Yahoo! News - Pope Says Sundays for God, Not Sports

I love how the media can turn any remarks into a backhanded slap at American culture, even though this happened in Australia. The first paragraph of the Reuters article, which according to the "inverted pyramid" method of journalism is meant to crystallize the whole article for those with short attention spans:

"Pope John Paul on Friday said Sunday should be a day for God, not for secular diversions like entertainment and sports."

Actually, that's not what he said.

"When Sunday loses its fundamental meaning and becomes subordinate to a secular concept of 'weekend' dominated by such things as entertainment and sport, people stay locked within a horizon so narrow that they can no longer see the heavens."

That's a bit different than Football=bad, God=good. More like God is everything and sports (or in this case soccer) is to be enjoyed in its proper place.

The same coverage of the address in The Age points this out, more accurately:

"As part of his address to Australian bishops visiting Rome, the Pope urged the bishops to be fearless in their fight against secularism and encouraged Catholics to attend Sunday Mass, saying the day should not be subordinate to a 'secular concept of weekend dominated by such things as entertainment and sport'."

In other words, he wants full participation in the Mass and Catholic life, nothing more or less than he has said his entire reign as Pope. Priorities, folks.

Tensions run high as visit ignites clashes

Sure, I believe that a fight between Bush supporters and union ratchetheads wasn't started by the Union lunkheads (I couldn't resist two instances of name calling!) And I also believe pro wrestling is real, and that Clinton did not have sexual relations with that woman, and that Santa Claus is 185 years old and still going strong!

The "Cult" of Traditional Catholicism

A writer for a local diocesan Catholic newspaper shatters the myth of "traditional" Catholics as separatist kooks. One tidbit of information that I didn't know:

"...contrary to popular belief, the Church still promulgates abstinence from meat on non-Lenten Fridays:

Canon 1250 - All Fridays through the year and the time of Lent are penitential days and times throughout the entire Church.

Canon 1251 - Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities…(from the 1983 Code of Canon Law)

"The U.S. Bishops Conference obtained the permission of the Holy See for American Catholics to substitute a penitential, or even a charitable, practice of their own choosing for non-Lenten Fridays."

Oh! I hate special dispensations for lazy people and now I'm feeling guilty! I may have to go to the year-round observation of no-meat Fridays. Not that South Louisiana seafood is a hardship.

Diocese Sued By Devout Catholic

"A 72-year-old woman who describes herself as a lifelong, devout Catholic is alleging in a lawsuit that she was threatened with excommunication after being injured at a parish bingo game.

First of all, that sentence is funny in and of itself. Not that the lady was injured, that's terrible. What's humorous is that it happened at a most Catholic and elderly of pastimes, bingo.

"Catherine Robert was attending a night bingo session at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Pinellas Park on June 11, 2003, when, according to the lawsuit, she was seriously injured by a negligently maintained bathroom stall that collapsed on her as she was leaving the restroom."

What?!

"About six weeks later, Robert received a telephone call from a man who identified himself as a `monsignor from the chancery,' the lawsuit states. The caller warned her not to file a lawsuit or otherwise seek compensation for her injuries, and threatened her with excommunication if she did, the lawsuit states."

This is obviously a prank. You cannot be excommunicated for suing the church. MANY an attorney would be tossed out before this sweet old lady.

"Due to the monsignor's threat of excommunication from her lifelong devotion to the Catholic Church, [Robert] was caused to receive severe emotional distress that has caused angina attacks..."

And my point is made...here's some lawyer taking advantage of the situation.

On the outside chance that this is a true statement, I say the Monsignor should be sent to the stockcade or whatever sort of medieval form of punishment the church would insist upon.

Hothouse chapel in Hurricane Alley

This conservative Catholic college appears to have sipped some of the same Kool-Aid that gave Baton Rouge the "crosses project":

"Ave Maria seems to be making a fuss over the shear enormity of the proposed church. According to a March 24 press release, university officials boasted that the new chapel 'will have [the] largest seating capacity of any Catholic church in the country' as well as 'the largest crucifix in the world.'
The largest crucifix in the world? Come now. If that doesn't smack of megalomania, I don't know what does. And why on earth would a small Catholic school with 122 students knocking around 1,000 acres in the remote swamplands of Florida need or want to accommodate a whopping 3,300 people? Why would petite Ave Maria aim for more seating than New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral or Cardinal Mahony's celebrated Yellow Armadillo in L.A., both of which serve as the spiritual centerpiece of archdioceses that serve millions of Catholics?
Well, it just so happens that seed money for the mega-project was provided by Thomas S. Monaghan, former owner of the Detroit Tigers and founder of Dominos Pizza. Mr. Monaghan, a generous philanthropist, tends to think big. But one must understand that bigger is not necessarily better nor even desirable."

Right on. Every Catholic Church should at once reflect the grandeur of tradition and still accomodate the intropsection of prayer and contemplation.

Ex-President Bush to skydive for 80th

If John Glenn can go in to space, G.H.W.B. can do this. I've always been a big fan of the elder. He get's a bum rap from some of the more rabid "I'm more conservative thanm you" types. Not that he gives a rat's ass.

Pope recalls Fatima consecration

Prophecy fufilled.

Pope's Latest Book Coming Out in May

Il Papa continues to influence many with his writings. May they resonate for generations to come!

Palestinian boy got $23 to blow up

"Abdu told soldiers of his dream of receiving 70 virgins in heaven, which his dispatchers had promised him, and said that he had been tempted by the promise of sexual relations with the virgins. He said that he had been bullied at school for his poor academic performance and that he had wanted 'to be a hero.' "

Man oh man. What if they were ugly virgins? I mean, have you seen women from those parts?!

Israelis Stop Teen

"In a tense scene captured in exclusive Associated Press Television News footage, soldiers jumped behind concrete barricades and sent a yellow robot to hand scissors to the 16-year-old boy so he could cut off the vest. They then ordered him to strip to his underwear.

"Experts later detonated the bomb, and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the incident."

"The teenager's family in Nablus identified him as Hussam Abdo, and his brother, Hosni, said 'he has the intelligence of a 12-year-old.' "

Apparently, that's contagious among his people.

Iraq by the numbers

From the same article: "On Thursday, as Spain's Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Zapatero called the occupation of Iraq 'a fiasco,' a poll conducted for ABC News and the BBC found that 48 percent of Iraqis called the war 'right' while only 39 percent called it 'wrong,' and 56 percent said their lives were better after the war. Seventy percent of Iraqis said their lives were either 'very good' (13 percent) or 'quite good' (57 percent). Someone should ask Howard Dean, who in January said that Iraqi living standards are 'a whole lot worse now,' about these results.

"Seventy-one percent of Iraqis said the job market was better now than before the war. Thirty-nine percent said the availability of electricity was better after the war, compared to 25 percent who said it was worse. Fifty-four percent said security was better after the war, compared to only 26 percent who said it was worse.

"On every subject, from security to medical care to schools, more Iraqis said their lives were better after the war. "

Those people in the mass graves would have liked to have taken part in this survey but unfortunately, they were prevented from doing so. I'm willing to wager that had they lived, they would have wholeheartedly approved of our actions. Too bad we didn't go in sooner.

Iraqis Say “War Was the ANSWER”. Protesters were yelling too loudly to hear.

Andrew Cline's comments on the anti-war idiots are both humorous an prescient. Take a taste:

"Being divorced from reality is what being an antiwar protester is all about. For a few hours each year you get to run around disrupting other people's lives, pretending you're doing something socially relevant, and saying things like 'War doesn't solve anything' (said last weekend by New York City protester Matthew Stanton) and 'If there aren't any soldiers there can't be war' (said by Alabama protester David Waters). "

Clueless, I tell you.

Gas Pump Prices Hit All-Time High

Cue Rita Cooldige..."it's an all time high/where no gas has gone before/costing so much more/than a year ago..."

FBI Shadowed Kerry

An excuse by the left to dig up the old arguments against Richard Nixon, contrast and compare them with W. and link the two. We'll see if it holds water.

WPVI.com: T-Shirt Trouble for Abercrombie & Fitch

No homoeroticism, Abercrombie's raison d'être, was involved in the printing of this shirt so at least the gubnah can rest easy about that.

Israel Says It Will Kill Hamas Leadership

Talk about going "Old Testament" on somebody's ass!

To paraphrase Councilman Wayne "Spider" Carter: I'm pro-Israel, I've always been pro-Israel, I'm always going to be pro-Israel. This terrorist madness has gone on long enough. The goal of Hamas is to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. An unhinged Israel is capable of great effectiveness. The U.S. simply needs to look the other way and let the Israelis clean house.

How dare they!

Among his great volume of radio commentaries, there's an installment from 1976 where Ronald Reagan bemoans a new translation of the King James Bible into so-called relevant/contemporary English. Personally, I could carry on for days about the so-called "Authorized" version - a fallacious title to be sure - and how a translation intended for the people was hijacked by an ambitious king, and so on, but that's not the point I'm making. Say what you will about the KJV, it's impact on the English language and the Western world is undisputed, and rightfully so.

Now, a similar approach is being taken to the works of William Shakespeare, thus rendering the majestic prose and the indelible rhythms of iambic pentameter as common as an episode of Lizzie McGuire. Who needs King Lear to sound like that? Ten Things I Hate About You wasn't that great.

When I was in high school, I referred to the venerable author as "Bill Shakespeare" in a term paper. In her grading of the assignment, my English teacher scribbled, only half-jokingly, "how dare you!" Upon reading of this bowdlerization, all I can muster is "my sentiments exactly."

Richard Clarke's Legacy of Miscalculation

In light of tonight's segment, this is apropos.

No-smoking forces taking new territory: the beach

What did I tell you about the nanny state? They know NO boundaries to infringing on personal liberties.

Carter savages Blair and Bush: 'Their war was based on lies'

Anyone who was alive during the Carter Administration should remember vividly how inept he was at basic diplomacy. This was a guy who thought the Soviets could be taken at their word, and may have single-handedly caused the majority of our trouble in the middle east by the awesome level of incompetence which he handled the Iran situation. Anything he says now should be evaluated in that context.

What's even more maddening are his warnings of the possible instabilities we would cause in the region. This from a man who's lack of support for the government of the Shah of Iran caused an overthrow leading to the extremist Khomeini regime, the single largest enabler of terror in the entire region. In many ways, Carter's actions led to the situation in Libya with Qadafi, the emboldening of Iraq and Sadaam Hussein, and...wel, you draw the line.

This man was the worst president in my lifetime, and probably one of the worst of all time. Nothing he says on foreign policy (or domestic policy for that matter) is credible.