Monday, February 7th, 2011
MICHAEL STONE, - Examiner.com
Stephan: The implosion of the Roman Church over financial and sexual issues seems from the outside both tragic and absurd. From the inside it must be unutterably sad. Here is its latest scene. Perhaps because I still have images from Rosemary's Baby in my memories, I just can't get to the place where one's sexuality is so distorted this could take place.
Father Thomas Euteneuer made a career of being judgmental and condemning of others; yet found it o.k. to look down at a woman he believed to be possessed by demons, in the midst of his carrying out one of the Church's most mysterious rituals, and thought: God, I'd like to have sex with her. What could one say: The devil made me do it.
Earlier this week Father Thomas Euteneuer made a confession to a sexual indiscretion during an exorcism. The confession has rocked the Catholic Church and the anti-abortion movement. The Priest had once been an up and coming ‘rock star’ in the Catholic Church and a ‘superstar’ of the international pro-life movement as President of Human Life International.
A secret scandal in August forced Euteneuer to quietly resign his positions of authority and take a low profile in the church. Until last week, when one of Euteneuer’s ‘exorcism’ victims was rushed to a Florida emergency room. At that time the scandal broke wide open, and Euteneuer was forced into making a public confession.
The former superstar of the international pro-life movement, and exorcist for the Catholic Church, has now confessed to sexually abusing at least one woman under his spiritual care.
The scandal had been shrouded in secrecy, leaving only rumors and innuendo as concerned members of the Catholic Church and the pro-life movement tried to find answers for Euteneuer’s disappearance from the public stage.
There should be no surprise that the church and Euteneuer tried to make the rumors and allegations of misconduct go away. This is standard operating procedure for the […]
No Comments
Monday, February 7th, 2011
DANIEL BORUNDA and DAVID BURGE, - El Paso Times
Stephan: This, I think, is just the beginning.
A water crisis in El Paso continues today, causing schools to close, car washes and other businesses to shut down and authorities mandating that residents curb water use for a third day.
El Paso Water Utilities officials are trying to replenish reservoirs to normal levels in the aftermath of a winter storm that paralyzed the city last week.
‘I think (in) the best possible circumstances, and if we have good cooperation, in 24 hours we should be back in a reasonable situation,’ John Balliew, vice president of operations and technical services for the water utility, said Sunday. ‘If people don’t cooperate, and they continue using water and watering their lawn and so forth, it can extend for several days.’
Mayor John Cook on Sunday declared a ‘water emergency’ because of the low reservoir levels caused by a combination of factors following several days of sharply freezing temperatures last week.
The mayor’s emergency declaration allows El Paso Water Utilities to shut off water to car washes, laundromats and industrial water users (such as garment plants) that do not comply with the mandatory restrictions.
Water utilities spokeswoman Christina Montoya said an estimated 7,000 customers had either no water or low water pressure Sunday evening. Most of those […]
No Comments
Sunday, February 6th, 2011
, - ProPublica/The Raw Story
Stephan: I believe this is an accurate assessment of what is happening; the consequences of which result in further degradation of the middle class.
Before he took office, President Obama repeatedly promised voters and Democrats in Congress that he’d fight for changes to bankruptcy laws to help homeowners-a tough approach that would force banks to modify mortgages.
‘I will change our bankruptcy laws to make it easier for families to stay in their homes,
No Comments
Sunday, February 6th, 2011
RICK PERLSTEIN, - The Washington Post
Stephan: Don't you think it is about time to take a clear look at the craziness that infects our public conversation? How do people listen to the frothing lunacies of Glenn Beck, and take any of it seriously? Yet I know millions do.
Rick Perlstein is the author of 'Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America' and 'Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus.'
In Pennsylvania last week, a citizen, burly, crew-cut and trembling with rage, went nose to nose with his baffled senator: ‘One day God’s going to stand before you, and he’s going to judge you and the rest of your damned cronies up on the Hill. And then you will get your just deserts.’ He was accusing Arlen Specter of being too kind to President Obama’s proposals to make it easier for people to get health insurance.
In Michigan, meanwhile, the indelible image was of the father who wheeled his handicapped adult son up to Rep. John Dingell and bellowed that ‘under the Obama health-care plan, which you support, this man would be given no care whatsoever.’ He pressed his case further on Fox News.
In New Hampshire, outside a building where Obama spoke, cameras trained on the pistol strapped to the leg of libertarian William Kostric. He then explained on CNN why the ‘tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time by the blood of tyrants and patriots.’
It was interesting to hear a BBC reporter on the radio trying to make sense of it all. He quoted a spokesman for the conservative Americans for Tax Reform: ‘Either this is a […]
No Comments
Sunday, February 6th, 2011
STEVE CONNOR, Science Editor - The Independent (U.K.)
Stephan: While the public conversation has been arguing over issues like gay marriage, Creationism, and Second Amendment remedies, the planet is changing before our eyes.
A widespread drought in the Amazon rainforest last year caused the ‘lungs of the world’ to produce more carbon dioxide than they absorbed, potentially leading to a dangerous acceleration of global warming. Scientists have calculated that the 2010 drought was more intense than the ‘one-in-100-year’ drought of 2005.
They are predicting it will result in some eight billion tonnes of carbon dioxide being expelled from the Amazon rainforest, which is more than the total annual carbon emissions of the United States. For the second time in less than a decade, the earth’s greatest rainforest released more carbon dioxide than it absorbed because many of its trees dried out and died.
Scientists believe that the highly unusual nature of the two droughts, which occurred in the space of just five years, may be the result of higher sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic, which could also be influenced by global warming caused by the release of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The Anglo-Brazilian team of researchers has emphasised that there is as yet no proof that the two highly unusual droughts in the Amazon are the direct result of rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, but the scientists […]
No Comments
