The usual Open Thread rules apply: be concise, be charitable and, above all, be amusing!
Open Thread
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Capital punishment is self-defense. The death penalty is a deterrence and an education to killers.
John Paull II forgave his assassin and asked the state to free the would be killer of his temporal punishment. The state ought to have held its ground and kept the assassin in prison. All sinners must do their penance.
A convert to Catholicism as in the Pauline Privilege is happy to embrace his penance.
Good nuclear news for your homestate of Illinois, Donald. The operating licenses of Clinton Unit 1 (1138 MWe) and Dresden Unit’s 2 (902 MWe) and 3 (895 MWe) have been extended another 20 years. They are all GE boiling water reactors generating around 3000 MWe total. For comparison, the Robert Moses Niagra Falls hydroelectric power plant produces 2525 MWe. You got your own carbon free Niagra Falls! 😀 ⚛️⚛️⚛️
BTW, does anyone really think that the US NRC would now be so efficient at license extentions if it weren’t for Donald Trump’s four executive orders on nuclear energy?
“Hey! You brought this upon yourself! I didn’t ask you to bring this tree indoors. It’s a natural climbing post and I climb. …so don’t look at me with that face.”
~ Cat
Cats of the world unite! You have nothing to loose but your trees!
Twas eight days before Christmas and all through the house, that Darn cat is in cahoots with the old grey mouse. They planned their assault on the decked out Grand tree. Waited until the wife and I
departed at 3:00. We returned at 6:00 and what did we see? The mouse nibbling popcorn that was strung on that tree. Water was spilled all over the floor, what once was vertical was no more.
“Dat Cat dat Cat!”…. I heard my lady scream.
“It’s gone too far this time.” She shouted as she grabbed the Jim Beam.
Now I, in my overalls, armed with paper towels, perturbed by the scene..sure…but still willing to smile. “Pour me one too.” I made sure she heard, as we traded that cat for a yellow Tweety Bird.
nahhh
I like Cats.
We never had a cat topple a tree. When our cat Lily was young we did find her sitting in the tree once happy as a clam… but she lost interest quick and we never saw that behavior again.
The last couple years weve made a tradition of going out tree hunting with friends. 7$ pass per tree off the US forest service website beats any grocery store lot.
We used to go to local tree farms. The one we would have gone to was owned by a fellow parishioner and friend of my grandfather’s. Mr. Dietz passed away years ago and his sons were not as competent and ended up giving up.on trees.
It’s been a week already.
Last saturday we got a short notice request for a video chat from my wife’s parents with all her siblings and spouses.
They lost thier house when the bank sold thier house out from under them thru a clerical error allegedly (they were 100% up to date with thier mortgage) and are now living in a extended stay motel after they ended up getting evicted as the courts refused to intervene. My wife has been out of sorts understandably.
I also learned that one of my aunt’s is in the hospital with a litany of serious medical issues. She’s battled cancer a few times in the past, but it had been years since anything serious.
SteveTP
I will begin prayers for your inlaws. How awful, the bank maneuver. Keep the faith.
LQC,
I would like to hear your thoughts on Filipino bishops opposing the building of a nuclear power plant there. Did Fukushima expose real danger of nuclear power?
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/268473/filipino-bishops-oppose-government-plan-to-build-nuclear-power-plant-in-pangasinan
How about nuclear reactors everywhere except on known fault lines?
LQC: Having lived and worked in the Philippines for a number of years, the actions of the bishops is not surprising. They still look upon many Western practices and technology as contaminants of Philippine culture even though the population has long accepted much of American habits. With no real local energy resources except for a couple of hydro generating plants, the shortage of energy is a real problem in the development of local industry.
Guys, if you drill down in the various linked documents, as I suspected, the Filipino bishops oppose new nuclear construction because of unfounded fears of nuclear weapons. Of course there is always the Fukushima angle (lesson to be learned: don’t put your emergency diesel generators on the beach). Most Catholic prelates are idiots when it comes to nuclear energy, whether Filipino or not, and their advocacy for so-called renewable energy is a freaking joke. One typhoon and all those solar photovoltaics and wind turbines are useless piles of junk. But a nuke? Its six plus feet thick reactor containment can withstand such things (again, as long as you don’t do what the Japanese did and put your emergency diesel generators on the beach – God will NOT protect you against bad engineering).
Now all that said, my wife’s entire side of the family is Filipino and they are a party people. Don’t get me wrong: I love all of them. But they don’t have the acumen and attitude to do serious engineering like nuclear. And the Marcos govt is completely corrupt. My company was planning for new nuclear build in the Philippines, but now there is only silence. No way senior leadership will touch Marcos govt corruption.
So……..unless new nuclear build in the Philippines is operated by American or even French investors, I don’t see them getting out of their energy crisis.
But remember: Filipinos are good and hard working. Never a better race of people. But as a people, they party all night and sleep all day and don’t have what it takes to do things on time. When you say, “Be here at such and such a time,” they arrive way late and that’s called “Filipino time.” You can’t do that in nuclear. There are many happy exceptions, however. But administering serious engineering and technology is not among them.
As for Catholic bishops and nuclear energy, whether American or Filipino, I repeat: they’re idiots.
@Stephen E Dalton
“Cats of the world unite! You have nothing to loose but your trees!”
Well, at least, the cats only clime them.
Dogs, on the other hand……..
A brief, but great, exchange regarding the song Sixteen Tons between Tennessee Ernie Ford, whose recording of the song made it the classic that it is and Merle Travis, who wrote the song.
https://youtube.com/shorts/_PpTCtjs64U?si=4BxDx9DPAnnZCxbk
More info on new nuclear in the Philippines; it’s consistent with what I already know about Bataan and about SMR ventures. But Marcos government corruption will sink this boat. Just my opinion. BTW, the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) in the Philippines was completed in 1986 but never operated due to safety concerns, corruption issues (Marcos regime – the father – history repeats itself), and the Chernobyl disaster (fear mongering), despite an IAEA finding it could be refurbished. It sits near an active volcano, adding to risks, and has been maintained at a cost, with recent studies and government discussions exploring its potential reopening or conversion, but facing high costs and technical/safety hurdles. Bataan is a 621 MWe Westinghouse Pressurized Water Reactor, not worth the trouble in my opinion.
The Philippines is actively pursuing nuclear power for energy security, aiming for its first plant by 2032, focusing on reviving the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) with South Korean help, and exploring Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) via deals with the US and Korea, backed by new laws like the National Nuclear Energy Safety Act. Key efforts involve establishing strong regulation (PhilATOM), securing financing, building workforce skills, and ensuring public acceptance, despite ongoing challenges and reliance on coal currently.
From what I’ve heard Bong Bong Marcos is as corrupt as his father, but not nearly as smart. In fact, I hear he’s pretty dumb.
thoughts:
The human soul is in perfect union with God at creation in the image and likeness of God with free will, reason and totally informed consent with full knowledge in Original Innocence.
Mary embraced her Original Innocence in her desire to do the will of God eternally and was granted Perpetual Virginity before Mary became the Immaculate Conception.
Saint John Henry Newman, also Father of the Church, when his friends told him he would lose his teaching job if he became Catholic said: “What is L75,000 compared with one Holy Communion.”
When Jesus said to Peter: “What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. What you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Christ was referring to the forgiveness of sins and the Transubstantiation of the bread and the wine. Christ was not referring to eternal Truth.
Christ was referring to temporal authority: ordaining men to the Sacrament of Holy Orders, receiving the vows of consecrated persons abstaining from meat on Holy Days, fasting, spiritual disciplines, even excommunications, dispensations and the withholding of absolution in the Sacrament of Penance.
Authority in itself is subject to love. Christ washed the feet of His Apostles, as a slave would wash the feet of his Master. The Pope is the “Servant of the servants of God”, unless of course if the Pope rejects his work as the Vicar of Christ, as was done by Pope Francis.
This rejection as the Vicar of Christ invalidates his commission to bind and to loose, as in the refusal of the traditional Latin Mass. As Edmund Campion stated: “When you reject tradition you reject all of your ancestors.”
And, now one of the funniest things is John Hughes’ Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase. When the cat bit into the Christmas tree lights and with a yoewl was electrocuted, it ashes laying spread eagle on the rug, (no animals were hurt in the film). But it is terribly funny. Not to mention Santa Clause’s sleigh on fire in front of the moon. Oh well time for bed before the Grinch sends me “jury duty, jury duty”
P.S. If cats and dogs do not shorten their claws, their toes cross. When their toes cross they cannot walk properly.
A Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.
My mom started chemotherapy yesterday. It is going to make her more tired and sore than she already is.
Two of my brothers got into an argument over installing a stair lift. One of them called me last Sunday night. He started screaming at me in a profanity filled tirade. I hung up on him.
I take some comfort in our four chickens. When it’s nice out we let them in the yard and they enjoy it.
The last two years have been bad because of my son. Next year isn’t going to be better.
In the Q&A after Shapiro’s TPUSA speech, the USS Liberty incident came up. Anyone know a reliable source regarding the truth of that incident? A few years back Denis Prager admitted that response of both the U.S. and Israeli governments to it was strange.
“Fifteen years after the attack an Israeli Pilot who was ordered to participate in the attack came forward, approaching Liberty survivors and former Congressman Paul N. McCloskey. The pilot relates that he identified the ship as American and informed his superiors, but was told to proceed with the attack. When he refused to do so, he was arrested on returning to base.”
Note, no name is given, nothing is brought forward to substantiate this. This unnamed fellow is usually described as a “senior Israeli lead pilot”.
Well, the problem with all of this is we know who the lead Israeli pilot on the attack was: Yiftah Spector. After he was dismissed by the IAF in 2003 for his signing of a pilot’s protest against Israeli air operations in Gaza and on the West Bank, Spector talked about the attack on the Liberty. Here is a story that appeared on this in the Jerusalem Post on October 10, 2003:
“An Israeli pilot who mistakenly attacked the American intelligence ship USS Liberty during the 1967 Six Day War said they were lucky he had no bombs – otherwise he would have sunk her.
“There was a mistake. Mistakes happen. As far as I know, the mistake was of the USS Liberty being there in the first place,” said Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yiftah Spector.
After 36 years Spector, who this week was dismissed by the IAF for signing the pilots’ refusal letter protesting the policy of targeted killings, agreed to speak to a reporter for the first time on his role in the attack on the Liberty, an American spy ship strafed on the fourth day of the war.
Flying a Mirage III fighter jet code named “Kursa” or couch, Spector was the first pilot to reach the ship, which was about 20 nautical miles west of Gaza. He had been on an air-to-air mission and was not loaded with bombs.
Spector, now 63, went on to become a triple ace, shooting down 15 enemy aircraft, and take part in the 1981 raid on the Iraqi nuclear reactor, earning himself a place in the pantheon of Israeli fly boys. This week he ended a 20-year stint teaching new generations of pilots.
Spector had always refused to discuss the attack on the USS Liberty, which killed 34 US sailors and wounded 172, or even be revealed as the pilot who led the attack on her. Until now.
“I did not fire on the Liberty as a human target. I was sent to attack a sailing vessel. This ship was on an escape route from the El Arish area, which at that same moment had heavy smoke rising from it,” Spector said.
“It was thought to be an Egyptian vessel. This ship positively did not have any symbol or flag that I could see. What I was concerned with was that it was not one of ours. I looked for the symbol of our navy, which was a large white cross on its deck,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “This was not there, so it wasn’t one of ours.”
The concern of the IAF was that Spector and his wingman, who had been diverted from the Suez Canal, would strike one of the Israel Navy ships in pursuit of the vessel, which was assumed to be Egyptian. IAF archival recordings of the pilots’ radio transmission of the actual attack obtained by the Post show that Spector was specifically requested to verify that the ship was a military vessel and not Israeli.
According to the June 8, 1967, radio transmission, Spector said: “I can’t identify it but in any case it’s a military ship.”
Speaking of the event 36 years later may have caused Spector to mix what he remembered with what he may have read and his testimony does not always match archival facts.
“I circled it twice and it did not fire on me. My assumption was that it was likely to open fire at me and nevertheless I slowed down and I looked and there was positively no flag. Just to make sure I photographed it,” said Spector, who retired from active duty as a brigadier-general in 1984.
Experts intimately acquainted with the incident said that the only photos Spector took were from his gun-sight camera during his strafing run. Regardless of whether the 455-foot ship bristling with eavesdropping antennas flew a US flag, which it evidently did from its starboard halyard, that banner was shot off in Spector’s first strafing pass.
“I was told on the radio that it was an Egyptian ship off the Gaza coast. Hit it. The luck of the ship was that I was armed only with light ammunition [30mm] against aircraft. If I had had a bomb it would be sitting on the bottom today like the Titanic. I promise you,” Spector said.
The 30mm rounds were armor piercing, which to this day led Liberty survivors to believe they had been under rocket attack. Spector’s first pass ignited a fire which caused the ship to billow black smoke. Ironically, Spector transmitted he suspected the Liberty was putting out smoke to deliberately mask itself.
“Every order is given by commanders and the last one to receive it has to decide whether he will pull the trigger or not. In this instance I was the fighter. I checked what I had to check [i.e. that it was a military ship and not one of ours] and pulled the trigger,” Spector said.
“The crew should be thankful for their luck [that I was on an air-to-air mission and did not have any bombs]. It is a pity we attacked. I’m sorry for poor Capt. (William Loren) McGonagle, who was wounded in the leg and the other guys who were killed and wounded.”
“I’m sorry for the mistake. Years later my mates dropped flowers on the site where the ship was attacked,” Spector said. “I’m the last guy who has a problem with admitting mistakes and asking for forgiveness. There was a mistake, but it wasn’t my mistake.”
He added he remains baffled that the conspiracy theories live on that Israel deliberately attacked the US intelligence ship. He suggested it might be due to anti-Semitism, or anti-Israeli sentiments.
“I know that after the war one of the first things that was done was the establishment of a [US] senator’s inquiry. I know this personally, because I was called upon to testify before it. They came to the country and I was questioned. I told them what I told you just now – that there was a mistake. I am sorry for the mistake. In war mistakes happen,” Spector said.
He said that he had never in the past 36 years ever met with any of the Liberty survivors, but has no qualms about doing so now.
“They must understand that a mistake was made here,” Spector said. “The fool is one who wanders about in the dark in dangerous places, so they should not come with any complaints.”
https://youtu.be/nt8QvVwk75A?si=hdBphNDuqw1IhB_E
I found this link of a debate between USS Liberty survivor Phil Tourney (the guy who Candace had on) and journalist Cam Higby. Higby shows due respect for Tourney (even calling him a hero at least twice), but absolutely demolishes Tourney in this debate.