Bigger Brains, Little Sense

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Andrew Cuomo, Carl Paladino, Catholic Church, Catholics for Equality, cookies, divorce, gay rights, geography, Individual Rights, invasion of privacy, new world order, Recipes, right wing religious, teabaggers

It should come as no surprise faithful readers that I think that a goodly portion of humanity is rather worthless debris. It continues to marvel my intellect that a surprising number of questionable humanity can walk and chew gum at the same time. Clearly a good number cannot.

From time to time I conclude that this proves that God is busier than I think, and only has time to do a drive by old planet Earth every few millennium or so, taking note that shockingly we still haven’t blown ourselves to smithereens yet.

I make light, but the subject is most serious. A young man, aged 18, took his own life after learning that two fellow students at Rutgers had web cast his room and had broadcast him having a sexual encounter with another male student. The students, both also 18, are being charged with the tame sounding “invasion of privacy,” apparently the only charge that will fit this 21st century crime.

One can wax for pages on how stupid one must be to know that such a thing is utterly wrong. I mean really don’t we expect more of a ten-year-old than this? I have zero sympathy for the two, and hope that they receive more public vilification than any court can hand out. I am not prepared to hear one word of, “we never for a moment thought it would lead to this,” kinda crap.

Nothing more to say on this one, it’s too despicable for words.

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I wrote a piece on dissent in the Catholic Church which can be found at my other site, Walking in the Shadows. You might find it interesting even if you are not a believer, nor a Catholic. It discusses the responsibility of dissenters to speak truth as they see it. Concomitant to that, I learned that a new Catholic organization has been formed. NCR reports that Catholics for Equality will work for marriage equality, and other issues of importance to the LGBT community.  CFE is founded by Father Joseph Palacios and others. Fr. Palacios points out that while 52% of all Americans support gay relationships, 62% of Catholics do.

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On a light note: don’t try this at home. This is only for experts. Sit in a comfortable chair. Now raise your right leg and twirl your foot in a clockwise direction. Now raise your right hand and draw the number six in the air. See what has happened to your foot. Now keep doing it until you got it right. Your skeleton will be removed when you have been missed by someone.

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A new and kinda fun blog is called: How to Become a Better You in 365 Days. It has a lot of different aspects, such as good old advice about growth and personality, some excellent recipes, and quotes of the day. Worth a look-see at least. Inspirational, and fun at the same time.

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Ree over at Pioneer Woman has a really really decadent cookie recipe that features oatmeal, M & M’s, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, pecans and Rice Krispies. Ya know you wanna try ’em. There are 3,722 pictures, so if you just want the recipe, it’s down at the bottom of the post all nice and neat for ya.

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Mafia Don, turned Teabagger, Carl Paladino, threatened a reporter who wanted proof of Paladino’s claim that his opponent, Andrew Cuomo had cheated on his wife. (Paladino finally admitted to his wife, that he had fathered ten years before, a daughter by another woman.) The Godfather would be proud. Paladino called out the reporter: “I’ll take you out, buddy.”

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Don’t get me wrong here. I am in no way in favor of overly strict religious laws against divorce. They don’t prevent divorce and they  seem to encourage rather transparent attempts to call it something else–such as an annulment. However, RightWingWatch does have a point when it complains that the right-wing wackos are into every aspect of our sexual lives, always condemning,yet curiously, they are silent on divorce. And I would be the first to admit, that the bible does speak fairly directly on the issue. You’d think that there might be more bible banging about divorce. How come there isn’t? Read the post and see. I think I agree.

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I’ve long believed that nation-states and their silly borders, are just that, silly. I’ve predicted their demise. (well, I predicted it to myself at least, and that does count!) Finally, somebody agrees with me! New Geography to be specific. In an article about the “New World Order” (here come the apocalyptic doomsdayers ala Jack Van Impe!), they find that race, ethnicity, religion and culture are the main drives today around which we are forming. It’s a most interesting look at how the world divides up along new parameters.

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In our quest to understand the beastie that is Teabaggerism, we offer you a great piece by Kevin Drum over at MotherJones. Not only does it help us define who they are, but it links up to some very valuable articles that further flesh out our understanding. I think this is worth your time. It’s only three pages, and the links, I’ve yet to investigate myself.

Well enuf! Have a good one!

Related Articles

• Cheating Carl Paladino Accuses Andrew Cuomo of Cheating on His Wife [Polidicks] (gawker.com)

Benedict and Obama

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Catholic, encyclical Caritas in Veritate, environmentalism, new world order, Obama, Pope Benedict XVI, redistribution of wealth, social issues, unions, Vatican Pontifical Council

No doubt you have heard that President Obama met with Pope Benedict XVI yesterday. By all accounts the meeting was cordial on both sides, and both men got their respective points across. This is in keeping with reports from the Vatican, that insiders there actually have great hope for working with this President, contrary to the beliefs and dare we say hopes of the reactionary conservative Catholic branch in this country. As one  forum poster put it, “I just don’t understand why they were smiling at him like they actually were happy to have him there!” Another answered cryptically, “Why it’s perfectly understandable that the Pope would be friendly with Obama, the last Pope is friendly with the antichrist.” So much from the peanut gallery.

Such bizarre thoughts are no doubt fueled by the release of Pope Benedict’s encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, or Charity in Truth. In it, while addressing as one would expect, the usual issues of abortion and other life issues, the Pope took a bold step in calling for a move away from a free market economy so beloved by the religious right in this country. In fact, he called for what some would argue sounds much like a “new world order.”

Now, to some in the extreme right of the Roman Catholic Church, and surely to all those fundamentalist evangelicals, such talk is dare we say apocryphal? It brings forth all that noise about the antichrist and Armageddon and all that jazz. Right in line with the barely subtle argument that Obama will be the leader of the NWO and that will make him, according to some, the antichrist, which brings on Jesus and his legions returning from heaven, all just after I guess the faithful are gathered into the clouds in a twinkling, no doubt to get their horses to join in the Jesus army.

This all comes from our dear friend Jack van Impe, linked above. He’s been a preachin’ the end times for 50 or more years, always that said times were “any minute now.” He’s been claiming that Benedict was on the same page with him, though I find that highly doubtful. Jack has a way of stretching the scripture and most else he reads (400 periodicals a month he claims) a tad. So I’m not sure if the encyclical supports or not his current views of how close we are to Jesus return. He can improvise pretty darn quickly in my opinion.

In any event, the Catholic right is not so very pleased with the Pope’s pronouncements. More or less, they tend to be in favor of business, and free markets, and against any such nonsense as global warming, labor unions, and stuff like that. Worse, the Pope actually talked about REDISTRIBUTION of wealth. You remember the horror that caused with Plumber Joe and all the sanctimonious Fox Noise people as they screamed that Obama was a socialist about to “redistribute wealth” across the nation.

The political left, and religious left, as you might imagine are rather more warming to the Pope on this encyclical. They find much to be pleased with, and see in some sense that the Roman Church is acknowledging what they have believed for a long time, namely that the Church has always evinced a strong socially aware message to the world. Echoes of Rerum Novarum cannot be missed here.

A more reasoned approach comes from Catholic Culture, which sees this as a clash between Benedict and his more liberal Pontifical Council for peace and justice.  Benedict, it is claimed rejected 2-3 drafts of the encyclical, determined to keep it within his theological framework. Still, it seems the progressives in the Church have much to be happy about, for it is being widely reported that it leans to left, and as we have seen again and again, perception is everything in politics.

I don’t know what all this means in practicalities since it doesn’t seem that the Vatican wields much power across the globe in terms of real pressure. But it is gratifying to see that the progressive arm of the church still seems to have some input into the decision making process, and it seems the Obama administration can feel that in some sense it has a ally in the Vatican City. Meanwhile, the ultra conservative left will attempt to spin this in a manner than most favorably supports their views.

It seems, that both sides got something, but on balance, I think politically the left is a bit happier today.