Showing posts with label CEO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CEO. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Thursday, February 6, 2014
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong – Corporate “Dick” of the Year Award!
This clown CEO
of a Model T Internet Server – Yes AOL is still in in business. He does the
self-insured thing on HealthCare for the employees. Two “females” have
difficult births. Two Million in costs and guess what (?) – Management takes
the cost overrun out of the other employees 401K funds and their payouts. Whatever.
(401Ks BTW – Business’ convenient slush funds)
How do you spell "whalebone corset"?
“We had two AOL-ers that had distressed babies that were born that we paid a million dollars each to make sure those babies were OK in general,” Armstrong said. “And those are the things that add up into our benefits cost. So when we had the final decision about what benefits to cut because of the increased healthcare costs, we made the decision, and I made the decision, to basically change the 401(k) plan.” Under the new program, AOL employees will not be able to collect any matching funds toward their retirement savings from the company for any given year if they leave before Dec. 31 of that year.
But health care experts ThinkProgress contacted questioned why a large self-insured company with more than 5,000 employees could not absorb the additional health care costs associated with the pregnancies. Large employers typically purchase reinsurance, which could cover a substantial share of big claims and ensure stability in cases of larger-than expected medical payouts.
“The Affordable Care Act is simply a convenient whipping boy for any decision an employer makes to cut benefits,” Tim Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee, said. “Assuming AOL had reasonably generous coverage like most large employers, it should not have experienced any significant changes in its benefit structure for 2014. Perhaps it had to pick up a few more employees that had not been covered before or reduce premiums for a few employees, but it is hard to see $7.1 million here.”
.
Labels:
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Tim Armstrong
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Pret A Manger Clive Schlee Bends to Religious Liberty Bigots – Protect the Pope - in Britain
![]() |
| Wimp CEO Clive Schlee - Pret a Manger Sandwich Shops |
Well, don’t go into a bar in Britain and order
a Virgin Mary cocktail, the thought police, the Catholic Temple police will be all over
you for stealing their sacred copyrighted expired words and you daring to use
them in the common vernacular secular street use of them.
Grammer Nazis and pathos in practice here.
Keep your stingy malnourished little Brit Sandwiches and stale bags of chips on your side of the pond please.
We in America like real food. Freshly made! (by illegal immigrant hands!) (right in front of you and not god knows where in a basement in the Bronx?)
http://thisculturalchristian.blogspot.com/2013/01/british-catholic-temple-police-condemn.html
http://protectthepope.com/?p=6577
Your whole New York City operation offends me as a Cultural Christian. Please leave immediately. Amen.
LOL
"Mel" In "Protect the Pope" Blog comments 7:52 PM:
“One of the things we need to go away and think about is what this incident tells us about how we defend our faith in the future. We’ve been passive for too long in the face of mockery of our faith and discrimination against us as Catholics. We can change things!”
We are the Church Militant. ‘The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force’ Matt 11:12
(LOL indeed.)
.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Newt Gingrich inherits GOP “Male Slut” title from CEO Herman Cain – According to Iowa Pastor Cary Gordon
Callista, where is my sincere looking lipstick?
(Reuters) - An evangelical pastor in Iowa sent state voters on Thursday a music video slamming Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich for his three marriages and admitted marital infidelities.
Cary Gordon, an influential Sioux City pastor who has endorsed Rick Santorum in the 2012 presidential race, said he would send the satirical hip-hop video to registered Republicans and independents with a cell phone on record.
The video, by independent filmmaker Molotov Mitchell, calls Gingrich the "Kim Kardashian of the GOP," a reference to the reality television star known for her appearance in a sex video and for her failed marriages.
Gingrich, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, leads polls in the Republican race but faces concerns from some religious conservatives. He is in his third marriage and he admitted he had affairs during his first two marriages.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
CEO Finn Broke the Rules – Ignored Safeguards in Place – Protected Ratigan – Did Not Care (about the children)
Former diocesan advocate criticizes failed system in KC
Nov. 08, 2011
By Joshua J. McElwee
Accountability
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- "This diocese is in desperate need of healing, and I do not believe that can happen until Bishop [Robert] Finn is held accountable” for his mishandling of clergy sexual misconduct cases, a former victims' advocate for the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., said today.
Mercy Sr. Jeanne Christensen, who served as the diocesan victims' advocate from 2000-2004, spoke at a press conference hosted by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests this afternoon.
Christensen is thought to be the first former diocesan advocate to publicly criticize her diocese over its response to allegations of abuse, according to SNAP members.
Finn and the diocese have been criminally charged with failing to protect children from abuse.
Christensen said Finn did not use diocesan procedures to investigate allegations against Fr. Shawn Ratigan, a diocesan priest arrested in May for possession of child pornography. The diocesan victims' advocate, the immediate response team, and the independent review board, she said, "were in place but not utilized."
"By not doing so, children were placed at risk and were victimized," said Christensen. "This must never happen again."
Allegations of mishandling of clergy sexual misconduct cases have roiled the Catholic church here over recent months. A local prosecutor announced separate charges Oct. 14 against both the diocese and Finn for failing to report suspected child abuse.
The flashpoint has been the response of the diocese to the child pornography case of a local priest. Images of naked children were found on the computer of Fr. Shawn Ratigan in December last year. The Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese learned about the images and removed Ratigan from his parish, but did not report the incident to authorities until May.
While Christensen said in a telephone interview today that "it's not for me to judge" how Finn might be held responsible, the former advocate suggested others in the hierarchy should ask the bishop to resign.
"Whoever is responsible within the church hierarchy needs to say to Bishop Finn, you're not going to be bishop in Kansas City," she said.
That suggestion by members of the hierarchy, Christensen said, should come about in order to help the Kansas City diocese try to heal.
"[Finn] didn’t do what should have been done, and, quite frankly, he's lost credibility with a lot of people," she said. "A lot of people no longer trust him. How are we going to heal our church in that situation? How do we heal in the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph?"
During the press conference, SNAP also announced a new lawsuit against Fr. Michael Tierney, a diocesan priest who has been the focus of several other lawsuits accusing him of abusing children in the 1970s. Tierney was removed from active ministry in the diocese June 2 after the independent review board met with a person accusing Tierney of abuse and found their testimony credible.
The diocesan spokesperson, Rebecca Summers, said she did not have any immediate comment on Christensen's remarks as the diocese had not been made aware of the press conference or the new suit against Tierney.
SNAP, Summers said, often does not inform the diocese of its press conferences and the diocese "usually doesn't know anything about what the specifics are until someone brings us the suit or let's us know what is going on."
At the press conference, Christensen said she also felt compelled to speak because her experience working as the diocesan advocate gave her a sense of the "anguish caused by abuse." During her time at the diocese under retired Bishop Raymond Boland, who was replaced by Finn in 2005, Christensen said she heard the stories of some 40 victims of abuse.
"I speak because I cannot remain silent but must speak in support of the victim survivors of abuse, for their families and especially for those who are unable or too afraid to speak themselves," she said.
"I urge others to speak out too because we must speak and act for the protection of all children -- so that no more children ever suffer abuse at the hands of the clergy."
After leaving her role as the victims' advocate for the diocese, Christensen continued to serve in the diocesan peace and justice office until 2006.
The charges against the diocese and Finn came from Jackson County, Mo., where the diocesan chancery is located. Ratigan is in jail on charges filed in neighboring Clay County, Mo., where his last parish is located.
Media reports have indicated that a grand jury in that Clay County is also investigating the diocese's response in the case, and has heard testimony from Finn and vicar general Msgr. Robert Murphy.
A federal grand jury charged Ratigan in August with 13 counts of production, attempted production and possession of child pornography.
No matter what happens next in the diocese, Christensen said in the interview her focus is on why the appropriate diocesan procedures for reporting abuse were not followed, and whether children could have been put in danger.
The fact that the advocate, the response team, and the review board were not notified, she said, "is a travesty."
"They were there. There's no reason for those children to have been put at risk."
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Jesus and the Parable of the Unions
Got an e-mail from my old friend Jesus, a retired dude in Vegas.
He thinks that union workers are near the bottom rung socially and economically these days.
Jesus tells me that this image of unionized automobile workers in their glory days past of great wages and benefits is the false union image the whining employers are trying to sell to other points on the population spectrum at the moment.
Then Jesus told me a story, a parable or actually a joke. Jesus has a great sense of humor IMHO.
A unionized public employee, a teabagger and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the teabagger and says, "watch out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie."(anonymous)I got the joke the first time round. Jesus says that a lot of people in America just don't get the joke or see the humor or the injustice of it all.
Oh well. Maybe Jesus can come up with a better joke in his next e-mail to me.
Have a nice day.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
BP’s Tony Hayward the real John Galt?
Rahm Emanuel knows nothing about oil. Therefore President Obama knows nothing about oil.
Brit Hume on Fox News is on video saying “Where is the oil?” meaning what by FOX News' deregulated journalistic standards? Meaning that there are no visuals for the TV like oil on the beaches and millions of dead fish? Right? (right).
Is Tony Hayward a direct descendant of the infamous John Galt, the once famous man of myth who in his time marshaled the most productive men on the planet to refuse to contribute toward the common (yuk) good of humanity? Tony Hayward has gotten rid of all those people at BP that were "working to save the world" for a reason?
Where has John Galt taken all those once intellegent, creative people at BP?
Has he come to finally liberate us from all the government regulations crushing business to the ground like Obama’s “Boot on the throat of BP” as Rand Paul had so brilliantly phrased and accurately framed the skinny of the situation?
Tony - stand up to this Democratic socialist monster that put so much stress on you with backbreaking regulations that caused a minor quality flaw in some of your 1950’s technology to be overlooked and the equipment failed. Mistakes happen.
Is Tony Hayward the return of John Galt come to save us or is this whole Gulf of Mexico much ado about nothing? Is this whole oil spill thing just another faked Moon Landing preceding a massive government handout, bailout, bribe to BP, British Petroleum, and more production stifling Government Regulations?
Wyatt's Torch is burning in the Gulf and will never be extinguished I fear and thanks to Tony, I mean, John Hayward (wink, nod).
IMHO - Galt lives !
Brit Hume on Fox News is on video saying “Where is the oil?” meaning what by FOX News' deregulated journalistic standards? Meaning that there are no visuals for the TV like oil on the beaches and millions of dead fish? Right? (right).
In July 2009, at a lecture to the Stanford Business School, the CEO of British Petroleum Tony Hayward explains to attendees that BP was going in the wrong direction before he took over as CEO because, "we had too many people that were working to save the world."“Save the World” = too much government regulation.
Kevin Grandia – BP CEO Hayward – Huffington Post – May 21, 2010
Is Tony Hayward a direct descendant of the infamous John Galt, the once famous man of myth who in his time marshaled the most productive men on the planet to refuse to contribute toward the common (yuk) good of humanity? Tony Hayward has gotten rid of all those people at BP that were "working to save the world" for a reason?
Where has John Galt taken all those once intellegent, creative people at BP?
Has he come to finally liberate us from all the government regulations crushing business to the ground like Obama’s “Boot on the throat of BP” as Rand Paul had so brilliantly phrased and accurately framed the skinny of the situation?
Tony - stand up to this Democratic socialist monster that put so much stress on you with backbreaking regulations that caused a minor quality flaw in some of your 1950’s technology to be overlooked and the equipment failed. Mistakes happen.
Is Tony Hayward the return of John Galt come to save us or is this whole Gulf of Mexico much ado about nothing? Is this whole oil spill thing just another faked Moon Landing preceding a massive government handout, bailout, bribe to BP, British Petroleum, and more production stifling Government Regulations?
Wyatt's Torch is burning in the Gulf and will never be extinguished I fear and thanks to Tony, I mean, John Hayward (wink, nod).
IMHO - Galt lives !
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Perverted Corporate Culture of Vatican
The name Jesus was quite common in first century Judea. So too the name of Mary was quite common. So common in fact that in recent light of the corporate culture of the Vatican and the hierarchy it selects and appoints as bishops makes me wonder.
I have to wonder which Jesus founded the church of Rome? Was it Jesus the moneychanger? Was it Jesus the Pharisee? Jesus the high priest? Or was it Jesus the poor country preacher?
On an aside, I look at somebody like the Dalai Lama, the head of a religious sect, he imitates the founder which would be Buddha. The various Muslim sects and their Imams would seem to at least look like and act like the seventh century political and religious founder. Who does the pope imitate except maybe a crony high priest of the secret Personality Cult of Constantine?
The crowd at the Vatican in terms of corporate culture are more like the U.S. Congress, totally out of touch with the common voting constituent or in the Vatican’s case, out of touch with the common faithful. This, as in the case of the current clergy sex abuse scandal rocking the European RC church structure.
There is enough being said in the Press about this current scandal that reaches right into the CEO’s office. I am not as eloquent or as precise as some British Articles I have read in the past few days. I believe British interest has to do with the proximity to Ireland. The truly shameful breakdown of humanity amidst the closeted confused sexuality of clergy and hierarchy breaks my heart.
It no doubt is true that the Brits were insulted by this little pope, who once swore allegiance to Adolph Hitler, and threatened a hostile take over of the Church of England in recent months. Such is the nature of corporate cultures and so too the nature of a still free press to react.
The Brit Press is doing a bang up job that I cannot remember the American Press doing in decades – not since Watergate I think. As I said, I do not want to write much more on this subject except to say that as I started life in the ranks of the common faithful of that church, I feel for the people on the ground who have kept faith with the message of Jesus in spite of the queer aspects of their hierarchy.
The RC church will survive. Though I would say that even if they lifted celibacy today, it would take fifty years for the institution to recover any legitimate claim to moral authority, with reference to these recent and ongoing scandals.
We are witnessing something historic in these current scandals in each European country. We are witnessing the implosion of a corporate culture that took over Christianity after the fall of the Mother Church in Constantinople in 1453 when it fell to the Muslim Turks. This is a corporate culture that has existed these past five hundred years through wars, corruption, reformations, counter-reformations, and an aversion to common sense and or science.
Like the aftermath of Watergate, many, many books will now be written and this period dissected in post mortem of the situation.
As such I have to make a statement here. I have partially defended Pius XII in my blog saying not positive things but things in partial defense of his actions towards some Jews, real or imagined, during World War II and the Holocaust.
I withdraw all statements regarding that pontiff. I have come to the conclusion that considering the preset corporate culture of the Vatican, the corporate culture of the Vatican 1939-1945 was no different than it is today.
Pius XII or his Vatican cronies could not have saved one Jew in World War II intentionally. By default maybe but not intentionally. It is not in the nature of the corporate medieval beast of the Vatican to do so.
I say this knowing that thousands of Jews were saved by the simple humanity, some of simple faith in the RC church, and of people on the ground of all faiths and creeds simply because it was the human thing to do. It was the right thing to do. It had nothing to do with Canon Law.
The Vatican in WWII could not save a single Jew. This, in the same light that the buggered hierarchy of the RC church exists only for its own pleasure and prestige - a real institution uncovered and exposed in this current round of scandal.
An institution that could not save a single catholic child from perversion and buggery could in no logical sense have saved any outsiders, past or present, including Jews.
I have to wonder which Jesus founded the church of Rome? Was it Jesus the moneychanger? Was it Jesus the Pharisee? Jesus the high priest? Or was it Jesus the poor country preacher?
On an aside, I look at somebody like the Dalai Lama, the head of a religious sect, he imitates the founder which would be Buddha. The various Muslim sects and their Imams would seem to at least look like and act like the seventh century political and religious founder. Who does the pope imitate except maybe a crony high priest of the secret Personality Cult of Constantine?
The crowd at the Vatican in terms of corporate culture are more like the U.S. Congress, totally out of touch with the common voting constituent or in the Vatican’s case, out of touch with the common faithful. This, as in the case of the current clergy sex abuse scandal rocking the European RC church structure.
There is enough being said in the Press about this current scandal that reaches right into the CEO’s office. I am not as eloquent or as precise as some British Articles I have read in the past few days. I believe British interest has to do with the proximity to Ireland. The truly shameful breakdown of humanity amidst the closeted confused sexuality of clergy and hierarchy breaks my heart.
It no doubt is true that the Brits were insulted by this little pope, who once swore allegiance to Adolph Hitler, and threatened a hostile take over of the Church of England in recent months. Such is the nature of corporate cultures and so too the nature of a still free press to react.
The Brit Press is doing a bang up job that I cannot remember the American Press doing in decades – not since Watergate I think. As I said, I do not want to write much more on this subject except to say that as I started life in the ranks of the common faithful of that church, I feel for the people on the ground who have kept faith with the message of Jesus in spite of the queer aspects of their hierarchy.
The RC church will survive. Though I would say that even if they lifted celibacy today, it would take fifty years for the institution to recover any legitimate claim to moral authority, with reference to these recent and ongoing scandals.
We are witnessing something historic in these current scandals in each European country. We are witnessing the implosion of a corporate culture that took over Christianity after the fall of the Mother Church in Constantinople in 1453 when it fell to the Muslim Turks. This is a corporate culture that has existed these past five hundred years through wars, corruption, reformations, counter-reformations, and an aversion to common sense and or science.
Like the aftermath of Watergate, many, many books will now be written and this period dissected in post mortem of the situation.
As such I have to make a statement here. I have partially defended Pius XII in my blog saying not positive things but things in partial defense of his actions towards some Jews, real or imagined, during World War II and the Holocaust.
I withdraw all statements regarding that pontiff. I have come to the conclusion that considering the preset corporate culture of the Vatican, the corporate culture of the Vatican 1939-1945 was no different than it is today.
Pius XII or his Vatican cronies could not have saved one Jew in World War II intentionally. By default maybe but not intentionally. It is not in the nature of the corporate medieval beast of the Vatican to do so.
I say this knowing that thousands of Jews were saved by the simple humanity, some of simple faith in the RC church, and of people on the ground of all faiths and creeds simply because it was the human thing to do. It was the right thing to do. It had nothing to do with Canon Law.
The Vatican in WWII could not save a single Jew. This, in the same light that the buggered hierarchy of the RC church exists only for its own pleasure and prestige - a real institution uncovered and exposed in this current round of scandal.
An institution that could not save a single catholic child from perversion and buggery could in no logical sense have saved any outsiders, past or present, including Jews.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
2010 Failed CEO Awards
2010 Failed CEO AwardsAnd the envelope please. (Drumroll!)
And they R:
Richard Williamson
John Mack
Lloyd Blankfein
Pat Robertson
Jamie Dimon
Vikram Pandit
Ken Lewis
Ben Bernanke
Joseph Ratzinger
Osama Bin Laden
I am reminded of several things in the news lately and things that somehow reflect our perception of things past, present and the future. Perceptions I might add real and or imagined.
Bishop Williamson is still skulking around somewhere talking to some neighborhood French newspaper about how only two or three Jews at most were killed by the Nazis – that there was no Holocaust.
The filmmaker Oliver Stone famous for some conspiracy and paranoid bents of American history recently said something to the effect that Hitler was a scapegoat for the western Bankers who put him into power and made big bucks off his lunatic war machine. He has a ten part documentary coming up on Cable TV soon.
I once read how New York Bankers used to go through Switzerland under Swiss Visas to Berlin on a regular basis to check on their American clients’ assets in German banks all during WWII. Property talks!
Joseph Ratzinger, aka Joe the Pope, wants to make WWII pope Pius XII a saint. He may have been pious and holy, but as a CEO in a modern world, not a word against the bankers, I mean the Nazi war machine. Joe gained votes/points on the Bishop Williamson deal, a deal with the devil – a “true story”.
Speaking of guilt and blame perhaps being too piled up on Pius XII as a scapegoat for the Brits and Americans and their failure to act – their ability to act. I was looking at some photos the other day and looking at an aerial photo of a Nazi concentration camp. Since they were never bombed, they knew they were there and who was in them – did they also know the last part of the equation/puzzle and analyze the need for so many smoking chimneys without factories?
Good question. I may have not framed it, the question, right but I do not think that the question has been asked very often or gotten anything more that a quick PR/PC answer.
Pat Robertson loves his darkie jokes and darkie stories especially ones that fit into children’s fable books about the devil and Voodoo. Somehow reality to him as a failed CEO is to keep holding on to power until his 51 year old son can be able to take over the family business – grow into it so to speak.
Osama Bin Laden, if he is still alive, takes four weeks to produce and send an audio, no video, tape claiming credit for the failed Christmas Day Detroit attempted airline bombing. Out of touch, out of mind – failed CEO written all over it.
The rest of these characters listed are bankers or financiers or the so-called Head of the FED, or whatever the cardboard sign in the window of their building is listing their ponzi business as these days. They helped destroy the global financial system which may not recover for another decade or two. They make big daily bets against Humanity – and until now – unchallenged – are winning those bets sad to say. (can we get an aerial shot on this for the archives?)
These noted failed CEOs are giving out candy, bonuses, to their crony employees with funds more or less borrowed (printed) from the U.S. Treasury. The courtiers at Versailles kissing Louis XVI’s perfumed butt never got such good bonuses for being the king’s cronies. The illusion, the delusion of those who think they are in power unfortunately lasts right up until a big blade falls.
Honorable mention to Tim Geithner - right hand man to THE MAN Obama - and in a league with failed CEO types and who has a really really big man crush on Ben Bernanke.
All listed above are out of touch and with the exception of Osama, wearing very expensive threads. They are all backward looking Medievalists so to speak.
The future is in the collective blindspot of their collective vision. In short – Failed CEOs.
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Friday, March 27, 2009
American Catholic Blogosphere - a Catholic Taliban?
In the chaos of perhaps a senile out of touch CEO Benedict XVI or the collapse of the corporate structure of the church temporarily fueled with dollars from the sale of marginal churches in the United States, I see a trend emerging. With the collapse of the Journalism of old and the demise of the American Institution of a daily hardcopy newspaper, we are in danger of being deluded or even being blocked from truth.
There seems to also be a power vacuum in the church with many archbishops vying for the red hat and indirectly waging a campaign to be next pope.
Burke is the Ayatollah as Scalia of God on the Vatican Supreme Court and his remarks or is it a witch hunt or intimidation of bishops in the Washington DC area who do not preach a hardline against Catholic Politicians who are pro-choice as opposed to being anti-birth control. His remarks against his competition do not always make it to mainstream media. His words though would seem to be gold when repeated a million times by his blogging buddies.
Fisichella is perhaps a moderate after he tried to apply ointment to the rug burn of Brazilian bishops and their bizarre boiling over of passion about abortion and rape and the lack of rights of children or females and general lack of human rights in that “Catholic” country. Rino also may just be setting up a passionate conservatism placard/smoke screen to hide the ugliness of that recent obscene lack of human compassion to those involved and on the receiving end of a metaphoric burning at the stake. The Catholic blogosphere has been dealing with Rino’s comments instead of the injustice of the actual circumstances of excommunication for the last ten days or so. Can a moderate bishop become pope?
That American Catholic Blogosphere is now attacking Obama and also trying to intimidate a world class learning institution Notre Dame University for bestowing an honorary degree on the President of the United States who is scheduled to address a commencement exercise in May. The Taliban tactics of the ACB (American Catholic Blogosphere) sometimes these days seems indistinguishable from the Taliban tactics of the far right GOP.
This brings me to a feeling that I had at the beginning of the Iraq war. If I want real news I have to use the Internet to go overseas to English Speaking sites in Britain or even Kenya to get the skinny on a lot of what is really going on in the world and for Things that quickly drop off the radar of an American Journalism Tradition and Things where punditry and self delusional incantations and mantras drown out reality like in the RC church.
Below is an article from the BBC on a British Medical Journal attacking the pope on his absurd statement on condoms.
Pope 'distorting condom science'
I have been reluctant to attack the RC church on the subject of clergy and sexual abuse. The following commentary I found rather thought provoking considering the source from an African site. It starts out with condemnation of the stupid condom remarks.
The Catholic Church should put its own house in order
And so it goes and continues. The Force be with us all.
There seems to also be a power vacuum in the church with many archbishops vying for the red hat and indirectly waging a campaign to be next pope.
Burke is the Ayatollah as Scalia of God on the Vatican Supreme Court and his remarks or is it a witch hunt or intimidation of bishops in the Washington DC area who do not preach a hardline against Catholic Politicians who are pro-choice as opposed to being anti-birth control. His remarks against his competition do not always make it to mainstream media. His words though would seem to be gold when repeated a million times by his blogging buddies.
Fisichella is perhaps a moderate after he tried to apply ointment to the rug burn of Brazilian bishops and their bizarre boiling over of passion about abortion and rape and the lack of rights of children or females and general lack of human rights in that “Catholic” country. Rino also may just be setting up a passionate conservatism placard/smoke screen to hide the ugliness of that recent obscene lack of human compassion to those involved and on the receiving end of a metaphoric burning at the stake. The Catholic blogosphere has been dealing with Rino’s comments instead of the injustice of the actual circumstances of excommunication for the last ten days or so. Can a moderate bishop become pope?
That American Catholic Blogosphere is now attacking Obama and also trying to intimidate a world class learning institution Notre Dame University for bestowing an honorary degree on the President of the United States who is scheduled to address a commencement exercise in May. The Taliban tactics of the ACB (American Catholic Blogosphere) sometimes these days seems indistinguishable from the Taliban tactics of the far right GOP.
This brings me to a feeling that I had at the beginning of the Iraq war. If I want real news I have to use the Internet to go overseas to English Speaking sites in Britain or even Kenya to get the skinny on a lot of what is really going on in the world and for Things that quickly drop off the radar of an American Journalism Tradition and Things where punditry and self delusional incantations and mantras drown out reality like in the RC church.
Below is an article from the BBC on a British Medical Journal attacking the pope on his absurd statement on condoms.
Pope 'distorting condom science'
One of the world's most prestigious medical journals, the Lancet, has accused Pope Benedict XVI of distorting science in his remarks on condom use.
It said the Pope's recent comments that condoms exacerbated the problem of HIV/Aids were wildly inaccurate and could have devastating consequences.
The Pope had said the "cruel epidemic" should be tackled through abstinence and fidelity rather than condom use.
Correspondents say the attack from the Lancet was unprecedentedly virulent.
…"When any influential person, be it a religious or political figure, makes a false scientific statement that could be devastating to the health of millions of people, they should retract or correct the public record," it said.
I have been reluctant to attack the RC church on the subject of clergy and sexual abuse. The following commentary I found rather thought provoking considering the source from an African site. It starts out with condemnation of the stupid condom remarks.
The Catholic Church should put its own house in order
Scientists have agreed that it was nothing short of irresponsible for him to claim that condom use actually increases the rate of HIV infection. It encourages promiscuity, the church believes.
This stance is immoral on two levels: first because it is plainly untrue, and goes against the advice of trained personnel. The church must recognise that it has failed in this mission.
SECONDLY, BECAUSE IT contradicts the kind of philosophy that has due regard for the health of our ailing planet. On the day the Pope arrived in Africa, the Nation featured a picture of dozens of beautiful children, all in the care of the police, their parents unwilling or unable to claim them.
The church fathers are stuck in a time warp; living in medieval times; they are totally out of touch, especially with youth.
Not only does the Vatican refuse to admit that its policies have not worked, but it will also not face the immorality which continues to fester in its own ranks.
Cases of sexual abuse of minors have been reported in countries as far apart as Australia and Mexico. The Pope himself suppressed publication of a report which revealed the extent of this exploitation.
In 2007, child sex abuse cases cost the church $615 million (Sh49 billion), an increase of 54 per cent over the previous year, most of which went towards settling in court. Therapy for the victims and the accused took care of $23 million.
New allegations of abuse in 2007 totalled 689, most of the sufferers being young males between the ages of 10 and 14 when the abuse began.
A Charter for the Protection of Children has done better at protecting clergy from exposure.
And so it goes and continues. The Force be with us all.
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Tuesday, February 3, 2009
The New Ethics vs. The Classic Ethics

The standards of conduct that we grow up with, that we learn from our family and community, that we embrace could be called moral values or ethics - "ethics" as “a theory or system of moral values” as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
In his autobiography, In Memory Yet Green, Isaac Asimov described how his father, an atheist, would not steal, not because it had a moral value, but because his father did not want his peers and his community to label him as a thief. Pride, respect, and social interface count for a lot as the glue that holds our secular society together.
I am thinking of scales for early 21st century thinking in America and perhaps the global world too in general.
First, I am thinking of human scales, the size of a house, the height of a tree, the relationship of man to his environment.
Next, I am thinking American and or global business and thinking that CEOs make hundreds of times the wages of the average American worker. That if you grow up in rich burbs, and you get educated in Ivy League comfort and rise up the corporate ladder, you have never known or can know what average Americans or average wages or street scale ethics might be. You are in whole different league from the rest of the majority of the realm of mere mortal beings.
A recent number of secular things hit me from the daily media assault on my senses that stuck to the wall of my consciousness.
One has to do with $50 million dollar corporate jets for failed executives at failed financial institutions and paid for by taxpayer’s money. The other has to do with $18 billion dollars of commissions and or bonuses being paid out by failed executives in failed financial institutions and paid for by taxpayer’s money.
At one point in time, there were reality checks on executives at large corporations. Reality checks? The stock holders might object to your questionable expenditures.
Stockholders? Thirty seconds on the stock exchange of a municipal pension plan invested for those critical thirty seconds and then sold for a profit or loss thirty seconds later – those stockholders I do not believe knew that they had these assets.
Those nanosecond stockholders perhaps did not know that they had responsibilities as stockholders and they did not exercise their options of oversight to the corporate system. And if not the stockholders, than ethics would dictate…
Do I sound like some nineteenth century school master or boring country itinerate preacher? YES!
Reality check, stockholders, investor, ethics? Do some of these words sound like they are from a Latin Bible and you cannot read Latin?
There are an awful lot of untouched, unrefined, under-defined, misunderstood touch points – sound bite clichés – words –concepts -that roll off the lips of the divine Public Relations talking head.
What am I talking about?
Too much of the communication in the hardened artery media is archaic, charmed and sounds too much like a good snake oil sales pitch of half or a whole century ago. Upon examination, our ways of doing business and government do not reflect reality and or human scales.
Enough said. In the months and years ahead, I pray that our national government gets a life, scales back and learns to spend and tax along the simplest and most efficient human scales possible.
As for American business, if you have to teach a course in college in ethnics, then you probably don’t have any to begin with. That is not my original idea. I believe I read in once in connection to something said by some British philosopher. Correct me and or tell me the right quotation please.
The new ethics of failed economies, private and government, are nothing new. They are part of human nature. Prudence dictates that future endeavors in business and government takes a logical and semi-regulated approach to everything to counterbalance the ruthlessness and lawlessness now decaying in the streets – Wall Street and Main Street – in America – fossils of the recent age of no ethics.
The new ethics of the past generation is like the New Coke; forget it – a bad product from visualization, inception all the way up to hyped and forced onto the public introduction.
I want the classic drink and the classic form of ethics, old fashioned, and scaled to things human and average.
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