Comments Posted By Geo Michalopulos

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A Terrible Day for the Republic

Chris, you also can’t forget that one of the most offending public-sector unions is the state prison worker’s union. Those guys got California by the short-and-curlies. They’re so much into it for themselves that they are against prison reform and decriminilizating marijuana. The more people in prison, the better for them.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 29, 2012 @ 5:38 pm

Chris, Peter, let’s not forget, that once the income tax was paid, the US passed over the line in which the people realized that they could vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. Aristotle pegged it 2300 years ago in his study of the various Greek polities. That was about the timeline that a Scottish philospher (Alexander something or other) said that around the 7th generation from the founding of a state, the people start losing their pride and feel no shame in holding their hand out.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 29, 2012 @ 5:34 pm

Good point, Carl. Still, if Roberts was going to be consistent in calling it a tax, he should have invalidated it on the grounds that this legislation did not originate in the House..

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 29, 2012 @ 1:37 pm

Diogenes, if this such a good deal, then why has Obama and the Congress exempted themselves from it? How come Muslims, Amish, Mennonites, and Hassidic Jews exempted from taking part in it?

Everytime I hear people say “it’s good for everyone,” I answer thusly: “government schools.” That was supposed to be “free” and mandatory but nobody in their right mind or unless they have no choice sends their kids to public schools any more. Instead, they go out of their way to move to white suburbs where the public schools are still fairly decent. The rest send them to private schools or home-school.

FYI, just 20 years ago, homeschooling was illegal in almost all 50 states. now it’s legal in all 50 states. How did that happen?

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 29, 2012 @ 8:06 am

Ultimately, Fr, that’s why I had to leave the Democratic Party back in 1990. The Jeffersonian/Jacksonian tradition had been so utterly trotskyized that I couldn’t in good conscience remain in it. Not that I’m ecstatic about the GOP, especially it’s go-along to get-along Country Club wing. Because of their collaboration with Wall Street and the Democratic Party, they have formed a new caucus called the Cheap Labor Lobby. The purpose of this cabal is to undermine the wages of the white and black working class in order to maximize their profits.

I thus predict a schism within the GOP along the Bush/McCain elites and the Palin/Buchanan populists should Obama win reelection.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 29, 2012 @ 8:00 am

Niko, there’s no way that Roberts did “the right thing” today, because as Fr Patrick wrote earlier, it’s a tax and taxes can only originate in the House of Representatives –the People’s House. We are well on the way to becoming a Mickey Mouse Banana Republic where the rule of law doesn’t really mean anything anymore.

Like I wrote in an earlier response, I have no problem with taxes per se, it’s just that they need to be advertised as such and follow due process.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 28, 2012 @ 8:53 pm

Peter, big-government Country-clubber Republicans are just as complicit as Liberal Democrats in expanding the scope of government.

Logan46, this was inevitable given the institution of a central bank which created money out of thin air and multiplied our debt. That fact is inarguable.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 28, 2012 @ 6:47 pm

Peter, your points are well-taken. I must disagree however with your assertion that had Reagan suggested it, the GOP would have been on board. I can’t for the life of me think of Reagan doing something along these lines. The aggrandizement of even more power to DC was anathema to him. True, he failed to demolish the Dept of Education (and other things) but he never grew them, it just wasn’t in him.

When Bush 43 created Med Part D, he was going against the grain of Conservatism, that’s why he called it “compassionate conservatism”. We foolishly supported it because it was the first free-market based reform in socialized medicine so it was net good on a practical level, but it was still against our principles.

You, Chris, Carl, and others on the net are correct in assessing that what Roberts did was now identify it for what it clearly was: a tax. This will probably backfire on the Democrats in the Fall.

Regardless, my primary concern is not with who wins in November but whether this entire boondoggle from soup to nuts was even justified in the first place. If Obama loses, it will be said that he wasted two precious years pushing a deeply unpopular mandate when he could have been easing restrictions on businesses and capital formation. He could have been the second coming of Clinton and justifiably lauded (on the economic front at least). Instead, what he will be known for is the economic stratification, the loss of employment opportunities for the young, the loss of marriage as a viable relationship, is heartbreaking to me. I mean, the state I live in has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation (4.8%). But not a day goes by that I don’t see men and women standing at busy intersections with signs that read “Homeless,” or “Anything will Help.” I’ve seen more every month. These people are at the end of their rope. Young people today have no ambition but to live in their mother’s basement

As a Conservative with heavy Libertarian leanings, I have no problem with taxes per se, I just think that they should advertized as such and paid directly out of a person’s pocket. I think it was Goldwater who said “paying taxes should hurt.” I completely agree. If all our taxes hurt then we’d have less of them and people would not look to the government to do things for them.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 28, 2012 @ 6:39 pm

Carl, your reading of the auspices is coming into focus. I’ve been reading some of the legal-beagle blogs out there (scotus.blog, Pethokoukis, George Will, etc.) and they seem to agree with your take. Roberts did two things: 1) called it what it was –a tax, and 2) stripped the tax of its dependence upon the Commerce Clause, thereby opening up the review and reversal of other laws which depended upon the Commerce Clause.

Also the third thing: kicked it back to Congerss and the American people.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 28, 2012 @ 4:47 pm

Well Done, Syossett and Metropolitan Jonah!

Harry, where did I say “so that decisions would be made in Moscow”? Point to me anywhere those eight specific words were said. They don’t have to be in order, either. Please.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 8, 2012 @ 6:19 am

If true, then Stokovism lives even if its avatar is not on the MC. I fear for those who did this as bowls of wrath will be overturned. Lord have mercy.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 7, 2012 @ 10:33 pm

Niko, that wasn’t my point. It’s not given any more credence or moral authority if Kish signs it or not. What’s important is that he and Jillions did sign it and none of the Stokovites raised a fuss like they did 3 years ago. That’s all that was my point. It’d been the same thing if Jonah signed it and nobody else did as well,

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 6, 2012 @ 12:21 pm

The nuns should be left alone. If the OCA’s acceptance of Mel is good enough to put paid to his own problems, then ROCOR’s acceptance of the nuns is just as good.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 6, 2012 @ 12:19 pm

Another One, while you raise some interesting questions, the overall thrust is naive. What Arb Nikon has done is maladroit at best and raises up old questions about whether we are dealing with good-faith actors. Sorry, I don’t mean to be harsh but if the object is to elect the “best possible candidate,” then the HS should have leaned on Bp Benjamin and told him to release Fr Meletios Webber for consideration. They could have also leaned on Nikon to release funds from the DOS to interview other candidates at a deliberate pace. Remember, these protocols were instituted by the DOS 13 months ago –June 2011. We twiddled our thumbs floating possible names, some of whom withdrew when they saw that the fix was in for Bp Mark. Now that Bp Mark’s candidacy had become unviable, the holy synod was placed between a rock and a hard place.

You may want the best possible candidate, I certainly do, but Jonah’s antagonists on the synod don’t. They still want to find a way to place a cipher on the Southern throne, if it can’t be Mark, then they’ll leave it as vacant for as long as they can. Rather than a standup guy like Meletios or Gerasim. The last thing they want is a real monk.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 5, 2012 @ 7:22 pm

Antonia, you may be on to something. Best thing we in the DOS can do right now is pray that the Lord comforts the Venerable Dmitri. What a terrible burden he must be feeling right now knowing that we were orphaned with his passing, and now being treated like step-children in some foster program.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 5, 2012 @ 12:53 pm

Thanks Rod. I think I saw this movie before, it was either starring Buster Keaton with an assist from the Keystone Kops or The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 5, 2012 @ 12:31 pm

Niko, you may be right but what holds me back from agreeing you (for now) is that my take on progessives and liberals within the Church (and society) in general. As a rule, they don’t sign protocols of this type unless they feel some conviction. The reason is because they invariably believe that they’re on the right side of history. Pro-life to them is 100% retrograde and will be tossed aside like opposition to gay marriage, etc.

It’s like all those old Lefties who still think the Rosenbergs or Alger Hiss were innocent even though the Venona decrypts from the USSR proved that they were all commie spies. These dupes continue to believe in their religion because Trotskyism is their religion. (But that’s an argument for another day.)

Ultimately, that’s what restrains me ultimately from casting aspersions on what Fr Leonid did. If I’m wrong, I’ll fess up.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 3, 2012 @ 1:41 pm

Fr John, your response was a well-crafted “manifesto” in its own right. Perhaps the ACOB will pick it up and make it a directive for the future, one that is predicated on “An Ecumenism of the Holy Spirit.”

Antonia, we should make inroads to the Non-Chalcedonians as well but in rather limited experience with them, they are in the survival stage of immigration. Completely insular and not ready or unwilling to engage the broader culture. Yes, by all means, bring them along, but in the meantime a massive Christian army already exists: the traditionalist within the Western confessions that have not gone the full Gramsci. Rev Harrison, Cardinal Dolan, Franklin Graham are already part of this force, primed and ready for the fight.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 2, 2012 @ 9:34 am

Greece: 1, Germany 0

Yeah, and Augustine too!

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 27, 2012 @ 5:13 pm

Would You Want Your Son to be a Priest?

Fr John, I must echo Mr Bauman here but go further. First we must establish that these monastics whom you talk about –the ones who are spreading disinformation–are canonical. I have a feeling that they are not. Certainly the examples of HT in Brookline or Blanco in Texas were not canonical. If they are not canonical, then that would end it.

However, if they are, then it is the duty of the bishops to take the bull by the horns. Unfortunately, they will not do so because they really can’t. The only way that these problems will be solved is if we have a true American-wide Holy Synod. To do that however would mandate true unification and at the very least a maximal degree of autonomy, if not actual autocephaly. Therein lies the rub. Nobody wants to cut the apron strings because we all want to be able to go home to Mama when the going gets rough.

Forgive me if my words are sharp, I mean no insult to you but the plain fact of the matter is we can never get around this conundrum. Truth be told, we don’t want to.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 30, 2012 @ 10:25 pm

Fr John, I think that the regime you describe for electing a bishop in the AOCNA is the most sensible one I’ve heard in a long time. Maybe the OCA should enact a statute that all candidates for bishop must be a resident pastor and/or monk within the diocese which is vacant. I’d add that no see should remain vacant for more than a year.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 30, 2012 @ 5:59 pm

Thank Herc. I must say, I rather like the name “Alethia Bringer,” whoever she is.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 30, 2012 @ 8:17 am

Helga, thank you for bringing up this point. In the interests of fairness to Bp Mark, I agreed with his stance that the offending parishes should be audited and I disagreed with Met Philip when he overrode Bp Mark’s authority.

What’s right is right.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 28, 2012 @ 1:12 pm

Andrew, this stuff needs to be exposed. Ultimately, the problem resides within the episcopate and corrupt men lorded it over your father. Orthodoxy will never progress until a catharsis happens first, and catharsis cannot happen without repentance.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 27, 2012 @ 9:14 pm

Peter, you’re definately on to something here. I guess the bottom line is your last sentence: if someone has a vocation and they refuse it, then they must answer at the dread Judgment Seat of Christ, institutional lunacy be damned.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 27, 2012 @ 5:21 pm

Carl, that was my take of Abbott Gerasim as well. What I liked is when he said to us that “the job of a bishop is to be a pastor to his pastors.” I bet 98% of all priests in America wished that at the very least they were led and not sandbagged by their bishops whenever some lay antagonist raises a stink because he forgot Bulbanian Liberation Day.

That makes sense, after all the real work of the Church is done at the parish (or monastery) level. Priests and spiritually aware laymen are the ones who need to be empowered.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 27, 2012 @ 9:17 am

Well, whoever wrote this, he finally laid to rest the question of whether Bp Mark Maymon delivered the Fester e-mails to Mark Stokoe. “DOStruth” states unequivocally that he did.

I guess that seals it.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 27, 2012 @ 8:06 am

Fr Peter, I think you are on to something here. Perhaps every other priest in the the OC here in America will read your recommendations and internalize them.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 26, 2012 @ 8:12 pm

Fr, the mythologies that priests must be subjected to unjst abuse for no reason at all needs to be developed. I for one, simply don’t believe that some adulterer who is on the PC because he runs a laundromat and thinks he’s God’s gift to the parish is qualified to call the shots for a parish.

Yes, His Beatitude suffered horribly at the hands of the Stokovites, and has come out stronger for it, but he received his spiritual formation in a real monastery and he is a celibate who has no wife and children dependent on him. I don’t believe it’s right to subject a monk to abuse but if it were me, I would at least be thankful that my family isn’t suffering.

What’s my point? We say we want only married men in the parish priesthood but we subject them to insane obstacles. And yes, as a PC member, I’ve been guilty of that myself.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 26, 2012 @ 8:10 pm

Gail, I don’t dispute that Bp Mark didn’t sign that protocol before it was leaked on OCAN. I’m not sure how many days transpired before it was posted on OCAN. I think we can be reasonably sure that it was not Met Philip who gave all the info to Mark Stokoe. I’m not saying Bp Mark did either. What is indisputable is that during that entire fracas and up until Bp Mark’s release to the OCA, an inordinate amount of puff pieces about Bp Mark appeared on OCAN. Conversely, the criticism of Met Philip was deafening.

Either Bp Mark or an acolyte of his fed Mark Stokoe this information. It is certainly possible that rogue elements in the OCA gave this information to Stokoe in order to grease the skids for Mark’s eventual entry.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On June 26, 2012 @ 7:36 am