Jose Marie Escriva
A Spanish Attorney turned Priest who founded the Opus Dei order.
http://www.josemariaescriva.info/
(Not what you think it is- forget about that albino monk thing in the movies- this is the real deal- ordinary people manifesting God's love in extraordinary ways in every profession on the planet.)
http://www.opusdei.org/
The guy is a Saint- for a reason.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
The Flowers of the Shroud
The Flowers of the Shroud
(click above green link)
Yes, there was a Cross. Yes, there was a crucifiction. Yes, there was a Resurrection.
Yes, there was a dead body wrapped in a traditional burial shroud that has survived through
the ages- because who in the world who knew what it is/was would ever throw such a thing out.
It survived Fires. It survived transcontinental travel. It survived Crusades. It is in Turin, Italy.
As if we needed more proof. That fellow Jesus. Died. BURIED. and Rose from the Dead.
(click above green link)
Yes, there was a Cross. Yes, there was a crucifiction. Yes, there was a Resurrection.
Yes, there was a dead body wrapped in a traditional burial shroud that has survived through
the ages- because who in the world who knew what it is/was would ever throw such a thing out.
It survived Fires. It survived transcontinental travel. It survived Crusades. It is in Turin, Italy.
As if we needed more proof. That fellow Jesus. Died. BURIED. and Rose from the Dead.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Most Moving Award
Goes To A DC Slam Poet Hadaiyah Bey
This is a young African American poet lady who raps in poetry jams about the pains of her abortion. It is a healing thing for her, she still remembers and thinks about what it would have been like to hold tiny hands in hers. She raps and rhymes and at the end wipes tears from her eyes because it all comes back to her. Last night a poetry jam at the Foundry Gallery in DC featured some of DC's best young poets, and her star shone bright.
She is found on youtube (plug in ya-yaa@spitdat which is her email on youtube and you will pull her up) or email her at hadaiyahbey@yahoo.com
Raps and Rhymes and Wipes Tears from her Eyes
If you are interested in having this beautiful young lady present her art to your church group she will inspire hearts. She is raw and real and eloquently expresses the emotions of her experience.
She should have an abridged version of her long jam in a public service announcement psa type commercial against Abortion which is a public health scourge because it not only kills a life but it emotionally devastates too many young women creating all kinds of problems. Why is there no serious government effort warning people about the real health dangers and risks of abortions? This is much more serious than tobacco use or drug use even. Have you looked at the comparative statistics on death by abortion compared to by car accident due to drunk drivers or death by tobacco smoking? Nearly fifty million people have died by abortion in this country in the last thirty years. We only have three hundred million in the country. That's about a holocaust sized death pit for in utero infants the size of Canada.
It's a mass murder of the innocents directly out the mind of the Devil. Who needs Aztec human sacrifice if we have so perverted our thinking that abortion is a civil right and a routine practice by our young women?
I don't have a human right to run over anyone getting in my way if i am in a hurry. I don't even have a human right to run over your flowers if I want to cut through your yard. But we apparently have a human civil right to wipe our children off the planet by killing what grows in utero for any reason we find inconvenient or challenging.
That is the opposite of
Faith, Love and Charity. That is why it's the
Devil's plot.
This is a young African American poet lady who raps in poetry jams about the pains of her abortion. It is a healing thing for her, she still remembers and thinks about what it would have been like to hold tiny hands in hers. She raps and rhymes and at the end wipes tears from her eyes because it all comes back to her. Last night a poetry jam at the Foundry Gallery in DC featured some of DC's best young poets, and her star shone bright.
She is found on youtube (plug in ya-yaa@spitdat which is her email on youtube and you will pull her up) or email her at hadaiyahbey@yahoo.com
Raps and Rhymes and Wipes Tears from her Eyes
If you are interested in having this beautiful young lady present her art to your church group she will inspire hearts. She is raw and real and eloquently expresses the emotions of her experience.
She should have an abridged version of her long jam in a public service announcement psa type commercial against Abortion which is a public health scourge because it not only kills a life but it emotionally devastates too many young women creating all kinds of problems. Why is there no serious government effort warning people about the real health dangers and risks of abortions? This is much more serious than tobacco use or drug use even. Have you looked at the comparative statistics on death by abortion compared to by car accident due to drunk drivers or death by tobacco smoking? Nearly fifty million people have died by abortion in this country in the last thirty years. We only have three hundred million in the country. That's about a holocaust sized death pit for in utero infants the size of Canada.
It's a mass murder of the innocents directly out the mind of the Devil. Who needs Aztec human sacrifice if we have so perverted our thinking that abortion is a civil right and a routine practice by our young women?
I don't have a human right to run over anyone getting in my way if i am in a hurry. I don't even have a human right to run over your flowers if I want to cut through your yard. But we apparently have a human civil right to wipe our children off the planet by killing what grows in utero for any reason we find inconvenient or challenging.
That is the opposite of
Faith, Love and Charity. That is why it's the
Devil's plot.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Congratulations
To Two Other Fathers
Father Wallace, a Redemptorist Priest celebrates his fortieth year since ordination to the day tomorrow, and a brand new priest Charlie Gallagher, who has been studying in Rome just got ordained yesterday. Blessings, Blessings. Now that calls for a celebration. Father Wallace has spent one Sunday a month at Holy Trinity in Georgetown and is otherwise faculty at the Washington Theological Union. Charlie Gallagher is at the North American College in Rome where he will return to complete studies for one more year.
Pray For Us All.
Father Wallace, a Redemptorist Priest celebrates his fortieth year since ordination to the day tomorrow, and a brand new priest Charlie Gallagher, who has been studying in Rome just got ordained yesterday. Blessings, Blessings. Now that calls for a celebration. Father Wallace has spent one Sunday a month at Holy Trinity in Georgetown and is otherwise faculty at the Washington Theological Union. Charlie Gallagher is at the North American College in Rome where he will return to complete studies for one more year.
Pray For Us All.
Happy Father's Day
To Saint Joseph and all Fathers, living and in heaven.
Trinity Broadcasting Network which has also some great programming ran a movie made in Rome on "Joseph of Nazareth" which had a beautiful depiction of the Blessed Mother that I highly recommend seeing. It's the first one I have seen on screen that remotely comports with what i think she may have actually looked like. The actors are mostly italians and the period costumery very authentic.
Call 1-888-731-1000 to inquire about getting a copy.
Trinity Broadcasting Network which has also some great programming ran a movie made in Rome on "Joseph of Nazareth" which had a beautiful depiction of the Blessed Mother that I highly recommend seeing. It's the first one I have seen on screen that remotely comports with what i think she may have actually looked like. The actors are mostly italians and the period costumery very authentic.
Call 1-888-731-1000 to inquire about getting a copy.
Asking to be prosecuted
For Hate Speech.
I won't identify which priest did this on EWTN last night because it will cause an immediate investigation into his hate speech but it's outrageous and EWTN should pull him from their line up of otherwise great programming.
This character priest who has turned his talks into an industry railed last night against apostacy
for what he views the church teachings to be, and said anyone who disagrees should be lined up by the Bishops before a firing squad if they had any balls essentially. I am not kidding. Full of spit and vinegar and nothing of the love of Christ apparent, he railed against those who, for example thought the church's teaching on contraception lacking, which would include me, for example and all the protestant world basically, should be deemed a traitor and lined up before a firing squad before the Bishops. In this age of people openly saying that they are going to 'exercise their second amendment rights' if their candidates are not elected (Sharon Angel)
this is reckless irresponsible hate speech. No question about it. It clearly incites violence. The people in the crowd, mostly it appeared students or graduate theolical types, probably at a place like steubenville all chuckled like it was funny or applauded loudly. He was calling for a physical punishment for an inquisition.
As a convert I never would have in a million years joined a church like this person is reflecting in the first place if he ever showed up within a thousand miles of my RCIA class. It's insanely ignorant and medieval. It is not more moral, more holy or more God. It's the egotistical ranting of a priest looking for a prosecution.
He said that the fight of the moral issues is the fight of heaven, OK, fine, then said "Your Mother Wears Army Boots" or combat boots in noting that the blessed mother does battle with the devil. Yes, but he completely misses the point that they do it with Love and non violently. Because central to the power of the cross is that Love conquers all evil. Jesus rebuked Peter when he took a sword to cut off the ear of the romans capturing Jesus in Gethsemene. It's about time today's Peter did a little firm rebuking of this sort of egotistical evil in his priesthood.
If this sort of rhetoric was coming from the pulpit in eighteenth century France i now understand why the bulk of the prisoners in the Bastille during the French Revolution were priests.
I don't want this to be a reflection on EWTN which is otherwise a great evangelical outreach that provides very inspiring programming. Earlier in the evening they ran a brilliant special on Saint Theresa of Avila. But followed by this character, I had to turn off the TV and pray for his church, which is in real trouble.
I am sorry but the words "firing squad" and Bishops should never be used in the same sentence. The words "The Bishops should line them up before a firing squad" makes me wonder if a Seminary can revoke a degree and the Bishops revoke an ordination.
I won't identify which priest did this on EWTN last night because it will cause an immediate investigation into his hate speech but it's outrageous and EWTN should pull him from their line up of otherwise great programming.
This character priest who has turned his talks into an industry railed last night against apostacy
for what he views the church teachings to be, and said anyone who disagrees should be lined up by the Bishops before a firing squad if they had any balls essentially. I am not kidding. Full of spit and vinegar and nothing of the love of Christ apparent, he railed against those who, for example thought the church's teaching on contraception lacking, which would include me, for example and all the protestant world basically, should be deemed a traitor and lined up before a firing squad before the Bishops. In this age of people openly saying that they are going to 'exercise their second amendment rights' if their candidates are not elected (Sharon Angel)
this is reckless irresponsible hate speech. No question about it. It clearly incites violence. The people in the crowd, mostly it appeared students or graduate theolical types, probably at a place like steubenville all chuckled like it was funny or applauded loudly. He was calling for a physical punishment for an inquisition.
As a convert I never would have in a million years joined a church like this person is reflecting in the first place if he ever showed up within a thousand miles of my RCIA class. It's insanely ignorant and medieval. It is not more moral, more holy or more God. It's the egotistical ranting of a priest looking for a prosecution.
He said that the fight of the moral issues is the fight of heaven, OK, fine, then said "Your Mother Wears Army Boots" or combat boots in noting that the blessed mother does battle with the devil. Yes, but he completely misses the point that they do it with Love and non violently. Because central to the power of the cross is that Love conquers all evil. Jesus rebuked Peter when he took a sword to cut off the ear of the romans capturing Jesus in Gethsemene. It's about time today's Peter did a little firm rebuking of this sort of egotistical evil in his priesthood.
If this sort of rhetoric was coming from the pulpit in eighteenth century France i now understand why the bulk of the prisoners in the Bastille during the French Revolution were priests.
I don't want this to be a reflection on EWTN which is otherwise a great evangelical outreach that provides very inspiring programming. Earlier in the evening they ran a brilliant special on Saint Theresa of Avila. But followed by this character, I had to turn off the TV and pray for his church, which is in real trouble.
I am sorry but the words "firing squad" and Bishops should never be used in the same sentence. The words "The Bishops should line them up before a firing squad" makes me wonder if a Seminary can revoke a degree and the Bishops revoke an ordination.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Is There OIL In Your Make-UP?
Petroleum Based Carcinogens in the Cosmetic Industry.
Did you know that there are oil based, or petroleum based elements in most cosmetics, and even dangerously in baby soaps? http://www.naturalnews.com/021717.html
Don't take my word for it- google it- and learn about all the different petroleum based elements that shockingly go into the 5 Billion Dollar Global Cosmetic Industry. Like you need to smear oil on your skin.
As if oil companies weren't doing enough damage.
There is a Green cosmetic company out there which prides itself on its natural vegan certified petroleum -free products that they call 'pure, safe and beneficial' because they are based on swiss formulas of herbal and plant based blends/extracts. It has been hailed and railed because it is only sold through network marketing- which may be the new way to recession-proof yourself.
The company is called ARBONNE. http://www.arbonne.com/
If you want to learn more email BodyBeautyHealth [at] gmail.com
I signed up- it works like this; you basically pay a fee that is like a Priceclub or B.J.Wholesaler sign up membership fee (very modest start up) and then get discounts on the products which are all in my view superior to most of the stuff in the pharmacy- their line is upscale and they have natural vegan certified products for almost anything you would need in the way of cosmetics, hair care, nutritional supplements, anti-aging and reverse aging skin care, safe baby skin and hair care, and aromatherapeutic products. It is poised to break through some of the traditional markets after working its way out of start up jitters and an early reorganization filing. Totally Petroleum Free.
I like this company. They even have a plant based Omega 3 supplement - you know Fish are going to get expensive everywhere and may not be trusted due to the Gulf nightmare- but the Omega 3 supplement is plant based so it is "pure, safe and beneficial."
If you sign up it should be because you like and value the products but not because you think you will score huge immediately on the network marketing concept because the statistics show that folks at the way top make cha-ching and it is supported by the mass of plebians at the base that support it- there are some aggressive success stories and the company claims it is what you make of it- but if you value GREEN products, it's as competitively priced as the stuff you find in Wholefoods and very high quality I believe.
I am sold.
Did you know that there are oil based, or petroleum based elements in most cosmetics, and even dangerously in baby soaps? http://www.naturalnews.com/021717.html
Don't take my word for it- google it- and learn about all the different petroleum based elements that shockingly go into the 5 Billion Dollar Global Cosmetic Industry. Like you need to smear oil on your skin.
As if oil companies weren't doing enough damage.
There is a Green cosmetic company out there which prides itself on its natural vegan certified petroleum -free products that they call 'pure, safe and beneficial' because they are based on swiss formulas of herbal and plant based blends/extracts. It has been hailed and railed because it is only sold through network marketing- which may be the new way to recession-proof yourself.
The company is called ARBONNE. http://www.arbonne.com/
If you want to learn more email BodyBeautyHealth [at] gmail.com
I signed up- it works like this; you basically pay a fee that is like a Priceclub or B.J.Wholesaler sign up membership fee (very modest start up) and then get discounts on the products which are all in my view superior to most of the stuff in the pharmacy- their line is upscale and they have natural vegan certified products for almost anything you would need in the way of cosmetics, hair care, nutritional supplements, anti-aging and reverse aging skin care, safe baby skin and hair care, and aromatherapeutic products. It is poised to break through some of the traditional markets after working its way out of start up jitters and an early reorganization filing. Totally Petroleum Free.
I like this company. They even have a plant based Omega 3 supplement - you know Fish are going to get expensive everywhere and may not be trusted due to the Gulf nightmare- but the Omega 3 supplement is plant based so it is "pure, safe and beneficial."
If you sign up it should be because you like and value the products but not because you think you will score huge immediately on the network marketing concept because the statistics show that folks at the way top make cha-ching and it is supported by the mass of plebians at the base that support it- there are some aggressive success stories and the company claims it is what you make of it- but if you value GREEN products, it's as competitively priced as the stuff you find in Wholefoods and very high quality I believe.
I am sold.
Welcoming the Stranger
Who is Just a Bit Stranger Than You.
The biblical mandate to welcome the stranger and not mistreat the "alien" because you were aliens in the land of Egypt, and because we are all Sojourners traveling toward heaven, aliens to the Kingdom of God until we get there in God's eyes and because Matthew 25 makes this one of those "social justice" prerequisites to getting there, is obvious. We are a nation of immigrants and it is hard to find someone whose family didn't come from somewhere else-because there are precious few 100% native americans.
But some still can't stand that the trend in America demographically is to de-whiten the place. The melting pot is looking a bit too carmely for them. They have an overriding fear that everything will have to be bilingual -which would be bad because??? Some older white guys don't like to learn new languages and can't??.
The Immigration laws are clearly in need of some reforming-the country does have a "help wanted" sign for menial labor (particularly in hospitality and construction industries) with a "No Trespassing" sign next to it- but equitably how will be the challenge of the Century. The devil is in the details. Now, over twenty percent of the country is from a Spanish speaking country originally. Some call it the Conquistador's revenge. The response to the changing demographic of documented and undocumented has to be humane- and it has to still enforce our Rule of Law not undermine it at the same time.
One Mexican woman at the Brookings event moderated brilliantly by E.J.Dionne in the new Religion/Faith and public policy project Brookings is undertaking noted that no one is forced to hire anyone so the hype that 'they are taking all our jobs' is misplaced- people are free to hire whom they want. The fact is that people at starvation level too proud to beg will work for much less which undercuts the standard of living of the middle class unionized workers. They are union busters. They work for food.
A stranger is welcome typically if they show up and say- Hi, I am new, please help, I'll do anything to get a start. Where do I have to sign up and be counted- like they did at Ellis Island. They are not typically welcome if they break in the back door and squat, and help themselves to anything in the house.
That's not a 'stranger' but a thief.
The jury is out on whether undocumented form the bulk of the new identity theft rings, chop shop drug runners or whether that is a prejudicial over-criminalization assessment. The statistics do support that we are not catching all the undocumented that are clearly a criminal element. In some parts there is even a 'get over' ethic such that thievery is applauded culturally- especially from the wealthy Gringo.
So there has to be enforcement of the rules that underpin the Rule of Law that make societies function and respect for laws that protect everyone.
But the humanitarian response to people struggling to survive, find work and live has to be
in keeping with the compassion worthy of the gospels and the country. The balance of these two impulses is going to be trickier than a high wire trapeze act.
Another often overlooked reason why you want people present and accounted for is so they cannot be exploited- an undocumented worker will not report labor law violations-they will suffer in silence in what verges on slave labor treatment unless they believe they have recourse to the enforcement mechanisms we have to guard against such things. They will be too intimidated by the threat of deportation so suffer sometimes humiliating and degrading underpaid exploitative working conditions. That also undermines our Rule of Law. And it's just rotten.
So we all should start praying-both for the wisdom of Congress and the well-being of our latino Spanish speaking brothers and sisters. What is clear is that current policy is not working and needs a massive overhaul. State or National IDs don't trouble me -they do it in France. What troubles me is those people hiding from law enforcement under stolen IDs while integrating themselves and children into American society without wanting to pay for the privileges of citizenship. That is not every undocumented person's story- but it does beg the question-
do we need to make legalization of citizenship easier or harder or do we just give everyone here a free pass after the /asylum of the late 1980s didn't work?
The biblical mandate to welcome the stranger and not mistreat the "alien" because you were aliens in the land of Egypt, and because we are all Sojourners traveling toward heaven, aliens to the Kingdom of God until we get there in God's eyes and because Matthew 25 makes this one of those "social justice" prerequisites to getting there, is obvious. We are a nation of immigrants and it is hard to find someone whose family didn't come from somewhere else-because there are precious few 100% native americans.
But some still can't stand that the trend in America demographically is to de-whiten the place. The melting pot is looking a bit too carmely for them. They have an overriding fear that everything will have to be bilingual -which would be bad because??? Some older white guys don't like to learn new languages and can't??.
The Immigration laws are clearly in need of some reforming-the country does have a "help wanted" sign for menial labor (particularly in hospitality and construction industries) with a "No Trespassing" sign next to it- but equitably how will be the challenge of the Century. The devil is in the details. Now, over twenty percent of the country is from a Spanish speaking country originally. Some call it the Conquistador's revenge. The response to the changing demographic of documented and undocumented has to be humane- and it has to still enforce our Rule of Law not undermine it at the same time.
One Mexican woman at the Brookings event moderated brilliantly by E.J.Dionne in the new Religion/Faith and public policy project Brookings is undertaking noted that no one is forced to hire anyone so the hype that 'they are taking all our jobs' is misplaced- people are free to hire whom they want. The fact is that people at starvation level too proud to beg will work for much less which undercuts the standard of living of the middle class unionized workers. They are union busters. They work for food.
A stranger is welcome typically if they show up and say- Hi, I am new, please help, I'll do anything to get a start. Where do I have to sign up and be counted- like they did at Ellis Island. They are not typically welcome if they break in the back door and squat, and help themselves to anything in the house.
That's not a 'stranger' but a thief.
The jury is out on whether undocumented form the bulk of the new identity theft rings, chop shop drug runners or whether that is a prejudicial over-criminalization assessment. The statistics do support that we are not catching all the undocumented that are clearly a criminal element. In some parts there is even a 'get over' ethic such that thievery is applauded culturally- especially from the wealthy Gringo.
So there has to be enforcement of the rules that underpin the Rule of Law that make societies function and respect for laws that protect everyone.
But the humanitarian response to people struggling to survive, find work and live has to be
in keeping with the compassion worthy of the gospels and the country. The balance of these two impulses is going to be trickier than a high wire trapeze act.
Another often overlooked reason why you want people present and accounted for is so they cannot be exploited- an undocumented worker will not report labor law violations-they will suffer in silence in what verges on slave labor treatment unless they believe they have recourse to the enforcement mechanisms we have to guard against such things. They will be too intimidated by the threat of deportation so suffer sometimes humiliating and degrading underpaid exploitative working conditions. That also undermines our Rule of Law. And it's just rotten.
So we all should start praying-both for the wisdom of Congress and the well-being of our latino Spanish speaking brothers and sisters. What is clear is that current policy is not working and needs a massive overhaul. State or National IDs don't trouble me -they do it in France. What troubles me is those people hiding from law enforcement under stolen IDs while integrating themselves and children into American society without wanting to pay for the privileges of citizenship. That is not every undocumented person's story- but it does beg the question-
do we need to make legalization of citizenship easier or harder or do we just give everyone here a free pass after the /asylum of the late 1980s didn't work?
The Mayhem Model
And OZ behind the curtain is packed with shotgun heat.
The tea-party 'movement' is a joke of a scam, not a populist uprising. The fact that it has all the hallmarks of a political campaign is not accident. Here is what it is:
Two guys, Dick Armey and Steve Forbes, remember that ridiculously rich guy who ran for President? -they got together and said, here's what we need to create -a movement that looks like it gives populist juice to the corporate causes we get paid handsomely to champion. So they set up the Freedom Works non-profit from an office in Washington. They have access to all the conservative mass email listserves and they start sending out more massive email appeals, and starting a buzz feeding off the general disgruntlement of anyone republican who doesn't like this Administration or just doesn't want a bunch of uppidy smarty pants ivy league black buppies (black yuppies) running our lives.
You use words like 'government take-over' and 'unconstitutional' and 'bailout bonanzas' and 'union slush funds' 'socialist nationalist health' 'death panels' etc....
Get a theme with national appeal-go back to the "Founders" who were all old white guys who owned property. The Boston Tea Party-that works for folks feeling disenfranchised because they didn't get to vote in the candidate they liked.
Its formula is simple and pretty smart because they did manage to create a bit of havoc.
The Financier (Forbes), The Well Known Front Guy (former speaker Armey) and the hoy paloy from hoboken meets the wild west meets the xenophobic racists from Arizona, plus a bit of a nice Jewish blessing from a nice Jewish boy (Billy Krystal) to make it look morally viable and intelligent complete with a new journal that looks like a law review called "National Affairs."
Then mobilize masses of people to town halls, campaign rallies (what-you thought people organized campaign rallies by themselves??) conventions in hotels across the country underwritten in part by the NRA, get an overarching national campaign theme that sounds Freedomy (that snake Don't Tread on Me thing works) and run candidates, but sssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
don't tell anyone
Because then they will figure out that you are run by the same machine and it will just look like another campaign- which it is. Run by two old politicians and the folks who feed off them.
Brilliant- sort of. Except we already figured it out.
The tea-party 'movement' is a joke of a scam, not a populist uprising. The fact that it has all the hallmarks of a political campaign is not accident. Here is what it is:
Two guys, Dick Armey and Steve Forbes, remember that ridiculously rich guy who ran for President? -they got together and said, here's what we need to create -a movement that looks like it gives populist juice to the corporate causes we get paid handsomely to champion. So they set up the Freedom Works non-profit from an office in Washington. They have access to all the conservative mass email listserves and they start sending out more massive email appeals, and starting a buzz feeding off the general disgruntlement of anyone republican who doesn't like this Administration or just doesn't want a bunch of uppidy smarty pants ivy league black buppies (black yuppies) running our lives.
You use words like 'government take-over' and 'unconstitutional' and 'bailout bonanzas' and 'union slush funds' 'socialist nationalist health' 'death panels' etc....
Get a theme with national appeal-go back to the "Founders" who were all old white guys who owned property. The Boston Tea Party-that works for folks feeling disenfranchised because they didn't get to vote in the candidate they liked.
Its formula is simple and pretty smart because they did manage to create a bit of havoc.
The Financier (Forbes), The Well Known Front Guy (former speaker Armey) and the hoy paloy from hoboken meets the wild west meets the xenophobic racists from Arizona, plus a bit of a nice Jewish blessing from a nice Jewish boy (Billy Krystal) to make it look morally viable and intelligent complete with a new journal that looks like a law review called "National Affairs."
Then mobilize masses of people to town halls, campaign rallies (what-you thought people organized campaign rallies by themselves??) conventions in hotels across the country underwritten in part by the NRA, get an overarching national campaign theme that sounds Freedomy (that snake Don't Tread on Me thing works) and run candidates, but sssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
don't tell anyone
Because then they will figure out that you are run by the same machine and it will just look like another campaign- which it is. Run by two old politicians and the folks who feed off them.
Brilliant- sort of. Except we already figured it out.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Its A Gas
And Benzene Toluene and Flammable Drinking Water Coming To A Neighborhood Near You
....and exemption of the Clean Drinking Water Act EPA supervision over Gas Drilling (thanks to that Demon Dick Cheney and his lovely energy task force)-
Now is contaminating lots of drinking water all throughout the Delaware Water Basin. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37758967/ns/today-entertainment/
GASLAND-
HBO documentary that you cannot miss, Monday, June 21 at 9:00 pm (check local listings.)
We can do better than gas and oil. Gas is hydrolic fracturing which means mass contamination of the water table and flooding your earth with a thousand toxins. Get ready every class action attorney in Philadelphia- you just hit the lottery.
http://www.earthworksaction.org/hydfracking.cfm
AND WE WONDER WHY ONE THIRD OF THE COUNTRY GETS SOME FORM OF CANCER IN AMERICA.
....and exemption of the Clean Drinking Water Act EPA supervision over Gas Drilling (thanks to that Demon Dick Cheney and his lovely energy task force)-
Now is contaminating lots of drinking water all throughout the Delaware Water Basin. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37758967/ns/today-entertainment/
GASLAND-
HBO documentary that you cannot miss, Monday, June 21 at 9:00 pm (check local listings.)
We can do better than gas and oil. Gas is hydrolic fracturing which means mass contamination of the water table and flooding your earth with a thousand toxins. Get ready every class action attorney in Philadelphia- you just hit the lottery.
http://www.earthworksaction.org/hydfracking.cfm
AND WE WONDER WHY ONE THIRD OF THE COUNTRY GETS SOME FORM OF CANCER IN AMERICA.
Make Art Not War
Make HANJIGRIM Not War.
http://www.hanjigrim.com/
You will not believe how stunningly beautiful the art of Korean Hanjigrim is. What is it you say? It is the art of taking torn pieces of mulberry bark paper (a bit like paper mache only more fiberous)made historically in korea for a variety of things like clothing, and overlaying it with a special starchy korean glue to make masterpieces of exquisite art. Today at the cultural arm of the Republic of Korea here in DC traditionally dressed women who are students and master teachers at the Soojung Korean Paper-Art Institute in Seoul came to Washington, DC to demonstrate their art- and teach a few of us how to do it.
There is an Exhibit one day only today at the Korus House on Mass. Ave (Embassy Row) and tomorrow, Saturday, June 19th from 11 am -3 pm it will be in Freedom Plaza (fairly next to the White House) after which for the next two weeks it will be at the Budhist Temple here in DC, the Won-Budhism of Washington, DC Temple. Call 202-939-5683 or 301-924-9200 for more details.
There should be a sister institute in DC of this Korean paper art institute- if we make Art together there is no way we can make conflict.
It's all too beautiful.
The Exhibit is destined for the Freer or Smithsonian (some of whose employees were at the Exhibit opening today)- so you want to be sure and see it.
Absolutely exquisite stuff. I got to sit down and have a lesson from a master Kim Se Ran whose monet style Water lillies are featured in the exhibit.
http://www.hanjigrim.com/
You will not believe how stunningly beautiful the art of Korean Hanjigrim is. What is it you say? It is the art of taking torn pieces of mulberry bark paper (a bit like paper mache only more fiberous)made historically in korea for a variety of things like clothing, and overlaying it with a special starchy korean glue to make masterpieces of exquisite art. Today at the cultural arm of the Republic of Korea here in DC traditionally dressed women who are students and master teachers at the Soojung Korean Paper-Art Institute in Seoul came to Washington, DC to demonstrate their art- and teach a few of us how to do it.
There is an Exhibit one day only today at the Korus House on Mass. Ave (Embassy Row) and tomorrow, Saturday, June 19th from 11 am -3 pm it will be in Freedom Plaza (fairly next to the White House) after which for the next two weeks it will be at the Budhist Temple here in DC, the Won-Budhism of Washington, DC Temple. Call 202-939-5683 or 301-924-9200 for more details.
There should be a sister institute in DC of this Korean paper art institute- if we make Art together there is no way we can make conflict.
It's all too beautiful.
The Exhibit is destined for the Freer or Smithsonian (some of whose employees were at the Exhibit opening today)- so you want to be sure and see it.
Absolutely exquisite stuff. I got to sit down and have a lesson from a master Kim Se Ran whose monet style Water lillies are featured in the exhibit.
The Main Streaming
of Greening
Say it Strong, Say it Loud, I'm Green and I'm Proud.
Remember when the "Green" guys and party were seen as those tin hat tree hugging crazies who didn't have anything better to do than rail against electronic voting machine fraud and hackery ahead of their time? Remember when Green meant-just sort of wierd and wearing too many Jamesway plaid lumberjack shirts?
Environmentalists.....wooooo, Gorey.
Now, guess what.
We make sense, you are up to your elbows in pelicans drowning in oil sludge mixed with carcinogenic disbursants that will make thalidomyde look like giving candy to a baby.
The new tin hat crazies are the tea-hat loons who don't understand that the only revolution we need is one to convert our energy R&D into CLEAN GREEN ALTERNATIVE energy models to get us away, very far away from the OILER BARONS.
Now how do we tax every oil company to develop R&D for that? Call it a "Slush Fund" or call it a "Grog Gluck, Slosh, Slush" Fund or anything that sounds like boots sinking in the mire of chemical toxins and oil mixed with garbage floating on the shore of some of our best beaches. But get an Apollo sized R&D program to get some real serious Clean Green Energy going on an international scale- and get all the help you need from every country on board.
Barton's Boobish Blundering
Bye Bye Barton
He's against any Moritorium on off shore drilling. He's classic Republican OilMan. We voted that out.
Why is he still chair of any committee- So obscenely indifferent to all the destruction he should resign. Apologize to BP? Would you also like to appologize to
all the Afghanis and Iraqis ?? BIG OIL- PALEEEEEESE.
Partially "successful" capping-eh? Where? How is 'still gushing uncontrollably gallons a day' partially successful?
MISCONSTRUCTIONS ON THE COMMITTEE STRUCTURES. Resign.
He's against any Moritorium on off shore drilling. He's classic Republican OilMan. We voted that out.
Why is he still chair of any committee- So obscenely indifferent to all the destruction he should resign. Apologize to BP? Would you also like to appologize to
all the Afghanis and Iraqis ?? BIG OIL- PALEEEEEESE.
Partially "successful" capping-eh? Where? How is 'still gushing uncontrollably gallons a day' partially successful?
MISCONSTRUCTIONS ON THE COMMITTEE STRUCTURES. Resign.
Too Sexy
For her Cubicle
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/coverage-of-too-sexy-for-citigroup-banker-case-misses-the-point/19519237/?icid=main|main|dl9|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailyfinance.com%2Fstory%2Fcoverage-of-too-sexy-for-citigroup-banker-case-misses-the-point%2F19519237%2F
Here's a good article on the continuing saga of discrimination (alleged) of curvey women in Wall Street.
This will likely all end in a confidential settlement agreement-
but if there is an Arbitration Award enforced with a filing in Federal Court we may all get to know who was telling the truth; the folks who claim she just didn't do her job well- or her allegations of persecution by the guys whose minds were in the gutter.
Why is this so important? Because a girl's got a right to eat too.
People need their jobs- how would you like to be fired for being too cute?
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/coverage-of-too-sexy-for-citigroup-banker-case-misses-the-point/19519237/?icid=main|main|dl9|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailyfinance.com%2Fstory%2Fcoverage-of-too-sexy-for-citigroup-banker-case-misses-the-point%2F19519237%2F
Here's a good article on the continuing saga of discrimination (alleged) of curvey women in Wall Street.
This will likely all end in a confidential settlement agreement-
but if there is an Arbitration Award enforced with a filing in Federal Court we may all get to know who was telling the truth; the folks who claim she just didn't do her job well- or her allegations of persecution by the guys whose minds were in the gutter.
Why is this so important? Because a girl's got a right to eat too.
People need their jobs- how would you like to be fired for being too cute?
Talk About Crazy
Really, let's Talk About It
And what one org. is doing to allieviate mental illness, even criminally insane stuff at St. E's in DC (Saint Elizabeths)- Hotel Hinkley.
One attorney is doing something larger with her vision of justice- what if we gave the criminally insane a paintbrush? What would they do? Attorney Deborah Schull (deborahschull [at] gmail.com] tells an inspiring story through her Telly-Award Winning Documentary called LENS & PENS; Art in an Unexpected Place.
You can order the full DVD at
www.LENSANDPENS.net
This is a gripping and fascinating movie about what folks on the 'inside' are doing to heal themselves through art, photography and poetry.
The Justice Department should fund it through one of their social justice outreach crime prevention programs. It is changing lives.
or call Debbie 202/297-9564.
And what one org. is doing to allieviate mental illness, even criminally insane stuff at St. E's in DC (Saint Elizabeths)- Hotel Hinkley.
One attorney is doing something larger with her vision of justice- what if we gave the criminally insane a paintbrush? What would they do? Attorney Deborah Schull (deborahschull [at] gmail.com] tells an inspiring story through her Telly-Award Winning Documentary called LENS & PENS; Art in an Unexpected Place.
You can order the full DVD at
www.LENSANDPENS.net
This is a gripping and fascinating movie about what folks on the 'inside' are doing to heal themselves through art, photography and poetry.
The Justice Department should fund it through one of their social justice outreach crime prevention programs. It is changing lives.
or call Debbie 202/297-9564.
Look at the Upside!
The BP PR Campaign has Rachel Maddow Praying
In reading the 'Ballet of the Sea' Press Release from BP, Rachel Maddow
bemoaned, with hands folded angelically "Please God Save Journalism, Please God, Please God." Well, thank you Tony, BP CEO for inspiring prayer.
In reading the 'Ballet of the Sea' Press Release from BP, Rachel Maddow
bemoaned, with hands folded angelically "Please God Save Journalism, Please God, Please God." Well, thank you Tony, BP CEO for inspiring prayer.
Clean Green
Energy
Too many people feed off oil- there is a 100,000,000 fund for the families now idle within the 2 Bil. There are many people down the food chain of big oil. Politically it's been seen as too dangerous to develop alternative fuels and no one has developed a plan to transition workers into new Green technologies.
There are many many things that we should be doing - We have said for years and years that there should be an Apollo type program to transition us off fossil fuels. Where is it?
Where is the funding for it? Where are the labs converting biofuels and waste? Where are the energy plants connected to every city dump so that burning trash turns into energy? Where are the energy plants connected to every city sewage system so that waste sludge is all filtered into an energy converter? Where are the town energy converters in farm lands so that what is normally discarded as mown grass or pieces of stray hay or anything usually tossed goes into a converter that turns into stored energy. Why are we wasting waste? Who is taking seriously what sorts of plant products go into illegal drugs and converting them instead into storable energy?
All the beating up on BP is just too much when Congress is doing nothing to get us off Fossill Fuels all together.
Start diverting war resources to alternative viable green energy. BILLIONS on war that could have totally converted our energy economy.
Too many people feed off oil- there is a 100,000,000 fund for the families now idle within the 2 Bil. There are many people down the food chain of big oil. Politically it's been seen as too dangerous to develop alternative fuels and no one has developed a plan to transition workers into new Green technologies.
There are many many things that we should be doing - We have said for years and years that there should be an Apollo type program to transition us off fossil fuels. Where is it?
Where is the funding for it? Where are the labs converting biofuels and waste? Where are the energy plants connected to every city dump so that burning trash turns into energy? Where are the energy plants connected to every city sewage system so that waste sludge is all filtered into an energy converter? Where are the town energy converters in farm lands so that what is normally discarded as mown grass or pieces of stray hay or anything usually tossed goes into a converter that turns into stored energy. Why are we wasting waste? Who is taking seriously what sorts of plant products go into illegal drugs and converting them instead into storable energy?
All the beating up on BP is just too much when Congress is doing nothing to get us off Fossill Fuels all together.
Start diverting war resources to alternative viable green energy. BILLIONS on war that could have totally converted our energy economy.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
I'm starting a contest
Who can prove
That Dick Armey wears a Toupee.
Seems obvious to me but I haven't seen it slip yet. He has a bunch of gradually graying hair then showed up with slick black locks today. Puts ten years back on him.
OK Low blow. Still want to know.
and WE HAVE A WINNER!
Keith Olbermann
He flashed on the screen last night on his Countdown show a large full screen photo of Dick Armey in full Gray Head!! (Now I have to think of what he gets other than an all expense paid vacation to New York City-because he works there:-)
How about dinner next time he is in Washington with his adorable side kick that Nations guy who I met at last year's Campaign For America's Future conference.
Thanks also to Rachel Maddow who noted duly that Dick Armey is or was a paid lobbyist for DLA Piper, a large law/lobbying firm with serious Pharmaceutical Industry player clients during the health care debate who during that debate had an organization Freedom Works that organized the crazy tea party town hall shenanigans to derail health care -as an arm to his lobbying efforts paid for by the Pharmaceutical Industry. Talk about scamming the public and manipulating the gullible disgruntled with a bunch of deceptive hype.
Guardian of the Constitution? Give me a Break. I have a bridge in the wetlands of the Gulf Coast that will suck off all the oil to sell you if you buy that garbage.
DLA Piper and Dick Armey
http://www.dlapiper.com/ http://www.dlapiper.com/US/news/detail.aspx?news=86ccc8fb-1ca7-4359-9082-21da9e2ee521
That Dick Armey wears a Toupee.
Seems obvious to me but I haven't seen it slip yet. He has a bunch of gradually graying hair then showed up with slick black locks today. Puts ten years back on him.
OK Low blow. Still want to know.
and WE HAVE A WINNER!
Keith Olbermann
He flashed on the screen last night on his Countdown show a large full screen photo of Dick Armey in full Gray Head!! (Now I have to think of what he gets other than an all expense paid vacation to New York City-because he works there:-)
How about dinner next time he is in Washington with his adorable side kick that Nations guy who I met at last year's Campaign For America's Future conference.
Thanks also to Rachel Maddow who noted duly that Dick Armey is or was a paid lobbyist for DLA Piper, a large law/lobbying firm with serious Pharmaceutical Industry player clients during the health care debate who during that debate had an organization Freedom Works that organized the crazy tea party town hall shenanigans to derail health care -as an arm to his lobbying efforts paid for by the Pharmaceutical Industry. Talk about scamming the public and manipulating the gullible disgruntled with a bunch of deceptive hype.
Guardian of the Constitution? Give me a Break. I have a bridge in the wetlands of the Gulf Coast that will suck off all the oil to sell you if you buy that garbage.
DLA Piper and Dick Armey
http://www.dlapiper.com/ http://www.dlapiper.com/US/news/detail.aspx?news=86ccc8fb-1ca7-4359-9082-21da9e2ee521
A Must See Movie
For All Parties, In All Countries.
The Nine Days That Changed The World is an education. It's brilliant and moving. You should watch it- Democrats, Republicans, CoAlition Government, Labour or Conservatives alike. Everyone.
http://www.ninedaysthatchangedtheworld.com/
What many consider the greatest man in the 20th Century, John Paul II, is probably the significantly most powerful force that undermined communism in the Western World including Poland and Central Europe. How did he do that and more importantly, why should we care now some twenty years after Solidarity moved communism out of Poland.
Whatever you think of Newt Gingrich or his beautiful telegenic wife Calista, this movie is a classic sure to be mandatory viewing in all political science classes from Yale to Berkeley.
(I don't get paid to say this, I got to preview it for free at the Catholic Information Center.)
The movie is a testament to the power of Christ in this world to liberate entire societies, entire countries. It is a testament to the power of individuals in solidarity to make unbelievable change and throw off oppression. It is the power of Truth to dislodge evil and the victory of Love over humiliation and evil.
The movie explores the relation of JPII with the Jewish Community in Poland from his youth and his efforts to rid the world of Anti-Semitism and all totalitarianisms. It really is a brilliant documentary (Gingrich is after all a History Professor among other things) and includes eye witness testimony of the Pope's activities in Poland, testimony from Priests, Theologians, Ambassadors to the Holy See and others.
Why is religion important? Why is it real?
Why should we make sure that the State protects Freedom of Religion?
Why ask these questions?
This movie helps you understand what Secularization is and what it's dangers can be- without being 'preachy' or dogmatic.
Just see it. You'll thank me.
The Nine Days That Changed The World is an education. It's brilliant and moving. You should watch it- Democrats, Republicans, CoAlition Government, Labour or Conservatives alike. Everyone.
http://www.ninedaysthatchangedtheworld.com/
What many consider the greatest man in the 20th Century, John Paul II, is probably the significantly most powerful force that undermined communism in the Western World including Poland and Central Europe. How did he do that and more importantly, why should we care now some twenty years after Solidarity moved communism out of Poland.
Whatever you think of Newt Gingrich or his beautiful telegenic wife Calista, this movie is a classic sure to be mandatory viewing in all political science classes from Yale to Berkeley.
(I don't get paid to say this, I got to preview it for free at the Catholic Information Center.)
The movie is a testament to the power of Christ in this world to liberate entire societies, entire countries. It is a testament to the power of individuals in solidarity to make unbelievable change and throw off oppression. It is the power of Truth to dislodge evil and the victory of Love over humiliation and evil.
The movie explores the relation of JPII with the Jewish Community in Poland from his youth and his efforts to rid the world of Anti-Semitism and all totalitarianisms. It really is a brilliant documentary (Gingrich is after all a History Professor among other things) and includes eye witness testimony of the Pope's activities in Poland, testimony from Priests, Theologians, Ambassadors to the Holy See and others.
Why is religion important? Why is it real?
Why should we make sure that the State protects Freedom of Religion?
Why ask these questions?
This movie helps you understand what Secularization is and what it's dangers can be- without being 'preachy' or dogmatic.
Just see it. You'll thank me.
BP Apologizes and Ponies Up
After Destroying An Entire Eco-System and Poisoning Fish and Fowl.
They apologized today. Sorry. Ya think?
The 20 Bil. - a good start. No Cap. Compensation for unemployed rig workers.
Good work White House.
Now expedited claims, and a fund from all the oil companies to develop bio-fuels.
Good thing we have an 'activist' big government that keeps Industry accountable.
They apologized today. Sorry. Ya think?
The 20 Bil. - a good start. No Cap. Compensation for unemployed rig workers.
Good work White House.
Now expedited claims, and a fund from all the oil companies to develop bio-fuels.
Good thing we have an 'activist' big government that keeps Industry accountable.
Pigs with LipStick
And Poor Judgment of the Old Republican Guard
Amazing that the question of whether poor John McCain picked wisely by picking Palin is still even remotely out there, but it appears to be. Billy Krystol indicated today that he thought that the Tea Party movement was fueled in part by their populist disgust with that nepharious "elite" (which is what-anyone with a graduate degree) and their brutal trashing of not-ripe-for-primetime -Palin.
Clueless. Stunningly clueless.
Palin is that girl we all knew in High School - a little dumb and a little trampy. She mouthed off in PTA meetings, had kids early and got elected to a puny town's town council then mayor. Whoop-dee-friggin-do. Her international experience was gazing on what she thought was the Soviet Union across from a fish troller. Unbelievable that anyone at any strategy level at the RNC thought that this was someone who could have any credibility nationally.
Yes, we want educated people running multibillion dollar enterprises in our name and trust. Yes, we want people with the best education, the best experience, the best wisdom and the best brains.
Palin was part Wasilla hillbilly, part David Daisey Dukes and part just take the damn GED so you don't have to go to college No. 4.
GIVE US A BREAK BILLY.
Amazing that the question of whether poor John McCain picked wisely by picking Palin is still even remotely out there, but it appears to be. Billy Krystol indicated today that he thought that the Tea Party movement was fueled in part by their populist disgust with that nepharious "elite" (which is what-anyone with a graduate degree) and their brutal trashing of not-ripe-for-primetime -Palin.
Clueless. Stunningly clueless.
Palin is that girl we all knew in High School - a little dumb and a little trampy. She mouthed off in PTA meetings, had kids early and got elected to a puny town's town council then mayor. Whoop-dee-friggin-do. Her international experience was gazing on what she thought was the Soviet Union across from a fish troller. Unbelievable that anyone at any strategy level at the RNC thought that this was someone who could have any credibility nationally.
Yes, we want educated people running multibillion dollar enterprises in our name and trust. Yes, we want people with the best education, the best experience, the best wisdom and the best brains.
Palin was part Wasilla hillbilly, part David Daisey Dukes and part just take the damn GED so you don't have to go to college No. 4.
GIVE US A BREAK BILLY.
Laissez Faire
Doesn't Trickle Down.
The conservatives seem completely unrepentant about the massive destruction that a pure Laissez Faire philosophy does unchecked. Clearly, we as a nation wish as a matter of basic biblical obligation to however we view our creator and response to him in loving neighbor, to fill in the cracks that laissez -faire creates rather than create new cracks.
A Laissez Faire system purely conceived does not fill in the cracks. Unemployed don't get insurance to carry them through. Predatory lendors drive people into foreclosure take both their equity then their house. Consumers get defrauded. Pharmaceutical companies sell snake oil, and securities firms scam the innocent if they can get away with it.
What was the SEC doing under Bush other than scanning the web for porn? Where were they when watching the inflated reports of unchecked rating agencies? Whose thumbs were they sucking or sitting on when Maddoff was running his scam and Lehman brothers was cooking the books. Bush's government was inept. It was focused almost exclusively in selling and perpetuating hideous unjust insane murderous wars. It wasn't inept because it was "big" it was inept because they were idiots.
Laissez-Faire (which in French means basically "let it go"- or anything goes) as a hands-off economic philosophy is not a social policy- it is the devoid of social policy. Government cannot be about an absence of social policy in the name of an outdated misguided economic policy.
Market regulation is not bad. It is bad when it is badly regulated and when hens watch their own coop.
I am waiting for any new vision to come out of the "Con-verve-ative" camp and nothing yet.
The Verve of Them.
The conservatives seem completely unrepentant about the massive destruction that a pure Laissez Faire philosophy does unchecked. Clearly, we as a nation wish as a matter of basic biblical obligation to however we view our creator and response to him in loving neighbor, to fill in the cracks that laissez -faire creates rather than create new cracks.
A Laissez Faire system purely conceived does not fill in the cracks. Unemployed don't get insurance to carry them through. Predatory lendors drive people into foreclosure take both their equity then their house. Consumers get defrauded. Pharmaceutical companies sell snake oil, and securities firms scam the innocent if they can get away with it.
What was the SEC doing under Bush other than scanning the web for porn? Where were they when watching the inflated reports of unchecked rating agencies? Whose thumbs were they sucking or sitting on when Maddoff was running his scam and Lehman brothers was cooking the books. Bush's government was inept. It was focused almost exclusively in selling and perpetuating hideous unjust insane murderous wars. It wasn't inept because it was "big" it was inept because they were idiots.
Laissez-Faire (which in French means basically "let it go"- or anything goes) as a hands-off economic philosophy is not a social policy- it is the devoid of social policy. Government cannot be about an absence of social policy in the name of an outdated misguided economic policy.
Market regulation is not bad. It is bad when it is badly regulated and when hens watch their own coop.
I am waiting for any new vision to come out of the "Con-verve-ative" camp and nothing yet.
The Verve of Them.
Strategies of Smugness
And Uncompassionate Conservatism
Whatever the new Conservatives think they have in partnering up with the Tea-Party folks isn't going to cut it in November. They really define clueless in misreading the disgust with old line conservatism and don't have their pulse on the people at all- notwithstanding that one of the Republican leaders in Congress called the masses of people on the Mall organized by Dick Armey the size of 2 out of 3 of the last innagural crowds. The one it didn't come close to approximating was obviously the one that voted in this Administration.
The Conservatives are struggling to find their voice and think it might be somewhere in the cacaphony of the dangling Earl Gray. Wierd. How the mighty have fallen.
The tea-party people are the ones who brought you 'death panels' and phamaceutical lobbyist paid for mischaracterizations of the Health Care Bill. They were the ones spitting on our Congresspeople and thus our democracy. That's who the Conservative intellectuals like Billy Krystal want to align themselves with?
Dick Armey today talked about the 'inside/outside' grass roots strategy- like he invented it when it has been talked about in progressive circles forever. Then he railed against what he called the Unconstitutionality of TARP -- without identifying what about it is unconstitutional.
And he is a Constitutional Law Professor? oops, no, that would be our President.
If the campaign talking points are all only- government is too big, the deficit is too big, tarp is unconstitutional and we are afraid of our government- get Therapy. No Democrat then has anything to worry about in November.
First, the chant shouldn't be 'government is too big' it should be 'government can be better.' To quote someone who is looking more and more like the reincarnation of FDR lately Keith Olbermann, "Aren't you glad there's an FAA when you get on a plane?" Clearly the government does a lot of good things- it is the cooperative will of the people to advance the interests of the people in the ideological abstract. Some things they do better than others. Don't you want someone making sure people have food stamps or debit cards rather than die of starvation like they do in parts of Africa? Don't you want bridge inspectors, and food inspectors at the FDA to make sure food imported won't poison your family? Don't you want a social security check when you are too old and broken to compete with 30 year olds in work? Don't you want some base standards in education or do you think its fine that school kids get no books and get taught what they were taught in one room schoolhouses in appalachia in the 30s. Don't you want an NIH and a CDC? Don't you want an armed national defense? That of course you do because most of your party feeds off the defense contracts. Blood Money.
The Republican Party ran the deficits up with insane borrowing and war spending- they started the TARP initiatives- how dare they now try to use them as talking points to tank this administration. They let corrupt oil stanglehold our national interests. They killed off 4,000 soldiers in unnecessary and unjust wars and they bilked the taxpayers of BILLIONS of raided treasury -then what did Halliburton Cheney's company do? It relocated headquarters to Dubai or some middle eastern country hoping to avoid the liability and shelter taxes.
ARE THEY KIDDING?
If Conservatives, who are their own worst enemies hope to have a prayer of resurrecting their agenda they need to dump the old agendas and start with a fresh plan for what they want America to do-whining in mostly All white conferences about how the government is too big and they are the guardians of the constitution is not going to get you anywhere- because it's ridiculous. You are not the guardians of the constitution- you suspended it completely in the name of National Security to wage murderous unjust wars of "prevention" that were not provoked. You tapped phone lines and bribed phone companies to be complicit. You hacked and raided emails. You diverted email traffic to intermediary servers scanned by various intelligence agencies. You raped our privacy, you stole our treasury, you murdered our children and you want what- another four years to see if we forgot?
You should be afraid of the Government because some of you are war criminals.
Whatever the new Conservatives think they have in partnering up with the Tea-Party folks isn't going to cut it in November. They really define clueless in misreading the disgust with old line conservatism and don't have their pulse on the people at all- notwithstanding that one of the Republican leaders in Congress called the masses of people on the Mall organized by Dick Armey the size of 2 out of 3 of the last innagural crowds. The one it didn't come close to approximating was obviously the one that voted in this Administration.
The Conservatives are struggling to find their voice and think it might be somewhere in the cacaphony of the dangling Earl Gray. Wierd. How the mighty have fallen.
The tea-party people are the ones who brought you 'death panels' and phamaceutical lobbyist paid for mischaracterizations of the Health Care Bill. They were the ones spitting on our Congresspeople and thus our democracy. That's who the Conservative intellectuals like Billy Krystal want to align themselves with?
Dick Armey today talked about the 'inside/outside' grass roots strategy- like he invented it when it has been talked about in progressive circles forever. Then he railed against what he called the Unconstitutionality of TARP -- without identifying what about it is unconstitutional.
And he is a Constitutional Law Professor? oops, no, that would be our President.
If the campaign talking points are all only- government is too big, the deficit is too big, tarp is unconstitutional and we are afraid of our government- get Therapy. No Democrat then has anything to worry about in November.
First, the chant shouldn't be 'government is too big' it should be 'government can be better.' To quote someone who is looking more and more like the reincarnation of FDR lately Keith Olbermann, "Aren't you glad there's an FAA when you get on a plane?" Clearly the government does a lot of good things- it is the cooperative will of the people to advance the interests of the people in the ideological abstract. Some things they do better than others. Don't you want someone making sure people have food stamps or debit cards rather than die of starvation like they do in parts of Africa? Don't you want bridge inspectors, and food inspectors at the FDA to make sure food imported won't poison your family? Don't you want a social security check when you are too old and broken to compete with 30 year olds in work? Don't you want some base standards in education or do you think its fine that school kids get no books and get taught what they were taught in one room schoolhouses in appalachia in the 30s. Don't you want an NIH and a CDC? Don't you want an armed national defense? That of course you do because most of your party feeds off the defense contracts. Blood Money.
The Republican Party ran the deficits up with insane borrowing and war spending- they started the TARP initiatives- how dare they now try to use them as talking points to tank this administration. They let corrupt oil stanglehold our national interests. They killed off 4,000 soldiers in unnecessary and unjust wars and they bilked the taxpayers of BILLIONS of raided treasury -then what did Halliburton Cheney's company do? It relocated headquarters to Dubai or some middle eastern country hoping to avoid the liability and shelter taxes.
ARE THEY KIDDING?
If Conservatives, who are their own worst enemies hope to have a prayer of resurrecting their agenda they need to dump the old agendas and start with a fresh plan for what they want America to do-whining in mostly All white conferences about how the government is too big and they are the guardians of the constitution is not going to get you anywhere- because it's ridiculous. You are not the guardians of the constitution- you suspended it completely in the name of National Security to wage murderous unjust wars of "prevention" that were not provoked. You tapped phone lines and bribed phone companies to be complicit. You hacked and raided emails. You diverted email traffic to intermediary servers scanned by various intelligence agencies. You raped our privacy, you stole our treasury, you murdered our children and you want what- another four years to see if we forgot?
You should be afraid of the Government because some of you are war criminals.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
What If....
The plants that made cocaine and heroin could make your car go.
What if we had the technology and science to turn the materials that instead are distilled to make cocaine and herion into fuel. Corn on the cob can fuel your car. Ethanol alcohol can run engines. In fact Ford's first car wasn't supposed to run on fossil fuel-it was plant based fuel that he used.
What if there wasn't a War on Drugs, and instead of "Just Say No" "Just Say Go" because everyone now growing poppies or whatever makes cocaine could sell it for more per kilo of street prices by selling it to green fuel manufacturers. Then it would be taxable, duties and customs paid instead of smuggled in air bags, and we could legally support industries in other countries that kept villages alive and less folks would need to come here for basic subsistence. Seems everyone would be happy.
So who has the Apollo style labs in Arizona, Texas and California (and New Jersey and Miami) working on conversion technologies to make this a green fuel? We ought to be able to do that.
Instead of all the drug traffickers in jail, we can let them work in the labs, and put them in the sales and acquisition departments of the green labs.
What if we had the technology and science to turn the materials that instead are distilled to make cocaine and herion into fuel. Corn on the cob can fuel your car. Ethanol alcohol can run engines. In fact Ford's first car wasn't supposed to run on fossil fuel-it was plant based fuel that he used.
What if there wasn't a War on Drugs, and instead of "Just Say No" "Just Say Go" because everyone now growing poppies or whatever makes cocaine could sell it for more per kilo of street prices by selling it to green fuel manufacturers. Then it would be taxable, duties and customs paid instead of smuggled in air bags, and we could legally support industries in other countries that kept villages alive and less folks would need to come here for basic subsistence. Seems everyone would be happy.
So who has the Apollo style labs in Arizona, Texas and California (and New Jersey and Miami) working on conversion technologies to make this a green fuel? We ought to be able to do that.
Instead of all the drug traffickers in jail, we can let them work in the labs, and put them in the sales and acquisition departments of the green labs.
It takes political will to bust the corrupt oil cartels. But aren't we sick of their mass slaughter? And don't get me started on the "Chernobyl of the Gulf" nighmare beyond all nightmares.
Apparitions.
If you don't think God could send Mary on a trip into the Earth's Atmosphere
Look at what the Advert gurus can do at Cadbury's.
Look at what the Advert gurus can do at Cadbury's.
Alcohol
Some are powerless over it some know how to use its power.
We now know alcohol is a great disinfectant. It's used as a cleanser/disinfectant in a variety of places and rubbing alcohol is a staple in most medicine cabinets. Alcohol derrivatives are found in most over the counter regular pharmaceutical grade shampoos. Your mother probably has some. During the Plague in the middle ages in France it was discovered that people who disinfected their hands and forearms if they got anywhere near a dead plague ridden body before eating by dousing them all over with wine-alcohol, helped to stop them from getting the plague. This was discovered by one of the physicians to the Pope during the plague who actually healed himself and prevented the spread to the Pope- wine. Now we know a glass of red a day can help your heart.
In this country we had a prohibition against manufacture, sale or consumption of any alcoholic product by federal law in the 20s. It prompted the great gangster days of Capone and the drug runners of the day making moonshine and carting booze across the Canadian border. The country felt at the time that the dangers of demon drink were severe enough to ban it all together. Drunkenness is debauchery and sin biblically speaking. It was deemed out of control. Alcoholics can destroy their lives and the lives of others. There were firm vociferous opponents of the demon drink that successfully lobbied for a total ban on alcohol. To this day there are entire religious denominations of protestants who disdain alcohol and they run "dry towns" without one liquor store given license to operate in them and anyone caught drinking alcohol can be fined.
Imagine if the plaque hit during the 20s in this country. So what would have happened if the above physician to the Pope lived at a time during our Prohibition days. What if he kept saying- you need to buy as much alcohol as you can get your hands on to disinfect your hands before eating anything. Drinking a glass wouldn't hurt your heart either-might contribute to longevity.
Would they lock him up? Would they "discipline" him to keep the order? Would they kick him out of the City Hall or the local churches for saying the rules against not owning, selling or distributing any alcohol of any kind were actually in some cases harmful and reckless?
That is what we are doing with the people in the Catholic Church who believe condoms are a necessary aid to stop the spread of disease. Used wrongly, yes they can be dangerous and lead to more sin and sexual exploitation. Used rightly in some cases they can stop fatal diseases. Since the humana vitiae we have had a plague hit globally. A global plague. Condoms, contraceptive devices save lives.
The moral imperative to overrule the blanket prohibition is obvious to any thinking person.
The impulse to punish "dissent" here is wildly out of line and inexcusable. Beyond Ignorant.
I go one further. If you forbid the use of something that can save a life with a fair degree of certainty you are guilty of murder. If you withhold a rope tow from a drowning swimmer you drowned him. If you withhold a condom from a husband who came home to have sex with his pregnant wife after screwing around adulterously and contracting HIV and the wife has unprotected sex and her fetus is infected and dies, you killed the fetus. Because you could have saved a life and did not. You are worse in that case than the priest who indifferently traversed the other side of the road before the Good Samaritan found the robbery victim.
We now know alcohol is a great disinfectant. It's used as a cleanser/disinfectant in a variety of places and rubbing alcohol is a staple in most medicine cabinets. Alcohol derrivatives are found in most over the counter regular pharmaceutical grade shampoos. Your mother probably has some. During the Plague in the middle ages in France it was discovered that people who disinfected their hands and forearms if they got anywhere near a dead plague ridden body before eating by dousing them all over with wine-alcohol, helped to stop them from getting the plague. This was discovered by one of the physicians to the Pope during the plague who actually healed himself and prevented the spread to the Pope- wine. Now we know a glass of red a day can help your heart.
In this country we had a prohibition against manufacture, sale or consumption of any alcoholic product by federal law in the 20s. It prompted the great gangster days of Capone and the drug runners of the day making moonshine and carting booze across the Canadian border. The country felt at the time that the dangers of demon drink were severe enough to ban it all together. Drunkenness is debauchery and sin biblically speaking. It was deemed out of control. Alcoholics can destroy their lives and the lives of others. There were firm vociferous opponents of the demon drink that successfully lobbied for a total ban on alcohol. To this day there are entire religious denominations of protestants who disdain alcohol and they run "dry towns" without one liquor store given license to operate in them and anyone caught drinking alcohol can be fined.
Imagine if the plaque hit during the 20s in this country. So what would have happened if the above physician to the Pope lived at a time during our Prohibition days. What if he kept saying- you need to buy as much alcohol as you can get your hands on to disinfect your hands before eating anything. Drinking a glass wouldn't hurt your heart either-might contribute to longevity.
Would they lock him up? Would they "discipline" him to keep the order? Would they kick him out of the City Hall or the local churches for saying the rules against not owning, selling or distributing any alcohol of any kind were actually in some cases harmful and reckless?
That is what we are doing with the people in the Catholic Church who believe condoms are a necessary aid to stop the spread of disease. Used wrongly, yes they can be dangerous and lead to more sin and sexual exploitation. Used rightly in some cases they can stop fatal diseases. Since the humana vitiae we have had a plague hit globally. A global plague. Condoms, contraceptive devices save lives.
The moral imperative to overrule the blanket prohibition is obvious to any thinking person.
The impulse to punish "dissent" here is wildly out of line and inexcusable. Beyond Ignorant.
I go one further. If you forbid the use of something that can save a life with a fair degree of certainty you are guilty of murder. If you withhold a rope tow from a drowning swimmer you drowned him. If you withhold a condom from a husband who came home to have sex with his pregnant wife after screwing around adulterously and contracting HIV and the wife has unprotected sex and her fetus is infected and dies, you killed the fetus. Because you could have saved a life and did not. You are worse in that case than the priest who indifferently traversed the other side of the road before the Good Samaritan found the robbery victim.
Let Them Eat Cake
If only They Could Chew
Nothing says Poverty like a few missing teeth. Whether you are black, brown, white or green if your grill is broken you look broke.
I work in a few homeless ministries serving food to people in soup kitchen type places. The line of hungry people before me walk a line and take a selection of morning grub. Things that are rarely turned down are the soft egg caseroles, oatmeal, and grits- because they have the consistency of gummy mush that don't challenge bad teeth. Some turn down fruit salad with too many apple pieces in them "my teeth can't handle it." Some men are missing half their front teeth. I don't care if it was due to neglectful brushing or prison fights- one young man came in with a piercing tooth ache and couldn't stop holding his jawline. Dentists are frightfully expensive. A root canal and cap can run you close to $4,000-just for one tooth. An implant replacement can be 10k a tooth. No wonder these folks are walking around missing teeth-they cannot afford rent anywhere, so where are they getting money for new teeth.
My father liked to call his dental work "Mercedes Mouth" because to fix all his teeth after about thirty years of smoking and other bad habits cost more than a brand new Mercedes.
Our founding father George Washington by the time he was 50 had a mouth of wooden dentures with no teeth.
He would want us to fix this problem. It is a real serious one. Remember that child in DC a few years who had an absess that infected his brain and caused him to have to have emergency brain surgery which then ended up killing him anyway? We now know dental health has a direct correlation with heart health also.
Where are the free dental clinics for people over the age of 50? There is only one I know of in DC and it is only for spanish speaking immigrants. Old white and black guys out of prison don't qualify. Where are the schools running free clinics in conjunction with their dental schools? What does the current health care do for giving people affordable and accessible dental care? Don't you want to know?
I do- if you have more information than I do comment below or email havemercyonus [at] aol.com with 'Dental' in the subject line.
Nothing says Poverty like a few missing teeth. Whether you are black, brown, white or green if your grill is broken you look broke.
I work in a few homeless ministries serving food to people in soup kitchen type places. The line of hungry people before me walk a line and take a selection of morning grub. Things that are rarely turned down are the soft egg caseroles, oatmeal, and grits- because they have the consistency of gummy mush that don't challenge bad teeth. Some turn down fruit salad with too many apple pieces in them "my teeth can't handle it." Some men are missing half their front teeth. I don't care if it was due to neglectful brushing or prison fights- one young man came in with a piercing tooth ache and couldn't stop holding his jawline. Dentists are frightfully expensive. A root canal and cap can run you close to $4,000-just for one tooth. An implant replacement can be 10k a tooth. No wonder these folks are walking around missing teeth-they cannot afford rent anywhere, so where are they getting money for new teeth.
My father liked to call his dental work "Mercedes Mouth" because to fix all his teeth after about thirty years of smoking and other bad habits cost more than a brand new Mercedes.
Our founding father George Washington by the time he was 50 had a mouth of wooden dentures with no teeth.
He would want us to fix this problem. It is a real serious one. Remember that child in DC a few years who had an absess that infected his brain and caused him to have to have emergency brain surgery which then ended up killing him anyway? We now know dental health has a direct correlation with heart health also.
Where are the free dental clinics for people over the age of 50? There is only one I know of in DC and it is only for spanish speaking immigrants. Old white and black guys out of prison don't qualify. Where are the schools running free clinics in conjunction with their dental schools? What does the current health care do for giving people affordable and accessible dental care? Don't you want to know?
I do- if you have more information than I do comment below or email havemercyonus [at] aol.com with 'Dental' in the subject line.
Monday, June 14, 2010
I pledge Alliegance To The Flag
And To the Republic For Which It Stands
One Nation Under God
With Liberty and Justice FOR ALL (except gay people and all the people whose sins I don't particularly like )
No, of course it doesn't go like that.
Liberty and Justice FOR ALL is what I said every day as an elementary school kid in American public schools. Then I grew up to be an Amreican lawyer and did something else, I swore to defend and uphold the US Constitution in a ceremony to be admitted to a Federal Court. It is part of my profession, my livelihood. So I take it seriously.
Now what the catholic church in America is losing sight of, and in Washington, DC in particular, is that the guarantees of Liberty and Justice For All embedded in our pledge and constitution do not discriminate according to level or type of sin- we ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God in some way or another and that is why we all need a Savior, including the Archbishops of the world and everyone wearing a red beanie yarmulka and everyone who wants one. Great Sinners all of us.\
We don't have a Constitution in the US that ranks degree of sin. We don't say- hey, you over there, our sin police have detected that you are full of sloth, and your neighbor full of Avarice so we are going to deprive you of the First Amendment.
But what we do with one kind of sexual 'sin' (if you believe it to be sin) is elevate the sexual sin of homosexuality arena over all the others, and reduce the person to that sin, regardless of whatever else they may be about as a person, dehumanize them into charactures of the sin, and deprive them of their civil liberties. They may have six brothers and sisters, be regular church goers, even catholic church goers who work with ministries, sing in the choir or conduct it, give generously every time the red cross comes calling for blood, support their parents, wax their cars, but all we call them is "Gay" in the public policy arena.
We call people whom we believe are sinful in the sexual perversity arena "Gay" or "homosexual" and that is all we have to know about them to deprive them of civil liberties. We don't do this for any other sin. We don't say- he's a "SLOTHER" or She's an "AVARICA". Or he's a "Wankerific" or she's a "GREEDO" after other sins (wanker being the british term for someone jacking themselves off- a "JACK OFF") thus no Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination for you. No emminent domain pay-off for you. No First Amendment free speech rights for you-if we don't like what you espouse we shall lock you up. No. We don't do that. That would be outrageously unconstitutional, we all agree. Even Maddoff got his constitutional fifth amendment rights. But we do that with Gay people.
This my friends is not Constitutional. It is not American. It is as unAmerican as that McCarthy Commttee in the fifties.
Deciding that something is Unconstitutional, as all federally admitted lawyers are obligated to examine in conjunction with a duty to defend and protect the Constitution might agree, has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO with an assessment of it's degree of Sin.
This is why the Catholic Church is more than a bit misguided and off its rocker actually in spending a fortune persecuting the civil rights and liberties of Gay people. We are a country that lets in all sinners. Even ones who practice the Art of Defamation in the Church.
Now what of that encyclical of Humana Vitie in the 70s or whatever it was that blasted the use of contraceptions as being thwarting of life and all the speculation that any lifting of the ban on contraceptives would lead to support for the gay 'agenda.'
First, that was before the AIDS epidemic, and before they even had technology in which it is clearly proven that a condom can stop the spread of disease. It is not even speculation. It stops the spread of diseases. We had not even isolated various STDs at the time that was written and the AIDS epidemic was totally an unknown phenomenon. Gay people before the invention of the condom were being gay. They just were not 'out of the closet" with anyone but themselves. It is not like more gays became gay and wanted not to have sex with opposite sex people because they now then can freely get condoms.
Sometimes the arguments forwarded linking contraception to gayness or sexual perversity in general are laughably illogical. All contraception clearly does not lead to sexual perversity. Most contraception is practiced among married or monogamous persons who have sex more regularly. They may have two kids they can care for rather than six, with three going to the State or being aborted. All contraception may lead to more married sex for example. It may lead to less STDs and less HIV transmission, and clearly it has prevented these from spreading. It may lead to less people dying from having sex, and it does lead to less mortality.
A doctrine that evolved in the early 70s that presuppposes a state of science that we long evolved from should have absolutely no bearing on the Constitutional question of whether we regard one type of sexual perversity the sort of sin we deprive persons of their constitutional rights of- like the right to marry- a long established penumbral liberty interest and right.
We deprive felons of a right to vote (and even that is under question) because we in years past thought it had some relevance to their ability to vote correctly I imagine, or some other made up rationale that must have survived strict scrutiny required when one deprives it of a fundamental right (probably not, ...that's next for correction). But no one has ever identified what rational interest much less what "compelling" one under the strictest scrutiny the State or Society in general has in depriving one particular sin category of their constitutional liberty interest of marriage. What is the State's interest in depriving anyone of a recognized ceremony for a monogamous commitment.
The Catholic church worldwide is not totally lock step on point about the persecution of Gays agenda of the church. The church itself has had a subliminal "don't ask don't tell" policy about itself in the hierarchy which has been rumored to be about a third latently 'Gay.'
Don't give me that "if they let the Gays marry there will be less heterosexual marriage" nonsense because there is absolutely nothing supporting such speculation. It's hypothetical and made up. I know married gay people, have worked with a few, and knowing them does not give me five seconds pause concerning the fact that I have no interest in same sex sex and am highly attracted to the opposite sex.
So here the theologians should take a back seat (way way at the back of the bus) to the Constitutional scholars- and those who maintain the Republic For Which It Stands- One Nation Under God, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.
I think that's even inscribed on the Supreme Court.
Amen Amein.
But there are Archbishops who want to pit the Catholic Church against the Flag. And those, my friend, should be stopped. Because they confuse their morality with constitutionality- and foundational principles of various private societies and a public Republic need different things, different pillars to support it.
We have here a Republic, if only we can keep one. The church has governance over itself, not the Republic and the liberties and justice for which it stands, FOR ALL. Even the Wankerific church folks.
The church in America is a non profit corporation- one that exempts itself and is exempted by various statutory clauses from having to be compliant with a number of laws regarding non-discrimination in it's own hiring, firing, etc. But that does not give it the right to impose its self serving discriminatory policies on society at large. If it were a shareholder owned corporation, accountable to shareholders with a Board accountable to them, it's feasible they would have voted out the Board by now. Because a huge amount of resources have been wasted on this fight. They are on the wrong side of this Republic on this one. Whether Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Kennedy, Sotomayor, and Thomas will line up or are 'disciplined' to line up or not- wrong side.
Don't get me started on that sin of 'PRIDE."
We will now be retrofitting all males over the age of 15 with a Wanker "Scram" bracelet that monitors wanker activity and if you do it again you will have ten days to turn in your passport and voter registration card or be arrested. Spilling seed is a big sin according to the Bible so
you don't get any constitutional rights of travel or vote in our democracy. Sorry. You can't help it? Made that way? No girls around? Sorry. One more time and it's jail for you buddy.
One Nation Under God
With Liberty and Justice FOR ALL (except gay people and all the people whose sins I don't particularly like )
No, of course it doesn't go like that.
Liberty and Justice FOR ALL is what I said every day as an elementary school kid in American public schools. Then I grew up to be an Amreican lawyer and did something else, I swore to defend and uphold the US Constitution in a ceremony to be admitted to a Federal Court. It is part of my profession, my livelihood. So I take it seriously.
Now what the catholic church in America is losing sight of, and in Washington, DC in particular, is that the guarantees of Liberty and Justice For All embedded in our pledge and constitution do not discriminate according to level or type of sin- we ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God in some way or another and that is why we all need a Savior, including the Archbishops of the world and everyone wearing a red beanie yarmulka and everyone who wants one. Great Sinners all of us.\
We don't have a Constitution in the US that ranks degree of sin. We don't say- hey, you over there, our sin police have detected that you are full of sloth, and your neighbor full of Avarice so we are going to deprive you of the First Amendment.
But what we do with one kind of sexual 'sin' (if you believe it to be sin) is elevate the sexual sin of homosexuality arena over all the others, and reduce the person to that sin, regardless of whatever else they may be about as a person, dehumanize them into charactures of the sin, and deprive them of their civil liberties. They may have six brothers and sisters, be regular church goers, even catholic church goers who work with ministries, sing in the choir or conduct it, give generously every time the red cross comes calling for blood, support their parents, wax their cars, but all we call them is "Gay" in the public policy arena.
We call people whom we believe are sinful in the sexual perversity arena "Gay" or "homosexual" and that is all we have to know about them to deprive them of civil liberties. We don't do this for any other sin. We don't say- he's a "SLOTHER" or She's an "AVARICA". Or he's a "Wankerific" or she's a "GREEDO" after other sins (wanker being the british term for someone jacking themselves off- a "JACK OFF") thus no Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination for you. No emminent domain pay-off for you. No First Amendment free speech rights for you-if we don't like what you espouse we shall lock you up. No. We don't do that. That would be outrageously unconstitutional, we all agree. Even Maddoff got his constitutional fifth amendment rights. But we do that with Gay people.
This my friends is not Constitutional. It is not American. It is as unAmerican as that McCarthy Commttee in the fifties.
Deciding that something is Unconstitutional, as all federally admitted lawyers are obligated to examine in conjunction with a duty to defend and protect the Constitution might agree, has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO with an assessment of it's degree of Sin.
This is why the Catholic Church is more than a bit misguided and off its rocker actually in spending a fortune persecuting the civil rights and liberties of Gay people. We are a country that lets in all sinners. Even ones who practice the Art of Defamation in the Church.
Now what of that encyclical of Humana Vitie in the 70s or whatever it was that blasted the use of contraceptions as being thwarting of life and all the speculation that any lifting of the ban on contraceptives would lead to support for the gay 'agenda.'
First, that was before the AIDS epidemic, and before they even had technology in which it is clearly proven that a condom can stop the spread of disease. It is not even speculation. It stops the spread of diseases. We had not even isolated various STDs at the time that was written and the AIDS epidemic was totally an unknown phenomenon. Gay people before the invention of the condom were being gay. They just were not 'out of the closet" with anyone but themselves. It is not like more gays became gay and wanted not to have sex with opposite sex people because they now then can freely get condoms.
Sometimes the arguments forwarded linking contraception to gayness or sexual perversity in general are laughably illogical. All contraception clearly does not lead to sexual perversity. Most contraception is practiced among married or monogamous persons who have sex more regularly. They may have two kids they can care for rather than six, with three going to the State or being aborted. All contraception may lead to more married sex for example. It may lead to less STDs and less HIV transmission, and clearly it has prevented these from spreading. It may lead to less people dying from having sex, and it does lead to less mortality.
A doctrine that evolved in the early 70s that presuppposes a state of science that we long evolved from should have absolutely no bearing on the Constitutional question of whether we regard one type of sexual perversity the sort of sin we deprive persons of their constitutional rights of- like the right to marry- a long established penumbral liberty interest and right.
We deprive felons of a right to vote (and even that is under question) because we in years past thought it had some relevance to their ability to vote correctly I imagine, or some other made up rationale that must have survived strict scrutiny required when one deprives it of a fundamental right (probably not, ...that's next for correction). But no one has ever identified what rational interest much less what "compelling" one under the strictest scrutiny the State or Society in general has in depriving one particular sin category of their constitutional liberty interest of marriage. What is the State's interest in depriving anyone of a recognized ceremony for a monogamous commitment.
The Catholic church worldwide is not totally lock step on point about the persecution of Gays agenda of the church. The church itself has had a subliminal "don't ask don't tell" policy about itself in the hierarchy which has been rumored to be about a third latently 'Gay.'
Don't give me that "if they let the Gays marry there will be less heterosexual marriage" nonsense because there is absolutely nothing supporting such speculation. It's hypothetical and made up. I know married gay people, have worked with a few, and knowing them does not give me five seconds pause concerning the fact that I have no interest in same sex sex and am highly attracted to the opposite sex.
So here the theologians should take a back seat (way way at the back of the bus) to the Constitutional scholars- and those who maintain the Republic For Which It Stands- One Nation Under God, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.
I think that's even inscribed on the Supreme Court.
Amen Amein.
But there are Archbishops who want to pit the Catholic Church against the Flag. And those, my friend, should be stopped. Because they confuse their morality with constitutionality- and foundational principles of various private societies and a public Republic need different things, different pillars to support it.
We have here a Republic, if only we can keep one. The church has governance over itself, not the Republic and the liberties and justice for which it stands, FOR ALL. Even the Wankerific church folks.
The church in America is a non profit corporation- one that exempts itself and is exempted by various statutory clauses from having to be compliant with a number of laws regarding non-discrimination in it's own hiring, firing, etc. But that does not give it the right to impose its self serving discriminatory policies on society at large. If it were a shareholder owned corporation, accountable to shareholders with a Board accountable to them, it's feasible they would have voted out the Board by now. Because a huge amount of resources have been wasted on this fight. They are on the wrong side of this Republic on this one. Whether Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Kennedy, Sotomayor, and Thomas will line up or are 'disciplined' to line up or not- wrong side.
Don't get me started on that sin of 'PRIDE."
We will now be retrofitting all males over the age of 15 with a Wanker "Scram" bracelet that monitors wanker activity and if you do it again you will have ten days to turn in your passport and voter registration card or be arrested. Spilling seed is a big sin according to the Bible so
you don't get any constitutional rights of travel or vote in our democracy. Sorry. You can't help it? Made that way? No girls around? Sorry. One more time and it's jail for you buddy.
Separation of Church
And Internet
There was a frightening announcement in the Catholic Standard recently- this Sunday is slotted for "we will collect all your email addresses this weekend." Really! I don't think so.
(Actually they already have mine, but that's another story.)
This weekend we had a visiting pastor from a sister parish in el salvador give a talk. He opened with "god is everywhere- in your heart, in the hearts of your poor brothers and sisters, in your church and even in the Vatican." At the last part everyone cracked up- because the perception is that- well, not so much actually. This wasn't a question raised at all with JPII- this Pope is having hard slog isn't he.
When you have people who call themselves Papists persecuting anyone who thinks that Condoms are known and statistically demonstrated to prevent the spread of disease one wonders if the official Vatican position is also firmly against insulin for diabetics, against sole inserts for fallen arches, and also against anesthesia for surgeries. That could afterall promote vanity in plastic surgeries and vanity leads to hot women which leads to sex which is evil as are all women unless under habits working for room and board. Sole inserts promote shoe comfort which promotes dancing which promotes lust which promotes sex also, didn't you know. Take that Dr. Scholls.
(from the FDA and the CDC below:)
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/byAudience/ForPatientAdvocates/HIVandAIDSActivities/ucm126372.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/condomeffectiveness/latex.htm
The even more annoying feature of the announcement "ve vill collect all your emails" is that it emminated from a guy whose resemblance to a younger Grandpa Munster is striking and he is one of my least favorite cases of brother of a Bishop getting to throw his weight around recklessly. The explanation is that the emails are needed to 'help' people understand the position of the Bishops on various matters of public policy. Because what Bishop doesn't want to be powerful and influencing public policy and telling various Congress people where to get off leveraging their constituencies of massive email listserves of billions of faithful catholics.
The problem is that we don't all agree- we are not a monolith and we keep our own blog rolls, thank you very much of the things we find pallatable and the things we find off the wall- or just plain harmful and reckless. We are intelligent beings (even the female ones, heaven forbid) and we have a right to our own conscience. All of us don't think that, for example, Ms. Palin is the second coming of Mother Teresa nor that equal rights for all citizens, including gay ones is against the moral law.) On the gay marriage thing- all the church had to do (instead of wasting a fortune in lost litigation) was rename what it does sacramentally to make it clear that what it does is a sacrament and what the state does is the Equal Opportunity Act for Wedding Planners- like call it the Sacramental Marriage Bond (SMB) or (Wedded Sacramental Bliss-WSB)- someone can come up with a name that no gay person would want.
Then there is the "we won't sell your email to raise money for settlements" issue- I didn't see that disclaimer out there. We also won't hack your email, send out messages after appropriating your email address that sound like they come from you, we won't spam you with repeated requests for money, we won't violate IRS rules endorsing any specific candidates, and we won't punish you if you don't shun Nancy Pelosi. None of that was on there-
You can already sign up for email updates to a number of places controlled by the Archdiocese like the Shrine, the Catholic Standard newspaper, the Archdiocese blog- but no, they don't trust that you have the right or mind to decide for yourself. You Vil Give Us Your Email, Now!
Sorry, I was feeding masses of sheep at a picnic yesterday and missed the email cards- leave your name and number at the tone and I may return the call.
There was a frightening announcement in the Catholic Standard recently- this Sunday is slotted for "we will collect all your email addresses this weekend." Really! I don't think so.
(Actually they already have mine, but that's another story.)
This weekend we had a visiting pastor from a sister parish in el salvador give a talk. He opened with "god is everywhere- in your heart, in the hearts of your poor brothers and sisters, in your church and even in the Vatican." At the last part everyone cracked up- because the perception is that- well, not so much actually. This wasn't a question raised at all with JPII- this Pope is having hard slog isn't he.
When you have people who call themselves Papists persecuting anyone who thinks that Condoms are known and statistically demonstrated to prevent the spread of disease one wonders if the official Vatican position is also firmly against insulin for diabetics, against sole inserts for fallen arches, and also against anesthesia for surgeries. That could afterall promote vanity in plastic surgeries and vanity leads to hot women which leads to sex which is evil as are all women unless under habits working for room and board. Sole inserts promote shoe comfort which promotes dancing which promotes lust which promotes sex also, didn't you know. Take that Dr. Scholls.
(from the FDA and the CDC below:)
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/byAudience/ForPatientAdvocates/HIVandAIDSActivities/ucm126372.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/condomeffectiveness/latex.htm
The even more annoying feature of the announcement "ve vill collect all your emails" is that it emminated from a guy whose resemblance to a younger Grandpa Munster is striking and he is one of my least favorite cases of brother of a Bishop getting to throw his weight around recklessly. The explanation is that the emails are needed to 'help' people understand the position of the Bishops on various matters of public policy. Because what Bishop doesn't want to be powerful and influencing public policy and telling various Congress people where to get off leveraging their constituencies of massive email listserves of billions of faithful catholics.
The problem is that we don't all agree- we are not a monolith and we keep our own blog rolls, thank you very much of the things we find pallatable and the things we find off the wall- or just plain harmful and reckless. We are intelligent beings (even the female ones, heaven forbid) and we have a right to our own conscience. All of us don't think that, for example, Ms. Palin is the second coming of Mother Teresa nor that equal rights for all citizens, including gay ones is against the moral law.) On the gay marriage thing- all the church had to do (instead of wasting a fortune in lost litigation) was rename what it does sacramentally to make it clear that what it does is a sacrament and what the state does is the Equal Opportunity Act for Wedding Planners- like call it the Sacramental Marriage Bond (SMB) or (Wedded Sacramental Bliss-WSB)- someone can come up with a name that no gay person would want.
Then there is the "we won't sell your email to raise money for settlements" issue- I didn't see that disclaimer out there. We also won't hack your email, send out messages after appropriating your email address that sound like they come from you, we won't spam you with repeated requests for money, we won't violate IRS rules endorsing any specific candidates, and we won't punish you if you don't shun Nancy Pelosi. None of that was on there-
You can already sign up for email updates to a number of places controlled by the Archdiocese like the Shrine, the Catholic Standard newspaper, the Archdiocese blog- but no, they don't trust that you have the right or mind to decide for yourself. You Vil Give Us Your Email, Now!
Sorry, I was feeding masses of sheep at a picnic yesterday and missed the email cards- leave your name and number at the tone and I may return the call.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Marriage Math
See if this adds up
Which of these is complete malarchy:
If Gay people marry, there will be less traditional marriage among heteros.
If Priests Marry, there will be less traditional marriage among anyone.
If the Wizzard of Oz married, Dorothy would start dating the munchkins.
How many Priests would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck chunks?
INSANE DOUBLE SPEAK ALL AROUND. And They All Glassy Eyed Drank the Picnic Kool-Aid and threw a buck in the bucket.
http://www.futurechurch.org/fpm/history.htm
Which of these is complete malarchy:
If Gay people marry, there will be less traditional marriage among heteros.
If Priests Marry, there will be less traditional marriage among anyone.
If the Wizzard of Oz married, Dorothy would start dating the munchkins.
How many Priests would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck chunks?
INSANE DOUBLE SPEAK ALL AROUND. And They All Glassy Eyed Drank the Picnic Kool-Aid and threw a buck in the bucket.
http://www.futurechurch.org/fpm/history.htm
Religious Liberty
Because My Soul Is My Business
We take for granted Religious Liberties in America and the Freedom of Worship we enjoy here. In part that is because of a Constitution that guaranteees that we have basic Freedoms of Worship, Freedoms of Assemby, Freedoms to have the State not Establish a State Religion and not impinge on the Freedom to Exercise one's religion or worship as they deem appropriate. It is a freedom to seek God and know him.
My Soul My Business. Not the Government's.
This is not the case in many places in the world. There are still Blasphemy laws in Pakistan for example (see the links to the right.) What are essentially Thought Police operate in places like Iran, political dissidents who don't believe in formal Athiesm in places like Cuba or China still are persecuted and prosecuted and Christian communities are still tortured in many places in the world you would rather forget about.
There is one organization that is doing something about it all over the world- with a focus now in Africa.
ADVOCATES INTERNATIONAL
http://www.advocatesinternational.org/
One of the featured attorneys on their newsletter (click link above) is Sam Casey, Esq. their General Counsel, who was one of the only Catholic Directors of the national organization, The Christian Legal Society prior to committing his time to Advocates International. He has been in Nigeria fighting corruption and religious oppression of the Christian community and violence against Christians.
Like all organizations they appreciate your financial support.
Seriously. Get out your checkbook. You don't know how good you have it.
Strengthening religious liberty guarantees help strengthen the Rule of Law that makes
Societies Fair and Equitable.
Help the Advocates International fight the corruption that destabilizes societies and undermines people's search for Truth.
We take for granted Religious Liberties in America and the Freedom of Worship we enjoy here. In part that is because of a Constitution that guaranteees that we have basic Freedoms of Worship, Freedoms of Assemby, Freedoms to have the State not Establish a State Religion and not impinge on the Freedom to Exercise one's religion or worship as they deem appropriate. It is a freedom to seek God and know him.
My Soul My Business. Not the Government's.
This is not the case in many places in the world. There are still Blasphemy laws in Pakistan for example (see the links to the right.) What are essentially Thought Police operate in places like Iran, political dissidents who don't believe in formal Athiesm in places like Cuba or China still are persecuted and prosecuted and Christian communities are still tortured in many places in the world you would rather forget about.
There is one organization that is doing something about it all over the world- with a focus now in Africa.
ADVOCATES INTERNATIONAL
http://www.advocatesinternational.org/
One of the featured attorneys on their newsletter (click link above) is Sam Casey, Esq. their General Counsel, who was one of the only Catholic Directors of the national organization, The Christian Legal Society prior to committing his time to Advocates International. He has been in Nigeria fighting corruption and religious oppression of the Christian community and violence against Christians.
Like all organizations they appreciate your financial support.
Seriously. Get out your checkbook. You don't know how good you have it.
Strengthening religious liberty guarantees help strengthen the Rule of Law that makes
Societies Fair and Equitable.
Help the Advocates International fight the corruption that destabilizes societies and undermines people's search for Truth.
Because Sometimes Its all A Crock
This is America: Criminal Prosecutions And Prisons Are a Business
www.InnocenceProject.org
Some people doing jail time should not be there. Sometimes people are doing insane amount of jail time for things you wouldn't believe in America. We have mandatory minimum federal sentencing- and sometimes it's ridiculous.
Tonight, Saturday, at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Georgetown, Washington, DC there is a free movie and reception in conjunction with the Prisons Arts Foundation (6:00pm-9:00ish). Go learn what people in the criminal justice reform arena are doing developing and mentoring incarcerated artists. http://www.prisonsfoundation.org/
http://www.mocadc.org/
www.InnocenceProject.org
Some people doing jail time should not be there. Sometimes people are doing insane amount of jail time for things you wouldn't believe in America. We have mandatory minimum federal sentencing- and sometimes it's ridiculous.
Tonight, Saturday, at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Georgetown, Washington, DC there is a free movie and reception in conjunction with the Prisons Arts Foundation (6:00pm-9:00ish). Go learn what people in the criminal justice reform arena are doing developing and mentoring incarcerated artists. http://www.prisonsfoundation.org/
http://www.mocadc.org/
Junia Junia
Junia
Romans 16.7 speaks of two notable apostles, Andronicus and Junia, and good authorities agree that "Junia" is a woman's name. So here we have a sister as an apostle and a notable apostle at that. "Salute Andronicus and Junias [some manuscripts say "Julia"], my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also have been in Christ before me" (16.7). These Apostles were doing the Work of the Ministry even before Paul started. Male-centered systems will try to teach these Apostles are not apostles, rejecting God's commissioning and authority, because they prefer an egotistical (maleocentric) system which is abusive towards women. Of course, they believe they are doing the right thing. God's word would never be so unclear as to confuse "of note among the apostles," to be taken to mean they are merely respected by the apostles. No! They are "among the apostles" because they are Apostles. Who is the author of confusion?
This same word for Junia is given in the NLT. The footnote reads, "some manuscripts read Julia." "Salute Philologus, and Julia" (v.15) "who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me" (v.7). We do not know if they were Apostles before Paul became one, but we know they were born-again before Paul was. Julia means "soft haired" and "youthful". The KJV Concordance refers to Junias ("Iounias" in Greek) as a "Christian woman" and a "Christian woman at Rome, mentioned by Paul as one of his kinsfolk and fellow prisoners." Thayer's Lexicon refers Junia as "a women's name...and the name occurs again in Rom. 16.15": "Salute Philologus, and Julia" (v.15).
http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/womenapostles.htm
1 Peter 3:7
FELLOW HEIRS.
BECAUSE THERE IS NO 'MALE OR FEMALE' IN CHRIST JESUS.
Galatians 3:28
Romans 16.7 speaks of two notable apostles, Andronicus and Junia, and good authorities agree that "Junia" is a woman's name. So here we have a sister as an apostle and a notable apostle at that. "Salute Andronicus and Junias [some manuscripts say "Julia"], my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also have been in Christ before me" (16.7). These Apostles were doing the Work of the Ministry even before Paul started. Male-centered systems will try to teach these Apostles are not apostles, rejecting God's commissioning and authority, because they prefer an egotistical (maleocentric) system which is abusive towards women. Of course, they believe they are doing the right thing. God's word would never be so unclear as to confuse "of note among the apostles," to be taken to mean they are merely respected by the apostles. No! They are "among the apostles" because they are Apostles. Who is the author of confusion?
This same word for Junia is given in the NLT. The footnote reads, "some manuscripts read Julia." "Salute Philologus, and Julia" (v.15) "who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me" (v.7). We do not know if they were Apostles before Paul became one, but we know they were born-again before Paul was. Julia means "soft haired" and "youthful". The KJV Concordance refers to Junias ("Iounias" in Greek) as a "Christian woman" and a "Christian woman at Rome, mentioned by Paul as one of his kinsfolk and fellow prisoners." Thayer's Lexicon refers Junia as "a women's name...and the name occurs again in Rom. 16.15": "Salute Philologus, and Julia" (v.15).
http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/womenapostles.htm
1 Peter 3:7
FELLOW HEIRS.
BECAUSE THERE IS NO 'MALE OR FEMALE' IN CHRIST JESUS.
Galatians 3:28
Wits About Us
If Living Outside the Box
Gets you in Trouble.
Build Yourself an Octogon. They will stop mocking then.
Gets you in Trouble.
Build Yourself an Octogon. They will stop mocking then.
Funniest Comic Award
To That Guy Ripping Falwell-of blessed memory.
Goes something like this.
Jerry Falwell said God told him that God allowed 9-11 to happen because of all the Pagans in America and Feminists.
Pagans. That's a motorcycle group isn't it?
And Feminists. God looked down from heaven and said -look at all those women trying to help fed their families by getting a job, doing dishes, the laundry, carpooling kids to piano lessons and soccer practice, then competing with other men to bring home more money for the mortgage in jobs, and he said "Where is the pot of stew on the stove? Where's my stew? No stew on the stove and I hate frozen Stouffers! I shall SMITE them all!" and he blew up the Towers.
Actually, God called me about a hour and a half earlier and said it was because of people like Falwell.
[and a couple billion in Iraqi oil contracts]
Goes something like this.
Jerry Falwell said God told him that God allowed 9-11 to happen because of all the Pagans in America and Feminists.
Pagans. That's a motorcycle group isn't it?
And Feminists. God looked down from heaven and said -look at all those women trying to help fed their families by getting a job, doing dishes, the laundry, carpooling kids to piano lessons and soccer practice, then competing with other men to bring home more money for the mortgage in jobs, and he said "Where is the pot of stew on the stove? Where's my stew? No stew on the stove and I hate frozen Stouffers! I shall SMITE them all!" and he blew up the Towers.
Actually, God called me about a hour and a half earlier and said it was because of people like Falwell.
[and a couple billion in Iraqi oil contracts]
Friday, June 11, 2010
God is in the World, thus instead of thinking folly of holding hands or any other parts
with a wo-man, take the cords of your draperies and
whip yourselves with them until you think only of
discomfort, now get the chords of draperies in every room from here to Bolivia because pain is what you were created for..
more chords, more whipping, yes, that's the ticket, pain, more pain, keep whipping.
And should any female creature of the wo-man variety
set foot in the entrance to your abode, call the police
and allege seductry and sedition to the Pain-Master.
-Yoda- the 16th.
---------------
Your worthless masochisms do not glorify God- they insult him. There is only one being qualified to give his life as a ransom for many. There is only one mediator between God and Man. Your masochisms ransom no one and nothing. They are excuses to misname wounding, injury and defect as nobility. They serve no higher cause than your misery. They do not point to God in the world, they point to your devilish presumption and a thumbing of your nose at the one who gave his life so yours would be abundant.
The Best Way To Mock Christ
Is to Make a Magesterium out of Mush
"The Magisterium is not Superior to the Word of God but it's servant, the servant of Truth."
Monsignor Peter Vaghi, "The Faith We Profess: A Catholic Guide to the Apostles Creed", forward by Washington DC Archbishop Donald Wuerl" Ave Maria Press 2008/
Here is the Truth about the mandatory permenant celibacy of the Priesthood.
1. It is wildly and boldly contrary to Scripture, both new and old.
2. It is murderous in its suppression of women.
3. It is anti-life because it destroys the possibility for life and hope in life for every ovulated egg that falls in a relationship between a priest and a woman that cannot be consummated. Say a woman is in love with a priest for three (3) years and it is mutual - as many many occassions have happened and now been documented and attested to, most recently by numerous italian women. They ovulate and drop one egg every month. That means in 3 years just for one couple the Pope has killed the life potential for 72 children - and that is just one couple.
(TWINS)
It can ruin women. It can destroy them.
It can destroy their faith, it can cause them to reject God himself. Because what God would be so stupidly cruel as to entertain this evil?
No, Mr. Pope. Mr. Benedict (Arnold). The magisterium on the Priestly Celibacy is a joke. Not Jesus. Not Holy. Not worth five seconds to rebut your stupidity any longer on this point.
"The Magisterium is not Superior to the Word of God but it's servant, the servant of Truth."
Monsignor Peter Vaghi, "The Faith We Profess: A Catholic Guide to the Apostles Creed", forward by Washington DC Archbishop Donald Wuerl" Ave Maria Press 2008/
Here is the Truth about the mandatory permenant celibacy of the Priesthood.
1. It is wildly and boldly contrary to Scripture, both new and old.
2. It is murderous in its suppression of women.
3. It is anti-life because it destroys the possibility for life and hope in life for every ovulated egg that falls in a relationship between a priest and a woman that cannot be consummated. Say a woman is in love with a priest for three (3) years and it is mutual - as many many occassions have happened and now been documented and attested to, most recently by numerous italian women. They ovulate and drop one egg every month. That means in 3 years just for one couple the Pope has killed the life potential for 72 children - and that is just one couple.
(TWINS)
It can ruin women. It can destroy them.
It can destroy their faith, it can cause them to reject God himself. Because what God would be so stupidly cruel as to entertain this evil?
No, Mr. Pope. Mr. Benedict (Arnold). The magisterium on the Priestly Celibacy is a joke. Not Jesus. Not Holy. Not worth five seconds to rebut your stupidity any longer on this point.
Me Thinks He Doth Protest Too Much-
All The Time.
The Pope is constantly, have you noticed, defending permanent celibacy for priests.
Here he is again defending the indefensible:
http://www.h2onews.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=224445224
I'm sorry but this is pure crap. if you buy it you are a moron. End of Story.
The "roots" of the church everywhere told but scrubbed vatican archives is that for the first 1,000 years there was no mandatory priestly celibacy. The first Pope Peter was married as were everyone else and Paul calls this a "right." Don't we have a "right" to have our wives travel with us he asks in Corinthians....but he declines. He says he does this not because the Lord told him that everyone is better off as he is and expressly says, I Paul would wish everyone were as I am but that's just me, not the Lord talking.
The entire theology of permanent celibacy for the priesthood was fashioned after the schism of the Bzyantine Church. No Jewish congregation maintains it, not an Eastern Orthodox or Byzantine Rite church maintains it. No Protestant or reformed group maintains it. Because it's crap.
After the first 1,000 yrs the western church became more sexist, more despising of women, banished them from ranks of leadership, persecuted wives of priests, forced divorces in some cases and redefined holiness to exclude conjugal love making these mutually exclusive. It's crap and totally psychologically perverse.
So sick of it. So so so sick of it.
If you believe it, I repeat. M O R O N.
Read a history book.
The notion that this is somehow more pious or elevated thinking is just ABSOLUTE couldn't be more ridiculous nonsense- it's already been repudiated by JPII. It's totally tragically pathetic that anyone listens to him for five seconds when he goes off like this.
Sorry Benoit. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
The Catholic Church has a real problem in parts understanding a proper role of women- treats them like garbage in some corners, as mere 'temptation' to the artificial holiness it tries to sell.
I have news for him- not buyin' it- Jesus never said "I am the great white eunich come down to permenantly castrate you so you can be the pet poodle of the lonely widows club and baptize only everyone else's children." sorry- not in the scripture. Don't add from it, don't subtract from it- and read Timothy 4.
I hate to turn the channel on the Pope but here he is just stomach churningly ignorant. Sorry.
The great Scandal is that he perpetrates this madness with conviction. And all the little dow eyed boys nodded "yes, yoda." wankers convention.
Jesus, the Jewish one from Nazareth, not the cross-dressing roman robed one in your head, opened his ministry at a wedding. He talks about the 'bridegroom' with keys to lock anyone out of the wedding and by his analogy the kingdom, referencing himself. He chooses Peter and cures his mother in law (so it wasn't a secret he had a wife). Jesus lays down the rule about how divorce is only permitted because of the 'hardness of your hearts' (so how rock hard would your heart be to shut yourself off totally from it ever), and don't even start with me on how close he was to Mary Magdalene and what their relationship was about as she runs first to the tomb with the embalming oils that only family members get to rub all over a dead body when it was totally unclean for anyone not a family member to even see one. Yes the church has done a number on women for years--10 centuries actually--, but one thing that is clear is that the made up theology about anything holy about permenant celibacy is a total ridiculous crock that promotes perversions of heart and mind and the most bizarre forms of under the radar bonding you never want to know about.
The Pope is constantly, have you noticed, defending permanent celibacy for priests.
Here he is again defending the indefensible:
http://www.h2onews.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=224445224
I'm sorry but this is pure crap. if you buy it you are a moron. End of Story.
The "roots" of the church everywhere told but scrubbed vatican archives is that for the first 1,000 years there was no mandatory priestly celibacy. The first Pope Peter was married as were everyone else and Paul calls this a "right." Don't we have a "right" to have our wives travel with us he asks in Corinthians....but he declines. He says he does this not because the Lord told him that everyone is better off as he is and expressly says, I Paul would wish everyone were as I am but that's just me, not the Lord talking.
The entire theology of permanent celibacy for the priesthood was fashioned after the schism of the Bzyantine Church. No Jewish congregation maintains it, not an Eastern Orthodox or Byzantine Rite church maintains it. No Protestant or reformed group maintains it. Because it's crap.
After the first 1,000 yrs the western church became more sexist, more despising of women, banished them from ranks of leadership, persecuted wives of priests, forced divorces in some cases and redefined holiness to exclude conjugal love making these mutually exclusive. It's crap and totally psychologically perverse.
So sick of it. So so so sick of it.
If you believe it, I repeat. M O R O N.
Read a history book.
The notion that this is somehow more pious or elevated thinking is just ABSOLUTE couldn't be more ridiculous nonsense- it's already been repudiated by JPII. It's totally tragically pathetic that anyone listens to him for five seconds when he goes off like this.
Sorry Benoit. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
The Catholic Church has a real problem in parts understanding a proper role of women- treats them like garbage in some corners, as mere 'temptation' to the artificial holiness it tries to sell.
I have news for him- not buyin' it- Jesus never said "I am the great white eunich come down to permenantly castrate you so you can be the pet poodle of the lonely widows club and baptize only everyone else's children." sorry- not in the scripture. Don't add from it, don't subtract from it- and read Timothy 4.
I hate to turn the channel on the Pope but here he is just stomach churningly ignorant. Sorry.
The great Scandal is that he perpetrates this madness with conviction. And all the little dow eyed boys nodded "yes, yoda." wankers convention.
Jesus, the Jewish one from Nazareth, not the cross-dressing roman robed one in your head, opened his ministry at a wedding. He talks about the 'bridegroom' with keys to lock anyone out of the wedding and by his analogy the kingdom, referencing himself. He chooses Peter and cures his mother in law (so it wasn't a secret he had a wife). Jesus lays down the rule about how divorce is only permitted because of the 'hardness of your hearts' (so how rock hard would your heart be to shut yourself off totally from it ever), and don't even start with me on how close he was to Mary Magdalene and what their relationship was about as she runs first to the tomb with the embalming oils that only family members get to rub all over a dead body when it was totally unclean for anyone not a family member to even see one. Yes the church has done a number on women for years--10 centuries actually--, but one thing that is clear is that the made up theology about anything holy about permenant celibacy is a total ridiculous crock that promotes perversions of heart and mind and the most bizarre forms of under the radar bonding you never want to know about.
Matthew 25 Redux
Breakin in Up
Matthew 25 is such a rich text, with each part so densely meaningful that usually you only hear a sermon on a piece of it at a time. It should be viewed as a Trilogy, an integrated whole.
The parables of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, the Talents and the Sheep and Goats should be taken together to be the formula for what God is looking for in the people he calls his own.
The language is clear, strong, definitive and he is not fooling around. These parables are the key to the Kingdom as it were, they are collectively the three part harmony for understanding how to get to Heaven. They are in the First Gospel, Matthews.
The first part about the Wise and Foolish Virgins talks about the "Bridegroom." First principle of getting to Heaven is faith in the Bridegroom. This Bridegroom is a clear analogy to Christ himself. The bridegroom is going to return and the wise virgins have prepared for it, because they know he is coming to let them in. So they have enough oil ready and everything they need. The foolish ones are perhaps not sure, they don't bring everything- OK, if he comes, we can always go buy oil. And they don't bring enough to last long enough. Probably because they weren't prepared to wait that long. Their patience was perhaps a bit thin. So when they figure he is really coming, OMG, they run to the store to get oil after they realize they can't beg it off their wise friends, and miss him while they are out shopping. They were at the proverbial airport when the boat came to the dock. So the lesson here: Faith that Christ is coming at the end of your time no matter how long it takes and be fully prepared for however long it takes. He is the one who lets you in or not. You ride in on his coat tails and recommendation or you don't get in. 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, NO MAN comes to the Father but through me." Note to Oprah-no you don't get to pick which way you get there, there is one way and only one way through the gate of the sheepfold. Heaven isn't like a capitalist enterprise where you get to pick how you make your fortune and apply yourself. You didn't create God in your image, it's the other way around.
The second is the parable of the talents: we read happily along and see how each invested the money given to them by the master- one got ten and invested and got ten more, one got five and invested and got five more, one got one and ....oooops....buried it. Then we are hit with a whammy that seems a little harsh. "YOU WICKED LAZY SERVANT!" and this person is cast into the netherworld where there is 'weeping and gnashing of teeth.' Wow. Just for burying the paltry little nothing that he got out of discouragement or lack of appreciation for the little he did have? Wicked and lazy servant- banished to that weeping and gnashing of teeth place.
So what is this? The full opportunity for bankers act in passage? It's a lesson on appreciating even the tiniest little that you have and putting even the tiniest little that you have to the maximum use for others- not denying you have it, not hiding it under a bushel or burrying it, not pretending you don't have it, not cursing the darkness instead of seeing the tiny light and especially not viewing God as a harsh condemnor who is unjust in his assessments and ready to condemn for not having a lot. It's about realizing everything you have and are is God's investment in the planet that you are supposed to invest in the planet and if God only gave you a little, use it, don't get upset he only gave you a litte. It's not all about you. It's for the good of others. You are not here for you or all about you- you are here to invest whatever you have however great or small. If you see the world as 'All About Me' and you just bury and kill off what God gave you, you are a wicked and lazy servant. Suicide or Assisted Suicide is wicked for that reason. It's snuffing out the tiny light.
What are your assets and attributes? Great legs? Be a dancer. Great voice. Be a singer. Great looking Face- get it on TV and preach there. Start with You Tube. Great wise understanding, be a scholar-great writer, write books, etc.... the little that you have will be magnified multifold if you put it out there.
The last thing you want to be called is "wicked and lazy servant."
Then there is the most famous of all the Matthew 25 passages about the Sheep and the Goats getting separated to Jesus' right and left. The good guys, the sheep (who know their Master's voice) they engage the world in acts of corporal mercy- they feed hungry people, they give thirsty people drink, they heal and comfort the sick, they visit prisons. Why? Look, Jesus not only did all of that, but he was someone who while he was on earth was Hungry, Thirsty, and despondent even of heart, and IN PRISON. He was in detention before his trial before Pontius Pilate. He was round up, put in custody, thrown in detention, tortured in captivity and then hung. On a Cross. That is what Jesus did on earth. So when he says as much as you do this to the least of these my brethren you do it to me, it is because HE WAS in those situations- all of them, and he knows how these acts of compassion save and preserve an earthly life. He asks us all to do them. Demonstrations of compassion. They are essential.
We are told, look, if your brother comes to you and says I am hungry and you send him on his way saying "I will pray for you brother" that is not good enough. You have to open your fridge and feed him. The "woman at the well" gave him drink when he was thirsty. The little boy provided fish and loaves so they all could eat on the hillside. They all were hungry. Even the disciples- even Jesus. Even preachers need to be fed-you can only live on air, a prayer and church dinners for so long. Pay them. Like a tenth of what you earn.
"You do it" he says in instructing them to feed the thousands.
So here we are. On earth. Hello. Nice to Meet You.
You want to go to heaven? You think all you have to do is keep your job?
No. it's not All About You.
Here is what you have to do to not be a "wicked and lazy servant." You have to first have Faith and Believe that Jesus is coming at the end of your time to assess whether you have been prepared and have enough light to see him or whether you are still out shopping because you only half believed it. Then he is going to ask for the accounting of "what have you done for me lately" with all the stuff I gave you. I gave you a great voice- why haven't you put out CDs? I gave you a vision- why haven't you told anyone about it yet ? I gave you a great head for numbers- why haven't you solved the fiscal crisis yet, I gave you great oratory skills, why aren't you out telling people about me?
And why are you sitting in your comfortable house where you have all the food you need, more clothes than the Princess of Jordan and more shoes than Amelda Marcos and you see that homeless crazy woman in rags? You know there are three million people in your jails in the US and you have not met one of them yet? There is a prison or jail in every state and you never went to one because????? You know that there are people who have no clean water, it is filthy disease ridden and animals defacate in it, and you haven't invested in building wells or sent bottled water ? You sent hungry people away, you didn't give your second coat to anyone and know you can't wear two at a time, you didn't try to comfort even your own relatives in the hospital much less help pay for their medical bills, you didn't try to pray with them, you didn't even believe you could lay hands on the sick and heal them so you didn't bother and kept your distance for fear you would get it too. You wicked and lazy servant. Go to that place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So clearly, the Grace is the First basic predicate to understanding that we have an opportunity that we did not create, it was given to us as a gift. We are all invited to stand outside the wedding gates and wait and invited to believe that he is coming to let us in. But we have to seize the opportunity and act on it tangibly. We have to realize that everything we have is not only a gift but not just for us, an investment in the World and it is not "all about us." We have to take whatever small thing is given to us, and turn it into something for others for the Glory of God, for the Good of all the world. And we cannot just keep every blessing we have for ourselves but must actively bless others materially and spiritually. Clean out your closets and give away. Give It Away. It comes back to you a thousand fold.
This is Matthew's Keys to the Kingdom Trilogy. Now, get moving. You don't want to be stuck at the line in the store when the wedding starts.
Happy Saint Anthony Feast Day.
Matthew 25 is such a rich text, with each part so densely meaningful that usually you only hear a sermon on a piece of it at a time. It should be viewed as a Trilogy, an integrated whole.
The parables of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, the Talents and the Sheep and Goats should be taken together to be the formula for what God is looking for in the people he calls his own.
The language is clear, strong, definitive and he is not fooling around. These parables are the key to the Kingdom as it were, they are collectively the three part harmony for understanding how to get to Heaven. They are in the First Gospel, Matthews.
The first part about the Wise and Foolish Virgins talks about the "Bridegroom." First principle of getting to Heaven is faith in the Bridegroom. This Bridegroom is a clear analogy to Christ himself. The bridegroom is going to return and the wise virgins have prepared for it, because they know he is coming to let them in. So they have enough oil ready and everything they need. The foolish ones are perhaps not sure, they don't bring everything- OK, if he comes, we can always go buy oil. And they don't bring enough to last long enough. Probably because they weren't prepared to wait that long. Their patience was perhaps a bit thin. So when they figure he is really coming, OMG, they run to the store to get oil after they realize they can't beg it off their wise friends, and miss him while they are out shopping. They were at the proverbial airport when the boat came to the dock. So the lesson here: Faith that Christ is coming at the end of your time no matter how long it takes and be fully prepared for however long it takes. He is the one who lets you in or not. You ride in on his coat tails and recommendation or you don't get in. 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, NO MAN comes to the Father but through me." Note to Oprah-no you don't get to pick which way you get there, there is one way and only one way through the gate of the sheepfold. Heaven isn't like a capitalist enterprise where you get to pick how you make your fortune and apply yourself. You didn't create God in your image, it's the other way around.
The second is the parable of the talents: we read happily along and see how each invested the money given to them by the master- one got ten and invested and got ten more, one got five and invested and got five more, one got one and ....oooops....buried it. Then we are hit with a whammy that seems a little harsh. "YOU WICKED LAZY SERVANT!" and this person is cast into the netherworld where there is 'weeping and gnashing of teeth.' Wow. Just for burying the paltry little nothing that he got out of discouragement or lack of appreciation for the little he did have? Wicked and lazy servant- banished to that weeping and gnashing of teeth place.
So what is this? The full opportunity for bankers act in passage? It's a lesson on appreciating even the tiniest little that you have and putting even the tiniest little that you have to the maximum use for others- not denying you have it, not hiding it under a bushel or burrying it, not pretending you don't have it, not cursing the darkness instead of seeing the tiny light and especially not viewing God as a harsh condemnor who is unjust in his assessments and ready to condemn for not having a lot. It's about realizing everything you have and are is God's investment in the planet that you are supposed to invest in the planet and if God only gave you a little, use it, don't get upset he only gave you a litte. It's not all about you. It's for the good of others. You are not here for you or all about you- you are here to invest whatever you have however great or small. If you see the world as 'All About Me' and you just bury and kill off what God gave you, you are a wicked and lazy servant. Suicide or Assisted Suicide is wicked for that reason. It's snuffing out the tiny light.
What are your assets and attributes? Great legs? Be a dancer. Great voice. Be a singer. Great looking Face- get it on TV and preach there. Start with You Tube. Great wise understanding, be a scholar-great writer, write books, etc.... the little that you have will be magnified multifold if you put it out there.
The last thing you want to be called is "wicked and lazy servant."
Then there is the most famous of all the Matthew 25 passages about the Sheep and the Goats getting separated to Jesus' right and left. The good guys, the sheep (who know their Master's voice) they engage the world in acts of corporal mercy- they feed hungry people, they give thirsty people drink, they heal and comfort the sick, they visit prisons. Why? Look, Jesus not only did all of that, but he was someone who while he was on earth was Hungry, Thirsty, and despondent even of heart, and IN PRISON. He was in detention before his trial before Pontius Pilate. He was round up, put in custody, thrown in detention, tortured in captivity and then hung. On a Cross. That is what Jesus did on earth. So when he says as much as you do this to the least of these my brethren you do it to me, it is because HE WAS in those situations- all of them, and he knows how these acts of compassion save and preserve an earthly life. He asks us all to do them. Demonstrations of compassion. They are essential.
We are told, look, if your brother comes to you and says I am hungry and you send him on his way saying "I will pray for you brother" that is not good enough. You have to open your fridge and feed him. The "woman at the well" gave him drink when he was thirsty. The little boy provided fish and loaves so they all could eat on the hillside. They all were hungry. Even the disciples- even Jesus. Even preachers need to be fed-you can only live on air, a prayer and church dinners for so long. Pay them. Like a tenth of what you earn.
"You do it" he says in instructing them to feed the thousands.
So here we are. On earth. Hello. Nice to Meet You.
You want to go to heaven? You think all you have to do is keep your job?
No. it's not All About You.
Here is what you have to do to not be a "wicked and lazy servant." You have to first have Faith and Believe that Jesus is coming at the end of your time to assess whether you have been prepared and have enough light to see him or whether you are still out shopping because you only half believed it. Then he is going to ask for the accounting of "what have you done for me lately" with all the stuff I gave you. I gave you a great voice- why haven't you put out CDs? I gave you a vision- why haven't you told anyone about it yet ? I gave you a great head for numbers- why haven't you solved the fiscal crisis yet, I gave you great oratory skills, why aren't you out telling people about me?
And why are you sitting in your comfortable house where you have all the food you need, more clothes than the Princess of Jordan and more shoes than Amelda Marcos and you see that homeless crazy woman in rags? You know there are three million people in your jails in the US and you have not met one of them yet? There is a prison or jail in every state and you never went to one because????? You know that there are people who have no clean water, it is filthy disease ridden and animals defacate in it, and you haven't invested in building wells or sent bottled water ? You sent hungry people away, you didn't give your second coat to anyone and know you can't wear two at a time, you didn't try to comfort even your own relatives in the hospital much less help pay for their medical bills, you didn't try to pray with them, you didn't even believe you could lay hands on the sick and heal them so you didn't bother and kept your distance for fear you would get it too. You wicked and lazy servant. Go to that place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So clearly, the Grace is the First basic predicate to understanding that we have an opportunity that we did not create, it was given to us as a gift. We are all invited to stand outside the wedding gates and wait and invited to believe that he is coming to let us in. But we have to seize the opportunity and act on it tangibly. We have to realize that everything we have is not only a gift but not just for us, an investment in the World and it is not "all about us." We have to take whatever small thing is given to us, and turn it into something for others for the Glory of God, for the Good of all the world. And we cannot just keep every blessing we have for ourselves but must actively bless others materially and spiritually. Clean out your closets and give away. Give It Away. It comes back to you a thousand fold.
This is Matthew's Keys to the Kingdom Trilogy. Now, get moving. You don't want to be stuck at the line in the store when the wedding starts.
Happy Saint Anthony Feast Day.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
WhoDaThunkIt
Great Britain has a "National Secular Council."
And they object to this advert:
http://www.newser.com/story/92036/abortion-storm-erupts-over-ultrasound-jesus-ad.html
Because it is too "pro life" and too Jesusey.
Go Figure. So Where is the Queen, the [figure]Head of the C of E on all this censorship?
Church-State Separation or persecution of the church? What say you?
And they object to this advert:
http://www.newser.com/story/92036/abortion-storm-erupts-over-ultrasound-jesus-ad.html
Because it is too "pro life" and too Jesusey.
Go Figure. So Where is the Queen, the [figure]Head of the C of E on all this censorship?
Church-State Separation or persecution of the church? What say you?
Examining the Evidence
And Faulty Detection Equipment
In today's Washington Post the DC office of Attorney General is embarassed- they prosecuted about 400 DUI offenses and put people in jail- locked them up- because they were allegedly intoxicated while driving- when the equipment was proven faulty. I wouldn't say --rigged--heaven forbid. Just 'faulty.' http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/09/AR2010060906257.html?hpid=moreheadlines
This takes us to the other coast where Lindsey Lohan has similarly been cited for violating the DUI laws, and was forced to wear some electronic gadget that is supposed to detect alcohol in her. The Court has so far made $300,000. off Lindsey Lohan -the first 100,000 she had to post as bail when her passport was stolen while promoting a film in Cannes, France causing her to miss a mandatory hearing in LA, and the second because this gadget allegedly detected alcohol when her probation forbids her drinking anything.
She flatly denies she drank.
This has me wondering- who is watching the integrity of these evidence gathering devices? Who makes them, who profits off them and who monitors their integrity? Do we have any nonpartisan federal office of law enforcement device accuracy monitoring like an FDA for gadgets?
There is alcohol in shampoo and conditioner. Look on the label of your favorite shampoo and conditioner and see how many kinds of alcohol derrivatives you can spot- typically they have three or more. Some forms of Alcohol are used as a preservative in a lot of canned goods.
What is called commonly "rubbing alcohol" is used to clean pierced earring posts. Alcohol is a disinfectant in certain products. All alcohol is not bad. Neither should it all be the subject of violation of a DUI if detected on one of those gadjets. Which lawyers are out there in California ripping a new one in that industry because if people are going to jail for disinfecting their earring posts I can think of a better way for California to raise money.
Now who is going to bring that class action against Peter Nichols for those 400 false DUI convictions and all the damage that results in sending people to jail for nothing?
In today's Washington Post the DC office of Attorney General is embarassed- they prosecuted about 400 DUI offenses and put people in jail- locked them up- because they were allegedly intoxicated while driving- when the equipment was proven faulty. I wouldn't say --rigged--heaven forbid. Just 'faulty.' http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/09/AR2010060906257.html?hpid=moreheadlines
This takes us to the other coast where Lindsey Lohan has similarly been cited for violating the DUI laws, and was forced to wear some electronic gadget that is supposed to detect alcohol in her. The Court has so far made $300,000. off Lindsey Lohan -the first 100,000 she had to post as bail when her passport was stolen while promoting a film in Cannes, France causing her to miss a mandatory hearing in LA, and the second because this gadget allegedly detected alcohol when her probation forbids her drinking anything.
She flatly denies she drank.
This has me wondering- who is watching the integrity of these evidence gathering devices? Who makes them, who profits off them and who monitors their integrity? Do we have any nonpartisan federal office of law enforcement device accuracy monitoring like an FDA for gadgets?
There is alcohol in shampoo and conditioner. Look on the label of your favorite shampoo and conditioner and see how many kinds of alcohol derrivatives you can spot- typically they have three or more. Some forms of Alcohol are used as a preservative in a lot of canned goods.
What is called commonly "rubbing alcohol" is used to clean pierced earring posts. Alcohol is a disinfectant in certain products. All alcohol is not bad. Neither should it all be the subject of violation of a DUI if detected on one of those gadjets. Which lawyers are out there in California ripping a new one in that industry because if people are going to jail for disinfecting their earring posts I can think of a better way for California to raise money.
Now who is going to bring that class action against Peter Nichols for those 400 false DUI convictions and all the damage that results in sending people to jail for nothing?
The Difference Between
Necessary and Sufficient.
For me to be a lawyer I had to first graduate from law school in which I had to pass exams for three years. Then I had to take a Bar examination. I was thereafter reviewed by a committee of some kind- and got a nice letter. Before I could do any of that I had to get up each day and eat a sufficient amount of food so I would be alert in class and not fall asleep, and give my body enough nutrition to walk to class.
The food I eat was necessary to be a lawyer but it was not sufficient. There was a world of other things I had to do to get admitted.
If your goal is heaven, the Eucharist is a necessary but not a sufficient predicate.
LOVE is the Bar Examination. If you flunk that--if your heart doesn't know how to forgive your worst enemies, if you don't know how to escape your need for petty ego gratification at the expense of serving others, you won't be admitted to heaven.
There will be many who will call "Lord Lord" and I will say, get away from me, I don't know you. Some of those people will be clerics. The worst offenders will be those who capitalized for their own gain on his name.
Jesus is very clear about what he requires. Look at Matthew 25. You must do tangible things to demonstrate your com (with) passion -passion for others. Feeding, clothing, housing, giving drink, healing the sick, comforting the afflicted, etc.... You must engage.
The Eucharist alone is not sufficient. It is only the spiritual nutrition that will get the horse to water. Drinking of the Life of Christ means a world of additional action.
For me to be a lawyer I had to first graduate from law school in which I had to pass exams for three years. Then I had to take a Bar examination. I was thereafter reviewed by a committee of some kind- and got a nice letter. Before I could do any of that I had to get up each day and eat a sufficient amount of food so I would be alert in class and not fall asleep, and give my body enough nutrition to walk to class.
The food I eat was necessary to be a lawyer but it was not sufficient. There was a world of other things I had to do to get admitted.
If your goal is heaven, the Eucharist is a necessary but not a sufficient predicate.
LOVE is the Bar Examination. If you flunk that--if your heart doesn't know how to forgive your worst enemies, if you don't know how to escape your need for petty ego gratification at the expense of serving others, you won't be admitted to heaven.
There will be many who will call "Lord Lord" and I will say, get away from me, I don't know you. Some of those people will be clerics. The worst offenders will be those who capitalized for their own gain on his name.
Jesus is very clear about what he requires. Look at Matthew 25. You must do tangible things to demonstrate your com (with) passion -passion for others. Feeding, clothing, housing, giving drink, healing the sick, comforting the afflicted, etc.... You must engage.
The Eucharist alone is not sufficient. It is only the spiritual nutrition that will get the horse to water. Drinking of the Life of Christ means a world of additional action.
It's a Quiz
Lets Play Jeopardy
From the "Modern Math" column
What Is The Sum
Of ALL
The laws and the prophets?
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength AND your neighbor as yourself.
God plus neighbor equals sum of ALL the laws and prophets.
The Pinnacle, the Penultimate height is LOVE- not eucharist. LOVE. God is MORE than his transposition into food. Much much much more and as more as the stars are from the earth.
Rend your Hearts, not your garments. Rend your Hearts.
You are hiding behind an illusory shield.
From the "Modern Math" column
What Is The Sum
Of ALL
The laws and the prophets?
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength AND your neighbor as yourself.
God plus neighbor equals sum of ALL the laws and prophets.
The Pinnacle, the Penultimate height is LOVE- not eucharist. LOVE. God is MORE than his transposition into food. Much much much more and as more as the stars are from the earth.
Rend your Hearts, not your garments. Rend your Hearts.
You are hiding behind an illusory shield.
Are You Crazy?
Not a Rhetorical Question
I reject a God that would consider someone "elevated" by mere virtue of education, attire, and laying on of hands from on high, whose heart is still blighted by ego and personal ambition and falls frequently into acts of meanness, disdain and bastardry.
That's not the God I know.
God does not consider such a person "elevated" merely by calling him a Priest after the order of Melchizadek forever, when he betrays the very meaning of the word in his heart. God is Love. He looks on the heart, not the outward appearance.
I reject a God that would consider someone "elevated" by mere virtue of education, attire, and laying on of hands from on high, whose heart is still blighted by ego and personal ambition and falls frequently into acts of meanness, disdain and bastardry.
That's not the God I know.
God does not consider such a person "elevated" merely by calling him a Priest after the order of Melchizadek forever, when he betrays the very meaning of the word in his heart. God is Love. He looks on the heart, not the outward appearance.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
The Priesthood Of All Believers
And the Gentiles who like to Lord down Tyranny on you.
The biggest difference between Catholics and the Protestants I have found is so obvious you may have missed it- it's in the authority structure.
Protestants don't have one Pope, they have lots of various denominations and within denominations lots of committees. The models of authority are either Episcopalian or Presbyterian generically, meaning Bishops in an episcopalian hierarchical structure or committees in a more democratic presbyterian structure (presbyteries) or a hybrid.
Why did this come about during the reformation? Why the revolt? Isn't more centralized governance just more efficient- didn't Christianity spread far and wide through the model of the Roman empire model (which is why priests in catholic circles still wear what looks like Roman aristocratic robes with ornate embroidery)
Scripturally it is clear that Jesus said - those Gentiles like to have Lords that rule, master --Lord tyrannically over you. Not so, shall it be for you. Not so for you. This admonition may be what is at the heart of the Vatican II reforms which is just the start of what should be ongoing reforms in this generation and the next.
When did he say this? He said this in response to that argument about whether the sons of Zebedee (his cousins-their mother was the Blessed Mother's sister) could sit at his right and left hand. Power struggles for a few upstarts who were trying to edge out Peter likely. Sorry fellas, we are not going to operate like that. Then the famous talk on the greatest of all is the servant of all. The greatest among you will be servants.
This is an empowerment from the bottom up more democratic model of authority. Just as the son of man didn't come to be served but to serve, you shall be servants and that is what will make you great. Not big titles, not big rich congregations, not what the pharisees did which made them like "white washed tombs full of dead men's bones" for all their hypocricy. The 'servant-leader' model was born- and it was really countercultural, then and now. Because what happens when people get constituencies or communities under their 'authority' they tend to be seduced by the power and act not out of servanthood but to preserve and augment power by building more followers, wealth, status, prestigue and everything that speaks to creating emperors. They build a distorted theology around it, and start worshipping their own image and naval gazing on their own history.
This is not what Jesus said to do. This is not what Jesus called his church to be- temporaral rulers who impress themselves with the tryannies of power to build for themselves kingdoms on earth. This is not a reflection of the Love that is God.
God is all, and pure, Love. Love. Love. Beginning and End. Alpha and Omega. Love.
Protestants believe in the Priesthood of ALL believers- who ALL have the power and authority to lay hands on the sick and heal them and raise them from the dead, to cast out demons in the name of Jesus and to be his hands serving in the world. We are all commissioned in that Great Commission, we are all through prayer given the private direct line of God. Mine is on speed dial.
And so what of the Eucharist that Roman Catholic Priests think that they have monopoly on to bring the actual body and blood of Christ into the world? Great for them. I happen to believe that is true. But it does not void or commute the priesthood of all believers to raise from the dead, to cast out demons in the name of Jesus and to be his hands serving in the world and baptize in the name of the Lord, going out to all the world. Any arrogance of the priesthood is therefore totally misplaced. Any exclusivity claim on the depth of the relationship with Christ by virtue of a roman collar is similarly misplaced. God speaks to whom he chooses and is not bound by educational resume or attire.
The God who created heaven and earth and everything in it is much much much bigger than a breadbox. Love is greater and more powerful than any food you ingest. It 'covers' a multitude of sins.
The theological meeting in the middle is somewhere in understanding theologically how off the rails each side may be in minimizing the significance of the other in claims of exclusivity of superior knowledge.
ANYONE who calls on the name of the Lord and does his will shall be saved. There certainly will be protestants in heaven. Whether they will be sitting at the right or left hand of the Throne of Grace is not now known.
What is now known is that
Peace and Justice cannot kiss if people are trotting nose in the air on their high horses. That's a collision waiting to be exploited by the darker principalities and powers of the air, who have successfully exploited it in the past.
Now can everyone please get over themselves and learn how to Love.
The biggest difference between Catholics and the Protestants I have found is so obvious you may have missed it- it's in the authority structure.
Protestants don't have one Pope, they have lots of various denominations and within denominations lots of committees. The models of authority are either Episcopalian or Presbyterian generically, meaning Bishops in an episcopalian hierarchical structure or committees in a more democratic presbyterian structure (presbyteries) or a hybrid.
Why did this come about during the reformation? Why the revolt? Isn't more centralized governance just more efficient- didn't Christianity spread far and wide through the model of the Roman empire model (which is why priests in catholic circles still wear what looks like Roman aristocratic robes with ornate embroidery)
Scripturally it is clear that Jesus said - those Gentiles like to have Lords that rule, master --Lord tyrannically over you. Not so, shall it be for you. Not so for you. This admonition may be what is at the heart of the Vatican II reforms which is just the start of what should be ongoing reforms in this generation and the next.
When did he say this? He said this in response to that argument about whether the sons of Zebedee (his cousins-their mother was the Blessed Mother's sister) could sit at his right and left hand. Power struggles for a few upstarts who were trying to edge out Peter likely. Sorry fellas, we are not going to operate like that. Then the famous talk on the greatest of all is the servant of all. The greatest among you will be servants.
This is an empowerment from the bottom up more democratic model of authority. Just as the son of man didn't come to be served but to serve, you shall be servants and that is what will make you great. Not big titles, not big rich congregations, not what the pharisees did which made them like "white washed tombs full of dead men's bones" for all their hypocricy. The 'servant-leader' model was born- and it was really countercultural, then and now. Because what happens when people get constituencies or communities under their 'authority' they tend to be seduced by the power and act not out of servanthood but to preserve and augment power by building more followers, wealth, status, prestigue and everything that speaks to creating emperors. They build a distorted theology around it, and start worshipping their own image and naval gazing on their own history.
This is not what Jesus said to do. This is not what Jesus called his church to be- temporaral rulers who impress themselves with the tryannies of power to build for themselves kingdoms on earth. This is not a reflection of the Love that is God.
God is all, and pure, Love. Love. Love. Beginning and End. Alpha and Omega. Love.
Protestants believe in the Priesthood of ALL believers- who ALL have the power and authority to lay hands on the sick and heal them and raise them from the dead, to cast out demons in the name of Jesus and to be his hands serving in the world. We are all commissioned in that Great Commission, we are all through prayer given the private direct line of God. Mine is on speed dial.
And so what of the Eucharist that Roman Catholic Priests think that they have monopoly on to bring the actual body and blood of Christ into the world? Great for them. I happen to believe that is true. But it does not void or commute the priesthood of all believers to raise from the dead, to cast out demons in the name of Jesus and to be his hands serving in the world and baptize in the name of the Lord, going out to all the world. Any arrogance of the priesthood is therefore totally misplaced. Any exclusivity claim on the depth of the relationship with Christ by virtue of a roman collar is similarly misplaced. God speaks to whom he chooses and is not bound by educational resume or attire.
The God who created heaven and earth and everything in it is much much much bigger than a breadbox. Love is greater and more powerful than any food you ingest. It 'covers' a multitude of sins.
The theological meeting in the middle is somewhere in understanding theologically how off the rails each side may be in minimizing the significance of the other in claims of exclusivity of superior knowledge.
ANYONE who calls on the name of the Lord and does his will shall be saved. There certainly will be protestants in heaven. Whether they will be sitting at the right or left hand of the Throne of Grace is not now known.
What is now known is that
Peace and Justice cannot kiss if people are trotting nose in the air on their high horses. That's a collision waiting to be exploited by the darker principalities and powers of the air, who have successfully exploited it in the past.
Now can everyone please get over themselves and learn how to Love.
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