Court documents released on Friday show that Bernard Madoff and his wife Ruth lived a life of high luxury, with exclusive homes, yachts and other assets worth $823-million.
The revelations came in documents filed with the US Court of Appeals due March 19 to hear Madoff's appeal to be granted bail. He was jailed on Thursday after pleading guilty to a multibillion-dollar investment fraud.
The documents, filed by Madoff's lawyer, show the Wall Street con man and his wife had $22-million worth of real estate at the end of 2008. This included the $7-million Manhattan apartment where Madoff lived between his arrest in December and Thursday's court hearing, when he pleaded guilty to 11 counts, including fraud, perjury, money laundering and theft.
Lawyers for Madoff, 70, argue he should be allowed back there on bail while he waits for a June 16 sentencing hearing. He is expected to receive to a lengthy prison sentence, with a maximum term of 150 years.
In addition to the apartment, the Madoffs had a $1-million house in exclusive Cap d'Antibe in the south of France, another in New York state, and an $11-million house in Palm Beach, Florida. Apart from the real estate, the disclosure lists nearly $10-million worth of furniture and art, and a $7-million yacht named Bull in France, complete with its own $1,5-million slip.
Long known for lavish tastes, the Madoffs are revealed to have owned $2,6-million in jewellery, a $39 000 Steinway piano and $65 000 worth of silverware in their New York apartment alone.
Madoff's documents show a $700-million value on his now disgraced investment business. Madoff claimed in court on Thursday that although his personal investment advisory business was crooked, the trading branch of his firm was legitimate.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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The only reason one would appeal sentencing after a plea of guilt would be to seek a sentence other than incarceration. Madoff wants bail, so he can appeal for community service. Lot's of luck.
#4
Court documents released on Friday show that Bernard Madoff and his wife Ruth lived a life of high luxury, with exclusive homes, yachts and other assets worth $823-million.
...of other peoples money. Now thinking on that perspective, that should qualify him as a good socialist, book cookers, and tax scofflaw for a position in the Obama administration. Here's a man that can show them how to make it happen. If anything the administration need experienced practical people like this. /sarc off
#9
Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're greedy and stupid! Did I just say greedy? Yes, greedy and stupid. The Made-off family hosted a victimless crime. Suck it up my greedy Amish clansmen.
#11
The only reason one would appeal sentencing after a plea of guilt would be to seek a sentence other than incarceration.
Or he plans to run, betcha there's stashed cash he can get to.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/15/2009 20:17 Comments ||
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maximum term of 150 years
Should have committed mass murder and oppressed entire populations. Then after 4 years of Gitmo, 20 extra pounds and a tan he'd be welcomed home as a hero.
Posted by: ed ||
03/15/2009 21:32 Comments ||
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Put him in Sing Sing with a big cellmate who thinks he is cute.
A British man fed up with his wife's complaints advertised her for sale -- and got a number of offers.
"Nagging Wife. No Tax. Very high maintenance -- some rust," wrote Gary Bates, 38, in a small ad in Trade-It, a publication more usually used to buy and sell cars or household goods.
Bates, a self-employed builder from Gloucestershire, south-west England, snapped after his wife, Donna, on got on his nerves while she was watching television, and so he decided to place the ad as a joke. "She was nagging me for doing something small, while she was watching some rubbish on TV. So I just thought I'd put an ad in to get rid of her.
"I didn't think anyone would ring up but I've had at least nine or 10 people calling about her. It's gone mad. There was no one I knew -- just people asking, 'Is she still available?'"
The couple only married last year, and Bates said his 40-year-old wife -- whom he advertised in the magazine's "Free to Collect" section, along with some of his fishing tackle -- initially gave him "a bit of an ear-bashing".
But he said: "She's seen the funny side of it now though!"
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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Algerian border guards seized 3.5 tonnes of cannabis near Erg Ferradj, south of Bechar, near the Morocco border, AFP reported on Thursday (March 12th...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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Zimbabwe's Finance Minister has warned that the country's power-sharing Government will fail, with potentially disastrous consequences, unless international donors urgently inject cash into its treasury.Tendai Biti welcomed Australia's move to boost humanitarian spending by $10 million but said donations channelled through international aid agencies would not save the transitional Government that was sworn in last month.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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The Madagascar opposition said on Saturday it had toppled the government of President Marc Ravalomanana and promised fresh elections following months of unrest that have left over 100 dead.
Rajoelina then called on Ravalomanana to "humbly leave power in the next four hours".
"The president of the Republic, the National Assembly and the Senate, and the government are removed from their duties," said opposition leader Roindefo Zafitsimivalo Monja, reading from a declaration signed by opposition chief Andry Rajoelina.
"We commit to organising presidential, parliamentary and district elections, in not more than 24 months," said Monja, the opposition's nominee for the post of prime minister.
The power grab by the opposition, which has accused Ravalomanana of running a dictatorship, came after the president acknowledged making mistakes in a crisis that has claimed scores of lives since the start of the year.
Monja, who spoke to journalists from the prime minister's office after the opposition took control of the building, was accompanied by other opposition ministerial nominees and around 30 soldiers. "We state that the president of the republic is no longer in a position to exercise the role allocated to him by the Constitution and that it is clear the armed forces refuse to obey the president," he added.
After being in hiding for over a week, Rajoelina on Saturday made his first public appearance at a gathering of several thousand supporters in the capital, an AFP journalist witnessed.
On Thursday followers of both Ravalomanana and Rajoelina took to the streets to press their campaigns following weeks of mounting tension which began in January after Rajoelina called anti-government protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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Playing loud music, dancing, nudity, kissing and even holding hands in public is considered inappropriate behavior under new guidelines laid down by the authorities of Dubai, according to a press report on Saturday.
Dubai Executive Council issued a list of public behaviors that requires Dubai residents and visitors to respect the customs of the Muslim country and avoid what the council considers inappropriate behavior, according to the Arabic-language daily Al Emarat Al-Youm.
The rules, which apply to all public places, include a ban on all forms of nudity, playing music loudly and dancing, exchange of kisses between men and women--and even on unmarried couples holding hands.
Any breach of the guidelines, by nationals or expatriates, carries a possible prison penalty, the paper wrote.
The order also requires all visitors of public places, such as government buildings, shopping malls, streets and restaurants to dress in "appropriate" clothing, otherwise they would be denied entrance to those areas.
"Pants and skirts have to be of appropriate length, and outside clothing should not expose body parts indecently and should not be transparent," the guidelines stipulate under section "public behavior," Al Emarat Al-Youm wrote.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds like diversive action to distract from more fundamental and more pressing issues.
Posted by: Radio Gwadar ||
03/15/2009 2:35 Comments ||
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LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Bolivian President Evo Morales is once again accusing the CIA of meddling in internal affairs. This time, Morales says a midlevel military official and Bolivian police officers are in contact with the U.S. spy agency.
Can't possibly be true, Bambi would never allow such a thing ...
Morales made the allegations on Saturday, but offered no details or proof. He said he is personally investigating the matter because "selling information to foreign agents is treason."
Morales spoke just days after ordering a U.S. diplomat to leave Bolivia. He accused the diplomat of conspiring with the opposition and "coordinating contacts" with a former police captain accused of infiltrating the state energy company on behalf of the CIA.
The U.S. has called the allegation about CIA infiltration idiotic baseless.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/15/2009 00:07 ||
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"selling information to foreign agents is treason."
Not in the US, we've moved beyond that. The Chinese enjoy carte blanche.
(IANS) A lion used by an ex-militia chief to threaten people for the recovery of old debts was seized from a cattle farm in northwestern Colombia, EFE reported. The local residents claim that the big cat was used by Mario Jimenez's men to threaten people to pay up their old debts.
In a crackdown on drug traffickers Friday, the Colombian police seized the big cat and various other assets owned by the ex-militias in northwestern Antioquia and Cordoba provinces, the report said Saturday.
Jimenez was extradited to the US in May 2008 to face trial on various charges, including drug trafficking, money laundering and terrorism.
Colombia's ex-militia men were once used by the government to fight the country's largest leftist guerilla group the Revoloutionary Armed Froces of Colombia (FARC). Several of the ex-militias later joined the illegal drug trade after the authorities disbanded the group under a government rehabilitation scheme.
Police chief General Oscar Naranjo said some 2,000 security personnel were deployed in the areas for the latest operation. Seventy people involved in the drug trade were arrested and around 1,176 hectares of coca plants were destroyed in the operation, he said.
Properties worth millions of pesos were seized in the raids, the police said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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D *** NG IT, MAGGIE THATCHER never looked like that!
Reminds me of my late friend ANNA LONGINOVA > the KGB = FSB's ALMOST-POSH SPICE, or LARA = ANGELINA JOLIE [Pro-Commie Armed Super-Model Assassin-Spy Babes].
#2
Clearly she's absolutely positively categorically undeniably.... innocent in anything and everything she's ever done in her entire life, and just becuz I don't know what she Putin's Girl has done doesn't mean she isn't.
#3
She looks like all the other russian girls working bars around the world. JM is correct, she know nothing of politics, but she is sellin herself like any other bar girl.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/15/2009 22:55 Comments ||
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Only the best quotes snipped here, full article at link.
On the morning of February 25, Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 from Istanbul crashed short of the runway at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, killing nine passengers and crew.
On Wednesday, Dutch authorities released a preliminary report indicating that the crash was caused by mechanical failure, exacerbated by severe pilot error: The aircraft's altimeter - which had malfunctioned twice in the past eight landings - was faulty, and the pilots failed to note this or respond appropriately. It has further been reported that a trainee pilot with less than 25 hours' experience of flying this kind of plane was at the controls.
There have been claims that prayers may interfere with pre-flight inspections
Employees have come forward with claims that Turkey's governing AKP, a party associated with political Islam, has packed the airline's management and staff with unqualified political allies and co-religionists.
The AKP came to power in November 2002 and appointed the new THY management in 2003. The most serious charge - made by senior pilots, union officials, technicians and cabin crew, both on and off the record - is that new managerial policies have encouraged lax standards of aircraft maintenance and the hiring of unqualified staff. REALLY? No way Jose.
They charged that many of the new cabin crew, for example, were graduates of religious Imam Hatip schools rather than of technical universities - Imam Hatip schools were, the pilots said, classified as 'trade schools' and the Imam Hatip alumni were therefore 'camouflaged' as trade school graduates.
Workers also claimed that manufacturers' guidelines on the replacement of parts were not being followed, that insufficient time and personnel were allocated for ground checks, that maintenance work that should take eight hours was being done in three or four. I do not decide if the plane crashes or not, Allah decides it. It is not for me to decide if they live or die.
In the wake of the crash, a source at Turkish Airlines - someone who has nothing to gain by noting this publicly and, in fact, everything to lose - claimed that airplanes requiring pre-flight inspection go shortchanged if they are on the ground in the mornings at prayer time.
And in December, 2006, it was widely reported that Turkish Airlines workers had sacrificed a camel on an Istanbul airport ramp as a gesture of thanks for having at last got rid of a batch of troublesome planes. You just can't make this stuff up.
#2
I'm just a fanboy for commie machinery and would love to hear from someone who actually knows, but it seems to me the main problem with Russian airframes is that they get sold to places like Africa and the Middle East where the concept of making sure all the pieces are screwed down tightly before takeoff has not exactly taken root. Inshallah, indeed!
What Kim Jong-Il wants, Kim Jong-Il gets - and apparently that's ravioli.
The North Korean leader ordered the opening of the country's first "authentic" Italian restaurant and reportedly spared nothing in getting the recipe right.
Although plagued by food shortages, North Korea bought wheat, flour, butter and cheese in Italy for the eatery. Cooks were sent to Naples and Rome for training after they made "errors" in the kitchen, the Chosun Sinbo newspaper reported.
"General Kim Jong-Il said that the people should also be allowed access to the world's famous dishes," said Kim Sang-Soon, manager of the restaurant in Pyongyang.
The Japan-based paper, considered friendly to North Korea's communist regime, said the restaurant is a hit. "I've learned through TV and books that pizza and spaghetti are among the world's famous dishes, but this is the first time that I've tasted it," said patron Jung Un-Suk, 42.
The paunchy Kim's penchant for fancy food is well known, and Italian food is one of his favorite cuisines. In 2004, an Italian chef told how he was hired to teach North Korean army officers how to make pizza so they could cook for Kim.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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Gordon Brown's hopes of uniting the world's most powerful economies behind a massive new package of tax cuts and public spending increases were in ruins today after he failed to persuade France and Germany to back his plan to revive the world economy.
After talks at Chequers to prepare the way for next month's G20 summit in London, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, ruled out ordering another short-term "fiscal stimulus" and made it clear that if more action was needed, it would for the Berlin's Bundestag to decide, not the G20.
Her comments were echoed by the French finance minister, Christine Lagarde, at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Horsham, West Sussex. As ministers tried to agree a joint way forward, Lagarde said she was optimistic the meeting could make progress but that nations needed to "evaluate the remedies already put in place by each of us" before ordering huge extra spending on top of that already sanctioned.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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"Angela Merkel ... made it clear that if more action was needed, it would for the Berlin's Bundestag to decide, not the G20."
You mean you want your own country to decide what it's going to do, Angela, instead of being dictated to by other countries?
What a novel idea! Plan on applying it to the EU anytime soon?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/15/2009 0:09 Comments ||
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package of tax cuts and public spending increases
Why can't people learn arithmetic?
Manuel Garcia O'Kelly Davis
Michael Goldfarb added this: * This was meant as joke, though obviously it fell a little flat. Petraeus has no plans to go to Iowa that I'm aware, this year or next. I regret the confusion that has resulted from my clumsy attempt at humor.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that General Petraeus is planning on delivering the commencement address at the University of Iowa in 2010. So reports Michael Goldfarb, late of the McCain campaign, on the magazine's blog.
Petraeus going to Iowa, a state he doesn't have previous ties to, is going to create a huge amount of buzz about his presidential ambitions because the Iowa Caucuses kick off the whole presidential nomination process. If he does, deliver the address--and Petraeus must know this--it will be seen as a sign that he is thinking about running in 2012.
Previously, it has been thought that Petraeus would not run against a president who had been his Commander in Chief. But there are reports of tension between Petraeus and Obama over both Iraq and Afghan strategy.
Very little is known about Petraues's politics and no one knows how he would make the transition from soldier to politician. But if he did enter the race, it would shake things up dramatically. He would instantly become a top tier candidate and the most serious threat to Obama's chances of winning a second term. And from Weekly Standard,
Princeton: General Petraeus to deliver the Baccalaureate address
Petraeus will also be addressing the commissioning ceremonies for Harvard and MIT ROTC.
#2
The best way to contribute to the Generals possible campaign at this point would be to keep your money out of the economy. Be the biggest tightwad you know. If moths fly from your wallet when you open it, you're doing your share.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
03/15/2009 14:23 Comments ||
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Use humility to make them haughty. Tire them by flight. Cause division among them.Attack when they are unprepared, make your move when they do not expect it.
The formation and procedure used by the military should not be divulged beforehand.
--Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/15/2009 15:06 Comments ||
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#5
The Obama Administration's bumbling has given him cover for what Afghanistan may be in 2010. We're in the situation where just the implication as mentioned here puts the White House in the corner. Don't support him over there and he can become their greatest nightmare down the road. Undermine him and he resigns giving him basically the same position. If he turns the situation around as Iraq, then he's in even better position. He's got bargaining chips the White House staff doesn't even want to contemplate. However, given how clueless they are to real history, expect them to play a bad hand. Not to mention that he's from the one part of the government that has demonstrated it can rebuild a country from pretty much scratch.
#8
Added by Michael Goldfarb after this article was posted......
* This was meant as joke, though obviously it fell a little flat. Petraeus has no plans to go to Iowa that I'm aware, this year or next. I regret the confusion that has resulted from my clumsy attempt at humor.
Sorry about that folks, but I admit, I fell for it!
#16
credit where due, Madam. I'm an irrepressible jerk on some things, too snarky, and overestimate my sense of humor, but I have a sense of honor. ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/15/2009 20:04 Comments ||
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The White House on Sunday began harnessing every part of the Democratic Party's machinery to defend President Obama's budget and portray Republicans as reflexively political, according to party strategists.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Omoter Speaking for Boskone7794 ||
03/15/2009 12:52 ||
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Thought for a nanosecond it might have been some sort of public diplomacy intiative. What was I thinking?
Pakistan Muslim League-N Chief Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Saturday said winds of change have started blowing in the country. Addressing the gathering here at his residence, Nawaz Sharif said it seems the long march has already achieved its goal. Â"Pakistani nation wants change and now no one can stop it from coming,Â" he said adding Â"anyone who tries to stop it will be blown away.Â" He said the sit-in will be staged at the same place where it was announced to be staged. Nawaz Sharif said now the people will be provided justice at their doorstep.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
obviously a Scorpions fan
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/15/2009 8:12 Comments ||
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translation:
Ali Zardari shouldn't be stealing money, I should be stealing money.
As many as 12 persons were died of drinking poisonous liquor during last three days in Karachi while six others are under treatment at hospitals, police sources said. According to police, seven persons were died in Lyari area while others were died in Risala, Faisal, Maripur, Gulzar and Lalji areas during last three days. According to doctors, injured people are critical in condition and would hardly survive while they could also become physically handicapped once for all. Police are conducting investigation into incidents, police sources added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Alcohol is banned for Pakistanis. So this looks like it was homebrew tainted with methyl.
Posted by: Radio Gwadar ||
03/15/2009 2:41 Comments ||
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It's always tainted homebrew over there, from what I can gather. It seems Pakistani Muslims crave alcohol in whatever form they can get -- fine whiskeys for the generals, homebrew for the commoners.
The reason for Prohibition was to reduce crime. The Women's Christian Temperance Union was the first organization in the world to address domestic violence, and they made the connection between drinking, drug use, and domestic abuse. They also pointed out how many families were destitute because Dad spent his paycheck at the bar. Prohibition did make a positive difference for many families.
Domestic crime cases and violent assaults dropped dramatically during Prohibition. Of course, that's one little detail that certain people aren't interested in discussing.
"Since Roosevelt's been elected,
Moonshine Liquor's been corrected;
We have real whiskey, brandy, wine and gin!"
I was in my teens when some bleeding hearts claimed that we shouldn't incarcerate drug users; we should go after the pushers.
Of course, drug use skyrocketed because there weren't any real penalties. Decriminalizing drug use created the monster market for drugs and all the crime that goes with it.
I often helped pick up the pieces for my neighbors' kids when their parents have been too stoned to care for the kids. Drug use is like drunk driving. It kills. It destroys families. And we let it happen by not cutting it off at the roots--the user.
If you think these kids would be better off with legal drugs, try explaining it to them when their mom's in detox for the umpteenth time.
I don't laugh, Bright Pebbles. My understanding of alcohol sales and consumption is that so long as the society is relatively lawless or, in the modern American formulation, "libertarian", the situation is very much caveat emptor, "let the buyer beware". It was not, for instance, until the passage of The Sale of Food and Drugs Act by the British Parliament around 1870 that the alcohol served in pubs could be guaranteed not to be more or less poisonous along the lines of the article above, and the flour unadulterated by sawdust or allum.... and in America a bit later, I believe. There are some areas for which the weight of government regulation and supervision are a very good thing.
#7
My understanding is that the mafia entered the US via New Orleans in the late 19th century when a Sicilian family emigrated there. They were established in a variety of cities, including New York, well before Prohibition.
#9
Criminality was rationalized during Prohibition, like so many other forms of commercial endeavor, Bright Pebbles. American had had criminal gangs since the great immigration waves that started during the Civil War, and in the major cities like New York and Chicago they worked hand in glove with the local Party Machines. The Mafia were just the Italian version of the Irish, Black, and Jewish criminal gangs that preceded them to America's fair shores.
West Lombok regency has decided to forbid members of the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect , who have been living uncertainly at a refugee center in West Nusa Tenggara for three years, to return to their homes, citing security concerns.
Basirun Anwat, spokesman of the regency, told tempointeraktif.com Saturday that the decision was made during a meeting attended by the regency secretary, the local leaders forum and sect members on Thursday.
"To ensure security, they are not allowed to go home," he said.
Basirun also said that Ahmadiyah members were still allowed to work on their farms and that the regency was going to discuss buying their land so they could move elsewhere.
Last month, 68 Ahmadiyah members from 17 families decided to risk going from the Transito building in Mataram back to their homes in Ketapang hamlet, Gegerung village, Lingsar district, West Lombok regency, on March 14.
At least 160 Ahmadiyah members from 33 families were driven from their homes when hard-line Muslims attacked them and destroyed their homes and belongings in early February 2006.
The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) previously issued an edict calling the Ahmadiyah heretical. The edict was seized upon by other hard-line Muslims to attack the sect's followers elsewhere, including in West Java.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2009 00:00 ||
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this is the other large moderate muslim country that Obama is thinking of using for his Sermon on the Muslims (the other is Turkey which is becoming more dictator-like faster)
Even as a Brown University student, Ann Holmes Redding was never far away from controversy.
She was barely into her freshman year in 1968 when she joined a black student walkout to get the university to admit more blacks -- a move that resulted in a near quadrupling of the number of black students to about 250 the following year.
And after students staged a strike that effectively closed down the university to show their opposition to the Vietnam War, Redding was part of a "blue ribbon" delegation from Brown that went in the spring of 1970 to Washington to talk to such alumni as White House aide Charles Colson and U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell about ending the conflict.
But these days, as she approaches the 25th anniversary of her ordination as an Episcopal priest on March 25, Redding, who lives in Seattle, faces controversy of a different sort. She is on the verge of being defrocked by Rhode Island Episcopal Bishop Geralyn Wolf because of her insistence that she can be a Muslim and Christian at the same time.
Bishop Wolf, who is Redding's canonical superior, has told Redding that her conversion to Islam through her recitation of Shahada, the basic Islamic creed, constitutes an abandonment of the Christian faith and that unless she recants by March 30, she will no longer be a priest.
The warning, formally issued by Bishop Wolf with the backing of the diocesan standing committee last September, has been among the communications that began in September 2007, soon after Bishop Wolf attended a meeting of the House of Bishops and heard stories about a priest claiming to be both Muslim and Christian.
#1
News of her unusual embrace of Islam and Christianity had gotten into the local papers and had been warmly received by the then-bishop of Olympia, the Right Rev. Vincent Wardell Warmer, who called her move innovative
"innovative" as in: "I've never heard such a stoopid idea in my life"
Miss Dingleberry prolly heard the SNL skit: "SHimmer - it's a floor wax and a dessert topping", and thought "why, of course!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/15/2009 11:08 Comments ||
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#2
It's obvious this woman doesn't understand either religion she claims to be part of - not surprising for most Episcopalian clergy these days.
As for Bishop Wolf: she's the real deal. She's a rock-solid conservative on theological issues - probably related to the fact that she's an adult convert from Judaism. The feminist camp who was so excited when she became bishop quickly soured on her and now only mention her when criticising her. I met Bishop Wolf when I was an Episcopalian in Rhode Island, and I was impressed but also realized what a lone voice she was.
The American International Group, which has received more than $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money from the Treasury and Federal Reserve, plans to pay about $165 million in bonuses by Sunday to executives in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year.
Word of the bonuses last week stirred such deep consternation inside the Obama administration that Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner told the firm they were unacceptable and demanded they be renegotiated, a senior administration official said. But the bonuses will go forward because lawyers said the firm was contractually obligated to pay them.
The payments to A.I.G.'s financial products unit are in addition to $121 million in previously scheduled bonuses for the company's senior executives and 6,400 employees across the sprawling corporation. Mr. Geithner last week pressured A.I.G. to cut the $9.6 million going to the top 50 executives in half and tie the rest to performance.
Continued on Page 49
#2
Ima sure that AIG is quaking in their boots from Geithner the Meek's angry pronouncements. AIG greased many the palm in congress, as well as the
Big O. Since congress does not care what we, the taxpaying public think, they figure that this is a tempest in a teapot.
So it us up to the American public to raise enough hell to do something.
Bottom line, AIG senior executives get bonuses, and congress passes out money to its cronies.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/15/2009 14:59 Comments ||
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#3
"But the bonuses will go forward because lawyers said the firm was contractually obligated to pay them." Simple solution shoot the lawyers FIRST.
Newspapers are dying but journalism is evolving, an acclaimed science writer told a gathering of the techno-hip at South By South West Interactive Festival on Friday. Steven Johnson equated newspapers to old growth forests, saying that under the canopy of that aged ecosystem blogging, citizen journalism, Twittering and other Internet-age information sharing is taking root.
"I am not bullish on what is happening in the newspaper industry; it is ugly and it is going to get uglier. Great journalists are going to lose their jobs and cities are going to lose their newspapers."
The shift was foreseeable but ignored, resulting in changes that should have happened gradually over a decade being crammed into a year or two with some pressure from the global economic meltdown, according to Johnson.
"There is panic that newspapers are going to disappear as businesses," Johnson said. "Then there is panic that crucial information is going to disappear along with them. We spend so much time figuring out how to keep the old model on life support that we don't figure out how to build the new one."
News organizations should stop wasting resources on information freely available online, he added. And, they should stop killing trees. "The business model sure seems easier to support if the printing goes away," Johnson said. "They don't have the print costs."
International Data Group (IDG) has some 450 publications, many of them only available online.
The global technology media, events and research company learned the benefits of delivering its publications, such as PC World and InfoWorld, exclusively on the internet, IDG chairman Patrick McGovern told AFP in a recent interview. "The overall move to online has been big," McGovern said. "Print editions are yesterday's news. If it is news, people want to hear it as soon as they can."
IDG operates in 95 countries and says it is growing by double digits in China, India, and Eastern Europe.
Newspaper publishers would be wise to drop print and delivery costs and then focus on digging out the hot local topics that their readerships crave, according to McGovern. "Find out the scandal in the mayor's office; what the police are up to, and those other things that people love to talk about," McGovern said. "It is easier and much less costly to put it online."
While internet users have grown accustomed to getting news, pictures, videos and other content for free, McGovern believes people will pay monthly subscriptions for online newspapers solidly tapped into their communities. "I think people realize that if they are not paying for the information there will not be much investment in the information," McGovern said.
Johnson sees the future of news weaving together talents of professional journalists, bloggers, and people using social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter to instantly tell what is happening around them.
The information mix will, of course, include direct online streams such as webcasts from high-profile people such as US President Barack Obama.
"Let's say it is impossible to separate fact finding from rumor mongering," Johnson hypothesized. "If only there were some institution that had a reputation for integrity and a staff of trained journalists that had thousands of people visiting their websites every day."
Those institutions are newspapers, Johnson noted, adding that an Internet-age motto of newspapers should be "All the news that fit to link."
#1
""If only there were some institution that had a reputation for integrity and a staff of trained journalists that had thousands of people visiting their websites every day."
Sorry, I thought for a moment that he was a science fiction author...my bad. But the 'reputation for integrity' bit is hilarious.
#2
I see Dr. Pink Salmon commented at Ace of Spades HQ on the demise of newspapers. Luring RBers to the darkside, one at a time
heh heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/15/2009 9:26 Comments ||
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#3
Here is the comment I posted at AoSHQ:
People who are responding here are pretty much piling on, but that won't stop me :-)
I think the news industry got into trouble for two reasons:
First, reporters became journalists, and you needed to go to J-school to be a journalist. Reporting used to be a trade, and now it's a profession.
And second, professionals prefer to hang out with other professionals. I don't want to paint with too broad a brush, but a lot of journalists consider themselves to be on the same level as the lawyers, politicians, high level government staffers and officials, and academics, instead of on the same level as ordinary people. There is no way today that reporters like Jimmy Breslin and Mike Royko could work for large newspapers. They identified too much with the cab drivers and deli owners.
Reporters got the facts right back then, and if they were good enough they were promoted to columnist or editor, and then were allowed to express their opinions. Journalists today learn all about 'narrative', and that's exactly why they inject their opinions into what should be (and was in a bygone era) straight reporting.
We need fewer journalists and more reporters. Just a thought.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/15/2009 10:32 Comments ||
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#4
AoSHQ, the darkside? Is that Army of Steve Headquarters? Why does it use a pseudonym?
#5
AoSHQ, the darkside? Is that Army of Steve Headquarters?
That's the Ace Of Spades Headquarters. Here at the Supreme Headquarters - Army of Steve , we don't use silly pseudonyms. We prefer to remain hidden in the shadows, controlling world events from behind the scenes. That, or drinking beer and watching tv.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/15/2009 15:47 Comments ||
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#7
the "tender" Army of Steve would blanche at the language at the AOSHQ. :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/15/2009 16:06 Comments ||
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#8
Sure. Just like dinosaurs evolved into birds. Some are even wildly successful. But they will never rule the earth again. Instead they are kept in cages or farm pens, or hunted for sport.
Posted by: ed ||
03/15/2009 19:42 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Court documents released on Friday show that Bernard Madoff and his wife Ruth lived a life of high luxury, with exclusive homes, yachts and other assets worth $823-million. 
The Madagascar opposition said on Saturday it had toppled the government of President Marc Ravalomanana and promised fresh elections following months of unrest that have left over 100 dead. 
Playing loud music, dancing, nudity, kissing and even holding hands in public is considered inappropriate behavior under new guidelines laid down by the authorities of Dubai, according to a press report on Saturday. 
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Bolivian President Evo Morales is once again accusing the CIA of meddling in internal affairs. This time, Morales says a midlevel military official and Bolivian police officers are in contact with the U.S. spy agency.
What Kim Jong-Il wants, Kim Jong-Il gets - and apparently that's ravioli.
Pakistan Muslim League-N Chief Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Saturday said winds of change have started blowing in the country. Addressing the gathering here at his residence, Nawaz Sharif said it seems the long march has already achieved its goal. Â"Pakistani nation wants change and now no one can stop it from coming,Â" he said adding Â"anyone who tries to stop it will be blown away.Â" He said the sit-in will be staged at the same place where it was announced to be staged. Nawaz Sharif said now the people will be provided justice at their doorstep.
As many as 12 persons were died of drinking poisonous liquor during last three days in Karachi while six others are under treatment at hospitals, police sources said. According to police, seven persons were died in Lyari area while others were died in Risala, Faisal, Maripur, Gulzar and Lalji areas during last three days. According to doctors, injured people are critical in condition and would hardly survive while they could also become physically handicapped once for all. Police are conducting investigation into incidents, police sources added.
Newspapers are dying but journalism is evolving, an acclaimed science writer told a gathering of the techno-hip at South By South West Interactive Festival on Friday. Steven Johnson equated newspapers to old growth forests, saying that under the canopy of that aged ecosystem blogging, citizen journalism, Twittering and other Internet-age information sharing is taking root. 
