I DREAM

OF THINGS THAT NEVER WERE AND ASK WHY NOT.

    Said Ted Kennedy eulogysing Robert, his slain brother.

Women Deacons in the Catholic Church? Why Not? The answer to why not, aside from canon law
codifications lies in the culture but that may all change- and soon one can only hope. Sometimes tradition, even bad tradition can create culture that people
believe is a reality that must be preserved no matter how off the culture is. When you finally understand how off the culture is you are ready to root out the evil.

In Germany in the middle of the 20th century there was a culture of Anti-Semitism. It wasn't a
good culture, and it had profoundly evil manifestation. When aspects of culture are bad or rooted in untruth they can have profoundly evil manifestation.

There is profound sexism in the conservative catholic culture. Cardinal Dolan just appointed a woman spokesperson to try to combat the perception that it isn't but it is. Profoundly sexist. You really have
to be a woman to see how. It is way more sexist than Jesus ever is or would be-he who created male and female. If you don't approve birth control and want a woman raising five or six kids then you have to suppress her ambition to do anything that takes time away from that. So you make it impossible for her to do other things advancing in her professionalism.

   Men's egos have a problem with women in authority. They have to take them down a peg. Especially the more competent ones-those are the most threatening. Hence the virulent anti-hillary hatred. Women are supposed to raise children or be in uniformed convents. --as if there were anything unholy about a colorful change of clothes. (is it just cheaper to have everyone in all grey black and navy blue one wonders. )  The single professional childless woman is viewed suspiciously- must be a witch, or murdered her infants in vitro or be gay. or something.

   Now a prominent European Cardinal has finally said that it is not taboo to talk about women deacons. I didn't know it ever was taboo- we have a First Amendment here. The fact it was ever taboo says
a lot about the sexism of the culture. He is apparently the European equivalent of Dolan so this carries weight even with Dominicans.

    Is there anything intrinsically male about giving money to people in need, tending to the sick, or even performing a baptism-which is what deacons do? Of course not.

Women as deacons makes a lot of sense in terms of meeting needs of the sheep - or have we met them all already now? Are there no more sick people, people needing money and everyone is baptized now whose parents want them to be? Wouldn't it make about a thousand percent more sense to formally educate scripturally women deacons who lead women's bible studies or even (gasp) bible studies where everyone is welcome, men included and greeting people Sunday morning than the untrained scripturally vaguely illiterate widow who is jealously mean to anyone younger with a better figure and more expensive shoes who shows up? Deacon at least has qualifications. There is Formation involved. It vets out people who just want to be noseybodies in everyone's business for their personal power trip or filling a sense of loneliness. It requires people be trained and qualified for mission. Trust me, church will be a much happier place.

The culture has to first wake up and change before you will see it on a wide scale because people have to embrace the idea with their wallets. You have to send women to seminary to train them to be Deacons. And you have to pay for it and raise scholarships just like you do for Seminarians. Where your heart is your treasure lies. And if you have no heart for women in church leadership, shame on you. You are a sexist idiot. Everyone needs to grasp how much Jesus detested sexist idiots. There is
not a Pharisee alive today to tell how Jesus promoted the cause of women against their disdain, judgment and lack of love. Think about it. Then watch the movie The Trial of Joan of Arc.


   

 
    

Getting Caught Up

To the Western World

    the old Conservative Catholic Church appears now to just be trying to get caught up with the progress and advancements in recognizing the full dignity of women- but not quite still. The influence of the Protestant Reformation on America, a predominantly protestant country and culture is evident- George Weigel argues for only bad. That is wrong obviously- it has brought enormous good in terms of  the way the world now views womenkind. We have brains equal in diameter to men's. We have abilities far beyond what any 17th century woman was allowed to dream.

When asked how the Catholic church reconciles biblical truth with catholic tradition and authorities extrabiblical like Canon law Weigel denies there is any reconciling that needs to be done because he claims they do not conflict. When confronted with the biblical truth of the existence of women deacons in scripture he denies that they were really deacons as we understand the term (men were only given certain jobs called 'deaconate' later so its a definition game apparently.)

    The big obvious and glaring way that biblical truth conflicts with catholic tradition is in its creation of a priesthood that demanded lifetime celibacy according to canon law when in the bible Jesus gave the keys to the Kingdom to a married man, Peter, the first Pope and there is strict biblical admonition that a Bishop should be the husband of one wife with his household in order. The wisdom of that cautioning is hard to ignore- as violation of biblical norms and truths creates perversions and deviancies and a world of harm and hurt.  Priests get 'spiritually wedded' to the wierdest things who are cool with the secret lives of priest-whores and anything around substitutes for real wives, including children apparently. I guess you have to be a woman to really get this- because the head in the sand 'duh-huh?" attitude of Weigel is mind-bogglingly head-scratchingly just plain ignorant on the subject.  God understood the psycho-emotional make up of men called to serve him because he created them. He laid down the rules so people wouldn't be compromised, tortured emotionally, or creating harm to others.
When those rules are broken it contributes to the brokenness of the world and is antithetical to Love which is God. God did not want a priesthood of only celibates or Jesus would not have picked Peter, he would have picked some aescetic single monkish disciple of the hair-shirtish John the Baptist - Peter, the bible makes a point of telling us had a mother in law and a household in order.  The Vatican has written out of existence Mrs. Peter Pope who was crucified upside down next to Peter. Her tomb is nowhere revered. Her remains not relics anywhere kissed, her statue nowhere found anywhere in Rome. Wives according to Rome didn't matter. According to the Jesus of Jerusalem, they do.

    The issue of how conservative catholics view women is intricately tied with their view of the supremacy of tradition and canon law over scripture.

'Sola Scriptura' gets pooh poohed by Weigel at the same time that he pleads everyone must be scripturally literate to combat the evils of the age. Some of the evils of the age, however, it must be
understood are rooted in those who don't appreciate how some catholic 'traditions' helped those evils flourish.

 

   

 

Media Bias (otherwise titled GET THERAPY ADRIANA!)

Media Bias is Evident in the Gay Marriage debate.

   For example, you can observe that the Huffington Post will call any demonstration against the gay marriage issue in France "homophobic" automatically.  Any opposition to oral or anal sex for lifetime is now apparently 'homophobic.'  Seriously? Who's the bigot?

  Here's what you need to know about the HuffPost- and why they are such huge fans apparently of
oral and anal sex for a lifetime.

  The founder of HuffPost- Adriana Huffington was once married to a very prominent Republican politician, whom  she subsequently divorced because it turns out he is gay. They have children together.  So naturally she wants their children to love and respect their father because otherwise it
affects their self esteem. She has to legitimize gay as valuable-as valuable as straight, otherwise her kids are somehow defective and that won't work. That is what has happened to a lot of people.
They don't want their children stigmatized.

  The fact that this has so much coverage at all, and there is a HuffPost LGBT desk covering these issues is a reflection of the passionate desire to legitimize all things gay.

Rather than say, dear Adriana, that something went horribly wrong. Something went devilishly wrong with my marriage. My husband left me for a man and people should just never do that, she is apparently trying to justify why her husband succumbed to the lusts of the flesh and would rather spend his life
in oral/anal sexland than being a good husband and father.

Read 1st Corinthians 69. There is no need or reason to demonize people who believe the bible when it says, your x-husband might just be a creep- and we don't want to turn the country into a land of creeps.

Media watchers pay attention to where this is coming from and how your minds are influenced by reporting. On that issue, I would just turn off the HuffPost and tell Adriana to get therapy.
 

France [Gay Parie]

Is a beautiful country

   It values liberty, equality, fraternity as we do and they, through Lafayette's friendship with George Washington helped us win the civil war (as viewed from Britain) and the Revolutionary War as viewed from America.

   However, France has a very different sexual sensibility than we do and cultural norms- outside spheres of commonality like the Catholic Church. Prostitution is legal there everywhere.
Their women go topless on beaches and this is no big deal.
Half of all the children born in France are born out of wedlock as more or less half the people
who are couples are co-habitating without marriage.  And that is all fine with them.

There is a reason 'menage a trois' is a french word, as is 'liason dangereuse' and 'cage aux folles.'  There is a reason why the running joke is that france has three national sports:
 1.  Foote (football, but they mean soccer), 2. Le Greve-the industrial strike, and 3. L'Adultere.
Adultery.  It is a hyper sexualized country compared to the US and not much is taboo.

We, on the other hand were founded by puritan pilgrims, and people who read the bible religiously.

They have just become the 14th country to legalize same sex marriage nationally.
Because they haven't figured out that All Behaviors Are Not Created Equal.

The French Revolution did something to cleric and the 'clerical class' that we never did here, because
there was never a 'clerical class' here. We respected religious leaders as integral to the success of
our societies from the beginning. We didn't lock them in the Bastille when we had our revolution,
we didn't blame God for the abuses of King George of England.

We asked our religious leaders to pray for us. We ask them to do it now. We ask them all to pray
for the Supreme Court and have their congregations all pray for the Supreme Court, that they
have the wise judgment and strength to respect the beautiful traditions that make this country
so good.

Someone said that when the country ceases to be good it ceases to be great.
It is right , just , and good, that society honors opposite sex parents who raise children and right
for society to defend their union as sacred if they view it as sacred.

It is not right,  just and good that anyone who wants to have oral and anal sex for the rest of their
lives together force everyone in the country to accept that this is just as good .

Forcing someone or a nation to accept what they find morally obnoxious is worse than a denial
of someone's religious liberty, it is a form of slavery, forcing obeissance to an alien or offensive
rule.
   We are not that country. We are not France.
Most things I love about France, its a really beautiful place, but their sexual ethics can just break your heart.

History Lesson

In the 1700s in Philadelphia

   there were no robbers, muggers, waylayers, burglars or crime, rowdy drunken bar fights with guns. True or False.

False. The early cities had crime. They had crime with weapons. The wild west wasn't won until much later and before people ventured west they were the same people.

So why doesn't the Second Amendment state "in the interest of self defense everyone has a right to have a weapon" or "in the interest of protecting the civil order everyone has a right..." or "in the interest of protecting your home from invasion, or in the interest of fending off robbers, etc....

  It says explicitly that only in the interest of the STATE with regard to its WELL REGULATED MILITIA should anyone wish to join said Militia, you can be armed.

Recall that before we were technically united as the United States, there were military regiments that came from different states. George Washington led the army but was from the Virginia Regiment.

   Also not that the term State isn't specific to just 13 but could also mean State generically as in the Body Politic.

   CLEARLY, the Second Amendment Never Ever envisioned arming criminals. It only envisioned arming the Military. The term then before we had a standing army was Militia- the various State Militias that ran the Revolutionary War.

  Please READ CAREFULLY the amendment. The NRA is just out of line and a tool of the arms industry. To let that industry dictate policy on arms control is obscene. Murderously obscene.

  Anyone who has taken a dime from the NRA should have to recuse themselves and a 2/3rds vote should count without them.

   That's not legal advice- its common sense advice. The Supreme Court actually ruled in DC v. Heller that the 2nd amendment did not just pertain to well regulated militias in giving citizens the right to carry guns.  If the Supreme Court declared it was impossible to drown in a niagra falls waterfall I am still not jumping in one. The text, and historical context of the 2nd Amendment are clear- it was done in the interest of The State in conjunction with their 'well regulated militias.'

I hate labels.

Because they never encompass reality.

     When i post something on facebook against abortion-on-demand-as-birthcontrol i get people sending me solicitations they want me to 'like' from Concerned Conservatives or other Right Wingnutty groups. Then when i express the slightest disinterest or disdain over whether Butt-F'ing for eternity happily ever after should be a constitutional right for two people who despirately want to Butt-F into eternity I get more Conservative Christian like us like us solications. Then when I express the fact that women should indeed get equal pay for the same work with the same experience and credientials and note that there are women who have to raise kids on their own, sometimes not of their own choice, (and "Justice" is defined in the old-first testament in part as taking care of and pleading the cause of the widow-who would have to work to support children on her own)- i get Leftist "like me like me" facebook posts. Everyone wants to enscript you to their labels. I defy them. I go issue by issue- and on this one- GUN CONTROL AND BACKGROUND CHECKS- I am sorry- you are a TOTAL MORON AND SHOULD BE SHOT if you voted against background checks. Not really-its not a call to violence. Just saying that you are personally responsible for any and all deaths which will be ever caused by someone with a record, criminal or mental, because you allowed them to purchase the gun and in the chain of proximate cause you are an accessory then to a murder and we have the death penalty in several states still. Do you prefer being shot or lethal injection? MORON.

    The people who absolutely should NEVER have weapons are those unstable people, demonstrated drug addicts with criminal records who spent time in that school of criminality called prison. Those people you do not want owning weapons to go on their next holdup car jacking spree at the drug store.
Because the car they jack could be yours. If they have a real gun instead of the pointed finger in the pocket you could be dead instead of just out the car with insurance coming later

    Do you see my point?
You CANNOT freely give weapons to criminals with records and unstable mental proved psychotic tendancies.

   Now let me talk to you as a Constitutional attorney, not someone who knows an above described character who is lucky  to be alive to tell you that you need to enforce strict background checks on gun purchases. Common Sense.

   The US Constitution, Second Amendment, premises the ENTIRE amendment on the need for a
'well regulated militia' for the security of the country prior to when we had a centralized standing army.
Citizen militias fought the Revolutionary War because we were not a country prior, the only army around was the British Army. Thus the founders felt that for the security of the new country anyone who wanted to be in the militia fighting the Brits had to have the right to be armed. THIS AMENDMENT NEVER CONTEMPLATED GIVING EVERY CRIMINAL THE PERSONAL RIGHT TO WEAPONIZE.

   How can I be clearer?

I want every single Republican who voted against background checks to be personally criminally liable for every act of violence using a gun by someone with a criminal record or record of mental instability in an institution. That means if someone with a record shoots someone dead I want every republican congressperson who voted against it criminally liable as an accomplice to murder. Because it is totally forseeable. Check your tort law fellows on forseeable torts.

Call another vote. I am going to start taking names.
Someone call me to testify. I have a story to tell you.

   

Transatlantic Hugs

Not just to my mum

  who is on a cruise as we speak and blog around Northern Europe but to all those who stopped for a moment of silence before the LONDON MARATHON today.

   The London Marathon stopped for a moment of 'silence' which you can interpret as pray as you like, in remembrance of those who suffered or died during the Boston Marathon.

   Thank You from the bottom of our Yankee hearts:-)


As usual the Huff Post is on it and all over it :-) HERE (click)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/21/london-marathon-boston-tribute-moment-silence_n_3127351.html

Terror Will Never Succeed

Americans Refuse to Be Terrorized. The idiots in Boston didn't win. One is dead, the other is caught crawling in his excrement on the bottom of a docked tarped boat. Someone who creates violence is not a 'martyr'- they are a devilish fool. America Refuses to be Terrorized. Because we know the One who told us to FEAR NOT. I think our President speaks well for us here:

HOME of the FREE

Comes before LAND OF THE BRAVE.

EVIL INCARNATE

The People who commit deadly violent acts to create a pretext to mass murder and start wars while saying its for your protection are the most demonic evil people on the face of the earth. Hell will be like a sauna compared to where they will spend eternity.

The Dogs

Of War Remember the people who sent Anthrax to Senator Tom Daschle's office? It turned out that Anthrax was made in some military lab in Maryland and the guy who did it apparently or believed to have done it someone from the civilian side of the military? We have seen the media hype which now surrounds almost non stop the grizzly coverage of Boston's attacks before. It was the 9-11 lead up to the War in Iraq. Patridiocy - a demented unthinking form of Patriotism that causes people to put little flags on their cars as charge-ups and pep rally cries to massacre a people are ginned up to a full frenzy. People have agendas about fighting wars. It is hugely profitable. Now there is a lot being made about how Boston is the heart of the American Revolution, how the attack happened on Patriot Day (who even knew it was Patriot Day in Boston) how the Boston Marathon is one of our cultural ikons. Who knew that? People are being disturbingly ginned up. One can only surmise why. Who will they pin it on? Who will they say is behind it? Who will claim credit from the bowels of a CIA film studio this time? Al Quaida again ? Who is our newest enemy "rogue" nation that we have to blister and blunder toward destroying and decapitating its leader? Who are we being fed to Hate from the deepest gut reaction of the belly of the hold-outs. Someone is behind the attacks. You can be sure that evil incarnate is behind it. But where is this evil? You should hate Dick Cheney for engineering a pretext to the Iraq war, not the Iraqi people, certainly not Muslims, the large majority of whom are peace loving and hate war as much as we do. You should hate the deceivers, the press manipulators, the truth benders, the violence provacateurs. Those who inspire blind massacres. Those people are evil incarnate masquarading as your friendly protectors while they go rich off the blood of strangers. Someone sat down and thought, how can we get the cooperation of the leftist elite behind the effort who usually fight us with their silly peace notions (with an attack which they likely thought would be much more horrific than it was- it only killed 3 or 4 people not thousands as they likely planned but it did enough damage as people lost limbs and body parts and will be surviving to tell of it) - BOSTON- capital of some of the countries best and left leaning Universities. A marathon- where thousands of cheering people congregate, celebrating some of the best things about America-its athleticism, its 'can do' outdoor conquering spirit. What a gut punch. The gory stories are not over. There will be daily stories for months about surgeries and lost loved one's lives gone. They will make movies, and TV-mini-series. They will identify an enemy. Someone is out to create a run up to another war. Against whom this time? Saudi? who are our difficult deal makers in the oil world? Who are our business enemies? We are decommissioning Iraq and Afghanistan in 2014. We need a new enemy someone is thinking to keep the defense contractors in their second and third houses and Boeing making the latest scary star wars bombers. We need another enemy soon before we have to come home from Afghanistan in 2014 and we can no longer support the billions in defense authorizations bills in Congress. Someone else has to hate us and want us destroyed- they even said so on Patriot Day in Boston. But Boston is fighting back. They are saying- you messed with the wrong city. You will not goat and bait us into turning over all our civil liberties. You will not turn us into the mass murderers that you are. You will not steal our souls with your demonic plots against humanity. You will not reduce us to you. Boston Fights Back. Because BOSTON is the heart of everything good and beautiful about America- people who refuse to sell their souls, people who know that a people who trade security for liberty deserve neither. People who are True Patriots, the holders of our truest values. The Fighting Fathers of our Country. ....So then there was Dallas......

HATE (Romans 12:9)

WHAT IS EVIL HOLD ON TO WHAT IS GOOD. That is what someone said to the Romans -was it Paul? You tell me. All hatred apparently according to the New Testament is not evil or from the devil. Sometimes some things are despised to purify and rid the earth of them. One should hate someone who rapes a child for example. Its abhorant. One should abhor all forms of abuse. http://bible.cc/romans/12-9.htm It is silly to call all hatred or forms of loathing of the devil. That is also a form of defamation. Look at what is really evil- you should hate it. I didn't say that- someone said it 2,000 years ago to 'The Romans.' Jesus apparently hated the money changers in the Temple courtyard enough that he flipped their tables on their heads in their own temple. Jesus isn't some marshmallowheaded 'feelings' guy who can't tell right from wrong and loves everything. Some things must be hated-because they are sick or evil. Hate Evil. Do you not hate the hollocaust? Or the sexual molestation of thousands of children under catholic 'protection?' or the misleading deceptions of emotionally adolescent priests?

The ICH Factor

I hate bigotry- of any kind. Like the kind you show me if i say I don't think happily forever- after Butt-F'ing is a Civil Right. I am more inclined to think if we want to stretch civil rights into the behavioral territory not being Hungry could be a nice civil right, so kids don't go to bed deprived of enough food to keep them alert for school the next day. Or----maybe Housing could be a civil right. Everyone should have decent housing as a matter of a civil right. That's something the UN could get rather firm about.Then lawyers could get rich suing the city for not properly housing homeless people who literally die on the street. Today in Dupont circle I sat eating a Cosi squaggel (that's a square bagel to the uninitiated) surrounded by gay men couples. In hindsight it was appropriately square as became quickly my mood. In the middle of Washington, DC I looked to be the only single female of the few females that were in the park on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in the middle of the nation's capital. One skinnyboys gay couple were proudly displaying their wedding rings and the other ones were flipping, flying and fawning over them like they just announced a Barneys and Bergdorf half price sale. The merriment got energized with animated wrist-flying skinnyboy hugs and more hugs and 'don't you just love it honey!' Actually, are you kidding me? We are celebrating the eternal civil right to have anal sex till death do you part? Are you kidding me? I thought for a second i was backstage at the West Holywood Design Center. But I was in the Nation's Capital. Then it struck me. I can tolerate doses of this or when I want a laugh on TV reruns of Bravo, but I don't want it to be the prevalent norm. That's what laws do-they normalize things when they legalize them. When they normalize them the standards become the norm and it then gets usual. It becomes the rule not the exception. Abortion once legalized became so normal that people use it for birth control and to avoid child support payments. The people who want to legalize marijuana have an organization called NORMAL (its an acronym for something like normalizing marijuana usage). When something becomes legal by Supreme Court fiat it does change the vibe. You can call it 'culture.' You can even call it 'culture war' but what they are saying is that do you want the prevalent norm to be open high fiving and kissing in the parks of married same sex people shoving in your face the fact that they won and you have to like anal and oral sex is just as good as the baby making kind. Anal and Oral Sex Forever-after is now a marital right in some states. Because some states have slightly lost their minds. But just because something is legal does not always mean it is right. It is legal to drink those supersized sugar stuffed drinks but if you have three in a row you will be in a diabetic coma. Some legalized things are just dumb. It is legal to get drunk but it is dumb. There is a funny cartoon with that Bravo guy saying "you say that gay marriage will change the fabric of society? Do you really think gays don't know how to pick out great fabric?" Its a joke but of course, changing laws changes the 'fabric' of society. It normalizes things. It means the gay paraders get to be in the Macy's Day Parade or someone gets sued. It means that you get sued if you even want to say you believe in the bible and 1st Corinthians 6:9 (the other '69') says this whole argument looks like it fits right in the end times. Merely for posting this I will get blacklisted from the Christmas- er no 'holiday' party at the American Constitution Society- and other similarly situated venues. Because I don't believe all behaviors are created equal. I believe that morality is infused in our legal system and you better be really careful when you normalize something globally that a lot of people think is totally depraved. Now you see why I eat Squaggles.

this weeks presidential address

Do You Believe

That There Is A Resurrection Of The Righteous? There apparently is such a thing as Righteousness. the "Just". We celebrate Easter because we celebrate the fact that Jesus, after he died and was buried for three days, rose from the dead, walked the earth demonstrating with the walk not just the talk that there is a Resurrection. Do a search in Luke and you will read about the Resurrection of the Righteous. If there is a Resurrection of the just, the Righteous, don't you want to be Righteous? What is considered Not Righteous? Don't you want to know? Shouldn't you want your neighbors or people you love to know? Should you want the entire country to have to swallow a practice that is considered Not Righteous?

Lets Not Discriminate

Against Speedohaulics Who Run Red Lights Because they were born that way and can't help themselves. Whenever they see a red light they have to run through it. Get them around a convertible they go 130 MPH. Its a condition in their right pedal foot called lead footedness. They insist they were born that way. Lets not discriminate against shoplifters. That is a condition also. Kleptomania. They were born coveting cheap lipstick. Lets not discriminate against people who never met a Big Mac they didn't like and are so fat they take up two airplane seats by not making them buy two airplane seats. They were born with a condition called Adiposesya. Gayness that wants to marry gayness is a behavior and all behaviors are not created equal. Intrinsic within its insistence as a right is a moral judgment that it is right. When Justice Kagan says she gets nervous when moral arguments are made she really means she gets nervous when moral arguments she disagrees with are made. She apparently disagrees with 1st Corinthians 6:9- the other "69" Nothing about declaring a white man can marry a black women creating all races equal under the law compels creating all behaviors equal as a constitutional right. Having anal or oral sex is not a RACE. That is why I do not believe it constitutionally correct to mandate gay marriage be legalized which is another word for the whole country has to recognize as right and legitimate what more than half the country finds morally depraved.

Have You Noticed?

Our Freakish Washington Weather this year?

  We had no Spring. It went from snowing a few weeks ago to Washington summer swelter.
Yes, there is dramatic climate 'change.'  It is perhaps the understatement of the century to say we have change. Its seasopoalypse.
Did you notice for example that the few cherry blossoms that came out when they should have were met with such a knee-whacking freeze days later that they died on the vine as it were in places.  So we only have half the normal canapy of cherry blossoms after that belated freeze?

Apparently the next King of England says we are behind the 8 ball. Republican politicians on this score
are head in the sand ostrichs on this issue.

SPAIN

A mysterious country.

     The bridge between the African continent and Europe some say. Historic home to many mingling cultures. For centuries home to Muslims and Christians living co-existently.  Now, have you heard, its in a bit of a crisis. More than just economic, it appears to have spirolled into existential. Well, everywhere in Europe save France and Germany seem to be. But Spain has been particularly hard hit with astronomical unemployment numbers particularly among the youth. So what is a talented young spaniard to do but art.

   The Spanish Embassy in DC hosted an exhibition of several modern artists from the region known as
Cantabria called "Meaning Making."  People are indeed trying to make MEANING of their lives. Art forms a great dignifying medium by which to do so. This region apparently has towns that form vibrant creative communities and the visual arts is vigorously encouraged there.

The modern art exhibit ran the gamit of expression in non-representational glory. Color spreads evoke brooding moods and others more elated. There was on an LED Large screen TV projection  a moving canvas of men pretending to be Marilyn Monroe holding their white skirts in space. Yes, that was rather odd and got attention.
The walled tableaux looked distinctively more inviting if not pleading.

The crowd was an eclectic mix of the usual Embassy workers (an extremely handsome young Spanish attache) and the crowd of what they affectionately call themselves -"the schleppers": e.g. the single dentist from Silver Spring who eats out at Embassy receptions every night to avoid recalling no one cooks for him at home, the "crypt keeper" ancient tall thinner than skeletal lanky  attorney who survives off Embassy food because he is too dignified to do doc privilege reviews like the rest of us and doesn't acknowledge his poverty, the immigrant Bolivian former Embassy attache to something serious who ran out his visa and overstayed for fun and games, and the retired government worker who never left living in the downtown schmotel with no kitchen because she eats Embassy wine and cheese every night anyway and I am missing a few.  There is a bad B movie subtext here.

     If you appreciate non-representational modern art, from a part of the world now struggling and searching for "Meaning" in the midst of an economic melt-down go to the Spanish Embassy to see "Imaginarious Fragmentados De Doce Artistas De Catabria."  Ignacio Diego, President of Cantabria will thank you. See also, www.GaleriaEspiral.com

The Schleppers thank the Spanish Embassy for the Spanish Wine.


   

   

The Iron Maggie

Margaret Thatcher Rest in Peace.

    Tributes to Margaret Thatcher are rising from all corners, some unexpected because she was after all a Conservative member of Parliament. The equivalent here would be a Republican-and she found a great ally in our Republican President Ronald Reagan. J-Street hails her as a staunch great friend of Israel, and even Democrats are applauding her role in assisting in the eventual demise of communism
in the Eastern block.
     But that is not why she was and is important to me. She is a woman who became a Prime Minister of a good old boyish country during a time when a Queen reigned. Two powerful wonderful women running the whole house. I lived in London during the years that Maggie Thatcher,  the Iron Maiden
was Prime Minister as I attended the American School in London. I psychologically knew no glass ceiling. Women already did, so everyone knew they could and only the dumbest of idiots would doubt that a woman could run a country because two were.

     Her presence was a comfort on British TV or Radio. She had an elegant soft but firm voice that spoke of intelligence and grace. Maggie Thatcher is a Presidential role model for all the right reasons and least of which because she is a woman.

Mes penses

precisement.

  Can you tell T.H.I.S. this young lady is French?
http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=0F0J11NU

Temples

of the Holy Spirit.

    Catholics have a lot of rituals involving body motions and movements. I use to call it the 'stand up, sit down, fight fight fight' liturgy. When you walk into a church you can bless yourself with water by making a sign of the cross after dipping your finger in the holy water font or baptismal font. This is supposed to remind you of your baptism- a lifelong sealing of sorts.
   Then liturgy opens with a sign of the cross where the entire church at the words "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" make a cross from their forehead to their heart to each shoulder, covering your entire torso in the cross essentially. Then when the part of scripture (the bible) is read that is called 'the gospel' (Matthew, Mark, Luke John) before the reading everyone makes a small cross on their forehead, then again over their mouth, then again over their hearts. This symbolizes a pledge to keep God's word which you are about to hear forever on your mind, on your lips and in your heart. There are various points in the service where you kneel in reverence. More classical traditions have you bowing at the creed portion when everyone recites that Jesus came down from heaven and was born by the holy spirit of the Virgin Mary. These are signs of reverence, but they are more than that. They are mini-consecrations. They are supposed to dedicate onself, one's whole body, and essentially the mind, the lips and the heart for the work of the Lord.

   Physical bodies are significant in scripture. They are not accidents - they are part of who we are.
They are called the Temples of the Holy Spirit. Worship happens in them. Praise of God happens through them.

   That is why the Catholic church has an understanding of 'righteousness' that involves correct and incorrect use on earth of bodies. Not because they don't love everyone, but precisely the opposite. They revere everyone as having capacity of being vessels of the Holy Spirit. They have consecratable function.

  You wouldn't pour orange juice down your car gas tank would you? That is because you respect the function of your gas tank and know that it operates maximally with gas and anything else will corrode it and eventually your engine. It is possible to pour orange juice down your engine-but is it wise?  You can make a cake with ingredients everyone knows, but if  you throw a leg of lamb in the cake is it going to rise the same or taste the same? Is it even still cake?

   It is like that with things like catholic teachings on abortion, or gay marriage.
It's not a kill-joy attempt to depress anyone. It's the opposite- its the attempt to bring the maximum joy through the most efficacious intended use of one's body.

There is such a thing as righteousness on earth. It's not an 'everything goes' sort of concept. The body is revered and respected as something which has a purpose on earth. One perhaps higher than society at large even contemplates.

Everything is Possible With God

One Man. Only One Man ever Did This. Was hammered with nails to a cross, died and was
buried. Then three days later, got up and walked around spoke to people, touched people,
even cooked for people, and walked with his friends on earth to show them- you can live
after you die, forever.
     Only One Man ever did That. Jesus - the simple man, a carpenter from Nazareth in the north
region of Israel, Galilee, about 2,000 years ago and still living today. Only One Man ever did that.
Search for Him and you will find him. He promises.