Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Depressing Stories below the fold

...AnGetReligion blog points to Walter Kirn’s essay in the The New Republic, Confessions of an Ex-Mormon: A personal history of America’s most misunderstood religion, as a good place for non LDS people to learn about the culture of that religion.

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I was always puzzled about stories asking Romney to let finances to be perused, or similar stories suggesting his past is a secret. This is a guy who was governor of Massachusetts, so why wasn't he vented then? I mean, yes, the Boston Herald is "conservative" but the Globe is a bit to the left of NPR.
Well, anyway, BuzzFeed has Romney's papers (which were hiding in plain sight).
The forms, filed with the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission during Romney's run and tenure as Governor, show various Romney investments in Bain Capital funds and membership of boards until 2003. After 2003 time all of Romney's assets became listed in a blind trust. While the years 2001,2002 are 27 pages long each, after 2003 the forms are just seven to ten pages long.
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StrategyPage answers the anti war types who insist killing the enemy with drones isn't fair:

Some call it murder. But war is murder, and for centuries those involved have recognized that going to war is a messy business, especially if you are in the midst of it. In war the survivors quickly learn two things. Those who kill first are less likely to be killed and those who can kill more of the opponent's leaders will most likely win the war.
All of this brings to mind the Battle of Maldon (yes, I'm still listening to the history of the dark ages and the vikings).

 In that battle,the Vikings were caught on an island, and
Olaf's forces could not make headway against the troops guarding the small land bridge, and he asked Byrhtnoth to allow his warriors onto the shore. Byrhtnoth, for his ofermōde (line 89b), let all the Vikings cross
thereby losing the batle and his life. Ofermode is usually translated pride, but it is really hubris or excessive honor.

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and you thought today's politics was rough. The HistoryNet has this factoid: (what) defeated presidential candidate died in a mental hospital within a month after the election
Horace Greeley, staunch abolitionist and founder and editor of the New York Tribune. Greeley ran against Ulysses Grant during Grant's bid for a second term. Greeley was badly beaten. A week before the election, his wife died. Exhausted by grief and the strain of a very negative campaign, Greeley ended up in a mental hospital where he died on November 29, 1872, just 24 days after the election.
more here about Horace Greeley
but he is most famous for the saying "Go west, young man, go west"...

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the Chronicles writes about a culture of evasion at Penn State that led folks to ignore Sandusky so they wouldn't get any bad publicity...

A better explanation might be that they were influenced by the local Bishop's attitude toward the problem:
Compassion toward the perpetrator you know, while seeing the crime as normal consensual behavior a bit outside the law, but that should be stopped by counseling and understanding...link and LINK Link and link), and then there is this 2002 article, about the Penn State Psychologist used by the Altoona diocese (note most of the links come from right wing sites).
(Timeline HERE)

Those were the good old days when Newsweek was telling us docs not to report incestuous fathers, because it would break up the family,...I can't find the Newsweeks article on line, but this article on the Daily Beast article defends incest and does name names of those who back then defended the practice as harmless or even beneficial in years past.

If you want to see extent of the problem today, check out this cdc article which uses neutral language to describe childhood sexual abuse.
especially(Table 55).Nope, I'm still waiting for this report to get in the headlines.

Sigh.

We docs see these things, and often see the victims years later for substance abuse problems.
I'm starting to see articles "courageous" enough to notice that there is a link between morality and poverty,
with even the libertarian Instapundit saying:  

HOW TO REDUCE INEQUALITY: Get (And Stay) Married. Since it’s apparently okay to use government coercion to reduce inequality, does that mean we should be implementing policies that discourage single motherhood and divorce? You know, for the sake of “fairness?” I’m just asking. . . .
Posted at 2:20 pm by Glenn Reynolds  

but our media still gladly keeps pushing to define deviancy of all types as normal.

Here is Holly Ordway's essay about looking into the abyss...
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File this article away for the next time the press "discovers" someone is laundering money in the Vatican: from the UKDailyMail:




HSBC let drug gangs launder millions: First Barclays, now Britain's biggest bank is shamed - and faces a £640million fine 
HSBC moved huge sum from Mexico into the U.S. between 2007 and 2008

Provided services for Saudi Arabia's Al Rajhi Bank linked to financing terrorism Senate investigation suggests they also moved money tied to Iran Accuses bank of 'pervasively polluted' culture

 Another hammer blow to the credibility of British banking system after Barclays was fined for allegedly rigging LIBOR interest rate
Stepping down: David Bagley quit his post before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee in Washington today
Stepping down: David Bagley quit his post before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee in Washington today

The bank failed to monitor a staggering £38trillion of money moving across borders from places that could have posed a risk, including the Cayman Islands and Switzerland. The failures stretched to dealings with Saudi Arabian bank Al Rajhi, which was linked to the financing of terrorism following 9/11.
 The UKGuardian article HERE

Sigh.
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