Free Republic

A MONK and two other people were arrested after digging up the body of a nun they believe to be a saint and trying to smuggle the remains into Cyprus. The 42-year-old Cypriot monk, a 54-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman were arrested at Athens International Airport as they attempted to board a flight to Cyprus with the body stuffed in a suitcase, the Cyprus Mail said. The Mail reported police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos as saying the trio "claim they took the remains of the woman, whom they consider a saint, to bury them in Cyprus". Mr Katsounotos said Eleni...

The name of President Obama came into play this afternoon at the political corruption trial of former governor Rod Blagojevich as an associate of political fund-raiser Tony Rezko testified that Rezko asked him to write a $10,000 check to Friends of Obama. The Chicago Sun-Times reported in January 2008 that Glenview businessman Joseph Aramanda, who is testifying today, made the donation as part of a scheme orchestrated by Rezko. Aramanda gave $10,000 in campaign cash to Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign on March 5, 2004, according to records. The money came from part of a finder’s fee Aramanda received, but did...

Ousted Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich saw his one-time best friend take the stand and air details of how they and others schemed to use the governor's political heft as a cash cow. Blagojevich, 53, is on trial facing 24 charges of corruption, racketeering, bribery and fraud stemming from his efforts in the fall of 2008 to trade President Barack Obama's vacant US Senate seat for campaign cash or a new job. On the second day of the trial, jurors heard from Lon Monk, one of Blagojevich's closest friends and a former law school associate. Monk testified that four people in...

The Huffington Post has fallen for a fake Tea Party sign. This screenshot shows the Huffington Post describing the (FAKE) image as "shocking":--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- According to the Politico "a self-described infiltrator at the afternoon rally, who dressed as a monk and carried a sign reading “God Hates Taxes,” said many tea partiers lauded him for his sign."

Think the Chicago Way political machine is all about corrupt Democrat politicians and their cronies? Think again. It’s bipartisan. While Democrats have run the Machine out of Chicago for decades, a supporting cast of Republicans has long participated in Machine enterprises. Chicago Tribune reporter John Kass uses the term, “the Combine” to refer to the combination of Illinois Republicans working with Democrats to make hay for themselves regardless of who’s driving the tractor. As Republican power-broker Bill Cellini once said, When we’re in [Republicans], we’re in. And when you’re in [Democrats], we’re in. This month, the University of Illinois released...

Alonzo Monk, Guilty plea background, Obama, Blagojevich, Rezko, Levine, Kelly, Harris, Cellini, Indictment, Rezko trial transcripts, Chicago IL corruption, Crime, Board rigging, Evelyn Pringle articles ### Lest we forget about crime and corruption in Chicago and the involvement by Rod Blagojevich Tony Rezko Stuart Levine Christopher Kelly William Cellini John Harris Alonzo Monk et al and Obama’s ties to these corruption figures Alonzo Monk Guilty Plea Part II In part I of this two part series on Alonzo Monk’s guilty plea, the Citizen Wells blog presented background on Monk’s involvement in corruption and how it impacted health care in Chicago...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The final episode of "Monk" has some heavy lifting to do: Resolve Monk's poisoning and whether he survives, uncover his wife's killer or, just maybe, reveal whether Trudy really is alive after all. Tony Shalhoub, who inhabited the title character so perfectly for eight seasons that he collected three Emmy Awards, refuses to drop any spoilers and offers only a broad outline of Adrian Monk's fate Friday (9 p.m. EST, USA Network).

Even before he was elected governor in 2002, Rod Blagojevich and three of his closest friends schemed about ways to enrich themselves by controlling state government, the former governor's former chief of staff alleged as part of a plea agreement today with federal prosecutors. When Blagojevich took office, his three friends became key players in his administration and met repeatedly with the governor to share moneymaking ideas and get updates on their plans to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars that they could split up later, former top aide Alonzo "Lon" Monk alleged. Monk, who also was a groomsman...

Justo Gallego Martínez is building his very own Cathedral in Mejorada del Campo near Madrid, Spain This is no "model" cathedral and he is neither a qualified architect, nor engineer, nor bricklayer -- he is a farmer. "The plans have only ever existed in my head" and have evolved over time in response to opportunity and inspiration. Nor does he have formal planning permission from the authorities of Mejorada del Campo -- the town in which it is located (20 km from Madrid under the flight-path to the Barajas airport).Nor does he have the benediction or support of the Catholic...

SPRINGFIELD -- A key figure in the perjury investigation of U.S. Sen. Roland Burris died in an automobile accident Monday, authorities in far west-suburban Kendall County confirmed Tuesday. John Ruff, of Sandwich, Ill., was killed shortly before 3 p.m. when his 2001 BMW convertible crossed an oncoming lane of traffic and collided with a tree while he was driving eastbound on Rogers Road near Oak Brook Road in unincorporated Plano, said Kendall County Sheriff's Deputy Richard Pearson. John Ruff, a key figure in the perjury investigation of U.S. Sen. Roland Burris was killed in an automobile accident Monday in Kendall...

A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand. He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies. The head monk, says, "We have been copying from the copies...

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, his brother Rob and Christopher Kelly, a former top fundraiser for Blagojevich, were all indicted today on corruption charges, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago announced. Also charged in the indictment were Lon Monk, a lobbyist and former Blagojevich chief of staff; John Harris, also a former chief of staff to Blagojevich; and William Cellini, a Springfield insider for decades. The indictment comes four months after Blagojevich was arrested and charged with engaging in pay-to-play politics in a sweeping federal complaint that accused him of trading state jobs, contracts and regulatory favors for campaign contributions. The...

The Vatican has dismissed as a heretic a mystical medieval monk apparently cited by Barack Obama as a moral authority and visionary. According to Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the Pontifical Household, the US President referred in campaign speeches to Gioacchino da Fiore, or Joachim of Fiore, as a ''master of contemporary civilisation'' who had sought to create a better world. Drawing on the Book of Revelation, Gioacchino envisaged a "new age of the Holy Spirit" in which the Church hierarchy would cease to exist and Christians would unite with infidels in an "Order of the Just". --snip-- He said...

Well, even though Adrian Monk couldn’t get the gun out of the gun safe at least the safe itself could be used as a weapon. This is one of the very few TV shows that have made fun of gun locks. Monk’s line, “Don’t move there is a gun in here.” is classic. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that, unlike most of the biased media coverage on guns, this humor gets across the research that gun locks actually make it significantly more difficult for people to defend themselves against criminals. . . .

After six years of getting his hands dirty and then vigilantly scrubbing them clean, Monk is gearing up—probably pretty carefully—for his last case. USA announced Friday that it has picked up its Emmy-winning detective series Monk for an eighth and final season that will air next summer. The "Characters Welcome" network has ordered up 16 episodes, and E! News is hearing that the finale will clue Monk in on who killed his dearly departed wife, Trudy, the tragedy that turned him into the OCD-addled mystery-solver who cable audiences have come to love. "By many measures, Monk is the most successful...

Since then, I have had numerous people ask me about what they should buy if they wanted to sample some jazz but do not know where to begin. As I am not a critic but just an aficionado of that American treasure. I recommend the following albums. Feel free to offer your own recommendations as I am no expert by any means. As there is still much jazz I have not listened to, I apologize for any omissions of albums that belong on such a list....

Broker turned monk focuses priorities Bulgarian monk Brother Nikanor, 32, looks inside the church of Tsurnogorski monastery, some 50 km (31miles) west of the capital Sofia, September 24, 2008. The Nasdaq broker turned monk advises his former colleagues, shattered by the financial crisis, to keep a jar full of soil on their desks to remind them about where we are all heading to and what really matters in life.

Chinese archaeologists on Wednesday opened a 1,000-year-old steel case that was believed to contain Buddhist relics. A pagoda top wrapped in silk emerged after archaeologists removed two steel panels of the cube-shaped case, which is 0.5 meter long, 0.5 meter wide and 1.34 meters high. Hua Guorong, vice curator of the Nanjing City Museum where the case was opened, said an initial analysis showed the object was a pagoda about 1 meter high. He said Buddhist relics, which were formed from the ashes of cremated Buddhist masters and were an important aspect of the religion, were likely to be under...

At first glance, Cesare Bonizzi looks like the archetypal Capuchin monk - round-faced, stout, with twinkling eyes and a long flowing white beard. But beneath his robes beats a heart of metal. Brother Cesare is the lead singer in a heavy metal band which has just released its second album. A former missionary in the Ivory Coast, he lives in a small friary in the Milan hinterland. The 62-year-old monk's love affair with heavy metal began when he attended a Metallica concert some 15 years ago. "I was overwhelmed and amazed by the sheer energy of it" he says. Brother...

"The kingdom of God is built up in SILENCE; it is, before all things, INTERIOR, and hidden in the depths of the soul. Undoubtedly grace possesses a virtue which nearly always overflows in works of charity, but the principle of its power is entirely within. It is in the depths of the heart that the true intensity of the Christian life lies, it is there that God dwells, adored and served by faith, recollection, humility, obedience, simplicity, labour and LOVE." "It is not our PERFECTION which DAZZLES God, since He is surrounded by shining Angels. No! It is our MISERY,...