Vladimir Putin has backed plans to establish a Russian military air base in neighbouring Belarus in a move that will unnerve Poland and the Baltic nations.

Belarus has made clear it would not welcome a Russian base, but the former Soviet republic remains dependent on Moscow for credit and energy.MORE

I don’t think they could survive with their own state now.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – More than half of Palestinians no longer support a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel, a survey released on Monday showed, rejecting the goal that has underpinned four decades of international diplomacy.

The poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, a leading research group in the Palestinian territories, found that 51 percent of Palestinians oppose the two-state solution while 48 percent support it. MORE

“Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?”

Vol 8 Issue 38 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
September 19, 2015 ~ Saint Januarius, opn!

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (34)
2. Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
3. St. Eustace and Companions
4. Christ in the Home (9)
5. Articles and notices

Dear Reader:

This week a convert of Fundamentalism and Anglicanism to the Conciliar Church writes of three branches within Conciliar Catholicism: Continue reading →

With a lack of overnight economic data to consume, we are left to reflect on yesterday’s Federal Reserve decision to keep interest rates at 0.25%. While their justification to do so seems understandable – a lack of inflation remains concerning as does economic weakness in emerging markets – what is most curious is the negative response by the crude complex. Despite a weakening dollar (a stronger dollar was highlighted as another pillar of pain upholding the decision not to raise rates), oil prices have shown downside movement ever since. It raises the question: what would prices have done if they had raised rates?! MORE

After weeks of dancing around the issue, the Obama administration has expressed concern about “heightened military activity” by Russia in Syria.

But what if we are facing something more than “heightened military activity?” What if Moscow is preparing to give Syria the full Putin treatment?

For years, Russia has been helping Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad cling to a diminishing power structure in a shrinking territorial base without trying to impose an overall strategy.
Now, however, there are signs that Russia isn’t content to just support Assad. It wants to control Syria. MORE

Father Joseph M. Melito  passed away on September 7, 2015 at the age of 67. He had been ill for some time and the chapel he was renting had been closed and sold. Father became a traditionalist in the 70’s and eventually established a chapel in Glendale, California and named it the Archangel Gabriel. Father Melito was also a Chaplin for the Los Angeles Police department.

A funeral Mass was said on September 19 at Our Lady of the Angels Church in Arcadia, CA. an SSPX Church.
I knew Father Melito and he will be sorely missed. In one of his last letters to me he closed by saying, “May this Easter Season remind both of us that no matter what the ‘daily page’ of our life brings us, that with God, the last chapter of our ‘book’ has a happy ending.

Sincerely, Father Melito

Pope Francis embodies sanctity but comes trailing clouds of sanctimony. With a convert’s indiscriminate zeal, he embraces ideas impeccably fashionable, demonstrably false, and deeply reactionary.

They would devastate the poor on whose behalf he purports to speak, if his policy prescriptions were not as implausible as his social diagnoses are shrill. MORE

The tally of homes destroyed by two massive Northern California wildfires topped 1,000 Saturday after authorities doing damage assessments in the Sierra Nevada foothills counted another 250 houses destroyed by flames still threatening thousands of more structures. MORE

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government said Saturday that it will issue thousands more visas to Syrian refugees before the end of this year by accelerating the processing of their applications, as it tries to counter election-year criticism over its handling of the refugee crisis. MORE

A news release says the Satanic Temple has formally petitioned the Arkansas Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission for permission to place a “Baphomet” monument next to the planned Ten Commandments monumentdecreed by the  legislature. (They dishonestly said it was about history, rather than religion.)

The Satanic Temple says its statute of a goat-headed idol is intended as a memorial to “various historical witch hunts and homage to the persecuted free-thinkers and “heretics” who helped inform American secular jurisprudence.” MORE

President Obama, in a historic first for the Pentagon, has chosen to nominate Eric Fanning to lead the Army, a move that would make him the first openly gay civilian secretary of one of the military services. MORE

In an interview with the CBS show “60 Minutes” to be broadcast Sunday in the United States, the Iranian president said the famous Friday ritual is a reaction to previous Washington policy decisions that hurt Iran.

In April, US President Barack Obama’s administration signed a deal with Rouhani’s government to release Iran from many of the economic sanctions harming its economy in return for tight controls on its nuclear program. MORE

Volkswagen called them “clean diesels,” branding them as the fun-to-drive alternatives to hybrids as it dominated the U.S. market for the engine technology. MORE

He loves me yea yea yea, I know it must be true, yea yea yea.

Three hours after Pope Francis delivers the first-ever canonization Mass on U.S. soil Wednesday inWashington, D.C., singers Ed Sheeran andChristina Perri will perform across town at theVerizon Center. The two events are more similar than one might assume. MORE

The lord will be back before they finish this project.

Americans could one day soon cruise between two major cities in the western US on a mega-fast train at 150 mph, thanks to a new agreement between a private US venture and a consortium led by China Railway Group. MORE