Rajeev’s Almanack

The Theology

His All-Holiness Bartholomew I is the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the city now called Istanbul. He is considered the equivalent of the Pope for the 300 million Orthodox Christians in the world. He is the `first among equals’ of the four Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem who are successors to the Apostles. (Several Patriarchates have been added more recently to reflect the growth of the Church in Eastern Europe, such as those Serbia, Moscow and Bulgaria). (more…)

It is difficult to know when it is time to drop what you are doing and start something new. Jerry Seinfeld, the comedian was an exception. At the height of his fame he was willing to walk away from a deal worth a million dollars an episode, because he knew his show had lost its originality. But so few in the political world seem to know when it is time to quit. Some linger on, braving daily insults and votes of no confidence, in the mistaken belief that it shows strength of character.
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I must confess I never quite got what the phrase `compassionate conservatism’ means. So it was interesting to listen to a three hour long `In Depth’ interview on C-SPAN with a Marvin Olasky. He is the inventor of the idea.
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Tammany Hall was the nickname given to the Executive Committee of the Democratic party that controlled New York throughout the nineteenth century. Although it suffered a few setbacks, Tammany remained a force until the middle of the twentieth century. The base of its strength were the new immigrants, for a time mostly Irish, that flocked to the United States through Ellis Island during this time. The tough unemployed youth were the enforcers of party discipline. More established immigrants contributed money and votes. The bosses had much patronage to hand out as rewards to the faithful. If you do a good job all your life as a precinct captain, maybe your nephew would get a plum job as a bridge inspector. That is, if he agreed to pass along part of his income to the party.
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Most of what we know of the Spartans is from their arch-rivals, the Athenians. So we have to be a little skeptical of what we hear. Still, we know that they were a city state that was dominated by a small tribe of warriors. They had an underclass of agricultural workers,the helots. These were descendants of the messenians whom they had subjugated in earlier wars. The young men and women of Sparta were separated early on. The men received military training. Women received education as well, unusual in ancient societies. Spartan way of life was austere, based on a system of honor that emphasized valor above all else. They are most famous for the battle of Thermopylae, in which a small band of Spartan braves fought off the invading Persian army.
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Living in Rochester, one hears a lot about how science is done at Xerox and Kodak. Xerox was a little better at it, but their experience was still rather painful. It looks like the company has recovered from some of its stumbles and has posted a reasonable record in recent years.
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