High Priest Vatican Assassin Warlock

Amplify’d from www.reelzchannel.com

The Blazing Sheen: High Priest Vatican Assassin Warlock

By ReelzChannel Staff

Like the rest of the world, we're fascinated with Charlie Sheen these days. No matter what you think of his latest radio rant, you've gotta give the guy credit for his larger-than-life actions and language. His open letter to TMZ was so epic, though, that it left us awestruck ... and inspired. Click the image below for a larger version.

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Mad As Hell: 4closureFraud.org

I’m mad as Hell and I’m not going to take this anymore

Amplify’d from 4closurefraud.org

Mad As Hell

I’m mad as Hell and I’m not going to take this anymore

by Foreclosure Fraud

The Federal Reserve has revealed that it expects approximately 4.25 million more foreclosure filings in the next two years, with two million plus expected in 2011 as well as in 2012.

Are you going to take it anymore?

4closureFraud.org Read more at 4closurefraud.org

 

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Self Explanatory

Lessons on the importance of civility

But they had been used for hundreds of years by Jesuit priests instructing the children of nobility.

Amplify’d from azstarnet.com

For lessons on the importance of civility, look to our Founding Fathers

Terrie M. Gent Special To The Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star

The National Institute for Civil Discourse, established at the University of Arizona on Feb. 21, has not come a moment too soon.

The founders of our nation valued the kind of gentle behavior that is all too often absent from our current public, and regrettably political, conduct.

We have a clear historical record showing that George Washington studied civility. When he was a teen, he copied into a school workbook 110 "Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation."

It's unclear whether a tutor or family member gave him the rules to reproduce, or even how they were transported to the colonies. But they had been used for hundreds of years by Jesuit priests instructing the children of nobility.

Historian Richard Brookhiser called the rules "virtues of humanity" because they focus on how one should treat others. Brookhiser said: "The way men behave in polite society is related to how they order society. Politeness is the first form of politics."

James Madison's detailed notes of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia record the founders' codification of rules for conduct at this gathering of rebels. Following the generally recognized rules of behavior in representative bodies, they established decorum that allowed each of those present to be heard in an orderly and respectful way. This courtesy permitted delegates to debate and resolve extremely difficult issues without rancor.

The result was a Constitution that incorporates the warp and weft of compromise.

The first of Washington's rules of civility said, "Every action done in company ought to be done with some sign of respect to those that are present." The last of the rules reminded a young Washington to: "Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience."

In between were precepts that taught Washington to think before speaking and to maintain a "grave" countenance when discussing serious matters. They warned him not to take pleasure from the misfortune of others or to find fault with those who failed even though they had done their best.

They encouraged Washington to accept criticism with grace, and to offer it only in private and with "mildness."

George Washington was respected for his impeccable manners and strenuous efforts to protect others from embarrassment.

But that did not stop him from leading rebellious colonies to independence and a long-lasting union.

Our nation would be better served if more of those participating in political debate followed the ancient rules of civility, if for no other reason than to pay tribute to those who staked their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to preserve our unalienable rights.

Terrie M. Gent is a retired Air Force colonel and appellate judge. Read more at azstarnet.com

 

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For Level Global, F.B.I. Raid Final Blow

He also sits on the board of his high school, a private Jesuit college preparatory in his hometown, in addition to serving on numerous committees there.

Amplify’d from dealbook.nytimes.com

For Level Global, F.B.I. Raid Is a Final Blow

By AZAM AHMED

Patrick McMullan/PatrickMcMullan.com

David Ganek’s hedge fund, Level Global, could not survive the blow to its reputation from the F.B.I. raid.

David Ganek faced two stark choices: try to keep running his hedge fund after a raid by the F.B.I., or shut it down.

Mr. Ganek decided to capitulate, not even trying to persuade investors to keep their $4 billion in his hedge fund, Level Global Investors, people close to the fund said. Less than three months after the raid, he told investors he would return their money.

It was a sharp reversal from last fall, when Level Global foresaw a growth spurt that could make it a $5 billion to $7 billion hedge fund, investors say. The fund was on the verge of receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in new money. It had plans to increase staff and expand. An investment fund run by Goldman Sachs had taken a minority stake in Level Global several months earlier.

But on a cold morning in late November, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the Midtown Manhattan offices of Level Global, as well as the offices of three other hedge funds, grabbing files and computers, as part of a broad investigation into insider trading on Wall Street.

While no one at Level Global has been accused of any wrongdoing, the fund could not survive the raid’s blow to its reputation. The episode illustrates how vulnerable hedge funds — even large, successful ones — can be when investors grow nervous. Moreover, it shows the difficult choices hedge fund managers have when their fund has been ensnared in an investigation. In this case, those choices fell on Mr. Ganek, 47, the trader and art world socialite.

The investors in Level Global, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the meetings were private, said that in the days after the raid, Mr. Ganek expressed doubt about the firm’s survival. In conversations with these investors, he recalled that the F.B.I. had barged into the firm’s offices and demanded a lot of information. He didn’t know much else, he told them.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Mr. Ganek told one investor, when asked about the future of the fund.

Anthony R. Chiasson, who founded the firm with Mr. Ganek in 2003, seemed to be barely involved during the last days of Level Global, investors say.

Through a spokesman, Mr. Ganek, who owned a larger share of the hedge fund, and Mr. Chiasson declined to be interviewed.

As Mr. Ganek met with other investors, the stress was evident on his face. Though he maintained an even tone, those who know him say they could see that the open-ended investigation was wearing him down.

Investors were happy — if not overwhelmed — with the fund’s returns, which averaged roughly 9 percent a year since 2003, including only modest losses during the financial crisis.

After the raid, however, investors asked for $750 million back, and those who had planned to invest new money withdrew.

It was a far cry from the love affair investors had with Level Global at the beginning. At the founding of the firm, part of the appeal was the mystique of Mr. Ganek, who was considered a profit center when he worked as a trader for Steven A. Cohen’s hedge fund, SAC Advisors. Mr. Ganek, who ran a technology team, and Mr. Chiasson, a technology analyst, left the colossal hedge fund at a time when SAC was posting some of the biggest gains in its history. The pair were among the earliest spinoffs from Mr. Cohen’s fund, which has since become something of a breeding ground for hedge fund managers.

To investors, Mr. Ganek pitched Level as a fund inherently negative on the market, an appealing strategy to those looking for a more cautious approach, despite what some considered high fees. And he kept true to that vision: While Level often underperformed the Standard and Poor’s 500-stock index during boom times, the hedge fund weathered the turbulence of 2008 admirably, investors say.

In the early years, the operation was scrappy, former employees remember. Though it began with $550 million, at the time a huge amount for a new hedge fund, the office atmosphere had the air of a start-up. Mr. Ganek sat on the floor with his traders, barking orders and reading off headlines from the Bloomberg terminal. Mr. Chiasson, by contrast, was a less intense manager, sitting with his analysts and walking over to speak to employees when he needed something.

That contrasting dynamic seemed to persist in their personal lives, as well. As their firm grew, Mr. Ganek’s prominence ballooned on the Manhattan social scene, especially in the worlds of art and philanthropy where he and his wife, the novelist Danielle Ganek, were mainstays of auctions and glitzy galas. Mr. Chiasson, for his part, eschewed the spotlight.

In the years after founding Level Global, the Ganeks gained reputations as prominent collectors of modern art, though they had been collecting for nearly 20 years. The walls of their $19 million home at 740 Park Avenue, one of the city’s most prestigious co-ops, were at varying times graced by the works of Damien Hirst, Richard Prince and Jeff Koons. Mr. Ganek even commissioned Ed Ruscha, a modernist known for his one-word paintings, to fashion a work incorporating the word “Level” for the hedge fund’s offices.

Mr. Ganek, the son of a New York money manager, and his wife donated a collection of Diane Arbus photographs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and he was named to the Guggenheim Museum board of trustees.

Mr. Chiasson, 37, who grew up near Portland, Me., has kept a far lower profile in his more than 15 years on Wall Street. Rather than gravitate toward the city’s high society, he serves on the board of trustees at Babson College, where he graduated in 1995, and has donated generously to the school, including a million-dollar gift in 2010 for a summer program to help develop the entrepreneurial projects of students.

He also sits on the board of his high school, a private Jesuit college preparatory in his hometown, in addition to serving on numerous committees there.

In the weeks after his firm was raided, Mr. Chiasson briefly appeared at an alumni event in New York for the high school, and attendees said he appeared upbeat.

After starting his career as an equity analyst at Salomon Brothers, Mr. Chiasson decided to move over to the buy side and joined SAC, where he eventually worked on the technology team alongside Mr. Ganek. When the pair started their own operation, they decided to name it Level. Mr. Chiasson, who lives on the Upper East Side with his wife and child, once described that decision as: “Level is a palindrome which connotes balance and adaptability — two key investing traits.”

Mr. Chiasson was seen as something of a consensus builder at the firm, where he managed the team of analysts as head of research. This week he began to unwind at least one of his connections to the firm. In 2006, Mr. Chiasson took a $3.3 million loan against his $4.2 million home on East 96th Street and invested it in Level Global, according to city records and a person close to him. This week, anticipating the return of that money, Mr. Chiasson paid the loan off in its entirety, according to city records.

In the end, however, it was Mr. Ganek who spoke for the firm. Though previous investor letters were signed by both founders, the Feb. 11 one announcing the fund’s closure bore only Mr. Ganek’s name. “Unfortunately, the ongoing government investigation presents significant challenges to maintaining our collective focus,” he wrote in the letter.

At the office that day, Mr. Ganek stood before his 61 employees and announced his decision to end the firm’s highly successful run. He stuck around offering handshakes and hugs to his employees, many of whom were let go that day. Afterward, he took the day off to unwind and attended his son’s squash game, a person close to him said. Read more at dealbook.nytimes.com

 

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Jerry Brown Compare Himself to Jesus?

Did California Gov. Jerry Brown Compare Himself to Jesus?

Amplify’d from blogs.wsj.com

Did California Gov. Jerry Brown Compare Himself to Jesus?

By Vauhini Vara

Gov. Jerry Brown, asked Friday by a reporter in San Francisco about The Wall Street Journal’s report that he has met quietly with California Republicans who may support his budget plan, said he doesn’t read the Journal and declined to confirm any Republicans he is talking with privately.

“I’m not going to blow their cover,” he said.

Then he playfully mentioned the biblical story of Nicodemus, a Pharisee who is said to have visited Jesus in the middle of the night to avoid raising eyebrows among his colleagues. The governor compared the New Testament tale to his secret discussions with Republican legislators.

Mr. Brown attended a Jesuit seminary in his youth and has often evoked Christian thought, quoting philosophers like St. Augustine and St. Ignatius.

“It was a humorous aside taken from scripture,” the governor’s press secretary said. “The governor spent almost four years in seminary and he knows the ‘Good Book’ very well.”

Lawmakers are expected to vote this week on a budget plan to close the state’s $26.6 billion budget gap. Mr. Brown has proposed $12.8 billion in cuts and fund shifts. He also wants the legislature to approve a ballot measure proposing extensions of several tax increases, which, along with other taxes, would raise $14 billion in the eighteen months ending June 30, 2012.

The Journal reported this week that some Republicans may support Mr. Brown’s plan if lawmakers also make policy changes in areas such as public pensions and regulations.

One suggestion Republicans have raised is changing pension rules for current employees. That’s controversial because state law is believed to prevent the government from changing current employees’ benefits, such as the retirement age at which they get full pension benefits, but some believe California could take advantage of a loophole in that law.

“It’s very difficult to change pension rules for existing employees,” said Mr. Brown at the press conference, mentioning that some other options include raising current employees’ pension contributions and boosting the retirement age for new hires. But, he added, “I don’t shut the door on anything. I’m open to suggestions.”

Some have also raised the possibility of a measure that would ask for a shorter tax extension of, say, two years. Mr. Brown said that would be difficult because part of the tax extension is expected to fund a realignment of state and local services, which would likely take more time. It’s also expected to take five years for the economy to rebound, he said.

Mr. Brown said it will be difficult to find a middle ground in crafting a budget plan with certain policy concessions, so that two-thirds of the legislature—including Democrats and Republicans—approve it. State law requires a two-thirds vote to put a tax-extension measure on the ballot.

“You can go a certain degree and you keep the Democrats,” he said. “If you go too far, you lose them.”

Mr. Brown’s comments came at a press conference following an endorsement of his budget plan by the Bay Area Council, a San Francisco-based business group.

Jim Wunderman, the head of the council, said the group “wholeheartedly” supports the governor’s plan but urged the governor to make changes to the public-pension system and regulations. Read more at blogs.wsj.com

 

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Jesuits: stop massacre in Libya

Jesuits call for action to stop massacre in Libya

Amplify’d from www.timesofmalta.com

Jesuits call for action to stop massacre in Libya

The international community must act immediately to stop the massacres and assist the Libyan people in safeguarding their fundamental human rights, the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice said.

In a statement, it said that when Jesus was on his way to Calvary, Simon, a man from modern-day Libya, was ordered by the Roman soldiers to carry His cross.

“Today we are witnessing the Calvary of people in Libya who are paying with their lives to exercise their fundamental human rights.

“While we pray for the victims and their families, we express our solidarity with all those who are doing their utmost to stop the violence in Libya and bring peace and justice to the people.

“May the perpetrators of such violence realise, sooner rather than later, that there cannot be a future built on violence.

“The suffering and courage of our North African neighbours should also prompt us, the Maltese, to respect them more and to shed our racial prejudices,” the centre said.

Similar stories Obama sends Clinton to Libya talks • Thursday, 24th February 2011 Frattini expects migrants wave 'of biblical proportions' • Wednesday, 23rd February 2011 White House condolences • Wednesday, 23rd February 2011 World leaders condemn crackdown • Tuesday, 22nd February 2011 Read more at www.timesofmalta.com

 

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Vatican acknowledges its own depravity

Amplify’d from mojoey.blogspot.com

Vatican acknowledges its own depravity

It’s true – read it for yourself.

Highlights…

The Vatican reports cited countless cases of nuns forced to have sex with priests. Some were obliged to take the pill, others became pregnant and were encouraged to have abortions. In one case in which an African sister was forced to have an abortion, she died during the operation and her aggressor led the funeral mass. Another case involved 29 sisters from the same congregation who all became pregnant to priests in the diocese.

Would a priest take advantage of a young nun?

Certain unscrupulous clerics took advantage of young nuns who were having trouble finding accommodation, writing their essays and funding their theological studies.

Were nuns safe because they were disease free?

She noted that religious sisters had been identified as "safe" targets for sexual activity. She quotes a case in 1991 of a community superior being approached by priests requesting that the nuns be made available to them for sexual favours.

But what happened to the victims?

"However, the sisters claim they have done so time and time again. Sometimes they were not well received. In some instances they are blamed for what happened. Even when they are listened to sympathetically nothing much seems to be done" One of the most tragic elements that emerges is the fate of the victims. While the offending priests are usually moved or sent away for studies, the women are normally chased out of their religious orders, they are then either to scared to return to their families or are rejected by them. they often finished up as outcasts, or, in a cruel twist of irony, as prostitutes, making a meagre living from an act they had vowed never to do.

So, we know the Catholic Church harbors pedophiles who prey on our children, now we new they harbor rapists who prey on nuns. Why do people attend the Catholic Church?

Related articles Vatican Confirms Widespread Rape Of Nuns By Priests In 23 Countries (camelswithhammers.com) Vatican confirms report of sexual abuse and rape of nuns by priests in 23 countries - Frances Kennedy - The Independent (richarddawkins.net) Read more at mojoey.blogspot.com

 

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Sheen and the anatomy of winning

Amplify’d from voices.washingtonpost.com

Charlie Sheen and the anatomy of winning

By Alexandra Petri

(Charlie Sheen, Rick Wilking/Reuters)

"I don't know, winning, anyone? Rhymes with winning? Yeah, that would be us." - Charlie Sheen

Winning is what it's about these days. It's been Sheen's byword in a series of rants on our television screens and radio shows. He is, he insists, contrary to any and all appearances, winning. His bio on Twitter says it all: "Born Small... Now Huge... Winning... Bring it..! (unemployed winner...)"

Unemployed winners? That's you! That's me! I mean I! But it was right the first time, too, because whatever I say is right.

We are all Charlie Sheen.

"I'm tired of pretending I'm not a total bitchin' rock star from mars," Charlie Sheen says.

Aren't we all! I know I am.

It's hard to blame me. Like everyone else, my family spent my formative years trying to convince me that I was Somehow Different. We read books with titles like "You Are Special" and "You Are Special and Best of All" and "God Made You Special" and "There Is Only One You: You Are Unique In The Universe." I am not making any of these up. I can't wait for the sequels: "You Are Especially Unique And Uniquely Special" and "Evolution Was Directed At Producing You" and "They Should Change Its Title To The Guinness Book of Us," which is Charlie Sheen's suggestion.

So, naturally, when I ran into obstacles in life, I had little idea what to do about them. "But I'm greater than Shakespeare!" I insisted, when my teachers told me to stop meowing in class. My crayon drawings were essentially Picassos. Why were they coming back with B's and C's? Didn't they get it? I was special! I had tiger blood. Or something!

I knew that I was better than everyone else. Where else would I have gotten all this self-esteem? But better how? Maybe I was the most humble. I spent a day being excruciatingly humble -- and no one paid any attention! That couldn't be right.

Humility, I decided, was for people no one has ever heard of.

Maybe I was taller. But, objectively, I wasn't. Smarter? More attractive? Fists made of fire? No, no, and not on weeknights! Finally I whittled it down to the tautological Seussism: "Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!" "Yes!" I proclaimed. "I'm better at being me than anyone!" Although I always suspected that, if given the opportunity, Minka Kelly would do a pretty good job.

And now here I am. And, somehow, no one is appreciating me as I feel I deserve - worshiping the water I walk on, giving me fame, fortune, and control of large portions of the Holy Roman Empire.

Is this my fault? Nonsense! There's only one explanation -- as Sheen put it, "I'm surrounded by fools and trolls."

"My genius is not adequately appreciated," I mutter to myself on the subway, startling the people across from me on the metro. "Look at these senseless clods. I'm the only living person in a world of automatons!"

Now, Charlie's become my voice. It's not that he's the Ultimate Man or the Unfettered Id. It's that he's isolated his sense of self-worth entirely from, well, anything. He's jobless. He's on drugs. His kids have been repossessed. So what? He's a self-proclaimed God, a Vatican assassin with fire-breathing fists.

Our lives can never be like his, he insists. Well, perhaps not.

But Vatican assassins aside, we know what he's thinking. We get it. We are all superstars.

We are a nation of unemployed winners. Our test scores are slipping. Our students feel like geniuses but perform like dunces. The recent unemployment reports may have been more promising than they've been in months, but our joblessness is still at highs not seen in decades. Meanwhile, fix the deficit? Deal with rising health-care costs? Do something about All This? Nonsense!

Didn't you get the memo? We're winners! We can do no wrong! Fix things? You can't fix something if you can't see that it's broken!

The worst thing about modern life is having to pretend, as Charlie says, that your life isn't "perfect and bitchin'." Sheen has shrugged that off. And, for the moment, we're with him. This F-18 has taken off and latched onto the public consciousness, as a leech latches onto your privates during a camping trip. He's spawned countless memes. He is, as CNN reported, "winning the Internet."

And maybe it's telling that in Internet lingo the polarity is between Win and Fail - not winners and losers or failures and successes. Epic win. Epic fail. Charlie isn't succeeding. He's winning. Success doesn't have to have a victim. But for there to be winners, there must be implied losers. Charlie is winning at someone's expense - the Other People, the women he's threatened with violence, his producers, the "fools and trolls" who sit at home with their ugly wives and want him to come back down to earth

Winning also implies luck. In the bizarre casino of Sheenland, the roulette wheel keeps hitting the black.

But for how long? There's a definite train-wreck aspect to this -- or in this case, smouldering F-18 crashlanding. It's not that, if pressed individually, we wouldn't want this man to get help. But our mocking celebration comes to the accompaniment of a low baying for blood. If this fame Sheen has can be called a crown at all, it's a crown of thorns. For now, he's winning. But eventually, the house always reasserts itself.

But while the ride lasts, in Sheen's own words: "Change the channel. I dare you." Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com

 

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Cuomo won’t meet with Dolan

Amplify’d from www.patheos.com

Busy signal: Cuomo won’t meet with Dolan

by Deacon Greg Kandra

The Archbishop of New York — and President of the USCCB — will be visiting Albany next month with several other bishops from around the state.  And the governor doesn’t have time to meet with him.

From the New York Daily News:

Apparently stung by a Vatican adviser’s slap at his lifestyle, Gov. Cuomo has declared a holy war with the Catholic Church – saying he’s too busy to meet the state’s bishops here next week.

The Catholic governor, recently roasted over his live-in girlfriend, declared his schedule too crowded to squeeze in Archbishop Timothy Dolan and the other prelates.

The group arrives here next week for the state’s annual Catholic Conference – and historically meets with the governor to discuss a variety of issues.

Conference officials said they reached out to Cuomo about a month ago and got word only Wednesday that he couldn’t make it.

Only disgraced ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer has skipped the get-together, not wanting to meet with the religious leaders on the same day his 2008 hooker scandal exploded.

“That is the only time in recent history that there hasn’t been a meeting,” said Catholic Conference spokesman Dennis Poust.

Poust said more than a dozen bishops will be attending, including Nicholas DiMarzio from Brooklyn and William Murphy from Rockville Centre.

They anticipated meeting with Cuomo to discuss state funding for education, gay marriage and the Reproductive Health Act – the latter two are opposed by the bishops.

“It is always a good exchange of positions,” Poust said. “We always welcome the opportunity to present our views.”

Asked if the bishops were upset by Cuomo’s religious rebuff, Poust replied, “I am sure the governor is very busy, so we will take him at his word.”

Read more.

About the Deacon Deacon Greg Kandra is a Roman Catholic deacon serving the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York. A veteran broadcast journalist, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News in both New York and Washington. He now serves as the Executive Editor of ONE, the acclaimed magazine published by the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA). Deacon Greg has been honored with every major award in broadcasting, including two George Foster Peabody Awards, two Emmy Awards, and four awards from the Writers Guild of America.

See more at www.patheos.com

 

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