Washington Stare-Down Intensifies

President Barack Obama as he appeared on
"60 Minutes," January 27, 2013.

This afternoon, President Obama concluded his comments to shipyard workers in Virginia, spouting words of doom about what will happen beginning Friday, if the GOP does not come to terms about resolving the latest self-imposed budget crisis. 

The trigger for this presumed disaster is the ‘sequester,’ a failed political strategy which, at the 11^th hour, has become the straightjacket into which Obama and both branches of the Congress bound themselves in 2011.
Now they are in a cat fight over how to cut the binding.

Olympic Wrestling Pinned by the I.O.C.

Matt Schleckser (one of our grandchildren) is about to
win one of his matches in the Montgomery County,
MD finals for the Churchill High School Bulldogs.
(Credit:  All photos courtesy of Matt's mom,
 Denise Schleckser.)
 

On February 12, the International Olympic Committee voted to remove wrestling from the roster of summer Olympic Games, beginning with the XXXII Olympiad scheduled for 2020. 

That decision was reached secretly in Lausanne, Switzerland, by the 15-person board of the I.O.C. 

In a New York Times article, John Irving reports that “Just two of the board’s members come from countries where wrestling is an actively promoted sport.  Yet 180 countries wrestle.”

The Election You Probably Knew Little About

Bell tower and front entrance to the building
of fire district one in Martinsville.  To vote
here, follow the downward sloping driveway
to the right of the bell tower, and enter from
the back parking lot.  (Bergeron Image.)

Many times, Pris and I have intermittently gone out on a Saturday to cast our votes in the local fire district election.  In question is the budget for individual fire districts and their commissioners.

There has never been significant publicity about these elections.  Few people know that they even occur.  It is an event that simply is not promoted to the general public.

That is why, when I sat down this morning with a cup of coffee and the print edition of the Courier News, I was so very pleased to see two-thirds of the front page devoted entirely to “Fire District Elections [this] Saturday,”  large photo – the whole bit.

The explanatory article by Sergio Bichao of the Courier News is an excellent public service, is specifically informative, and its prominent position in the newspaper is evidence – thank goodness – that there is more to the news than merely sex and gore.

POPE RESIGNS

Today, in an early morning dispatch from Rome, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI declared his resignation from the Papacy, effective February 28^th, 2013.

In his press release, the Pope said that “my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.”
 
He added that since “both strength of mind and body are necessary” to carry out the responsibilities of his position as head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI stated that he is stepping down from “the ministry of Bishop of Rome.”

Chosen to the Papacy by his peers in a 2005 Conclave, he previously held one of the Church’s most powerful jobs as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a position to which he was appointed by his predecessor, the late Pope John Paul II, in 1981.

Benedict XVI is also one of his generation’s most prominent theologians.  In his mid-thirties, he was a well-regarded papal advisor during the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965, an event which had a profound impact on the direction and nature of the Roman Catholic Church.

The last Pope to resign was Gregory XII in 1415.

Is it Bullying, if the Person is the Governor?

Governor Christie, as he appeared on the Piers
Morgan show on February 21, 2012.

Governor Chris Christie’s appearance on the David Letterman show set off another round of public discussion aimed squarely at, ‘should he or shouldn’t he?.  Lose weight, that is.  I recorded Letterman’s’ show on the DVR.  Pris and I viewed it the following day at an earlier hour.

I like Christie.  I admire and respect him as the CEO of New Jersey, and I would like him to get into better physical shape.  There is no question that the man is very, very large. I wish that he would shed some pounds

But I’m not going to hound him over it.  The fabricated expressions of concern over the size of his waist are beginning to sail out of control.  They border on harassment.

Hearing on Mosque Application Continues Tuesday Evening

A large group of people gather at the September 4, 2012
meeting of the Bernards Planning Board.

Tomorrow night at 7:30 pm, representatives of the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge will appear at a Planning Board meeting in Bernards Township to continue presenting data and to testify in support of an application to build a mosque in the Liberty Corner section of Basking Ridge.

The proposed site is located at 124 Church Street on a four acre lot.  If approved, a mosque of approximately 4300 square feet will be erected on that property, and a parking lot will be laid out, subsequent to demolition of the home now at that location.