Look out below, Japan edition

Outsourced to Ritholtz:

Nikkei is down 7.3%….Major European indices are off 2-3%.

Year of the Water Snake indeed.

Remembering Paul Weyrich

My post on how the right is seeking to attack the IRS for its questioning of anti-abortion groups which may have broken the law unearthed a Max Blumenthal article on Paul Weyrich:

In 2001, Weyrich circulated a commentary accusing Jews of murdering Jesus. When a conservative writer named Evan Gahr attacked Weyrich as a “demented anti-Semite,” he learned how powerful the conservative founding father truly was. In short order, neoconservative activist David Horowitz barred Gahr from writing for his FrontPageMag and forced him to apologize to Weyrich.

Obsessed with ideological purity, Weyrich homed his most vitriolic attacks on the Republican congressional leadership. David Grann’s classic profile of Weyrich as a “Robespierre of the Right,” published in 1997 in the New Republic, is probably the best window into Weyrich’s often destructive efforts to force the GOP to the hard right. “The problem with Gingrich,” Weyrich said of the House majority leader at the time, “is that he does not have any immutable principles that he would die for.” (Weyrich sued The New Republic for libel after it published Grann’s article, a suit that was dismissed.)

In 1996, Weyrich was diagnosed with a debilitating spinal injury. Five years later, the injury consigned him to a wheelchair. He spent the last years of his life in constant pain, and took heavy doses of painkillers. In 2004, after a bad fall, Weyrich’s legs were amputated. But he soldiered on, addressing conservative conferences and pumping out a steady flow of commentaries urging the Republicans to stay tethered to their right-wing base.

In September 2006, foreshadowing Rep. Michelle Bachmann’s notorious remarks about her congressional colleagues two years later, Weyrich called for an FBI investigation of reporters who harbor subversive attitudes and urged the resurrection of the House Un-American Affairs Committee.

Paul Weyrich was truly one of God’s weirder pieces of work.

Snark of the week award to Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart sweeps the snark awards for this takedown of Peggy Noonan.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

I could have done without the Peggy Noonan is like your mother when… part. But his rendition of Iran-Contra? Priceless.

Religion notes. Francis on atheists, Christian Right formed over taxes, rightist Frenchman bloodies the altar

The most interesting story is by Sarah Posner in the Guardian:

For anyone who knows the history of the religious right, the possible revocation of tax-exempt status for claimed religious belief is a potent flashpoint. In his book, Thy Kingdom Come: An Evangelical’s Lament, religion historian Randall Balmer argues that contrary to conventional wisdom, which Balmar calls the “abortion myth”, evangelical voters were not propelled to political activism by the supreme court’s 1973 decision in Roe v Wade.

Instead, the issue that mobilized these voters was the IRS’s 1975 revocation of the tax-exempt status of the segregationist Bob Jones University. Rightwing religious architect Paul Weyrich told Balmer that it was “the federal government’s moves against Christian schools” that actually “enraged the Christian community”.

Give us our goodies or we’ll take over the government. [More at Daily Kos]

This is relevant because the right’s latest hissy fit comes from our…eh…friend…Cong. Aaron Schock, who is claiming the IRS targeted antabortion groups over their prayers. Posner notes:

Questioning anti-abortion groups – even the content of their prayers – could very likely have been aimed at determining whether these groups engaged in activities outside abortion clinics that ran afoul of the law. Because of the history of abortion clinic violence by those claiming a religious imperative, the IRS could have been attempting to determine whether the groups’ activities were in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (Face), a 1994 law which prohibits the use of force, the threat of force, or physical obstruction to injure, intimidate or interfere with someone’s access to or provision of reproductive health services.

The coolest story is this one, from Reuters:

Atheists should be seen as good people if they do good, Pope Francis has said in his latest urging that people of all religions, and none, work together.

The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics made his comments in the homily of his morning mass at his residence, a daily event at which he speaks without prepared comments.

He told the story of a Catholic who asked a priest if even atheists had been redeemed by Jesus.

“Even them, everyone,” the pope answered, according to Vatican Radio. “We all have the duty to do good,” he said.

I’m glad to hear this from a Pope. After all, who is doing what Jesus wants? A person who denies God but feeds the poor, or someone who spends all their time in church and never does a good deed?

Speaking of people who spend their time in church but don’t do good deeds, I have to wonder what God is thinking about this fellow (from Kim Wilsher, The Guardian):

Dominique Venner, 78, a far-right essayist and historian took his life in front of the altar at Notre Dame on Tuesday after writing a blog condemning France’s recently passed law allowing same-sex marriage and adoption.

The cathedral was evacuated after Venner walked into the building with tourists at about 4pm, placed a letter on the altar, then shot himself through the mouth. Hundreds of visitors were evacuated.

Afterwards, Le Pen, head of the far-right Front National, tweeted her “respect” for Venner and said his death was an “eminently political” gesture.

Before killing himself Venner sent a letter to friends saying he was in good health in body and in mind, was filled with love for his wife and children, and loved life.

He had written: “I expect nothing more from life except the continuation of my race and my spirit. However, at this, in the evening of that life and in the face of immense dangers for my French and European heritage, I feel the need to act, while I still have the force. I believe it is necessary to sacrifice myself to break the lethargy that oppresses us. I offer what remains of my life in an act of protest.”

Venner said he chose Notre-Dame as a “symbolic place … which recalls our immortal origins”; the reason for his suicide would be evident from his recent writings.

The historian had described France’s same-sex marriage bill, known as the “marriage for all” law, as vile. It passed into the statute books on Saturday after months of furious and often ferocious debate, protest and violence.

Venner was a former member of the Secret Army Organisation, which opposed Algerian independence in the early 1960s and waged a terror campaign against Charles de Gaulle’s government.

I can imagine an awkward conversation, beginning with “Dominique, what was it about ‘Thou shalt not kill” that was so hard to understand?”
_________
Added: An important primer on Opus Dei in Latin America I wanted to link, which describes the interference of Opus Dei, presumably in the form of Cardinal Maradiaga, in preventing emergency contraception.

Liveblogging The Apple Tax Dodge Hearings

The fine folk at Americans for Tax Fairness are on the case:

http://www.americansfortaxfairness.org/blog/2013/05/21/live-blogging-of-us-senate-hearing-on-apple/

OVERALL BACKGROUND: Today the Subcommittee is holdings its second hearing to examine how U.S.-based multinational corporations use loopholes in the tax code. Today’s hearing will focus on how Apple effectively shifts billions of dollars in profits offshore, profits that under one section of the tax code should nonetheless be subject to U.S. taxes.

NEW REPORT BY CTJ - An analysis of Apple Inc.’s financial reports makes clear that Apple has paid almost no income taxes to any country on its $102 billion in offshore cash holdings. That means that this cash hoard reflects profits that were shifted, on paper, out of countries where the profits were actually earned into foreign tax havens - http://bit.ly/17YqXd0

WORTH A READ - The New York Times today - http://nyti.ms/10ICjJi

Check out their fact sheet on Apple, too: http://www.americansfortaxfairness.org/badapple/

Occupy Norman: Organizing And Helping Oklahomans Post-Tornado

From Occupy Norman’s Facebook page tonight:

Occupy Norman (University of Oklahoma) shared The City of Oklahoma City’s status.
3 hours ago

Shelter and reunification center.

American Red Cross is opening a shelter at St. Andrews Church, SW 119 & S May. This location will also serve as a reunification site for families to reunite with love ones.

———–

Occupy Norman (University of Oklahoma)
2 hours ago near Edmond, OK

We’ve heard that Occupiers and others want to help. Norman is the next city to the south of Moore, and the closest still living Occupation. Get in touch with us if you need to plug in here.

———–

Occupy Norman (University of Oklahoma) shared a link.
3 hours ago

Register yourself as safe and well.

Safe & Well
safeandwell.communityos.org

After a disaster, letting your family and friends know that you are safe and well can bring your loved ones great peace of mind. This website is designed to help…

———-

Occupy Norman (University of Oklahoma)
23 minutes ago

Message from the front lines:

1. If you have any type of medical background/credentials and want to help relief efforts, get to the Warren Theater.
2. If you don’t have medical credentials but want to help, get to the Home Depot in Moore.
3. If you’re not anywhere near Moore and want to help, start organizing a relief drive.

Please blast this. People are still missing.

Pass it on.

Like most wars, this one’s a failure. End it.

Jamie Doward, The Guardian:

European governments and the Obama administration are this weekend studying a “gamechanging” report on global drugs policy that is being seen in some quarters as the beginning of the end for blanket prohibition.

Publication of the Organisation of American States (OAS) review, commissioned at last year’s Cartagena Summit of the Americas attended by Barack Obama, reflects growing dissatisfaction among Latin American countries with the current global policy on illicit drugs.

The Real Scandal

Via commenter DeDude at Ritholtz, David Horsey in the LAT.

Brent Pricing: LIBOR Scandal For Oil?

Via Jay Ackroyd, an article from The Economist:

IT IS a lesson of the past five years that benchmarks in unregulated markets can fall victim to the incentives they create. Subprime mortgages bundled into securities often won high scores from ratings agencies that stood to profit in a busy market. The London Interbank Offered Rate, LIBOR, was sometimes underestimated by banks which were cast in a healthier light by lower interest rates. Has something similar been going on in energy?

That is the suspicion after a series of raids on May 14th by the European Commission’s competition authorities. The commission declared that it feared oil companies had “colluded” to distort benchmark prices for crude, oil products and biofuels. Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Norway’s Statoil and Italy’s ENI (which was not raided) all said that they were co-operating with the commission.
…
. At least 200 billion barrels a year, worth in the order of $20 trillion, are priced off the Brent benchmark, the world’s biggest, according to Liz Bossley, chief executive of Consilience, an energy-markets consultancy. The commission has said that even small price distortions could have a “huge impact” on energy prices. Statoil has said that the commission’s interest goes all the way back to 2002. If it is right, then the sums involved could be huge, too.

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