2 May 2013. SVS and Mammon Revisited…

______________________________

One of the Cabinet sent this on:

So, St Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS) has seen fit to take Mammon‘s shilling (in the employ of the infamous Koch Bros) and not just invite, but declare themselves in unity through joint sponsorship with this outfit, and publicly endorse the Ecclesiology of the Church as Religious Right Republican Party PAC. I suppose I should care, but (I’ll be in trouble for this) on one level it seems that if that is what the Church has decided it’ll be, then, that’s what it’ll be, and folks like me, with my pacifist, communitarian, and “anti-economist” values will, as I so frequently am, by my fellow Orthodox, despised and derided as a “liberal” or other fashionable insults (even, if in some ways I am as much Conservative in the Burkean/Kirkian sense as “Socialist” in a very American sense). It’s been a long time since I’ve been a member of an OCA parish, and I left over precisely this derision, and they regard, my bishop, the Ecumenical Patriarch with just the same contempt, so I’ll leave them to their foolish devices…

******

Here’s a link to the seminar alluded to in the above excerpt. Firstly, one must realise that unconverted Anglican slimers have taken over SVS (Chad Hatfield accepted an honorary degree from his Anglican seminary… what’s wrong with that picture?). Although these people make up only about 10 percent of the OCA, they’re disproportionately present in the clergy and are a majority of the OCA’s internet presence. Ergo, a false picture of the real situation is “out there”.

One shouldn’t read too much into such events… the majority of real ethnic Orthodox are still what they ever were. For instance, President Obama won the Valley in PA because Orthodox voters “came home” to the Democratic Party. These Angliochian poseurs are loud, but they’re not numerous. They got thrown out of PECUSA for being arrogant and loud pains-in-the-arse, and it looks like they’re cruisin’ for a bruisin’ again. PECUSA wasn’t “good enough” for their perfect presence, and it looks like Orthodoxy isn’t “good enough” for them, either. They’re going to form a vagante sect; the sooner that they’re gone, the better.

Don’t try to “engage” such people… civility will get you nowhere. This lot has sold out to the American Rightwing lock-stock-and-barrel. Their politics is more important than the Church is… the exact opposite of the case with real Orthodox (I have Cabinet members who agree with me on Church issues, but bitterly disagree on politics). The REAL Church is free… the phony Angliochian sectarians march in lockstep conformity… that’s a form of madness, kids. Don’t get tangled up in it, and don’t ever think that you can deal logically with them.

They’ll leave us soon enough, I’ll warrant… the only question is whether Potapov’s squiffy ROCOR lot in the District will join them (after all, that bunch has ties to such questionable sorts as Freddie M-G and Mattingly). You see, the Rodina is turning leftward… and Potapov’s Langley paymasters may very well lead him out of the ROCOR (he’s much more a CIA asset than a priest… but that’s been well-known for YEARS, I’m reporting no news on that one). Once they’re gone, we can go back to being what we always were… a live-and-let-live bunch, without wildass politics of any stripe (but with a strong bias to the union movement and social justice).

It can’t happen soon enough for my taste…

BMD

 

21 November 2012. Is Terrence Mattingly Stating an Orthodox Viewpoint? Or, Is It Just Heterodox Vapouring in Pseudo-Orthodox Vesture?

______________________________

Terrence Mattingly got up on his soapbox and admiringly quoted a Far Right papist source, to wit:

One thing the Democrats really stand for, however, is abortion… abortion on demand, abortion without restraint, abortion paid for by all of us, abortion for the poor of the earth. I am not a one-issue voter, but they have become a one-issue party. … If traditional Democrats who are disillusioned with the selling out of the working poor and the unborn simply became registered Independent voters, would not more attention be paid?

This is utter rubbish from stem to stern. The single-issue party isn’t the Democrats… it’s the Republicans. They signed on to all of the sectarian “Moral Majority” twaddle, including approving bans on abortion that even the Church balks at. Oh, I’m sorry, the Grand Olde Perverts are a Threefold Truth Party:

• The state must use its coercive power to smash down all those who aren’t “conventional” and “respectable”… the state must smash all the opponents to the oligarch backers of the GOP, with violence and force, if necessary
• The state shall place no restraints upon the Oligarch Crapitalists and their Affluent Effluent cronies… investment to be taxed at far lower rates than earned income… wages to be kept at the lowest-possible rates
• The state shall engage in permanent warfare in foreign parts to enrich the Military-Industrial Complex… Halliburton is more important than the people next door… healthcare and education don’t count as much as bombs and drones do

In short, Mattingly’s contention is crank, crackbrained, and completely out of line. However, such prelest-ridden bloviation is common amongst the konvertsy. Does it surprise you to find out that Mattingly is a close partner in crime to Freddie M-G and Rod Dreher? They support such godless imposters as Darrell Issa and Allen West (thank God, West went down to deserved defeat). In fact, what’s happening now is that the major Grand Olde Phony candidates for 2016 are lining up and shouting how they’re all in favour of so-called “Creationism” (click here)… that means that the GOP’s slipping further into irrelevance and toadying to knuckle-dragging “Evangelical” yahoos. One of the best things that came out of the OCA Holy Synod shitcanning Paffhausen was that it ended his effort to ally us with “Christian Atheists”… as a Russian bishop called “Evangelical” phonies.

This means that Mattingly lines up with such amoral troglodytes as Todd Akin and Franklin Graham. Click here for a story on a sad case in Ireland. I asked three Orthodox MDs about such cases… there was a consensus… “If there’s a miscarriage, the pregnancy is over; our only responsibility is to safeguard the woman’s health”. That seemed straightforward enough to me. Yet, what about the moral dimension of this dilemma? I asked a priest in Russia about this… it took several days for his response to reach me (he was thinking it over… that’s the sign of a trusty source). He wrote:

There are hard moral cases… the Church NEVER blesses abortion, but there are cases in a fallen world where the only choices are bad ones. In that case, you choose the “least bad” option… but the Church doesn’t bless it… it accepts the reality. However, this was a case where the pregnancy was over. In that case, the Church advises its children to heed the Apostle and follow their doctor’s advice. Nevertheless, pastoral oikonomia in particular cases never sets aside the general rule. Never forget, there are sins greater than abortion.

Terrence Mattingly’s hardline stance isn’t worthy of a decent human being, let alone that of an Orthodox Christian believer. His rightwing fanaticism is clear… this is what the konvertsy are, kids… they want to put this madness in as the driving ideology of Christ’s Church. God do spare us…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Albany NY

US Congress to Consider Lifting Jackson-Vanik Amendment Next Week

______________________________

Next week, the US House of Representatives should resume discussions on trade normalisation with Russia. Next Tuesday, a House committee in charge of legislative proposals will hold a working meeting to consider the lifting the notorious Jackson-Vanik Amendment targeting Russia and Moldova. The House has placed a notification of the meeting on the internet. Enacted in 1974, the Jackson-Vanik Amendment made closer trade ties between the USA and the USSR contingent on Soviet Jews’ freedom to emigrate. The amendment remains in force, although it’s regularly waived vis-à-vis Russia since 1989.

Over 500 American companies in the Coalition for US-Russia Trade urged the Congress to ratchet up work on a draft bill to establish permanent trade relations with Russia. Voice of America reported Friday that they submitted a joint letter to US President Barack Obama asking him to cooperate with Congress on eliminating the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. The coalition pointed up that as long as the USA dithers on enacting Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR), American business will have to watch foreign competitors snatch the best deals that “will lock in commercial relationships for years to come”.

10 November 2012

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_11_10/US-Congress-to-consider-lifting-Jackson-Vanik-amendment-next-week/

Editor’s Note:

A coalition of neoconservative Republicans and interventionist Democrats block action on getting rid of Jackson-Vanik. In short, Jackson-Vanik remains because of domestic American political concerns, not because of any real force that it may retain. After all, there’s no bar to Jews emigrating since 1989… many of them have returned since then, fancy that. In fact, Rav Lazar, the Chief Rabbi of Russia, went from Brooklyn to Russia in the 90s, and he’s a member of the RF Public Chamber and a member of Putin’s “outer” inner circle (that is, he’s close to VVP, but he’s not one of the siloviki). The situation addressed (badly) by Jackson-Vanik no longer exists… therefore, it should go in the shitcan. Now, if we can do this, we can also shitcan such overly-expensive Cold War relics as NATO and American deployments on the European continent. The Europeans are perfectly capable of their own national defence… but we should continue deployment of American forces in the UK, which is part of the Anglosphere (and part of the American FEBA based on the GIUK Gap and the English Channel). We can’t afford such hegemonic fripperies anyway, can we?

BMD

Gallup Poll Sez Obama Likely to Win another Presidential Term

______________________________

 With the US presidential election just five days away, a survey from the Gallup Organization shows that President Barack Obama is likely to win a second presidential term. the survey said, “A majority of Americans continue to believe that Democratic President Barack Obama will win re-election Tuesday over Republican challenger Mitt Romney, by 54 percent to 34 percent”, adding that 11 percent of those polled had no opinion on the issue.

The poll was conducted on 27-28 October before Hurricane Sandy swept the US East Coast, leaving at least 50 dead and causing damage worth some 20 billion USD. Obama cancelled campaign events scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, focusing instead on relief measures before the hurricane, whose path ran though several tightly contested election swing states, including North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. According to political experts, the move is likely to win additional votes for Obama on Election Day. The 27-28 October Gallup tracking survey was based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,063 adults aged 18 and older in all 50 American states.

1 November 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/world/20121101/177102527.html