Last week we New England Patriots fans learned that Bill Belichick, our team’s wildly successful head coach, cheats. Turns out that in the first game of the season, one of Belichick’s assistants improperly videotaped the defensive coaches of the opposing New York Jets, trying to steal their signs. As punishment, the Pats were stripped of future draft picks and fined, as was Belichick. Across the nation, sports writers wagged their fingers. Editorials called Belichick a disgrace. And us fans? Well, when Belichick’s mug appeared on the video screen just before the Pats’ second game, the hometown crowd cheered so loudly and so long that Belichick actually waved. Some diehards unveiled a banner reading in bill we trust.

I wish I could say I was surprised. In truth, Pats fans already knew that Belichick doesn’t play by Marquis of Queensberry rules. This February former linebacker Ted Johnson alleged that Belichick made him practice even after he suffered a concussion and that today he has brain damage so severe that he can barely get out of bed. But in Boston those earlier revelations–like these new ones–haven’t hurt Belichick’s popularity a bit. And there’s only one thing that could: losing.

That’s the dirty little secret about sports fans. We’re basically amoral. Kant said that acting ethically means treating other people as ends in and of themselves, not merely as means to our own desires. I happened to catch this in the doctor’s office yesterday waiting for an appointment after missing it when it orginally came out. Read it all.

MARK COLVIN: The Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne believes depression among young people is now so bad that many have effectively had their childhood stolen from them.

Dr Philip Freier says society is making children stressed, forcing them to grow up too early and sexualising them.

He’s now calling for a national inquiry into the state of childhood in Australia.

Dr Freier spoke to our Youth Affairs Reporter, Michael Turtle.

PHILIP FREIER: Talking about situations. Not just of people being unhappy but situations where we think there is up to 100,000 young people in Australia who are actually impaired from normal participation in life. So a very serious growth in people for whom that mental health issue is quite a limitation on their development.

MICHAEL TURTLE: Why do you think this is the case?

PHILIP FREIER: Well, I think there is a lot of reasons and some of them are to do with society and the way in which we push young children into almost adult like decisions and role models. But I’ve called on the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition to support having a national enquiry into childhood because that I think that there is enough evidence that there is a crisis that we are in the middle of that needs to have all the best information and research put together to guide how we develop public policy.

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BY any conceivable measure, Frank Buckles has led an extraordinary life. Born on a farm in Missouri in February 1901, he saw his first automobile in his hometown in 1905, and his first airplane at the Illinois State Fair in 1907. At 15 he moved on his own to Oklahoma and went to work in a bank; in the 1940s, he spent more than three years as a Japanese prisoner of war. When he returned to the United States, he married, had a daughter and bought a farm near Charles Town, W. Va., where he lives to this day. He drove a tractor until he was 104.

But even more significant than the remarkable details of Mr. Buckles’s life is what he represents: Of the two million soldiers the United States sent to France in World War I, he is the only one left.

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Check it out.

After voting to leave, the 11 churches placed themselves within a Virginia-based branch of the Church of Nigeria — another wing in the Communion.

The Virginia diocese is arguing that there was no division, but rather that individuals unhappy with the Episcopal Church chose to leave. The diocese and the national church, which are both parties in the case, say that the Episcopal Church is hierarchical and therefore a “division” can only happen if there is a vote of its governing body.

But those on the breakaway side say it was the Episcopal Church that “left” by letting stand the 2003 installation of a gay bishop in New Hampshire. The national church “has willfully torn the fabric of the communion at the deepest level,” attorney Steffen N. Johnson said yesterday in his opening argument.

They called as witnesses two U.S. church historians to discuss how church disputes were settled at the time the law was passed.

Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows has said he will rule on this case next month. Regardless of how he rules, a second trial will be held on lawsuits brought by the diocese and national church against the breakaway churches. That action asks the Circuit Court to declare the diocese the rightful owner of all property. The suits also asked the court to force the breakaway congregations off the 11 properties, which they have occupied since the votes in December and January.

Bellows’s ruling in the first trial will help whichever side he rules for in the second, representatives on both sides said.

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The congregations, including The Falls Church in Falls Church and Truro Church in Fairfax, argue that they are entitled to keep their land and houses of worship because the congregations overwhelmingly voted to disaffiliate with the Episcopal Church.

The diocese argues that church members who disagree theologically are permitted to leave the congregations as individuals, but have no right to take church property with them.

The disaffected congregations, now members of a breakaway group called the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, or CANA, say the 1867 law is on their side. It states that a majority vote will determine whether a congregation can realign and retain its property when a church faces internal division.

Episcopal leaders argue that the state law does not apply in this case because there has been no formal division recognized by the Episcopal hierarchy.

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The former Church of Ireland Primate, Lord Robin Eames, is leading an Anglican Communion delegation in North Korea, on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

Lord Eames left Northern Ireland this week to meet up with a group of other Anglicans, including the primates of South Korea, the United States and Japan.

Prior to his departure, Lord Eames told the Belfast Telegraph: “The visit to North Korea is linked to humanitarian aid provided by the Anglican Communion and the project concludes with an international peace conference in South Korea at the weekend.

“During this meeting I will be delivering a keynote speech from the Archbishop of Canterbury.”

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The apartheid era in South Africa produced Anglican Church leaders who stood out against injustice. Bishop Graham Chadwick, as Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman, following the example of one of his predecessors, Bishop Crowder, was expelled from the country for his actions. The Welsh-born bishop was finally escorted by the security police to Kimberley airport where 50,000 protesters joined in voicing their contempt at his deportation.

Graham Charles Chadwick was born in 1923 in Mid-Wales. The early death of his father led the family to relocate to Swansea, where Chadwick attended Swansea Grammar School. In 1942 he joined the RNVR. With his great gift for languages, he was selected to learn Japanese, before serving as an intelligence officer on flagships in the Pacific. He lost a close friend when he survived a kamikaze attack on HMS Formidable, and in 1946 he acted as an interrogator of war criminals.

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BEIJING – China’s largest cell phone service provider successfully tested a transmission station on Mount Everest on Tuesday, making it possible for climbers and those on next year’s Olympic torch relay to make calls, a state news agency reported.

Decrying “political stalemate” in Baghdad and Washington, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will reiterate its call for a “responsible transition” that gets U.S. troops home without a sudden, precipitous withdrawal from Iraq.

“We don’t advocate for retreat. Neither do we advocate staying the course. We advocate for responsible transition” that takes into account the humanitarian crisis that the war has precipitated, said Bishop Thomas Wenski, of the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla., chairman of the bishops’ Committee on International Policy.

This is at least the sixth statement that the bishops or their representatives have issued on Iraq since September 2002 when they raised “serious questions about the moral legitimacy of any preemptive, unilateral use of military force to overthrow the government of Iraq.” But, at the time, their words were all but lost in the avalanche of media attention to reports about the failure of some bishops to respond to reports of sexual abuse by priests. But, regarding Iraq, the bishops were far quicker with their qualms than they were 40 years earlier during the Vietnam war. Although they condemned the war in 1971 — which made an impact on a middle America that often disapproved of protesting “hippies” — their statements earlier in the war were more equivocal.

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Watch it carefully and watch it all.

Forty-five percent of black children whose parents were solidly middle class in 1968 — a stratum with a median income of $55,600 in inflation-adjusted dollars — grew up to be among the lowest fifth of the nation’s earners, with a median family income of $23,100. Only 16 percent of whites experienced similar downward mobility. At the same time, 48 percent of black children whose parents were in an economic bracket with a median family income of $41,700 sank into the lowest income group.

This troubling picture of black economic evolution is contained in a package of three reports being released today by the Pew Charitable Trusts that test the vitality of the American dream. Using a nationally representative data source that for nearly four decades has tracked people who were children in 1968, researchers attempted to answer two questions: Do Americans generally advance beyond their parents in terms of income? How much is that affected by race and gender?

“We are attempting to broaden the current debate” beyond the growing gap between higher- and lower-income Americans, said John Morton, Pew’s managing director for program planning and economic policy. “There is little out there on the question of mobility across generations, and we wanted to examine that.”

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Update: An AP article is here.

Eighty-five bungalows dot the cul-de-sac that joins West Ontario Avenue and East Ontario Avenue in Atlanta. Twenty-two are vacant, victims of mortgage fraud and foreclosure. Now house fires, prostitution, vandals and burglaries terrorize the residents left in this historic neighborhood called Westview Village.

“It’s created a safety hazard. And if we have to sell our house tomorrow, we’re out of luck,” said resident Scott Smith. “Real estate agents say to me ‘We’re not redlining you, but I tell my clients to think twice about buying here.'”

As defaults surge on mortgages made to borrowers with spotty credit and adjustable-rate loans, more people are noticing that their neighbors are caught up in the meltdown. Their misfortunes are haunting those left living on the same streets. The effects aren’t confined to just low-income or redeveloping communities; they are seeping into middle-class neighborhoods and brand new developments.

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More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year – the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease, federal health officials said Tuesday.

“A new U.S. record,” said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr. of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More bad news: Gonorrhea rates are jumping again after hitting a record low, and an increasing number of cases are caused by a “superbug” version resistant to common antibiotics, federal officials said Tuesday.

Syphilis is rising, too. The rate of congenital syphilis – which can deform or kill babies – rose for the first time in 15 years.

“Hopefully we will not see this turn into a trend,” said Dr. Khalil Ghanem, an infectious diseases specialist at Johns Hopkins University’s School of medicine.

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In what is believed to be a first for the Diocese of El Camino Real, a United Methodist Minister has taken a role in the celebration of the Eucharist. The 8 a.m. service at Trinity Cathedral, San Jose, Calif., on Nov. 11 included the installation of Canon-vicar Lance Beizer.

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No crosses at the Western Wall was the message sent by a rabbi to a group of Austrian Catholic bishops who refused to hide their Christian crosses before entering the courtyard of the Western Wall, the Jewish people’s holiest prayer site.

Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch refused to give the bishops access to the site and avoided meeting the ecclesiastic delegation of approximately 20, led by Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Schonborn.

Rabinovitch denied that the incident, which took place Thursday, smacked of religious intolerance.

“Crosses are a symbol that hurts Jewish feelings,” said Rabinovitch who refused to elaborate on precisely how or why the crosses were so offensive.

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Educators and psychologists have long feared that children entering school with behavior problems were doomed to fall behind in the upper grades. But two new studies suggest that those fears are exaggerated.

One concluded that kindergartners who are identified as troubled do as well academically as their peers in elementary school. The other found that children with attention deficit disorders suffer primarily from a delay in brain development, not from a deficit or flaw.

Experts say the findings of the two studies, being published today in separate journals, could change the way scientists, teachers and parents understand and manage children who are disruptive or emotionally withdrawn in the early years of school. The studies might even prompt a reassessment of the possible causes of disruptive behavior in some children.

“I think these may become landmark findings, forcing us to ask whether these acting-out kinds of problems are secondary to the inappropriate maturity expectations that some educators place on young children as soon as they enter classrooms,” said Sharon Landesman Ramey, director of the Georgetown University Center on Health and Education, who was not connected with either study.

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Press release received via email:

FAIRFAX, Va. (November 13, 2007) ”“ The trial began today in which The Episcopal Church and Diocese of Virginia are attempting to seize property from 11 Anglican churches in Virginia. The Episcopal Church and Diocese abruptly broke off settlement negotiations and filed lawsuits against the churches, their ministers and their vestries. The decision of The Episcopal Church and the Diocese to reinterpret Scripture caused the 11 churches to sever their ties. The trial is being held in the Fairfax County Circuit Court. (Multi-Circuit Property Litigation, Case No. CL-2007-0248724)

“Although we remain confident in our legal position, we call upon the leaders of both The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia to embrace the recommendation of the Primates and withdraw their lawsuits. We did not choose this path. Even today, our churches remain open to negotiating a reasonable solution with The Episcopal Church and the Diocese. The legal proceedings have been an unfortunate distraction from all the good work our churches are doing to advance the mission of Christ,” said Jim Oakes, vice-chairman of the Anglican District of Virginia, an association of Anglican congregations in Virginia and a part of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). All 11 churches named in the lawsuit are members of ADV.

“At the core of this case is that The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia claim they have a ”˜trust’ interest in the congregations’ properties. But the Virginia courts have held time and again that denominations cannot claim an ”˜implied trust’ in member congregations’ property. The Episcopal Church even admitted in its complaint that it does not hold title to any of these eleven churches and that the churches’ own trustees hold title for the benefit of the congregations.

“The Episcopal Church has continually walked away from the scriptural foundation of the Anglican Communion. When we objected, they chose intimidation through lawsuits as their solution. Regardless of the actions of The Episcopal Church, ADV members will continue to hold steadfast in their faith, based on the authority of Scripture. We continue to pray for The Episcopal Church and its leaders.”

The soil of the Commonwealth of Virginia has been the scene of many momentous battles throughout the history of this country. In the American Revolution and Civil War, we as a people spilled our blood for freedom and the future of this country on the battlefields of war. In later times, Virginia was often at the forefront of the battles to end racial segregation in our schools and public places; I know, for I grew up in Virginia in those times. Today, Virginia is hosting another battle for freedom, as the “Virginia Eleven” go to court to begin a hearing against the Diocese of Virginia and TCGC over who shall retain ownership of such historic church properties such as Truro Church in Fairfax, and the Falls Church, both of which existed as Anglican congregations before those first Revolutionary battles were fought.

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It appears that, if someone can actually talk with Rowan Williams, the fellow isn’t really a bad chap. But then his Wormtongue managers at Lambeth Palace and the heavily US-funded Anglican Communion Office regain their control over him, and he becomes once again entranced to do nothing while evil prospers.

Actually, the ABC seems to be acting under the assumption that the best way to keep the Anglican Communion together is to keep the Episcopal Church together. Thus, he is remaining silent while the litigious (did I mention that already?) Presiding Bishop crushes all dissent. American Conservatives are apparently supposed to reconcile themselves to being casualties in a war Rowan would like to pretend doesn’t exist.

In reality, the only way to save the Anglican Communion is to discipline the Episcopal Church for its departure from Anglican Communion norms. The Archbishop of Canterbury can accomplish this discipline through his prerogative of invitations to the Lambeth Conference. The Primates can accomplish this discipline by censuring the American Church and limiting TEC’s participation in the instruments of unity. If this does not happen, not only the Episcopal Church, but the Anglican Communion will fly apart under the centrifugal forces of the orbit into which the anarchic deviations of the American Church have cast it””and it will happen sooner rather than later.

Are you listening, Rowan?

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Most of the scaffolding that covered Trinity Cathedral in Downtown is gone, but there is still much work to be done before the 120-year-old landmark is again presentable to the public.

Since June, workers from Carnegie-based Young Restoration Co. have worked diligently to remove more than a century’s worth of grime, soot and acid runoff from the cathedral’s blackened exterior. It looks like the cleaners, who have been using baking soda and water to wash away the industrial muck of decades, are close to making the holiday deadline.

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