Reading 1Eccl 3:1-11
There is an appointed time for everything,
and a time for every thing under the heavens.
A time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them;
a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate;
a time of war, and a time of peace.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
HI Charlie and Patrick!
America's Future in Rome
ZENIT REPORTS
North American College Nears Capacity
ROME, SEPT. 25, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The return of the seminarians invariably signals the arrival of Roman fall. Nowhere else in the world does the Church seem as vibrant, youthful and energetic than Rome at the end of September, when fresh faces in Roman collars fill the streets, striding purposefully across town toward their classes.
A large number of these future priests are Americans hailing from dioceses across the 50 states. This stronghold of the hope for the Church in America sits above the right shoulder of St. Peter's Basilica, the Pontifical North American college.
This fall, the North American College seems to stand even taller as it welcomes a record number of first-year seminarians, 61 "new men." The total number of 208 students will bring the seminary close to its capacity.
The students live on the premises although they walk into town every day to attend classes at the Jesuit Gregorian University or the Dominican University of the Angelicum.
The College is situated on the Janiculum Hill just a step away from the Bambin Gesu, Italy's foremost children's hospital. Also next door is the Vatican bus park, a bustling tourist hub constructed during the Great Jubilee 2000. In the midst of all this hubbub, the NAC offers a pleasant oasis of tranquility, prayer and study.
Blessed Pius IX, despite his many domestic hardships during the unification of Italy, demonstrated his pastoral concern for the Church in the United States when he proposed the idea of a seminary in Rome for the formation of American priests.
Rome, the Holy Father felt, could teach these young men about the universality of the Church, the long history and tradition of Christianity and the magisterium of the successor of St. Peter. To expedite this plan, the Pope donated the first piece of land for the college.
On Dec. 8, 1859, the first home of the North American College was inaugurated in Casa Santa Maria on Via Dell'Umiltà, near the Trevi fountain, and dedicated to the Immaculate Conception.
After the unification of Italy, the Italian state attempted to confiscate the Casa Santa Maria as it had done with all the other Church holdings.
Only the intervention of the U.S. president Chester Arthur at the instigation of the American bishops saved the property.
By the end of World War II, vocations in the United States had increased to the point where the Casa Santa Maria could not accommodate the seminarians, so the North American College moved into the Villa Gabrielli park. The new premises, which enjoy the status of being extra-territorial property of Vatican City State, were inaugurated on Dec. 8, 1952, by Pope Pius XII in person.
Oasis in the city
The NAC's building structure was designed by Count Enrico Pietro Galeazzi in a refreshingly modern style intended to exploit the qualities of clean air and nature on the site. While simple and austere, wide corridors and large windows allow for light and fresh breezes and courtyards offer the serenity of nature for prayer.
The core of the structure was a series of chapels placed one on top of the other. The lowest level contained the crypt chapel, while the second was arranged with a score of little side altars where the priests would learn to celebrate their first Masses. Count Galeazzi chose to be buried in this chapel where he would be surrounded by the prayers of the young seminarians.
The uppermost chapel is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. The lofty space boasts a mélange of modern styles, a sort of universality in artistic expression.
From stone reliefs illustrating the sacraments framing the altar in an updated Romanesque to the stained glass windows and expressionistic renderings of Old and New Testament stories along the nave, the chapel encompasses traditional church decoration in contemporary style.
The chapel is dominated by a mosaic of the Immaculate Conception designed by Count Galeazzi. He featured the Blessed Mother standing upon a crescent moon with her right hand raised in blessing and her left holding a globe surmounting the cross. Angels fly above her raising lilies and a crown, while below her stand Sts. Gregory the Great, Francis de Paul, Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney and Pius X.
Like the art of the chapel, the saints represent faith and devotion over the centuries of the Church.
Leaving a mark
I visited the College with a priest who had lived there as a seminarian in his youth and was now participating the in the Continuing Theological Education program, which is also based in the same building.
His love for the place of his priestly formation and his vivid memory of the art and architecture of the building show what an impact a seminary can have in a priest's life.
The first thing he brought me to see was a stunning mosaic, which had once graced the entryway to the complex. Designed for the inauguration of the new premises in 1953, the work represents the former residence of the seminarians, the Casa Santa Maria.
The work was deigned by Nello Ena, a successful Italian architect, and executed by Vatican Mosiac laboratory. Composed of bright and colorful tiles and enlivened by splashes of gold, the mosaic superimposes the myriad of buildings that made up the Casa Santa Maria in a sort of collage.
A pretty medieval brick bell tower flecked with shimmering bells hovers above a classical shrine with an image of the Virgin. Arcaded porticos, honorific columns and ancient ruins all patterned together give an idea of the dense layers of history that make up Rome and the Church.
This lovely work of art was a gift of Claire Boothe Luce, herself a remarkable mosaic of gifts and accomplishments. She started as a model/actress before turning to writing. A brilliant author, several of her plays won critical acclaim.
Upon her marriage to Henry Luce, publisher of Time and Life magazine, Claire Boothe Luce turned to journalism. From there it was a short step to politics.
Claire Boothe Luce famously converted to Catholicism in 1946 and wrote of her conversion in a series of articles for McCall magazine. In 1953, she became the U.S. Ambassador to Italy. One her first acts upon her arrival was to commission the mosaic as a gift to seminarians for their new residence.
Through the bright faces of our future priests, the modern engagement with ancient tradition and the myriad of backgrounds and histories of the people, the North American College presents all the good that the United States has to offer.
* * *
Elizabeth Lev teaches Christian art and architecture at Duquesne University's Italian campus. She can be reached at lizlev@zenit.org.
ZENIT REPORTS
North American College Nears Capacity
ROME, SEPT. 25, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The return of the seminarians invariably signals the arrival of Roman fall. Nowhere else in the world does the Church seem as vibrant, youthful and energetic than Rome at the end of September, when fresh faces in Roman collars fill the streets, striding purposefully across town toward their classes.
A large number of these future priests are Americans hailing from dioceses across the 50 states. This stronghold of the hope for the Church in America sits above the right shoulder of St. Peter's Basilica, the Pontifical North American college.
This fall, the North American College seems to stand even taller as it welcomes a record number of first-year seminarians, 61 "new men." The total number of 208 students will bring the seminary close to its capacity.
The students live on the premises although they walk into town every day to attend classes at the Jesuit Gregorian University or the Dominican University of the Angelicum.
The College is situated on the Janiculum Hill just a step away from the Bambin Gesu, Italy's foremost children's hospital. Also next door is the Vatican bus park, a bustling tourist hub constructed during the Great Jubilee 2000. In the midst of all this hubbub, the NAC offers a pleasant oasis of tranquility, prayer and study.
Blessed Pius IX, despite his many domestic hardships during the unification of Italy, demonstrated his pastoral concern for the Church in the United States when he proposed the idea of a seminary in Rome for the formation of American priests.
Rome, the Holy Father felt, could teach these young men about the universality of the Church, the long history and tradition of Christianity and the magisterium of the successor of St. Peter. To expedite this plan, the Pope donated the first piece of land for the college.
On Dec. 8, 1859, the first home of the North American College was inaugurated in Casa Santa Maria on Via Dell'Umiltà, near the Trevi fountain, and dedicated to the Immaculate Conception.
After the unification of Italy, the Italian state attempted to confiscate the Casa Santa Maria as it had done with all the other Church holdings.
Only the intervention of the U.S. president Chester Arthur at the instigation of the American bishops saved the property.
By the end of World War II, vocations in the United States had increased to the point where the Casa Santa Maria could not accommodate the seminarians, so the North American College moved into the Villa Gabrielli park. The new premises, which enjoy the status of being extra-territorial property of Vatican City State, were inaugurated on Dec. 8, 1952, by Pope Pius XII in person.
Oasis in the city
The NAC's building structure was designed by Count Enrico Pietro Galeazzi in a refreshingly modern style intended to exploit the qualities of clean air and nature on the site. While simple and austere, wide corridors and large windows allow for light and fresh breezes and courtyards offer the serenity of nature for prayer.
The core of the structure was a series of chapels placed one on top of the other. The lowest level contained the crypt chapel, while the second was arranged with a score of little side altars where the priests would learn to celebrate their first Masses. Count Galeazzi chose to be buried in this chapel where he would be surrounded by the prayers of the young seminarians.
The uppermost chapel is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. The lofty space boasts a mélange of modern styles, a sort of universality in artistic expression.
From stone reliefs illustrating the sacraments framing the altar in an updated Romanesque to the stained glass windows and expressionistic renderings of Old and New Testament stories along the nave, the chapel encompasses traditional church decoration in contemporary style.
The chapel is dominated by a mosaic of the Immaculate Conception designed by Count Galeazzi. He featured the Blessed Mother standing upon a crescent moon with her right hand raised in blessing and her left holding a globe surmounting the cross. Angels fly above her raising lilies and a crown, while below her stand Sts. Gregory the Great, Francis de Paul, Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney and Pius X.
Like the art of the chapel, the saints represent faith and devotion over the centuries of the Church.
Leaving a mark
I visited the College with a priest who had lived there as a seminarian in his youth and was now participating the in the Continuing Theological Education program, which is also based in the same building.
His love for the place of his priestly formation and his vivid memory of the art and architecture of the building show what an impact a seminary can have in a priest's life.
The first thing he brought me to see was a stunning mosaic, which had once graced the entryway to the complex. Designed for the inauguration of the new premises in 1953, the work represents the former residence of the seminarians, the Casa Santa Maria.
The work was deigned by Nello Ena, a successful Italian architect, and executed by Vatican Mosiac laboratory. Composed of bright and colorful tiles and enlivened by splashes of gold, the mosaic superimposes the myriad of buildings that made up the Casa Santa Maria in a sort of collage.
A pretty medieval brick bell tower flecked with shimmering bells hovers above a classical shrine with an image of the Virgin. Arcaded porticos, honorific columns and ancient ruins all patterned together give an idea of the dense layers of history that make up Rome and the Church.
This lovely work of art was a gift of Claire Boothe Luce, herself a remarkable mosaic of gifts and accomplishments. She started as a model/actress before turning to writing. A brilliant author, several of her plays won critical acclaim.
Upon her marriage to Henry Luce, publisher of Time and Life magazine, Claire Boothe Luce turned to journalism. From there it was a short step to politics.
Claire Boothe Luce famously converted to Catholicism in 1946 and wrote of her conversion in a series of articles for McCall magazine. In 1953, she became the U.S. Ambassador to Italy. One her first acts upon her arrival was to commission the mosaic as a gift to seminarians for their new residence.
Through the bright faces of our future priests, the modern engagement with ancient tradition and the myriad of backgrounds and histories of the people, the North American College presents all the good that the United States has to offer.
* * *
Elizabeth Lev teaches Christian art and architecture at Duquesne University's Italian campus. She can be reached at lizlev@zenit.org.
My patron saint
October 1 is her feast day- and a good day to be in her Basillica all day (on my way).Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Peace Through Unity--and More Love
Le primat de l'Eglise anglicane à Lourdes
Un parfum d’œcuménisme va flotter ce mercredi sur Lourdes. L’archevêque de Canterbury et chef de l’Eglise anglicane Rowan Williams se rendra en effet dans la cité mariale, dans le cadre du 150ème anniversaire des apparitions. 400 fidèles anglicans, membres de l’Eglise d’Angleterre seront présents. Rowan Williams assistera à la messe présidée par le cardinal Walter Kasper, président du Conseil Pontifical pour l’unité des chrétiens. Pour ce dernier cette présence est le signe que de nombreux anglicans se sentent proches de l’Eglise catholique et de la dévotion mariale. Un sentiment partagé par le père Jacques Duquesne, membre de la commission mixte pour le dialogue entre catholiques et anglicans
« Retour à l'index
The head of the Anglican church in Lourdes:
A perfumed breeze of ecumenicism floated over Lourdes on Wednesday. The Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the English Anglican church Rowan Williams returned to the Marian city, in the context of the 150th Anniversary of the apparitions....
ET AUSSI LA, a ce moment, il faut dire est Monsignor Filardi, de Washington, DC, USA qui amene un pelegrinage d'une dizaine des americaines fameuse la pour quel que jours.
SALUT TOUT LE MONDE!
Un parfum d’œcuménisme va flotter ce mercredi sur Lourdes. L’archevêque de Canterbury et chef de l’Eglise anglicane Rowan Williams se rendra en effet dans la cité mariale, dans le cadre du 150ème anniversaire des apparitions. 400 fidèles anglicans, membres de l’Eglise d’Angleterre seront présents. Rowan Williams assistera à la messe présidée par le cardinal Walter Kasper, président du Conseil Pontifical pour l’unité des chrétiens. Pour ce dernier cette présence est le signe que de nombreux anglicans se sentent proches de l’Eglise catholique et de la dévotion mariale. Un sentiment partagé par le père Jacques Duquesne, membre de la commission mixte pour le dialogue entre catholiques et anglicans
« Retour à l'index
The head of the Anglican church in Lourdes:
A perfumed breeze of ecumenicism floated over Lourdes on Wednesday. The Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the English Anglican church Rowan Williams returned to the Marian city, in the context of the 150th Anniversary of the apparitions....
ET AUSSI LA, a ce moment, il faut dire est Monsignor Filardi, de Washington, DC, USA qui amene un pelegrinage d'une dizaine des americaines fameuse la pour quel que jours.
SALUT TOUT LE MONDE!
je t'aime mon cheri-et je t'attende
Reading 11 Cor 12:31-13:13\Brothers and sisters:
Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,but then face to face. At present I know partially;then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Responsorial PsalmPs 33:2-3, 4-5, 12 and 22R. (12)
Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
HEROS
"I MUST TRY TO SAVE SOULS NOT TAKE THEM"- Christian Iraq Vet granted Contientious Objector Status
http://news.aol.com/article/soldier-ruled-a-conscientious-objector/186059
http://news.aol.com/article/soldier-ruled-a-conscientious-objector/186059Monday, September 22, 2008
sing a new song
WASHINGTON BACH CONSORT
The Nation's Premier Baroque Chorus and Orchestra
J. Reilly Lewis, Founder and Music Director
3, 4, 5-Concert Subscription Packages
Now On Sale!!!
For Concert Information and To Purchase Tickets
Please visit: www.bachconsort.org
or Call: 202.429.2121
What's Opera Bach!
Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 3 p.m.
Harman Center for the Arts
An International Christmas
Sunday, December 21, 2008 at 3 p.m.
National Presbyterian Church
The Dresden Connection
Sunday, February 8, 2009 at 3 p.m..
Harman Center for the Arts
The Great Organ Mass
Sunday, March 22, 2009 at 3 p.m.
National Presbyterian Church
In Praise of Music
Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 3 p.m.
Music Center at Strathmore
Join us for a magical, rich and glorious season!
The Nation's Premier Baroque Chorus and Orchestra
J. Reilly Lewis, Founder and Music Director
3, 4, 5-Concert Subscription Packages
Now On Sale!!!
For Concert Information and To Purchase Tickets
Please visit: www.bachconsort.org
or Call: 202.429.2121
What's Opera Bach!
Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 3 p.m.
Harman Center for the Arts
An International Christmas
Sunday, December 21, 2008 at 3 p.m.
National Presbyterian Church
The Dresden Connection
Sunday, February 8, 2009 at 3 p.m..
Harman Center for the Arts
The Great Organ Mass
Sunday, March 22, 2009 at 3 p.m.
National Presbyterian Church
In Praise of Music
Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 3 p.m.
Music Center at Strathmore
Join us for a magical, rich and glorious season!
Contra La Peine De La Morte; Against the Death Penalty
Dear Friends of La Maison Française,
The Georgetown University BMW Center for German and European Studies and La Maison Française are happy to welcome French senator and former French Minister of Justice Robert Badinter for a lecture on Thursday, September 25 at 5:30 p.m. at Georgetown University.
A prominent lawyer and scholar, Robert Badinter is an icon in the world of human rights and a world-renowned moral authority. He served as France's Minister of Justice (1981-1986), and waged a campaign against the death penalty which led to its abolition in 1981. In 1986, he was appointed for a nine-year term as President of the French Constitutional Council, France's equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court.
At 80, Robert Badinter still serves as a French Senator and is a tireless expert working with European states, especially in Eastern Europe, to prevent and settle conflicts peacefully. Until recently he presided over the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the leading peace-building European organization, comprised of 56 countries (including the U.S.).
He continues a worldwide crusade to abolish the death penalty, and has made this life-long struggle the subject of his book Abolition, just published in English by the University Press of New England. In his lecture at Georgetown University, M. Badinter will provide an informed and thought-provoking analysis of the developments and issues regarding the abolition of the death penalty in the world today.
WHAT: Robert Badinter: "Toward the Universal Abolition of the Death Penalty?"
WHEN: Thursday, September 25, 2008 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
WHERE: Gaston Hall, Georgetown University - 37th and O Streets, NW, Washington, DC 20057
ADMISSION: Free
RESERVATION: required. Please send an email to: culturel.washington-amba@diplomatie.gouv.fr, providing your surname, first name and the number of persons attending.
Cordial Regards,
Roland CeletteCultural AttachéDirector of La Maison Française
The Georgetown University BMW Center for German and European Studies and La Maison Française are happy to welcome French senator and former French Minister of Justice Robert Badinter for a lecture on Thursday, September 25 at 5:30 p.m. at Georgetown University.
A prominent lawyer and scholar, Robert Badinter is an icon in the world of human rights and a world-renowned moral authority. He served as France's Minister of Justice (1981-1986), and waged a campaign against the death penalty which led to its abolition in 1981. In 1986, he was appointed for a nine-year term as President of the French Constitutional Council, France's equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court.
At 80, Robert Badinter still serves as a French Senator and is a tireless expert working with European states, especially in Eastern Europe, to prevent and settle conflicts peacefully. Until recently he presided over the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the leading peace-building European organization, comprised of 56 countries (including the U.S.).
He continues a worldwide crusade to abolish the death penalty, and has made this life-long struggle the subject of his book Abolition, just published in English by the University Press of New England. In his lecture at Georgetown University, M. Badinter will provide an informed and thought-provoking analysis of the developments and issues regarding the abolition of the death penalty in the world today.
WHAT: Robert Badinter: "Toward the Universal Abolition of the Death Penalty?"
WHEN: Thursday, September 25, 2008 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
WHERE: Gaston Hall, Georgetown University - 37th and O Streets, NW, Washington, DC 20057
ADMISSION: Free
RESERVATION: required. Please send an email to: culturel.washington-amba@diplomatie.gouv.fr, providing your surname, first name and the number of persons attending.
Cordial Regards,
Roland CeletteCultural AttachéDirector of La Maison Française
Saturday, September 20, 2008
You Can Play Too-get this one for your kiddies
Teenage Mutant Ninja Vampire Slayers
The Girl Also Kicks Vampire-Derriere and looks shockingly like Angelina Jolie
http://vampire.planethalflife.gamespy.com/characters/characters.htm
What will they think of next!
The Girl Also Kicks Vampire-Derriere and looks shockingly like Angelina Jolie
http://vampire.planethalflife.gamespy.com/characters/characters.htm
What will they think of next!
It's Official From The Vatican
CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS:
TOGETHER FOR DIGNITY OF THE FAMILY
[from the Vatican Information Service- your official Vatican News Service. ]
VATICAN CITY, 19 SEP 2008 (VIS) - The Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue today published its annual Message to Muslims for the end of the month of Ramadan. The Message bears the signatures of Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, respectively president and secretary of the council, and has as its theme this year (1429 AH / 2008 AD): "Christians and Muslims: Together for the dignity of the family."
The Message has been published in various languages. Excerpts from the English version are given below:
"During this month Christians close to you have shared your reflections and your family celebrations; dialogue and friendship have been strengthened. Praise be to God!"
"This friendly rendezvous gives us an opportunity to reflect together on a mutually topical subject which will enrich our exchange and help us to get to know each other better, in our shared values as well as in our differences: ... the subject of the family.
"One of the documents of Vatican Council II, 'Gaudium et Spes', which deals with the Church in the modern world, states: 'The well-being of the individual person and of human and Christian society is intimately linked with the healthy condition of that community produced by marriage and family. Hence Christians and all men who hold this community in high esteem sincerely rejoice in the various ways by which men today find help in fostering this community of love and perfecting its life'".
"These words give us an opportune reminder that the development of both the human person and of society depends largely on the healthiness of the family! How many people carry, sometimes for the whole of their life, the weight of the wounds of a difficult or dramatic family background? ... Christians and Muslims can and must work together to safeguard the dignity of the family, today and in the future.
"Given the high esteem in which both Muslims and Christians hold the family, we have already had many occasions, from the local to the international level, to work together in this field. The family, that place where love and life, respect for the other and hospitality are encountered and transmitted, is truly the 'fundamental cell of society'.
"Muslims and Christians must never hesitate, not only to come to the aid of families in difficulty, but also to collaborate with all those who support the stability of the family as an institution and the exercise of parental responsibility, in particular in the field of education. I need only remind you that the family is the first school in which one learns respect for others, mindful of the identity and the difference of each one. Inter-religious dialogue and the exercise of citizenship cannot but benefit from this".
"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them." – Romans 8:28 (NLT)
TOGETHER FOR DIGNITY OF THE FAMILY
[from the Vatican Information Service- your official Vatican News Service. ]
VATICAN CITY, 19 SEP 2008 (VIS) - The Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue today published its annual Message to Muslims for the end of the month of Ramadan. The Message bears the signatures of Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, respectively president and secretary of the council, and has as its theme this year (1429 AH / 2008 AD): "Christians and Muslims: Together for the dignity of the family."
The Message has been published in various languages. Excerpts from the English version are given below:
"During this month Christians close to you have shared your reflections and your family celebrations; dialogue and friendship have been strengthened. Praise be to God!"
"This friendly rendezvous gives us an opportunity to reflect together on a mutually topical subject which will enrich our exchange and help us to get to know each other better, in our shared values as well as in our differences: ... the subject of the family.
"One of the documents of Vatican Council II, 'Gaudium et Spes', which deals with the Church in the modern world, states: 'The well-being of the individual person and of human and Christian society is intimately linked with the healthy condition of that community produced by marriage and family. Hence Christians and all men who hold this community in high esteem sincerely rejoice in the various ways by which men today find help in fostering this community of love and perfecting its life'".
"These words give us an opportune reminder that the development of both the human person and of society depends largely on the healthiness of the family! How many people carry, sometimes for the whole of their life, the weight of the wounds of a difficult or dramatic family background? ... Christians and Muslims can and must work together to safeguard the dignity of the family, today and in the future.
"Given the high esteem in which both Muslims and Christians hold the family, we have already had many occasions, from the local to the international level, to work together in this field. The family, that place where love and life, respect for the other and hospitality are encountered and transmitted, is truly the 'fundamental cell of society'.
"Muslims and Christians must never hesitate, not only to come to the aid of families in difficulty, but also to collaborate with all those who support the stability of the family as an institution and the exercise of parental responsibility, in particular in the field of education. I need only remind you that the family is the first school in which one learns respect for others, mindful of the identity and the difference of each one. Inter-religious dialogue and the exercise of citizenship cannot but benefit from this".
"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them." – Romans 8:28 (NLT)
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Psalm 26:2
Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Psalm 51:10
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
I can't tell you how I knew
that things I dream really do come true
the minute that I met you
or how I knew that face to face
in the embrace of your warm eyes
that one day I would decide
that I was tired of running from you
or hiding from the love above
that landed me in your path
at last.
Don't look now
my Prince in disguise
but God is real and I see him
in your eyes when I let myself look.
I can't tell you when
I will be tired of this hiding
everything I am living for
but on that day that I so decide
God will not contain his pride in his creation
and songs of joy will burst from clouds in fountains
of harmony from sea to shining sea
that day you are with me.
Forever and Finally.
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
I can't tell you how I knew
that things I dream really do come true
the minute that I met you
or how I knew that face to face
in the embrace of your warm eyes
that one day I would decide
that I was tired of running from you
or hiding from the love above
that landed me in your path
at last.
Don't look now
my Prince in disguise
but God is real and I see him
in your eyes when I let myself look.
I can't tell you when
I will be tired of this hiding
everything I am living for
but on that day that I so decide
God will not contain his pride in his creation
and songs of joy will burst from clouds in fountains
of harmony from sea to shining sea
that day you are with me.
Forever and Finally.
Benoit en France
"The stable union of a man and a women, ordered to building earthly happiness through the birth of children given by God, is no longer, in the minds of certain people, the reference point for conjugal commitment", he added. "However, experience shows that the family is the foundation on which the whole of society rests. Moreover, Christians know that the family is also the living cell of the Church. The more the family is steeped in the spirit and values of the Gospel, the more the Church herself will be enriched by them and the better she will fulfil her vocation".
So Why is marriage successful only about half the time in this country- with half ending in divorce? Maybe we
have our priorities in the wrong place. Just thinkin......
Men- Can't live with them-can't live without them; and here's what they think of you:
http://personals.aol.com/articles/2008/09/15/what-men-want-even-more-than-sex/?icid=100214839x1209786288x1200570352
So Why is marriage successful only about half the time in this country- with half ending in divorce? Maybe we
have our priorities in the wrong place. Just thinkin......
Men- Can't live with them-can't live without them; and here's what they think of you:
http://personals.aol.com/articles/2008/09/15/what-men-want-even-more-than-sex/?icid=100214839x1209786288x1200570352
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Best Quote
"READ MY LIPSTICK-
In picking Palin, McCain must really believe the old addage that the average voter has the intelligence equivalent of a fourth grader. If she is actually elected, the old addage must be true"
-from ARWL (a random washington lawyer)
In picking Palin, McCain must really believe the old addage that the average voter has the intelligence equivalent of a fourth grader. If she is actually elected, the old addage must be true"
-from ARWL (a random washington lawyer)
Thursday, September 11, 2008
The Rain In Spain Falls Mainly on McCain
I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General
[Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert & Sullivan]
I am the very model of a modern Major-General
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotepotenuse
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General
I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's
I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous
I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies
I know the croaking chorus from the Frogs of Aristophanes
Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinapinafore
Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform
And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus's uniform
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General
In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin"
When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin
When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at
And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat"
When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery
When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery
In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a sat a gee
For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General
[Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert & Sullivan]
I am the very model of a modern Major-General
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotepotenuse
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General
I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's
I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous
I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies
I know the croaking chorus from the Frogs of Aristophanes
Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinapinafore
Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform
And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus's uniform
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General
In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin"
When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin
When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at
And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat"
When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery
When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery
In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a sat a gee
For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General
ALL ARE WELCOME HERE
WHEN PEACE LIKE A RIVER .....
9/11 UNITY WALK is THIS SUNDAY
REV. MPHO TUTU, ARUN GANDHI, VATICAN PAPAL NUNCIO & AMBASSADORS
Please Come - Starts Inside Washington Hebrew Congregation 3935 Macomb St, NW (Corner of Macomb and Massachusetts NW) WDC 20016 THIS SUNDAY, SEPT 14, 1:30 PM SHARP
ALL FAITHS JOIN INTERNATIONALLY TELEVISED GANDHI-STYLE WALK ON EMBASSY ROW
View it at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0VTGOaJeBE
WITNESS "AMAZING GRACE" and Muslim Call to Prayer at WASH HEBREW. Witness Christian Evangelicals from the ISLAMIC CENTER, Walk with GANDHI's Grandson from ISLAMIC CENTER to the Gandhi Memorial. Listen to Desmond Tutu, Mpho Tutu and leaders of every faith.
Thousands of walkers from a dozen religions and 100 organizations listen to moving speeches and participate in open dialogues.
No signs or banners are allowed on this powerful apolitical Gandhi-style walk broadcast from Embassy Row on CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera. It all happens here for the entire world to see.
Come make history again on Sunday Sept 14th! For further info :
Kyle Poole (202) 262-2181 www.911unitywalk.org
9/11 UNITY WALK is THIS SUNDAY
REV. MPHO TUTU, ARUN GANDHI, VATICAN PAPAL NUNCIO & AMBASSADORS
Please Come - Starts Inside Washington Hebrew Congregation 3935 Macomb St, NW (Corner of Macomb and Massachusetts NW) WDC 20016 THIS SUNDAY, SEPT 14, 1:30 PM SHARP
ALL FAITHS JOIN INTERNATIONALLY TELEVISED GANDHI-STYLE WALK ON EMBASSY ROW
View it at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0VTGOaJeBE
WITNESS "AMAZING GRACE" and Muslim Call to Prayer at WASH HEBREW. Witness Christian Evangelicals from the ISLAMIC CENTER, Walk with GANDHI's Grandson from ISLAMIC CENTER to the Gandhi Memorial. Listen to Desmond Tutu, Mpho Tutu and leaders of every faith.
Thousands of walkers from a dozen religions and 100 organizations listen to moving speeches and participate in open dialogues.
No signs or banners are allowed on this powerful apolitical Gandhi-style walk broadcast from Embassy Row on CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera. It all happens here for the entire world to see.
Come make history again on Sunday Sept 14th! For further info :
Kyle Poole (202) 262-2181 www.911unitywalk.org
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
More Lying For A Living and the Right Wing Smearassination
Dear Cynthia,
John McCain's campaign is crossing a line. We need to beat back not just the McCain campaign, but this entire style of politics, or we will never get a government we deserve in this country.
John McCain approved an ad that was released yesterday that is, quite simply, the most despicable and depraved ad ever run by a Presidential campaign. It may be the most despicable ad ever run by any group about a Presidential candidate, including outside groups. It, quite literally, trashes a vote by Barack Obama to protect young kids from sex offenders and uses the most base fears about our children to smear Barack Obama.
It's a filthy lie wrapped with the most reprehensibly emotional and manipulative covering. No one who respects our democracy or our citizens could ever run such an ad.
Follow this link to write your own letter to the editor. We need to call out this style of campaign and say, "Enough!"
http://www.truthfightsback.com/crossingtheline
Here's the truth: Barack Obama once voted for a law in Illinois, one part of which approved age-appropriate education of children to protect them from sexual predators. The Kansas City Star described the law as giving, "schools the ability to warn young children about inappropriate touching and sexual predators."
John McCain's ad distorts that in the most vile manner, trying to cast it as a radical sex-ed agenda for young kids.
And meanwhile, his campaign is drumming up fake controversy after fake controversy based on outrageous distortions of Barack Obama's words and actions, as well as outright lies. It's despicable.
And if we are ever to meet the challenges of this country, we need this to change.
This is not a time for an email campaign. What we need to do is tell every editorial board in the county that, no matter how honorable his conduct four decades ago, John McCain has shown blatant disrespect for this country with his dishonest campaign, and we demand an end to coverage of these gutter tactics.
Follow this link to write your own letter to the editor.
http://www.truthfightsback.com/crossingtheline
We can't wait for anyone else to do this. We can't wait for the reporters and editors to wake up on their own. We must raise our voices and demand a change.
Sincerely,
Brian YoungTruthFightsBack.com
P.S. Please forward this message to anyone else you know who should join our campaign.
CYNTHIA RESPONDS:
Hi BRIAN:
Did you see that CNN John McCain profile where he talks about when he met Cindy. He smirks and smugly chortles "I Lied" when referencing his age to her- apparently they both lied about their ages to get a date with each other-they are about 16 years apart and he didn't want to be too old for her. What a way to start a relationship.
He also lied when he told her that he was separated for six years or more when attempting to date her- when he was apparently living with his first wife. Nice.
So he lied to make an adulteress out of his second wife.
And what did he tell his first wife about all his fooling around on her? Chances are he lied there too-if by omission if nothing else. He takes "full responsibility" for the break-up of his first marriage. He apparently wasn't even quite divorced when he proposed to Cindy- hedging his bets no doubt.
So this is the character of a person we want to be the leader of the Free World? We are pretty forgiving of Divorced executives and Chiefs of State (especially when they marry pop stars like that French guy)- but Reagan didn't think it was cute to lie. It's not cute to lie. To Anyone.
Get that CNN footage and keep re-running that for a few months until people get it.
John McCain's campaign is crossing a line. We need to beat back not just the McCain campaign, but this entire style of politics, or we will never get a government we deserve in this country.
John McCain approved an ad that was released yesterday that is, quite simply, the most despicable and depraved ad ever run by a Presidential campaign. It may be the most despicable ad ever run by any group about a Presidential candidate, including outside groups. It, quite literally, trashes a vote by Barack Obama to protect young kids from sex offenders and uses the most base fears about our children to smear Barack Obama.
It's a filthy lie wrapped with the most reprehensibly emotional and manipulative covering. No one who respects our democracy or our citizens could ever run such an ad.
Follow this link to write your own letter to the editor. We need to call out this style of campaign and say, "Enough!"
http://www.truthfightsback.com/crossingtheline
Here's the truth: Barack Obama once voted for a law in Illinois, one part of which approved age-appropriate education of children to protect them from sexual predators. The Kansas City Star described the law as giving, "schools the ability to warn young children about inappropriate touching and sexual predators."
John McCain's ad distorts that in the most vile manner, trying to cast it as a radical sex-ed agenda for young kids.
And meanwhile, his campaign is drumming up fake controversy after fake controversy based on outrageous distortions of Barack Obama's words and actions, as well as outright lies. It's despicable.
And if we are ever to meet the challenges of this country, we need this to change.
This is not a time for an email campaign. What we need to do is tell every editorial board in the county that, no matter how honorable his conduct four decades ago, John McCain has shown blatant disrespect for this country with his dishonest campaign, and we demand an end to coverage of these gutter tactics.
Follow this link to write your own letter to the editor.
http://www.truthfightsback.com/crossingtheline
We can't wait for anyone else to do this. We can't wait for the reporters and editors to wake up on their own. We must raise our voices and demand a change.
Sincerely,
Brian YoungTruthFightsBack.com
P.S. Please forward this message to anyone else you know who should join our campaign.
CYNTHIA RESPONDS:
Hi BRIAN:
Did you see that CNN John McCain profile where he talks about when he met Cindy. He smirks and smugly chortles "I Lied" when referencing his age to her- apparently they both lied about their ages to get a date with each other-they are about 16 years apart and he didn't want to be too old for her. What a way to start a relationship.
He also lied when he told her that he was separated for six years or more when attempting to date her- when he was apparently living with his first wife. Nice.
So he lied to make an adulteress out of his second wife.
And what did he tell his first wife about all his fooling around on her? Chances are he lied there too-if by omission if nothing else. He takes "full responsibility" for the break-up of his first marriage. He apparently wasn't even quite divorced when he proposed to Cindy- hedging his bets no doubt.
So this is the character of a person we want to be the leader of the Free World? We are pretty forgiving of Divorced executives and Chiefs of State (especially when they marry pop stars like that French guy)- but Reagan didn't think it was cute to lie. It's not cute to lie. To Anyone.
Get that CNN footage and keep re-running that for a few months until people get it.
...another gem from that Sojourner guy (aka Jim Wallace)
Justice is what love looks like in public.
- Cornel West
From Call and Response, a documentary on global slavery.
- Cornel West
From Call and Response, a documentary on global slavery.
THE POPE PRAYS FOR PEACE IN FRANCE
POPE EXPRESSES APPRECIATION FOR FRENCH CULTURE AND FAITH
VATICAN CITY, 10 SEP 2008 (VIS) - Benedict XVI has written a Message to the French for his first pastoral visit to that country, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin Lourdes.
"On the eve of my arrival", writes the Holy Father, "I send cordial greetings to the French people and to all the inhabitants of that beloved nation. I am coming as a messenger of peace and fraternity. I know your country well. On various occasions I have had the pleasure of visiting it and of appreciating its generous tradition of welcome and tolerance, as well as the solidity of its Christian faith and of its exalted human and spiritual culture.
"On this occasion the reason for my trip is to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes", he adds. "After visiting Paris, the capital of your country, it will be my immense joy to join the multitude of pilgrims as they follow the stages of the Jubilee journey, in the footsteps of St. Bernadette, to the grotto of Massabielle. At the feet of Our Lady, I will pray intensely for the intentions of the entire Church, particularly the sick and the needy, as well as for peace in the world".
"For all of you, and especially for the young, may Mary be a mother ever-ready to meet the needs of her children, a light of hope that illuminates and guides you on your way".
The Pope concludes by inviting everyone to pray for the success of his journey, and by invoking the maternal protection of the Virgin.
MESS/.../FRANCE
[from the VIS -Official Vatican Information Service]
VATICAN CITY, 10 SEP 2008 (VIS) - Benedict XVI has written a Message to the French for his first pastoral visit to that country, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin Lourdes.
"On the eve of my arrival", writes the Holy Father, "I send cordial greetings to the French people and to all the inhabitants of that beloved nation. I am coming as a messenger of peace and fraternity. I know your country well. On various occasions I have had the pleasure of visiting it and of appreciating its generous tradition of welcome and tolerance, as well as the solidity of its Christian faith and of its exalted human and spiritual culture.
"On this occasion the reason for my trip is to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes", he adds. "After visiting Paris, the capital of your country, it will be my immense joy to join the multitude of pilgrims as they follow the stages of the Jubilee journey, in the footsteps of St. Bernadette, to the grotto of Massabielle. At the feet of Our Lady, I will pray intensely for the intentions of the entire Church, particularly the sick and the needy, as well as for peace in the world".
"For all of you, and especially for the young, may Mary be a mother ever-ready to meet the needs of her children, a light of hope that illuminates and guides you on your way".
The Pope concludes by inviting everyone to pray for the success of his journey, and by invoking the maternal protection of the Virgin.
MESS/.../FRANCE
Waiting on the Lord
And Letting the Bishops Wait
...until after the election.
Were I Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden, who are "pro-life" in their understanding of how best to promote life in every dimension from a consistency approach that includes a comprehensive understanding of War Murder, and facilitating the social structures that encourage life (affordable housing, health care, pregnancy assistance, etc...) - because the Bishops do not seem to understand this approach, and have a very narrow limited understanding of public policy which is exclusively Republican imposing criminal penalties only on women (when men created unwanted pregnancies) as the only viable "pro-life" solution or position-
I would make them wait until AFTER the election before meeting with them.
I would just politely schedule with them on November 8th.
If they insist on anything sooner, you know that they are trying to posture to influence an election. And that is not proper or legal.
Note that this is the position taken only by the US Bishops- American Republican Bishops- the Bishops in the rest of the world have better sense and the rest of the world watching the US Bishops doing this think we are all in trouble.
http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/topics/international/documents/2004worldview.pdf
...until after the election.
Were I Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden, who are "pro-life" in their understanding of how best to promote life in every dimension from a consistency approach that includes a comprehensive understanding of War Murder, and facilitating the social structures that encourage life (affordable housing, health care, pregnancy assistance, etc...) - because the Bishops do not seem to understand this approach, and have a very narrow limited understanding of public policy which is exclusively Republican imposing criminal penalties only on women (when men created unwanted pregnancies) as the only viable "pro-life" solution or position-
I would make them wait until AFTER the election before meeting with them.
I would just politely schedule with them on November 8th.
If they insist on anything sooner, you know that they are trying to posture to influence an election. And that is not proper or legal.
Note that this is the position taken only by the US Bishops- American Republican Bishops- the Bishops in the rest of the world have better sense and the rest of the world watching the US Bishops doing this think we are all in trouble.
http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/topics/international/documents/2004worldview.pdf
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Killing Me Softly
Sacre Cordium--Sacre Coeur
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is something that transcends the realm of mere legalistic black -letter right and wrong.
Jesus was concerned with the state of heart, purity of heart- thus it is adultery if you "lust in your heart" and if you hate your brother it is analogous to murder. If you call your brother a fool or say "Raca" that is a sin worthy of Gehenna.
Man sees on the outside- Jesus sees the HEART.
This is why the Pharisee were so offensive to him- they were like whitewashed tombs -all pretty, pious and proper on the outside but full of dead men's bones and every filthy self-righteous burden imposing hypocritical thought on the inside. The few times Jesus gets frothing angry at anyone it is against either the Temple Money Changers or the Pharisees- vipers, he even calls them. Snakes- slick and spouting venom. (the Pharisees also profited from the Money Changer's objectionable activities.)
Pharisees were so much the very definition of hypocricy that the term "pharisaic" and "hypocritical" are now completely synonymous. Look it up.
This reminds me of this current abortion debate. You have men -devoted to celibacy and chastity--who have denied every urge and opportunity to create new Life, in fact totally killed Life potential of any woman who was interested in them while they tell how they left them at the altar to check into their cloistered studies so that eventually they could self-righteously lecture the world on the evils of abortion--and essentially pad their own coffers. GET SERIOUS.
Really, the Bishops need to stop. They hurt only the Church. They do not have standing to speak on this point. They never supported or created new Life. They never fathered a natural child, they never supported a pregnant woman emotionally, or financially for the duration of a pregnancy. And the numbers of women hurt by statements and/or actions of the Men in Dresses against them could fill the Verizon Center.
Just Stop. Or the IRS might have to look into the Tax Exempt status of those people in clerical robes clearly trying to squew the election. Really, how dare you- and I don't even want to know about all the "Faith Based Funding" that went into the Building Development Fund.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is something that transcends the realm of mere legalistic black -letter right and wrong.
Jesus was concerned with the state of heart, purity of heart- thus it is adultery if you "lust in your heart" and if you hate your brother it is analogous to murder. If you call your brother a fool or say "Raca" that is a sin worthy of Gehenna.
Man sees on the outside- Jesus sees the HEART.
This is why the Pharisee were so offensive to him- they were like whitewashed tombs -all pretty, pious and proper on the outside but full of dead men's bones and every filthy self-righteous burden imposing hypocritical thought on the inside. The few times Jesus gets frothing angry at anyone it is against either the Temple Money Changers or the Pharisees- vipers, he even calls them. Snakes- slick and spouting venom. (the Pharisees also profited from the Money Changer's objectionable activities.)
Pharisees were so much the very definition of hypocricy that the term "pharisaic" and "hypocritical" are now completely synonymous. Look it up.
This reminds me of this current abortion debate. You have men -devoted to celibacy and chastity--who have denied every urge and opportunity to create new Life, in fact totally killed Life potential of any woman who was interested in them while they tell how they left them at the altar to check into their cloistered studies so that eventually they could self-righteously lecture the world on the evils of abortion--and essentially pad their own coffers. GET SERIOUS.
Really, the Bishops need to stop. They hurt only the Church. They do not have standing to speak on this point. They never supported or created new Life. They never fathered a natural child, they never supported a pregnant woman emotionally, or financially for the duration of a pregnancy. And the numbers of women hurt by statements and/or actions of the Men in Dresses against them could fill the Verizon Center.
Just Stop. Or the IRS might have to look into the Tax Exempt status of those people in clerical robes clearly trying to squew the election. Really, how dare you- and I don't even want to know about all the "Faith Based Funding" that went into the Building Development Fund.
The Audacity of Disassembling; She sold the State Jet on E-Bay; Except She Didn't
From the DNC:
Cynthia --The McCain campaign has finally admitted that this election is about change.Their new ad uses what news organizations are calling "naked lies" to reinvent two politicians whose records embody the same culture of corruption and far-right policies we've seen from the Bush administration.The biggest whopper in the ad (that's still being repeated day after day by McCain and Palin on the campaign trail) is that Governor Palin stopped the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" -- in fact, she supported it, and even hired a lobbyist in Washington to get more pork-barrel projects like it.
If the McCain-Palin campaign wants to have a debate about who is prepared to bring the change we need, we're more than ready.
So we just launched a new ad to set the record straight on McCain and Palin. Watch our response ad and make a donation of $5 or more to help us keep it on the air.
Here are the facts ...Sarah Palin was a vocal supporter of the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" -- the symbol of the Republican culture of corruption -- turning her back on it only after the project's bloated pork-barrel waste was exposed.Their ad also claims John McCain has "reformed" Washington -- which would undoubtedly come as a surprise to the Washington lobbyists who are running his campaign and the special interests who have been funding it.The most "maverick" thing about these two politicians right now is that they continue to support George Bush's disastrous policies long after we have all seen the damage they are doing to our country.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden are ready to bring the change we need to Washington. They're on the campaign trail every day talking about it -- just today, Barack laid out his plans to transform education. But we can't let these ridiculous claims from the McCain campaign stand. Watch the ad and make a $5 donation now to help us set the record straight:https://donate.barackobama.com/thetruth
.David David Plouffe
Campaign ManagerObama for America
From Revisionist Church History on the abortion -ensoulement mis-stated facts on [Almost] Sirius Radio by men who should know better if they did their homework, to this Faux-Reformist Mantle- the only thing accurate about McCain's platform that tries to distance itself from being in the Oil and Gas pocket it is, is his statement that the American People Have Lost Trust in Republicans. True.
Why? Because they lie-and lie, and lie, and lie- it pays too well to give it up.
Cynthia --The McCain campaign has finally admitted that this election is about change.Their new ad uses what news organizations are calling "naked lies" to reinvent two politicians whose records embody the same culture of corruption and far-right policies we've seen from the Bush administration.The biggest whopper in the ad (that's still being repeated day after day by McCain and Palin on the campaign trail) is that Governor Palin stopped the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" -- in fact, she supported it, and even hired a lobbyist in Washington to get more pork-barrel projects like it.
If the McCain-Palin campaign wants to have a debate about who is prepared to bring the change we need, we're more than ready.
So we just launched a new ad to set the record straight on McCain and Palin. Watch our response ad and make a donation of $5 or more to help us keep it on the air.
Here are the facts ...Sarah Palin was a vocal supporter of the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" -- the symbol of the Republican culture of corruption -- turning her back on it only after the project's bloated pork-barrel waste was exposed.Their ad also claims John McCain has "reformed" Washington -- which would undoubtedly come as a surprise to the Washington lobbyists who are running his campaign and the special interests who have been funding it.The most "maverick" thing about these two politicians right now is that they continue to support George Bush's disastrous policies long after we have all seen the damage they are doing to our country.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden are ready to bring the change we need to Washington. They're on the campaign trail every day talking about it -- just today, Barack laid out his plans to transform education. But we can't let these ridiculous claims from the McCain campaign stand. Watch the ad and make a $5 donation now to help us set the record straight:https://donate.barackobama.com/thetruth
.David David Plouffe
Campaign ManagerObama for America
From Revisionist Church History on the abortion -ensoulement mis-stated facts on [Almost] Sirius Radio by men who should know better if they did their homework, to this Faux-Reformist Mantle- the only thing accurate about McCain's platform that tries to distance itself from being in the Oil and Gas pocket it is, is his statement that the American People Have Lost Trust in Republicans. True.
Why? Because they lie-and lie, and lie, and lie- it pays too well to give it up.
PEACE IN UNITY
Pray for Peace. And Walk for Unity. At the same time.
An Ecumenical Movement in Washington where Pilgrims of Peace will walk from a Synagogue (Washington Hebrew Congregation on McComb) to the Ghandi Memorial on Mass Ave to commemorate 9-11.
http://www.911unitywalk.org/
Hatred only begets more hatred, and violence only begs more violence.
Join Us To Pray the Tide Turns.
An Ecumenical Movement in Washington where Pilgrims of Peace will walk from a Synagogue (Washington Hebrew Congregation on McComb) to the Ghandi Memorial on Mass Ave to commemorate 9-11.
http://www.911unitywalk.org/
Hatred only begets more hatred, and violence only begs more violence.
Join Us To Pray the Tide Turns.
Let there be Life
Woman, 59, Has Triplets in Paris Hospital
PARIS (Sept. 8) - A 59-year-old woman has given birth to triplets at a Paris hospital after seeking fertility treatment in Vietnam, a hospital spokeswoman said on Monday.
News of the woman's pregnancy has drawn widespread criticism in the French media since it was made public last week. It is illegal in France to provide fertility treatment to women who are no longer at an age when they can procreate naturally.
"On this particular point, scientific progress is not good for mankind," said Andre Vingt-Trois, a Catholic archbishop, quoted by Monday's Le Parisian newspaper.
The woman gave birth by Caesarean section at the Cochin hospital late on Saturday night, a spokeswoman said. She had two boys who weighed 2.3 kg and 2.1 kg, and a girl who weighed 2.4 kg. The mother and the babies were all in good health.
The hospital declined to give any further details.
There has been a trickle of births by women in their late 50s and in their 60s in various countries since 1994, when Italian fertility doctor Severino Antinori http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severino_Antinori caused an international controversy by helping a 63-year-old have a baby.
HEY, LIFE HAPPENS
PARIS (Sept. 8) - A 59-year-old woman has given birth to triplets at a Paris hospital after seeking fertility treatment in Vietnam, a hospital spokeswoman said on Monday.
News of the woman's pregnancy has drawn widespread criticism in the French media since it was made public last week. It is illegal in France to provide fertility treatment to women who are no longer at an age when they can procreate naturally.
"On this particular point, scientific progress is not good for mankind," said Andre Vingt-Trois, a Catholic archbishop, quoted by Monday's Le Parisian newspaper.
The woman gave birth by Caesarean section at the Cochin hospital late on Saturday night, a spokeswoman said. She had two boys who weighed 2.3 kg and 2.1 kg, and a girl who weighed 2.4 kg. The mother and the babies were all in good health.
The hospital declined to give any further details.
There has been a trickle of births by women in their late 50s and in their 60s in various countries since 1994, when Italian fertility doctor Severino Antinori http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severino_Antinori caused an international controversy by helping a 63-year-old have a baby.
HEY, LIFE HAPPENS
Monday, September 08, 2008
Book On My Bucket List; Lourdes; A Font of Faith, Hope and Charity.
Bernadette: The girl whose family was so poor they lived in an old prison their uncle rented out to them after her father was blinded in an industrial accident was blessed with a vision that has been healing people for 150 years. There's something in the Water.
http://www.elizabethficocelli.com/
Get her book. Write a review and send it to:
HaveMercyOnUs-at-aol.com (without the dashes) [or I'll have to tell you what it says and give away the end]
order here;
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809144867/elizabethfico-20/
http://www.elizabethficocelli.com/
Get her book. Write a review and send it to:
HaveMercyOnUs-at-aol.com (without the dashes) [or I'll have to tell you what it says and give away the end]
order here;
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809144867/elizabethfico-20/
Reckless and Outrageous Greed Without Bounds; Where's Christie Todd Whitman when you need her.
A Premie and the Water Breaks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/us/politics/08baby.html?_r=1&nl=pol&emc=pola1&oref=slogin
You are in the last tri-mester of your pregnancy. You travel for a meeting five states away. You know you are pregnant with a Down's Syndrome Child. It isn't due for a month. You figure you can go to the meeting
At 4:00-ish am in the morning- Your water breaks a month early.
What do you do?
You check yourself into the nearest hospital and fly your Doctor to see you immediately or you call him and ask him if you are safe for travel to get immediately to your home town hospital for delivery because every woman knows that with a high degree of certainty water breaking preceedes labor. You might think about calling a Priest or your Pastor because if your water breaks a month early- especially with a disabled or Down's child that could be very serious risk or trouble.
That's not what Sara Palin did:
According to a New York Times article today,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/us/politics/08baby.html?_r=1&nl=pol&emc=pola1&oref=slogin
she didn't check herself into a hospital-she went to a deal-cutting meeting where she got to get
sized over by John McCain to be his running mate in Texas with Republican Governors having something to do with Oil and Gas -she vied for the Vice Presidency even while leaking amniotic fluid down her leg and people in the meeting were joking "you aren't going to deliver now are you."
WHAT ABSOLUTE RECKLESSNESS. She probably didn't care if her Down's child was still born- in the interest of the country- because no one in their right mind after their water broke would do what she did.
You want someone like that caring for your children or the entire country in crisis? She didn't even care for her own infant's health- who was delivered by emergency C-Section a month early after she made it back to Alaska-to her home town before checking herself into any hospital.
You decide- "tough lady" or just a Jerk.
You decide whether she is a "tough lady" or just a Jerk when hauling her Down's infant from city to city, with different airplane air compression conditions across the country when he is five months old, disrupting his schedule, or passing him off to anyone around to feed, change his diapers and put him to bed.
[see, increased risk of pulmonary edema for Down's child on air travel,
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/108/2/443]
Running for The Vice Presidency is not a recognized cure for Post-Partum Depression.
And where was her husband during all of this? Apparently sleeping next to her, and awakened by her.
Did he not insist that she get immediately to the hospital- or get home immediately to get to the hospital? Did he say---sure honey, no worries, lets go to an Oil and Gas meeting of Republican Governors in Texas and see whether we can get you on the ticket.
There is something really very sinister about Republicans exploiting her situation to advance a despirate ticket like this.
Good Judgment means more than strategic shrewdness; it's foundational attribute is that it advances the "Good."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/us/politics/08baby.html?_r=1&nl=pol&emc=pola1&oref=slogin
You are in the last tri-mester of your pregnancy. You travel for a meeting five states away. You know you are pregnant with a Down's Syndrome Child. It isn't due for a month. You figure you can go to the meeting
At 4:00-ish am in the morning- Your water breaks a month early.
What do you do?
You check yourself into the nearest hospital and fly your Doctor to see you immediately or you call him and ask him if you are safe for travel to get immediately to your home town hospital for delivery because every woman knows that with a high degree of certainty water breaking preceedes labor. You might think about calling a Priest or your Pastor because if your water breaks a month early- especially with a disabled or Down's child that could be very serious risk or trouble.
That's not what Sara Palin did:
According to a New York Times article today,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/us/politics/08baby.html?_r=1&nl=pol&emc=pola1&oref=slogin
she didn't check herself into a hospital-she went to a deal-cutting meeting where she got to get
sized over by John McCain to be his running mate in Texas with Republican Governors having something to do with Oil and Gas -she vied for the Vice Presidency even while leaking amniotic fluid down her leg and people in the meeting were joking "you aren't going to deliver now are you."
WHAT ABSOLUTE RECKLESSNESS. She probably didn't care if her Down's child was still born- in the interest of the country- because no one in their right mind after their water broke would do what she did.
You want someone like that caring for your children or the entire country in crisis? She didn't even care for her own infant's health- who was delivered by emergency C-Section a month early after she made it back to Alaska-to her home town before checking herself into any hospital.
You decide- "tough lady" or just a Jerk.
You decide whether she is a "tough lady" or just a Jerk when hauling her Down's infant from city to city, with different airplane air compression conditions across the country when he is five months old, disrupting his schedule, or passing him off to anyone around to feed, change his diapers and put him to bed.
[see, increased risk of pulmonary edema for Down's child on air travel,
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/108/2/443]
Running for The Vice Presidency is not a recognized cure for Post-Partum Depression.
And where was her husband during all of this? Apparently sleeping next to her, and awakened by her.
Did he not insist that she get immediately to the hospital- or get home immediately to get to the hospital? Did he say---sure honey, no worries, lets go to an Oil and Gas meeting of Republican Governors in Texas and see whether we can get you on the ticket.
There is something really very sinister about Republicans exploiting her situation to advance a despirate ticket like this.
Good Judgment means more than strategic shrewdness; it's foundational attribute is that it advances the "Good."
Still, Still With Thee
by: Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1812-1896
Still, still with thee, when purple morning breaketh,
When the bird waketh and the shadows flee;
Fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight,
Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am with thee.
Alone with thee, amid the mystic shadows,
The solemn hush of nature newly born;
Alone with thee in breathless adoration,
In the dew and freshness of the morn.
Still, still with thee! As to each newborn morning
A fresh and solemn splendor still is giv'n
So does this blessed consciousness awaking
Breathe each day nearness unto thee and heav'n.
So shall it be at last in that bright morning
When the soul waketh and life's shadows flee;
O in that hour, fairer than daylight dawning,
Shall rise the glorious thought, I am with thee.
Still, still with thee, when purple morning breaketh,
When the bird waketh and the shadows flee;
Fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight,
Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am with thee.
Alone with thee, amid the mystic shadows,
The solemn hush of nature newly born;
Alone with thee in breathless adoration,
In the dew and freshness of the morn.
Still, still with thee! As to each newborn morning
A fresh and solemn splendor still is giv'n
So does this blessed consciousness awaking
Breathe each day nearness unto thee and heav'n.
So shall it be at last in that bright morning
When the soul waketh and life's shadows flee;
O in that hour, fairer than daylight dawning,
Shall rise the glorious thought, I am with thee.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Post Feminist Deconstruction
Feminazi or Mommie Dearest.
SHE'S NO SEGOLENE.
Few things are more cynical than putting a woman on a ticket to one up the "minority" on the other side and try to pick up the Hillary contingent---as opposed to putting a woman on the ticket because you found a worthy qualified one.
Even fewer things are more disconcerting than the cries of "sexist!" from the Haselbacks and Republican lacky attack dogs (pit-bulls in lipstick) and other deeply hypocritical people who tout the virtues of motherhood, berate people for irresponsibility in the "Love and Responsibility" dimension, and see nothing wrong with a woman with an INFANT Down's Syndrome child choosing to be or needing to be an Alpha male in the egoistic political world. It shows you how the Republicans serve their own idols and interests and subordinate basic morality when it doesn't serve the party line--and doesn't pay as well as being a morality sell out (or a billion dollar Alasklan off-shore drilling enterprise with plenty to go around).
It's apparently OK to ban women from the priesthood, even from being Deacons, and if you subscribe to Paul literally, from even speaking above their husbands in church- but it's just fine for a mother of an infant with a severe disability to spend the time and attention on her own career and make everyone else be the prime caretaker of her infant.
Abstinence is the only responsible way to honor your body prior to marriage and achieve holiness, unless of course they want your Mom to help win an unwinable ticket. Then you could be the Washington Madam's best girl and if anyone says anything bad about you just yell loudly that they are "sexist!" because you are a feminist and have a right to choose your career.
Feminism never meant, or should never mean that you make choices that hurt your family or impose upon them duties of motherhood that only mothers should do- to do so makes mothers fungible -and that is not why Jesus came through a woman named Mary. God could have spawned him from the hip of Joseph if he felt like it or thrown him out of a cloud. Mary could have "pumped" her breastmilk in a water jug and passed him off to Joe and run for head Sadduccee. Jesus came as an infant and the model of Mary tells us that her motherhood is her defining greatness as the Theotokas. Motherhood means more than popping him out and passing him off to who ever will help. There is such a thing as consistency in nurture necessary for healthy childhood development.
The law recognizes in many ways that an infant child needs its mother.
No one contends a woman with five, six or ten children couldn't be the Vice President-or President, or head of the Federal Reserve, or a US Senator or a CEO of a major corporation. But there is a time and season for everything. There are appropriate times for appropriate choices.
An infant with a severe disability compels a rational and responsible devotion of it's mother.
Anything less is just irresponsible on the motherhood score and almost imposes a "fitness" question.
That is not a partisan issue. That is an issue of responsibility and priorities.
I'm totally appalled-and I am not alone. In fact I am almost horrified that this woman didn't even look like she had an APB on her infant's whereabouts throughout the convention as it got passed back and forth to her ten year old.
I am a white woman whose larger extended family is Republican-some hard core Republican. I grew up with sensibilities of a conservative religious Republican familiy. These are my sensibilities.
Anyone who has had a baby or been around anyone closely who has had a baby knows what is involved in terms of sleep deprivation, with baby crying at night exhausting the parents, feeding schedules, in this case extreme numbers of medical appointments/follow-up, diaper regimes, attention to basic needs, trying to teach speech, etc. For someone to do that and try to be a Vice President of the US at the same time would make her incompetent and underserving of the office- and cheating her family and the country.
We are in a time of war. The Vice President can't say- gotta go home to pump, or I'm leaving at 3:00 today for a Drs. appointment, or my kid is sick so I need to take the day off, or drag in at 11:00 because she was up all night with the crying baby. This goes on for a solid 2 years with normal healthy babies. Magnify that times 100 with a Down's child.
No, this is not a responsible well thought out choice. It was hasty and sadly, wrong.
It makes me think-'What the H kind of mother is this moose-killer girl really?' It makes me think- no wonder they want to abolish the Department of Education- they don't know the first thing about it.
It is a cynical Rovian calculation to get a woman on the ticket to grab Hillary votes- and it won't work. Hillary probably would never run for anything if she just gave birth to a severely handicapped infant. Neither should you.
This is just an unholy fiasco and it backfired.
Carly Fiorina, Elizabeth Dole, Olympia Snowe, or Kay B. Hutchinson all would have been wiser choices--- and need no vetting.
This Palin choice insults my intelligence. It insults my "feminism."
SHE'S NO SEGOLENE.
Few things are more cynical than putting a woman on a ticket to one up the "minority" on the other side and try to pick up the Hillary contingent---as opposed to putting a woman on the ticket because you found a worthy qualified one.
Even fewer things are more disconcerting than the cries of "sexist!" from the Haselbacks and Republican lacky attack dogs (pit-bulls in lipstick) and other deeply hypocritical people who tout the virtues of motherhood, berate people for irresponsibility in the "Love and Responsibility" dimension, and see nothing wrong with a woman with an INFANT Down's Syndrome child choosing to be or needing to be an Alpha male in the egoistic political world. It shows you how the Republicans serve their own idols and interests and subordinate basic morality when it doesn't serve the party line--and doesn't pay as well as being a morality sell out (or a billion dollar Alasklan off-shore drilling enterprise with plenty to go around).
It's apparently OK to ban women from the priesthood, even from being Deacons, and if you subscribe to Paul literally, from even speaking above their husbands in church- but it's just fine for a mother of an infant with a severe disability to spend the time and attention on her own career and make everyone else be the prime caretaker of her infant.
Abstinence is the only responsible way to honor your body prior to marriage and achieve holiness, unless of course they want your Mom to help win an unwinable ticket. Then you could be the Washington Madam's best girl and if anyone says anything bad about you just yell loudly that they are "sexist!" because you are a feminist and have a right to choose your career.
Feminism never meant, or should never mean that you make choices that hurt your family or impose upon them duties of motherhood that only mothers should do- to do so makes mothers fungible -and that is not why Jesus came through a woman named Mary. God could have spawned him from the hip of Joseph if he felt like it or thrown him out of a cloud. Mary could have "pumped" her breastmilk in a water jug and passed him off to Joe and run for head Sadduccee. Jesus came as an infant and the model of Mary tells us that her motherhood is her defining greatness as the Theotokas. Motherhood means more than popping him out and passing him off to who ever will help. There is such a thing as consistency in nurture necessary for healthy childhood development.
The law recognizes in many ways that an infant child needs its mother.
No one contends a woman with five, six or ten children couldn't be the Vice President-or President, or head of the Federal Reserve, or a US Senator or a CEO of a major corporation. But there is a time and season for everything. There are appropriate times for appropriate choices.
An infant with a severe disability compels a rational and responsible devotion of it's mother.
Anything less is just irresponsible on the motherhood score and almost imposes a "fitness" question.
That is not a partisan issue. That is an issue of responsibility and priorities.
I'm totally appalled-and I am not alone. In fact I am almost horrified that this woman didn't even look like she had an APB on her infant's whereabouts throughout the convention as it got passed back and forth to her ten year old.
I am a white woman whose larger extended family is Republican-some hard core Republican. I grew up with sensibilities of a conservative religious Republican familiy. These are my sensibilities.
Anyone who has had a baby or been around anyone closely who has had a baby knows what is involved in terms of sleep deprivation, with baby crying at night exhausting the parents, feeding schedules, in this case extreme numbers of medical appointments/follow-up, diaper regimes, attention to basic needs, trying to teach speech, etc. For someone to do that and try to be a Vice President of the US at the same time would make her incompetent and underserving of the office- and cheating her family and the country.
We are in a time of war. The Vice President can't say- gotta go home to pump, or I'm leaving at 3:00 today for a Drs. appointment, or my kid is sick so I need to take the day off, or drag in at 11:00 because she was up all night with the crying baby. This goes on for a solid 2 years with normal healthy babies. Magnify that times 100 with a Down's child.
No, this is not a responsible well thought out choice. It was hasty and sadly, wrong.
It makes me think-'What the H kind of mother is this moose-killer girl really?' It makes me think- no wonder they want to abolish the Department of Education- they don't know the first thing about it.
It is a cynical Rovian calculation to get a woman on the ticket to grab Hillary votes- and it won't work. Hillary probably would never run for anything if she just gave birth to a severely handicapped infant. Neither should you.
This is just an unholy fiasco and it backfired.
Carly Fiorina, Elizabeth Dole, Olympia Snowe, or Kay B. Hutchinson all would have been wiser choices--- and need no vetting.
This Palin choice insults my intelligence. It insults my "feminism."
Bless Bob Novack
Really.
Sometimes God hits you with something so overwhelming you are humbled beyond anything you ever wanted to feel or would ever choose for yourself. These sorts of sufferings create Graces we could never fabricate in ourselves. They are designed to carve something into our eternal souls that is either useful here or in the hereafter in ways we may not appreciate.
Apparently God gave such an experience to the noted conservative Washington journalist Bob Novack who underwent recently the same sort of brain tumor removal surgery Kennedy did at Duke University.
He was first downed and humiliated by being a "hit and run" accused after a pedestrian
had a conflict with his windshield apparently. He tells of his journey in an article he wrote which is found in today's Washington Post. I highly recommend it to everyone of every political persuasion.
Bob Novack, not known for his humility is a prolific author. He recently weathered the accusations about leaking Valerie Plame's identity in spy-gate and was hauled before a grand jury. In the Washington world of hate or be hated he was not just hated but hunted.
He has long been identified with conservative politicians and causes.
Funny how a brain tumor that partially blinds you can cause you to see things you never saw before.
He is on a new journey where guys like Ted Kennedy he discovered have a compassionate heart larger than his waistline, and the Duke Blue Devils may be angelic even when fighting his beloved Maryland. Other things worth railing at may not be now, and people might be viewed with a greater wisdom through the prism of one good eye. In the end, one may discover, all that matters is the love you can show even those who hate you in spite of yourself.
I hope Bob Novack keeps writing, and keeps learning how good and beautiful things around him are every day. Maybe he will even write prose in praise of the Obama's one day.
With God, everything is possible.
Sometimes God hits you with something so overwhelming you are humbled beyond anything you ever wanted to feel or would ever choose for yourself. These sorts of sufferings create Graces we could never fabricate in ourselves. They are designed to carve something into our eternal souls that is either useful here or in the hereafter in ways we may not appreciate.
Apparently God gave such an experience to the noted conservative Washington journalist Bob Novack who underwent recently the same sort of brain tumor removal surgery Kennedy did at Duke University.
He was first downed and humiliated by being a "hit and run" accused after a pedestrian
had a conflict with his windshield apparently. He tells of his journey in an article he wrote which is found in today's Washington Post. I highly recommend it to everyone of every political persuasion.
Bob Novack, not known for his humility is a prolific author. He recently weathered the accusations about leaking Valerie Plame's identity in spy-gate and was hauled before a grand jury. In the Washington world of hate or be hated he was not just hated but hunted.
He has long been identified with conservative politicians and causes.
Funny how a brain tumor that partially blinds you can cause you to see things you never saw before.
He is on a new journey where guys like Ted Kennedy he discovered have a compassionate heart larger than his waistline, and the Duke Blue Devils may be angelic even when fighting his beloved Maryland. Other things worth railing at may not be now, and people might be viewed with a greater wisdom through the prism of one good eye. In the end, one may discover, all that matters is the love you can show even those who hate you in spite of yourself.
I hope Bob Novack keeps writing, and keeps learning how good and beautiful things around him are every day. Maybe he will even write prose in praise of the Obama's one day.
With God, everything is possible.
And on the Morality Score.....
McCain- Divorced, adoped one orphan.
Palin- 17 year old daughter high school pregnancy-but no big thing.
Obama- married to one and the same woman with 2 kids.
Biden-widower whose second wife essentially adoped his two sons.
Don't Start With Me.
Palin- 17 year old daughter high school pregnancy-but no big thing.
Obama- married to one and the same woman with 2 kids.
Biden-widower whose second wife essentially adoped his two sons.
Don't Start With Me.
Friday, September 05, 2008
Bishop's Gate
Nancy on the Coals Again.
Nancy Pelosi, probably the most prominent 'Pro-Choice' Catholic in the country now is being invited into a conversation with her San Francisco Bishop, Archbishop George Niederauer, - she is being called into the principal's office in the Rectory- so he can discern what to do with her. Should she be "banned" from communion or not. Should she be publicly "faced."
Abortion existed at the time of Jesus. People were practicing the ability to abort with chemical solvents, toxins and poisons at the time of Christ. The subject was not unknown to Christ at the time of his preaching. There is not one direct red letter word from his mouth about it in scripture. Instead though, there is a general understanding that God "knew you in your mother's womb" as expressed both in the Psalms by King David and in Jeremiah. The Lord knew you and knit you and wonderfully made you in your mother's womb. There was and is known cognition in the womb; Elizabeth's child in the womb (John the Baptist) lept for joy at the sound of Mary coming carrying the Christ child. Pre-born embryos have cognition.
So it might have been one of those subjects so well accepted that no one would have had to be addressed on the point- perhaps the Jewish world he spoke to universally thought it an outrageous abominable practice and no preaching to the choir on that point was required. There is also no direct red letter word from Jesus on the subject of not cutting off the thumbs of your mother, or brushing your teeth with boric acid- because no one would think those things remotely acceptable either and they thus don't require addressing.
Jesus does, however invite everyone to himself as "the Life."
Were I Nancy I might ask where it states in the Bible that Jesus ever withdrew himself, denied himself or sent anyone away who was seeking his love or healing. If he never did it, what makes the Bishops think they can take HIM (his very blood and body) away from anyone coming to him?
Even the skanky woman who had an "issue of blood" or hemorrhage and thus was ritually "unclean" was not chastised or turned back for touching the hem of his prayer shawl/garment. When the woman of questionable repute threw herself at the feet of Jesus to wash his dusty feet with her hair as she wept over him did he first ask her what her opinion was on abortion or any other opinion before allowing her to touch him? When Jesus cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene did he ask her whether she ever had or condoned an abortion or whether demon no.1 was lust and she got paid for her sins and discarded the fruit of her sin somehow? When he saved the woman from stoning did he say- wait- what's your view of abortion-have you or your daughter ever had one?
Were I her I might ask where it states in the Bible that Jesus ever used his body as a political weapon. Where is there a reference in the Bible to Jesus screening the 5,000 on the hill that he fed with five loaves and two fishes first for their view of abortion or for any other politically correct view?
Where does it state in the bible that the sin of thinking a certain thing about abortion is excommunicable, or would cause Jesus to ban anyone from himself or kick them out of the Upper Room because it is so much more serious than the sin of doing any other mortal sin?
Is the sin of thinking something more serious than the sin of doing fraud and extortion for example?
Is there no difference in moral culpability of giving a person a choice to do right and wrong
from placing into a person's hands a weapon that the government paid for, putting that person on a government payroll and instructing that person to kill another person under the banner of "War."
The Lord himself gives people free will in stating "I lay before you the CHOICE of life and death, choose, therefore LIFE."- He didn't state this to a governmental body, it is a personal CHOICE.
Does this conflict with the mandate that the State should take any and all such choice away from a person. Is the government greater than the Lord in this regard?
Just asking, because I bought a new Catholic Study Bible with a hefty concordance on sale at the Catholic Information Center and I can't find any such references anywhere.
Whosoever, whosoever, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
The Bishops in taking this "in your face" confrontational "discernment" stand -likely at the Direction of the new Pope who is still barely forgiven for tanking the Catholic vote on the Kerry election, very seriously risk losing their credibility with the flock. This time they risk abandoned
pews looking as bare as the empty bleachers behind McCain's teleprompter. They risk people abandoning the Church for the election season until the decision-making on this issue is not something that can be perceived or used as a political weapon for publicity purposes.
Nancy Pelosi has held the very same views for the entire time she has been in Congress.
So why now- during the post-convention high election season?
Nancy Pelosi, probably the most prominent 'Pro-Choice' Catholic in the country now is being invited into a conversation with her San Francisco Bishop, Archbishop George Niederauer, - she is being called into the principal's office in the Rectory- so he can discern what to do with her. Should she be "banned" from communion or not. Should she be publicly "faced."
Abortion existed at the time of Jesus. People were practicing the ability to abort with chemical solvents, toxins and poisons at the time of Christ. The subject was not unknown to Christ at the time of his preaching. There is not one direct red letter word from his mouth about it in scripture. Instead though, there is a general understanding that God "knew you in your mother's womb" as expressed both in the Psalms by King David and in Jeremiah. The Lord knew you and knit you and wonderfully made you in your mother's womb. There was and is known cognition in the womb; Elizabeth's child in the womb (John the Baptist) lept for joy at the sound of Mary coming carrying the Christ child. Pre-born embryos have cognition.
So it might have been one of those subjects so well accepted that no one would have had to be addressed on the point- perhaps the Jewish world he spoke to universally thought it an outrageous abominable practice and no preaching to the choir on that point was required. There is also no direct red letter word from Jesus on the subject of not cutting off the thumbs of your mother, or brushing your teeth with boric acid- because no one would think those things remotely acceptable either and they thus don't require addressing.
Jesus does, however invite everyone to himself as "the Life."
Were I Nancy I might ask where it states in the Bible that Jesus ever withdrew himself, denied himself or sent anyone away who was seeking his love or healing. If he never did it, what makes the Bishops think they can take HIM (his very blood and body) away from anyone coming to him?
Even the skanky woman who had an "issue of blood" or hemorrhage and thus was ritually "unclean" was not chastised or turned back for touching the hem of his prayer shawl/garment. When the woman of questionable repute threw herself at the feet of Jesus to wash his dusty feet with her hair as she wept over him did he first ask her what her opinion was on abortion or any other opinion before allowing her to touch him? When Jesus cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene did he ask her whether she ever had or condoned an abortion or whether demon no.1 was lust and she got paid for her sins and discarded the fruit of her sin somehow? When he saved the woman from stoning did he say- wait- what's your view of abortion-have you or your daughter ever had one?
Were I her I might ask where it states in the Bible that Jesus ever used his body as a political weapon. Where is there a reference in the Bible to Jesus screening the 5,000 on the hill that he fed with five loaves and two fishes first for their view of abortion or for any other politically correct view?
Where does it state in the bible that the sin of thinking a certain thing about abortion is excommunicable, or would cause Jesus to ban anyone from himself or kick them out of the Upper Room because it is so much more serious than the sin of doing any other mortal sin?
Is the sin of thinking something more serious than the sin of doing fraud and extortion for example?
Is there no difference in moral culpability of giving a person a choice to do right and wrong
from placing into a person's hands a weapon that the government paid for, putting that person on a government payroll and instructing that person to kill another person under the banner of "War."
The Lord himself gives people free will in stating "I lay before you the CHOICE of life and death, choose, therefore LIFE."- He didn't state this to a governmental body, it is a personal CHOICE.
Does this conflict with the mandate that the State should take any and all such choice away from a person. Is the government greater than the Lord in this regard?
Just asking, because I bought a new Catholic Study Bible with a hefty concordance on sale at the Catholic Information Center and I can't find any such references anywhere.
Whosoever, whosoever, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
The Bishops in taking this "in your face" confrontational "discernment" stand -likely at the Direction of the new Pope who is still barely forgiven for tanking the Catholic vote on the Kerry election, very seriously risk losing their credibility with the flock. This time they risk abandoned
pews looking as bare as the empty bleachers behind McCain's teleprompter. They risk people abandoning the Church for the election season until the decision-making on this issue is not something that can be perceived or used as a political weapon for publicity purposes.
Nancy Pelosi has held the very same views for the entire time she has been in Congress.
So why now- during the post-convention high election season?
CINDY McCAIN FOR PRINCESS! Now It's A Horserace
McCAIN FEELS YOUR PAIN (now that's a slogan)
I watched with glee all the signs around the Excel Center shouting "We Love Cindy!"--because my name is Cindy- it's Cynthia Louise so it could even be Cindy Lou for short. I hoped that the guy I love took it as a "sign." In fact it was about a thousand signs! God is hysterical sometimes. [I also have a brother, late father and nephew named John and god-kid cousin named Megan so I am naturally attracted to this family.]
Cindy McCain looked Regal in Marion Blue, and hit all the right notes on every front that counted for First Lady purposes. She is quite a lady. Not just your cupcake baking suzie homemaker-while she has quite a brood, but one who really exemplifies the classic golden hearted noblesse oblige with a purse that allows her to travel the world and bring compassion to the downtrodden, heal the sick, and raise the dead. Who knew she was all over Africa and Southeast Asia as a Senator's wife instead of on the cocktail party circuit. Even the most hardened critics had to be warmed by the story of her adopting a disfigured infant from one of Mother Theresa's orphanages in Bangladesh and making her one of her children with a mother's love- without asking her husband first (I like that part). She outdoes Princess Diana who never took an orphan home.
Like a good wife, she cleans up the men's messes in following after war to tend to it's victims and clean up it's minefields with the ease of picking up wayward socks. Cindy McCain is the closest thing this country has to Royalty. I want to look like her when I am -what...50-something? I vote for her for Princess. No one can not like Cindy McCain- no love her. Say it with me gayboys- love her!!!
The oddness of her running for First Lady with her husband was underscored by the fact that her vision of government is that it should just get "off our back!" That didn't really tell us
how she viewed her or her husband's philanthropic mission in terms of what government should implement. It tells us that she views the country as one in classic Republican mentality where the enterprising like her Dad can make a fortune to pass off to their beautiful daughters, establish foundations and do good in the world so long as government downsizes and minimizes any influence. That isn't the reality for most of the tens of thousands of people who filled Obama's Mile High Stadium who need government to be more than "on their side"- they need government to help. It isn't the reality for working moms across the country trying to pay bills, or for laid -off factory workers, or for the thousands of disabled vets returning to a country that doesn't understand well enough war torn traumatic brain injuries. They need government to help. That isn't the reality for anyone with a catastrophic illness like cancer and no medical insurance; they need government to help.
The Democrats have a different vision for government- they want government to fill in the inevitable and painfully showing cracks. They want government to function in the "brother's keeper" fashion Obama eloquently proclaimed from Denver's mountaintop. Obama sees the cracks and Republicans (as the stereotype goes) tend to walk over them with the same cavalier indifference that some people step over the sleeping homeless person by the bus-stop on their way home from work. The "ownership society" means "you are on your own" as Obama eloquently put it, and the measure of a man or woman is in their acquisitions rather than the humanity of their acts of compassion.
The McCains tried to show that they break the mold. They half succeeded.
The Republican mentality echoes the Nancy Reagan joke -just say "Get a House" to homeless people, or those suffering under the psychological burden of a "foreclosure" sign on their front lawn.
McCain's story is profoundly compelling; His humility inspiring, His suffering redemptive.
But the question still persists- is he rebel enough or is it just more of the same con job we have lived under for the last 8 years.
Exxon Mobil adds still ran throughout the breaks. Chants of "Drill Baby Drill" brought discomforting moans with visions of enormous rigs off Avalon, New Jersey and spills from
the Long Island Sound to Cape Hatteras killing horse shoe crabs and dolphins washing up on shores as Exxon Mobil profits exceed the entire gross national product of half the world's countries.
That Alaskan Governor who wasn't holding her infant baby for most of the event preaches on You-Tube about the billion dollars the Alaskan pipeline will bring to her community-and no doubt a quarter of which will find it's way into her and her friend's accounts as she proclaims herself to her Assemblies of God (visions of Ashcroft singing "As the Eagle flies" off-key) congregation "rich" want us to believe
she is a corruption outer and router--when the self-dealing potential desire couldn't be more evident here.
So the question remains, will this team buck the heavy hand of oil executives and other special interests running the country into the ground and leaving multitudes behind to fend for themselves in the interest of getting government "off our back!"
McCain's finding his value and vision in the Hanoi Hilton was moving.
I believe him when he says he hates war. I respect him when he fights against torture. I trust his sincerity and find it applaudable.
His family, thanks to his wife's fortune, is too rich to be bought--and his military family isn't in this love of country business for the money. But its a mixed bag of beans, because it provides a buffer to the ability to really see the suffering out there. One still does have the impression that there are matters from which he is too removed to be truly in touch with.
The question remains; will McCain really be a New Republican- Will he see through the cracks- or will he plaster them over and like the Nancy Reagan joke say to the single woman fighting foreclosure, or the
disabled vet with a traumatic brain injury, or with the unemployed outsourcing victim, or the ex-homeowner of Louisiana hurricanes, and all the families of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi casualties- -get over yourself and
"just get a house!"
-and will we ever know or have they fixed the part about fixing elections with computer manipulations and secret source code that flips the switch on vote tallies yet?
The next two months should prove some of the more intensely interesting episodes in American History- and I, for one, will keep on the look-out for "We Love Cindy" signs and wonders.
I watched with glee all the signs around the Excel Center shouting "We Love Cindy!"--because my name is Cindy- it's Cynthia Louise so it could even be Cindy Lou for short. I hoped that the guy I love took it as a "sign." In fact it was about a thousand signs! God is hysterical sometimes. [I also have a brother, late father and nephew named John and god-kid cousin named Megan so I am naturally attracted to this family.]
Cindy McCain looked Regal in Marion Blue, and hit all the right notes on every front that counted for First Lady purposes. She is quite a lady. Not just your cupcake baking suzie homemaker-while she has quite a brood, but one who really exemplifies the classic golden hearted noblesse oblige with a purse that allows her to travel the world and bring compassion to the downtrodden, heal the sick, and raise the dead. Who knew she was all over Africa and Southeast Asia as a Senator's wife instead of on the cocktail party circuit. Even the most hardened critics had to be warmed by the story of her adopting a disfigured infant from one of Mother Theresa's orphanages in Bangladesh and making her one of her children with a mother's love- without asking her husband first (I like that part). She outdoes Princess Diana who never took an orphan home.
Like a good wife, she cleans up the men's messes in following after war to tend to it's victims and clean up it's minefields with the ease of picking up wayward socks. Cindy McCain is the closest thing this country has to Royalty. I want to look like her when I am -what...50-something? I vote for her for Princess. No one can not like Cindy McCain- no love her. Say it with me gayboys- love her!!!
The oddness of her running for First Lady with her husband was underscored by the fact that her vision of government is that it should just get "off our back!" That didn't really tell us
how she viewed her or her husband's philanthropic mission in terms of what government should implement. It tells us that she views the country as one in classic Republican mentality where the enterprising like her Dad can make a fortune to pass off to their beautiful daughters, establish foundations and do good in the world so long as government downsizes and minimizes any influence. That isn't the reality for most of the tens of thousands of people who filled Obama's Mile High Stadium who need government to be more than "on their side"- they need government to help. It isn't the reality for working moms across the country trying to pay bills, or for laid -off factory workers, or for the thousands of disabled vets returning to a country that doesn't understand well enough war torn traumatic brain injuries. They need government to help. That isn't the reality for anyone with a catastrophic illness like cancer and no medical insurance; they need government to help.
The Democrats have a different vision for government- they want government to fill in the inevitable and painfully showing cracks. They want government to function in the "brother's keeper" fashion Obama eloquently proclaimed from Denver's mountaintop. Obama sees the cracks and Republicans (as the stereotype goes) tend to walk over them with the same cavalier indifference that some people step over the sleeping homeless person by the bus-stop on their way home from work. The "ownership society" means "you are on your own" as Obama eloquently put it, and the measure of a man or woman is in their acquisitions rather than the humanity of their acts of compassion.
The McCains tried to show that they break the mold. They half succeeded.
The Republican mentality echoes the Nancy Reagan joke -just say "Get a House" to homeless people, or those suffering under the psychological burden of a "foreclosure" sign on their front lawn.
McCain's story is profoundly compelling; His humility inspiring, His suffering redemptive.
But the question still persists- is he rebel enough or is it just more of the same con job we have lived under for the last 8 years.
Exxon Mobil adds still ran throughout the breaks. Chants of "Drill Baby Drill" brought discomforting moans with visions of enormous rigs off Avalon, New Jersey and spills from
the Long Island Sound to Cape Hatteras killing horse shoe crabs and dolphins washing up on shores as Exxon Mobil profits exceed the entire gross national product of half the world's countries.
That Alaskan Governor who wasn't holding her infant baby for most of the event preaches on You-Tube about the billion dollars the Alaskan pipeline will bring to her community-and no doubt a quarter of which will find it's way into her and her friend's accounts as she proclaims herself to her Assemblies of God (visions of Ashcroft singing "As the Eagle flies" off-key) congregation "rich" want us to believe
she is a corruption outer and router--when the self-dealing potential desire couldn't be more evident here.
So the question remains, will this team buck the heavy hand of oil executives and other special interests running the country into the ground and leaving multitudes behind to fend for themselves in the interest of getting government "off our back!"
McCain's finding his value and vision in the Hanoi Hilton was moving.
I believe him when he says he hates war. I respect him when he fights against torture. I trust his sincerity and find it applaudable.
His family, thanks to his wife's fortune, is too rich to be bought--and his military family isn't in this love of country business for the money. But its a mixed bag of beans, because it provides a buffer to the ability to really see the suffering out there. One still does have the impression that there are matters from which he is too removed to be truly in touch with.
The question remains; will McCain really be a New Republican- Will he see through the cracks- or will he plaster them over and like the Nancy Reagan joke say to the single woman fighting foreclosure, or the
disabled vet with a traumatic brain injury, or with the unemployed outsourcing victim, or the ex-homeowner of Louisiana hurricanes, and all the families of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi casualties- -get over yourself and
"just get a house!"
-and will we ever know or have they fixed the part about fixing elections with computer manipulations and secret source code that flips the switch on vote tallies yet?
The next two months should prove some of the more intensely interesting episodes in American History- and I, for one, will keep on the look-out for "We Love Cindy" signs and wonders.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Note to Guiliani: I DARE
MoMMy Dearest?
counting the assets of women irrelevant or discarding their value in motherhood.
The MEN who are saying there is nothing inappropriate with a mother of a special needs child from having a demanding high stress full time job like the Vice Presidency are neither mothers nor mothers of special needs children and know nothing about them.
Here is something about them:
Medical Problems Associated With Down's Syndrome-[DS]
While some kids with DS have no significant health problems, others may experience a host of medical issues that require extra care. For example, almost half of all children born with DS will have a congenital heart defect.
Kids with Down syndrome are also at an increased risk of developing pulmonary hypertension, a serious condition that can lead to irreversible damage to the lungs. All infants with Down syndrome should be evaluated by a pediatric cardiologist.
Approximately half of all kids with DS also have problems with hearing and vision. Hearing loss can be related to fluid buildup in the inner ear or to structural problems of the ear itself. Vision problems commonly include amblyopia (lazy eye), near- or farsightedness, and an increased risk of cataracts. Regular evaluations by an audiologist and an ophthalmologist are necessary to detect and correct any problems before they affect language and learning skills.
Other medical conditions that may occur more frequently in kids with DS include thyroid problems, intestinal abnormalities, seizure disorders, respiratory problems, obesity, an increased susceptibility to infection, and a higher risk of childhood leukemia. Upper neck abnormalities are sometimes found and should be evaluated by a physician (these can be detected by cervical spine X-rays). Fortunately, many of these conditions are treatable.
HOW TOTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE TO PICK SOMEONE LIKE THIS OF ALL THE CAPABLE COMPETENT WOMEN-EVEN REPUBLICAN ONES IN AMERICA. We give physicians to Vice Presidents to make sure that they are not distracted by fitness for office problems that detract from their focus and effectiveness. A MOTHER OF AN INFANT with Down's Syndrome has naturally focus distraction-or she is a monster. How irresponsible!!
Yes, if you have a special needs child- they have special needs. One of them is the time and attention of their mother. Maybe if she spent more time with Bristol she wouldn't be in the state she is in. Note to Guiliani and even the Sojourners guy- how irresponsible!!!
If Guiliani wasn't married two or three times and if his kids actually spoke to him maybe he would have any moral authority whatsoever to speak to these mother-child issues.
GUILIANI- YOU ARE MISTAKEN IF YOU BELIEVE AN INFANT DOES NOT REQUIRE THE TIME OF HIS OR HER MOTHER- AND THAT A SPECIAL NEEDS INFANT DOES NOT REQUIRE SPECIAL ATTENTION. That's why they are called "special needs."
YOU INSULT MOTHERHOOD.
No you wouldn't ask that of a man- how many fathers do you know breastfed their kids? How many lactating men do you know? A five month old is barely weaned. Feminism does not mean
counting the assets of women irrelevant or discarding their value in motherhood.
The MEN who are saying there is nothing inappropriate with a mother of a special needs child from having a demanding high stress full time job like the Vice Presidency are neither mothers nor mothers of special needs children and know nothing about them.
Here is something about them:
Medical Problems Associated With Down's Syndrome-[DS]
While some kids with DS have no significant health problems, others may experience a host of medical issues that require extra care. For example, almost half of all children born with DS will have a congenital heart defect.
Kids with Down syndrome are also at an increased risk of developing pulmonary hypertension, a serious condition that can lead to irreversible damage to the lungs. All infants with Down syndrome should be evaluated by a pediatric cardiologist.
Approximately half of all kids with DS also have problems with hearing and vision. Hearing loss can be related to fluid buildup in the inner ear or to structural problems of the ear itself. Vision problems commonly include amblyopia (lazy eye), near- or farsightedness, and an increased risk of cataracts. Regular evaluations by an audiologist and an ophthalmologist are necessary to detect and correct any problems before they affect language and learning skills.
Other medical conditions that may occur more frequently in kids with DS include thyroid problems, intestinal abnormalities, seizure disorders, respiratory problems, obesity, an increased susceptibility to infection, and a higher risk of childhood leukemia. Upper neck abnormalities are sometimes found and should be evaluated by a physician (these can be detected by cervical spine X-rays). Fortunately, many of these conditions are treatable.
HOW TOTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE TO PICK SOMEONE LIKE THIS OF ALL THE CAPABLE COMPETENT WOMEN-EVEN REPUBLICAN ONES IN AMERICA. We give physicians to Vice Presidents to make sure that they are not distracted by fitness for office problems that detract from their focus and effectiveness. A MOTHER OF AN INFANT with Down's Syndrome has naturally focus distraction-or she is a monster. How irresponsible!!
oil and gas bag, oil and gas bag, oil and gas bag, oil and gas bag; hi ho hi ho its off to DRILL i go!
POSTER GIRL FOR THE SINS OF PRESUMPTION
Palin: Dumb and Dumpier-Bully Bully For You
PALIN MANAGES TO INSULT EVERYONE EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
If anyone had a doubt about the oil interest in promoting Palin all you had to do was watch the
Exxon Mobil commercials during the breaks. Then you learned that her college degree-less husband was an oil rigger of something of "blue collar" nature -which earns more money by the way than most school teachers with masters degrees in most cities.
Then we got the snotty, sarcastic bullying tone of someone without higher education
"in your facing" anyone who values higher education as if that were a vice. It's the old Republican trashing of anything more sophistocated than french yogurt (excuse me..freedom yogurt).
You shall Love the Lord Your God with All Your .....MIND.
Even people with Blue Collar grandparents, know that their grandparents did everything they could to elevate their grandchildren by sacrificing to provide them with higher education--because that in this country has always been a valued way to rise. Knowledge is not a vice.
And who is this "media elite?" Anyone who wrote an article that got published? She was in the "media"- she was a Journalist major, and worked for a news station as a reporter. Is this sour grapes because she couldn't get hired by NBC in Alaska?
Palin apparently has the sort of value where it's just fine to get knocked up in high school- like her daughter whom she has no problem subjecting to the public scrutiny of the entire country for her illicit out of marriage high school sex---as if that is a value we want to promote or exemplify in our young people.
The message was; Women should still be viewed in terms of the prolificness of their child-bearing apparently.
This woman is frightening- not because she is any real threat-but because she has no idea how dumb she is and she has the confidence of someone completely lacking in humility or an understanding of how dumb she is- on virtually every dimension other than fishing and hunting wildlife, and courting the same oil interests that she claims to route out.
I don't even trust her to calculate compound interest or know what a discount ratio is.
You can put a dumpy dumb lady in a french twist and a Brooks Brothers suit and she still is a dumpy dumb lady. Sorry.
What does she know about economic theory, job creation, international diplomacy, immigration,
health care reform, balance of trade, banking and financial market crisis, international markets, strategy of war and all the issues that demand intelligent life focus the most intelligent attention toward?
She doesn't even know how to pull off a hair-do that doesn't make her look like a spawn of cone-head.
(what--can she give Catty and not take it now?)
The fact that the Republicans elevate someone who is the female version of an aging Jock, with an almost Frat-Boyish husband --if he ever went to college which he did not-----because she is
so gung -ho bully bully about war is just hideous.
I'm sorry- Palin fell flat on her substantial derriere at the whooping and hollerin of all the yahoos who think intelligence is a handicap. And that is what is supremely frightening.
From one White Girl to Another; Honey--Get A Grip.
She is the Poster Girl for more of the same archetypical Republican combination of mocking arrogance and ignorance.
Guiliani did make a few points on the experience score- But the most exciting part of the evening was Cindy's lime green dress---
If anyone had a doubt about the oil interest in promoting Palin all you had to do was watch the
Exxon Mobil commercials during the breaks. Then you learned that her college degree-less husband was an oil rigger of something of "blue collar" nature -which earns more money by the way than most school teachers with masters degrees in most cities.
Then we got the snotty, sarcastic bullying tone of someone without higher education
"in your facing" anyone who values higher education as if that were a vice. It's the old Republican trashing of anything more sophistocated than french yogurt (excuse me..freedom yogurt).
You shall Love the Lord Your God with All Your .....MIND.
Even people with Blue Collar grandparents, know that their grandparents did everything they could to elevate their grandchildren by sacrificing to provide them with higher education--because that in this country has always been a valued way to rise. Knowledge is not a vice.
And who is this "media elite?" Anyone who wrote an article that got published? She was in the "media"- she was a Journalist major, and worked for a news station as a reporter. Is this sour grapes because she couldn't get hired by NBC in Alaska?
Palin apparently has the sort of value where it's just fine to get knocked up in high school- like her daughter whom she has no problem subjecting to the public scrutiny of the entire country for her illicit out of marriage high school sex---as if that is a value we want to promote or exemplify in our young people.
The message was; Women should still be viewed in terms of the prolificness of their child-bearing apparently.
This woman is frightening- not because she is any real threat-but because she has no idea how dumb she is and she has the confidence of someone completely lacking in humility or an understanding of how dumb she is- on virtually every dimension other than fishing and hunting wildlife, and courting the same oil interests that she claims to route out.
I don't even trust her to calculate compound interest or know what a discount ratio is.
You can put a dumpy dumb lady in a french twist and a Brooks Brothers suit and she still is a dumpy dumb lady. Sorry.
What does she know about economic theory, job creation, international diplomacy, immigration,
health care reform, balance of trade, banking and financial market crisis, international markets, strategy of war and all the issues that demand intelligent life focus the most intelligent attention toward?
She doesn't even know how to pull off a hair-do that doesn't make her look like a spawn of cone-head.
(what--can she give Catty and not take it now?)
The fact that the Republicans elevate someone who is the female version of an aging Jock, with an almost Frat-Boyish husband --if he ever went to college which he did not-----because she is
so gung -ho bully bully about war is just hideous.
I'm sorry- Palin fell flat on her substantial derriere at the whooping and hollerin of all the yahoos who think intelligence is a handicap. And that is what is supremely frightening.
From one White Girl to Another; Honey--Get A Grip.
She is the Poster Girl for more of the same archetypical Republican combination of mocking arrogance and ignorance.
Guiliani did make a few points on the experience score- But the most exciting part of the evening was Cindy's lime green dress---
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
When the Party Line Erases History
Who is Odum? This from the diary of Odum found on DailyKos.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/1/23/135916/363
on abortion: The BISHOPs ALL BEG TO DIFFER- THUS, THE BISHOPs ALL NEED A TRIP TO THE VATICAN LIBRARY TO BRUSH UP ON THEIR HISTORY.
odum's diary :: ::
As with any history, its complicated - but suffice to say there has rarely - if ever - been consensus on the issue. Still, this history informs the debate, and the false history that's now been fully riveted into the brains of the American public is one of the anti-choice movement's most powerful weapons, even if they're ignorant of it themselves (which - in most cases - I'm willing to bet they are).
Here's a nutshell version with some links to follow for more details.
Few influenced the perspective of the early church more than Aristotle, and the Aristotelean view of the soul in the unborn was the "delayed ensoulment" - that is, the fetus isn't animated with a human soul until 40 days after conception for males, 90 days for females - both having a vegetable soul before then. In fact, there are early Greek texts and advice on how to perform abortion, so this is the history that Aristotle's views emerged from and which informed early Christian thinking.
When the Church became more organized, opinions started changing. As a theological narrative took shape in th mid 2nd Century into the 4th, more Christian thinkers began to equate abortion with infanticide. St. John Chrysostom called it "murder before the birth" (Homily 24 on Romans). Worth noting here is that thinkers like St. Jerome (infamous for, among other things, blaming women for the fall from grace) and St John Chrysostom (women are "a necessary evil") are also responsible for hardwiring some of the most disturbingly anti-woman theology into early Christianity - presenting women as something other than human, and sexuality as evil, or at least the pathway to evil. It's no coincidence that, even at this early date, anti-choice extremism goes hand-in-hand with misogyny. Still even Jerome - while saying some of the most awful garbage about women in recorded history, was not as hardcore about abortion as today's Religious Right, writing "The seed gradually takes shape in the uterus, and it [abortion] does not count as killing until the individual elements have acquired their external appearance and their limbs ("Epistle" (121, 4))"
Neither were early church organizational meetings unanimous. The Synods of Elvira and Ancyra (306 ACE, 314 ACE) explicitly called abortion a sin, while the Apostolic Constitutions (380 ACE) disallowed it only after the fetus took on a "human shape."
Although eastern Christianity vectored toward an absolutist stand, the western church did not. St. Augustine refocused the church on the Aristotelan delayed ensoulment model ("On Exodus", (21, 80)), and by this time the church was a much more defined hierarchy, leaving less room for disagreement.
In the early 7th Century, the Church began codifying what it considered sexual sins and abortion made the list, but was well behind the "sins" of birth control, oral sex, and anal sex. In fact, the punishment for oral sex was at least 7 years of penance, while the punishment for abortion was a mere 120 days.
In the centuries that followed, Popes came on the scene with widely varying viewpoints - changing and re-changing the rules as the mitre passed on. Significantly, Pope Innocent III in the early 1200s ruled that the fetus had no soul until it was "animated" (the "quickening" - when the mother can feel the fetus' movements, usually around the 24th week. In his ruling - and this is significant -- a monk was found not guilty of homicide for aborting his lover's unborn child under this argument. Pope Sixtus V in 1588 made all abortions illegal, but was reversed again by Pope Gregory XIV, codifying abortions at up to 16 ½ weeks as not equivalent to the killing of a human being, as no soul was present.
Even St. Thomas Aquinas himself - arguably the most influential theologian in Roman Catholic Christianity, did not consider a fetus human until the quickening.
This was the way it was for the most part until - and are you sitting down for this? - 1869. That's when Pope Pius IX declared all abortion to be homicide. That's right, for nearly the entire history of Christianity, the Catholic Church was officially tolerant of first trimester abortion. The change was well after the Enlightenment, after the Civil War, and into the modern scientific era. In fact, it was only as recently as 1983 that all vestiges of the distinction between the "fetus animatus" and "fetus inanimatus" were quietly purged from Canon Law. (Yes, that was 1983... only 23 years ago)
So much for the traditional Christians versus those pesky godless, postmodern liberals, eh?
And its not just the Catholics, but Protestants as well. English Common Law did not recognize abortion as a crime before quickening, and was only a misdemeanor afterwards. This began changing in 1803 with a series of changes to the written Law, but it is largely this fact that has lead many legal scholars to suggest that Roe v Wade should have been argued based on English Common Law rather than a debatable, "inferred" right of privacy.
Of course these scholars make the argument based on legality, but I'd argue such a common-law based decision would have, perhaps more importantly, gone a long way to framing the debate. After all, it would be far more difficult to perpetuate the notion that a right to an abortion is based on the whims of "liberal activist judges" if it was based on arguments that rise from the very foundations of our American legal system.
So anyway, the point is that WE are the "traditionalists" here, and the supposedly monolithic, unchanging, "old-fashioned" party line from the Catholic Church and other protestant institutions are anything but traditional and unchanging.
The next time you hear a Catholic saying that anyone suggesting that abortion may be permissible publicly should be denied Communion, ask them if that would include Saints Jerome, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/1/23/135916/363
on abortion: The BISHOPs ALL BEG TO DIFFER- THUS, THE BISHOPs ALL NEED A TRIP TO THE VATICAN LIBRARY TO BRUSH UP ON THEIR HISTORY.
odum's diary :: ::
As with any history, its complicated - but suffice to say there has rarely - if ever - been consensus on the issue. Still, this history informs the debate, and the false history that's now been fully riveted into the brains of the American public is one of the anti-choice movement's most powerful weapons, even if they're ignorant of it themselves (which - in most cases - I'm willing to bet they are).
Here's a nutshell version with some links to follow for more details.
Few influenced the perspective of the early church more than Aristotle, and the Aristotelean view of the soul in the unborn was the "delayed ensoulment" - that is, the fetus isn't animated with a human soul until 40 days after conception for males, 90 days for females - both having a vegetable soul before then. In fact, there are early Greek texts and advice on how to perform abortion, so this is the history that Aristotle's views emerged from and which informed early Christian thinking.
When the Church became more organized, opinions started changing. As a theological narrative took shape in th mid 2nd Century into the 4th, more Christian thinkers began to equate abortion with infanticide. St. John Chrysostom called it "murder before the birth" (Homily 24 on Romans). Worth noting here is that thinkers like St. Jerome (infamous for, among other things, blaming women for the fall from grace) and St John Chrysostom (women are "a necessary evil") are also responsible for hardwiring some of the most disturbingly anti-woman theology into early Christianity - presenting women as something other than human, and sexuality as evil, or at least the pathway to evil. It's no coincidence that, even at this early date, anti-choice extremism goes hand-in-hand with misogyny. Still even Jerome - while saying some of the most awful garbage about women in recorded history, was not as hardcore about abortion as today's Religious Right, writing "The seed gradually takes shape in the uterus, and it [abortion] does not count as killing until the individual elements have acquired their external appearance and their limbs ("Epistle" (121, 4))"
Neither were early church organizational meetings unanimous. The Synods of Elvira and Ancyra (306 ACE, 314 ACE) explicitly called abortion a sin, while the Apostolic Constitutions (380 ACE) disallowed it only after the fetus took on a "human shape."
Although eastern Christianity vectored toward an absolutist stand, the western church did not. St. Augustine refocused the church on the Aristotelan delayed ensoulment model ("On Exodus", (21, 80)), and by this time the church was a much more defined hierarchy, leaving less room for disagreement.
In the early 7th Century, the Church began codifying what it considered sexual sins and abortion made the list, but was well behind the "sins" of birth control, oral sex, and anal sex. In fact, the punishment for oral sex was at least 7 years of penance, while the punishment for abortion was a mere 120 days.
In the centuries that followed, Popes came on the scene with widely varying viewpoints - changing and re-changing the rules as the mitre passed on. Significantly, Pope Innocent III in the early 1200s ruled that the fetus had no soul until it was "animated" (the "quickening" - when the mother can feel the fetus' movements, usually around the 24th week. In his ruling - and this is significant -- a monk was found not guilty of homicide for aborting his lover's unborn child under this argument. Pope Sixtus V in 1588 made all abortions illegal, but was reversed again by Pope Gregory XIV, codifying abortions at up to 16 ½ weeks as not equivalent to the killing of a human being, as no soul was present.
Even St. Thomas Aquinas himself - arguably the most influential theologian in Roman Catholic Christianity, did not consider a fetus human until the quickening.
This was the way it was for the most part until - and are you sitting down for this? - 1869. That's when Pope Pius IX declared all abortion to be homicide. That's right, for nearly the entire history of Christianity, the Catholic Church was officially tolerant of first trimester abortion. The change was well after the Enlightenment, after the Civil War, and into the modern scientific era. In fact, it was only as recently as 1983 that all vestiges of the distinction between the "fetus animatus" and "fetus inanimatus" were quietly purged from Canon Law. (Yes, that was 1983... only 23 years ago)
So much for the traditional Christians versus those pesky godless, postmodern liberals, eh?
And its not just the Catholics, but Protestants as well. English Common Law did not recognize abortion as a crime before quickening, and was only a misdemeanor afterwards. This began changing in 1803 with a series of changes to the written Law, but it is largely this fact that has lead many legal scholars to suggest that Roe v Wade should have been argued based on English Common Law rather than a debatable, "inferred" right of privacy.
Of course these scholars make the argument based on legality, but I'd argue such a common-law based decision would have, perhaps more importantly, gone a long way to framing the debate. After all, it would be far more difficult to perpetuate the notion that a right to an abortion is based on the whims of "liberal activist judges" if it was based on arguments that rise from the very foundations of our American legal system.
So anyway, the point is that WE are the "traditionalists" here, and the supposedly monolithic, unchanging, "old-fashioned" party line from the Catholic Church and other protestant institutions are anything but traditional and unchanging.
The next time you hear a Catholic saying that anyone suggesting that abortion may be permissible publicly should be denied Communion, ask them if that would include Saints Jerome, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.
How Old Really is Bristol? How Old Was She When She Conceived? What is the Statutory Age of Consent in Alaska for Statutory Rape Purposes-
NOT OF PUBLIC POLICY INTEREST?
Alaska - Age of Consent Laws -Statutory Rape defined:
The following information was pulled directly from the Alaska legislation website at http://www.legis.state.ak.us/cgi-bin/folioisa.dll/stattx05?
Sec. 11.41.410. Sexual assault
Sec. 11.41.434. Sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree.
(a) An offender commits the crime of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree if
(1) being 16 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual penetration with a person who is under 13 years of age or aids, induces, causes, or encourages a person who is under 13 years of age to engage in sexual penetration with another person;
(2) being 18 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual penetration with a person who is under 18 years of age, and the offender is the victim's natural parent, stepparent, adopted parent, or legal guardian; or
(3) being 18 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual penetration with a person who is under 16 years of age, and
(A) the victim at the time of the offense is residing in the same household as the offender and the offender has authority over the victim; or
(B) the offender occupies a position of authority in relation to the victim.
(b) Sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree is an unclassified felony and is punishable as provided in AS 12.55.
Sec. 11.41.436. Sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree.
(a) An offender commits the crime of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree if
(1) being 16 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual penetration with a person who is 13, 14, or 15 years of age and at least three years younger than the offender, or aids, induces, causes or encourages a person who is 13, 14, or 15 years of age and at least three years younger than the offender to engage in sexual penetration with another person;
(2) being 16 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual contact with a person who is under 13 years of age or aids, induces, causes, or encourages a person under 13 years of age to engage in sexual contact with another person;
(3) being 18 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual contact with a person who is under 18 years of age, and the offender is the victim's natural parent, stepparent, adopted parent, or legal guardian;
(4) being 16 years of age or older, the offender aids, induces, causes, or encourages a person who is under 16 years of age to engage in conduct described in AS 11.41.455 (a)(2) - (6); or
(5) being 18 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual contact with a person who is under 16 years of age, and
(A) the victim at the time of the offense is residing in the same household as the offender and the offender has authority over the victim; or
(B) the offender occupies a position of authority in relation to the victim.
(b) Sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree is a class B felony.
Sec. 11.41.438. Sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree.
(a) An offender commits the crime of sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree if
(1) being 16 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual contact with a person who is 13, 14, or 15 years of age and at least three years younger than the offender;
(2) being 18 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual penetration with a person who is 16 or 17 years of age and at least three years younger than the offender, and the offender occupies a position of authority in relation to the victim; or
(3) being under 16 years of age, the offender engages in sexual penetration with a person who is under 13 years of age and at least three years younger than the offender.
(b) Sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree is a class C felony.
Sec. 11.41.440. Sexual abuse of a minor in the fourth degree.
(a) An offender commits the crime of sexual abuse of a minor in the fourth degree if
(1) being under 16 years of age, the offender engages in sexual contact with a person who is under 13 years of age and at least three years younger than the offender; or
(2) being 18 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual contact with a person who is 16 or 17 years of age and at least three years younger than the offender, and the offender occupies a position of authority in relation to the victim.
(b) Sexual abuse of a minor in the fourth degree is a class A misdemeanor.
Sec. 11.41.443. Spousal relationship no defense. [Repealed, Sec. 61 ch 50 SLA 1989. For current law, see (b)].
Repealed or Renumbered
Sec. 11.41.445. General provisions.
(a) In a prosecution under AS 11.41.434 - 11.41.440 it is an affirmative defense that, at the time of the alleged offense, the victim was the legal spouse of the defendant unless the offense was committed without the consent of the victim.
(b) In a prosecution under AS 11.41.410 - 11.41.440, whenever a provision of law defining an offense depends upon a victim's being under a certain age, it is an affirmative defense that, at the time of the alleged offense, the defendant
(1) reasonably believed the victim to be that age or older; and
(2) undertook reasonable measures to verify that the victim was that age or older.
Sec. 11.41.450. Incest.
(a) A person commits the crime of incest if, being 18 years of age or older, that person engages in sexual penetration with another who is related, either legitimately or illegitimately, as
(1) an ancestor or descendant of the whole or half blood;
(2) a brother or sister of the whole or half blood; or
(3) an uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece by blood.
(b) Incest is a class C felony.
Sec. 11.41.452. Online enticement of a minor.
(a) A person commits the crime of online enticement of a minor if the person, being 18 years of age or older, knowingly uses a computer to communicate with another person to entice, solicit, or encourage the person to engage in an act described in AS 11.41.455 (a)(1) - (7) and
(1) the other person is a child under 16 years of age; or
(2) the person believes that the other person is a child under 16 years of age.
(b) In a prosecution under (a)(2) of this section, it is not a defense that the person enticed, solicited, or encouraged was not actually a child under 16 years of age.
(c) In a prosecution under this section, it is not necessary for the prosecution to show that the act described in AS 11.41.455 (a)(1) - (7) was actually committed.
(d) Except as provided in (e) of this section, online enticement is a class C felony.
(e) Online enticement is a class B felony if the defendant was, at the time of the offense, required to register as a sex offender or child kidnapper under AS 12.63 or a similar law of another jurisdiction.
Sec. 11.41.455. Unlawful exploitation of a minor.
(a) A person commits the crime of unlawful exploitation of a minor if, in the state and with the intent of producing a live performance, film, audio, video, electronic, or electromagnetic recording, photograph, negative, slide, book, newspaper, magazine, or other material that visually or aurally depicts the conduct listed in (1) - (7) of this subsection, the person knowingly induces or employs a child under 18 years of age to engage in, or photographs, films, records, or televises a child under 18 years of age engaged in, the following actual or simulated conduct:
(1) sexual penetration;
(2) the lewd touching of another person's genitals, anus, or breast;
(3) the lewd touching by another person of the child's genitals, anus, or breast;
(4) masturbation;
(5) bestiality;
(6) the lewd exhibition of the child's genitals; or
(7) sexual masochism or sadism.
(b) A parent, legal guardian, or person having custody or control of a child under 18 years of age commits the crime of unlawful exploitation of a minor if, in the state, the person permits the child to engage in conduct described in (a) of this section knowing that the conduct is intended to be used in producing a live performance, film, audio, video, electronic, or electromagnetic recording, photograph, negative, slide, book, newspaper, magazine, or other material that visually or aurally depicts the conduct.
(c) Unlawful exploitation of a minor is a
(1) class B felony; or
(2) class A felony if the person has been previously convicted of unlawful exploitation of a minor in this jurisdiction or a similar crime in this or another jurisdiction.
(d) In this section, "audio recording" means a nonbook prerecorded item without a visual component, and includes a record, tape, cassette, and compact disc.
Sec. 11.41.458. Indecent exposure in the first degree.
(a) An offender commits the crime of indecent exposure in the first degree if the offender violates AS 11.41.460 (a), the offense occurs within the observation of a person under 16 years of age, and
(1) while committing the act constituting the offense, the offender knowingly masturbates; or
(2) the offender has been previously convicted under
(A) this section;
(B) AS 11.41.460 (a); or
(C) a law or ordinance of this or another jurisdiction with elements similar to a crime listed under (A) or (B) of this paragraph.
(b) Indecent exposure in the first degree is a class C felony.
Sec. 11.41.460. Indecent exposure in the second degree.
(a) An offender commits the crime of indecent exposure in the second degree if the offender knowingly exposes the offender's genitals in the presence of another person with reckless disregard for the offensive, insulting, or frightening effect the act may have.
(b) Indecent exposure in the second degree before a person under 16 years of age is a class A misdemeanor. Indecent exposure in the second degree before a person 16 years of age or older is a class B misdemeanor.
Sec. 11.41.468. Forfeiture of property used in sexual offense.
(a) Property used to aid a violation of AS 11.41.410 - 11.41.458 or to aid the solicitation of, attempt to commit, or conspiracy to commit a violation of AS 11.41.410 - 11.41.458 may be forfeited to the state upon the conviction of the offender.
(b) In this section, "property" means computer equipment, telecommunications equipment, photography equipment, video or audio equipment, books, magazines, photographs, videotapes, audiotapes, and any equipment or device, regardless of format or technology employed, that can be used to store, create, modify, receive, transmit, or distribute digital or analog information, including images, motion pictures, and sounds.
The above does not constitute the profer of legal advice nor create any attorney-client relationship(s).
Alaska - Age of Consent Laws -Statutory Rape defined:
The following information was pulled directly from the Alaska legislation website at http://www.legis.state.ak.us/cgi-bin/folioisa.dll/stattx05?
Sec. 11.41.410. Sexual assault
Sec. 11.41.434. Sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree.
(a) An offender commits the crime of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree if
(1) being 16 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual penetration with a person who is under 13 years of age or aids, induces, causes, or encourages a person who is under 13 years of age to engage in sexual penetration with another person;
(2) being 18 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual penetration with a person who is under 18 years of age, and the offender is the victim's natural parent, stepparent, adopted parent, or legal guardian; or
(3) being 18 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual penetration with a person who is under 16 years of age, and
(A) the victim at the time of the offense is residing in the same household as the offender and the offender has authority over the victim; or
(B) the offender occupies a position of authority in relation to the victim.
(b) Sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree is an unclassified felony and is punishable as provided in AS 12.55.
Sec. 11.41.436. Sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree.
(a) An offender commits the crime of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree if
(1) being 16 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual penetration with a person who is 13, 14, or 15 years of age and at least three years younger than the offender, or aids, induces, causes or encourages a person who is 13, 14, or 15 years of age and at least three years younger than the offender to engage in sexual penetration with another person;
(2) being 16 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual contact with a person who is under 13 years of age or aids, induces, causes, or encourages a person under 13 years of age to engage in sexual contact with another person;
(3) being 18 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual contact with a person who is under 18 years of age, and the offender is the victim's natural parent, stepparent, adopted parent, or legal guardian;
(4) being 16 years of age or older, the offender aids, induces, causes, or encourages a person who is under 16 years of age to engage in conduct described in AS 11.41.455 (a)(2) - (6); or
(5) being 18 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual contact with a person who is under 16 years of age, and
(A) the victim at the time of the offense is residing in the same household as the offender and the offender has authority over the victim; or
(B) the offender occupies a position of authority in relation to the victim.
(b) Sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree is a class B felony.
Sec. 11.41.438. Sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree.
(a) An offender commits the crime of sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree if
(1) being 16 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual contact with a person who is 13, 14, or 15 years of age and at least three years younger than the offender;
(2) being 18 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual penetration with a person who is 16 or 17 years of age and at least three years younger than the offender, and the offender occupies a position of authority in relation to the victim; or
(3) being under 16 years of age, the offender engages in sexual penetration with a person who is under 13 years of age and at least three years younger than the offender.
(b) Sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree is a class C felony.
Sec. 11.41.440. Sexual abuse of a minor in the fourth degree.
(a) An offender commits the crime of sexual abuse of a minor in the fourth degree if
(1) being under 16 years of age, the offender engages in sexual contact with a person who is under 13 years of age and at least three years younger than the offender; or
(2) being 18 years of age or older, the offender engages in sexual contact with a person who is 16 or 17 years of age and at least three years younger than the offender, and the offender occupies a position of authority in relation to the victim.
(b) Sexual abuse of a minor in the fourth degree is a class A misdemeanor.
Sec. 11.41.443. Spousal relationship no defense. [Repealed, Sec. 61 ch 50 SLA 1989. For current law, see (b)].
Repealed or Renumbered
Sec. 11.41.445. General provisions.
(a) In a prosecution under AS 11.41.434 - 11.41.440 it is an affirmative defense that, at the time of the alleged offense, the victim was the legal spouse of the defendant unless the offense was committed without the consent of the victim.
(b) In a prosecution under AS 11.41.410 - 11.41.440, whenever a provision of law defining an offense depends upon a victim's being under a certain age, it is an affirmative defense that, at the time of the alleged offense, the defendant
(1) reasonably believed the victim to be that age or older; and
(2) undertook reasonable measures to verify that the victim was that age or older.
Sec. 11.41.450. Incest.
(a) A person commits the crime of incest if, being 18 years of age or older, that person engages in sexual penetration with another who is related, either legitimately or illegitimately, as
(1) an ancestor or descendant of the whole or half blood;
(2) a brother or sister of the whole or half blood; or
(3) an uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece by blood.
(b) Incest is a class C felony.
Sec. 11.41.452. Online enticement of a minor.
(a) A person commits the crime of online enticement of a minor if the person, being 18 years of age or older, knowingly uses a computer to communicate with another person to entice, solicit, or encourage the person to engage in an act described in AS 11.41.455 (a)(1) - (7) and
(1) the other person is a child under 16 years of age; or
(2) the person believes that the other person is a child under 16 years of age.
(b) In a prosecution under (a)(2) of this section, it is not a defense that the person enticed, solicited, or encouraged was not actually a child under 16 years of age.
(c) In a prosecution under this section, it is not necessary for the prosecution to show that the act described in AS 11.41.455 (a)(1) - (7) was actually committed.
(d) Except as provided in (e) of this section, online enticement is a class C felony.
(e) Online enticement is a class B felony if the defendant was, at the time of the offense, required to register as a sex offender or child kidnapper under AS 12.63 or a similar law of another jurisdiction.
Sec. 11.41.455. Unlawful exploitation of a minor.
(a) A person commits the crime of unlawful exploitation of a minor if, in the state and with the intent of producing a live performance, film, audio, video, electronic, or electromagnetic recording, photograph, negative, slide, book, newspaper, magazine, or other material that visually or aurally depicts the conduct listed in (1) - (7) of this subsection, the person knowingly induces or employs a child under 18 years of age to engage in, or photographs, films, records, or televises a child under 18 years of age engaged in, the following actual or simulated conduct:
(1) sexual penetration;
(2) the lewd touching of another person's genitals, anus, or breast;
(3) the lewd touching by another person of the child's genitals, anus, or breast;
(4) masturbation;
(5) bestiality;
(6) the lewd exhibition of the child's genitals; or
(7) sexual masochism or sadism.
(b) A parent, legal guardian, or person having custody or control of a child under 18 years of age commits the crime of unlawful exploitation of a minor if, in the state, the person permits the child to engage in conduct described in (a) of this section knowing that the conduct is intended to be used in producing a live performance, film, audio, video, electronic, or electromagnetic recording, photograph, negative, slide, book, newspaper, magazine, or other material that visually or aurally depicts the conduct.
(c) Unlawful exploitation of a minor is a
(1) class B felony; or
(2) class A felony if the person has been previously convicted of unlawful exploitation of a minor in this jurisdiction or a similar crime in this or another jurisdiction.
(d) In this section, "audio recording" means a nonbook prerecorded item without a visual component, and includes a record, tape, cassette, and compact disc.
Sec. 11.41.458. Indecent exposure in the first degree.
(a) An offender commits the crime of indecent exposure in the first degree if the offender violates AS 11.41.460 (a), the offense occurs within the observation of a person under 16 years of age, and
(1) while committing the act constituting the offense, the offender knowingly masturbates; or
(2) the offender has been previously convicted under
(A) this section;
(B) AS 11.41.460 (a); or
(C) a law or ordinance of this or another jurisdiction with elements similar to a crime listed under (A) or (B) of this paragraph.
(b) Indecent exposure in the first degree is a class C felony.
Sec. 11.41.460. Indecent exposure in the second degree.
(a) An offender commits the crime of indecent exposure in the second degree if the offender knowingly exposes the offender's genitals in the presence of another person with reckless disregard for the offensive, insulting, or frightening effect the act may have.
(b) Indecent exposure in the second degree before a person under 16 years of age is a class A misdemeanor. Indecent exposure in the second degree before a person 16 years of age or older is a class B misdemeanor.
Sec. 11.41.468. Forfeiture of property used in sexual offense.
(a) Property used to aid a violation of AS 11.41.410 - 11.41.458 or to aid the solicitation of, attempt to commit, or conspiracy to commit a violation of AS 11.41.410 - 11.41.458 may be forfeited to the state upon the conviction of the offender.
(b) In this section, "property" means computer equipment, telecommunications equipment, photography equipment, video or audio equipment, books, magazines, photographs, videotapes, audiotapes, and any equipment or device, regardless of format or technology employed, that can be used to store, create, modify, receive, transmit, or distribute digital or analog information, including images, motion pictures, and sounds.
The above does not constitute the profer of legal advice nor create any attorney-client relationship(s).
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