Wolfowitz Timetable

After a month long pout of misplaced indignation, Paul Wolfowitz has declared a time table for his voluntary withdrawal from the World Bank. Now how about a time table for withdrawal from Iraq.

Staff group says Wolfowitz should leave before planned date of June 30

After all no one is claiming the World Bank would be thrown into chaos after he withdraws. Unlike the excuses for staying in Iraq; we made a bad situation worse but it might get even worse if we leave.

"This is a prescription for chaos and confusion and we must not impose it on our troops," Bush said in a nationally broadcast statement from the White House.

And then there is the irony of this.....

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has offered the US Tehran’s cooperation in developing an exit strategy from Iraq.

It quoted Araghchi as saying the US and Iran had the same interests in a stable Iraq and that direct talks leading to a “face-saving withdrawal” were possible. “(The US-led) invasion was a disaster — let there not be a disastrous withdrawal,” he told the newspaper in an interview.

“Yes, immediate withdrawal could lead to chaos, civil war. No one is asking for immediate withdrawal of foreign forces. But there should be a plan,” he said.

Take it, take it just like Wolfowitz had to because it could have been much worse, sort of like the current American surge in Iraq.

Wolfowitz's negotiated departure averted what threatened to become a bitter rupture between the United States and its economic partners at an institution established after World War II. The World Bank channels $22 billion in loans and grants a year to poor countries.

By all accounts, the terms of Wolfowitz's exoneration left a bitter taste with most of the 24 board members, who represent major donor countries, as well as clusters of smaller donor and recipient countries. Most had wanted to adopt the findings of the special board committee that determined he had acted unethically on the matter of Riza.

Also angered was the bank's staff association, which had called for Wolfowitz's resignation in early April. The bank's internal blogs were filled with denunciations of the action on Thursday evening.

Late in the evening, the association issued a statement saying, "Welcome though it is, the president's resignation is not acceptable under the present arrangement," and that it "completely undermines the principles of good governance and the principles that the staff fight to uphold."

Many European officials previously indicated that they would go along with the United States' picking a successor if Wolfowitz would resign voluntarily, as he now has.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. said Thursday that he would "consult my colleagues around the world" before recommending a choice to Bush, in what seemed to be an effort to assure allies that the United States would not repeat what happened in 2005 when Bush surprised them by selecting Wolfowitz, then a deputy secretary of defense and an architect of the Iraq war.

SEE

Criminal Capitalism: Office Romance

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Tory Boondoggle

Shades of the Liberal Gun Registry....

Cost of new tanks $1.3 billion, double initial estimate

O'Connor Lowballed War Costs

Just one more reason for the senile Minister of Defense to resign.


Hillier

" I can get you one tank for the price of 2"

O'Connor

"Can I buy a tank a year?"

Hillier;

"Sure, we have a great twenty year payment plan with options"










Also See:

Tanks For The Memories

Kandahar

Afghanistan

O'Connor





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BQ and Team Canada

We owe a thanks to the BQ and in particular to the xenophobic nationalist MP Luc Malo who pushed the Official Language committee to look at Shane Doan's leadership of Team Canada. As Rick Nash said on OTR yesterday the team came together in solidarity with Doan when he was attacked by the BQ.

Off The Record - May 16, 2007

Michael Landsberg goes Up Front with Blue Jackets and Team Canada star Rick Nash.

That is what happens when you challenge the leader, the people unite behind him despite their personal views of him, such was the case when the Americans attacked Saddam and Iraq.

In this case of course the team already supported Doan, and this parliamentary attack solidified it. They went on to not only win Gold but to sweep the World Cup 9-0. A historic fact itself.

Thank you Luc Malo for your inspiring the team.

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Farmworkers, Nannies and Strippers

While the Conservatives new No Foreign Strippers law appeals to the parties prurient sex negative social conservative base it really could apply to other workers as well.

Immigration Minister Diane Finley introduced Bill C-57 on Wednesday, which says foreigners applying to work in Canada should be rejected if they risk being humiliated, degraded or sexually exploited.

Like temporary foreign workers who have been killed or injured on the job in Alberta working for CNRL, or the Polish tradesmen who were ripped off by the oil patch in collusion with an Alberta College, or nannies, or farm workers. All these are cases of humiliation, degradation and in some cases sexual exploitation.

Humiliation and degradation is something our Prime Minister knows about first hand; Harper's Chef, Nanny, and Car Washer Fired

Wendy blogs that of course this law does nothing to stop the trafficking and exploitation of women....

By prohibiting the lawful entry of foreign women employed as exotic dancers, the Conservative government thinks it can avoid the embarrassment of propping up the exotic dancer market and pretend they’re doing something to help these women, but in reality, all this legislation will do is consign trafficked women to the most unregulated market of all – the underground market. By shifting from regulation to restriction the Conservative government is no longer going to be viewing trafficked women as victims but rather they will be viewed as illegal immigrants and as prostitutes, meaning that the trafficked woman will be criminalized, go to jail and most likely deported. This means that if a women is a victim abuse she will be less likely to reporter her abuser due to fear of being criminalized. And although employers and agents who employ foreign strippers will also be breaking the law, it is the women who will be at a greater risk since it is easier to deport illegal migrants than to successfully prosecute club owners or agents under criminal or immigration legislation.

But it sure makes a nice bit of political theatre when you can claim the Liberals were promoting foreign strippers and you only want Canadian girls to be exploited in this unregulated non-unionized industry. The reality is this law is far broader in scope than just affecting strippers. And it is a reactionary law.

Citizenship and Immigration

Mrs. Joy Smith (Kildonan—St. Paul, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration inform the House of the government's intention to help prevent vulnerable people coming to Canada from being exploited or abused?

Hon. Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to announce that later today I will table legislation to help prevent vulnerable foreign workers such as strippers from being exploited or abused.

The amendments will authorize the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to instruct immigration officers to deny work permits to foreign strippers.

The previous Liberal government gave blanket exemptions to foreign strippers to work in Canada despite warnings that they were vulnerable to forced prostitution and other exploitation.

Thanks to today's amendments, the good old days of Liberal strippergate will be a thing of the past.

BILL C-57

An Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act

SUMMARY

This enactment amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to allow officers to refuse to authorize foreign nationals to work in Canada in cases where to give authorization would be contrary to public policy considerations that are specified in instructions given by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE PROTECTION ACT

1. Paragraph 3(1)(h) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act is replaced by the following:


Explanatory Notes

Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
Clause 1: Relevant portion of subsection 3(1):
3. (1) The objectives of this Act with respect to immigration are
...
(h) to protect the health and safety of Canadians and to maintain the security of Canadian society;


2. Section 30 of the Act is amended by adding the following after subsection (1):


Clause 2: New.

Authorization


(1.1) An officer shall, on application, authorize a foreign national to work or study in Canada if they meet the conditions set out in the regulations.


Instructions


(1.2) Despite subsection (1.1), the officer shall refuse to authorize the foreign national to work in Canada if, in the officer’s opinion, public policy considerations that are specified in the instructions given by the Minister justify such a refusal.


Instructions


Concurrence of second officer


(1.3) In applying subsection (1.2), any refusal to give authorization to work in Canada requires the concurrence of a second officer.


Confirmation


Purpose


(1.4) The instructions shall prescribe public policy considerations that aim to protect foreign nationals who are at risk of being subjected to humiliating or degrading treatment, including sexual exploitation.




SEE:

Conservative Strip O Gram

Libertarian Challenge of Canada's Prostitution laws

Padrone Me Is This Alberta

Comatose Citizenship and Immigration Canada

Return Of the Work Camps

New Meaning for Nanny State

Migration

Alberta's Free Market In Labour

The Labour Shortage Myth

AFL Agrees With Me

The Real Crime In Canada

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So Long Ed Been Good To Know Ya

Nice to see other folks have noticed the similarity between Ed Stelmach and Harry Strom.

The next Harry Strom?

I have been saying the same thing for six months;

Rural Roots

Strom's Curse

Ed Stelmach=Harry Strom

And you know its bad when the guy running for ya in the Calgary Elbow by-election claims not to know ya....

Brian Heninger, that's right, of Heninger Toyota, pins his hopes on being seen as the best for the job. He knows the premier has no coattails to ride. Brian says he doesn't know the premier, hasn't been alone in a room with him and doesn't know many of the Tory MLAs

After five months in power, promising to change his stale dated government from the callous clueless regime of King Ralph, to a more open, friendlier one, all we get from Ed is more of the same callousness; full steam ahead, we have no plan, except to sell off the province to the cheapest bidder....

Alberta, BC to meet over public-private partnerships

“Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” Karl Marx

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Tax Subsidies vs Rent Control

Ok explain this one to me. The Stelmach government refuses to adopt Rent Controls since that would of course be socialism and interference in the 'free market'.

On the other hand giving developers cash bribes aka tax breaks, socialism for the rich, is of course not interfering in the free market.

Premier Ed Stelmach is refusing to put rental caps to a free vote in the legislature.

He said his government is studying incentives for developers, including tax breaks

Developers like Boardwalk REIT which raked in massive profits last year and in the first quarter this year because of Alberta's overheated housing market.

And who are rubbing their hands with glee at the profits they will continue making without having to build a single apartment building.


See:

Just Say No

No New Apartments in Alberta

Inflation In Alberta

Housing


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May Carnival of Anarchy

The Spirit of Anarchy

Our next carnival will be held the weekend of May 25-27 the theme with be Anarchy and Spirit, that includes religion, spirituality, (such as liberation theology, anti-religion, paganism, gnosticism etc.) as well as art and music.

For example I would refer you to Scriabin as an example of the breadth of this topic...

Scriabin, previously interested in Friedrich Nietzsche's übermensch theory, also became interested in theosophy, and both would influence his music and musical thought. In 1909-10 he lived in Brussels, becoming interested in Delville's Theosophist movement and continuing his reading of Hélène Blavatsky (Samson 1977). Theosophist and composer Dane Rudhyar wrote that Scriabin was "the one great pioneer of the new music of a reborn Western civilization, the father of the future musician," (Rudhyar 1926b, 899) and an antidote to "the Latin reactionaries and their apostle, Stravinsky" and the "rule-ordained" music of "Schoenberg's group." (Ibid., 900-901).

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Conservative Strip O Gram

The Conservatives have announced a bill to protect women from enslavement and trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation. The bill will not allow foreign strippers, particularly from Russia, into Canada.

Whew, the women folk feel safer already.

Wait a minute.....

Canadian prostitutes bought, sold and forcibly moved, study shows.
She stands on a street corner in skimpy clothing, shaking from a chill, or more likely from her drug addiction. She was brought here from another part of the province, or possibly from another province.

Her situation, and that of others like her, has drawn no attention. Despite growing awareness of international trafficking of women and children, the trafficking of Canadian-born prostitutes remains invisible.

However, a new study released yesterday says Canadians should not be so smug. Canada is not exempt from the buying and selling of people, the investigators found.

Sex workers say they are moved quietly, put in cars and taken on "road trips." Pimps and traffickers buy bus and plane tickets for them and escort them to their new locations. At times, they are drugged, bound and abducted by rival pimp families or crime organizations, and wake up in new locations across the country.

Canada needs to provide better protection and support for sex workers and deal with "the root causes of trafficking," the investigators say.

See:

The Traffic In Women

Libertarian Challenge of Canada's Prostitution laws

Sex Workers

Legalize & Unionize the Sex Trade

Feminizing the Proletariat

Sex Workers Want A Union

Marx on Bigamy

Whose Family Values?

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Conservatives Orwellian Language Politics

When it comes to bilingualism, the idea of two national languages being equal, the Conservatives like to refer to Linguistic duality, which does not mean the same thing.

For the Harpocrites it means separate but equal languages. That is there is English spoken in English Canada and French spoken in Quebec. That is the meaning behind the Conservatives use of the term; linguistic duality.

This does not mean bilingualism as we know it under the Liberals. Because of course this government hates all things Liberal.

Commissioner of Official Languages' 2006-2007 Annual Report

Despite Prime Minister Harper personally setting an example by using both official languages, the government is not living up to its commitment in this area, Graham Fraser, Commissioner of Official Languages, said in his first annual report presented to Parliament today.

"Prime Minister Harper's public behaviour is exemplary in terms of respect for Canada's official languages," Fraser said, noting that Josee Verner, Minister for La Francophonie and Official Languages, had expressed the government's support for the amendments to the Official Languages Act and the Action Plan for Official Languages. "Unfortunately, the government's actions over the last year have not reflected these public statements."

In 2005, the Official Languages Act was enhanced with the amendment to Part VII requiring federal institutions to take positive measures to promote linguistic duality and support the development of official language minority communities. According to the Commissioner, "Although this amendment was approved by Parliament, government action to date casts doubt on its genuine commitment to implementing this Act." The most telling example in the Commissioner's report is the announcement of budget cuts last fall, which abolished initiatives such as the Court Challenges Program.

As I wrote previously and it is worth repeating;

Harper, unlike Preston Manning, was a student of the Calgary School. Harper's political practice is influenced more by this than Manning was. Hence Harpers surprise; the recognition of Quebec as a nation, giving it the separatism it wants within a decentralized federal state. That is more the nuanced politics of the Calgary School than the Reform Party demand that the West Wants In.

The old anti-bilingualism of the Reformers is replaced with the subtle Two Distinct Languages policy of the Conservatives. Which again appeals to Quebecois nationalism, while also keeping the rest of Canada happy with one language; English.

SEE:

Tory Cuts For All

White Multiculturalism

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Work Is A Danger To Your Mental Health

I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go, and go and go....no wonder we get depressed and suffer from increasing forms of mental illness. What is interesting is that it is wage slaves who are now suffering this disease usually associated with the salaried class.

workaholics are not a happy lot, according to the study, called Time escapes me: Workaholics and time perception. The study, in the latest online edition of Canadian Social Trends, reports that 31 per cent of Canadians describe themselves as workaholics. It is based on data from the 2005 General Social Survey on time use.

Nearly 40 per cent of workaholics reported working 50 hours a week and more. They feel rushed and trapped in their routine. They have trouble sleeping and reported more health problems than Canadians who aren't workaholics. They worry that they don't spend enough time with family and friends; that they just don't have time for fun.

And, despite all the time they spend at work, they are no more likely than others to love their jobs or be satisfied with their income.

Managers and tradespeople are more likely to report they are workaholics than professionals, a finding analyst Leslie-Anne Keown found puzzling.

"Perhaps professionals such as doctors and lawyers accept that working longer hours are an integral part of their professional role, whereas managers view these conditions as uncompensated but necessary conditions of their position," she wrote in the report. "As for the higher incidence of workaholics in the trades, an overabundance of work, coupled with a labour shortage in the skilled trades, might be a contributing factor to this phenomenon."

A country of complainers

We live in one of the richest, safest countries and the economy is booming, yet we are among the whiniest people on the planet.

Overall employee morale is highest in the Netherlands, followed by Ireland and Thailand in second place and Switzerland in third, according to a survey of work attitudes in 23 countries.

Canada is near the bottom of the scale on the morale index, sharing 18th place with Portugal.

The only countries where employee morale is worse are Poland, Korea, Australia, Germany and - at the very bottom - Japan.

Canadians are also big complainers when it comes to job satisfaction, the quality of employer-employee relations and work-life balance, according to the study by market research firm FDS International.

On all three indices, we're near the bottom of the list. We score lower on the job satisfaction scale than even Russia, China and Romania, for heaven's sake. Only the Germans and the Japanese complain more about employer-worker relations than Canucks.

And only the Portuguese, the Poles, the Australians and the Japanese are in more of a snit than us over work-life balance.

More than one-third of Canadian workers are dissatisfied with their pay, 29% gripe that they don't get enough holiday time and one-quarter of us are upset at the number of hours we work.

SEE:

Mirror Mirror On The Wall

Psycho Bosses Depressed Workers

Work Sucks

Which Is True

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Forget Cigarettes Ban Asbestos

One of the greatest public secrets is that cigarettes and tobacco do not cause the majority of cases of lung cancer. Rather it is asbestos which kills more folks with its own unique forms of cancer and from lung cancer.

Canada produces the largest amount of asbestos in the world, and our government would rather oppose its elimination, while putting stupid warning labels on cigarette packages.

The WHO lays the blame for the majority of the cancer deaths from occupational risk factors, squarely on the wide use of carcinogenic substances such as blue asbestos, 2-naphthylamine and benzene 20 to 30 years ago.

The WHO warns that if the current unregulated use of carcinogens continues a significant increase in occupational cancer can be expected in the coming decades.

We are in the midst of a global epidemic of asbestos-related disease unfolding primarily in industrialized countries. The International Labor Organization (ILO) states that over 2 million workers die each year of occupational causes. 75 percent of these preventable deaths are due to work-related disease, and the rest to trauma. Ten percent of these fatalities occur among children where child labor is practiced. Cancer represents the largest component of occupational disease mortality. The single largest contributor to this workrelated cancer epidemic is without question "the magic mineral" — asbestos.

Needless deaths due to workplace cancer

Everyday 200,000 people around the world die from cancer related to their workplace, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Tragically, many workers are dying needlessly as the risks of occupational cancer are avoidable.

Common work-related cancers like lung cancer, mesothelioma and leukaemia are caused by exposure to carcinogens (cancer causing agents) in the working environment. Second-hand tobacco smoke, asbestos and benzene (an organic solvent) are the most common workplace carcinogen pollutants.

More than 125 million people around the world are exposed to asbestos at work and 90,000 people die each year from asbestos-related disease. Benzene is widely used by workers in many industries, such as chemical and diamond industries. Thousands die from leukaemia each year as a result of exposure to this organic solvent. Every 10th lung cancer death is closely related to the workplace.

WHO argue that the largest number of deaths are in workplaces that do not meet health and safety requirements and those that do not prevent carcinogens polluting the air.

Dr Maria Neira, WHO director of public health, argues "The tragedy of occupational cancer resulting from asbestos, benzene and other carcinogens is that it takes so long for science to be translated into protective action." She goes on to say "In the interests of protecting our health, we must adopt an approach rooted in primary prevention, that is to make workplaces free from carcinogenic risks."

CANCER KILLS 9/11 COP, 46

A retired NYPD detective who worked for the elite Emergency Service Unit died early yesterday of pancreatic and lung cancer believed to be related to his work at Ground Zero.

Retired Detective Robert Williamson, 45, died at his Orange County home with family around him, said Detectives Endowment Association head Michael Palladino.

"Unfortunately, I knew this day was going to come for a long time," Palladino said. "We are just now starting to see the long-term health affects of 9/11 on first responders."

Williamson was the third NYPD cop to succumb to cancers believed related to their post-9/11 service.

SEE:

Day of Mourning

In Canada Work Kills

Tories Promote Lung Cancer

Prove It

Make Up Your Mind

June Pointer RIP

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Hell Bound Falwell

There is a new guest in hell today, Jerry Falwell.

Being the self appointed pal of God (c) (tm) (inc)f or lo these many years ,little could he guess where he was going, or perhaps he did, at that moment when he had his fatal heart attack.

In 1976, Falwell said, "The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the devil to keep Christians from running their own country."

Seen to the left Jerry with a portrait of his god.

After all Jerry did more for Satan, by declaring so many Americans sinners, then almost any other right wing evangelical with the exception of that other guy God (c) (tm) (inc) talks to; Pat Robertson.

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and 24 other Christian leaders this year tried to pressure the National Association of Evangelicals to silence its Washington director, the Rev. Rich Cizik, because Cizik is trying to convince evangelicals that global warming is real. In a February sermon, Falwell warned worshippers at his Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, that environmental activism by evangelicals "is Satan's attempt to redirect the church's primary focus" away from spreading the Gospel.

Over the years, Falwell waged a landmark libel case against Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt over a raunchy parody ad, and created a furor in 1999 when one of his publications suggested that the purse-carrying "Teletubbies" character Tinky Winky was gay.

In recent years, Falwell had become a problematic figure for the GOP. His remarks a few days after Sept. 11, 2001, essentially blaming feminists, gays and liberals for bringing on the terrorist attacks, drew a rebuke from the White House, and he apologized.

Prior to the election, Dr. Jerry Falwell wrote in a newsletter and on his Web site: "I believe it is the responsibility of every political conservative, every evangelical Christian, every pro-life Catholic, and every traditional Jew, every Reagan Democrat, and everyone in between to get serious about re-electing President Bush."

Reverend Falwell, national chairman of the Faith and Values Coalition and Moral Majority founder, also labeled the National Organization for Women (NOW) the "National Order of Witches," and called Americans United for Separation of Church and State "an anti-Christ" group.

And at one point on Meet the Press, Dr. Falwell asked James Wallis of Sojourners how, as an ordained minister he could vote for Mr. Kerry, who supports abortion rights.

Since Jerry entered Hell there has been no official comment from those close to him. Those in the know say that Satan however was downplaying his newest guests importance saying the reception wasn't quite the same as when the Pope arrives.

Many had already been looking beyond Falwell and his allies for new leaders when the pastor died. A 2004 poll for PBS's "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly" found that U.S. evangelicals had a lower regard for Falwell than for Pope John Paul II. Falwell became such a polarizing figure that his role in the 2004 Republican National Convention was limited to appearing at a closed-door rally for religious activists.

---

Evangelicals Prefer Satan to Hillary Clinton

Enjoying a comfortable lead over her GOP punching-bag opponent in her Senate re-election bid, New York's own Hillary Clinton was cast by evangelist Jerry Falwell as a favorite candidate for the 2008 presidential election:

"I certainly hope that Hillary is the candidate," Falwell said at a breakfast session Friday in Washington. "I hope she's the candidate, because nothing will energize my (constituency) like Hillary Clinton," he said. "If Lucifer ran, he wouldn't."

Clinton's spokesman decried this "demonizing" maneuver, though no one would speculate on evangelicals' potential reaction to a Clinton versus Satan race. The Prince of Darkness declined to comment, saying he has every confidence in GOP Senate majority leader Bill Frist.

My Son, the Antichrist - By Alex Heard - Slate Magazine

The Anti-Defamation League is hopping mad at Jerry Falwell for his speech lastweekend in Kingsport, Tenn., where he told a gathering of prophecy-heeding Christians that the Antichrist is "probably" alive and, as a "full-grown counterfeit of Christ," is without a doubt a Jewish male. The ADL said the remarks were typical of "an especially vicious tradition of Christian theological anti-Judaism."

The Antichrist is Jewish? It does sound bad, especially given the 2,000 year history of Jewish persecution by cranky Christians. The speech was also confusing to longtime Falwell buffs and those of us who have watery knowledge of the Book of Revelation, the New Testament text that causes all this prophecy hubbub. Isn't Falwell a longtime "friend of Israel"? Then why is he making anti-Semitic comments? And does Revelation really say the Antichrist must be a Jew?

When Tammy Faye Messner (formely Tammy Faye Bakker) cries for you through the pancake make up you know you are in hell, or else featured on Larry King.

Even Tammy Faye Messner appeared by phone in an interview with CNN’s Larry King, telling him that she “broke into tears” upon hearing the news of Falwell’s death, despite years of animosity between them that began when Falwell stole the ministry founded by Tammy and Jim Bakker.

The rise of the Moral Majority coincided with the Reagan presidency, and Falwell rose to national prominence as well.

But his fortunes changed in the late 1980s when televangelists took a hit from the bad publicity surrounding the financial scandal involving Jim and Tammy Bakker.

Falwell and his ministries faced some tough financial challenges as well in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and he withdrew somewhat from the national limelight as he worked to get Liberty University and his other ministries on a sounder financial footing.

See:

Prince of Peace?

Pat Robertson Bev Oda

Secularism Vs. Fundamentalism

Gnostic Easter

Pauline Origins of Social Conservatism

Pat Robertson Anti-Christ

An Antidote to Bush

Crusader for the Pope

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