Khazen

Pope’s Lebanon Visit May Be Postponed

  The Vatican has completed with the Lebanese authorities the program of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Lebanon in September, reported the daily Ad Diyar on Sunday. It added however that Vatican authorities are “beginning to study the possibility of postponing the visit over the dangerous situation in Lebanon and the region.” The Vatican said in July […]

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Tommy has the experience to get the job done

6 hours ago  •  Malek Khazen Dear Editor: I came to support Tommy Thompson when I learned about his dedication to the protection of the dignity of every human life, his passion and love for the Badger State and his experience that will help him get things done from Day One. As governor, Tommy was […]

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Endorsement of the Catholic Maronite Foundatetion of Wisconsin

 

 

Endorsement of the Catholic-Maronite Foundation, Malek Khazen – Support to Tommy Thompson!

 


1-Budget expertise

The Obama policies are out of control the national debt has spiked to more than $15 trillion and is growing. Our nation was built on a simple promise – that the next generation will be better off than today’. Do you feel that the new generation is better of today after 4 years of Democrats control? Ask yourself which senate candidate has a proven experience in bringing back accountability and growth to the economy? Which candidate served as Secretary of health Services? The answer is clearly Tommy with legitimate experience. When serving as a Governor of the great state of Wisconsin Tommy created more than 740,000 new jobs. He led policies that resulted prosperity to the state and cut a total of income plus property taxes of 2.4 Billion Dollar in Wisconsin. What we need now is experience maturity and not a candidate that will be just learning or blind followers. We need leaders. Candidate that can execute, innovate and be author of bold initiatives.
 

Tommy has a clear plan from first day in Congress to implement. He will be the leader that Wisconsin and US need  by implementing clear policies some example: 1) support to Paul Ryan‘s Path to Prosperity plan. 2)  Tommy is the only candidate in this race who will cap both federal spending, and as importantly revenues, keeping government in-check on both sides of the equation. As a governor he succeeded to create many jobs, cutting spending, simplifying tax reform and   3) Tommy’s proposed budget process reform would hold senators accountable for passing a budget — failure to do so would result in a forfeiture of the senators pay.  Every person and office holder need to take responsibility of their actions! 4) Finally each vote is key for Wisconsin and the nation: implement "real" solutions without having other people or government decide your future and Health insurance.

 

 

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Cardinal Dolan and Congressman Ryan: Catholic Social Doctrine, 2012 Campaign

Khazen,org  and Wisconsin Catholic-Maronite Foundation is proud to offer its endorsement to the Romney Ryan ticket of 2012! And Governor Tommy Thompson as of the senate race.

 

    

 

 

 

 

I just returned from the Romney/Ryan campaign event in Norfolk, Virginia. The crowd was massive, enthusiastic and hopeful. I don’t know what I expected – but what I experienced far exceeded those expectations. Mitt Romney’s bold choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate ensures that an exchange of correspondence between the Cardinal of New York and the Republican Vice Presidential nominee will now become a part of framing the issues in what promises to be one of the most important Presidential contests in U.S. history. The principles of Catholic Social Teaching and their application have now entered the 2012 campaign.

 

When Presidential candidate Mitt Romney approached the podium and began to speak, he was warm, sincere, comfortable and confident. In fact, he was, "presidential" in his demeanor.  He was introduced by the Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, whose gifts continue to mature in office. I could not help but think that I was listening to Governor McDonnell that I was listening to the next Attorney General of the United States – if Mitt Romney is elected to the presidency in November.

However, it was Romney’s introduction of his Vice Presidential selection which wowed the crowd. Here is an excerpt from his remarks:  "Today we take another step forward in helping restore the promise of America. As we move forward in this campaign and on to help lead the nation to better days, it is an honor to announce my running mate and the next Vice President of the United States: Paul Ryan."

"Paul Ryan is a leader. His leadership begins with character and values. And Paul is a man of tremendous character, shaped in large part by his early life. Paul’s father died when he was in high school. That forced him to grow up earlier than any young man should. But Paul did, with the help of his devoted mother, his brothers and sister, and a supportive community. And as he did, he internalized the virtues and hard-working ethic of the Midwest…" "He does not demonize his opponents. He understands that honorable people can have honest differences. And he appeals to the better angels of our nature. There are a lot of people in the other party who might disagree with Paul Ryan; I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t respect his character and judgment."

 

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) – While Republican Presidential candidates announced their candidacy and President Obama positioned himself for his re-election effort, the President of the US Bishops Conference, Archbishop Timothy Dolan and a Conservative Catholic Congressman named Paul Ryan exchanged letters which can help frame the issues of the upcoming presidential campaign. 

The political wordsmiths are trying to lay claim to that field of moral theology referred to as "Catholic Social Doctrine" as the 2012 campaign for the US Presidency begins. Prior to 2004 the phrase "Social Teaching" of the Catholic Church referred to the teachings found in the Sacred Scriptures, expounded upon in the Christian tradition, developed in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, explained within a contemporary series of encyclical letters, apostolic letters and exhortations, and wonderfully summarized in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Sadly, many people had not read these sources. So, what claimed to be the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church was too often the "spin" of self styled "experts" with political agendas.

Then on April 2, 2004, the Memorial of Saint Francis of Paola, Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, President of the "Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace" released the "Compendium of the Social Doctrine of Church." It can be studied and read in full online here It can also be purchased here I recommend that every Catholic, indeed all Christians, other people of faith and all people of good will purchase this outstanding compendium. It is a tremendous resource. 

This social doctrine of the Church confronts what Pope Benedict called the "Dictatorship of Relativism" and insists there are unchangeable truths such as the dignity of every human person at every age and stage which must form the foundation of any just society. To be Pro-Life is not about a "single issue", it is about a world view. It is this dignity of the human person which requires a respect for every human life whether that life be in the first home of the womb, a wheelchair, a jail cell, a hospital room, a hospice, a senior center or a soup kitchen.

 

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الروايـة الأمنيـة الكاملـة بشأن توقيف سماحة

  نقلت صحيفة "السفير" الرواية المعممة من قبل "فرع المعلومات" بشأن قضية توقيف الوزير والنائب السابق ميشال سماحة على خلفية اعداد تفجيرات في مناطق الشمال.  وفي التفاصيل، ان (م. ك.) حضر قبل نحو ثلاثة اسابيع إلى "فرع المعلومات"، وأبلغ رئيسه العميد وسام الحسن بأن سماحة طلب منه تأمين مجموعة من الشباب الموثوقين لنقل عبوات ناسفة […]

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فريد هيكل الخازن: لتفاهم مسيحي – مسيحي لتحقيق تمثيل عادل

  سجل الوزير السابق فريد هيكل الخازن في تصريح اليوم ملاحظاته على مشروع الانتخاب الذي أقرته الحكومة، فقال: " في الشكل إن قانونا كهذا لا يبت بهذه الطريقة ولا يسلق سلقا أو يهرب تهريبا خصوصا أن له علاقة بمصير البلد ومستقبل النظام ودور المسيحيين وحضورهم وكيانهم". اضاف:"اما الاشارة الاولى التي يمكن استخلاصها بوضوح هي أن […]

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Nine Great American Companies That Will Never Recover

 

 

 are renowned for innovation, phenomenal growth, and, in the case of public corporations, their soaring share prices. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) usually makes the list, as does Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). At the other end of the scale are well-known firms that are so crippled they go bankrupt or disappear entirely. Recently, these have included AMR, the parent of American Airlines, Borders, and Eastman Kodak.

 

1. J.C. Penney Company Inc. (NYSE: JCP)

J.C. Penney, founded in 1913, counted itself among the primary retailers and catalog companies in the US for decades. But under CEO Myron Ullman III, who took over in 2004, its revenue began to slide, dropping from $19.9 billion in 2007 to $17.3 billion in 2011. Earnings fell from $1.1 billion to a loss of $152 million in the same period. J.C. Penney’s share price has fallen 70% in five years. By way of contrast, the shares of Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) and Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) — two direct competitors — have been essentially flat over the same period. J.C. Penney was challenged by these two companies and several others, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST). Problems became so severe that J.C. Penney closed its formerly successful catalog business and reached outside for a new CEO. The board’s choice was Apple Retail Chief Ron Johnson, who was picked in June 2011. Johnson changed the company’s pricing structure, but the reaction was so poor that revenue dropped an extraordinary 20.1% to $3.2 billion in the first fiscal quarter. J.C. Penney posted a loss of $163 million. Internet sales, so essential in a world in which Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has become a significant presence, fell 27.9% to $271 million. By contrast, Macy’s total sales, combining online and those made in stores, rose 4.3% to $6.1 billion in the last reported quarter. And Macy’s is hardly J.C. Penney’s largest competitor by revenue or workforce. Walmart’s sales were $450 billion last year, while Costco’s were $89 billion.

2. The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT)

The New York Times is, and has been for decades, the premier daily newspaper company in the US. But the company has been shrinking rapidly. Ten years ago, The New York Times Company made $300 million on revenue of $3.1 billion. Last year it lost $40 million on revenue of $2.3 billion. The New York Times did not move online fast enough to offset the rapid erosion of print advertising. Its tardiness allowed it to be challenged on the Internet by properties like The Huffington Post, Google News, and the news, sports, and financial properties of portals such as MSN, AOL, and Yahoo!. As an indication of how the stock market measures the value of The New York Times Company, its market cap is $1.2 billion against its revenue of $2.3 billion in 2011. Low-brow content aggregator Demand Media has a market capitalization of $865 million against 2011 revenue of $325 million. Demand lost $13 million last year. The reason the market values of the two companies are so close? The Times still relies on the dying print business for the lion’s share of its revenue. Its market cap and cash balance are too low to allow it to more aggressively move to the internet or buy large online properties. In the last quarter, The Times’ revenue was roughly flat at $515 million. The company lost 57 cents a share compared with a profit of 5 cents a share in the same period last year. The worst news from the quarter was that “Digital advertising revenues at the News Media Group decreased 1.6 percent to $52.6 million from $53.5 million mainly due to declines in national display and real estate classified advertising revenues.” The Times did make advances in online paid subscriptions, but circulation revenue barely offset the drop in advertising sales. At the heart of The New York Times’ uniqueness among American newspapers is the quality of its editorial content. The company has held the line on retaining its large editorial staff. It did lay off 100 people in 2009, which was about 8% of the news staff. The industry is in the midst of another wave of job cuts. The Times has not been able to show significant top-line growth, even with its digital subscription efforts. Print is in too much of a shambles for the company to shore itself up in the digital world.

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3 Reasons Your Company Should Be Using YouTube For Recruitment [Infographic]

 

YouTube is the third most trafficked website in the world, after Google and Facebook, and if your company isn’t using the online video site as part of your social recruitment efforts you’ll want to start after checking out this infographic from HireRabbit.

The HireRabbit infographic, YouTube Recruiting, takes a look at why making YouTube a part of your hiring efforts is important.  We’ve gleaned a few enticing points from the infographic, which you can read on to learn more about before checking out the full infographic below.

Job postings with videos get higher response rates

The infographic reports that job postings with video icons are viewed 12 percent more than those without.  Furthermore, job postings with video icons receive a 34 percent greater application rate.

Videos help you show off the personality of your company

A prospective hire can learn a lot more about what it will be like to work at your company if you upload a video showing off the personality of your workplace.  Looking for inspiration on this front?  Check out the Life At YouTube series that the online video site launched last year.

Videos encourage sharing more than text

Viewers are a lot more likely to share a video than they are to share text.  If you encourage the sharing of your video you’ll reach even more prospective hires.

View the full infographic below to find out more, including tips for how to humanize your business using video, how to create an awesome YouTube channel, and a roundup of the top five branded career channels on YouTube.  Is your company using YouTube for recruiting?

 

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The Catholics Bishops and Politics in US
 
 
“This is a big moment for Catholic voters to step back from their party affiliation,” Baltimore archbishop William E. Lori tells me from the Knights of Columbus annual convention in Anaheim, Calif.
 

For Catholic voters in November, Lori advises, “The question to ask is this: Are any of the candidates of either party, or independents, standing for something that is intrinsically evil, evil no matter what the circumstances? If that’s the case, a Catholic, regardless of his party affiliation, shouldn’t be voting for such a person.”

At the convention this week, the message wasn’t just coming from Lori, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ new committee on religious liberty, but also from a letter conveying greetings from Pope Benedict XVI, commending the Knights and their work, specifically in defense of religious liberty. The Knights have been known to get papal encouragement, but this implicit comment on a contentious political issue is not part of the routine, reflecting what the letter calls the “unprecedented gravity” of the current situation.

“At a time when concerted efforts are being made to redefine and restrict the exercise of the right to religious freedom, the Knights of Columbus have worked tirelessly to help the Catholic community recognize and respond to the unprecedented gravity of these new threats to the Church’s liberty and public moral witness,” Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone wrote in the letter to the Knights, the largest lay Catholic organization in the United States, no doubt referring to the fight over the HHS contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing-drug mandate that has Catholic diocese, universities, and even businessmen suing the federal government to protect their religious-liberty rights. Cardinal Bertone continued: “By defending the right of all religious believers, as individual citizens and in their institutions, to work responsibly in shaping a democratic society inspired by their deepest beliefs, values and aspirations, your Order has proudly lived up to the high religious and patriotic principles which inspired its founding.”

“The challenges of the present moment are in fact yet another reminder of the decisive importance of the Catholic laity for the advancement of the Church’s mission in today’s rapidly changing social context,” the letter continues.

 

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الراعي: ضرورة مساعدة اللبنانيين لتخطي الصعوبات

    شدد البطريرك الماروني مار بشارة بطرس الراعي بعد ظهر اليوم، على "ضرورة العمل والسعي الدائم على مساعدة اللبنانيين لتخطي الصعوبات، والإهتمام بكل ما يعود بالخير عليهم".   كلام الراعي جاء في خلال ترؤسه لاجتماع لجنة التنسيق والمتابعة النيابية الذي انعقد في الصرح البطريركي في بكركي، في حضور النائب البطريركي العام المطران بولس الصياح، […]

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