"We did nothing wrong, but we'll do things differently next time," say

(Upfront, that is not an actual quote from any of the miscreants in this story, it is a characterization of the CYA of the miscreants in this story.)
About 60 miles southwest of Orlando, a massive sinkhole recently opened up near Mosaic phosphate processing plant in Polk County, allowing an estimated 215 million of gallons of contaminated waste to seep into the Florida soil and aquifer.
The company and government officials have kept the contamination, (not the sinkhole because it's um... HUGE,)  secret from the public, the press, and worst of all from nearby residents who live off well-water  for several weeks, as millions of gallons of plant waste and byproduct ran through a 45-foot-wide hole into the earth.
But it's okay, because it's not VERY radioactive, and the governor doesn't own SO much of the companies stock, and only once has the company  paid TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS at a county fair for a cake made by the child of the agriculture commissioner.

So trust'em.
They didn't do anything wrong and they won't do it again, even though it wasn't wrong, and even if it was that was the last time, and....

Well, I guess the "and" is that  rural resident of Florida have about the same status as inner-city folks in Flint.

The Catholic Fringe Unraveling On Both Selvages, and Overplaying One's Hand

A bit of hubbub of late over some ordained persons' calling out of some unordained persons, in some cases by name, (one of said ordained persons being in the habit of threatening unordained persons with civil lawsuits,) following the unordained persons having called out other ordained persons by name, some consecrated persons by name, and even, in several cases, an installed person whose name is... well, known to virtually the entire world.
Some of all of this is deserved, other instances are unfair, some of it is bullying and clericalist, some of it is barking mad.
Hardly is anyone in these wars ever 100% wrong, there are often good reasons, up to a point, and very often, perhaps usually, good intentions. (We must assume that last, until the assumption is proved wrong.)
Even the ill-intentioned will begin with the reasonable and kind and inarguable.
Sometimes people give themselves away, of course, frequently by overplaying a hand,
Ah ha, the observer says to himself, I was with you up till now, you first point was undeniable and laudable but I see now that that was merely a set-up to this balderdash, an attempt to lull us into amiability so you could sneak in some poppycock.
Man cannot keep himself from Going Too Far.
Been discussing the failed 1998 translation a great deal with a friend lately,
While I admit there are some clunky moments in the one in use today, I overall drastically prefer it to the rejected one.
But there are other words and phrases spurned by TPTB that I would have endorsed, and more, endorsed the agenda behind them - but the reformers, as so often, went too far.
They knew, they had to know, that eventually, when push came to shove the Catholic Church was not going to allow the Anglophone Catholic Church, no matter how many of us like to think of ourselves as an autonomous sect, NOT to say, "I believe," and "and with your spirit," and "for you and for... many," (I actually think they could have sneaked that one in with "THE many.") Perhaps not on this go 'round, but eventually, and couldn't we finally have a few decades of liturgical calm now?
(Oh, and for the record, sometimes clunky is waaaaaaay better than curt.)
I digress.
Anyway, the Rad-Trad fringe has a lot of right on its side, and honest, it is possible to decry the feminization of ministry, and see it as a wedge issue for the impossibility that looms so large in the spiralist agenda*, the ordination of women, without despising women. (I promise you, I am not a self-hating gyno-American.)
But likewise, it would be easier to believe die-hard traditionalists oppose women in Holy Orders on loving theological grounds is so many of them did not openly display such contempt for women. Protestations that no, of course not, women are not held in less regard by the Church would be so much more credible if Aquinas hadn't said we were “deficiens et occasionatus”, if so many functions besides the confection of the Eucharist were not reserved to priests, and oh, yeah, the priesthood is reserved to men.

A contributing factor in the social recognition of the role of women is a greater appreciation of their responsibilities in the Church: their involvement in decision-making, their participation in the administration of some institutions and their involvement in the formation of ordained ministers.

Well, yeah.... it could be.
And it could have been.
For centuries.
And the longer it took the Church, it still takes Her, to come 'round, the harder it is to believe that Her denial of the presbyterate to women isn't just part and parcel of Her denigrations and ignoring of other charisms woman might have to offer Her and all of mankind.
Anyway, among the much criticized bloggers, there's a fellow who in a newish thread is arguing against "sacramental trans-genderism,"
Good for him, good turn of phrase, and he's right, mostly.
But he can't let a side comment go without answering it with this stupidity:

universal suffrage was one of the worst ideas in human history. Personally, I'm all for head of household landowners being the only ones allowed to vote. They have the most skin in the game.

That's right.
Not everyone who is entitled to vote knows what he's dong, so let's limit it.
Oooh. Interesting.
How?
I.Q. test?
Determining the potential voter's logical acuity or moral fiber?
No.
By wealth and ownership of material goods.
And he caps it off with the inanity about "skin in the game."
Um, no. LITERALLY wrong.
His ideal voter may have capital staked, he may have money on the game, but we each of us, literally, have one, our own, skin in the game.
His idea is as contemptible as the idiot's in the UK who think young people's votes should count more than that of their elders in the BREXIT referendum, since they'll probably live longer with the consequences.
-------
(*Those who hold it might prefer the phrase "progressive agenda," but it aint' progress when you're going around in circles.

Decision Fatigue, and Catholish Charities

Some people wear grey t-shirts every day, trying in vain to protect themselves against "decision fatigue."
I haven't taken it upon myself to tell the world what's trending, with what topics it should concern itself, so  burden is somewhat lighter than that of such movers and shakers, but it seems to me that the shade of the fabric I pull over my head in the morning is not just a relatively easy choice to make, it's an actively pleasant one, even if the pleasure is very small - it is virtually impossible that ten minutes, or ten hours, or ten years from now I'll be kicking myself and moaning, "Periwinkle? WHY, why, why, why.....?"
Other choices are neither easy nor pleasant, so when the day starts, it's nice to get something like t-shirt color under my belt, so to speak - decision-making successfully navigated!
My current decision fatigue comes from the apparent elasticity of the word "Catholic," with an upper case "C."
I used to think that persons and institutions calling themselves "Catholic" were, you know... actually Catholic in thought and practice. Naif!
Alas, there is no guarantee that the word means anything of the sort nowadays. My time, my efforts, my charitable dollars, (few though they may be,) - how can I know they do not support practices I abhor?
I must research for myself.
Several times recently Himself has bemoaned finding himself aligned with people with whom he is not used to agreeing, because those who more usually share stances seem to have gone off the deep end, more intent on pushing the agenda of a bizarre ideology than in improving the world and the lives of those in it in commonsensical ways.
And I know how he feels, but I'm also aware that it is virtually, perhaps literally impossible to live in the world without compromising ones principles at least to the degree required to some times collaborate with those with whom one disagrees, perhaps even on fundamental issues.
Aren't we glad when Der Schränker in "M" organizes other criminals to guard the children?
Shouldn't Melanie take Belle Watling's money in the noble cause of fighting for the Glorious Confederacy?
Don't the good Daniel Craig and the evil Harrison Ford justifiably band together against a common enemy in Cowboys and Aliens?
Sorry about the tangent. Anyway, I came to terms some time ago with the fact that if you need mosquito nets to save lives and the only NGO with mosquito nets to sell in that part of the world also provides abortions, you may end up temporarily engaging in commerce with someone who provides abortions.
You are not yourself doing or endorsing evil, and you hold your nose when you materially, remotely, mediatedly cooperate with it.
But when you complacently enter into a long term relationship with the devil?
Now sometimes the people who make you aware of what's going on may not be people with whom you'd necessarily wish to associate, either, but I think you must be grateful to them for opening your eyes.
The Lepanto Institute, for instance, are provocateurs, and I'm told not above stretching a point to connect the dots as they demonstrate the webs of cooperation that allow certain kinds of evil to flourish unchecked by, indeed, supported by good people.
And they may be a bit to quick to try to establish guilt by association.
But they are right too often to ignore, and I think they're going to be a go-to for me in days ahead.

Right now, I don't need them to spill the goods, I can be disappointed all on my 'onesome.
A family member asked me to join in helping a medical charity.
The "Catholic" board chairman, when I asked point blank where they stood on the use of embryonic stem cells for research or therapy because "I can not support that," said absolutely not, no way, never, that's important to me too.
Come to find out, I don't know whether the chair is lazy, deceitful, or ignorant, but the groups they bankroll actively lobby for money for the development of new embryonic stem cell lines, and laws protecting such development, and actually pursue such research themselves.

Gonna go live in a cave...

Earth Day the Wrong Way, Earth Day the Right Way

First, we have a commendation of literal tree-hugging.
A Franciscan friar:

“The two of us made a kind of journey together where we would take three steps, bow to the earth, and then take another three steps. Whenever my friend saw a flower, he would stop for a while and bow deeply. When he encountered a tree, he would stop for a while and hug the tree. You could feel the mystery of small flowers and trees…they cannot speak in the same way we do, but they are more deeply related to the mystery of God, the mystery of life.”[Emphasis supplied]

Um... no.
Just no.
"Small flowers and trees"? NOT more deeply related to the mystery of God than are humans, (who are, ya know, made in the image and likeness of God,) not more deeply related to anything other than other trees and flowers, and maybe not even to them.

Contrast to the spur of the moment remarks of a Jesuit pope:

two images came to me: The desert, and the forest. I thought, these people, all of you, all, are taking up the desert in order to transform it into a forest. They go where there’s desert, where there isn’t hope, and they do things to make a forest of this desert. The forest is full of trees, it’s full of vegetation, but too disorganized … but, life is like that. Passing from the desert to the forest is the beautiful work you do! You transform deserts into forests!...There are many deserts in the cities, deserts in people’s lives who don’t have a future, because there’s always – and I’ll underline a word here – always there are prejudices, fears. These people live and die in the desert of the cities....The desert is ugly, both the desert in the heart of all of us, as well as the desert in the city, in the peripheries, which is also an ugly thing. There’s also a desert that’s in the gated neighborhoods … It’s ugly, but the desert is there too. We must not be afraid to go to the desert to transform it into a forest, where there’s exuberant life, and to go dry the many tears so that everyone can smile. [Emphasis supplied]

Why, why... it's almost as if he's trying to tell us other people should be more important to us than trees! That the salvation of the snail darter must take a back seat to the salvation of souls!

That, dare I say? the Church rather than the Earth is our Mother!
Well done, Holy Father!
(Extra points for the reminder that the poverty with which the People of God must most be concerned is not  want of coin.)

PR Coup by Creep Preparing to Quit His Job, World Press Fall For It

Or at least, so it seems.

[The media] today is catching up to how [a snake] hoodwinked them to get maximum publicity for an upcoming book....“He also promised an exclusive to us,” [admits one journalist]... It appears [two] publications thought the [clown] was going to come out on their pages. 
They were wrong. [One periodical] draws out the following conclusion from what happened:
[The magazine's editor] writes today in the piece, “The Global Marketing of [the guy in question],” that “the main intention of Saturday’s spectacle was the promotion of a forthcoming book by the [con man]” He also concludes that, “I don’t doubt that the loud [PR move] will lead to the sale of tens of thousands of books.”
One is reminded of Lenin’s remark in What is to be Done?:

A newspaper is not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, it is also a collective organizer.

[The scoundrel] used God, [claims of victimhood], and the ... press to organize a big paycheck for himself. This is how you should stage-manage your “martyrdom.”
Ahh, the things we won’t do for our Good Lord Mammon.

Hard to believe this guy isn't being head-hunted by American PR concerns. He's got game.

Stock Market News

No, no, this isn't about the amazing bouncing ball that is the Dow. Or the S & P. Or the Nasdaq.

Keep calm and carry on, and all that.

This had escaped notice last week in all the sturm und drang caused by China's financial discombobulation.

New York (AFP) - S&P Dow Jones Indices announced Thursday a new share index to serve the increasing focus of Catholics on socially responsible investment.
S&P DJI said the new SP 500 Catholic Values Index is designed to follow the 2003 Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which stress responsible stewardship of economic resources, fighting poverty, human rights and adhering generally to Catholic Church ethics.
The index, which includes about 90 percent of S&P 500 companies, screens out those tied to pornography, stem cell research, weapons production, military sales and child labor, as well as other unsustainable practices.

(Wouldn't it be a riot if it turned out that virtue brought rewards other than itself?)
As for me and my household, we, if we had any, would have dumped all our available lucre into a fund reflecting such an ethic yesterday morning. I know, I know, you shouldn't "try to catch a falling knife," but that fact is, most across the board sell-offs are the result of momentar panic, and will more than correct within a half year or so. Keeping and carrying is the way to play it...

Anti-Abortion Advocates May* Have Misspoken....

.... Planned Parenthood may* not have "sold" body parts.
They may* only have been "fiscally rewarded."

By, you know, partners, who urged them to,

Join the StemExpress partner program that fiscally rewards clinics for contributing to the advancement of life-saving research – with a solution that is easy to incorporate into your clinic practices.

Who is StemExpress, you ask?

StemExpress is a multi-million dollar company that supplies human blood, tissue products, primary cells and other clinical specimens to biomedical researchers around the world to fuel regenerative medicine and translational research. Founded in 2010, we offer the largest variety of raw material in the industry, as well as fresh, fixed and cryopreserved human primary cells.
Our Products and Services StemExpress is the only company of its kind to both procure tissues and isolate cells for researchers’ individual needs in its own labs. Our human tissue products range from fetal to adult and healthy to diseased, and we also collect bone marrow and leukapheresis for isolation. In our state-of-the-art laboratory, we isolate and culture primary human somatic, progenitor and stem cells. Using the most up-to-date technology, we guarantee every sample delivers the purity, viability and quality your investigators need. StemExpress is also a Contract Research Organization (CRO) and provides biopharmaceutical development, biologic assay development, commercialization, preclinical research, clinical research, and clinical trials management.

*Why do I say "may"?
Because this little mom-and-pop group has standards.

Our Promise Protecting the privacy of our researchers and donors is always the highest priority at StemExpress.

"Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans"

Um... because you could?
Because you don't mind taking something and not paying for it?
Because working because you need to to fulfill obligation is for suckers?

I began reading the opinion piece thinking it would be by an apologist for the way education is set up now, the endlessly rising costs, that make those who work less and less richer and richer, while actual teaching is left to a subordinate class that lives in poverty.
Or someone to whom life had been cruel, who had to leave without a degree because of family tragedy.
Or someone who simply couldn't cut higher education but had been lured into taking usurious loans out for the equivalent of a trade school with the promise of jobs that weren't there.
Or he got his degree in philosophy before the bottom dropped out of the philosophy market.
Or...

But no.
This was a guy back in the old days when costs and benefits were pretty clear cut.
Who, although there was trouble at home, did not have to leave school.
Who apparently liked the setup of higher education, since he then went on to get advanced degrees. (He tries to kind of slough over that, by telling us, My mother could no longer afford the tuition that the student loans weren’t covering. I transferred to a state college in New Jersey, closer to home, I guess things worked out for him, since his degree AND HIS GRAD WORK, which I imagine he undertook of his own free will? were at an Ivy league school. In New York)
And who, to hear him tell it, could have done work that would have brought in enough money to pay his debt.

But (cue violins to underscore the whining,) rich people have it easy! and I'm more useful to society in other ways!

At least that's the gist of his argument, (not sure if he actually asked society......)

He and his family, ( wonder if his kids will change their names before they apply for college/scholarships/student loans...) live in a lovely town, I know because I grew up a few towns away.

(If you suspect the writer might be unprincipled in other ways as well, google "Siegel" and "sockpuppet.")

Himself asked, which I had not thought to, why did the NYTimes print that? What was their take? If they wanted to call attention to the genuine plight of many people, this guy was a pretty sorry excuse for the sympathetic face of the problem you'd like to present.)

"I miss the bacon...."

That is an elderly religious sister who has succumbed to the necessity of living out her days in a Jewish nursing home.

For 98-year-old Sister Angela Rooney, it was one of the most jarring moves of her life.
She always thought she would live out her days as she had for decades, in a convent under the time-honored Roman Catholic tradition of younger nuns dutifully caring for their older sisters.
But with few young women choosing religious life, her church superiors were forced to look elsewhere for care, and in the past year have sent Rooney and dozens of other nuns to Jewish Home Lifecare, a geriatric-care complex in the Bronx....
It's an unusual situation that reflects a reality of the nation's Catholic nuns in the 21st century: Fewer young women are devoting their lives to religious orders, and those who are already nuns are aging and facing escalating health care needs.

(The bacon "remark" was just a silly aside, these women actually seem cheerful, and obedient to their calling and accepting of their situation.)
I wonder that more Catholic institutions with under-used facilities have not turned to a new vocation, that of elder care.
I do know of one seminary with no seminarians that was transformed into a lovely assisted living facility.
One of the sisters in the article mentions missing their chapel, Stations... me, when the time comes, (and it's hurtling toward me, or I it, at breakneck speed, I sometimes think,) I want to be within walking distance, or tottering distance, or wheeling distance, to liturgical splendor.
I remember seeing buildings that seemed shabby enough that I'd be able to afford them on whatever SS and pension and IRA accumulated, in the environs of St John Cantius, but that neighborhood grew a bit too gentrified, doubt it's in my reach now.
Well, who knows, I can't predict what my life or the world will be like two weeks from now, much less two decades!

The Poor, Those Other People

"How I wish," [the Pope] said, "that Christians could kneel in veneration when a poor person enters the church.
"The Pope’s words came during a video message which was broadcast at a charity theatre performance"

Okay.
But where does that leave the poor who are Christians?
Or the Christian who is poor?
I think we make a great error when teachings constantly emphasize the otherness of those who should not be marginalized.
Because, you know, here comes everybody.
Pretty sure I've heard we should,

Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty.

And....

Show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.  

Speaking of false dichotomy, this:

The cast were not professional actors but instead the poor and needy

...just cracked me up, as it would, I think, anyone who ever made or tried to make performing arts his livelihood. 
Literally LedOL. 

"Instead! "
 

Hosanna!

Just to be sure you know, although it is often used as an expletive of triumph or praise, "hosanna" is actually a plea to be saved. (And I'm not using this as an attack on Obamacare, I think universal healthcare should be the law of the land.)
Lord, save us!

In a radio interview Sunday, Princeton University ethics professor Peter Singer argued it is “reasonable” for government or private insurance companies to deny treatment to severely disabled babies.
Singer contended the health-care system under Obamacare should be more overt about rationing and that the country should acknowledge the necessity of “intentionally ending the lives of severely disabled infants.”
..... In [a previously published treatise], Singer argued for the morality of “non-voluntary euthanasia” for human beings not capable of understanding the choice between life and death, including “severely disabled infants, and people who through accident, illness, or old age have permanently lost the capacity to understand the issue involved.”

For Singer, the wrongness of killing a human being is not based on the fact that the individual is alive and human. Instead, Singer argued it is “characteristics like rationality, autonomy, and self-consciousness that make a difference.”
Asked whether he envisions denying treatment to disabled infants to become more common in the U.S. under the new health-care law, Singer replied: “It does happen. Not necessarily because of costs."

[The interviewer asked if] the killing of severely disabled infants should be institutionalized to reduce health-care costs... “I know that it happens and it happens certainly if the family gives consent. But do you think in the future in order to ensure a more fair rationing of health-care and health-care costs, that it should actually be instituted more? The killing of severely disabled babies?”
Singer responded such a plan would be “quite reasonable” if it saved money that can be used for better purposes. He contended that most people would say they don’t want their premiums to be higher “so that infants who can experience zero quality of life can have expensive treatments.”

Hosanna!

A Modest Proposal For Archbishop Cordileone

Contact every parent of a diocesan high school student who objects himself, or whose child has objected, to the efforts to restore doctrinal integrity to the schools.

Then ask them to reimburse the Faithful of the Archdiocese for the portion of the actual costs of their childrens' schooling over and above the tuition the parents paid -- for every year the child has been in a parochial or diocesan school.
They obviously didn't actually want to raise their children in the Faith, and in fact, even if they were non-Catholic and upfront about it, seem to object to other students being raised in the Faith by dint of teaching and example.

Yet they certainly knew that that was the goal of the Archdiocese, as well as the intention of most of the non-parent pewsitters who every year contribute to other peoples' childrens' school costs.

They have committed fraud.

I Have a Bee in My Bonnet

I admit, the kirchensteuer, not just the practice, but the theory of it, gets my goat.
Perhpas it's my fault.
Perhaps it's like chattel slavery was in this country, a peculiar institution which I, as an outsider, am incapable of understanding, or of recognizing the virtues thereof?
Anyway, I knocked over a couple tables and chairs this morning, in Sunday School, (after telling them I was supposed to be teaching them "foolishness," which had really gotten their attention, for a change,) and I thought about this, (I can't have been the only one):

Do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not draw a salary of €11500 a month out of the people's pockets, or tool around a €64,000 BMW 740d, or expect to freshen up in a 15,000 € bathtub, or remodel your €86 million house  for €42.15 million after complaining about the other guy's relatively small beer bathtub extravagance....

Stop making my Father’s house a cash cow. It is written: ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’but you are trying to refuse people Christian burial if they didn't pay your 'church tax'!

Come, let us contrive a plot against this man.
It will not mean the loss of instruction from the priests,
nor of counsel from the wise, nor of messages from the prophets.
And so, let us destroy him by his own expense account report;
let us carefully note his every penny spent.
 

A Cynic is One Who Knows the Price of Everything, and the Value of Nothing

Curia-ser and curia-ser.
As much as it alarms me to find myself defending the actions of a purported climate-change denier, I really have to laugh at combox blather of those who are shocked, shocked...

Gambling???... at Rick's????

... at the supposed lavish spending of Cardinal Pell.

Take, (and I am playing the cynic here,) the outrageous sum thrown away on vestments to use in the chapel at the offices of the new post.

Let's break that down.
We'll assume he's got his own cardinatial cassock, little red cap, one of those cool sashes...

But even a curial official is first and foremost a priest whose duty is to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
So -
You can get an "Everyday Chasuble",   for 200 bucks. That's about 185 Euros.
Of course it's 100% polyester, devoid of any beauty;at less than four feet long in the back will look pretty damned goofy on a man of 6'3", (I know this from recent experience of Twin Tower priest and deacon visiting,) which at least one of the priests* who will likely be using the garment is; and looks pretty much like a tablecloth with a hole in it.

Oh, but who cares, anything's good enough for ceremonies worshipping God, right? 'cause He doesn't really care.
So let's get those, 4 liturgical colors, (no black,) two per, (probably sufficient for concelebrations, not all the time, but we're going economy class here.)
Inexpensive albs, also polyester, about 125 Euros, they come in 5 sizes, but we're aiming at frugality, so let's just get 2 each in small, large and XXL - that's 750 Euros.

So we're at 2230.
We won't get dalmatics, a deacon if present can just
About 440 more Euros for cheapie stoles, 2 in each liturgical color but black.
I'm don't know if there's any reason deacons, if present, can't wear priest's stoles, surely the buttons and loops  or whatever can be McGyvered?
So this is pretty barebones.

No humeral veil? no cope? no amices, cinctures?
Nope. (and CERTAINLY no maniples.)
So, "the allegations, contained in leaked figures published by Italian magazine L'Espresso on Friday, suggest Cardinal Pell also spent €2508 on religious robes at a tailor" are pretty dang innocuous, along the lines of "leaked details suggest Pell had a second cup of coffee at dinner!"

Oh, the extravagance!!!!!!!

Since the sum of my knowledge about Roman apartment rentals is from House Hunters International I won't embarrass myself by claiming to know anything about that aspect of the "expose", but I'm going to jump to the assumption that those figures are equally ludicrous as evidence of profligacy as part of a smear campaign.

Anyway, I sincerely hope with that €2508 figure Cdl Pell didn't buy anywhere near the number of pieces I enumerated above, I hope that was spent on a single gorgeous chasuble.
And I hope there will be many more.

 *

Pell used to be 6'4", I'm assuming he has shrunk a bit

Denial is Just a River in Egypt

I was in a cast with ... this woman, once.
A few days into rehearsal I said to this woman, "I know you, it's been driving me crazy, but I finally remembered where, we met at an audition once."
No, this woman told me, I never forget a face.
It was backstage at the XXX theater on Broadway, it was an open call for YYY.
I was indeed at that audition, but I would remember if I'd met you.
You told me that  had just come back from doing a show, ZZZ in the Bahamas, where you had learned to ride a motor scooter.
I did work there in that play, but no, I'm quite sure.
But don't you remember, we did the oh-do-you-know, have-you-ever-worked-with thing and we discovered that a guy I went to high school, QQQ, had played your son in that production?
Why, yes QQQ was in that cast with me, but no, I'm positive we've never met before.
 
It was all very friendly, so I hadn't offended her; and she didn't keep he voice hushed and dash furtive glances, so she wasn't in witness protection; and she was competent in a pretty wordy play so it wasn't memory; and it turned out that I knew her agent from long ago and we discussed him, so it wasn't long term memory; and she remembered that particular audition so it wasn't global transient amnesia.

It was just denial, pure and simple, denial, from what motive I have never been able to fathom.

I only bring it up, because I've read a couple of columns online or on paper, recently, like this one, found them resonating with me, (you know I love my Aldi,) found myself agreeing with the writer - and then gotten to the end and realized my agreement was supposed, somehow, to put me quite solidly on the conservative side of our political/ecological/cultural/gustatory divide.

Huh?

But I hate liver, I love wind farms. Other than being 100% pro-life, I tend to fall on the liberal or progressive side of things, big government, rah-rah!, (and even on life issues -- I'm also anti-capital punishment.)

Still....

Wondering, am I a closet conservative? who doesn't even know I'm in a closet?

Buying Cheap Stuff

Am I taking advantage of, actually supporting child labor, prison labor, slave labor when I buy inexpensive, no-name,almost certainly made in China technology online?

Any more so than if I had bought name brand technology at a big box store?

Needy and Wanty

It took several years of marriage, but eventually the one of us who didn't already know it learned the difference between wants and needs.

We laughed like a couple of loonies when a captive supervillain on The Tick could finally take no more of his logorrheic jailer, Maiden America who defended herself with more whining, "I can't help it if I'm emotionally needy," and he sneered back, "You're not needy, you're wanty!"

In talking with my CCD kids about setting priorities, and competing goods, I frequently remind them of the importance of distinguishing between wants and needs.

All that said, a British abortion provider who was apparently genuinely afraid for her safety because of the unpleasant way another woman laughed at her, claims that, "One in three women in the UK will need an abortion in their lifetime and we should be supporting them."

I just ask, "need"?

The reporter allows the assertion to go unchallenged.

Why, Yes, I Suppose You Could Describe the Sistine Chapel as Stylish

I guess I am not surprised at how peeved many people are by the Porsche/Vatican collaboration.

What bothers me is that people who like to wax indignant tend to save their indignation for people and institutions with whom and which they already had an ax to grind.

It disturbs me how members of the chattering class on both fringes of the societal/eccesiastical fabric are sniping at the Holy Father, Pope Francis.

Because, you know, he is one of my top two most favorite popes now living.....

Sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom, Loiter in the Sistine Chapel, Dine With President Bush...

... or any recent US president.

All of these can be/could have been yours, if you pony up.

Let's be honest about what is for sale or rent.