BALTIMORE, Maryland March 18, 2014 (12:45 pm, EST) - Arctic Cold Lingers It is past the middle of March and outside it looks like, and feels like, the middle of winter. Everything is covered in snow and schools, while open, are starting late again. The University of Maryland was scheduled to play baseball today in Bel Air, a town northeast of Baltimore and about halfway between the University of Maryland and today's scheduled opponent, the University of Delaware. I cannot imagine that game being played. The field is not made of artificial turf. The Maryland web site only says that tomorrow's game against UMBC has also been moved to Bel Air because of weather-related problems at Maryland. The National Weather Service says it is 33 degrees at 9 am EST. If so, it is the coldest, most miserable thirty-three degrees I can imagine.
Russians Fire on Ukrainian Troops in Simferopol, Biden in Poland: The news today includes word that one Ukrainian soldier was killed and another wounded when Russian soldiers with their faces covered opened fire with automatic weapons. Russia says the incident started when Ukrainian soldiers opened fire in Simferopol, but the only persons shot were the two Ukrainians. After the shootings, Russian soldiers took the weapons away from the Ukrainians and "arrested them." says The Guardian. The incident happened at a Ukrainian Military base. The USA Vice-President has arrived in Poland for talks aimed at calming nerves in Warsaw. Such a visit would not be necessary had President Obama not cancelled a planned installation of ballistic missles in Poland that had already been agreed to before he took office. But in a bid to placate Putin, he cancelled the installation. Poland's people and government were outraged. They had to live for decades behind the Iron Curtain. They will fight rather than give in to that sentence again. Yet they are a great people and they received Biden magnanimously. The sanctions imposed yesterday by President Obama have been ridiculed all over the political spectrum. They amounted to the freezing of assets of some of Russian Strongman Vladimir Putin's helpers. Putin's assets are not included. How many of the affected people have assets that the United States can actually freeze isn't known, but nobody believes they are anything approaching significant. All of the people have known for over one month that the situation between the USA and Russia isn't good. If anyone of them didn't move to get their assets out of the USA, they are not very bright. The EU also imposed sanctions and these are believed to be somewhat more substantial. More politicians were sanctioned by the EU, with Germany taking a leading role. More importantly, the EU is prepared to strike much harder because Germany, in particular, has larger and more substantial economic ties succeptible of being cut. The leading German News Magazine, Spiegel, says Germany is prepared to make cuts that it will feel quite substantially. Germany said at the beginning of this year that it wanted to be a leader in the EU. Now, when push comes to shove, Chancellor Angela Merkel cannot back down, Spiegel says. Respected American Columnist Charles Krauthammer has called America's response "pathetic." All of the criticism of obama centers on the obvious: he makes promises and threats that he has no intention of backing up. He drew a line in the sand, literally and figuratively, in the Syria crises. He said if you use chemical weapons against your own people, we will take military action. Then it was proved that after the President made that threat, syria went ahead and used chemical weapons. And Obama did nothing. In the Ukraine, he said over and over that Russia will not be permitted to annex Crimea with military force. Russia has annexed Crimea using military force. The USA responded by freezing the assets of a few Putin functionaries. Doing nothing would have been preferable.
Israel Ramps Up Air Defenses as Search for Missing Plane Continues: The missing Malaysian Airlines Jet carrying 239 people hasn't been found. Not one hard clue has been discovered despite the hard assets of 26 countries looking methodically for it. There are these developments: the United States has told Malaysia that it will redeploy the USS Kidd and its high tech search equipment away from the search after, at most, one or two more days. The United States says it will replace the ship with airplanes carrying high tech equipment, but no one thinks that is a fair trade. Most people think this is happening because the jet cannot be found because it did not crash. They think the jet landed at s third world nation, where it is being outfitted for a nefarious purpose. To that end comes word that Israel, a prime target if the plane is going to be used to injure anybody, has ramped up its air defense methods in case the worse happens. Israel is hamstrung because there is no margin for error if the plane heads for Israel. From the time a jet would enter Israeli air space until the time it is over Tel Aviv or Jerusalem affords but a few seconds for the IDF to shoot the plane out of the sky. One report says Israeli air traffic controllers are demanding that every aircraft showing on radar identify itself far earlier than previously demanded. The purpose is to give the IDF as much time as possible to do its duty. There are two late reports that may or may not have merit. The New York Times says that the missing jet's hard left turn soon after it broke off communications with air traffic controllers was pre-programmed into the Jet's computers. Malaysia says the Jet's captain had about five remote runways programmed into his home-built flight simulator, giving fuel to those who think that the pilot is the one who "stole" the jet.
A Profoundly Moving Motion Picture: This writer had the profound privilege of seeing "Son of God" at the movies Ssturday evening. I do not know what anyone has heard about the movie, but if it isn't a glowing reccomendation you have been mislead. It is so good it left me speechless. I was not prepared to be that affected. I am a Christian. I know the story. With each new scene I knew what would happen. I had heard that Roma Downey, the producer and one of the lead actresses - she was stunningly good, even when I expected her to that good - had made every effort to follow the Biblical Account as closely as possible. But it was seeing these stories presented in a way that allowed me to actually see the story that added so much power to the movie. Seeing the tiny ship on the Sea of Galilee, seeing Christ cure the lame man, seeing Christ feed the thousands with two fish and a few loaves; seeing Christ arrested in the Garden, all of these things were stories in my mind. The movie made them real. The man who played Christ, Portugese Actor Diogo Morgado, was nothing short of outstanding. I did not expect anyone to be able to pull this role off and be taken seriously. Mr. Morgado did. One television wag suggested he was too handsome to play the role. Unbelievable. If you have nothing to say, say nothing. One of the most profound mysteries of Christ's time on Earth is how much of his being was human and how much deity. Mr. Morgado's character walked a brilliant fine line between these two extremes. His Christ was always and without fail totally human but at appropriate times he was shocked into realizing he was also the deity. The human side prayed fervently to be spared the horror of crucifixtion, but also prayed that the father in heaven would forgive those who crucified him, and did so as he hung in torment on the cross. We realized that Christ was dedicated to being as human as possible; otherwise the whole crucifixtion was wasted. Only a human would experience the crucifixtion for the amoral horror that it was. Only God would understand that a human was capable of doing to another human what the Romans did to Christ and other humans condemned to the same fate. The Bible says that God created humans in his image. There is no greater mystery. Mr. Morgado came as close as a mere human could to making the entire story wonderfully real.
March Madness Begins: The NCAA Division I Tournament starts tonight in Dayton, Ohio. Two games are on tap, starting with Albany and Mount Saint Mary's. The Mount, as the school in known here in Maryland, did not have a very good season. Their record entering the game tonight is 16-16. They got into the field of 68 by winning the Northeast Conference Tournament. Two weeks ago they were 12-16. Albany is only slightly better and that is why both are considered 16 seeds. Albany will win tonight but they won't need to pack too many changes of clothes because the winner gets No. 1 Florida on Thursday. Tonight's second game pits two No. 12 seeds, Xavier and North Carolina State. North Carolina State is 21-13 and 9-9 in the ACC. Xavier is 21-12 and 10-8 in the Big East. The Muscateers' biggest win was on March 1 when they upset then No. 9 Creighton, but they also lost twice to Creighton and every other ranked team they played. Neither team put together any kind of prolonged run during the season. Xavier has better numbers and I think they will win tonight.
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