.</p>
<p>One might, conceivably, argue that this is all an elaborate feint: that Yanukoych is trying to dismantle the EuroMaidan movement through the threats posed by the new laws, which he will either delay in signing or, after signing, not enforce. But that would be to take too sanguine a view. Like Putin, Yanukovych knows that there is a serious downside to massive public brutality in handling the dissidents of nascent civil society: In a world of iPhones and social media, such brutalities are now made transparent, often in real time, throughout the world. A few skulls cracked may get some off the EuroMaidans. But the long-term strategy of the New Authoritarians, in Ukraine as in Russia, is to strangle nascent civil societies in their cradles, using draconian regulations supported by prosecutorial power, all of it masquerading as the rule of law and the defense of national sovereignty against “foreign agents.”</p>
<p>In these circumstances, protesting violations of parliamentary procedure, while welcome, is insufficient. Unless serious political counter-pressure is applied from Washington and (if such may be imagined) from Brussels, the civic-reform movement in Ukraine will, over time, be cut off from its supporters around the world and Ukrainian democracy will be hollowed out, leaving behind a dry and rotting shell of democratic formality in a country ruled by political thugs and their oligarchic allies.</p>
<p>— George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | false | 1 | less 72 hours ukrainian president viktor yanukovych seemed back ministry cultures160 threat decertify160the ukrainian greek catholic church put largest eastern catholic churches legal limbo yanukovychcontrolled ukrainian parliament january 16 rammed eleven new laws aimed curbing eventually crushing euromaidan civicrenewal movement160muzzling calls political economic reform constraining movements exercise basic civil liberties within hours parliamentary farce ukrainian rada january 16 european unions ambassador ukraine jan tombinski us ambassador kiev geoffrey pyatt publicly raised sharp questions procedural deficiencies laws summarily adopted question parliamentary procedure put gently stretched beyond breaking point order pass new laws ought deepest concern supporters ukraines courageous efforts civic selfrenewal legislations substance laws signed president yanukoych implemented net effort would hollow ukrainian democracy shredding fabric new vital still nascent ukrainian civil society aborning throughout country various euromaidan protests classic stalinist fashion modifications adopted vladimir putins efforts reduce russian civilsociety associations vassals russian state new laws combine sinister seemingly silly january 16 fivecar columns cars forbidden without explicit police permission convoys organized spread euromaidan movement throughout ukraine kievan epicenter january 16 parliamentary immunity may revoked cases deemed obstreperous opposition politicians would subject legal penalties dissent yanukoych line violations peaceful assembly would presumably include classic nonviolent resistance thugs security services punishable ten days arrest failure comply legitimate demands security services gets major monetary fine entirely new legal ban blocking access housing get six years prison slander brought back ukrainian criminal code punishable two years prison antirioting law clearly aimed euromaidans remarkably peaceful despite violent provocations carries prison sentence ten 15 years three years prison await gathering information security services regimecompliant judges churches forbidden extremist activities nature course left discretion authoritarians internet mobilephone providers required obtain equipment records activities clients make information available police members berkut golden eagle security services exempt prosecution assaults euromaidan activists involved bludgeoning activists unconsciousness yet wearing helmet protest illegal following recent russian precedents one new laws extremism also attempts cut civilsociety activists organizations western allies civic association functioning foreign agent civic association receives monetary funds inkind donations activities foreign states state institutions organs nongovernmental organizations states international nongovernmental organizations foreign citizens persons without citizenship representatives receive monetary funds inkind materials mentioned sources participate political activity territory ukraine also interest foreign states language may bit baroque intent clear enough ukrainian civilsociety organization accepts funds civilsociety prodemocracy work say us national endowment democracy full disclosure serve ned board european endowment democracy aflcios solidarity center us chamber commerces center international private enterprise american political parties international institutes considered foreign agent must identify civil association performing functions foreign agent must submit monthly financial program reports state must pay income taxes political activity territory ukraine well one imagine regime capable passing law would consider falling rubric take example chicagobased ukrainian catholic educational foundation usbased charity established support work ukrainian catholic university lviv whose students faculty deeply involved education longterm civic renewal recent euromaidan protests new laws signed enforced catholic institution higher learning former soviet space one admired institutions ukraine could considered foreign agent held public seminar moralcultural foundations democracy obviously political activity according lights wrote new laws funds provided foundation chicago throughout weeks euromaidan protsts ukrainian president yanukovych indicated willingness compromise reformers annoyed persistence people euromaidans seems adopted anticivil society tactics pioneered vladimir putin neoczar providing something financial lifeline economically strapped ukrainian government thereby advancing project reconstituting old soviet space de facto de iure yanukovych part interested one thing power maintaining beyond march 2015 ukrainian presidential elections fearful loses next year end prison stays country parliamentary satraps160evidently used long ukrainian christmas season new calendar old calendar celebrations runs well january prepare legislative package muscled rada january 16 one might conceivably argue elaborate feint yanukoych trying dismantle euromaidan movement threats posed new laws either delay signing signing enforce would take sanguine view like putin yanukovych knows serious downside massive public brutality handling dissidents nascent civil society world iphones social media brutalities made transparent often real time throughout world skulls cracked may get euromaidans longterm strategy new authoritarians ukraine russia strangle nascent civil societies cradles using draconian regulations supported prosecutorial power masquerading rule law defense national sovereignty foreign agents circumstances protesting violations parliamentary procedure welcome insufficient unless serious political counterpressure applied washington may imagined brussels civicreform movement ukraine time cut supporters around world ukrainian democracy hollowed leaving behind dry rotting shell democratic formality country ruled political thugs oligarchic allies george weigel distinguished senior fellow washingtons ethics public policy center holds william e simon chair catholic studies 160 | 732 |
<p>Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke chartered a flight from Las Vegas to near his home in Montana this summer aboard a plane owned by oil-and-gas executives, internal documents show.</p>
<p>The flight, along with private flights during a trip to the Virgin Islands, could propel Zinke into the growing debate over the costs of travel by Cabinet secretaries, some of whom have chosen expensive charter jets and military planes at high expense to taxpayers over the cheaper option of flying commercial.</p>
<p>In June, Zinke and his staffers took a four-hour flight from Las Vegas to Kalispell, Montana, aboard a private plane owned by the executives of a Wyoming oil-and-gas exploration firm, aviation and business records show.</p>
<p>The landing in Kalispell put Zinke a short drive from his home in Whitefish, Montana, where he spent the night, documents show.</p>
<p>The flight cost taxpayers $12,375, according to a Department of the Interior spokeswoman. Commercial airlines run daily flights between the two airports and charge as little as $300.</p>
<p>The new flight details show how Zinke has mixed political gatherings and personal destinations with his taxpayer-funded work as the head of a federal agency that manages or controls the vast majority of federal land.</p>
<p>Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift said Zinke’s charter flights were authorized by ethics officials and booked only when feasible commercial flights were unavailable. Previous interior secretaries flew charter flights when needed, Swift added. She did not provide documentation of the approvals.</p>
<p>Zinke spoke the next day at the annual meeting of the Western Governors’ Association, Swift said, and no commercial flight was available that would have gotten Zinke and his staff from his Vegas speech to Montana on time. Tickets for Zinke and staffers were paid out of the department’s budget, Swift said.</p>
<p>Jay Nielson, the executive vice president of Nielson &amp; Associates, an oil-and-gas exploration and production firm, co-owns the plane through a holding company, but he said he was not in control of the plane at the time and that it was chartered through a company called Choice Aviation. He told The Washington Post he was unsure if Zinke flew on the plane and added, “Part of why people charter planes is they like to remain somewhat private.”</p>
<p>A representative at Choice Aviation, who declined to give her name, said she was unsure whether Choice chartered a flight for Zinke, then said the company did not charter the flight. She then ended the call.</p>
<p>Details of the flight, some of which were first reported by Politico, are confirmed through internal calendars obtained by The Post that depict a busy schedule of travel for the secretary, whose department oversees federal land and natural resources.</p>
<p>Zinke took the private charter flight in late June after giving a motivational speech to the Vegas Golden Knights, the city’s new National Hockey League team. The team is owned by Bill Foley, chairman of Fidelity National Financial. Employees and political action committees associated with the financial services company donated a total of $199,523 to Zinke’s two congressional campaigns, Federal Election Commission records show.</p>
<p>Zinke was in the Las Vegas area that day after flying on a commercial Southwest Airlines jet from Reno, Nevada, where he spoke the night before at a nearby dinner in Lake Tahoe held by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a conservative group of attorneys general backed by the Koch brothers.</p>
<p>Just before the Golden Knights dinner, Zinke had <a href="" type="internal">appeared in the tiny rural Nevada town of Pahrump</a> to announce a routine local funding grant from Congress to rural communities. It was one of several official trips that coincided with weekends Zinke spent at his homes in Santa Barbara, California, and Whitefish, Montana.</p>
<p>Aaron Weiss of the Center for Western Priorities, a nonprofit conservation and advocacy group, said, “Secretary Zinke’s entire Nevada trip appears to be a flimsy excuse for a political event in Tahoe and a thank-you dinner with his biggest campaign bundler.”</p>
<p>“There was no legitimate reason for the Secretary to be there in the first place,” Weiss said. “Then he saddles taxpayers with the bill for a private plane when he could have easily flown commercial.”</p>
<p>Zinke and his official entourage also boarded private flights between the Caribbean islands of St. Thomas and St. Croix during a three-day trip to the Virgin Islands in March, his first month on the job.</p>
<p>The spring trip included an official snorkeling tour of the nearby Buck Island Reef National Monument, a centennial ceremony for a local holiday celebrating the islands’ transfer to the United States, and a viewing of a military parade.</p>
<p>Zinke also attended a Virgin Islands GOP event and spoke on behalf of President Donald Trump. John Canegata, chairman of the Republican group, said in a statement then that, “Secretary Zinke’s visit to our islands in his first month on the job is a reaffirmation of the strong commitment that President Trump made to the Virgin Islands during his campaign.” He added, “By contrast, the now-former administration failed to send the Interior secretary to the territory until the final months of its second term.”</p>
<p>Swift said several high-ranking government officials attended and reiterated that the department has jurisdiction over territories such as the Virgin Islands. She said the flights were taken because no commercial flights were available at the time. She could not give a cost estimate for the private airfare but said tickets for Zinke and staff were paid out of the agency’s budget.</p>
<p>Several other trips also allowed Zinke to attend political events. One of Zinke’s first trips in Montana – where he visited Mammoth Hot Springs, attended a “Snow Removal Crew Meet &amp; Greet” and gave brief remarks to park staff in front of a rock-climbing wall – included an evening at the Yellowstone Club, an ultra-exclusive social club and ski resort in Big Sky, Montana, for a reception for Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., calendars show. Zinke spent the next day at the Big Sky Resort, which fliers say was hosting a “weekend in the Montana mountains” as part of a fundraiser for a committee raising cash for Daines’ 2020 reelection campaign. After another Daines reception and dinner that evening, Zinke spent the night at Daines’ home. He flew back home the next day.</p>
<p>Zinke joins several Trump Cabinet secretaries, including Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, whose travels have been questioned by agency inspectors general, members of Congress and the public.</p>
<p>Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said this week he would stop flying on charter planes and reimburse some of the costs of his travel aboard private jets, which cost taxpayers more than $400,000.</p> | false | 1 | interior secretary ryan zinke chartered flight las vegas near home montana summer aboard plane owned oilandgas executives internal documents show flight along private flights trip virgin islands could propel zinke growing debate costs travel cabinet secretaries chosen expensive charter jets military planes high expense taxpayers cheaper option flying commercial june zinke staffers took fourhour flight las vegas kalispell montana aboard private plane owned executives wyoming oilandgas exploration firm aviation business records show landing kalispell put zinke short drive home whitefish montana spent night documents show flight cost taxpayers 12375 according department interior spokeswoman commercial airlines run daily flights two airports charge little 300 new flight details show zinke mixed political gatherings personal destinations taxpayerfunded work head federal agency manages controls vast majority federal land interior department spokeswoman heather swift said zinkes charter flights authorized ethics officials booked feasible commercial flights unavailable previous interior secretaries flew charter flights needed swift added provide documentation approvals zinke spoke next day annual meeting western governors association swift said commercial flight available would gotten zinke staff vegas speech montana time tickets zinke staffers paid departments budget swift said jay nielson executive vice president nielson amp associates oilandgas exploration production firm coowns plane holding company said control plane time chartered company called choice aviation told washington post unsure zinke flew plane added part people charter planes like remain somewhat private representative choice aviation declined give name said unsure whether choice chartered flight zinke said company charter flight ended call details flight first reported politico confirmed internal calendars obtained post depict busy schedule travel secretary whose department oversees federal land natural resources zinke took private charter flight late june giving motivational speech vegas golden knights citys new national hockey league team team owned bill foley chairman fidelity national financial employees political action committees associated financial services company donated total 199523 zinkes two congressional campaigns federal election commission records show zinke las vegas area day flying commercial southwest airlines jet reno nevada spoke night nearby dinner lake tahoe held rule law defense fund conservative group attorneys general backed koch brothers golden knights dinner zinke appeared tiny rural nevada town pahrump announce routine local funding grant congress rural communities one several official trips coincided weekends zinke spent homes santa barbara california whitefish montana aaron weiss center western priorities nonprofit conservation advocacy group said secretary zinkes entire nevada trip appears flimsy excuse political event tahoe thankyou dinner biggest campaign bundler legitimate reason secretary first place weiss said saddles taxpayers bill private plane could easily flown commercial zinke official entourage also boarded private flights caribbean islands st thomas st croix threeday trip virgin islands march first month job spring trip included official snorkeling tour nearby buck island reef national monument centennial ceremony local holiday celebrating islands transfer united states viewing military parade zinke also attended virgin islands gop event spoke behalf president donald trump john canegata chairman republican group said statement secretary zinkes visit islands first month job reaffirmation strong commitment president trump made virgin islands campaign added contrast nowformer administration failed send interior secretary territory final months second term swift said several highranking government officials attended reiterated department jurisdiction territories virgin islands said flights taken commercial flights available time could give cost estimate private airfare said tickets zinke staff paid agencys budget several trips also allowed zinke attend political events one zinkes first trips montana visited mammoth hot springs attended snow removal crew meet amp greet gave brief remarks park staff front rockclimbing wall included evening yellowstone club ultraexclusive social club ski resort big sky montana reception sen steve daines rmont calendars show zinke spent next day big sky resort fliers say hosting weekend montana mountains part fundraiser committee raising cash daines 2020 reelection campaign another daines reception dinner evening zinke spent night daines home flew back home next day zinke joins several trump cabinet secretaries including environmental protection agency administrator scott pruitt treasury secretary steven mnuchin whose travels questioned agency inspectors general members congress public health human services secretary tom price said week would stop flying charter planes reimburse costs travel aboard private jets cost taxpayers 400000 | 678 |
<p>President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that “talking is not the answer” when it comes to dealing with militant North Korea.</p>
<p>He issued his message on Twitter shortly before 9 a.m. ET.</p>
<p>The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/902875515534626817" type="external">August 30, 2017</a></p>
<p>His tweet a day after Pyongyang’s highly provocative missile test over close American ally Japan, continued a subdued response, pulling back from his administration’s recent suggestions of a dialogue with the communist country but also avoiding a repeat of his “fire and fury” warnings earlier this month of a potential military confrontation.</p>
<p>Trump’s terse, written statement Tuesday reiterated that all U.S. options are being considered pointed to an administration cautiously searching for an effective policy, even as the North’s test risked endangering Japanese civilians. Washington and its allies called an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting for later Tuesday, but looked short on new ideas for stopping the nuclear and missile advances that are increasingly putting the U.S. mainland within range.</p>
<p>“Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world,” Trump said after the North’s missile soared almost 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) into the Pacific Ocean, triggering alert warnings in northern Japan and shudders throughout Northeast Asia. “All options are on the table.”</p>
<p>The tone was far more moderate than Trump’s colorful language earlier this month, when he spoke of unleashing “fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before” if North Korea kept threatening the U.S. There were no indications Trump had any imminent intention to make good on his threat to strike North Korea.</p>
<p>But such has been the speed of the Trump administration’s zigs and zags on North Korea policy. If Tuesday’s statement seemed unusually restrained for Trump, it actually marked a toughening of his administration’s most recent tone.</p>
<p>A senior U.S. official said the restrained nature of the administration’s recent responses was intentional, reflecting an effort by new White House chief of staff John Kelly to prevent a repeat of the rhetorical escalation that occurred earlier this month. But with Trump’s focus diverted to flood-ravaged Texas, it was unclear whether he might ultimately speak or tweet about the launch in greater detail.</p>
<p>Later Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council strongly condemned North Korea’s actions, calling them “outrageous.” The council’s statement doesn’t discuss any potential new sanctions but calls for strict implementation of existing ones.</p>
<p>Three weeks ago, when North Korea responded to Trump’s “fire and fury” warning by threatening to launch multiple missiles near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, Trump tweeted that an American military solution to the standoff was “locked and loaded.” Experts warned that the rapid-fire escalation had raised the danger of a miscalculation among the nuclear-armed powers.</p>
<p>The administration’s more cautious approach in recent days reflects an effort to preserve modest signs of progress with North Korea that had led Trump and his top diplomat to hint at the possibility of direct talks, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the deliberations publicly and requested anonymity.</p>
<p>North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is “starting to respect us,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Phoenix last week, adding that “maybe, probably not, but maybe something positive can come about.” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson credited Kim’s government with demonstrating “some level of restraint that we have not seen” by not conducting a missile test for almost a month, expressing hope it might be the “signal that we have been looking for,” leading to a dialogue.</p>
<p>Even that suggestion was a surprising one for the Trump administration. On his first trip to Asia, Tillerson said North Korea must first abandon its “weapons of mass destruction” for talks to occur. But he later floated the idea that the North merely had to halt its nuclear and missile tests. The North has completely rejected both demands, saying negotiations hinge on the U.S. dropping its “hostile policy.”</p>
<p>In any case, the optimism generated by North Korea’s temporary lull in missile activity ended last Friday, when it fired three short-range projectiles into the sea. It then raised the ante three days later by firing directly over Japan’s territory, breaking with its usual practice of launching over open seas where there’s no risk that a misfire would land in another country or send debris falling on populated areas.</p>
<p>Kim on Tuesday expressed great satisfaction with the launch and called for more ballistic missile launches into the Pacific, the Korean Central News Agency reported. Kim called it a “meaningful prelude” to containing Guam.</p>
<p>The agency said the missile the North fired Tuesday was the Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile it recently threatened to fire toward Guam.</p>
<p>But for Trump’s earlier bombast, his Tuesday statement wouldn’t have been particularly surprising. Democrat and Republican presidents have routinely offered the “all options on the table” terminology, even though a pre-emptive U.S. military strike is highly unlikely.</p>
<p>North Korea has the world’s largest standing army and a massive conventional weapons arsenal that can easily target the capital of South Korea and its metropolitan area of about 25 million people. American officials have long assessed that mass casualties would likely result.</p>
<p>But while U.S. officials had been inclined to overlook Friday’s launches, the launch early Tuesday in North Korea was harder to ignore.</p>
<p>Friday’s rocket tests represented a typical North Korean response to annual, U.S.-South Korean military drills that Pyongyang claims are rehearsals for invasion. This year’s war games started last week and end Thursday.</p>
<p>Tuesday’s launch was altogether more provocative. It was only the third time North Korea has fired a missile over Japan. The previous occasions in 1998 and 2009 used rockets purportedly for space exploration. This time, the North unambiguously tested a ballistic missile designed for military strikes and believed capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.</p>
<p>Within minutes, cellphones alerted residents on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, and loud alarms and emails instructed them to stay indoors. Speakers broadcast an alert saying “missile is passing, missile is passing.”</p>
<p>Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan conferred by telephone, agreeing that North Korea poses “a grave and growing direct threat,” the White House said. They vowed to increase pressure on the North.</p>
<p>“Japan’s and the U.S. positions are totally at one,” Abe added in a statement, saying Trump expressed his “strong commitment” to defend Japan.</p>
<p>During a closed-door Security Council session later Tuesday, Nikki Haley, Trump’s U.N. envoy, was hoping veto-wielding members China and Russia would cooperate. But Haley didn’t specify what action the U.S. its allies sought.</p>
<p>“No country should have missiles flying over them like those 130 million people in Japan. It’s unacceptable,” Haley told reporters. She added, “Something serious has to happen.”</p> | false | 1 | president donald trump declared wednesday talking answer comes dealing militant north korea issued message twitter shortly 9 et us talking north korea paying extortion money 25 years talking answer donald j trump realdonaldtrump august 30 2017 tweet day pyongyangs highly provocative missile test close american ally japan continued subdued response pulling back administrations recent suggestions dialogue communist country also avoiding repeat fire fury warnings earlier month potential military confrontation trumps terse written statement tuesday reiterated us options considered pointed administration cautiously searching effective policy even norths test risked endangering japanese civilians washington allies called emergency un security council meeting later tuesday looked short new ideas stopping nuclear missile advances increasingly putting us mainland within range threatening destabilizing actions increase north korean regimes isolation region among nations world trump said norths missile soared almost 1700 miles 2700 kilometers pacific ocean triggering alert warnings northern japan shudders throughout northeast asia options table tone far moderate trumps colorful language earlier month spoke unleashing fire fury frankly power likes world never seen north korea kept threatening us indications trump imminent intention make good threat strike north korea speed trump administrations zigs zags north korea policy tuesdays statement seemed unusually restrained trump actually marked toughening administrations recent tone senior us official said restrained nature administrations recent responses intentional reflecting effort new white house chief staff john kelly prevent repeat rhetorical escalation occurred earlier month trumps focus diverted floodravaged texas unclear whether might ultimately speak tweet launch greater detail later tuesday united nations security council strongly condemned north koreas actions calling outrageous councils statement doesnt discuss potential new sanctions calls strict implementation existing ones three weeks ago north korea responded trumps fire fury warning threatening launch multiple missiles near us pacific territory guam trump tweeted american military solution standoff locked loaded experts warned rapidfire escalation raised danger miscalculation among nucleararmed powers administrations cautious approach recent days reflects effort preserve modest signs progress north korea led trump top diplomat hint possibility direct talks said official wasnt authorized discuss deliberations publicly requested anonymity north korean leader kim jong un starting respect us trump said campaign rally phoenix last week adding maybe probably maybe something positive come secretary state rex tillerson credited kims government demonstrating level restraint seen conducting missile test almost month expressing hope might signal looking leading dialogue even suggestion surprising one trump administration first trip asia tillerson said north korea must first abandon weapons mass destruction talks occur later floated idea north merely halt nuclear missile tests north completely rejected demands saying negotiations hinge us dropping hostile policy case optimism generated north koreas temporary lull missile activity ended last friday fired three shortrange projectiles sea raised ante three days later firing directly japans territory breaking usual practice launching open seas theres risk misfire would land another country send debris falling populated areas kim tuesday expressed great satisfaction launch called ballistic missile launches pacific korean central news agency reported kim called meaningful prelude containing guam agency said missile north fired tuesday hwasong12 intermediaterange missile recently threatened fire toward guam trumps earlier bombast tuesday statement wouldnt particularly surprising democrat republican presidents routinely offered options table terminology even though preemptive us military strike highly unlikely north korea worlds largest standing army massive conventional weapons arsenal easily target capital south korea metropolitan area 25 million people american officials long assessed mass casualties would likely result us officials inclined overlook fridays launches launch early tuesday north korea harder ignore fridays rocket tests represented typical north korean response annual ussouth korean military drills pyongyang claims rehearsals invasion years war games started last week end thursday tuesdays launch altogether provocative third time north korea fired missile japan previous occasions 1998 2009 used rockets purportedly space exploration time north unambiguously tested ballistic missile designed military strikes believed capable carrying nuclear warhead within minutes cellphones alerted residents northern japanese island hokkaido loud alarms emails instructed stay indoors speakers broadcast alert saying missile passing missile passing trump prime minister shinzo abe japan conferred telephone agreeing north korea poses grave growing direct threat white house said vowed increase pressure north japans us positions totally one abe added statement saying trump expressed strong commitment defend japan closeddoor security council session later tuesday nikki haley trumps un envoy hoping vetowielding members china russia would cooperate haley didnt specify action us allies sought country missiles flying like 130 million people japan unacceptable haley told reporters added something serious happen | 729 |
<p>In every wave year, the winning party ends up grabbing seats that just a short time before the election were on no one’s radar screen. The most recent example is from 2006, when moderate long-term Republican Jim Leach lost to his Democratic challenger. Since everyone knows this will be a wave year for the GOP, such a situation is likely to happen again.</p>
<p>By definition, sleeper races are unpredictable, but incumbents who lose in these circumstances tend to have similar characteristics. First, they tend to have served a long time and not have had competitive races for years. Incumbents who are used to the perks of D.C. and unused to campaigning have a hard time adjusting to the rigorous pace of a real race. They are also often out of touch with the latest campaign techniques, stuck in their old ways, and resistant to suggestions that they are in trouble or might need to change their approach. This leaves them vulnerable to aggressive, savvy challengers.</p>
<p>Second, they represent districts that are filled with the sort of person who is angriest and likeliest to vote for a challenger from the wave party without knowing anything about that person. In 2006 and 2008, these tended to be suburban voters who had voted for both Kerry and the local GOP rep in 2004; this year, these voters will be Republicans and white-working-class voters who are furious (for somewhat different reasons) at the direction in which the Democrats have taken the country.</p>
<p>This year, there are already so many Democratic incumbents on target lists that it seems futile to search for the sleepers. Nevertheless, here are five incumbents to look out for on Election Night.</p>
<p>Gene Taylor (Mississippi’s 4th).&#160;Taylor is a conservative Democrat who represents the Mississippi Gulf Coast; Trent Lott held the seat before running successfully for the Senate. Taylor has been in Congress since a 1989 special election and has rarely been challenged despite the fact that this is one of the most Republican districts in the nation (Bush and McCain received above 65 percent in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 races). Nevertheless, Taylor might be in danger, because this district is dominated by both Republican and white-working-class voters (it’s roughly three-quarters white, with only 18 percent of residents having a four-year college degree). A recent poll showed Taylor up by only four points over his little-known challenger, Steven Pallazzo. The district is in a cheap media market–according to a prominent GOP consultant I queried, the seat is in the Biloxi and Hattiesburg media markets, where a candidate could buy 1,000 gross ratings points (GRPs) for only about $100,000. With no statewide races clogging the airwaves, Pallazzo could quickly get known and take advantage of the national wave.</p>
<p>Peter DeFazio (Oregon’s 4th).&#160;DeFazio is another long-time incumbent; he first won his seat in 1986. He since has settled in and hasn’t had a real race in over a decade. He’s under assault now, though, from a moderately well-funded challenger, Art Robinson. Through June 30, Mr. Robinson had raised over $400,000, and he keeps plugging away. A recent poll shows Robinson only seven points behind.</p>
<p>DeFazio’s district is not terribly Republican–Bush got only 49 percent in 2000 and 2004, and McCain lost the district with 43 percent in 2008. But it is very similar in that respect to some other white-working-class districts on this year’s GOP radar screen, such as Wisconsin’s 7th and Illinois’s 17th. That’s because even though this district contains the University of Oregon, it’s otherwise a white-working-class district populated by loggers and other manual laborers. This district is also cheap to run in; most of it falls within the Eugene media market, where $50,000 can buy a candidate 1,000 GRPs. So, historical voting patterns make this seat a reach, but in this election, any Democratic-held seat that is politically marginal and populated by the white working class is potential fodder for a challenge.</p>
<p>Tim Matheson (Utah’s 2nd).&#160;Matheson is another conservative Democrat, one who is so conservative that he was challenged from his left in the primary because of his vote against health-care reform. But this district is so Republican (Bush and McCain always received 58-65 percent of the vote here) that anything could happen.</p>
<p>There are some caveats. Matheson is the son of a popular former Democratic governor; he is well-known and historically has been popular. He beat back a challenge in 2002 and has not been seriously attacked since. His challenger, former state representative Morgan Philpot, had not raised much money as of June 30 (although he has an Internet money bomb going on right now). The media market covering this district is Salt Lake City, which is considerably more expensive than those of Eugene and Biloxi.</p>
<p>But a recent poll on UtahPolicy.com put Matheson’s approval below 50 percent. In a wave year, and in a district where nearly two-thirds of the voters go Republican in national elections, one cannot discount the possibility of an upset.</p>
<p>Colin Peterson (Minnesota’s 7th).&#160;Peterson looks to be cruising to victory. His challenger, Lee Byberg, had raised less than $200,000 as of June 30. No one has this race on his radar screen, and no poll has surfaced to suggest Peterson is under 50 percent.</p>
<p>But beneath the surface, there are some similarities with past last-minute upsets. Peterson is chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. Past upsets in GOP-wave years have often involved Democratic chairmen: House Ways and Means Committee chair Al Ullman and House Rules Committee chair John Brademas in 1980; and Speaker Tom Foley, House Intelligence Committee chair Dan Glickman, and House Judiciary Committee chair Jack Brooks in 1994. Peterson has held office since 1990 and has not had a competitive race in years. This is also politically marginal country; Bush won this district twice with 54 and 55 percent, and McCain carried it with 50 percent.</p>
<p>While the district is rural, most of it is in the expensive Minneapolis-St. Paul media market, so there might not be enough money for an upset to occur. But if fellow long-time Minnesota congressman Jim Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, is really below 50 percent (as a recent poll suggests) in a district that is much more Democratic than this one, one should not discount the possibility of an upset here.</p>
<p>Tim Holden (Pennsylvania’s 17th).&#160;Holden has represented this district, which votes Republican in national races, since winning in 1992. He does so on the basis of his strength in coal-mining Schuylkill County. In his last competitive race, GOP redistricters threw him in with long-time GOP representative George Gekas. Holden narrowly won that 2002 match by garnering nearly three-quarters of the vote in Schuylkill County, offsetting losses in the other, more GOP parts of the district.</p>
<p>Holden’s challenger this time is from Schuylkill County, state senator Dave Argyll. The national GOP recruited Argyll into the race with the clear expectation that he could hold down Holden’s margins in that part of the district, and win the seat in the more GOP parts.</p>
<p>So far, though, Argyll has proven to be a weak candidate. He barely won the nomination in the face of underfunded tea-party challengers, and as of June 30, he had raised less than $200,000. But this seat is populated by white-working-class voters–it’s 87 percent white, and 79 percent of residents don’t have a four-year degree. It’s also generally Republican–Bush carried the seat with 56 and 58 percent, and McCain won it with 51 percent. The seat is covered mainly by the Harrisburg-Lancaster and Reading media markets, which are more expensive to advertise in than those in Eugene and Biloxi. While Argyll will probably lose, the seat is just winnable enough in a year like this one to bear watching on Election Night.</p>
<p>Henry Olsen is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p> | false | 1 | every wave year winning party ends grabbing seats short time election ones radar screen recent example 2006 moderate longterm republican jim leach lost democratic challenger since everyone knows wave year gop situation likely happen definition sleeper races unpredictable incumbents lose circumstances tend similar characteristics first tend served long time competitive races years incumbents used perks dc unused campaigning hard time adjusting rigorous pace real race also often touch latest campaign techniques stuck old ways resistant suggestions trouble might need change approach leaves vulnerable aggressive savvy challengers second represent districts filled sort person angriest likeliest vote challenger wave party without knowing anything person 2006 2008 tended suburban voters voted kerry local gop rep 2004 year voters republicans whiteworkingclass voters furious somewhat different reasons direction democrats taken country year already many democratic incumbents target lists seems futile search sleepers nevertheless five incumbents look election night gene taylor mississippis 4th160taylor conservative democrat represents mississippi gulf coast trent lott held seat running successfully senate taylor congress since 1989 special election rarely challenged despite fact one republican districts nation bush mccain received 65 percent 2000 2004 2008 races nevertheless taylor might danger district dominated republican whiteworkingclass voters roughly threequarters white 18 percent residents fouryear college degree recent poll showed taylor four points littleknown challenger steven pallazzo district cheap media marketaccording prominent gop consultant queried seat biloxi hattiesburg media markets candidate could buy 1000 gross ratings points grps 100000 statewide races clogging airwaves pallazzo could quickly get known take advantage national wave peter defazio oregons 4th160defazio another longtime incumbent first seat 1986 since settled hasnt real race decade hes assault though moderately wellfunded challenger art robinson june 30 mr robinson raised 400000 keeps plugging away recent poll shows robinson seven points behind defazios district terribly republicanbush got 49 percent 2000 2004 mccain lost district 43 percent 2008 similar respect whiteworkingclass districts years gop radar screen wisconsins 7th illinoiss 17th thats even though district contains university oregon otherwise whiteworkingclass district populated loggers manual laborers district also cheap run falls within eugene media market 50000 buy candidate 1000 grps historical voting patterns make seat reach election democraticheld seat politically marginal populated white working class potential fodder challenge tim matheson utahs 2nd160matheson another conservative democrat one conservative challenged left primary vote healthcare reform district republican bush mccain always received 5865 percent vote anything could happen caveats matheson son popular former democratic governor wellknown historically popular beat back challenge 2002 seriously attacked since challenger former state representative morgan philpot raised much money june 30 although internet money bomb going right media market covering district salt lake city considerably expensive eugene biloxi recent poll utahpolicycom put mathesons approval 50 percent wave year district nearly twothirds voters go republican national elections one discount possibility upset colin peterson minnesotas 7th160peterson looks cruising victory challenger lee byberg raised less 200000 june 30 one race radar screen poll surfaced suggest peterson 50 percent beneath surface similarities past lastminute upsets peterson chairman house agriculture committee past upsets gopwave years often involved democratic chairmen house ways means committee chair al ullman house rules committee chair john brademas 1980 speaker tom foley house intelligence committee chair dan glickman house judiciary committee chair jack brooks 1994 peterson held office since 1990 competitive race years also politically marginal country bush district twice 54 55 percent mccain carried 50 percent district rural expensive minneapolisst paul media market might enough money upset occur fellow longtime minnesota congressman jim oberstar chairman house transportation committee really 50 percent recent poll suggests district much democratic one one discount possibility upset tim holden pennsylvanias 17th160holden represented district votes republican national races since winning 1992 basis strength coalmining schuylkill county last competitive race gop redistricters threw longtime gop representative george gekas holden narrowly 2002 match garnering nearly threequarters vote schuylkill county offsetting losses gop parts district holdens challenger time schuylkill county state senator dave argyll national gop recruited argyll race clear expectation could hold holdens margins part district win seat gop parts far though argyll proven weak candidate barely nomination face underfunded teaparty challengers june 30 raised less 200000 seat populated whiteworkingclass votersits 87 percent white 79 percent residents dont fouryear degree also generally republicanbush carried seat 56 58 percent mccain 51 percent seat covered mainly harrisburglancaster reading media markets expensive advertise eugene biloxi argyll probably lose seat winnable enough year like one bear watching election night henry olsen senior fellow ethics public policy center | 728 |
<p>World of Trouble showed a world of talent in the weekend’s biggest Kentucky Derby prep while Almond Roca and Amy’s Challenge moved forward on the Oaks front.</p>
<p>World-class sprinter X Y Jet was an easy winner in the Sunshine Millions at Gulfstream Park and could be headed for a return trip to Dubai in two months time.</p>
<p>In Hong Kong, Nothingilikemore showed promise of moving to stardom and the local poobahs would like nothing more.</p>
<p>Like this:</p>
<p>The Road to the Roses</p>
<p>World of Trouble stayed out of trouble in Saturday’s $125,000 <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Pasco_Stakes/" type="external">Pasco Stakes</a> at Tampa Bay Downs by the simple expedient of being well out in front of all his rivals. With Antonio Gallardo up, the Kantharos colt quickly took the lead and found no competition in the stretch, winning by 13 3/4 lengths, ridden out. He Hate Me was best of the rest, 3 1/2 lengths to the good of Mind Trappe. World of Trouble ran 7 furlongs on a fast track in 1:21.52, just 0.12 second outside the track record. And remember, he was ridden out. And, it was his first start since a second-place finish in the Affirmed Division of the Florida Sire Stakes last September.</p>
<p>“He did everything I wanted him to do, and when it was time to go I asked him a little bit and he exploded,” Gallardo said. “He did it in 1:21, but he wasn’t giving me everything. I think he had something left inside.”</p>
<p>“Sometimes a horse just needs to run, and he looks like something special,” said winning trainer John Servis. “My phone has been inundated the last few minutes, everyone saying it was an incredible performance, and I’m pretty excited right now. I have to get the horse back and talk to Mr. Dubb (owner Michael) about what’s next.” Whatever that might be, World of Trouble earned 10 points toward a potential start in the Kentucky Derby, which, of course, would require him to go 5 furlongs farther than he ran Saturday.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in California:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Choo_Choo/" type="external">Choo Choo</a>, a Calumet Farm homebred colt by English Channel, chugged to the lead four-wide in the late going in Saturday’s $100,000 California Derby and edged away to win by 1 3/4 lengths. Mugaritz was second, followed 1 1/2 lengths later by Intimidate. Choo Choo, with Juan Hernandez taking the mount for trainer <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jerry_Hollendorfer/" type="external">Jerry Hollendorfer</a>, ran 1 1/16 miles on the all-weather track in 1:44.50.</p>
<p>After starting his career on the dirt, Choo Choo ran his previous four races on the turf in Southern California. Hollendorfer did not share plans for the colt’s future.</p>
<p>And in New Mexico, Blazing Navarone overcame the outside post position to win Sunday’s $85,000 Red Hedeman Mile for state-breds by 3 1/4 lengths over Hollywood Henry. Blazing Navarone, a Song of Navarone colt, finished in 1:38.57 under Ry Eikleberry. The colt, trained by Henry Dominguez, wound up his 2-year-old campaign with a New Year’s Eve win and Sunday’s race was his first of 2018.</p>
<p>Kentucky Oaks preps</p>
<p>Almond Roca rated patiently behind long shot R True Talent in Saturday’s $125,000 Gasparilla Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, rallied to challenge her turning for home and edged away to win by 1 lengths. R True Talent held second, 5 3/4 lengths ahead of Barrier Island. Almond Roca, a Speightstown filly, ran 7 furlongs on a fast track in 1:22.76 with Pablo Morales up for her first start as a 3-year-old.</p>
<p>“She broke great and I thought I’d be in front, but I was willing to settle her if someone else wanted the lead, and it worked out perfectly,” Morales said. “When it was time to go, she responded beautifully and she was flying as she passed the wire.”</p>
<p>Although Morales said he feels Almond Roca could stretch around two turns, trainer Graham Motion said the plan currently is to keep her sprinting — and possibly to take her to Royal Ascot in June. He said that would be “a dream” for owner Phyllis Wyeth.</p>
<p>In Arkansas:</p>
<p>Amy’s Challenge, winner of both her previous starts at Canterbury Park in Minnesota, dueled with pacesetting favorite Mia Mischief through most of Saturday’s $125,000 Dixie Belle Stakes at Oaklawn Park before putting a neck in front under the wire. Secret Passion was 2 1/2 lengths farther back in third as Amy’s Challenge, an Artie Schiller filly, ran 6 furlongs on a fast track in 1:10.61 with Jareth Loveberry in the irons.</p>
<p>“She is all heart down the lane, that horse,” Loveberry said. “Head to head she dug through and finished strong.” The next step on the Oaklawn Park series for 3-year-old fillies is the 1-mile Martha Washington Feb. 10.</p>
<p>And in New Mexico, Hennessy Express thoroughly dominated Sunday’s $85,000 Enchantress Stakes for state-bred fillies, leading most of the way and winning by 8 1/4 lengths in her first start of the year. The favorite, previously undefeated Fast Gator, ran evenly to finish fourth. Hennessy Express, by Roll Hennessy Roll, rolled the 1 mile in 1:38.11 with Roimes Chirinos in the irons. She won at first asking at Ruidoso Downs in July but then failed to score in five further starts as a juvenile.</p>
<p>Santa Anita</p>
<p>Coniah showed the way in Saturday’s $100,000 Grade III Las Cienegas for fillies and mares down the hillside turf course and held gamely to win by 1 3/4 lengths over Bendable. Princess Princess was third. Coniah, a 5-year-old Harlington mare, ran about 6 1/2 furlongs on firm turf in 1:12.17 with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kent_Desormeaux/" type="external">Kent Desormeaux</a> aboard. Trainer William Morey scored his first graded stakes win as Coniah moved up from three straight second-place finishes. “She was awesome today,” Desormeaux said. “She was very comfortable. I’ve seen her develop and she was a consummate pro today.”</p>
<p>Gulfstream Park</p>
<p>Saturday was Sunshine Millions day with four stakes restricted to state-bred steeds.</p>
<p>X Y Jet, apparently fully recovered from injury, scored his second straight win with a dominant victory in the $100,000 Sprint and could be headed back to Dubai, where he finished second in the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen in 2016. The 6-year-old Kantharos gelding left no doubt who was best in the Sprint, quickly sprinting clear of six rivals, leading as he pleased and winning by 5 1/2 lengths, ridden out by jockey Imisael Jaramillo. He undoubtedly could have improved on his time of 1:09.86 had he been asked. Mo Cash and Sweetontheladies were second and third.</p>
<p>“I always knew he was a runner,” said X Y Jet’s trainer, Jorge Navarro. “I always thought he was one of the best sprinters two years ago. Hopefully, he comes back clean.” X Y Jet has undergone three knee surgeries during his 19-race career. Navarro said he would like to replicate the horse’s 2016 campaign where he won the Sunshine Millions Sprint and the Grade III Gulfstream Park Sprint before shipping to Dubai.</p>
<p>In other Sunshine Millions results:</p>
<p>Jay’s Way showed the way in the $200,000 Sunshine Millions Classic, surrendered the advantage to the favorite, Mr. Jordan, turning for home but battled back to win by 1/2 length over that rival. It was another 6 lengths back to Catholic Cowboy in third and another 9 1/4 to the fourth-place finisher, Richard the Great. Jay’s Way, a 5-year-old son of Gone Astray, ran 9 furlongs on a fast track in 1:50.12 with Jaramillo in the irons.</p>
<p>Galleon Mast was asked for his best in the final furlong of the $150,000 Sunshine Millions Turf and produced, outfinishing Our Way to win by a head. Second Mate was third, another 3 lengths in arrears. Galleon Mast, a 5-year-old <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mizzen_Mast/" type="external">Mizzen Mast</a> gelding, got 1 1/16 miles on firm going in 1:40.68 with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Irad-Ortiz/" type="external">Irad Ortiz</a> Jr. in the irons.</p>
<p>Starship Jubilee stalked the pace in the $150,000 Filly &amp; Mare Turf, dueled for the lead in the stretch and finally edged away to prevail by 1 length over pacesetter Daddy’s Boo. Graceful Heart rallied from well back to fill the trifecta. Starship Jubilee, a 5-year-old Indy Wind mare, got 1 1/16 miles in 1:41.03 for jockey <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jose_Lezcano/" type="external">Jose Lezcano</a>.</p>
<p>Laurel Park</p>
<p>Awesome Banner closely tracked pacesetting favorite Favorite Tale through the early furlongs of Saturday’s $100,000 Fire Plug Stakes, went by that one to the lead and held on to win by 1/2 length over It’s the Journey. Something Awesome was third as Favorite Tale faded to get home fourth. Awesome Banner, a 5-year-old son of Awesome of Course, ran 6 furlongs on a fast track in 1:08.94. A Derby contender two years ago, Awesome Banner scored his first win in more than 15 months.</p>
<p>Ms Locust Point, the prohibitive favorite, drew clear in the stretch run in Saturday’s $100,000 What a Summer Stakes for fillies and mares and ran on to win by 3 lengths over Tazkeya. My Magician was third. Ms Locust Point, a 4-year-old Dialed In filly, ran 6 furlongs on a fast track in 1:09.78 under a Harry Vargas Jr. hand ride. It was her third straight win and fourth from her last five starts.</p>
<p>Aqueduct</p>
<p>Just Got Out held on in the final strides to win Sunday’s $100,000 Ladies Handicap by a neck over Girl Talk. Sherini finished third but was set down to fifth, promoting the favorite, Bombshell, to show money. Just Got Out, a 7-year-old Harlington mare, ran 9 furlongs on a fast track in 1:55.38 with Manny Franco riding. The one-time claimer scored her first stakes win with the narrow margin costing Girl Talk’s rider, Kendrick Carmouche, what would have been his fourth stakes win of the weekend at the Big A.</p>
<p>Control Group controlled things from the start in Sunday’s $100,000 Alex M. Robb Stakes for New York-breds, then kicked clear in the stretch run to win by 4 lengths. Can You Diggit and Extinct Charm filled the minor placings. Control Group, a 4-year-old Posse colt, got 9 furlongs on a fast track in 1:52.19 with Carmouche in the irons.</p>
<p>Backsideofthemoon came from last of just four starters to take Saturday’s $100,000 Jazil Stakes by a nose from Doyouknowsomething. Turco Bravo and Harlan Punch completed the order of finish. Backsideofthemoon, a <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Malibu_Moon/" type="external">Malibu Moon</a> ridgling, ran 9 furlongs on a fast track in 1:49.94 with Carmouche up. A confirmed allowance type, Backsideofthemoon registered his first stakes win.</p>
<p>Quezon proved much the best in Friday’s $100,000 La Verdad Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares. After tracking the early pace, the 6-year-old Tiz Wonderful mare quickly took control in the stretch and won off by 4 1/4 lengths. Palladian Bridge was second, 3 lengths in front of the early leader, Wonderment. Quezon, with Joe Rocco Jr. in the irons, ran 7 furlongs on a fast track in 1:22.67.</p>
<p>Frost Wise and Riot Worthy rallied together down the stretch in Thursday’s $100,000 Bay Ridge Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares, leaving early leader Frostie Anne in their wake. After racing side-by-side, Frost Wise got there first, a nose in front of Riot Worthy. Frostie Anne finished third and Frosty Margarita, 14 1/2 length back, completed the order of finish. All three with “Frost” in their names are by Frost Giant. Frost Wise, a 4-year-old filly, ran 1 1/8 miles on a good track in 1:53.89 with Carmouche up.</p>
<p>Turfway Park</p>
<p>Wellabled wasted little time getting to the front in Friday night’s $50,000 Forego Stakes and kicked clear of 11 rivals in the lane, winning by 7 lengths. Lanier was second, 1 length in front of Crewman. Wellabled, a 4-year-old Shackleford colt trained by Larry Rivelli, ran 6 1/2 furlongs on the all-weather track in 1:16.82 with Rodney Prescott riding. He’s 2-for-2 at the Turfway meet after missing most of his 3-year-old season after surgery to correct a throat condition and deal with a bone chip. “He’s an unbelievable athlete,” Rivelli said. “He’s probably the most athletic, agile horse I’ve ever trained. He loves the synthetic tracks.”</p>
<p>Tampa Bay Downs</p>
<p>Well Humored stalked the pace in Saturday’s $50,000 Wayward Lass Stakes for fillies and mares, moved up along the rail turning for home and edged past pacesetting favorite Tapa Tapa Tapa, winning by 3/4 length from that rival. Sweet Legacy was well back in third. Well Humored, a 4-year-old <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Distorted_Humor/" type="external">Distorted Humor</a> filly, got 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:43.86 under Daniel Centeno.</p>
<p>The international scene:</p>
<p>Hong Kong</p>
<p>Nothingilikemore settled beautifully through the early stages of Sunday’s Hong Kong Classic Mile — the first leg of the BMW Hong Kong Derby series — and responded equally well when set down by jockey Joao Moreira, leading for the final 300 meters en route to a 1 1/4-lengths win. Singapore Sling was a long shot second and Morethanluckyfinished third. Rivet finished fourth — the best of trainer <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Moore/" type="external">John Moore</a>‘s quartet, all of whom he deemed bigger threats for upcoming events.</p>
<p>Nothingilikemore, a 4-year-old Husson gelding, now has won six of seven starts since being imported from Australia and the John Size trainee bids to take up some of the slack left at the top of the Hong Kong ranks due to recent retirements.</p>
<p>“He seems to be capable to travel in a field quite kindly and accelerate, so that’s all you really want in a racehorse,” Size said, adding Nothingilikemore “is still improving.” Singapore Sling’s trainer, Tony Millard, said his South African import looks better suited for the longer distances of the two remaining legs of the series, the Hong Kong Classic Cup and the Derby. “This horse will go the trip next time. I’m not so sure the winner will,” Millard said.</p>
<p>Also Sunday at Sha Tin, Pingwu Spark, Hong Kong’s heaviest horse, got his 1,332 pounds rolling in the lane and won Lung Kong Handicap by 1/2 length from Wah May Friend, posing a problem for trainer Benno Yung. The big gray, who looks like he would need a girth extender for saddling, already his five wins this season and his rating is likely to soar beyond the scope of the Class 1 handicap Yung targeted for his next start.</p>
<p>The option for Pingwu Spark would be the Group 1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup Feb. 25. “That would be very tough but that might be the only place we can go,” Yung said.</p>
<p>Japan</p>
<p>Great Warrior, a Deep Impact colt out of the 2008 Kentucky Oaks winner and Eclipse Award champion Proud Spell, finished third in his career debut Sunday in a maiden race at Kyoto. Bred by Northern Racing the owned by Sunday racing, Great Warrior went off as favorite in a field of 16 but settled for third behind a pair of fillies — All For Love and Aloha Lily.</p> | false | 1 | world trouble showed world talent weekends biggest kentucky derby prep almond roca amys challenge moved forward oaks front worldclass sprinter x jet easy winner sunshine millions gulfstream park could headed return trip dubai two months time hong kong nothingilikemore showed promise moving stardom local poobahs would like nothing like road roses world trouble stayed trouble saturdays 125000 pasco stakes tampa bay downs simple expedient well front rivals antonio gallardo kantharos colt quickly took lead found competition stretch winning 13 34 lengths ridden hate best rest 3 12 lengths good mind trappe world trouble ran 7 furlongs fast track 12152 012 second outside track record remember ridden first start since secondplace finish affirmed division florida sire stakes last september everything wanted time go asked little bit exploded gallardo said 121 wasnt giving everything think something left inside sometimes horse needs run looks like something special said winning trainer john servis phone inundated last minutes everyone saying incredible performance im pretty excited right get horse back talk mr dubb owner michael whats next whatever might world trouble earned 10 points toward potential start kentucky derby course would require go 5 furlongs farther ran saturday meanwhile california choo choo calumet farm homebred colt english channel chugged lead fourwide late going saturdays 100000 california derby edged away win 1 34 lengths mugaritz second followed 1 12 lengths later intimidate choo choo juan hernandez taking mount trainer jerry hollendorfer ran 1 116 miles allweather track 14450 starting career dirt choo choo ran previous four races turf southern california hollendorfer share plans colts future new mexico blazing navarone overcame outside post position win sundays 85000 red hedeman mile statebreds 3 14 lengths hollywood henry blazing navarone song navarone colt finished 13857 ry eikleberry colt trained henry dominguez wound 2yearold campaign new years eve win sundays race first 2018 kentucky oaks preps almond roca rated patiently behind long shot r true talent saturdays 125000 gasparilla stakes tampa bay downs rallied challenge turning home edged away win 1 lengths r true talent held second 5 34 lengths ahead barrier island almond roca speightstown filly ran 7 furlongs fast track 12276 pablo morales first start 3yearold broke great thought id front willing settle someone else wanted lead worked perfectly morales said time go responded beautifully flying passed wire although morales said feels almond roca could stretch around two turns trainer graham motion said plan currently keep sprinting possibly take royal ascot june said would dream owner phyllis wyeth arkansas amys challenge winner previous starts canterbury park minnesota dueled pacesetting favorite mia mischief saturdays 125000 dixie belle stakes oaklawn park putting neck front wire secret passion 2 12 lengths farther back third amys challenge artie schiller filly ran 6 furlongs fast track 11061 jareth loveberry irons heart lane horse loveberry said head head dug finished strong next step oaklawn park series 3yearold fillies 1mile martha washington feb 10 new mexico hennessy express thoroughly dominated sundays 85000 enchantress stakes statebred fillies leading way winning 8 14 lengths first start year favorite previously undefeated fast gator ran evenly finish fourth hennessy express roll hennessy roll rolled 1 mile 13811 roimes chirinos irons first asking ruidoso downs july failed score five starts juvenile santa anita coniah showed way saturdays 100000 grade iii las cienegas fillies mares hillside turf course held gamely win 1 34 lengths bendable princess princess third coniah 5yearold harlington mare ran 6 12 furlongs firm turf 11217 kent desormeaux aboard trainer william morey scored first graded stakes win coniah moved three straight secondplace finishes awesome today desormeaux said comfortable ive seen develop consummate pro today gulfstream park saturday sunshine millions day four stakes restricted statebred steeds x jet apparently fully recovered injury scored second straight win dominant victory 100000 sprint could headed back dubai finished second group 1 dubai golden shaheen 2016 6yearold kantharos gelding left doubt best sprint quickly sprinting clear six rivals leading pleased winning 5 12 lengths ridden jockey imisael jaramillo undoubtedly could improved time 10986 asked mo cash sweetontheladies second third always knew runner said x jets trainer jorge navarro always thought one best sprinters two years ago hopefully comes back clean x jet undergone three knee surgeries 19race career navarro said would like replicate horses 2016 campaign sunshine millions sprint grade iii gulfstream park sprint shipping dubai sunshine millions results jays way showed way 200000 sunshine millions classic surrendered advantage favorite mr jordan turning home battled back win 12 length rival another 6 lengths back catholic cowboy third another 9 14 fourthplace finisher richard great jays way 5yearold son gone astray ran 9 furlongs fast track 15012 jaramillo irons galleon mast asked best final furlong 150000 sunshine millions turf produced outfinishing way win head second mate third another 3 lengths arrears galleon mast 5yearold mizzen mast gelding got 1 116 miles firm going 14068 irad ortiz jr irons starship jubilee stalked pace 150000 filly amp mare turf dueled lead stretch finally edged away prevail 1 length pacesetter daddys boo graceful heart rallied well back fill trifecta starship jubilee 5yearold indy wind mare got 1 116 miles 14103 jockey jose lezcano laurel park awesome banner closely tracked pacesetting favorite favorite tale early furlongs saturdays 100000 fire plug stakes went one lead held win 12 length journey something awesome third favorite tale faded get home fourth awesome banner 5yearold son awesome course ran 6 furlongs fast track 10894 derby contender two years ago awesome banner scored first win 15 months ms locust point prohibitive favorite drew clear stretch run saturdays 100000 summer stakes fillies mares ran win 3 lengths tazkeya magician third ms locust point 4yearold dialed filly ran 6 furlongs fast track 10978 harry vargas jr hand ride third straight win fourth last five starts aqueduct got held final strides win sundays 100000 ladies handicap neck girl talk sherini finished third set fifth promoting favorite bombshell show money got 7yearold harlington mare ran 9 furlongs fast track 15538 manny franco riding onetime claimer scored first stakes win narrow margin costing girl talks rider kendrick carmouche would fourth stakes win weekend big control group controlled things start sundays 100000 alex robb stakes new yorkbreds kicked clear stretch run win 4 lengths diggit extinct charm filled minor placings control group 4yearold posse colt got 9 furlongs fast track 15219 carmouche irons backsideofthemoon came last four starters take saturdays 100000 jazil stakes nose doyouknowsomething turco bravo harlan punch completed order finish backsideofthemoon malibu moon ridgling ran 9 furlongs fast track 14994 carmouche confirmed allowance type backsideofthemoon registered first stakes win quezon proved much best fridays 100000 la verdad stakes new yorkbred fillies mares tracking early pace 6yearold tiz wonderful mare quickly took control stretch 4 14 lengths palladian bridge second 3 lengths front early leader wonderment quezon joe rocco jr irons ran 7 furlongs fast track 12267 frost wise riot worthy rallied together stretch thursdays 100000 bay ridge stakes new yorkbred fillies mares leaving early leader frostie anne wake racing sidebyside frost wise got first nose front riot worthy frostie anne finished third frosty margarita 14 12 length back completed order finish three frost names frost giant frost wise 4yearold filly ran 1 18 miles good track 15389 carmouche turfway park wellabled wasted little time getting front friday nights 50000 forego stakes kicked clear 11 rivals lane winning 7 lengths lanier second 1 length front crewman wellabled 4yearold shackleford colt trained larry rivelli ran 6 12 furlongs allweather track 11682 rodney prescott riding hes 2for2 turfway meet missing 3yearold season surgery correct throat condition deal bone chip hes unbelievable athlete rivelli said hes probably athletic agile horse ive ever trained loves synthetic tracks tampa bay downs well humored stalked pace saturdays 50000 wayward lass stakes fillies mares moved along rail turning home edged past pacesetting favorite tapa tapa tapa winning 34 length rival sweet legacy well back third well humored 4yearold distorted humor filly got 1 116 miles fast track 14386 daniel centeno international scene hong kong nothingilikemore settled beautifully early stages sundays hong kong classic mile first leg bmw hong kong derby series responded equally well set jockey joao moreira leading final 300 meters en route 1 14lengths win singapore sling long shot second morethanluckyfinished third rivet finished fourth best trainer john moores quartet deemed bigger threats upcoming events nothingilikemore 4yearold husson gelding six seven starts since imported australia john size trainee bids take slack left top hong kong ranks due recent retirements seems capable travel field quite kindly accelerate thats really want racehorse size said adding nothingilikemore still improving singapore slings trainer tony millard said south african import looks better suited longer distances two remaining legs series hong kong classic cup derby horse go trip next time im sure winner millard said also sunday sha tin pingwu spark hong kongs heaviest horse got 1332 pounds rolling lane lung kong handicap 12 length wah may friend posing problem trainer benno yung big gray looks like would need girth extender saddling already five wins season rating likely soar beyond scope class 1 handicap yung targeted next start option pingwu spark would group 1 queens silver jubilee cup feb 25 would tough might place go yung said japan great warrior deep impact colt 2008 kentucky oaks winner eclipse award champion proud spell finished third career debut sunday maiden race kyoto bred northern racing owned sunday racing great warrior went favorite field 16 settled third behind pair fillies love aloha lily | 1,560 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">The Faith Angle Forum</a>&#160;is a semi-annual conference which brings together a select group of 20 nationally respected journalists with 3-5 distinguished scholars on areas of religion, politics &amp; public life.</p>
<p>“Religion, Rhetoric, and the Presidency”</p>
<p>Key West, Florida</p>
<p>Speaker:</p>
<p>Michael Gerson, Speech Writer &amp; Policy Adviser to President Bush</p>
<p>Respondent:</p>
<p>Carl Cannon, White House Correspondent,&#160;National Journal</p>
<p>Moderator:</p>
<p>Michael Cromartie, Vice-President, Ethics &amp; Public Policy Center</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>MICHAEL CROMARTIE: We couldn’t think of anyone better in the country to talk about religion and the presidency than the president’s own speechwriter. As many of you know, Michael Gerson has received high praise from people across the political spectrum for his speechwriting. We are delighted in light of his very busy schedule that he could join us today and talk to us about this topic. Thank you, Michael.</p>
<p>Michael Gerson</p>
<p>MICHAEL GERSON: I really haven’t done much of this kind of speaking, so I thought I’d ease into it by talking about the non-controversial topic of religion in politics with a bunch of journalists.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>And I took this invitation before the election, and it’s just impossible to imagine how grim this event would have been if we had lost.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>Everyone would be — not everyone, but a certain number of people would have said we lost because the president talked like Billy Sunday, just as there are some people now that think he won because he talks like Billy Sunday, and I don’t think either of those are accurate.</p>
<p>The election was divisive; it was divisive in my own family. My own little boy — my six-year-old, Nicholas — announced to me in the car not long before the election that he liked John Kerry for president. And I asked him why, and he said, “So you can be home on weekends,” which is tough.</p>
<p>My nine-year-old, who is a little more practical, said, “But how would we eat?”</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>And I said, “I think I can get a job. I might go to a think tank.” And he said, “Well, what’s a think tank?” And I said, “Well, it’s people who read and speak, and have meetings and things,” and Bucky — and this is true — said, “You mean they do nothing?”</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>For some of you, I think it’s useful for me to tell you a little bit about myself. I’m the head of speech writing and policy adviser, which really means I just get to go to the meetings I want to. I’ve got about six writers that work for me and researchers and fact-checkers and others, and we have anywhere from about one to three events a day for the president. The complicating factor of my daily life is the staffing process, because we write beautiful things and then it goes to every senior member of the White House, and they all get a chance to comment and change things, and sometimes we get good speeches out of that process.</p>
<p>I studied theology at Wheaton College in Illinois; worked for a religious non-profit, Prison Fellowship Ministries; went to the Hill and did policy and speechwriting, and was asked — surprisingly — by Steve Waldman to work at&#160;U.S. News &amp; World Report, where I started off covering non-profits and ended up covering politics. And I’d done a lot of work on compassionate conservatism on the Hill.</p>
<p>And I got a call from then-Governor Bush in the spring of 1999 to meet him down at the National Governors’ Association before he was a declared candidate. And when I went up to his room, he said right off the bat, “I want you to write my announcement speech, my convention speech and my inaugural, and I want you to move to Austin immediately.” So we moved to Austin.</p>
<p>And then the short version since then is that we’ve had the election crisis — the initial one, in 2000 — and then September 11th, and then the Afghan War, and then the Iraq buildup, and then the Iraq War, and then the aftermath of Iraq, and then bitter elections, you know, in this last one. And a couple of months ago I was told by my dentist that I had to have a wisdom tooth removed and that I would have to be completely immobilized for two days for the healing process. And I spent all month looking forward to the surgery.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>So it’s a fascinating job, and it’s a tremendous roller coaster. Before a speech, you feel like the most important person in the world, and after a speech you’re just a writer and really don’t matter very much. And you have experiences like I had, you know, going with the president to stay at Buckingham Palace, and I had a personal footman named Russell who I really miss.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>And then almost immediately afterwards a Medicare speech that’s a disaster, and it’s your fault, and how could you be such an idiot. So it’s that kind of job, which I think probably a lot of you understand.</p>
<p>I think it’s perhaps useful to begin a discussion of rhetoric and religion by giving some actual instances of how the president has employed religious language. You know, it comes in certain categories generally when you work on it, and one of the great advantages of being a speechwriter is to quote the president and secretly know you’re quoting yourself —</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>— so I’ll do a little of that.</p>
<p>The&#160;first&#160;category in which we use these things is&#160;comfort in grief and mourning, and we’ve had too many of those opportunities: in the space shuttle disaster, 9/11, other things where people are faced with completely unfair suffering. And in that circumstance, a president generally can’t say that death is final, and separation is endless, and the universe is an echoing, empty void.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>A president offers hope — the hope of reunions and a love stronger than death, and justice beyond our understanding. And let me just read a portion of what he said at the National Cathedral on September 14 in 2001 — just an example of how we use religious language:</p>
<p>“God’s signs are not always the ones we look for. We learn in tragedy that his purposes are not always our own. Yet the prayers of private suffering, whether in our homes or in this great cathedral, are known and heard and understood.</p>
<p>“There are prayers that help us last through the day or endure the night. There are prayers of friends and strangers that give us strength for the journey, and there are prayers that yield our will to a will greater than our own.</p>
<p>“This world he created is of moral design. Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. Goodness, remembrance and love have no end, and the Lord of life holds all who die and all who mourn.”</p>
<p>Having lived through these events, I know those words meant something to people. We’ve been criticized for them, but only after the fact.</p>
<p>In a&#160;second&#160;category, we sometimes employ religious language to talk about the&#160;historic influence of faith on our country. We argue that it has contributed to the justice of America, that people of faith have been a voice of conscience.</p>
<p>Here is the president at Goree Island in Senegal on July 8, 2003:</p>
<p>“For 250 years the captives endured an assault on their dignity. The spirit of Africans in America did not break. Yet the spirit of their captors was corrupted. Small men took on the powers and airs of tyrants and masters. Years of unpunished brutality and bullying and rape produced a dullness and hardness of conscience. Christian men and women became blind to the clearest commands of their faith and added hypocrisy to injustice. A republic founded on equality for all became a prison for millions. And yet in the words of the African proverb, ‘no fist is big enough to hide the sky.’ All the generations of oppression under the laws of man could not crush the hope of freedom and defeat the purposes of God.</p>
<p>“In America, enslaved Africans learned the story of the exodus from Egypt and set their own hearts on a promised land of freedom. Enslaved Africans discovered a suffering Savior and found he was more like themselves than their masters. Enslaved Africans heard the ringing promises of the Declaration of Independence and asked the self-evident question, then why not me?”</p>
<p>Part of presidential leadership is to give a narrative, a structure to the past. That’s why presidents start speeches, “Four score and seven years ago.” Religion is an important part of that story, and we’ve tried to make that point.</p>
<p>A&#160;third&#160;category is when we talk about our&#160;faith-based welfare reform. This is rooted in the president’s belief that government, in some cases, should encourage the provision of social services without providing those services. And some of the most effective providers, especially in fighting addiction and providing mentoring, are faith-based community groups.</p>
<p>I know this has been a controversial assertion. My only response is that it is — at least as we’ve practiced it — fundamentally pluralistic. We’ve welcomed all faiths and people of no faith, and have gotten some criticism from the right for that.</p>
<p>Also, it’s not really new. This has been done with Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services and a lot of others for a long time, and our innovation was to try to go beyond those traditional institutions and get resources to grassroots organizations — often African-American organizations.</p>
<p>In making this case, we’ve consistently called attention to the good works of people motivated by faith. And here’s the president in his first National Prayer Breakfast in February 2001:</p>
<p>“There are many experiences of faith in this room, but most will share a belief that we are loved and called to love; that our choices matter, now and forever; that there are purposes deeper than ambitions and hopes greater than success. These beliefs shape our lives and help sustain the life of our nation. Men and women can be good without faith, but faith is a force for goodness. Men and women can be compassionate without faith, but faith often inspires compassion. Human beings can love without faith, but faith is a great teacher of love.</p>
<p>“Our country, from its beginning, has recognized the contribution of faith. We do not impose any religion; we welcome all religions. We do not prescribe any prayer; we welcome all prayers. This is the tradition of our nation and it will be the standard of my administration. We will respect every creed, we will honor the diversity of country and the deepest convictions of our people.”</p>
<p>A&#160;fourth&#160;category are&#160;literary allusions to hymns and scripture. In our first inaugural, we had “when we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side;” or “there is power, wonder-working power in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people” in the State of the Union.</p>
<p>I’ve actually had, in the past, reporters call me up on a variety of speeches and ask me where are the code words. I try to explain that they’re not code words; they’re literary references understood by millions of Americans. They’re not code words; they’re our culture. It’s not a code word when I put a reference to T.S. Eliot’s&#160;Choruses From the Rock&#160;in our Whitehall speech; it’s a literary reference. And just because some don’t get it doesn’t mean it’s a plot or a secret.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>I remember one incident in the last election when Frank Bruni — who is one of my favorite people; I really like and respect him — wrote on the front page of&#160;The New York Times&#160;that the president had said in an interview, actually — not a speech — that people should take the log out of their own eye before taking the speck out of their neighbor’s eye. And Frank, writing on the front page of&#160;the&#160;New York Times, called this an odd version of the pot calling the kettle black.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>Neither he nor his editors knew it was from one of the most famous sermons in history, and the part of the New Testament that’s in red.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>But actually, most Americans knew and the disconnect was not particularly — I don’t think — the president’s fault.</p>
<p>I’ll say a couple of other things about that. It’s not a strategy. It comes from my own background and my own reading of the history of American rhetoric. It’s also not new. The image of a city on a hill, of course, doesn’t come from pilgrim fathers; it comes from the teachings of Jesus, and “a house divided against itself cannot stand” falls in the same category. And many images of the civil rights movement were drawn from the exodus.</p>
<p>In political discourse, these images are given a lesser meaning, but they have an added literary resonance precisely because they have a deeper meaning. And I think that American public discourse would be impoverished without them.</p>
<p>A&#160;fifth&#160;category is a&#160;reference to providence, which some of the other examples have touched on. This is actually a longstanding tenet of American civil religion. It is one of the central themes of Lincoln’s second inaugural. It’s a recurring theme of Martin Luther King — “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice;” “we do not know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future.”</p>
<p>The important theological principle here, I believe, is to avoid identifying the purposes of an individual or a nation with the purposes of God. That seems presumption to me, and we’ve done our best to avoid the temptation.</p>
<p>Here is September 20th, 2001:</p>
<p>“Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty have always been at war, and God is not neutral between them.”</p>
<p>Or the National Prayer Breakfast in 2003:</p>
<p>“We can also take comfort in the ways of providence, even when they are far from our understanding. Behind all of life and all of history there is a purpose, set by the hand of a just and faithful God.”</p>
<p>Or the State of the Union in 2003:</p>
<p>“We Americans have faith in ourselves, but not in ourselves alone. We do not know, we do not claim to know all the ways of providence, yet we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God behind all of life and all of history.”</p>
<p>I don’t believe that any of this is a departure from American history. I don’t think it’s disturbing because it’s new. As others have pointed out, President Clinton referred to Jesus or Jesus Christ more than the president does, had a much more consistent use of what might be more sectarian references.</p>
<p>And if you look at the examples of history, it’s a useful enterprise. On D-Day, most of you probably know, FDR did his announcement to the nation entirely in the form of a prayer. He said, “In the poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer.” He asked for victory, for renewed faith, and said, “with Thy blessing we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogance.”</p>
<p>Or FDR’s State of the Union address a month after Pearl Harbor:</p>
<p>“They know that victory for us means victory for religion, and they could not tolerate that. The world is too small to provide adequate living room for both Hitler and God. In proof of this, the Nazis have now announced their plan for enforcing their new, German pagan religion all over the world, a plan by which the Holy Bible and the cross of mercy would be displaced by ‘Mein Kampf’ and the swastika and the naked sword.</p>
<p>“We are inspired by a faith that goes back through all the years to the first chapter of Genesis: God created man in his own image. We on our side are striving to be true to that divine heritage. That is the conflict that day and night now pervades our lives. No compromise can end that conflict. There never has been, there never will be successful compromise between good and evil.”</p>
<p>We’ve attempted to apply a set of rules that I’ve done my best to keep. We’ve tried to apply a principled pluralism; we have set out to welcome all religions, not favoring any religions in a sectarian way. I think that the president is the first president to mention mosques and Islam in his inaugural address. The president has consistently urged tolerance and respect for other faiths and traditions, and has received some criticism for it.</p>
<p>We often in our presentations make specific reference to people who are not religious; we’ve done that right from the beginning. In our first prayer breakfast in February of 2001, we said an American president serves people of every faith and serves some of no faith at all. And there are plenty of other examples.</p>
<p>And as president, as a rule — and there may be exceptions but I don’t know what they are — he hasn’t spoken from the pulpit. We’ve never done anything comparable to the recent campaign when Senator Kerry spoke in churches and used a passage from the Book of James to question the president’s faith.</p>
<p>But I know that the kind of care that we try to take will not bridge all the disagreements on this topic. There seems to me a genuine disagreement in public life when it comes to religion and rhetoric. There is a view that pluralism requires silence; that religious language violates the truce of tolerance in America, and moral arguments rooted in faith are off limits in public life.</p>
<p>Often this is more of a distaste than an ideology. I’ll give you one example. At the Reagan funeral, I thought — given the disease that Reagan had died of — that it brought to mind for me the Apostle Paul’s “we see through a glass darkly but someday we’ll see our Savior face to face,” and that seemed like a good reference to Alzheimer’s. And we used it. And Tom Shales wrote, “George W. Bush chose to proselytize that Reagan is now in heaven playing cards with Jesus Christ.” This was a Christian funeral of a Christian man in a Christian cathedral, and although I wouldn’t have used the card analogy, that is in fact the Christian hope —</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>— that slow death and the suffering of a family are not all there is; that suffering is not the last reality; it’s the next-to-the-last reality.</p>
<p>There’s also a deeper objective that I think would be worth discussing, that seems to assume that moral reasoning rooted in religious belief is somehow itself off limits. If you are for a certain right or belief because the Constitution said so, that is okay. If you’re for certain rights because you believe the image of God is found in every human being based on a theological teaching, that is not. G.K. Chesterton, in a quote I like, called this a “taboo of tact or convention whereby a man is free to say this or that because of his nationality or his profession, or his place of residence, or his hobby, but not because of his creed about the very cosmos in which he lives.”</p>
<p>I think these tendencies are misguided for a couple of reasons. As a writer, I think this attitude would flatten political rhetoric and make it less moving and interesting – to prevent the president from exercising rhetorical leadership in times of crisis. But even more, I think the reality here is that scrubbing public discourse of religion or religious ideas would remove one of the main sources of social justice in our history. Without an appeal to justice rooted in faith, there would have been no abolition movement, no civil rights movement, no pro-life movement.</p>
<p>Every society, it seems to me, needs a standard of values that stands above the political order, or the political order becomes absolute. Christianity is not identical to any political ideology. It has had great influence precisely because it judges all ideologies. It indicts consumerism and indifference to the poor; it indicts the destruction of the weak and the elderly; it indicts tyranny and the soul-destroying excesses that sometimes come from freedom. And that leads me to certain conclusions. When religious people identify faith with a single political party or movement, they miniaturize their beliefs and they’re reduced to one interest group among many. When society banishes the influence of faith, it loses one of the main sources of compassion and justice.</p>
<p>And my view is summarized best by Martin Luther King, Jr., who said that the church should not be the master of the state or the servant of the state; it should be the conscience of the state.</p>
<p>There are clearly some dangers here at the crossroads of religion and politics. The danger for America is not theocracy. Banning partial birth abortion and keeping the status quo of hundreds of years on marriage are not the imposition of religious rule. But religious people can develop habits of certainty that get wrongly applied to a range of issues from economics to military policy. The teachings of the New Testament are wisely silent on most political issues, and these are a realm of practical judgment and should be a realm of honest debate.</p>
<p>The deeper danger of course is the faith itself. A political and politicized and judgmental faith seems to miss the point. I’ve been a Christian all my life, but I still don’t feel competent to define it for others. I think, however, it has something to do with forgetting yourself and seeking the interest of other people. It has something to do with getting beyond petty fears and selfish ambitions and seeing God’s kingdom at work — a kingdom that’s not of this world. And when those kingdoms are confused, it is faith that suffers the most.</p>
<p>At any rate, I guess I’ll stop there. I just wanted to set out some different categories we use so that we all can have an informed discussion on how we actually use language.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Thank you very much, Michael. Next we have Carl Cannon. He’s been at&#160;National Journal&#160;for six years covering the White House. He wrote one of the best pieces on the president and his faith in a&#160;National Journal&#160;cover story last January called “Bush and God.” Many of you have covered the president, obviously. But I thought if we’re going to have Mike Gerson talk about religion and rhetoric, it would be good to have a response from someone who has written a very rich history of the president and religion, which Carl has done. Thank you, Carl, for coming.</p>
<p>Carl Cannon</p>
<p>CARL CANNON: Thank you. I’d like to start by reading a prayer. No, a real prayer. And in fact, I ask that you bow your heads.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>I’m going to read the prayer.</p>
<p>“Oh mighty God, as we sit here at this moment, my friends in journalism and associates in the executive branch join me in beseeching that Thou wilt make full and complete our dedication to the service of the people in this throng and their fellow citizens everywhere. Give us, we pray, the power to discern clearly right from wrong and allow all our words and actions to be governed thereby and by the laws of this land. Especially we pray that our concern shall be for all of the people regardless of station, race, or calling. May cooperation be permitted with the mutual aim of those who, under the concepts of our Constitution, hold to differing political faiths, so that all may work for the good of our beloved country and Thy glory. Amen.”</p>
<p>I don’t know how many of you guessed, but that was the prayer that Dwight D. Eisenhower read in his first inauguration. He pulled that out of his pocket just like that. A friend of mine who did a documentary on Ike said that a lot of his aides didn’t want him to do this, and a couple of them were appalled but they didn’t say anything — the general was in those days a much harder person than George W. Bush to say no to. And he wrote that himself and he read it. I changed a couple of words. I added “journalists” —</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>— and I said “sit” where Ike said “stand.” But other than that, that’s the exact prayer.</p>
<p>Mike Gerson did not write that and President Bush did not deliver it in his first inaugural, and I doubt that Bush will do that on his own in the second. But God did make an appearance, if you remember, in the speech at President George W. Bush’s inaugural and I’m going to — at the risk of having too much Gerson quoted today — I’m going to read it to you because it sort of takes us where we want to go.</p>
<p>There may be some redundancy with Michael, but then I’m going to go off on a departure point. I hope maybe we can ask him why the president doesn’t do some of the things that I’m going to raise.</p>
<p>Anyway, Bush said, “America at its best is compassionate. In the quiet of American conscience, we know that deep, persistent poverty is unworthy of our nation’s promise and whatever our views of its cause, we can agree that children at risk are not at fault. Abandonment and abuse are not acts of God, they are failures of love.”</p>
<p>Later in that speech, President Bush quoted from a letter sent to Jefferson — do you remember this, Michael?</p>
<p>MR. GERSON: I do.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>MR. CANNON: By Jefferson’s friend John Page of Virginia, who said to Jefferson, “We know the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm?” That was near the middle of the speech, if I remember right. And then continuing that point — picking up on that theme at the end, George W. Gerson said —</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>— “This work continues, this story goes on, and an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm. God bless you all, and God bless America.”</p>
<p>I prepared a couple of things, but I’m going to quote a little more from Bush and a little more from previous presidents than Michael did. I’m struck by — and there are several of my friends here, like Elizabeth Bumiller, who cover the White House beat with me — but you can go to a conference on presidential rhetoric and people will not quote the president that they are critiquing. And so I agree with Mike that sometimes it is important, if we’re going to talk about these words, that we quote them and have them in our minds.</p>
<p>A couple of weeks ago, George W. Bush ushered in Thanksgiving Day by noting that people across the nation were gathering with people they love “to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives. We are grateful for our freedom, grateful for our families and friends, and grateful for the many gifts of America. On Thanksgiving Day, we acknowledge that all of these things, and life itself, come from the Almighty God.”</p>
<p>Now, that’s actually not typical of Bush. But it is typical of presidents on Thanksgiving Day — it’s the one exception that George Washington started when he proclaimed, “November 26th shall be devoted by the people of these states to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be,” and he went on in that vein for four more paragraphs.</p>
<p>But George Washington did not go on, as George W. Bush did, to add his decidedly secular thanks to firemen who perished in the line of duty, soldiers on the frontlines in Iraq and Afghanistan, the volunteers working at homeless shelters and other people every day performing worldly sacrifices – secular sacrifices that Americans do. And so even on Thanksgiving Day, this president was inclusive in a way that American presidents haven’t always been.</p>
<p>Michael and I both, without talking about it, decided to quote from the Franklin Roosevelt prayer — the D-Day prayer — so I won’t repeat that. But I will say that this is how American presidents talk in wartime. The current president’s father, during the first Persian Gulf War, matter-of-factly called on God’s assistance, not just for the United States but for the other nations in the U.S.-led military coalition. He said, “So we ask his blessing upon us and every other member, not just of our armed forces but of our coalition armed forces, with respect for the religious diversity that is represented as these 28 countries stand up against aggression.” Bush 41 said that at the National Prayer Breakfast — I believe it was January 31, 1991.</p>
<p>The prayer breakfasts are the grist of a lot of this scholarship on presidents. If reporters want to know when presidents are going over the line, we always go to the prayer breakfasts, because there are all these evangelicals in the room and Christian radio, and they tend to get carried away and so then we can nail them.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>And all of the last presidents — 10 presidents, including George W. Bush — at the prayer breakfasts, you know, they get going pretty good.</p>
<p>I suppose some secular people might have been alarmed when the president said only a year after inauguration, “To me, God is real. To me, the relationship with God is a very personal thing. God is ever present in my life, sustains me when I am weak, gives me guidance when I turn to him, and provides for me, as a Christian, through the life of Christ, a perfect example to emulate in my experiences with other human beings.”</p>
<p>And I think Mike would understand why a few of us raised our eyebrows when the president added, “So we worship freely, but that does not mean that leaders of our nation and the people of our nation are not called upon to worship because those who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Bills of Rights, and our Constitution did it under the guidance of and with a full belief in God.” That was Jimmy Carter’s view, anyway; it’s not George W. Bush.</p>
<p>And it was a third southern governor —</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>— Bill Clinton, not George W. Bush or Jimmy Carter — who deflected a question about his character by saying of his critics, “They may be able to attack my reputation, but God is the ultimate judge of people’s character and he knows all the facts.” In that way did President Clinton assure us that the good Lord was following the ins and outs of campaign finance law —</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>— because that quote is from 1996 and President Clinton, assured us that with its ‘White House coffees’ and the renting out of the Lincoln Bedroom, he hadn’t run afoul of Scripture.</p>
<p>And here is one more quote from a president — this president’s father again back during the Persian Gulf War: “One cannot be president of our country without faith in God and without knowing with certainty that we are one nation under God. God is our rock and our salvation, and we must trust him and keep faith with him.”</p>
<p>In each of the examples I have chosen — the ceremonial proclamation, the wartime invocation of God’s aid for the soldiers in the field, the ruminations on personal faith — George W. Bush has been by any standard more inclusive and less overtly religious than his predecessors. He is the most ecumenical of presidents — probably the most ecumenical president we’ve ever had. Mike is right that Bush is the first president to use the word “mosques” during an inauguration. I don’t think this president&#160;ever&#160;mentions churches without also mentioning synagogues and mosques. Now this began with this president’s father, and Clinton did it too. But this president does it faithfully, if I may use that word. He always does that.</p>
<p>But if that’s a convention of modern presidents, Bush again goes further. He said flatly, as you know, that Muslims pray to the same God as Christians. Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention objected and said this was not right, and Bush had an awkward week there where all these liberal theologians came to his aid — people who don’t normally do that. And Land stood down.</p>
<p>But Bush bowed his head in prayer just three weeks ago at a Ramadan dinner with a Muslim cleric, Imam Faizul Khan of the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C., who said a prayer for our president. He asked God to grant him patience, understanding, vision, health, and the strength needed for tasks that lie ahead. And speaking in Arabic he added, “May the peace and blessings of God be upon you and every one of you here tonight.”</p>
<p>I think that well-known theologian from Independence, Missouri, Harry Truman, would have approved of Bush’s ecumenism. Truman rarely referred to communism without the adjective “godless” in front of it, but when he died, there was a paper found on his desk that said, in Truman’s own handwriting, “Jews, Mohammedans, Buddhists, and Confucians worship the same God as the Christians say they do. He is all seeing, all hearing, and all knowing.”</p>
<p>So when Bush sort of puts his toe in the water of offering his own theology, he finds himself in good historic company with previous presidents and modern liberal theologians — or at least some of them. But Bush goes further than that, even, further than Truman — probably not as far as Benjamin Franklin, but pretty far — when he goes out of his way to defend agnostics and atheists. The quote that Mike Gerson read to you is right, but Bush said that in a set piece. Bush does this on his own, however; he did it in an interview on&#160;Larry King Live, he did it in the press conference after winning reelection, and he volunteers this.</p>
<p>Bush says, “Of course a person who has no faith at all can be a great American.” Then you say, ‘Well, okay, he knows sort of what he’s up against. He may feel the need to say that.’ Besides, on&#160;Larry King Live, Laura was there and maybe Laura kicked him under the table. This has happened before. When he was governor, a reporter tried to trick him by asking him if he thought Jews go to heaven. And this newly minted Christian said, no, he didn’t think so. And Barbara, his mother, reportedly called him and straightened him out and said that it wasn’t up for him to decide who went to heaven; it was up to God. Personal apology is not his sort of normal impulse, he did allow as that maybe she had dressed him down properly.</p>
<p>But Bush said the same thing at a prayer breakfast. These prayer breakfasts that I’m mining for quotes — when I was doing this piece that Michael Cromartie held up, I found, I thought, a particularly good passage. It was from the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast, which got a little less ink. I was afraid that he was going to give his speech in Spanish; he didn’t. He said a few words in Spanish but then he spoke in English. And he said this: “Since America’s founding, prayer has reassured us that the hand of God is guiding the affairs of a nation. We’ve never asserted a special claim on his favor, yet we’ve always believed in God’s presence in our lives” — which is what Michael was talking about.</p>
<p>But then Bush went on and he said, “We’ve never imposed any religion,” and that’s really important to remember, too — what he says to these Spanish preachers. “We welcome all religions in America – all religions,” then adding, “We know that men and women can be good without faith; we know that.” So here’s a prayer breakfast and this president, when he’s first in office, is going out of his way to be inclusive.</p>
<p>And yet — and yet —</p>
<p>That’s the record, but he’s been criticized over his faith — or supposed excesses of it — really since he’s been in office. It’s been continual. It’s cited in interviews, you can get it in man-on-the-street interviews –we all got them during the campaign — and it’s on left-wing websites. It’s what liberals fear the most about Bush. They use this word “theocracy,” the image of Bush as a rabid, intolerant, narrow-minded religious nut, really — so much so that&#160;Saturday Night Live, apropos of nothing — there was no news peg — introduced their show one night a couple of years ago by having Bush speak in tongues, and then they said, “From New York, this is&#160;Saturday Night Live.”</p>
<p>So that’s the image, and the question I think I want to pose to Mike Gerson — and once we get to the Q and A, I’m sure you’ll direct your questions to him and not to me — is where this comes from, and if there is any responsibility on their side for it. I think Mike hinted at a couple of things that we journalists on our side bear responsibility for — the ignorance of Christian traditions and Christian language. There’s a very inexcusable literary ignorance that he gave you two good examples of.</p>
<p>In academia — and it’s not just, you know, the poor newspaper writer who’s turning out a story a day from the road — but in academia it’s the same thing. There’s an unfamiliarity with the basic cultural touchstones, and not just that one, but other ones — “Walk a mile in my shoes” — and you’ll say these things, and you’ll be there at the press section, and people will say, “Gee, where does that come from?” So that’s not Bush’s fault.</p>
<p>But it reminds me of something. When Eisenhower pulled out that prayer that I started with, he wasn’t criticized for that, but he got some criticism as his presidency progressed from what we would call now the “religious left,” although that term wasn’t generally used. And the idea was that Ike had this Hallmark-card kind of faith. What I am lauding Bush for, Ike was criticized for, which is that it’s a faith without much substance to it. What does it mean? It’s these kind words and stuff, but is he really a man of faith? How does it animate him? The things we fear about Bush, people wondered whether Ike had them — whether his faith had any meaning.</p>
<p>Ike had never been a member of a church, and in 1952 when he began to run for president, he called up Billy Graham and asked him if he should join a church. And Graham told him yes and suggested the Presbyterian Church, and that’s how Ike became a Presbyterian.</p>
<p>But William Lee Miller, writing for a liberal magazine, then called&#160;The Reporter&#160;— you may know him, some of you; he’s now a presidential scholar at the University of Virginia — but then he was a journalist with a degree in philosophy, and he began writing about Ike’s sort of cheap grace, and he was offended by it. Again, what we — if you want to defend Bush — what you boast about now, he was attacking Ike for. And he ended up writing a book about it,&#160;Piety on the Potomac. It was a series of essays and they put it in that book. And one of the lines from it was, “The greatest demonstration of the religious character of this administration came on July 4th, in which the president told us to spend as a day of penance and prayer. And he himself caught four fish in the morning —</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>— played 18 holes of golf in the afternoon, and spent the evening at the bridge table.”</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>So that’s one factor.</p>
<p>There’s another factor and we’re all aware of it, and Mike only alluded to it, but I think we should talk about it more. That is, that criticizing Bush’s faith is a way of criticizing his policies. And it’s not just an attack by proxy. Some of it is just normal partisanship. Jim Wallis, the editor of&#160;Sojourners Magazine, whom many of you know, was meeting with Al Gore during 2000 — he thought Gore was going to win the election — and talking about faith-based programs. And Jim says flatly now — admits it if you’ll ask him — that a lot of the people who criticized Bush’s faith-based plan and have continued to, he expected and knew would be at a press conference announcing Gore’s faith-based program. So there’s a partisanship. Let’s call that maybe the second reason, which is the normal partisanship that goes on in Washington.</p>
<p>But the third reason is this idea of these policies. And it’s deep and it won’t go away. And it comes from a couple of places. One of them is people who just abhor Bush’s policies so much that they end up blaming them on his faith. Another wrinkle is that they detest his policies so much, they think he can’t be a serious Christian — that he’s a hypocrite.</p>
<p>There’s a petition going around signed by 200 theologians, and I want to read you a line from it. It’s called “Confessions of Christ in a World of Violence” and it asks the question of what it means to confess Christ in a world of violence. And a couple of the lines in it will give you a flavor for where it’s coming from: “Faithfully confessing Christ is the church’s task, and never more so than when its confession is co-opted by militarism and nationalism.” Another sentence says, “The roles of God, Church, and Nation are confused by talk of American mission as a divine appointment to rid the world of evil.”</p>
<p>And then, of course, the social issues, too — abortion, embryonic stem cell research, gay marriage. And I guess I would disagree with Mike on this one point. He said that the failure to enact gay marriage and continued restrictions on embryonic stem cell research are not evidence of — I don’t want to mischaracterize what you said, but of —</p>
<p>MR. GERSON: Theocracy.</p>
<p>MR. CANNON: Yeah, of a theocracy. But really the opponents to those things cite the Bible. This is what they do. It’s the central thrust of their argument. Jerry Falwell said recently, quote, “The people that hate George Bush hate him because he’s a follower of Jesus Christ, says so, and applies the faith in his day-to-day operations.” Now, I submit to you, with friends like Falwell, none of us need any enemies. But this is the crux of it. They believe this about Bush and they’re opposed to his policies.</p>
<p>How principled is the opposition? That’s not for me to say. These theologians who sign this paper are clearly objecting to the war in Iraq. I don’t think they would frame it quite the way they framed it, if they weren’t maybe coming from the Democratic side. Joan Campbell Brown of the National Council of Churches said when Bush invoked his minimalist Jesus Christ reference in the debates in 1999, he was asked, I think, who is your most influential political philosopher. And he said, “Jesus Christ” — sort of blurts it out like that. And the moderator — you could tell he didn’t think it was really responsive and he sort of invited Bush to amplify on that. And the governor could have said a lot of things. He could have said, “Look, love thy neighbor is still a radical doctrine. I mean, this — believe me.” He didn’t say anything like that. He said, “Well, it’s Jesus Christ because he touched my heart.” And again was asked to amplify it and basically refused. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but it was like –</p>
<p>E.J. DIONNE,&#160;The Washington Post.: If you haven’t experienced it, you wouldn’t understand.</p>
<p>MR. CANNON: Yeah, it was like he basically said, “It’s a black thing, you wouldn’t understand.”</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>Basically.</p>
<p>And so Joan Campbell Brown responded to that and said, “Well, where you have to be careful is where it slips from ‘this is my personal position’ into ‘this is how it would affect my political decisions.’ ” In other words, Bush’s faith is okay as long as it doesn’t result in him actually doing anything about it. This is what Mike alluded to when he said that one of the problems the left has with Bush is they think he really&#160;believes&#160;all this. Marvin Olasky makes that same point. I think that’s true.</p>
<p>I also think that we have to ask, what would be our reaction as journalists if Bush said out loud that he found support for opposition to abortion in the Bible — if Bush said this directly? That’s what Lincoln did with slavery. In Lincoln’s second inaugural address he said, “Both sides pray to the same God and read the same Bible.” But then Lincoln said in his next sentence that he thinks the South’s reading of the Bible is a perversity and he says why: “It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces. But let us judge not that we be not judged.” This is the torch that President Johnson was carrying exactly 100 years later when speaking about civil rights legislation. He said, “It is rather our duty to do His divine will. But I cannot help believe that he truly understands and that he really favors the undertaking we are beginning here tonight.”</p>
<p>And so you wonder: what would we say if Bush then invoked God’s agency in the No Child Left Behind Act? And I don’t actually have to wonder; I know it. I got an e-mail from a guy who is very close to Kerry — he was on the Kerry campaign when I was doing this piece. And I asked him why liberals hate Bush for his faith. And he said — he e-mailed me back and said, “Bush is a fundamentalist who believes what he says he believes on the basis of revelation and faith. As a consequence, neither facts, logic, nor experience are capable of influencing him because he already knows the truth. Such divine certainty applied to the presidency results in policies in which faith-based initiatives, tax cuts will stimulate the economy, create jobs; invading Iraq will bring democracy — all that has done tremendous damage to the country and will continue to do so.” And he goes on in this way.</p>
<p>And in concluding, what I’ll say then is that the Bush people know this. They know that they engender this response from liberals. They know that it’s mostly at heart about issues. And what they don’t do, in my opinion — and with this I’ll turn it over to Michael — is speak about it in this way that we’re speaking about it here. Mike Gerson will write a beautiful and inclusive thing and Bush will deliver it, or Bush will say on his own as he did on&#160;Larry King Live&#160;that, you know, of course persons who don’t have any faith at all can be great Americans. But he doesn’t really engage the debate. He doesn’t talk to these liberals who say, “Look, your programs are going to hurt the poor.” He doesn’t speak; he doesn’t really enter the fray.</p>
<p>And so the last point I’ll make is that while I think Bush is blameless of many of the things he’s accused of and historically speaking is on very safe ground, and that a lot of these fights are legitimate fights over policy, and some of them are partisan — that this president leaves people wanting. Millions of them don’t quite get his faith and they’d like to hear more about it.</p> | false | 1 | faith angle forum160is semiannual conference brings together select group 20 nationally respected journalists 35 distinguished scholars areas religion politics amp public life religion rhetoric presidency key west florida speaker michael gerson speech writer amp policy adviser president bush respondent carl cannon white house correspondent160national journal moderator michael cromartie vicepresident ethics amp public policy center 160 michael cromartie couldnt think anyone better country talk religion presidency presidents speechwriter many know michael gerson received high praise people across political spectrum speechwriting delighted light busy schedule could join us today talk us topic thank michael michael gerson michael gerson really havent done much kind speaking thought id ease talking noncontroversial topic religion politics bunch journalists laughter took invitation election impossible imagine grim event would lost laughter everyone would everyone certain number people would said lost president talked like billy sunday people think talks like billy sunday dont think either accurate election divisive divisive family little boy sixyearold nicholas announced car long election liked john kerry president asked said home weekends tough nineyearold little practical said would eat laughter said think get job might go think tank said well whats think tank said well people read speak meetings things bucky true said mean nothing laughter think useful tell little bit im head speech writing policy adviser really means get go meetings want ive got six writers work researchers factcheckers others anywhere one three events day president complicating factor daily life staffing process write beautiful things goes every senior member white house get chance comment change things sometimes get good speeches process studied theology wheaton college illinois worked religious nonprofit prison fellowship ministries went hill policy speechwriting asked surprisingly steve waldman work at160us news amp world report started covering nonprofits ended covering politics id done lot work compassionate conservatism hill got call thengovernor bush spring 1999 meet national governors association declared candidate went room said right bat want write announcement speech convention speech inaugural want move austin immediately moved austin short version since weve election crisis initial one 2000 september 11th afghan war iraq buildup iraq war aftermath iraq bitter elections know last one couple months ago told dentist wisdom tooth removed would completely immobilized two days healing process spent month looking forward surgery laughter fascinating job tremendous roller coaster speech feel like important person world speech youre writer really dont matter much experiences like know going president stay buckingham palace personal footman named russell really miss laughter almost immediately afterwards medicare speech thats disaster fault could idiot kind job think probably lot understand think perhaps useful begin discussion rhetoric religion giving actual instances president employed religious language know comes certain categories generally work one great advantages speechwriter quote president secretly know youre quoting laughter ill little the160first160category use things is160comfort grief mourning weve many opportunities space shuttle disaster 911 things people faced completely unfair suffering circumstance president generally cant say death final separation endless universe echoing empty void laughter president offers hope hope reunions love stronger death justice beyond understanding let read portion said national cathedral september 14 2001 example use religious language gods signs always ones look learn tragedy purposes always yet prayers private suffering whether homes great cathedral known heard understood prayers help us last day endure night prayers friends strangers give us strength journey prayers yield greater world created moral design grief tragedy hatred time goodness remembrance love end lord life holds die mourn lived events know words meant something people weve criticized fact a160second160category sometimes employ religious language talk the160historic influence faith country argue contributed justice america people faith voice conscience president goree island senegal july 8 2003 250 years captives endured assault dignity spirit africans america break yet spirit captors corrupted small men took powers airs tyrants masters years unpunished brutality bullying rape produced dullness hardness conscience christian men women became blind clearest commands faith added hypocrisy injustice republic founded equality became prison millions yet words african proverb fist big enough hide sky generations oppression laws man could crush hope freedom defeat purposes god america enslaved africans learned story exodus egypt set hearts promised land freedom enslaved africans discovered suffering savior found like masters enslaved africans heard ringing promises declaration independence asked selfevident question part presidential leadership give narrative structure past thats presidents start speeches four score seven years ago religion important part story weve tried make point a160third160category talk our160faithbased welfare reform rooted presidents belief government cases encourage provision social services without providing services effective providers especially fighting addiction providing mentoring faithbased community groups know controversial assertion response least weve practiced fundamentally pluralistic weve welcomed faiths people faith gotten criticism right also really new done catholic charities lutheran social services lot others long time innovation try go beyond traditional institutions get resources grassroots organizations often africanamerican organizations making case weve consistently called attention good works people motivated faith heres president first national prayer breakfast february 2001 many experiences faith room share belief loved called love choices matter forever purposes deeper ambitions hopes greater success beliefs shape lives help sustain life nation men women good without faith faith force goodness men women compassionate without faith faith often inspires compassion human beings love without faith faith great teacher love country beginning recognized contribution faith impose religion welcome religions prescribe prayer welcome prayers tradition nation standard administration respect every creed honor diversity country deepest convictions people a160fourth160category are160literary allusions hymns scripture first inaugural see wounded traveler road jericho pass side power wonderworking power goodness idealism faith american people state union ive actually past reporters call variety speeches ask code words try explain theyre code words theyre literary references understood millions americans theyre code words theyre culture code word put reference ts eliots160choruses rock160in whitehall speech literary reference dont get doesnt mean plot secret laughter remember one incident last election frank bruni one favorite people really like respect wrote front page of160the new york times160that president said interview actually speech people take log eye taking speck neighbors eye frank writing front page of160the160new york times called odd version pot calling kettle black laughter neither editors knew one famous sermons history part new testament thats red laughter actually americans knew disconnect particularly dont think presidents fault ill say couple things strategy comes background reading history american rhetoric also new image city hill course doesnt come pilgrim fathers comes teachings jesus house divided stand falls category many images civil rights movement drawn exodus political discourse images given lesser meaning added literary resonance precisely deeper meaning think american public discourse would impoverished without a160fifth160category a160reference providence examples touched actually longstanding tenet american civil religion one central themes lincolns second inaugural recurring theme martin luther king arc moral universe long bends toward justice know future holds know holds future important theological principle believe avoid identifying purposes individual nation purposes god seems presumption weve done best avoid temptation september 20th 2001 freedom fear justice cruelty always war god neutral national prayer breakfast 2003 also take comfort ways providence even far understanding behind life history purpose set hand faithful god state union 2003 americans faith alone know claim know ways providence yet trust placing confidence loving god behind life history dont believe departure american history dont think disturbing new others pointed president clinton referred jesus jesus christ president much consistent use might sectarian references look examples history useful enterprise dday probably know fdr announcement nation entirely form prayer said poignant hour ask join prayer asked victory renewed faith said thy blessing shall prevail unholy forces enemy help us conquer apostles greed racial arrogance fdrs state union address month pearl harbor know victory us means victory religion could tolerate world small provide adequate living room hitler god proof nazis announced plan enforcing new german pagan religion world plan holy bible cross mercy would displaced mein kampf swastika naked sword inspired faith goes back years first chapter genesis god created man image side striving true divine heritage conflict day night pervades lives compromise end conflict never never successful compromise good evil weve attempted apply set rules ive done best keep weve tried apply principled pluralism set welcome religions favoring religions sectarian way think president first president mention mosques islam inaugural address president consistently urged tolerance respect faiths traditions received criticism often presentations make specific reference people religious weve done right beginning first prayer breakfast february 2001 said american president serves people every faith serves faith plenty examples president rule may exceptions dont know hasnt spoken pulpit weve never done anything comparable recent campaign senator kerry spoke churches used passage book james question presidents faith know kind care try take bridge disagreements topic seems genuine disagreement public life comes religion rhetoric view pluralism requires silence religious language violates truce tolerance america moral arguments rooted faith limits public life often distaste ideology ill give one example reagan funeral thought given disease reagan died brought mind apostle pauls see glass darkly someday well see savior face face seemed like good reference alzheimers used tom shales wrote george w bush chose proselytize reagan heaven playing cards jesus christ christian funeral christian man christian cathedral although wouldnt used card analogy fact christian hope laughter slow death suffering family suffering last reality nexttothelast reality theres also deeper objective think would worth discussing seems assume moral reasoning rooted religious belief somehow limits certain right belief constitution said okay youre certain rights believe image god found every human based theological teaching gk chesterton quote like called taboo tact convention whereby man free say nationality profession place residence hobby creed cosmos lives think tendencies misguided couple reasons writer think attitude would flatten political rhetoric make less moving interesting prevent president exercising rhetorical leadership times crisis even think reality scrubbing public discourse religion religious ideas would remove one main sources social justice history without appeal justice rooted faith would abolition movement civil rights movement prolife movement every society seems needs standard values stands political order political order becomes absolute christianity identical political ideology great influence precisely judges ideologies indicts consumerism indifference poor indicts destruction weak elderly indicts tyranny souldestroying excesses sometimes come freedom leads certain conclusions religious people identify faith single political party movement miniaturize beliefs theyre reduced one interest group among many society banishes influence faith loses one main sources compassion justice view summarized best martin luther king jr said church master state servant state conscience state clearly dangers crossroads religion politics danger america theocracy banning partial birth abortion keeping status quo hundreds years marriage imposition religious rule religious people develop habits certainty get wrongly applied range issues economics military policy teachings new testament wisely silent political issues realm practical judgment realm honest debate deeper danger course faith political politicized judgmental faith seems miss point ive christian life still dont feel competent define others think however something forgetting seeking interest people something getting beyond petty fears selfish ambitions seeing gods kingdom work kingdom thats world kingdoms confused faith suffers rate guess ill stop wanted set different categories use informed discussion actually use language mr cromartie thank much michael next carl cannon hes at160national journal160for six years covering white house wrote one best pieces president faith a160national journal160cover story last january called bush god many covered president obviously thought going mike gerson talk religion rhetoric would good response someone written rich history president religion carl done thank carl coming carl cannon carl cannon thank id like start reading prayer real prayer fact ask bow heads laughter im going read prayer oh mighty god sit moment friends journalism associates executive branch join beseeching thou wilt make full complete dedication service people throng fellow citizens everywhere give us pray power discern clearly right wrong allow words actions governed thereby laws land especially pray concern shall people regardless station race calling may cooperation permitted mutual aim concepts constitution hold differing political faiths may work good beloved country thy glory amen dont know many guessed prayer dwight eisenhower read first inauguration pulled pocket like friend mine documentary ike said lot aides didnt want couple appalled didnt say anything general days much harder person george w bush say wrote read changed couple words added journalists laughter said sit ike said stand thats exact prayer mike gerson write president bush deliver first inaugural doubt bush second god make appearance remember speech president george w bushs inaugural im going risk much gerson quoted today im going read sort takes us want go may redundancy michael im going go departure point hope maybe ask president doesnt things im going raise anyway bush said america best compassionate quiet american conscience know deep persistent poverty unworthy nations promise whatever views cause agree children risk fault abandonment abuse acts god failures love later speech president bush quoted letter sent jefferson remember michael mr gerson laughter mr cannon jeffersons friend john page virginia said jefferson know race swift battle strong think angel rides whirlwind directs storm near middle speech remember right continuing point picking theme end george w gerson said laughter work continues story goes angel still rides whirlwind directs storm god bless god bless america prepared couple things im going quote little bush little previous presidents michael im struck several friends like elizabeth bumiller cover white house beat go conference presidential rhetoric people quote president critiquing agree mike sometimes important going talk words quote minds couple weeks ago george w bush ushered thanksgiving day noting people across nation gathering people love give thanks god blessings lives grateful freedom grateful families friends grateful many gifts america thanksgiving day acknowledge things life come almighty god thats actually typical bush typical presidents thanksgiving day one exception george washington started proclaimed november 26th shall devoted people states service great glorious beneficent author good went vein four paragraphs george washington go george w bush add decidedly secular thanks firemen perished line duty soldiers frontlines iraq afghanistan volunteers working homeless shelters people every day performing worldly sacrifices secular sacrifices americans even thanksgiving day president inclusive way american presidents havent always michael without talking decided quote franklin roosevelt prayer dday prayer wont repeat say american presidents talk wartime current presidents father first persian gulf war matteroffactly called gods assistance united states nations usled military coalition said ask blessing upon us every member armed forces coalition armed forces respect religious diversity represented 28 countries stand aggression bush 41 said national prayer breakfast believe january 31 1991 prayer breakfasts grist lot scholarship presidents reporters want know presidents going line always go prayer breakfasts evangelicals room christian radio tend get carried away nail laughter last presidents 10 presidents including george w bush prayer breakfasts know get going pretty good suppose secular people might alarmed president said year inauguration god real relationship god personal thing god ever present life sustains weak gives guidance turn provides christian life christ perfect example emulate experiences human beings think mike would understand us raised eyebrows president added worship freely mean leaders nation people nation called upon worship wrote declaration independence bills rights constitution guidance full belief god jimmy carters view anyway george w bush third southern governor laughter bill clinton george w bush jimmy carter deflected question character saying critics may able attack reputation god ultimate judge peoples character knows facts way president clinton assure us good lord following ins outs campaign finance law laughter quote 1996 president clinton assured us white house coffees renting lincoln bedroom hadnt run afoul scripture one quote president presidents father back persian gulf war one president country without faith god without knowing certainty one nation god god rock salvation must trust keep faith examples chosen ceremonial proclamation wartime invocation gods aid soldiers field ruminations personal faith george w bush standard inclusive less overtly religious predecessors ecumenical presidents probably ecumenical president weve ever mike right bush first president use word mosques inauguration dont think president160ever160mentions churches without also mentioning synagogues mosques began presidents father clinton president faithfully may use word always thats convention modern presidents bush goes said flatly know muslims pray god christians dr richard land southern baptist convention objected said right bush awkward week liberal theologians came aid people dont normally land stood bush bowed head prayer three weeks ago ramadan dinner muslim cleric imam faizul khan islamic center washington dc said prayer president asked god grant patience understanding vision health strength needed tasks lie ahead speaking arabic added may peace blessings god upon every one tonight think wellknown theologian independence missouri harry truman would approved bushs ecumenism truman rarely referred communism without adjective godless front died paper found desk said trumans handwriting jews mohammedans buddhists confucians worship god christians say seeing hearing knowing bush sort puts toe water offering theology finds good historic company previous presidents modern liberal theologians least bush goes even truman probably far benjamin franklin pretty far goes way defend agnostics atheists quote mike gerson read right bush said set piece bush however interview on160larry king live press conference winning reelection volunteers bush says course person faith great american say well okay knows sort hes may feel need say besides on160larry king live laura maybe laura kicked table happened governor reporter tried trick asking thought jews go heaven newly minted christian said didnt think barbara mother reportedly called straightened said wasnt decide went heaven god personal apology sort normal impulse allow maybe dressed properly bush said thing prayer breakfast prayer breakfasts im mining quotes piece michael cromartie held found thought particularly good passage national hispanic prayer breakfast got little less ink afraid going give speech spanish didnt said words spanish spoke english said since americas founding prayer reassured us hand god guiding affairs nation weve never asserted special claim favor yet weve always believed gods presence lives michael talking bush went said weve never imposed religion thats really important remember says spanish preachers welcome religions america religions adding know men women good without faith know heres prayer breakfast president hes first office going way inclusive yet yet thats record hes criticized faith supposed excesses really since hes office continual cited interviews get manonthestreet interviews got campaign leftwing websites liberals fear bush use word theocracy image bush rabid intolerant narrowminded religious nut really much that160saturday night live apropos nothing news peg introduced show one night couple years ago bush speak tongues said new york is160saturday night live thats image question think want pose mike gerson get q im sure youll direct questions comes responsibility side think mike hinted couple things journalists side bear responsibility ignorance christian traditions christian language theres inexcusable literary ignorance gave two good examples academia know poor newspaper writer whos turning story day road academia thing theres unfamiliarity basic cultural touchstones one ones walk mile shoes youll say things youll press section people say gee come thats bushs fault reminds something eisenhower pulled prayer started wasnt criticized got criticism presidency progressed would call religious left although term wasnt generally used idea ike hallmarkcard kind faith lauding bush ike criticized faith without much substance mean kind words stuff really man faith animate things fear bush people wondered whether ike whether faith meaning ike never member church 1952 began run president called billy graham asked join church graham told yes suggested presbyterian church thats ike became presbyterian william lee miller writing liberal magazine called160the reporter160 may know hes presidential scholar university virginia journalist degree philosophy began writing ikes sort cheap grace offended want defend bush boast attacking ike ended writing book it160piety potomac series essays put book one lines greatest demonstration religious character administration came july 4th president told us spend day penance prayer caught four fish morning laughter played 18 holes golf afternoon spent evening bridge table laughter thats one factor theres another factor aware mike alluded think talk criticizing bushs faith way criticizing policies attack proxy normal partisanship jim wallis editor of160sojourners magazine many know meeting al gore 2000 thought gore going win election talking faithbased programs jim says flatly admits youll ask lot people criticized bushs faithbased plan continued expected knew would press conference announcing gores faithbased program theres partisanship lets call maybe second reason normal partisanship goes washington third reason idea policies deep wont go away comes couple places one people abhor bushs policies much end blaming faith another wrinkle detest policies much think cant serious christian hes hypocrite theres petition going around signed 200 theologians want read line called confessions christ world violence asks question means confess christ world violence couple lines give flavor coming faithfully confessing christ churchs task never confession coopted militarism nationalism another sentence says roles god church nation confused talk american mission divine appointment rid world evil course social issues abortion embryonic stem cell research gay marriage guess would disagree mike one point said failure enact gay marriage continued restrictions embryonic stem cell research evidence dont want mischaracterize said mr gerson theocracy mr cannon yeah theocracy really opponents things cite bible central thrust argument jerry falwell said recently quote people hate george bush hate hes follower jesus christ says applies faith daytoday operations submit friends like falwell none us need enemies crux believe bush theyre opposed policies principled opposition thats say theologians sign paper clearly objecting war iraq dont think would frame quite way framed werent maybe coming democratic side joan campbell brown national council churches said bush invoked minimalist jesus christ reference debates 1999 asked think influential political philosopher said jesus christ sort blurts like moderator could tell didnt think really responsive sort invited bush amplify governor could said lot things could said look love thy neighbor still radical doctrine mean believe didnt say anything like said well jesus christ touched heart asked amplify basically refused dont remember exactly said like ej dionne160the washington post havent experienced wouldnt understand mr cannon yeah like basically said black thing wouldnt understand laughter basically joan campbell brown responded said well careful slips personal position would affect political decisions words bushs faith okay long doesnt result actually anything mike alluded said one problems left bush think really160believes160all marvin olasky makes point think thats true also think ask would reaction journalists bush said loud found support opposition abortion bible bush said directly thats lincoln slavery lincolns second inaugural address said sides pray god read bible lincoln said next sentence thinks souths reading bible perversity says may seem strange men dare ask gods assistance wringing bread sweat mens faces let us judge judged torch president johnson carrying exactly 100 years later speaking civil rights legislation said rather duty divine help believe truly understands really favors undertaking beginning tonight wonder would say bush invoked gods agency child left behind act dont actually wonder know got email guy close kerry kerry campaign piece asked liberals hate bush faith said emailed back said bush fundamentalist believes says believes basis revelation faith consequence neither facts logic experience capable influencing already knows truth divine certainty applied presidency results policies faithbased initiatives tax cuts stimulate economy create jobs invading iraq bring democracy done tremendous damage country continue goes way concluding ill say bush people know know engender response liberals know mostly heart issues dont opinion ill turn michael speak way speaking mike gerson write beautiful inclusive thing bush deliver bush say on160larry king live160that know course persons dont faith great americans doesnt really engage debate doesnt talk liberals say look programs going hurt poor doesnt speak doesnt really enter fray last point ill make think bush blameless many things hes accused historically speaking safe ground lot fights legitimate fights policy partisan president leaves people wanting millions dont quite get faith theyd like hear | 3,876 |
<p>Whatever Russia is called outwardly, there is an inner eternal Russia whose embryonic character places her on an antithetical course to that of the USA.</p>
<p>The rivalry between the USA and Russia is something more than geopolitics or economics. These are reflections of antithetical worldviews of a spiritual character. The German conservative historian-philosopher Oswald Spengler, who wrote of the morphology of cultures as having organic life-cycles, in his epochal book The Decline of The West had much to say about Russia that is too easily mistaken as being of a Russophobic nature. That is not the case, and Spengler wrote of Russia in similar terms to that of the ‘Slavophils’. Spengler, Dostoyevski, Berdyaev, and Solzhenistyn have much of relevance to say in analyzing the conflict between the USA and Russia. Considering the differences as fundamentally ‘spiritual’ explains why this conflict will continue and why the optimism among Western political circles at the prospect of a compliant Russia, fully integrated into the ‘world community’, was so short-lived.</p>
<p>Of the religious character of this confrontation, an American analyst, Paul Coyer, has written:</p>
<p>Amidst the geopolitical confrontation between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the US and its allies, little attention has been paid to the role played by religion either as a shaper of Russian domestic politics or as a means of understanding Putin’s international actions. The role of religion has long tended to get short thrift in the study of statecraft (although it has been experiencing a bit of a renaissance of late), yet nowhere has it played a more prominent role—and perhaps nowhere has its importance been more unrecognized—than in its role in supporting the Russian state and Russia’s current place in world affairs. <a href="#_edn1" type="external">[1]</a></p>
<p>Spengler regarded Russians as formed by the vastness of the land-plain, as innately antagonistic to the Machine, as rooted in the soil, irrepressibly peasant, religious, and ‘primitive’. Without a wider understanding of Spengler’s philosophy, it appears that he was a Slavophobe. However, when Spengler wrote of these Russian characteristics, he was referring to the Russians as a still youthful people in contrast to the senile West. Hence the ‘primitive’ Russian is not synonymous with ‘primitivity’ as popularly understood at that time in regard to ‘primitive’ tribal peoples. Nor was it to be confounded with the Hitlerite perception of the ‘primitive Slav’ incapable of building his own State.</p>
<p>To Spengler, the ‘primitive peasant’ is the wellspring from which a people draws its healthiest elements during its epochs of cultural vigor. Agriculture is the foundation of a High Culture, enabling stable communities to diversify labor into specialization from which Civilization proceeds.</p>
<p>However, according to Spengler, each people has its own soul, a conception derived from the German Idealism of Herder, Fichte et al. A High Culture reflects that soul, whether in its mathematics, music, architecture; both in the arts and the physical sciences. The Russian soul is not the same as the Western Faustian, as Spengler called it, the ‘Magian’ of the Arabian civilization, or the Classical of the Hellenes and Romans. The Western Culture that was imposed on Russia by Peter the Great, what Spengler called Petrinism, is a veneer.</p>
<p>Spengler stated that the Russian soul is ‘the plain without limit’. <a href="#_edn2" type="external">[2]</a> The Russian soul expresses its own type of infinity, albeit not that of the Westerner’s Faustian soul, which becomes enslaved by its own technics at the end of its life-cycle. <a href="#_edn3" type="external">[3]</a> (Although it could be argued that Sovietism enslaved man to machine, a Spenglerian would cite this as an example of Petrinism). However, Civilizations follow their life’s course, and one cannot see Spengler’s descriptions as moral judgements but as observations. The finale for Western Civilization according to Spengler cannot be to create further great forms of art and music, which belong to the youthful or ‘spring’ epoch of a civilization, but to dominate the world under a technocratic-military dispensation, before declining into oblivion like prior world civilizations. While Spengler saw this as the fulfilment of the Western Civilization, the form it has assumed since World War II has been under U.S. dispensation and is quite different from what might have been assumed under European imperialism.</p>
<p>It is after this Western decline—which now means U.S. decline—that Spengler alluded to the next world civilization being Russian.</p>
<p>According to Spengler, Russian Orthodox architecture does not represent the infinity towards space that is symbolized by the Western high culture’s Gothic Cathedral spire, nor the enclosed space of the Mosque of the Magian Culture, <a href="#_edn4" type="external">[4]</a> but the impression of sitting upon a horizon. Spengler considered that this Russian architecture is ‘not yet a style, only the promise of a style that will awaken when the real Russian religion awakens’. <a href="#_edn5" type="external">[5]</a> Spengler was writing of the Russian culture as an outsider, and by his own reckoning must have realized the limitations of that. It is therefore useful to compare his thoughts on Russia with those of Russians of note.</p>
<p>Nikolai Berdyaev in The Russian Idea affirms what Spengler describes:</p>
<p>There is that in the Russian soul which corresponds to the immensity, the vagueness, the infinitude of the Russian land, spiritual geography corresponds with physical. In the Russian soul there is a sort of immensity, a vagueness, a predilection for the infinite, such as is suggested by the great plain of Russia. <a href="#_edn6" type="external">[6]</a></p>
<p>The connections between family, nation, birth, unity and motherland are reflected in the Russian language:</p>
<p>род [rod]: family, kind, sort, genus</p>
<p>родина [ródina]: homeland, motherland</p>
<p>родители [rodíteli]: parents</p>
<p>родить [rodít’]: to give birth</p>
<p>роднить [rodnít’]: to unite, bring together</p>
<p>родовой [rodovói]: ancestral, tribal</p>
<p>родство [rodstvó]: kinship</p>
<p>Western-liberalism, rationalism, even the most strenuous efforts of Bolshevik dialectal materialism, have so far not been able to permanently destroy, but at most repress, these conceptions—conscious or unconscious—of what it is to be ‘Russian’. Spengler, as will be seen, even during the early period of Russian Bolshevism, already predicted that even this would take on a different, even antithetical form, to the Petrine import of Marxism. It was soon that the USSR was again paying homage to Holy Mother Russia rather than the international proletariat, much to Trotsky’s lament.</p>
<p>Of the Russian soul, the ego/vanity of the Western culture-man is missing; the persona seeks impersonal growth in service, ‘in the brother-world of the plain’. Orthodox Christianity condemns the ‘I’ as ‘sin’. <a href="#_edn7" type="external">[7]</a></p>
<p>The Russian concept of ‘we’ rather than ‘I’, and of impersonal service to the expanse of one’s land, implies another form socialism to that of Marxism. It is perhaps in this sense that Stalinism proceeded along lines often antithetical to the Bolshevism envisaged by Trotsky, et al. <a href="#_edn8" type="external">[8]</a> A recent comment by an American visitor to Russia, Barbara J. Brothers, as part of a scientific delegation, states something akin to Spengler’s observation:</p>
<p>The Russians have a sense of connectedness to themselves and to other human beings that is just not a part of American reality. It isn’t that competitiveness does not exist; it is just that there always seems to be more consideration and respect for others in any given situation. <a href="#_edn9" type="external">[9]</a></p>
<p>Of the Russian traditional ethos, intrinsically antithetical to Western individualism, including that of property relations, Berdyaev wrote:</p>
<p>Of all peoples in the world the Russians have the community spirit; in the highest degree the Russian way of life and Russian manners, are of that kind. Russian hospitality is an indication of this sense of community. <a href="#_edn10" type="external">[10]</a></p>
<p>Russian National Literature starting from the 1840s began to consciously express the Russian soul. Firstly Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol’s Taras Bulba, which along with the poetry of Pushkin, founded a Russian literary tradition; that is to say, truly Russian, and distinct from the previous literature based on German, French, and English. John Cournos states of this in his introduction to Taras Bulba:</p>
<p>The spoken word, born of the people, gave soul and wing to literature; only by coming to earth, the native earth, was it enabled to soar. Coming up from Little Russia, the Ukraine, with Cossack blood in his veins, Gogol injected his own healthy virus into an effete body, blew his own virile spirit, the spirit of his race, into its nostrils, and gave the Russian novel its direction to this very day.</p>
<p>Taras Bulba is a tale on the formation of the Cossack folk. In this folk-formation the outer enemy plays a crucial role. The Russian has been formed largely as the result of battling over centuries with Tartars, Muslims and Mongols. <a href="#_edn11" type="external">[11]</a></p>
<p>Their society and nationality were defined by religiosity, as was the West’s by Gothic Christianity during its ‘Spring’ epoch, in Spenglerian terms. The newcomer to a Setch, or permanent village, was greeted by the Chief as a Christian and as a warrior: ‘Welcome! Do you believe in Christ?’ —‘I do’, replied the new-comer. ‘And do you believe in the Holy Trinity?’— ‘I do’.—‘And do you go to church?’—‘I do.’ ‘Now cross yourself’. <a href="#_edn12" type="external">[12]</a></p>
<p>Gogol depicts the scorn in which trade is held, and when commerce has entered among Russians, rather than being confined to non-Russians associated with trade, it is regarded as a symptom of decadence:</p>
<p>I know that baseness has now made its way into our land. Men care only to have their ricks of grain and hay, and their droves of horses, and that their mead may be safe in their cellars; they adopt, the devil only knows what Mussulman customs. They speak scornfully with their tongues. They care not to speak their real thoughts with their own countrymen. They sell their own things to their own comrades, like soulless creatures in the market-place…. . Let them know what brotherhood means on Russian soil! <a href="#_edn13" type="external">[13]</a></p>
<p>Here we might see a Russian socialism that is, so far from being the dialectical materialism offered by Marx, the mystic we-feeling forged by the vastness of the plains and the imperative for brotherhood above economics, imposed by that landscape. Russia’s feeling of world-mission has its own form of messianism whether expressed through Christian Orthodoxy or the non-Marxian form of ‘world revolution’ under Stalin, or both in combination, as suggested by the later rapport between Stalinism and the Church from 1943 with the creation of the Council for Russian Orthodox Church Affairs. <a href="#_edn14" type="external">[14]</a> In both senses, and even in the embryonic forms taking place under Putin, Russia is conscious of a world-mission, expressed today as Russia’s role in forging a multipolar world, with Russia as being pivotal in resisting unipolarism.</p>
<p>Commerce is the concern of foreigners, and the intrusions bring with them the corruption of the Russian soul and culture in general: in speech, social interaction, servility, undermining Russian ‘brotherhood’, the Russian ‘we’ feeling that Spengler described. <a href="#_edn15" type="external">[15]</a></p>
<p>The Cossack brotherhood is portrayed by Gogol as the formative process in the building up of the Russian people. This process is not one of biology but of spirit, even transcending the family bond. Spengler treated the matter of race as that of soul rather than of zoology. <a href="#_edn16" type="external">[16]</a> To Spengler, landscape was crucial in determining what becomes ‘race’, and the duration of families grouped in a particular landscape—including nomads who have a defined range of wandering—form ‘a character of duration’, which was Spengler’s definition of ‘race’. <a href="#_edn17" type="external">[17]</a> Gogol describes this ‘race’ forming process among the Russians. So far from being an aggressive race nationalism it is an expanding mystic brotherhood under God:</p>
<p>The father loves his children, the mother loves her children, the children love their father and mother; but this is not like that, brothers. The wild beast also loves its young. But a man can be related only by similarity of mind and not of blood. There have been brotherhoods in other lands, but never any such brotherhoods as on our Russian soil. <a href="#_edn18" type="external">[18]</a></p>
<p>The Russian soul is born in suffering. The Russian accepts the fate of life in service to God and to his Motherland. Russia and Faith are inseparable. When the elderly warrior Bovdug is mortally struck by a Turkish bullet, his final words are exhortations on the nobility of suffering, after which his spirit soars to join his ancestors. <a href="#_edn19" type="external">[19]</a> The mystique of death and suffering for the Motherland is described in the death of Tarus Bulba when he is captured and executed, his final words being ones of resurrection:</p>
<p>‘Wait, the time will come when ye shall learn what the orthodox Russian faith is! Already the people scent it far and near. A czar shall arise from Russian soil, and there shall not be a power in the world which shall not submit to him!’ <a href="#_edn20" type="external">[20]</a></p>
<p>A dichotomy has existed for centuries, starting with Peter the Great, of attempts to impose a Western veneer over Russia. This is called Petrinism. The resistance of those attempts is what Spengler called ‘Old Russia’. <a href="#_edn21" type="external">[21]</a> Berdyaev wrote: ‘Russia is a complete section of the world, a colossal East-West. It unites two worlds, and within the Russian soul two principles are always engaged in strife—the Eastern and the Western’. <a href="#_edn22" type="external">[22]</a></p>
<p>With the orientation of Russian policy towards the West, ‘Old Russia’ was ‘forced into a false and artificial history’. <a href="#_edn23" type="external">[23]</a> Spengler wrote that Russia had become dominated by Late Western culture:</p>
<p>Late-period arts and sciences, enlightenment, social ethics, the materialism of world-cities, were introduced, although in this pre-cultural time religion was the only language in which man understood himself and the world. <a href="#_edn24" type="external">[24]</a></p>
<p>‘The first condition of emancipation for the Russian soul’, wrote Ivan Sergyeyevich Aksakov, founder of the anti-Petrinist ‘Slavophil’ group, in 1863 to Dostoyevski, ‘is that it should hate Petersburg with all this might and all its soul’. Moscow is holy, Petersburg satanic. A widespread popular legend presents Peter the Great as Antichrist.</p>
<p>The hatred of the ‘West’ and of ‘Europe’ is the hatred for a Civilization that had already reached an advanced state of decay into materialism and sought to impose its primacy by cultural subversion rather than by combat, with its City-based and money-based outlook, ‘poisoning the unborn culture in the womb of the land’. <a href="#_edn25" type="external">[25]</a> Russia was still a land where there were no bourgeoisie and no true class system, but only lord and peasant, a view confirmed by Berdyaev, writing: ‘The various lines of social demarcation did not exist in Russia; there were no pronounced classes. Russia was never an aristocratic country in the Western sense, and equally there was no bourgeoisie’. <a href="#_edn26" type="external">[26]</a></p>
<p>The cities that emerged threw up an intelligentsia, copying the intelligentsia of Late Westerndom, ‘bent on discovering problems and conflicts, and below, an uprooted peasantry, with all the metaphysical gloom, anxiety, and misery of their own Dostoyevski, perpetually homesick for the open land and bitterly hating the stony grey world into which the Antichrist had tempted them. Moscow had no proper soul’. <a href="#_edn27" type="external">[27]</a> Berdyaev likewise states of the Petrinism of the upper class that ‘Russian history was a struggle between East and West within the Russian soul’. <a href="#_edn28" type="external">[28]</a></p>
<p>Berdyaev states that while Petrinism introduced an epoch of cultural dynamism, it also placed a heavy burden upon Russia, and a disunity of spirit. <a href="#_edn29" type="external">[29]</a> However, Russia has her own religious sense of mission, which is as universal as the Vatican’s. Spengler quotes Dostoyevski as writing in 1878: ‘all men must become Russian, first and foremost Russian. If general humanity is the Russian ideal, then everyone must first of all become a Russian’. <a href="#_edn30" type="external">[30]</a> The Russian messianic idea found a forceful expression in Dostoyevski’s The Possessed, where, in a conversation with Stavrogin, Shatov states:</p>
<p>Reduce God to the attribute of nationality? … On the contrary, I elevate the nation to God…. The people is the body of God. Every nation is a nation only so long as it has its own particular God, excluding all other gods on earth without any possible reconciliation, so long as it believes that by its own God it will conquer and drive all other gods off the face of the earth…. The sole ‘God bearing’ nation is the Russian nation…. <a href="#_edn31" type="external">[31]</a></p>
<p>This is Russia as the Katechon, as the ‘nation’ whose world-historical mission is to resist the son of perdition, a literal Anti-Christ, according to the Revelation of St. John, or as the birthplace of a great Czar serving the traditional role of nexus between the terrestrial and the divine around which Russia is united in this mission. This mission as the Katechon defines Russia as something more than merely an ethno-nation-state, as Dostoyevski expressed it. <a href="#_edn32" type="external">[32]</a> Even the USSR, supposedly purged of all such notions, merely re-expressed them with Marxist rhetoric, which was no less apocalyptic and messianic, and which saw the ‘decadent West’ in terms analogous to elements of Islam regarding the USA as the ‘Great Satan’. It is not surprising that the pundits of secularized, liberal Western academia, politics, and media could not understand, and indeed were outraged, when Solzhenitsyn seemed so ungrateful when in his Western exile he unequivocally condemned the liberalism and materialism of the a ‘decadent West’. A figure who was for so long held up as a martyr by Western liberalism transpired to be a traditional Russian and not someone who was willing to remake himself in the image of a Western liberal to for the sake of continued plaudits. He attacked the modern West’s conceptions of ‘rights’, ‘freedom’, ‘happiness’, ‘wealth’, the irresponsibility of the ‘free press’, ‘television stupor’, and referred to a ‘Western decline’ in courage. He emphasized that this was a spiritual matter:</p>
<p>But should I be asked, instead, whether I would propose the West, such as it is today, as a model to my country, I would frankly have to answer negatively. No, I could not recommend your society as an ideal for the transformation of ours. Through deep suffering, people in our own country have now achieved a spiritual development of such intensity that the Western system in its present state of spiritual exhaustion does not look attractive. Even those characteristics of your life which I have just enumerated are extremely saddening. <a href="#_edn33" type="external">[33]</a></p>
<p>These are all matters that have been addressed by Spengler, and by traditional Russians, whether calling themselves Czarists Orthodox Christians or even ‘Bolsheviks’ or followers of Putin.</p>
<p>Spengler’s thesis that Western Civilization is in decay is analogous to the more mystical evaluations of the West by the Slavophils, both reaching similar conclusions. Solzhenitsyn was in that tradition, and Putin is influenced by it in his condemnation of Western liberalism. Putin recently pointed out the differences between the West and Russia as at root being ‘moral’ and religious:</p>
<p>Another serious challenge to Russia’s identity is linked to events taking place in the world. Here there are both foreign policy and moral aspects. We can see how many of the Euro-Atlantic countries are actually rejecting their roots, including the Christian values that constitute the basis of Western civilization. They are denying moral principles and all traditional identities: national, cultural, religious and even sexual. <a href="#_edn34" type="external">[34]</a></p>
<p>Spengler saw Russia as outside of Europe, and even as ‘Asian’. He even saw a Western rebirth vis-à-vis opposition to Russia, which he regarded as leading the ‘colored world’ against the whites, under the mantle of Bolshevism. Yet there were also other destinies that Spengler saw over the horizon, which had been predicted by Dostoyevski.</p>
<p>Once Russia had overthrown its alien intrusions, it could look with another perspective upon the world, and reconsider Europe not with hatred and vengeance but in kinship. Spengler wrote that while Tolstoi, the Petrinist, whose doctrine was the precursor of Bolshevism, was ‘the former Russia’, Dostoyevski was ‘the coming Russia’. Dostoyevski as the representative of the ‘coming Russia’ ‘does not know’ the hatred of Russia for the West. Dostoyevski and the old Russia are transcendent. ‘His passionate power of living is comprehensive enough to embrace all things Western as well’. Spengler quotes Dostoyevski: ‘I have two fatherlands, Russia and Europe’. Dostoyevski as the harbinger of a Russian high culture ‘has passed beyond both Petrinism and revolution, and from his future he looks back over them as from afar. His soul is apocalyptic, yearning, desperate, but of this future he is certain’. <a href="#_edn35" type="external">[35]</a></p>
<p>To the ‘Slavophil’, Europe is precious. The Slavophil appreciates the richness of European high culture while realizing that Europe is in a state of decay. We might recall that while the USA—through the CIA front, the Congress for Cultural Freedom—promoted Abstract Expressionism and Jazz to Europe (like it now promotes Hi-Hop, which the State Department calls ‘Hip-Hop diplomacy’), the USSR condemned this as ‘rootless cosmopolitanism’. Berdyaev discussed what he regarded as an inconsistency in Dostoyevski and the Slavophils towards Europe, yet one that is comprehensible when we consider Spengler’s crucial differentiation between Culture and Civilisation:</p>
<p>Dostoyevsky calls himself a Slavophil. He thought, as did also a large number of thinkers on the theme of Russia and Europe, that he knew decay was setting in, but that a great past exists in her, and that she has made contributions of great value to the history of mankind. <a href="#_edn36" type="external">[36]</a></p>
<p>It is notable that while this differentiation between Kultur and Zivilisation is ascribed to a particularly German philosophical tradition, Berdyaev comments that it was present among the Russians ‘long before Spengler’:</p>
<p>It is to be noted that long before Spengler, the Russians drew the distinction between ‘culture’ and ‘civilization’, that they attacked ‘civilization’ even when they remained supporters of ‘culture’. This distinction in actual fact, although expressed in a different phraseology, was to be found among the Slavophils. <a href="#_edn37" type="external">[37]</a></p>
<p>Dostoyevski was indifferent to the Late West, while Tolstoi was a product of it, the Russian Rousseau. Imbued with ideas from the Late West, the Marxists sought to replace one Petrine ruling class with another. Neither represented the soul of Russia. Spengler stated: ‘The real Russian is the disciple of Dostoyevski, even though he might not have read Dostoyevski, or anyone else, nay, perhaps because he cannot read, he is himself Dostoyevski in substance’. The intelligentsia hates, the peasant does not. He would eventually overthrow Bolshevism and any other form of Petrinism. Here we see Spengler unequivocally stating that the post-Western civilisation will be Russian.</p>
<p>For what this townless people yearns for is its own life-form, its own religion, its own history. Tolstoi’s Christianity was a misunderstanding. He spoke of Christ and he meant Marx. But to Dostoyevski’s Christianity, the next thousand years will belong. <a href="#_edn38" type="external">[38]</a></p>
<p>To the true Russia, as Dostoyevski stated it, ‘not a single nation has ever been founded on principles of science or reason’. <a href="#_edn39" type="external">[39]</a></p>
<p>By the time Spengler’s final book, The Hour of Decision, had been published in 1934 he was stating that Russia had overthrown Petrinism and the trappings of the Late West. While he called the new orientation of Russia ‘Asian’, he said that it was ‘a new Idea, and an idea with a future too’. <a href="#_edn40" type="external">[40]</a> To clarify, Russia looks towards the ‘East’, but while the Westerner assumes that ‘Asia’ and East are synonymous with Mongol, the etymology of the word ‘Asia’ comes from Greek Aσία, ca. 440 BC, referring to all regions east of Greece. <a href="#_edn41" type="external">[41]</a> During his time Spengler saw in Russia that,</p>
<p>Race, language, popular customs, religion, in their present form… all or any of them can and will be fundamentally transformed. What we see today then is simply the new kind of life which a vast land has conceived and will presently bring forth. It is not definable in words, nor is its bearer aware of it. Those who attempt to define, establish, lay down a program, are confusing life with a phrase, as does the ruling Bolshevism, which is not sufficiently conscious of its own West-European, Rationalistic and cosmopolitan origin. <a href="#_edn42" type="external">[42]</a></p>
<p>Of Russia in 1934, Spengler already saw that ‘of genuine Marxism there is very little except in names and programs’. He doubted that the Communist program is ‘really still taken seriously’. He saw the possibility of the vestiges of Petrine Bolshevism being overthrown, to be replaced by a ‘nationalistic’ Eastern type which would reach ‘gigantic proportions unchecked’. <a href="#_edn43" type="external">[43]</a> Spengler also referred to Russia as the country ‘least troubled by Bolshevism’, <a href="#_edn44" type="external">[44]</a> and the ‘Marxian face [was] only worn for the benefit of the outside world’. <a href="#_edn45" type="external">[45]</a> A decade after Spengler’s death the direction of Russia under Stalin had pursued clearer definitions, and Petrine Bolshevism had been transformed in the way Spengler foresaw. <a href="#_edn46" type="external">[46]</a></p>
<p>As in Spengler’s time, and centuries before, there continues to exist two tendencies in Russia : the Old Russian and the Petrine. Neither one nor the other spirit is presently dominant, although under Putin Old Russia struggles for resurgence. U.S. political circles see this Russia as a threat, and expend a great deal on promoting ‘regime change’ via the National Endowment for Democracy, and many others; these activities recently bringing reaction from the Putin government against such NGOs. <a href="#_edn47" type="external">[47]</a></p>
<p>Spengler in a published lecture to the Rheinish-Westphalian Business Convention in 1922 referred to the ‘ancient, instinctive, unclear, unconscious, and subliminal drive that is present in every Russian, no matter how thoroughly westernized his conscious life may be—a mystical yearning for the South, for Constantinople and Jerusalem, a genuine crusading spirit similar to the spirit our Gothic forebears had in their blood but which we can hardly appreciated today’. <a href="#_edn48" type="external">[48]</a></p>
<p>Bolshevism destroyed one form of Petrinism with another form, clearing the way ‘for a new culture that will some day arise between Europe and East Asia. It is more a beginning than an end’. The peasantry ‘will some day become conscious of its own will, which points in a wholly different direction’. ‘The peasantry is the true Russian people of the future. It will not allow itself to be perverted or suffocated’. <a href="#_edn49" type="external">[49]</a></p>
<p>The arch-Conservative anti-Marxist, Spengler, in keeping with the German tradition of realpolitik, considered the possibility of a Russo-German alliance in his 1922 speech, the Treaty of Rapallo being a reflection of that tradition. ‘A new type of leader’ would be awakened in adversity, to ‘new crusades and legendary conquests’. The rest of the world, filled with religious yearning but falling on infertile ground, is ‘torn and tired enough to allow it suddenly to take on a new character under the proper circumstances’. Spengler suggested that ‘perhaps Bolshevism itself will change in this way under new leaders’. ‘But the silent, deeper Russia,’ would turn its attention towards the Near and East Asia, as a people of ‘great inland expanses’. <a href="#_edn50" type="external">[50]</a></p>
<p>While Spengler postulated the organic cycles of a High Culture going through the life-phases of birth, youthful vigor, maturity, old age and death, it should be kept in mind that a life-cycle can be disrupted, aborted, murdered or struck by disease, at any time, and end without fulfilling itself. Each has its analogy in politics, and there are plenty of Russophobes eager to stunt Russia’s destiny with political, economic and cultural contagion. The Soviet bloc fell through inner and outer contagion.</p>
<p>Spengler foresaw new possibilities for Russia, yet to fulfil its historic mission, messianic and of world-scope, a traditional mission of which Putin seems conscious, or at least willing to play his part. Coyer cogently states: ‘The conflict between Russia and the West, therefore, is portrayed by both the Russian Orthodox Church and by Vladimir Putin and his cohorts as nothing less than a spiritual/civilizational conflict’. <a href="#_edn51" type="external">[51]</a></p>
<p>The invigoration of Orthodoxy is part of this process, as is the leadership style of Putin, as distinct from a Yeltsin for example. Whatever Russia is called outwardly, whether, monarchical, Bolshevik, or democratic, there is an inner—eternal—Russia that is unfolding, and whose embryonic character places her on an antithetical course to that of the USA.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref1" type="external">[1]</a> Paul Coyer, (Un)Holy Alliance: Vladimir Putin, The Russian Orthodox Church And Russian Exceptionalism, Forbes, May 21, 2015, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulcoyer/2015/05/21/unholy-alliance-vladimir-putin-and-the-russian-orthodox-church/" type="external">http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulcoyer/2015/05/21/unholy-alliance-vladimir-putin-and-the-russian-orthodox-church/</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ednref2" type="external">[2]</a> Oswald Spengler, The Decline of The West, George Allen &amp; Unwin, London, 1971, Vol. I, 201.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref3" type="external">[3]</a> Ibid., Vol. II, 502.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref4" type="external">[4]</a> Ibid., Vol. I, 183-216.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref5" type="external">[5]</a> Ibid., 201</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref6" type="external">[6]</a> Nikolai Berdyaev, The Russian Idea, Macmillan Co., New York, 1948, 1.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref7" type="external">[7]</a> Oswald Spengler, The Decline, op. cit., Vol. I, 309.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref8" type="external">[8]</a> Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed: what is the Soviet Union and where is it going?, 1936.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref9" type="external">[9]</a> Barbara J. Brothers, From Russia, With Soul, Psychology Today, January 1, 1993, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199301/russia-soul" type="external">https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199301/russia-soul</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ednref10" type="external">[10]</a> Berdyaev, op. cit., 97-98.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref11" type="external">[11]</a> H Cournos,‘Introduction’, N V Gogol, Taras Bulba &amp; Other Tales, 1842, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1197/1197-h/1197-h.htm</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref12" type="external">[12]</a> N V Gogol, ibid., III.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref13" type="external">[13]</a> Ibid.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref14" type="external">[14]</a> T A Chumachenko, Church and State in Soviet Russia, M. E. Sharpe Inc., New York, 2002.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref15" type="external">[15]</a> Spengler, The Decline, op. cit., I, 309</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref16" type="external">[16]</a> Ibid., II, 113-155.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref17" type="external">[17]</a> Ibid., Vol. II, 113</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref18" type="external">[18]</a> Golgol, op. cit., IX.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref19" type="external">[19]</a> Ibid.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref20" type="external">[20]</a> Ibid., XII.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref21" type="external">[21]</a> Spengler, The Decline, op. cit., II, 192.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref22" type="external">[22]</a> Berdyaev, op. cit., 1</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref23" type="external">[23]</a> Spengler, The Decline, op. cit., II, 193</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref24" type="external">[24]</a> Ibid., II, 193</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref25" type="external">[25]</a> Ibid., II, 194</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref26" type="external">[26]</a> Berdyaev, 1</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref27" type="external">[27]</a> Spengler, The Decline, op. cit., II, 194</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref28" type="external">[28]</a> Berdyaev, op. cit., 15</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref29" type="external">[29]</a> Ibid.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref30" type="external">[30]</a> Spengler, The Hour of Decision, Alfred A Knopf, New York, 1963, 63n.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref31" type="external">[31]</a> Fyodor Dostoevski, The Possessed, Oxford University Press, 1992, Part II: I: 7, 265-266.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref32" type="external">[32]</a> Ibid.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref33" type="external">[33]</a> Alexander Solzhenitsyn, A World Split Apart — Commencement Address Delivered At Harvard University, June 8, 1978</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref34" type="external">[34]</a> V Putin, address to the Valdai Club, 19 September 2013.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref35" type="external">[35]</a> Spengler, The Decline, op. cit., II, 194</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref36" type="external">[36]</a> Berdyaev, op. cit., 70</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref37" type="external">[37]</a> Ibid.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref38" type="external">[38]</a> Spengler, The Decline, op. cit., Vol. II, 196</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref39" type="external">[39]</a> Dostoyevski, op. cit., II: I: VII</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref40" type="external">[40]</a> Spengler, The Hour of Decision, Alfred A Knopf, New York, 1963, 60</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref41" type="external">[41]</a> Ibid., 61</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref42" type="external">[42]</a> Ibid.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref43" type="external">[43]</a> Ibid., 63.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref44" type="external">[44]</a> Ibid.,182</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref45" type="external">[45]</a> Ibid., 212</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref46" type="external">[46]</a> D Brandenberger, National Bolshevism: Stalinist culture and the Formation of Modern Russian National Identity 1931-1956. Harvard University Press, Massachusetts, 2002.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref47" type="external">[47]</a> Telegraph, Vladimir Putin signs new law against ‘undesirable NGOs’, May 24, 2015, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11626825/Vladimir-Putin-signs-new-law-against-undesirable-NGOs.html" type="external">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11626825/Vladimir-Putin-signs-new-law-against-undesirable-NGOs.html</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ednref48" type="external">[48]</a> Spengler, ‘The Two Faces of Russia and Germany’s Eastern Problems’, Politische Schriften, Munich, February 14, 1922.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref49" type="external">[49]</a> Ibid.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref50" type="external">[50]</a> Ibid.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref51" type="external">[51]</a> Paul Coyer, op. cit.</p> | false | 1 | whatever russia called outwardly inner eternal russia whose embryonic character places antithetical course usa rivalry usa russia something geopolitics economics reflections antithetical worldviews spiritual character german conservative historianphilosopher oswald spengler wrote morphology cultures organic lifecycles epochal book decline west much say russia easily mistaken russophobic nature case spengler wrote russia similar terms slavophils spengler dostoyevski berdyaev solzhenistyn much relevance say analyzing conflict usa russia considering differences fundamentally spiritual explains conflict continue optimism among western political circles prospect compliant russia fully integrated world community shortlived religious character confrontation american analyst paul coyer written amidst geopolitical confrontation vladimir putins russia us allies little attention paid role played religion either shaper russian domestic politics means understanding putins international actions role religion long tended get short thrift study statecraft although experiencing bit renaissance late yet nowhere played prominent roleand perhaps nowhere importance unrecognizedthan role supporting russian state russias current place world affairs 1 spengler regarded russians formed vastness landplain innately antagonistic machine rooted soil irrepressibly peasant religious primitive without wider understanding spenglers philosophy appears slavophobe however spengler wrote russian characteristics referring russians still youthful people contrast senile west hence primitive russian synonymous primitivity popularly understood time regard primitive tribal peoples confounded hitlerite perception primitive slav incapable building state spengler primitive peasant wellspring people draws healthiest elements epochs cultural vigor agriculture foundation high culture enabling stable communities diversify labor specialization civilization proceeds however according spengler people soul conception derived german idealism herder fichte et al high culture reflects soul whether mathematics music architecture arts physical sciences russian soul western faustian spengler called magian arabian civilization classical hellenes romans western culture imposed russia peter great spengler called petrinism veneer spengler stated russian soul plain without limit 2 russian soul expresses type infinity albeit westerners faustian soul becomes enslaved technics end lifecycle 3 although could argued sovietism enslaved man machine spenglerian would cite example petrinism however civilizations follow lifes course one see spenglers descriptions moral judgements observations finale western civilization according spengler create great forms art music belong youthful spring epoch civilization dominate world technocraticmilitary dispensation declining oblivion like prior world civilizations spengler saw fulfilment western civilization form assumed since world war ii us dispensation quite different might assumed european imperialism western declinewhich means us declinethat spengler alluded next world civilization russian according spengler russian orthodox architecture represent infinity towards space symbolized western high cultures gothic cathedral spire enclosed space mosque magian culture 4 impression sitting upon horizon spengler considered russian architecture yet style promise style awaken real russian religion awakens 5 spengler writing russian culture outsider reckoning must realized limitations therefore useful compare thoughts russia russians note nikolai berdyaev russian idea affirms spengler describes russian soul corresponds immensity vagueness infinitude russian land spiritual geography corresponds physical russian soul sort immensity vagueness predilection infinite suggested great plain russia 6 connections family nation birth unity motherland reflected russian language род rod family kind sort genus родина ródina homeland motherland родители rodíteli parents родить rodít give birth роднить rodnít unite bring together родовой rodovói ancestral tribal родство rodstvó kinship westernliberalism rationalism even strenuous efforts bolshevik dialectal materialism far able permanently destroy repress conceptionsconscious unconsciousof russian spengler seen even early period russian bolshevism already predicted even would take different even antithetical form petrine import marxism soon ussr paying homage holy mother russia rather international proletariat much trotskys lament russian soul egovanity western cultureman missing persona seeks impersonal growth service brotherworld plain orthodox christianity condemns sin 7 russian concept rather impersonal service expanse ones land implies another form socialism marxism perhaps sense stalinism proceeded along lines often antithetical bolshevism envisaged trotsky et al 8 recent comment american visitor russia barbara j brothers part scientific delegation states something akin spenglers observation russians sense connectedness human beings part american reality isnt competitiveness exist always seems consideration respect others given situation 9 russian traditional ethos intrinsically antithetical western individualism including property relations berdyaev wrote peoples world russians community spirit highest degree russian way life russian manners kind russian hospitality indication sense community 10 russian national literature starting 1840s began consciously express russian soul firstly nikolai vasilievich gogols taras bulba along poetry pushkin founded russian literary tradition say truly russian distinct previous literature based german french english john cournos states introduction taras bulba spoken word born people gave soul wing literature coming earth native earth enabled soar coming little russia ukraine cossack blood veins gogol injected healthy virus effete body blew virile spirit spirit race nostrils gave russian novel direction day taras bulba tale formation cossack folk folkformation outer enemy plays crucial role russian formed largely result battling centuries tartars muslims mongols 11 society nationality defined religiosity wests gothic christianity spring epoch spenglerian terms newcomer setch permanent village greeted chief christian warrior welcome believe christ replied newcomer believe holy trinity doand go churchi cross 12 gogol depicts scorn trade held commerce entered among russians rather confined nonrussians associated trade regarded symptom decadence know baseness made way land men care ricks grain hay droves horses mead may safe cellars adopt devil knows mussulman customs speak scornfully tongues care speak real thoughts countrymen sell things comrades like soulless creatures marketplace let know brotherhood means russian soil 13 might see russian socialism far dialectical materialism offered marx mystic wefeeling forged vastness plains imperative brotherhood economics imposed landscape russias feeling worldmission form messianism whether expressed christian orthodoxy nonmarxian form world revolution stalin combination suggested later rapport stalinism church 1943 creation council russian orthodox church affairs 14 senses even embryonic forms taking place putin russia conscious worldmission expressed today russias role forging multipolar world russia pivotal resisting unipolarism commerce concern foreigners intrusions bring corruption russian soul culture general speech social interaction servility undermining russian brotherhood russian feeling spengler described 15 cossack brotherhood portrayed gogol formative process building russian people process one biology spirit even transcending family bond spengler treated matter race soul rather zoology 16 spengler landscape crucial determining becomes race duration families grouped particular landscapeincluding nomads defined range wanderingform character duration spenglers definition race 17 gogol describes race forming process among russians far aggressive race nationalism expanding mystic brotherhood god father loves children mother loves children children love father mother like brothers wild beast also loves young man related similarity mind blood brotherhoods lands never brotherhoods russian soil 18 russian soul born suffering russian accepts fate life service god motherland russia faith inseparable elderly warrior bovdug mortally struck turkish bullet final words exhortations nobility suffering spirit soars join ancestors 19 mystique death suffering motherland described death tarus bulba captured executed final words ones resurrection wait time come ye shall learn orthodox russian faith already people scent far near czar shall arise russian soil shall power world shall submit 20 dichotomy existed centuries starting peter great attempts impose western veneer russia called petrinism resistance attempts spengler called old russia 21 berdyaev wrote russia complete section world colossal eastwest unites two worlds within russian soul two principles always engaged strifethe eastern western 22 orientation russian policy towards west old russia forced false artificial history 23 spengler wrote russia become dominated late western culture lateperiod arts sciences enlightenment social ethics materialism worldcities introduced although precultural time religion language man understood world 24 first condition emancipation russian soul wrote ivan sergyeyevich aksakov founder antipetrinist slavophil group 1863 dostoyevski hate petersburg might soul moscow holy petersburg satanic widespread popular legend presents peter great antichrist hatred west europe hatred civilization already reached advanced state decay materialism sought impose primacy cultural subversion rather combat citybased moneybased outlook poisoning unborn culture womb land 25 russia still land bourgeoisie true class system lord peasant view confirmed berdyaev writing various lines social demarcation exist russia pronounced classes russia never aristocratic country western sense equally bourgeoisie 26 cities emerged threw intelligentsia copying intelligentsia late westerndom bent discovering problems conflicts uprooted peasantry metaphysical gloom anxiety misery dostoyevski perpetually homesick open land bitterly hating stony grey world antichrist tempted moscow proper soul 27 berdyaev likewise states petrinism upper class russian history struggle east west within russian soul 28 berdyaev states petrinism introduced epoch cultural dynamism also placed heavy burden upon russia disunity spirit 29 however russia religious sense mission universal vaticans spengler quotes dostoyevski writing 1878 men must become russian first foremost russian general humanity russian ideal everyone must first become russian 30 russian messianic idea found forceful expression dostoyevskis possessed conversation stavrogin shatov states reduce god attribute nationality contrary elevate nation god people body god every nation nation long particular god excluding gods earth without possible reconciliation long believes god conquer drive gods face earth sole god bearing nation russian nation 31 russia katechon nation whose worldhistorical mission resist son perdition literal antichrist according revelation st john birthplace great czar serving traditional role nexus terrestrial divine around russia united mission mission katechon defines russia something merely ethnonationstate dostoyevski expressed 32 even ussr supposedly purged notions merely reexpressed marxist rhetoric less apocalyptic messianic saw decadent west terms analogous elements islam regarding usa great satan surprising pundits secularized liberal western academia politics media could understand indeed outraged solzhenitsyn seemed ungrateful western exile unequivocally condemned liberalism materialism decadent west figure long held martyr western liberalism transpired traditional russian someone willing remake image western liberal sake continued plaudits attacked modern wests conceptions rights freedom happiness wealth irresponsibility free press television stupor referred western decline courage emphasized spiritual matter asked instead whether would propose west today model country would frankly answer negatively could recommend society ideal transformation deep suffering people country achieved spiritual development intensity western system present state spiritual exhaustion look attractive even characteristics life enumerated extremely saddening 33 matters addressed spengler traditional russians whether calling czarists orthodox christians even bolsheviks followers putin spenglers thesis western civilization decay analogous mystical evaluations west slavophils reaching similar conclusions solzhenitsyn tradition putin influenced condemnation western liberalism putin recently pointed differences west russia root moral religious another serious challenge russias identity linked events taking place world foreign policy moral aspects see many euroatlantic countries actually rejecting roots including christian values constitute basis western civilization denying moral principles traditional identities national cultural religious even sexual 34 spengler saw russia outside europe even asian even saw western rebirth visàvis opposition russia regarded leading colored world whites mantle bolshevism yet also destinies spengler saw horizon predicted dostoyevski russia overthrown alien intrusions could look another perspective upon world reconsider europe hatred vengeance kinship spengler wrote tolstoi petrinist whose doctrine precursor bolshevism former russia dostoyevski coming russia dostoyevski representative coming russia know hatred russia west dostoyevski old russia transcendent passionate power living comprehensive enough embrace things western well spengler quotes dostoyevski two fatherlands russia europe dostoyevski harbinger russian high culture passed beyond petrinism revolution future looks back afar soul apocalyptic yearning desperate future certain 35 slavophil europe precious slavophil appreciates richness european high culture realizing europe state decay might recall usathrough cia front congress cultural freedompromoted abstract expressionism jazz europe like promotes hihop state department calls hiphop diplomacy ussr condemned rootless cosmopolitanism berdyaev discussed regarded inconsistency dostoyevski slavophils towards europe yet one comprehensible consider spenglers crucial differentiation culture civilisation dostoyevsky calls slavophil thought also large number thinkers theme russia europe knew decay setting great past exists made contributions great value history mankind 36 notable differentiation kultur zivilisation ascribed particularly german philosophical tradition berdyaev comments present among russians long spengler noted long spengler russians drew distinction culture civilization attacked civilization even remained supporters culture distinction actual fact although expressed different phraseology found among slavophils 37 dostoyevski indifferent late west tolstoi product russian rousseau imbued ideas late west marxists sought replace one petrine ruling class another neither represented soul russia spengler stated real russian disciple dostoyevski even though might read dostoyevski anyone else nay perhaps read dostoyevski substance intelligentsia hates peasant would eventually overthrow bolshevism form petrinism see spengler unequivocally stating postwestern civilisation russian townless people yearns lifeform religion history tolstois christianity misunderstanding spoke christ meant marx dostoyevskis christianity next thousand years belong 38 true russia dostoyevski stated single nation ever founded principles science reason 39 time spenglers final book hour decision published 1934 stating russia overthrown petrinism trappings late west called new orientation russia asian said new idea idea future 40 clarify russia looks towards east westerner assumes asia east synonymous mongol etymology word asia comes greek aσία ca 440 bc referring regions east greece 41 time spengler saw russia race language popular customs religion present form fundamentally transformed see today simply new kind life vast land conceived presently bring forth definable words bearer aware attempt define establish lay program confusing life phrase ruling bolshevism sufficiently conscious westeuropean rationalistic cosmopolitan origin 42 russia 1934 spengler already saw genuine marxism little except names programs doubted communist program really still taken seriously saw possibility vestiges petrine bolshevism overthrown replaced nationalistic eastern type would reach gigantic proportions unchecked 43 spengler also referred russia country least troubled bolshevism 44 marxian face worn benefit outside world 45 decade spenglers death direction russia stalin pursued clearer definitions petrine bolshevism transformed way spengler foresaw 46 spenglers time centuries continues exist two tendencies russia old russian petrine neither one spirit presently dominant although putin old russia struggles resurgence us political circles see russia threat expend great deal promoting regime change via national endowment democracy many others activities recently bringing reaction putin government ngos 47 spengler published lecture rheinishwestphalian business convention 1922 referred ancient instinctive unclear unconscious subliminal drive present every russian matter thoroughly westernized conscious life may bea mystical yearning south constantinople jerusalem genuine crusading spirit similar spirit gothic forebears blood hardly appreciated today 48 bolshevism destroyed one form petrinism another form clearing way new culture day arise europe east asia beginning end peasantry day become conscious points wholly different direction peasantry true russian people future allow perverted suffocated 49 archconservative antimarxist spengler keeping german tradition realpolitik considered possibility russogerman alliance 1922 speech treaty rapallo reflection tradition new type leader would awakened adversity new crusades legendary conquests rest world filled religious yearning falling infertile ground torn tired enough allow suddenly take new character proper circumstances spengler suggested perhaps bolshevism change way new leaders silent deeper russia would turn attention towards near east asia people great inland expanses 50 spengler postulated organic cycles high culture going lifephases birth youthful vigor maturity old age death kept mind lifecycle disrupted aborted murdered struck disease time end without fulfilling analogy politics plenty russophobes eager stunt russias destiny political economic cultural contagion soviet bloc fell inner outer contagion spengler foresaw new possibilities russia yet fulfil historic mission messianic worldscope traditional mission putin seems conscious least willing play part coyer cogently states conflict russia west therefore portrayed russian orthodox church vladimir putin cohorts nothing less spiritualcivilizational conflict 51 invigoration orthodoxy part process leadership style putin distinct yeltsin example whatever russia called outwardly whether monarchical bolshevik democratic innereternalrussia unfolding whose embryonic character places antithetical course usa 1 paul coyer unholy alliance vladimir putin russian orthodox church russian exceptionalism forbes may 21 2015 httpwwwforbescomsitespaulcoyer20150521unholyalliancevladimirputinandtherussianorthodoxchurch 2 oswald spengler decline west george allen amp unwin london 1971 vol 201 3 ibid vol ii 502 4 ibid vol 183216 5 ibid 201 6 nikolai berdyaev russian idea macmillan co new york 1948 1 7 oswald spengler decline op cit vol 309 8 leon trotsky revolution betrayed soviet union going 1936 9 barbara j brothers russia soul psychology today january 1 1993 httpswwwpsychologytodaycomarticles199301russiasoul 10 berdyaev op cit 9798 11 h cournosintroduction n v gogol taras bulba amp tales 1842 httpwwwgutenbergorgfiles11971197h1197hhtm 12 n v gogol ibid iii 13 ibid 14 chumachenko church state soviet russia e sharpe inc new york 2002 15 spengler decline op cit 309 16 ibid ii 113155 17 ibid vol ii 113 18 golgol op cit ix 19 ibid 20 ibid xii 21 spengler decline op cit ii 192 22 berdyaev op cit 1 23 spengler decline op cit ii 193 24 ibid ii 193 25 ibid ii 194 26 berdyaev 1 27 spengler decline op cit ii 194 28 berdyaev op cit 15 29 ibid 30 spengler hour decision alfred knopf new york 1963 63n 31 fyodor dostoevski possessed oxford university press 1992 part ii 7 265266 32 ibid 33 alexander solzhenitsyn world split apart commencement address delivered harvard university june 8 1978 34 v putin address valdai club 19 september 2013 35 spengler decline op cit ii 194 36 berdyaev op cit 70 37 ibid 38 spengler decline op cit vol ii 196 39 dostoyevski op cit ii vii 40 spengler hour decision alfred knopf new york 1963 60 41 ibid 61 42 ibid 43 ibid 63 44 ibid182 45 ibid 212 46 brandenberger national bolshevism stalinist culture formation modern russian national identity 19311956 harvard university press massachusetts 2002 47 telegraph vladimir putin signs new law undesirable ngos may 24 2015 httpwwwtelegraphcouknewsworldnewseuroperussia11626825vladimirputinsignsnewlawagainstundesirablengoshtml 48 spengler two faces russia germanys eastern problems politische schriften munich february 14 1922 49 ibid 50 ibid 51 paul coyer op cit | 2,775 |
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<p>In the Foreign Policy special report “Unconventional Wisdom”, a series of essays purporting to challenge conventional beliefs on a broad range of topics, Leslie H. Gelb asserts that with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “ <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/02/unconventional_wisdom?page=0,6" type="external">America Pressures Israel Plenty</a>“. Gelb describes as “myths” the notion that Israelis “have been the main stumbling block to peace” and that the U.S. “has failed to use its influence to pressure Israel”. Examining Gelb’s argument in favor of the respective corollaries – that “Israel has a long and compelling history of making major concessions to Arabs”, and that the U.S. “has pushed and pulled Israel” in that direction at “each step” – is instructive.</p>
<p>The validity of the latter assertion depends upon that of the former, for which Gelb offers several ostensible examples: Israel’s return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt under the terms of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979, and repeated offers to return most of the West Bank to the Palestinians. The Sinai, writes Gelb, was “booty of a war it did not start and an act of territorial generosity unprecedented in modern history.” Gelb doesn’t name the war in which Israel conquered the Sinai for readers not familiar with the history. This is perhaps just as well, since it is difficult to reconcile the claim Israel “did not start” the June 1967 “Six Day War” with the completely uncontroversial fact that it was Israel who fired the first shot.</p>
<p>Gelb cannot be unaware of that fact, so presumably he is clinging here to the conventional wisdom that Israel’s surprise attack on Egypt was “preemptive”. It would be an understatement to say that there is scant evidentiary basis for the implication that Egypt had intended to launch an offensive war against Israel. Indeed, the documentary record contradicts that claim, its enormous and somewhat inexplicable popularity notwithstanding. When U.S. President Lyndon Johnson later asked Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser why he had amassed troops in the Sinai, Nasser replied, “Whether you believe it or not, we were in fear of an attack from Israel. We had been informed that the Israelis were massing troops on the Syrian border with the idea of first attacking Syria, there they did not expect to meet great resistance, and then commence their attack on the UAR.” Johnson had little cause to disbelieve Nasser’s explanation; he had been informed prior to the war by his Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms that Israel could “defend successfully against simultaneous Arab attacks on all fronts … or hold on any three fronts while mounting successfully a major offensive on the fourth.” The CIA assessed that “Israel could almost certainly attain air supremacy over the Sinai Peninsula in less than 24 hours after taking the initiative or in two or three days if the UAR struck first.” The CIA also described Egypt’s military positions in the Sinai as a “defense line”.</p>
<p>Israel’s own intelligence assessment concurred with the U.S.’s that the likelihood of an Egyptian attack was slim. As current Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael B. Oren observes in his book Six Days of War, “By all reports Israel received from the Americans, and according to its own intelligence, Nasser had no interest in bloodshed.” In Israel’s own view, “Nasser would have to be deranged” to attack first, and war “could only come about if Nasser felt he had complete military superiority over the IDF, if Israel were caught up in a domestic crisis, and, most crucially, was isolated internationally—a most unlikely confluence.” Yitzhak Rabin, later Prime Minister, told Le Monde the year following the war, “I do not think Nasser wanted war. The two divisions he sent to the Sinai would not have been sufficient to launch an offensive war. He knew it and we knew it.” Prime Minister Menachem Begin similarly acknowledged that Israel’s war on Egypt in 1956 was a war of “choice” and that “In June 1967 we again had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.”</p>
<p>Gelb in effect purports to challenge one series of “myths” by propagating others. But the historical accuracy of his argument – or lack thereof, rather – is not the only fallacy here. Gelb’s rejection of international law, implicit in his description of territorial gains as “booty” and the return of that territory as “concessions” and acts of “generosity”, is also instructive. The underlying assumption of these characterizations is that Israel had some kind of right or legitimate claim to that territory. Yet “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” is a well-established principle under international law. This principle is cited, for example, in United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 calling upon Israel to withdraw from territories it occupied during the ’67 war: the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, the Syrian Golan Heights, and the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip. As Dr. Norman Finkelstein (author most recently of ‘This Time We Went Too Far’ about the consequences of Israel’s ’08-’09 devastating invasion of Gaza) has observed, if one operates in a framework of what Israel is entitled to under international law, rather than in the framework of what Israel wants, then it becomes apparent that the number of “concessions” Israel has made in this regard has been precisely zero. &#160;Less than zero, actually. Returning to Gelb’s argument, consider Israel’s “generosity” in supposedly offering to return “more than 90 percent of the West Bank” – a demand for a major territorial concession from the Palestinians. Respecting international law, Gelb’s argument crumbles.</p>
<p>Gelb’s claim of U.S. “pressure” to get Israel to make “concessions” falls apart as a corollary, but is nevertheless worth further examination. He cites “President Barack Obama’s recent scolding of Israel over its West Bank settlements” as evidence. The issue of Israeli settlements –illegal under international law – has been ongoing since Obama took office, with this claim of “pressure” on Israel from his administration being a familiar refrain. The first chorus was heard shortly after coming into office when the administration initially called upon Israel to cease settlement activity in the interests of furthering peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. This request coincided with the announcement that under no circumstances would the U.S. consider scaling back U.S. support for Israel that effectively empowers Israel to carry on its policies of continued settlement expansion and ongoing occupation. The message was not lost upon the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.</p>
<p>The more recent incident of “pressure” Gelb refers to came in the form of an offer to reward Israel with 20 F-35 jet fighters and promises to protect Israel diplomatically, such as through use of the U.S. veto in the U.N. Security Council. In other words, a continuation of the status quo. (Consider the Obama administration’s vow to ensure that the findings and recommendations of the U.N. Goldstone report – which found that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes during Israel’s assault on Gaza – would not be endorsed by the Security Council, or its expressions of solidarity in response to Israel’s having killed nine peace activists in an illegal assault upon the humanitarian vessel the Mavi Marmara in international waters). All that was requested in return is that Israel would cease settlement expansion for 90 days, East Jerusalem, which the International Court of Justice has observed is “occupied Palestinian territory” under international law, excluded. Implicit in the terms of this proposal was that Israel could return to its illegal activities elsewhere in the West Bank after the allotted time, and yet retain the F-35s (courtesy of U.S. taxpayers) and continue to be assured of U.S. diplomatic support. Also revealing is the fact that there was no hint that if Israel refused this offer, the U.S. would stray from the status quo arrangement. The arms deal is expected to go forward despite the failure of talks (and despite the suspension of production of the F-35 line). In short, U.S. “pressure” consisted in this case of an offer to continue the U.S. policy of effectively rewarding Israel for violating international law, with ongoing illegal settlement construction in East Jerusalem and just a brief hiatus elsewhere in the West Bank, with it being well understood that if this offer is refused, the status quo will continue anyhow.</p>
<p>The actual facts and true nature of the U.S.-Israeli strategic partnership notwithstanding, Gelb still manages to express dismay that the “Arabs have not wanted to credit Washington’s role as a peacemaker because they think the United States is capable of exerting even more pressure on Israel.” Gasp! It is certainly true, as his next sentence declares, that “the American role has been real and substantial” – but not in the way Gelb intends it. The irony that in his ostensible effort to challenge faulty conventional wisdom, Gelb actually sticks very much to it should not be lost upon the reader.</p> | false | 1 | foreign policy special report unconventional wisdom series essays purporting challenge conventional beliefs broad range topics leslie h gelb asserts regard israelipalestinian conflict america pressures israel plenty gelb describes myths notion israelis main stumbling block peace us failed use influence pressure israel examining gelbs argument favor respective corollaries israel long compelling history making major concessions arabs us pushed pulled israel direction step instructive validity latter assertion depends upon former gelb offers several ostensible examples israels return sinai peninsula egypt terms israelegypt peace treaty 1979 repeated offers return west bank palestinians sinai writes gelb booty war start act territorial generosity unprecedented modern history gelb doesnt name war israel conquered sinai readers familiar history perhaps well since difficult reconcile claim israel start june 1967 six day war completely uncontroversial fact israel fired first shot gelb unaware fact presumably clinging conventional wisdom israels surprise attack egypt preemptive would understatement say scant evidentiary basis implication egypt intended launch offensive war israel indeed documentary record contradicts claim enormous somewhat inexplicable popularity notwithstanding us president lyndon johnson later asked egyptian president gamal abdel nasser amassed troops sinai nasser replied whether believe fear attack israel informed israelis massing troops syrian border idea first attacking syria expect meet great resistance commence attack uar johnson little cause disbelieve nassers explanation informed prior war director central intelligence richard helms israel could defend successfully simultaneous arab attacks fronts hold three fronts mounting successfully major offensive fourth cia assessed israel could almost certainly attain air supremacy sinai peninsula less 24 hours taking initiative two three days uar struck first cia also described egypts military positions sinai defense line israels intelligence assessment concurred uss likelihood egyptian attack slim current israeli ambassador us michael b oren observes book six days war reports israel received americans according intelligence nasser interest bloodshed israels view nasser would deranged attack first war could come nasser felt complete military superiority idf israel caught domestic crisis crucially isolated internationallya unlikely confluence yitzhak rabin later prime minister told le monde year following war think nasser wanted war two divisions sent sinai would sufficient launch offensive war knew knew prime minister menachem begin similarly acknowledged israels war egypt 1956 war choice june 1967 choice egyptian army concentrations sinai approaches prove nasser really attack us must honest decided attack gelb effect purports challenge one series myths propagating others historical accuracy argument lack thereof rather fallacy gelbs rejection international law implicit description territorial gains booty return territory concessions acts generosity also instructive underlying assumption characterizations israel kind right legitimate claim territory yet inadmissibility acquisition territory war wellestablished principle international law principle cited example united nations security council resolution 242 calling upon israel withdraw territories occupied 67 war egyptian sinai peninsula syrian golan heights palestinian west bank gaza strip dr norman finkelstein author recently time went far consequences israels 0809 devastating invasion gaza observed one operates framework israel entitled international law rather framework israel wants becomes apparent number concessions israel made regard precisely zero 160less zero actually returning gelbs argument consider israels generosity supposedly offering return 90 percent west bank demand major territorial concession palestinians respecting international law gelbs argument crumbles gelbs claim us pressure get israel make concessions falls apart corollary nevertheless worth examination cites president barack obamas recent scolding israel west bank settlements evidence issue israeli settlements illegal international law ongoing since obama took office claim pressure israel administration familiar refrain first chorus heard shortly coming office administration initially called upon israel cease settlement activity interests furthering peace talks palestinian authority request coincided announcement circumstances would us consider scaling back us support israel effectively empowers israel carry policies continued settlement expansion ongoing occupation message lost upon government benjamin netanyahu recent incident pressure gelb refers came form offer reward israel 20 f35 jet fighters promises protect israel diplomatically use us veto un security council words continuation status quo consider obama administrations vow ensure findings recommendations un goldstone report found israel hamas committed war crimes israels assault gaza would endorsed security council expressions solidarity response israels killed nine peace activists illegal assault upon humanitarian vessel mavi marmara international waters requested return israel would cease settlement expansion 90 days east jerusalem international court justice observed occupied palestinian territory international law excluded implicit terms proposal israel could return illegal activities elsewhere west bank allotted time yet retain f35s courtesy us taxpayers continue assured us diplomatic support also revealing fact hint israel refused offer us would stray status quo arrangement arms deal expected go forward despite failure talks despite suspension production f35 line short us pressure consisted case offer continue us policy effectively rewarding israel violating international law ongoing illegal settlement construction east jerusalem brief hiatus elsewhere west bank well understood offer refused status quo continue anyhow actual facts true nature usisraeli strategic partnership notwithstanding gelb still manages express dismay arabs wanted credit washingtons role peacemaker think united states capable exerting even pressure israel gasp certainly true next sentence declares american role real substantial way gelb intends irony ostensible effort challenge faulty conventional wisdom gelb actually sticks much lost upon reader | 832 |
<p>Industry veterans are struggling to wrap their heads around a notion that would have seemed laughable a year ago: Rupert Murdoch, a seller?</p>
<p>The heightened level of activity around the possible sale of some big 21st Century Fox assets is forcing Hollywood to confront the harsh reality of what some are calling the “FAANG” effect: Facebook, Apple, <a href="http://variety.com/t/amazon/" type="external">Amazon</a>, Netflix and <a href="http://variety.com/t/google/" type="external">Google</a> have plowed into the content and distribution business and are reinventing it on their own terms.</p>
<p>The tech giants are fearsome competitors not only because they have far more ready cash than traditional media players to invest in the hunt for audiences. Facebook, Apple and <a href="http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/france-sees-vod-subscriptions-surge-by-40-driven-by-netflix-1202621448/" type="external">Amazon</a> in particular operate in fundamentally different businesses from NBC, HBO, Paramount Pictures, <a href="http://variety.com/t/comcast/" type="external">Comcast</a> and the like. They have balance sheets enormous enough to make spending a few billion dollars a year on content a loss leader to fuel other strategic and financial goals — such as selling iPhones or Amazon Prime memberships, or keeping pop culture-loving consumers tethered to a social-media platform.</p>
<p>Netflix can spend $7 billion a year on content because its platform allows it to amortize those costs among 104 million-plus subscribers worldwide the moment a program goes live on its global platform. Amazon can write a $250 million check for rights to develop a series based on the “Lord of the Rings” books — without seeing so much as a pitch for a fresh take on the property — because it doesn’t need to turn a profit on the productions. It only needs to make sure that those who come for Gandalf and Gollum stick around to buy books and baby clothes after the credits roll.</p>
<p>Through his storied career, Murdoch has proved his ability to see around corners. If he’s considering overtures from <a href="http://variety.com/t/disney/" type="external">Disney</a>, <a href="http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/nbc-the-voice-vote-comcast-x1-remote-1202618485/" type="external">Comcast</a>, Sony and others to scoop up the 20th Century Fox film and TV studios, prime cable networks and valuable international TV platforms, the assumption is he must be seeing the five horsemen of the digital apocalypse gaining on him.</p>
<p>Another surprise that surfaced over the past month is adding to the growing sense of panic among CEOs of traditional entertainment and media firms: The Justice Dept.’s plan to fight the <a href="http://variety.com/t/att/" type="external">AT&amp;T</a>-Time Warner merger means that bulking up through acquisitions in the face of the FAANG threat may not be an option, at least while Donald Trump is in office.</p>
<p>“The traditional content business is really challenged,” said Greg Maffei, CEO of John Malone’s Liberty Media. “The idea that they’re going to block consolidation is crazy.”</p>
<p>The subject of how old media is weathering the disruption wrought by the digital giants was a prime topic of discussion last week at Liberty’s annual investor day presentation in New York. Malone, an architect of the cable service industry, said it was essentially game over for the old guard to catch up with Netflix. Only Amazon, a company with such reach and ad muscle that he likened it to a “Death Star,” has a shot, he said.</p>
<p>Maffei noted the perfect storm of the arms race in content costs, the boom in supply and the limitations on business models that were etched in the era of silent movies and “I Love Lucy” as the reasons the disruptors are at the gates.</p>
<p>Netflix has quickly trained a generation of coveted young consumers to favor on-demand access to programs rather than showing up at the appointed time to watch live linear telecasts. Meanwhile, established networks are still grappling with how to join the streaming scene without cutting into profits derived from their biggest customers, MVPDs and advertisers.</p>
<p>“I think the linear video channels are in a tough spot,” Maffei said. “I think the overall content business has got a challenge ahead.&#160; … You’ve seen something like a five [times] increase in the content, and I don’t see how you monetize that. Combine that with the fact that you have new entrants — people like Amazon, Apple, <a href="http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/htc-google-standalone-daydream-vr-1202614626/" type="external">Google</a>, Facebook — who have different video monetization methods. That puts a lot of pressure on traditional content companies.”</p>
<p>Hollywood’s big advantage during the decade or so since the tech world has been steadily advancing into content has been its hold on the means of production — the creative talent and the development infrastructure that bring movies and TV shows to life. After all, quality content is not the same as a toaster or a motherboard that can be mass-produced on an assembly line.</p>
<p>But five years ago, Netflix barreled into the talent marketplace with “House of Cards” and hasn’t looked back. Of late, the streaming giant is positioning itself to function as a studio and distributor as it sets lucrative overall production pacts with über-showrunners such as Shonda Rhimes and Jenji Kohan.</p>
<p>The only counterattack, in the view of many biz watchers, is for the largest content providers and distributors to grab market share through acquisitions and to become more global as fast as their feet can take them overseas. “Scale” is the buzzword of choice for Big Media at present. 21st Century Fox’s assets are prized by suitors including <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/box-office/disney-pixar-animated-coco-box-office-record-mexico-1202615942/" type="external">Disney</a> and Comcast precisely because the Murdochs planted the Fox flag in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia long before most of their competitors.</p>
<p>Laura Martin, media analyst with Needham &amp; Co., sees consolidation among the traditional content giants as long overdue. She predicts movement toward some combination of Disney and Fox, or Disney and Time Warner, or CBS and Viacom (again) in the near future, assuming the feds don’t stand in the way.</p>
<p>“It’s not about AT&amp;T competing with Comcast. It’s AT&amp;T competing with Apple, Facebook, Google.”Laura Martin, Needham &amp; Co. analyst</p>
<p>“What the government is missing is that the content players must be larger,” Martin told CNBC on Nov. 17. “It’s not about AT&amp;T competing with Comcast. It’s AT&amp;T competing with Apple, Facebook, Google, all of whom are spending billions of dollars. Those are the [rivals] that these content companies must compete against going forward. They need to get larger,” she said. “We are finally going to get the consolidation in content that is long overdue.”</p>
<p>Considered in this context, 21st Century Fox as a takeover target doesn’t seem so far-fetched. But it’s still a tough adjustment for long-timers at the Century City studio.</p>
<p>Fox insiders are described to have been shell-shocked by the swirl of headlines about suitors reaching out to 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch for very preliminary “What if?” discussions. The news of the budding courtships came as a surprise even to senior leaders. As of late last week, there had been no formal communication from the corporate level to staffers on the possibility of sale, nor has Fox commented publicly on the overtures.</p>
<p>“If there was ever a company you thought would be stable in its ownership, it’s this one,” said a 20th Century Fox veteran. The Murdochs have a tight grip on the company through their control of nearly 40% of voting shares.</p>
<p>There is speculation that the family would move to recombine the Fox broadcast network and TV stations, Fox News and Fox Sports operations — which are not believed to be part of any sale scenario — with the publishing assets held by News Corp.</p>
<p>21st Century Fox was carved out as a separate entity from News Corp. in 2013. There is also speculation that the Murdochs might use the proceeds from selling off big pieces of 21st Century Fox to take an enlarged News Corp. private.</p>
<p>But the discussions have been so preliminary that there’s no clarity on how any deal might be structured. For Disney and Comcast, the chance to buy out Fox’s share of Hulu (in which Disney, Comcast and Time Warner are also investors) would surely be a strategic play as both companies look to move deeper into the OTT subscription arena. Suitors such as Sony Picturesand telco giant Verizon might be interested in different assets.</p>
<p>The sale chatter around Fox is expected to spread to other studio conglomerates seen as ripe for the picking, a list that includes Lionsgate, MGM and Viacom. The even more intriguing question is whether a cash-rich company like Apple or Google will turn the tables and go after a Disney or a Comcast.</p>
<p>At a moment when a gambler like Rupert Murdoch is preparing to fold some of his cards after a lifetime of empire-building, it’s anyone’s guess who will be left with the winning hand.</p> | false | 1 | industry veterans struggling wrap heads around notion would seemed laughable year ago rupert murdoch seller heightened level activity around possible sale big 21st century fox assets forcing hollywood confront harsh reality calling faang effect facebook apple amazon netflix google plowed content distribution business reinventing terms tech giants fearsome competitors far ready cash traditional media players invest hunt audiences facebook apple amazon particular operate fundamentally different businesses nbc hbo paramount pictures comcast like balance sheets enormous enough make spending billion dollars year content loss leader fuel strategic financial goals selling iphones amazon prime memberships keeping pop cultureloving consumers tethered socialmedia platform netflix spend 7 billion year content platform allows amortize costs among 104 millionplus subscribers worldwide moment program goes live global platform amazon write 250 million check rights develop series based lord rings books without seeing much pitch fresh take property doesnt need turn profit productions needs make sure come gandalf gollum stick around buy books baby clothes credits roll storied career murdoch proved ability see around corners hes considering overtures disney comcast sony others scoop 20th century fox film tv studios prime cable networks valuable international tv platforms assumption must seeing five horsemen digital apocalypse gaining another surprise surfaced past month adding growing sense panic among ceos traditional entertainment media firms justice depts plan fight atampttime warner merger means bulking acquisitions face faang threat may option least donald trump office traditional content business really challenged said greg maffei ceo john malones liberty media idea theyre going block consolidation crazy subject old media weathering disruption wrought digital giants prime topic discussion last week libertys annual investor day presentation new york malone architect cable service industry said essentially game old guard catch netflix amazon company reach ad muscle likened death star shot said maffei noted perfect storm arms race content costs boom supply limitations business models etched era silent movies love lucy reasons disruptors gates netflix quickly trained generation coveted young consumers favor ondemand access programs rather showing appointed time watch live linear telecasts meanwhile established networks still grappling join streaming scene without cutting profits derived biggest customers mvpds advertisers think linear video channels tough spot maffei said think overall content business got challenge ahead160 youve seen something like five times increase content dont see monetize combine fact new entrants people like amazon apple google facebook different video monetization methods puts lot pressure traditional content companies hollywoods big advantage decade since tech world steadily advancing content hold means production creative talent development infrastructure bring movies tv shows life quality content toaster motherboard massproduced assembly line five years ago netflix barreled talent marketplace house cards hasnt looked back late streaming giant positioning function studio distributor sets lucrative overall production pacts übershowrunners shonda rhimes jenji kohan counterattack view many biz watchers largest content providers distributors grab market share acquisitions become global fast feet take overseas scale buzzword choice big media present 21st century foxs assets prized suitors including disney comcast precisely murdochs planted fox flag europe latin america asia australia long competitors laura martin media analyst needham amp co sees consolidation among traditional content giants long overdue predicts movement toward combination disney fox disney time warner cbs viacom near future assuming feds dont stand way atampt competing comcast atampt competing apple facebook googlelaura martin needham amp co analyst government missing content players must larger martin told cnbc nov 17 atampt competing comcast atampt competing apple facebook google spending billions dollars rivals content companies must compete going forward need get larger said finally going get consolidation content long overdue considered context 21st century fox takeover target doesnt seem farfetched still tough adjustment longtimers century city studio fox insiders described shellshocked swirl headlines suitors reaching 21st century fox ceo james murdoch preliminary discussions news budding courtships came surprise even senior leaders late last week formal communication corporate level staffers possibility sale fox commented publicly overtures ever company thought would stable ownership one said 20th century fox veteran murdochs tight grip company control nearly 40 voting shares speculation family would move recombine fox broadcast network tv stations fox news fox sports operations believed part sale scenario publishing assets held news corp 21st century fox carved separate entity news corp 2013 also speculation murdochs might use proceeds selling big pieces 21st century fox take enlarged news corp private discussions preliminary theres clarity deal might structured disney comcast chance buy foxs share hulu disney comcast time warner also investors would surely strategic play companies look move deeper ott subscription arena suitors sony picturesand telco giant verizon might interested different assets sale chatter around fox expected spread studio conglomerates seen ripe picking list includes lionsgate mgm viacom even intriguing question whether cashrich company like apple google turn tables go disney comcast moment gambler like rupert murdoch preparing fold cards lifetime empirebuilding anyones guess left winning hand | 796 |
<p>By Jack Kim and Soyoung Kim</p>
<p>SEOUL (Reuters) – A shallow magnitude 6.3 earthquake shook North Korea on Sunday, suggesting it had detonated its sixth and most powerful nuclear test device, hours after Pyongyang said it had developed an advanced hydrogen bomb that possesses “great destructive power”.</p>
<p>The earthquake, which Japan said was a nuclear test, struck 75 km (45 miles) north northwest of Kimchaek, where previous tests have been conducted. Such a move would be a direct challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump, who hours earlier had talked by phone with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about the “escalating” nuclear crisis in the region.</p>
<p>The 6.3 magnitude recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey would represent North Korea’s most powerful detonation yet, which one expert said could support its claims to have developed a hydrogen bomb.</p>
<p>“The power is 10 or 20 times or even more than previous ones,” Said Kune Y. Suh, a nuclear engineering professor at Seoul National University. “That scale is to the level where anyone can say a hydrogen bomb test.”</p>
<p>A U.S. official who studies North Korea’s military and politics said that seismic data on the tremors was being analyzed, although the location suggested another nuclear test.</p>
<p>The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it was too early to determine if a test, if there was one, supported the North’s claim that has succeeded in developing a thermonuclear weapon, “much less one that could be mounted on an ICBM and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere without burning up”.</p>
<p>The hydrogen bomb report by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency comes amid heightened regional tension following Pyongyang’s two tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) in July that potentially could fly about 10,000 km (6,200 miles), putting many parts of the mainland United States within range.</p>
<p>Under third-generation leader Kim Jong Un, North Korea has been pursuing a nuclear device small and light enough to fit on a long-range ballistic missile, without affecting its range and making it capable of surviving re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.</p>
<p>AIR RAID SIRENS</p>
<p>Witnesses in the Chinese city of Yanji, on the border with North Korea, said they felt a tremor that lasted roughly 10 seconds, followed by an aftershock. China said it had detected a second, 4.6 magnitude quake with near identical coordinates eight minutes later.</p>
<p>“I was eating brunch just over the border here in Yanji when we felt the whole building shake,” Michael Spavor, director of the Paektu Cultural Exchange, which promotes business and cultural ties with North Korea. “It lasted for about five seconds. The city air raid sirens started going off.”</p>
<p>South Korea’s military said the first earthquake “appeared to be manmade”. A meeting of Seoul’s National Security Council has been convened, national news agency Yonhap reported.</p>
<p>Japan said it had concluded there was a nuclear test.</p>
<p>“North Korea’s mission is quite clear when it comes to this latest atomic test: to develop a nuclear arsenal that can strike all of Asia and the U.S. homeland,” Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the conservative Center for the National Interest in Washington, said.</p>
<p>“This test is just another step towards such a goal. None of us should be shocked by Pyongyang’s latest actions.”</p>
<p>Earthquakes triggered by North Korean nuclear tests have gradually increased in magnitude since Pyongyang’s first test in 2006, indicating the isolated country is steadily improving the destructive power of its nuclear technology.</p>
<p>After the fifth nuclear test in September, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) measured a magnitude of 5.3. while South Korean monitors said the blast caused a 5.0 magnitude earthquake.</p>
<p>North Korea, which carries out its nuclear and missile programs in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions and sanctions, “recently succeeded” in making a more advanced hydrogen bomb that will be loaded on to an ICBM, KCNA said.</p>
<p>“The H-bomb, the explosive power of which is adjustable from tens kiloton to hundreds kiloton, is a multi-functional thermonuclear nuke with great destructive power,” KCNA said.</p>
<p>“All components of the H-bomb were homemade and all the processes … were put on the Juche basis, thus enabling the country to produce powerful nuclear weapons as many as it wants,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying.</p>
<p>Juche is North Korea’s homegrown ideology of self-reliance that is a mix of Marxism and extreme nationalism preached by state founder Kim Il Sung, the current leader’s grandfather. It says its weapons programs are needed to counter U.S. aggression.</p>
<p>North Korea offered no evidence for its latest claim, and Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, was skeptical.</p>
<p>“Referring to tens to hundreds of kilotons, it doesn’t appear to be talking about a fully fledged H-bomb. It’s more likely a boosted nuclear device,” Kim said, referring to an atomic bomb which uses some hydrogen isotopes to boost explosive yield.</p>
<p>A hydrogen bomb can achieve thousands of kilotons of explosive yield – massively more powerful than some 10 to 15 kilotons that North Korea’s last nuclear test in September was estimated to have produced, similar to the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.</p>
<p>HOURGLASS-SHAPED DEVICE</p>
<p>Kim Jong Un, who visited the country’s nuclear weapons institute, “watched an H-bomb to be loaded into new ICBM” and “set forth tasks to be fulfilled in the research into nukes,” KCNA said.</p>
<p>Pictures released by the agency showed Kim inspecting a silver-colored, hourglass-shaped warhead in the visit accompanied by nuclear scientists.</p>
<p>The shape shows a marked difference from pictures of the ball-shaped device North Korea released in March last year, and appears to indicate the appearance of a two-stage thermonuclear weapon, or a hydrogen bomb, said Lee Choon-geun, senior research fellow at state-run Science and Technology Policy Institute.</p>
<p>“The pictures show a more complete form of a possible hydrogen bomb, with a primary fission bomb and a secondary fusion stage connected together in an hourglass shape,” Lee said.</p>
<p>Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been high since last month when North Korea threatened to launch missiles into the sea near the strategically located U.S. Pacific territory of Guam after Trump said Pyongyang would face “fire and fury” if it threatened the United States.</p>
<p>North Korea further raised regional tensions on Tuesday by launching an intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan, drawing international condemnation.</p>
<p>Trump and Abe spoke by phone and said that in face of an “escalating” situation with North Korea that close cooperation between their countries and with South Korea was needed, Abe told reporters.</p>
<p>The United States has repeatedly urged China, the North’s sole major ally, to do more to rein in its neighbor.</p>
<p>Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States.</p> | false | 1 | jack kim soyoung kim seoul reuters shallow magnitude 63 earthquake shook north korea sunday suggesting detonated sixth powerful nuclear test device hours pyongyang said developed advanced hydrogen bomb possesses great destructive power earthquake japan said nuclear test struck 75 km 45 miles north northwest kimchaek previous tests conducted move would direct challenge us president donald trump hours earlier talked phone japanese prime minister shinzo abe escalating nuclear crisis region 63 magnitude recorded us geological survey would represent north koreas powerful detonation yet one expert said could support claims developed hydrogen bomb power 10 20 times even previous ones said kune suh nuclear engineering professor seoul national university scale level anyone say hydrogen bomb test us official studies north koreas military politics said seismic data tremors analyzed although location suggested another nuclear test official spoke condition anonymity said early determine test one supported norths claim succeeded developing thermonuclear weapon much less one could mounted icbm reenter earths atmosphere without burning hydrogen bomb report north koreas official kcna news agency comes amid heightened regional tension following pyongyangs two tests intercontinental ballistic missiles icbm july potentially could fly 10000 km 6200 miles putting many parts mainland united states within range thirdgeneration leader kim jong un north korea pursuing nuclear device small light enough fit longrange ballistic missile without affecting range making capable surviving reentry earths atmosphere air raid sirens witnesses chinese city yanji border north korea said felt tremor lasted roughly 10 seconds followed aftershock china said detected second 46 magnitude quake near identical coordinates eight minutes later eating brunch border yanji felt whole building shake michael spavor director paektu cultural exchange promotes business cultural ties north korea lasted five seconds city air raid sirens started going south koreas military said first earthquake appeared manmade meeting seouls national security council convened national news agency yonhap reported japan said concluded nuclear test north koreas mission quite clear comes latest atomic test develop nuclear arsenal strike asia us homeland harry kazianis director defense studies conservative center national interest washington said test another step towards goal none us shocked pyongyangs latest actions earthquakes triggered north korean nuclear tests gradually increased magnitude since pyongyangs first test 2006 indicating isolated country steadily improving destructive power nuclear technology fifth nuclear test september us geological survey usgs measured magnitude 53 south korean monitors said blast caused 50 magnitude earthquake north korea carries nuclear missile programs defiance un security council resolutions sanctions recently succeeded making advanced hydrogen bomb loaded icbm kcna said hbomb explosive power adjustable tens kiloton hundreds kiloton multifunctional thermonuclear nuke great destructive power kcna said components hbomb homemade processes put juche basis thus enabling country produce powerful nuclear weapons many wants kcna quoted kim saying juche north koreas homegrown ideology selfreliance mix marxism extreme nationalism preached state founder kim il sung current leaders grandfather says weapons programs needed counter us aggression north korea offered evidence latest claim kim dongyub military expert kyungnam universitys institute far eastern studies seoul skeptical referring tens hundreds kilotons doesnt appear talking fully fledged hbomb likely boosted nuclear device kim said referring atomic bomb uses hydrogen isotopes boost explosive yield hydrogen bomb achieve thousands kilotons explosive yield massively powerful 10 15 kilotons north koreas last nuclear test september estimated produced similar bomb dropped hiroshima japan 1945 hourglassshaped device kim jong un visited countrys nuclear weapons institute watched hbomb loaded new icbm set forth tasks fulfilled research nukes kcna said pictures released agency showed kim inspecting silvercolored hourglassshaped warhead visit accompanied nuclear scientists shape shows marked difference pictures ballshaped device north korea released march last year appears indicate appearance twostage thermonuclear weapon hydrogen bomb said lee choongeun senior research fellow staterun science technology policy institute pictures show complete form possible hydrogen bomb primary fission bomb secondary fusion stage connected together hourglass shape lee said tensions korean peninsula high since last month north korea threatened launch missiles sea near strategically located us pacific territory guam trump said pyongyang would face fire fury threatened united states north korea raised regional tensions tuesday launching intermediaterange ballistic missile japan drawing international condemnation trump abe spoke phone said face escalating situation north korea close cooperation countries south korea needed abe told reporters united states repeatedly urged china norths sole major ally rein neighbor impoverished north korea rich democratic south technically still war 195053 conflict ended truce peace treaty north regularly threatens destroy south main ally united states | 727 |
<p>There are two transcendent moments in the Autumn Tale, the fourth and perhaps best of Eric Rohmer’s magisterial “Tales of the Four Seasons.” The first is when we suddenly realize that the simple story of two women, married Isabelle (Marie Rivière) and her divorced friend Magali (Béatrice Romand), whom she is trying to fix up with a man, is far from being as simple as it has seemed hitherto. All right, it was a little weird that Isabelle placed a personal ad in Magali’s name, since Magali herself absolutely refused, and that she then began a tentative romance with Gerald (Alain Libolt), whom she met through the ad, again in Magali’s name. But we think we see where Rohmer is going with this. We can see Gerald becoming more and more interested in Isabelle and can imagine what will happen when she breaks the news to him that she is married and really has been wooing on behalf of her friend, whom he has never met.</p>
<p>But it doesn’t happen as we expect. In fact Gerald finds it fairly easy to transfer the interest he has built up in Isabelle to Magali, even though the two women are physical and emotional opposites. It is Isabelle who can’t let go. Suddenly we realize that her solicitousness on behalf of an old friend’s love life has really been a vicarious attempt to enliven her own, which has seemed up to this point to be completely untroubled. In fact it is the married Isabelle, far more than the unmarried Magali who is desperate for masculine attention. And for just a moment, before the moment passes, she is prepared to risk everything for a man she hardly knows. At the same time, she is not wrong, not at all wrong, when she says to Gerald by way of explanation for the pass she has made at him: “I want all men to love me—especially those I don’t love.”</p>
<p>This incident also casts a light on the other strand of the plot, in which Magali’s son’s new girlfriend, Rosine (Alexia Portal) is also trying to matchmake on her behalf. Having decided that she doesn’t much like the son after all, she stays with him because she has so quickly formed a close bond with his mother. “I fell for her, not him,” she tells her previous boyfriend, Étienne (Didier Sandre), the much older professeur de philo whom she is trying to get rid of. Then, teasingly: “I replaced you not with a boyfriend but with his mother.” Naturally, her own interest in Magali makes her think that Étienne would be perfect for her. Not only would this get rid of the boyfriend and make Magali happy, she thinks, but “Then he would be taboo for me and I for him. I’d love that.”</p>
<p>In this case we could probably figure out for ourselves the subtext of Rosine’s solicitude for Magali, but the parallel example of Isabelle helps to make the film’s point about the distance to be traveled between spring and autumn in a woman’s life, between the cold, adventurous—even predatory—Rosine and the warm but lonely Magali, each of whom finds something to complete her in the other. This point is also nicely shaded by memories of a younger Miss Romand’s memorable performances as a young (but early young and late young), unmarried girl in two of Rohmer’s greatest films, Claire’s Knee (1969) and Le Beau Mariage (1982).</p>
<p>The second moment comes as a throwaway. You might almost miss it, except that it has such tremendous implications for what otherwise looks like a wonderfully and surprisingly warm and happy ending. To get it, you have to cast your memory back to a conversation between Gerald and Isabelle when the latter was interviewing him, as it were, on behalf of Magali. When he thought he was talking to a sympathetic Isabelle, he confided in her that he loved industrial architecture, and that the ugly smokestacks of the local power station seemed beautiful to him. Later, at the wedding party for Isabelle’s daughter where shy Magali, unbeknownst to her, is to meet not only Gerald but also Étienne at their respective sponsors’ behest, shows her only passion when she is shocked that the hedge has been cut down that screened the view of the power station.</p>
<p>At this point we don’t yet know the outcome of the potentially farcical situation that Rohmer has arranged for us. As it becomes apparent to us—Gerald is a hit and Étienne a flop—we find ourselves wishing more than either Isabelle or Rosine for Magali’s happiness. But at the very moment when, surprisingly, her prospects seem brightest and even before we have time to worry about the complications that seem to threaten what would otherwise be a promising relationship, if we had experienced it as the characters do, the thing seems already futile. At some point in the hopeful future when they are on their second or third date, Gerald will reveal a love for smokestacks and Magali will reveal that she cannot love a man who loves smokestacks.</p>
<p>Or not. Perhaps the story would be even better and more piquant in its melancholy if she were to swallow her own dislike of smokestacks for Gerald’s sake. But either way, Rohmer has already qualified for us in his inimitably Rohmerian way the hope that is so natural for beginning lovers and for lovers of romance—namely, that they represent a harmony of thought and feeling that bespeaks the melding of two souls. No, no. This is a tale of autumn, of middle age, when romance is still possible—maybe—but not that starry-eyed kind that we see in Isabelle’s daughter, the bride, who can’t stand Magali. Or not for more than a minute or two. To produce all this autumnal meditation, Rohmer gives us nothing more than this tiny hint of what the future is likely to hold.</p>
<p>Otherwise, he asks us to be completely caught up in the tentative coming together of Gerald and Magali—and the poor lost souls that their hopeful match leaves behind. Isabelle, for one, but also Rosine (Alexia Portal), the would-be matchmaker, Etienne, her chosen match, and Leo, Rosine’s boyfriend and Magali’s son, who doesn’t know (or who really does know) that Rosine doesn’t care for him at all, but only goes out with him because she fell in love with his mother. The trail of heartbreak is there for all to see, but Rohmer makes it as easy for us to ignore as it is for the other incorrigible romantics whose lives he chronicles.</p> | false | 1 | two transcendent moments autumn tale fourth perhaps best eric rohmers magisterial tales four seasons first suddenly realize simple story two women married isabelle marie rivière divorced friend magali béatrice romand trying fix man far simple seemed hitherto right little weird isabelle placed personal ad magalis name since magali absolutely refused began tentative romance gerald alain libolt met ad magalis name think see rohmer going see gerald becoming interested isabelle imagine happen breaks news married really wooing behalf friend never met doesnt happen expect fact gerald finds fairly easy transfer interest built isabelle magali even though two women physical emotional opposites isabelle cant let go suddenly realize solicitousness behalf old friends love life really vicarious attempt enliven seemed point completely untroubled fact married isabelle far unmarried magali desperate masculine attention moment moment passes prepared risk everything man hardly knows time wrong wrong says gerald way explanation pass made want men love meespecially dont love incident also casts light strand plot magalis sons new girlfriend rosine alexia portal also trying matchmake behalf decided doesnt much like son stays quickly formed close bond mother fell tells previous boyfriend Étienne didier sandre much older professeur de philo trying get rid teasingly replaced boyfriend mother naturally interest magali makes think Étienne would perfect would get rid boyfriend make magali happy thinks would taboo id love case could probably figure subtext rosines solicitude magali parallel example isabelle helps make films point distance traveled spring autumn womans life cold adventurouseven predatoryrosine warm lonely magali finds something complete point also nicely shaded memories younger miss romands memorable performances young early young late young unmarried girl two rohmers greatest films claires knee 1969 le beau mariage 1982 second moment comes throwaway might almost miss except tremendous implications otherwise looks like wonderfully surprisingly warm happy ending get cast memory back conversation gerald isabelle latter interviewing behalf magali thought talking sympathetic isabelle confided loved industrial architecture ugly smokestacks local power station seemed beautiful later wedding party isabelles daughter shy magali unbeknownst meet gerald also Étienne respective sponsors behest shows passion shocked hedge cut screened view power station point dont yet know outcome potentially farcical situation rohmer arranged us becomes apparent usgerald hit Étienne flopwe find wishing either isabelle rosine magalis happiness moment surprisingly prospects seem brightest even time worry complications seem threaten would otherwise promising relationship experienced characters thing seems already futile point hopeful future second third date gerald reveal love smokestacks magali reveal love man loves smokestacks perhaps story would even better piquant melancholy swallow dislike smokestacks geralds sake either way rohmer already qualified us inimitably rohmerian way hope natural beginning lovers lovers romancenamely represent harmony thought feeling bespeaks melding two souls tale autumn middle age romance still possiblemaybebut starryeyed kind see isabelles daughter bride cant stand magali minute two produce autumnal meditation rohmer gives us nothing tiny hint future likely hold otherwise asks us completely caught tentative coming together gerald magaliand poor lost souls hopeful match leaves behind isabelle one also rosine alexia portal wouldbe matchmaker etienne chosen match leo rosines boyfriend magalis son doesnt know really know rosine doesnt care goes fell love mother trail heartbreak see rohmer makes easy us ignore incorrigible romantics whose lives chronicles | 529 |
<p>Aug. 25 (UPI) — It seems it’s nothing but bad news for coral reefs. Unchecked coastal development has poured pollutants, sediments and excess nutrients into coral habitats. Overfishing has altered reef ecosystems, home to one-quarter of the world’s marine species, while the extermination of sharks is removing the reefs’ top predator.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, much of the carbon dioxide dumped into the atmosphere settles into the ocean, increasing its acidity and disproportionately affecting delicate reefs. That CO2, of course, contributes to rising ocean temperatures, which have triggered the unprecedented <a href="https://www.newsdeeply.com/oceans/articles/2017/08/11/scientists-braced-for-next-round-of-global-coral-bleaching" type="external">back-to-back coral bleaching</a> events of 2014-17 that devastated reefs worldwide.</p>
<p>But a group of coral reef specialists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, believes at least some reefs have the potential to survive another major bleaching event. That’s if enough of the right kind of data can be collected on how reefs are changing and local communities can be enlisted to manage their reefs so that they are in optimal health when the next surge in ocean temperatures inevitably occurs.</p>
<p>Their conviction is behind a new project dubbed the <a href="http://100islandchallenge.org/" type="external">100 Island Challenge,</a> an experiment using cutting-edge imaging technology to survey coral reefs in two and three dimensions.</p>
<p>“Our group is in the minority in that we do have hope that not all reefs are going to be dead in 10 to 20 years,” said Jennifer Smith, co-principal investigator for the 100 Island Challenge and a professor at Scripps.</p>
<p>She pointed to coral species that have adapted to survive a rise in ocean temperature. “We’ve seen in the last few years places that were suffering massive bleaching but then also showed <a href="https://www.newsdeeply.com/oceans/community/2017/08/15/three-scientists-bear-witness-to-the-ruin-and-hope-of-coral-reefs" type="external">pretty rapid recovery</a> in some of the places that don’t have a human population,” Smith said. “So there’s this idea that if you can manage your reef locally by having good water quality and healthy fisheries, it’s more likely to recover from bleaching more quickly that a reef experiencing runoff, sewage, overfishing and other threats.”</p>
<p>The idea behind the 100 Island Challenge is to capture the variability among reefs across a variety of natural conditions and document how they change over time under pressures both natural and human-made. “We will be able to determine how reefs are affected by things like warming and local human impacts, and how they might be recovering from pressures such as this most recent massive global bleaching event,” said Smith, speaking by phone from the shores of Catalina Island off Southern California, where she had just concluded a class teaching students how to count fish in a kelp forest.</p>
<p>Principal investigator and Scripps professor Stuart Sandin, Smith and their colleagues strategically selected regions to represent different ranges of ocean productivity, human population density and island elevation. That meant nine combinations of islands the team needed to cover to get a representative cross-section of reefs. The team picked 10 islands for each of the nine types, then threw in 10 more to get to 100. “That number seemed to make more intuitive sense from a project branding perspective,” Smith said with a chuckle.</p>
<p>The project is similar to the <a href="https://50reefs.org/" type="external">50 Reefs initiative</a>, which aims to identify the 50 reefs that are least vulnerable to climate change and have the potential to contribute to the restoration of other reefs in the future. The project is being run out of the University of Queensland in Australia and is headed by coral scientist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and ocean activist Richard Vevers, featured in the Sundance award-winning <a href="https://www.newsdeeply.com/oceans/community/2017/07/14/chasing-coral-and-an-inconvenient-truth-about-the-ocean-climate-crisis" type="external">documentary</a> Chasing Coral.</p>
<p>“There is no longer any reason not to act as if we’re not in an emergency situation to save coral reefs,” Hoegh-Guldberg said. “Big projects like 100 Island Challenge are really the things we need to do to apply conservation tools, measure the baseline to understand impacts and protect as much as we can.”</p>
<p>Sandin’s and Smith’s approach differs from Vevers’ in how the two projects document reefs. Vevers’ method can be likened to <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Google/" type="external">Google</a> Street View, while 100 Islands is more like <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Google_Earth/" type="external">Google Earth</a>. Vevers’ images are basically linear paths through the sea, while 100 Islands photographs a contiguous 1,000- square-foot area that can be modeled in three dimensions back in the lab. Sandin and Smith developed the technique with Scripps postdoc Brian Zgliczynski.</p>
<p>Using belt-transect methodology, a well-worn tool for taking a wildlife census, the scientists will swim back and forth across reef sites counting fish. Researchers will document eight sites at each island, placing permanent markers so they can return to the exact same spot and see how it has changed.</p>
<p>“We’re working to partner with local scientists, managers and NGOs in all the locations where we work,” Smith emphasized, “because we’re not just doing this from an academic perspective – we care about ensuring that all imagery gets into the hands of the reefs’ most important users, who are the people who live on and depend on reefs for their livelihoods.”</p>
<p>Smith has no misconceptions about the difficulties inherent in conducting scientific research below the waves. Custom-made writing slates, data sheets preprinted on underwater paper and sign language are among the tools of the trade for scuba-diving scientists. But nothing can prepare an underwater researcher for a switch in the tide. “You can have good visibility and low current then all of a sudden a wall of green water is moving toward you,” Smith said. “Paying attention to where the boat is and where your buddy is at all times is really important.”</p>
<p>It’s all part of the occupational hazards associated with this effort to save reefs from the warming that’s already baked in to the atmosphere. “We need to manage emissions if we want reefs to be around in 100 years,” Smith said, “but carbon emissions are not going to stop tomorrow and there’s things we can do now to help reefs be as healthy as they can be to weather the storm that’s coming.”</p>
<p>This article originally appeared on Oceans Deeply, and you can find the original <a href="https://www.newsdeeply.com/oceans/articles/2017/08/24/coral-triage-scientists-zero-in-on-reefs-with-best-chance-of-survival" type="external">here.</a> For important news about ocean health, <a href="http://newsdeeply.us5.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=8b78e9a34ff7443ec1e8c62c6&amp;id=dfde037196" type="external">you can sign up to the Oceans Deeply email list.</a></p> | false | 1 | aug 25 upi seems nothing bad news coral reefs unchecked coastal development poured pollutants sediments excess nutrients coral habitats overfishing altered reef ecosystems home onequarter worlds marine species extermination sharks removing reefs top predator meanwhile much carbon dioxide dumped atmosphere settles ocean increasing acidity disproportionately affecting delicate reefs co2 course contributes rising ocean temperatures triggered unprecedented backtoback coral bleaching events 201417 devastated reefs worldwide group coral reef specialists scripps institution oceanography university california san diego believes least reefs potential survive another major bleaching event thats enough right kind data collected reefs changing local communities enlisted manage reefs optimal health next surge ocean temperatures inevitably occurs conviction behind new project dubbed 100 island challenge experiment using cuttingedge imaging technology survey coral reefs two three dimensions group minority hope reefs going dead 10 20 years said jennifer smith coprincipal investigator 100 island challenge professor scripps pointed coral species adapted survive rise ocean temperature weve seen last years places suffering massive bleaching also showed pretty rapid recovery places dont human population smith said theres idea manage reef locally good water quality healthy fisheries likely recover bleaching quickly reef experiencing runoff sewage overfishing threats idea behind 100 island challenge capture variability among reefs across variety natural conditions document change time pressures natural humanmade able determine reefs affected things like warming local human impacts might recovering pressures recent massive global bleaching event said smith speaking phone shores catalina island southern california concluded class teaching students count fish kelp forest principal investigator scripps professor stuart sandin smith colleagues strategically selected regions represent different ranges ocean productivity human population density island elevation meant nine combinations islands team needed cover get representative crosssection reefs team picked 10 islands nine types threw 10 get 100 number seemed make intuitive sense project branding perspective smith said chuckle project similar 50 reefs initiative aims identify 50 reefs least vulnerable climate change potential contribute restoration reefs future project run university queensland australia headed coral scientist ove hoeghguldberg ocean activist richard vevers featured sundance awardwinning documentary chasing coral longer reason act emergency situation save coral reefs hoeghguldberg said big projects like 100 island challenge really things need apply conservation tools measure baseline understand impacts protect much sandins smiths approach differs vevers two projects document reefs vevers method likened google street view 100 islands like google earth vevers images basically linear paths sea 100 islands photographs contiguous 1000 squarefoot area modeled three dimensions back lab sandin smith developed technique scripps postdoc brian zgliczynski using belttransect methodology wellworn tool taking wildlife census scientists swim back forth across reef sites counting fish researchers document eight sites island placing permanent markers return exact spot see changed working partner local scientists managers ngos locations work smith emphasized academic perspective care ensuring imagery gets hands reefs important users people live depend reefs livelihoods smith misconceptions difficulties inherent conducting scientific research waves custommade writing slates data sheets preprinted underwater paper sign language among tools trade scubadiving scientists nothing prepare underwater researcher switch tide good visibility low current sudden wall green water moving toward smith said paying attention boat buddy times really important part occupational hazards associated effort save reefs warming thats already baked atmosphere need manage emissions want reefs around 100 years smith said carbon emissions going stop tomorrow theres things help reefs healthy weather storm thats coming article originally appeared oceans deeply find original important news ocean health sign oceans deeply email list | 564 |
<p>By Dave Graham, Robin Respaut and Hilary Russ</p>
<p>PUERTO RICO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Chan Lo is racing against the clock to save thousands of dollars of supplies at his sushi restaurant in San Juan’s Condado beachfront community.</p>
<p>He has roughly $16,000-worth of perishable goods stored in his restaurant Nagoya Sushi &amp; Tiki Bar – in jeopardy as the battered island waits for power and water to be re-established.</p>
<p>“I give it about three or four days maximum if the (power) doesn’t come back on and there are no generators available,” he said. “Everything will have to be thrown out.”</p>
<p>Puerto Rico’s economy was already fragile before Hurricane Maria barreled into the island, but the strongest storm to hit the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico in nearly 90 years could inflict heavy damage on the island’s health.</p>
<p>Small businesses like Lo’s will be a significant part of the recovery, as they account for 80 percent of all private sector workers, according to a New York Federal Reserve report. And getting energy to them, and to manufacturers and hotels and other engines of the economy will be crucial for the island’s ability to bounce back.</p>
<p>After Maria made landfall midweek on the island of 3.4 million people as a major Category 4 hurricane, the storm’s wind and water downed nearly all power and communications.</p>
<p>Governor Ricardo Rossello said the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s grid was so severely hit by the storm that it could be months before electricity is restored to all customers. Making matters worse, PREPA has been in bankruptcy since July.</p>
<p>Disaster modeler Enki Research estimates damage to the island at $30 billion, with $20 billion in direct physical damage and $10 billion in economic impact.</p>
<p>“Puerto Rico is in a precarious state,” said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler at Enki.</p>
<p>‘A MEASURABLE IMPACT’</p>
<p>Puerto Rico has none of the economic might of other places hit hard in this active hurricane season, like the states of Texas and Florida. The island has spent most of the last ten years in recession. Its GDP shrank by more than one percent for seven of the last 10 years through 2016, the poverty rate is over 40 percent and unemployment stands at 10 percent.</p>
<p>The chaos unleashed by the breakdown in basic services, a lack of cash and gas shortages has put many businesses into limbo, and the short-term effects are likely to be severe. Some Puerto Ricans are, however, already looking ahead to the economic boost that could be delivered by investment in the recovery.</p>
<p>The timeliness of U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds will play into how quickly Puerto Rico gets back on its feet, said S&amp;P Global Ratings analyst David Hitchcock.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the hurricane has pushed back the island’s bankruptcy process. Struggling under $72 billion in debt, Puerto Rico filed the biggest government bankruptcy in U.S. history earlier this year but that is now on the backburner, sources said on Thursday.</p>
<p>“This is an island that has been riddled with bad news,” said Jonathan Mondillo, Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC, which holds insured Puerto Rican bonds. “It’s going to have a measurable impact on their economy locally.”</p>
<p>MANUFACTURING HEART</p>
<p>In the aftermath of the storm, businesses both big and small around the island were assessing the damage and putting contingency plans in place. Puerto Rico boasts investments from a number of U.S. multinationals, such as Wal-Mart (NYSE:), Amgen (NASDAQ:) and Eli Lilly.</p>
<p>A spokesman for Honeywell International Inc (NYSE:), said the company’s “folks on the ground are making sure everyone’s accounted for and what their needs are … we’re still assessing the facilities.”</p>
<p>Manufacturing is still the heart of Puerto Rico’s economy and any blow to industry could have a significant impact. It makes up nearly 49 percent of the island’s GDP, according to a 2015 report from the Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association.</p>
<p>But the manufacturing sector is much diminished after the U.S. Congress decided to gradually phase out a 1976 tax credit program. That program ended in 2006, after which many companies left and the island had lost nearly half of its manufacturing jobs by 2014.</p>
<p>HIT TO GROWING TOURISM</p>
<p>Just as concerning to the island is likely to be the impact Hurricane Maria has caused to tourism – which will be especially hard felt since it was one area of the economy that had been growing.</p>
<p>Travel and tourism had grown from 7.3 percent of GDP in 2014 to an estimated 8.4 percent in 2017 and was projected to rise to 10.7 percent by 2027, including direct and indirect spending, according to the World Travel &amp; Tourism Council.</p>
<p>Hotels and resorts were struggling to stay open in the days after the hit. Reynaldo Rey, general manager of the AC Hotel San Juan, said businesses were facing a race against the clock if emergency power supplies and water ran out because generators would only keep hotels operating for a few days.</p>
<p>“Everything depends on when the supply lines are re-established,” Rey said. “We risk a complete shutdown.”</p>
<p>Raul Brito, 24, a security guard for the state tourism agency in the capital’s upscale Condado neighborhood, said business was now in limbo at the worst time possible.</p>
<p>“Companies don’t know if they are going to be able to start up again because they don’t know yet if they will have the money,” he said.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting in New York by Laila Kearney, Trevor Hunnicutt, Jenn Ablan, David Randall, Bill Berkrot, Caroline Humer, Richa Naidu and Nick Brown in Houston; Writing by Megan Davies; Editing by Mary Milliken)</p> | false | 1 | dave graham robin respaut hilary russ puerto riconew york reuters chan lo racing clock save thousands dollars supplies sushi restaurant san juans condado beachfront community roughly 16000worth perishable goods stored restaurant nagoya sushi amp tiki bar jeopardy battered island waits power water reestablished give three four days maximum power doesnt come back generators available said everything thrown puerto ricos economy already fragile hurricane maria barreled island strongest storm hit us territory puerto rico nearly 90 years could inflict heavy damage islands health small businesses like los significant part recovery account 80 percent private sector workers according new york federal reserve report getting energy manufacturers hotels engines economy crucial islands ability bounce back maria made landfall midweek island 34 million people major category 4 hurricane storms wind water downed nearly power communications governor ricardo rossello said puerto rico electric power authoritys grid severely hit storm could months electricity restored customers making matters worse prepa bankruptcy since july disaster modeler enki research estimates damage island 30 billion 20 billion direct physical damage 10 billion economic impact puerto rico precarious state said chuck watson disaster modeler enki measurable impact puerto rico none economic might places hit hard active hurricane season like states texas florida island spent last ten years recession gdp shrank one percent seven last 10 years 2016 poverty rate 40 percent unemployment stands 10 percent chaos unleashed breakdown basic services lack cash gas shortages put many businesses limbo shortterm effects likely severe puerto ricans however already looking ahead economic boost could delivered investment recovery timeliness us federal emergency management agency fema funds play quickly puerto rico gets back feet said sampp global ratings analyst david hitchcock meanwhile hurricane pushed back islands bankruptcy process struggling 72 billion debt puerto rico filed biggest government bankruptcy us history earlier year backburner sources said thursday island riddled bad news said jonathan mondillo alpine woods capital investors llc holds insured puerto rican bonds going measurable impact economy locally manufacturing heart aftermath storm businesses big small around island assessing damage putting contingency plans place puerto rico boasts investments number us multinationals walmart nyse amgen nasdaq eli lilly spokesman honeywell international inc nyse said companys folks ground making sure everyones accounted needs still assessing facilities manufacturing still heart puerto ricos economy blow industry could significant impact makes nearly 49 percent islands gdp according 2015 report puerto rico manufacturers association manufacturing sector much diminished us congress decided gradually phase 1976 tax credit program program ended 2006 many companies left island lost nearly half manufacturing jobs 2014 hit growing tourism concerning island likely impact hurricane maria caused tourism especially hard felt since one area economy growing travel tourism grown 73 percent gdp 2014 estimated 84 percent 2017 projected rise 107 percent 2027 including direct indirect spending according world travel amp tourism council hotels resorts struggling stay open days hit reynaldo rey general manager ac hotel san juan said businesses facing race clock emergency power supplies water ran generators would keep hotels operating days everything depends supply lines reestablished rey said risk complete shutdown raul brito 24 security guard state tourism agency capitals upscale condado neighborhood said business limbo worst time possible companies dont know going able start dont know yet money said additional reporting new york laila kearney trevor hunnicutt jenn ablan david randall bill berkrot caroline humer richa naidu nick brown houston writing megan davies editing mary milliken | 559 |
<p>One by one, they leave the stage: Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J.; Father Richard John Neuhaus; Michael Novak; now, on June 27, Peter Berger — men whose work I first read as an undergraduate, who later became friends and colleagues in a variety of enterprises. It’s a strange feeling, having been for decades the junior subaltern; now, increasingly, something of an elder. But what a preparation I was fortunate enough to have been given, first by these men’s books, then by our conversation and collaboration. Their generosity to young people eager to join their ranks is a gift I shall never forget, and one I hope I’ve learned to emulate.</p>
<p>I read a lot of Berger in college —&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004X36R70/ref=nosim/nationalreviewon" type="external">Invitation to Sociology</a>,&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004X36R6G/ref=nosim/nationalreviewon" type="external">The Social Construction of Reality</a>,&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN/0385020570/ref=nosim/nationalreviewon" type="external">Movement and Revolution</a>&#160;(co-authored with Neuhaus, then in&#160;his rabble-rouser-radical period), and&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004X36R9I/ref=nosim/nationalreviewon" type="external">A Rumor of Angels</a>; the last, with its intriguing analysis of how everyday life sends out “signals of transcendence” that can open us to religious faith (or simply to a less-flattened, more capacious worldview) is a small work of genius on which I still rely in lectures today, some four decades later. I first met Berger during the founding days of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, which Peter helped launch along with the rest of the Catholic (or about-to-be Catholic) neo-con suspects and a handful of Evangelicals tired of their denominations’ drift into mindless (and, frankly, anti-Biblical) leftism, both theologically and politically. But it was not until the late spring of 1988 that I spent any significant time with Peter Berger: and a time it was.</p>
<p>Peter had a generous grant from a well-known conservative foundation and proposed to use the remainder of it to take Neuhaus, Novak, and me with him to Rome for a week, to engage Vatican officials in conversation about John Paul II’s 1987 social encyclical,&#160;Sollicitudo Rei Socialis&#160;(The Church’s Social Concern). As Berger often put it, “I am prepared to test the outer limits of the exotic in any culture in which I find myself, but I don’t like surprises before breakfast” — so we stayed atop Monte Mario at the five-star Cavalieri Hilton (now the Rome Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria). The headquarters for our expedition necessitated expensive cab rides to our Roman destinations but,&#160;pace&#160;Peter’s wishes, the Cavalieri guaranteed that there were no shockers pre–prima collazione.</p>
<p>I was a rank amateur as a Vaticanista in those days, and I suppose we were all a bit shocked by both the languid pace of the Roman Curia and the crotchetiness of even its mid-tier officials when even friendly questions were raised about their work. Later, I was to learn that John Paul II was as dissatisfied with the Curia’s work on what became&#160;Sollicitudo Rei Socialis&#160;as we were, but that’s a story to be saved for my memoir,&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN/0465094295/ref=nosim/nationalreviewon" type="external">Lessons in Hope</a>, to be published in September, and in any event the experience was an invaluable one in introducing me to the ways of the Magic Kingdom on the Tiber.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most memorable Petrine moment of our week came as we were waiting in a badly lit and poorly decorated parlor outside the principal office of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — “formerly known as the Inquisition,” as reporters of a certain cast of mind never fail to remind us. The parlor included an unattractive painting of some historical scene or other — not, I hasten to add, the use of thumbscrews on heretics during the Counter-Reformation — and that nondescript picture initiated me into the world of Peter Berger’s robust sense of humor, which often combined deep historical knowledge with a whimsical view of the human condition. At any rate, we were all sitting, a bit awe-struck, in the great Ratzinger’s antechamber, when Peter observed out of nowhere that “this room is like a medieval dentist’s office. And speaking of dentists, look at that awful painting and remind yourself that, in any historical painting depicting a scene prior to the mid-19th century, 80 percent of the people in the picture are suffering severe tooth pain.” Delivered in Peter’s inimitably Viennese accent, a souvenir of the city of his birth, that droll observation had us all laughing, just before Ratzinger came out and greeted us.</p>
<p>Peter Berger had a remarkable gift for intellectual curiosity and an admirable willingness to admit that he was, on occasion, wrong. Thus the man who was once at the forefront of secularization theory (the claim that modernization inevitably involves radical and deep secularization) later came to admit that he’d had it wrong — and, indeed, that the secularization hypothesis had been empirically falsified everywhere in a world that was becoming more, not less, intensely religious, except for that outlier known as Western Europe. The American experience of hyper-modernization combined with intense religiosity had something to do with Peter’s change of mind on this point and led him to coin the immortal epigram, “The United States is a nation of Indians [the most intensely religious nation on earth] ruled by an elite of Swedes [the world’s most secular nation].”</p>
<p>In an intellectual journey that might once have surprised him, had anyone predicted it, Berger, with his respect for data, came to understand the importance of entrepreneurship, enterprise, and markets in giving the Third World the tools with which to lift itself up from misery and poverty. But he was never a romantic about capitalism, knew that economic development involved disruptive cultural costs, and was always sensitive to what Reinhold Niebuhr would have called the inevitable tragedies of history in an imperfect world. He was fascinated by Asia, hoped that Malaysia and Indonesia might provide models of a modernizing Islam liberated from the pathologies of the Arab Middle East, and maintained an extraordinarily wide range of contacts with scholars, businesspeople, and activists all over the Third World. Their common bond was a willingness to think outside the box about political and economic development while always keeping in mind the cultural preconditions necessary to make free politics and free economics work.</p>
<p>My last two extended experiences with Peter — in Berlin in December 2007 and in Boston in April 2015 — gave me an even deeper appreciation of his insatiable curiosity and his commitment to intellectual ecumenism. In Berlin, he gathered a divergent crew to try to beat some sense into German social democrats about religion and society (meaning, in the main, to try to deprogram them from their conviction that religiously informed public moral argument was always bad news in a democracy). I don’t think we made much headway, but it wasn’t because of Peter’s indefatigable good humor, intellectual energy, and language skills. In Boston, a similarly across-the-ideological-board cast of characters spent three sharp-edged days under Peter’s direction, exploring the ways in which various religious communities and cultures coped (or didn’t cope) with late modernity and post-modernity. Like his longtime friend Neuhaus, Berger was a masterful conference chairman, always asking the probing question that got everyone on their toes and thinking out of their accustomed intellectual comfort zones. That he pulled off the Boston conference while confined to a wheelchair demonstrated that his physical courage matched his intellectual boldness.</p>
<p>Peter’s marriage to fellow sociologist Brigitte Kellner, herself a distinguished scholar (and survivor of a Nazi concentration camp), was one of the greatest I’ve ever witnessed. And in the two years since Brigitte’s death in 2015, Peter’s first response to my telephonic inquiries about how he was doing was always the same: He spoke of how much he missed his wife. But then we moved on to the other staple of our conversation, the exchange of new jokes we had heard. I have known some great storytellers, but I have rarely met anyone who reveled in jokes as much as Peter did — especially jokes that ethnic or national groups told about themselves, thereby revealing (wittingly or not) some of their deepest characteristics.</p>
<p>He had a deeply Lutheran view of the world and of life; there was no “Brother Sun, Sister Moon” in Peter Berger. But his fondness for jokes and his delight in sharing them suggested that, at bottom, he knew that it was all a divine comedy, whatever the chiaroscuro shadings.</p>
<p>— George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.</p> | false | 1 | one one leave stage cardinal avery dulles sj father richard john neuhaus michael novak june 27 peter berger men whose work first read undergraduate later became friends colleagues variety enterprises strange feeling decades junior subaltern increasingly something elder preparation fortunate enough given first mens books conversation collaboration generosity young people eager join ranks gift shall never forget one hope ive learned emulate read lot berger college 160 invitation sociology160 social construction reality160 movement revolution160coauthored neuhaus in160his rabblerouserradical period and160 rumor angels last intriguing analysis everyday life sends signals transcendence open us religious faith simply lessflattened capacious worldview small work genius still rely lectures today four decades later first met berger founding days institute religion democracy peter helped launch along rest catholic abouttobe catholic neocon suspects handful evangelicals tired denominations drift mindless frankly antibiblical leftism theologically politically late spring 1988 spent significant time peter berger time peter generous grant wellknown conservative foundation proposed use remainder take neuhaus novak rome week engage vatican officials conversation john paul iis 1987 social encyclical160sollicitudo rei socialis160the churchs social concern berger often put prepared test outer limits exotic culture find dont like surprises breakfast stayed atop monte mario fivestar cavalieri hilton rome cavalieri waldorf astoria headquarters expedition necessitated expensive cab rides roman destinations but160pace160peters wishes cavalieri guaranteed shockers preprima collazione rank amateur vaticanista days suppose bit shocked languid pace roman curia crotchetiness even midtier officials even friendly questions raised work later learn john paul ii dissatisfied curias work became160sollicitudo rei socialis160as thats story saved memoir160 lessons hope published september event experience invaluable one introducing ways magic kingdom tiber perhaps memorable petrine moment week came waiting badly lit poorly decorated parlor outside principal office cardinal joseph ratzinger prefect congregation doctrine faith formerly known inquisition reporters certain cast mind never fail remind us parlor included unattractive painting historical scene hasten add use thumbscrews heretics counterreformation nondescript picture initiated world peter bergers robust sense humor often combined deep historical knowledge whimsical view human condition rate sitting bit awestruck great ratzingers antechamber peter observed nowhere room like medieval dentists office speaking dentists look awful painting remind historical painting depicting scene prior mid19th century 80 percent people picture suffering severe tooth pain delivered peters inimitably viennese accent souvenir city birth droll observation us laughing ratzinger came greeted us peter berger remarkable gift intellectual curiosity admirable willingness admit occasion wrong thus man forefront secularization theory claim modernization inevitably involves radical deep secularization later came admit hed wrong indeed secularization hypothesis empirically falsified everywhere world becoming less intensely religious except outlier known western europe american experience hypermodernization combined intense religiosity something peters change mind point led coin immortal epigram united states nation indians intensely religious nation earth ruled elite swedes worlds secular nation intellectual journey might surprised anyone predicted berger respect data came understand importance entrepreneurship enterprise markets giving third world tools lift misery poverty never romantic capitalism knew economic development involved disruptive cultural costs always sensitive reinhold niebuhr would called inevitable tragedies history imperfect world fascinated asia hoped malaysia indonesia might provide models modernizing islam liberated pathologies arab middle east maintained extraordinarily wide range contacts scholars businesspeople activists third world common bond willingness think outside box political economic development always keeping mind cultural preconditions necessary make free politics free economics work last two extended experiences peter berlin december 2007 boston april 2015 gave even deeper appreciation insatiable curiosity commitment intellectual ecumenism berlin gathered divergent crew try beat sense german social democrats religion society meaning main try deprogram conviction religiously informed public moral argument always bad news democracy dont think made much headway wasnt peters indefatigable good humor intellectual energy language skills boston similarly acrosstheideologicalboard cast characters spent three sharpedged days peters direction exploring ways various religious communities cultures coped didnt cope late modernity postmodernity like longtime friend neuhaus berger masterful conference chairman always asking probing question got everyone toes thinking accustomed intellectual comfort zones pulled boston conference confined wheelchair demonstrated physical courage matched intellectual boldness peters marriage fellow sociologist brigitte kellner distinguished scholar survivor nazi concentration camp one greatest ive ever witnessed two years since brigittes death 2015 peters first response telephonic inquiries always spoke much missed wife moved staple conversation exchange new jokes heard known great storytellers rarely met anyone reveled jokes much peter especially jokes ethnic national groups told thereby revealing wittingly deepest characteristics deeply lutheran view world life brother sun sister moon peter berger fondness jokes delight sharing suggested bottom knew divine comedy whatever chiaroscuro shadings george weigel distinguished senior fellow ethics public policy center holds william e simon chair catholic studies | 753 |
<p>The US is a country controlled by wealth whose purpose is the acquisition of still more wealth, including by means of war.</p>
<p>America is engaged in another of its sprawling and costly national election campaigns. A few of the events, such as the New Hampshire primary or the Iowa Caucus, I’m sure have participants seeing themselves as Thomas Jefferson’s sturdy yeomen doing their civic duty. But such humble and misty-eyed tableaux can be deceiving for the big picture is quite disturbing, including, as it does, billions of dollars spent and a lot of noise generated about things which will not change in any outcome.</p>
<p>America is, despite all the noise and expense of its election campaigns, not a democracy, and, as the world’s greatest imperial power, it is not a place which genuinely honors human rights, either at home or abroad although its politicians never stop talking about them. It is a country controlled by wealth whose purpose is the acquisition of still more wealth, equipped with a military that in scores of wars and interventions has fought precisely once for the country’s defense.</p>
<p>It marked a fateful time in the modern era when America, under Harry Truman, decided to partner with the emerging state of Israel, a very fateful time indeed. Today much of the Middle East is in ruins, whole states and societies have been destroyed, at least a million have died, and some of the world’s great archeological and historical treasures have been destroyed as though by a gang of gleeful wanton young men.</p>
<p>Accompanying America’s long march of destruction through the Middle East—the work both of its own armed forces and of various proxies—has been the rise of a phenomenon called international terrorism. Our newspapers and broadcasters all focus on this last, leaving the preceding great acts of destruction unquestioned. After all, America’s much-consolidated press is an industry like any other and is owned by a relatively small number of wealthy people, and it depends upon good relations with other great industries for its revenue and with the government for its operating environment. It never questions policies, no matter how brutal, and it never scrutinizes what those policies are doing to people. America’s major allies all carry on in exactly the same fashion for they have become highly dependent on America’s goodwill.</p>
<p>Day after day, our press gives horrifying accounts of events such as the bombing in Brussels or the attacks in Paris, and it has been doing so since 9/11, providing a relentless war chant of “See what these bastards do!” These horrors are always treated as though they had no context, having sprung full-blown from the minds of bizarre people who think nothing, for example, of blowing themselves up. But I’m pretty sure that virtually every person who does such things sees himself or herself in the same light as the Japanese Kamikazes everyone once fearfully admired.</p>
<p>When was the last time your newspaper or broadcaster featured life in Gaza or in Syria or in Iraq or in Libya or in Yemen? It simply does not happen, and except for the rare independent article or book, our information about these places and the terrible assaults they are under is deliberately constrained. I am convinced that the natural human sympathy of most people, including many residents of imperial America, would respond to such sights and reports, but you are simply not given the opportunity to do so.</p>
<p>For me, this subject is the pivotal matter in the upcoming American election. Donald Trump, despite many unpleasant views and much careless rhetoric, seemed to have a spark of something new, an independent mind not shaped by America’s political establishment, and he’s an extremely successful and self-confident man in business not beholden to the special interests which shape the insincere news and own the loyalty of a great many politicians. He has made a number of encouraging statements, saying America should get along with Russia and China, leave Syria for Russia to clean-up, and talked about making deals instead of conflicts, but, most remarkably, he said that Israel should pay for its own defense. That last, something most timorous American politicians wouldn’t dream of uttering, is an example of bravery under the threat of fire, a quality I admire and one sorely needed to ever have a hope of having America extricated from the its Middle East’s Gordian Knot.</p>
<p>But two things just recently have given me pause: Trump’s words about using torture and the recent appointment to his foreign relations team of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. Torture is unacceptable, ever. Legally innocent people are kidnapped and hurt in the mere hope they know something of interest, and in the process many die, convicted of nothing. The CIA has killed a number of prisoners in its Rendition Gulag since 9/11, whether accidentally or deliberately almost doesn’t matter, but their filthy work violates every principle we hold dear.</p>
<p>Calls for more torture are not new thinking, and they are repulsive. They ignore the actual cause of terror, which is America’s treatment of countless people in societies swept aside and rudely rearranged as though their homes and places were toy living room furniture being tossed by an angry child giant. As for Senator Sessions, there is a man who gets along just fine with the bloodiest people in Washington doing the rearranging.</p>
<p>Perhaps I should not have allowed a glimmer of hope that at least in one part of America’s domain a few things might change for the better. After all, seven years ago, I had hopes for a young black man with a charming smile and a tendency to talk and act with more independence than we usually see in Washington, not afraid sometimes to wear sandals and do without the primordial totem of an American flag pin always fixed to his lapel, but look what happened to him. He joined the great game and became nothing less than a mass murderer. Oh, he had one or two modest successes, as in stopping Israel’s raging demands to attack Iran, a country which has attacked no one in its entire modern history, but otherwise his is a long and dreary tale.</p>
<p>He has America still killing in Iraq, still killing in Afghanistan, destroying a decent civilization in Libya, supporting destruction in beautiful Syria, re-inserting an absolute dictator into Egypt to keep its prickly neighbor Israel happy, and creating an armada of drones to assassinate people in far off places guilty of no crime, killing in the process many others besides the innocent targets. Oh, and there are many other Neanderthal stupidities, from creating a coup and ensuing civil war in Ukraine to demanding Europe join in destructive economic sanctions and a huge military build-ups tight on Russia’s borders. And then there are all the efforts to intimidate China in its own sphere of influence.</p>
<p>You see, these are all the brutal stupidities of America’s establishment which our press would have you ignore while it goes on and on with its war chant about mindless international terror, virtually all of which is simply a pathetic human response to the stupidities, a response likely as unavoidable as having accidents if you go around driving drunk.</p>
<p>I say unavoidable, but that is not absolutely true. If a society goes far enough into the suppression of rights, terrorism can be almost eliminated. Stalin’s Russia did not experience much in the way of terrorism. Neither does Netanyahu’s Israel. And there is no doubt that America’s huge effort to suppress traditional rights and freedoms since 9/11 reflects that understanding, and the effort at suppression is not over. New surprises await Americans and their allies without question. It is an interesting sidelight to this ongoing process of building a super-security state that it just happens also to leave the ruling establishment increasingly unchallenged and unchallengeable. It is, indeed, a very dark path America has taken.</p>
<p>Is it any wonder I would grab at straws to see some change, even a modest re-think about what is being done? But I do fear that’s just what it is, grabbing at straws. The only realistic alternative is Hillary Clinton, a proven killer and serial liar and someone who much resembles Tony Blair for repulsive insincerity and selling herself to wealthy interests.</p>
<p>Indeed just at this writing, Radovan Karadzic has been convicted of war crimes during the Serbian war. I think it would be impossible to convincingly distinguish a great deal of what he did to Muslims in Bosnia and what Hillary Clinton did in Libya, which included running a program to gather small armies of thugs and arm them for insertion into Syria where they helped kill more than a quarter of a million people and create devastation. Her satanic laughter over her own bizarre joke about the leader of Libya, “We came, we saw, he died,” speaks volumes about her. This was a leader who had for decades given his people enlightened state policies and who ended being murdered in an American-created chaos.</p>
<p>It has been interesting to see the reactions to organized opposition against Trump, opposition taking a form sadly resembling 1930’s German Brownshirts shoving, threatening, and shouting at political rallies. Trump’s base, which is not only part of the Right but includes people who decades ago would have been Democrat-voting union people before their jobs disappeared, has very confusingly attributed all the organized opposition to “liberals.” Well, George Soros and Hillary Clinton are not, by any stretch of the imagination, liberals. Soros is in the CIA’s pocket, as Russia well knew when it recently banned his NGOs from operating there, and Hillary is just a plain killer.&#160; I’m pretty sure America has no liberals anymore, at least as an organized body. George Soros and Hillary Clinton and John Kerry are perhaps best described as neocon “fellow travelers.”</p>
<p>Now, in case you don’t know who the neocons are, they are a group of influential people in the Washington establishment and in Right-wing publishing who forcefully advocate that America use its full might to re-order the planet to its liking. Many of the best known of them are Jewish Americans who never have Israel far from their concerns. There was a natural meshing of interests in supposedly re-making and stabilizing the Middle East with support for Israel. All the countries flattened or decimated in recent years effectively represent a collective effort to make the Middle East safe for Israel, to surround it with a vast cordon sanitaire, eliminating virtually all independent-minded leaders in an almost continent-sized region, and assuring Israel’s hegemony as a kind of regional miniature replica of what the United States has become in the world.</p>
<p>The chief problem here has been the murder of huge numbers of people and the perfectly natural reactions of many to revenge what has happened to their families, friends, and lands. If that is to be called terror, so be it, but in other times we have called the same reaction everything from the resistance or national liberation to war by other means or simple vengeance. The most important thing to understand about it is that it is not some unnatural eruption of insane extremists as our press constantly makes every effort to impress upon us.</p>
<p>The only way to control terror is to stop your part in it. The biggest part of all modern terror is the work of the United States, unless you somehow regard a family blown up in Damascus or Tripoli or Fallujah or Gaza City or Sana’a as being somehow different in kind to the victims in Brussels or Paris. America also pressures all its traditional allies to support the work with efforts of one kind or another, anything from arms to training, always maintaining the stance that it opposes terror and insisting they do the same. Well, it does oppose terror, but only the wrong kind of terror, the terror which does not support or advance America’s efforts. America’s destruction and mass killing in recent years are the great bulk of what any reasonable person, one not dedicated to the silly idea that America is a benign force, would call terror. Events in Brussels or Paris or even New York have been only the results of what America and its allies have been doing, the “blowback” as they quaintly put it in intelligence circles.</p>
<p>Well, it has been my faint hope that Trump might represent at least some progress in this horrible business, but I am growing to doubt that possibility. I do think for many reasons things are rather out of control, hence my reference to a runaway train. The American establishment of wealth along with its Praetorian Guard of military and security services is firmly in control and the ability of any elected individual to redirect things seems remote, as does the initial likelihood of such a person even being elected to office.</p>
<p>In my heart of hearts I do still believe that Obama was the kind of man who wanted things otherwise, but the realities of those meetings at huge conference tables surrounded by square-jawed generals in uniforms stiff and glittering with brass and medals and the sneering, elusive country-club types of the security services, impenetrably self-confident in all their secret operations and resources, many of which will never even be known to a president, made him what he has become. That and the pressing demands of hugely wealthy individuals and corporations, powerful lobby groups, and the virtually daily calls from people like Netanyahu (we do know that “daily calls” is no exaggeration from a slip of Obama’s tongue several years back) have given us this failed man who may well have had good intentions at the start.</p>
<p>The cause of so much of the war and terror in the world, the artificial re-creation of Israel and its endless demands for the re-ordering of its region, will likely just have to run its course. It is a state which, rather surprisingly, shares a great many features with the former Soviet Union. It is monstrously over-militarized, occupied by vast and invasive security services, with no guarantees of any rights, holding millions down who don’t want to be held, and boasts an inefficient economy only kept afloat by huge subsidies from outside. I do think, just like the Soviet Union, it eventually will collapse on its own weak foundations.</p>
<p>As for the United States, I have long believed that the era of its unquestioned authority in the world, which it has always greatly abused, is drawing to a close. The world is not only becoming multi-polar, the United States simply cannot govern itself in many of its activities, almost like a great spoiled child who cannot stop gobbling ice cream cones. It is always pushing to excesses. Its finances are in appalling shape and it can only be a matter of time before huge corrections occur with all the terrible consequences they entail for many. It is spending unconscionable amounts it doesn’t even have on its military and security, and the exaggerated, paranoid perceptions of need motivating these expenditures reflect all that we’ve discussed above. But perhaps most important of all, it has no effective leadership, and its absolutely corrupt political system is unable to provide any, allowing the inside ruling coterie to just keep stumbling along towards we don’t know quite what.</p> | false | 1 | us country controlled wealth whose purpose acquisition still wealth including means war america engaged another sprawling costly national election campaigns events new hampshire primary iowa caucus im sure participants seeing thomas jeffersons sturdy yeomen civic duty humble mistyeyed tableaux deceiving big picture quite disturbing including billions dollars spent lot noise generated things change outcome america despite noise expense election campaigns democracy worlds greatest imperial power place genuinely honors human rights either home abroad although politicians never stop talking country controlled wealth whose purpose acquisition still wealth equipped military scores wars interventions fought precisely countrys defense marked fateful time modern era america harry truman decided partner emerging state israel fateful time indeed today much middle east ruins whole states societies destroyed least million died worlds great archeological historical treasures destroyed though gang gleeful wanton young men accompanying americas long march destruction middle eastthe work armed forces various proxieshas rise phenomenon called international terrorism newspapers broadcasters focus last leaving preceding great acts destruction unquestioned americas muchconsolidated press industry like owned relatively small number wealthy people depends upon good relations great industries revenue government operating environment never questions policies matter brutal never scrutinizes policies people americas major allies carry exactly fashion become highly dependent americas goodwill day day press gives horrifying accounts events bombing brussels attacks paris since 911 providing relentless war chant see bastards horrors always treated though context sprung fullblown minds bizarre people think nothing example blowing im pretty sure virtually every person things sees light japanese kamikazes everyone fearfully admired last time newspaper broadcaster featured life gaza syria iraq libya yemen simply happen except rare independent article book information places terrible assaults deliberately constrained convinced natural human sympathy people including many residents imperial america would respond sights reports simply given opportunity subject pivotal matter upcoming american election donald trump despite many unpleasant views much careless rhetoric seemed spark something new independent mind shaped americas political establishment hes extremely successful selfconfident man business beholden special interests shape insincere news loyalty great many politicians made number encouraging statements saying america get along russia china leave syria russia cleanup talked making deals instead conflicts remarkably said israel pay defense last something timorous american politicians wouldnt dream uttering example bravery threat fire quality admire one sorely needed ever hope america extricated middle easts gordian knot two things recently given pause trumps words using torture recent appointment foreign relations team alabama senator jeff sessions torture unacceptable ever legally innocent people kidnapped hurt mere hope know something interest process many die convicted nothing cia killed number prisoners rendition gulag since 911 whether accidentally deliberately almost doesnt matter filthy work violates every principle hold dear calls torture new thinking repulsive ignore actual cause terror americas treatment countless people societies swept aside rudely rearranged though homes places toy living room furniture tossed angry child giant senator sessions man gets along fine bloodiest people washington rearranging perhaps allowed glimmer hope least one part americas domain things might change better seven years ago hopes young black man charming smile tendency talk act independence usually see washington afraid sometimes wear sandals without primordial totem american flag pin always fixed lapel look happened joined great game became nothing less mass murderer oh one two modest successes stopping israels raging demands attack iran country attacked one entire modern history otherwise long dreary tale america still killing iraq still killing afghanistan destroying decent civilization libya supporting destruction beautiful syria reinserting absolute dictator egypt keep prickly neighbor israel happy creating armada drones assassinate people far places guilty crime killing process many others besides innocent targets oh many neanderthal stupidities creating coup ensuing civil war ukraine demanding europe join destructive economic sanctions huge military buildups tight russias borders efforts intimidate china sphere influence see brutal stupidities americas establishment press would ignore goes war chant mindless international terror virtually simply pathetic human response stupidities response likely unavoidable accidents go around driving drunk say unavoidable absolutely true society goes far enough suppression rights terrorism almost eliminated stalins russia experience much way terrorism neither netanyahus israel doubt americas huge effort suppress traditional rights freedoms since 911 reflects understanding effort suppression new surprises await americans allies without question interesting sidelight ongoing process building supersecurity state happens also leave ruling establishment increasingly unchallenged unchallengeable indeed dark path america taken wonder would grab straws see change even modest rethink done fear thats grabbing straws realistic alternative hillary clinton proven killer serial liar someone much resembles tony blair repulsive insincerity selling wealthy interests indeed writing radovan karadzic convicted war crimes serbian war think would impossible convincingly distinguish great deal muslims bosnia hillary clinton libya included running program gather small armies thugs arm insertion syria helped kill quarter million people create devastation satanic laughter bizarre joke leader libya came saw died speaks volumes leader decades given people enlightened state policies ended murdered americancreated chaos interesting see reactions organized opposition trump opposition taking form sadly resembling 1930s german brownshirts shoving threatening shouting political rallies trumps base part right includes people decades ago would democratvoting union people jobs disappeared confusingly attributed organized opposition liberals well george soros hillary clinton stretch imagination liberals soros cias pocket russia well knew recently banned ngos operating hillary plain killer160 im pretty sure america liberals anymore least organized body george soros hillary clinton john kerry perhaps best described neocon fellow travelers case dont know neocons group influential people washington establishment rightwing publishing forcefully advocate america use full might reorder planet liking many best known jewish americans never israel far concerns natural meshing interests supposedly remaking stabilizing middle east support israel countries flattened decimated recent years effectively represent collective effort make middle east safe israel surround vast cordon sanitaire eliminating virtually independentminded leaders almost continentsized region assuring israels hegemony kind regional miniature replica united states become world chief problem murder huge numbers people perfectly natural reactions many revenge happened families friends lands called terror times called reaction everything resistance national liberation war means simple vengeance important thing understand unnatural eruption insane extremists press constantly makes every effort impress upon us way control terror stop part biggest part modern terror work united states unless somehow regard family blown damascus tripoli fallujah gaza city sanaa somehow different kind victims brussels paris america also pressures traditional allies support work efforts one kind another anything arms training always maintaining stance opposes terror insisting well oppose terror wrong kind terror terror support advance americas efforts americas destruction mass killing recent years great bulk reasonable person one dedicated silly idea america benign force would call terror events brussels paris even new york results america allies blowback quaintly put intelligence circles well faint hope trump might represent least progress horrible business growing doubt possibility think many reasons things rather control hence reference runaway train american establishment wealth along praetorian guard military security services firmly control ability elected individual redirect things seems remote initial likelihood person even elected office heart hearts still believe obama kind man wanted things otherwise realities meetings huge conference tables surrounded squarejawed generals uniforms stiff glittering brass medals sneering elusive countryclub types security services impenetrably selfconfident secret operations resources many never even known president made become pressing demands hugely wealthy individuals corporations powerful lobby groups virtually daily calls people like netanyahu know daily calls exaggeration slip obamas tongue several years back given us failed man may well good intentions start cause much war terror world artificial recreation israel endless demands reordering region likely run course state rather surprisingly shares great many features former soviet union monstrously overmilitarized occupied vast invasive security services guarantees rights holding millions dont want held boasts inefficient economy kept afloat huge subsidies outside think like soviet union eventually collapse weak foundations united states long believed era unquestioned authority world always greatly abused drawing close world becoming multipolar united states simply govern many activities almost like great spoiled child stop gobbling ice cream cones always pushing excesses finances appalling shape matter time huge corrections occur terrible consequences entail many spending unconscionable amounts doesnt even military security exaggerated paranoid perceptions need motivating expenditures reflect weve discussed perhaps important effective leadership absolutely corrupt political system unable provide allowing inside ruling coterie keep stumbling along towards dont know quite | 1,353 |
<p>Songbird continued her flight of conquest with a hard-earned victory in a highlight of American weekend racing while Enable, Harry Angel, Shakeel and Roly Poly earned victories on the international front.</p>
<p>Hong Kong wound up its longest season with record results and the promise of more to come.</p>
<p>There’s plenty to come, right here:</p>
<p>Distaff</p>
<p>Songbird flew right to the front in Saturday’s $750,000 Grade I Delaware Handicap and, despite some relentless pressure from Martini Glass, won her second straight race. The 4-year-old Medaglia d’Oro filly, with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mike_Smith/" type="external">Mike Smith</a> aboard, ran 1 1/4 miles on a fast track in 2:03.96. Line of Best Fit was third.</p>
<p>“We were a little nervous at the eighth-pole, but we won and that is all that matters,” said winning owner Richard Porter.</p>
<p>“I feel great and we pulled it off,” Smith added. “There is always a little pressure and if there is not, there is something wrong. I take this very seriously. These races are not easy. These are the kind of races you get beat in. If she did not run there would have been a whole lot of doubt, but she responded.”</p>
<p>Songbird has won 13 of 14 starts, losing only by a nose to Beholder in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita. Trainer <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jerry_Hollendorfer/" type="external">Jerry Hollendorfer</a> said her next race is not yet set.</p>
<p>Also Saturday, Overture led from the start in the $200,000 Grade III Indiana Oaks at Indiana Grand and held nicely, beating the favorite, Mopotism, by 1 length. Majestic Quality finished third. Overture, a Congrats filly, ran 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:43.79 with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Julien_Leparoux/" type="external">Julien Leparoux</a> riding for trainer <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Bill_Mott/" type="external">Bill Mott</a>. Overture was making just her fifth career start and scored her second win.</p>
<p>Classic</p>
<p>Irap waited behind the early pace in Saturday’s $500,000 Grade III Indiana Derby at Indiana Grand, came eight-wide into the stretch and quickly put matters to rest, winning off by 5 lengths. Colonelsdarktemper beat the others with Untrapped a further 1 3/4 lengths in arrears. Irap, with Mario Gutierrez up, got 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:42.21. The Tiznow colt won the Grade II Toyota Blue Grass at Keeneland, then finished 18th in the Kentucky Derby. He bounced back from that to win the Grade III Ohio Derby in his previous start.</p>
<p>Out west, West Coast found his best stride late in Saturday’s $200,000 Grade III Los Alamitos Derby, rallying from off the pace to win by 2 3/4 lengths. Klimt, B Squared and Colonist finished behind the winner in that order with less than 1/2 length separating them. West Coast, a Flatter colt, ran 9 furlongs on a fast track in 1:48.65 with Drayden <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Van_Dyke/" type="external">Van Dyke</a> in the irons. Winner of the Easy Goer Stakes at Belmont Park in his previous start, West Coast now has four wins and two seconds from six starts. “He took off the last eighth of a mile,” said winning trainer <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Bob_Baffert/" type="external">Bob Baffert</a>. “He needs to learn how to run like that. Mission accomplished.” Baffert said he will consider sending West Coast back to the east for the $1.25 million Grade I Travers at Saratoga on Aug. 26. “I mile and a quarter should suit him,” he said. “I think it would be a good spot for him.”</p>
<p>At this time last year, Baffert was preparing a little-known colt named Arrogate for a shot at the Travers.</p>
<p>Turf</p>
<p>Frostmourne waited behind a breakaway leader in Saturday’s $200,000 Grade III Kent Stakes for 3-year-olds at Delaware Park, reeled that one in at the top of the stretch and kicked away to win by 6 lengths. Master Plan and Adonis Creed filled the trifecta slots. Frostmourne, a Speightstown colt, ran 9 furlongs on good turf in 1:49.95. “He settled down nicely,” said winning rider <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Joel_Rosario/" type="external">Joel Rosario</a>. “The horse pulled away a little bit, but I took my time and I got into his stride. He relaxed and when I asked he responded.”</p>
<p>Disco Partner got clear in the stretch run of Saturday’s $100,000 Forbidden Apple Stakes at Belmont Park and finished well, winning by 3 3/4 lengths. Jet Jets and Bondurant were second and third. Disco Partner, a 5-year-old son of Disco Rico, ran 1 mile on firm turf in 1:33.49 for jockey <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Irad-Ortiz/" type="external">Irad Ortiz</a> Jr. “We’ll have to think about putting together a nice summer campaign,” said winning trainer <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Christophe_Clement/" type="external">Christophe Clement</a>. “I think he’s top class. He’s not Breeders’ Cup eligible, so I’ll have to speak with (owners) Mr. and Mrs. Generazio and we’ll try to map out the next two to three starts for him between now and the end of the year and try to do the best we can.”</p>
<p>Turf Sprint</p>
<p>Morticia broke on top in Saturday’s $100,000 Stormy Blues Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Laurel Park, took back behind Smiling Causeway, then came again to win by 1 3/4 lengths over that rival. Deer Valley was third, another 1 3/4 lengths back. Morticia, a Twirling Candy filly, ran 5 1/2 furlongs on firm turf in 1:01.29 with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jose_Lezcano/" type="external">Jose Lezcano</a> up for trainer Rusty Arnold. She has won four of her last five starts with a second in the Grade III Appalachian Stakes at Keeneland sandwiched in that streak. “I’ve been riding her a couple times already and she’s a very nice filly. She’s all heart,” said Lezcano, who has been aboard for all three of Morticia’s stakes wins. “She tries hard and she wants to win all the time.”</p>
<p>Sprint</p>
<p>Pink Lloyd dueled to the lead in Sunday’s $140,000 (Canadian) Vigil Stakes on the Woodbine all-weather course and widened the lead down the lane to a 2 1/4 lengths victory. We Deer You was second; Western Elegance, third. Pink Lloyd, the odds-on favorite, ran 7 furlongs in 1:22.18 for jockey Eurico Da Silva. “He ran very, very hard the last quarter,” <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/da_Silva/" type="external">da Silva</a> said. “My horse was running very, very relaxed. You saw the end where he really kicked hard. He’s a wonderful animal. He’s amazing. You ride a horse like this and it gives you such a great feeling.”</p>
<p>Juvenile</p>
<p>What a Catch led from the start in Saturday’s $100,000 Rockville Center Stakes for New York-bred juveniles and went on to win by 1 length from the favorite, Morning Breeze. Analyze the Odds was 6 lengths farther back in third. What a Catch, a Justin Phillip colt, ran 6 furlongs on a fast track in 1:11.21 with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Velazquez/" type="external">John Velazquez</a> up. “I thought he was very professional,” said Byron Hughes, assistant to winning trainer <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Todd_Pletcher/" type="external">Todd Pletcher</a>. “He acted good in the paddock and post parade, broke sharp and fought off the second-place horse. He’s always been pretty classy, a bit precocious 2-year-old. He’s been benefitting from that and stepping up every time we’ve asked him.” What a Catch is 2-for-2 with both wins at Belmont.</p>
<p>Juvenile Fillies</p>
<p>Pure Silver was pure gold in Sunday’s $100,000 Lynbrook Stakes for New York-bred 2-year-old fillies, leading all the way to a 1 1/2-lengths victory over the favorite, I Still Miss You. One Last Cast was third and Northernstreetgal completed the order of finish. Pure Silver, a daughter of Mission Impazible, ran 6 furlongs on a fast track in 1:11.40 with John Velazquez in the irons. “After the last start we knew she had the speed out of the gate and she showed it again today and she was able to hang on,” said Byron Hughes, assistant to winning trainer Todd Pletcher. “We will see how she comes out of the race and from there it will be somewhere at Saratoga for sure.”</p>
<p>International</p>
<p>England</p>
<p>Harry Angel turned the tables on his 3-year-old rival, previously undefeated Caravaggio, in Friday’s Group 1 Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket. After tracking the early pace, the Dark Angel colt, running in Godolphin blue, got the lead in the final furlong and held off last year’s winner, Limato, by a comfortable 1 1/4 lengths. Brando was third and Caravaggio, the favorite, struggled home fourth after a second straight sluggish start. In their last start, the Grade I Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot, Harry Angel contested the early lead and had no answer when Caravaggio ran by him for the win. Harry Angel now has three wins and three seconds from six career starts.</p>
<p>On Friday at the Newmarket July meeting, Roly Poly rolled over six rivals in the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes, winning by 1 1/4 lengths over Wuheida. Arabian Hope was along late to secure third for Godolphin with Josephine Gordon riding. Roly Poly, with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ryan_Moore/" type="external">Ryan Moore</a> up for trainer <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Aidan_O_Brien/" type="external">Aidan O’Brien</a> and the Coolmore partners, ran 1 mile on good to firm going in 1:36.01. In her two previous starts, the Group 1 Irish 1,000 Guineas and the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, Roly Poly finished second to stablemate Winter, who did not contest the Falmouth.</p>
<p>France</p>
<p>Shakeel caught pacesetting Permian in the final 100 yards of Friday’s Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris at Saint-Cloud for 3-year-old colts and geldings and won the 1 1/2-miles fixture by a head bob. Venice Beach was 1 length farther back in third. With William Buick up, Shakeel raced in the middle of the nine-horse field before being asked to improve position 2 furlongs out. He responded and gradually wore down the leader. Shakeel, an Aga Khan homebred Dalakhani colt, scored his second win from six starts for trainer Alain Du Royer-Dupre</p>
<p>Ireland</p>
<p>Enable completed the “Oaks double” with a victory in Saturday’s Group 1 Irish Oaks at the Curragh, winning every bit as easily as she did in her previous start at Epsom in the Group 1 Investec Oaks. With <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Frankie_Dettori/" type="external">Frankie Dettori</a> up for trainer <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Gosden/" type="external">John Gosden</a>, the Juddmonte Farms hombred daughter of Nathanial sat just behind the early speed, took over 2 furlongs out and won as she pleased. Rain Goddess, the better of the two Coolmore runners, was up for second, 5 1/2 lengths in arrears. The Aga Khan’s Eziyra was third. Enable has won all three starts as a 3-year-old.</p>
<p>Hong Kong</p>
<p>The Hong Kong Jockey Club wound up its 2016-17 season Sunday at Sha Tin with growth so impressive that CEO <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Winfried_Engelbrecht-Bresges/" type="external">Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges</a> said, “It has surprised me how strong it has been. Following a recession-driving 2 percent drop in handle the previous year, this year’s total turnover was a record HK$117.456 billion (around US$15 billion), up 10.7 percent.</p>
<p>The season was extended by five meetings this term, to 88. But Engelbrecht-Bresches noted that meant only 22 additional races and attributed a big part of the overall growth to a substantial increase in commingled simulcast revenue — one of the HKJC’s long-term initiatives.</p>
<p>“If you look at last year, the total turnover from commingling was HK$3.47 billion (US$44 million), which was 3.3% of the total,” the CEO said. “This year, with our expanding portfolio of partners, total turnover from commingling was HK$6.5 billion (US$83 million), an astounding increase of 87.1 percent and 5.7 percent of the total.”</p>
<p>Around the ovals:</p>
<p>Woodbine</p>
<p>Tulsa Queen rallied from last of six to upset Saturday’s $100,000 (Canadian) Duchess Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, winning by 1/2 length over Just Be Kind. My Arch was third and the favorite, Conquest Vivi, settled for fourth. Tulsa Queen, a Pennsylvania-bred Cactus Ridge filly, ran 7 furlongs on the all-weather track in 1:23.51 with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mario_Pino/" type="external">Mario Pino</a> up.</p>
<p>Indiana Grand</p>
<p>Beauty rallied from last of seven to win Saturday’s $100,000 Indiana General Assembly Distaff by 1/2 length over Linda. The early leader, Sky My Sky, finished 1/2 length farther back in third. Beauty, a British-bred daughter of Sea the Stars, got 1 1/16 miles on firm turf in 1:42.27 with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/James_Graham/" type="external">James Graham</a> in the irons.</p>
<p>Western Reserve was in command all the way in Saturday’s $100,000 Warrior Veterans Stakes, winning by 3 3/4 lengths from One Mean Man. Special Ops was second with the favorite, Chocolate Ride, fourth after pressing the pace. Western Reserve, a 5-year-old Indian Charlie gelding, finished 1 1/16 miles on the green course in 1:41.83 with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Florent-Geroux/" type="external">Florent Geroux</a> up.</p>
<p>Tiger Moth rallied five-wide into the lane in Saturday’s $100,000 Mari Hulman George Stakes for fillies and mares and outfinished Mo d’Amour, winning by 2 1/2 lengths. Big World was third as the even-money favorite. Tiger Moth, a 5-year-old Street Sense mare, ran 1 1/16 miles on the fast main track in 1:43.31 under Geroux.</p>
<p>Eagle survived a rough start in Saturday’s $100,000 Michael G. Schaefer Memorial, took the lead in the lane with a rail move and just lasted, winning by a head over Fear the Cowboy and another nose from Mor Tom. Eagle, a 5-year-old <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Candy_Ride/" type="external">Candy Ride</a> colt, ran 1 1/16 miles on the main track in 1:40.24 with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Brian_Hernandez/" type="external">Brian Hernandez</a> Jr. up.</p>
<p>Delaware Park</p>
<p>No Distortion took charge in the late going in Saturday’s $50,000 Carl Hansford Memorial, opening a daylight lead and coasting home a 2 1/2-lengths winner. Sea Raven was second, 1 1/2 lengths to the good of Discreet Lover. No Distortion, a 4-year-old <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Distorted_Humor/" type="external">Distorted Humor</a> gelding, ran 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:43.90 under Edwin Gonzalez.</p>
<p>Struth battled Always Sunshine into submission in Saturday’s $50,000 Hockessin Stakes, exiting a tight duel to win by 1 1/2 lengths. Always Sunshine held second, 6 3/4 length ahead of Eighty Three. Struth, a 5-year-old Curlin gelding, ran 6 furlongs in 1:09.64 with Gonzales up.</p>
<p>Laurel Park</p>
<p>Just Howard got a head in front of Bonus Points at the wire in Saturday’s $50,000 Caveat Stakes for Maryland-bred 3-year-olds. Good Reasoning was third. Just Howard, an English Channel colt, ran 1 1/16 miles on firm turf in 1:40.87 with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Alex_Cintron/" type="external">Alex Cintron</a> up.</p>
<p>Gulfstream Park</p>
<p>King’s Ghost and Quebec both rallied by pacesetting Cowgirl Tough in the stretch run in Saturday’s $50,000 Treasure Coast Handicap for fillies and mares with King’s Ghost prevailing by a nose. Cowgirl Tough held third. King’s Ghost, a 5-year-old Ontario-bred mare by Ghostzapper, ran 1 mile on firm turf in 1:36.13 with Jorge Ruiz in the irons.</p>
<p>Monmouth Park</p>
<p>Lipstick City came four-wide past the leaders to take Saturday’s $75,000 Boiling Springs Stakes for 3-year-old fillies by 2 1/2 lengths over Majestic Bonnie. Watch Your Six finished third. Lipstick City, a City Zip filly, ran 1 1/16 miles on good turf in 1:45.70 under Nik Juarez.</p>
<p>Disco Chick took over the lead in the stretch run in Sunday’s $60,000 Regret Stakes for fillies and mare and got away to a 2 1/4 lengths victory. Court Dancer was second, 1 1/4 lengths ahead of the favorite, Bustin Out. Disco Chick, a 6-year-old <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jump_Start/" type="external">Jump Start</a> mare, got 6 furlongs on a fast track in 1:09.69 with Hector Caballero in the irons.</p>
<p>Hastings</p>
<p>He’s the Reason dueled with Boundary Bay throughout Sunday’s $50,000 (Canadian) Spaghetti Mouse Stakes for 2-year-olds, gained the narrowest of leads in the stretch and won by a neck over that rival. European was third. He’s the Reason, a gray gelding by The Factor, ran 6 furlongs on a fast track in 1:12.90 with David Lopez riding.</p>
<p>Daz Lin Dawn was along late to take Saturday’s $50,000 (Canadian) Supernatural Handicap for 3-year-old fillies by 1 3/4 lengths over Yukon Belle. Babys Got Track was third. Daz Lin Dawn, a daughter of Popular, was a popular winner as odds-on favorite, finishing 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:45.57 under Richard Hamel.</p>
<p>Northlands Park</p>
<p>Ruffenuff battled for the lead in Saturday’s $50,000 (Canadian) Northlands Oaks, then edged away to win by 2 3/4 lengths over Saveitforarainyday. The favorite, Anstrum, finished third. Ruffenuff, a daughter of Dialed In, ran 1 mile on a fast track in 1:39.22 with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Quincy_Welch/" type="external">Quincy Welch</a> riding.</p>
<p>Trooper John marched well clear of the rest in the stretch run of Saturday’s $50,000 (Canadian) Count Lathrum Handicap for 3-year-olds, winning by 9 1/2 lengths over Double Bear. Real Quality was third. With Keishan Balgobin in the irons, Trooper John, a Colonel John gelding, ran 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:44.28.</p>
<p>Prairie Meadows</p>
<p>Sweet Persuasion rallied wide to the lead in Saturday’s $70,000 Iowa Stallion Stakes for nominated 3-year-olds and kicked clear, winning by 2 lengths over K Kiddo. K Kash was third. Sweet Persuasion, a Discreetly Mine colt, ran 1 mile and 70 yards on a fast track in 1:43.27 with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Terry_Thompson/" type="external">Terry Thompson</a> up.</p>
<p>In the companion for nominated 3-year-old fillies, Honolulu came from well off the pace to win by 2 lengths over Runfastandloud. Hey Baby was third and the favorite, Jayne’s Idea, was last of nine after making the early lead. Honolulu, an Oklahoma-bred filly by Maclean’s Music, ran 1 mile and 70 yards in 1:44.31 with Kevin Roman in the irons.</p>
<p>Emerald Downs</p>
<p>He’s Not Grey, the only first-time starter in the field, was up in the final sixteenth to win Sunday’s $50,000 Emerald Express for 2-year-old colts and geldings by 3 1/2 lengths over Bullet Drill. Brown Tiger was a neck farther back in third. He’s Not Grey, a Slew’s Tiznow colt, ran 5 1/2 furlongs on a fast track in 1:05.04 with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Juan_Gutierrez/" type="external">Juan Gutierrez</a> in the irons.</p>
<p>Bella Mia led all the way in Sunday’s $50,000 Angie C. Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, winning by 2 1/4 lengths over Faith Flys Again. My Aunt Mo was third. Bella Mia, a daughter of Harbor the Gold, got 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:05.06 with Julien Couton up.</p>
<p>Citizen Kitty rallied from mid-pack to take Sunday’s $50,000 Boeing Stakes for fillies and mares by 4 1/2 lengths from Princess Katie. Princess Kennedy was third. Citizen Kitty, a 5-year-old Proud Citizen mare, ran 1 mile in 1:36.84 with Couton in the irons.</p>
<p>Mach One Rules drew off in the stretch run to win Sunday’s $50,000 Mt. Rainier Stakes by 2 lengths over Bistraya. Barkley finished third. Mach One Rules, a 4-year-old Harbor the Gold gelding, finished 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.55 with Isaias Enriquez up.</p> | false | 1 | songbird continued flight conquest hardearned victory highlight american weekend racing enable harry angel shakeel roly poly earned victories international front hong kong wound longest season record results promise come theres plenty come right distaff songbird flew right front saturdays 750000 grade delaware handicap despite relentless pressure martini glass second straight race 4yearold medaglia doro filly mike smith aboard ran 1 14 miles fast track 20396 line best fit third little nervous eighthpole matters said winning owner richard porter feel great pulled smith added always little pressure something wrong take seriously races easy kind races get beat run would whole lot doubt responded songbird 13 14 starts losing nose beholder last falls breeders cup distaff santa anita trainer jerry hollendorfer said next race yet set also saturday overture led start 200000 grade iii indiana oaks indiana grand held nicely beating favorite mopotism 1 length majestic quality finished third overture congrats filly ran 1 116 miles fast track 14379 julien leparoux riding trainer bill mott overture making fifth career start scored second win classic irap waited behind early pace saturdays 500000 grade iii indiana derby indiana grand came eightwide stretch quickly put matters rest winning 5 lengths colonelsdarktemper beat others untrapped 1 34 lengths arrears irap mario gutierrez got 1 116 miles fast track 14221 tiznow colt grade ii toyota blue grass keeneland finished 18th kentucky derby bounced back win grade iii ohio derby previous start west west coast found best stride late saturdays 200000 grade iii los alamitos derby rallying pace win 2 34 lengths klimt b squared colonist finished behind winner order less 12 length separating west coast flatter colt ran 9 furlongs fast track 14865 drayden van dyke irons winner easy goer stakes belmont park previous start west coast four wins two seconds six starts took last eighth mile said winning trainer bob baffert needs learn run like mission accomplished baffert said consider sending west coast back east 125 million grade travers saratoga aug 26 mile quarter suit said think would good spot time last year baffert preparing littleknown colt named arrogate shot travers turf frostmourne waited behind breakaway leader saturdays 200000 grade iii kent stakes 3yearolds delaware park reeled one top stretch kicked away win 6 lengths master plan adonis creed filled trifecta slots frostmourne speightstown colt ran 9 furlongs good turf 14995 settled nicely said winning rider joel rosario horse pulled away little bit took time got stride relaxed asked responded disco partner got clear stretch run saturdays 100000 forbidden apple stakes belmont park finished well winning 3 34 lengths jet jets bondurant second third disco partner 5yearold son disco rico ran 1 mile firm turf 13349 jockey irad ortiz jr well think putting together nice summer campaign said winning trainer christophe clement think hes top class hes breeders cup eligible ill speak owners mr mrs generazio well try map next two three starts end year try best turf sprint morticia broke top saturdays 100000 stormy blues stakes 3yearold fillies laurel park took back behind smiling causeway came win 1 34 lengths rival deer valley third another 1 34 lengths back morticia twirling candy filly ran 5 12 furlongs firm turf 10129 jose lezcano trainer rusty arnold four last five starts second grade iii appalachian stakes keeneland sandwiched streak ive riding couple times already shes nice filly shes heart said lezcano aboard three morticias stakes wins tries hard wants win time sprint pink lloyd dueled lead sundays 140000 canadian vigil stakes woodbine allweather course widened lead lane 2 14 lengths victory deer second western elegance third pink lloyd oddson favorite ran 7 furlongs 12218 jockey eurico da silva ran hard last quarter da silva said horse running relaxed saw end really kicked hard hes wonderful animal hes amazing ride horse like gives great feeling juvenile catch led start saturdays 100000 rockville center stakes new yorkbred juveniles went win 1 length favorite morning breeze analyze odds 6 lengths farther back third catch justin phillip colt ran 6 furlongs fast track 11121 john velazquez thought professional said byron hughes assistant winning trainer todd pletcher acted good paddock post parade broke sharp fought secondplace horse hes always pretty classy bit precocious 2yearold hes benefitting stepping every time weve asked catch 2for2 wins belmont juvenile fillies pure silver pure gold sundays 100000 lynbrook stakes new yorkbred 2yearold fillies leading way 1 12lengths victory favorite still miss one last cast third northernstreetgal completed order finish pure silver daughter mission impazible ran 6 furlongs fast track 11140 john velazquez irons last start knew speed gate showed today able hang said byron hughes assistant winning trainer todd pletcher see comes race somewhere saratoga sure international england harry angel turned tables 3yearold rival previously undefeated caravaggio fridays group 1 falmouth stakes newmarket tracking early pace dark angel colt running godolphin blue got lead final furlong held last years winner limato comfortable 1 14 lengths brando third caravaggio favorite struggled home fourth second straight sluggish start last start grade commonwealth cup royal ascot harry angel contested early lead answer caravaggio ran win harry angel three wins three seconds six career starts friday newmarket july meeting roly poly rolled six rivals group 1 falmouth stakes winning 1 14 lengths wuheida arabian hope along late secure third godolphin josephine gordon riding roly poly ryan moore trainer aidan obrien coolmore partners ran 1 mile good firm going 13601 two previous starts group 1 irish 1000 guineas group 1 coronation stakes royal ascot roly poly finished second stablemate winter contest falmouth france shakeel caught pacesetting permian final 100 yards fridays group 1 grand prix de paris saintcloud 3yearold colts geldings 1 12miles fixture head bob venice beach 1 length farther back third william buick shakeel raced middle ninehorse field asked improve position 2 furlongs responded gradually wore leader shakeel aga khan homebred dalakhani colt scored second win six starts trainer alain du royerdupre ireland enable completed oaks double victory saturdays group 1 irish oaks curragh winning every bit easily previous start epsom group 1 investec oaks frankie dettori trainer john gosden juddmonte farms hombred daughter nathanial sat behind early speed took 2 furlongs pleased rain goddess better two coolmore runners second 5 12 lengths arrears aga khans eziyra third enable three starts 3yearold hong kong hong kong jockey club wound 201617 season sunday sha tin growth impressive ceo winfried engelbrechtbresges said surprised strong following recessiondriving 2 percent drop handle previous year years total turnover record hk117456 billion around us15 billion 107 percent season extended five meetings term 88 engelbrechtbresches noted meant 22 additional races attributed big part overall growth substantial increase commingled simulcast revenue one hkjcs longterm initiatives look last year total turnover commingling hk347 billion us44 million 33 total ceo said year expanding portfolio partners total turnover commingling hk65 billion us83 million astounding increase 871 percent 57 percent total around ovals woodbine tulsa queen rallied last six upset saturdays 100000 canadian duchess stakes 3yearold fillies winning 12 length kind arch third favorite conquest vivi settled fourth tulsa queen pennsylvaniabred cactus ridge filly ran 7 furlongs allweather track 12351 mario pino indiana grand beauty rallied last seven win saturdays 100000 indiana general assembly distaff 12 length linda early leader sky sky finished 12 length farther back third beauty britishbred daughter sea stars got 1 116 miles firm turf 14227 james graham irons western reserve command way saturdays 100000 warrior veterans stakes winning 3 34 lengths one mean man special ops second favorite chocolate ride fourth pressing pace western reserve 5yearold indian charlie gelding finished 1 116 miles green course 14183 florent geroux tiger moth rallied fivewide lane saturdays 100000 mari hulman george stakes fillies mares outfinished mo damour winning 2 12 lengths big world third evenmoney favorite tiger moth 5yearold street sense mare ran 1 116 miles fast main track 14331 geroux eagle survived rough start saturdays 100000 michael g schaefer memorial took lead lane rail move lasted winning head fear cowboy another nose mor tom eagle 5yearold candy ride colt ran 1 116 miles main track 14024 brian hernandez jr delaware park distortion took charge late going saturdays 50000 carl hansford memorial opening daylight lead coasting home 2 12lengths winner sea raven second 1 12 lengths good discreet lover distortion 4yearold distorted humor gelding ran 1 116 miles fast track 14390 edwin gonzalez struth battled always sunshine submission saturdays 50000 hockessin stakes exiting tight duel win 1 12 lengths always sunshine held second 6 34 length ahead eighty three struth 5yearold curlin gelding ran 6 furlongs 10964 gonzales laurel park howard got head front bonus points wire saturdays 50000 caveat stakes marylandbred 3yearolds good reasoning third howard english channel colt ran 1 116 miles firm turf 14087 alex cintron gulfstream park kings ghost quebec rallied pacesetting cowgirl tough stretch run saturdays 50000 treasure coast handicap fillies mares kings ghost prevailing nose cowgirl tough held third kings ghost 5yearold ontariobred mare ghostzapper ran 1 mile firm turf 13613 jorge ruiz irons monmouth park lipstick city came fourwide past leaders take saturdays 75000 boiling springs stakes 3yearold fillies 2 12 lengths majestic bonnie watch six finished third lipstick city city zip filly ran 1 116 miles good turf 14570 nik juarez disco chick took lead stretch run sundays 60000 regret stakes fillies mare got away 2 14 lengths victory court dancer second 1 14 lengths ahead favorite bustin disco chick 6yearold jump start mare got 6 furlongs fast track 10969 hector caballero irons hastings hes reason dueled boundary bay throughout sundays 50000 canadian spaghetti mouse stakes 2yearolds gained narrowest leads stretch neck rival european third hes reason gray gelding factor ran 6 furlongs fast track 11290 david lopez riding daz lin dawn along late take saturdays 50000 canadian supernatural handicap 3yearold fillies 1 34 lengths yukon belle babys got track third daz lin dawn daughter popular popular winner oddson favorite finishing 1 116 miles fast track 14557 richard hamel northlands park ruffenuff battled lead saturdays 50000 canadian northlands oaks edged away win 2 34 lengths saveitforarainyday favorite anstrum finished third ruffenuff daughter dialed ran 1 mile fast track 13922 quincy welch riding trooper john marched well clear rest stretch run saturdays 50000 canadian count lathrum handicap 3yearolds winning 9 12 lengths double bear real quality third keishan balgobin irons trooper john colonel john gelding ran 1 116 miles fast track 14428 prairie meadows sweet persuasion rallied wide lead saturdays 70000 iowa stallion stakes nominated 3yearolds kicked clear winning 2 lengths k kiddo k kash third sweet persuasion discreetly mine colt ran 1 mile 70 yards fast track 14327 terry thompson companion nominated 3yearold fillies honolulu came well pace win 2 lengths runfastandloud hey baby third favorite jaynes idea last nine making early lead honolulu oklahomabred filly macleans music ran 1 mile 70 yards 14431 kevin roman irons emerald downs hes grey firsttime starter field final sixteenth win sundays 50000 emerald express 2yearold colts geldings 3 12 lengths bullet drill brown tiger neck farther back third hes grey slews tiznow colt ran 5 12 furlongs fast track 10504 juan gutierrez irons bella mia led way sundays 50000 angie c stakes 2yearold fillies winning 2 14 lengths faith flys aunt mo third bella mia daughter harbor gold got 5 12 furlongs 10506 julien couton citizen kitty rallied midpack take sundays 50000 boeing stakes fillies mares 4 12 lengths princess katie princess kennedy third citizen kitty 5yearold proud citizen mare ran 1 mile 13684 couton irons mach one rules drew stretch run win sundays 50000 mt rainier stakes 2 lengths bistraya barkley finished third mach one rules 4yearold harbor gold gelding finished 1 116 miles 14255 isaias enriquez | 1,924 |
<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. — <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kansas-City-Chiefs/" type="external">Kansas City Chiefs</a> linebacker <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Justin-Houston/" type="external">Justin Houston</a> stood at his locker after Sunday’s game against the Eagles lamenting the few things that went wrong for his defense in a 27-20 win over the Eagles rather than the many things that went very well.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to do better as a whole,” Houston said. “We made some plays when we needed to, but again we’ve got to do better.”</p>
<p>The Chiefs defense getting better should send shivers through every offense in the AFC. The team that ranked 28th in the NFL a year ago with just 28 sacks currently sits tied at No. 2 with nine sacks. And that’s against <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Tom_Brady/" type="external">Tom Brady</a> and the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New_England_Patriots/" type="external">New England Patriots</a> as well as elusive <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Carson-Wentz/" type="external">Carson Wentz</a> and a <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Philadelphia-Eagles/" type="external">Philadelphia Eagles</a> offensive line anchored by Lane Johnson and Jason Peters.</p>
<p>Head coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Andy_Reid/" type="external">Andy Reid</a> credits the return of Houston for the turnaround. Houston played just 16 regular-season games over the last two seasons. Reid says it’s not just Houston’s play on the field, but his on-the-field coaching of the team’s young pass rush that makes a difference.</p>
<p>“That’s been a big part of his leadership,” Reid said. “Justin kind of takes all the young guys there and really rallies them around.”</p>
<p>One of those young guys is second-year defensive lineman <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Chris-Jones/" type="external">Chris Jones</a>, who proved to be a disruptive force throughout the win over the Eagles. Jones picked up three sacks along with another tackle for a loss. He also intercepted a pass, forced two fumbles and picked up two more quarterback hits in just 32 snaps.</p>
<p>Now Houston wants to see even more from Jones.</p>
<p>“I hope and pray that he does that every week,” Houston said. “We are going to need that every week, week in and week out, for us to be a good defense.”</p>
<p>Jones missed much of training camp due to offseason knee surgery following a training injury. Reid believes Jones is just now rounding into season form.</p>
<p>“I’m thinking he didn’t have the training camp so he was kind of going through that process the other guys went through camp were going through,” Reid said. “It was just getting enough reps under his belt so he could sustain play.”</p>
<p>The coach believes his team’s pass rush began showing its potential late in the season’s first game against New England.</p>
<p>“You saw when they geared it up, it’s pretty tough,” Reid said. “And they did the same thing yesterday. When we asked them to go, they were rocking and rolling there.”</p>
<p>NOTES, QUOTES</p>
<p>–The Kansas City secondary played its first game without safety <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Eric-Berry/" type="external">Eric Berry</a> after the All-Pro’s season came to an end last week with a ruptured Achilles tendon. Head coach Andy Reid felt his secondary played well overall.</p>
<p>“I thought we missed him early,” Reid said. “Just a matter of the new guys settling down and playing.”</p>
<p>Reid credited veteran safety Ron Parker for taking a leadership role and helping relax his teammates.</p>
<p>“He’s a quiet guy, but he just (said), ‘Relax, we’re going to be OK right here,’ and took over and filled that role that Eric does with the defense,” Reid said.</p>
<p>Safeties Daniel Sorensen and Eric Murray, tasked with filling the spot vacated by Berry, led the team in tackles with six each against the Eagles.</p>
<p>“With the exception of the one holding call early, Murray came back and had some big plays for us, and Sorensen had some big plays,” Reid said. “His ability to blitz in there and sacrifice, jumping over people and doing all that I thought was a tribute.”</p>
<p>–Chiefs center Mitch Morse left Sunday’s game in the fourth quarter with a foot sprain. The prospect of the third-year starting missing time means a big adjustment for quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Alex_Smith/" type="external">Alex Smith</a> and the offense.</p>
<p>“Center in this offense makes a ton of calls,” Smith said. “He’s kind of the glue for those five guys, making sure everyone is on the same page – run and pass. There’s a lot of unspoken communication between the center and I, especially with Mitch though.”</p>
<p>Zach Fulton entered the lineup in Morse’s place. Head coach Andy Reid often refers to Fulton as the team’s sixth starter, capable of filling in at any spot on the line. On Fulton’s first snap, the Chiefs scored on an option shovel pass from Smith to tight end Travis Kelce up the middle behind center.</p>
<p>“He handled the gun snap and then kind of an option-type play that he’s got to maneuver a little bit on,” Reid said. “We have full trust in him, really at all the spots.”</p>
<p>The Chiefs chose to move swing tackle Bryan Witzmann to left guard while last year’s starter Parker Ehinger continues recovering from a torn ACL sustained last October. That allowed Fulton to be the Chiefs’ additional insurance against an injury along the offensive line. The policy paid dividends against the Eagles.</p>
<p>“Hopefully Mitch gets healthy and he’s back soon,” Smith said. “Fortunate though to have Zach step in like that.”</p>
<p>–Chiefs cornerback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Marcus-Peters/" type="external">Marcus Peters</a> continued his practice of sitting during the national anthem Sunday, but also declines to answer questions about why he chooses to sit during the pregame ritual.</p>
<p>Head coach Andy Reid said he’s spoken to Peters about it, but declined to explain why Peters chooses to sit.</p>
<p>“As a head coach, I see more than other people see, and right or wrong, we’re given the opportunity to express ourselves,” Reid said. “We all are. We all don’t agree. But when we come together, we come together as the Chiefs as a <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Walker/" type="external">football</a> team and that’s not a distraction for our football team, and we roll.”</p>
<p>Reid deflected to a statement issued last season by team chairman and CEO Clark Hunt on his preference that the team’s players stand for the anthem.</p>
<p>“It’s not something where I’ve spoken specifically to the players or any specific player about it,” Hunt said last season. “But the entire team knows that our desire is for them to stand during the national anthem.”</p>
<p>Reid discussed some of what he sees as a head coach involving Peters, the media and public may not know. He mentioned the cornerback’s work in his hometown of Oakland with young kids and organizing a local football team there. Peters also sponsored his second annual “It Takes a Village” carnival in April at McClymonds High School in Oakland.</p>
<p>“His big picture is that he’s helping to raise these kids and he wants to raise them in a better world,” Reid said. “That was my point, and I’m sure that’s probably part of this.”</p>
<p>But the coach said he doesn’t want to debate the merits of Peters choosing to sit for the anthem.</p>
<p>“People are going to have opinions for and against,” Reid said. “I’m not going to get into all that.”</p> | false | 1 | kansas city mo kansas city chiefs linebacker justin houston stood locker sundays game eagles lamenting things went wrong defense 2720 win eagles rather many things went well weve got better whole houston said made plays needed weve got better chiefs defense getting better send shivers every offense afc team ranked 28th nfl year ago 28 sacks currently sits tied 2 nine sacks thats tom brady new england patriots well elusive carson wentz philadelphia eagles offensive line anchored lane johnson jason peters head coach andy reid credits return houston turnaround houston played 16 regularseason games last two seasons reid says houstons play field onthefield coaching teams young pass rush makes difference thats big part leadership reid said justin kind takes young guys really rallies around one young guys secondyear defensive lineman chris jones proved disruptive force throughout win eagles jones picked three sacks along another tackle loss also intercepted pass forced two fumbles picked two quarterback hits 32 snaps houston wants see even jones hope pray every week houston said going need every week week week us good defense jones missed much training camp due offseason knee surgery following training injury reid believes jones rounding season form im thinking didnt training camp kind going process guys went camp going reid said getting enough reps belt could sustain play coach believes teams pass rush began showing potential late seasons first game new england saw geared pretty tough reid said thing yesterday asked go rocking rolling notes quotes kansas city secondary played first game without safety eric berry allpros season came end last week ruptured achilles tendon head coach andy reid felt secondary played well overall thought missed early reid said matter new guys settling playing reid credited veteran safety ron parker taking leadership role helping relax teammates hes quiet guy said relax going ok right took filled role eric defense reid said safeties daniel sorensen eric murray tasked filling spot vacated berry led team tackles six eagles exception one holding call early murray came back big plays us sorensen big plays reid said ability blitz sacrifice jumping people thought tribute chiefs center mitch morse left sundays game fourth quarter foot sprain prospect thirdyear starting missing time means big adjustment quarterback alex smith offense center offense makes ton calls smith said hes kind glue five guys making sure everyone page run pass theres lot unspoken communication center especially mitch though zach fulton entered lineup morses place head coach andy reid often refers fulton teams sixth starter capable filling spot line fultons first snap chiefs scored option shovel pass smith tight end travis kelce middle behind center handled gun snap kind optiontype play hes got maneuver little bit reid said full trust really spots chiefs chose move swing tackle bryan witzmann left guard last years starter parker ehinger continues recovering torn acl sustained last october allowed fulton chiefs additional insurance injury along offensive line policy paid dividends eagles hopefully mitch gets healthy hes back soon smith said fortunate though zach step like chiefs cornerback marcus peters continued practice sitting national anthem sunday also declines answer questions chooses sit pregame ritual head coach andy reid said hes spoken peters declined explain peters chooses sit head coach see people see right wrong given opportunity express reid said dont agree come together come together chiefs football team thats distraction football team roll reid deflected statement issued last season team chairman ceo clark hunt preference teams players stand anthem something ive spoken specifically players specific player hunt said last season entire team knows desire stand national anthem reid discussed sees head coach involving peters media public may know mentioned cornerbacks work hometown oakland young kids organizing local football team peters also sponsored second annual takes village carnival april mcclymonds high school oakland big picture hes helping raise kids wants raise better world reid said point im sure thats probably part coach said doesnt want debate merits peters choosing sit anthem people going opinions reid said im going get | 660 |
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