I leave you with this awesome thought:
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-26597?l=english
Elijah's Power Food, and Ours
Biblical Reflection for 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time B
By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB
TORONTO, JULY 30, 2009 (Zenit.org).-
I have always loved reading the Elijah cycle in the Book of Kings. The first book, Chapter 18, portrays Elijah as an invincible prophet who fearlessly stands up to king and prophets, but he remains extremely so human in the process! Today's first reading from 1 Kings 19 presents us with the great prophet who is vulnerable and subject to discouragement and fear. Let us situate today's story in 1 Kings. In Chapter 19 we have the aftermath of Elijah's brilliant victory in the contest with Jezebel and the priests of Baal atop Mount Carmel. Just when Elijah should have been triumphant, he receives a message telling him of Jezebel's murderous intentions, and he is "afraid" (v. 3). Elijah is persecuted for his faithfulness and for demanding total obedience to one God because such loyalty threatens the powers that be who have their own ideas about whom or what people should worship.Israel's fiery prophet immediately flees south into the wilderness of the Negev Desert. His mood is one of defeat and desolation. After all he had done for the God of Israel, his victory now seems vitiated. He has not been given divine protection he was promised and he only wants to die: "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors." There, in the barren desert, Elijah lies down under "a solitary broom tree" and asks God to take his life, claiming that he is no better than his fathers. Elijah bemoans his discouragement at his lack of success in encouraging the Israelites to be faithful.Energy from aboveSuddenly, a messenger (angel) of the Lord awakens him and tells him to eat and drink. Whereas the wicked Jezebel sends a messenger of death to Elijah, the Lord God of Israel sends him a messenger of life, who serves Elijah food and water, two essentials for survival in the harsh wilderness. Elijah eats, drinks, but then falls asleep again, indicating that he has not yet recovered from his lethargy or depression. The messenger wakes Elijah again and urges him to eat and drink, this time providing a reason, "or the journey will be too much for you" (19:7).What can we learn from Elijah in the desert wilderness? Here is a man who has given his life totally in faithfulness to the God of Israel. He has been totally "zealous for the Lord." His desperate cry, "I am no better than my ancestors" reveals a man who no longer believes in himself. He had believed himself to be a spectacularly exemplary servant of God. No one could outdo him in his zealousness. Now he believes it has been all in vain!Dark night of the soulYet the God of Israel does not give up on Elijah. God's teaching moment begins when Elijah's famed resourcefulness runs out. Angels from God are needed to feed him in his weakness. Then God leads him through a time of reflection in the wilderness.His journeying through Negev wilderness lasts for the significant time of forty days and forty nights. As the Hebrews wandered earlier in the wilderness in search of God, this most zealous prophet and servant of the Lord is led on a similar journey. Eventually Elijah comes to the sacred mountain of Horeb, where he spends the night in a dark cave. The dark cave and the dark night are reflective of his "dark night of the soul."Mount Horeb is in some Old Testament traditions the name for Mount Sinai, the mountain associated with God's appearance. Forty days and nights in connection with Mount Sinai recalls the two sojourns of Moses on Sinai for forty days and nights (Exodus 24:18; 34:28). The point of this moving story is not just that Elijah makes a physical trip to Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai, but rather something much more significant. In an act of sheer grace God intervenes, provides the prophet with life-giving food and water, and suggests a pilgrimage to mountain that is the place forever associated with the source and essence of Israelite faith.The Elijah story speaks powerfully to those who are worn-out, fearful, or in need of renewal and recommitment to their original call. The story suggests a way forward -- eat and drink of God's life-giving sustenance, return to the core of faith, listen for God's still small voice. That may be the way to find new energy, new vision, and a new sense of purpose. Elijah must learn that God is not encountered in the sound and fury of loud and spectacular events. God will not be conjured up by the zealous or boisterous activity of the prophet who now stands quiet and broken atop the Lord's mountain. Elijah discovers that God is encountered when the activity ceases and the words stop, when the heart is sad and the stomach is filled with pangs of hunger. When Elijah's mind and heart are finally empty of ambition and self-promotion, God is ultimately heard.Bread of Life For Elijah, for Jesus, and for us, bread is fundamental to life. Bread stands at the center of life. Bread is life. And in today's Gospel (Jn. 6:41-51) we hear about Jesus who is the Bread of Life. Christ is life: He is the bread of life. To eat Jesus' body and to drink his blood means more than just to believe in him. The image of Jesus as the "bread of life" is at the heart of what renewal in the mystery of Christ is about.When Jesus says that he is "the bread of life" his emphasis is not on the bread as such, but on himself as the 'I" who declares it. Jesus is saying that what we long for to nourish our hungers is found in himself, the "I" who identifies his life with the bread he gives (cf. in 6:51). Jesus is more than mere bread for our bodily hunger. He is more than love to satisfy our emotional needs. He is the word that will satisfy our hunger for truth. He is bread for life itself; the total satisfaction for all our human hungers.For all baptized believers the Eucharist is the primary way of celebrating and sustaining contact with the risen Lord. Let us consider for a moment the highly symbolic actions of Jesus as he gives us the living bread from heaven. Jesus took the bread. He has taken the bread of our lives and joined it with his own. Jesus blessed the bread. He has blessed us with his life. Baptism was the first moment of that blessing. Every other moment of contact with Jesus Christ is a deepening of that blessing. Jesus broke the bread. Like Jesus, there are moments in our lives when we feel hurt, broken, lost, discouraged, disillusioned, empty, rejected and without energy and hope. We are like Elijah under the broom tree, waiting for our life to end. Yet even in these fractured moments, the Lord Jesus is present to us.Jesus gave the bread. He gave of his time and his touch. He gave encouragement, but also his challenge. He gave both word and bread to feed and nourish. He gave most fully in giving himself. He gave till there was no more to give, declaring his life and work complete with the words, "It is finished" (John 19:30). Then bowing his head, he handed over his spirit, the same spirit he gave us when he appeared risen from the dead (cf. in 20:23).In life, death, and resurrection, Jesus has given us a profound example, and challenges us to do the same. "Go and do likewise" is both a challenge and a commission. It is the commission to live the mystery of being bread blessed and broken for others. When life seems to be breaking apart, we should not forget the lesson of the bread broken for us. It cannot be broken without being firmly held in both hands. When it comes to the breaking of bread, or of our lives, both hold the challenge of the mystery of faith.Let us pray that our sharing in the Eucharistic bread and wine may transform us more and more into what we eat and drink, and that we might truly become living bread, broken and shared with all people.
[The readings for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time B are 1 Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:30-5:2; and John 6:41-51]* * *
Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, chief executive officer of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation and Television Network in Canada, is a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
He can be reached at: rosica@saltandlighttv.org.--- --- ---
Friday, July 31, 2009
Where there is Smoke there is Fire
Many See Need For Reform and it's Fracturing the Intransient Church worse than the Pope's wrist.
By last poll over 70% of American Catholics want to see a Married Priesthood option- because it will sort the wheat from the chaff, the emotional adulterers from those who are really
Holy Spirit inspired celibates and take away the idolotry of celibacy which is not the goal- Love is.
John said "God is Love" and he never said "God is Celibate" because God in fact bore a son, and is the Father, natural and spiritual of all humanity. The absurdity of the proposition that celibacy is the truest purest path to holiness is manifestly evident to most people-as a contradiction of the existential nature of God-and is contradicted by the triune Holy "FAMILY" -including past Pope John Paul II who made it clear that he did not believe celibacy was an existential requirement of the priesthood.
Yet what has been fashioned for about a millenium as an institutional accomodation has now taken on an idolotry that misleads priests and laity alike, to serve the institutional goals from which an entire theology has been created (and existed only for about a thousand years), and fosters the sort of psychological perversity and emotional abuses against women that parts of the priesthood are famous for. It fosters the hypocricy that leads priests to take on "spiritual girlfriends" who support their work, act like church basement housewives, get possessively jealous, sometimes viciously and vindictively territorial about their "Priest" friends whom they lock away from anyone with a skirt shorter than a habit.
So people are literally screaming for reform. Good priests like Father Cutie couldn't take it any longer and just left and got married, going the way of that august Augustinian aescetic self-flagulating Friar Martin Luther (the first original one.)
The priest at the center of the Medjugordje apparations who was the confessor to the visionaries has requested himself to be laicized after given onerous punishments because he has fathered a child. Medjugordje is considered one of those windows to heaven where messages are still being conveyed by apparitions of the Blessed Mother-one of the holiest places of pilgrimmage to some who testify to healing miracles of mind, heart and body. One wonders if this Priest was healed of the miseducation he obtained in the seminary indoctrination that fooled his heart into thinking that celibacy was anything Jesus ever in a million years compelled anyone to practice in his name when no Jewish priest was ever given such a command.
And still the Church wants to condemn anyone who does not buy into the doctrine (flatly rejected by the Byzantine rite-the closest historically to the original church, the entire Eastern rite and all of the rest of Christendom), debunked by JPII himself that celibacy is the purest form of holiness and existentially necessary for the priesthood. This is not a gospel of "Life"- A gospel of "Life" would encourage "Life" to be born.
Emotionally torturing women is not Life giving. It is Life miscarrying.
How wrong is this:
http://www.zenit.org/rssenglish-26598
How Unlovely.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/catholicamerica/2008/05/the_married_priest_option.html
By last poll over 70% of American Catholics want to see a Married Priesthood option- because it will sort the wheat from the chaff, the emotional adulterers from those who are really
Holy Spirit inspired celibates and take away the idolotry of celibacy which is not the goal- Love is.
John said "God is Love" and he never said "God is Celibate" because God in fact bore a son, and is the Father, natural and spiritual of all humanity. The absurdity of the proposition that celibacy is the truest purest path to holiness is manifestly evident to most people-as a contradiction of the existential nature of God-and is contradicted by the triune Holy "FAMILY" -including past Pope John Paul II who made it clear that he did not believe celibacy was an existential requirement of the priesthood.
Yet what has been fashioned for about a millenium as an institutional accomodation has now taken on an idolotry that misleads priests and laity alike, to serve the institutional goals from which an entire theology has been created (and existed only for about a thousand years), and fosters the sort of psychological perversity and emotional abuses against women that parts of the priesthood are famous for. It fosters the hypocricy that leads priests to take on "spiritual girlfriends" who support their work, act like church basement housewives, get possessively jealous, sometimes viciously and vindictively territorial about their "Priest" friends whom they lock away from anyone with a skirt shorter than a habit.
So people are literally screaming for reform. Good priests like Father Cutie couldn't take it any longer and just left and got married, going the way of that august Augustinian aescetic self-flagulating Friar Martin Luther (the first original one.)
The priest at the center of the Medjugordje apparations who was the confessor to the visionaries has requested himself to be laicized after given onerous punishments because he has fathered a child. Medjugordje is considered one of those windows to heaven where messages are still being conveyed by apparitions of the Blessed Mother-one of the holiest places of pilgrimmage to some who testify to healing miracles of mind, heart and body. One wonders if this Priest was healed of the miseducation he obtained in the seminary indoctrination that fooled his heart into thinking that celibacy was anything Jesus ever in a million years compelled anyone to practice in his name when no Jewish priest was ever given such a command.
And still the Church wants to condemn anyone who does not buy into the doctrine (flatly rejected by the Byzantine rite-the closest historically to the original church, the entire Eastern rite and all of the rest of Christendom), debunked by JPII himself that celibacy is the purest form of holiness and existentially necessary for the priesthood. This is not a gospel of "Life"- A gospel of "Life" would encourage "Life" to be born.
Emotionally torturing women is not Life giving. It is Life miscarrying.
How wrong is this:
http://www.zenit.org/rssenglish-26598
How Unlovely.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/catholicamerica/2008/05/the_married_priest_option.html
Another Reason DC Needs Voting Representation in Congress; Spoliation- it's not a beverage
As reported in this week's DC City Toilet Paper
There is an article on a pending class action lawsuit against the DC Police for the manner in which they hauled and "hog tied" protesters at a World Bank/IMF protest some years back. The police are being sued apparently for getting aggressive and violating people's civil rights of one kind or another. Peaceful protesters with a permit have a right to do just that. They don't get to be "hog tied" by aggressive riot control DC police for loving peace and earth shoes and wearing goofy hats and sandals.
Here is the scandal- in the lawsuit apparently the police records and/or other documentation has been properly subpoenaed and this has uncovered a bag of worms of document mismanagement and lack of proper retention policies routinely practiced by the DC Police. More the rule than the exception it suggests.
This rather sucks (please excuse the vernacular) because if the police can just destroy their records of misconduct then you can never get to the root of the problem and correct it.
This had me thinking along these lines-Gee, if we were a State could they get away with this?
Ms. Cheh, City councilwoman with a prosecutorial background is rightly outraged. But does she have authority to compel a massive Attorney General investigation of the way that the DC Police routinely might destroy suspect records of their misconduct? Note to Holder; special investigation warranted here.
I have had an outstanding FOIA request for police records for about five months and am going to have to take it to Court to get anything at some cost if we decide to go there. This just shouldn't be. FOIAs by the Police should be methodically responded to in a timely fashion within the law or people should get pay docked or something. Destroying documents by the DC police should meet with a higher authority - like the ArchAngel Michael perhaps. Protect us in Battle.
There is an article on a pending class action lawsuit against the DC Police for the manner in which they hauled and "hog tied" protesters at a World Bank/IMF protest some years back. The police are being sued apparently for getting aggressive and violating people's civil rights of one kind or another. Peaceful protesters with a permit have a right to do just that. They don't get to be "hog tied" by aggressive riot control DC police for loving peace and earth shoes and wearing goofy hats and sandals.
Here is the scandal- in the lawsuit apparently the police records and/or other documentation has been properly subpoenaed and this has uncovered a bag of worms of document mismanagement and lack of proper retention policies routinely practiced by the DC Police. More the rule than the exception it suggests.
This rather sucks (please excuse the vernacular) because if the police can just destroy their records of misconduct then you can never get to the root of the problem and correct it.
This had me thinking along these lines-Gee, if we were a State could they get away with this?
Ms. Cheh, City councilwoman with a prosecutorial background is rightly outraged. But does she have authority to compel a massive Attorney General investigation of the way that the DC Police routinely might destroy suspect records of their misconduct? Note to Holder; special investigation warranted here.
I have had an outstanding FOIA request for police records for about five months and am going to have to take it to Court to get anything at some cost if we decide to go there. This just shouldn't be. FOIAs by the Police should be methodically responded to in a timely fashion within the law or people should get pay docked or something. Destroying documents by the DC police should meet with a higher authority - like the ArchAngel Michael perhaps. Protect us in Battle.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
And the Teachable Moment that Wasn't.
Ginned Up Beer
OBAMA's comments on the dialogue between his Professor friend and the cop:
"Hopefully, instead of ginning up anger and hyperbole everybody can just spend a little bit of time with some self-reflection and recognizing that other people have different points of view," Obama said. "And that's it."
Except that's not it. Because the Police still misbehave sometimes. There is still racial profiling sometimes. There are still rogue officers who do not-- by the books--a lot of things- there are still people whose constitutional rights are violated-every day. There are still vindictive Americans who sick the police on people they don't like-there are people who call themselves churchgoing Christians who sick the police frivolously on other church going Christians. There are significantly more African Americans in jails proportionately to whites and lots of them don't deserve the disparate treatment and some really are innocent. Gates epitomized that raw deal. His charges were dropped because he put up a stink and had a profile that carried it all the way to the White House. Other people are abused by police overreaching and abuse of authority and they are just joe or sally six pack and don't get invited to the White House. They get invited to an arraignment hearing- and eventually a trial, and if they don't have the money to pay a good lawyer, to a nice metal bed in a jail cell.
No one is ginning up anything- some defendants who are cuffed, finger printed and hauled to "county" get to stay there. They don't get to tour the White House and have a free beer.
As a lawyer actually out there in the client world you can see this quite a lot without even trying to look. It's ugly. In DC for example the police can be sicked on someone merely on the word of someone else without a shred of second witness support-they can be hauled in on the word of one person without a witness on an assault charge. On mere hearsay and rumor 'banning' orders are issued with police intimidation with zero due process rights. Hearsay will support an assault charge without evidence (the Prosecutor then decides whether to paper the file, etc. after the police intimidation) This has happened to people I know- the anger is real and really justifiable.
Remember Rodney King? There are still hate crimes masquarading as police action out there.
The episode should prompt the White House to do a serious study and demand statistics on the incidents of harassing police behavior where the charges were never papered by the prosecutor or dropped and look at the racial breakdown of this across the entire country. How many times have the police done something, hauled someone in, filed a charge or a unilateral order where it did not support a criminal charge and the prosecutor deemed the action frivolous or meritless. How much police harassment is there really out there. Everyone knows that the criminal justice system, and particularly the juvenille justice system are racked and stacked against African Americans. Why is that? How much racial harassment is there. If an African American administration is not going to take a serious look at this, with an African American Attorney General and and African American President, then we are in serious trouble.
Don't trivialize what happened here. You are missing your teachable moment.
You don't have to try so hard not to offend really offensive people. We get it.
It happened also to this guy- he should be invited to the next meeting (he wrote a book about it- read it):
http://www.law.gwu.edu/Faculty/profile.aspx?id=1723
OBAMA's comments on the dialogue between his Professor friend and the cop:
"Hopefully, instead of ginning up anger and hyperbole everybody can just spend a little bit of time with some self-reflection and recognizing that other people have different points of view," Obama said. "And that's it."
Except that's not it. Because the Police still misbehave sometimes. There is still racial profiling sometimes. There are still rogue officers who do not-- by the books--a lot of things- there are still people whose constitutional rights are violated-every day. There are still vindictive Americans who sick the police on people they don't like-there are people who call themselves churchgoing Christians who sick the police frivolously on other church going Christians. There are significantly more African Americans in jails proportionately to whites and lots of them don't deserve the disparate treatment and some really are innocent. Gates epitomized that raw deal. His charges were dropped because he put up a stink and had a profile that carried it all the way to the White House. Other people are abused by police overreaching and abuse of authority and they are just joe or sally six pack and don't get invited to the White House. They get invited to an arraignment hearing- and eventually a trial, and if they don't have the money to pay a good lawyer, to a nice metal bed in a jail cell.
No one is ginning up anything- some defendants who are cuffed, finger printed and hauled to "county" get to stay there. They don't get to tour the White House and have a free beer.
As a lawyer actually out there in the client world you can see this quite a lot without even trying to look. It's ugly. In DC for example the police can be sicked on someone merely on the word of someone else without a shred of second witness support-they can be hauled in on the word of one person without a witness on an assault charge. On mere hearsay and rumor 'banning' orders are issued with police intimidation with zero due process rights. Hearsay will support an assault charge without evidence (the Prosecutor then decides whether to paper the file, etc. after the police intimidation) This has happened to people I know- the anger is real and really justifiable.
Remember Rodney King? There are still hate crimes masquarading as police action out there.
The episode should prompt the White House to do a serious study and demand statistics on the incidents of harassing police behavior where the charges were never papered by the prosecutor or dropped and look at the racial breakdown of this across the entire country. How many times have the police done something, hauled someone in, filed a charge or a unilateral order where it did not support a criminal charge and the prosecutor deemed the action frivolous or meritless. How much police harassment is there really out there. Everyone knows that the criminal justice system, and particularly the juvenille justice system are racked and stacked against African Americans. Why is that? How much racial harassment is there. If an African American administration is not going to take a serious look at this, with an African American Attorney General and and African American President, then we are in serious trouble.
Don't trivialize what happened here. You are missing your teachable moment.
You don't have to try so hard not to offend really offensive people. We get it.
It happened also to this guy- he should be invited to the next meeting (he wrote a book about it- read it):
http://www.law.gwu.edu/Faculty/profile.aspx?id=1723
Why We Have A Constitution
In Pertinent Part
To protect the citizenry against the abuse of State Power. We fought hard a revolution where dead soldiers litter fields on a Mountain called Valley Forge, redefended the union in a battlefield called Gettysburg and in countless other places where American lives were lost on American soil to protect us against the abuse of State power against the citizenry.
The backdrop of the 4th Amendment against unlawful unwarranted searches and seizures and the penumbral privacy right was that British soldiers were "quartered", just posted, living off the fat of the land and the good cooking of Americans who farmed and raised their food for the soldier squatters to pilfer at will and invade their space bunking in their homes. "Quartering" was a widespread practice and we just had to deal with it.
Boston had enough first.
The rest of the country had courage to throw off the tyranny of abusive State Power.
It's about more than Race in Boston. It's about a Policeman misunderstanding his power and abusing it. It's about violating the security of someone in their own residence. It's about exactly what we fought a revolution for. It's a Professor saying-you don't know who you are messing with- because this Professor knows his constitutional rights. It's not about an arrogant Professor- or someone caught in a "script" as Jim Wallace wants to declare. It's about someone
who knows what America stands for and that it applies equally to him.
The privacy rape of a person in their own residence by someone abusing their State powers of enforcement authority is unconstitutional, unamerican and indecent.
No, the Professor was not here unduly arrogant- he was standing for all of us, White, Black, Brown, Yellow or Green- All of us who inherited the benefits of a Revolution fought against King George and his quartered soldiers living off our labors.
To protect the citizenry against the abuse of State Power. We fought hard a revolution where dead soldiers litter fields on a Mountain called Valley Forge, redefended the union in a battlefield called Gettysburg and in countless other places where American lives were lost on American soil to protect us against the abuse of State power against the citizenry.
The backdrop of the 4th Amendment against unlawful unwarranted searches and seizures and the penumbral privacy right was that British soldiers were "quartered", just posted, living off the fat of the land and the good cooking of Americans who farmed and raised their food for the soldier squatters to pilfer at will and invade their space bunking in their homes. "Quartering" was a widespread practice and we just had to deal with it.
Boston had enough first.
The rest of the country had courage to throw off the tyranny of abusive State Power.
It's about more than Race in Boston. It's about a Policeman misunderstanding his power and abusing it. It's about violating the security of someone in their own residence. It's about exactly what we fought a revolution for. It's a Professor saying-you don't know who you are messing with- because this Professor knows his constitutional rights. It's not about an arrogant Professor- or someone caught in a "script" as Jim Wallace wants to declare. It's about someone
who knows what America stands for and that it applies equally to him.
The privacy rape of a person in their own residence by someone abusing their State powers of enforcement authority is unconstitutional, unamerican and indecent.
No, the Professor was not here unduly arrogant- he was standing for all of us, White, Black, Brown, Yellow or Green- All of us who inherited the benefits of a Revolution fought against King George and his quartered soldiers living off our labors.
I'll Have a Guiness Please
Racism is Real and Rears It's Ugly Head Again
Racism in America? What? Really? No kiddin? You Sure? Naaaaah. But we have one in the White House!
It is now being reported all over the internet that the officer who arrested the Harvard Professor actually let a few email farts loose calling this esteemed Harvard Professor something like a jungle monkey. Some will debunk this as unverified.
[Hard drives don't lie and are hard to erase. Get the hard drive.]
I will tell you, however, that actual people still do talk like this. Yep. They talk like this behind closed doors where only white folks go in country clubs as exclusive as Ligoneer, they talk like this in bars in divey parts of South Philly, they talk like this when they think no one is watching and they think it is fun or justified.
In the late 1990s in America, I was an attorney on a case involving an unnamed large public company who had a factory in South Philadelphia. Some of the supervisors of the $11.-$13.00 an hour union guys were suspected actual Klans folks who were suspected of attending Klan rallies in suburban Pennsylvania, parts of which might be called "Pennsyltucky" for its urbaneness.
What was not suspected but pretty verified with exhibits filed in Federal Court in Philadelphia were pictures of monkeys passed out on fliers eating bananas referencing the "help"- graffitti scrawled on bathroom walls that was epithetic and pathetic with overt racial references, pictures of hangmen nooses and reports of supervisors referencing "porch monkeys" and the like. The "N" word was the least of it- and it was everywhere also.
Yes, this crap still exists- Yes, the blue collar white underclass still dumps all their miseries on the rising African American class of people they feel superior to. Yes, business people and so called 'self-made' men still use the "N" word in secret when they think no one is watching. They do this not so much around me anymore because they know I will call them out- and I write a blog read in 40 or so countries now. So don't try it around me. Don't you dare call anyone I know or love a "porch monkey" a "N" a "jungle monkey" or anything close. Don't you dare. Don't you dare call an affordable accessible health care program an "affirmative action medical plan" or call
the Supreme Court choice an "affirmative action candidate." Don't you bloody dare- because I will call you out, publish your name, and post it here.
Yes, the cop who arrested a Harvard Professor- AFTER HE SHOWED HIS HARVARD ID- IN HIS OWN HOUSE for 'breaking into' his own home was an idiot. He should be sued. He got pissed off that the Harvard professor gave him lip -when the cop invaded HIS HOME.
Good Grief Charlie Brown.
No, we are not in a police state -Cheney wants his empire back but he is gone. Get over it. Cops MAY NOT arrest you for allegedly breaking into your own home. Even if you give them lip for what might be considered a 4th Amendment violation of your right to privacy in your own home by conducting an interrogation of you in your own home when not invited in your own home without a warrant. Colin Powell- too "House" my friend. You don't have to be nice to a cop invading you in your own home with a false arrest. He is the intruder here.
So Mr. Policeman- Go to the White House- sit with the President of the United States and the nice Harvard Professor- and say you are sorry. You should be sued, and instead you get to have beer with the President in the White House. Count your lucky f'ing stars you brain dead white inbred Moron from planet Urananus.
(I'm Caucasian by the way so don't even try it.)
Racism in America? What? Really? No kiddin? You Sure? Naaaaah. But we have one in the White House!
It is now being reported all over the internet that the officer who arrested the Harvard Professor actually let a few email farts loose calling this esteemed Harvard Professor something like a jungle monkey. Some will debunk this as unverified.
[Hard drives don't lie and are hard to erase. Get the hard drive.]
I will tell you, however, that actual people still do talk like this. Yep. They talk like this behind closed doors where only white folks go in country clubs as exclusive as Ligoneer, they talk like this in bars in divey parts of South Philly, they talk like this when they think no one is watching and they think it is fun or justified.
In the late 1990s in America, I was an attorney on a case involving an unnamed large public company who had a factory in South Philadelphia. Some of the supervisors of the $11.-$13.00 an hour union guys were suspected actual Klans folks who were suspected of attending Klan rallies in suburban Pennsylvania, parts of which might be called "Pennsyltucky" for its urbaneness.
What was not suspected but pretty verified with exhibits filed in Federal Court in Philadelphia were pictures of monkeys passed out on fliers eating bananas referencing the "help"- graffitti scrawled on bathroom walls that was epithetic and pathetic with overt racial references, pictures of hangmen nooses and reports of supervisors referencing "porch monkeys" and the like. The "N" word was the least of it- and it was everywhere also.
Yes, this crap still exists- Yes, the blue collar white underclass still dumps all their miseries on the rising African American class of people they feel superior to. Yes, business people and so called 'self-made' men still use the "N" word in secret when they think no one is watching. They do this not so much around me anymore because they know I will call them out- and I write a blog read in 40 or so countries now. So don't try it around me. Don't you dare call anyone I know or love a "porch monkey" a "N" a "jungle monkey" or anything close. Don't you dare. Don't you dare call an affordable accessible health care program an "affirmative action medical plan" or call
the Supreme Court choice an "affirmative action candidate." Don't you bloody dare- because I will call you out, publish your name, and post it here.
Yes, the cop who arrested a Harvard Professor- AFTER HE SHOWED HIS HARVARD ID- IN HIS OWN HOUSE for 'breaking into' his own home was an idiot. He should be sued. He got pissed off that the Harvard professor gave him lip -when the cop invaded HIS HOME.
Good Grief Charlie Brown.
No, we are not in a police state -Cheney wants his empire back but he is gone. Get over it. Cops MAY NOT arrest you for allegedly breaking into your own home. Even if you give them lip for what might be considered a 4th Amendment violation of your right to privacy in your own home by conducting an interrogation of you in your own home when not invited in your own home without a warrant. Colin Powell- too "House" my friend. You don't have to be nice to a cop invading you in your own home with a false arrest. He is the intruder here.
So Mr. Policeman- Go to the White House- sit with the President of the United States and the nice Harvard Professor- and say you are sorry. You should be sued, and instead you get to have beer with the President in the White House. Count your lucky f'ing stars you brain dead white inbred Moron from planet Urananus.
(I'm Caucasian by the way so don't even try it.)
HEALING THE MASSES- One of His Primary Purposes
From the Presidential Prayer Team People.
Words from President Obama... On Aligning with God's Purposes
When you’re in this job, I think that every president whose had it is constantly humbled by the degree to which there are a lot of issues out there, and the notion that one person alone can solve all these problems I think you’re cured of that illusion very quickly. This is something where you just hope that you are aligning your work with His purposes and that you’re attuned to the needs of the people you’re there to serve.
— President Obama, as quoted in a post by Stephanie Condon:
July 24 on the Political Hotsheet at www.cbsnews.com
.
Words from President Obama... On Aligning with God's Purposes
When you’re in this job, I think that every president whose had it is constantly humbled by the degree to which there are a lot of issues out there, and the notion that one person alone can solve all these problems I think you’re cured of that illusion very quickly. This is something where you just hope that you are aligning your work with His purposes and that you’re attuned to the needs of the people you’re there to serve.
— President Obama, as quoted in a post by Stephanie Condon:
July 24 on the Political Hotsheet at www.cbsnews.com
.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Fun Fact
Did You Know?
Padre Pio's father was for a time an Italian immigrant in New York and worked on the Long Island Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad to put him through Seminary. Ask the folks at the Padre Pio Shrine at Saint John the Baptist in New York behind Penn Station. (Now it makes sense it is so close to the train station.)
[see below entry on St. John's and visit next you are in NY.]
Padre Pio's father was for a time an Italian immigrant in New York and worked on the Long Island Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad to put him through Seminary. Ask the folks at the Padre Pio Shrine at Saint John the Baptist in New York behind Penn Station. (Now it makes sense it is so close to the train station.)
[see below entry on St. John's and visit next you are in NY.]
From the Fabulous Common Ground Folks.
About Time- to Get Serious.
The issue of health care transcends political labels of "left" and "right." Something more is at stake: the dignity of the human person. Providing access to quality and affordable health care is a moral imperative. As people of faith, we are called to ensure that the value of human life is placed above profit and that our elected officials are creating policies that benefit the common good, not just a select few. Though Congress is preparing to recess, we need to continue to advocate for health care reform that benefits ALL people, including immigrants and their children. Click here to download a free guide that provides valuable information about the health care reform debate from a faith-based perspective. As Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "Justice too long delayed is justice denied." With almost 50 million Americans-including 9 million children-lacking health care coverage, we can't afford to wait for just health care reform any longer. Use this guide to learn how YOU can speak out on behalf of justice. NOW is the time.
Thanks,
The Catholics in Alliance Team
IS DENTAL INCLUDED?
The issue of health care transcends political labels of "left" and "right." Something more is at stake: the dignity of the human person. Providing access to quality and affordable health care is a moral imperative. As people of faith, we are called to ensure that the value of human life is placed above profit and that our elected officials are creating policies that benefit the common good, not just a select few. Though Congress is preparing to recess, we need to continue to advocate for health care reform that benefits ALL people, including immigrants and their children. Click here to download a free guide that provides valuable information about the health care reform debate from a faith-based perspective. As Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "Justice too long delayed is justice denied." With almost 50 million Americans-including 9 million children-lacking health care coverage, we can't afford to wait for just health care reform any longer. Use this guide to learn how YOU can speak out on behalf of justice. NOW is the time.
Thanks,
The Catholics in Alliance Team
IS DENTAL INCLUDED?
Less is More
For Friars on a Foray.
The Cover story of the Washington Post today is something remarkably refreshing. A troupe of Franciscan Friars, complete with brown robes and rope belts walking through Virginia all the way to DC where they ended at a pilgrimage at the beautiful Franciscan Monastery in Washington, DC, in the Brookland section, near Catholic University (the entire area has been dubbed "Little Vatican" for all the Catholic culture and institutions there.)
As in the gospels they took no purse, no second tunic, and went to share the meaning of Meaning Itself- they went to share the Word of the Word, the message of Jesus' love- that permeates and transcends the material madness of the modern world. Love- it's possible. Really. Still. All you need is Love.
They slept apparently on trampolines, picnic tables, church basements, in the homes of strangers (who now are blessed beyond what they can imagine) in police academy barracks, and in an abbey of trappist nuns.(you can read about their trek in today's Post). I spotted them yesterday walking ensemble through the MetroCenter area and what a sight.
If they take the $20.00 Chinese bus or the Megabus from DC up to New York city they can go to Saint John the Baptist Franciscan church which is right behind Penn Station on 31st st. It has a beautiful church and Padre Pio garden (also a Franciscan)- which is where I just went to pray yesterday before heading back to DC (and picked up a Padre Pio CD in the little gift shop.) Check them out next you are in NY- they have a great retreat schedule.
http://shrine.padrepio.us
(turn the sound on; cut and paste the link to browser)
The Cover story of the Washington Post today is something remarkably refreshing. A troupe of Franciscan Friars, complete with brown robes and rope belts walking through Virginia all the way to DC where they ended at a pilgrimage at the beautiful Franciscan Monastery in Washington, DC, in the Brookland section, near Catholic University (the entire area has been dubbed "Little Vatican" for all the Catholic culture and institutions there.)
As in the gospels they took no purse, no second tunic, and went to share the meaning of Meaning Itself- they went to share the Word of the Word, the message of Jesus' love- that permeates and transcends the material madness of the modern world. Love- it's possible. Really. Still. All you need is Love.
They slept apparently on trampolines, picnic tables, church basements, in the homes of strangers (who now are blessed beyond what they can imagine) in police academy barracks, and in an abbey of trappist nuns.(you can read about their trek in today's Post). I spotted them yesterday walking ensemble through the MetroCenter area and what a sight.
If they take the $20.00 Chinese bus or the Megabus from DC up to New York city they can go to Saint John the Baptist Franciscan church which is right behind Penn Station on 31st st. It has a beautiful church and Padre Pio garden (also a Franciscan)- which is where I just went to pray yesterday before heading back to DC (and picked up a Padre Pio CD in the little gift shop.) Check them out next you are in NY- they have a great retreat schedule.
http://shrine.padrepio.us
(turn the sound on; cut and paste the link to browser)
French, Catholic and loving it.
The last acceptable American prejudice might be French Catholicism.
Just watch Glenn Beck for 20 minutes and see him explode into a "I don't care what Mr. Frenchie French thinks" juvenille-rant-o-meter off the charts vitriol against anything just French.
You can still find mockery of French accents with less humor than PePe Lepieu.
French, it seems is synonymous in America still with cheese-eating effeminate wino or something equally morally depraved in the red-neck Beck popular culture.
That is why it is still acceptable for Republicans in the Senate to do things like ask a Supreme Court nominee whether she will in fact consider international law- the hubristic undercurrent being, we are the best most moral people on the planet so why do we have to look at what anyone else in the world does? This I call the insular ignorant american myopia. This IIAM syndrome is also at the root of the "teach no student spanish" for fear we become a -God forbid-multilingual society (as if we aren't already.)
Have you people ever been to Provence? The French Alps? They had international ski championships there in Val D'Isere last year. Ever heard of Mont Blanc? Nice (pronounced Neeece) on the Riviera? Normandy? Ever hear of Monet? Dannon yogurt maybe? Seriously? Have you been outside Alabama or Alaska-outside a radio studio ever? Do you know that they have train stations in Paris? With real high speed trains. Ever hear of Lourdes? Cannes (oh, forget that one- all those Holywood A -listers you can't stand for jealousy either)- ever hear of Mont Saint Michele? Champaign (it's really a place)- or Dijon (not just a mustard.) How about Lyon or a Cathedral in Chartres?
Seriously- who put Glenn Beck on the air? Is there really a market for this sort of buffoonish
bulldog without lipstick frat boy flunk-out pseudo-Budweiser-slogfest- patriotism? Is that what Republicanism stands for -because if so, you all can have your head in the sand and ask moronic questions of the most qualified Supreme Court nominee we have put before a Senate committee in a few decades like will she consider foreign law- as if she is going to say- NO WAY! I wouldn't want to be learned about anything going on outside the country- because nothing relevant to us here in this age of globalization happens east of Long Island! Get Serious Senator.
Or- you can tune into French Catholic TV right on line here-
http://www.ktotv.com/
Just watch Glenn Beck for 20 minutes and see him explode into a "I don't care what Mr. Frenchie French thinks" juvenille-rant-o-meter off the charts vitriol against anything just French.
You can still find mockery of French accents with less humor than PePe Lepieu.
French, it seems is synonymous in America still with cheese-eating effeminate wino or something equally morally depraved in the red-neck Beck popular culture.
That is why it is still acceptable for Republicans in the Senate to do things like ask a Supreme Court nominee whether she will in fact consider international law- the hubristic undercurrent being, we are the best most moral people on the planet so why do we have to look at what anyone else in the world does? This I call the insular ignorant american myopia. This IIAM syndrome is also at the root of the "teach no student spanish" for fear we become a -God forbid-multilingual society (as if we aren't already.)
Have you people ever been to Provence? The French Alps? They had international ski championships there in Val D'Isere last year. Ever heard of Mont Blanc? Nice (pronounced Neeece) on the Riviera? Normandy? Ever hear of Monet? Dannon yogurt maybe? Seriously? Have you been outside Alabama or Alaska-outside a radio studio ever? Do you know that they have train stations in Paris? With real high speed trains. Ever hear of Lourdes? Cannes (oh, forget that one- all those Holywood A -listers you can't stand for jealousy either)- ever hear of Mont Saint Michele? Champaign (it's really a place)- or Dijon (not just a mustard.) How about Lyon or a Cathedral in Chartres?
Seriously- who put Glenn Beck on the air? Is there really a market for this sort of buffoonish
bulldog without lipstick frat boy flunk-out pseudo-Budweiser-slogfest- patriotism? Is that what Republicanism stands for -because if so, you all can have your head in the sand and ask moronic questions of the most qualified Supreme Court nominee we have put before a Senate committee in a few decades like will she consider foreign law- as if she is going to say- NO WAY! I wouldn't want to be learned about anything going on outside the country- because nothing relevant to us here in this age of globalization happens east of Long Island! Get Serious Senator.
Or- you can tune into French Catholic TV right on line here-
http://www.ktotv.com/
Health Care Scare
The Lack of It, not the Bill is the Fright.
The dueling propaganda machines are in full throttle over Health Care which now appears stalled on the vote until after the break. The adverts on the Right have you asking your Congressperson if they actually read all 1,000 plus pages of it. (doubtful). The adverts on the left pull out a slightly paunchier slightly grayer Harry and Louise to urge that we get it done this time, touting all the nightmarish scenarios that plague Americans because of the way health care is financed in this country. On the radio you can hear guys named Stuart (Stewart?) Butler from the Heritage Institute (no relation) blasting the British health care system from whence he came, noting its lack of innovation. (Not to mention sterilization and sanitation my mother chimed in.)
And the scare continues....Guiliani at the American Enterprise Institute cautions-what if they tell you that you can't get another "stint" after age 59 because they are now rationing them. What? Where is that in the bill? Who ever said that the government would tell you what procedures would be authorized or not? Where, Sir, did you read that in the bill? Page please. What else could be the scariest thing about what the government does with the health care bill? Just imagine the worse then imagine that the entire Congress is stupider than your two year old and can't figure out that this is not advisable. These are the premises you have to buy to believe the Scaretigists on the Right.
All that said, there is basic and there is basic. There is a bottom and there is a top of the line care- and the bottom is what we need to establish, for ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE IN AMERICA. This it seems should rise to the level of a constitutional right of citizenship. If you can afford and want the Mercedes top of the line health care, go for it, if you just need your basic Ford or Toyota to get you around town, don't begrudge the folks who can afford the Mercedes. And Mercedes people, don't deny the "little people" the access to a basic Ford. The government it seems ought to be able to sort out a system so that everyone can drive.
If you find yourself in the camp off to the right, read this to pull yourself out of denial by your bootstraps. You did it so well for everything else.
http://www.truthout.org/072809R?n
Now, be part of the solution or get out of the way. We need a universal health care basic driving package without the bells and whistles, deluxe CD and GPS system for the hoy poloy masses.
It's good for business.
The dueling propaganda machines are in full throttle over Health Care which now appears stalled on the vote until after the break. The adverts on the Right have you asking your Congressperson if they actually read all 1,000 plus pages of it. (doubtful). The adverts on the left pull out a slightly paunchier slightly grayer Harry and Louise to urge that we get it done this time, touting all the nightmarish scenarios that plague Americans because of the way health care is financed in this country. On the radio you can hear guys named Stuart (Stewart?) Butler from the Heritage Institute (no relation) blasting the British health care system from whence he came, noting its lack of innovation. (Not to mention sterilization and sanitation my mother chimed in.)
And the scare continues....Guiliani at the American Enterprise Institute cautions-what if they tell you that you can't get another "stint" after age 59 because they are now rationing them. What? Where is that in the bill? Who ever said that the government would tell you what procedures would be authorized or not? Where, Sir, did you read that in the bill? Page please. What else could be the scariest thing about what the government does with the health care bill? Just imagine the worse then imagine that the entire Congress is stupider than your two year old and can't figure out that this is not advisable. These are the premises you have to buy to believe the Scaretigists on the Right.
All that said, there is basic and there is basic. There is a bottom and there is a top of the line care- and the bottom is what we need to establish, for ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE IN AMERICA. This it seems should rise to the level of a constitutional right of citizenship. If you can afford and want the Mercedes top of the line health care, go for it, if you just need your basic Ford or Toyota to get you around town, don't begrudge the folks who can afford the Mercedes. And Mercedes people, don't deny the "little people" the access to a basic Ford. The government it seems ought to be able to sort out a system so that everyone can drive.
If you find yourself in the camp off to the right, read this to pull yourself out of denial by your bootstraps. You did it so well for everything else.
http://www.truthout.org/072809R?n
Now, be part of the solution or get out of the way. We need a universal health care basic driving package without the bells and whistles, deluxe CD and GPS system for the hoy poloy masses.
It's good for business.
Torture -not for AMERICA
JESUITS IN AMERICA MAGAZINE ADDRESS TORTURE-GATE
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=11795
And what exactly should those
White House lawyers have been doing? See the Article on "Legal Obligations"
www.AMERICAMAGAZINE.org
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=11795
And what exactly should those
White House lawyers have been doing? See the Article on "Legal Obligations"
www.AMERICAMAGAZINE.org
Monday, July 27, 2009
LOOKING FOR A MEDIATOR?
THERE IS ONE MEDIATOR
There is ONE Mediator between GOD and MAN and that is the Man JESUS CHRIST.
[1 Timothy 2]
There is ONE Mediator. ONE, only ONE, ONE and ONLY ONE MEDIATOR
between God and Man and that is the Man JESUS CHRIST.
Think about it.
Just ONE.
[Not a College of Cardinals.]
There is ONE Mediator between GOD and MAN and that is the Man JESUS CHRIST.
[1 Timothy 2]
There is ONE Mediator. ONE, only ONE, ONE and ONLY ONE MEDIATOR
between God and Man and that is the Man JESUS CHRIST.
Think about it.
Just ONE.
[Not a College of Cardinals.]
Friday, July 24, 2009
You won't believe this church is here
Saint Mary's in Mid-town.
Right off Times Square is a church that partly emulates Saint Sulpice in Paris next to the Palais de Justice called Saint Mary's. You won't believe it's there- across the street is a seedy looking Irish Pub and a theatre. A mere few blocks away you could have seen the naked cowboy when he wasn't running for Mayor (not kidding.)
Inside the dimly lit expanse you are met with tall royal blue Gothic vaulted ceilings speckled with gold stars-very French. It has a wedding chapel with a large round Italian ceramic medallion of Mary marrying Joseph circled with Mediterranean lemons and foliage and a painted wooden ceiling that evokes an Edwardian library feeling. It has another chapel with an enormous statue of Mary. One is greeted at the door with a row of candles and an enormous crucifix next to a potted hydrangea.
I was almost fooled- I sat from 5:00 until about 5:30 praying in the wedding chapel thinking 5:30 mass must be starting soon. I was hiding from the rain that deluged manhattan that evening. 5:30 approached and the one person crouched at the back and
other soul deep in prayer under the Mary statue were the only two people still to be found in the church. I wondered if they would give a mass for only 3 people in a dark stone gothic church castle or whether I should make my way to Starbucks to wait for my sister. they were saving electricity so only the faces of statues and Jesus was lit giving it a rather eerie ambiance-like glow in the dark Apostles.
Just then the organ blasted loudly something out of a horror movie as if Vincent Price was going to peer behind a stone column in a black crepe cape. It was loud horrible organ music- not lovely, sweet Mozart, Bach or anything really recognizable. OK - a bit of a zealot music major rehearsing for Lincoln Hall or something, cut him a break. Creative. Yes, that's what it was-loudly creative. Still no Mass. Just the Fuge in Mortisha Minor. I started to wonder what kind of church this was.
Then I read the fine print of the flier I picked up at the back. "The Episcopalian Diocese welcomes you to the Catholic experience in the Episcopalian church." It was like the Queen of England wearing a Milanese designer dress --not quite Italian but very nice try. Especially the wedding chapel. Hydrangeas were lovely also this time of year. Still, there's something really real about a real Mass. You know it when you see it.
http://www.stmvirgin.org/
Worth a visit for the Architecture and the prayer cards with the Angelus and Magnificat on them.
Right off Times Square is a church that partly emulates Saint Sulpice in Paris next to the Palais de Justice called Saint Mary's. You won't believe it's there- across the street is a seedy looking Irish Pub and a theatre. A mere few blocks away you could have seen the naked cowboy when he wasn't running for Mayor (not kidding.)
Inside the dimly lit expanse you are met with tall royal blue Gothic vaulted ceilings speckled with gold stars-very French. It has a wedding chapel with a large round Italian ceramic medallion of Mary marrying Joseph circled with Mediterranean lemons and foliage and a painted wooden ceiling that evokes an Edwardian library feeling. It has another chapel with an enormous statue of Mary. One is greeted at the door with a row of candles and an enormous crucifix next to a potted hydrangea.
I was almost fooled- I sat from 5:00 until about 5:30 praying in the wedding chapel thinking 5:30 mass must be starting soon. I was hiding from the rain that deluged manhattan that evening. 5:30 approached and the one person crouched at the back and
other soul deep in prayer under the Mary statue were the only two people still to be found in the church. I wondered if they would give a mass for only 3 people in a dark stone gothic church castle or whether I should make my way to Starbucks to wait for my sister. they were saving electricity so only the faces of statues and Jesus was lit giving it a rather eerie ambiance-like glow in the dark Apostles.
Just then the organ blasted loudly something out of a horror movie as if Vincent Price was going to peer behind a stone column in a black crepe cape. It was loud horrible organ music- not lovely, sweet Mozart, Bach or anything really recognizable. OK - a bit of a zealot music major rehearsing for Lincoln Hall or something, cut him a break. Creative. Yes, that's what it was-loudly creative. Still no Mass. Just the Fuge in Mortisha Minor. I started to wonder what kind of church this was.
Then I read the fine print of the flier I picked up at the back. "The Episcopalian Diocese welcomes you to the Catholic experience in the Episcopalian church." It was like the Queen of England wearing a Milanese designer dress --not quite Italian but very nice try. Especially the wedding chapel. Hydrangeas were lovely also this time of year. Still, there's something really real about a real Mass. You know it when you see it.
http://www.stmvirgin.org/
Worth a visit for the Architecture and the prayer cards with the Angelus and Magnificat on them.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The Next RUC Chairperson
Rudy Guiliani-today at the AEI
If the Republicans want to forward a face that explains their economic philosophy from someone who took New York city from the brink of Bankruptcy they should cart out Rudy Guiliani on every talking head show and make him the RUC Chairperson- because he articulates the values of that party in mostly a thoughtful and humorous but poignant way in a manner that doesn't alienate nearly as bad as I expected and turns all the culture wars into a fight for free enterprise-which has a bit of propagandistic appeal if you are looking for a scapegoat boogeyman to wail against the miseries. Somehow listening to him one forgets the debate over whether 9-11 was rigged by his party that killed a few thousand of its own in his city, and poisoned the air into a carcinogenic swamp. What 9-11? Who me sitting in the trade towers at ground zero?
Plus he is a Yankees fan and I like his parochial New Yorkisms. He did revitalize the private sector in New York. He fought for public schools but he also is a school choice zealot.
That said, he was still basically wrong on some major points, left no doubt that the Republicans will tooth and nail fight Obama on health care for the sport of it regardless of what it says denying americans who overwhelmingly of all parties want health care reform of some kind unless they work for the pharmaceutical companies or HMOs or directly profit in some other way (even my brother in law the famous Yalie cardiologist thinks the system needs radical reforming). Its too damned expensive. We are all going bankrupt.
Guiliani here accidentally modeled some of the heartless aspects of Laissez Faire that leave everyone to their own devices without addressing for example the insane costs of health care that even fair minded republicans find unacceptable- even at one point in his address to the American Enterprise Institute slightly mocking the crowd of people he fired from NY City run/owned hospitals that he indicated were the right people to fire because they never found work after that and spent their days tracking and following him around wherever he went making speeches. Joblessness isn't all that funny for the folks without a paycheck and all their families. Ah- that Empathy factor.
He noted that Belview in New York would have to treat you if you showed up still -and neglected to mention the bill you might get later that would throw you into bankruptcy. Belview- isn't that the hospital that featured all over Youtube last year where a woman waited so long in the ER waiting room in a bathrobe she flat out keeled over, dropped to the floor, writhed there unnoticed for a good 20 minutes and died?
Is this the Mayor who fought Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in their homeless ministry (see ink below) because the homeless slept on the streets of New York surrounding the church -all the way to the Supreme Court. He said if he had a homeless brother he wouldn't want him sleeping on the street, or demanding a right to sleep on the street, he would get him a place off the street and not allow him to sleep on the street. This is actually a rather shockingly ignorant statement coming from a Mayor who should be at least knowledgeable about the facts on homelessness and that the people who are on the street have often burned all bridges with family (family get tired of drug addict relatives stealing from them) and they often have either been kicked out of shelters for behavior problems or know the shelters to be madhouses of threatened assaults and craziness that makes the street actually a more peaceful rest. Aahh-that Empathy Factor again.
Guiliani did score a few fair points- the New York city skyline was not planned- and its beautiful in its expression of free enterprise and the entrepreneurial spirit. There was no city planning Czar of Skylines.
I agree. Wonderful.
He said that too much government and too many czars really doesn't address the efficiencies needed to resolve a lot of issues. I agree.
He got a laugh when noting "remember what happened to the last real
Czar?" A little menacing- call homeland security.
If the Republicans want to forward a face that explains their economic philosophy from someone who took New York city from the brink of Bankruptcy they should cart out Rudy Guiliani on every talking head show and make him the RUC Chairperson- because he articulates the values of that party in mostly a thoughtful and humorous but poignant way in a manner that doesn't alienate nearly as bad as I expected and turns all the culture wars into a fight for free enterprise-which has a bit of propagandistic appeal if you are looking for a scapegoat boogeyman to wail against the miseries. Somehow listening to him one forgets the debate over whether 9-11 was rigged by his party that killed a few thousand of its own in his city, and poisoned the air into a carcinogenic swamp. What 9-11? Who me sitting in the trade towers at ground zero?
Plus he is a Yankees fan and I like his parochial New Yorkisms. He did revitalize the private sector in New York. He fought for public schools but he also is a school choice zealot.
That said, he was still basically wrong on some major points, left no doubt that the Republicans will tooth and nail fight Obama on health care for the sport of it regardless of what it says denying americans who overwhelmingly of all parties want health care reform of some kind unless they work for the pharmaceutical companies or HMOs or directly profit in some other way (even my brother in law the famous Yalie cardiologist thinks the system needs radical reforming). Its too damned expensive. We are all going bankrupt.
Guiliani here accidentally modeled some of the heartless aspects of Laissez Faire that leave everyone to their own devices without addressing for example the insane costs of health care that even fair minded republicans find unacceptable- even at one point in his address to the American Enterprise Institute slightly mocking the crowd of people he fired from NY City run/owned hospitals that he indicated were the right people to fire because they never found work after that and spent their days tracking and following him around wherever he went making speeches. Joblessness isn't all that funny for the folks without a paycheck and all their families. Ah- that Empathy factor.
He noted that Belview in New York would have to treat you if you showed up still -and neglected to mention the bill you might get later that would throw you into bankruptcy. Belview- isn't that the hospital that featured all over Youtube last year where a woman waited so long in the ER waiting room in a bathrobe she flat out keeled over, dropped to the floor, writhed there unnoticed for a good 20 minutes and died?
Is this the Mayor who fought Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in their homeless ministry (see ink below) because the homeless slept on the streets of New York surrounding the church -all the way to the Supreme Court. He said if he had a homeless brother he wouldn't want him sleeping on the street, or demanding a right to sleep on the street, he would get him a place off the street and not allow him to sleep on the street. This is actually a rather shockingly ignorant statement coming from a Mayor who should be at least knowledgeable about the facts on homelessness and that the people who are on the street have often burned all bridges with family (family get tired of drug addict relatives stealing from them) and they often have either been kicked out of shelters for behavior problems or know the shelters to be madhouses of threatened assaults and craziness that makes the street actually a more peaceful rest. Aahh-that Empathy Factor again.
Guiliani did score a few fair points- the New York city skyline was not planned- and its beautiful in its expression of free enterprise and the entrepreneurial spirit. There was no city planning Czar of Skylines.
I agree. Wonderful.
He said that too much government and too many czars really doesn't address the efficiencies needed to resolve a lot of issues. I agree.
He got a laugh when noting "remember what happened to the last real
Czar?" A little menacing- call homeland security.
He blamed the economic melt down not on greed gone awry (where guys actually named Madoff Made Off with livlihoods and retirements and entire foundations trusts) unchecked by republican government watch dogs licking themselves instead, but by intrusive governmental intervention in the first place- as if he had a senior moment fog of memory and forgot the last 8 years his party ruled the government, staffed the SEC, hired the SEC commissioners and had majorities in Congress effecting any banking regulations. Whose fault was that? Does anyone think if it was all bad government's fault that this 7 month old Administration did it all? The Democrats have not been in power since the 1990s to the extent that they could possibly be blamed for not establishing capitalization reserves or ratios appropriately.
So all in all, Guiliani gets a 100 % on the basically very likeable and basically great to have a beer with quotient-better yet go to a Yankees game with. But he needs a much better coach on some basic empathy factors- so as to diminish the Grandpa Munster affect a bad light can turn his profile into.
If he is running for anything next- get a better set of advisors.
fun stuff
In a Bangkok temple:
IT IS FORBIDDEN TO ENTER A WOMAN,
EVEN A FOREIGNER, IF DRESSED AS A MAN.
Cocktail lounge, Norway:
LADIES ARE REQUESTED NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN IN THE BAR.
Doctor's office, Rome:
SPECIALIST IN WOMEN AND OTHER DISEASES.
Dry cleaners, Bangkok:
DROP YOUR TROUSERS HERE FOR THE BEST RESULTS.
In a Nairobi restaurant:
CUSTOMERS WHO FIND OUR WAITRESSES RUDE OUGHT TO SEE THE MANAGER.
On the main road to Mombassa, leaving Nairobi:
TAKE NOTICE: WHEN THIS SIGN IS UNDER WATER, THIS ROAD IS IMPASSABLE.
On a poster at Kencom:
ARE YOU AN ADULT THAT CANNOT READ? IF SO WE CAN HELP.
In a City restaurant:
OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK AND WEEKENDS.
In a cemetery:
PERSONS ARE PROHIBITED FROM PICKING FLOWERS FROM ANY BUT THEIR OWN GRAVES.
Tokyo hotel's rules and regulations:
GUESTS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO SMOKE OR DO OTHER DISGUSTING BEHAVIOURS IN BED.
On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:
OUR WINES LEAVE YOU NOTHING TO HOPE FOR.
In a Tokyo bar:
SPECIAL COCKTAILS FOR THE LADIES WITH NUTS.
Hotel, Yugoslavia:
THE FLATTENING OF UNDERWEAR WITH PLEASURE IS THE JOB OF THE CHAMBERMAID.
Hotel, Japan:
YOU ARE INVITED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CHAMBERMAID.
In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery:
YOU ARE WELCOME TO VISIT THE CEMETERY WHERE FAMOUS RUSSIAN AND SOVIET COMPOSERS, ARTISTS AND WRITERS ARE BURIED DAILY EXCEPT THURSDAY.
A sign posted in Germany's Black Forest:
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN ON OUR BLACK CAMPING SITE THAT PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT SEX, FOR INSTANCE, MEN AND WOMEN, LIVE TOGETHER IN ONE TENT UNLESS THEY ARE MARRIED WITH EACH OTHER FOR THIS PURPOSE.
FOREST
Hotel, Zurich:
BECAUSE OF THE IMPROPRIETY OF ENTERTAINING GUESTS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX IN THE BEDROOM, IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE LOBBY BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE.
Advertisement for donkey rides, Thailand:
WOULD YOU LIKE TO RIDE ON YOUR OWN ASS?
Airline ticket office, Copenhagen:
WE TAKE YOUR BAGS AND SEND THEM IN ALL DIRECTIONS.
A laundry in Rome:
LADIES, LEAVE YOUR CLOTHES HERE AND SPEND THE AFTERNOON HAVING A GOOD TIME.
IT IS FORBIDDEN TO ENTER A WOMAN,
EVEN A FOREIGNER, IF DRESSED AS A MAN.
Cocktail lounge, Norway:
LADIES ARE REQUESTED NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN IN THE BAR.
Doctor's office, Rome:
SPECIALIST IN WOMEN AND OTHER DISEASES.
Dry cleaners, Bangkok:
DROP YOUR TROUSERS HERE FOR THE BEST RESULTS.
In a Nairobi restaurant:
CUSTOMERS WHO FIND OUR WAITRESSES RUDE OUGHT TO SEE THE MANAGER.
On the main road to Mombassa, leaving Nairobi:
TAKE NOTICE: WHEN THIS SIGN IS UNDER WATER, THIS ROAD IS IMPASSABLE.
On a poster at Kencom:
ARE YOU AN ADULT THAT CANNOT READ? IF SO WE CAN HELP.
In a City restaurant:
OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK AND WEEKENDS.
In a cemetery:
PERSONS ARE PROHIBITED FROM PICKING FLOWERS FROM ANY BUT THEIR OWN GRAVES.
Tokyo hotel's rules and regulations:
GUESTS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO SMOKE OR DO OTHER DISGUSTING BEHAVIOURS IN BED.
On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:
OUR WINES LEAVE YOU NOTHING TO HOPE FOR.
In a Tokyo bar:
SPECIAL COCKTAILS FOR THE LADIES WITH NUTS.
Hotel, Yugoslavia:
THE FLATTENING OF UNDERWEAR WITH PLEASURE IS THE JOB OF THE CHAMBERMAID.
Hotel, Japan:
YOU ARE INVITED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CHAMBERMAID.
In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery:
YOU ARE WELCOME TO VISIT THE CEMETERY WHERE FAMOUS RUSSIAN AND SOVIET COMPOSERS, ARTISTS AND WRITERS ARE BURIED DAILY EXCEPT THURSDAY.
A sign posted in Germany's Black Forest:
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN ON OUR BLACK CAMPING SITE THAT PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT SEX, FOR INSTANCE, MEN AND WOMEN, LIVE TOGETHER IN ONE TENT UNLESS THEY ARE MARRIED WITH EACH OTHER FOR THIS PURPOSE.
FOREST
Hotel, Zurich:
BECAUSE OF THE IMPROPRIETY OF ENTERTAINING GUESTS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX IN THE BEDROOM, IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE LOBBY BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE.
Advertisement for donkey rides, Thailand:
WOULD YOU LIKE TO RIDE ON YOUR OWN ASS?
Airline ticket office, Copenhagen:
WE TAKE YOUR BAGS AND SEND THEM IN ALL DIRECTIONS.
A laundry in Rome:
LADIES, LEAVE YOUR CLOTHES HERE AND SPEND THE AFTERNOON HAVING A GOOD TIME.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
How Did The "American Papist" Miss The Rollerblading Nuns?
....or the story of the Novice suing her x-boyfriend for posting nude pictures of her on Facebook ? Wake up there little cowboy.You want Me to Pay For YOUR abortion? Are You Kidding Me?
I didn't Get You Pregnant!
I didn't have sex with you. I didn't tell you to have sex. We aren't married. You want ME to Pay For YOUR abortion?? Are you kidding me?
The new health care proposals, if they fail will fail for that reason. It's not so much a matter of conscience but of fairness versus stupidity.
No, I don't want to have to pay taxes that support your free abortion. I can think of a hundred, even thousand times someone got pregnant that should not have from their own either rank stupidity or rank immorality- but I don't even have to call you a bad nasty name- all I have to do is say-
NOT MY FAULT YOU ARE IN A PICKLE AND WANT ONE WITH ICE CREAM.
Take some responsibility for your own actions. Figure out that sex equals babies typically and condoms fail- a lot. Figure out that you can't afford the kid or don't want one before taking your clothes off and downing half a bottle of Merlot.
No, Not Paying For Your Stupidity or Slutidity. I think women have the power to be much smarter than that.
Sorry.
Back to the drawing room on the Health Care. Because this is a stupid reason to let something so important fail--and it's totally predictable.
Let them send the "government" the bill to tie your tubes if you are done having kids and don't want another surprise. Can you say V-A-S-E-C-T-O-M-Y boys and girls?
GET SERIOUS.
Universal Abortion Health Care Coverage? Have you lost your mind?
I didn't have sex with you. I didn't tell you to have sex. We aren't married. You want ME to Pay For YOUR abortion?? Are you kidding me?
The new health care proposals, if they fail will fail for that reason. It's not so much a matter of conscience but of fairness versus stupidity.
No, I don't want to have to pay taxes that support your free abortion. I can think of a hundred, even thousand times someone got pregnant that should not have from their own either rank stupidity or rank immorality- but I don't even have to call you a bad nasty name- all I have to do is say-
NOT MY FAULT YOU ARE IN A PICKLE AND WANT ONE WITH ICE CREAM.
Take some responsibility for your own actions. Figure out that sex equals babies typically and condoms fail- a lot. Figure out that you can't afford the kid or don't want one before taking your clothes off and downing half a bottle of Merlot.
No, Not Paying For Your Stupidity or Slutidity. I think women have the power to be much smarter than that.
Sorry.
Back to the drawing room on the Health Care. Because this is a stupid reason to let something so important fail--and it's totally predictable.
Let them send the "government" the bill to tie your tubes if you are done having kids and don't want another surprise. Can you say V-A-S-E-C-T-O-M-Y boys and girls?
GET SERIOUS.
Universal Abortion Health Care Coverage? Have you lost your mind?
Saturday, July 18, 2009
New York Loves Sonia
Watch CBS Videos Online
Did Bloomberg just call her Sonia "SantaMajor?"
Translation: that would make her a Major Saint.
The Lord Hears The Cry Of The Poor
Blessed Be the Lord.
By: Cynthia L. Butler, an attorney, graduate of Georgetown Law and Cornell University, College of Arts and Sciences based in Washington, DC who serves on the Social Justice Advocay Committee of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown.
In New York, right on 5th Avenue in the middle of Manhattan is an old stone Presbyterian church called appropriately Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. http://www.fapc.org/
While the middle of the prime time shopping district might seem an unlikely place for a church, it was and is wildly popular. It has a beautiful old dark wood panelled ambiance given to the solicitudes of quiet prayer. For over 200 years, the Word of the Lord has been proclaimed there and exposited upon by some of the best and brighest Princeton and Fuller trained Presbyterian pastors in the country.
One of the greatest things that the congregation is proud to pour itself into is its homeless ministry. Believe it or not, in mid-town Manhattan, amidst the wealth of billionaires, Wall Street moguls, Saks Fifth Avenue and the hautest couture blingeries there are homeless people. Lots of them. They sleep in door frames, they smell bad. People walk over them, police scurry them off, shop owners and employees keep them out of the stores and they scrounge the garbage cans for lunch.
The homeless ministry fed, clothed and sheltered overnight homeless people. They have several initiatives, "Meals on Heels" taking food out to the streets to homeless people, "Homeless on the Steps" serving the poor who drop themselves literally at their doorsteps exhausted and the overnight shelter. People from the congregation took turns staying overnight in the rotating shelter of sorts to tend to the homeless and cook for them. Think Saint Francis of Assisi with a better budget.
Apparently the financial interests of mid-town manhattanites got fed up and had enough of these homeless people ruining the neighborhood as they parked themselves lounged on the sidewalk surrounding Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church waiting to be fed or stay the night, no doubt making crazy noises and smelling rather unlike the Channel boutique. The city rounded them up, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian filed for an injunction to stop the city from shutting down the ministry and the city appealed.
There was a lawsuit to expel the homeless and shut down the ministry. Sales must be tumbling. They are a nuissance. It's bad for tourism. Someone buy them a farm in West Virginia and ship them all over there for God's sake. The lawsuit went all the way to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. Guess who sat on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals:
SONIA SOTOMAYOR.
The Lord hears the cry of the poor, blessed be the Lord.
Sonia Sotomayor is not unfamiliar with poverty or people down on their luck. She spent her early years living in the projects in the Bronx. She was from an immigrant background often mocked or made fun of. She sided with her fellow colleagues on the 2nd Circuit to uphold the right of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church to run its homeless ministry even though it attracted lots of----homeless people.
http://www.fapc.org/index.php/news/327-obamas-supreme-court-nominee-upheld-churchs-right-to-minister-to-homeless
The First Amendment Non-Establishment of Religion clause of our US Constitution does not permit the city to interfere with such an essential expression of religious faith in action. First Amendment Religious Freedom issues kept open a homeless ministry - because of Sotomayor and her 2nd Circuit panel friends.
By: Cynthia L. Butler, an attorney, graduate of Georgetown Law and Cornell University, College of Arts and Sciences based in Washington, DC who serves on the Social Justice Advocay Committee of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown.
In New York, right on 5th Avenue in the middle of Manhattan is an old stone Presbyterian church called appropriately Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. http://www.fapc.org/
While the middle of the prime time shopping district might seem an unlikely place for a church, it was and is wildly popular. It has a beautiful old dark wood panelled ambiance given to the solicitudes of quiet prayer. For over 200 years, the Word of the Lord has been proclaimed there and exposited upon by some of the best and brighest Princeton and Fuller trained Presbyterian pastors in the country.
One of the greatest things that the congregation is proud to pour itself into is its homeless ministry. Believe it or not, in mid-town Manhattan, amidst the wealth of billionaires, Wall Street moguls, Saks Fifth Avenue and the hautest couture blingeries there are homeless people. Lots of them. They sleep in door frames, they smell bad. People walk over them, police scurry them off, shop owners and employees keep them out of the stores and they scrounge the garbage cans for lunch.
The homeless ministry fed, clothed and sheltered overnight homeless people. They have several initiatives, "Meals on Heels" taking food out to the streets to homeless people, "Homeless on the Steps" serving the poor who drop themselves literally at their doorsteps exhausted and the overnight shelter. People from the congregation took turns staying overnight in the rotating shelter of sorts to tend to the homeless and cook for them. Think Saint Francis of Assisi with a better budget.
Apparently the financial interests of mid-town manhattanites got fed up and had enough of these homeless people ruining the neighborhood as they parked themselves lounged on the sidewalk surrounding Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church waiting to be fed or stay the night, no doubt making crazy noises and smelling rather unlike the Channel boutique. The city rounded them up, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian filed for an injunction to stop the city from shutting down the ministry and the city appealed.
There was a lawsuit to expel the homeless and shut down the ministry. Sales must be tumbling. They are a nuissance. It's bad for tourism. Someone buy them a farm in West Virginia and ship them all over there for God's sake. The lawsuit went all the way to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. Guess who sat on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals:
SONIA SOTOMAYOR.
The Lord hears the cry of the poor, blessed be the Lord.
Sonia Sotomayor is not unfamiliar with poverty or people down on their luck. She spent her early years living in the projects in the Bronx. She was from an immigrant background often mocked or made fun of. She sided with her fellow colleagues on the 2nd Circuit to uphold the right of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church to run its homeless ministry even though it attracted lots of----homeless people.
http://www.fapc.org/index.php/news/327-obamas-supreme-court-nominee-upheld-churchs-right-to-minister-to-homeless
The First Amendment Non-Establishment of Religion clause of our US Constitution does not permit the city to interfere with such an essential expression of religious faith in action. First Amendment Religious Freedom issues kept open a homeless ministry - because of Sotomayor and her 2nd Circuit panel friends.
Strict Scrutiny applied and the city had no compelling state interest to round up or lock up all the homeless folks. Amicus briefs were filed by religious freedom liberty organizations. http://www.sidley.com/ourpractice/RepDetail.aspx?id=54
http://www.becketfund.org/index.php/case/48.html. The Homeless Shelter stands.
I support SONIA SOTOMAYOR.
For the US SUPREME COURT.
No Communion For You Capitalist GreedMeister
Beliefnet See the article on:
The Pope's New Encyclical: No Communion for Economic Sinners? http://blog.beliefnet.com/progressiverevival/2009/07/the-popes-new-encyclical-no-co.html
By: Paul Raushenbush
Tuesday July 7, 2009
The article references The New York Times reports on the Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate...On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth released by the Vatican. In it Pope Benedict
"...called for a radical rethinking of the global economy, criticizing a growing divide between rich and poor and urging the establishment of a "world political authority" to oversee the economy and work for the "common good." He criticized the current economic system, "where the pernicious effects of sin are evident," and urged financiers in particular to "rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity."
posted by Paul Raushenbush
Permalink Email This
The Pope's New Encyclical: No Communion for Economic Sinners? http://blog.beliefnet.com/progressiverevival/2009/07/the-popes-new-encyclical-no-co.html
By: Paul Raushenbush
Tuesday July 7, 2009
The article references The New York Times reports on the Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate...On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth released by the Vatican. In it Pope Benedict
"...called for a radical rethinking of the global economy, criticizing a growing divide between rich and poor and urging the establishment of a "world political authority" to oversee the economy and work for the "common good." He criticized the current economic system, "where the pernicious effects of sin are evident," and urged financiers in particular to "rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity."
posted by Paul Raushenbush
Permalink Email This
Friday, July 17, 2009
The Empathy Factor.-YOU GO GIRL
Why Humans Have Empathy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frans-de-waal/sotomayers-empathy-not-fo_b_230102.html
And Why Mitch O'Connell lacks it.
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/07/after-fourday-hearing-sotomayor-picks-up-support.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frans-de-waal/sotomayers-empathy-not-fo_b_230102.html
And Why Mitch O'Connell lacks it.
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/07/after-fourday-hearing-sotomayor-picks-up-support.html
You Can't Keep A Good Woman Down
Sotomayor Will Sit on the Supreme Court. Welcome to the Red Mass.
http://news.aol.com/article/sotomayor-senate-confirmation-hearing/570235
There is no valid reason to deny her this position. She has explained away the inartful wording that had the rightists talking heads hysterically seizing on the negative. There is no reason to believe she will be anything but a solidly good jurist. She has that talent of turning even the skeptics in her corner because she is Grace under Fire. She was kind and courteous to even the most inane Senatorial questioning.
People just plain like her. They like her American dream unlikely coming from nowhere in the Bronx projects to the best educational institutions in the country and her stellar career.
We should all be proud to be Americans when Sotomayor gets confirmed.
http://news.aol.com/article/sotomayor-senate-confirmation-hearing/570235
There is no valid reason to deny her this position. She has explained away the inartful wording that had the rightists talking heads hysterically seizing on the negative. There is no reason to believe she will be anything but a solidly good jurist. She has that talent of turning even the skeptics in her corner because she is Grace under Fire. She was kind and courteous to even the most inane Senatorial questioning.
People just plain like her. They like her American dream unlikely coming from nowhere in the Bronx projects to the best educational institutions in the country and her stellar career.
We should all be proud to be Americans when Sotomayor gets confirmed.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Scandal Terry-orist
When the Tactics Defeat the Purpose
There is an interesting article in yesterday's Post on Randall Terry's anti-abortion antics-some of which are on display this week at the Supreme Court. They involve things like ghoolish fake blood poured all over baby dolls in carriages and copies of Roe v. Wade, the opinion.
Randall Terry, who scandalizes thinking educated Catholics everywhere who have grappled and wrestled with the most effective way to communicate a message in a way that allows the hearer to be receptive to the speaker sets back the anti-abortion cause about 30 years- at least.
This is the guy creating obnoxious fumes for Obama at Notre Dame. The article states that he has moved to Alexandria to inflict his antics on Washingtonians. He is targetting Bishops and Archbishops these days who give communion to the "baby killer" Nancy Pelosi and the like-proudly Catholic politicians who don't see the legislative agenda the Republicans mandated as the best means by which abortions would be dramatically reduced or eliminated.
These people like Terry are not well versed in the Supreme Court opinions at all- they tout a party line that does not consider essential things like - if you discount a woman's mental health and she kills herself absent an artificial womb scenario you have lost the embryo/fetus also when the woman dies. This point apparently stumps the Randal Terrys of the world who think that the suicidal pregnant woman is a myth- even in the age of easy overdoses and a culture of wildly over-pharmaceuticated chemical -drug abuse.
So Mr. Terry in his rented house in Alexandria should find another way to make a living- I hear he is pretty good with a loudspeaker calling people whose strategy he disagrees with "baby killers"- what if we post him on the median on Rockville Pike to announce the sales at Costco.
There's an honest living.
That said, where is the Privacy Right when someone else is there?
Doesn't the Privacy Right (penumbrally extrapolated) circularly assume no one else worth counting is there? Think about it.
There is an interesting article in yesterday's Post on Randall Terry's anti-abortion antics-some of which are on display this week at the Supreme Court. They involve things like ghoolish fake blood poured all over baby dolls in carriages and copies of Roe v. Wade, the opinion.
Randall Terry, who scandalizes thinking educated Catholics everywhere who have grappled and wrestled with the most effective way to communicate a message in a way that allows the hearer to be receptive to the speaker sets back the anti-abortion cause about 30 years- at least.
This is the guy creating obnoxious fumes for Obama at Notre Dame. The article states that he has moved to Alexandria to inflict his antics on Washingtonians. He is targetting Bishops and Archbishops these days who give communion to the "baby killer" Nancy Pelosi and the like-proudly Catholic politicians who don't see the legislative agenda the Republicans mandated as the best means by which abortions would be dramatically reduced or eliminated.
These people like Terry are not well versed in the Supreme Court opinions at all- they tout a party line that does not consider essential things like - if you discount a woman's mental health and she kills herself absent an artificial womb scenario you have lost the embryo/fetus also when the woman dies. This point apparently stumps the Randal Terrys of the world who think that the suicidal pregnant woman is a myth- even in the age of easy overdoses and a culture of wildly over-pharmaceuticated chemical -drug abuse.
So Mr. Terry in his rented house in Alexandria should find another way to make a living- I hear he is pretty good with a loudspeaker calling people whose strategy he disagrees with "baby killers"- what if we post him on the median on Rockville Pike to announce the sales at Costco.
There's an honest living.
That said, where is the Privacy Right when someone else is there?
Doesn't the Privacy Right (penumbrally extrapolated) circularly assume no one else worth counting is there? Think about it.
Who Says The French Are Heathens?
Laicite doesn't mean Atheism
Famous French Marian town has a huge festival upcoming in August celebrating all things Mary- Queen of the Saints. Yet another fantastic reason to visit France.
http://www.festivalmarial.com/
Famous French Marian town has a huge festival upcoming in August celebrating all things Mary- Queen of the Saints. Yet another fantastic reason to visit France.
http://www.festivalmarial.com/
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
First Witness For The Proscution
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Ex-Powell aide suggests CIA assassination program was actually active
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/15/wilkerson-cia-program-active/
The secret CIA program allegedly aimed at assassinating suspected terrorists abroad has raised the eyebrows of at least one former senior Bush Administration official who hints that the program may have actually gone into effect, despite the denials of the agency and congressional staff who have been briefed.
The aide, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, was chief of staff to Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell. He says he heard “echoes” of the program from US ambassadors abroad, who informed him that clandestine military teams were being dispatched to their countries.
“We, very early on, after 9/11, at the State Department, learned from our ambassadors in the field that there were teams being dispatched to their cities, to their countries, and these teams were clandestine and essentially aimed at capturing al Qaeda leaders or al Qaeda affiliates and interrogating them,” Wilkerson told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Tuesday. “So the fact that it might have gravitated over to the CIA or the CIA might have joined in, which is something that happens a lot these days with Delta Force and other special operators is no surprise to me.
“What I suspect has happened is what began to happen while I was still in the government, and that was we’re killing the wrong people,” Wilkerson added. “And we’re killing the wrong people in the wrong countries. And the countries are finding out about it, or at least there was a suspicion that the countries might find out about it, and so it was shut down. That’s my strong suspicion.”
CIA Director Leon Panetta announced this month that he’d shut down the program last month when he first learned about it.
The State Department, under Colin Powell, asked the Pentagon which countries were being targeted but found out little information from then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Wilkerson asserts.
“After some hemming and hawing, which was Rumsfeld’s forte, he finally admitted that he had dispatched some of these teams,” Wilkerson explained. “I don’t think we ever knew the full range of his deployments.” Wilkerson believes the CIA became involved in the program of targeted assassinations later.
“It’s laughable [the idea] that the CIA has never lied to Congress,” Wilkerson quipped. “They lie to Congress on a routine basis,” said Wilkerson. Historically, it’s presidents that take the fall when the CIA lies to Congress. Wilkerson says it’s unprecedented for a vice president to fill that role as Cheney appears to have done.
This video is from MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast July 14, 2009.
Download video via RawReplay.com
-David Edwards
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Christians around the Middle East suffering- Papal attention toward the latest attacks in Iraq
HOLY FATHER'S CONCERN OVER ATTACKS ON CHURCHES IN IRAQ
VATICAN CITY, 14 JUL 2009 (VIS; official Vatican Information Service)-
Benedict XVI has expressed his concern over last weekend's attacks on eight Christian churches in Baghdad and Mosul, Iraq, which left four people dead and many injured.
In a telegram sent to Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. says that the Pope "prays for a conversion of heart in the authors of this violence, and encourages the authorities to do everything possible to promote just and peaceful coexistence among all sectors of the Iraqi population".
The Holy Father, says the telegram, "also gives assurances of his prayers and his spiritual closeness to the Catholic and Orthodox communities of the Iraqi capital".
VATICAN CITY, 14 JUL 2009 (VIS; official Vatican Information Service)-
Benedict XVI has expressed his concern over last weekend's attacks on eight Christian churches in Baghdad and Mosul, Iraq, which left four people dead and many injured.
In a telegram sent to Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. says that the Pope "prays for a conversion of heart in the authors of this violence, and encourages the authorities to do everything possible to promote just and peaceful coexistence among all sectors of the Iraqi population".
The Holy Father, says the telegram, "also gives assurances of his prayers and his spiritual closeness to the Catholic and Orthodox communities of the Iraqi capital".
Monday, July 13, 2009
ORDER IN THE COURT AND SENATE CONFIRMATION HEARINGS
WARNING- ALL NUTTY OUTBURSTS WILL BE DRAGGED OUT ON THEIR ARSE AND PROSECUTED TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW. Keep the Crazies Out.
Here Come The Judge, Here Come The Judge.
Famous Priest from Paris to Speak at Historic Sixth and I Synagogue July 28
FATHER PATRICK DESBOIS Tuesday, July 28 at 7:00 pm Visiting from Paris, Father Desbois will speak about his extraordinary work in unearthing evidence of Nazi atrocities in Ukraine from 1941-1944. Buy tickets here.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Let There Be Light
And There Was. And It Was All Good.
Supreme Poo-Bah sums it up nicely here:
He's the President. Deal With It.
Murdock's Madhouse
You can Never Be Too Blonde.
"A Summary Judgment Motion is an opinion that is brief." said Laura Ingrahm on the Bill O'Really show last night discussing Sotomayer's Ricci opinion. She meant to say A summary judgment motion is an opinion that is a summary. That's because she must not expect that any real lawyers are actually watching.
The only thing more hysterical than the blonde mouths castigating supreme court choices (Laura Ingrams has a degree in what? communications? home ec? cosmetology? fashion?) is
Rep. King feeling qualified to judge the dancing talents of Michael Jackson.
At least Ann Coulter has a law degree. And I guarantee you she wasn't No. 1 in her class at Princeton as was Sotomayor- in fact she went to Cornell and Princeton beat us at Crew. And another one for Ann- in case anyone gets the misguided notion to make us watch her on Fox for a solid few hearing days- while Michigan Law might be considered the "Harvard of the Midwest", Sotomayor went to the Harvard of Harvard. The real one. The one in Cambridge. The one Ann didn't get into.
A Summary Judgment MOTION (for everyone who has never either been in a court, a lawsuit, had a lawyer as a relative, or been to law school) is not an OPINION, it's a MOTION asking the court for an OPINION after the other side has a chance to respond. Further, a Summary Judgment MOTION doesn't have to be all that "brief"- the "brief" portion is typically limited to a certain number of pages depending on the court (State, Federal, etc....25 pages, 30 pages,) and it can have a pile of Exhibits numbering in the hundreds if necessary....
Laura, Laura, Laura. If only your education matched your passionate vitriol.
Is this the formula for successful talking head punditry? No matter how unknowledgeable all one has to do is spit bottle blonde nastiness and half the country buys it? Because I am just about ready to dunk my head in a vat of peroxide so I can set the record straight.
And then she blasted the San Francisco Mayor's initiative to keep californians healthy and fit by
his initiative to reform the menus in schools and prisons demanding her Cheetos. http://www.examiner.com/x-7030-SF-Sustainable-Food-Examiner~y2009m7d8-Mayor-Gavin-Newsom-announces-a-regional-sustainable-food-policy-for-San-Francisco
"A Summary Judgment Motion is an opinion that is brief." said Laura Ingrahm on the Bill O'Really show last night discussing Sotomayer's Ricci opinion. She meant to say A summary judgment motion is an opinion that is a summary. That's because she must not expect that any real lawyers are actually watching.
The only thing more hysterical than the blonde mouths castigating supreme court choices (Laura Ingrams has a degree in what? communications? home ec? cosmetology? fashion?) is
Rep. King feeling qualified to judge the dancing talents of Michael Jackson.
At least Ann Coulter has a law degree. And I guarantee you she wasn't No. 1 in her class at Princeton as was Sotomayor- in fact she went to Cornell and Princeton beat us at Crew. And another one for Ann- in case anyone gets the misguided notion to make us watch her on Fox for a solid few hearing days- while Michigan Law might be considered the "Harvard of the Midwest", Sotomayor went to the Harvard of Harvard. The real one. The one in Cambridge. The one Ann didn't get into.
A Summary Judgment MOTION (for everyone who has never either been in a court, a lawsuit, had a lawyer as a relative, or been to law school) is not an OPINION, it's a MOTION asking the court for an OPINION after the other side has a chance to respond. Further, a Summary Judgment MOTION doesn't have to be all that "brief"- the "brief" portion is typically limited to a certain number of pages depending on the court (State, Federal, etc....25 pages, 30 pages,) and it can have a pile of Exhibits numbering in the hundreds if necessary....
Laura, Laura, Laura. If only your education matched your passionate vitriol.
Is this the formula for successful talking head punditry? No matter how unknowledgeable all one has to do is spit bottle blonde nastiness and half the country buys it? Because I am just about ready to dunk my head in a vat of peroxide so I can set the record straight.
And then she blasted the San Francisco Mayor's initiative to keep californians healthy and fit by
his initiative to reform the menus in schools and prisons demanding her Cheetos. http://www.examiner.com/x-7030-SF-Sustainable-Food-Examiner~y2009m7d8-Mayor-Gavin-Newsom-announces-a-regional-sustainable-food-policy-for-San-Francisco
Didn't she have CANCER not too long ago? Did no one tell her about the macrobiotic connection between nutrition and cancer? Is she kidding. "Food" made of orange dye, plastic and chemicals in heathy doses can have nothing whatsoever to do with health (not that Cheetos is made of that- don't sue me Cheetos or I might have to write a brief Summary Judgment motion brief, er opinion,) neither does ingesting vast quantities of radioactive processed styrofoam we call lunch lately, does it. SERIOUSLY!
Are we in a 'I'll say anything indignantly if you pay me enough" culture? Is this the real culture war- between the Irate Indignant Ignorant (I--cubed) and the more thoughtful reflective semi-silent majority? Thank God we have at least that flaming red head Joy Behar.
Are we in a 'I'll say anything indignantly if you pay me enough" culture? Is this the real culture war- between the Irate Indignant Ignorant (I--cubed) and the more thoughtful reflective semi-silent majority? Thank God we have at least that flaming red head Joy Behar.
POSTSCRIPT- ERRATA CORRECTION. Sotomayor went to Yale, not Harvard law. Also a school Ann didn't go to. Yale is arguably the top Law School in the Country depending on who you ask.
The full coverage of Sotomayor's confirmation hearings are airing on Maryland Public Television station.
BEST WISHES FOR HER CONFIRMATION. HOW WONDERFUL TO HAVE HER.
Friday, July 10, 2009
What If The Catholics Are Right?
A reporter today said on morning news TV that for today's Obama meeting with the Pope it is unlikely that any reporter is going to shout rudely "Hey Bennie" or the like at the Pope to get
questions answered as one might shout at for example the Brazilian President because a certain amount of solemn reverence is due someone who is the titular and religious head of a BILLION people around the world. "What If The Catholics Are Right!" he said.
THE OTHER GUILIANI- Today's Saint.
Someone else deeply misunderstood and slandered for being so good they couldn't stand it.
St. Veronica Giuliani (1660-1727)
Veronica’s desire to be like Christ crucified was answered with the stigmata.
Veronica was born in Mercatelli. It is said that when her mother Benedetta was dying she called her five daughters to her bedside and entrusted each of them to one of the five wounds of Jesus. Veronica was entrusted to the wound below Christ’s heart.
At the age of 17, Veronica joined the Poor Clares directed by the Capuchins (a franciscan order). Her father had wanted her to marry, but she convinced him to allow her to become a nun. In her first years in the monastery, she worked in the kitchen, infirmary, sacristy and served as portress. At the age of 34, she was made novice mistress, a position she held for 22 years. When she was 37, Veronica received the stigmata. Life was not the same after that.
Church authorities in Rome wanted to test Veronica’s authenticity and so conducted an investigation. She lost the office of novice mistress temporarily and was not allowed to attend Mass except on Sundays or holy days. Through all of this Veronica did not become bitter, and the investigation eventually restored her as novice mistress.
Though she protested against it, at the age of 56 she was elected abbess, an office she held for 11 years until her death. Veronica was very devoted to the Eucharist and to the Sacred Heart. She offered her sufferings for the missions. Veronica was canonized in 1839.
questions answered as one might shout at for example the Brazilian President because a certain amount of solemn reverence is due someone who is the titular and religious head of a BILLION people around the world. "What If The Catholics Are Right!" he said.
THE OTHER GUILIANI- Today's Saint.
Someone else deeply misunderstood and slandered for being so good they couldn't stand it.
St. Veronica Giuliani (1660-1727)
Veronica’s desire to be like Christ crucified was answered with the stigmata.
Veronica was born in Mercatelli. It is said that when her mother Benedetta was dying she called her five daughters to her bedside and entrusted each of them to one of the five wounds of Jesus. Veronica was entrusted to the wound below Christ’s heart.
At the age of 17, Veronica joined the Poor Clares directed by the Capuchins (a franciscan order). Her father had wanted her to marry, but she convinced him to allow her to become a nun. In her first years in the monastery, she worked in the kitchen, infirmary, sacristy and served as portress. At the age of 34, she was made novice mistress, a position she held for 22 years. When she was 37, Veronica received the stigmata. Life was not the same after that.
Church authorities in Rome wanted to test Veronica’s authenticity and so conducted an investigation. She lost the office of novice mistress temporarily and was not allowed to attend Mass except on Sundays or holy days. Through all of this Veronica did not become bitter, and the investigation eventually restored her as novice mistress.
Though she protested against it, at the age of 56 she was elected abbess, an office she held for 11 years until her death. Veronica was very devoted to the Eucharist and to the Sacred Heart. She offered her sufferings for the missions. Veronica was canonized in 1839.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Take the Test
How Narcissistic Are You Really
Answer and scale yourself.
1/ You google yourself weekly
2/ You prefer reading about yourself than talking to the reporter/blogger
3/ You prefer talking to reporters/bloggers than your boy or girlfriend or spouse
4/ You try to make eye contact with people you think look hot but don't talk to people asking
for directions or help
5/ You prefer making speeches than having cappuccino.
6/ The Mirror is your best friend and you check in with it several times daily
7/ You make people call you and wait days before you call back.
8/ You can't stop posting your picture to your blog.
9/ You can't stop emailing your picture for others to post to their blogs.
10/Over half your facebook pictures are all You.
If you answered YES to 10 of these you are a classic tragic hopeless pitiful Narcisist.
If you answered YES to 8 of these you are a silly scary selfish Narcisist
If you answered YES to 5 of these you are a stupid Narcisist
If you answered YES to 3 of these you are just a bit of a lonely Ass.
Answer and scale yourself.
1/ You google yourself weekly
2/ You prefer reading about yourself than talking to the reporter/blogger
3/ You prefer talking to reporters/bloggers than your boy or girlfriend or spouse
4/ You try to make eye contact with people you think look hot but don't talk to people asking
for directions or help
5/ You prefer making speeches than having cappuccino.
6/ The Mirror is your best friend and you check in with it several times daily
7/ You make people call you and wait days before you call back.
8/ You can't stop posting your picture to your blog.
9/ You can't stop emailing your picture for others to post to their blogs.
10/Over half your facebook pictures are all You.
If you answered YES to 10 of these you are a classic tragic hopeless pitiful Narcisist.
If you answered YES to 8 of these you are a silly scary selfish Narcisist
If you answered YES to 5 of these you are a stupid Narcisist
If you answered YES to 3 of these you are just a bit of a lonely Ass.
I Rise In Support
Of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee's Michael Jackson Resolution
On Michael Jackson:
"The Greatest Dancer of Our Time"
Fred Astaire
"He did a little dancin'"
Rep. King
I am astounded, floored, flabbergasted, shocked and stunned to hear of all the vitriolic diabribe against Michael Jackson who was never convicted of ANYTHING other than being the victim of hateful exploitative extortive rumor.
Small minded bitter haters whose ego cannot handle real raw God-given talent because they can't recognize what they so lack label him with every vile epithet so vile I dare repeat it not here.
The man was someone who inspired a foreign country to rename a town after him. He inspired children around the world to sing with Joy.
His own daughter, his greatest testimony called him the best father in the world.
Anyone who has been the object of vicious jealousy can tell you that people cannot stand it when other people threaten their distorted egos into reality checking their self-perceptions. These are puny people. Compound that with the deep seated racism that compells white people to rip apart any black person of obvious superior talent and spirit because they cannot stand a superior Black Person confronting their own puniness.
They have to tear them down, even by inventing total lies about them. I am disgusted, outraged and appauled by people like Rep. King and Bill O'REALLY! for propagating total unsubstantiated untruths, like his kids were not conceived with his sperm- his kids LOOK more than a bit like his mother for God's sake. You people ought to be deeply ashamed of yourselves.
I say this as a white person (ok, more than moderately freckled and I tan really well)- You white people don't even see how racist you are. It is time to go to Confession.
On Michael Jackson:
"The Greatest Dancer of Our Time"
Fred Astaire
"He did a little dancin'"
Rep. King
I am astounded, floored, flabbergasted, shocked and stunned to hear of all the vitriolic diabribe against Michael Jackson who was never convicted of ANYTHING other than being the victim of hateful exploitative extortive rumor.
Small minded bitter haters whose ego cannot handle real raw God-given talent because they can't recognize what they so lack label him with every vile epithet so vile I dare repeat it not here.
The man was someone who inspired a foreign country to rename a town after him. He inspired children around the world to sing with Joy.
His own daughter, his greatest testimony called him the best father in the world.
Anyone who has been the object of vicious jealousy can tell you that people cannot stand it when other people threaten their distorted egos into reality checking their self-perceptions. These are puny people. Compound that with the deep seated racism that compells white people to rip apart any black person of obvious superior talent and spirit because they cannot stand a superior Black Person confronting their own puniness.
They have to tear them down, even by inventing total lies about them. I am disgusted, outraged and appauled by people like Rep. King and Bill O'REALLY! for propagating total unsubstantiated untruths, like his kids were not conceived with his sperm- his kids LOOK more than a bit like his mother for God's sake. You people ought to be deeply ashamed of yourselves.
I say this as a white person (ok, more than moderately freckled and I tan really well)- You white people don't even see how racist you are. It is time to go to Confession.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Shout Out To My French Friends- Happy Bastille Day!
It's actually July 14, but the party at La Maison is on Saturday, July 11th. [It's like the French 4th of July]
You want to be there:
La Maison Fran̤aise and the Comit̩ Tricolore invite you to celebrate "Bastille Day at the Embassy of France," an evening of feasting, music and dance on Saturday, July 11 from 7:00 p.m. Р12:00 a.m!Take an imaginary trip to France as you visit different Parisian "arrondissements" (neighborhoods) throughout the evening. Cocktails and a silent auction will begin the festivities. You will have a chance to bid on restaurant and hotel vouchers, paintings and other pieces of art, as well as luxury items!In our caf̩s, chefs from the area's most prestigious kitchens (Caf̩ du Parc/ Willard InterContinental Washington, URBAN Bistrot/Sofitel, Ritz Carlton, La Ferme Restaurant, Bastille Restaurant, Ronald Reagan International Trade Center and Panorama Bakery) will offer mouth-watering creations.A luscious dessert service (P̢tisserie Poupon and Cacao Fine European Chocolate & Pastry) will follow and open bars will serve a variety of refreshing spirits and soft drinks. Throughout the evening enjoy French cancan music and dancing with singer Simone Marchand (outside under the tent) and accordionist Estelle Sauvain with pianist Ang̩lique Sauvain (inside in the ballroom).
WHAT: Bastille Day 2009…. Ca c’est Paris!
WHAT: Bastille Day 2009…. Ca c’est Paris!
WHEN: Saturday, July 11, 2009 from 7 p.m. to 12a.m.
WHERE: La Maison Française, Embassy of France, 4101 Reservoir Rd, NW
ADMISSION:
- General admission: $85 ($45 tax deductible)- Benefactor ticket: $150 ($110 tax deductible)*
*Benefactor ticket will include a listing of your name in the evening's program and on the official Bastille Day 2009 website.TICKETS: http://www.instantseats.com/
- General admission: $85 ($45 tax deductible)- Benefactor ticket: $150 ($110 tax deductible)*
*Benefactor ticket will include a listing of your name in the evening's program and on the official Bastille Day 2009 website.TICKETS: http://www.instantseats.com/
The Comité Tricolore (http://www.bastille-day.org/)— a coordinating committee of French and French-American associations in the Washington metro area — is a non-profit volunteer organization that provides healthcare support to the sick and elderly in the local French and French-American community. Proceeds from the evening will sustain this mission throughout the year.Celebrate Bastille Day and support a worthy cause!
Warm regards,
Roland Celette
Cultural Attaché Director of La Maison Française
Salut Roland!
Jesus Is a Liberal
And Apparently So Is The Pope
Key Excerpts from Caritas in Veritate:
"Another important consideration is the common good. To love someone is to desire that person's good and to take effective steps to secure it. Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good."
"Another important consideration is the common good. To love someone is to desire that person's good and to take effective steps to secure it. Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good."
"If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Not only is justice not extraneous to charity, not only is it not an alternative or parallel path to charity: justice is inseparable from charity, and intrinsic to it."
"The dignity of the individual and the demands of justice require, particularly today, that economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive and morally unacceptable manner,83 and that we continue to prioritize the goal of access to steady employment for everyone."
"Economic activity cannot solve all social problems through the simple application of commercial logic. This needs to be directed towards the pursuit of the common good, for which the political community in particular must also take responsibility."
Stop The Bus
I WANT TO GET OFF
Oh. I forgot, I can't - I'm in INDEFINITE DETENTION IN GUANTANAMO.
PAAALEEEZE Don't Tell me that this is still remotely an issue - we have people who have never been tried, some of whom have had their so called "confessions" procured by Torture where they say anything to make it stop, and they are still languishing without one iota of real proof or evidence that they were anything other than people caught in the wrong poppy field at the wrong time for a bounty rotting in the third ring of Hell called Gitmo. PALEEEEZE don't tell me that one of the "compromises" Obama is legislatively postured into eating for fear Cheney's daughter is going to pop her fake blonde head all over Meet the Press again to call him 'unsafe' is the indefinite suspension of Habeus Corpus.
GET SERIOUS!!
These men and boys in Gitmo deserve American Justice or they don't deserve to be locked up by Americans.
We don't do this in this country. We don't call people "enemy combattants" without any proof whatsoever that they were anything other than -the other nationality- when we INVADE another country to keep innocent people locked up until they crack their heads against the wall hoping to die.
OBAMA. You were elected to instill the RULE OF LAW here. Get to It NOW. (Before anyone else takes their bedsheets and strings their head through them dangling from the cage above their head.)
Oh. I forgot, I can't - I'm in INDEFINITE DETENTION IN GUANTANAMO.
PAAALEEEZE Don't Tell me that this is still remotely an issue - we have people who have never been tried, some of whom have had their so called "confessions" procured by Torture where they say anything to make it stop, and they are still languishing without one iota of real proof or evidence that they were anything other than people caught in the wrong poppy field at the wrong time for a bounty rotting in the third ring of Hell called Gitmo. PALEEEEZE don't tell me that one of the "compromises" Obama is legislatively postured into eating for fear Cheney's daughter is going to pop her fake blonde head all over Meet the Press again to call him 'unsafe' is the indefinite suspension of Habeus Corpus.
GET SERIOUS!!
These men and boys in Gitmo deserve American Justice or they don't deserve to be locked up by Americans.
We don't do this in this country. We don't call people "enemy combattants" without any proof whatsoever that they were anything other than -the other nationality- when we INVADE another country to keep innocent people locked up until they crack their heads against the wall hoping to die.
OBAMA. You were elected to instill the RULE OF LAW here. Get to It NOW. (Before anyone else takes their bedsheets and strings their head through them dangling from the cage above their head.)
The Elephant in the Room
A Proverb From Somewhere
A large elephant was placed in a large dark room with the lights out. Four people were positioned variously around the elephant and asked to describe what an elephant is.
The first person felt the elephant and said 'an elephant is a smooth hard object ending in a point.' He felt it's tusk.
The second person felt the elephant and said 'an elephant is an ocean of bumpy scratchy wrinkles.' She felt it's back
The third person said 'an elephant is like a rigid columnular tree trunk.' He felt it's leg.
The Fourth person said 'an elephant is a sinewy whip of a fountain that moves with agility and grace.' He felt it's trunk.
Each insisted in the rightness of their opinions vigorously and the truth of their knowledge. Each insisted the others were in apostacy, error and heresy.
All are right. All are wrong. All at the same time.
What is God? Who is God?
God is bigger than a breadbox. God is bigger than an elephant. Who do you say that he is?
Is God the room or the elephant here?
Jesus said "If you have seen me you have seen the father because I and the father are ONE."
A large elephant was placed in a large dark room with the lights out. Four people were positioned variously around the elephant and asked to describe what an elephant is.
The first person felt the elephant and said 'an elephant is a smooth hard object ending in a point.' He felt it's tusk.
The second person felt the elephant and said 'an elephant is an ocean of bumpy scratchy wrinkles.' She felt it's back
The third person said 'an elephant is like a rigid columnular tree trunk.' He felt it's leg.
The Fourth person said 'an elephant is a sinewy whip of a fountain that moves with agility and grace.' He felt it's trunk.
Each insisted in the rightness of their opinions vigorously and the truth of their knowledge. Each insisted the others were in apostacy, error and heresy.
All are right. All are wrong. All at the same time.
What is God? Who is God?
God is bigger than a breadbox. God is bigger than an elephant. Who do you say that he is?
Is God the room or the elephant here?
Jesus said "If you have seen me you have seen the father because I and the father are ONE."
Comic Relief from Beliefnet
Bless This Car
A rabbi, a priest and a minister have their houses of worship side by side, so they decide to carpool.
On the first day, the other two are shocked to see the pastor lay hands on the hood and pray silently.
"What are you doing?" the priest asks.
The pastor looks up. "I'm just dedicating the car to the Lord's service."
"Good idea! Be right back!" the priest exclaims, running into his church. He emerges with a bulb on a short stick, shaking water out of it onto the car.
The rabbi stares. "What are you doing?" he says.
"I'm consecrating it with holy water," the priest replies.
"Great idea!" the rabbi says, and runs into his synagogue's toolshed. He emerges with a hacksaw and takes off an inch of the tailpipe.
A rabbi, a priest and a minister have their houses of worship side by side, so they decide to carpool.
On the first day, the other two are shocked to see the pastor lay hands on the hood and pray silently.
"What are you doing?" the priest asks.
The pastor looks up. "I'm just dedicating the car to the Lord's service."
"Good idea! Be right back!" the priest exclaims, running into his church. He emerges with a bulb on a short stick, shaking water out of it onto the car.
The rabbi stares. "What are you doing?" he says.
"I'm consecrating it with holy water," the priest replies.
"Great idea!" the rabbi says, and runs into his synagogue's toolshed. He emerges with a hacksaw and takes off an inch of the tailpipe.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Bye Bye Sweet Prince
Your soul now flies
like the voice that carries
skies to rest on treetops
while lolipops dance in Neverland
Bye Bye Sweet Prince
the lightness of your flying feet
made us swirl like dervishes undefeated
in dreams. Say hello for me
when you meet Jesus and Thank Him
for the music in which he floods our souls
like waterfalls of butterflies, no old
growing in this eternity now.
Bye Bye Sweet Prince, a peaceful rest
and a prayer to light a candle in heaven
for all our songs of distress and joy.
That Pesky Priest
For Life Pavone
I keep getting emails from him even when he ticks me off and I hit the "spam" button because of his clearly partisan perspective-not to mention the aggressive fundraising (if you gave half your budget to pregnant women you would see a lot less abortions).
But I do admire his tenacity. I love having a Priest Stalker.
These Priests for Life do one thing I greatly admire and would like to see more of: they
engage in a healing ministry for women who have had abortions and miscarriages. They have a huge conference coming up in Malvern Pennsylvania TOMORROW (an exquisitely beautiful place this time of year.) The Rachael's Vineyard is the part of the healing ministry for people coping with post-abortive issues (depression, trauma, PTSD, guilt, anxiety, suicidal ideation, etc. )
These women in many cases tend to be the greatest witnesses who encourage people to keep their babies and not preliminarily terminate them. They often suffer deeply the anguish of regret.
Check out Fr. Pavone's website and find out about the Malvern conference:
http://www.priestsforlife.org/
I keep getting emails from him even when he ticks me off and I hit the "spam" button because of his clearly partisan perspective-not to mention the aggressive fundraising (if you gave half your budget to pregnant women you would see a lot less abortions).
But I do admire his tenacity. I love having a Priest Stalker.
These Priests for Life do one thing I greatly admire and would like to see more of: they
engage in a healing ministry for women who have had abortions and miscarriages. They have a huge conference coming up in Malvern Pennsylvania TOMORROW (an exquisitely beautiful place this time of year.) The Rachael's Vineyard is the part of the healing ministry for people coping with post-abortive issues (depression, trauma, PTSD, guilt, anxiety, suicidal ideation, etc. )
These women in many cases tend to be the greatest witnesses who encourage people to keep their babies and not preliminarily terminate them. They often suffer deeply the anguish of regret.
Check out Fr. Pavone's website and find out about the Malvern conference:
http://www.priestsforlife.org/
Top Ten Reasons Palin Really Stepped Down
These are all just rumors and wild unsubstantiated speculation (and opinion, and sarcasm and a joke and not truth-and she's a public figure and no malice intended here, and just clean fun, so there for your disclaimer- don't sue me-you will lose--and it's free for me to defend and I will counter-sue for wasting my time.)
1. Her husband said she was costing them too much money
2. She was more interested in the sale on Elizabeth Arden than arms sales to Afghanistan
3. She still couldn't stay awake reading one Supreme Court opinion to tell Katie Couric about
4. She figured out no one was going to pay her extra for that Alaska pipeline deal
5. Someone told her that it wasn't a political plus to be "lame duck" traveling around on trade junkets to exciting places internationally because she might be seen as actually learning something about foreign cultures and the base hates foreigner cultures- especially french ones.
6. Her legal debt caused her to cancel her credit card at Nordstroms and she has nothing now to wear.
7. She still doesn't have an answer for Katie Couric's question on "what newspapers do you regularly read" and was advised not to say "Vogue" or "O" again.
8. It's funner to be behind the cameras talking about bubble gum than sitting in Alaska state assembly sessions debating anything of substance- especially when you get free make-up before the show.
9. Her kids want her around more to play Twister with. "Hell yeah!"
10. She can't keep a good parental control eye on all the 14 year old's apologetic emails from Letterman unless she is closer to the house.
1. Her husband said she was costing them too much money
2. She was more interested in the sale on Elizabeth Arden than arms sales to Afghanistan
3. She still couldn't stay awake reading one Supreme Court opinion to tell Katie Couric about
4. She figured out no one was going to pay her extra for that Alaska pipeline deal
5. Someone told her that it wasn't a political plus to be "lame duck" traveling around on trade junkets to exciting places internationally because she might be seen as actually learning something about foreign cultures and the base hates foreigner cultures- especially french ones.
6. Her legal debt caused her to cancel her credit card at Nordstroms and she has nothing now to wear.
7. She still doesn't have an answer for Katie Couric's question on "what newspapers do you regularly read" and was advised not to say "Vogue" or "O" again.
8. It's funner to be behind the cameras talking about bubble gum than sitting in Alaska state assembly sessions debating anything of substance- especially when you get free make-up before the show.
9. Her kids want her around more to play Twister with. "Hell yeah!"
10. She can't keep a good parental control eye on all the 14 year old's apologetic emails from Letterman unless she is closer to the house.
Remember Cheney's Energy Task Force?
We Still Aren't Sure Who All Was On It
And as if we needed more proof that the invasion of Iraq was inspired by the Oil Execs, here it is: http://www.truthout.org/070309J?n
And Keith Olberman is right: there was no 9-11 or Al Q. connection to Saddam Hussein
and they tried to make us think there was from the Veep to the Rice thrower. 4,000 US dead and counting. How many hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis dead and counting.
20,000 severely wounded and/or brain injured US young people and counting.
And in 2004 we might have stopped much of it much sooner had Kerry been elected- so don't tell me about "Life."
And as if we needed more proof that the invasion of Iraq was inspired by the Oil Execs, here it is: http://www.truthout.org/070309J?n
And Keith Olberman is right: there was no 9-11 or Al Q. connection to Saddam Hussein
and they tried to make us think there was from the Veep to the Rice thrower. 4,000 US dead and counting. How many hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis dead and counting.
20,000 severely wounded and/or brain injured US young people and counting.
And in 2004 we might have stopped much of it much sooner had Kerry been elected- so don't tell me about "Life."
Monday, July 06, 2009
For you scholarly biblical types
Ancient Text on line.
http://news.aol.com/article/codex-sinaiticus-bible-online/556962?icid=mainmaindl1link6http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fcodex-sinaiticus-bible-online%2F556962
And in the news you wished you missed:
Obama laid a wreath at the RUSSIAN tomb of the unkown soldier and
Kennedy's Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara died the same day. I wish I didn't see a connection.
http://news.aol.com/article/codex-sinaiticus-bible-online/556962?icid=mainmaindl1link6http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fcodex-sinaiticus-bible-online%2F556962
And in the news you wished you missed:
Obama laid a wreath at the RUSSIAN tomb of the unkown soldier and
Kennedy's Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara died the same day. I wish I didn't see a connection.
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