Saturday, December 29, 2018

In the news, Friday, December 21, 2018


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DEC 20      INDEX      DEC 22
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from Conciliar Post

Advent is my favorite season of the liturgical year. It is a season of expectation, preparation, and self-reflection. The Church meditates on the mystery of the Incarnation at Christ’s first coming while considering his second coming. So we turn our attention inward where, to the best of our ability, we disclose those parts of us requiring to be handed over to the Refiner’s Fire for purgation (Mal 3:2). In Advent the reality of divine judgment gives significance to our actions and the crushing weight of eternity contextualizes our temporality. Recently, I have been more intentional in the way I listen to music. Instead of listening to custom-made playlists at the mercy of shuffle mode, I have been slowly exploring the catalogues of artists. My current selection has been the work of Bob Dylan, an appropriate choice for the Advent season. With a catalogue as large as his, I will focus on his first album from 1962. The self-titled debut album Bob Dylan focuses on themes like disappointment, failure, and mortality. Lacking the counter-cultural pacifistic zeal present in The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, this album is more intimate. The focus is not on political problems “out there” so much as on the singer-storyteller’s immediate orbit, teaching the listener a certain transitory view of the world paralleling the focus of Advent. The songs from this album of particular note are “In My Time of Dyin,” “Man of Constant Sorrow,” “Fixin’ to Die,” and “Gospel Plow.”

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

New Census Data Show Americans Are Migrating from Tax-Punishing States
The Census Bureau has released new data on state population growth between July 2017 and July 2018. Domestic migration between the states is one portion of annual population change. The Census data show that Americans are continuing to move from high-tax to low-tax states.

Saying You’re Against Fascists Doesn’t Excuse Acting Like One
Despite claims that Antifa fights fascism, the group's tactics actually mirror those of Benito Mussolini's regime.

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from The Guardian (UK)
LEFT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, daily newspaper

If universities sacrifice philosophy on the altar of profit, what’s next?
You might think that a university philosophy department facing closure in Hull is of as much interest to the average person as the shutting of a butcher’s in Wolverhampton is to a vegetarian in Totnes. There are almost as many universities as high streets now, and for every closure here there’s an opening somewhere else. But the events unfolding on Humberside are symptomatic of a deep malaise affecting not just universities but the wider culture. The crude pursuit of what is “practical”, “efficient” or “useful” is threatening everything of value that isn’t evidently profitable. The threat at Hull reflects a lamentable shift in education towards precisely this functional view of what universities are for. But it also reflects a crudely utilitarian worldview that infects much, much more. You see it manifest whenever arts funding is under threat or when the evident inability of GDP growth to capture what most matters fails to translate to concrete steps to replace it with better metrics. That’s why Hull’s fate is all our fates. Today, they’re coming for philosophy. Tomorrow, they’ll come for something else that isn’t designed to turn a profit.

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

Trump and Congress Earn a Conservative Victory With First Step Act
President Donald Trump and conservatives in Congress earned a historic victory this week by enacting the First Step Act. The landmark bill provides modest yet much-needed prison and sentencing reform modeled on successful reforms already passed in red states.

The Grinch Strikes as a Hostile Drone Brings London Airport to a Halt, Affecting Tens of Thousands of Travelers
As readers speed off for Christmas celebrations with family and friends, just imagine being stuck at the airport because a drone was flying around it, making it dangerous for planes to land or take off. That is exactly what happened at London’s Gatwick Airport over the past two days. Earlier this year, Heritage Foundation experts warned of the risk of malicious drones and the need to develop a more robust counter-drone legal framework with the right tools in the hands of law enforcement. While Congress did expand counter-drone authorities this past year, more work remains to be done so that we are better prepared for something like what has happened in Gatwick.

Left-Wing Groups Are Telling Democrats to Slow the Judicial-Confirmation Process
When it comes to confirming President Trump’s judicial nominees, left-wing groups say “Jump” and Senate Democrats ask “How high?” The groups have told Democrats to slow down the judicial-confirmation process and they are doing what they are told. The slow slog to confirmation begins as soon as a nomination makes it out of the Judiciary Committee. Democrats have found several ways to make the confirmation process more cumbersome and time-consuming than ever.

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from The Inlander
Media/News Company in Spokane, WA

Man who yelled racial slurs at teenagers at Coeur d'Alene McDonald's not convicted of hate crime
Richard Sovenski, a Hayden, Idaho, man who was arrested days after yelling racial slurs and profanities at a group of teenagers with a Spokane youth group from Immanuel Church in West Central Spokane led by the church's former youth community director, Jose Ceniceros, while they were getting ice cream at a Coeur d'Alene McDonald's, was found guilty of committing misdemeanor battery but not of felony malicious harassment — a hate crime. "I am disappointed and angry that this is what happened with all the evidence presented," Ceniceros tells the Inlander in response to the jury's verdict. "All the evidence is there. He should have been convicted of a hate crime."

The Spokane City Council spent this year locked in a cold war with Mayor Condon
To Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart, the way Mayor David Condon has responded to council ordinances this year represents "pretty much a failure of leadership." That kind of condemnation isn't unprecedented for Stuckart: It pales in comparison to the fiery, public insult-laden council-mayor clashes during the depths of the Frank Straub scandal in 2016. But the conflict is real: Instead of salvos in the press, there have been behind-the-scenes struggles marked by delays, legislative maneuvering and emails percolating with irritation. And council members have watched the mayor seem to ignore or delay implementing some of the City Council's most high profile laws the city passed. And that irritation has moved from a simmer to a boil. "It’s a pretty poor legacy he’s leaving," says Stuckart. "It seems like he's spending more time ignoring the law, trying to thwart the law." The pattern has gone like this: The City Council passes a big ordinance, the mayor vetoes it, the council overrides the veto, but then the mayor seemingly refuses to implement it, sending the council scrambling to try to find alternatives.

Zinke's exit may open the door for an Idaho Interior leader
Former Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke will be out as secretary of the Interior at the end of the year, amid pressure from multiple ongoing ethics investigations. Trump was expected to announce his nominee to replace Zinke this week, and as of Tuesday, the Hill reported that among the likely contenders was Idaho Rep. Raúl Labrador, who will leave his U.S. House position after a failed bid for Idaho governor, and current Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, who leaves office in January.

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from Laudable Practice  Blog

"MODERATE COURSE" OR POPULIST FESTIVITY? CALVIN V. HOOKER AT CHRISTMAS
Calvin may not have been the Grinch when it came to Christmas, but he dwelt in the same neighbourhood.  May our Christmas be celebrated in a different neighbourhood, that of the BCP and Hooker, marked by praise, and bounty, and rest.

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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

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