Things seem to be heating up a little on Monomakhos vis-à-vis the whole “gender identity” issue. Confusion reigns. Rather than indict the whole “gender identity” ideology per se, let us examine why things are so confused. Particularly why the Liberal (in the modern sense) prospect is inherently contradictory and why it has brought Western civilization to the present impasse. Please take the time to read Tobias Langdon’s excellent essay. The title speaks for itself.
Narcissism and Nihilism: How Liberals Destroy Themselves
Source: Tobias Langdon
Narcissists need mirrors. This simple truth is central to an understanding of liberalism. Liberals don’t look at the world to understand it. Instead, they look for chances to feed their vanity and parade their moral purity. Earlier this year, there were riots by Muslims in the Parisian suburb of Trappes:
The Versailles state prosecutor said the trouble started on Thursday [July 18th 2013] after police stopped and carried out an identity check on a woman in a niqab, or full-face veil. The prosecutor said the woman’s husband had assaulted one of the officers and tried to strangle him so was immediately taken into custody at the police station. Muslim full-face veils have been banned from all public places in France after a controversial law introduced by President Sarkozy in 2011. The Collective Against Islamophobia in France released a statement complaining of “heavy-handedness” and “provocation” by the police during the identity check. (Paris riots sparked by police identity check on veiled Muslim woman, The Guardian, 21st July 2013)
When liberals look at these riots, they don’t see what’s really there: yet more destruction by violent, self-righteous and deeply misogynist non-Whites who despise liberals. Instead, they see a blameless minority crushed by police racism and state oppression. They saw the same thing when Sweden experienced the gratitude of its own rapidly growing non-White “communities” in May 2013:
Hundreds of youth have burned down a restaurant, set fire to more than 340 cars and attacked police during a fourth night of rioting in the suburbs of the Swedish capital, shocking a country that dodged the worst of the financial crisis but failed to solve youth unemployment and resentment among asylum seekers. Violence spread across Stockholm on Wednesday, as large numbers of young people rampaged through the suburbs, throwing stones, breaking windows and destroying cars. … Rioters defied a call for calm from the country’s prime minister, going on the rampage after nightfall damaging stores, schools, a police station and an arts and crafts centre in the four days of violence.
“We see a society that is becoming increasingly divided and where the gaps, both socially and economically, are becoming larger,” said Rami Al-khamisi, co-founder of Megafonen, a group that works for social change in the suburbs. “And the people out here are being hit the hardest … We have institutional racism.”
“The reason is very simple. Unemployment, the housing situation, disrespect from police,” said Rouzbeh Djalaie, editor of Norra Sidan newspaper. (Swedish riots rage for fourth night, The Guardian, 23rd May 2013)
The same tired excuses were produced after the London riots in 2011. In all three nations, non-Whites commit endless crimes against Whites: murder, rape and robbery. They then demand “respect” from the police. When the police don’t supply it, well, what’s an oppressed minority to do but riot? Liberals feed their narcissism by siding with the rioters against the oppressive state. That’s the same state that spends billions of dollars of White tax-payers’ money feeding, clothing and housing the rioters. But if liberals were concerned with reality rather than narcissism, they might see something worrying ahead. This is from the Guardian article about the riots in Paris:
“France is not like it used to be. When I was a child, there wasn’t a problem. I was born here. I was accepted,” says Yetto Souiriy, 37, a mother of five who had been barred from school trips with her son in Montreuil because of her headscarf. (See here)
So that’s a mother of five children. In the same newspaper, you can read about an aborter of five children:
Last week, my boyfriend and I saw our friend’s baby for the second time. The minute I saw the baby, I fell, in every way possible; fell down on the floor and babbled at him for an hour and a half, finally to be rewarded by that singular finger-gripped-by-tiny-fist routine and that priceless gummy smile. … I just knew that there was something in my back pages that I was supposed to be remembering now, probably “wistfully” and preferably tearfully, and just a little cerebral prodding shook it loose. My abortions! All five of them.
“I love babies,” I said, surprised at the simplicity of my statement. And then immediately, perfectly naturally, “I’m so glad I had all those abortions.” … Myself, I’d as soon weep over my taken tonsils or my absent appendix as snivel over those abortions. I had a choice, and I chose life – mine. (Abortion: still a dirty word, The Guardian, 25th May 2002)
Repulsive, but revealing: narcissism leads to nihilism. Muslims are having lots of children. Liberals are aborting lots of children. Does the future look good for liberalism? Or rosy for rioters?
Hess was an early proponent of the “back to the land” movement, and his focus on self-reliance and small communities happened in part by government mandate. According to a Libertarian Party News obituary, “When the Internal Revenue Service confiscated all his property and put a 100 percent lien on all of his future earnings, Hess (who had taught himself welding) existed on bartering his work for food and goods.”[7]
With Goldwater’s 1964 defeat, Hess and others on the losing team had found themselves outsiders within the national Republican party due to their support of that controversial politician. Anticipating that making a living as a speechwriter thereafter might prove a challenge, Hess had begun to learn welding. This activity put him in rapport with a very large segment of the American population who are manual laborers. He eventually came to the conviction that virtually no one in national politics identified with these people anymore. When Hess revolted against public giantism – a distrust toward large-corporate business as well as big government – his conviction prompted him to withhold federal income tax payment; legal troubles ensued, but he had welding skills (and the practice of barter) to fall back on. After Hess had made friends within the New Left and related circles, he began to encounter the young, new-breed appropriate technology enthusiasts[8] (exemplified, by the early 1970s, in the editors and readerships of the Whole Earth Catalog and Mother Earth News).
In the early 1970s, Hess became involved in an experiment with several friends and colleagues to bring self-built and -managed technology into the direct service of the economic and social life of the poor, largely African American neighborhood of Adams-Morgan in Washington, D.C.. It was the neighborhood in which Hess had spent his childhood. Afterward, Hess wrote a book entitled Community Technology which told the story of this experiment and its results. According to Hess, the residents had a vigorous go at participatory democracy, and the neighborhood seemed for a time like a fertile ground for the growth of community identity and capability.
Much of the technological experimentation Hess and others engaged in there was successful in technical terms (apparatus was built, food raised, solar energy captured, etc.). For instance, Hess wrote: “In one experiment undertaken by the author and associates, an inner-city basement space, roughly thirty by fifty feet, was sufficient to house plywood tanks in which rainbow trout were produced at a cost of less than a dollar per pound. In a regular production run the total number of fish that can be raised in such a basement area was projected to be five tons per year.”[9] He taught courses and lectured on Appropriate Technology and Social Change in this period at the Institute for Social Ecology in Vermont. Nonetheless, the Adams-Morgan neighborhood, continuing on what he felt was a path of social deterioration and real-estate gentrification, declined to devote itself to expanding on the technology. Hence, in his view, a needy community got little value from the application of viable technology.
Subsequently, Hess and his wife, Therese, moved to rural Opequon Creek between Martinsburg and Kearneysville, West Virginia, where he set up a welding shop to support his household. He became deeply involved with local affairs there. Hess built an affordable house that relied largely on passive-solar heating, and took an interest in wind power and all forms of solar energy. By the late 1970s, he saw solar energy as emblematic of decentralization and nuclear energy as emblematic of central organization.[8]
Hess wrote for a survivalist newsletter titled Personal Survival (“P.S.”) Letter, which was published from 1977 to 1982. It was first published and edited by Mel Tappan. In the same time period, Hess authored the book A Common Sense Strategy for Survivalists.
Hess ran a symbolic campaign for Governor of West Virginia in 1992. When asked by a reporter what his first act would be if elected, he quipped, “I will demand an immediate recount.”
Legacy[edit source | editbeta]
In a Reuters online “Opinion” piece, in 2012, New Yorker Maureen Tkacik asserted that Karl Hess was the ideological grandfather of the anti-1% movement – making Hess the direct antecedant of thinkers like Ron Paul and both the Tea Party movement and the Occupy movement. She cites the detailed argument Hess, in his libertarian phase, put forward in his book Dear America to delineate and decry the extreme concentration of power in the hands of a tiny financial and stock-holding elite. Ms. Tkacik quotes passages from Hess’s book to offer proof that Hess developed the language of the 1% versus the 99% (the former being those whose role, according to Hess, is demonstrably detrimental to the vast majority of Americans).[10]
Bibliography[edit source | editbeta]
Nature and Science (1958)
In a Cause That Will Triumph: The Goldwater Campaign and the Future of Conservatism (1967)
The End of the Draft: The Feasibility of Freedom (with Thomas Reeves) (1970) ISBN 0-394-70870-9
Dear America (1975) (autobiography/anarchist manifesto)
Neighborhood Power: The New Localism (with David Morris) (1975)
Community Technology (1979)
A Common Sense Strategy for Survivalists (1981) ASIN B0006Y81QA
Three Interviews (1981)
Capitalism for Kids (1986)
Mostly on the Edge: An Autobiography (edited by Karl Hess, Jr.) (1999) ISBN 1-57392-687-6
George,
You just wrote a big essay blasting an author who you feel is an apologist for Communist atrocities and promptly turn around and do another approving cut-and-paste from a white supremacist website? By an author who wrote an article to take a pot shot at a theoretical (and quite radical) anti-Islam ally explicitly because she’s Jewish?
Do the priests you republish know they are sharing blog space next to a bunch of unreconstituted unapologetic racists?
Hint: the other blogs that thinks Mr. Langdon writes excellent essays and is front-line material in the fight against “liberalism” have things like “The death of Nazi Germany was the death of Western man and everything he once stood for” in their sidebars. I am not exaggerating about your reblogging peers.
“let us examine why things are so confused” you say, yes, indeed let us do so.
Mr Trost, I don’t “feel” that Drezhlo is an apologist for far-Left atrocities, I know that he is. That’s why I wrote this essay. In the future please address the substance of Langdon’s critique, not his associates whomever they may be. As I have endeavored to address the substance of Drezhlo’s theses. (What he does on his own time and his own dime is immaterial to me.)
As for myself, I get knews from a variety of internet sources, including far-Left websites such as the Huffington Post, Anti-War, The Nation of Islam, Mondoweiss, etc., as well as from those on the Right. More to the point, no historical incident is beyond review. That’s why there are thousands of books on eminences such as Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Hitler, Churchill, Lenin, Kennedy, etc. If the historical issues surrounding them were settled, then one biography of each man would be enough.
The substance of Langdon’s critique boils down to: liberals are going to doom the white race by being outbred by the non-White hordes. This essay doesn’t even bother with the pretense of speaking to conservative or ‘traditional’ moral values:
Word use:
Christian: 0
conservative: 0
traditional: 0
moral: 0
White/non-White (capitalized, racial context): 5
Being a regular consumer of sources like the Occidental Observer pretty much makes it as difficult to defend yourself against presumptions of racist tendencies as being a Penthouse subscriber would against presumptions of being enslaved to lust. And, I should say, this isn’t even about what you’re reading, it’s about what you’re approvingly reposting.
In short, Mr. Michalopulos, as to the substance of Mr. Langdon’s piece of filth, it is pretty clear that he would, for example, be perfectly happy to stand in front of any clergy from the Antiochian Archdiocese and express the opinion that while it might be too bad that non-White Christians in the Middle East are undergoing Muslim persecution, but that’s no reason to allow them to come over to the US and further dilute the “White heritage of our nation”.
I have a response to that, but it requires language outside the acceptable confines of this blog.
The “substance” of Mr Langdon’s essay was that Liberals are essentially narcissists who cannot defend their culture, as well as blazing hypocrites like the young murderess in question who “chose” life when she aborted her five babies. Nihilism.
As for the other things you cited that Langdon did not mention, you could also accuse him of not mentioning the Double Procession of the Holy Spirit, the Vinland Map, and West Nile Virus.
BTW, you should be very careful of profiling the people who make up the Antiochian jurisdiction. They might want to have a word with you regarding their racial makeup.
Actually, as a liberal, I found significant disagreement with the false point that Muslims breaking the law with a headscarf is acceptible to liberals. I apologize for such grammar, though.
The laws were written to help govern society and keep people safe. Liberals generally appreciate governing…. Suggesting liberals take the view the Muslim woman is in the right is a blatant lie. I could easily argue her religious freedoms have been violated, but that is a conservative argument. At this point, the essayist loses credibility with me. I try to allow him to earn it back, but then he rambles on about various other things lauding the woman that has five children as if she isn’t narcissistic for running her proverbial copier those five times, but the girl who doesn’t bear children is narcissistic for assumed abortions.
No feathers ruffled here-whole thjng seems a bit off as Trost points out.
I’m checking it off.
As a liberal, you should be all in favor of upholding the law and being in favor generally of the culture that prizes the rule of law over that of the rule of men. That was why I was a liberal for so long. Unfortunately, most liberals (the loudest and most influential ones anyway) genuinely prefer to take the side of the supposedly mistreated “Other” when it comes to society.
Well, I’m a liberal, but it doesn’t mean much anymore. As I may have said before, I define it in shorthand as Isaiah Berlin in political philosophy, Reinhold Niebuhr in religion (he was decidedly not a liberal theologically, but rather socially), and Jack Kennedy in politics.
They were already getting out of date when I came of age in the mid-late ’60s.
I still resist being called conservative, but I end up there often enough. I tell people I’m a liberal without a single “progressive” bone in my body. I sometimes get pigeonholed as a Neocon, a label I reject with scorn!
I continue to read Berlin and Niebuhr, and continue to mostly agree with them.
Not that this really adds anything to the discussion, but we few “real” liberals need to raise our hands now and then!
BTW, if you’re talking about Pamela Geller, I’m a huge fan of hers.
I stand with Geller as well. She is Anti-Jihad, not Anti-Muslim as her detractors and enemies claim. She is a voice crying in the wilderness. If you knew what she really stands for, you wouldn’t down-vote her.
If only they would follow Narkissos the saint rather than Narkissos the myth. But Narkissos the myth is in line with “self-image” and feelings. For the latter, an oppressed majority is better than an oppressed minority (provided, of course, that said person if of the majority is not oppressed with the rest). When a dead man gets buried, the only reason why his “last will” is carried out is because it is the law, and otherwise people would do their own will with what was that man’s property. But that “last will” is very limited to the Narcissist, because, even if they have a last will, their real last will is to live another day to do his or her will–but on that very day such a one’s plans perish, as does every endeavor of man, the only alternative being the will of only Friend- of-man.
Mr. Michalopulos,
There is a lame old joke in genetics: “How do you figure out the gender of DNA? Easy. You pull down it’s genes.” If I’m not mistaken, the issue was “orientation.”
Hey George, you go man.
I too get news and commentary from a number of different sites including Drudge, Huffington, American Renaissance, the Guardian, Chronicles, etc. If I were going to boycott some for the ideology of their writers it would be the ones on the Left, not the Right. But I prefer to remain open minded. Funny how the Left wants to close off debate once they are in power. And just because the Southern Poverty Law Center considers a publication or an author “racist” does not make it necessarily so. Moreover, being an adult, I can ignore someones racism, if it is real, and assess their other ideas, much like I can ignore someones atheism or heterodoxy and do so. Tagging someone as a racist does not deter me from taking what they write seriously. The criterion is truth, not political correctness.
Thank you Misha. If we had to ignore someone’s “racism,” we would have to ignore in toto the writings of Al Sharpton, Malcolm X, John C Calhoun, Charles Darwin, Margaret Sanger, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. As well as most Zionist publications.
A moritorium should be placed on the word “racist”: it’s no longer a valid criticism, but a pavlovian reflex.
I have a hard time understand the point of pasting this essay besides that people make wrong decisions and a hobbling together of unfortunate news incidents and poersonal reflections. Is this Tobias fellow Orthodox? Maybe I am missing your point here.
I rather doubt that Tobias is Orthodox. Neither are most other essayists who I post or repost on this blog. That doesn’t mean that they haven’t apprehended the impending societal collapse.
Well, something recently I read something that turn me off from modern liberalism. LBJ had a 100 percent levy on Karl Hess who didn’t pay taxes to protest the Vietnam War. Karl Hess who was once a speechwriter for Goldwater and got into the anarchists on both the left and right, volunteer socialism or more non-government free market was told by Johnson that it didn’t matter if Hess would not starve to death Hess turn to bartering and trading through bartering to survive. For this,it strikes me that some liberals can be pretty nasty out there some times.
Another comment on modern liberalism and sometimes modern conservatism. Both assume that Mexico or Greece are going to have crappy economies forever, and they have to leave their country and go to the US or in the case of Greece Germany, why not help their economies develop since immigration only helps between t2 to 10 percent of the population. Also, I was thinking that sometimes I think blacks in Detroit can’t make it, why not do alternatives for them in spite of the government. to help them make it in Detroit.
to prepare our students:
http://jordanrussiacenter.org/news/sending-our-gay-students-to-russia/
GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA
8-10 East 79th St. New York, NY 10075-0106 * Tel: (212) 570-3530 Fax: (212) 774-0237
http://www.goarch.org – Email: communications@goarch.org
Contact: PRESS OFFICE
Stavros Papagermanos
pressoffice@goarch.org
Date: August 7, 2013
PRIME MINISTER OF GREECE ANTONIS SAMARAS WILL MEET WITH ARCHBISHOP DEMETRIOS OF AMERICA
NEW YORK – His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America will receive the Prime Minister of Greece Mr. Antonis Samaras, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013 at 12:20 p.m. at the Headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
At 3:30 p.m., Mr. Samaras and Archbishop Demetrios will visit the site at the World Trade Center, where the church of St. Nicholas, which was destroyed on September 11, 2001, will soon be rebuilt.
Mr. Samaras is visiting Washington D.C. and New York this week, at the invitation of President Obama.
Additionally, tomorrow Thursday Aug. 8, 2013 at 4 p.m., Archbishop Demetrios will receive the Greek Deputy Minister of Development, Mr. Notis Mitarakis.
Did you see on Drudge where Prime Minister Samaras committed Truth? He said that a lot of Greece’s problems was because of illegal immigration.
There you have it– if not for those illegal immigrants, Greece would be a powerhouse today. They might even be manufacturing things for export, if not for those pesky immigrants!
Sir, please be assured that I am very much aware that Greece would never be an “economic powerhouse” regardless of how it handled this, that, or the other thing. Please be assured as well that Greece has many problems and a rational assessment of the situation would indicate that adding yet another burden like illegal immigration would break the camel’s back. Which it did.
I am Greek, I have relatives there. The crime and the strain of social services is profound. I am also American, and I don’t for one minute think that that same scenario cannot happen here, with profounder consequences.
A rational assessment of Greece involves the realization than even if there were zero illegal immigrants the country still would have melted down. To suggest otherwise merely indicates a lack of actual insight into the finances of the country (both before and after the government cooked the books).
Oh? So if the GOP controls everything in 2016 and guts the IRS, you and all the middle and professional class people you know are going to start cheating on your taxes to an epic degree? What scenario can’t happen here? Growth of support of right-wing racist fascism? If you keep reposting essays dividing things into White and non-White divides (where even to qualify as a “liberal” you apparently have to be White), I might recalculate those odds a bit.
Based on the consensus of all reports, Greece’s economic troubles can be largely traced to two main issues.
First, it’s an open secret and a tragicomedy that the Greeks — including government officials — don’t generally pay their taxes at the same time as everyone wants state benefits, and there is no effective mechanism in place to collect back taxes.
Second, anyone who qualifies as a member of the homogeneia (a racist term if I ever heard one) is entitled to retire to Greece with a state pension and/or other financial incentives. Details about that are a bit fuzzy in my mind, but I hope everyone knows what I mean.
Illegal immigration is a major problem? I don’t think so. Who is sneaking into Greece? Why?
It’s probably the LEGAL immigration of pensioners which is draining Greece’s treasury. If their aunts and uncles and cousins don’t pay their assessments, why would the immigrant retirees?
Monk James, what you say is largely true about some of the issues. Nobody has ever accused the Greeks of being economic geniuses like the Swiss or superb engineers like the Germans. Having said that, it was not me who said that illegal immigration has broken Greece (although it has) but the current PM who is here on a state visit. He knows of what he speaks.
What you say about “homogeneia” is likewise true, but it is not racist but realist. A nation is an ethnos, an extended kin-group. Greece, like Israel and a lot of other European countries has a “right of return” which favors those who share a common ancestry over those who don’t. The Palestinians likewise demand as a pre-condition for any peace talks going forward that the world recognize their own “right of return.” If memory serves, the PLO Charter recognizes only those Jews who have pre-1948 ancestors native to Palestine as having a right to live in a future Palestinian state (but I digress). Read what our Founding Fathers said about the historic American nation and the socio-cultural/religious group which created this nation. To subscribe to the fantasies of multiculturalism is a delusion of the second order if not the first.
Getting back to Greece, I first went there in 1967 and last went there in 2000. It was always a poor country, mismanaged, and corrupt. Of that there can be no doubt. Still, it was very stable, crime was non-existent, and the quality of life was superb. None of those things can be said of Greece today. It is nothing less than criminal that it was forced to take in tens of thousands of illegal immigrants given its already-existing economic deficits. Out of a population of 11,000,000, 1 million are illegal immigrants; roughly 10%. In America by contrast, less than 5% are illegal and we have none of the economic deficits of Greece, yet we are almost tearing each other apart because of this huge illegal influx. That would be like a doctor telling a chain-smoking alcoholic that he should take up crack cocaine as well.
George Michalopulos (August 10, 2013 at 11:12 pm) says:
‘It is nothing less than criminal that it (Greece) was forced to take in tens of thousands of illegal immigrants given its already-existing economic deficits. Out of a population of 11,000,000, 1 million are illegal immigrants; roughly 10%.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
‘Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants’ is NOT the same as a million illegal immigrants, a little less than 10% of the population. Perhaps Mr Michalopulos can explain the apparent discrepancy?
ALSO: Just exactly WHO ‘forced’ Greece ‘to take in tens of thousands of illegal immigrants’? How was that accomplished?
Honestly, I suspect that PM Samaras is scapegoating immigrants in order to avoid rightly blaming the resident homogeneia for Greece’s economic woes, and because he hasn’t a clue as to how he can get the natives to pull their own weight in society and pay their fair share of taxes.
Mr. Michalopulos is correct. The quality of life of the average Greek has gone down the tubes. Salaries of the average worker have been cut in half while expenses has doubled and tripled, if people receive their salaries at all. Something that was rarely seen but that is all too common now is dumpster diving for food. People buy bread by the slice from the bakeries. Frugality is one thing, but what the people of Greece are experiencing now is insane.
Dear Monk James,
You want to know who is sneaking into Greece?
Would you like that list by population quantity, locale, political motive or alphabetically?
Never mind, the hour is too obscene to try to track down and organize the statistics right now.
So in no particular order:
Albanians, Russians, Turks, Sub-Saharan Africans. The biggest offenders however are the Chinese who have purchased almost all of the shipping ports in Pireaus and are shipping illegal immigrants all the time (and Russians with them) and Pakistanis who are used by their organized crime bosses as drug mules for transporting heroin and opium into the rest of Europe through Turkey which fund Al-Qaeda operations.
And you all thought the war in the Middle – East was about oil?
Any other questions?
nit picker (August 11, 2013 at 3:27 am) says:
‘You want to know who is sneaking into Greece?….Any other questions?’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Obviously, the people described here by ‘Nit Picker’ aren’t ‘sneaking into Greece’, since he is able to identify them so well.
But, yes, I have some other questions.
How does the purported influx of illegal immigrants to Greece assist Al Qa’ida or international drug smuggling? There are lmany other ways to do that, none of which involve Greece.
And — back to my earlier question — how/why/by whom is Greece FORCED to receive illegal immigrants, drug mules and others?
Italy, for instance, regularly rounds up illegally arrived Albanians and sends them back. Can’t Greece do the same? Why or why not?
Monk James,
the ethnic identities of the illegal aliens who have swollen the social services of Greece are immaterial. The fact is that they broke the law to invade the Greek polity. That Greek elites may have taken advantage of their services is immaterial as well. Both need to be punished: the aliens by deportation and the elites by fines and/or imprisonment.
The rule of law matters.
Now if we could only get the population of the U.S to take a look at the results of this immigration myopia. But, no, the Lightworker gets in their eyes…..
Monk James,
This isn’t a racist comment, but Hellenes are pretty consistent in their modes of dress and in their physical appearance.
The Pakistanis (for example) that have taken over large parts of central Greece especially, have set up “cultural centers” in their own language in major cities such as Athens, Thebes, Sparta, Thessalonica and have chosen not to acculturate into the larger surrounding culture implying that their heart is still in Pakistan.
It is a well documented fact that an over land trade route for drug trafficking is through Turkey in freight trucks. Turkish freight trucks can be seen traveling all over Greece quite frequently.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1468385042000247583#.Ugh5UaxkWuI
http://www.hri.org/docs/USSD-INCSR/95/Europe/Turkey.html
https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=134993
The drugs are produced by countries that support Al-Qaeda. It is Noriega all over again.
Greece finally woke up and started to deport people. It was decried as being inhuman and racist…gee where have I heard that before?
As to why it cant spend more resources on that type of activity, probably because they are busy doing things like harassing the monks of Esphigmenou at the request of Patriarch Bartholomew. What do the police expect the monks to do? Beat them to death with their prayer ropes?
http://www.esphigmenou.com/
Another factor of the economic downfall are businesses like Lidell (sp?) [a German owned supermarket chain] and Ikea. They do their business in Greece but they ship the money they make in Greece to bank accounts outside of Greece. It isn’t invested back into the Greek economy. These large companies have managed to put mom and pop operations out of business as well draining the regional economy, never mind avoiding paying their fair share of taxes.
BTW Monk James,
Greece is not FORCED to receive illegal immigrants, they SNEAK into the borders of the country, at great expense and personal risk to their own lives, often only to be forced into slave labor, crime and prostitution. Escaping misery in one place only to embrace it in another and calling it paradise.
George Michalopulos (August 10, 2013 at 11:12 pm) says:
‘It is nothing less than criminal that it (Greece) was forced to take in tens of thousands of illegal immigrants given its already-existing economic deficits. Out of a population of 11,000,000, 1 million are illegal immigrants; roughly 10%.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I did not write that Greece was ‘forced to take in … illegal immigrants’ — George Michalopulos wrote that. I asked twice who was forcing Greece to accept illegal immigrants, and how that was accomplished. GM has yet to respond.
Point taken: the EU forced Greece to take in illegals.
Citation needed for this statement:
If that were the case, why is Frontex continuing to expand its capabilities in ongoing multi-year involvement in Greece due to EU concern that Greece can’t enforce its borders?
When was the last time you were in Greece, Mr Trost?
George Michalopulos (August 13, 2013 at 7:49 am) says:
‘Point taken: the EU forced Greece to take in illegals.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I thank George Michalopulos for answering the first of my two questions. Now it remains only for us to be told HOW this was/is accomplished.
Was Greece somehow singled out by the EU for such ‘force’ while Italy, e.g., routinely sends back boatloads of Albanians? Why Greece?
Why would the EU move that one european country be ‘forced … to take in illegals’ while another — especially one with an even slightly stronger economy — is not ‘forced … to take in illegals’?
Mr. Trost et al,
You want citations, my pleasure.
Citations galore!! Enjoy!! 🙂
How about this? Go to Michelle Malkin’s website and read “The Illegal Alien Murder of Vanessa Pham.”
Soon, I hope to do an essay with hyperlinks of just one month’s worth of murders, rapes, vehicular homicides, and burglaries committed by the “undocumented immigrant community.” I’ll need a day off to to this and the reader will need a week to read them all.
I followed nit’s link and found an interesting Wiki article on Greece’s immigration situation. After making the point that immigrants have halted a decline in overall population (I suppose the natives were not interested in reproducing and saving the Greek nation/culture), the article lays out the following:
“Migrant women to Greece in particular are of note, and are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Greek women continue to make strides in education and employment. Traditionally, the participation of Greek women in the labor force has been very low due to a lack of formal employment opportunities, an overabundance of unpaid activities in small family businesses or agricultural work, and prevailing cultural attitudes in Greece about the domestic role of women. Between 1971 and 1996, adult female participation in the paid labor force jumped from 31.2% to 47.5%. A rapid expansion of the Greek educational system, coupled with increased prosperity in Greece, lead to an increase in women in the workplace and a subsequent reduction of supply of labor for certain (usually unpaid) work mostly done by women. However, Greek cultural values regarding women’s “duties” within the home has not changed as rapidly as female employment has–Greek women are increasingly taking on responsibilities outside the home while their domestic tasks remain largely unabated. This creates a demand for cheap, migrant labor in areas related to household and care work in Greece that is largely filled by female migrants.
There is a great degree of job segregation by sex for migrants in Greece, with mostly migrant women filling the domestic roles left by Greek women. Women from the Philippines, Albania, and Eastern Europe dominate migrant domestic work in Greece, and indeed make up the majority of immigrants from those countries–76% of Bulgarian immigrants, 70% of Albanians, 76% of Romanian, 85% of Poles, and 80% of Filipino immigrants to Greece are female. Greece has the highest female migration rate in Europe. Women from more developed countries tend to work in tourism and office work, while those from Asian, African, and former Soviet bloc countries are predominately employed in household for domestic work, or as caregivers in medical centers. Filipino women are primarily employed as maids in families, while Albanian women are confined to domestic or cleaning roles.
While the majority of all female migrants are economic immigrants looking for good jobs that earn them a much higher salary than they can find in their homeland, female migrants, particularly undocumented ones, are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. The Greek legal system offers very little protection to domestic workers and in some cases may actually increase their insecurity and vulnerability. Additionally, instances of sex trafficking are increasingly on the rise, with estimates citing that over 20,000 migrant women are trafficked into Greece every year for the purposes of sex work.”
You know if it walks like a failed nation, squawks like a failed nation, it is a failed nation.
Monk James,
If you don’t pay into the National Retirement fund, you don’t receive benefits. End of story. Even those who have paid into the National Retirement fund of Greece expecting a certain income in their old age, due to the current economic crisis have had their benefits cut by half to two-thirds thanks to “austerity” measures. Those austerity measures don’t seem to apply to members of parliament or bureaucrats. They receive full salaries. We are talking about individuals who paid in from the time they started working when they were 16 until the time they retired at 78 and where doing heavy manual labor 8 – 12 hours per day and then going and tending to fields and livestock besides.
Another reason for immigration restrictions and reform:
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/16/justice/ms-13-gang-arrests/index.html
Monk James wrote:
Please see my response to your comment below:
https://www.monomakhos.com/how-liberals-destroy-themselves/#comment-60731
This article outlines how pensions are funded throughout various European communities and summarizes the various weaknesses of Greece’s pension plan. The main problems appear to be an increasingly aging population, a lowered birth rate and that the government does not contribute it’s fair share to the pension plan in the author’s opinion.
http://digilib.lib.unipi.gr/spoudai/bitstream/spoudai/188/1/t50_n3-4_125to139.pdf
This is probably the more likely scenario on how people are fleecing the government. Not reporting when their pensioned family members are dying. A similar government fleecing scheme was carried out by Greek citizens when there where many wild fires and the government was handing out bail outs. People were making claims for damages when they weren’t even in the affected areas.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2048385/Greek-finance-sham-120k-families-claiming-ghost-pensions.html
It’s a pretty vicious cycle. Who is more corrupt, the citizenry, or the government? Round and round it goes and goes and goes…
George, I am sorry for the sarcasm in my tone, but I cannot plead inadvertence. All I saw was the “committed Truth” comment by which you characterize the Greek PM’s finger-pointing at “illegal immigrants” !
This is riding a hobby horse to hard and too far, I think.
You can’t really be that indignant…I’d prefer a heated rebuke to the “sir”!
The Orthodox Church in America PASTORAL CHANGES
Official No. 549 • April 2013
EPISCOPAL CHANGES
(MORIAK), Bishop Matthias of Chicago, who was on a Leave of Absence, is granted Retirement by the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, effective April 15, 2013.
(GOLITZIN), Bishop Alexander of Toledo is appointed Locum Tenens of the Diocese of the Midwest by the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, effective April 15, 2013. All of his other duties remain the same.
RECEPTIONS
FILIPOVIC, Rev. Dragan is canonically received into the ranks of clergy of the Orthodox Church in America on April 1, 2013 by Metropolitan Tikhon from the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Eastern America. He is transferred to the omophorion of Bishop Melchisedek of Pittsburgh and attached to the Archdiocese of Western Pennsylvania.
TONSURED
(MAHAFFEY), Hieromonk David was tonsured to the Lesser Schema on February 10, 2013 by Igumen Sergius (Bowyer), Abbot of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery, at St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery Church, South Canaan, PA. He is known as Hieromonk David (Mahaffey), with his patron Saint being St. David of Wales. (Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania)
ORDINATIONS
AIDINOV, Gregory was ordained to the Holy Diaconate on January 13, 2013 by Bishop Michael of New York at Christ the Saviour Church, New York, NY. He is under the omophorion of Bishop Michael and attached to the Diocese of New York & New Jersey.
BATCHKO, Edward was ordained to the Holy Diaconate on April 20, 2013 by Bishop Michael of New York on behalf of Metropolitan Tikhon at St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery Church, St. Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA. He is under the omophorion of Metropolitan Tikhon.
BRUNS, Steven was ordained to the Holy Diaconate on April 12, 2013 by Metropolitan Tikhon at Three Hierarchs Chapel, St. Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY. He is under the omophorion of Metropolitan Tikhon.
FERRENBERG, James was ordained to the Holy Diaconate on September 23, 2012 by Archbishop Benjamin of San Francisco at St. Elizabeth Mission, Poulsbo, WA. He is under the omophorion of Archbishop Benjamin and attached to the Diocese of the West.
LoBALBO, Geoffrey was ordained to the Holy Diaconate on November 4, 2012 by Archbishop Tikhon of Philadelphia at St. Nicholas Church, Bethlehem, PA. He is under the omophorion of Archbishop Tikhon and attached to the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania.
MORRISON, Deacon David was ordained to the Holy Priesthood on April 20, 2013 by Bishop Michael of New York on behalf of Metropolitan Tikhon at St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery Church, St. Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA. He is under the omophorion of Metropolitan Tikhon.
ASSIGNMENTS
AIDINOV, Deacon Gregory is attached to Christ the Saviour Church, New York, NY, effective January 13, 2013. (Diocese of New York & New Jersey)
BATCHKO, Deacon Edward is attached to St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery Church, St. Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA, effective April 20, 2013. (Stavropegial)
BRUNS, Deacon Steven is attached to Three Hierarchs Chapel, St. Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY, effective April 12, 2013. (Stavropegial)
BROWN, Rev. John is released from his duties at Holy Apostles Mission, Bloomington/Normal, IL and attached to Holy Trinity Cathedral, Chicago, IL, effective January 1, 2013. (Diocese of the Midwest)
DOSS, Rev. E. Danial is released from his duties at SS. Peter and Paul Church, Burr Ridge, IL and appointed Acting Priest-in-Charge of Holy Apostles Mission, Bloomington/Normal, IL. He is also attached to Holy Trinity Cathedral, Chicago, IL, effective January 1, 2013. (Diocese of the Midwest)
FERRENBERG, Deacon James is assigned to St. Elizabeth Mission, Poulsbo, WA, effective September 23, 2012. (Diocese of the West)
FILIPOVIC, Rev. Dragan is attached to St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Allison Park, PA, effective April 17, 2013. (Archdiocese of Western Pennsylvania)
GRESH, Protodeacon James, who was awaiting assignment in the Diocese of the Midwest, is transferred to the omophorion of Bishop Alexander of Toledo and attached to the Bulgarian Diocese, effective April 4, 2013. He is assigned as Administrator of Orthodox Mission of Alliance, Alliance, OH, effective April 9, 2013. (Bulgarian Diocese)
KINCAID, Rev. Herman is released from his duties as Dean of the Chicago Deanery, effective April 24, 2013. He remains Rector of SS. Peter and Paul Church, Burr Ridge, IL. (Diocese of the Midwest)
KORBAN, Rev. Mark, who was awaiting assignment, is attached to St. Jacob of Alaska Mission, Montpelier/ Northfield Falls, VT, effective April 12, 2013. (Diocese of New England)
Pastoral Changes • April, May 2013-2
LoBALBO, Deacon Geoffrey is attached to St. Nicholas Church, Bethlehem, PA, effective November 4, 2012. (Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania)
MORRISON, Rev. David is attached to St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery Church, St. Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA, effective April 20, 2013. (Stavropegial)
MUELLER, V. Rev. Thomas, in addition to his duties at SS. Cyril and Methodius Church, Milwaukee, WI, is appointed Dean of the Chicago Deanery, effective April 24, 2013. (Diocese of the Midwest)
TALLEY, Rev. Daniel, who was on a Leave of Absence, is returned to Active Duty. He is attached to St. Cyprian of Carthage Mission, Richmond, VA. He is appointed to serve as Second Priest of St. Symeon the New Theologian Church, Birmingham, AL and as a Supply Priest for the Carolina and Southeastern Deaneries, effective April 21, 2013. (Diocese of the South)
LEAVES OF ABSENCE
PIASTA, V. Rev. Andrew, who was on a Medical Leave of Absence, has his Leave of Absence extended through December 31, 2013, effective April 24, 2013. (Archdiocese of Canada)
ON LOAN
VOLKOVINSKY, Rev. George is received “On-Loan” by Metropolitan Tikhon and transferred under the omophorion of Bishop Melchisedek, effective April 12, 2013. He awaits assignment.
RETIRED
(MORIAK), Bishop Matthias is granted Retirement by the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America on April 15, 2013. His title is Retired Bishop of Chicago and the Diocese of the Midwest.
RELEASED
KONDRATICK, V. Rev. John N., who is Retired, is released from his attachment to St. Sergius of Radonezh Chapel, Oyster Bay Cove, NY and from the omophorion of Metropolitan Tikhon. He is granted a Canonical Release to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, effective April 15, 2013.
MITCHELL, Deacon Patrick is released from his duties at St. Nicholas Cathedral, Washington, DC, the Archdiocese of Washington, and the omophorion of Metropolitan Tikhon. He is granted a Canonical Release to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, effective April 23, 2013.
DEATHS
MERCULIEF, V. Rev. Paul, who in Retirement was attached to St. Innocent Cathedral, Anchorage, AK, died on April 12, 2013. (Diocese of Alaska)
PARISHES
Bulgarian Diocese. New Mission. Effective April 9, 2013. Orthodox Mission of Alliance, meeting at Dewald Chapel, University of Mt. Union, 1972 Clark Ave., Alliance, OH. Mailing address: 9135 Gans Ave. NE, Canton, OH 44721. Serviced by: * V. Rev. Joseph Cervo (Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese); Administrator: Protodeacon James Gresh.
* Indicates non-OCA clergy.
Approved for distribution:
Archpriest John Jillions
Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America
The Orthodox Church in America
PASTORAL CHANGES
Official No. 550 • May 2013
EPISCOPAL CHANGES
(PAFFHAUSEN), Metropolitan Jonah is granted Retirement by the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, effective May 27, 2013.
ORDINATIONS
BALDWIN, Alexis was ordained to the Holy Diaconate on May 26, 2013 by Archbishop Benjamin of San Francisco at St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery Church, St. Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA. He is under the omophorion of Archbishop Benjamin and attached to the Diocese of the West. (Diocese of the West)
GAUVAIN, Ignatius was ordained to the Holy Diaconate on May 25, 2013 by Metropolitan Tikhon at St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery Church, St. Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA. He is under the omophorion of Metropolitan Tikhon.
HERREM, Deacon Leonard was ordained to the Holy Priesthood on May 23, 2013 by Bishop Irénée of Quebec City at Holy Resurrection Church, Saskatoon, SK, Canada. He is under the omophorion of Bishop Irénée and attached to the Archdiocese of Canada.
Pastoral Changes • May 2013 – 3
McPHERSON, Moses was ordained to the Holy Diaconate on May 27, 2013 by Archbishop Benjamin of San Francisco at St.Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery Church, St. Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA. He is under the omophorion of Archbishop Benjamin and attached to the Diocese of the West. (Diocese of the West)
PALMER, Deacon John was ordained to the Holy Priesthood on April 21, 2013 by Bishop Irénée of Quebec City at Chapel of the New Hieromartyr Vladimir of Kiev, Halifax, NS, Canada. He is under the omophorion of Bishop Irénée and is attached to the Archdiocese of Canada.
ROTH, Nicholas was ordained to the Holy Diaconate on May 18, 2013 by Metropolitan Tikhon at Three Hierarchs Chapel, St. Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY. He is under the omophorion of Metropolitan Tikhon.
ASSIGNMENTS
(ANDERSON), Hieromonk John is released from his duties at St. Dimitri of Rostov Mission, Los Alamos, NM and appointed Priest-in-Charge of St. Cyril of Jerusalem Mission, The Woodlands, TX, effective March 2, 2013. (Diocese of the South)
BALDWIN, Deacon Alexis is assigned to Holy Theophany Church, Colorado Springs, CO, effective May 26, 2013. (Diocese of the West)
FILIPOVICH, V. Rev. Dragan is released from his duties at St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Allison Park, PA and appointed Acting Rector of St. John the Divine Church, Monessen, PA, effective June 1, 2013. (Archdiocese of Western Pennsylvania)
GAUVAIN, Deacon Ignatius is attached to St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery Church, St. Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA, effective May 25, 2013. (Stavropegial)
HERREM, Rev. Leonard is appointed Priest-in-Charge of All Saints Church, Meadow Lake, SK, Canada and SS. Peter and Paul Church, St. Walburg, SK, Canada, effective May 23, 2013. (Archdiocese of Canada)
HUGGINS, Rev. Benjamin is released from his duties St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery Church, St. Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA, and from the omophorion of Metropolitan Tikhon. He is transferred to the omophorion of Archbishop Benjamin of San Francisco and attached to the Diocese of the West. He is appointed Acting Rector of Durango Orthodox Mission, Durango, CO, effective May 27, 2013. (Diocese of the West)
LEHR, Rev. Vincent is released from his duties at All Saints Church, Meadow Lake, SK, Canada and SS. Peter and Paul Church, St. Walburg, SK, effective May 22, 2013. He remains Priest-in-Charge of Sobor of St. Herman of Alaska, Edmonton, AB, Canada.(Archdiocese of Canada)
(MAHAFFEY), Archimandrite David, who was awaiting assignment in the Diocese of Alaska, is assigned to St. Innocent Cathedral, Anchorage, AK and appointed Chancellor and Administrator of the Diocese of Alaska, effective March 1, 2013. (Diocese of Alaska)
McPHERSON, Deacon Moses is attached to Holy Trinity Cathedral, San Francisco, CA, effective May 27, 2013. (Diocese of the West)
MORRISON, Rev. David Jeffrey is released from his duties St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery Church, St. Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA, and from the omophorion of Metropolitan Tikhon. He is transferred to the omophorion of Archbishop Benjamin of San Francisco and attached to the Diocese of the West. He is appointed Acting Rector of St. Anthony the Great Mission, Bozeman, MT, effective May 27, 2013. (Diocese of the West)
OLEKSA, V. Rev. Michael is released from his duties as Acting Chancellor of the Diocese of Alaska, effective March 1, 2013. He remains assigned to St. Alexis Mission, Anchorage, AK. (Diocese of Alaska)
PAEZ, Rev. Andre is released from his duties at Three Hierarchs Chapel, St. Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY and from the omophorion of Metropolitan Tikhon. He is transferred to the omophorion of Archbishop Benjamin of San Francisco and the West. He is appointed Acting Rector of St. John the Evangelist Mission, Tempe, AZ, effective May 18, 2013. (Diocese of the West)
PALMER, Rev. John is attached to Chapel of the New Hieromartyr Vladimir of Kiev, Halifax, NS, Canada, effective April 21, 2013. (Archdiocese of Canada)
ROTH, Deacon Nicholas is attached to Three Hierarchs Chapel, St. Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY, effective May 18, 2013. (Stavropegial)
SCHROEDEL, Rev. John, in addition to his duties at St. Juvenaly Mission, Kailua-Kona, HI, is appointed Priest-in-Charge of Holy Ascension Mission, Hilo, HI, effective May 27, 2013. (Diocese of the West)
SCRATCH, Rev. Gregory, who was Acting Rector, is appointed Rector of St. Nicholas Church, Narol, MB, Canada, effective June 1, 2013. (Archdiocese of Canada)
WATT, Rev. Martin is released from his duties at St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery Church, St. Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA, and from the omophorion of Metropolitan Tikhon. He is transferred to the omophorion of Bishop Alexander of Toledo and attached to the Bulgarian Diocese. He is attached to St. George Cathedral, Rossford, OH, effective May 27, 2013. (Bulgarian Diocese)
YURIN, Rev. Pavel, who was Suspended, has his Suspension lifted and is returned to Active Duty. He is attached to St. Philip the Apostle Mission, Tampa, FL, effective May 1, 2013. (Diocese of the South)
RETIRED
(PAFFHAUSEN), Metropolitan Jonah is granted Retirement by the Holy Synod of Bishops, effective May 27, 2013. His title is “Retired Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of All America and Canada.”
Pastoral Changes • May 2013 – 4
SUSPENDED
SUSAN, Rev. Vasile, who was attached to St. Sergius of Radonezh Chapel, Oyster Bay Cove, NY, is Suspended from all priestly functions, effective May 14, 2013. (Stavropegial)
REMOVED
SEMOVSKIKH, Deacon Nikolay is Removed from the ranks of clergy of the Orthodox Church in America, by the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, effective March 13, 2013.
DEPOSED
(MIKHAILETCHKO), Igumen Nestor, who was Suspended, is Deposed from all sacred functions of the Holy Priesthood and his name is removed from the ranks of clergy of the Orthodox Church in America, by the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, effective March 13, 2013.
MORETTI, Rev. David, who was Suspended, is Deposed from all sacred functions of the Holy Priesthood and his name is removed from the ranks of clergy of the Orthodox Church in America, by the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, effective March 13, 2013.
DEATHS
SONDERGAARD, V. Rev. George, who in Retirement was attached to All Saints of North America Church, Albuquerque, NM, died on May 8, 2013. (Diocese of the South)
PARISHES
Diocese of the West New Mission. Effective effective May 27, 2013.Durango Orthodox Mission, Durango, CO. Rev. Benjamin Huggins, Acting Rector.
Diocese of the West New Mission. Holy Ascension Mission, Hilo, HI. Location: 28-1678 Old Mamalahoa Hwy, Honolulu, HI, 96728. Mailing address: PO Box 4631, Kailua-Kona, HI 96745. Rev. John Schroedel, Priest-in-Charge (808-217-8799).
Approved for distribution:
Archpriest John Jillions
Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America
Very sad to hear about David Moretti. May God watch over him and especially his family.
Especially considering that he won’t watch over them himself.
A question to who ever would know:
Who is Fr. John Kondratick? Any relation to Fr. Robert Kondratick? Why does a retired priest need to transfer from a Bishop’s omophor? What does that accomplish?
2nd question: How many times is it possible to retire a Metropolitan? Sources in the OCA kept on insisting that Metropolitan Jonah wasn’t terminated, that he was “retired” over a year ago, then in the “official statetment” provided here he was just retired this past May? Hmmm…..
Fr John Kondratick is not related to Fr. Rodion Kondratick.
As for the “official” pronouncement on the status of Metropolitan Jonah, it further codifies his status for the world to see. Silly that it took them this long to get around to it, but then again, Syosset is not that well run.
A retired priest is still must be attached to an altar, thus a bishop. It is proper protocol if he moves from one altar to another for him to be treated the same as an “active’ clergyman.
Any real story on Moretti? He was the guy ousted by MP… I am just curious… is it a divorce?
This is the same Morretti who was Bishop Mark Maymon’s best buddy in Dallas. He ran off with another women, leaving his wife and children. He was and is a phony. Please pray for his wife and children.
This is what I noticed about some whites that don’t like minorities e lately, some come from well to do families but complain about whites being poor today under 30. I was a younger baby boomer a group that has the highest high school dropout rate among whites except the silent generation and its tough to get a job today, but some people are what can be called whiners, if they want to do something abut the countries demographics then help developed robots since robots will eliminated a lot of the low skilled immigrant labor. i noticing these people could do better in life but whine and complain about their generation being the worst off.
Official Statement says
I’d walk a jillion miles to get away from the OCA.
George is sometimes right on liberals, they are sometimes about 20 years behind time. A person who use to live in a certain county in California claim it was the epicenter of the Religious Right which it never was. The placed had mega churches but below national average church attendance and some persons were involved in the religious right but the religious right is heavier in Texas and the South, and they are or were the epicenter of the religious right. The person did little research or doesn’t want to mention the fact that states with a lot of blacks or Hispanics like Texas have a lot of the religious right while the other place has a lot o Hispanics and Asians but hardly any blacks. I think that there reason for attacking it versus the south.
Also, liberals or gay activists are attacking Russia’s way of handing the gay issue.
I not certain of this but the Palestinians might be the Jews that were converted to Islam when Islam conquered Palestine in the 7th century, some Palestinians are Christians and some archaeological work shows Christians, Jews and Samaritans in 6th century in Palestine. The Samaritans synagogues are slightly different from the Jews.
OCA TO LAUNCH INVESTIGATION;
(Syosset, NY) Sources here have confirmed that the OCA will announce that a full and complete investigation is being launched to discover the person or persons responsible for the death of Archpriest John Jillions dog “Achilles.” The death coincided with Jillions finally moving to the USA which the OCA feels is just too strange to be considered normal.
Jillions made the sad announcement on his blog page, “our devoted English cocker spaniel Achilles passed away after only a few days in his new home……. We were still living in England when we got him as a puppy in January 2000 from a breeder just outside Cambridge, on the fens not far from Ely Cathedral, founded in 610AD by Anglo-Saxon princess Saint Etheldreda (patron saint of Cambridge).”
Jillions went on to share that the dog’s name was suggested by Bishop Basil (Osborne) who was later defrocked, not for naming the dog, but for conduct unbecoming a bishop.
The investigation will be headed by Archbishop Benjamin (Peterson). When contacted for comment on the pending investigation Peterson hinted that the OCA was already hot on the trail of the dog killer. Reports from Florida indicate that a former Chancellor and defrocked priest in Venice, FL will be questioned. “Although Fr. Jillions said that Achilles had been sick for the last few weeks, we consider this death to be suspicious”, added Peterson.
Jillions performed the Orthodox service for the burial of a canine. “We buried Achilles on Saturday evening, after reading Psalm 104, the vesperal prayer of creation. “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works, in wisdom hast Thou made them all.””
Once again the OCA is on the forefront in rooting out clergy misconduct. Metropolitan Tikhon of the OCA, also himself a devoted dog-lover, upon hearing of the demise of Jillions’ dog asked all Orthodox Christians around the world to offer prayers this Sunday for Achilles. Special petitions will be posted on the OCA website later this week.
The alleged suspect was contacted for comment on the pending investigation to which he replied that he had nothing to do with the dog’s death. In response Archbishop Benjamin stated that the response of the former chancellor was “typical.”
Contacted for comment, spokespersons for the Moscow Patriarchate and the Ecumenical Patriarchate both stated that “in our Church a person is innocent until proven guilty.”
Why would you write such a thing?
depth of character…also represented on the voting buttons it seems
Anna,
It is called satire. It is an old art form which sometimes reveals the absurdity of a situation. Sorry you missed its real point.
I did recognize an attempt at satire.
More than likely I missed your point that is why I asked. The loss of any life is sad. I suppose I should lighten up.
Anna,
It is the height of embarrassment for the Chancellor of a Church writing such personal drivel. It has no place on the pages of a website of a national church. What is the point? To make the OCA sound more folksy?
When a jurisdiction is losing members at an alarming rate, priest are under paid, many forced to work or relying on the necessity of the matushka working, indecisive leadership and trips to Russia to fawn an curry favor, it seems asinine and elitist to think that clergy and faithful may be placated by such out of touch missives.
In the meantime, other churches read that website and are shaking their collective heads wondering what relevance such postings present.
If the OCA thinks that such musings are helping them, they are sadly mistaken. As a former public relations executive I can assure you that if I had to give a grade to the OCA on its public face, I would be forced to give them an “F.” They appear to be an organization that can’t get out of their own way most of the time.
Like you Anna, I guess I should lighten up but looking at it from my professional lens and an Orthodox Christian (in progress), it is relentlessly frustrating.
Joyous Feast!
Cut the b.s.
Most adults in the room recognize personal reflection will be hokey and maybe a little small, but no name available had to use it as a chance for some backbiting because Jillions was the second chancellor in a row that was somehow a bad apple for fmr. Met. Jonah. Not why? Perhaps you ought to read more of the Jillions-Garklavs hysteria here.
And, of course, it was important for you to protect your authorships by using a pen name for your own drivel. I can make a near perfect guess as to your true identity, but I will try to refrain out of personal humility and just stick with my own acronym for dc-starts with devoid.. My own humility stopped to spank you briefly here I admit.
Why don’t you stick with punditry.. that would take the heaviest subject matter and present ironies and make your readers get really fired up about how bad the rest of the world is….
That way you will win the culture war and a Pulitzer or more appropriately, a Newbery.
I found your comment to be relentlessly frustrating.
oy vey
Mr. Fall,
I have a message here for you – pardon me, let me put on my glasses… – OK. It reads:
Please, don’t feel obligated to tip the messenger, but karma, being what it is…
Daniel Fall,
So sorry to frustrate you or get under your skin but I can understand your predicament, trying to put lipstick on a pig is an oy vey!
I am truly sorry that Fr. John Jillions lost his pet dog. Achilles looks like he was a sweet little fella, and anyone with a soul hurts to lose a faithful four-legged friend.
As Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote in Rime of the Ancient Mariner,
I do not have a problem with Fr. John Jillions displaying some folksy charm. I have a problem with him being an Orthodox priest and the OCA chancellor, because he is rather obviously confused about Orthodox anthropology and moral teaching, not to mention basic ethics, as evidenced by his actions on the infamous night of July 6th, 2012. He has no business either engaging in pastoral relationships or advising others on the same.
OK, I will say it another way: Why are you trying to squeeze blood from that rock?
Quite possibly to get these Christian pastors to repent of what they did. Sins unrepented are grievous indeed.
Of all people, George, you oughta know about that. Next to nothing but sin and vanity and hubris in nearly every post and “essay” you dump here, and next to nada re: tokens of repentance for this. You’ve clearly hit on a motherlode of the bottomless pit of hollow crap — you, together with a few of your more ludicrous and pig-ignorant “correspondents.”
Your continuous hypocrisy and bozo pretentiousness just fascinate me. I’m stumped though as to whether you could possibly be as blind and insight-free as you seem or if you’re just faking it. Your motives in the latter case would be somewhat mysterious, however. (A particularly crude disinfo hack for the shadow CIA or some similar outfit of goatherders has crossed my mind as a possibility on that side of the trade.)
If you’re at all sincere, which I doubt, in your loudly trumpeted concern about Met. Jonah and his apparent slandering by the OCA Synod, then do him a huge favor and just shut up on the subject henceforth. Not another word. With “friends” like you, the poor man needs no enemies.
Are you on Androgel by any chance? You definitely evince a lot of the hallmarks.
Once again: you need professional help. Desperately.
True enough. OTOH, I do not think that your continued vitriol has anything to do with the state of their soul.
George, yes, indeed, I pray for and hope for the repentance of everyone involved in forcing Metropolitan Jonah out of office.
If this were even vaguely the case that your sincere and primary concern is the repentance and salvation of “everyone involved in forcing Metropolitan Jonah out of office,” it would seem reasonable to expect some congruence in your behaviour. Instead of trusting that our God is a Just Judge and a jealous God Who will not suffer injustice against the righteous, you leap at every opportunity to “dog” the Chancellor of the OCA – pun intended – with an unrelenting vigor. This would, in fact, suggest that your primary concern is not repentance but retribution. And all the while, as near as I can tell, Met. Jonah appears – from the educational videos & sermons I have watched with gratitude – seemingly untroubled. But then again, I don’t know who you are, “Helga.”
dC,
Such postings are of human interest and relatable. I think the Chancellor’s Diary makes a connection. I don’t know about others but l favor web pages that provide real life glimpses. The OCA has quite a bit of information, it’s easy to maneuver and it’s pretty up to date. That’s just my opinion and others prefer a more formal presentation. As for other churches opinion of the OCA web site – I have no idea. It’s not a competition and we should not wish it to be one.
The real point is the author’s reflection in a mirror. Regards nameless and shameless.
The interesting entry is about Metropolitan Jonah
(PAFFHAUSEN), Metropolitan Jonah is granted Retirement by the Holy Synod of Bishops, effective May 27, 2013. His title is “Retired Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of All America and Canada.”
I suppose that the drama is finally over. Glory be to God!
Carl,
If the OCA was telling the truth they should have stated “Forced” Retirement. +Jonah never wanted to retire. His original letter of “resignation” as Metropolitan clearly states that he desired another assignment.
So, know, this will not end because the OCA continues to rewrite its own history and people are not being fooled.
I suppose that is a “glass half full” type of response Mr. Kraeff, and certainly, one way of looking at it. So yes, Glory to God for all things.
Somehow I recall that there was great disputation on this website and on other forums for many months concerning +Jonah’s official status: retired or not, resigned or not, etc, etc, etc. Without rehashing all the arguments and details, the wording is indeed interesting as you point out:
“Metropolitan Jonah IS GRANTED RETIREMENT…”
did he request it, the way he “requested” to resign?
Carl, this was announced back in May. This is not news.
You say “the drama is finally over”? No, “the drama” is not over until the other bishops confess to slandering Metropolitan Jonah.
Y’all still trying to squeeze some blood from that turnip?
Carl, the Synod committed slander. The statement they made about Metropolitan Jonah on July 16, 2012, was a lie. They need to retract it and apologize.
Carl, weren’t these the same words that St John Chryosostom spoke on his deathbed during his *ahem* third exile?
“The play is never over and the story’s never done until we’ve all been burned a bit and burnished by the sun(Son)”