Corrupt to its Core

Self-dealing, self-serving, and self-centered.

Why would anyone listen to a group of all men who make nothing and sell nothing but pontifications? Paul was at least a 'tent-maker"- Jesus was a 'carpenter' -they made useful stuff for sale. No sin in trade.

Why would anyone listen to an entire institution of people living off interest and dividends of other people's labor? They obviously then have to cater to the wealthiest greatest dividend producing devotees and clientelle. They form an entire dogma over self-justifying this favortism- they make in fact a whole religion out of it. It's institutional corruption at its core in its favortism. "Punishment" gets meted out to those who threaten the order, meaning threaten the bucks- because they rely on them to survive. Because the only thing they make is books of their pontifications.

This of course has little to nothing to do with the real Jesus or real Jews, from whom salvation comes. This has everything to do with institutional self justifications and perpetuations because they don't know better and it has always been done that way.

The greatness of this country is that we are a free thinking people-free to think for ourselves, free to relate to God as we understand him or her by ourselves or in community we choose, free to interpret scripture by ourselves, free to worship as we see fit and read the translations we like free to reject the 'punishments' of the Knights that go Knigtd to protect their portfolios. Forgive me while I spit.

God is Spirit. God is not defined nor contained by a bunch of guys living off interest and dividends wearing roman robes trying to tell everyone that they are bad and must go to confession to get right with the guys living off interest and dividends wearing roman robes.

The head of the RNC, Michael Steele is a card carrying suck-up to the old institutional order that tanked the economy in the dirt and lost American friends and clout overseas with mass murdering illegitimate illegal wars . He is more "House" than that Doctor on TV. The RNC will kick us all back to the neanderthal ages.

Tell me It's trick or treat.

Rhetorical Firebombing

Scares me more than Afghanis

So they interjected a little levity in it today on the Mall in DC with the John Stewart "Rally for Sanity" and the Colbert counter-punch "Rally for Fear." I was going to go to New York today but New York came to DC instead. All of it- the mob scene was larger than a republican inaugural only without the crowd control. People were dripping off trees like Zachias to get a view.
The signs were priceless. People had religion on their minds apparently. "God hates flags?" "God hates haters." and a few irreverent halloween costumes of cows dressed as Nuns wearing signs "holy cow" and not a few popes and bishops complete with mitres and the cone heads. Some more signs that made me laugh out loud: "This sign doubles as cover in event of federal fly-over" 'don't be a douche-vote" 'Are you a good witch or a bad witch" (didn't know if they meant Palin or the chick from delaware) "Please don't stomp on my head" "I thought this was the line for Georgetown cupcakes" "I'm Pro-Life-Please don't kill all the people" "Keep calm and submit to your robot overlords" and my favorite "Insanity is a bad thing?"

Politics in Washington has had its first mutiny. Thank God. Really. Because he can't stop rolling his eyes already.

The clear 2012 winner: Stewart and Colbert for President and Vice President- you pick which.

Looking for some place to take your kids?

KIDS EURO FESTIVAL DC

Brings in kids from everywhere in and near DC (Maryland suburbs) for fun festivities...dance, drama, music and games- courtesy of the genius of my friend Roland Celette , Cultural Attache at the French Embassy (La Maison cultural arm) who brilliantly thought of the idea. Because he loves kids too....It's not too late to join the fun.

http://www.culture.ee/en/event/lastefestival-washingtonis-en-11223/

Memo

That's what we all called my grandmother. Memo.

Every time I see a red cardinal I think of her- because she used to love them, as they flew by her window in the woods of Pennsylvania -bright blood red against the cold white snow. She put out a bird feeder- they were like little aviary angels saying hello in the morning.

Verily Verily Truly Truly

I Tell You The Truth.



Ever notice how when Jesus is talking in scripture there are a lot of "verily verily" or "truly truly" I say to you's ('youse' for those pittsburghers).

Is that just fancy talk flourishing like Jesus is trying to sound victorian or elizabethan?

No- the movie the Gospel of John (http://www.gospelofjohnthemove.com/ ) makes clear that what Jesus was saying was basically- Listen people- I am telling you the truth.

Then more earnestly- I AM TELLING YOU THE TRUTH. What I am saying is True. It's all true people.



Things like- unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood you will have no life within you. -more than half the people just walked off set muttering essentially- you must be nuts.



Subtextually (and overtly sometimes) you can hear what is prompting this incessant repetition of "Verily Verily, Truly Truly..."- the peanut gallery chiming in from the sidelines things like 'you have to be kidding me!" "Are you mad, man?" "That sounds nuts!" or "no way Hose, Hejus" No, really. What I am telling you is true. If you follow me, do what I say (my 'commandments') eat of my flesh and drink my blood, you will live forever- Moses led people to manna in the desert and those who ate the manna eventually died. But if you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will live forever. It is of such a kind .

What- are you nuts? they said. C'mon man, that's a hard one!

So he kept saying - I am telling you the truth. Listen to me, I am telling you the truth.

Any good editor might say-delete delete, its a bit repetitious. We get the point, We heard you the first time. But no, they didn't edit all the times out- because the point is that it had to be repeated over and over because the doubt was so fierce. Who on earth will believe this.



God is Spirit- a Spirit of TRUTH. The naysaying voices got louder- and eventually won a brief day in proclaiming loudly not just 'are you nuts!' but "Blasphemy!" Then those crying blasphemy, those nattering nabobs of negativity --they demanded he be killed off. Because nattering nabobs of negativity always veer toward destruction and death- they are they Knights Who Go Knigt!
Then the Knights Who Go Knigt- they have to have their way and make everyone affirm that they are right- so they enscript all the spiritual hierarchy to declare proudly and loudly --Blasphemy!! Kill Him!!
And they did-they launched a campaign that would make the RNC look like a kids playground. They chased those people declaring this love to the ends of the Roman Empire and the earth to expel them from the synagogues, banned them from churches and buses, and killed them off. They had to go into hiding- underground, in the catecombs.
Paul, the Apostle was one such character commissioned to do this- like a pharisaical hit man. He was only one of the Knights that Go Knigt.

Maybe some of them heard him once, maybe some of them heart that he couldn't stop saying it. Verily Verily, Truly Truly.
I am telling you the truth. I love you.

www.GOSPELOFJOHNTHEMOVIE.com



Get it -it's a three hour movie and worth cancelling everything else in your schedule. You can find it at Potomac Adventist Book and Health in the mall up 29North on the way to Columbia on Cherry Hill Road.

PRO DEATH

Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, etc......what do you expect?


If you are for the State killing off sinners, you are not 'pro life.' Tell that to Chief Justice Roberts whose wife sits on the Board of "Feminists for Life" last I looked- but that's only for 'innocent' life.

http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/elena-kagans-first-supreme-court-vote-not-enough-to-stop-execution/19691935

Refusing to stay an execution is the same thing as flipping the switch guys. If you can't or don't want to sign the order you shouldn't endorse the opinion. Because each vote is just like you poured a bottle of sleeping pills down the culprit's throat.

"Choose Life." "I came that you would have Life"- the 'inalienable RIGHT' of "LIFE..."
LIFE- not a breakfast cereal. It means it is against the moral law to snuff it out. The State does not have jurisdiction to take it- it didn't come from fiat of the State. It came from someplace much higher and beyond the jurisdiction of state powers. It came from God.

State of Grace

Named Mary- Land.

After my cousin godkiddies went to college, Maryland used to be sort of a fly-over place for me- because it looked like you could just cram so many malls onto Rockville Pike that it looked like all people did was shop till they dropped, regassed their vans and did it again. Of course there is the Congressional Country Club set and the debutante doyenne wannabees from high society emulating Philadelphia's Chestnut Hill- as is in every town of any size, but my favorite memories of suburban DC are driving my little godkiddie cousins to their gymnastics lessons (at the same place Dawkins trained) and watching their little toby blonde heads tumble and somersault in their little pink work out leotards then watching them scarf down their favorite pizza at chuckie cheese trading in tickets for trinkets with glee. Their walk to their swim club out toward Rockville was a source of scientific amazement as they learned the names of all the flowers and ferns on the route. One is now a Veterinarian and the other a Vice President of a prominent public relations firm in DC.
Then I recently discovered the "Baby's R Us" supermall on Cherry Hill off Rt.29 North on the way to Columbia. If you have not discovered the "Baby's R Us" supermall you don't know what you are missing. That mall also has a huge Potomac Book and Health with the largest selection of bibles and spiritual literature outside the Shrine bookstore and the CIC in the area- and a Target (pronounced by us francophones as 'Tarjay') with grocery section prices half of what you find at Wholefoods ('wholepaycheck'.)
This time of year the leaves on the trees are turning brilliant reds and oranges. I am reminded of the drive to the Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat Center near Emitsburg which is one of the most spectacular drives through rural farmland, past a few houses that look like castles toward Camp David.
It's worth running for President just to get to stay at Camp David. If you are not yet the President, ask the Jesuits how to rent the Bellarmine retreat center- with a beautiful chapel perched on a hill overlooking the Valley, now with more beautiful colors than Joseph's robe.
There are ghosts of Christmas past in the chapel - and hopes of Christmases to come.

What's For Dinner

Come to Me-All You Who Are Weary and Heavy Laden, and I will give you Rest.

Everyone with small exception goes through the stuff and junk of life. Some people are more adept at not blowing a gasket or losing a widget over the trivial- and some say 'it's all small stuff" but it's stuff nevertheless. Some of it is heavier than usual. Some of it is nearly unbearable or impossible.

None of it should however be intentionally aggravated in the name of the Lord.

That is why bullying is disgusting and intolerable- regardless of what you may think of someone else's state of sin. That is why the arrogance of the self-satisfied, self-laudatory pharisees whom we all heard about yesterday proudly touting that they were not like all the other adulterers, greed-monsters and sinful characters is so obnoxious to God. He prefers the guy so overwhelmed with his awareness of his need for him that he can't even look up into the heavens. The guy who knew he made a living off skimming other people--the tax collector- who just beat his chest despondently bowed over with convicted guilt asking humbly for mercy "on me a sinner" is the one who is justified, not the self-satisfied, self-laudatory pharisee with all the spiritual credentials and the highest place in society.

It is also why on the trek to the cross we should not have to make life more ridiculously burdensome than it already is- we should not impose artificial burdens and yokes not His, to make life more miserable -because that is not following him to the cross. That is following him to your own institutionally lethargic guillotine. That is why man made rules don't advance the cause of holiness-they frustrate it and defeat it. Jesus is not an institution. Jesus is LOVE. Say it with me. Jesus is LOVE.

I CAME THAT YOU WOULD HAVE LIFE AND HAVE IT ABUNDANTLY. CHOOSE THEREFORE LIFE.

It's LIFE that is waiting. It's LOVE that's waiting.

(Painting above is frescoed into the ceiling of turn of the 20th C. church Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church, Homestead, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.)

In sickness

And in Health

I know a couple who have been together monogamously and exclusively for fourteen years.
Seven years ago they learned of a tragic situation wherein a woman who emigrated from an African country had overstayed her visa and was being deported back to her home country. She was pregnant. The feds apparently let her deliver the baby in the US and then deported her.
She was, I imagine deeply traumatized. This American couple gave her conscience some relief in that they convinced her not to abort and adopted her child. For seven years they have provided the child a loving caring stable home in a nice rather upscale part of Washington, DC. He has had the best care and attention from the best pre-school and now is in second grade, well adjusted, seemingly happy, part of the neighborhood crowd of happy kids, well fed, well dressed, well spoken and smiling.

His parents are two gay men.

I would like an audit of how much money Wuerl paid the attorneys on all the gay bashing issues and I would like him to publish the salary of his "Chancellor."
Because I would like to docket her pay and ask for a refund.

Church Turns Seminary into Housing for Broke Women Jilted by Priests

April Fools in October.

I should write for the Onion.

There was a woman over 50 whom everyone thought was the saddest thing- emotionally manipulated into writing check after check for literally years to one character of high repute and standing and a fancy professorial title at the Catholic University of America whom she believed was in love with her. They appreciated it so much they entered her into their "third order." She wrote so many checks in fact a few ones to her old landlord didn't quite clear and she ended up literally homeless. She didn't know where to go and sat literally at the doorstep all night of the Dominican House of Studies. No one let her in. She sat there all night. She eventually found a room with roomates-this woman over 50- You know who you are fancy professor.

She eventually went mad-literally- either drove herself or someone in a collar drove her literally round the bend or two- to a point where she was on expensive meds that she couldn't afford. They eventually kicked her out of the Dominican House and labeled her obsessive. Because that's what guys totally disinterested in women like to call normal heterosexual women who think it is normal to fall in love with men when the men would rather all live with themselves in a french looking castle in 'little vatican."

So instead of a new seminary for 30 guys- how about affordable housing for single women over 50- who attached themselves sadly to orders, supporting them in many cases, and were left with nothing -no children- but a bunch of sexually ambigious guys labeling them old and crazy. Start a fundraiser for that- get the Knights to kick in a few million they must have spare change if they are painting domes for over a mil.

Jesus turns in his pink yarmulka for a red one

And kicks Mary Magdalene off the bus

The religious press is all aflutter about Archbishop Wuerl getting appointed Cardinal. Kind of like Jesus putting on a cap and gown and asking everyone for graduation presents.
Ambition comes with skeletons. For example, his team, on top of the failed gay persecution litigation has engaged in vicious heartless discrimination of another kind in persecution against at least one woman I know personally and likely others- particularly those surrounding one fine fellow who is a priest too adorable for his collar. I would marry him in a New York minute. In fact, I here propose on line. (and encourage him not to believe five seconds of the slander of anything I reputedly said that should cause him to have a second thought about it.) Honeymoon in Emitsburg.

They use attack dog women lawyers like all good corporate strategists fighting phantoms of paranoidly imagined harassment allegations against women dressing perhaps too provocatively and the like. Because we just can't have that- just be rude and ignorant enough and she will go away.


Get some church secretary who has a seventh grade education to start acting haughty nasty toward her and she will get disgusted soon enough and leave. Definately send the cops after that one with half a figure.

Don't get me started on the Pittsburgh skeletons- but doesn't the Pope have google? All he has to do is drive around Homestead and look at all the catholic churches for sale to satisfy settlements. Scandal- beautiful turn of the century churches filled with icons and beautiful stained glass. My nieces' baby's godmother's mother was bemoaning the fact that she grew up with all the women in her family cooking celebrations and feast day festivals in one church in Munhall that is now on the realtor's butcher block to the highest condo developer.

Would Jesus find Faith when he comes back? Would he find anyting resembling himself in his church? What gives with the red yarmulkas really.

The First shall be last and the last shall be first. Now who wants to get on that bus?

[I voted for Dolan but don't tell. ]

OH- and we need another Seminary here that everyone needs to fundraise for because there is just so much surplus money after the millions (literally millions) the Knights dropped up on the Shrine domes, the 12 or so million renovation to the Dominican House of Studies, the chronic please for funds from the Washington Theological Union and then there is Mt. Saint Marys and
something I don't even know about in Hagerstown. Because it's for all men anyway.
Men get scholarships and funding from the masses- women have to sell their jewelry to attend and can't get the same degrees.

Counter-cultural kvetching? You Betcha.
If you only read the Catholic Standard and the Parish Times you may not get a sense that one in eight houses is in some legal foreclosure state in the country, unemployment is in double digits and poverty indexes have shot through the roof and stabilized there. So we need to raise millions more for another seminary for all men to tell women that they are criminals if they fear not being able to feed their infants and have an abortion.

The Woes

And The Blues



'Woe to You', go the litany of 'woes'- scribes and pharisees.....

This would have sounded shocking as these were the highest citizens of the land. They were totally esteemed. Not like lawyers today whom everyone makes fun of, no one trusts, and everyone loves to hate.

Why was Jesus critical of these fine fellows? Scribes were the religious figures who wrote down the laws (blessed are you who teach my precepts, said God earlier in scripture and now Jesus is blasting them?) Pharisees were the highest moral authority in the land. They were the highest moral order. Why does Jesus blast them from here to Calvary?
They were considered supremely good.
A friend and I walked around much of yesterday making modern analogy in a modern litany of woes. Woe to you vacuum cleaner salesman--you kick up all that dust dirt and turmoil. Woe to you carwasher- you cover everything in fake wax to create the illusion of slickness. Woe to you dental hygenist-you swim in foamy spittle and make people spit blood. Woe to you traffic court judges, you make people sit in insufferably inane traffic school to regurgitate rules of the murderous road.



No, there was something different about the Scribes and Pharisees that Jesus didn't like- something that made them turn into whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones.
Here is what it was; spiritual hubris. Spiritual hubris is much worse than intellectual hubris which is bad enough. You have to have real spiritual credentials to have spiritual hubris, and ride on the laurels of your own coat-tails.
They were so offensive because they were so sure they were right -and they killed him-
They were so sure that their understanding of the traditional moral order was the right way-they became like white washed tombs full of dead men's bones clinging to their rightness and their view of a moral order deeply rotted at its core that crushed life- and did nothing to help it while heaping up burdens too much to bear.
Jesus turned it all on its head. He didn't become a Pharisee, he overcame the Pharisees.
This is why he is such a revolutionary- and this is why Progressives sometimes get him better. They get Him.

The moral order is wrong when the moral order perpetuates for example slavery as an entrenched economic institution. The moral order is wrong when the moral order condones violence against women or children. The moral order is wrong when it suppresses oppressed classes of people or discriminates against them. The moral order is wrong when it allows injustice or crime to prevail or attacks the common dignity-of anyone and all.
Progressives understand that sometimes the Sauls of the world lose their moral authority when God leaves them and passes the reigns to David and so there is a time when the moral order of King Saul hunting down David chasing him to the ends of the kingdom to kill him off is not in God's will but is something purely evil. Sometimes the King is just crazy.

Progressives understand the reality of evil masqued as the moral order.

That's why CHANGE isn't just a nice song- it is a way to heaven on earth. That's why there are horse races and court cases and plaintiff's lawyers. That's why there are no more Pharisees.
When was the last time someone handed you a card that said "Joe Smith-Pharisee?" or heard, "lets go to that Pharisee's house for dinner." or heard of the "National Association of Pharisees" or the Washington, DC annual Pharisee Convention? They went the way of the Pharisees.

Lest Any Man Should Boast.....

http://www.thegracecardmovie.com/

And Grace Will Lead Me Home.

Coming to a theatre near you.

Pro Life

Is Not Just For Men



We need to change the terminology and reframe the debate- really. We have all been saying so. The terms speak code of another dimension and are sometimes not helpful.

Everyone is "Pro-Life" under their definition of life. If you ask anyone whether they 'favor' 'abortion' of course everyone will say, of course not- others think the term should be used comprehensively and consistently- you must be against the death penalty if you are pro-life some say. Don't get me started on 'unjust war.'

Most people see a need to dramatically reduce abortions and will say so in political circles of all parties.
"Choice" is meant when people say that it should be the woman who houses the fetus not the government deciding whether the house is safe- or telling her what to do with it-or not. Whether she lets it be to full blown full grown humanhood or whether she snuffs it out, puts a foreclosure sign on her womb and evicts it.


But don't we all agree on some basic things. If we all agree it is something we want to deter and avoid, shouldn't we be focusing on the most Life inspiring, most Life producing methods of deterrence. Aren't we really talking about solutions and deterrence.
Is it the most deterrent to just criminalize only women. Of course not. Women have the ability/power to do what they want with their bodies even if you criminalize some actions. If a woman does not want to carry a child, believe me she won't. She will take a bottle of sleeping pills with a bottle of vodka and go for a permenant bubble bath to permenant purgatory which she views as better than the hell on earth. (You don't know if you haven't been there-i haven't either but I am told.)


Isn't there a Pro -Life more effective way than just criminalizing women (the old system that has been judicially overruled) that is more Pro-Life or Life Producing. Isn't there something we should be studying regarding male sexuality that has been completely ignored from a policy perspective?


Should we change the terminology and call ourselves LIFE PRODUCING rather than PRO LIFE?


Can we create a third way that does not lock us into rhetoric that polarizes that move us into thinking solutions that are in fact, real life generating from a policy perspective. Life is not just for men. Women's lives count-and have to because if the mother is not healthy how healthy (emotionally, spiritually, physically) do you think her child will be? How healthy is a fetus in a dead woman's womb?

PRO LIFE- Not Just For Men

Brilliant

Roberta Jeanne Nicolella "PIA" has resided in the greater Washington, DC area since 1995. She’s exhibited at the Watergate Gallery and the National Press Club. Art Studies: 1979-80 – privately with artist & author Paul Siudzinski - Japanese Sum-i painting. 1981-2005 (14 year period) - studio fine arts, the prestigious Art Students League of New York in: life drawing and anatomy with renowned artist, Gustav Rehberger; oil and pastel portraiture with Oldrich Tepley and Richard Pionk (past President, American Society of Illustrators); watercolor and plein air painting with the late Joseph Rossi and Mario Cooper; and watercolor painting with Dale Meyers (past President, American Watercolor Society). Ms. Nicolella studied portraiture and composition with Sam Adequoi, National Academy of Design, New York City. Miss Nicolella is an associate member of the American Watercolor Society. “White House on a Cloudy Day” is her first painting of an historical building.

This painting of the White House is the original of a limited edition.
It may be purchased; please direct all inquires to: 202-466-0998 identifying "White House."

Busted

By the Busted.

The Chilean minors. What a miracle. and for some, What a Mess!!

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/chilean-miner-yonni-barrios-emerges-to-tangled-love-life/19672990?icid=main%7Cmain%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk1%7C177561

Turns out more than one of them had more than a few devoted loyal lovers waiting for them.
Some men want to have their cake and eat it too. Some men want to have their cake and eat profiteroles, scones, danish, croissants, petite fours and cookies with their cake all at the same time!

Imagine being the wife of this guy only learning as you prayed vigilantly that he has a mistress he sort of forgot to tell you about.
Why do some men have zero concept of feminine dignity?

Have You Stuck

Your Michelangelo Behind the Couch?

My metaphoric poetic mind raced giddily when I read about the recent find of a New York state couple who discovered that a real Michelangelo was sort of hidden stuck behind their couch-

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/lost-michelangelo-painting-discovered-behind-a-couch-in-ny-home/19672186

It is worth millions literally. Millions. And you thought it was velvet.

I wonder if they ever thought of taking it to the swap- meet (an LA term for flea market) for a few bucks as it gathered dust as it aged or maybe the thrift shop for a charitable donation. Kind of gaudy don't you think. Doesn't go with the decor exactly. Colors too pastel perhaps?

What may be staring you in the face that could be worth millions and you don't even recognize it. You have no idea how valuable it is. You think maybe it could fetch a few pennies if you took it somewhere.

How valuable do you think that God thinks the soul of the person next to you is? How valuable is the love of that person you keep condemning? You could be sitting on a gold mine like a couch potato because you never had it appraised by an expert properly.

How many beer bottles have you perched on top of the frame of your Michelangelo behind your couch?

WWJD-What Would Jesus Do- NEWSFLASH

YOU ARE NOT JESUS

I thought that I should spell it in all caps because I know is it a point of profound identity confusion that has bedeviled you for a while.
Jesus died when he was 33 and lived about 2,000 years ago. We have not much to go on with regard to a lot of his life.

You sometimes hear people say- Jesus never went to college - to excuse them dropping out of high school (in appalachia)- Dumb. He didn't need to go to college- he was All Knowing Already.

Jesus didn't apologize to anyone he just moved forward. Dumb. He didn't need to apologize to anyone, he was sinless and didn't do jerky-A things to anyone.

Jesus didn't take care of an elderly alzheimer's parent in his home, so I can put mine in the nursing home from hell. Dumb. If Mary was 14-16 when Jesus was born that means when he died at age 33 she was younger than 50 and no sign of ill health. He didn't have to care for an elderly alzheimer's parent. Plus, he would have cured her- then assumed her into heaven fully in body. You on the other hand might have to take care of your ill and annoying mother.

Jesus didn't carry health insurance or pay premiums on time so I don't have to. Dumb. Jesus cured everyone and didn't run any risk of illness as creater of all that is good in the universe. You on the other hand need to carry health insurance because you are mortal. I checked your birth certificate. It said human. I also know your mother. Really human.

Then you see people wanting to hide behind the biblical admonition to not be jealous or envious- as a shield to excuse their filandering and evil conduct that is designed to or naturally forseen to inspire jealousy- out of sorry ego defects of personality. Tell that to Mrs. Sarkozy, Mrs. Mitterand- don't be jealous or envious or you won't get into heaven. Fair Warning. Those are fleshy sort of emotions- get with the Spirit.
The first Mrs. Sarkozy left his sorry A- and I have all the respect in the world for her doing so. That's what I would do in a New York minute. Sorry King of France. Running around is just schmucky- otherwise I love you and your country, except for the way you raised the retirement age which wasn't very diplomatic and has everyone striking.

So when looking at what Jesus did or what he would do, please use a little humility. When you have wronged someone, don't continue to do it- it demonstrates blatant disrespect and it will result in the person leaving you for good. If someone comes back to give you a second chance- don't carry on the same pathetic as usual unless you just don't care in which case do what you want - and suffer the consequences in vain for your vanity.

...and 'sorry' is always nice to hear. Especially when preceeded by 'honey, really i love you.' Chocolate doesn't hurt either.

Kids are smarter than you think

The one below is pure genius, but I may be biased.

He's my nephew Jack (held by his Gamma Zoozie -mom- real name
Suzie). Miracle child.






Lidia the famous italian cook figured out that kids love to cook- and they follow recipe directions well-Jack makes awesome pancakes with his Dad. I am getting him this cookbook for Christmas. www.lidiasitaly.com

Every school in this greater Washington, Dc and NY Areas should teach multiple languages to kids as the marketplace becomes global and as it becomes critical that people understand different cultures. Start with not only Spanish but French and Italian - make 2 mandatory and make a third optional. Most europeans are multilingual, trilinqual even overwhelmingly, except the British. Offer cantonese or mandarin. All elementary schools should have at least three language offerings at elementary grades. The earlier you learn a language the better you are at it-because your brain literally forms around it. This will also reduce overall the cultural bias and stigma of immigrants in various places. In this country spanish should be absolutely mandatory because the country will soon be over 25% spanish speaking as a first language. But why forget
French - or Portugese (Brazil is a huge place and it is spoken in parts of Africa ) and Italian?

If there is a budgetary problem attracting teachers, have adult ed also at the place where languages are offered for a modest tuition to cover the salary and have the language teacher offer a few days language classes after school for adults. How hard could that be. I offer to teach french. That way I get tax write offs when I go to France to take immersion courses in the Riviera. Such a deal.

Comic Relief

A man was sitting eating breakfast and his wife came and hit him over the head
with a frying pan. He yelped in protest- "What the Hell! What is the matter with you woman!!??" His wife replied. "I found this in your coat pocket" and she whipped out a piece of paper that said "Julie" followed by a seven digit number.
He smirked- "oh my Goodness, woman! That is the name of the horse I bet on last week and its number at the track." She profusely apologized and kissed him sorry.
The next week the man was sitting eating breakfast. His wife again hit him over the head with a frying pan. "What the Hell! What is the matter with you woman!!??" he yelled. She replied "Your Horse Just Called."

This one is for my california relatives

Especially soon to be born Baby Boy Duvall
(yes, I may be related by marriage ten times removed to Obama:-)

I'm sorry my dear
you can't have us both.
That would be greedy
not to mention needy.
The point of growing up my man
is that you make pact with one
and forsake all others so
two have security
and progeny safe
from harm. To have two
means you either have an
overactive libido or lack
of faith in the power of two
to overcome all need and distress-
it's just plain ego in a mess-
or you just like looking up too many
dresses. In either case, it's a failure
of integrity and decency
and who should then put up with thee
if you don't have faith in the power of
One from two combined like one body
from bread and blood from wine.
The others may write fine checks
but it's time, my man, it's time.


Big thanks to the folks who organized that national Poetry Festival in Newark, New Jersey at the Performing Arts Center there this weekend. Awesome. Do it again!! I am inspired.

Counting Sheep
won't put me to sleep
I keep watching my back
for the sheep with the hoofed daggered claw
and wooley gnaw at my back feet.
I don't trust the bleeting in my ears
and the grab for the grass-
they grabbed my ass before.
do you think the master Shepherd sees their
classless backbiting? The sheep near me
smell rather badly. They bleet rather loudly
the Shepherd doesn't seem to care.
He doesn't whip them into line or comb
their wooley wild matted hair. I think he's napping
in the vestibule. How can sheep be so damned cruel?

Paradox Redux

I confess I still don't know
what to make of you
taking something so right, real and true
to trash so destructively down the philopian tube
which is much more a sacrilege
than eating and running this
casual destruction of emotion
and bond as you flirt with the devil
wearing turquoise hoping to seduce as
fradulent Mary's blue that won't leave you
and can't stop google-eyes that hope to entrap
you, which trap you dance in like a jester in danskins.
Nearly incredulous to believe the refusal to conceive
and instead inspiring something so tempting of
unbelief. Lord, Help my grief. I can't get to sleep tonight.
I thought they said
you were Pro-Life.

Trinity

Most Holy


By Cartier: http://www.cartier.us/#/show-me/collections/trinity-de-cartier





The Vamoose Bus picks up in Bethesda a block from the Metro and in Arlington. Forty bucks. If you miss that you can pick up the Chinese Eastern Bus or the Megabus (google it on line-even cheaper round trip) It puts you in the heart of Manhattan. Because that's where you want to be. If you want to get to McCarrick's Basillica the SACRED HEART in Newark, it's a quick train ride-in from 30th st. to penn station in newark and another little local ride (stop Park st.) and two block walk.



New York, New York. So nice they named it twice.

Next weekend there is a lot going on, and you want to visit the Franciscans at Saint Anthony of Padua. Best Sermon award.


The tie in for today's readings- Naman was a Syrian- an outsider, a foreigner, like the one leper samaritan who returned to thank Jesus -God wants to heal everyone. He doesn't care what your spiritual qualifications are. He doesn't ask for your charitable donation record, your position on political hot buttons, or your party membership. He is looking for gratitude. He is looking for humble hearts who know EVERY good thing comes from him.
Because there is NOTHING that was made that was not made with and through him from the beginning. (John 1)

The Leper Samaritan and the Syrian were hardly welcome or coveted guests anywhere.
They were forbidden to enter the city. They were outcasts, and unwelcome. Banned, barred and driven out by the self-righteous whom Jesus didn't come to save- because they were too self-satisfied to realize they needed a savior.

The act of gratitude is the visible manifestation of faith. Your Faith has saved you.
The Franciscan noted that if we are authentic Christians, if Jesus means anything, he is an open armed welcome to all who recognize his Grace and goodness and reciprocate with Thanks-so we have no right to marginalize or persecute anyone rendering them 'other' if they are friends of Jesus. The 'immigrants" the 'aliens' the 'other' in whatever dimension or manifestation-persecution of them is totally unacceptable to any authentic Christian because it is totally unacceptable to Jesus. The real enemies of the Sacred Heart are those who persecute those friends of Christ- whether they be black, gay, immigrant, of another nationality, the other gender, etc.

The recent islamaphobia over the ground zero mosque (so called) and the hideous torture crimes against gays in New York are beyond scandal- they are against God as surely as God lives. They are evil at its core, just as all self-righteous persecution of people whose faith is manifest dogmatically differently while they call themselves friends of Christ.

His sheep know his voice. He knows them by name. The Lord, the giver of all Life, has a bleeding heart that pulses life through everything that partakes of that cleansing blood.
How dare anyone persecute his body?

When Greenwhich Village

Was a Village

It had a local hospital Saint Vincent's that has a long history of serving the financially struggling catholic population of New York's artier crowd- the struggling artists, busboys and poets, actors and actresses, singers, the gay community and new york immigrants yearning to breathe free. You didn't have to be catholic to go, it was catholic because they served all the poor- in the mission of healing that Christ inspired to even the least of these brethren.

Saint Vincents now has been closed for about 100 days and there is a rally next week-end in the Village to protest its closing. There is still a profound need for a catholic hospital that serves the crowd who don't fit the wall street condo mold of aspiring gentrification of everything with character and charm-turning it into corporate trumpland.

My thought; just as major hospitals merged in NYC, Columbia merging with NY Presbyterian and Cornell Med in various stages (where my mother was born)- perhaps Saint Vincent can conspire in merger discussions in heaven with Saint Padre Pio.
Saint Vincent, that famous French saint whom one can see slightly embossed with wax encased in the chapel of the Miraculous Metal at Rue Du Bac in Paris is famous for miraculously healing disease stricken destitute Parisians in the 19th Century with Saint Catherine Laboure (who had the vision of the Miraculous Mary Metal)- while Padre Pio astutely financed a hospital for the suffering for the poor of southern italy near Foggia, in San Giovanni Rotunda (meaning Saint John's rotunda)- It is one of the best hospitals in Europe.
Perhaps this merger of saintly figures and forces could result in a reconfigured renamed hospital in Greenwhich Village called "Padre Pio-Vincent's" (a merger sure to pass DOJ antitrust scrutiny) blessed by the fine friars of Saint Anthony of Padua's Shrine down the street where some of the best preaching in the world is found (what do you expect from a shrine named after the Preacher so famous for preaching that his tongue is preserved in his home basillica in Padua.)
http://stanthonynyc.org/id16.html

Imagine the collaborative opportunities between one of the best hospitals in the world found in southern italy and saint Padre Pio-Vincent's in Greenwhich Village New York. How many people could be healed and saved?
I encourage everyone in the New York area next weekend to visit Saint Anthony's (there is an awesome market where artists, bakers, antique map vendors and distressed furniture dealers line the church on week-ends) to support the catholic hospital in Greenwhich Village and call on the conspiracy of Padre Pio and Saint Vincent to make it happen - for the good of all His Church.

Black Genocide or

My Body My Bizness?

Whose foolin who. Here is the list of FETAL Body Part pricing about a decade ago.


Google it yourself. You think people stopped buying and selling Fetal Body Parts? One Third of all abortions are done on black babies-and blacks are not one third the population? What really is going on here and when will they all wise up?


PRICE LIST for BODY PARTS
of Babies Killed by
PARTIAL - BIRTH ABORTION



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Opening Lines
A Division of Consultants & Diagnostic Pathology, Inc.

P.O. Box 508, West Frankfort, IL 62896
Phone: 800-490-9980 Fax: 618-937-1525


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fee for Services Schedule > greater than < same or less than

Unprocessed Specimen (> 8 weeks) $ 70
Unprocessed Specimen (< 8 weeks) $ 50
Livers (< 8 weeks) 30% discount if significantly fragmented $150
Livers (> 8 weeks) 30% discount if significantly fragmented $125
Spleens (< 8 weeks) $ 75
Spleens (> 8 weeks) $ 50
Pancreas (< 8 weeks) $100
Pancreas (> 8 weeks) $ 75
Thymus (< 8 weeks) $100
Thymus (> 8 weeks) $ 75
Intestines & Mesentery $ 50
Mesentery (< 8 weeks) $125
Mesentery (> 8 weeks) $100
Kidney-with/without adrenal (< 8 weeks) $125
Kidney-with/without adrenal (> 8 weeks) $100
Limbs (at least 2) $150
Brain (< 8 weeks) 30% discount if significantly fragmented $999
Brain (> 8 weeks) 30% discount if significantly fragmented $150
Pituitary Gland (> 8 weeks) $300
Bone Marrow (< 8 weeks) $350
Bone Marrow (> 8 weeks) $250
Ears (< 8 weeks) $ 75
Ears (> 8 weeks) $ 50
Eyes (< 8 weeks) 40% discount for single eye $ 75
Eyes (> 8 weeks) 40% discount for single eye $ 50
Skin (> 12 weeks) $100
Lungs & Heart Block $150
Intact Embryonic Cadaver (< 8 weeks) $400
Intact Embryonic Cadaver (> 8 weeks) $600
Intact Calvarium $125
Intact Trunk (with/without limbs) $500
Gonads $550
Cord Blood (Snap Frozen LN2) $125
Spinal Column $150
Spinal Cord $325

Prices in effect through December 31, 1999

Sex. Lies and Ultrasounds-The Greatest Exploitation of Women Uncovered with Tricepts

What will undo the Democrats this November -I guarantee it.



http://www.bloodmoneymovie.com/


Not sex scandals in Congress-who cares, but the aborton mess.
Emily's List, NARAL, Planned Parenthood who all want obamacare funding for abortions apparently, who all believe that that there is a fundamental constitutional penumbral privacy right based choice to nuke your offspring and have others profit off it are in for a very rude awakening.
The game is going to be up when this movie gets out there.
I am not speaking as a political operative of any interest- I am speaking as a female born before Roe v. Wade and jurisprudential progeny watching the culture change- and America is in for a wake-up call.
You want a right to autonomy over your body? Do you have a right to autonomy over anything your car wants to get in the way of? Where in the Constitution is there a right to self-inflict friendly fire of post traumatic stress disorder on yourself, not to mention send your child to heaven before it sees daylight?

I don't much care for Carly Fiorina. I think she ran HP into the ground and they fired her for it. I think she is nasty personally attacking Barbara Boxer in a personally vindictive way that should be beneath her-its scrappy and crappy. Negative campaigning at it's most petty. But she is going to win. Because the over 55 ladies crowd who want to reduce all of political advancement into a woman's right to nuke her offspring are morally bankrupt and their position socially evil and the game is up.

Over- you created an entire male population of sexually incontinent sleazy whoremongering fools who don't know how to respectfully relate to women because they think if they screw up (literally) they can just pressure abortions- and an entire billion dollar industry has been created off of a slaughter of the innocents.

Abortion clinics are not regulated, not even taxed in the cash business appropriately, filthy cesspools of unsterilized infection carrying weapons of mass destruction.

Any one who can not articulate a cogent anti-abortion philosophy, position, agenda or platform should not be running the country on any level. They should not be running a counseling service on any level. They should not be even dog-catchers. Sorry Barbara. It was a nice run.

"The greatest Terror is that done in the Womb" Mother Theresa (paraphrased)

God Gave You

Two Ears and One Mouth



As many people's parents told them when telling them to listen twice as hard as they speak. (good instructions for a blogger)-

This is part A of a two prong solution to the middle east peace crisis according to one speaker at the Rumi Forum today- an esteemed Georgetown Professor-and generally good advice for anyone in conflict. The second part would be 'always remember [the past] except when you must forget. This follows God's forgiveness principles where he puts your sins so far behind you as the East is from the West [Bank.]

In keeping with this mandate to listen twice as hard in dialogue as sounding off everyone is invited this Saturday to the Cleveland Park library auditorium (who knew they have an auditorium) to see a play which features middle east dialogue perspectives from all poignant directions by an esteemed playwright who lives in Bethesda and goes by the irish bard name of David McSomething irish sounding because he thinks more people will come if they don't know him as Dan the lovely elderly Jewish fellow- (I actually think more people will come if they know who it really is on this topic so I am blowing his cover and hope he doesn't get too mad.)


It's flattering any writer wants to be known as irish- when the irish couldn't get jobs in Boston only a generation ago. I should start taking my writing seriously perhaps as I earned my spots (freckles) in Kilkenney. Who is going to get me that T shirt that says 'kiss me i'm irish."


2:30- Cleveland Park public library auditorium, this Saturday.

October is My Favorite Month-This Year

So many Feast Days So Little Time

October 1 is not only the Feast Day of Saint Therese of Lisieux (for whom Mother Theresa was named)- and the birthday of my gorgeous niece, but it is the Feast Day of Saint Remi- who is considered the founder of Christianity in all of France for having converted the King of the Franks Clovis and his wife. Here he is in cone-headed attire baptising Clovis, the skinny king of the Franks. Clovis the Skinny. (kidding- i just made that up.) That is why the Cathedral of Saint Remi (in the Champaign region of France-so no excuse not going there soon)- is where the French Kings were coronated with special oils in a coronation Mass. (It was tragically bombed during WWI -ask me about the painting I have commemorating it with a nun praying in the corner of the cathedral that I picked up for a song at the French Flea market St. Louis de France Kermesse last Sunday.)

So how appropriate was it for Saint Therese's Feast day to be on the same day as the Founder of all French Christendom- the French, shall I remind one and all, were the main diplomatic force in Europe for centuries and the official diplomatic language for centuries was French (sorry

House of Windsor.) The French also, rumor has it and I believe it, harbored Mary Magdalene for whom the famous La Madeleine Cathedral in Paris is named (as well as that swell pastry shop in Bethesda and Georgetown-a good place to meet after Mass.)

October 4 is the Feast Day of Saint Francis, my father's birthday and that of another fine fellow. Blessing of animals takes place in various places, and I am thinking it no small coincidence one of my godkids is a veterinarian.

If you are from Peru October is a special month because apparently a vision/apparition of Jesus appeared on a building in October several hundred years ago prompting a national conversion of souls- surrounded by fire which did not destroy the building- so you can spot folks from Peru wearing special badges to commemorate it this month.

In Biloxi this month they found the blessed mother in French toast (kidding-sorry)

So far this month one cousin had a baby shower and another a wedding shower.

October is indeed a special month. A moving and shaking kind of month in political circles as well as we have one month to go to see where the country is headed.

I suggest that we all pray that God's will be done- (which I suspect is neither/nor/and strictly Republican nor Democrat) and that we all pray to Saint Remi.

Saint Remi pray for us. Saint Therese pray for us. Saint Francis pray for us. Sort of Saint Ed Pray for Us.

Everyone from Peru pray for us.

Fun Fact about Reims Cathedral:

There is a major stained glass window in the Cathedral done by a famous Russian Jewish artist- who is it?

Answer: CHAGALL.

What's On Your Car Dash?

Supremes Bobble Heads.


Nice one David! (hilarious!)
http://www.aolnews.com/news-video/article/-supreme-court-justices-immortalized-with-bobbleheads-video/19661023

As if law wasn't fun enough!

How to Get a Clue

And Simultaneously Grow the F Up Before It's Too Late To Save You.

If you are over 60 and you begin every email or phrase with "mummy and I think.." or "mother and I ..." you are not an idiot savant, you are just an idiot who never self-actualized away from your parents and probably don't support yourself on anything but an early inheritance.

If the old dame carrying your toys is old enough to be your great aunt but whimpers longingly when you go out with someone else, and sabotages all your closer female relationships she is a vicious evil- eyed wannabe Maude cougar and you are an idiot to let her sabotage all your closer female relationships. You will never be a fully actualized person or have true joy until you give her the swift boot and figure out how to make a living without her. No self respecting female would have anything to do with you while you are hanging on to her apron strings as she moon-eyes you from her cataracts. She is a crutch to hide behind like a little boy behind a curtain. Man Up already.
(I don't care if she takes your temperature, tucks you in at night, insists you replenish your fluids or organizes fundraisers and exotic trips to the country- she's a vile mess and a cancerous tumor on your hip that is crippling your growth as a man.)


Thanks for letting me vent. Any other 'ask heloise' questions may be emailed.

The Good The Bad

And the Just Plain Ridiculous.

Did you know that in the back of the Catholic 'Worship ' Hymnal (usually a red book) is the daily gospel readings? You can read it while singing or in between. You can read it to your children, you can read it to yourself. But you cannot read it from any pulpit or altar or anything similar in a catholic church unless you are a priest. If you are catholic, You can read your bible (the four New Testament first books of the gospel) to your kids, your spouse, your neighbors, the homeless guys eating breakfast in the church basement or the dog- but you cannot read it during a mass from that apse, the altar or the pulpit---unless you went to seminary for a bunch of years, got ordained and call yourself a consecrated priest. That means no woman ever can read it in a Mass/service. It's cannon law. Just one of the rules I find off its rocker. Sorry- I do. It's like as if on Pentacost Sunday after the Resurrection when the Holy Spirit came down everyone was given a translation dictionary and told to stand in line behind the official translators before uttering anything. It's as if the most intimate act that the Holy Spirit ever had on earth wasn't with a woman we have statues of in every catholic church and school.

Perhaps they only want men with the insight that a seminary degree provides interpreting with the inflection appropriately the gospel with understanding- so the solution should be let women get the same understanding. But that is not the solution- even women who did go to seminaries and got PHDs in biblical literature or masters in theology cannot read the gospel during a catholic Mass. Only men priests can. No matter some will put you to sleep sideways- all men are just definitionally by virtue of man-ness more qualified than a woman to read the gospel--who is never qualified to speak the red lettered words of Jesus even though 'there is no male nor female in christ jesus."
As I attended the Red Mass, It was amusing to observe the procession of all men in cone-headed hats parading around and assuming position around the altar with all the fine embroidery of a renaissance festival- All men again. Lacey doiley dressed men some of them, and a few cone-heads with fancy titles trying not to act ridiculously pompous while they looked like a cirque du soleil act-I suppressed rolling my eyes out of 'when in rome do as romans' obligation. Does the Archbishop own a pair of jeans? Excuse please the irrevance but you asked for it.

The big photo shot that made Politico was Chief Justice Roberts with Wuerl. Nice.
Wuerl with the shepherd's staff and Roberts, the Republican protege of Rhenquist (whose name I never spell correctly and don't care.)
Because that's where we all want to be shephereded- the place in Reagon loredom where ketsup is a vegetable and civil rights mean I have a right to tell you to be civil.

As a woman attorney, I have to tell you that this gives me more fright than comfort.
Sorry. This institutional anti-womanhood stuff is really serious. All women it appears are blamed for abortions- were it not for all the murdering sluts who tempt innocent men our country would be a quarter larger, so goes the myth- as if men don't emotionally manipulate, abandon and abuse women ever coercing abortions to avoid the child support for two decades (and they all got pregnant by themselves). Women- feminazis-they are called are blamable for much of the ills according to the male mysogynist view of life - blame it on Eve. She did all the tempting and actually listened to the devil. She wanted a Job!

Women in the catholic world are the enemy if they are attractive to priests- they are even the enemy of the Cross apparently (but don't tell them or they might stop throwing bucks in the bucket.) Because priests must all be emotionally castrated, and unlearn everything their fathers should have taught them about being spiritual leaders of women, to turn them into women- after the model of the blessed mother.
Women who start getting ideas about married priests or families with them (real honorable ones, not the secret sad church mouse fake basement housewives who settle for fraudulent marriages) are persecuted worse than the Taliban before the Foreign Legion. This is unAmerican- but they don't care.

The inventor of the In-Vitro process just got a Nobel Peace Award. The Catholic Church wants him to go confession for the sin of creating all that life with the assistance of a petri dish. Imagine the scandal if older women start having healthy babies! What will they want to do next? Read the Gospel in Mass? Saints Preserve Us!!