Untangling Threads

Tags

airport security, Benedict XVI, Catholicism, condoms, economics, Entertainment, foreign policy, GOP, Iowa, Justin Bieber, Kyl, life in the meadow, Russia, sex, social class, START treaty, teabaggers, terrorism, TSA, wealth

Whenever your darling asks you to sup with him “on the town” and the restaurant is named “La GGG”, all I can say is beware.

GGG, in case you were unaware, stands for Gas, Groceries and Good Eats. I can assure you, they are lying about two.

Recently the Contrarian invited me to Chez Troy Store Restaurante for lunch. Ahh, we went in and sat down, finding the seating ample, (no one else was there) and took a seat overlooking the corn field.

Out rushed a cook, (I should say, the cook) and announced: “Oh we don’t serve until 3 now, economy and all. But I can get you pizza or fried chicken or a sub?” Two of those come from those display cases that keep the food warm with lightbulbs. We demurred and walked across to the Dam Bar (yes that’s what it’s called) and ordered the usual saloon fare: something fried or deeply so.

So, it should come as no surprise when last night in the middle of Nature, I cried, “oh damn!”

“Whaaaa?” the Contrarian started from his dozing, muttering, “I am not sleeping, just resting my eyes!”

“I forgot the pearl onions for Thanksgiving!”

“Can I get them at the Troy Store?” he queried.

Yes, he actually said that, asked it, I mean.

With a look of utter disgust, I pouted, “NO, you can barely get an onion there.”

“How ’bout at Sherbon’s? I could run over there,” he offered.

“No, no, she won’t have any either.”

Sherbon’s is a step above Troy, having no gas station and not purporting to offer dining pleasure, but it’s a long way off from being a GROCERY store too.

“How ’bout Center Point Store?” he whimpered.

“No,” I sighed, “they won’t have them either. It’s hopeless.

There was no offer to drive all the way to Cedar Rapids of course.

Such is life in the meadow. You either remember or you do without. I will sure miss my carmelized pearl onions though. Send me some if you can ship it FedEx overnight, okay?

***

I guess I’m doing an about-face on the whole patty down at the airport thing. I  still think it’s mostly silly whining perpetrated by testosterone-laden young men and old ladies whose junk is so old that nobody would want to if they didn’t have to, touch it.

But I heard an argument that made some sense. He (unknown speaker on MSNBC) suggested that it’s good we are questioning just what we are willing to give up in the name of “terrorism.” This is a good conversation, proving we are not so insanely scared that we are hiding in our holes, only coming out with full military protection.

Perhaps, he asks, we might start questioning all that stuff about unauthorized wiretaps, waterboarding, and all those other dark and evil practices that we kinda figure are going on but about which we really would rather not know. There’s a point there I think. I later found the same argument here.

***

The Pope, Benedict XVI is very busy backstepping his way out of the “condom issue.” Some saw some slight movement in his latest remarks that in some cases, such as male prostitution, it might be allowed, as a step in “taking responsibility”. Today the Vatican is claiming that there is no change at all in the position of the Church as to condom use. I suspect that is true. If the fiasco over the pope’s comments about condom use while last in Africa, didn’t bring about a change, then I suspect nothing will.

Odd, how all those who have tons of advisors to, well, advise them, still cannot avoid the sticky wicket. Spiritual Politics has their own take here. If you want to know more, (and you probably don’t) go to Enlightened Catholicism.

***

The bad the worse and the ugly, i.e., the GOP continue to stonewall on the START treat ratification. Editorials across the land, the support of dozens of old line GOPers and revered State Department and Military leaders from of old, have failed to move, so far, one Sen Kyl from AIR-headZona.

One wonders how long the GOP is willing to take the heat to promote their only real goal: the downfall of Barack Obama. Crooks and Liars has a nice post, featuring a roundtable held by Christiane Amanpour.

***

Thomas, at Living Next Door to Alice sends us a must read post from 3quarksdaily. It’s about us, politics, and our doom. While we play at politics, the rich are taking this country for themselves and leaving us to be their servants. We are coming to be a permanent underclass. And that can only lead to one thing.

***

But if the above article is too long, well, this next says basically the same thing and in just a couple of sentences: Justin Bieber was the big winner at the AMA awards last night, beating out Usher. The world has ended, you just haven’t heard the explosion yet.

***

There be times I wish I had me one of them big balls that you do stretching on. But I’d sit on mine as I read Internets. ‘Specially when I read about da stoopid Rethuglians and their being pulled mightily in two directions at once. The FC’s (fiscal conservatives) vs the SC (social conservatives) are trying to direct the old party hacks who give a damn about neither.  Priority One-McConnell and Don’t you dare touch my junket Boehner, are being stretched over the fence and, well, personally instructed to do their respective biddings.  And I’d be bouncing on my ball, sippin’ my soda, and giggling.

Related Articles

• Pope Ignites Debate Over Condoms (deaconforlife.blogspot.com)
• Pope says some condom use can be justified (feministphilosophers.wordpress.com)
• Bishops say Pope still anti-condoms for HIV – The Australian (news.google.com)
• Obama Pushes for Showdown on START Treaty (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• Showdown Over START (politicalwire.com)
• Obama finds support for arms treaty at NATO meeting (thehill.com)

Sweeping out the Cobwebs

Tags

bailouts, Benedict XVI, business, excommunication, fundamentalism, gay rights, John Thain, Merrill Lynch, social issues

As I listen to news and read, I am struck by things that, much as I wish I could, I cannot explain or understand. I thought I would set down a couple, in the hopes that somebody might give me an answer. They trouble me and make me wonder if I am somehow just organically different, or in a subset of humanity that is organically different somehow than others? It seems impossible to believe, but I find some of these things impossible to believe as well.

I read the other day that Pope Benedict XVI has seen fit to rescind the excommunication of four bishops of the Separatist group the SSPX. They generally consider Vatican II to be somehow illegal, and call themselves “traditionalists.” They continue to claim that they are the true Church, and not the one led by the Pope.

That on it’s face is most extraordinary, since ultra conservative Catholics often point at all non RCC denominations as illegal formulations of man. Many non RCC folks would of course argue that, like the SSPX, they are merely claiming to be the true repository of the faith, abandoned long ago by the Vatican and it’s practices. But no matter.

The point is not that the have been allowed back into the Church in some fashion. I find excommunication a practice that is wrong period. Exclusion is not an option, in my very humble opinion. It is not the Church’s right to deny table hospitality to anyone. And moreover, if you feel someone is in error, how do you hope to change attitudes when you keep people at arm’s length?

More to the point, the SSPX has flagrantly denied the truth of the teachings of the Church. Worse, one of the four bishops, is an active Holocaust denier. Benedict’s move seriously jeopardizes relations with the Jewish church from which we as Christians all spring.

This is in line it seems with recent Vatican moves. I have read, and don’t know the truth of the assertion, that Benedict is not well respected within the Vatican setting. In any case, he has in recent years, moved to adopt the ultra conservative position on issues. He has approved the Mexican determination to excommunicate or remove table fellowship to parliamentarians who support abortion. He has, as I’m told, supported the efforts of a few bishops and archbishops in this country who attempt to do the same.

Given that JPII went to some lengths to install new Cardinals who were favorable to his way of seeing the world, I don’t hold out much hope for the immediate future. No, I see more of the same for the RCC during my lifetime.

Things seem not to be a good deal better in my neck of the woods. The Episcopal Church seems to be on the way to losing it’s way as well. I was taught that TEC argues about everything from Monday through Saturday, and then goes to Church on Sunday and worships together. That too seems to be falling apart, as various parishes sever ties with the American Church and join others, and then squabble about who owns the property.

A quick trip around the religious forums leads to no further comfort. The ultra right wing of many churches ask some of the following questions:

• How are you surviving in an Obama world? (Mostly by claiming to withdraw their kids from public schools to keep them from learning all that socialist evil. )
• Why does God allow Protestantism? (Because Roman Catholicism is too hard for all but the best so God relented and allowed the rest of us various Protestant churches.)

That’s but a sampling, it’s just too awful to add others. My question is simple: How do you call yourself a Christian? What does it mean to you to be one? You are against the concept of global warming, why I can’t answer. You are against the idea of over-population. You are for wars of choice and the death penalty. You are against universal health care, fair wages, unions and the like.

Worse, you vilify Obama largely because of his stance on abortion. This seems to be your only real objection to the man. The average person balances good and bad and comes out in favor of that which has the most good. Yet you don’t. Why do you continue to support big business, trickle down economics, and a continuation of the growing chasm between the tiny very wealthy (of which you are not a part and never will be) and the growing underclass (of which you are most definitely a part)?

It’s no doubt politically incorrect to say this but, I don’t have to be here. I think it’s racism plain and simple. All the abortion rhetoric is just a mask for the fact that at heart you are still a racist. It’s the same when it comes to everything else that you don’t like for no good reason. You prop up yourself by telling yourself that poor people are poor because they are lazy and want handouts.

You make yourself feel worthwhile by wagging your finger at gays and lesbians calling them perverted and their orientation distorted. You of course are not asked to give up sex for life, yet you claim that God asks them to.

On the business front, more evidence that apparently our colleges and universities do not make ethics a course required of its business students.

John Thain, previous CEO of Merrill Lynch and now fired executive of Bank of America, who bought it, recently has been discovered to have paid out millions in bonuses to ML executives from bailout money. Further, he took the opportunity to fix up his corporate digs to the tune of 1.2 million.

Talk about your lack of government oversight! I mean these bozos have proven beyond any doubt that they are incompetent at their jobs,  yet we continue to hand them billions, with no strings attached.

But what gets me, is just where or where are parents, teachers, professors, a good aunt, anybody at all in all this? Did these people grow up in test tubes without a modicum of social learning? Does it take a IQ of more than 85 to get that when you have followed policies that have bankrupted and lost billions, you might not be entitled to a BONUS?????? And perhaps you can get by with the desk and chair you already have? You, sir are lucky not to be sweeping streets for a living.

Have you no honor? Have you no sense at all of common and I do mean common decency? Are you so swollen with wealth and self entitlement that you can’t understand basic concepts of right and wrong? If this is the best you can do, then buddy, I can run the company better than you can.

Has the world gone mad? Is it just me? Does anyone have an answer that makes sense? Perhaps we are in need of a smart bomb, you know, one that just kills asshats. If anyone has a spare one, I have the list!!!! The world needs a new start.  I’m ready to storm the ramparts!