Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Tag: Statistics

You are Here :
Perspective, Political, , , , , ,

Not getting better, and where to cut

From a report of the Congressional Budget Office: CBO Reports Record Deficits For 2011 Along With Slow Job Growth

The report will likely accelerate calls by Congress to reduce spending for the remainder of fiscal 2011, which began on November 1. The House Majority, in the coming weeks, will consider a cut of at least $55 to $60 billion from fiscal 2011, bringing non-discretionary spending in line with fiscal 2008 levels. While certain spending cuts are a wise conservation of resources (cut military spending, get out of foreign wars, stop extravagant support of nations like Israel, cut back Homeland Security to reduce the overwrought sense of fear imposed on most Americans), spending on support like unemployment insurance as a bridge, and job retraining, are a wise investment. We have need new competitiveness, and these sorts of initiatives will only make us stronger. Of course, we could just send the unemployed off to foreign lands — and reduce the surplus population.

Deficit: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected the deficit for fiscal year 2011, will be almost $1.5 trillion, or 9.8 percent of the gross domestic product, up from $1.29 trillion in 2010.Employment Outlook:

Jobs Recovery Slower than Past Recessions: CBO said the recovery in jobs has been much slower in this recession than after past recessions and it predicted economic growth will remain “below potential” for several more years.

Hiring Slowed by Changes in the Economy: CBO said payroll employment, which plunged by 7.3 million during the recent recession, rose by only 70,000 jobs, on net, between June 2009 and December 2010. “The recovery in employment has been slowed not only by the slow growth in output, but also by structural changes in the labor market, such as a mismatch between the requirements of available jobs and the skills of job seekers,” the report said.

Employment Will Not Recover Until 2016: CBO expects the economy to add about 2.5 million jobs a year from 2011 to 2016. However, it cautioned, “Even with significant increases in the number of jobs, a substantial reduction in the unemployment rate will take some time.” The unemployment rate should fall to 9.2 percent by the end of 2011, 8.2 percent by the end of 2012, and 7.4 percent by the end of 2013 – reaching 5.3 percent only in 2016, according to CBO’s forecast.

Other reports worth noting from the Congressional Research Service:

Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , ,

The Immigrant Mosaic in Massachusetts

From the Boston Globe: Massachusetts’ ethnic mosaic

The story includes interactive maps, clusters of interest, state averages, and search tools.

Polish immigrants make up 5.3% of the state’s population. I had always thought that Poles had primarily congregated in the Chicopee area. In fact, Adams, MA has the largest percentage of people self-identifying as Polish-Americans — 29.1% of the local population. The story also notes the unfortunate breakdowns we see in the social fabric of a community, with R.C. church and business closings.

Adams, a small town in the Berkshires, has long had a significant Polish presence. Immigrants came in the early 1990s to work in the textile mills, and today about 28 percent of residents report Polish ancestry. Lisa Mendel of the local chapter of the Polish National Alliance said they hold a Polish dance classes for kids each Tuesday night. “We still try to hold onto our Polish culture and traditions,” she said. Yet some have faded. A Polish deli closed a couple years back, as did a Polish Catholic church.

The rest of the story:

Ever since the Pilgrims landed, waves of immigrants have come to Massachusetts, weaving themselves into the fabric of cities and towns with their food, music, idioms, and culture.

By far the largest, and most defining, were Irish, tens of thousands of whom crossed the ocean in the mid-19th century to escape famine. Many moved south of Boston, settling in coastal suburbs that became known as the Irish Riviera. Statewide, nearly one in four residents are of Irish descent, newly released Census data show.

Until the late 19th century, immigrants to Boston were almost exclusively from western Europe, primarily England, Scotland, and Ireland. But in the 1880s, immigrants began arriving from Poland, Russia, and especially Italy. Like the Irish before them, they settled in Boston, then gradually migrated outward.

In recent decades, an influx of immigrants from Portugal and Cape Verde, Asia, and an array of Spanish-speaking countries have settled in Massachusetts, creating vibrant clusters across the state that endure today — from Puerto Ricans in Holyoke to the Portuguese in the New Bedford area. – Peter Schworm

Everything Else, ,

2010 website statistics

What’s here (overall)?

3,873 Posts
46 Pages
20 Categories
621 Tags
1,026 Approved Comments
191,406 Spam Comments Cleaned (thank you Akismet)

How many visitors in 2010?

26,029 Visitors
32,531 Visits
51,912 Pageviews
41,098 Unique Views

The largest number of visitors on a single day, 194 on November 22, 2010

My visitors were from 152 countries/territories, the top 20 being

United States
Poland
United Kingdom
Canada
Germany
Philippines
Italy
Australia
France
India
Ireland
Netherlands
Czech Republic
Lithuania
Spain
Brazil
Sweden
Norway
Ukraine
Romania

How did they find me in 2010?

14.84% Direct Traffic
19.88% Referring Sites
63.51% Search Engines

What browsers did they use in 2010?

Internet Explorer 47.23% (less than half!)
Firefox/Safari/Chrome/Opera 51.48%
Others 1.29%

How fast were they getting here in 2010? (their Internet connection speed)

Cable 38.07%
DSL 27.20%
Unknown 22.35%
T1 9.22%
Dialup 2.55%

If they were out and about in 2010, they were visiting using (in order):

iPhone
Android
iPad
iPod
BlackBerry
Windows
SymbianOS
Samsung
LGE

Poland - Polish - Polonia,

On the passing of Morris Moorawnick

Morris Moorawnick Knew The Sports Landscape by Raymond Rolak

DETROIT– Longtime Detroit sports figure Morris Moorawnick — A celebrated statistician and professional scorekeeper, died recently at 83. He had been ailing from a series of strokes. He was very proud of his Russian-Polish-Jewish heritage and upbringing, and was a great ambassador of Judeo-Christian relations.

Moorawnick, a native Detroiter, was best known for keeping stats for the Detroit Pistons and Detroit Red Wings, starting in 1947. He worked for the Piston’s before they moved to Detroit from Fort Wayne in 1958. Prior to that, he was the sports statistician for Wayne State University. He also helped with the great Wayne State basketball teams of Coach Joel Mason in the 1950’s. He was shy of getting his degree by three credits as he was on a music scholarship at WSU in the early 50’s. He went on to become a professional baseball scorer, with a national reputation.

As a youth he was a professional pin-ball player, table tennis champion and master piano player. His father Jacek, would often call to him in Yiddish, “Morrie the Guntcher”, which loosely translates to ‘one who can play without tilting’.

He loved to show off his NBA Championship rings from the ‘Bad Boys’ days. Also, his Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cup Rings. Last year he was celebrated by American Legion Baseball for his longtime support. In fact, he went on tour showing off his championship rings. He was also honored at Comerica Park by the Ilitch Family for his contributions to amateur sports and excellence of sportsmanship.

Native Detroiter and former sports statistician Morris Moorawnick (center) being honored at Comerica Park last year. Detroit Tiger Manager, Jim Leyland personally congratulated 'Morrie' on his honors. Photo courtesy of ROLCO SPORTS NETWORK

Moorawnick worked for nearly every media outlet in the sports departments, including the Associated Press, the Detroit Times, the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press.

He lived to talk sports. “He was the greatest uncle,” said David Manning. “The highlight of my uncle’s life was being around the teams. The only thing better than that was eating all their food before the games.” He loved to eat and tried to keep a kosher table. He tried.

He prided his special friendship with hockey legend Gordy Howe and was a fixture at Olympia and Joe Louis Arena’s. He also travelled with and did stats for the University of Michigan baseball team. Morrie was well known in Ann Arbor and at Ray Fisher Baseball Stadium. He was known for his precise and small printing. He made keeping score of a baseball game an art. Moorawnick was chronicled in the 2009 book by James Robert Irwin, “Playing Ball with Legends: The Story of Don Lund”.

He cherished his ‘Black Bat’ trophies of which he had many. These were replica Hillerich and Bradsby, Louisville Slugger baseball bats with all the teammate’s names engraved in gold on them. They were given to national championship teams as a trophy. Lund, when he was coach of the 1962 NCAA baseball champions at Michigan included Moorawnick as an interregnal part of the team. Moorawnick also contributed to Detroit Pepsi, Detroit Edison Post-187, Detroit Adray, Detroit John F. Ivory, Detroit Stan Long Pontiac, Detroit Larco and Detroit I.T.M. national championship teams

He was known nationally for his knowledge of sports and immediate recall of trivial sports facts. “He was a walking encyclopedia of sports,” said longtime friend and former Detroit Tiger, Willie Horton. In 1959 he covered the NABF National Tournament in Altoona, PA and then hitch-hiked to Hastings, NE for the American Legion World Series. “I don’t know how he did it, but he was everywhere,” continued Horton. “He was a fixture at Northwestern Fields in Detroit.” Moorawnick never learned to drive.

During the summer to supplement his income, Moorawnick would provide room and board for visiting elite baseball players that played in the old Hearst, Free Press and Adray summer leagues including baseball great, Steve Garvey. When he still traveled, he was a fixture every year at the All-American Amateur Baseball Association Tournament in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Dearborn, Michigan sportsman Mike Adray used to host Moorawnick anonymously.

In his golden years Moorawnick enjoyed reading and tending to his tomato garden. He is survived by a sister, Marian and nieces and nephews. The family asks that memorial donations be made to one’s charity of choice in Morries name.

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC,

Beauty (or death) in intimate faith communities

The Young Fogey gave me a proper shout-out in his post about Big boxes and boutiques, referencing a post by Br. Stephen Treat at The Anglo-Catholic.

He did capture the sense of “at home” I find in PNCC Parishes — down to earth people, a mixture of backgrounds and classes, all coming together to worship God without much in the way of snobbishness. It is people unafraid of their blue collar, factory, farm, coal miner, meat packer backgrounds, regardless of where they are in the present day. They embody the PNCC motto: Truth, Work, and Struggle. The PNCC also works because it is Catholic, with consistent worship from town-to-town, parish-to-parish. That works for me, as for anyone whose background and tradition is Catholic worship (or who are seeking that stability). I understand Brother Stephen’s point about certain “boutique” churches being an adventure from location to location, pastor to pastor — a disconnect from authentic Tradition and a source of confusion for seekers.

I received a press release a few days ago from Church Growth Mastery entitled The Answer to Church Growth. The press release noted: “Most Churches in the U.S. have an average membership of 60-75 members.” A citation from The Hartford Institute for Religion Research notes in its Fast Facts section:

Q: What’s the size of U.S. churches?

A: The median church in the U.S. has 75 regular participants in worship on Sunday mornings, according to the National Congregations Study. Notice that researchers measured the median church size —” the point at which half the churches are smaller and half the churches are larger —” rather than the average (186 attenders reported by the USCLS survey), which is larger due to the influence of very large churches. But while the United States has a large number of very small churches, most people attend larger churches. The National Congregations Study estimated that the smaller churches draw only 11 percent of those who attend worship. Meanwhile, 50 percent of churchgoers attended the largest 10% of congregations (350 regular participants and up).

They do note that 59% (177,000) of all parishes were small, with 7 to 99 members. The statistics exclude Roman Catholic and Orthodox parishes.

On the hopeful side, we might consider that this represents an affinity for smaller “boutique” churches, a niche. On the down side, it may represent the last of the “hangers-on,” keeping the doors open until the last member is buried (but who will bury the last member). In the end it still comes down to what each parish does, what it represents for its community. Is it open, welcoming to newcomers, or a closed society. Does it proclaim Jesus first and above all. If it is closed, or puts any message before its proclamation of Jesus, it is already cold and on the way out.

Everything Else,

By the numbers

For those who like stats and numbers, and for the sake of reflection:

  • I have been blogging for 47 months, nearly 4 years.
  • I have written 3,015 posts and 44 pages.
  • I have developed 2 WordPress plugins and my site uses 17 widgets.
  • My posts fall under 16 categories and 347 tags.
  • The site contains 241 homilies.
  • There are 778 comments from visitors.
  • The blog has been spammed 137,774 times.
Perspective, ,

Roman Catholic numbers

From The Deacon’s Bench: 68.1 million, and counting… with my commentary interspersed.

The 2009 Official [Roman] Catholic Directory is out, and the numbers are in:

The number of patients served in Catholic hospitals and the number of clients assisted by Catholic charitable agencies went up. Fewer baptisms, first Communions, confirmations and marriages were performed in Catholic churches last year. The number of Catholic parishes and elementary schools in the U.S. continues to decline.

How To Lie With StatisticsWhile numbers are great, and I work with statistics and reports all day, you have to really understand what they mean before you can give them any credence.

The Directory speaks of Catholic hospitals and charitable organizations as if they are — Catholic. For the most part they are no longer so. Vasectomies, a tubal ligation — as available in a Catholic hospital as in any other — as well as other “services” that would fail to meet the standards of Catholic teaching. The hospitals play a game of “separating” sections of hospitals into Catholic and non-Catholic floors, or areas, as if this somehow justifies everything.

In the same way, institutes of Catholic charity have become less and less Catholic at the behest of government and large donors, who hold the purse.

Of course the Catholic hospital and charitable organization is a construct carried forward from the days where sisters, brothers, and a few lay people worked in these institutions, dispensing Christian charity. In our minds we see old films with sister and the priest bedside in the hospital. All very quaint, all from a better time. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. These organizations are completely tied to government and big donor funding; and he who pays the bill calls the tune — a tune distinctly non-Catholic.

By the way, that loss of dedication to ethics as outlined by the Roman Church plays out in the faithful. The contraceptive mentality and adherence to secular norms is chiefly responsible for “Fewer baptisms, first Communions, confirmations and marriages.”

The totals for priests, permanent deacons and diocesan seminarians each experienced a small increase in the 2009 book. There were more students in Catholic colleges and universities; in private, Catholic-run high schools and elementary schools; and in high school religious education programs.

A good sign in terms of vocations. Again, as to colleges and universities, I would venture to say that there is not even one, of any renown, left that is truly Catholic (Steubenville folks – you’re not on par with the big boys). The recent Notre Dame scandal is just one example (see here, here, and here for others). Universities gave up their Catholic character long ago.

And at 68.1 million, an increase of nearly 1 million over the 2008 directory, Catholics continue to make up 22 percent of the U.S. population.

Which seems odd in light of the statement in the first paragraph regarding the decrease in Roman Catholic parishes. If there are these many more people where are they going to church? The point is that while there are more people who self-identify as Roman Catholic, and go through the ritual of joining, the pews in many parishes are empty. The parishes that are full are more likely suburban and affluent — places where minorities don’t fit and can’t get to on a Sunday. See Church attendance studies by Hadaway, Marler, and Chaves at How many North Americans attend religious services (and how many lie about going)? from Religious Tolerance:

Hadaway, Marler, and Mark Chaves counted the number of people attending four Protestant churches in Ashtabula County, OH, and in 18 Roman Catholic dioceses throughout the U.S. In their 1993 report they stated that actual attendance was only about half of the level reported in public opinion surveys: 20% vs. 40% for Protestants, and 28% vs. 50% for Roman Catholics.

They later returned to Ashtabula County to measure attendance by Roman Catholics. They physically counted the number of attendees at each mass over several months. They concluded that 24% of Catholics in the county actually attended mass. They then polled residents of the county by telephone. 51% of Roman Catholic respondents said that they had attended church during the previous week. Apparently, most were lying.

The post goes on to say:

The more than 2,100-page Official Catholic Directory, also known as the Kenedy directory after its New Jersey publishers’ imprint, P.J. Kenedy and Sons, is due out June 17. Catholic News Service obtained an advance copy of the statistical summary compiled from annual reports provided by the nation’s 209 [Roman Catholic] dioceses and archdioceses…

The numbers reported are interesting but, the value of the numbers is compromised when they do not truly represent allegiance to the both the letter and the spirit of what it means to be Roman Catholic among all the elements in the report. Certainly, the number of parishes, clergy, and religious represents the face of committed Catholics. The number of followers, and the extent of conformity among hospitals, charities, colleges, and universities may not be accurately represented. Adherence to the call of faith is more than numbers, or as Jesus said (John 4:23-24):

“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him.
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Saints and Martyrs, ,

Polish Marian piety – a survey

From the Polish [Roman] Catholic weekly Niedziela: Blue is the colour of faith.

A lot of interesting facts and figures on Marian feasts, images, prayers, and pilgrimages.

While the article presents a wholly Roman Catholic view of Marian piety, the following excerpt from Bishop Hodur’s May Sermon I, 1902 indicates the strong tradition of Marian piety within the PNCC even though we reject the Roman Catholic trend toward dogmatization of that piety.

Preoccupied the whole year with matters of this world, perhaps more than one of us forgot the veneration which should surround the Mother of God. We will have an opportunity to bow our heads before her and humble our hearts and call upon her mediation and care. And we need her mediation very much. For who of us does not suffer many afflictions? Therefore in this our adversity to whom are we to tum? Between God and a person is the Most Holy Mother. As the Ark of the Covenant contained within it the law of the Old Testament and the root of Jesse, so the Mother of God brings into the world the Savior, Christ the Lord. Yet not only that she is our confidant but also our most holy healer.

Through the sins of the first people humankind lost the health of the soul, that is, the grace of God. Weak humankind became more capable of sin than of virtue, as the Apostle Paul complained: Unhappy a man am I … for it is not what I wish that I do … I do what I do not wish.

A medicine and help for us is the Mother of God, who is our mediator, the cure of the sick and the refuge of sinners. To her we must always turn and seek her help. — from Bishop Francis Hodur, Sermon Outlines and Occasional Speeches 1899 – 1922, (c) 1999 Theodore L. Zawistowski, Polish National Catholic Church, Central Diocese

All Right Reserved © 2005 - 2023