AdamSmith

Nice to see the mainstream media giving this a serious & sympathetic look... http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/26/living/relationships-polyamory/index.html?c=homepage-t&page=1

Bingo. Moreover, the whole meme that society would fall apart under the shock of zombie apocalypse flies in the face of the profit motive and immeasurable commercial potential that would energize the black hearts of private armies, munitions makers, drone manufacturers the world over. Government military too -- even if the executive and legislative fell all apart, General Buck Turgidson et al. could be relied on to take matters into their own hands. In fact the only reason the poor rotting undead would not be wiped off the earth within one week would be precisely the Zombie Industrial Complex's need for an ongoing supply of enemy to justify its existence, and its invoices to client states. Undead population numbers would be stabilized within manageable limits, then carefully maintained as a Credible Threat. One can even imagine some collusion with the brighter and more avaricious zombies who with enough brain-bribery might be turned double agents! ...Ah, for certain kinds of military and intelligence-service minds, such a world would present opportunity without limit. So I would set up home base in the Pentagon. Or possibly (a place I have in fact been to on business) the comfortable, and well secured, San Diego headquarters of drone maker General Atomics.

Lovecraft in the comics: http://www.yankeeclassic.com/miskatonic/library/stacks/periodicals/comics/lovecraft/comics1.htm

"So I thought, if Chelsea Manning could find the courage, so could I." -- Burt Reynolds

Odd confluence of topics... http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dracula-was-a-lawyer-erin-barrett/1112157438

Also interesting... Doctor Who's Matt Smith on kissing boys and not being handsome enough to play Bond http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8388472/Doctor-Whos-Matt-Smith-on-kissing-boys-and-not-being-handsome-enough-to-play-Bond.html

Christopher Isherwood: The peculiar odyssey of a great literary outsider Ahead of a BBC Two biopic, Peter Parker explains the lasting appeal of novelist Christopher Isherwood. Doctor Who actor Matt Smith portrays Christopher Isherwood in Christopher and His Kind, a BBC Two biopic of the novelist. Photo: BBC By Peter Parker 6:07PM GMT 17 Mar 2011 On November 29, 1929 Christopher Isherwood packed two suitcases and a rucksack and set off for Berlin on a one-way ticket. “To Christopher, Berlin meant Boys”, he later wrote, and by going to live there he was rejecting both his upper-middle-class background and the social values to which his mother, widowed in the First World War, was still clinging. This ferocious family quarrel had been dramatised in his highly accomplished but heavily remaindered first novel, All the Conspirators, published in 1928. In Berlin he would work on a second novel, The Memorial, which further explored the gulf between the generations caused by the war and was admired by EM Forster among others. It was, however, the novels he wrote about Berlin, Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935) and Goodbye to Berlin (1939), that made his reputation as one of the leading writers of his generation, providing an indelible tragic-comic portrait of a city teetering on the brink of catastrophe as Hitler gained in popular support. While Isherwood was attracted to Berlin by the ready availability of homosexual partners there, he always had a keen journalist’s instinct for being in the right place at the right time. “Here was the seething brew of history in the making,” he wrote, “a brew which would test the truth of all the political theories, just as actual cooking tests the cookery books. The Berlin brew seethed with unemployment, malnutrition, stock market panic, hatred of the Versailles Treaty and other potent ingredients.” Isherwood’s Berlin novels portray this history-in-the-making at street level, showing how ordinary people were affected. Isherwood’s sharp eye for physical detail and human oddity means that his characters are never merely representative of their class or condition, but leap off the page and live on in the memory. And in the feckless cabaret singer Sally Bowles (on whose story the stage musical Cabaret was later based) he created one of literature’s immortals. Isherwood’s lasting attraction as a writer, apart from the unfading crispness and sheer readability of his prose, is that he encompassed a century. Although born into the Edwardian age in 1904, he still seems strikingly modern. He may have effectively left England in 1929, but he took his Englishness with him, becoming, as he put it, “a permanent foreigner”. He recognised that being an outsider wherever he went, both nationally and sexually, gave him an invaluable perspective as a writer. Having fled Berlin in May 1933, he spent the next few years trailing around Europe with his young German lover Heinz Neddermeyer in search of a country in which they could settle without being harried by immigration officials and the Nazi authorities. Heinz was eventually imprisoned for draft evasion and sexual offences, after which Isherwood travelled to China as a somewhat improbable war reporter with his friend WH Auden. The two emigrated to America in 1939 and Isherwood settled in California. He worked with leading directors in Hollywood, became the disciple of a Hindu guru long before hippies followed in The Beatles’ footsteps to India, and ended up a figurehead of the Gay Liberation movement. He died in 1986. Every step along the way is recorded in the books he wrote, so that reading Isherwood gives one a real sense of what it was like to live through the 20th century, a century characterised by wars, the clash of ideologies, widespread deracination and massive social change. A new perspective is promised by Kevin Elyot’s adaptation for BBC Two of Christopher and His Kind, Isherwood’s memoir of his life in the 1930s, published in 1977. Taking advantage of the new freedoms resulting from gay liberation, Isherwood not only placed his homosexual experiences back at the centre of his Berlin life in this book, but went on to describe his further travels throughout what Auden described as “a low dishonest decade”. As in Goodbye to Berlin, this is a personal story played out against and driven by history. The familiar refugee experience is given a novel twist, however, for it is sexuality rather than race that forces Isherwood to seek another homeland. The book ends hopefully with him setting sail for America, like many European émigrés; and it is here that a whole new chapter of his life and work will open. ‘Christopher and His Kind’ is on BBC Two on Saturday 19 March at 9.30pm. Peter Parker is the author of ‘Isherwood: a Life Revealed’ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8388504/Christopher-Isherwood-The-peculiar-odyssey-of-a-great-literary-outsider.html

Don Bachardy interview: 'I was just waiting to be told who I was' Don Bachardy talks about his love for Christopher Isherwood, and how he kept on painting him after he died Men of letters: Don Bachardy with a painting of his partner Christpher Isherwood Photo: Getty By John Walsh 7:00AM BST 22 Oct 2013 The American artist Don Bachardy and the British writer Christopher Isherwood were an item for more than 30 years. Despite the gap in their ages – Bachardy was 18 when they met, Isherwood 48 – and the fact that few gay couples lived openly as couples in America in those times, they became the most solidly enduring arty-literary relationship in Sixties and Seventies California, parted only by the death of Isherwood in 1986. When circumstances made them live apart in the Sixties, they wrote copious letters to each other, full of gossip, name-dropping, sighs of loneliness and fond endearments. Many critics of the collected missives, which have just been published, were intrigued (or amused, or dismayed) to discover the slushily anthropomorphic names they called each other: Don was “Kitty” or “Pussy” or “Angel Kitten”; Christopher was “Dobbin” or “Dub” or “Angelhorse” or “VelvetMuzzle”. When we met in London’s Holland Park, I asked Bachardy about “the Basket”, a kind of Platonic haven for which the animals, the skittish Kitty and the stolid Dobbin, ache when they’re apart. It’s mentioned several times, but never described. What did it signify? “The Basket was essentially our house in Santa Monica,” said Bachardy, “and of course the real basket was the bed we always slept in together – not only slept together, but very closely, with arms around each other. I always thought that was very animal-like. We believed we communicated with each other in the night, and the animals carried on their adventures in the night hours.” Now 79, spry and agile in a simple T-shirt and box-fresh trainers, Bachardy talks a blue streak, with his head bowed in concentration. Then, abruptly, his sentences end and he raises his head to scrutinise you. His piercing gaze has been trained on hundreds of portrait sitters (“Aldous Huxley’s colouring was wonderful – his face all pinks and greys and silver, with the wonderful opaqueness of his eyes, like clouds in different shades of grey”) and made them quake. Related Articles Isherwood's diaries 08 Oct 2010 'A Single Man’: on the writer Christopher Isherwood 05 Feb 2010 Christopher Isherwood: a great literary outsider 17 Mar 2011 Liberation by Christopher Isherwood: review 08 Jun 2012 As a child he taught himself to draw by copying portraits of movie actors. “I thought I could bring something special to their photographs,” he says. “I don’t think any drawing done Half a lifetime later, he encountered movie actors again, and drew them again – but by this time, his eye had grown sharp. “So many people have said, 'Do I look like that to you?’ They’ve never seen what they look like when they’ve been sitting still for three hours. Something deep comes out, something very different and shocking. Fred Astaire sat for me once. He looked startling when his face was un-animated. He looked almost scary, like Boris Karloff. He was very deflated by the result. He offered to sit for a second portrait and of course I said yes – but the result was every bit as grim as the first.” Isherwood always encouraged his young lover to write, but suggested he should also follow his talent for drawing. “He’d observed couples who lived together and practised the same art, and thought they were inviting rivalry and competition. He said if I did something creatively different from what he did, we’d have a better chance of staying together.” A remarkable symbiosis grew between them. Isherwood was first to suggest that Bachardy try drawing from life, and became his first sitter – and his most prolific. In turn, when writing a book, Isherwood would ask Bachardy’s advice about physical descriptions of characters. Both men used each other as sounding-boards of authenticity. “Often,” said Bachardy, “I felt that he was in some way forming me, creating in me his idea of a companion, and I was responding to that. I was just waiting to be told who I was and what about me was of use to another person.” The end was astonishing. In the last six months of his life, Isherwood was Bachardy’s only sitter. “I cancelled all others, and worked on many drawings a day. It was an amazing experience for me, just working with him day after day, it was the intensest way I could be with him, nothing could be more intense than looking at somebody in the way I look at them while I’m drawing them. After he was dead, I did 11 drawings, and was about to do a 12th, but his doctor arrived. I was so relieved not to have to do the 12th, because by then the corpse hardly looked like him.” Wasn’t there something a bit … heartless, drawing somebody while they die? Bachardy smiled. “I must be heartless, because I can do it. The focus I use when I’m working is relentless, and when I get into it, I can’t be taken out. Sometimes I see those drawings now and I can hardly bear them. I think, 'How did I manage to do that without breaking up?’ The Animals: Love Letters between Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, edited by Katherine Bucknell (Chatto, RRP £25), is available to order from Telegraph Books for £23 plus £1.35p&p. Call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10387989/Don-Bachardy-interview-I-was-just-waiting-to-be-told-who-I-was.html

The other upside of cider -- cranberry juice won't ferment! At least not the ultrapasteurized red corn syrup that passes for same today.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/24/hacker-computer-seized-us-open-source

Angela is severely unamused. http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/24/world/europe/europe-summit-nsa-surveillance/index.html?c=world Together with the rest of Europe? http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/24/world/europe/europe-us-surveillance/index.html?c=homepage-t

LOL "Souls on board" -- how do you count bankers and politicians? Maybe the Grand Compromise -- 3/5 of a person?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/nsa-surveillance-world-leaders-calls

Yes! And those 2 straight but oh so cute British lads who make all those great funny videos would be perfect.

I speculated here before that has to be one reason he is living in Casa Santa Marta -- to lessen the danger of ending up like John Paul I.

Glad you approve.

LOL. Further I believe English hotel accommodations must be outfitted with a diabolical ammonia-cooling system or some such that chills the toilet seats another 15 degrees or so.

Exactly. I feel like an Afrikaner when I say it.

Well, Use the Twelfth, "Use it to relieve embalmer's eczema," would only require you to become an embalmer.

And just by coincidence today...! I've been an embalmer for 14 years and see my share of bodies. Any questions?I spend my time with dead bodies, cleaning them and preparing them for funerals. It's delicate work. Go ahead, ask me anything Jenn Park-Mustacchio theguardian.com, Thursday 24 October 2013 09.27 EDT 'My job is fulfilling when a particularly difficult case comes out better than expected.' Photograph: Zefa RF/Alamy Jenn Park-Mustacchio is a licensed funeral director and embalmer who works in New Jersey, USA. She studied anthropology and human biology at the University of Pennsylvania, and has been in the funeral industry for 14 years. So what would you like to know? Leave your questions in the comments. Jenn will pop in throughout the day to answer them. Take us through a regular day at work: Typically, my day begins when someone dies. Since I'm a trade embalmer, I don't handle the first call or transport of a deceased person (although I've previously done both). My boss calls me, and I arrive at the funeral home shortly after the deceased has been taken into our care to begin the embalming process. I suit up in personal protective equipment (a gown, apron, shoe covers, gloves etc) and evaluate the person to decide how I will proceed. Every case is different and requires a special combination of fluids (which are mixed according to the height, weight and physical conditions of the deceased). I mix the fluids accordingly and begin to set the features. Setting the features involves closing the eyes and mouth and placing cotton in the mouth to give the person a more natural expression. Next, I gently flex the arms, legs and fingers to relieve the muscle tension or stiffness of rigor mortis. I position the hands one over the other, wash the body, cover the genitals (to preserve modesty) and prepare the tools I will need to embalm. Typically, we use a scalpel to make a small incision near the right collarbone. From there, we search for the common carotid artery and internal jugular vein. A small incision is made in each. Arterial tubes are placed in the artery (one is directed towards the heart, while the other is directed towards the head). A drain tube, or angled forceps, is also placed in the vein to facilitate drainage of blood. The hose, connected to the embalming machine, is then connected to the arterial tube directed towards the heart. The embalming machine is then adjusted to regulate pressure (the force of the fluid) and rate of flow (speed of the fluid). These knobs are adjusted differently during embalming for each case to create the optimum rate of injection for the body. The machine is switched on and the fluid begins to move through the hose, through the arterial tube and into the body. As the embalming fluid is pushed through the arterial system, the blood is forced out through the jugular vein. The body is vigorously massaged with a soapy sponge to help facilitate drainage and distribution of embalming fluid. The tissue will begin to firm and take on a rosy appearance, which is an excellent indication of adequate distribution and a successful embalming. The tubes are then removed, the vein and artery tied off and the incision is sutured. Next, the cavity is treated. Fluid is suctioned from the hollow organs with an instrument called a trocar, then a high-index (very strong) fluid is placed into the cavity and the incision is closed with a small circular plastic button like device referred to as a trocar button. The deceased is again washed. Their hair is combed and cream is placed on their face to prevent skin dehydration. The deceased is then covered and will remain in the preparation room until they are dressed, cosmetized and ready to be placed into a casket for viewing. Typically the viewing takes place a few days after death. So I will clean up the prep room and leave until it's time for the next embalming or until its time to dress and casket someone who's been previously embalmed. *The above is a description of a "typical" embalming. If a person dies tragically (murder, suicide, automobile accident) the embalming process is drastically different. Tell us about something surprising, or unexpected, that happened to you while working: I've had several interesting things happen on the job, but one particular moment comes to mind. I went in for a 3am embalming and heard a strange whisper. I quickly fumbled for the lights and, upon turning them on, figured out that the noise was coming from the occupied stretcher. I approached with caution expecting the person inside could be alive. However, upon unzipping the cover, I found a tape recorder (that I later found out was playing a Buddhist chant). The next day the family explained that, ideally, a monk would be at the place of death to chant when the soul exits the body. Chanting calms the soul, which the buddhists believe, is in a state of confusion and fright after exiting the body. The soul of the deceased must be put at ease with food and chant throughout the difficult time of transition. This particular experience was both enlightening and frightening! What makes for a really good day at work? My job is fulfilling when a particularly difficult case comes out better than expected. If a family decides to keep a casket open, when they previously thought they wouldn't be able to, or when someone compliments my work. The best compliment I got was from a woman whose daughter died of bone cancer. She took my hand and said, "Thank you, she's so beautiful, she looks like she could get up and dance." What is your salary? Do you get benefits? The median annual income for funeral directors in the US is over $52,000 (with the annual salary in New Jersey averaging above $79,000). Regulations vary state by state, but here in New Jersey we are embalmers/funeral directors and are licensed to handle all aspects of the funeral (from first call to final disposition). In other states they have separate licenses for funeral directors and embalmers. Even though I am licensed to perform all aspects of the business, I work as an embalmer because I enjoy that particular aspect of the business and found that it allows me to spend a significant amount of time with my family. Trade embalmers, like myself, are paid by the job. Usually we work for more than one location and will embalm, dress, casket, cosmetize and do restorative work. Trade embalmers have the potential to make significantly more than the average funeral director depending on how many locations they work for and how busy those locations are. However, we do not receive health benefits because we are not full-time employees. Have you ever made a mistake at work? I'm fortunate enough to say that I have not made any major mistakes. When I was an intern, I was super careful and very aware that any mistake I made could potentially affect the grieving process of the deceased friends and loved ones, so I always consulted with senior funeral directors if I was unsure of what to do or how to proceed with difficult cases. Do you have an interesting job? Know someone who does? Tell us! Email ruth.spencer@theguardian.com with your tips and suggestions for other people we should feature on A Day's Work. Highlights (so far) from the Q&A Q: TGondii 24 October 2013 3:00pm Have you ever worked on a friend or relative, or would you ask a colleague to do that? A: Guardian contributor JenniferMustacchio 24 October 2013 3:42pm This comment has been chosen by Guardian staff because it contributes to the debate I helped prepare my grandmother and embalmed my cousin and one of my high school teachers. I would draw the line at mom or dad. Although I do know of a few embalmers who have embalmed their parents. Those of us who choose to handle the preparation of our friends and loved ones usually do so because we feel as though we can do the best job restoring their natural appearance because we knew them so well in life. It is difficult, but it's a labor of love. Q: criddy1979 24 October 2013 3:43pm Is it true that they have to 'wire' people's jaws shut, and put 'velcro' contact lenses in people's eyes, and stuff their cheeks with cotton wool? And is it true that the last thing that everybody ever does is evacuate their bowels? A: Guardian contributor JenniferMustacchio 24 October 2013 3:56pm The mouth can be closed by suture or by using a device that involves placing two small tacks (one anchored in the mandible and the other in the maxilla) in the jaw. The tacks have wires that are then twisted together to hold the mouth closed. This is almost always done because, when relaxed, the mouth stays open. We also use cotton to fill out hollow cheeks or give the appearance of teeth to those who have none, or are missing a few. The device under the eye is actually a serrated plastic eye cap that helps keep the eye closed. I do not enjoy the look of them, so I don't use them. Cotton is usually sufficient to use under an eyelid if the eye has deflated. However, we usually don't need to use anything under the eyelid at all. As for your last question, if someone hasn't recently evacuated their bowels they may defecate upon death (but not always. Q: RedTelecaster 24 October 2013 3:46pm I grew up living in a cemetery and used to help dig / re-open the graves (my dad was the gravedigger). It has left me with absolutely zero belief in ghosts,and a quiet and calm acceptance of death as a natural process. Just wondered how you view the subject of ghosts and all the other cliches connected with graveyards? A: Guardian contributor JenniferMustacchio 24 October 2013 4:12pm I feel much the same as you. I have yet to see anything that convinced me of the presence of ghosts. If they do exist, I'm sure they could think of better places to be than haunting me at the funeral home Q: John Broomfield 24 October 2013 3:46pm Thank you for the details of embalming. Respectful and professional. I'm having second thoughts about being cremated now. 1. Is the body still a person or just a human body? 2. Does the dead person's religion change the embalming routine? Many thanks. A: Guardian contributor JenniferMustacchio 24 October 2013 4:09pm Thank you so much. In my humble opinion, the deceased is a vessel where life once existed. I still treat that person with respect, but the spark that made them who they are is no longer there. Certain religions do not embalm (Jewish and Muslim are the two that come to mind immediately). They believe the body should be buried with all it's components. So removing the blood would be a violation of their beliefs. They adhere to a more "natural" idea of burial that involves shrouding the deceased and/or placing them in a natural pine box. Q: AlanMcInally 24 October 2013 3:48pm This comment has been chosen by Guardian staff because it contributes to the debate Bloody hell, they are giving the guardian picks out like it was Xmas, quick think of a question! My actual questions (coughs, prepares..) 1- How do you keep up to date with current techniques? Are there conferences, trade magazines and an active collaborative community of..embalmers? 2- Can you elaborate on the techniques involved in more violent deaths? What is the most drastic repair work you have had to do and have you ever found this distressing to do or can you just zone out and focus on the task at hand regardless? 3- Related to the above, have you ever been really moved by something you've seen? After all these are real people and you must get a fascinating insight into their lives, maybe some of them haven't been seen naked for years. Thanks A: Guardian contributor JenniferMustacchio 24 October 2013 4:27pm This comment has been chosen by Guardian staff because it contributes to the debate You sure seem to have a lot of questions for this lowly mortician. Anyway, despite the minor insult, I'll answer your questions... We must take continuing education classes in order to keep current with our licenses (which must be renewed every 2 years). There are also trade magazines and private funeral forums where we discuss issues. The more violent deaths involve autopsies and require all the limbs and head be embalmed separately. The organs are also treated separately and placed back into the cavity post embalming. There is a great deal of suturing (the y incision on the body and the cranial incision of the head) There have been many instances that have had great impact on my life. I'm extremely outspoken about the issue of domestic violence after handling the funeral of a 20 year old young lady who was shot by her boyfriend (who then turned the gun on himself). Children are always difficult as well. As for the most difficult restoration. That would have to be making a nose for a lady that had craniofacial cancer. Q: Christo99 24 October 2013 3:48pm I am in the UK and was always under the impression that at least partial embalming was done for viewing purposes. Is it necessary to allow viewing without extreme distress? Or can folk choose no embalming whether they are buried or cremated? A: Guardian contributor JenniferMustacchio 24 October 2013 4:35pm Embalming is not required by law (except in certain instances, and only in certain states). Here in NJ you are only required to be embalmed if you're being transported across state lines. Some people choose to embalm before viewing because they prefer the life like appearance that embalming imparts. Some are embalmed, have a viewing and are cremated. It's strictly the choice of the family. From what I understand, embalming is not common in the UK, but that doesn't mean that the morticians don't set the features. I'm assuming this may be what you're referring to. It is possible to set the features (close the eyes and mouth) and cosmetize the deceased for viewing without embalming. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/24/embalmer-for-14-years-ask-me-anything

Truly. A firsthand look at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, plus the effects of overfishing. I'm starting to revise my idea of wanting to live forever. It would get lonely being the only living thing left on the planet.

And the problem with that would be?

The Oskar Schindler Of Argentina?Oct 13 2013 @ 10:46am Andrew Sullivan The Dish John L. Allen, Jr. details a new Italian book that claims that title for the man who became Pope Francis: In reply to persistent charges that the young Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was complicit in Argentina’s infamous “dirty war” from 1976 to 1983, when roughly 30,000 people disappeared, Scavo asserts that Bergoglio was actually a Jesuit version of Oskar Schindler – quietly saving lives rather than engaging in noisy public protest. The future pope, Scavo writes, saved as many as a thousand targets of the military dictatorship by providing shelter in a Jesuit college, passing them off as seminarians or laity on retreat, then helping them move out of Argentina. In one case, according to Scavo, Bergoglio gave a man who bore him a passing resemblance his own passport and priest’s clothing to make his escape. http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/10/13/the-oskar-schindler-of-argentina/ Book says pope saved more than 1,000 in 'Dirty War' John L. Allen Jr. | Oct. 7, 2013 NCR Today Rome Perhaps the single public figure on the planet right now least in need of rehabilitation of his image is Pope Francis, who's got poll numbers in most places of which politicians and celebrities alike can only dream. Nevertheless, rehabilitation is precisely what Italian journalist Nello Scavo delivers in his new book Bergoglio's List: The Untold Story of the People Saved by Francis during the Dictatorship, which was presented today at the headquarters of the Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica in Rome. In reply to persistent charges that the young Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was complicit in Argentina's infamous "dirty war" from 1976 to 1983, when roughly 30,000 people disappeared, Scavo asserts that Bergoglio was actually a Jesuit version of Oskar Schindler – quietly saving lives rather than engaging in noisy public protest. The future pope, Scavo writes, saved as many as a thousand targets of the military dictatorship by providing shelter in a Jesuit college, passing them off as seminarians or laity on retreat, then helping them move out of Argentina. In one case, according to Scavo, Bergoglio gave a man who bore him a passing resemblance his own passport and priest's clothing to make his escape. In other cases, Scavo says, people were saved "indirectly" by Bergoglio, because the targets he helped stay out of prison would have named others who would also likely have been arrested and tortured. Scavo provides names and details for roughly a dozen people rescued by Bergoglio and claims that each one of those people told him they knew "at least 20 or 30 more." Taken together with the indirect effects of his actions, Scavo says, Bergoglio was arguably responsible for saving more than the 1,200 lives attributed to Schindler's intervention during World War II. One such survivor is today a mayor in Uruguay named Gonzalo Mosca, who was accompanied by Bergoglio onto the airplane that carried him to safety while being hunted by the police. Another is an Argentine lawyer and human rights activist named Alicia Oliveira, whose three small children were lodged in a Jesuit college by Bergoglio while she remained in hiding. Twice a week, she said, Bergoglio would take her to see her children, despite the fact that a warrant was out for her arrest. "Nobody needs to explain to me who Jorge Bergoglio is," she told Scavo. "He helped many persecuted people escape, putting his own life at risk." The rescued also include Alfredo Somoza, an atheist novelist who today lives in Milan, and Ana and Sergio Gobulin, a married couple now living in the Italian province of Pordenone. The pope has remained friends with the Gobulins, according to Scavo, speaking from time to time on the telephone. Scavo claims the story of Bergoglio's pipeline has been previously untold because Bergoglio himself has never called attention to it, and in fact the pope didn't cooperate with the book project. There are already plans for translations of the book in at least eight languages, including English, and there's also been at least two proposals for a movie a-la "Schindler's List." Nevertheless, there are signs that the book may not resolve all the debates over Bergoglio's role in the dirty war. The book itself carries a preface by Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, the Argentinian Noble Peace Prize Winner, which lauds Bergoglio's aid to victims but also questions his public silence during that period. "He did not participate in the struggle in defense of human rights against the military dictatorship," Esquivel writes. On Sunday, leftist Argentinian journalist Horacio Verbitsky published a new piece questioning the reconciliation between the pope and a Jesuit named Franz Jalics, one of two Jesuits arrested and tortured in 1976. Verbitsky,a former leftist guerilla, is close to the government of Christina Kirchner in Argentina, and has long been one of the most acerbic critics of Bergoglio's history during the dictatorship. Jalics and the other Jesuit, Orlando Yorio, who has since died, originally suggested that Bergoglio had turned them in. Yet Jalics, a native on Hungary who today lives in a German monastery, withdrew that charge in a March 20, 2013, statement: "The fact is, Orlando Yorio and I were not denounced by Father Bergoglio." Francis and Jalics met in person in Rome this past Saturday, Oct. 5, with Jalics assisting the pope in celebrating Mass. In his Oct. 6 piece for the Argentine newspaper Página/12, Verbitsky asked rhetorically what "private revelation" had caused Jalics to withdraw his accusation. He insisted that Bergoglio must have known about such crackdowns on clergy, because it was common practice for the military to inform their bishops or religious superiors beforehand. Scavo defends Bergoglio's choice not to engage in overt opposition by comparison to the role of Pope Pius XII during World War II – the price of being able to save lives behind the scenes, Scavo contends, was being careful in public. "What use would a human rights champion be in jail, or even dead?" Scavo said. "At the time Bergoglio wasn't known, so a public denunciation by him wouldn't have had any effect on the leaders of the coup," he said. "Let's also not forget that the regime assassinated roughly thirty bishops, priests and sisters, as well a hundred catechists believed to be communists." This morning's event was hosted at Civiltà Cattolica by Jesuit Fr. Antonio Spadaro, who conducted a recent blockbuster interview with Francis on behalf of 16 Jesuit publications. Italian filmmaker Liliana Cavani told the crowd that the pope's role as revealed in the book reminds her of a "fisherman from Lampedusa," where a recent shipwreck left more than 200 dead, and where local fisherman worked around the clock to pull survivors from the water. "Not being able to save everyone, he at least wanted to save someone," Cavani said. Bergoglio's List is published in Italian by EMI, a missionary publishing house. An official from the publisher told NCR today it will be issued in English translation by Tan Books, though with a release date next year. http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/book-says-pope-saved-more-1000-dirty-war