Los Angeles local

OUTSIDE OF CALIFORNIA: Pope reaches out to reactionary, anti-Vatican II sect

2009-01-25T15:50:00.000-08:00

By Forgiving Traditionalists, the Pope Offends Jews (Time)

Excerpt:

Pope Benedict XVI has reinstated four bishops from an archconservative breakaway wing of the Roman Catholic Church ...

... British-born Bishop Richard Williamson, one of those Benedict is bringing back into the fold, denies that the Nazi Holocaust ever happened.

"I believe there were no gas chambers," Williamson said. The bishop, who has been accused of anti-Semitism in the past, declared that the historical evidence was "hugely against" the accepted belief that close to 6 million Jews were systematically exterminated as part of Adolf Hitler's Final Solution. Williamson claims that no more than 300,000 Jews died during World War II.

Reaction here. Excerpts:

Benedict’s actions are also reviving his old nickname when he was Cardinal Ratzinger — that of the “Panzerkardinal”, known for his hardline conservatism as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. ...

Other Catholic-Jewish tensions include plans by the Pope to beatify Pius XII, the wartime pontiff accused by critics of failing to speak out in defence of Jews. The Vatican insists that Pius helped the Jews while avoiding public statements that would have made matters worse, and has demanded the removal of a plaque attacking him at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

OUTSIDE OF CALIFORNIA: Present state of Republican party

2009-01-24T15:01:00.001-08:00

Reagan wouldn't recognize this GOP (LATimes) The author, former Republican Representative Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma, voted for Obama in the 2008 general election. What's notable are the last paragraphs:

The Republican Party that is in such disrepute today is not the party of Reagan. It is the party of Rush Limbaugh, of Ann Coulter, of Newt Gingrich, of George W. Bush, of Karl Rove. It is not a conservative party, it is a party built on the blind and narrow pursuit of power. ...

Last year's presidential campaign ... saw the emergence of a Republican Party that was anti-intellectual, nativist, populist (in populism's worst sense) and prepared to send Joe the Plumber to Washington to manage the nation's public affairs.

American conservatism has always had the problem of being misnamed. It is, at root, the political twin to classical European liberalism, a freedoms-based belief in limiting the power of government to intrude on the liberties of the people. It is the opposite of European conservatism (which Winston Churchill referred to as reverence for king and church); it is rather the heir to John Locke and James Madison, and a belief that the people should be the masters of their government, not the reverse (a concept largely turned on its head by the George W. Bush presidency).

Over the last several years, conservatives have turned themselves inside out: They have come to worship small government and have turned their backs on limited government. They have turned to a politics of exclusion, division and nastiness. Today, they wonder what went wrong, why Americans have turned on them, why they lose, or barely win, even in places such as Indiana, Virginia and North Carolina.

Digital billboard news

2009-01-23T21:19:00.000-08:00

L.A. measure would ban new digital billboards (LATimes)

LAUSD news

2009-01-23T21:17:00.000-08:00

L.A. Unified teachers' jobs safe for now (LATimes)

OUTSIDE OF CALIFORNIA: Transition

2009-01-23T20:40:00.000-08:00

Freaky set of images here.

A follow-up from an October 2008 story

2009-01-22T21:03:00.000-08:00

Suspect is held in homeless man's fiery death in Los Angeles (LATimes)

Unionization effort at a Rite-Aid in Palmdale

2009-01-21T14:58:00.000-08:00

Story here (Washington Monthly liberal political magazine) 3,000 words. This story is of a general nature and not something that broke on Wednesday, January 21.

Former Orange Co. sheriff evades major convictions

2009-01-18T19:58:00.000-08:00

Michael Carona found innocent on 5 of 6 charges. Quick summary here. (Political blog w/ link to LATimes article)

OUTSIDE OF CALIFORNIA: Plane lands in Hudson River

2009-01-17T22:48:00.001-08:00

Footage. Note the ferry boats. (BigPicture financial blog)

Some ferry stories: Washington Post, Newsday. Good picture here.

OUTSIDE OF CALIFORNIA: Layoffs galore

2009-01-17T08:03:00.000-08:00

List of links (Calculated Risk financial blog)

Plus, Circuit City to close remaining 567 stores in U.S. (LATimes)

State of California headed for a fiscal freeze

2009-01-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

California controller to suspend tax refunds, welfare checks, student grants (LATimes)

Record high temperature

2009-01-15T21:27:00.000-08:00

85°

OUTSIDE OF CALIFORNIA: Evaluation of Bush presidency

2009-01-15T14:55:00.001-08:00

The Bush Verdict Is In (WaPo) - highly critical.

Shooting in Oakland causes uproar

2009-01-15T13:58:00.000-08:00

Former BART officer charged with murder in New Year's killing (LATimes)

Schwarzenegger says to legislature "Cooperate!"

2009-01-15T13:30:00.001-08:00

Budget dominates Gov. Schwarzenegger's speech (LATimes)

Budget impact on UC campuses

2009-01-15T13:29:00.000-08:00

UC cuts freshman enrollment for fall by 6% (LATimes)

Veteran TV star dies

2009-01-15T13:27:00.000-08:00

'Fantasy Island' actor Ricardo Montalban dies at 88 (LATimes).

New city slogan for Los Angeles

2009-01-13T11:35:00.000-08:00

“That’s So L.A.” -- the ad campaign (LATimes)

With a Steve Harvey look at other city slogans in Southern California.

Record high temperature

2009-01-12T21:29:00.000-08:00

88°

Tragedy in the valley

2009-01-12T14:09:00.000-08:00

Amtrak train kills woman walking in tunnel in Chatsworth (LATimes). This is the same tunnel that the freight train came through which subsequently hit the Metroliner in September.

Cars for sale on the street

2009-01-12T14:05:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles considers restrictions on street sales of cars. (LATimes). This story broke on 7 Jan, but has been a talking point on the radio for a week.

First post

2009-01-10T21:53:00.000-08:00

This blog is to keep track of miscellaneous stories about Los Angeles and California.