Pope Francis' Family

New information in today's on line edition of The Telegraph (UK).

Information provided by Mrs. Berdoglio, Francis' sole surviving sibling, who lives in Buenos Aires, is that their parents immigrated from Italy to Argentina to escape the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. Mrs. Bergoglio, a divorced mother of two adult sons, emphasized that stories suggesting her brother's complicity in actions by the Argentine military junta are wide of the mark. Such complicity, she emphasizes, would have been a betrayal of their father's lessons to the family.

The father, Mario Bergoglio, had been a railroad worker in Northern Italy in the Piedmont region before emigrating to Argentina in the 1920's.

Pamlico County Commissioners March 18, 2013

Last night's County Commissioner meeting dealt mostly with the County Planning Board's draft ordinance covering possible wind farms. They scheduled a public hearing April 1 by a vote of 4-1 (Chris Mele against) with two absentees (Pat Prescott and Carl Ollison).

The draft ordinance has not yet been posted on line.

How Cyprus Affects Europe

Here's a pretty straight report on what's wrong with Europe's approach to Cyprus.

Bottom line: the European Central Bank and IMF are practically inviting a run on European banks.

It may take awhile to develop, but it will be hard to turn around. Then what will happen to the Europe project?

1968: Perfidy In DC

Lyndon Johnson had the goods on Richard Nixon. But he couldn't use it.

The Democratic Party convention in Chicago was a disaster. Johnson even considered appearing at the last minute and putting his name forward for nomination.

Bad idea.

Peace talks were going on in Paris, and North Vietnam had made a promising offer.

Richard Nixon feared that prospects for peace would scuttle his campaign. He sent Anna Chennault as his intermediary with the South Vietnamese ambassador, pleading with them to put off negotiations and wait for a better deal after the election.

The FBI bugged Chennault and the National Security Agency monitored the Ambassador's communications with Saigon.

Johnson knew what was going on. In private he called it treason. But he couldn't make it public without revealing the monitoring. It's generally considered bad form to bug embassies and read ambassadorial communications - and to reveal it in public.

Of course, it's even worse form not to monitor and to get caught flat footed.

So Johnson kept his mouth shut in public.

Nixon won by less than 1%. Had Nixon's perfidy become public, he may well have lost by a landslide.

Here is the story. All captured on Lyndon Johnson's White House tapes.

It wouldn't be the last time a presidential candidate meddled in international negotiations to the detriment of national interests. It may well have been the last time such actions were so clearly documented.

Bank Heist In Cyprus Threatens Eurozone

Over the weekend, IMF, ECB and Cyprus banking officials agreed to a plan to swipe depositor's funds to pay for a bailout. Small depositors rush to get their funds out of banks. The mattress looks safer. Will this trigger a run on banks in other European countries?

More evidence that the Eurozone is a flawed monetary union.

What can they be thinking.

Germany remains confident in austerity.

One view of the decision:

World Wide Shortages: Wisdom, Compassion, Humanity

"Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?"

Axel Oxenstierna, Chancellor of Sweden to his son (1648).

I reflect on this quote from time to time and conclude that nothing has changed since 1648. That was about two decades before my first European ancestor arrived in Virginia.

I would like to believe that the American Experience has added to the world's stock of wisdom, but the more I study our own history, the less my confidence in that hope.

Still, I think it is at least a mixed bag. Some wisdom, some foolishness, some downright selfishness and inhumanity.

Today's Washington Post  has a very illuminating article on the SNAP program (formerly known as Food Stamps) in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. The article is worth reading for a number of reasons. First, it illuminates the amount of work that poor families have to go through to take advantage of SNAP. more importantly, it makes it clear that SNAP is much more than a program assisting individuals and families. It keeps whole communities alive.

Without safety net programs like SNAP, even more small businesses would have closed and small towns across the land would have become ghost towns. As the article explains:

"At precisely one second after midnight, on March 1, Woonsocket would experience its monthly financial windfall — nearly $2 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. Federal money would be electronically transferred to the broke residents of a nearly bankrupt town, where it would flow first into grocery stores and then on to food companies, employees and banks, beginning the monthly cycle that has helped Woonsocket survive."

More importantly, programs like SNAP, Unemployment compensation, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security help us avoid persistent regions of deep poverty and hunger that once existed across Appalachia and other rural areas of the country.

But if you read the article, be sure to also read and reflect on the many mean-spirited comments made by Washington Post readers.

And ask yourselves the question: "What kind of country do we want to be when we grow up?"

Ten Years Ago: Freedom Fries

I failed to note an anniversary last week. On March 11, 2003, Congressman Walter B. Jones and Congressman Bob Ney announced that henceforth menu items in the Congressional cafeteria would be renamed: "French Fries" would henceforth be listed as "Freedom Fries," and "French Toast" would be renamed "Freedom Toast."

This episode of international silliness started because France refused to join the United States in the invasion of Iraq.

Quickly forgotten by most Americans was that on September 12, 2001, NATO (including France) invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, declaring that if it was shown that the September 11 attack was coordinated from abroad, the Alliance viewed the attack on the United States as an attack on all members.

Early on in the effort to retaliate against Afghanistan, European members of NATO offered to contribute more military forces than the United States was willing to accept.

The Bush Administration sought special assistance from French Intelligence sources. France had by far the most complete intelligence in the Western world on Islamic extremism. They willingly shared this information with the United States. In fact, it is fair to say that French intelligence was essential to the early progress of the investigation.

When the United States turned its attention from Afghanistan to Iraq, France was not the only NATO member unwilling to support the invasion of Iraq. Turkey also refused to allow US forces to invade Iraq across the Turkish-Iraqi border.

Both Turkey and France were quite certain that Iraq had nothing to do the 9/11 attack on the US, and were equally certain that Saddam Hussein had not collaborated with Al-Qaida.

When asked much later about the "Freedom Fries" episode, Congressman Jones admitted he "wished it had never happened."

Right Of Way Decision

Residents keep asking me what I plan to do about Judge Alford's dismissal of my complaint against the Town.

All I can say is, I don't know. I haven't seen the draft of the Judge's order. So, although I know what I heard during the hearing, I don't know what the written order will say.

So I'm holding off on a decision until I read the order.

I'll let everyone know as soon as the order is entered.