BALTIMORE, Maryland March 31, 2014 - Winter lasted until the last. Yesterday it snowed, it was cold, it was cloudy and a cold raw wind blew. It could have passed for mid-December. And then opening day dawned. It was sunny. It felt like at least early spring. By mid-afternoon, when the game started, the temperature had climbed into, are you ready for this, the mid-60's. The grass was green - how come the stadium grass is green and the backyard grass is brown - the uniforms clean and bright, and all thoughts of winter were fluttering gently away on the soon-to-be April breeze. And then the game started. For the Defending World Champs, it was John Lester and Chris Tillman for the Orioles. Lester was an Oriole killer last year, and the year before that, and the year before that... Tillman, on the other hand, was one of those lads with a ton of talent, on the verge of getting really good, then along came 2012, and more specifically, the second half of 2012, when he found himself and the Orioles found one whale of a pitcher. He finished 2012 with a record of 9-3 and a 2.94 ERA. Last year, he just kept getting better. He was the Orioles best starter, won 16 games, and had an ERA of 3.71. Today, the Sox hit him hard: sevem hits in five innings. But you know what, it didn't do them a damn bit of good because he only gave up one run, and that on a solo hemer by new centerfielder Grady Sizemore. The only consolation for the Sox is that Tillman didn't get the win. That went to Zach Britton, who was the first out of the bullpen in relief of Tillman. Britton went two innings, giving up one hit. Also on the mound before the ninth were Evan Meek and Brian Matusz, Meek went two-thirds and Matusz one-third. Then in the ninth came the new closer, Tommy Hunter, who was annointed the closer yesterday by Oriole Manager Buck Showalter. All Hunter did today was mow down the middle of the Sox powerful batting order to get his first save of the season. His pitches are all up in the 90's, one was measured at 99 miles per hour. Professional hitters are not fazed by speed unless it is accompanied by movement and the ability to change speeds, at least now and then, effectively. Hunter has great movement these days and, in addition to the awesome fastball, throws a mean looking breaking ball. In the ninth, Hunter entered, replacing hard-throwing lefthander Brian Matusz. There are those who think Matusz should be the closer. But he is more valuable right now as the lefthander who can get left and right-handed hitters out. Will Middlebrooks leads off for the Sox and Hunter plunks him. Then he gets Daniel Nava to pop up to third-baseman Ryan Flaherty. That brings Dustin Pedroia, one of baseball's best clutch hitters, to the plate. Hunter gets ahead of Petroia 0-2, but pitch after pitch are fought off by Pedroia until Hunter throws him a low fastball just off the outside corner of the plate. Replays will show that Pedroia swung, but the umps don't see the replay and to the naked eye it is real close. Pedroia gets the call, and two pitches later he raps a solid single to left. Middlebrooks, not fast afoot, stops at second. Now up comes David Ortiz. Two on, one out and it is bloody David Ortiz, another outstanding clutch hitter, in addition to being an intimidating power hitter. Hunter does not back down. and Ortiz finally sends a routine fly to left, which the hitting hero of the game, newcomer Nelson Cruz, easily corrals. Now, a move by the Sox outstanding manager, John Farrell, back in the top of the eighth inning, comes back to haunt him. Mike Napoli is the Sox cleanup hitter today. He leads off the eighth and draws a walk. He becomes the tie run and Farrell goes to his bench for the speedy Jackie Bradley, Jr. Bradley had been headed for Boston's top farm team at Pawtucket until Shane Victorino came up with an injury late in spring training and had to go on the DL. In the ninth, with the tying and winning runs on base, but with two outs, he is the hitter. He is not about to deal, competently, with a Tommy Hunter near one hundred mile per hour fastball. In an instant he is down on the count, 0-2. Then, he fights off a fastball right down the pipe. Then Hunter misses with a pitch. Then he drives one down the middle but letter high. A young guy like Larry Bradley, Jr. cannot take a pitch like that with two strikes. He will not get the call. But he took the pitch. He did not get the call. The Orioles win on opening day in Baltimore. The offensive hero is Nelson Cruz, the Birds' new leftfielder. He was leading off the seventh against Lester, and in his last inning today, Lester let one out over the plate against Cruz' lightning quick bat. It landed well up in the left field seats and the Orioles had what proved to be winning run. Don't say Farrell screwed up by sending Lackey out to start the seventh. After Cruz homered, he struck out the next three hitters. Britton was the winner, Lester was the loser, Hunter got the save. For the game, the defending champs banged out nine hits. Nine hits will win a lot of games. But the Orioles are put together to win games like this. They have a flexible bullpen that allows their outstanding game manager, Showalter, play to match-ups in the later innings. A lot of hits are wasted against the Orioles, today included. The Birds had two runs on six hits. One player on each team had two hits. Sizemore was the man for Boston. Adam Jones did it for the Orioles. The two teams have tomorrow off. The series continues Wednesday night, 7:05 pm, Ubaldo Jimenez, the Orioles key off-season pitching acquisition, starts for the Birds. The Sox counter with John Lackey. On Thursday, Buck Showalter has picked Wei-Yin Chen while Farrell has chosen Felix Doubrant.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Australian Prime Minister: No Debris from Missing Jet Found; Medvedev visits Crimea, drawing ire of Ukrainian Government; Anti-Immigrant Candidates Win Big in France; Masterpiece Stolen from Poland During WWII Being Returned Today; "Noah" opens in USA, gaining huge box office take, with a review of the movie; Sports: Legia Warsawa Clinches First Place Tie; Shakhtar Donetsk and Dnipro both prevail, Nascimento scores twice
BALTIMORE, Maryland March 31, 2014 - Australian Prime Minister: Recovered debris not from Missing Jet; Search Will Continue Until Plane is Found: None of the debris pulled from the Indian Ocean in recent days was from the missing Malaysian Airlines Jumbo Jet that disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board. That was the word from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot, who made a statement to start a Monday Morning press conference at a base in western Australia. Abbot also promised that the search will last as long as necessary to find the jet and its occupants. Costs will be apportioned later among the nations participating in the search, the Prime Minister said.
Not long after the new conference ended, numerous media outlets reported that the four orange objects recovered Sunday were not from the missing plane, but were, instead, fishing equipment.
Medvedev Visits Crimea, Promises Economic Help In a trip blasted by the Ukrainian Government in Kiev, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited Simferopol in Crimea on Sunday and promised to make it a special economic zone and the target of increased spending by Moscow. He said one aim will be to attract foreign investments, possibly in the area of tourism. Roads and other public infrastructure will be improved, he added. He was the highest Russian official to visit Crimea since the Russian Military invaded the Ukrainian province in early March. The Ukrainian Government in Kiev blasted Medvedev's trip, calling it a violation of international law.
Anti-Immigrant Candidates Big Winners in French Elections The anti-immigration candidates of the National Front Party of Marine Le Penn were apparently the big winners in local elections across France on Sunday, and the Government of President Francois Hollande may be forced into making Cabinet Minister changes as early as this week, reported Euronews.
The Guardian says Le Penn's party will win eleven of France's bigger cities, easily surpassing their record victories in 1990 when they won four mayors' races. Provisional results from Sunday's voting showed the protectionist, anti-EU Front National party of Marine Le Pen set to take control of 11 towns across the country, easily surpassing a past record in the 1990s when it ruled in four towns. A stunning 140 other towns swung from the left to the right as voters reacted to the failure of Hollande's government to turn around the French economy and it moribund unemployment situation. French unemployment has hovered near ten percent for many months.
About the only bright spot for Socialists was the election of the first female Mayor in the history of Paris. Anne Hidalgo appeared to be the winner. In a victory speech said noted, "I am the first woman mayor of Paris. I am aware of the challenge."
Guardi Masterpiece Stolen from National Museum in Warsaw during World War II Returning to Poland The masterpiece painting by Venetian Francesco Lazzaro Guardi (1712 - 1793), stolen from the National Museum in Warsaw during World War II, will be restored to Poland today when German Foreign Minister Walter Steinmeier hands it to Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski during a ceremony today in Berlin. It had been looted by members of the Nazi Government during the war. Entitled "Palace Stairs," a print of it may be viewed at the Polish Radio One Web Site at this address: http://www.thenews.pl/1/11/Artykul/166913,Looted-Guardi-painting-returns-to-Poland
According to Polish Radio One, Poland issued a request that the Painting be returned. It was among those works listed by Polish Authorities in 1950 when a catalogue of stolen art and cultural works was prepared. It had been purchased by the National Museum in 1925 from a private collector. It was on display in the museum when World War II appeared to be a certainty. For Poland, the start of the War was an invasion by Germany months before the Nazi's steamrolled France and nearly forced the combined British and French armies into the sea at Dunkirk. But those two forces escaped in the so-called "Miracle at Dunkirk," when British Sailors in all manner of boats and ships raced across the English channel time and again, filled with soldiers.
Polish One provides this history of the Work as the war appeared imminent: At the end of 1939 it was transferred to the warehouses of the Special Agent for Securing and Safeguarding of Art and Cultural Treasures located at the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków and several years later it was moved to Governor Hans Frank's headquarters at the Wawel Castle. In 1944, during the evacuation of Frank’s office, it was transported, alongside other works of art, including Leonardo’s ‘Lady with an Ermine’, to Count Manfred von Richthofen's castle in Sichow, Lower Silesia. On the basis of the recently discovered documents, it was established that in December, 1945 the painting was moved to an arts warehouse in Wiesbaden, and subsequently to the Central Collecting Point in Munich from which it was supposed to be returned to its previous owner. In view of the fact that neither American authorities nor the German administration were able to establish the painting’s ownership, it was deposited at the University of Heidelberg and, later on, at the Kurpfalzische Museum in Heidelberg and the National Art Gallery in Stuttgart, where it remained until today. Polish One reports that a database of Polish war-time art losses contains almost 63,000 items, including close on 7,000 works by Polish painters Aleksander Gierymski, Jan Matejko, Jacek Malczewski, and Stanisław Wyspiański, among others, and 7,500 canvasses by foreign artists, including Raphael’s ‘Portrait of a Young Man’, which was looted by the Germans from the Czartoryski collection in Kraków. Currently, Radio One reports, The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage is currently making efforts to secure the return of 46 works of art stolen from Polish collections during World War Two.
- See more at: http://www.thenews.pl/1/11/Artykul/166913,Looted-Guardi-painting-returns-to-Poland#sthash.vd8YVlVI.dpuf
Noah opens to good and bad reviews, large crowds, and this positive review The movie Noah opened in the United States this weekend after getting a mixed bag of reviews. USA earnings this weekend have been put at $44 million, and to date it has earned some $95 million when overseas receipts are added in. Those who reviewed the movie as a movie tended to like it. Those who reviewed it and factored in how closely it retold the Biblical Epic tended not to like it. Where I attended the movie it played to large crowds. I stood in line at an AMC venue in White Marsh, Maryland and the showing was neither in 3D or the curved surround screen. Overall I thought the movie was amazing, I'd love to see it again, maybe two or three more times. The makers of the movie made it clear that it was not a total and mere retelling of the epic. I believe an accurate retelling would stand on its own as well, but that isn't what Darren Aronofsky chose to do. A lot of the story was extremely close and some wasn't close at all. Some of the criticism came from Aronofsky's envisioning of the Watchers. The Bible recounts that some angels joined with Lucifer in a rebellion against God, and were therefore thrown out of Heaven. Aronofsky has these "bad" angels do something that didn't seem quite so bad: according to one of them, they disobeyed God's order not to become in anyway involved with his creation on Earth. But they wanted to help mankind and went as a group to the planet surface where they were immediately discovered by the Lord. He encased their bodies of light in a shell of rock and condemned them to live among men as such. They came to hate mankind for all of his evil machinations and by the time Noah came along, they were staying to themselves nnd were extremely bitter. One of them, however, recognized Noah as a righteous man and helped him on his journey to the home of his grandfather, Methuselah. When the other Watchers come to get the one Watcher who joined in league with Noah, and begin to drag him away, the Lord at that moment revealed his intentions for mankind and the making of the ark. I won't go anymore into the plot of the movie, except to say generally that most of the out-and-out parting of the movie and the Bible Epic comes when Noah misinterprets God's intentions for mankind after the flood. Until he understands that he got it wrong, he was on the wrong side of the story, and very much against the rest of his family. As a movie I loved the event, save for about an hour when all are aboard the ark and the family division is played out. The rest of the movie was an enlightened and, indeed, brilliant imagining of the Biblical Epic. Some of Aronofsky's story, especially the degree of depravity and debauchery the morally bankrupt human race fell into, the urge of the humans to find their place in the debauched society rather than rebel against it, and, especially, the absolute magnificence of the animal kingdom as they arrived at the ark was beyond anything I expected and actually brilliant in the way it was presented. Ray Winstone was the human king who was determined to destroy Noah despite the clarity with which it became apparent to him that God was leading Noah to do what it was he was doing. Only Hollywood would make it believable that a human - shown clearly that God wanted things done differently, would still disobey him and try to do things not only differently. but in a far more evil and depraved manner. Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connely, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Watson give gritty, realistic performances. Crowe controls a screen with the emotion and power he brings to every character he plays. Noah is no exception. He follows God to the T, except when he believed God wanted him to slay two children. He would not go that far, giving even God the idea that his creation has a side that is far from evil and even willing to do what is right and just when God orders otherwise. The cinematography was spectacular, and like the ideas behind many of the scenes, you saw that shear brilliance was on display. The imagining of what an angel appeared to be both at creation and later was a stroke of pure genius. Aronofsky has said he is an atheist. He lies.
Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein (Book based upon "Mein Weltbild" edited by Cal Seelig and other sources; New translations and revisions by Sonja Bargmann; Three Rivers Press, New York, first copyright 1954)
Marie Curie In Memorium Statement for the Curie Memorial Celebration, Roerich Museum, New York, November 23, 1935. Publised in Out of My Later Years, New York Philosohical Library, 1950.
At a time when a towering personality like Mme. Curie has come to the end of her life, let us not merely rest content with recalling what she has given to mankind in the fruits of her work. It is the moral qualities of its leading personalities that are perhaps of even great significance for a generation and for the course of history than purely intellectual accomplishments. Even these latter are, to a far greater degree than is commonly credited, dependent on the stature of character.
It was my good fortune to be linked with Mme. Curie through twenty years of sublime and unclouded friendship. I came to admire her human grandeur to an ever growing degree. Her strength, her purity of will, her austerity towards herself, her objectivity, her incorruptible judgment - all of these were of a kind seldom found joined in a single individual. She felt herself at every moment to be a servant of society, and her profound modesty never left any room for complacency. She was oppressed by an abiding sense for the asperities and inequities of society. This is what gave her that severe outward aspect, so easily misinterpreted by those who were not close to her - a curious severity unrelieved by any artistic strain. Once she had recognized a certain way as the right one, she pursued it without compromise and with extreme tenacity.
The great scientific deed of her life - proving the existence of radioactive elements and isolating them - owes its accomplishment not merely to bold intuition but to a devotion and tenacity in execution under the most extreme hardships imaginable, such as the history of experimental science has not often witnessed.
If but a small part of Mme. Curie's strength of character and devotion were alive in Europe's intellectuals, Europe would face a brighter future.
The Second Letter of Peter, Chapter 2, Verses 4 through and including 10
Chapter 2: Verse 4. For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether glooms to be kept until the judgment; Verse 5. if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; Verse 6. if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who would be ungodly; Verse 7. and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked Verse 8. (for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds), Verse 9. then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, Verse 10. and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and defile authority.
Legia Warszawa Goes Ten Points Clear in Top Polish Soccer League While Legia Warszawa was defeating Lech Poznan, 1-0, on Saturday, it was also clinching no worse than a tie for first place in Ekstraklasa Polish One. The defeat of Lech Poznan left the losers ten points down with three games left. Only third place Wisla Krakow has a chance, however slim, to catch the leaders. To do that, it must win all four of its remaining games, beginning tonight when it travels to struggling Zaglebie Lubin. If that unlikely chain of events does occur, the two teams would be tied. Any win or tie by Legia Warszawa or loss by Wisla Krakow clinches first place in the regular season for Legia. In other scores from the weekend, Korona Kielce and Pogon Szczecin played to a 2-2 draw; visiting Podbeskidzie upended Ruch Chorzow, 1-0; Cracovia Krakow and Widzew Lodz played to a 1-1 draw; Lechia Gdansk scored three second half goals to defeat Piast Gliwice, 3-1; Zawisza Bydgoszcz beat back Slask Wroclaw, 1-0; and Jagiellonia battled back from a 3-1 halftime deficit to draw with Gornik Zabrze, 3-3. This is the table, up to the minute:
1. Legia Warszawa: 57 points, 18 wins, 3 draws, 7 losses
2. Lech Poznan: 47 points, 13 wins, 8 draws, 7 losses
3. Wisla Krakow: 45 points, 12 wins, 9 draws, 6 losses
4. Ruch Chorzow 44 points, 12 wins, 8 draws, 8 losses
5. Pogon Szczecin: 43 points, 10 wins, 13 draws, 5 losses
6. Gornik Zabrze: 41 points, 11 wins, 8 draws, 8 losses
7. Zawisza Bydgoszcz: 39 points, 10 wins, 9 draws, 8 losses
8. Jagiellonia: 37 points, 10 wins, 7 draws, 10 losses
9. Lechia Gdansk: 37 points, 9 wins, 10 draws, 9 losses
10. Cracovia Krakow: 36 points, 10 wins, 6 draws, 12 losses
11. Korona Kielce: 34 points, 8 wins, 10 draws, 10 losses
12. Piast Gliwice: 32 points, 8 wins, 8 draws, 12 losses
13. Slask Wroclaw: 30 points, 6 wins, 12 draws, 9 losses
14. Podbeskidzie: 27 points, 5 wins, 12 draws, 11 losses
15. Zaglebie Lubin: 26 points, 6 wins, 8 draws, 13 losses
16. Widzew Lodz: 19 points, 4 wins, 7 draws, 17 losses
In Ukraine Premier League, Shakhtar and Dnipro both win; Shakhtar Stays 3 Points Clear In the Ukraine Premier League, both first place Shakhtar and second place Dnipro both scored important wins over tough opponents. With those results, the Donetsk team stays three points clear of Dnipro, but Dnipro has a game in hand. Shakhtar had to come storming from behind to defeat Metalist. Metalist broke on top, 2-0, getting an own goal by Shakhtar's Oleksandr Kucher and a penalty kick goal by Marlos at the 32 minute mark. After the penalty kick, Shakhtar went to work. Douglas Costa got the home team on the board at the 36 minute mark. Eduardo tied the score at the 38 minute mark, and the captain, Darijo Sma gave Shakhtar a halftime advantage when he tallied at time. Shakhtar got an insurance score by Luiz Adriano in the 72nd minute. In the Dnipro match against Dynamo Kyiv, Matheus Nascimento scored in the second minute of first half injury time, and again at the 58 minute mark, to pace Dnipro to the home victory. Giuliano assisted on the first score. In other games, Metalurh Zapor defeated struggling Tavriya, 1-0; Volyn defeated Metalurh Donetsk, 3-1; Karpaty beat back Sevastopol, 2-0; Vorskla downed Hoverla, 3-1; and on Sunday, Illichivets beat Chornomorets, 3-1. This is the way the Ukraine Premier looks at this minute:
1. Shakhtar Donetsk: 44 points, 14 wins, 2 draws, 4 losses (20 games played)
2. Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk: 41 points, 12 wins, 5 draws, 2 losses (19 games played)
3. Dynamo Kyiv: 39 points, 12 wins, 3 draws, 5 losses (20 games played)
4. Metalist Kharkiv: 34 points, 9 wins, 7 draws, 2 losses (18 games played)
5. Chornomorets: 33 points, 9 wins, 6 draws, 4 losses (19 games played)
6. Vorskla: 30 points, 7 wins, 9 draws, 4 losses (20 games played)
7. Metalurh Donetsk: 27 points, 7 wins, 6 draws, 7 losses (20 games played)
8. Volyn: 27 points, 7 wins, 6 draws, 7 losses (20 games played)
9. Zorya: 25 points, 6 wins, 7 draws, 6 losses (19 games played)
10. Karpaty: 22 points, 5 wins, 7 draws, 7 losses (19 games played)
11. Illichivets': 21 points, 6 wins, 3 draws, 10 losses (19 games played)
12. Sevastopol: 19 points, 5 wins, 4 draws, 10 losses (19 games played)
13. Hoverla: 18 points, 5 wins, 3 draws, 12 losses (20 games played)
14. Metalurh Zapor.: 11 points, 2 wins, 5 draws, 13 losses (20 games played)
15. Tavriya: 9 points, 2 wins, 3 draws, 15 losses (20 games played)
Not long after the new conference ended, numerous media outlets reported that the four orange objects recovered Sunday were not from the missing plane, but were, instead, fishing equipment.
Medvedev Visits Crimea, Promises Economic Help In a trip blasted by the Ukrainian Government in Kiev, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited Simferopol in Crimea on Sunday and promised to make it a special economic zone and the target of increased spending by Moscow. He said one aim will be to attract foreign investments, possibly in the area of tourism. Roads and other public infrastructure will be improved, he added. He was the highest Russian official to visit Crimea since the Russian Military invaded the Ukrainian province in early March. The Ukrainian Government in Kiev blasted Medvedev's trip, calling it a violation of international law.
Anti-Immigrant Candidates Big Winners in French Elections The anti-immigration candidates of the National Front Party of Marine Le Penn were apparently the big winners in local elections across France on Sunday, and the Government of President Francois Hollande may be forced into making Cabinet Minister changes as early as this week, reported Euronews.
The Guardian says Le Penn's party will win eleven of France's bigger cities, easily surpassing their record victories in 1990 when they won four mayors' races. Provisional results from Sunday's voting showed the protectionist, anti-EU Front National party of Marine Le Pen set to take control of 11 towns across the country, easily surpassing a past record in the 1990s when it ruled in four towns. A stunning 140 other towns swung from the left to the right as voters reacted to the failure of Hollande's government to turn around the French economy and it moribund unemployment situation. French unemployment has hovered near ten percent for many months.
About the only bright spot for Socialists was the election of the first female Mayor in the history of Paris. Anne Hidalgo appeared to be the winner. In a victory speech said noted, "I am the first woman mayor of Paris. I am aware of the challenge."
Guardi Masterpiece Stolen from National Museum in Warsaw during World War II Returning to Poland The masterpiece painting by Venetian Francesco Lazzaro Guardi (1712 - 1793), stolen from the National Museum in Warsaw during World War II, will be restored to Poland today when German Foreign Minister Walter Steinmeier hands it to Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski during a ceremony today in Berlin. It had been looted by members of the Nazi Government during the war. Entitled "Palace Stairs," a print of it may be viewed at the Polish Radio One Web Site at this address: http://www.thenews.pl/1/11/Artykul/166913,Looted-Guardi-painting-returns-to-Poland
According to Polish Radio One, Poland issued a request that the Painting be returned. It was among those works listed by Polish Authorities in 1950 when a catalogue of stolen art and cultural works was prepared. It had been purchased by the National Museum in 1925 from a private collector. It was on display in the museum when World War II appeared to be a certainty. For Poland, the start of the War was an invasion by Germany months before the Nazi's steamrolled France and nearly forced the combined British and French armies into the sea at Dunkirk. But those two forces escaped in the so-called "Miracle at Dunkirk," when British Sailors in all manner of boats and ships raced across the English channel time and again, filled with soldiers.
Polish One provides this history of the Work as the war appeared imminent: At the end of 1939 it was transferred to the warehouses of the Special Agent for Securing and Safeguarding of Art and Cultural Treasures located at the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków and several years later it was moved to Governor Hans Frank's headquarters at the Wawel Castle. In 1944, during the evacuation of Frank’s office, it was transported, alongside other works of art, including Leonardo’s ‘Lady with an Ermine’, to Count Manfred von Richthofen's castle in Sichow, Lower Silesia. On the basis of the recently discovered documents, it was established that in December, 1945 the painting was moved to an arts warehouse in Wiesbaden, and subsequently to the Central Collecting Point in Munich from which it was supposed to be returned to its previous owner. In view of the fact that neither American authorities nor the German administration were able to establish the painting’s ownership, it was deposited at the University of Heidelberg and, later on, at the Kurpfalzische Museum in Heidelberg and the National Art Gallery in Stuttgart, where it remained until today. Polish One reports that a database of Polish war-time art losses contains almost 63,000 items, including close on 7,000 works by Polish painters Aleksander Gierymski, Jan Matejko, Jacek Malczewski, and Stanisław Wyspiański, among others, and 7,500 canvasses by foreign artists, including Raphael’s ‘Portrait of a Young Man’, which was looted by the Germans from the Czartoryski collection in Kraków. Currently, Radio One reports, The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage is currently making efforts to secure the return of 46 works of art stolen from Polish collections during World War Two.
- See more at: http://www.thenews.pl/1/11/Artykul/166913,Looted-Guardi-painting-returns-to-Poland#sthash.vd8YVlVI.dpuf
Noah opens to good and bad reviews, large crowds, and this positive review The movie Noah opened in the United States this weekend after getting a mixed bag of reviews. USA earnings this weekend have been put at $44 million, and to date it has earned some $95 million when overseas receipts are added in. Those who reviewed the movie as a movie tended to like it. Those who reviewed it and factored in how closely it retold the Biblical Epic tended not to like it. Where I attended the movie it played to large crowds. I stood in line at an AMC venue in White Marsh, Maryland and the showing was neither in 3D or the curved surround screen. Overall I thought the movie was amazing, I'd love to see it again, maybe two or three more times. The makers of the movie made it clear that it was not a total and mere retelling of the epic. I believe an accurate retelling would stand on its own as well, but that isn't what Darren Aronofsky chose to do. A lot of the story was extremely close and some wasn't close at all. Some of the criticism came from Aronofsky's envisioning of the Watchers. The Bible recounts that some angels joined with Lucifer in a rebellion against God, and were therefore thrown out of Heaven. Aronofsky has these "bad" angels do something that didn't seem quite so bad: according to one of them, they disobeyed God's order not to become in anyway involved with his creation on Earth. But they wanted to help mankind and went as a group to the planet surface where they were immediately discovered by the Lord. He encased their bodies of light in a shell of rock and condemned them to live among men as such. They came to hate mankind for all of his evil machinations and by the time Noah came along, they were staying to themselves nnd were extremely bitter. One of them, however, recognized Noah as a righteous man and helped him on his journey to the home of his grandfather, Methuselah. When the other Watchers come to get the one Watcher who joined in league with Noah, and begin to drag him away, the Lord at that moment revealed his intentions for mankind and the making of the ark. I won't go anymore into the plot of the movie, except to say generally that most of the out-and-out parting of the movie and the Bible Epic comes when Noah misinterprets God's intentions for mankind after the flood. Until he understands that he got it wrong, he was on the wrong side of the story, and very much against the rest of his family. As a movie I loved the event, save for about an hour when all are aboard the ark and the family division is played out. The rest of the movie was an enlightened and, indeed, brilliant imagining of the Biblical Epic. Some of Aronofsky's story, especially the degree of depravity and debauchery the morally bankrupt human race fell into, the urge of the humans to find their place in the debauched society rather than rebel against it, and, especially, the absolute magnificence of the animal kingdom as they arrived at the ark was beyond anything I expected and actually brilliant in the way it was presented. Ray Winstone was the human king who was determined to destroy Noah despite the clarity with which it became apparent to him that God was leading Noah to do what it was he was doing. Only Hollywood would make it believable that a human - shown clearly that God wanted things done differently, would still disobey him and try to do things not only differently. but in a far more evil and depraved manner. Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connely, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Watson give gritty, realistic performances. Crowe controls a screen with the emotion and power he brings to every character he plays. Noah is no exception. He follows God to the T, except when he believed God wanted him to slay two children. He would not go that far, giving even God the idea that his creation has a side that is far from evil and even willing to do what is right and just when God orders otherwise. The cinematography was spectacular, and like the ideas behind many of the scenes, you saw that shear brilliance was on display. The imagining of what an angel appeared to be both at creation and later was a stroke of pure genius. Aronofsky has said he is an atheist. He lies.
Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein (Book based upon "Mein Weltbild" edited by Cal Seelig and other sources; New translations and revisions by Sonja Bargmann; Three Rivers Press, New York, first copyright 1954)
Marie Curie In Memorium Statement for the Curie Memorial Celebration, Roerich Museum, New York, November 23, 1935. Publised in Out of My Later Years, New York Philosohical Library, 1950.
At a time when a towering personality like Mme. Curie has come to the end of her life, let us not merely rest content with recalling what she has given to mankind in the fruits of her work. It is the moral qualities of its leading personalities that are perhaps of even great significance for a generation and for the course of history than purely intellectual accomplishments. Even these latter are, to a far greater degree than is commonly credited, dependent on the stature of character.
It was my good fortune to be linked with Mme. Curie through twenty years of sublime and unclouded friendship. I came to admire her human grandeur to an ever growing degree. Her strength, her purity of will, her austerity towards herself, her objectivity, her incorruptible judgment - all of these were of a kind seldom found joined in a single individual. She felt herself at every moment to be a servant of society, and her profound modesty never left any room for complacency. She was oppressed by an abiding sense for the asperities and inequities of society. This is what gave her that severe outward aspect, so easily misinterpreted by those who were not close to her - a curious severity unrelieved by any artistic strain. Once she had recognized a certain way as the right one, she pursued it without compromise and with extreme tenacity.
The great scientific deed of her life - proving the existence of radioactive elements and isolating them - owes its accomplishment not merely to bold intuition but to a devotion and tenacity in execution under the most extreme hardships imaginable, such as the history of experimental science has not often witnessed.
If but a small part of Mme. Curie's strength of character and devotion were alive in Europe's intellectuals, Europe would face a brighter future.
The Second Letter of Peter, Chapter 2, Verses 4 through and including 10
Chapter 2: Verse 4. For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether glooms to be kept until the judgment; Verse 5. if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; Verse 6. if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who would be ungodly; Verse 7. and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked Verse 8. (for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds), Verse 9. then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, Verse 10. and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and defile authority.
Legia Warszawa Goes Ten Points Clear in Top Polish Soccer League While Legia Warszawa was defeating Lech Poznan, 1-0, on Saturday, it was also clinching no worse than a tie for first place in Ekstraklasa Polish One. The defeat of Lech Poznan left the losers ten points down with three games left. Only third place Wisla Krakow has a chance, however slim, to catch the leaders. To do that, it must win all four of its remaining games, beginning tonight when it travels to struggling Zaglebie Lubin. If that unlikely chain of events does occur, the two teams would be tied. Any win or tie by Legia Warszawa or loss by Wisla Krakow clinches first place in the regular season for Legia. In other scores from the weekend, Korona Kielce and Pogon Szczecin played to a 2-2 draw; visiting Podbeskidzie upended Ruch Chorzow, 1-0; Cracovia Krakow and Widzew Lodz played to a 1-1 draw; Lechia Gdansk scored three second half goals to defeat Piast Gliwice, 3-1; Zawisza Bydgoszcz beat back Slask Wroclaw, 1-0; and Jagiellonia battled back from a 3-1 halftime deficit to draw with Gornik Zabrze, 3-3. This is the table, up to the minute:
1. Legia Warszawa: 57 points, 18 wins, 3 draws, 7 losses
2. Lech Poznan: 47 points, 13 wins, 8 draws, 7 losses
3. Wisla Krakow: 45 points, 12 wins, 9 draws, 6 losses
4. Ruch Chorzow 44 points, 12 wins, 8 draws, 8 losses
5. Pogon Szczecin: 43 points, 10 wins, 13 draws, 5 losses
6. Gornik Zabrze: 41 points, 11 wins, 8 draws, 8 losses
7. Zawisza Bydgoszcz: 39 points, 10 wins, 9 draws, 8 losses
8. Jagiellonia: 37 points, 10 wins, 7 draws, 10 losses
9. Lechia Gdansk: 37 points, 9 wins, 10 draws, 9 losses
10. Cracovia Krakow: 36 points, 10 wins, 6 draws, 12 losses
11. Korona Kielce: 34 points, 8 wins, 10 draws, 10 losses
12. Piast Gliwice: 32 points, 8 wins, 8 draws, 12 losses
13. Slask Wroclaw: 30 points, 6 wins, 12 draws, 9 losses
14. Podbeskidzie: 27 points, 5 wins, 12 draws, 11 losses
15. Zaglebie Lubin: 26 points, 6 wins, 8 draws, 13 losses
16. Widzew Lodz: 19 points, 4 wins, 7 draws, 17 losses
In Ukraine Premier League, Shakhtar and Dnipro both win; Shakhtar Stays 3 Points Clear In the Ukraine Premier League, both first place Shakhtar and second place Dnipro both scored important wins over tough opponents. With those results, the Donetsk team stays three points clear of Dnipro, but Dnipro has a game in hand. Shakhtar had to come storming from behind to defeat Metalist. Metalist broke on top, 2-0, getting an own goal by Shakhtar's Oleksandr Kucher and a penalty kick goal by Marlos at the 32 minute mark. After the penalty kick, Shakhtar went to work. Douglas Costa got the home team on the board at the 36 minute mark. Eduardo tied the score at the 38 minute mark, and the captain, Darijo Sma gave Shakhtar a halftime advantage when he tallied at time. Shakhtar got an insurance score by Luiz Adriano in the 72nd minute. In the Dnipro match against Dynamo Kyiv, Matheus Nascimento scored in the second minute of first half injury time, and again at the 58 minute mark, to pace Dnipro to the home victory. Giuliano assisted on the first score. In other games, Metalurh Zapor defeated struggling Tavriya, 1-0; Volyn defeated Metalurh Donetsk, 3-1; Karpaty beat back Sevastopol, 2-0; Vorskla downed Hoverla, 3-1; and on Sunday, Illichivets beat Chornomorets, 3-1. This is the way the Ukraine Premier looks at this minute:
1. Shakhtar Donetsk: 44 points, 14 wins, 2 draws, 4 losses (20 games played)
2. Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk: 41 points, 12 wins, 5 draws, 2 losses (19 games played)
3. Dynamo Kyiv: 39 points, 12 wins, 3 draws, 5 losses (20 games played)
4. Metalist Kharkiv: 34 points, 9 wins, 7 draws, 2 losses (18 games played)
5. Chornomorets: 33 points, 9 wins, 6 draws, 4 losses (19 games played)
6. Vorskla: 30 points, 7 wins, 9 draws, 4 losses (20 games played)
7. Metalurh Donetsk: 27 points, 7 wins, 6 draws, 7 losses (20 games played)
8. Volyn: 27 points, 7 wins, 6 draws, 7 losses (20 games played)
9. Zorya: 25 points, 6 wins, 7 draws, 6 losses (19 games played)
10. Karpaty: 22 points, 5 wins, 7 draws, 7 losses (19 games played)
11. Illichivets': 21 points, 6 wins, 3 draws, 10 losses (19 games played)
12. Sevastopol: 19 points, 5 wins, 4 draws, 10 losses (19 games played)
13. Hoverla: 18 points, 5 wins, 3 draws, 12 losses (20 games played)
14. Metalurh Zapor.: 11 points, 2 wins, 5 draws, 13 losses (20 games played)
15. Tavriya: 9 points, 2 wins, 3 draws, 15 losses (20 games played)
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Sports: Baseball's Opening Day tomorrow in Baltimore. Prediction for World Series Championship Made Here
BALTIMORE, Maryland March 30, 2014 - If there is one day, one event, that marks the end of winter and the coming of spring for me, it is Oriole Opening Day. As I've gotten older I've not picked up too much pre-season interest. This year, especially, it was so bloody cold in Baltimore. Today, March 30, it snowed again. Snowed! Now as I write this it is a few minutes after 8 pm. So far, it isn't laying. Now I remember opening days being snowed out. I remember sitting through snow squalls while at a game in April. The difference is that this year has been the coldest winter I ever remember. It got cold early and it stayed cold. This year, I really appreciate Opening Day.
After making the playoffs in 2012, after decades of losing, the Orioles came up just a tad short in 2013. There were considerably more injuries in 2013 then there were in 2012. And the offense seemed to run out of gas in September, despite the presence of one of the most prolific power hitters in baseball history: Chris Davis. The Birds made a number of important acquisitions in the off-season. I will review the new players below, list the roster, and make a few predictions.
First, here are the American League Eastern Division Standings at the end of each of the three previous seasons.
2013:
American League East W L Pct. GB Home Road
Boston Red Sox 97 65 .599 — 53–28 44–37
Tampa Bay Rays 92 71 .564 5½ 51–30 41–41
Baltimore Orioles 85 77 .525 12 46–35 39–42
New York Yankees 85 77 .525 12 46–35 39–42
Toronto Blue Jays 74 88 .457 23 40–41 34–47
20!2:
American League East W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 95 67 .586 — 51–30 44–37
Baltimore Orioles 93 69 .574 2 47–34 46–35
Tampa Bay Rays 90 72 .556 5 46–35 44–37
Toronto Blue Jays 73 89 .451 22 41–40 32–49
Boston Red Sox 69 93 0.426 26 34–47 35–46
2011:
American League East W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 97 65 .599 — 52–29 45–36
Tampa Bay Rays 91 71 .562 6 47–34 44–37
Boston Red Sox 90 72 .556 7 45–36 45–36
Toronto Blue Jays 81 81 .500 16 42–39 39–42
Baltimore Orioles 69 93 .426 28 39–42 30–51
There is enough food for thought in those numbers and statistics to last a whole hot stove season. The first thing that strikes me is the huge effect free agents have on teams with a lot of money to spend. In 2011, the Red Sox were 90-72, in third place but in the playoffs. In 2012 they were an awful 69-93, in last place and heading home after the regular season ended. But they spent big in the offseason and were back better than ever in 2013. Not only did they win the world series, they also improved their record over the previous season by an amazing 26 wins. Now, before free agency, teams rarely, if ever, improved or worsened by anything close to that many wins in one season. Improvements and slide backs were far more gradual and depended, in large part, on the state of the team's minor league system. These days, the likes of the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers, and, to a lesser extent, Mets, Cubs, White Sox and Giants and are not nearly so dependent on their minor league affiliates. When they need players they merely go and buy them. The Orioles are not in the same league as the Yankees. They spend money in the free agent market, but their spending is controlled and limited. One of the biggest improvements that the regime of Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter have made is in the Oriole Minor Leagues. For years you could look at the Oriole Roster and see very few players who were produced by the minor league system. That is no longer true. This year, the starting pitcher, catcher, right fielder, third baseman (as soon as he gets off the DL) and many others on the pitching staff and bench, came up through the Oriole system. This is the Oriole 25-Man Roster for Opening Day:
Catchers: Matt Wieters, Steve Clevenger
Pitchers: Zach Britton, Wei-Yin Chen, Miguel Gonzalez, Tommy Hunter, Ubaldo Jimenez, Brian Matusz, Evan Meek, Bud Norris, Darren O'Day, Josh
Stinson, Chris Tillman, Ryan Webb
Infield: Chris Davis, Ryan Flaherty, J.J. Hardy, Steve Lombardozzi, Jonathan Schoop
Outfield: Nelson Cruz, Adam Jones, David Lough, Nick Markakis, Steve Pearce, Delmon Young
Disabled List Manny Machado, Nolan Reimold, Francisco Peguero
The "New" Players and "Newer" Players:
1. Ubaldo Jimenez: A huge signing by the Orioles, Ubaldo Jimenez has been among American League Leaders in games started, wins, strikeouts and ERA. The Orioles have him penciled in as the No. 2 starter.
2. Evan Meek: Signed as a minor league free agent in February, the right-hander and former NL All-Star has struggled in recent years after injuries robbed him of speed on his fastball. But he was highly effective in spring training.
3. Ryan Webb: Signed to a two-year deal as a free agent by the Orioles. Pitched in 66 games last season for Marlins. Throws 95 mph sinker and other pitches.
4. Steve Lombardozzi: The infielder has been with the Nationals since breaking into the big leagues in September, 2011. His career big league average is .264. It looks like he will open the season at second base pending Manny Machado's return. Machado will, of course, play third base, moving Ryan Flaherty to second.
5. Jonathan Schoop: The infielder was called up by the Orioles in September but played hardly at all while Birds were in pennant race. After being eliminated at end of season, Schoop got a few starts, hitting .286 with one home run and one RBI.
6. Nelson Cruz: One of the game's premier professional hitters, he signed with the Orioles in February for one year for $8 million. Coming off season marred by suspension for illegal substance use.
7. David Lough: Obtained in December by the Orioles in a trade with Kansas City. He is a career .276 hitter with 5 home runs and 35 RBI. Broke into big leagues in September, 2012. Before Nelson Cruz signed with Orioles, Lough was expected to compete with Nelson Reimold for starting left field job.
8. Delmon Young: The former first pick in the 2003 major league draft, he signed a minor league contract with the Birds in January and was added to the big league roster over the weekend. He is a career .282 hitter with 100 home runs and 520 RBIs. He will doubtlessly be the DH on most days.
It's hard to believe a team that was in the penant hunt until the last week of the season made this many roster changes. But they did, and it is hard to argue with any of them. I was a big Nate McClouth fan, but it wasn't positive for the Orioles to start McClouth and Nick Markakis in the same outfield. There just wasn't enough pop. McClouth instead signed with Washington. The decision to trade Jim Johnson wasn't treated as negatively in Baltimore as it could have been because, despite the fact that he again led the majors in saves, he also blew a whole bunch of games, way too many, in fact. Showalter hasn't yet named a number one closer although many fans believe Tommy Hunter will earn the position sooner rather than later. Some worry that bringing Nelson Cruz and Delmon Young into the same clubhouse will be bad for team chemistry. I strongly disagree. There really is no rap against Cruz; what he did, he did to himself. His former teammates loved him and so do his new ones. Delmon Young is a bit of a question but I look at it this way: he has been around the block a whole mess of times. As you get older you get wiser. I think Mr. Young knows its time to cash in on all of the God-given talent he has been blessed with. It really is. Really. This would be such a great year to make it happen. If Cruz and Young have the kind of years they are both capable of, and if Adam Jones and Chris Davis continue to do what they have been doing, this could be the year the Orioles go all of the way. A lot will depend on the pitching. I love the Orioles pitching. Chris Tillman has emerged as a No. 1 starter. Ubaldo Jimenez will be the No. 2 starter, with Miguel Gonzalez as No. 3, Bud Norris as No. 4 and Wei-Yin Chen as No. 5. The bullpen again looks very strong, and when Troy Patton returns from 25 game suspension for testing positive for amphetimines, it will be even stronger. Unless things have changed, Buck Showalter is not only a very very good manager, he is also popular with his players. Dan Duquette has proven worthy of the tremendous freedom he has been awarded by owner Peter Angelos. Angelos has proven to be extremely wise in granting these freedoms to Duquette, and sticking with them. This is the year everything really pays off. I believe that the acquisitions of Cruz and Young were a direct response to the Orioles' biggest needs. So long as Manny Machado comes back by the end of April or first half of May, and is somewhere close to where he was at the end of September when he sustained this awful injury, the Orioles will be hitting on all cylinders. Now if Ubaldo Jimenez is everything he can be and wins, say, 16 games, they could do better than I'm predicting.
This is how I see the 2014 season ending in the AL East: 1. Baltimore Orioles: 99 wins, 63 losses; 2. Boston Red Sox: 93 wins, 69 losses; 3. Tampa Bay Rays: 92 wins, 70 losses; 4. New York Yankees: 86 wins, 76 losses; 5. Toronto Blue Jays: 80 wins, 82 losses.
Opening Day is tomorrow. Write these predictions down. Check back in September.
After making the playoffs in 2012, after decades of losing, the Orioles came up just a tad short in 2013. There were considerably more injuries in 2013 then there were in 2012. And the offense seemed to run out of gas in September, despite the presence of one of the most prolific power hitters in baseball history: Chris Davis. The Birds made a number of important acquisitions in the off-season. I will review the new players below, list the roster, and make a few predictions.
First, here are the American League Eastern Division Standings at the end of each of the three previous seasons.
2013:
American League East W L Pct. GB Home Road
Boston Red Sox 97 65 .599 — 53–28 44–37
Tampa Bay Rays 92 71 .564 5½ 51–30 41–41
Baltimore Orioles 85 77 .525 12 46–35 39–42
New York Yankees 85 77 .525 12 46–35 39–42
Toronto Blue Jays 74 88 .457 23 40–41 34–47
20!2:
American League East W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 95 67 .586 — 51–30 44–37
Baltimore Orioles 93 69 .574 2 47–34 46–35
Tampa Bay Rays 90 72 .556 5 46–35 44–37
Toronto Blue Jays 73 89 .451 22 41–40 32–49
Boston Red Sox 69 93 0.426 26 34–47 35–46
2011:
American League East W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 97 65 .599 — 52–29 45–36
Tampa Bay Rays 91 71 .562 6 47–34 44–37
Boston Red Sox 90 72 .556 7 45–36 45–36
Toronto Blue Jays 81 81 .500 16 42–39 39–42
Baltimore Orioles 69 93 .426 28 39–42 30–51
There is enough food for thought in those numbers and statistics to last a whole hot stove season. The first thing that strikes me is the huge effect free agents have on teams with a lot of money to spend. In 2011, the Red Sox were 90-72, in third place but in the playoffs. In 2012 they were an awful 69-93, in last place and heading home after the regular season ended. But they spent big in the offseason and were back better than ever in 2013. Not only did they win the world series, they also improved their record over the previous season by an amazing 26 wins. Now, before free agency, teams rarely, if ever, improved or worsened by anything close to that many wins in one season. Improvements and slide backs were far more gradual and depended, in large part, on the state of the team's minor league system. These days, the likes of the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers, and, to a lesser extent, Mets, Cubs, White Sox and Giants and are not nearly so dependent on their minor league affiliates. When they need players they merely go and buy them. The Orioles are not in the same league as the Yankees. They spend money in the free agent market, but their spending is controlled and limited. One of the biggest improvements that the regime of Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter have made is in the Oriole Minor Leagues. For years you could look at the Oriole Roster and see very few players who were produced by the minor league system. That is no longer true. This year, the starting pitcher, catcher, right fielder, third baseman (as soon as he gets off the DL) and many others on the pitching staff and bench, came up through the Oriole system. This is the Oriole 25-Man Roster for Opening Day:
Catchers: Matt Wieters, Steve Clevenger
Pitchers: Zach Britton, Wei-Yin Chen, Miguel Gonzalez, Tommy Hunter, Ubaldo Jimenez, Brian Matusz, Evan Meek, Bud Norris, Darren O'Day, Josh
Stinson, Chris Tillman, Ryan Webb
Infield: Chris Davis, Ryan Flaherty, J.J. Hardy, Steve Lombardozzi, Jonathan Schoop
Outfield: Nelson Cruz, Adam Jones, David Lough, Nick Markakis, Steve Pearce, Delmon Young
Disabled List Manny Machado, Nolan Reimold, Francisco Peguero
The "New" Players and "Newer" Players:
1. Ubaldo Jimenez: A huge signing by the Orioles, Ubaldo Jimenez has been among American League Leaders in games started, wins, strikeouts and ERA. The Orioles have him penciled in as the No. 2 starter.
2. Evan Meek: Signed as a minor league free agent in February, the right-hander and former NL All-Star has struggled in recent years after injuries robbed him of speed on his fastball. But he was highly effective in spring training.
3. Ryan Webb: Signed to a two-year deal as a free agent by the Orioles. Pitched in 66 games last season for Marlins. Throws 95 mph sinker and other pitches.
4. Steve Lombardozzi: The infielder has been with the Nationals since breaking into the big leagues in September, 2011. His career big league average is .264. It looks like he will open the season at second base pending Manny Machado's return. Machado will, of course, play third base, moving Ryan Flaherty to second.
5. Jonathan Schoop: The infielder was called up by the Orioles in September but played hardly at all while Birds were in pennant race. After being eliminated at end of season, Schoop got a few starts, hitting .286 with one home run and one RBI.
6. Nelson Cruz: One of the game's premier professional hitters, he signed with the Orioles in February for one year for $8 million. Coming off season marred by suspension for illegal substance use.
7. David Lough: Obtained in December by the Orioles in a trade with Kansas City. He is a career .276 hitter with 5 home runs and 35 RBI. Broke into big leagues in September, 2012. Before Nelson Cruz signed with Orioles, Lough was expected to compete with Nelson Reimold for starting left field job.
8. Delmon Young: The former first pick in the 2003 major league draft, he signed a minor league contract with the Birds in January and was added to the big league roster over the weekend. He is a career .282 hitter with 100 home runs and 520 RBIs. He will doubtlessly be the DH on most days.
It's hard to believe a team that was in the penant hunt until the last week of the season made this many roster changes. But they did, and it is hard to argue with any of them. I was a big Nate McClouth fan, but it wasn't positive for the Orioles to start McClouth and Nick Markakis in the same outfield. There just wasn't enough pop. McClouth instead signed with Washington. The decision to trade Jim Johnson wasn't treated as negatively in Baltimore as it could have been because, despite the fact that he again led the majors in saves, he also blew a whole bunch of games, way too many, in fact. Showalter hasn't yet named a number one closer although many fans believe Tommy Hunter will earn the position sooner rather than later. Some worry that bringing Nelson Cruz and Delmon Young into the same clubhouse will be bad for team chemistry. I strongly disagree. There really is no rap against Cruz; what he did, he did to himself. His former teammates loved him and so do his new ones. Delmon Young is a bit of a question but I look at it this way: he has been around the block a whole mess of times. As you get older you get wiser. I think Mr. Young knows its time to cash in on all of the God-given talent he has been blessed with. It really is. Really. This would be such a great year to make it happen. If Cruz and Young have the kind of years they are both capable of, and if Adam Jones and Chris Davis continue to do what they have been doing, this could be the year the Orioles go all of the way. A lot will depend on the pitching. I love the Orioles pitching. Chris Tillman has emerged as a No. 1 starter. Ubaldo Jimenez will be the No. 2 starter, with Miguel Gonzalez as No. 3, Bud Norris as No. 4 and Wei-Yin Chen as No. 5. The bullpen again looks very strong, and when Troy Patton returns from 25 game suspension for testing positive for amphetimines, it will be even stronger. Unless things have changed, Buck Showalter is not only a very very good manager, he is also popular with his players. Dan Duquette has proven worthy of the tremendous freedom he has been awarded by owner Peter Angelos. Angelos has proven to be extremely wise in granting these freedoms to Duquette, and sticking with them. This is the year everything really pays off. I believe that the acquisitions of Cruz and Young were a direct response to the Orioles' biggest needs. So long as Manny Machado comes back by the end of April or first half of May, and is somewhere close to where he was at the end of September when he sustained this awful injury, the Orioles will be hitting on all cylinders. Now if Ubaldo Jimenez is everything he can be and wins, say, 16 games, they could do better than I'm predicting.
This is how I see the 2014 season ending in the AL East: 1. Baltimore Orioles: 99 wins, 63 losses; 2. Boston Red Sox: 93 wins, 69 losses; 3. Tampa Bay Rays: 92 wins, 70 losses; 4. New York Yankees: 86 wins, 76 losses; 5. Toronto Blue Jays: 80 wins, 82 losses.
Opening Day is tomorrow. Write these predictions down. Check back in September.
Breaking News In Brief: Debris retrieved in Southern Indian Ocean; Summers blasts "Unpredictability" of U.S. Economy; Russia Massing Troops in South Ossetia, Georgia, Armenia Endangered
BALTIMORE, Maryland March 29, 2014 - In Australia: Debris was apparently retrieved today in the area of the Southern Indian Ocean getting all the attention of searchers seeking a missing Malaysian Airlines Jumbo Jet with 239 people on board. Early reports, however, indicate the debris was not from the missing plane. But other debris seen by search planes seems to be more promising, and the recovery of this debris may be imminent. This, even as a top Malaysian official told grieving relatives not to stop hoping that the people on the plane are still alive. And the Independent newspaper in London reported Sunday that the United States Secret Service, and their counterparts in England and China have joined the investigation into the missing plane, an investigation all three agencies concede may be criminal in nature;;;.
In the United States: Former Treasury Secretary and President of Harvard University, Lawrence H Summers, said Sunday that the absolute most important point in the battle to improve the struggling USA economy is ridding the nation of the "terrible disincentives to bring cash home." Summers was speaking directly to policy makers, who, he explained, were making it utterly impossible to make cogent future business plans. He also took aim at the "disincentives" placed on earning money, both at the corporate and individual levels. He conceded that corporate taxes are actually at historic lows, but corporate leaders are mired in fog going forward, unsure of where Washington would strike next with taxes, fees and regulations. Doing business has to have an air of predictability about it, he said during an appearance on Fox News Channel.
In the crisis in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia: The powerful Chairman of the USA House Intelligence Committee said this morning that while the West is concentrating on Russia having massed some 30,000 heavily armed troops on Ukraine's eastern border, he is more concerned about Russian Strong Man Vladimir Putin's marked buildup of both troops and advanced military equipment in South Ossetia, formerly a part of Georgia, but situated so that an army staging there would be a direct and ominous threat to both Georgia and Armenia. According to the Financial Times, Rep. Mike Rogers (Republican from Missouri) said today that Putin has contingency plans to invade both Georgia and Armenia. because he very much wants to establish a direct Russian land route to Iran. “They are moving some of their most advanced equipment into South Ossetia,” Rogers stated. “There is no reason to do that. The Georgian army really poses no threat. That’s certainly concerning.” Like Summers, Rogers was appearing on Fox.
A memorial service for the flight crew of the missing Malaysian Airlines Jet was held Saturday at Fo Guang Shan Temple in Maylands, near Perth in Western Australia. In attendance was Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who said he refuses to give up hope of finding some of the 239 passengers and crew alive. Hussein said that Malaysia is committed to seeing the investigation through to its final conclusion. "I cannot give them (relatives of the missing) false hope,' he said. 'The best we can do is pray and be sensitive to them, that as long as there is even a remote chance of a survivor, we will pray and do whatever it takes. What they (relatives) want from us is a commitment to continue the search, and that I have given, not only on behalf of the Malaysian government but the so many nations involved. For me as the minister responsible, this is the hardest part of my life, at the moment. Miracles do happen, remote or otherwise, and that is the hope that the families want me to convey not only to the Malaysian government, MAS, but also to the world at large."
The USA Naval Officer who is leading the sea search, Captain Mark Matthews, said that finding the black box from the missing jet is, really, "untenable." The newly identified search area is the size of Poland. The black box is the size of a child's school lunch box. A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 plane spotted three floating objects, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said today, including two bearing colours of the missing jet.
Search leaders also fear that the missing jet may have gone down in a part of the ocean where the bottom includes a trench that is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. This possibility emerged on the same day that Malaysian officials acknowledged that the three well-known intelligence agencies, and the CIA are now fully involved in the investigation. M16 and the CIA have been helping Malaysian investigators look for reasons behind the almost unbelievable disappearance of the large Boeing 777 over three weeks ago. Both of those agencies and China's top intelligence agency are concentrating on the sudden left turn the jet made moments before it was lost to ground radar. Officially, there are four possibilities for the plane's vanishing: 1) terrorism; 2) hijacking; 3) personal or psychological problems among the crew or passengers; and 4) a catastrophic failure of on-board equipment or on the body of the jet. It has been disclosed that British M16 agents are zeroing in on terrorism links in the wake of an admission in a American Court by a British man, Saajid Badad, that in 2001 he gave a shoe bomb to Malaysian men who asked for it in order to blow up an airplane cockpit door so that they could access the plane's pilots in order to carry out a 9/11-style hijacking. In addition, British, American and Chinese intelligence agencies are all "on board" working the analysis of the "pings" the missing jet sent out, and which were picked up by the earth-orbiting satellites of several nations.
The American Captain, Mark Matthews, has a high-tech "ping detector" being towed behind his warship. Whether the device can find the black box of the missing jumbo jet depends on whether the Captain and his crew can get his vessel close enough to the plane's black box. "It all depends on how effective we are at reducing the search area," Matthews said. He was involved in the search for the black box of the French Jet that went down in 2009 in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Matthews said the ping locator his ship is towing must be within one mile of black box to detect its pings. And once the Captain and the search team believe they are in the area of the box, it can only be towed at a speed of three miles per hour to be effective. On top of the difficulty of making such a find in a vast ocean is the fact that the battery in the black box is only days from running out of energy. Without the pings, finding the black box becomes extremely difficult. Matthews conceded that losing the ping could mean never finding the box. Then there is the sea floor in this part of the Indian Ocean. The bottom is covered in sediment. The entire area of the bottom is dominated by what is known as the "Broken Ridge." Depths here are between 2,625 feet (about one-half mile) to 9,843 feet (a bit shy of two miles deep). There is more than one large plateaus on the bottom. The one fartherest south ends at the Diamantina Trench. Sea floor mapping efforts have measured this trench to a depth of 19,000 feet, but they concede it could actually be much deeper in some areas. Not all parts of the trench have been mapped, officials say.
One of the planes involved in the search had to be diverted to respond to a distress signal sent by a fishing vessel said to be 3,241 kilometres southwest of Perth, but only 648 kilometres north of the Anarctic mainland. Strangely, efforts by Australian maritime officials to contact the vessel have been unsuccessful. Even the nature of the distress signal is unclear. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority re-tasked a RAAF P-3 Orion airplane participating in the search for the Malaysian Jet to respond to the fishing vessel. The plane is equipped with a number of apparatus that could help the crew if they are in danger. The main feature is a collectin of survival gear that can be dropped from the Orion to the Vessel's crew. A civil jet with emergency personnel has left Melbourne the investigate the emergency beacon. This aircraft will need five hours to get to the scene, leaving it two hours on site.
The BBC interviewed a renowned oceanographer about currents and other characteristics of the sea now being searched. Erik van Sebille, from the University of New South Wales in Australia, said that the ocean waters there are among the cleanest in the world. This part of the Indian Ocean is flushed northwards towards the equator, vastly reducing the amount of debris from land areaa likely to be found by searchers. In other words, the debris being found is far more likely to be from the missing plane if, in fact, it crashed somewhere near here.
Meanwhile, the South China Post, quoting Reuters, said the search for the missing Malaysian Jet will certainly be the most expensive in the history of aviation, far higher than the cost of searching for the missing French plane that crashed in 2009 in the middle of the Atlantic. France and Brazil (the two nations at the beginning and intended end of the doomed flight) spent a combined $40 million over the two year span that the search took. When the plane was located, underwater robots were used to scour the ocean floor. Some 50 bodies had been recovered when the search was halted due to extreme costs.
France and Brazil spent more than US$40 million over two years to recover the black boxes from Air France flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 en route to Rio de Janeiro from Paris. Officials halted the operation, which used underwater robots to scour the seabed, after search crews found 50 of the 228 bodies.
Some observers believe China has already spent more than that.
In the United States: Former Treasury Secretary and President of Harvard University, Lawrence H Summers, said Sunday that the absolute most important point in the battle to improve the struggling USA economy is ridding the nation of the "terrible disincentives to bring cash home." Summers was speaking directly to policy makers, who, he explained, were making it utterly impossible to make cogent future business plans. He also took aim at the "disincentives" placed on earning money, both at the corporate and individual levels. He conceded that corporate taxes are actually at historic lows, but corporate leaders are mired in fog going forward, unsure of where Washington would strike next with taxes, fees and regulations. Doing business has to have an air of predictability about it, he said during an appearance on Fox News Channel.
In the crisis in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia: The powerful Chairman of the USA House Intelligence Committee said this morning that while the West is concentrating on Russia having massed some 30,000 heavily armed troops on Ukraine's eastern border, he is more concerned about Russian Strong Man Vladimir Putin's marked buildup of both troops and advanced military equipment in South Ossetia, formerly a part of Georgia, but situated so that an army staging there would be a direct and ominous threat to both Georgia and Armenia. According to the Financial Times, Rep. Mike Rogers (Republican from Missouri) said today that Putin has contingency plans to invade both Georgia and Armenia. because he very much wants to establish a direct Russian land route to Iran. “They are moving some of their most advanced equipment into South Ossetia,” Rogers stated. “There is no reason to do that. The Georgian army really poses no threat. That’s certainly concerning.” Like Summers, Rogers was appearing on Fox.
A memorial service for the flight crew of the missing Malaysian Airlines Jet was held Saturday at Fo Guang Shan Temple in Maylands, near Perth in Western Australia. In attendance was Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who said he refuses to give up hope of finding some of the 239 passengers and crew alive. Hussein said that Malaysia is committed to seeing the investigation through to its final conclusion. "I cannot give them (relatives of the missing) false hope,' he said. 'The best we can do is pray and be sensitive to them, that as long as there is even a remote chance of a survivor, we will pray and do whatever it takes. What they (relatives) want from us is a commitment to continue the search, and that I have given, not only on behalf of the Malaysian government but the so many nations involved. For me as the minister responsible, this is the hardest part of my life, at the moment. Miracles do happen, remote or otherwise, and that is the hope that the families want me to convey not only to the Malaysian government, MAS, but also to the world at large."
The USA Naval Officer who is leading the sea search, Captain Mark Matthews, said that finding the black box from the missing jet is, really, "untenable." The newly identified search area is the size of Poland. The black box is the size of a child's school lunch box. A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 plane spotted three floating objects, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said today, including two bearing colours of the missing jet.
Search leaders also fear that the missing jet may have gone down in a part of the ocean where the bottom includes a trench that is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. This possibility emerged on the same day that Malaysian officials acknowledged that the three well-known intelligence agencies, and the CIA are now fully involved in the investigation. M16 and the CIA have been helping Malaysian investigators look for reasons behind the almost unbelievable disappearance of the large Boeing 777 over three weeks ago. Both of those agencies and China's top intelligence agency are concentrating on the sudden left turn the jet made moments before it was lost to ground radar. Officially, there are four possibilities for the plane's vanishing: 1) terrorism; 2) hijacking; 3) personal or psychological problems among the crew or passengers; and 4) a catastrophic failure of on-board equipment or on the body of the jet. It has been disclosed that British M16 agents are zeroing in on terrorism links in the wake of an admission in a American Court by a British man, Saajid Badad, that in 2001 he gave a shoe bomb to Malaysian men who asked for it in order to blow up an airplane cockpit door so that they could access the plane's pilots in order to carry out a 9/11-style hijacking. In addition, British, American and Chinese intelligence agencies are all "on board" working the analysis of the "pings" the missing jet sent out, and which were picked up by the earth-orbiting satellites of several nations.
The American Captain, Mark Matthews, has a high-tech "ping detector" being towed behind his warship. Whether the device can find the black box of the missing jumbo jet depends on whether the Captain and his crew can get his vessel close enough to the plane's black box. "It all depends on how effective we are at reducing the search area," Matthews said. He was involved in the search for the black box of the French Jet that went down in 2009 in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Matthews said the ping locator his ship is towing must be within one mile of black box to detect its pings. And once the Captain and the search team believe they are in the area of the box, it can only be towed at a speed of three miles per hour to be effective. On top of the difficulty of making such a find in a vast ocean is the fact that the battery in the black box is only days from running out of energy. Without the pings, finding the black box becomes extremely difficult. Matthews conceded that losing the ping could mean never finding the box. Then there is the sea floor in this part of the Indian Ocean. The bottom is covered in sediment. The entire area of the bottom is dominated by what is known as the "Broken Ridge." Depths here are between 2,625 feet (about one-half mile) to 9,843 feet (a bit shy of two miles deep). There is more than one large plateaus on the bottom. The one fartherest south ends at the Diamantina Trench. Sea floor mapping efforts have measured this trench to a depth of 19,000 feet, but they concede it could actually be much deeper in some areas. Not all parts of the trench have been mapped, officials say.
One of the planes involved in the search had to be diverted to respond to a distress signal sent by a fishing vessel said to be 3,241 kilometres southwest of Perth, but only 648 kilometres north of the Anarctic mainland. Strangely, efforts by Australian maritime officials to contact the vessel have been unsuccessful. Even the nature of the distress signal is unclear. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority re-tasked a RAAF P-3 Orion airplane participating in the search for the Malaysian Jet to respond to the fishing vessel. The plane is equipped with a number of apparatus that could help the crew if they are in danger. The main feature is a collectin of survival gear that can be dropped from the Orion to the Vessel's crew. A civil jet with emergency personnel has left Melbourne the investigate the emergency beacon. This aircraft will need five hours to get to the scene, leaving it two hours on site.
The BBC interviewed a renowned oceanographer about currents and other characteristics of the sea now being searched. Erik van Sebille, from the University of New South Wales in Australia, said that the ocean waters there are among the cleanest in the world. This part of the Indian Ocean is flushed northwards towards the equator, vastly reducing the amount of debris from land areaa likely to be found by searchers. In other words, the debris being found is far more likely to be from the missing plane if, in fact, it crashed somewhere near here.
Meanwhile, the South China Post, quoting Reuters, said the search for the missing Malaysian Jet will certainly be the most expensive in the history of aviation, far higher than the cost of searching for the missing French plane that crashed in 2009 in the middle of the Atlantic. France and Brazil (the two nations at the beginning and intended end of the doomed flight) spent a combined $40 million over the two year span that the search took. When the plane was located, underwater robots were used to scour the ocean floor. Some 50 bodies had been recovered when the search was halted due to extreme costs.
France and Brazil spent more than US$40 million over two years to recover the black boxes from Air France flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 en route to Rio de Janeiro from Paris. Officials halted the operation, which used underwater robots to scour the seabed, after search crews found 50 of the 228 bodies.
Some observers believe China has already spent more than that.
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Leicester ends Burnley Run as injuries, poor officiating, do in Claret
BALTIMORE, Maryland March 29, 2014 - The Turf Moor crowd witnessed enough carnage this afternoon to fill them with it for the season and then some. Vokes and Stanislaus hurt, added to already down Ings and Trippier and Marney. Officials not seeing handballs twice on the same play and in the box, no less. A former Burnley player scoring, to boot. Leicerster won, 2-0, putting them six points up with seven to play for the Claret, eight for the Foxes. Worse, the time it will take to get the quintet back on the pitch was on everyone's mind in the aftermath. One bit of good news is that the Claret do not play again until an April 5 journey to Vicarage Road for the Watford lads. And another bit of good news came from no place other than London, where Queens Park was hosting Blackpool. The Rangers had to struggle to gain a tie, and therefore picked up but one point on the Claret, leaving Burnley nine clear. Derby County did manage a win over struggling Charlton Athletic, moving them within one point of QPR and ten of Burnley.
Despite the injuries - Vokes went down eight minutes in - the Claret were within ten minutes of the half still tied at 0 with Leicester. Then former Burnley player David Nugent nicely beat Tom Heaton. It was the cloudy vision of Official Chris Foy that most provoked the Turf Moor faithful. On one play Jeff Schlupp and Matty James of Leicester both handled the ball in the box, yet no call was made by Foy. Chris Wood, who assisted on the first goal by the Foxes, scored himself at 75 minutes.
Burnley lost for the first time this season at home. The last home loss was one year ago. Burnley hadn't lost at all in 16 games. All good things do, sadly, come to an end.
Despite the injuries - Vokes went down eight minutes in - the Claret were within ten minutes of the half still tied at 0 with Leicester. Then former Burnley player David Nugent nicely beat Tom Heaton. It was the cloudy vision of Official Chris Foy that most provoked the Turf Moor faithful. On one play Jeff Schlupp and Matty James of Leicester both handled the ball in the box, yet no call was made by Foy. Chris Wood, who assisted on the first goal by the Foxes, scored himself at 75 minutes.
Burnley lost for the first time this season at home. The last home loss was one year ago. Burnley hadn't lost at all in 16 games. All good things do, sadly, come to an end.
No. 20 Clemson takes two from No. 25 Maryland, 3-1 and 7-1
BALTIMORE, Maryland March 29, 2014 - Maryland's surge to the top of the ACC Baseball Standings hit an abrupt snag Friday when they dropped both ends of a day-night double header in their own stadium. The loss in the opener was particularly painful. Senior Starting Pitcher Jake Stinnett fired eight innings of solid baseball, limiting the hard-hitting, free-swinging Tigers to just seven hits and only one run. And because Senior Mike Montville smashed a pinch hit home run in the bottom of the 8th, Stinnett turned the game over to the bullpen with the score deadlocked at a run apiece. But for those fans who thought they were witnessing the beginning of another Terp ACC victory, reality set in all too soon. In the top of the ninth, Terp Coach John Szefc went to the pen. Some onlookers gasped in the bottom of the 8th when Szefc pinch hit for one of his best hitters, Blake Schmitt. But that's why Szefc gets paid the big money. The player he sent to the plate to bat for Schmitt, Mike Montville, took a 1-1 pitch and just like that tied the game. Kyle Convissar followed with a single, but Convissar was thrown out moments later trying to steal second. Daniel Gossett got the win for the Tigers to improve to 3-0 and Montville's homer, his first of the season, was the only run Gossett surrendered. With Stinnett out, Szefc summonsed Brandon Casas to start the ninth, but Casas quickly surrendered a double to Steve Wilkerson to start the inning. Wilkerson had struck out twice against Stinnett. Szefc again went to the bullpen, this time bringing in Kevin Mooney to face Clemson's Shane Kennedy. Kennedy accounted for the Tigers first run in the second inning when he homered off of Stinnett. For the afternoon, Kennedy was 4-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. His contribution in the eighth was a long triple to centerfield that scored Wilkerson. Kennedy then scored on Joe Baum's sacrifice fly. The Terps went quietly in the ninth against Tiger closer Matt Campbell, who recorded his fifth save.
The nightcap, by comparison, was no contest. Freshman Mike Shawaryn took his first loss of the season, dropping to 5-1. Clemson struck for four runs in the top of the first off Shawaryn, who for the day went four and one-third innings, surrendering 5 runs, all earned, on nine hits. After getting four in the first inning, the Tigers struck for two more in the fifth before Maryland got on the board in the seventh when Brandon Lowe's two-out triple scored Kevin Martir, who had singled to lead off the inning. Lowe was the only Terp with more than one hit. The teams conclude their series today at 2 pm.
The nightcap, by comparison, was no contest. Freshman Mike Shawaryn took his first loss of the season, dropping to 5-1. Clemson struck for four runs in the top of the first off Shawaryn, who for the day went four and one-third innings, surrendering 5 runs, all earned, on nine hits. After getting four in the first inning, the Tigers struck for two more in the fifth before Maryland got on the board in the seventh when Brandon Lowe's two-out triple scored Kevin Martir, who had singled to lead off the inning. Lowe was the only Terp with more than one hit. The teams conclude their series today at 2 pm.
Friday, March 28, 2014
For the First Time Search Planes Photograph Debris Suspected of Being From Missing Malaysian Jet
TOWSON, Maryland March 28, 2014 - For the first time search planes looking for debris of a missing Malaysian Jumbo Jet with 239 people aboard have photographed debris suspected of being from the Boeing Jet. Before today, all photographic images have come from earth-orbiting satellites. When authorities attempted to corroborate the satellite images by having planes fly over the place scene by satellite, no objects were seen. That changed today.
Reuters reported Friday afternoon, Eastern Standard Time, that search planes have photographed numerous objects of differing shapes, sizes and colors. "Photographic imagery of the objects was captured and will be assessed overnight," the Australian Maritime and Safety Authority (AMSA) said in a statement quoted by Reuters. "The objects cannot be verified or discounted as being from MH370 until they are relocated and recovered by ships."
The search planes were flying over a new zone of the southern Indian Ocean identified by Australian authorities after getting new calculations and information from Malaysia, where the flight originated. The new data and information was generated after authorities deduced that the missing jet flew at a faster speed during the first hour of the flight than originally calculated. That higher speed would have used more fuel than first thought, and would result in the jet running out of fuel sooner. The new search zone is approximately 700 miles north of the area where the searchers had been concentrating.
Reuters reported Friday afternoon, Eastern Standard Time, that search planes have photographed numerous objects of differing shapes, sizes and colors. "Photographic imagery of the objects was captured and will be assessed overnight," the Australian Maritime and Safety Authority (AMSA) said in a statement quoted by Reuters. "The objects cannot be verified or discounted as being from MH370 until they are relocated and recovered by ships."
The search planes were flying over a new zone of the southern Indian Ocean identified by Australian authorities after getting new calculations and information from Malaysia, where the flight originated. The new data and information was generated after authorities deduced that the missing jet flew at a faster speed during the first hour of the flight than originally calculated. That higher speed would have used more fuel than first thought, and would result in the jet running out of fuel sooner. The new search zone is approximately 700 miles north of the area where the searchers had been concentrating.
Weekend Soccer: Burnley Hosts Leicester City; Poland: Legia collides with Lech Poznan; Ukraine: Shakhtar Donetsk takes on Metalist Kharkiv
TOWSON, Maryland March 28, 2014 - In the English Championship, Leicester made its move atop the league at the end of 2013. Burnley surged shortly thereafter so that now, with eight or nine matches remaining, both are fairly safely ensconced in the league's two guaranteed promotion positions. In Poland, Legia and Lech Poznan square off. They sit in first and second place, respectively in the Polish Major League. Legia's lead is seven points. In Ukraine, a Friday game, already completed, looks at first glance like one that just doesn't matter. To the two teams involved it mattered a lot because relegation was very much in play. With the end of the season only a game or two down the road, Tavriya traveled to Zaporozhye, and at the end of the match, Zaporozhye looked very much like it might avoid relegation, winning 1-0.
Leicester City has 82 points and Burnley has 79. The teams that are in pursuit are Queens Park, with 69 points, Derby County with 66, and Wigan with 62. All of these pursuers are far more interested in maintaining their places in the four team post-season playoffs. Only one will emerge as the third promotion. Right now, Reading is in that fourth playoff position. They have 59 points. Six teams still entertain hope, however slim, of replacing Reading and maybe even Wigan as one of the four playoff teams. They include Nottingham Forest with 57 points, Ipswich, also with 57, Brighton with 56, Bournemouth with 52, Blackburn with 51 and Watford with 49. In truth, Watford and Blackburn will have to run the table to have any chance of qualifying for one of the playoff spots.
Tomorrow, Leicester visits Burnley and ol' Turf Moor will be rocking. A win by the Claret puts the two teams in a dead heat. Leicester, however, has one game in hand. Also tomorrow, Doncaster visits Leeds United, Middlesbrough is at Brighton, Barnsley is at Yeovil Town in a key game for teams fighting relegation, AFC Bournemouth is at Birmingham City, Huddersfield Town visits Reading, Watford goes to Sheffield Wednesday, Blackburn Rovers are on the road at Millwall, Blackpool goes to Queens Park, Wigan Athletic travels to Bolton, Charlton Athletic collides with Derby at Derby County, and Nottingham goes to Ipswich.
In Poland, the weekend has already started and for struggling Podbeskidzie, it's a good start. They played at fourth place Ruch Chorzow and won, 1-0. Also on Friday, Pogon Szczecin is at Korona. Tomorrow is the weekend's highlight game: Legia hosts Lech Poznan. The match, in truth, is far more important for the visitors. They are seven points behind Legia and it would take a miracle for Lech Poznan to catch the league leaders with so few matches remaining. Also tomorrow, Widzew Lodz visits Cracovia and Piast Gliwice goes to Lechia. Sunday finds Slask at Zawisza Bydg and Jagiellonia at Gornik Zabrze. Monday will find Wisla Krakow travelling to Zaglebie. Here is the up-to-date table:
1. LEGIA: 54 points, 17 wins, 3 draws, 7 losses
2. LECH POZNAN: 47 points, 13 wins, 8 draws, 6 losses
3. WISLA KRAKOW: 45 points, 12 wins, 9 draws, 6 losses
4. RUCH CHORZOW: 44 points, 12 wins, 8 draws, 8 losses
5. POGON SZCZECIN: 42 points, 10 wins, 12 draws, 5 losses
6. GORNIK ZABRZE: 41 points, 11 wins, 8 draws, 8 losses
7. ZAWISZA BYDG: 39 points, 10 wins, 9 draws, 8 losses
8. JAGIELLONIA: 37 points, 10 wins, 7 draws, 10 losses
9. CRACOVIA: 35 points, 10 wins, 5 draws, 12 losses
10. LECHIA: 34 points, 8 wins, 10 draws, 9 losses
11. KORONA: 33 points, 8 wins, 9 draws, 10 losses
12. PIAST GLIWICE: 32 points, 8 wins, 8 draws, 11 losses
13. SLASK: 30 points, 6 wins, 12 draws, 9 losses
14. PODBESKIDZIE: 27 points, 5 wins, 12 draws, 11 losses
15. ZAGLEBIE: 26 points, 6 wins, 8 draws, 13 losses
16. WIDZEW LODZ: 18 points, 4 wins, 6 draws, 17 losses
In the Ukraine, talk is still of the showdown Sunday between league leader Shakhtar and Dnipro. The match was at Shakhtar Donetsk, but Dnipro won, 2-0. The top teams are back at each other this weekend. On Sunday, Shakhtar Donetsk travels to fourth place Metalist and third place Dnipro hosts second place Dynamo Kiev. Also on the weekend, on Saturday, Metalist Donetsk hosts Volyn Lutsk, Sevastopol travels to Karpaty and Hoverla Zakarp visits Vorskla. On Sunday, besides the two games listed above, Chernomorets travels to Illichovets. This is the Table right now:
1. Shakhtar Donetsk: 41 points, 13 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses
2. Dynamo Kiev: 39 points, 12 wins, 3 draws, 4 losses
3. Dnipro Dnepropetrovsk: 38 points, 11 wins, 5 draws, 2 losses
4. Metalist Kharkiv: 34 points, 9 wins, 7 draws, 1 loss
5. Chernomorets: 33 points, 9 wins, 6 draws, 3 losses
6. Metalist Donetsk: 27 points, 7 wins, 6 draws, 6 losses
7. Vorskla: 27 points, 6 wins, 9 draws, 4 losses
8. Zarya Lugansk: 25 points, 6 wins, 7 draws, 6 losses
9. Volyn Lutsk: 24 points, 6 wins, 6 draws, 7 losses
10. Karpaty: 19 points, 4 wins, 7 draws, 7 losses
11. Sevastopol: 19 points, 5 wins, 4 draws, 9 losses
12. Illichovets: 18 points, 5 wins, 3 draws, 10 losses
13. Hoverla Zakarp.: 18 points, 5 wins, 3 draws, 11 losses
14. Zaporozhye: 11 points, 2 wins, 5 draws, 13 losses
15. Tavriya: 9 points, 2 wins, 3 draws, 15 losses
16. Arsenal Kiev: 0 points
Leicester City has 82 points and Burnley has 79. The teams that are in pursuit are Queens Park, with 69 points, Derby County with 66, and Wigan with 62. All of these pursuers are far more interested in maintaining their places in the four team post-season playoffs. Only one will emerge as the third promotion. Right now, Reading is in that fourth playoff position. They have 59 points. Six teams still entertain hope, however slim, of replacing Reading and maybe even Wigan as one of the four playoff teams. They include Nottingham Forest with 57 points, Ipswich, also with 57, Brighton with 56, Bournemouth with 52, Blackburn with 51 and Watford with 49. In truth, Watford and Blackburn will have to run the table to have any chance of qualifying for one of the playoff spots.
Tomorrow, Leicester visits Burnley and ol' Turf Moor will be rocking. A win by the Claret puts the two teams in a dead heat. Leicester, however, has one game in hand. Also tomorrow, Doncaster visits Leeds United, Middlesbrough is at Brighton, Barnsley is at Yeovil Town in a key game for teams fighting relegation, AFC Bournemouth is at Birmingham City, Huddersfield Town visits Reading, Watford goes to Sheffield Wednesday, Blackburn Rovers are on the road at Millwall, Blackpool goes to Queens Park, Wigan Athletic travels to Bolton, Charlton Athletic collides with Derby at Derby County, and Nottingham goes to Ipswich.
In Poland, the weekend has already started and for struggling Podbeskidzie, it's a good start. They played at fourth place Ruch Chorzow and won, 1-0. Also on Friday, Pogon Szczecin is at Korona. Tomorrow is the weekend's highlight game: Legia hosts Lech Poznan. The match, in truth, is far more important for the visitors. They are seven points behind Legia and it would take a miracle for Lech Poznan to catch the league leaders with so few matches remaining. Also tomorrow, Widzew Lodz visits Cracovia and Piast Gliwice goes to Lechia. Sunday finds Slask at Zawisza Bydg and Jagiellonia at Gornik Zabrze. Monday will find Wisla Krakow travelling to Zaglebie. Here is the up-to-date table:
1. LEGIA: 54 points, 17 wins, 3 draws, 7 losses
2. LECH POZNAN: 47 points, 13 wins, 8 draws, 6 losses
3. WISLA KRAKOW: 45 points, 12 wins, 9 draws, 6 losses
4. RUCH CHORZOW: 44 points, 12 wins, 8 draws, 8 losses
5. POGON SZCZECIN: 42 points, 10 wins, 12 draws, 5 losses
6. GORNIK ZABRZE: 41 points, 11 wins, 8 draws, 8 losses
7. ZAWISZA BYDG: 39 points, 10 wins, 9 draws, 8 losses
8. JAGIELLONIA: 37 points, 10 wins, 7 draws, 10 losses
9. CRACOVIA: 35 points, 10 wins, 5 draws, 12 losses
10. LECHIA: 34 points, 8 wins, 10 draws, 9 losses
11. KORONA: 33 points, 8 wins, 9 draws, 10 losses
12. PIAST GLIWICE: 32 points, 8 wins, 8 draws, 11 losses
13. SLASK: 30 points, 6 wins, 12 draws, 9 losses
14. PODBESKIDZIE: 27 points, 5 wins, 12 draws, 11 losses
15. ZAGLEBIE: 26 points, 6 wins, 8 draws, 13 losses
16. WIDZEW LODZ: 18 points, 4 wins, 6 draws, 17 losses
In the Ukraine, talk is still of the showdown Sunday between league leader Shakhtar and Dnipro. The match was at Shakhtar Donetsk, but Dnipro won, 2-0. The top teams are back at each other this weekend. On Sunday, Shakhtar Donetsk travels to fourth place Metalist and third place Dnipro hosts second place Dynamo Kiev. Also on the weekend, on Saturday, Metalist Donetsk hosts Volyn Lutsk, Sevastopol travels to Karpaty and Hoverla Zakarp visits Vorskla. On Sunday, besides the two games listed above, Chernomorets travels to Illichovets. This is the Table right now:
1. Shakhtar Donetsk: 41 points, 13 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses
2. Dynamo Kiev: 39 points, 12 wins, 3 draws, 4 losses
3. Dnipro Dnepropetrovsk: 38 points, 11 wins, 5 draws, 2 losses
4. Metalist Kharkiv: 34 points, 9 wins, 7 draws, 1 loss
5. Chernomorets: 33 points, 9 wins, 6 draws, 3 losses
6. Metalist Donetsk: 27 points, 7 wins, 6 draws, 6 losses
7. Vorskla: 27 points, 6 wins, 9 draws, 4 losses
8. Zarya Lugansk: 25 points, 6 wins, 7 draws, 6 losses
9. Volyn Lutsk: 24 points, 6 wins, 6 draws, 7 losses
10. Karpaty: 19 points, 4 wins, 7 draws, 7 losses
11. Sevastopol: 19 points, 5 wins, 4 draws, 9 losses
12. Illichovets: 18 points, 5 wins, 3 draws, 10 losses
13. Hoverla Zakarp.: 18 points, 5 wins, 3 draws, 11 losses
14. Zaporozhye: 11 points, 2 wins, 5 draws, 13 losses
15. Tavriya: 9 points, 2 wins, 3 draws, 15 losses
16. Arsenal Kiev: 0 points
Noah
BALTIMORE, Maryland March 28, 2014 - Here in Maryland the long-awaited release of the movie "Noah" is today, Friday, March 28, 2014. The movie stars Russell Crowe, Anthony Hopkins, Jennifer Connelly and Emma Watson, among others. There has been a bit of bruhaha leading up to the release because of alleged irregularities in the telling of the story, at least in the minds of some people. Some feel any movie about a portion of the Bible must be 100% accurate even if the people making the movie say at the outset that while the movie keeps the spirit of the story, there are certain artistic licenses taken. I do not agree if the maker of the movie says as much. If the maker of the movie is candid, God bless him. This is America. We have the First Amendment. You get to stay home if you don't like the premise.
Noah is one of the ancient Patriarchs. who are told of in the Bible, the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. The principle account of Noah is found in the Book of Genesis (also known as the First Book of Moses), but Noah also receives mention in 1st Chronicles, Isaiah, Ezekiel, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the book of Hebrews and the 1st and 2nd Epistles of Peter.
The Great Roman Christian Writer Boethius - best remembered by his consummate Christian essay entitled the "Consolation of Philosophy," which he wrote in prison while awaiting execution - has also written about Noah, at some length, in his lesser-known tractate, "De Fide Catholica" or "On the Catholic Faith." Boethius (480 AD - 524 AD), or Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, was a Roman government official who was quite powerful until the dictator Theodoric the Ostrogoth suspected him of plotting against him and had him imprisoned and, eventually, executed in a manner befitting a barbarian. Below, I have printed all that Boethius wrote about Noah in De Fide Catholica. Following that, I have printed all that is said about Noah in Genesis. Not having seen the movie, my current impressions of the controversies, if there actually are any, are defined by media accounts. Supposedly Noah, in the movie, is never described as in communication with God. This is added to the fact that the director of the movie, Darren Aronofsky, describes himself as an atheist. I don't believe Aronofsky is an atheist. The film I have seen cuts from and heard interviews of the actors in the film wasn't made by an atheist. Aronofsky is said to have been fascinated by the Noah story since childhood. The film is inspired. The Washington Post review of the movie concurs with my preliminary reaction. The movie is faithful to the Bible Account's central story. The film admits at the outset that artistic license is taken from time to time. Hollywood has always done this. What I hope is that the directors and writers demonstrate a profound respect and reverence. I have seen as much. The account of Noah's life in Genesis is wrapped around the Bible's brief and, for some, troubling telling of the story of the Nephilim. The account is confined to the first four verses of Chapter 6 of Genesis. Moses does not tell us with any precision at all who the Nephilim are. Scholars and lay people alike say they are fallen angels. Boethius does not accept this or even attempt to explain it. The Nephilim are mentioned again in, I believe, the book of Daniel.
De Fide Catholica (On the Catholic Faith)
by Boethius (Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, Roman, 480 AD - 524 AD)
Lines 122 to 153 (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Copyright 1918; Translation by H. F. Stewart, E. K. Rand and S. J. Tester)
"So the human race that sprang from the first man and mightily increased and multiplied, broke into strife, stirred up wars, and became the heirs of earthly misery, because it had lost the blessedness of Paradise in its first parent. Yet among them there were not lacking those whom the Author of Grace set apart for himself and who were obedient to his precepts; and though the fault of their nature condemned them, yet God by making them partakers in the mystery to come, long afterwards to be revealed, vouchsafed to restore their fallen nature. So the world was filled by the human race and man who in the wickedness of his own arrogant disobedience had despised his Creator began to walk in his own ways. Hence God willing rather to restore mankind through one just man than that it should remain contumacious, suffered all the guilty multitude to perish by the wide waters of a flood, save only Noah, the just man, with his children and all that he had brought with him into the ark. The reason why he wished to save the just by the wood of the ark is known by all minds learned in the Holy Scriptures. Thus what we may call the first age of the world was ended by the avenging flood.
Thus the human race is restored, and yet it does not cease to embrace the vice of its own nature with which the first author of transgression had affected it. And the arrogance increased which had once been punished by the waters of the flood, and man who had been suffered to live for a long series of years was reduced to the brief span of ordinary human life. Yet would not God again punish mankind by a flood, but rather, letting it continue, he chose from it men of whose line a generation should arise out of which he might in the last age of the world grant us his own Son, clothed in a human body. Of these men Abraham is the first, and although he was stricken in years and his wife very old, they had in their old age the reward of a son the fulfillment of a promise."
The First Book of Moses, commonly called Genesis
Chapter 5: Verses 21 through 32., Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8 and Chapter 9, all in their entirety.
Chapter 5: Verse 21. When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Methuselah. Verse 22. Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. Verse 23. Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Verse 24. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Verse 25. When Methuselah had lived a hundred and eighty-seven years, he became the father of Lamech. Verse 26. Methuselah lived after the birth of Lamech seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had other sons and daughters. Verse 27. Thus all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died.
Verse 28. When Lamech had lived a hundred and eighty-two years, he became the father of a son, Verse 29. and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground which the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.” Verse 30. Lamech lived after the birth of Noah five hundred and ninety-five years, and had other sons and daughters. Verse 31. Thus all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.
Verse 32. After Noah was five hundred years old, Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Chapter 6: Verse 1. When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, Verse 2. the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair, and they took to wife such of them as they as chose. Verse 3. Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.” Verse 4. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.
Verse 5. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Verse 6. And the Lord was sorry that he made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. Verse 7. So the Lord said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them." Verse 8. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Verse 9. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. Verse 10. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Verse 11. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. Verse 12. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Verse 13. And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Verse 14. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. Verse 15. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Verse 16. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and set the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. Verse 17. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven, everything that is on the earth shall die. Verse 18. But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. Verse 19. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Verse 20. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to their kind, two of every sort shall come in to you, to keep them alive. Verse 21. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them. Verse 22. Noah did this, he did all that God commanded him.
Chapter 7: Verse 1. Then the Lord said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Verse 2. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate; and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive upon the face of all the earth. Verse 4. For in seven days I will send rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out upon the face of the ground. Verse 5. And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.
Verse 6. Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. Verse 7. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Verse 8. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, Verse 9. two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. Verse 10. And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
Verse 11. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth and the windows of the heavens were opened. Verse 12. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. Verse 13. On the very same day Noah and his sons Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, Verse 14. they and every beast according to its kind, and all the cattle according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, every bird of every sort. Verse 15. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. Verse 16. And they that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.
Verse 17. The flood continued forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. Verse 18. The waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. Verse 19. And the waters prevailed so mightily upon the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; Verse 20. the waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. Verse 21. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, birds, cattle, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm upon the earth, and every man; Verse 22. everything on the dry land in whose nostrils were the breath of life died. Verse 23. He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. Verse 24. And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.
Chapter 8: Verse 1. But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; Verse 2. the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain, from the heavens was restrained, Verse 3. and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had abated; Verse 4. and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat. Verse 5. And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
Verse 6. At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, Verse 7. and sent forth a raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Verse 8. Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; Verse 9. but the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put forth his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. Verse 10. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; Verse 11. and the dove came back to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Verse 12. Then he waited another seven days, and he sent forth the dove; and she did not return to him any more.
Verse 13. In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. Verse 14. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. Verse 15. Then God said to Noah, Verse 16. "Go forth from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Verse 17. Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh - birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth - that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth." Verse 18. So Noah went forth, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. Verse 19. And every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves upon the earth, went forth by families out of the ark.
Verse 20. Then Noah built and altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Verse 21. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; never again will I destroy every living creature as I have done. Verse 22. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease."
Chapter 9: Verse 1. And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. Verse 2. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Verse 3. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Verse 4. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Verse 5. For your lifeblood I shall surely require a reckoning; of every beast I will require it and of man; of every man's brother I will require the life of man. Verse 6. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image. Verse 7. And you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly on the earth and multiply in it.
Verse 8. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, Verse 9. "Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, Verse 10. and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. Verse 11. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." Verse 12. And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations; Verse 13. I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” Verse 14. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow is seen in the clouds, Verse 15. I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. Verse 16. When the bow is in the clouds, I will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.” Verse 17. God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that is between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.”
Verse 18. The sons of Noah who went from the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. Verse 19. These were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was peopled.
Verse 20. Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard; Verse 21. and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. Verse 22. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Verse 23. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. Verse 24. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, Verse 25. he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers.” Verse 26. He also said, “Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem,” and let Canaan be his slave. Verse 27. God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem and let Canaan be his slave.” Verse 28. After the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years. Verse 29. All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
Noah is one of the ancient Patriarchs. who are told of in the Bible, the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. The principle account of Noah is found in the Book of Genesis (also known as the First Book of Moses), but Noah also receives mention in 1st Chronicles, Isaiah, Ezekiel, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the book of Hebrews and the 1st and 2nd Epistles of Peter.
The Great Roman Christian Writer Boethius - best remembered by his consummate Christian essay entitled the "Consolation of Philosophy," which he wrote in prison while awaiting execution - has also written about Noah, at some length, in his lesser-known tractate, "De Fide Catholica" or "On the Catholic Faith." Boethius (480 AD - 524 AD), or Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, was a Roman government official who was quite powerful until the dictator Theodoric the Ostrogoth suspected him of plotting against him and had him imprisoned and, eventually, executed in a manner befitting a barbarian. Below, I have printed all that Boethius wrote about Noah in De Fide Catholica. Following that, I have printed all that is said about Noah in Genesis. Not having seen the movie, my current impressions of the controversies, if there actually are any, are defined by media accounts. Supposedly Noah, in the movie, is never described as in communication with God. This is added to the fact that the director of the movie, Darren Aronofsky, describes himself as an atheist. I don't believe Aronofsky is an atheist. The film I have seen cuts from and heard interviews of the actors in the film wasn't made by an atheist. Aronofsky is said to have been fascinated by the Noah story since childhood. The film is inspired. The Washington Post review of the movie concurs with my preliminary reaction. The movie is faithful to the Bible Account's central story. The film admits at the outset that artistic license is taken from time to time. Hollywood has always done this. What I hope is that the directors and writers demonstrate a profound respect and reverence. I have seen as much. The account of Noah's life in Genesis is wrapped around the Bible's brief and, for some, troubling telling of the story of the Nephilim. The account is confined to the first four verses of Chapter 6 of Genesis. Moses does not tell us with any precision at all who the Nephilim are. Scholars and lay people alike say they are fallen angels. Boethius does not accept this or even attempt to explain it. The Nephilim are mentioned again in, I believe, the book of Daniel.
De Fide Catholica (On the Catholic Faith)
by Boethius (Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, Roman, 480 AD - 524 AD)
Lines 122 to 153 (Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Copyright 1918; Translation by H. F. Stewart, E. K. Rand and S. J. Tester)
"So the human race that sprang from the first man and mightily increased and multiplied, broke into strife, stirred up wars, and became the heirs of earthly misery, because it had lost the blessedness of Paradise in its first parent. Yet among them there were not lacking those whom the Author of Grace set apart for himself and who were obedient to his precepts; and though the fault of their nature condemned them, yet God by making them partakers in the mystery to come, long afterwards to be revealed, vouchsafed to restore their fallen nature. So the world was filled by the human race and man who in the wickedness of his own arrogant disobedience had despised his Creator began to walk in his own ways. Hence God willing rather to restore mankind through one just man than that it should remain contumacious, suffered all the guilty multitude to perish by the wide waters of a flood, save only Noah, the just man, with his children and all that he had brought with him into the ark. The reason why he wished to save the just by the wood of the ark is known by all minds learned in the Holy Scriptures. Thus what we may call the first age of the world was ended by the avenging flood.
Thus the human race is restored, and yet it does not cease to embrace the vice of its own nature with which the first author of transgression had affected it. And the arrogance increased which had once been punished by the waters of the flood, and man who had been suffered to live for a long series of years was reduced to the brief span of ordinary human life. Yet would not God again punish mankind by a flood, but rather, letting it continue, he chose from it men of whose line a generation should arise out of which he might in the last age of the world grant us his own Son, clothed in a human body. Of these men Abraham is the first, and although he was stricken in years and his wife very old, they had in their old age the reward of a son the fulfillment of a promise."
The First Book of Moses, commonly called Genesis
Chapter 5: Verses 21 through 32., Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8 and Chapter 9, all in their entirety.
Chapter 5: Verse 21. When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Methuselah. Verse 22. Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. Verse 23. Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Verse 24. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Verse 25. When Methuselah had lived a hundred and eighty-seven years, he became the father of Lamech. Verse 26. Methuselah lived after the birth of Lamech seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had other sons and daughters. Verse 27. Thus all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died.
Verse 28. When Lamech had lived a hundred and eighty-two years, he became the father of a son, Verse 29. and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground which the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.” Verse 30. Lamech lived after the birth of Noah five hundred and ninety-five years, and had other sons and daughters. Verse 31. Thus all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.
Verse 32. After Noah was five hundred years old, Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Chapter 6: Verse 1. When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, Verse 2. the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair, and they took to wife such of them as they as chose. Verse 3. Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.” Verse 4. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.
Verse 5. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Verse 6. And the Lord was sorry that he made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. Verse 7. So the Lord said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them." Verse 8. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Verse 9. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. Verse 10. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Verse 11. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. Verse 12. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Verse 13. And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Verse 14. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. Verse 15. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Verse 16. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and set the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. Verse 17. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven, everything that is on the earth shall die. Verse 18. But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. Verse 19. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Verse 20. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to their kind, two of every sort shall come in to you, to keep them alive. Verse 21. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them. Verse 22. Noah did this, he did all that God commanded him.
Chapter 7: Verse 1. Then the Lord said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Verse 2. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate; and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive upon the face of all the earth. Verse 4. For in seven days I will send rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out upon the face of the ground. Verse 5. And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.
Verse 6. Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. Verse 7. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Verse 8. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, Verse 9. two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. Verse 10. And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
Verse 11. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth and the windows of the heavens were opened. Verse 12. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. Verse 13. On the very same day Noah and his sons Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, Verse 14. they and every beast according to its kind, and all the cattle according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, every bird of every sort. Verse 15. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. Verse 16. And they that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.
Verse 17. The flood continued forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. Verse 18. The waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. Verse 19. And the waters prevailed so mightily upon the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; Verse 20. the waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. Verse 21. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, birds, cattle, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm upon the earth, and every man; Verse 22. everything on the dry land in whose nostrils were the breath of life died. Verse 23. He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. Verse 24. And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.
Chapter 8: Verse 1. But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; Verse 2. the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain, from the heavens was restrained, Verse 3. and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had abated; Verse 4. and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat. Verse 5. And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
Verse 6. At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, Verse 7. and sent forth a raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Verse 8. Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; Verse 9. but the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put forth his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. Verse 10. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; Verse 11. and the dove came back to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Verse 12. Then he waited another seven days, and he sent forth the dove; and she did not return to him any more.
Verse 13. In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. Verse 14. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. Verse 15. Then God said to Noah, Verse 16. "Go forth from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Verse 17. Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh - birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth - that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth." Verse 18. So Noah went forth, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. Verse 19. And every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves upon the earth, went forth by families out of the ark.
Verse 20. Then Noah built and altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Verse 21. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; never again will I destroy every living creature as I have done. Verse 22. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease."
Chapter 9: Verse 1. And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. Verse 2. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Verse 3. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Verse 4. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Verse 5. For your lifeblood I shall surely require a reckoning; of every beast I will require it and of man; of every man's brother I will require the life of man. Verse 6. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image. Verse 7. And you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly on the earth and multiply in it.
Verse 8. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, Verse 9. "Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, Verse 10. and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. Verse 11. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." Verse 12. And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations; Verse 13. I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” Verse 14. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow is seen in the clouds, Verse 15. I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. Verse 16. When the bow is in the clouds, I will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.” Verse 17. God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that is between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.”
Verse 18. The sons of Noah who went from the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. Verse 19. These were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was peopled.
Verse 20. Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard; Verse 21. and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. Verse 22. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Verse 23. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. Verse 24. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, Verse 25. he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers.” Verse 26. He also said, “Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem,” and let Canaan be his slave. Verse 27. God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem and let Canaan be his slave.” Verse 28. After the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years. Verse 29. All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Search for Malaysian Jet Moves North Due to Credible New Lead
BALTIMORE, Maryland March 27, 2014 - A credible new lead has convinced searchers to move the target area north of where it had been, although the search is still concentrating on the southern part of the Indian Ocean. The break came when new data conerning the early part of the flight indicated it had used more fuel than originally thought. Therefore, the plane is believed to have run out of fuel somewhat earlier than originally thought. Thus, instead of concentrating on an area 1850 kilometers southwest of Perth, Australia, the multination search team is now concentrating on an area 1500 kilometers due west of Perth. Search planes are already in the new area, looking for a debris field depicted in images given the searchers by Thailand. The new photos show up to 300 closely placed debris pieces. Boats from the search team are moving north and are expected in the new target area soon.
The respected aviation blog "Plane Talking" said that new analysis of the early part of the flight showed that the plane was moving much faster than originally thought during the part of the flight immediately after it took the unscheduled turn west and flew over the Malaysian Peninsula and out over the Straits of Malacca. The faster speed means that fuel was consumed at a much faster rate. This, in turn, means the plane must have run out of fuel somewhat sooner than thought in earlier analysis.
Foul weather had forced the search team to cancel air patrols on Wednesday, but the search by air continued Thursday and is on again Friday. The Boeing 777 took off from Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 am on March 14. It was due to land in Beijing at 6:30 am the same day. But, approximately 40 minutes into the flight the crew made a final radio contact with air traffic controllers, then dropped off of their radar screens. Military radar tracked the jet as it took an unscheduled westward turn, off of the course it was on to Beijing.
The respected aviation blog "Plane Talking" said that new analysis of the early part of the flight showed that the plane was moving much faster than originally thought during the part of the flight immediately after it took the unscheduled turn west and flew over the Malaysian Peninsula and out over the Straits of Malacca. The faster speed means that fuel was consumed at a much faster rate. This, in turn, means the plane must have run out of fuel somewhat sooner than thought in earlier analysis.
Foul weather had forced the search team to cancel air patrols on Wednesday, but the search by air continued Thursday and is on again Friday. The Boeing 777 took off from Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 am on March 14. It was due to land in Beijing at 6:30 am the same day. But, approximately 40 minutes into the flight the crew made a final radio contact with air traffic controllers, then dropped off of their radar screens. Military radar tracked the jet as it took an unscheduled westward turn, off of the course it was on to Beijing.
In Memorium: Zbigniew Romaszewski: a Lifetime of Toil for Freedom
BALTIMORE, Maryland March 27, 2014 - When somebody writes the story of the Polish nation's long and profoundly difficult journey from the bitter and smothering control of despotic governments to those that wear democracy and freedom as monikers, one name that must never be forgotten is Zbigniew Romaszewski. For decases he moved about at the ground level, perpetually fighting to keep alive the dream of a free Poland. For Zbigniew Romaszewski, it was always a determined and fearless fight. It was a relentless fight. And he made it to the promised land. He lived to be elected to the Senate of a free Poland. No one deserved that honor more. Now, Zbigniew Romaszewski has died. He was 74.
In that seminal year of 1982, when Solidarity was in the fight of its life and the Communists were determined to purge it from Polish society, Zbigniew Romaszewski carried transmitters and other radio equipment that were kept hidden in car trunks up long flights of stairs to rooftops, first one and then another, so that Radio Solidarity could broadcast, if only for a few minutes. The minute the broadcast ended the equipment was packed up and hidden again. A few days later, everything was repeated. With each precious broadcast the people knew Solidarity was alive and kicking. After a while the broadcasts stopped. Romaszewski and his wife, Zofia, were arrested. Zofia was freed in 1984, Zbigniew in 1985.
Zbigniew Romaszewski died on February 13, 2014. Word of that death is only now reaching the west, for whatever reason. He had been kept in an induced coma for a week prior to succumbing. There is an excellent obituary in yesterday's (3/26/2014) New York Times, written by William Yarkley. The web address for the piece is http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/27/world/zbigniew-romaszewski-physicist-who-resisted-polands-communists-dies-at-74.html?partner=rss&emc=rss. Wikipedia also has information and more at this address: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zbigniew_Romaszewski
Zbigniew Romaszewski literally grew up in the belly of the beast and learned how to fight for freedom and, really, his right just to survive, beginning in his infancy. When he was born on January 2, 1940, the Nazis had already invaded Poland. His father was a sympathizer with the Polish resistance, and because of that resistance, his father was put to death in a concentration camp in Sachsenhausen, Germany. His grandmother, mother and him were then incarcerated in another concentration camp at Ravensbrück. His grandmother died there. He and his mother survived, and she and an aunt raised him. He grew up hearing stories about resistance movements and executions. He met his wife when they were both teens studying physics at Warsaw University. He quickly learned that her parents and grandparents were also Nazi resisters. He received a degree from Warsaw University in 1964 and a doctorate from the Polish Academy of Science in 1980. During, in between and after he continued to fight for freedom in Poland. Both he and Zofia became active in the workers movements that would become Solidarity. He traveled to Moscow to meet with Andrei Sakharov in 1979. He formed a Polish branch of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. He was the author of a widely disseminated paper openly critical of the Communist Government. One of his lesser known accomplishments was helping to put together material for a "Prints and History" Exhibition that was displayed in Cuba in 2000 until the Castro Regime figured out that it was not supportive of his government, but in fact was highly critical of it. When Castro did find out he became extremely angry, even violent.
After Poland broke free of Soviet domination, he was elected to the Polish Senate and was still in office at the time of his death. He role cannot be minimized. He was one of the people who would not let the dream of freedom die. He was relentless. When a key person's hope faded, Zbigniew Romaszewski wouldn't let them go. He pushed. He schemed. He was relentless.
In that seminal year of 1982, when Solidarity was in the fight of its life and the Communists were determined to purge it from Polish society, Zbigniew Romaszewski carried transmitters and other radio equipment that were kept hidden in car trunks up long flights of stairs to rooftops, first one and then another, so that Radio Solidarity could broadcast, if only for a few minutes. The minute the broadcast ended the equipment was packed up and hidden again. A few days later, everything was repeated. With each precious broadcast the people knew Solidarity was alive and kicking. After a while the broadcasts stopped. Romaszewski and his wife, Zofia, were arrested. Zofia was freed in 1984, Zbigniew in 1985.
Zbigniew Romaszewski died on February 13, 2014. Word of that death is only now reaching the west, for whatever reason. He had been kept in an induced coma for a week prior to succumbing. There is an excellent obituary in yesterday's (3/26/2014) New York Times, written by William Yarkley. The web address for the piece is http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/27/world/zbigniew-romaszewski-physicist-who-resisted-polands-communists-dies-at-74.html?partner=rss&emc=rss. Wikipedia also has information and more at this address: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zbigniew_Romaszewski
Zbigniew Romaszewski literally grew up in the belly of the beast and learned how to fight for freedom and, really, his right just to survive, beginning in his infancy. When he was born on January 2, 1940, the Nazis had already invaded Poland. His father was a sympathizer with the Polish resistance, and because of that resistance, his father was put to death in a concentration camp in Sachsenhausen, Germany. His grandmother, mother and him were then incarcerated in another concentration camp at Ravensbrück. His grandmother died there. He and his mother survived, and she and an aunt raised him. He grew up hearing stories about resistance movements and executions. He met his wife when they were both teens studying physics at Warsaw University. He quickly learned that her parents and grandparents were also Nazi resisters. He received a degree from Warsaw University in 1964 and a doctorate from the Polish Academy of Science in 1980. During, in between and after he continued to fight for freedom in Poland. Both he and Zofia became active in the workers movements that would become Solidarity. He traveled to Moscow to meet with Andrei Sakharov in 1979. He formed a Polish branch of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. He was the author of a widely disseminated paper openly critical of the Communist Government. One of his lesser known accomplishments was helping to put together material for a "Prints and History" Exhibition that was displayed in Cuba in 2000 until the Castro Regime figured out that it was not supportive of his government, but in fact was highly critical of it. When Castro did find out he became extremely angry, even violent.
After Poland broke free of Soviet domination, he was elected to the Polish Senate and was still in office at the time of his death. He role cannot be minimized. He was one of the people who would not let the dream of freedom die. He was relentless. When a key person's hope faded, Zbigniew Romaszewski wouldn't let them go. He pushed. He schemed. He was relentless.
Former German Chancellor Questions Germany's Sanctions Against Russia
BALTIMORE, Maryland March 27, 2014 - Calling Russia's annexation of Crimea "understandable," the former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt has questioned whether Germany should be participating in the West's sanctions against the government of Russian Strong Man Vladimir Putin. Schmidt told the respected German Magazine "Der Spiegel" that calling the Russian annexation of Crimea a violation of international law was uncalled for.
It is an interesting perspective. USA President Barack Obama says that in the 21st century it is unacceptable for civilized countries to use military force and invasion to settle disputes with other nations. Schmidt, on the other hand, blames the west for over-reacting to what in effect was a border dispute. He said it was a mistake to levy sanctions for what he thought was a minor border dispute between two former members of the Soviet Union. If every minor border dispute turned into an international incident, more trouble will certainly follow, Schmidt said.
Instead, Schmidt said the West had to try harder to "understand" Putin. Schmidt was German Chancellor from 1974 through 1982. He is credited with the economic "miracle" which resulted in Germany have the most stable currency in Europe and the most stable economy in Europe. He worked hard during his years in power to unify European and American foreign policy and economic policy as a deterrent to Soviet aggression. In his opinion, however, the situation with Ukraine is different from other European nations because Ukraine was a former Soviet client state. Relations between Russia and these former Soviet-controlled states must be viewed in that context.
Schmidt becomes yet another former German Chancellor to urge caution when placing sanctions on Russia for the Ukraine invasion. Gerhard Schroeder, 69, has been excoriated for speaking out in favour of Moscow and against the German government position, Reuters has reported. Schroeder, however, earns a 250,000 euro salary as board chairman for a pipeline joint venture with Russian gas monopoly Gazprom.
Manuel Sarrazin, an MP in Germany, told Reuters that "Schroeder is spreading the Kremlin's propaganda and everyone should understand that he's now a paid spokesman for Russia." Sarrazin is a member of the Greens party.
But a member of the current Chancellors party and one of her foreign policy advisers urged caution when excoriating Schroeder.
"I don't think their man-to-man friendship is hurting Germany at all," said Philipp Missfelder, in an interview with Reuters. "I hope it'll help. It's better when people talk more rather than less with each other. I hope Schroeder can use his influence to help Germany."
It is an interesting perspective. USA President Barack Obama says that in the 21st century it is unacceptable for civilized countries to use military force and invasion to settle disputes with other nations. Schmidt, on the other hand, blames the west for over-reacting to what in effect was a border dispute. He said it was a mistake to levy sanctions for what he thought was a minor border dispute between two former members of the Soviet Union. If every minor border dispute turned into an international incident, more trouble will certainly follow, Schmidt said.
Instead, Schmidt said the West had to try harder to "understand" Putin. Schmidt was German Chancellor from 1974 through 1982. He is credited with the economic "miracle" which resulted in Germany have the most stable currency in Europe and the most stable economy in Europe. He worked hard during his years in power to unify European and American foreign policy and economic policy as a deterrent to Soviet aggression. In his opinion, however, the situation with Ukraine is different from other European nations because Ukraine was a former Soviet client state. Relations between Russia and these former Soviet-controlled states must be viewed in that context.
Schmidt becomes yet another former German Chancellor to urge caution when placing sanctions on Russia for the Ukraine invasion. Gerhard Schroeder, 69, has been excoriated for speaking out in favour of Moscow and against the German government position, Reuters has reported. Schroeder, however, earns a 250,000 euro salary as board chairman for a pipeline joint venture with Russian gas monopoly Gazprom.
Manuel Sarrazin, an MP in Germany, told Reuters that "Schroeder is spreading the Kremlin's propaganda and everyone should understand that he's now a paid spokesman for Russia." Sarrazin is a member of the Greens party.
But a member of the current Chancellors party and one of her foreign policy advisers urged caution when excoriating Schroeder.
"I don't think their man-to-man friendship is hurting Germany at all," said Philipp Missfelder, in an interview with Reuters. "I hope it'll help. It's better when people talk more rather than less with each other. I hope Schroeder can use his influence to help Germany."
Putin Threatens Sanctions Against Visa and Mastercard for Participating in Western Sanctions Against Russia; Russia slams Germany for Cancellation of Arms Deal
BALTIMORE, Maryland March 27, 2014 - Russian Strong Man Vladimir Putin has blasted Mastercard and Visa for taking part in the economic sanctions against the Moscow government for its invasion of the Crimea, the respected German Magazine Der Spiegel reported today. And Russia is extremely angry at the Merkel Government for cancelling a one hundred million euro ($140 million) deal that would have seen the Germancompany Rheinmetall build a training camp for Russian forces. A government spokesman in Berlin said that to proceed with the contract in the wake of the Crimean invasion would have been "indefensible."
Russia was equally angry at France for it decision to end all military cooperation with Moscow. And a spokesman for the government of Russian Strong Man Vladimir Putin blamed the United States for pressuring both countries to proceed as they have.
Putin says that Russia will set up a system to replace the role played by the two credit card giants. He said that China and Japan already have such a system in place and it works very well. Der Spiegel said Putin called it "unfortunate" that "certain companies" have participated in economic sanctions ordered by Western Governments, chiefly the United States.
While Putin has been quick to minimize the importance of sanctions taken by Western Governments, the Russian Central Bank has taken steps to shield some Russian companies from the impact of such sanctions. It has taken steps to provide working capital to Russian companies because it fears what economists are calling "capital flight."
Russia was equally angry at France for it decision to end all military cooperation with Moscow. And a spokesman for the government of Russian Strong Man Vladimir Putin blamed the United States for pressuring both countries to proceed as they have.
Putin says that Russia will set up a system to replace the role played by the two credit card giants. He said that China and Japan already have such a system in place and it works very well. Der Spiegel said Putin called it "unfortunate" that "certain companies" have participated in economic sanctions ordered by Western Governments, chiefly the United States.
While Putin has been quick to minimize the importance of sanctions taken by Western Governments, the Russian Central Bank has taken steps to shield some Russian companies from the impact of such sanctions. It has taken steps to provide working capital to Russian companies because it fears what economists are calling "capital flight."
Germany: Airport Workers' Strike a Preview of What is to Come
BALTIMORE, Maryland March 27, 2014 - The men and women who walked off their jobs today at airports across Germany are calling it a one-day strike. But if anyone thinks that is all it is, they have another thing coming. And soon.
According to the AP, seven German Airports are affected and most of the nearly 1,000 flights cancelled so far originate and end within Europe. Lufthansa alone has cancelled about 600 flights. The seven airports where striking workers did not come to work include those at Frankfurt, Munich, Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart and Hannover.
Higher pay is, not unexpectedly, the primary demand of the strikers. These warning strikes are a common union tactic in Germany. Talks for new contracts are expected to start next week for some 2.1 million federal and municipal employees. If you are saying to yourself, airport workers are not federal and municipal employees, you are correct. They just happen to be in the same union as the workers whose contracts will be negotiated by the Ver.di Union. This has provoked almost extreme anger amongst airline management. A Lufthansa spokesperson told the AP that the union is exploiting "non-involved" parties and costing them millions of euros. "We particularly regret the fact that our customers will suffer," the spokesman said.
The increase that the union is seeking amounts to approximately 6.73%, although the method of calculating it is somewhat circuitous. Ver.di wants a base increase of 100 euros per month plus a 3.5% raise for all workers.
According to the AP, seven German Airports are affected and most of the nearly 1,000 flights cancelled so far originate and end within Europe. Lufthansa alone has cancelled about 600 flights. The seven airports where striking workers did not come to work include those at Frankfurt, Munich, Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart and Hannover.
Higher pay is, not unexpectedly, the primary demand of the strikers. These warning strikes are a common union tactic in Germany. Talks for new contracts are expected to start next week for some 2.1 million federal and municipal employees. If you are saying to yourself, airport workers are not federal and municipal employees, you are correct. They just happen to be in the same union as the workers whose contracts will be negotiated by the Ver.di Union. This has provoked almost extreme anger amongst airline management. A Lufthansa spokesperson told the AP that the union is exploiting "non-involved" parties and costing them millions of euros. "We particularly regret the fact that our customers will suffer," the spokesman said.
The increase that the union is seeking amounts to approximately 6.73%, although the method of calculating it is somewhat circuitous. Ver.di wants a base increase of 100 euros per month plus a 3.5% raise for all workers.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Germans Fear Putin Attempting to Splinter European Solidarity
TOWSON, Maryland March 26, 2014 - In Germany, they just assume that the Russian Strong Man wants to pull European solidarity apart, little by little, one country at a time. It's not a hard plan to analyze. Putin believes Russia is stronger than any European nation. It's only when the Europeans stick together that the playing field is level.
Editorials and opinion pieces from one side of the continent to the other say the same thing: if Europe sticks together, if the EU doesn't splinter, Putin cannot emerge from the current crisis unscathed. If the EU acts in concert, if they move decisively, Russia cannot possibly prevail. That line of thinking, of course, has a downside: Putin knows it, too. Thus, his strategy is to deal with one opponent at a time. If he can isolate Germany and its great need for Russian energy products: oil and natural gas, he can avoid Germany at the forefront or vanguard of an EU column. If Putin can dangle oil money - lots of oil money - in front of some of the cash-strapped nations that used to live behind the awful Iron Curtain, he can peel them off. Each nation has their weakness. Putin isn't stupid; he didn't get to the position he had with the KGB if he was "low information" as they slyly call that condition west of the Atlantic.
At the German web site called "The Local," sources were quoted which allege the EU nations are already bickering. "Leading EU nations such as a Britain and Germany - their financial and energy sectors intertwined with Russia's - have particularly questioned why they should be the ones to suffer most in case of an all-out trade war." The implications are clear, If Putin pushes forward in Ukraine, in Moldova, or any of the Baltic States, or if he turns off the pipelines carrying energy west, the EU and the USA can fight back, they can invoke their sanctions, but it is a real question as to who will blink first. How long can German Chancellor Angela Merkel sit still while her constituent businesses take it on the nose? How long will France sit still if the price of solidarity gets higher and higher.
The saddest thing is, everybody might get the chance to find out.
Editorials and opinion pieces from one side of the continent to the other say the same thing: if Europe sticks together, if the EU doesn't splinter, Putin cannot emerge from the current crisis unscathed. If the EU acts in concert, if they move decisively, Russia cannot possibly prevail. That line of thinking, of course, has a downside: Putin knows it, too. Thus, his strategy is to deal with one opponent at a time. If he can isolate Germany and its great need for Russian energy products: oil and natural gas, he can avoid Germany at the forefront or vanguard of an EU column. If Putin can dangle oil money - lots of oil money - in front of some of the cash-strapped nations that used to live behind the awful Iron Curtain, he can peel them off. Each nation has their weakness. Putin isn't stupid; he didn't get to the position he had with the KGB if he was "low information" as they slyly call that condition west of the Atlantic.
At the German web site called "The Local," sources were quoted which allege the EU nations are already bickering. "Leading EU nations such as a Britain and Germany - their financial and energy sectors intertwined with Russia's - have particularly questioned why they should be the ones to suffer most in case of an all-out trade war." The implications are clear, If Putin pushes forward in Ukraine, in Moldova, or any of the Baltic States, or if he turns off the pipelines carrying energy west, the EU and the USA can fight back, they can invoke their sanctions, but it is a real question as to who will blink first. How long can German Chancellor Angela Merkel sit still while her constituent businesses take it on the nose? How long will France sit still if the price of solidarity gets higher and higher.
The saddest thing is, everybody might get the chance to find out.
Saudi Arabia to Obama: Stop Iran's Nuke Construction or We'll Begin Our Own
BALTIMORE, Maryland March 25, 2014 - Saudia Arabian Authorities have told USA President Obama to either stop the Iranian Nuclear Weapons program, or we will begin one of our own. These alternatives were presented to Washington recently, and are the reason why President Obama has added a stop in the Middle Eastern Kingdom to the end of a long and extremely busy foreign trip. Both Fox and Time Magazine are reporting this Tuesday night.
According to reports, Saudi Arabia has taken no action against the Iranian threat because President Obama promised them that the USA would not permit Iran to obtain a nuclear weapons capability. But the so-called deal brokered by USA Secretary of State John Kerry has eroded all confidence the Saudis had in President Obama's willingness to put a stop to the Iranians and their dream of owning the capability of delivering nuclear weapon to other countries. A prime target of a nuclear Iran will be Israel, most Western experts believe. Many western nations believe Israel will move against Iran's nuclear program rather than risk them gaining the capability of using such a weapon. Iran has often directly threatened to completely destroy Israel. The deal Kerry brokered permits Iran to continue to enrichin uranium. In exchange, Iran has agreed to, well, to be honest, Iran has agreed to do not much of anything,
According to reports, Saudi Arabia has taken no action against the Iranian threat because President Obama promised them that the USA would not permit Iran to obtain a nuclear weapons capability. But the so-called deal brokered by USA Secretary of State John Kerry has eroded all confidence the Saudis had in President Obama's willingness to put a stop to the Iranians and their dream of owning the capability of delivering nuclear weapon to other countries. A prime target of a nuclear Iran will be Israel, most Western experts believe. Many western nations believe Israel will move against Iran's nuclear program rather than risk them gaining the capability of using such a weapon. Iran has often directly threatened to completely destroy Israel. The deal Kerry brokered permits Iran to continue to enrichin uranium. In exchange, Iran has agreed to, well, to be honest, Iran has agreed to do not much of anything,
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Merkel Pleads for Putin to Exhibit Common Sense
BALTIMORE, Maryland March 25, 2014 - The headlines around the globe tell the story of Angela Merkel's dangerous predicament. In America, the NBC network had this over one of their stories: "German Foreign Minister Worries Russia May Open 'Pandora's Box'". In Great Britain, the BBC headline was "Ukraine crisis: Germany's Russian conundrum." In Berlin, Reuters led with this headline: "Russia ties compound German dilemma in Ukraine crisis."
Angela Merkel and her nation have watched in horror as the world stumbled into one of the most discouraging and sad situations imaginable in this, the 14th year of the new millennium. Instead of new problems demanding new ways of thinking, the world in 2014 went back in time. A new Cold War seems to be starting on Merkel's watch.
In Russia, where the old Communist Regime fell and democracy broke out, progress stopped. A former KGB Agent was in power and he said the worst day in his life was when the old Soviet Union fell. Across Eastern Europe, Asia, and the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea Coast, people who lived under the Soviet Governments cringed. What could possibly be good about a group of men who cared nothing about humanity and human decency, who routinely deprived people of even common necessities, all for the purpose on increasing their power. Many of the former client states had declared independence and held their first free elections in 40 years. For the first time in ages they stopped worrying about secret police watching their every move. For millions of people, the fall of the Soviet Union was a dream come true. But now the Russian leader wants to rebuild Russia, not as a new and idealistic nation capable of being everything that the Soviet Union wasn't, but as a Soviet-style government that enforces its will with bullying and military intimidation, mixed, when the time is right, with out and out bribery. Witness: Ukraine.
Angela Merkel clearly cannot fathom what is going on. Putin has invaded the Crimea and took over by threatening the people who lived there. Ethnic Russians embraced Putin's intervention because to them, the idea of a fellow Russian running the show, favoring them, seemed nice. But other ethnic minorities: Tatars, Ukrainians, Jews, all cringed. Another Soviet-style government was a nightmare, if nothing else.
Putin is poised and ready to keep going. He has massed 30,000 troops on the Ukraine, Russian border, equipped with heavy artillery, tanks, armored personnel carriers, attack helicopters, warplanes and enough logistical support to carry on a prolonged campaign. Certain Putin operatives - for he is a dictator in the purest form - embedded in so-called diplomatic positions, say Russia will not invade Eastern Ukraine. But in Donetsk, just across the border in eastern Ukraine, ethnic Russians have been rioting for weeks and carrying signs begging for Putin to come. He aludes to a way that Ukraine can avoid further military intervention: dump the EU, in fact, dump the west. Align with Moscow, and all will be well. Refuse, and accept the results. An American think-tank called the Democracy Group found that Putin's regime is regressing from a democracy to an authoritarian regime. It seems quite obvious that they are right.
Angela Merkel has heard what Putin is saying, heard it, in fact, loud and clear. When the headlines talk about "conundrums" and other fancy words for being backed up against the wall. She and her nation stand in Putin's looming shadow. She can't believe that in this time an old-style Soviet ruler is going to go around her part of the world, doing what he damn well pleases, whether by intimidation, force, or any other method that gets the favored results. More than any other leader, she has called Putin and scolded him, threatened him, cajoled him. As the headline says, she has told him he is opening Pandora's box, releasing all of the horrors of the Soviet decades. Putin listens and neither agrees or disagrees. Then he hangs up and goes back to bullying his neighbors. Ukraine, of course, isn't the only scene of Putin's efforts to forcibly extend Russian hegemony. He has invaded Georgia. He has troops in the breakaway republis of Trananiatria. a small area that is still recognized as a province of Moldova by all of the Western World. He is starting to ramp up the pressure on Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Even Poland has not been free of attempted bullying.
In any other post-war time, Russia's bullying in Europe would be directly and fully rebuffed by the United States. When the Cold War ended in the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the world's only remaining super power was the United States. But that was USA President Barack Obama telling his European Allies that those days are over, at least as far as he can make it that way. While half of the United States has had it up to here with his uber leftist ideas, he is entrenched in his power for three more years. And he is slashing America's defense spending, slashing troop levels, expenditures of weapons systems, research and military readiness. He tells Merkel and the rest of Europe that they have to defend themselves. And he didn't give them five years or ten years to be get ready. He said, effective immediately.
She has been described as the de facto head of the EU, and it is a title that is accurate. She has been called the "Iron Lady" for the hell-bent way she pursues her goals. It is not fair to compare her to Putin because Putin is a dictator and Merkel is a leader in a democratic system. Where Putin merely tells his functionaries what he wants to do, and they do it for him, Merkel must work within Germany's vigorous democracy. But when it comes to foreign policy, she follows her own beliefs. When it comes to Russia, her belief is that an aggressive Russia that continually spills across its borders to absorb weaker neighbors is about the biggest problem she could face.
Underlying her goals as a diplomat, Merkel also must be constantly aware of her country's business interests. Der Spiegel says the some 6,000 German businesses are registered to do business in Russia. Huge amounts of money flow back and forth between the two nations. Oil and Natural Gas comes from Russia to Germany. Technology and payment for technological achievment flows to Germany from Russia. The countries are monetarily interdependent. When Angela Merkel negotiates with Vladimir Putin she is representing thousands of businesses in Germanu, and tens of thousands of Germans who work for them.
And that is her conundrum. It is clear by what she says and how she acts that it is her sacred belief that Russia is breaking every tenet of Civilized Modern Society when it sends its armies across another country's borders to pacify Vladimir Putin. She has told Putin that very clearly. She believes strongly that Putin must pay dearly when he ignores these tenets and sends his armies. If the first round of sanctions do not work and Putin marches on, what will the next round look like? How deeply can she risk hurting her country's employers to get Putin back in line. If she ever gets to the point that she believes Putin cannot be controlled, what does she do then? How does she build up Germany's military quickly if Obama's powers in the United States are not checked. Does she really need a military strong enough to check Russia?
She leads Germany. She leads the EU. She is in the international spotlight as she spars with Putin. Have things gone past the point of no return? Does she have the wherewithal to stop Putin. How badly must she hurt Putin to stop him?
Angela Merkel and her nation have watched in horror as the world stumbled into one of the most discouraging and sad situations imaginable in this, the 14th year of the new millennium. Instead of new problems demanding new ways of thinking, the world in 2014 went back in time. A new Cold War seems to be starting on Merkel's watch.
In Russia, where the old Communist Regime fell and democracy broke out, progress stopped. A former KGB Agent was in power and he said the worst day in his life was when the old Soviet Union fell. Across Eastern Europe, Asia, and the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea Coast, people who lived under the Soviet Governments cringed. What could possibly be good about a group of men who cared nothing about humanity and human decency, who routinely deprived people of even common necessities, all for the purpose on increasing their power. Many of the former client states had declared independence and held their first free elections in 40 years. For the first time in ages they stopped worrying about secret police watching their every move. For millions of people, the fall of the Soviet Union was a dream come true. But now the Russian leader wants to rebuild Russia, not as a new and idealistic nation capable of being everything that the Soviet Union wasn't, but as a Soviet-style government that enforces its will with bullying and military intimidation, mixed, when the time is right, with out and out bribery. Witness: Ukraine.
Angela Merkel clearly cannot fathom what is going on. Putin has invaded the Crimea and took over by threatening the people who lived there. Ethnic Russians embraced Putin's intervention because to them, the idea of a fellow Russian running the show, favoring them, seemed nice. But other ethnic minorities: Tatars, Ukrainians, Jews, all cringed. Another Soviet-style government was a nightmare, if nothing else.
Putin is poised and ready to keep going. He has massed 30,000 troops on the Ukraine, Russian border, equipped with heavy artillery, tanks, armored personnel carriers, attack helicopters, warplanes and enough logistical support to carry on a prolonged campaign. Certain Putin operatives - for he is a dictator in the purest form - embedded in so-called diplomatic positions, say Russia will not invade Eastern Ukraine. But in Donetsk, just across the border in eastern Ukraine, ethnic Russians have been rioting for weeks and carrying signs begging for Putin to come. He aludes to a way that Ukraine can avoid further military intervention: dump the EU, in fact, dump the west. Align with Moscow, and all will be well. Refuse, and accept the results. An American think-tank called the Democracy Group found that Putin's regime is regressing from a democracy to an authoritarian regime. It seems quite obvious that they are right.
Angela Merkel has heard what Putin is saying, heard it, in fact, loud and clear. When the headlines talk about "conundrums" and other fancy words for being backed up against the wall. She and her nation stand in Putin's looming shadow. She can't believe that in this time an old-style Soviet ruler is going to go around her part of the world, doing what he damn well pleases, whether by intimidation, force, or any other method that gets the favored results. More than any other leader, she has called Putin and scolded him, threatened him, cajoled him. As the headline says, she has told him he is opening Pandora's box, releasing all of the horrors of the Soviet decades. Putin listens and neither agrees or disagrees. Then he hangs up and goes back to bullying his neighbors. Ukraine, of course, isn't the only scene of Putin's efforts to forcibly extend Russian hegemony. He has invaded Georgia. He has troops in the breakaway republis of Trananiatria. a small area that is still recognized as a province of Moldova by all of the Western World. He is starting to ramp up the pressure on Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Even Poland has not been free of attempted bullying.
In any other post-war time, Russia's bullying in Europe would be directly and fully rebuffed by the United States. When the Cold War ended in the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the world's only remaining super power was the United States. But that was USA President Barack Obama telling his European Allies that those days are over, at least as far as he can make it that way. While half of the United States has had it up to here with his uber leftist ideas, he is entrenched in his power for three more years. And he is slashing America's defense spending, slashing troop levels, expenditures of weapons systems, research and military readiness. He tells Merkel and the rest of Europe that they have to defend themselves. And he didn't give them five years or ten years to be get ready. He said, effective immediately.
She has been described as the de facto head of the EU, and it is a title that is accurate. She has been called the "Iron Lady" for the hell-bent way she pursues her goals. It is not fair to compare her to Putin because Putin is a dictator and Merkel is a leader in a democratic system. Where Putin merely tells his functionaries what he wants to do, and they do it for him, Merkel must work within Germany's vigorous democracy. But when it comes to foreign policy, she follows her own beliefs. When it comes to Russia, her belief is that an aggressive Russia that continually spills across its borders to absorb weaker neighbors is about the biggest problem she could face.
Underlying her goals as a diplomat, Merkel also must be constantly aware of her country's business interests. Der Spiegel says the some 6,000 German businesses are registered to do business in Russia. Huge amounts of money flow back and forth between the two nations. Oil and Natural Gas comes from Russia to Germany. Technology and payment for technological achievment flows to Germany from Russia. The countries are monetarily interdependent. When Angela Merkel negotiates with Vladimir Putin she is representing thousands of businesses in Germanu, and tens of thousands of Germans who work for them.
And that is her conundrum. It is clear by what she says and how she acts that it is her sacred belief that Russia is breaking every tenet of Civilized Modern Society when it sends its armies across another country's borders to pacify Vladimir Putin. She has told Putin that very clearly. She believes strongly that Putin must pay dearly when he ignores these tenets and sends his armies. If the first round of sanctions do not work and Putin marches on, what will the next round look like? How deeply can she risk hurting her country's employers to get Putin back in line. If she ever gets to the point that she believes Putin cannot be controlled, what does she do then? How does she build up Germany's military quickly if Obama's powers in the United States are not checked. Does she really need a military strong enough to check Russia?
She leads Germany. She leads the EU. She is in the international spotlight as she spars with Putin. Have things gone past the point of no return? Does she have the wherewithal to stop Putin. How badly must she hurt Putin to stop him?
Burnley Shuts Down Doncaster, 2-0; Leicester and Queens Park win, Derby defeated
BALTIMORE, Maryland March 25, 2014 - I began this piece tonight just as Burnley was about to start their match against Doncaster. For the record, the Claret won, 2-0, behind goals by Sam Vokes and Junior Stanislaus. The former, along with Danny Ings, has carried the Claret all season offensively. They are both among the league leaders in goals. But Insgs is hurt and missed a second game. Vokes carries on without him. Stanislaus, on the other hand, has filled a role that is an essential one on a good team: that of a top reserve coming off the bench. But he started today. All game long he was hounding the Doncaster defense. Midway through the second half he scored.
As I began this piece (3:43 pm EST) Burnley was about to begin their important match against Doncaster. Danny Ings, one of the Claret's dynamic duo of goal scorers (the other is Sam Vokes, and I did not give them this tag) is not in uniform. It isn't unexpected. Ings didn't play against Charlton Athletic last Saturday. I believe he is officially, as they say in the United States, day-to-day. I hope that day is this Saturday when the Claret host first place Leicester City. Burnley is in second place in the Championship. The top two get promoted to the Premier at season's end. For the uninformed, Burnley was one of the original English Football teams when organized soccer began in 1888. But Burnley started playing soccer in 1882. They've been playing at legendary Turf Moor for nearly as long. They have played in all four of English Soccer's leagues (now called Premier, Championship, League One and League Two) and they have been champions of all four. But they have only played one season in the Premier or first division in the last 37 years. That was the 2009-2010 campaign. Anyway, the Claret are on the precipice of returning to the Premier. Going into the Doncaster match, they were ten points clear of Derby County and the Queens Park Rangers. They are five points behind Saturday's Turf Moor opponent: Leicester City. After the match, they were still five points behind Leicester, which also won its match. They were still ten points clear of Queens Park, which also won. They picked up points on Derby, which lost tonight to Ipswich, 2-1. Derby now trails the Claret by 13 points. In the Championship League, first place and second place are automatically promoted to the Premier League. The teams that finish third, fourth, fifth and sixth playoff against each other with the winner - but only the winner - getting the third promotion to the Premier. Burnley dearly wants the automatic promotion in the worst way. So do their extremely loyal and rabid fans (over 12,000 of whom were at Turf Moor on a cold damp Tuesday night. Today's opponent, Doncaster, isn't having the best of campaigns. They are, for the record, in 19th position among the League's 24 teams. With the few games that remain - Doncaster has eight left - and the number of teams that stand between them and sixth place (lowest position they can finish and still play off for promotion), even the slimmest chance of making the playoff is probably gone. On the other hand, there is only one team between them and relegation. After losing to Burnley today they still have 40 points. The three teams at the bottom all have 32 points. If one of those teams were to get hot, and if the one team standing between them and relegation, Charlton Athletic (35 points and one game in hand) manages to sneak past them over these eight games, then a disappointing season turns into a really bad season. The good news for Doncaster? It was up in the stands. Nearly 500 of the faithful made the trip to Lancashire. Go Rovers!
As I began this piece (3:43 pm EST) Burnley was about to begin their important match against Doncaster. Danny Ings, one of the Claret's dynamic duo of goal scorers (the other is Sam Vokes, and I did not give them this tag) is not in uniform. It isn't unexpected. Ings didn't play against Charlton Athletic last Saturday. I believe he is officially, as they say in the United States, day-to-day. I hope that day is this Saturday when the Claret host first place Leicester City. Burnley is in second place in the Championship. The top two get promoted to the Premier at season's end. For the uninformed, Burnley was one of the original English Football teams when organized soccer began in 1888. But Burnley started playing soccer in 1882. They've been playing at legendary Turf Moor for nearly as long. They have played in all four of English Soccer's leagues (now called Premier, Championship, League One and League Two) and they have been champions of all four. But they have only played one season in the Premier or first division in the last 37 years. That was the 2009-2010 campaign. Anyway, the Claret are on the precipice of returning to the Premier. Going into the Doncaster match, they were ten points clear of Derby County and the Queens Park Rangers. They are five points behind Saturday's Turf Moor opponent: Leicester City. After the match, they were still five points behind Leicester, which also won its match. They were still ten points clear of Queens Park, which also won. They picked up points on Derby, which lost tonight to Ipswich, 2-1. Derby now trails the Claret by 13 points. In the Championship League, first place and second place are automatically promoted to the Premier League. The teams that finish third, fourth, fifth and sixth playoff against each other with the winner - but only the winner - getting the third promotion to the Premier. Burnley dearly wants the automatic promotion in the worst way. So do their extremely loyal and rabid fans (over 12,000 of whom were at Turf Moor on a cold damp Tuesday night. Today's opponent, Doncaster, isn't having the best of campaigns. They are, for the record, in 19th position among the League's 24 teams. With the few games that remain - Doncaster has eight left - and the number of teams that stand between them and sixth place (lowest position they can finish and still play off for promotion), even the slimmest chance of making the playoff is probably gone. On the other hand, there is only one team between them and relegation. After losing to Burnley today they still have 40 points. The three teams at the bottom all have 32 points. If one of those teams were to get hot, and if the one team standing between them and relegation, Charlton Athletic (35 points and one game in hand) manages to sneak past them over these eight games, then a disappointing season turns into a really bad season. The good news for Doncaster? It was up in the stands. Nearly 500 of the faithful made the trip to Lancashire. Go Rovers!
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