Saturday, December 9, 2017

In the news, Monday, November 20, 2017


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NOV 19      INDEX      NOV 21
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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

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from Commentary
Magazine in New York, New York

The Opportunist
While Republicans are wrestling over whether to fully embrace a lecherous scofflaw, Democrats are finally breaking with one. This is how the latter party would prefer the nation’s narrative-shapers frame the left’s apparent determination to confront the allegations against President Bill Clinton. The fact that this great coming to terms occurs at a moment of utmost political opportunity is, they’d contend, pure coincidence. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, has adopted the noble cause of confronting sexual harassment and abuse in public institutions, ranging from the military to Capitol Hill, and making it easier for victims to come forward. The passion with which she confronts these issues is laudable. So, too, is her decision to come out against Bill Clinton, one of her party’s formerly untouchable serial offenders.

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from First Things

RUSSIAN ALCHEMY
When Russian literature is mentioned, we often think of stark questions of good and evil, or of plunges in the cold waters of suffering and redemption. But when we stand back from these powerful ideas, we see earth’s small things. We see trees. We see sticky green leaves and bushes. Tangibility. Russian writers sanctify the world around them. They translate the pain of reality into monuments of striving and desire. Trees are not just trees. The great Russian writers knew how to turn tragedy into poetry.

EVANGELICALS AND ORTHODOX TOGETHER
In the battle of ideas and values, specifically gender and sexuality, Evangelicals and Russian Orthodox find themselves on the same side, notwithstanding their theological differences, and this alliance will have a serious influence on domestic and global politics. One should not dismiss the nascent alliance between American Evangelicals and the Russian Orthodox as simply cynical.

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from The Heritage Foundation
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED, think tank in Washington, D.C

Playing Politics Is Not Unconstitutional
The court just heard oral arguments in Gill v. Whitford, a Wisconsin case that involves how voting-district lines are drawn. The Wisconsin challengers claim they have a judicially manageable standard. As noted by Wisconsin’s Solicitor General, Misha Tseytlin, 10 of the 17 redistricting plans cited by the challengers’ own expert as the “worst” partisan gerrymanders under the “efficiency gap” test were neutral plans drawn by supposedly objective courts and commissions.

Here’s Why We Should Still Celebrate the Pilgrims at Thanksgiving
Nearly 400 years later, the idea of America as a kind of promised land continues to resonate. Thanksgiving has grown to become a significant part of our nation’s shared cultural inheritance.

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from The Liberty Review
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen announced Monday that she will resign from her post as one of the Fed’s board of governors once President Donald Trump’s pick to replace her is sworn in.

The makers of Berger Cookies in Baltimore, Md., are concerned that that new rules will force them to discontinue their iconic cookie due to federal rules. Under current proposed rules, companies will no longer be allowed to sell food containing partially hydrogenated oils, which contain trans fats, after June 18, 2018.

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from The Living Church
Magazine of The Living Church Foundation (Anglican)

Outcome-based discipleship
What might it reasonably look like for the witness of Christian disciples to change the world in a way that is appropriately modest, that is, short of presuming to build Jerusalem?

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from Orthodox Christianity
Organization in Moscow, Russia

PETER I MADE TERRIBLE MISTAKE IN ABOLISHING PATRIARCHATE—HEAD OF ROMANOV DYNASTY
The 1917 restoration of the patriarchate helped the Russian Orthodox Church overcome persecution, the head of the Russian Imperial House Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna believes. As the head of chancellery of the royal house Alexander Zakatov reported to Interfax-Religion on Saturday, Her Royal Highness, speaking at a festive meal in the cathedral of Donskoy Monastery, stated that “the restoration of the Russian patriarchate has been a beacon of light in that dark time of revolutionary turmoil and civil strife.” The grand duchess was also present at the Divine Liturgy before the meal, celebrating the centenary of St. Tikhon’s election as patriarch. In her word during the meal, Grand Duchess Maria also noted that her “ancestor Peter the Great made a terrible mistake in abolishing the institution of the patriarchate and bureaucratizing the administration of the Church.”

11 thoughts on the Nativity Fast from Pat. Daniel of Romania
To mark the start of the Nativity Fast, which has already begun for those Churches celebrating on the new calendar, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania has published eleven reflections and recommendations for his flock.

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from Reuters
International news agency headquartered in London, England

U.S. diplomats accuse Tillerson of breaking child soldiers law
A group of about a dozen U.S. State Department officials have taken the unusual step of formally accusing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of violating a federal law designed to stop foreign militaries from enlisting child soldiers, according to internal documents reviewed by Reuters. A confidential State Department “dissent” memo, which Reuters was first to report on, said Tillerson breached the Child Soldiers Prevention Act when he decided in June to exclude Iraq, Myanmar, and Afghanistan from a U.S. list of offenders in the use of child soldiers. This was despite the department publicly acknowledging that children were being conscripted in those countries.

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from Space.com (& CollectSpace)

'Close Encounters' Turns 40: Why Its Legacy Has Endured for Ages
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind" has had a strong impact on popular culture since its debut in 1977, but alien-signal-hunting astronomer Seth Shostak's most enduring memory of the film concerns mashed potatoes.

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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

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from Zero Hedge
CONSPIRACY-PSEUDOSCIENCE,  MIXED,  financial blog with aggregated news and opinion

German Government Crisis Sends Stocks Soaring, Gold Down Most In 4 Months
Following Friday's best day in 6 months, gold tumbled most in 4 months today as the German Government crisis sent investors fleeing any source of safe haven!!??

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