I. ABOUT.COM - Memorial Day 2010 in Washington, DC
Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died serving our country. This is a great time to honor our veterans and famous Americans by visiting the monuments in Washington, DC. The Memorial Day weekend also marks the beginning of the busy summer season and the Washington, DC region celebrates with family friendly events and special services. Here is the 2010 Memorial Day event schedule: PBS' National Memorial Day Concert, Sunday, May 30, 2010, 8 p.m. Gates open at 5 p.m.; National Memorial Day Parade, Monday, May 31, 2010, beginning at 2 p.m.; Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally, Sunday, May 30, 2010. Departure from the Pentagon at 12 p.m.; GI Film Festival, May 12-16; Arlington National Cemetery, Thursday, May 27, 2010, 4 p.m., Monday, May 31, 2010, 11 a.m.; Navy Memorial, Saturday, May 29, 2010, 11 a.m, Monday, May 31, 2010, 10 a.m.; Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Monday, May 31, 2010, 1 p.m.; World War II Memorial, Monday, May 31, 2010, 9 a.m. and Air Force Memorial, Monday, May 31, 2010, 9 a.m.
II. THEATLANTIC - What Would Happen if the Supreme Court Struck Down Health Care Reform?
This weekend, I had a conversation with someone non-crazy who thinks there is a not-insignificant chance that the Supreme Court will overturn health care reform, or at least the individual mandate (it's not clear what happens to the rest of the law if the mandate goes down; there's some possibility that this would invalidate the entire law). Mind you, this person was not suggesting that the chances were, say, 85%; more like 25%. So we spent a bit of time speculating about what would happen next. We know what happens if the court simply invalidates the mandate: you get New York State, where the cost of insurance spirals out of control, until the few remaining people in the individual market are so sick that the death spiral bottoms out. Adverse selection does have its limits, which is why, even before lemon laws, there was a market (however imperfect) for used cars. What happens after that? That would leave politicians deciding whether to repeal the most popular features, or end individual health insurance as we know it. Fun choice. My guess is that we'd get some weird hybrid model of corporate and state-sponsored insurance--but the state sponsored insurance would probably itself be overwhelmed by adverse selection, or (if we simply funded universal coverage out of tax dollars), by employers dumping their employees onto the public plan. But I have no idea where the money would come from. there's a strong possibility that any ruling that eliminated the individual mandate would make anything but single payer or a national health service illegal. Ironically, a conservative court might push health policy to the left. Or maybe a better way to put it is that it would polarize the choices: incremental tweaks, or single payer. My hope is that in this unlikely event, it would open the way for something more like what I've proposed: catastrophic income insurance for everyone (i.e., the government will cover health care costs above some fairly high percentage of your income), with less support for first-dollar coverage. But that's a pretty wan hope. And unless these lawsuits clear the court systems before 2014, the dislocations would be massive.
III. BALKANINSIGHT - EP Rapporteur Warns Macedonia on Name Row
Without a solution to the name dispute with Greece, the situation is potentially dismal for Macedonia at the forthcoming June summit of EU leaders, Zoran Thaler, Slovenian member of the European Parliament and Special Rapporteur for Macedonia, told press in Skopje. Thaler warned that the time for a name settlement is running out and that without the solution in hand Skopje has only a slim chance of getting the desired start date for its EU accession talks at the meeting of EU leaders. The move is currently being blocked by Greece. "If there is progress, Macedonia's negotiations will be launched, including concrete tasks for the country, which would be good. On the contrary, and unfortunately this is currently the more realistic option, Macedonia could gradually be taken off the agenda. This means you will no longer be in the focus of the EC's attention," Thaler said on Thursday. Thaler urged Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to step up and “solve the rubicon without fear of how this will affect his personal ratings, the popularity of his party or that of the government. The MEP warned that there is a growing feeling in Brussels that Skopje is not entirely sincere when it says it wants to join the EU. He says that Brussels is becoming suspicious of the true intentions of the government led by Gruevski. Thaler also noted that the country should double its effort to reform its legislation to match European standards. Unlike last year’s reforms progress, which was awarded with a recommendation from the European Commission to open the EU accession talks with Skopje, Thaler noted a setback in the pace of reforms this year. Despite the positive EC report last autumn, Skopje was blocked by Athens from getting the desired start date. Athens argues that its smaller neighbour should not be allowed to join NATO and the EU before changing its official name, Republic of Macedonia. Greece says that Macedonia's name implies territorial claim's against its own northern province, which is also called Macedonia. The ongoing UN led negotiations, which have been held on and off for years, have so far been unsuccessful.
IV. XINHUANET - U.S. missiles in Poland violate Russia-NATO agreement
Permanent deployment of the U.S. Patriot missile in Poland will mean the violation of the basic agreement between Russia and NATO signed in 1997, said Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko on Friday. "There are no reasons that could justify the deployment of the missiles near Russian borders," said the Russian diplomat. He reminded that the Russia-NATO agreement implied that both parties were not to station permanent armed forces in the border regions. Earlier, Moscow demanded articulate explanations from the United States and Poland of the deployment of Patriot missiles near the Russian border. U.S. Patriot missiles arrived in Poland on Monday. They were deployed in the town of Morag, close to the Russian border, where six training-mode Patriot missiles had been deployed. After 2012, they will be supplemented with the standard SM-3 combat missiles.
Serbia has asked Spain for support to getting a green light in June for forwarding its candidacy for European Union membership. The request also concerns the start of ratification of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Božidar Đelić told Tanjug in Madrid on Thursday. After a meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, Đelić said he asked for support to the continuation of the process of Serbia's European integration on the basis of the report of the Chief Hague Prosecutor Serge Brammertz. Đelić said he and Moratinos also conferred on bilateral relations and on prospects for increasing Spanish investments in Serbia. Serbia is ready to make public a tender worth EUR 22mn for diesel engines for Serbian railways, on the basis of a loan granted by Spain a few years ago, he said. Spanish company Telefonica might possibly be interested in the forthcoming privatization of 40 percent of Telekom Srbija capital, he added.
VI. JTO - Study Finds More Converts Than Expected
A new study of Orthodox Christians in America has found a larger-than-expected number of converts, mostly from Roman Catholic and evangelical Protestant backgrounds. The report, released by the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute in Berkeley, Calif., surveyed 1,000 members of Greek Orthodox or Orthodox Church in America congregations, which represent about 60 percent of America’s estimated 1.2 million Orthodox Christians. Although Orthodox churches were historically immigrant communities, the study found that nine out of 10 parishioners are now American-born. Thousands of members had converted to the faith as adults: 29 percent of Greek Orthodox are converts, as are 51 percent of the OCA. The study also found unexpectedly high numbers of converts among clergy — 56 percent in the OCA, 14 percent in the Greek Orthodox church. In both cases, the higher OCA numbers reflect that group’s use of English in its worship services. These findings could mean that Orthodox churches are growing in America. The findings, however, indicate that other Christians are increasingly seeking a more traditional worship experience. Compared to a 2005 study of American Catholics, the survey found more Orthodox Christians responding that they could not imagine belonging to another faith group, and fewer agreeing that how a person lives is more important than his or her religious affiliation. The study’s other findings showed a majority of Orthodox Christians would support allowing married bishops, but not female priests. They also want their clergy to work with their Catholic and Protestant counterparts to coordinate a common date for Easter, which typically falls several weeks later for the Orthodox due to their use of an older liturgical calendar.
VII. BELIEFNET - Will there ever be an American Orthodoxy?
That's the question I have as the Assembly of all the "canonical" Orthodox bishops of North America gets underway in New York. As I understand it -- and I invite correction if I'm wrong -- the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Greek Orthodox refused to seat bishops of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA -- my church) because they do not recognize its autocephaly. The OCA's Metropolitan Jonah and other bishops were admitted as observers only. I'm still relatively new to Orthodoxy, but I don't understand this. How can they discuss a unified American Orthodox church without the OCA participating at an equal level? Can they not simply recognize the OCA's autocephalous status, however irregular it was granted a generation ago? I hope some of you reader can disabuse me of the suspicion that this is a power play by Old World hierarchs to prevent the emergence of a true, unified American Orthodoxy. The Greek Orthodox recognize this event as the first meeting of American Orthodox bishops -- completely ignoring the 1994 meeting, which the Greek Orthodox in America participated in, but the Ecumenical Patriarch opposed. What is it with the Greek hierarchy? Does this snub of the OCA have anything to do with the clash between Jonah and the EP, in which Jonah told the EP not to meddle in the affairs of American Orthodox churches? What about Antiochian Met. Philip's audacious demotion of several of his own bishops, in what was interpreted as a blow against the Americanization of the Antiochian church in America, and the assertion of power by the Old World? Does the historic visit of the EP to Moscow have anything to do with the timing of the Assembly in America -- by which I mean, did the Moscow patriarch sign off on the sidelining of the OCA as a concession to Bartholomew? I have questions. I don't really understand what's going on here. If you have clarifying answers, let's hear them. UPDATE: Good for Metropolitan Philip! He laid it out in his speech today. Excerpt: We have been on this continent for more than two hundred (200) years. We are no longer little children to have rules imposed on us from 5,000 miles away. Orthodoxy in America has its own ethos. We have our own theological institutions, and we have our own theologians, authors, publications and magazines. We do not intend to be disobedient to the Mother Churches; we just want to dialogue with them and give them the opportunity to know us and understand us. We have been here for a long, long time and we are very grateful to the Almighty God that in our theology and worship, we do express the fullness of the Holy Orthodox faith. More: The second point which I would like to note is concerning the term "Diaspora" which was used several times in the literature which we received from Geneva. I remember, there are many of you who were at the Antiochian Village in 1994 and should remember that the term "Diaspora" was unanimously rejected by our assembly. We are not in Babylon; we are in North America, the new world. We are dealing here with second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth generations of American Orthodox and they refuse to be called "Diaspora." I believe that some of our churches in the Old World are in "Diaspora." In Jerusalem, for example, we have 2,000 Orthodox Christians left. In Constantinople, the glorious capital of the Byzantine Empire, I was told that there are only 2,000 Greek Orthodox left. And the Turkish Government, until now, refuses to let us open that famous Theological School of Khalki, despite the intervention of the presidents of the United States. In Iraq, hundreds of Christians were slaughtered and thousands had to flee Iraq to the Syrian Arab Republic. We are free here in North America -- free to teach, free to preach, free to worship, free to write books and sometimes criticize even the presidents of the United States. We have the full freedom of expression in accordance with the United States Constitution. It is important to note here that the Holy Synod of Antioch, to my knowledge, never discussed the Chambesy decision and the rules of operation in order to formally bless this effort. Philip goes on to ask, with reference to Metropolitan Jonah being excluded from the Executive Committee, how come the OCA are good enough to share the Eucharist with, but not good enough to be part of the decision-making process. Thank you, Metropolitan Philip! Thank you for standing up for us so strongly! And then Philip ends with this bombshell: If I have a vision for the future, it is this: Jerusalem has less than 2,000 Orthodox left. Istanbul has 2,000 Greek Orthodox left. The future of Orthodoxy in the Middle East is uncertain. Thus, for the sake of international Orthodox unity and Orthodox unity in North America, we should with one voice, beg His Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch to leave Istanbul and move to Washington, D.C. or New York City and head a united Orthodox Church in this hemisphere. All of us, I am sure, will be blessed to be under his omophorion and Orthodox unity in North America will cease to be a dream, but a reality. UPDATE.2: A priest at the Assembly reports in the comments thread that the OCA reps have been seated and are participating fully. I hope so, but why, then, is Jonah being excluded from the executive committee, as Philip has said?