Mark Byron

Once More, With Feeling

It looks like we've got strike three in Greece; PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos is having to punt-

Following talks with other party leaders on Friday, Mr Venizelos told reporters: "I am going to inform the president of the republic tomorrow and I hope that, during the meeting with Carolos Papoulias, each party will assume its responsibilities."

The president is expected to try to pressure parties into a government of national salvation - but the BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says he is unlikely to succeed.

Given that they're mere mortals, saving the country might be above their pay grade.

Three things could happen in a second election, which is what will happen if they don't get a government this week-

(1) We get essentially the same result and are back to square one.

(2) Voters opt for security and give the PASOK-New Democracy quadrant a bit more help, getting them to a two-way majority; they're two votes short of that now.

(3) Rejectionists push Syriza up into first place and let them form a majority. The hard left has 97 votes at present; give them four more votes and the 50 seat bonus for the plurality party and they're at 151.

It won't be pretty, but I see the last of the three happening. The mood in Greece seems to be execrable, so I don't see the second option going down.

Miniture Mammoths and Catholic Fundamentalists

Interesting story on a Catholic school who defaulted rather than play a co-ed baseball team. This AP piece via ESPN has this description of the school's background

Our Lady of Sorrows is run by the U.S. branch of the Society of Saint Pius X. The group represents conservative, traditional priests who broke from the Catholic Church in the 1980s.

That fairly covers the reactionary folks who were more Catholic than the Vatican II era popes, rejecting some of the modernizations; if I recall correctly, the group is having a detente with Rome as of late, especially as Rome lets churches use the old-school Tridentine Latin Mass more than in the late 20th century.

On the how-not-to-do-it front, we have USA Today

But Our Lady of Sorrows, a fundamentalist Catholic school in Phoenix that lost twice to Mesa Prep during the regular season, chose to forfeit the championship game rather than play a team fielding a female player.

Well, if we can have miniature mammoths, we can have Catholic fundamentalists. However, it's poor journalistic form to use the f-word unless you're dealing with Bob Jones U types who self-adopt the term. I passed this one on to Get Religion-we'll see if they run with it.

[Update 6:15PM-they did, even using my "how-not-to-do-it" line. The post is a lengthened version of the E-mail I sent them.]

Edifier du Jour:Galatians 6:1(NIV)

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

Church discipline is a touchy subject, especially in a church-shopping era where someone who really doesn't want to repent can go to another church where either (1) he can be a stealth congregant and not be noted for his sin or (2) they accepts his habits. At least one denomination has been founded to fill the latter.

Assuming the person wants to do a 180, the key word is gently. Bringing the person up front and saying "Joe here got caught with his pants down with his secretary. Pity the scumbag and steer clear of him until we say otherwise" isn't the way to go. In some cases, especially when it was an elder of some sort that strayed, you might need some sort of public acknowledgement of what happened and why they're stepping aside from leadership for a time.

However, the goal isn't to shame, it's to rebuild and redirect.

The last part of the verse is good to note; trying to disciple someone recovering from bad habits does run the risk of getting you dragged into their world. For instance, someone getting moved off of a p0rn habit might have the mentor having to fight off his own issues on that front as they help another guy ditch the vice.

Swiss Mistep

If the Vikings need a cornerback, invite Michelle Bachmann to training camp; she backpedals well.

"Today, I sent a letter to the Swiss Consulate requesting withdrawal of my dual Swiss citizenship, which was conferred upon me by operation of Swiss law when I married my husband in 1978," Bachmann said in a statement. 

"I took this action because I want to make it perfectly clear: I was born in America, and I am a proud American citizen. I am, and always have been, 100 percent committed to our United States Constitution and the United States of America." 

She was getting a lot of flak from the right questioning her patriotism, even though she had that status all the while as she became Mrs. Tea Party.

DOMA Arigato, Mr. President

President Obama picked an odd time, right after the NC same-sex-marriage loss, to officially come out in favor of same-sex marriage. The Obama administration had been effectively on that page, opting not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court for over a year now, making congressional Republicans step in and take on the government side of appeals of DOMA.

The issue is at a statistical dead heat (50-48 for) in a recent Gallup poll. However, that's a poll of adults rather than likely voters; likely voters tend to skew right from registered voters and registered voters skew right from adults in general. That means the sentiments of people going to the polls might be closer to 55-45 against; given that the traditionalist have won the vast majority (I want to say 100%, but I might have missed one) of the time such votes are on the ballot, it's not as much of a winner as it might look based on the raw poll numbers.

However, it does throw a bone to the libertine wing of the Democratic party, and your Hollywood crowd is strongly pro-gay-rights. This is putting them in a giving mood. In an election where enthusiasm might not be all that strong, giving your base something to smile about always helps.

That works both ways; it strengthens the conservative base for Romney. A lot of churchgoers might not be thrilled with a somewhat moderate Mormon topping the ticket, but it's a better policy match than Obama's liberal mainline take. The amoral stench wafting from DC makes them eager to hold their nose and vote GOP.

It's going to be an interesting year.

P.S.- I guess too many people grew up with Mr. Roboto-check out the hits for my DOMA arigato pun.

Life Imitating Art: Pirate Party Infosocialism

One aspect of the Transhuman Space sci-fi universe is a political movement called Infosocialism-

Infosocialism posits that information and ideas are the primary means of production. It holds that copyright laws are immoral and that all intellectual property rights should be owned by one entity, usually a government or a private organisation (such as the Free Software Foundation).

In TS's future of 2100, a good hunk of the developing world in Southeast Asia and Latin America have elected or installed infosocialist governments that ignore intellectual property rights and develop new IP by directly commissioning work from scientists, authors and other creators. That does not endear them to the rest of the world; China and the Transpacific Alliance of infosocialists fought a nasty war in the 2080s over the issue.

That mythical infosocialism doesn't see to far away from the Pirate Party's MO. We've seen the PP make strides in German state elections, making its way into two state legislatures this spring. PP affiliates in the Netherlands and the UK are creating headaches for officials in those countries who are trying to shut down the Pirate Bay site sponsored by the Swedish PP. Their North Sea brethren are setting up alternative routes to circumvent blocking Pirate Bay URLs, creating a cyber game of whack-a-mole, where new alternatives get created as old ones get blocked.

File sharing sites where you can get illicit access to movies, music, or (ironically) PDF copies of Transhuman Space game books are the current love of the Pirate Parties, but that could well morph into something resembling infosocialism, if that extends to ignoring patents as well as copyrights.

[Update 5:15PM-I Googled around and found that the Swedish PP leader is a Transhuman Space fan and one German blogger was three years ahead of me on the TS-PP link. Interesting.]

Greeks Facing an 0-2 Count

Two down, one to go. The Syriza party swung and missed at its try at building a coalition, but since there was a conservative majority in the new parliament, the hard-left party was hard pressed to coax one of them over to form a left-leaning and anti-Euro-austerity government.

Now third place PASOK, their traditional socialist party of the mainstream left, gets its stab. They want to stay in the Euro, but would need to bring their old New Democracy coalition partners on the right and at least one other party into the mix; PASOK and ND fell two votes short of a majority, so any of the opposition parties would do.

PASOK is thus in a position to (1) get someone from the rejectionist side to join them and (2) get ND to come on board as a junior partner as the larger of the two parties. The latter is an awkward spot for the plurality party to be in, but I recall the Italian Christian Democrats let a secondary party supply the PM in that long stretch where they were in every government for 40 or so years.

If PASOK boss Evangelos Venizelos can evangelize for the Euro and the budget cuts needed to keep Greece in, he'll see a collective sigh of relief from Europe's elites. If not, we see a second election and a likely default.

Edifier du Jour:Galatians 5:22-23(NASB)

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

This has long been one of my go-to verses. Steven Curtis Chapman's Heartbeat of Heaven is the earwig to go with it, having the fruits as a refrain, flipping the last two in order.

I'm going with NASB today, since the NIV opts to go with forbearance instead of patience. As a former finance prof, I associate forbearance with going easy on under-water S&Ls in the late 80s; the Keating Five were being paid to encourage such "forbearance." Since that's where forbearance entered my working vocabulary, I have a hard time treating it as a fruit of the Spirit rather than a vice.

That might sum up the Andy Stanley-versus-the-legalists fight; is he showing forbearance in the sense the NIV translators are shooting for or in the sense that I hear the term? His fans would argue for the former while I and the heresy-hunters lean towards the latter, although I can hear the counter-argument and don't discount it.

Joy, kindness and goodness is also on that list. A lack of kindness and joyfulness often marks the heresy-hunters; they aren't a happy bunch. They seem to forget that there are people on the other side of the argument who will often miss the critique due to the bile that it is often presented with.

That's why this passage is hard to do right, standing for God's truths in a graceful and loving manner is a tough balancing act, but one we're called to do.

Putting the Con in the Democratic Convention?

I didn't think the tightest nomination race would have been on the Democratic side...

In an embarrassment to President Obama, Federal Inmate No. 11593-051 – otherwise known as Keith Judd – won 10 counties and 41 percent of the vote in West Virginia’s Democratic presidential primary Tuesday.

Mr. Judd is incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas, where he is serving a 210-month sentence for extortion, according to The Charleston Gazette.

...

He is even qualified to have a delegate at the Democratic National Convention, because he won at least 15 percent of vote. However, no one has stepped forward to fill that role.

I at first wondered if Rick Perry could spring him for the convention, but it's a federal case, so that's in Obama's court.

There are a lot of things you can do with naming prospective delegates, but none of them are edifying.

Swiss Mrs.

Mark Kirkorian beat me to the headline, but it was too obvious to go unused; Michelle Bachmann and her family are now Swiss citizens as well as US citizens. Her husband is of Swiss descent and they took advantage of that "loophole." I'm not sure what advantages that might have, other than allowing use of a Swiss passport that would let you visit Cuba or other places that are on poor terms with Foggy Bottom.

Kirkorian, the Corner's resident immigration hawk, doesn't like it, and that's not an uncommon response. Politicians with dual citizenship are looked at askance for questionable loyalties.

A Canadian case is new NDP leader Thomas Mulcair's French co-citizenship via his French-born wife. He was in position to congratulate fellow lefty François Holland's win as a fellow Frenchman. Mulcair and former Liberal leader Stephane Dion have gotten flak for their literal French-Canadian legal status.

I doubt that Congresswoman Bachmann will have a bias towards cutting the Swiss slack on banking policy due to this new status. It almost seems like a flag of convenience, like companies setting up shop in Delaware for their loose corporate governance laws or ships flying Panama or Liberia's flag for their light regulation on shipping.

I'm the uncle of three dual-citizens; they're being raised here and will likely be as American as I am but likely a bit less American than the gung-ho nationalist Bachmann. I wouldn't be fearful of her becoming a pacifist, isolationist Swiss fifth column.

The Second Unforgivable Sin

Interesting move in California, where they are looking to regulate "reparative" de-gaying therapies, banning it for teens and giving warning disclaimers for adults wanting to give such therapy a shot-

The bill would prohibit so-called reparative therapy for minors and obligate adults seeking the treatment to sign a release form that states that the counseling is ineffectual and possibly dangerous.

This is an area that has hot-buttons on both sides. On one side, you have the psych community, who doesn't see homosexuality as something to be treated and thus discourages trying to; it does tend to put someone on a guilt trip if they can't shake same-sex urges and see them as sinful and problematic. Leading someone to despair and suicidal thoughts trying to change something that isn't seen as wrong is a bad thing. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" might be the mantra of the psychologist.

On top of that, you have the gay lobby that wants to stress the idea that they're "born this way" (as Ms Gaga puts it) and that such therapy is fruitless.

There's another side that would beg to differ, where they do see something wrong with it and do see worth in trying. Part of the problem on the "ineffectual" description is that you have a religious world view of the reparative therapists which is using spiritual tools that don't fit into a psychologist's paradigm and thus don't double-blind test well.

There's a overlap with the problems Teen Challenge has when dealing with secular drug rehab folks dissing their program; the evangelical and often-Pentecostal nature of TC seems to work well, but doesn't fit the classic mold because of the unorthodox nature of bringing the Holy Spirit to bear on the problem.

Combine that with the fact that the psychologists don't even accept that there is a problem to be solved in this case, and the RP folks are looked askance at, especially when you have the born-this-way lobby adding their two cents in.

Could trying make someone suicidal? I wouldn't be surprised. It is a tough nut to crack in many cases, and stories like Ray Boltz's point out that there are some folks that just don't take to such therapy.

However, there are some people it does help, and if your world-view and faith wants you to move away from same-sex attraction, it might be worth a shot. Some folks are bisexual with a same-sex bias, and those people have a better shot of responding that those that aren't switch-hitters.

The problem comes when you have people driven to despair by their inability to change as they run head-long into a church culture that has two unforgivable sins, grieving the Holy Spirit and same-sex attraction [insert Andy Stanley quip here]. People who would cut a drug addict or an addicted smoker or a fat person struggling to get his appetite under control some slack won't give the same grace for someone who struggles with same-sex attraction. That's where you get the suicides and other depression issues that the critics are concerned about, when the second unforgivable sin gets judged to the hilt.

The bill is unlikely to pass, for there are tons of First Amendment issues at play; it reminds me a bit of recent moves in CA to ban circumcision. In that case, the Jewish community had some sway with swing voters and those who sided with them on religious-liberty grounds. It would be interesting if some chits were cashed in from that battle on this one.

Sports Musings

Good to see Jamaal Charles back in the saddle. I remember watching him blow his knee against the Lions after a nice run down the left sidelines. He's looking to take his rehab frustrations out on the NFL at large; thankfully the Lions don't get the Chiefs for another three years if the inter-conference rotations stay stable.

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Cole Hamels? What's up there? He goes self-avowed old-school and plunks young phenom Bryce Harper, has Harper steal home on him after getting the HBP, then brags about the purpose pitch, getting five days off without pay for his efforts.'

Not old-school, sayeth the Ripkens. "But just to come up and drill somebody for no reason, I don’t remember that being old school.”

If I'm the Phillies GM, I think about a trip to the DL while he gets his head examined, both for doing it in the first place and going public with the rationale; he could use a start off and a swift swat with a clue stick.

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Speaking of GM's, Steve Nash is now the Canadian team GM for international hoops. They didn't make the Olympics, so they have to work on qualifying for the 2014 Worlds next summer. I can't recall a player-GM, but Nash has the savvy to make it work. They'll have an assistant GM on board for "day-to-day operations."

Pigs and Hawgs

You couldn't write the script any better. If you have an Arkansas Razorback coach who is driving a motorcycle, it would have to be a Harley Hawg for our two-timing pig. No way you drive a rice-burner with that background, it's too easy a joke.

Bobby Petrino's ill-fated ride is up for sale-

The website Arkansassports360.com reported Wednesday that it had confirmed the motorcycle in the listing, which is named "Hawg Wild," is the same motorcycle that Petrino crashed.

...

According to the listing on Copart.com, the motorcycle has a repair cost of $18,481 for front-end damage and is being sold "as-is."

Photos of the motorcycle, a 2007 Harley Davidson, show visible damage to its front fender. According to the listing, the motorcycle, painted the same color red as Arkansas' uniforms and helmets, has an odometer reading of 1,032 miles, a 1.6-liter two-cylinder engine and an airbrushed rendering of a charging razorback on the fuel tank.

If you were to do a CSI-style story of this (the mistress would have to die and be dispatched in that version), would you have the bike any other way? Right down to the name. As Dave Barry would say, I'm not making this up.

Edifier du Jour:Galatians 5:19-21(NIV)

¹⁹ Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions,  factions, ²¹ envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Note verse 20 once you get south of sorcery. Lots of stuff that applies to the modern church, especially in its on-line manifestation. So much for unity in the body of Christ, as Mr. Edelen noted last week-

Unity gets a bad rap in some Christian circles. Being an “ecumenist” is tantamount to denying the Lord publicly, at least in the eyes of some.

Different factions, tons of disputes, dissent as a birthright. Not that we need to be in perfect lock-step on every point of doctrine, but the oldie from the 70s comes to mind-"there ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy, there's just you and me and we just disagree." Often, if we get off our high horse, we'll find common ground or at least agree to disagree.

The alternative is a bunch of one-person churches where we agree with all our churchmates on every issue, since we ran off anyone who had a different gospel. That's not to say that a good theological debate isn't needed at times, that church discipline isn't called for, but grabbing for the Red Mallet of Excommunication as your first move isn't the way to roll.

Looks Like We'll Need a Bigger Containtment Area

The much-ballyhooed North Carolina same-sex-marriage ban passed 61-39. If I'm not mistaken, such a bill has yet to be voted down anywhere, as all of the states that have same-sex marriage did it either by judicial decree or by legislative vote.

North Carolina did vote for Obama last year, as its urban and high-tech areas are bringing in more secular folks. That showed up in the voting patterns-

The amendment was trailing in Charlotte, in the Triangle counties around Raleigh and Chapel Hill, as well as the Winston-Salem-Greensboro area, according to figures from the State Board of Elections. But it was winning by wide margins in rural counties and in the suburbs of Charlotte -- the home of famous evangelist Billy Graham, who endorsed the ballot measure last week.

I recall when briefly looking at Raleigh as a possible relocation site that a wag noted that the Raleigh suburb of Cary was an acronym for Containment Area for Relocated Yankees. Looks like they had to expand the holding pen a bit.

Mad Dogs and Hoosiers

With 70% of the vote in, it's 60-40 "Mad Dog" Mourdock; One Lugar wasn't enough fire power against a whole Tea Party.

Somehow, I don't see Lugar moving back to Indiana; he's more likely to stay in town as some sort of lobbyist/consultant like Bob Bennett has done. Lugar's spend most of his life in Washington and may well be more at home there than in Indy.

Update 9:50-Mr Erickson lets out his inner 12-year-old:  "Indiana Hocks a Lugar." I guess he didn't get the memo about being loving and humble.

The Care and Feeding of Moderates

I'm a bit concerned about running Dick Lugar out on a rail today. If the polls hold up, he'll be ousted by conservative state treasurer Richard Mourdock. Not that it won't be an improvement in the GOP delegation as it pertains to a number of issues at play, but you don't want to tick off people like Lugar.

We'll use "RINO" to designate moderates like Lugar, but he seems to be a generally decent (late desperate campaigning notwithstanding) moderate Republican, part of a WASPy midwestern style that has faded away as mainline churches list left and free-market economics becomes a non-negotiable in the GOP.

A degree of civility marked that WASP school of politics, which is something that the system could use. Also, the openness to bipartisanship and to not dis the other party as a matter of course.

The one drawback to that is that civility and bipartisanship is often a one-way street; it tends to be a center-left critter rather than a center-right one, as bipartisan often translates to "Democrats and just enough moderate Republicans to get cloture." Lugar was often part of that meme.

However, you need the Lugars of the world to vote Republican if you want to get to a majority of the vote. You might not want them heading up the ticket, but too much dissing of moderates drives them elsewhere.

Maturity isn't Fun

Here's an interesting piece on McDonalds disappointing Wall Street with its earnings-

Sales at restaurants opened at least 13 months rose amid what CEO Jim Skinner called a "challenging global economic environment." Same-store sales gained 3.3% in the U.S., 3.5% in Europe and 1.1% in the Asia/Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Growth has slowed from earlier this year, when McDonald's reported global comparable sales of 6.7% in January and 7.5% in February.

Last I checked, McDonalds is a mature company. You can expect it to grow at about the rate the economy grows unless it does something to add to its cut of the American budget or tastes shift towards it. Tweaking value members and marketing coffeehouse-style brews will help, but everyone else is tweaking their offerings as well.

In a tough economy, 3% growth isn't bad. It isn't anyone's idea of a growth stock, but it has ceased to be a high flyer a long time ago.

 

Democratic-Football-Labor Party

The Minnesota Vikings "need" a new stadium; at least, based on where the state of the art is in stadium, the current Metrodome is a bit antiquated. That seems hard to believe for a kid who grew up watching the Vikings send the Lions packing year after year in old Met Stadium on the site where the Mall of America now sits, but 30 years puts the Metrodome on the stodgy side.

Is it worth $400M to have football in town? That's the tab the Minnesota taxpayers are looking to pay towards new digs for the Vikes. With 5.3 million residents, that's about $80 apiece needed to put a new stadium in.

Rep. Larry Hosch, DFL-St. Joseph, made it personal. He told of being born during a Vikings game, with his dad having to break away from an overtime game to ferry his mom to the hospital. Hosch said he can't fathom not having Sunday games to share with his own kids.

"It might not make sense in dollars and cents," Hosch said, adding, "I can't imagine a state without the Vikings."

The interesting shtick on the funding is that expanded gambling will pick up the tab; however, that means the gaming money isn't there to help with other issues. Kentucky's Democrats are plugging a gambling proposal in order to keep horse racing tracks afloat, but they have the advantage of having the horse-breeding industry there as a tie-in; you can't quite say that you have a football industry in MN.

You can parcel out the cost over 15 years and pay for it with a $33.5m/year amortizing bond offering at 3% interest, bringing the cost down to about $6 a head per year. That's a matinee movie ticket a year, but some folks would rather use the money to watch The Avengers than the Purple People Eaters.

Is it consistent to be looking askance at having your government helping the local opera yet being more than happy supporting a new stadium? Yep, but more people watch football; on the flipside, do we take taxes from everyone to support the habit of a fraction of the population?

Going Forward

President Obama and PM Netanyahu might not agree on much, but Forward seems to be popular with both of them. It's the theme of the Obama reelection campaign; if I can borrow from the old Nixonian acronym, they'll CREEP Forward, which makes more progress than MSNBC's "Lean Foward" or Newt's Lean Six Sigma.

Over in Israel, Netanyahu was seemingly all set to call early elections when he instead brought Kadima, Arial Sharon's old centrist party, into the fold; Kadima means Forward in Hebrew, the Forward is also the name of a noteworthy Jewish-American magazine.

Surpringly, Sharon's still with us, but just barely. I hadn't recalled an obit; that's because he's hanging in there in a mostly vegged state, with enough there to not pull a Shaivo on him. The party he created is on shaky turf as well, as they're expected to lose ground in the next election when it is held.

However, Kadima's blend of hawk and dove would be a good cover for Bibi as he goes forward, especially as they mull a preemptive move against Iranian nukes. If Kadima is on board with a strike, it will gives him some street cred in diplomatic circles, as Kadima often tries to cast itself as the good cop opposite Bibi's bad cop.

Edifier du Jour:Galatians 5:13-15(NIV)

¹³ You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. ¹⁴ For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

A servant's heart is hard to get, at least without the help of the Holy Spirit. The tail end of verse 13 should be a all-purpose check on behavior.

Are you serving? How is this helping the other person? If it's an indulgence on our part, whether that be of a physical vice or a mental vice (theological point-scoring is one the devout can fall into), it isn't helping.

Is it humble? That doesn't mean you have to roll over and play dead, but treat your brother in Christ as a brother and not a serf to be bossed around. Also, on a issue of contention, leave things open for you to be wrong for a change; it sometimes happens.

Is it loving? We need not forget that tough love is called for; part of looking after ones fellows is to call BS when needed and back people away from bad behavior and bad views of God and people. That being said, we need to do it in such a way that strives to improve the other person rather than merely make an example of them. The right mix of carrot and stick is always hard to achieve.

 

The Center Folds a Bad Hand

New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras threw in his hand like he got dealt a 2-5 off-suited.

His New Democracy emerged as the biggest party after Sunday's vote, but he said a coalition was "impossible".

Far-left group Syriza, which is opposed to austerity measures, will now try to form an anti-bailout coalition.

That's going to be an interesting package, for it would have to include one of two renegade parties of the right, Independent Greeks or the nativist Golden Dawn; most likely the former, since the left generally don't even want to be in the same room with the Naziesque folks, let alone the same coalition.

The right, broadly defined, has 162 seats of 300, so that side needs at least one representative in any coalition.

We're likely to see a new election. It won't be pretty, but I could see Syriza getting a plurality in a second or third election and be able to put a rejectionist left coalition together. That would put the Euro into free fall, especially if a Socialist government in France wants to give Brussels the heave-ho as well.

Monday Moanin'

Someone must of translated Johnathan Swift into Chinese, for they have a modest drug business... of powdered baby.

The grim trade is being run from China where corrupt medical staff are said to be tipping off medical companies when babies are aborted or delivered still-born.

The tiny corpses are then bought, stored in household refrigerators in homes of those involved in the trade before they are removed and taken to clinics where they are placed in medical drying microwaves.

...

There is a huge demand for alternative Chinese remedies - which include ground up rhino horns.

Better keep Richard Lugar well away from the Far East, then, if they're using RINOs in that way. No, that is not their highest and best use.

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Lugar is getting primaried and is using most every trick in the moderate's book, including making the challenger look like a wingnut, reaching across to the other party for extra votes and making himself out to be the only reasonable choice. State treasurer Richard Mourdock looks to have him beat, and the closer he gets to losing, the more Lugar looks like Bill Milliken, getting bitterer by the year as he aged into RINO dependency.

Lugar had a decent dose of class over the years, but seems to have lost it along with any political future. Indiana law precludes a third-party or independent run for folks who lost a primary, so a Murkowski/Lieberman route won't hunt in the Hoosier State.

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France is in for a hard adjustment if incoming president Hollande really wants to declare war on finance. What do you replace it with? A slow grind into state-run autarky and equal-but-poor living somewhere north of Cuban wage levels? We've yet to see a democratic socialist state that lived up to both ends of the bargain.

Greece's Maxwell Smart Election

The returns from yesterday's Greek elections are an accident waiting to happen. The main center-right party, the New Democrats (after getting used to that being the socialist party's name in Canada, seeing right-of-center Dippers is odd), got a 19% plurality and the 50 bonus seats that go with coming in first; that gives them 108 seats. The PASOK socialists who had been in charge got 41 seats with a 13% showing, giving the grand coalition of pro-Euro parties 149 seats.

Bad news for them; the legislature has 300 seats. As Agent 86 used to say, "missed it by that much." 151 is a majority.

The Democratic Left is a pro-Euro party that might put them over the top, but getting folks to the left of the Socialists to agree with the Greek Dippers is a tall order, like getting Bernie Sanders and Paul Ryan to agree on a budget.

Everyone else is "anti-austerity" if not outright anti-Euro. You have 78 votes on the AA left Syriza and Communist), 54 seat on the AA right (Independent Greeks and the nativist Golden Dawn) and 19 from the Democratic Left. Syriza came in second, and that means they'd get a shot at forming a government if the Dippers fail to get 'er done.

There isn't a coherent center, nor a coherent right. A second election might see Syriza get first place and be in position to get a rejectonist left majority were they to have the 50 seat bonus.

That's more important than Hollande's win in France. You might see some capital flight from France if Hollande holds to a big tax hike on millionaires; with open borders within the EU, professionals that make big bucks might opt to ply their trade elsewhere within Europe. France is going to need to either reel in their deficit or give the middle-digit salute to the Euro, and they now have a Socialist having to call Bob Rae for advice on how not to cut a budget and be a good socialist at the same time.

Greece has all but got its middle-digit extended, unless the establishment parties can bring the Democratic Left on board and patch together a pro-Euro majority.

Edifier du Jour:Galatians 5:4-6(NIV)

⁴ You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. ⁵ For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

How do we take "the law" in a modern context? We don't have too many modern believers trying to be Orthodox Jews and Christians at the same time, which is what Paul was dealing with. Paul's ministry was focused on the Gentiles, where he was building a by-pass where the Gentiles could come straight to Christ without having to go through the trappings and baggage of Jewish tradition.

Circumcision was the big symbolic step in becoming Jewish in that day (and in this era as well, if you're not already there due to the American tendency to circumcise all baby boys for hygienic reasons). Given the fact the the modern church is largely drawn from the Gentile side of the aisle, that's not a 21st century problem.

What is a 21st century problem is tacking on churchy customs and doctrines as part of "the Gospel," especially when the defense of such customs is done in a strident tone. "Faith expressing itself through love" is Paul's call for the church. Applying that in the middle of "worship wars" or various stances on creation or various takes on eschatology can be hard, especially when partisans will holler that you're denigrating the Gospel if you don't agree with their take.

Doing things lovingly doesn't mean rolling over and playing dead for the heretics among us or not calling out sin where it lies. It does call for a gentler tone in many cases where a prophetic, in-your-face tone would be counter-productive, for the voice crying in the wilderness doesn't always have to have the amps cranked to 11. We also will need to double-check to see if we're fighting over extra-biblical culture rather than spiritual truths before getting our war-paint on.

Love Ties, Wins in OT

Let's drop back three yards for a moment and check out 1 Corinthians 13:13

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Andy Stanley's sermon of this morning was under the microscope after being bashed for being too easy on homosexuality this week. He didn't answer the question directly today, but focused on majoring in loving ones fellow man.

Every time we pick up the scripture to find a law or a command or an instruction on anything – and there are hundreds of them in the Bible – remember that Jesus asked us to make sure that we "look at all of that through the filter of" the two greatest commandments: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments," he said.

God, Stanley added, does not want us to use His law "to unnecessarily hurt and disenfranchise people."

Some people are going to be hurt by what we say even if we say it lovingly, but we don't need to do things that score points if it scares off someone we're trying to help.

On one level, Stanley is dead on. Love is the first answer to how we respond to people, not bile. Whatever sin someone might be burdened with, the idea that this is a child of God whom He cares for comes first; repairing a broken relationship with God and the sinner is more important than doing a Master of the Obvious smackdown of the sin.

However, given that he was being grilled on a given front, some sort of note on the gay front would have been helpful. The sermon will get ignored by the heresy-hunters who want to put Stanley in the Rob Bell Memorial Doghouse for doing Love Wins 2.0 since he didn't directly address the question.

Stanley might well be lurching in a more universalist route like Bell, but he seemed to be delivering a very good message at the wrong time, at least as it related to answering his critics; that being said, getting into a pissing match with Al Mohler isn't what a sermon is about, teaching your flock is.