They're not buyin it either

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xx58ds_suivez-l-integralite-des-debats-sur-le-mariage-pour-tous-en-direct_news#.URRCT6V8vww

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xx58ds_suivez-l-integralite-des-debats-sur-le-mariage-pour-tous-en-direct_news#.URRCT6V8vww

Bush-Cheney- possibly the most evil administration in American History. Read this and weep. (or you are not worthy of being called American)

http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/projects/globalizing-torture

Let me Count the Ways

About 120 Reasons why marriage is, as Martha Stewart says- "a good thing." Beliefnet breaks it down HERE. http://www.beliefnet.com/Love-Family/Galleries/21-Reasons-to-Get-Married.aspx?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=paid_distribution&utm_campaign=PharmaOutbrain

How to Love

Enemies. A very kind generous hearted Jewish woman friend of mine whose grandfather was a well beloved famous Rabbi from Long Island posted this to her facebook page:

What Were They

Thinking?

     The strongest woman in history must have been the Virgin Mary. Can you imagine keeping her peace when people first mocked her pregnancy, then strung up her son? Can you imagine how she felt and lived on? She was mocked and derided, she was the mother of what they strung up like a criminal and watched. Can you imagine what that felt like--being the mother of a reputed criminal then watching as they kill him off as the supposed baddest actor in the country?  Imagine suffering the injustice knowing that they were totally wrong. Couldn't be more wrong. Couldn't be more evil in destroying pure goodness.

     Do you recall what happened on Pentacost? Flames of Fire came down on everyone present. EVERYONE. Not just men. Not just white men over 70. EVERYONE started talking in different languages and EVERYONE understood what was spoken. That was clear witness to the fact that Jesus wants EVERYONE to know him, EVERYONE to understand what he came to do, EVERYONE to love him and each other and EVERYONE to be part of his kingdom. Not just men. Not just white men over 70.
Not just the guys who wear black cassocks or white monk robes.  EVERYONE. The Spirit of the Living Lord is accessible to EVERYONE who is open to it.


   This church witnessed this year a wierd preoccupation and persecution against women nuns that no one in America really appreciates, except maybe white men over 70.  Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with old age- sometimes the only thing that comes with old age is arthritis, baldness, dementia and missing teeth.

   This church witnessed this year a wierd campaign of litigation against a government elected by the majority of catholics in the country because the platform stood more for what they understand the Holy Spirit to be about in America in the name of a completely overused and ill understood term "Freedom."

   This year the church took on governments they thought were too secular because they loved gays equally and thought the best interest of children was found in giving them to adults in loving families rather than institutions or subject to abortion.

   This church witnessed this year the flagellation of a priest who served loyally his order for 40 years being humiliatingly excommunicated because he stood by women who wanted to be priests. I don't have a dog in that fight and I don't care if women are catholic priests or not. Women Presbyterian ministers have been known to be quite effective evangelists. But I do care about the abysmal treatment and deliberate humiliation of any priest by snotty little Dominican theologians because they stand with women.

   And if you think that white men over 70 are all infallible- just look at what Roger Mahoney of LA got away with and continues to get away with. This year witnessed the listing in LA of all the very dirty deeds by priests there that went on for decades.

     Grace is incompatible with snotty little reprisals. Grace is not seen in expelling people from ministries, or participating in the life of the Spirit.

    The Mother church of the strongest woman in history needs to wake up and renew itself not with the old wine skins of oppression, derision, reprisals mysogeny and 'discipline' but with a bigger vision of LOVE, which is as John the Apostle advised, God.  God is Love. Petty snottiness, devils of doubt and suspicion masqued as litigation risk management are not from God and have no place in His Church.

    The greatest sin is blaspheming the Holy Spirit, and quenching it must come close.

If this Pope cannot embrace the fullness of the Spirit or Love all His children hiding behind Dominican DeNoias petty penalties and persecutions (are those people just sick?) then he needs to resign so the Holy Spirit can clean house. How can Jesus come in to a place he can't feel at home in?

  Maria Shriver on Facebook said that she believes the church needs to incorporate more women into the leadership - not the illusory token leadership- the real leadership. I agree. Start with making some families where women are in them. Start by letting priests have wives and their own children as they already do if they are episcopalians who switched and entered after marriage.

    The thred of what is considered holy in political life is not consistent with Grace or the Gospel. Some of the blogging of archdiocene PR priests is head scratchingly stupid.

     The church needs a Vatican III and serious fundamental reform. Before it kills off or drives out the best of their fans--or at least destroys their Faith in Church.

 

Look

what they found on the street:

--------musicians! click to hear

must see tv

you will thank me later

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151397745507577&set=vb.150082065062250&type=2&theater

And now for a little Comic Relief

And Why I don't live in the Burbs.

 Have you SEEN the show SUBURGATORY?

Like, uh, are your neighbors crazy as this? http://www.hulu.com/watch/450527

 Its not that I haven't had before a BMW, SAAB Convertible top of line cars and all my relatives drove Mercedes highest class there ridiculously is expensive cars, and its not that I have a DUI suspended license either (I don't)-thanks for guessing-, its that I don't WANT TO DRIVE TO THE SUBURBS.


Bougie, Bourgeois, totally impressed with their big alpha I'm the biggest Dog in the World of people who pay people to mow lawns, have you noticed the starving el salvadorans standing idle at the 7-11 waiting for anyone to pick them up to, I don't know, build you a porch?

How many massages and mani-pedis can you get in one week? Don't you have anything better to do than watch other people do your laundry?

     The American obsession with keeping up with the Joneses  is even more hilarious when foreigners come to this country to keep up with the American Joneses. I think I'm losing my foie gras lunch.

Game Changer

Completely Mooting the Lawsuits which should now be dismissed en massse- HHS Regulations Revisions announced today. Everybody wins. Now take your toys and go home. Fr Thomas Reese on the new rules: Sent from my iPad Begin forwarded message: From: "Thomas J. Reese" Date: February 1, 2013 12:02:33 PM EST To: "Thomas J. Reese" Subject: revised contraceptive mandate HHS and the administration have gone out of their way to resolve the concerns of religious institutions that object to covering contraceptives in their insurance programs. They fixed the four-part definition of religious employer by eliminating the confusing first three parts and relied on the traditional definition of churches in the Internal Revenue Code. They have also found creative ways to provide contraceptives to the employees of religious colleges and hospitals without the involvement of these institutions. Thomas J. Reese, S.J. Senior Fellow Woodstock Theological Center Georgetown University Washington, DC 20057-1137 Office: 202-687-1941 Cell: 646-573-4877 @ThomasReeseSJ http://www.facebook.com/thomas.j.reese.9 http://Woodstock.georgetown.edu/ http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/georgetown/this_catholics_view/

THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS YOU JAMES SALT OF THE CATHOLIC ALLIANCE. Find them on Facebook.


And as usual Michael Sean Winters has the straight scoop HERE----http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/sure-looks-miracle

Gabrielle

YOU CANNOT PUT A GOOD WOMAN DOWN.

No Marriage For You

Remember Seinfeld's Soup Nazi? Here are the people that the Catholic Church thinks are not good enough to marry each other so they won't permit it in their church 1. Mixed religions- no Hindu, Jew, Buddhist, Muslim or other religion may marry a catholic by a priest in a catholic church 2. No divorced person without an official annulment from Rome may marry anyone in a catholic church by a catholic priest. 3. No gay person may marry anyone in a catholic church by a catholic priest. 4. No Catholic Priest may marry anyone in a catholic church by a catholic priest. And this is a reflection of a Life doctrine? REALLY?? "...and he came that you should have LIFE and HAVE IT ABUNDANTLY." Here I am compelled to advertise www.RENTAPRIEST.com where you can find the many tens of thousands of priests kicked out of the catholic church because they got married to women. Also see, Episcopalian.

There was once upon a time a woman who loved a man like a brother who knew he really wanted children but was gay. So she agreed to be an egg donor. Another woman agrees to be a surrogate. The gay man's sperm and the woman who loved him's egg was implanted in a surrogate and conceived a child that was then adopted by the man and his partner-a gay couple. True Story. Repeated a thousand times around the world. The one close enough that you might have heard about is Elton John and partner David who now have two children by that method. Should the church refuse to baptize such children? Should the church wish they had never been conceived 'in the best interest of the child.' Another true story: Two gay men who worked for a University had been monogamous together for about a decade. They had established themselves in the community and did lots of volunteer work for a church. They met through working with immigrants subject to deportation a woman who was illegally in the country being deported back to her home country of Senegal. She found out during her deportation proceedings she was pregnant. Because she was being deported penniless she wanted to abort the child. They offered to pay for everything she needed if only she would not abort. They then adopted the child- an African child to a white gay couple. This child would no doubt never have been born without this loving gay couple. The Angry, Zealots who refuse gay marriage seem to me to be so moronic and ignorant of what is going on in the world. In England over a quarter of all children under the age of 30 now have been conceived using some form of invitro. That is also against the rigid catholic church doctrine. Should they all not be baptized also? A woman died and left a widower husband and a small son. The husband was despirately in love with his wife but she died. He discovered he was bisexual. He found a lover after she died. They lived together and together raised his son. They for all practical purposes were married. What does the church do about that? Tell them not to be gay? Constitutionally there are serious problems with equal protection grounds that should in my view overrule gay marriage as a constitutional right. However in common sense there are fewer problems understanding what a government should do. That 800,000 people in France- a country in which women could not even vote until after WWII--would take to the streets to break up families that are not male-female spouses strikes me as horrendously stupid. What right do you have to tell anyone who they have to love or cannot love? Priests, who easily are told and believe they can marry NO ONE have no problem telling other people what they have no business telling anyone- you cannot marry that person. They are so lacking in identity as a person of any identity often they let someone living in a country thousands of miles away tell them they cannot marry anyone. A quarter are estimated to be repressed homosexuals who chose celibacy from a desire to suppress their natural attractions. Those are sometimes so secretly self loathing they despise happy gays. No, Sorry --you are wrong. Your ideology has cost you friends and supporters.

There is NO Greek or Jew, Slave or Free, MALE or FEMALE in Christ Jesus. There is NO Greek or Jew, Slave or Free, MALE or FEMALE in Christ Jesus. There is NO Greek or Jew, Slave or Free, MALE or FEMALE in Christ Jesus. Click your heels three times and say There is no Place Like Home.

The Politics of Papal Persecution How many more ways could the Archdiocene church (religious orders excluded except Dominicans) tell women that they are not wanted, not needed, nothing without their own kids that they can get paid to educate, and insignificant lives not worth living to their fullest potential? We should just slash our wrists and bleed to death on the front steps of the church because the church demands our ripped out bleeding hearts like Aztec sacrifices to appease the master Lord in Rome. Front and Center on the Cathedral's main website in Washington, DC- the website for the Cardinal's church, is a whole section on the "Home" page which boasts the litigation against HHS regulations on contraception when about 90% of all women in America including Catholic women have at one time or another in their lives taken contraception. Let me be clear. I am one of the 10% (due to my celibate singleness and a non-existent romantic life and if i got pregnant at my age it would be a divine miracle)- but I am a tiny minority. The Cardinal feels free to insult 90% of American women right on his church website- and sue the government to make the point about how much he can't stand womenkind. And they wonder why attendance drops. Was the last election a referendum on a 'War on Women?' Or was it just a statement that the world of mean vicious old men who take care of no families of their own and think they can be total sick Ba-tards because they bring Jesus to a piece of wafer is not a version of Christ that anyone recognizes as really Jesus. It is not 'goodness.' It is not 'kindness.' Rudeness, insult, ignorance, arrogance -which the church in parts thinks is a virtue- are not traits anyone finds in Jesus anywhere. In fact he hates the proud- scatters them in their own conceit. Lifts up the lowly. America is a country founded by outcast persecuted immigrants who fled the Dominican persecutions of Europe and other religious persecutions and religious wars. They said that sort of rigid ideological condemnation is not how we want to live, not a country we want to create. It is not a place big enough for Jesus to enter when one has rigid ideological even theological interpretations that cast out Love in the name of Religion. It doesn't matter how big the house annex is or how big your church is, if you cast out Love in the name of Religion you have thrown out the Baby with the Baptismal waters. You have created a massive idol of your own power. The church is a mess. Have you noticed? Old viciously jealous rich widows run parish counsels for their own emotional needs meddling in everyone's business like its their business and priests feel widow-whipped to cater to their meanness. It builds and maintains massive buildings that fewer and fewer people want to actually sit in. It takes money from people scraping by with barely enough to budget for gas money to feed litigations that no one wants in the name of a political party all tax exempt. And they wonder why. Building castles to your own egos isn't God. Its the opposite. ---------------------------------- UPDATE- they took down the BullShine about the HHS Litigation and in its place a more appropriate blurb about lent. Thank God. I mean it.

More Thoughts on Gay Marriage

And Gay Divorce, and Gay reMarriage and Gay Anulments and Gay Turned Straightness. Oh My- Someone can be born with a predisposition to jealousy, or covetesness. Both are considered sins in the eyes of most major religions as a deviation of, to or for the highest path of God's will. But they are not illegal. Jealousy and covetesness are permitted sins in society. We figure you will work it out for yourself when you figure you are your best enemy and either straighen up and fly right or face the consequences. The Being of Jealous or the Being of Covetous isn't illegal. Just wrong. Say Most-and Moses. But if you take it one step further and in a jealous rage you take a sledge hammer to the object of your jealousy's car that is illegal. If instead of quietly coveting something (a leap beyond admiring) and you actually steal the thing, that is against the law. If you lust or long after someone's genitals which look like your own most major religions find that not the highest path to the advancement of God's will in your life- or 'sin.' A deviation off your highest path. But that is not illegal- just harmful (believe many if not most Americans.) If you however want to concretize your insistence upon lusting or longing after someone who has parts that look like yours now people who do so want to make that also legal- They want ALL of society to say that this is fine-OK, not sin, not a deviation from the highest path of God's will for them or society at large and anyone else involved. They want to make everyone say what is clearly in their minds sin is not sin, and is fine- Who is being more intolerant then? The people demanding that the other people agree with them and legalize something that they think is wrong or the people who insist it's still wrong, was wrong, always has been wrong and will forever be wrong? Are they equally intolerant of each other? Its not illegal to be gay. You can be gay in the privacy of your own home- if you want to act gay, and ask society as a whole to say acting gay, or being in gay relations is right, fine and legal-that is another matter all together. And if society doesn't have a right to say- sorry- no, then does it have a right to say stealing is wrong if someone is born covetous?

"Its at the core of who we are-the tolerance on which the United States is founded is one of our greater attributes....the puritains came to Massachusetts...and a guy named Roger Williams..travelled through the woods in the winter, called a place 'Providence' which became Providence, Rhode Island ....they all were getting away from religious persecution. It took us a while to get it right but I think we do. One of our roles in the State Department is to make people understand how important it is ..." John Kerry on Religious Liberty. "I have a lot of friends who are Muslim whom i have met over the years in my travels. Leaders in the region would be the first to tell others that what you see in radical Islam is not Islam-it is radicalized Islam-a hijacking of an old religion. We have to work at making people understand how that is happening....carrying the banner of religious tolerance is critical." John Kerry, SECRETARY OF STATE.

The legacy of Martin Luther King

Isn't Sodomy. There is a difference between doing something and being something. All laws regulate behavior. The Rule of Law seeks to impose a regime that separates good behavior from bad behavior, sheep from goats. I sometimes find it amazing that an African American (half at least) President would find an equivalence between Gay so called 'rights' and the civil rights struggle of African Americans- who were enslaved because of their color and national origin. What Gay person has ever been enslaved in America? It is true that the religious right zealots are obnoxious. They are so full of themselves its hard to ferret out the truth from their bravado and bullying sometimes. But Constitutionally, behavioral choices are not the same thing as that which one is created with or as. One may be created gay or 'born that way' but what one does with it is ones choice. One does not have a choice of race or gender. All persons are CREATED EQUAL. So the law should honor for equal protection purposes those things given by God as human attributes, not what one chooses to do with what one has been given. All persons are created equal, but not all persons do with that creation equal things, or advance to the potential of their humanity or evolve their persons in any aspect of human endeavor equally. All persons are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights by virtue of what they are created with. All persons are not thereafter equally educated, work equally hard, apply equally their intelligence, make equally wise life choices or equally produce to the maximum of their potential. We are each unique in that regard. Some choices are a function of opportunity and some are a function of will. I choose to work not sit at home watching soap operas. I chose to go to school not be a teenage drop out single parent. It is fair, right and just that different choices bear natural consequences. Those consequences should naturally then be unequal. Gayness may be intrinsic. But acting gay sexually is not the same thing as being Gay. Being and Doing are different. The Constitutional equal protection principles do not extend to behavioral choices. It is not value neutral when it comes to behavioral matters such that it is required to consider all behaviors the same. But this is not just a Constitutional argument but also a moral one- as all law is intrinsically a moral value judgment on what is or is not right and acceptable behavioral qualities. Consider this scenario- A woman and her husband have three children together. The woman one day decides one day after years of pondering that she is disgusted with her husband and leaves him for another women. The husband now has to raise three children without his wife. The lover of the abandoning wife wants now the same spousal rights to the wife's original spousal property- half the house the family lived in for example. To be 'equal' and give the gay couple equal treatment what happens to the house- and the three kids living in it. Suppose Michele Obama has secretly had an affair for years with Valerie Jarrett and Jarrett wants half the house in Chicago. What happens to Malia's and Sasha's inheritence rights in the house? You think that odd? It happens whenver a gay man announces he is leaving for another man- as in the former Governor of New Jersey. Where do Malia and Sasha live in that case? Whose house is it? Equal behaviors are not what is meant by 'created equal.' Endowed with certain inalienable rights does not mean endowed with the right to engage in any sort of behavior or decide anything is moral one wishes to decide is moral for them in a relativistic sense. What motivated 800,000 french people to take to the streets in a massive protest 'manifestation' against the marriage equality legislation there? One frenchman told me it was a deep concern for the welfare of the children involved. ---as in the above scenario. But gayness is not condemned by Jesus anywhere in the bible you argue. Right, and neither is clubbing your mother in law with a hard sausage or eating raw cat with Miso sauce- because it was so unheard of in Jesus' day it didn't merit mention as just preposterous. Every single monotheistic religion has a prohibition against gay relations. It's not a comment on people's predispositions-it is a comment on what they do with them. Being sexual with your same gender has a strong prohibition in Christian scripture, and it merits serious penalty in the Muslim world. In Christian scripture it is classed in the same category as drunkards and fornicators. Practcing Homosexuals are expressly excluded from the Kingdom in scripture so for those bible believing scriptural adherents it has a moral component to it which cannot be ignored. If any behaviors enjoy the same equal protection as any other behaviors where is the 'limiting principle' for equal protection purposes? Where is the dividing line? The Constitutional issues are not as clear as the Inaugural speech would make it. It appeared less the moral high ground than grounds for moral confusion and Robert Bork is rolling over in his grave.

Where's My Camera

ONLY IN AMERICA This is a F-----abulously Awesome Country! What a great country. I have heard stories from my uncle about how my father was on a crew that paved the Homestead Highlevel Bridge and worked in the steel mills as a teenager. Everybody did those days apparently in their hood. Either the coal mines or the steel mills to earn pocket cash. My Dad also parked cars for some nightclub in the Hill District in Pittsburgh when that was a rockin rollin place in the 40s. My Dad was born in 1932 before WWII. His uncle was a legit war hero in "The War" whose boat was sunk off the North African coast and he swam a mile to shore dragging someone with him, as the fish tale goes. His photo rests to this day on a table my uncle has in his living room in his Embassy Row house. Its a long way from a metal fenced small house in a suburb of Pittsburgh, but my uncle did well enough at Harvard and Yale law to be one of the officially Honorable Senate appointees and his brother, my Dad became eventually an international business executive starting offices all around the world for a Fortune 400 company. Its a long way from Pleasant Hills. This is a Great Country. Their father, my grandfather Francis Joseph Butler is buried in Thomas Jefferson cemetary in a suburb of Pittsburgh. That's where all my dead relatives live-- in the 'Garden of Peace' in the Thomas Jefferson cemetary. There is enough there to ponder on for a while. Francis Joseph was partially schooled by ruler knuckle slapping nuns and from an irish catholic immigrant family. That's where I can claim to be any part Irish- which seems to be a fairly dominant gene because my freckles overtake me with age. I am a JFK baby, born the year JFK was campaigning and won the Presidency in 1960. I can only imagine how my father felt when JFK was running. Probably something like unbelievable pride, admiration and a hope filled belief that if the skinny kid from "NINA" country (No Irish Need Apply, as it was known in Boston then) can be President, then ANYONE can do anything. My Dad can run a company, and did. My small claim to my strong willed irish side landed me today at the Irish Americans for Obama brunch where the Irish Ambassador reminded us that this year, 2013, everyone Irish is invited back to the motherland for a special "Gathering." The carrot-top from County Waterford sitting to my right told me to google it. Schumer, yes, the Senator, made an appearance at the coctail hour just before the sit-down, schmoozed a bit floating through on his way to solving the fiscal cliff. And I got to thank the wife of a former Ambassador to the Holy See for her talk at the JPII Center at the beatification of JPII, and thank her husband for coming even though he was a Bush appointee. I recognized him, I told him from Mass at the Catholic Information Center which shocked him because he wouldn't have expected anyone from the CIC to be at an Obama event. I was equally shocked to see him- but his claim to Irish is probably less tenuous than mine. I just kept thinking- what an unbelievably great country. And how unbelievably blessed I am to be American. I can sit and chat with a Senator, an Ambassador, a union President, a bunch of lawyers, who may or may not agree with me on everything or anything. But, Thank God Almighty We Are Free --at last. Congratulations to Obama on his Second Inaugural.

AMEN

Show This

On Every Jumbotron in the Verizon Center on the March For Life Day
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alexander-tsiaras/pregnancy-anatomy_b_2499945.html

Over and Over and Over Again.

family-niece and great-niece

update

The Supreme Court will hear argument in March on the Marriage Equality business. And if they come out in disagreement with the Pope will that silence the critics? Will there be more castigating the sodomites in the Judiciary? Scalia will surely vote down any marriage equality legislation-he all but said as much. Roberts did some pro bono work for a gay organization as he testified in his confirmation hearings. Doesn't mean he sympathizes with them but that he could be an independent advocate. Leviticus makes gayness evil. It also makes eating mussels, shrimp, and oysters evil. It also makes mandatory that a woman who assists her husband in fighting off an attacker by grabbing the guy by the cahoonas has to have her hand cut off. If gay is unmariageable, what about someone who defrauded their customers or subcontractors- no marriage for them too? What other evil people (so called) can't be married? What's the difference between one class of sinning folks and another. How about haters- hate is the opposite of God, thus really in a state of sin-the opposite of a state of grace. All haters - no marriage for you. Will the Supreme Court be like Seinfeld's 'soup nazi' on the "No Marriage For You" meme or will they say- hey, we all fall short of the glory of God, so why deny the tax breaks to other sinners? Anyone's guess. You got me there. No clue what they will do. There is one argument that distinguishes it perhaps. Not to get theological, but Gay Marriage is something that would be affirming gay sex which is a behavior and not an immutable character trait like race or gender for equal protection purposes- and clearly not all behaviors are permitted on equality grounds just because someone wants to commit said behaviors. Inquiring Constitutional scholars want to know. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/07/supreme-court-gay-marriage_n_2426035.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing9%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D253785

Sore Losers and Other Biblical Error

The Anti-Gay Marriage rant has ignited an unbelievable fury of self righteous indignation, especially in Maryland. "Welcome to Sodom" was how one Pastor titled his "Pastoral Letter." I wonder how Pastoral any gay person visiting his church would have felt he was picking up that bulletin. Biblically we all know that Sodom was where Lot lived with his wife and daughters until Abraham called him out. The wife turned to stone because she looked back when told not to- they fled debauchery, where gay men tried to rape forcibly angels at Lot's door. Rape. Gay Marriage is the opposite of Rape. It is by definition an act of consent-and one gay people apparently want badly enough to try to change the law about it. It is also the opposite of wild screwing about in orgiastic licentiousness which is what Sodom was all about. That is not gay marriage legislation either. It is a statement against it in fact when any two people make a lifetime monogamous commitment of intimate care to each other- something the "Welcome to Sodom" priest knows nothing about. Millions of Republican dollars were wasted on this fight to give people who already are gay, already living together in most cases certain legal adjustments other straight people have. Millions of dollars, collected that no one pays taxes on, because it's 'charitable.' And it was done with such an obnoxious self righteousness as if the opposers had no greater sin on their shoulders or rail road tye plank in their own eye that they could sit there spewing all kinds of hate to a community they know nothing about. "Satan's little helpers" is how the "Welcome to Sodom" Pastor called people like the Maryland Governor,(in writing no less, now all over the web by clicking on the bulletin feature of his parish website) who wants to make sure that if there is a loving stable gay family who is willing to house, feed, clothe, educate, nurture, love and support a child that this is preferable to them rotting in an orphanage with no parental figure. And people wonder why the Catholic Church as it makes a hard right turn to exclusionism, and driving out disagreement, is losing lots of fans and members who think 85 year old guys who persecuted anyone in their higher employ who wished to marry in dresses should not be dictating sexual policy to anyone. Maryland has a better cause- the Death Penalty. Now that is a real "LIFE" issue - or didn't you notice? The Death Penalty elimination legislation is a hot topic now in Annapolis. Why don't you mobilize your little posse of Annapolis 'lobbyists' to take that one on. It's actually a worthy fight.

The Letter

Every Lawyer Wishes They Could Write Once in Their Life Dear Client------------ While Your matter is intriguing and you certainly have a profound sense of the injustice done to you after thorough and thoughtful investigation we conclude that you are Crazy. While we would love to take your money and delude you otherwise until a Court confirms our suspicion that your next residence should be the Altzheimers Unit of Saint Es, that feels like stealing candy from a baby. Your file will be available for pick up at the front desk as soon as we have copied everything we need to in the event you decide to do something ridiculous like walk it next door for another opinion and that guy asks for the money back for all the time it took to conclude that you are indeed Crazy to pay him-because naturally you are broke. That is why you came to us thinking lawyers are ATM machines activated by insane griping. Plumb Bonkers. Bat out of Hades zooier than an arse -scratching ape-Crazy. If any of these terms confuses you feel free to call for clarification at the usual hourly rate. If you start obsessively emailing us demanding to know why we are dropping you on your head please be advised there is such a thing as cyber-stalking. p.s. this is a privileged and confidential attorney client communication so we only forwarded it to our spouses to get a chuckle. Happy Blessed Prosperous New Year. juuuust kiiiiiidding!

FLIM FLAM VICTIMHOOD

Have you ever met someone who is insistent that they, and they alone have the 'canary in the minefield' sensitivity to anything and everyone else is a brute because they can't smell it? Mold-heads, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity people, and others who are sure that their environment is killing them. It might be, but it also might be that they caused their sensitivity with the recreational cheap laced weed that they insist on using (because its medicinal) with about 400 known chemicals in it-and if it is the bad stuff from the wrong places it can even contain embalming fluids and chemicals. Tell me that doesn't fry your synapses. There is something called Contributory Negligence in the Tort world. That means, you are not a victim if you shot yourself in the head. If you forgot to tell me about the three abortions that you got and want to blame mold for your emotional distress I am not going to take on that case. If you are a mold-head you are not doing yourself any favors by smoking recreational weed. If you are a Multiple chemical sensitive personality, experimenting in illicit drugs isn't making life easier for you. If you get caught you go to jail for one thing. I imagine the smells in there are worse than the laundry detergent you can't stand the smell of. Do not come looking for a lawyer if you want to sue someone for using generic laundry detergent in your building basement while you are smoking weed in your apartment because you say the laundry detergent makes you sick. That isn't to say that mold isn't dangerous or some chemicals aren't dangerous. Some canaries however are really vultures. Also, it is not a defense to assault and battery that you can't stand the smell of dry cleaning and the clorox bleach made you crazy. Can't wait till that chemical sensitivity insanity defense gets briefed. I'm sorry you honor, she smelled bleach and it drove her in a frenzy to a point where she assaulted her roomate demanding cash. This growing field of 'environmental' ailments brings with it a spectrum of funny quack pretend experts- like pediatricians who call themselves environmental medicine practitioners diagnosing neurological disorders. After the massive flooding from Sandy and other disasters around the country, mold is something to pay attention to- but it can be treated and eliminated quickly. Remediation isn't hard. It isn't brain surgery. Its on you to go get it out quickly- by finding a good remediator. If you sit around and watch it grow so you can sue someone you should have your head examined. And not by a pediatrician. I can't believe I am a lawyer some days watching this nonsense.

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The Supreme Court

Will Hear the Marriage Equality related cases soon. Wonder if anyone saw this: THE STORY OF TURING. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/14/alan-turing-pardon-stephen-hawking-gay-computer-icon_n_2301097.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008#slide=1627298

MARIE PIERRE

Once upon a time there was a beautiful fun loving french woman who captured the heart of a Washington Lawyer named Stephen Spitz. She was an artist-in hair. She also was a saavy business woman who owned Sweeney Todd Hair Salon and Lafayette Salon in Arlington, Virginia. After a long fought battle with chemo and radiation for lung cancer she died this week. Many hearts are broken, most especially her loving husband Stephen Spitz. The last time I saw her it was at Nan Arons Foundation for Justice where Stephen brought her to the reception wherein the plaintiffs and their attorneys on the WallMart class action talked about certifying a class action. Stephen had been a long time civil rights attorney doing lots of discrimination cases. She was then warm, vibrant, beautiful as usual and for me, like a big sister of sorts. Anyone wishing to get in touch with Stephen should email him at kcnspitz@aol.com He's also on Facebook. She will be cremated with her ashes spread off the Coast of the South of France in the Mediterranean. God Receive You Marie Pierre in his arms- I hope to see you in Paradise.

Not Me Either

Evils of the Internet The internet has turned everyone into a sleuth. Some more like the fumbling Inspector Cleuseau. The internet doesn't fact check- for that they depend on you, and there are various fact checking sites. Some urban myths are hilarious and Scopes will give you the real scoop. Hint- I don't really think Ann Coulter has an Adams Apple and having met her once at Cornell I can say she has been female since at least college. Anyone doing 'research' on someone thinks all they have to do is a google search now. This can be deceptive- I for one, have a really common name and in greater DC alone there are at least 12 of us. One of us is a realtor (mostly in Northern Virginia) one is a cop, one is a cop with now a petty criminal record over something having to do with her not paying a renewal fee on some license, one is a pastor nationally, and who knows what the other 10 or so are doing. There are even a few with my same middle initial. I don't know if they all have my same middle name of Louise. This can be all problematic. Websites have facebook facts about many Cynthia L. Butlers - none of whom are me. Some look decidedly more dark-skinned than my freckles, one even is another attorney with a small firm and another God Bless her, looks like a MegaPastor with a litany of spirited books to her credit. Her, I want to meet! My face is intentionally not on the internet. I have had a few demented clients and more demented ones I refused representation- I don't want them putting a hit on my facebook page. My favorite same name internet confusion culprit is a woman who must be a grandmother who signed up as Cynthia L. Butler.blogspot.com (drat! I wanted that URL!) to display grandkiddies photos, and her photo slot is filled with a horse head. Nice. Send that one to the background check guy on a new job:-) But all this is to say kiddies, when doing research- you need to fact check. You can't believe everything you read just because the name looks the same. That might have convinced you in the past but it doesn't always work. It's the other guy who you totally missed reading about because you were sure it was the wild one you found. Finally, remember there is such a thing as PhotoShop. A good Vogue photographer can make Hillary look electronically like twiggy and me like the Queen of England. If they are an Italian Vogue photoshopper, my thighs are skinnier than my arms and my leg bone isn't mysteriously connected to my hipbone. Saddam Hussein's weapons of Mass Destruction were destroyed--or maybe buried in the sands. Not on the back of a flatbed in a photoshop taken to the UN to justify taking out a tyrant. Could have been a beastly tyrant, but do the means justify the ends. I don't like lying photographs any more than I like lying people. Photographs don't lie, people do. Guns don't kill, people do. And then there was Connecticut.

One Day

worse than katrina auntie emm

Emergency Will Rogers Emergency

Why Romney has already won this electronic election, unless…
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
October 26, 2012

From the FREE PRESS, headquartered in Columbus Ohio.

Electronically, this election is over. Mitt Romney has won. 
The big loser is not Barack Obama, or the corporate Democratic Party. It is democracy itself. 
Unless YOU act now, and are prepared to fight this out for years to come, whatever remains of American democracy is done. 

Finished. 

Over. 

No nation that suffers the theft of three out of four consecutive national elections can harbor the illusion that it is run by the will of its people. 

Those who would have it otherwise must work from now to Election Day and beyond, to: 

• Check your registration -- millions of us need to confirm that we are still registered voters and haven’t been purged from the polls. You can do this by checking with your county board of elections either by phone or online, or by contacting you secretary of state’s office; 

• Occupy the polling sites – come out in droves on Election Day to guarantee that EVERY citizen can fairly vote. Make sure there is no voter intimidation or other repression of voting. Look for broken machines, proliferation of voters forced to vote provisionally, and other irregularities. If something happens to your vote, report it to us; 

• Document the vote count – help implement a national network of precinct-by-precinct monitoring systems to track as closely as possible the voter turnout as a check against the final tabulated electronic vote count. Take photos or video of the final precinct voting results posted at polling sites; 

• Stop voting machine rigging – Observe the polling stations to monitor which technicians come to “service” the electronic voting machines and how they do it. Take photos or video of them and their vehicles; 

• Gear up now for post-election legal and direct action strategies to resist an electronic tally almost certain to be rigged on election night in at least nine swing states...or however many it may take. 

Though all the pieces are in place, the GOP theft is not inevitable. But the realities are harsh and demanding: 

There are no meaningful, legally binding public checks and balances on the tabulation of votes cast electronically. 

• Exit polling has proven accurate to within 1% of the vote – the gold standard for detecting vote tampering in other countries such as Germany, which uses paper ballots. In the U.S., when exit polls don’t match the vote count, there’s no investigation into tampering. Exit polls are always “adjusted” late election night to conform to the ultimate “official” vote count, even though shifts in Ohio 2004 and elsewhere were virtually statistically impossible. This election, exit polling will not happen in 19 states. 

• Despite an almost total blackout from the corporate media, the Romney family has a personal ownership (through the investment firms Solamere and H.I.G. Capital) in Hart Intercivic, which owns, maintains, programs and will tabulate alleged votes on machines in the critical swing states of Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Colorado. Despite various official disclaimers, the election could be decided on Hart machines producing "vote counts" with little connection to how 18 million people actually voted. 

• It is inconceivable that the Romney chain of ownership in Hart Intercivic will not influence how that goes. The story has gotten widespread circulation on the internet, but has been ignored or dismissed by most of the corporate media and attacked by the Democratic Party. Petitions at Moveon.org and elsewhere call for a Department of Justice investigation. Tens of thousands of citizens have signed on. But there is no legally binding way by which a professionally rigged electronic vote count can be overturned or even definitively discovered except through the use of unabridged but legally inconsequential exit polling. 

• Scytl, a Barcelona-based e-voting company, has been contracted to count votes in 26 states through the easily rigged Federal Overseas Voting Program. FVAP is ostensibly geared to let military and other overseas Americans vote absentee by electronic means. But Scytl is positioned to intercept and redistribute such overseas electronic votes as needed through its spyware sister company, CarrierIQ. In a close race, these "votes" can be distributed at will to make the difference in critical swing states. 

• Other key voting machine companies, such as ES&S, Dominion, Command Central and more, are controlled by major corporations, some of whose owners are outspoken in their support for the Republican Party. Such support is reminiscent of Diebold owner Walden O’Dell, whose election software and machines helped give George W. Bush a second term in 2004, as O’Dell promised. 

• Republicans hold the governorships in the nine critical swing states of Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, New Mexico and Arizona. They also hold the secretaries of state offices in all of those states but Wisconsin. Electronically flipping the vote count in any or all of them, with Hart Intercivic, Scytl, Dominion or other technologies, can be done quickly, simply and invisibly, with no public recourse. 

• The GOP’s systematic “high-tech Jim and Juan Crow” disenfranchisement of millions of Americans continues to lengthen the odds against a Democratic victory, with millions of citizens being deprived of their right to vote. These voter ID and other laws have been focused on disenfranchising Hispanics, Hispanics, African-Americans and others suspected of leaning to the Democrats. 

• Though some of these laws have been turned back by the courts, Tea Party activists, True-the-Vote zealots and other Republicans will be at the polls to challenge voters they suspect of being likely Democrats. Many of these challenges will be illegal, but effective unless countered by the physical presence of election protection activists. 

• At least one Virginia GOP operative has already been arrested for destroying voter registration forms in a tactic that would deprive citizens of their right to vote, as reported at BradBlog.com. Also, there is a criminal prosecution underway in Florida over the destruction of voter registrations. 

• Republican-controlled election boards in Ohio are already deceiving potential voters with mailed misinformation about dates and locations for casting a vote. Such mailings were used throughout Ohio 2004 and elsewhere. Also, phone calls are being made to voters in order to mislead them on the day, time and location of voting. 

There is much more. The idea that the Chamber of Commerce and the GOP's horde of billionaire backers would spend hundreds of millions of dollars to capture the White House and Congress but stop short of a few electronic key strokes is nonsensical. 

Unfortunately, we cannot count on the Democratic Party to do much about this. Al Gore and John Kerry have said nothing about the stolen elections of 2000 and 2004. When the Free Press first broke many of the stories about the theft of the 2004 election, we were attacked first and most consistently by the Democratic Party, which hired a lawyer from the state's leading Republican law firm to attack our reporting. 

This year the Free Press is coordinating an on-the-ground monitoring of the vote in Hamilton County, where the election could be decided on Romney's own Hart Intercivic machines. Please contact us at freepress.org if you'd like to help or contribute. casting a vote. Such mailings were used throughout Ohio 2004 and elsewhere. Also, phone calls are being made to voters in order to mislead them on the day, time and location of voting. 

In the meantime, wherever you are, do all you can to turn the electronic tide. As Rev. Jesse Jackson has put it, "We can afford to lose an election. We can't afford to lose our democracy." 

--

Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman have co-authored five books on election protection, including the new e-book WILL THE GOP STEAL AMERICA'S 2012 ELECTION? Freepress.org 

Vatican II After Fifty Years - Georgetown University

Vatican II After Fifty Years - Georgetown University

Making Instruments of Peace

If you have a passing acquaintance with Saint Francis of Assisi you may associate him with a general blessing of animals which happens in many parishes on his feast day of October 4th  (he was the original 'talk to the animals' guy). Every October 4th two things happen which give me profound pause and prayer reflection. It is my Father's birthday (now deceased in heaven) and Saint Francis' feast day. I joke that its because its my father's birthday that all deacons are ordained most places on October 4th (and he coincidentally was a Deacon also-although a Presbyterian one.)

   My Irish Catholic grandfather was named Francis Joseph, and had one son named Francis Michael (uncle Mike) and a grandson John Francis and another son born on Saint Francis' feast day. So I figured Saint Francis was looking out after my family and it only appropriate I get to know Saint Francis a little better.  This had me journeying to Assisi twice to visit his tomb in Assisi in Italy. (That and the prayer to make me an instrument of his Peace which my mother always had on the refrigerator.)

     Saint Francis wanted to be a missionary of Peace- he did get to visit the Sultan in Egypt around the time of the Crusades who esteemed him enough to grant him safe passage to the Holy Land and it is for that reason that the Franciscans of the Holy Land guard and caretake all Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem to this day.  You can visit the Franciscan Monastary in Washington, DC which is an exact replica of the Shrine of the Holy Sepulchre church there.

     The Franciscans also were the only religious clerics not to flee the Bosnian crisis and stayed there for four hundred years of turkish rule in the Croatian/Bosnian region, in an underground church presence, through Ottoman rule and later Tito's communism. The Franciscans are the guardians of the holy site of Medjugordje which is a town untouched by the Bosnian conflict in which it is still believed that the Blessed Mother appeared to visionaries (some of whom still regularly see her.)- Because this is still going on it does not have full Papal approval while under investigation but has been deemed worthy and credible enough a site such that pilgrims may venture there officially now.

     There is an exhibit of war torn peoples by a photojournalist at the National Press Club you must see soon in which another Franciscan Friar in Franciscan attire is seen approaching a tank to dissuade the driver from whatever aspect of war he was engaged in. The franciscans try to stop wars. Make me an Instrument of Your Peace. They do it even if it involves walking up to a tank driver and trying to tell him to turn around and not shoot.

     If you are trapped in the Washington diplomatic mindset wherein the West Side Story "I'm so pretty, Oh So Pretty" ethic pervades the glitteratti wannabee culture, you should go see what real war looks like as reflected in the photojournalist exhibit at the National Press Club.

    War means real babies die of malnutrition- where hundreds of thousands of people are displaced, dislocated, homeless, moved from decimated village after village, seeking shelter and food. War means babies die. Today a slight and elegant UNHCR french gentleman named Sebastien introduced a tatooed British photojournalist who noted that he lost part of his intestine and a long suffering wife to divorce as a result of war and trying to tell people in pictures (using words only when necessary) what War really looks like. And yes, Americans, you did this. Your tax dollars at work.

    There are photos of Afghani children starving. Women cradling infants too thin to hold their heads up, You did this when you were too stupid to see the Bush created war to justify arms and oil profiteering. You did this when you voted for more war and defense when we were not even attacked. You did this.

    This election there really is only one question worth asking. Who is more likely to stop the madness.
Who is more likely to realize that the collateral damage doesn't justify the end. Collateral damage is starving children, homeless dying women, and refugees too numerous to feed.

Yes, you're pretty .Oh so pretty, as pretty as pretty can be Mr and Mrs America.
Now get over yourself and look at what you all are doing in the real world. Do it at least once a year- on October 4th, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi- the tortured war veteran from the war in Peruggia.




   

Jesus' Wife and Seal Team

The controversy over whether Jesus had a wife or not is hitting main stream prime time with recent credible scholarship regarding a piece of papyrus. See, James Martin, S.J.'s op ed in the NYTimes Wednesday or Thursday (I got a facebook preview-google it or click HERE).

     No, the Seal teams of various friaries, fraternities and the Jesuits should not now consider marriage (they likely already did at some point and rejected it for themselves.) But they should re-examine why they are celibate in light of the fact that Jesus was likely married. Single minded single hearted focus on serving a mission of someone who redeemed humanity is worth all your time and attention.  Also you might not be great at multitasking.

In this controversy I disagree with James Martin, SJ on rational grounds.  Even if Jesus were married there are great reasons to be celibate and chaste, but not because Jesus was.

   All my reasons have been mysteriously deleted from Facebook as if a spam robot were programmed to delete "Mary Magdalene"  James Martin's arguments why Jesus couldn't have been married all fall when you introduce a few pertinent facts. For example he says there are lists of all Jesus' relatives various places showing up, people reciting them (your mother, brothers, etc... are here) and his wife isn't mentioned. That is because she probably already was there with him. James Martin wonders why the gospel writers never gave her mention or why someone called the wife of Jesus was not at the foot of the cross with his mother. That argument strikes me as beyond blind because if Mary Magdalene was
there at the cross and was his wife, no one would want her to be identified as his wife or she would be next. She would be hunted down and hung too- just like the wife of Peter was crucified upside down next to him. The irrational crowd feeding frenzy to see him strung up would have bled over into any immediate family like a wife if she were known to too many as his wife.  Peter was so afraid of the crowd he denied even knowing Jesus.  Don't you think the apostles would have feared for the life of Jesus' wife and not wanted to spread that around? Its likely if Jesus told his apostles about a marriage with Mary Magdalene he would have sworn them to secrecy to protect her.

    The issue is more than academic. The issue affects the way that the church views womankind --in ways too profound to recite. And it should cause a profound self-examination at the highest levels regarding persecutions of women. You know who you are.

  Jewish law forbade anybody other than a relative to touch a dead body and Mary Magdalene was given the task of anointing Jesus' body with burial oils. It was absolutely prohibited for anyone to touch a dead body and only a relative could touch one in a burial context. Jesus' mother was still alive. She probably was not in a mood - and gave the task to her daughter in law to go to the tomb to anoint the body.

     Secondly it was Jewish law and tradition that Rabbis had to be married. A thirty year old profound spiritual teacher wouldn't be called Rabbi unless he was qualified as one and Jesus is often referred to as Rabbi. Jewish males as a rule married and it was a condition of Rabbinical priesthood. Priests of the Cohenic line had to marry virgins but Levitical priests could marry divorced, widowed or non virgin women. In the new testament a Bishop had to be the husband of one wife with his household in order. It is a rule inspired by Jewish priesthood law. No polygamy. No mistresses for the priesthood. One wife. A real one.

     Mary Magdalene is at the foot of the cross, at the tomb (she never left him even in death), when she recognizes him in the garden after the resurrection she runs to hug him and he has to say -don't touch me now, I have not yet ascended (in his resurrected body.)- suggesting that he expected that she would want to run and hug him as soon as she recognized him. She doesn't call him Rabbi then- it is reported she calls him "Lord"- which would be an appropriate greeting for a wife to call her husband during the day.

  James Martin at the end of his op ed asks the rhetorical question of the apostles -why didn't you guys tell us about his wife. The answer seems obvious to me. A. They did and the obvious bits were edited out and B. If it were too obvious, Mary Magdalene and all her progeny would be deader than Marie Antoinette.

  No, James Martin, you don't have to find someone to marry. But your reasons for being celibate as a 'discipline' or contractual  condition of employment should not prevent you from looking for love in all the right places.

 
   

peace

Presumed Guilty

The largest  legal/judicial scandal in French history- that is how it is hailed. A true story of someone falsely accused of raping a child- see what happened in France on the word of a kid and his demented mother. It is subtitled in English. Anyone and everyone who cares about righting miscarriages of Justice should see this movie. Thank you to the French Embassy for showing it this evening.

Cure of Ars

There is a magnificent church in Merrick, Long Island called the Cure of Ars, where a piece of the incorrupt heart of the Cure of Ars is housed in this reliquary. Famous for converting an entire city of reprobate largely alcoholic secularists, agnostics and atheists, rescuing the city from the worship of 'reason' to the worship of the True God, The Cure of Ars is hailed as one of the most saintly pious religious figures in France, inspiring pilgrimmages from all over the world to the French town of Ars. 

Charlie and the Franciscans

A World Of Good

What's a Simple Florist From Lindenhurt doing in a Place Like This.

    That must be what Charlie's wife thinks now and again. Charlie, the jovial third order Franciscan tells what he calls "God Story" after God Story about how God miraculously provides to the most needy and desperate that come across the paths of his beloved Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

     He started a ministry of feeding Friars that feed the poor. He started just asking for spare twenties from friends to stock the kitchens of a few Friars houses around New York. "Some people like baseball, I like feeding people-that's my hobby" he said with a twinkle in his eye. He now feeds large communities in Haiti and the Friars who serve them.  He asks for donations from Rectories of those host containers after the hosts are used in them to fill with rice and beans and send to Haiti. What do you do with those host containers in your rectory?? Waste not want not. I almost told him of my trick turning egg cartons into mini-cupcake containers (thanks to Roberta for that one).

   His ministry is called the Friar Suppliers. He and his wife, a third order Carmelite live out of the back of the flower shop in Lindenhurt, Long Island. Today in their yard they hosted a volleyball tournament between Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the renewal and a picnic where the hungry were fed with good things.

    If you have not yet learned of the Friar Suppliers go right now to your googler and type it in. http://friarsuppliers.com  or click HERE
A humble florist from Long Island with a Santa Claus gene is feeding multitudes, and BBQ'ing burgers on his patio. They have a shipment of school supplies stacked ready to send to Haiti.  If he can do it- so can you. Help Him.

I had to get out of Washington. The fight over who is holier- the people trying to stop planned parenthood from infecting Obamacare or the people fighting the immoral Ryan budget has my head spinning and stomach churning.  I like simple things, like the Florist from Lindenhurt, who takes the gospel literally. Feed my Sheep. Little kids grabbed microphones to sing with the guitar strumming Friars whose melodies had some people in tears (OK me, i was in tears.)

     They did the King of Kings proud today in Lindenhurt, Long Island as Franciscan sisters and brothers tossed a volleyball and settled in to a piece of birthday cake. Charlie turns 60 this week. And its a party let me tell you.

 

Best Bumper Sticker

VOTE DEMOCRATIC

    We're not Perfect. But they're Nuts.

The Platform-its a big tent.

Fact Checking

   Kind of critical.

It was widely reported that the Democratic Platform did not have the words "God" and Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
This got a lot of play on Fox (shocking).  Here is the real story:

The Platform Chairman, an elected official from Ohio and also an ordained  Methodist Minister stood up and amended the Platform which then required 2/3rds vote which the mayor of LA
 took orally (meaning he listened to people saying aye or nay three times).

After the third time he determined that the Ayes have it and GOD IS IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY PLATFORM.  Of course he always was there, but officially recognized as such in the platform wording now.

   When it was passed there was audible booing by the people who did not want it because it means different things to different people and God has been misused with massively murderous heinous things done in God's name by Republicans- particularly uberconservatives who misappropriate scripture to serve evil agendas. The booers also likely took offense at the God people suing the Democratic government.
That doesn't play well in peoria and makes people hostile to all religion in some cases.

   God is and always was with the Democrats. Now its official.

The language on Jerusalem reads:
Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel. The parties have agreed that Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations. It should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths."

In the Name of Love

Eli Wrote A Book.

   Eli McCarthy is one of those sweet rare gems of a quiet gentle giant of Peace-building you meet
once or twice in a lifetime. I met him while he was a social justice minister at Holy Trinity and again as he is a member of the San Egidio community of Peace-makers. His father in law is a Byzantine Rite priest.

    click here to order
https://wipfandstock.com/store/Becoming_Nonviolent_Peacemakers_A_Virtue_Ethic_for_Catholic_Social_Teaching_and_US_Policy

Congratulations Eli!   Can't wait to get it and read it.