text:
Tom Udall gets about halfway to SFR's conference room before an advertising rep stops him to ask what's wrong with Congress.
"It's a mess up there," Udall admits, shaking his head. Then he tells her a story about his wife's similar frustrations: "She said, 'I wouldn't vote for any of you guys again, either!'"
They both laugh.
It's a cold morning in January, and Udall wears a scarf thrown over one shoulder of his gray suit. A slight man of 64, he wears his sandy, graying hair combed to one side and speaks matter-of-factly, fixing a steady gaze on whomever he's talking to. When I offer him something to drink, he asks for hot water.
He fleshes out the anecdote about his wife: She was watching TV when MSNBC's Chuck Todd broadcasted a litany of pork provisions in the recent fiscal cliff compromise, including more than $67 billion in tax breaks for special interests such as rum producers, racetrack owners and Hollywood producers.
"I didn't see it…but it sounded like really bad stuff, you know, that's hidden in the bill," Udall says. "If I had known about the whole package that she listed off, I would've had real doubts about the bill itself. But the way we're legislating right now, we didn't get to see any of that."
By now, the story is familiar: As the country teetered on the edge of a fiscal cliff—a monstrous package of tax increases and budget cuts set to take effect at the beginning of this year—Congress and the White House were locked in a stalemate. Finally, on New Year's Eve, Vice President Joe Biden brokered a deal with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
"I have a staff member read through the bills—you know, to really check out what's in there, because it can be pretty embarrassing," Udall says. "And in this case, we just passed it an hour after [Biden] briefed us. Nobody had read it. And this is the problem with the way we legislate."
To Udall, that problem is so profound that it's worth fundamentally overhauling the Senate. It's one of his chief concerns, and he's been working on it for almost as long as he's been in office. Currently, Udall is leading the charge to reform the Senate's byzantine rules of procedure, along with Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. Udall is only a freshman Democratic senator—a mere tadpole in the Senate's seniority-based food chain—but his tireless quest to reform Washington has catapulted him to primetime TV interviews, frequent op-ed pieces in national publications and the New York Times editorial pages.
But Udall's proposals are controversial. His opponents consider aspects of the proposed rule changes ill-advised at best—and "highly pernicious," in the words of one Washington veteran, at worst. What's more, the means by which he plans to achieve those changes—a procedural sleight-of-hand known as the "constitutional option"—is unprecedented and could significantly impact how the Senate functions.
So here he is, sipping lukewarm water out of a "Best of Santa Fe" coffee mug and patiently explaining how exactly the Senate rules work, and why they're not working—and it occurs to me that one unassuming New Mexican just might have what it takes to make Congress work again.
Before becoming a senator, Udall served as New Mexico's attorney general and, later, as a congressman representing the state's Dist. 3, which includes Santa Fe. Almost since his election to the Senate in 2008, he's been pushing for reform.
He usually starts his pitch with a simple assumption: The Senate is broken.
"I observed it for 10 years when I was in the House; it seemed to me that it was a graveyard for good ideas," he says. "We would be passing bills out of the House; they would go into the Senate, and they would just die."
During its two years, the 112th Congress—in session from 2011 until this January—passed 220 public laws, the fewest in history.
"The rules have been so abused, and so much power has been taken onto individual senators, that the institution can't operate right now," Udall says. In his view, much of the blame lies with the filibuster.
Technically, the term "filibuster" includes any tactic used to delay legislative action. In the context of the Senate, it usually means extending debate on a bill or nomination—or even on the question of whether to debate a bill or nomination—indefinitely in order to keep it from moving forward.
The most famous example, and one frequently invoked to reflect how much has changed over the course of Senate history, is Jimmy Stewart's filibuster in the 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. In the film, Stewart plays the naïve Mr. Smith, who talks for hours on the Senate floor in an attempt to block a corrupt land deal.
In the past, Udall explains, senators who wanted to filibuster a bill came down to the floor and talked, sometimes for hours—just like Jimmy Stewart. Today, however, the filibuster has morphed into a mere threat.
"Now, it's secret and silent…somebody calls the cloakroom and says, 'I don't like this bill,' and they don't even have to be public about it," Udall explains. "And so, if you get every senator doing that, the whole place grinds to a halt—and that's what happened the last two years. I mean, we had the most unproductive Congress on the Senate side in history, and then the same's true with the overall Congress."
In part, that's because it takes 60 votes—a "supermajority"—to stop a filibuster. In recent years, that has usually meant that any vote to end a filibuster has to be bipartisan. (The current Senate has 53 Democrats, 45 Republicans and two Independents.)
In one sense, the filibuster protects the minority party's rights by giving it a last-resort means of stopping a particularly offensive bill. But in recent years, filibusters have become less an extraordinary measure and more a matter of course.
While the actual number of filibusters undertaken is difficult to calculate, the number of votes taken in an attempt to break a filibuster—known as "cloture" votes—reflects the exponential rise in filibusters (see chart, page 18). In the most recent congress, for instance, the Senate held 73 cloture votes—down from 112 in 2007-08, but still the third-highest in history.
Udall's proposal to reform the Senate rules has four parts, but its centerpiece is the "talking filibuster"—a requirement that anyone who wants to stop a bill has to show up and actually, physically do it.
"One senator shouldn't be able to hold up the whole show," he says. "If you're going to hold up the whole show, then go to the floor, tell everybody why you're going to hold up the United States Senate from acting on a particular bill."
It sounds fair. But critics like Martin B Gold, a 40-year veteran of Washington and senior counsel at the international law firm Covington & Burling, have their doubts.
"I do not believe that a number of Sen. Udall's proposals are bad things in and of themselves; some of those things are only bad in the context of solving half the problem but not the other half," Gold says. "Some of the things that he proposes, which will damage minority rights beyond recognition, are bad and should be opposed regardless."
Gold points to the Republican argument that the filibuster—even if it is being overused—is only part of the problem.
"From a Republican perspective, their problem is that [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid [D-Nev.] has used his power as majority leader in extraordinary and unprecedented ways to block amendments," he says.
Namely: "filling the tree," a once-rare parliamentary procedure that Republicans say Reid has used excessively—and unfairly.
Here's how it works: When it comes to amendments, the Senate majority leader has the power of "priority recognition"—the ability to choose which amendments to allow on a bill.
Imagine a bill as the trunk of the tree. The tree can only support a certain number of branches before it collapses under its own weight; in the same way, only a certain number of amendments are allowed on any given bill. So in essence, the majority leader can choose to allow only the amendments he likes, or only the ones proposed by members of his party. In doing so, he can take up all the available amendment space—hence "filling the tree."
According to data from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, Reid filled the tree 58 times between 2007 and April 2012—more than all of the previous six majority leaders (three Democrats, three Republicans) combined.
"That is a matter of bitter complaint on the Republican side—and it's extraordinary, really," Gold says.
Last February, for example, Reid filled the tree on a transportation bill, blocking Republicans from adding amendments. Some of the amendments Republicans wanted had nothing to do with transportation, such as a bid by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to block US aid to Egypt until 19 hostages were released, or a proposal by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., to change the Obama administration's contraception rule, according to Politico.
Udall says he supports the minority party's right to add relevant amendments to a bill. But Gold maintains that even unrelated amendments have a place in the process, since they allow the minority party to raise issues the majority party may not want to talk about.
"When the amendment opportunities are foreclosed, whose rights are limited? It's not just the rights of the senator who is being limited, but the people who the senator represents," Gold notes.
That's why Gold argues that Udall's proposal only does half of what's needed to truly reform the Senate.
"The real way the Senate should work, you understand, is that you don't change a single comma in the rules; you simply exercise self-restraint: Republicans don't filibuster the motion to proceed so much, and Democrats don't fill the amendment tree so much," Gold says. "Self-restraint is the best answer, honestly."
But as any congressional observer knows, self-restraint is more of a theoretical value than a realistic proposition. Udall points to a "gentlemen's agreement" between Reid and McConnell that arose the last time he proposed the constitutional option, back in January 2011.
"What happened last time is, both leaders stepped forward and said they had a gentleman's agreement to improve everything—and then it blew up," Udall recalls. "They deflected people from our package by saying, 'We have a gentlemen's agreement; we promise you it's going to work better in the future.' And then…the agreement blew up within a matter of weeks."
While the previous proposal did address the amendment issue, Udall says, "This package doesn't have amendments because we wanted to encourage [Republicans] to come forward with their ideas on amendments, and then we will deal with them as we get into the final drafting of this." But to Gold, that's short-sighted—especially given that no party is likely to stay in the majority forever.
"At the end of the day, it's simply fine for Sen. Udall—who's never served a day in the minority in the Senate—to figure out how it is that the Senate can be made more efficient from a majority party perspective," Gold says, "but he's not fixing the problem that so aggravates the minority; he's only fixing the problem that aggravates his own people."
But Gold also says the "talking filibuster" proposal—where Udall acknowledges that support is "softest"—has one "highly pernicious" feature: "If there is a gap in the talking filibuster, the filibuster can be ended on a simple majority vote," he says. "Never in the history of the Senate has this been so."
A simple majority, of course, would enable Democrats to stop a filibuster on their own, with just 51 votes—something Gold considers a serious threat to the minority party's power. But Udall spokeswoman Marissa Padilla writes in an email to SFR that ending the talking filibuster with a simple majority can only happen "if at one point no senator wishes to speak."
"The talking filibuster does not mean that the minority will lose its power to filibuster," Padilla writes. "It means that the filibuster will be restored to its traditional role, where it is only used on issues that senators are willing to spend time and energy to oppose. This will help curb the routine use of the filibuster to block things for no other reason than to obstruct all business."
But on a fundamental level, nearly everyone agrees: The Senate is broken, and it's hard to know quite who's to blame.
"I think a better way of looking at this anyway is that we have two negative trends that have tended to develop at the same time, and that one is not wholly related to the other: Republicans being quick on filibustering the motion to proceed, which probably ought to be fixed somehow, and Democrats being quick to fill the amendment tree, which surely ought to be fixed somehow," Gold says, "and that any fix that tries to cure only one-half of the problem without the other half is fundamentally unbalanced and unfair."
But it isn't just the rules change that some Republicans consider unfair—it's also the means by which Udall proposes to achieve it. Specifically, they worry about the constitutional (or "nuclear") option, which could give Democrats the power to reform the Senate with just 51 votes.
According to a provision of the US Constitution, on the first day of the legislative session, the Senate can alter its own rules with a simple majority of 51 votes. Normally, rules changes require approval by two-thirds of the senators present and voting: a whopping 67 votes. Neither party has held 67 Senate seats since the 1960s, so recent rules changes have always needed the support of both parties. (When asked whether he has the 51 votes, Udall demurred, saying he planned to spend the recess gathering support.)
Invoking the constitutional option, then, would give Democrats a huge advantage—and could allow them to remake the rules to their benefit.
Recently, Reid extended the first legislative day to Jan. 22—meaning that next week, Democrats will have a chance to invoke the constitutional option.
There are, of course, arguments against it. Some critics maintain that the constitutional option is, in fact, unconstitutional—that in order to change its rules, the Senate must abide by its existing rules, and therefore must have at least 67 votes to approve the change.
Gold, it so happens, co-authored the seminal paper on invoking the constitutional option in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy in 2004.
"I never advocated, however—any place in that article—that such be done," he says. "It's like writing about nuclear weapons…and indicating that there is a mechanism by which nuclear bombs can be built, without advocating they be used."
The point of the 67-vote threshold for rules changes, Gold explains, is as "a way of protecting Senate minorities, whether they are Republican or Democrat, from just having the majority party of the moment impose its will on the rules and structure of the body."
Gold says the combination of the constitutional option with rules changes that address only one side's concerns could effect two major changes in the Senate.
"The first is that, in an unprecedented way, the majority party will have oppressed the minority party on rules changes—the mechanism will be oppressive," he says, referring to the constitutional option. "The second thing that will happen is that the minority party will have fewer rights in the Senate than the minority party has ever had in the history of the Senate. Those two things will be true. That may suit Sen. Udall, but I think it's really bad for the Senate."
Where, then, should the Senate go from here?
Udall points to the fiscal cliff negotiations as evidence not only of Congress' dysfunction, but also of the Senate's ability to act in a pinch.
"Democracy is messy, and there's way too much of the blame game," he says. "But the good thing about the whole issue with the fiscal cliff is, we did reach a result, and we passed a piece of legislation, and it actually moved us in the right direction in terms of this overall goal of dealing with the yearly deficits and bringing down the growing national debt."
But he also points out that the fix is only temporary, and even tougher battles lie ahead.
"We essentially have created three more cliffs out of the fiscal cliff," Udall says. First, at the end of February, comes another vote on whether to raise the debt ceiling in order to pay for spending Congress has already approved—the same battle that, in August 2011, led the country to the edge of default, prompting a credit downgrade from Standard & Poor's. Next comes the "sequester"—the sweeping budget cuts scheduled to take effect at the beginning of this year, but which were postponed until March 1 during the fiscal cliff negotiations. Finally, there's the expiration of the "continuing resolution"—an informal type of appropriation used in the absence of a formal budget bill—on March 27.
In other words, Congress is poised to face its greatest challenge yet: dealing with the explosion of spending, coupled with reduced revenues, that is driving the country's debt up to unsustainable levels.
"To reach an overall agreement to deal with our debt, you have to find $4 trillion over 10 years, and that is really difficult," Udall says. "We're not willing to tell people how dramatic of change we have to go through," he says.
Some measures have been put in place—including the latest fiscal cliff deal—"but we still haven't even come halfway," he says.
Not to mention, he adds, "You don't want to do all of this too fast, because you drive the economy back into a recession…I think one of the worst things that could happen to New Mexico in the next couple of years would be severe federal cuts in all of the things that are very much a federal presence in New Mexico…from the national labs to our three Air Force bases to White Sands testing to all the national parks and monuments."
But in order to adequately address these issues, both Udall and Gold agree on one thing: the Senate will have to function better.
"At the end of the day, of course, the rules are not the problem; it's the execution of the rules that is the problem," Gold says. "The rules haven't changed…So what changed? Human behavior. How the rules are executed, not the rules themselves. Because the rules do not command this behavior; they permit it, not command it." Gold tells a story—one of those from the annals of the Senate's glory days—about the Gang of 14, a bipartisan group that worked out a deal to avoid excessive filibustering of George W Bush's judicial nominations.
"It was all a function of self-restraint," Gold says. "Nobody changed a rule, but they put the sword of the filibuster back in the sheath. And they allowed it to be used in extraordinary circumstances, but not as an instrument of party policy. And nobody voted for the nuclear option."
A similar change could happen this time: Even as Udall works to garner support for the constitutional option and his reform package, a bipartisan coalition of senators is working on another proposal that wouldn't require invoking the constitutional option.
Even though he believes Washington is more polarized than it used to be, Gold says compromise is not only possible, but imperative.
"At the end of the day, the Senate went back to normal—and that's how it should be," he says. "Self-restraint is still possible in an era of hyper-partisanship, like rules changes are still possible in an era of hyper-partisanship. But what is necessary is for the parties to understand that if they take their positions to the extreme, where one party just simply oppresses the other one, it is not going to cure partisanship; it is going to advance it. It is going to deepen it."
And Udall, for one, promises to do his part.
"Every day, I wake up and try to not be part of the problem," he says. "I try to set a positive example; I try to go out and legislate about the things people care about; and I try to respond to my constituents."
Email the author: firstname.lastname@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


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OPINION: Could Scientific Decisions on Energy Worker Petitions Be Influenced by Inquiries?
About 15 months ago, I advised the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) petitioner for the Hooker Electrochemical Company to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for all emails from NIOSH where that site was discussed. She was a bit reluctant at first because she did not know how those emails would help convince the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (the Board) to recommend that site for inclusion in the SEC. I reminded her of the emails I found when I first FOIA'd emails from DCAS for the Rocky Flats SEC petition. I explained that there might be just one piece of paper that would prove beneficial to her cause. Unfortunately, the petitioner did not receive the thousand or so pages until after the Board voted not to include Hooker Electrochemical in the SEC.
But she has diligently been reviewing the emails DCAS sent. A few days ago she sent me this message,
"Can you imagine someone like Mr. Stu H. asking Mr. Ted K. for him to let him know the political interest in the companies that were going to be considered by the Board at one point in the emails? He told him to rate them as high, med. etc. Now isn't that telling?"
You bet it's telling!
She graciously provided the email stream so I could see for myself. You can find the stream here:
To summarize the conversation, Dr. Gregory Macievic advised Ted Katz, Designated Federal Official (DFO), that a Los Alamos Lab Work Group meeting needed to be postponed. Mr. Katz responded that he would postpone the meeting but that Dr. Macievic should remember this SEC petition "has substantial political heat growing behind it. DCAS may get more fan mail from Congress over the pace."
Stuart Hinnefeld, Director of DCAS was copied on this email. He, in turn, asks Mr. Katz to prioritize the SEC petitions then under evaluation or with the Board. Mr. Hinnefeld basically wanted to know which SEC petitions he can expect "fan mail" from Congress.
It appears that Mr. Katz realized his blunder about mentioning the heat from Congress and cautions Mr. Hinnefeld that political considerations should not be a factor in scheduling Board meetings. I find the caution ironic because it was Mr. Katz who raised the concern in the first place. If Mr. Katz had stopped with the cautionary advice I would not be posting this blog.
However, Mr. Katz then proceeded to rate the petitions as Mr. Hinnefeld requested!
These emails raise some serious concerns. Let's start off with the role of a DFO. (In the interest of full disclosure, I must mention that ANWAG has concerns with Mr. Katz's role as the DFO and raised this issue on a number of occasions. Mr. Katz helped develop the Final Rules for SEC petitions and DCAS's dose reconstruction. The advocates feel that there is the potential of bias if not the outright professional conflict of interest.)
The Code of Federal Regulations explains the role of a DFO:
102-3.120 What are the responsibilities and functions of a Designated Federal Officer (DFO)?
The agency head or, in the case of an independent Presidential advisory committee, the Secretariat, must designate a Federal officer or employee who must be either full-time or permanent part-time, to be the DFO for each advisory committee and its subcommittees, who must:
(a) Approve or call the meeting of the advisory committee or subcommittee;
(b) Approve the agenda, except that this requirement does not apply to a Presidential advisory committee;
(c) Attend the meetings;
(d) Adjourn any meeting when he or she determines it to be in the public interest; and
(e) Chair the meeting when so directed by the agency head.
It was proper for Dr. Macievic to inform Mr. Katz about the need to postpone the LANL Work Group meeting. That is Mr. Katz's responsibility as a DFO.
But why is Mr. Hinnefeld asking Mr. Katz to rate the petitions? Wouldn't it have been more appropriate for Mr. Hinnefeld to forward this email to his boss, Dr. John Howard, Director of NIOSH, and ask Dr. Howard's for his guidance? Why is Mr. Hinnefeld concerned about Congressional inquiries to begin with? Is DCAS not performing its duties responsibly?
And, so what if legislators are making inquiries? It's their job! Congress represents the people who live in their state. Part of their responsibility is to provide help to their constituents. I think it's safe to say that every legislator has a button on their website marked, "Get Help with a Federal Agency." I personally appreciate the long-standing support from the Colorado delegation for the Rocky Flats claimants. But, does this mean that DCAS will push for a quick resolution to an SEC petition only if the legislators make a big stink? Does DCAS let the other petitions lanquish?
One would think that the prioritization would be based on the first in, first out model. Yes, I understand that there could be obstacles that DCAS encounters which could delay a Work Group's meeting. For instance, DCAS may not having a security cleared individual readily available to review classified documents or interview workers. Another example would be if the Department of Energy is slow to release records. But I think a Congressional office would understand these delays.
Another concern is why DCAS was short on help. Are they still experiencing a shortage of qualified personnel? They have and have had a $55 million budget since at least 2011. With this kind of budget one would think that adequate staffing would not be an issue.
This discussion of political heat, and rating SEC petitions based on that pressure, taints the entire SEC process. Does this political heat filter down to whether DCAS should recommend approval of an SEC petition to the Board? Would the reason that the Hooker Electrochemical petition was denied inclusion in the SEC was that petition did not have any inquiries made by the legislators?
For the record, I think every site should be included in the SEC if there are no, inadequate, or possibly fraudulent monitoring records. The Charlie Wolf Act would have accomplished this.
There's only one solution to this problem. Congress must become more involved in this program. They need to hold oversight and investigative hearings as soon as possible. The claimants, petitioners and, indeed, the United States taxpayers must be assured that this program is administered in a fair manner, based on sound science and that monies and resources are allocated wisely.
Terrie Barrie is an advocate for and one of the founders of ANWAG. The column first appeared on their page.


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In an "ask me anything" session today, former Nokia chief and current Microsoft head of devices and services Stephen Elop answered questions on a variety of topics. One of those was Nokia's decision to make devices for the Windows Phone platform instead of Android. When prompted if he thought it was the right decision, his answer was as reasonable as it was surprising.
When asked "do you think that Nokia with Android is a good idea?", Elop elaborated a bit more than anticipated. In his response, it was clear the choice was measured, and aimed at survival:
When we made the decision to focus on Windows Phone back in 2011, we were very concerned that a decision to pursue Android would put us on a collision course with Samsung, who already had established a head of steam around Android. That was the right decision, as we have seen virtually all other OEMs from those days pushed to the side. Today, we are using AOSP to attack a specific market opportunity, but we are being thoughtful to do it in a way that accrues benefit to Microsoft and to Lumia.
Already caught with their guard down, Nokia chose to forge a path nobody else was considering in Windows Phone dominance. While that likely meant (and eventually did) lead to a dimishined market share, it didn't kill them off. Well, didn't kill them off as quickly as it could have, at least.
Elop actually makes a salient point, and shows that Nokia knew what they were up against in Samsung. At the time Nokia was facing a decision to build devices for a platform other than their defunct Symbian, HTC and Motorola were trending downward while the deep-pocketed Samsung was on the rise. Faced with a competitive Android market and Windows platform that needed a true partner, the choice for Nokia was clear.
Though they eventually folded into Microsoft, they've managed to keep themselves alive as a service-oriented company. That likely wouldn't have been the case had they tried to join the Android mix all those years ago. Had they jumped into the deep water when everyone was goading them, it's plausible the company would have simply folded entirely and left the world with nothing.
Source: Nokia/Microsoft


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RICHMOND (WRIC) – Mark Obenshain will formally request a recount in the historically close Attorney General's race Wednesday morning.
A margin of 165 votes out of more than 2.2 million ballots cast currently separates the two candidates.
Ashley L. Taylor, Jr. and Stephen C. Piepgrass, representing Obenshain's legal team, will hold a press conference call Wednesday, November 27 at 10 a.m. to discuss the recount.
Copyright 2013 by Young Broadcasting of Richmond


text:
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October 2010 Book Club Nominations
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Horror nominations
Those ebooks available on MR will have formats listed with links to the ebooks here on MR.
I will use spoiler tags to contain book descriptions.
Three Nominations
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
by =X= -
by Madam Broshkina
Multiple formats
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@ LibriVox
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In case anyone isn't familiar with the plot, Dr. Jekyll is a kindly doctor who is experimenting with "mind altering" drugs. One of these drugs accidentally turns him in a homicidal maniac, who calls himself Edward Hyde, and whose personality gradually takes over that of Dr. Jekyll, until he can no longer control his transformations. A story of a man's decent into madness. Still as gripping today as when it was written in 1886. (HarryT)
by Jan Strnad
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Terror has come to the small town of Anderson, Kansas, where Death has gone on holiday and the recently deceased are returning to life, not as shambling zombies, but seemingly as good as new. Are the resurrections a miracle, or something far more sinister? Previously published by Pinnacle Books under the pseudonym of J. Knight. Revised in 2010.
Darkly Dreaming Dexter
by Jeff Lindsay
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Wikipedia describes the book as: "The novel's protagonist, Dexter Morgan, works for the Miami-Dade Police Department as a forensic blood spatter pattern analyst. In his spare time, Dexter is a serial killer with a catch: he only kills murderers that he believes have escaped judicial punishment." Lindsey has a series of 4 books starring Dexter Morgan. A great read and even made into a TV series.
Frostbite: A Werewolf Tale
by David Wellington -
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Description: Nipped by a wolf during an Arctic camping expedition, Cheyenne Clark suddenly finds herself feeling ferally frisky when the moon is up in Wellington's far from routine werewolf tale. It turns out that Monty Powell, the loner who gives Chey refuge, is no ordinary guy, but the werewolf who turned her. But then Chey is no ordinary camper: she was sent to draw Monty out by a band of professional more »hunters who want the oil beneath the vast acreage Monty prowlsand to avenge the death of her father, whom Monty coincidentally slaughtered two decades before. Wellington ( 23 Hours ) gets surprising mileage out of this tortuously improbable plot, hinging it on Chey's difficulty choosing between the gun-toting human mercenaries who are using her as bait and Monty, a victim of supernatural circumstances who understands her plight better than anyone else. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. "Entertaining and thrilling...Wellington is a vivid storyteller, whether describing gruesome attacks, expressing the subtle attraction between man and woman or chronicling the life of a troubled teen" - Associated Press From the Trade Paperback edition. (from Amazon.com)
The Invasion
by William Meikle -
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From Amazon: It started during a winter storm on the North Eastern Seaboard which brought with it a strange green rain. Where it fell, everything withered, died, and was consumed. The residents of remote outposts in Maritime Canada escaped the worst of the early damage, but that was a blessing in disguise, for they were left to watch as first North America, then the world, was subsumed in the creeping green carpet of terror.
And that was just the beginning. New life forms began to arise from the ooze, simple organisms at first, but multiplying with ever-increasing complexity. The few human survivors are faced with a full-scale invasion... and only radical measures will guarantee the survival of the human race.
by Chet Williamson and Neil Jackson -
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Three men are offered a million dollars each if they will spend a month in an isolated Pennsylvania mansion, the Pines. There they will confront madness, murder and the ultimate evil....so that their billionaire host might find the key to life beyond the grave. But as they learn, dead souls dwell in the Pines. And death is just the beginning.... (recluse)
American Psycho
by Bret Easton Ellis -
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This review is based on the galley issued by Ellis's original publisher, Simon & Schuster, before it cancelled the book. The book is now going through the editing process at Vintage. There may be some changes in the final version. The indignant attacks on Ellis's third novel (see News, p. 17; Editorial, p. 6) will make it difficult for most readers to judge it objectively. Although the book contains horrifying scenes, they must be read in the context of the book as a whole; the horror does not lie in the novel itself, but in the society it reflects. In the first third of the book, Pat Bateman, a 26-year-old who works on Wall Street, describes his designer lifestyle in excruciating detail. This is a world in which the elegance of a business card evokes more emotional response than the murder of a child. Then suddenly, for no apparent reason, Bateman calmly and deliberately blinds and stabs a homeless man. From here, the body count builds, as he kills a male acquaintance and sadistically tortures and murders two prostitutes, an old girlfriend, and a child he passes in the zoo. The recital of the brutalization is made even more horrible by the first-person narrator's delivery: flat, matter-of-fact, as impersonal as a car parts catalog. The author has carefully constructed the work so that the reader has no way to understand this killer's motivations, making it even more frightening. If these acts cannot be explained, there is no hope of protection from such random, senseless crimes. This book is not pleasure reading, but neither is it pornography. It is a serious novel that comments on a society that has become inured to suffering. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/90 and 12/90. - Nora Rawlinson, "Library Journal" Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. Bret Easton Ellis is a very, very good writer [and] American Psycho is a beautifully controlled, careful, important novel . The novelists function is to keep a running tag on the progress of culture; and hes done it brilliantly . A seminal book. Fay Weldon, The Washington Post A masterful satire and a ferocious, hilarious, ambitious, inspiring piece of writing, which has large elements of Jane Austen at her vitriolic best. An important book. Katherine Dunn A great novel. What Emerson said about genius, that its the return of ones rejected thoughts with an alienated majesty, holds true for American Psycho . There is a fever to the life of this book that is, in my reading, unknown in American literature. Michael Tolkin The first novel to come along in years that takes on deep and Dostoyevskian themes . [Ellis] is showing older authors where the hands come to on the clock. Norman Mailer, Vanity Fair From the Trade Paperback edition. (from Amazon.com)
The Killing Kind
by Bryan Smith -
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A group of college friends are ready for a week of partying at their rented beach house. They didn-t count on a pair of homicidal maniacs crashing the party. (from Amazon.com)
Let the Right One In (US Title - Let Me In)
by John Ajvide Lindqvist -
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From the publisher:
Set in 1983,Let Me In is the horrific tale of Oskar and Eli. It begins with the grizzly discovery of the body of a teenage boy, emptied of blood. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long lastrevenge for all the bad things the bullies at school do to him, day after day. While Oskar is fascinated by the murder, it is not the most important thing in his life. A new girl has moved in next doora girl who has never seen a Rubiks cube before, but who can solve it at once. They become friends. Then something more. But there is something wrong with her, something odd. And she only comes out at night. . . .
The House on the Borderland
by William Hope Hodgson -
by Roy White -
mobi / prc
by crutledge -
@ feedbooks
In 1877, two gentlemen, Messrs Tonnison and Berreggnog, head into Ireland to spend a week fishing in the village of Kraighten. Whilst there, they discover in the ruins of a very curious house a diary of the man who had once owned it. Its torn pages seem to hint at an evil beyond anything that existed on this side of the curtains of impossibility (Wikipedia)
At the Mountains of Madness
by H.P.Lovecraft -
@ manybooks
from manybooks:
On an expedition to Antarctica, Professor William Dyer and his colleagues discover the remains of ancient half-vegetable, half-animal life-forms. The extremely early date in the geological strata is surprising because of the highly-evolved features found in these previously unkown life-forms. Through a series of dark revelations, violent episodes, and misunderstandings, the group learns of Earth's secret history and legacy.
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text:
What they said: Michael ConnellNovember 14, 2010
PGA TOUR staff
MORE INTERVIEWS: Children's Miracle Network Classic transcript archive
Q. All right, Michael. You came in this week 129. Right now it looks really good. Currently at the moment 116. How do you feel??
MICHAEL CONNELL: I feel like I played well. Just tried to kind of continue what I was doing over the course of the Fall Series. I've played well, and I just wanted to kind of do the same things.
Q. What does a week like this do? Obviously you're not going to win the golf tournament, but an excellent performance, a very good Sunday. I know it's immediately afterwards. As far as reflecting on it, is it going to take a little time?
MICHAEL CONNELL: You know, I can reflect on each round and just try and get better from each of those rounds. That's really kind of all I try and work on is to try and progress and get better each day and each week.
Q. Take me through 17. 17 you find yourself in trouble. You hit it into the hazard. Take me through the process of getting through that hole only suffering 5.
MICHAEL CONNELL: Right. Tee shot's a little awkward for me. I don't hit it far enough to cover much of the water.
So I got in there and I hit it and saw the ball pitched up there just above the hazard, but had a clean lie in the mud there, and just figured actually that was a better place to play it from, try and get it out to the fairway from there because if I dropped it, then I don't have any angle or anything like that. So I just decided to hit it out of the hazard.
Q. All right. Now that you look like you're comfortably inside 125, tell me the first thought you had as far as what was your schedule going to look like? We know what it's going to look like now. What was it going to look like?
MICHAEL CONNELL: Just off of assumption and kind of what people have told me, if I would have stayed where I was, I would have probably gotten about 15, 18 starts next year, and now I get to kind of pick and choose my schedule as I see it.
Q. Churchill will be good in a couple weeks, won't it??
MICHAEL CONNELL: That's right. We're going to enjoy the holidays.
Q. Congratulations.
MICHAEL CONNELL: Thank you.
Q. Michael, when you had one week to sort of make it happen and you managed to summon some of your best golf, what do you take from that??
MICHAEL CONNELL: Well, like I say, I just try and progress each week. This is a tough game. It's tough out here. I try and just work day to day and week to week and progress from there.
Q. Your results in the fall have been very good. What's been the change??
MICHAEL CONNELL: There hasn't been any change. I think I've just finally gotten acclimated to play weekends out here. I made a bunch of cuts this year and just didn't get much out of it, and just kind of got acclimated to playing on the weekend out here, to tell you the truth.
Q. Did you come into this week with any pressure on yourself??
MICHAEL CONNELL: I had some anxiety. Obviously I had some anxiety, but I've been playing well and just kind of wanted to keep doing those same things.
Transcripts provided by ASAP Sports.


text:
on a project
that has a
crazy deadline
and you were
probably expecting
blog posts
Forgive me
I am a dervish
spinning and sweating
words elsewhere
« Leaner, meaner trim size coming your way! | Main | A new Dawn »
Good luck, Shannon! You can do it!
Thanks to you, college education, I know what poem Shannon is referencing. :D I feel so smart.
Wow, this is the most artistic "I'm too busy to write" blog post I've ever seen.
I completely understand! At least you came up with a lovely poem.
Nice. Good luck!
Best of luck on meeting that deadline! Can't wait to see what's in store with your future projects!
This is just to say
I cannot balance life with two children
and laundry
and cleaning
and dinner
and playtime
and still make time
to write
I raise a Cadbury egg
in somber salute
to you.
Sariah, which poem is she referencing, please? I'm curious! :)(And good luck, Shannon!)
May you be praised for spinning and sweating words elsewhere, as I'm sure to benefit from them. I'm sure it's fantastic.
Holly, I don't know if you'll see this, but Shannon is referencing "This Is Just To Say" by William Carlos Williams.
And I hope you treat yourself to some delicious plums when you're done, Shannon!
I hope the plums were delicious, too. :]
The comments to this entry are closed.


text:
Monday, January 7. 2008
Back to Square One
Your comments, thoughts, criticisms, etc., are all welcome.
Posted by Mark at 15:00 | Comments (32)
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I would go even further and contend that our "exalted" leadership is afraid of and even opposed to most mission projects that threaten their stranglehold on the Church with more troublesome converts. Their priorities reflect their empty faith and total disregard for the future of the OCA, otherwise how explain it? For those who contend that we can continue to go merrily on our way turning a blind eye to the failed leadership of our bishops (most) and the antics of their Syosset gnomes, this is proof positive that it just won't work.
My thanks to the reflecting priest who only spoke God's truth.
#1 Kenneth R. Tobin on 2008-01-07 15:33
regarding: fear/hatred of converts--sad but true. While attending St. Tikkhon's Seminary a recruitment message for new seminarians went something like this: "while we rejoice in the number of converts attending the seminaries it is TIME FOR US TO TAKE BACK THE CHURCH (my emphasis)" -- that is; we must recruit more seminarians from the ethnic parishes.
I am 'quoting' from memory, so please don't take this as a literal quote: however; the words "it is time to take back the Church" are seared in my memory. This message was the beginning of my wake up call that St. Tikhon's was not the loving, pastoral haven of true Orthodoxy that I was led to believe it was. Converts = second-hand citizens, a necessary evil (absolutely necessary, given that my graduation class was about 95% converts ! )
#1.1 AnonPriest(ArchD.ofC.) on 2008-01-07 17:21
I am at St. Tikhon's right now, and I can attest to the fact that except for a small minority of Arabs from overseas and one local Ukranian, there are no cradle Orthodox attending the seminary. When I attended a vocations retreat prior to enrolling I remember the dean taking a poll of who was convert and who was cradle, and afterwards saying that the number of converts to the Faith was great, but that he was sad they "weren't getting any of their own boys" (exact words used). And hey, it is something to be sad about, and I never took it to be in any way anti-convert, nor do I ever feel as though converts here are treated as second class citizens. Bishop Tikhon is a convert, as is Hegumen Juvenaly, Father Sergius who heads the music department, and at least half of the faculty and the monastic brotherhood, so I don't buy that at all. The only occasions I have ever witnessed where a convert is treated "second-class" is when we have had someone who insists on bringing their protestant or RC bagage with them into the Church. And this not at the hands of cradles, but at the hands of other converts who truly desire to be Orthodox.
#1.1.1 OCA Seminarian on 2008-01-08 15:07
so in other words, as a convert, you are not one of **their** own boys. Who is "their"?
Yes, Bp. Tikhon, et al are converts, but I would submit that they hold their positions precisely because there is no one else.
However, as you note, the pattern of cradle/convert ratio at the seminaries is holding, with the latter being probably over 90% the last few years. This leads me to believe that the church will change, grow, become stronger, once the cradle generation which still clings to power is gone. But the current reality is that what stymies progress is the insular, self-centered attitue of the 'old school.' This is reflected not only in the leadership of M.Herman, but in the decrepit spiritual state of most of the cradle / ethnic parishes. Just look at the Dioc. of E. Pa and name me five truly healthy parishes.
It indeed would be great if some of "their own boys" would start showing up at seminary. But looking at the dead parishes they need to come from, this isn't too likely
#126.96.36.199 AnonPriest on 2008-01-09 08:36
From: The Christian Century, December 28, 2004
'More Orthodox' than the Orthodox
by John Dart
IT'S COMMONLY observed that converts to a faith are the most ardent defenders of it. That seems to be the case with American converts to Orthodoxy. The large number of converts attending Orthodox seminaries prompted Alexey D. Krindatch, a sociologist of religion, to wonder whether an "Americanization" of Eastern Orthodoxy might lie ahead. His conclusion: "Probably not."
Responses from students at three seminaries of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and the Orthodox Church in America (OCA)--the two largest Orthodox bodies in the U.S.--confirmed, he said, "the widespread notion that Protestant and Catholic converts tend to be 'more Orthodox' than persons who were born and raised" as Orthodox.
The converts expressed more conservative attitudes than Orthodox-born seminarians did on, for instance, accepting the authority of bishops and discouraging ecumenical worship and religiously mixed marriages. Krindatch reported his findings at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.
Asked why the tradition-bound, liturgically intricate Orthodox churches are attracting converts, Krindatch suggested in an interview that many of the former evangelical Protestants studying for the Orthodox priesthood see a "discrepancy" between their strong personal faith "and the fact that their churches have no historical roots in original Christianity, no apostolic succession and no liturgical atmosphere."
In the case of former Catholics and Episcopalians, however, converts are attempting to "return to their churches' religious experiences of 20 to 30 years ago, when their churches were more 'traditional.'"
While both Orthodox-born seminarians and the converts were relatively similar in religious upbringing, education and family income level, the former evangelicals "come from much wealthier families" that were very active churchgoers. The ex-evangelicals were more likely to have a higher level of secular education as well as businessmen fathers, and they "were more definite in their plans to be ordained and serve as priests" than were their classmates.
Krindatch surveyed seminarians at Holy Cross (Greek Orthodox) Seminary in the Boston suburb of Brookline, where 25 percent of the students are converts, and at two OCA seminaries, St. Vladimir's in Crestwood, New York, and St. Tikhon's in South Canaan, Pennsylvania. The majority of the students at the latter two are converts, he said.
Krindatch recently was named director for campus ministry and church growth at the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute, which is part of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Krindatch, a faculty member at the Institute of Geography in Moscow, had been doing his research as a visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara, California.
The institute in Berkeley previously has dealt mainly with theological and historical issues, said Krindatch, but it "hopes to concentrate its future studies more on the contemporary situation and social changes within various American Orthodox churches."
Change has been slow by Western standards. In his survey, Krindatch found that 57 to 64 percent of convert seminarians agree that while most Orthodox Christians "are socially integrated into American society, the Orthodox churches as institutions are still perceived by the vast majority of Americans as "immigrant communities," compared to 46 percent of Orthodox-born who say that. At the same time, the proportion of the most pessimistic seminarians--those who say "the Orthodox churches still are and will remain 'strangers' to American society"--is higher among "cradle Orthodox" than among convert seminarians.
Cradle Orthodox students are also more pessimistic than the converts that the ethnically oriented Orthodox churches eventually will gain autonomy from mother churches abroad, or that a unified American Eastern Orthodox Church will emerge in decades to come.
Ex-Protestant seminarians may hope for ecumenical progress within Orthodoxy, but they tend to reject joint ecumenical prayers or services with non-Orthodox. Also, a significant proportion of both ex-Catholic (34 percent) and ex-Protestant (.36 percent of ex-mainliners and 52 percent of ex-evangelicals) seminarians say that Orthodox priests should try hard to discourage mixed marriages. Seminarians raised in Orthodox churches are somewhat more lenient on the issue, though not as accommodating as current priests in Orthodox parishes.
A separate survey of priests in Greek and OCA parishes found that two-thirds take a more liberal position on mixed marriages--but stay within church guidelines. In other words, priests would conduct such weddings when they are held in the Orthodox Church, and would encourage the non-Orthodox partner to join the church. "Only a minority of all seminarians (31 percent of OCA seminarians, 48 percent of Greek Orthodox seminarians) share the same view," Krindatch said.
Krindatch acknowledged that the seminarians' conservative stances, even if reflective of a generational trend, may evolve during "actual work in the parishes."
#22.214.171.124.1 Anonymous on 2008-01-09 21:00
Dear Priest,
I constantly have to remind myself that the Diocese of EPA is the worst that the OCA has to offer, and that I can't let the state of affairs here bring me down, or I would find myself in a state of depression most of the time. Bishop Tikhon really has his work cut out for him, but I don't think one man's lifetime is enough time to fix all that needs fixing here. No, I could not name 5 parishes here that I would consisder healthy, but I could easily name more that 5 that should be closed, bulldozed, and have their properties sold to help with this finincial mess the Church is in. Anyway...back to the convert thing. I am just one of many converts that is raising the next generation of cradle Orthodox. I pray to God that the Church will get stronger, as you say, but I wish that we had more to learn from. Either way, the converts are definately the future of the Church in America. Despite all that is going on in the OCA the seminaries are packed. I don't think that is the case with the more ethnic jurisdictions, whose state is not that much better than how your described the cradle communities in the OCA.
#126.96.36.199.2 OCA Seminarian on 2008-01-09 21:04
I would like to correct the comment in the last reflection. The financial constraints that I spoke of has nothing to due with Archbishop JOB or the witholding. I never made the comment. As has long been stated, the Planting Grant relies directly on the money recieved for the February Mission Appeal. We give grants to mission exactly matching the amount recieved. So if we bring in $30,000 as we did in 2007, then that only allows two missions at $15,000 a mission for one year. If we we bring in (as we had averaged) $75,000 then that gives us 5 missions. The Planting Granst is totally divorced from the OCA budget.
It is through the kindness of a donor (whom I do not know who it was) that we were able to pick up 4 additional missions since the amount was $60,000. So thanks be to God we now have six missionson the Grant and were able to bring the other one back on.
If you have any questions regarding the Mission Grant program and its operation, please feel free to ask me. And of course, ask any of the number of the mission priests who have been on the Grant both in the past and the present. I am sure they can also explain exactly how it works, how successful it is and the positive spirit that their missions operate. I am humbled by their sacrifice and hard work in the difficult mission field. I only wish we could support ten of them each year.
Yours in Christ
Fr. Eric G. Tosi
Department of Evangelization
With all due respect, Father Eric, you said: We give grants to mission exactly matching the amount recieved. So if we bring in $30,000 as we did in 2007, then that only allows two missions at $15,000 a mission for one year. If we we bring in (as we had averaged) $75,000 then that gives us 5 missions. The Planting Granst is totally divorced from the OCA budget. However, this does not include what has happened in the past and quite honestly, does not mean past actions will not recur! Please refer to the Loan secured and finalized http://www.oca.org/NewsPrintable.asp?ID=1080 . If the planting grants are totally divorced from the OCA budget, please explain the repayment of $87,560.00 in the Mission Appeal funds listed. This reminds me of a saying I think weve all heard: You can fool all of the people some of the time (and you have) and some of the people all of the time (and you are) but you cant fool all of the people all of the time (and you wont).
#2.1 Watching in New Jersey on 2008-01-08 09:25
Fr Eric,
how Was that $87,560 from the Honesdale loan disbursed to missions, and in which year?
Thank you,
Rachel Andreyev
#2.1.1 Rachel Andreyev on 2008-01-08 12:20
Look, most of Syosset is cleaned out. We just need + Herman to leave as soon as possible. Although they'll have to take him out kicking and screaming, the time has come. He doesn't realize "HE" is hurting the Church and the recovery of the OCA. Staying on until Nov. to retire leaves the OCA in limbo for another 10 months. Say good-bye; go back to Wilkes-Barre...
#3 Anono-Moose on 2008-01-07 17:25
"You shall know them by their fruits." We sure know them, don't we. After so many years, the Talent they were entrusted with has been mostly squandered. The OCA leadership and most of its hierarchs would not even be able to return the ONE Talent they were given by the Master; they are beyond contempt and below the minimal standards Christ set for His sheep.
Then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.
But his lord answered and said to him, You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25:24-30)
This latest reflection represents an incredible new low in informative journalism. The author connects many ideas that are simply not true.
Fact number one, the Metropolitan Council sets the budgets not the chancery staff in New York. It is also the Metropolitan Council that decided what positions to have in Syosset. The entire OCA at its All-American Councils sets the assessment amounts. It was not the diocesan assessments that caused the lack of mission grants, it was the lack of funding from the general populace of the OCA. Mr. Tobin how much did you contribute to missions?
The idea that this was somehow a conspiracy to disparage Archbishop Job is simply ridiculous. Whether the assessments were or were not withheld had nothing to do with the number of grants that could be funded. The number of grants was a function of how much money was raised for grants. The Midwest assessments have nothing to do with missions.
The author's suggestion that somehow $300,000 would have been available for missions is also incorrect. Speak to Fr. Mathew Tate if you disagree with the budget but it is unfair to pin it on the few remaining people in Syosset. Did you somehow miss the fact that a number of people were cut in 2007? I have various reports but as many as 15 people got the axe. I think that is pretty good proof that someone is looking at this.
In fairness to the author, I agree that the handling of the prior secretary was bungled and cost the OCA an unnecessary amount of money. However to also be fair to the task force that hired him they had an extremely difficult task to very quickly assemble a competent staff in a very short amount of time. Countless people have pontificated on this web site yet not a great many of them actually made a trip to Long Island to help clean up the disaster left by the former Chancellor. Perhaps if the former Chancellor had spent a bit more time developing competent staff instead of worrying about his precious amber cross or his next first class trip to Russia the OCA would not have found itself in the current mess. Perhaps if he had not ripped off the OCA to the tune of several hundreds of thousands of dollars the OCA would have put more money into into missions.
By the way Fr. Anonymous, it's interesting that you didn't give any credit to the anonymous donation of $60,000 for missions. You see, despite your sitting back in your easy chair and writing your missive that is full of mistakes there are some that actually want to see the OCA succeed. Here are a couple of suggestions: (1) think about what you want to write, (2) get your facts straight, (3) say a pray and ask yourself whether or not your actions help or hurt the situation. Will you be part of the solution or part of the problem?
I pray that the Lord would open your heart and mind to the fact that despite all of the ills that have happened in the past the Church is still here and new growth is already appearing. Maybe it's not as glamorous or titillating as you would like it, but the Church is beginning to heal.
(Editor's Note: In all fairness it must be pointed out that the reflection was written before the $60,000 donation was given; our publication schedule prevented it being published earlier.)
#5 Anon. on 2008-01-07 18:33
I will tell you how much I have contributed to missions when you tell me who you are. It really takes a lot of nerve to criticize or challenge people by name when you don't have the common decency to use yours.
#5.1 Kenneth R. Tobin on 2008-01-07 20:11
Anon you said: "Fact number one, the Metropolitan Council sets the budgets not the chancery staff in New York." Since the Honesdale loan is now an integral portion of our budget, did the Metropolitan Council have any say in acquiring this loan and how it was to be used?
#5.2 Wondering on 2008-01-08 09:33
I think you read the Reflection wrong - the author is simply talking about priorities. What is the priority of the Church - fancy things or missions? I think the Priest was saying that it seems that fancy things look more important and in fact the development of the Church in America/missions should be the top priority. I think what Fr. Tosi said, "The Planting Granst [sic] is totally divorced from the OCA budget" - this is the real problem. Why is it "divorced" from the "real" OCA budget? I have a guess on this, but I won't say.
#5.3 Pachomius on 2008-01-09 08:09
An accurate assessment, but somewhat valueless unless we can spring forth from it.
Yesterday is gone, and all we have are the lessons. If we don't take them into tomorrow, they are too lost.
There is much room for improvement in the OCA administration, there is little doubt, but many of the people there need our support, our ideas for a better tomorrow.
#6 Daniel E. Fall on 2008-01-07 21:34
Well said Father. We must ask God for forgiveness for our haughtiness. The world should not be impressed by a Church that mouths "right theology" but behaves so badly. As you pointed out, twenty years of opportunity have been squandered by selfish, greedy men and women, who are more concerned with going through the motions than living for Christ. The hard question that must be asked is, how this circumstance was allowed to happen. I for one tried to help, but so few seemed to be listening at the time. The question is, are enough listening now to right this ship? Time will tell.
#7 Anon. on 2008-01-07 21:41
Good Lord Folks, when are you all going to finally get it that it was never the role nor going forward will it be the role of the central administration of the OCA to fund missions, or seminaries or even charities. That is the role of the local diocese and parishes, especially when it comes to charity. At best Syosset can "throw a tip" toward those things.
The wrong-headed idea that a strong central church will help the Church to grow is not a model that has worked for us. Syosset at best can set a general direction, be a focus of unity and tend to those things it is responsible for to lead, external affairs, calling All American Councils, Holy Synod and Metropolitan Council meetings. Outside of that, the rest is called to be done by dioceses.
If we have weak dioceses, it is not the job of Syosset to fill the vacuum. It is the call of the people and parishes of a respective diocese to do what is necessary to grow the Church.
I don't look to Syosset to lead my parish or diocese. I look to my priest and bishop, my fellow parishioners, to Christ Himself, not to Metropolitan Herman or any Metropolitan. He is the bishop of his diocese and the first bishop of the Holy Synod. He is not the Pope and Syosset is not the Vatican.
My parish is growing, my diocese is growing and it is because we are focused on Christ and the hard work of BEING Orthodox Christians and sharing His message with others.
Whether Syosset gets "fixed" or not, means very little to me. My only contact with them is through my bishop who is a member of the Holy Synod and the $105 in assessment money I offer. That's it! What they do with that money, once given, is up to them. If they squander it, they will answer for it, if they use it for the glory of God, let Him be praised. However the Lord will be the judge, one way or another.
If we are waiting for Syosset to have an inspiring leader that makes us feel good about ourselves, well maybe that is why we are in such a mess, lo, these many years. Let us be inspired leaders in our parish and dioceses, from which the leaders that someday will be our bishops can catch the vision.
I love the OCA. I grew up in it all my life, from Metropolia days until today. I have a perspective on it that includes working on the parish, diocesan and central church levels. Church life flows from the parish up, not from the central church down. If we are strong locally, we will be a stronger Church nationally.
Square One has always been the parish not Syosset.
#8 Anonymous on 2008-01-08 09:16
You must not be from Alaska; we are overseen by Saruman and his Orcs, empowered by the all seeing eye in Mordor (Syosset)...
#8.1 Moses on 2008-01-08 10:44
The author of this reflection is most articulate, effective and forthright. We note a couple of comments quibbling with details of his analysis, as if to detract from the overall thrust of the indictment. A bit like a man we once tried to minister to out here who had spent 5 years in Sing-Sing for manslaughter in a NYC gang brawl, and was very particular to point out "I didn't kill that guy. Somebody else did. I just shot his _ off." Quite.
Fr. George
#9 Fr. George Washburn on 2008-01-08 09:21
Comment #8 is correct. If St. Tikhon's wants more "cradle Orthodox--remember, converts have children who are cradle orthodox"--the OCA has to improve it's attitude, behavior, and compensation for its parish clergy. The whole central adminstration and local diocesan administration needs to be looked at, & evaluated. The local parish is on the front lines and is where local community knows or doesn't know the local Orthodox Church. We Orthodox in the United States have a long way to go for the general American public to know who we are. The Orthodox Christian in the US is generally unknown. Do we do local charity together (where possible -- where there are more than one jurisdiction)? This scandal can be a blessing, if the bishops handle it right--cleaning up the mess in whatever jurisdiction you are in. So many issues, one calendar, joint charity and good works. Its too bad, most of our hierarchs are not cradle born Orthodox but converts in adulthood and they don't seem to be getting it right. So I don't buy this nonsense that converts are second-class citizens-- they are our clergy and our bishops.
#10 cshinn on 2008-01-08 10:06
Only in Orthodoxy does being a "convert" have any weight at all. What Methodist talks about being a convert 7 (or 700) months later? Is "cradle" vs "convert" really where this discussion needs to be?
#10.1 BB on 2008-01-08 12:20
Thanks for the thoughtful comments and advice in response to the Reflection: Back to square one. Id like to respond to a few of them.
To #5 Anon. on 2008-01-07
You say that the OCA is beginning to heal. OK. Here is my view of the OCA and its healing: a man is stabbed with several knives, in the back and in the heart; a committee of medics examines the wounds; a band-aid is applied to stop the bleeding; x-rays showing possibly fatal internal bleeding and trauma are buried; calls for second opinions are dismissed; the medics repeatedly twist the knives; one knife is removed but the others remain in the patient; and, the patient is told that hes healed and ready to get back to work. Yes, the OCA is healing.
You advise me to pray and check facts before I write. I have been praying and mulling the facts for many, many years. Both prayer and fact checking have led me to finally enter this fray and write what I did.
You say it is wrong to blame the chancery staff for budgets. But I didnt. I attributed these decisions to leaders and leadership. It was to the Holy Synod and the Metropolitan Council that I was referring.
You claim that Mission Funds are limited to what is collected in the Mission Appeal and that this has nothing to do with assessments. Consider this: because the last Mission Appeal brought in far too little, under extraordinary circumstances, wouldnt a truly mission-minded Church have supplemented the Appeal from the General Fund to keep its missions going? Yes! But not the OCA. We hired our Syosset management team before there was a full-blown, Church-wide discussion of what was needed at Syosset, before we knew whether we needed it or could afford it. These honorable and talented men arrived too earlynot their fault. These new management expenses sapped the General Fund of monies that could have gone to Missions with supervision already in place. Men of good will could have a vigorous discussion of whether or not this was a mistake. I think it was. And beyond that, I think it was done to create the false impression that with our new staff and organizational chart, we could move on to a bright future before we fully learned the lessons of the past.
You remind me that the OCA had been ripped off to the tune of several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Here the error is yours for leaving off a few zeroes. And you attribute this entire mess to the former Chancellor. But in speaking the company line, you err again, failing to include more than a few others who knew perfectly well what was happening and could have prevented it.
To #2 Fr. Eric G Tosi on 2008-01-07.
I apologize to Father Eric Tosi for singling him out for using the term financial constraints and for implying that he alone was blaming the constraints on the withholding of funds by the Diocese of the Midwest. Forgive me, Father!
Actually, the connection between Midwest withholding and financial constraints on important programs was an OCA talking point prior to Fr. Tosis use of the term. To many, this seemed like a form of intimidationlaying the problems of the Church at the feet of Archbishop JOB in order to leverage the resumption of payments. Curiously, financial constraints were never blamed on any other category of income or expense.
Nothing that I have written overlooks the dedicated hard work and selflessness of a great many OCA lay and clergy. My hope is to encourage discussion of why, after all of that, we repeatedly find ourselves returning to square one.
A priest of the OCA
#11 A priest of the OCA on 2008-01-09 11:41
>>Curiously, financial constraints were never blamed on any other category of income or expense
#11.1 Rachel Andreyev on 2008-01-10 07:55
hm...second part of that response was lost in cyber space again....
my simple reading some months ago of the announcement of the reduced number of mission grants "due to financial restraints" was also that this was because of the Midwest's withholding. If they had announced that it was due to poor response to the mission appeal, I don't know, maybe that would be too close to acknowledging a serious trust and credibility problem?
#11.1.1 Rachel Andreyev on 2008-01-10 17:19
Dear "Priest of the OCA"--
Many thanks not only for your reflection but for your additional comments in reply to others' remarks. I found your description of the "healing" of the OCA so VERY refreshing. How we can possibly talk about the OCA healing in the context of our current circumstances is just beyond me. It is more of the same delusional thinking and spinning that has gotten us where we are today. ENOUGH! Let's stop wasting our time, talents, and resources on such delusion, call a spade a spade, remove the Met. and his hangers-on (whether paid or volunteers) and begin to heal in earnest.
The upcoming AAC will only be productive if we have months to prepare for it WITH THE SURE KNOWLEDGE THAT OUR MET. IS GOING TO RESIGN, THE TRUTH IS GOING TO BE TOLD, AND WE ARE GOING TO MAKE A REAL EFFORT TO CLEAN HOUSE AND BEGIN AGAIN.
In Christ,
Cathy Tatusko
#12 Cathryn M. Tatusko on 2008-01-09 15:56
Dear Priest of the OCA:
There is nothing to apologize about. I am glad that I was able to clear any misunderstanding. I again offer to explain the Mission Grant program and funding to anyone who asks. It is a great program unlike anything else in any jursidiction in North America and we have incredible priests, their families, and missions doing wonderful work. Forgive me if I offended.
Yours in Christ:
Fr. Eric G. Tosi
Department of Evangelization
Fr Eric,
forgive me for repeating my question so soon, but I am afraid it will get lost as we move to another thread. Could you please tell us how the $87,560 for missions from the Honesdale loan has been distributed, and when?
Thank you,
Rachel Andreyev
#13.1 Rachel Andreyev on 2008-01-10 07:45
Dear Fr Tosi: I forget what year it was (maybe 2004), but the OCA spent $400,000+ on external affairs and $14,000 on evangelization. The sorry fact is that the former administrative committee set the budget priorities and the Met. Council rubber stamped approval of them. While agreeing with the commentor that missions should begin with the parish and diocese, it is these kind of attitudes (among other problems) in Syosset that landed us in the mess that we now find ourselves.
#13.2 Michael Strelka on 2008-01-10 09:41
Dear Rachel and Michael:
Thank you for your questions. As far as I understand it, the Holmsdale loan went to pay back bills on the Mission Program. In other words, the program was kept going to the five missions over the past few years by basically IOUs. Not a single mission on the Grant missed their check. The Holmsdale loan paid off those back bills. Fr. Michael Tassos can answer the exact methodology in accountant terms. When it did come to light, it was insisted that these bills be paid off and that the Fund be reestablished on the correct and proper terms of a restricted account. This is what is now in place. Mission Appeal funds are used only and exclusively for the Mission Grant.
As far as your question Michael, there is a bit of inaccuracy in that. The "$14,000" was a budgeted item in the OCA budget. In other words this paid for the Department's meetings, expenses, stipends, material etc. The Mission Plant Porgram was not on the budget since it was to be taken directly from the Mission Appeal. So say if we take an average of $75,000 a year for that and the $14,000 on the budget. Actually that number was closer to $30,000 though not always spent. So if we want to use a more accurate number than a total amount of say $89,000 and higher was spent on Evangelism. Which is still a low number but remember that a vast majority of that amount was put directly into the hands of missions.
I hope that this answer those questions. The new budget can be refered to for exact amount for the Department which is available on the OCA website. And again if there are specifics on the Loan, Fr. Michael Tassos can more than adequately answer them. I have posed these exact questions to him and was satsified with his answer on the specifics.
Fr. Eric G. Tosi
Department of Evangelization
Dear Fr Eric,
thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question. I am a little bit confused about the answer though. Who was getting the IOU- the missions? Or, -who? Money was borrowed from the Missions funds to pay something else, and money was borrowed from another something else to pay the individual missions? I am sorry to be thick but I just don't get it. If Fr Michael is reading I'd welcome his explanation, but if you yourself could clarify this I would appreciate it.
I also do appreciate your saying that there is no longer any mingling of funds, going forward. I hope you can understand that it will take some time for people to be able to trust that that is true. Holy Apostle Thomas pray for us!
Rachel Andreyev
#14.1 Rachel Andreyev on 2008-01-10 18:39
This is very true. The priorities are all messed up at Syosset.
It begins with Syosset itself...a huge mansion in one of the most expensive places in America, requiring not only expensive upkeep (the gardens, the marble, the hardwood floors) but also expensive cost-of-living salaries (even a 60k salary doesn't go far, not unless you're commuting over 2 hrs everyday from NJ). Not to mention the furnishings...italian leather sofas, hardwood desks, crystal chandeliers.
Meanwhile, the priests are being paid in groceries and can't afford to heat their homes. Seminarians are borrowing massive amounts of money from Sallie Mae because the OCA can't even pay their tuition. And then when the seminarians graduate they have no way to pay back these loans because A) there are no open positions because no new churches are being planted and/or B) there is work in a parish that really needs them - but there is no money to pay them. I know a recent seminary graduate who is a priest, working in a mission parish without pay, and in order to feed his family he needs to leave them for 2 wks at a time to work a construction job in another state. This is not good for the family or the parish, but what else is there to do?
Meanwhile, the OCA blows through money like they are the Russia Mafia. Just reading the numbers of how much money has been wasted in this scandal makes me want to cry. A tiny tiny tiny fraction of that "missing" money, the money spent on lawyers, the money spent on the loan, etc. would pay dozen of mission priests salaries and dozens of seminarians tuition. Just think about how much stronger our churches would be if instead of spending money on frivilous things (like presents, a new leather couch, pesonal credit cards, "gifts", etc,) the money was used to make sure our seminarians and priests have a financially secure future?
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text:
QRx Pharma chief executive John Holaday says the decision by the advisory panel to the US Food and Drug Administration, which has recommend increased restrictions the country's most widely used narcotic painkillers, is helpful to QRx as the biotech aims to get its painkiller MoxDuo accepted by the regulators.
Trying to cut the endemic abuse of prescription drugs, an advisory panel of experts to the FDA voted to crack down on the restrictions on painkillers like Vicodin that contain hydrocodone. The recommendation, which the FDA is likely to follow, would limit access to the drugs by making them harder to prescribe.
The change would have wide-ranging consequences for doctors, pharmacists and patients. Refills without a new prescription would be forbidden, as would faxed prescriptions and those over the phone.
Dr Holaday told The Australian Financial Review this recommendation was very relevant to QRx given it is currently working on resubmiting its new drug application this quarter.
"I think this is beneficial for the whole field because it means that safer opiates now have room to be introduced to the market to take the place of those that are unsafe by virtue of their ease of their prescription or paracetamol they contain," he said.
"Vicodin is the most widely prescribed drug in the US. We are talking about 120 million prescriptions a year. Every second more than six prescriptions for Vicodin are written. By making this more difficult to obtain people that have legitimate pain need to have an alternative and we provide the safer alternative once we are approved."
Dr Holaday added that MoxDou had shown fewer side ffects than other painkillers.
"Patients die from respiratory depression when they overdose," he said. "The study we completed most recently, which the FDA wants to see more of and will with our new drug application, shows that we have significantly less respiratory depression."
QRx shares plunged 25 per cent in two days after the company revealed nearly two weeks ago the FDA recommended that it provide a more extensive analysis of a specific study on efficacy or safety when the revised MoxDuo NDA is submitted. Shares have recovered somewhat, closing up 1¢ at $1.01 on Thursday.
In July last year, the FDA knocked back its drug, which wiped two-thirds off QRx's market value in two days.
The re-submitted NDA will also be reviewed by an FDA advisory committee, which concerns some market watchers because it opens the application up to more analysis.
Dr Holaday said that about 85 per cent of the time when the advisory board made a recommendation the FDA goes along with it.
"There are always uncertainties and particularly with the FDA, they can be a wild card.
"It's been nose to the grindstone to get our documents together. We are finalising the writings for our new drug application."
Dr Holaday added that because of Vicodin's ease of prescription in the US, there was a lot of abuse of the drug.
"It's easier to get Vicodin than pot," he said. "The message was loud and clear that the FDA should think about rescheduling this drug. We are a company that is making a safer opiate for pain. There is a huge need for acute pain relief."
According to the New York Times painkillers now take the lives of more Americans than heroin and cocaine combined, and since 2008, drug-induced deaths have outstripped those from traffic accidents.
The Australian Financial Review


text:
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text:
Congressional investigators have asked Roger Clinton to explain how he obtained $250,000 in traveler's checks, most of which were issued by banks in Taiwan and Venezuela.
In a letter to Mr. Clinton's lawyer, Bart Williams, the investigators also asked for more information on five people who were seeking presidential pardons. None were successful, but the House Committee on Government Reform is examining whether Roger Clinton peddled his access to his half-brother, President Bill Clinton.
According to the committee, the traveler's checks were deposited in Roger Clinton's bank accounts on three occasions: Dec. 15, 1998, July 12, 1999, and Nov. 30, 1999. It is not clear who bought the checks, and the committee is asking the foreign banks involved for their records.
Mr. Williams, Mr. Clinton's lawyer, said in a letter to the committee on Wednesday that he objected to the ''ever-broadening scope'' of its questions, especially those delving into whether Mr. Clinton failed to comply with tax or customs laws. In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Williams asserted that the inquiry was politically motivated, a sentiment shared by some Democrats. Mr. Williams did not return phone calls yesterday.
The House committee is also looking into Roger Clinton's efforts on behalf of Rosario Gambino, a convicted heroin trafficker whose daughter, Anna, wrote Mr. Clinton a $50,000 check in Sept. 27, 1999.Continue reading the main story
Mr. Gambino, who prosecutors have said is an associate of the Gambino crime family, is serving a 45-year sentence in California. In the final days of the Clinton administration, the White House counsel's office told the Justice Department he was under consideration for a pardon and asked the department to review his criminal record.
President Clinton pardoned or granted clemency to 177 people on his last day in office. Mr. Gambino was not among them, but the House committee is now examining how his case came to the attention of White House lawyers. A lawyer for Meredith Cabe, the associate White House counsel who asked the Justice Department to perform the background check, said his client had made hundreds of such requests and could not recall who had proposed Mr. Gambino for a pardon.
Congressional investigators said they were intrigued by credit card receipts showing that Roger Clinton and Mr. Gambino's son Tommy took a trip to Washington together in March 1999. A person close to the Gambino children acknowledged yesterday that the two men had traveled to Washington but declined to describe the visit further. Mr. Williams, Roger Clinton's lawyer, has said that Tommy Gambino and his client have been friends for years.
Mr. Clinton's activities are also being scrutinized by the United States attorney for the Southern District of Manhattan, Mary Jo White. A grand jury in White Plains has already heard testimony from a Texas man who says his family paid at least $225,000 to Roger Clinton for a pardon he did not receive.
In interviews, Roger Clinton has denied any wrongdoing in connection with presidential pardons, saying he interceded on behalf of a handful of ''dear friends,'' and no money changed hands.
In the letter to Roger Clinton's lawyer, the House committee identified the five pardon seekers as J. T. Lundy, Blume Loe, John Ballis, Steve Griggs, and Mark St. Pe. All but Mr. Lundy have applications on file with the Justice Department for some form of clemency.
It could not be learned yesterday whether any of the five were considered by the Clinton White House for pardons.
Mr. Lundy is serving time in a Florida prison for a conviction in February 2000 on fraud charges. He could not be reached yesterday. But John Drinkwater, who is married to Mr. Lundy's ex-wife, said Mr. Lundy gave Roger Clinton a job on his horse farm after Mr. Clinton completed his prison sentence for cocaine distribution. Mr. Drinkwater said Mr. Lundy asked Roger Clinton to return the favor after he was convicted in Houston for bank fraud. ''He had appealed to Roger for a pardon'' and was quite upset when it did not materialize, Mr. Drinkwater said.
Gary Rupkin, a lawyer for Mr. Griggs, said his client did not know Mr. Clinton personally until introduced by a mutual acquaintance. He said he believed Mr. Griggs or his family had paid money to Roger Clinton for help with a pardon. Mr. Rupkin said he did not know any further details.
Mr. Griggs is in a federal penitentiary in Fort Worth after being convicted of manufacturing and distributing methamphetamine.
Mr. Loe's wife, Lisa, said she was baffled about why her husband had made the Congressional investigators' list of people who might be linked to Roger Clinton. She said she and her husband met Roger Clinton in the late 1970's when they were students at University of Arkansas and Mr. Clinton played in a band that entertained college crowds.
Her husband, who is temporarily in an Oklahoma City transfer center, asked the Justice Department for a commutation of his 24-month sentence in November 2000, not long after he was convicted of making false statements on his tax return. She said she and her husband may have discussed going to Roger Clinton for help, ''but we didn't know how to contact him,'' said Ms. Loe..
''I wouldn't call us a dear friend,'' she said. ''We haven't talked to him in over 20 years.''
Philip Schiliro, the minority staff director on the House's Government Reform Committee, said that he was troubled by the questions being asked of Roger Clinton, whom he considers a private citizen.
If there was wrongdoing, he said, federal prosecutors are far better equipped than Congress to pursue it.
''If he's friends or associates with a Gambino and they gave him $50,000, that's really dumb for him to take the money but he's a private citizen. It may offend good taste and good judgment but it doesn't violate any law.''Continue reading the main story


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