Like many parents, Madonna and Guy Ritchie are having a hard time understanding their own children. But in their case, it's because they speak in French all the time, reports Ananova.com.
Movie director Ritchie's grandfather says Rocco and Lourdes have all but shunned English at home. The two enfants terribles have been attending the posh Lycee Francais School in west London, where they study the language.
And with Lourdes now fluent--and Rocco well on the way--their folks are clueless as to what they are saying. "Ma mere, elle est tres etrange!" "C'est vrai, ma soeur!"
"They talk to each other in French all day, chatting away nonstop," said John Ritchie. "It's very funny. Neither Guy or Madonna speak a word of the language so they cannot understand anything."
All kidding aside, I think it's a great idea to teach languages to little kids. They pick them up so fast!
Fox News A beer truck flipped over on a roadway overpass in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Monday, prompting local officials to comment on the tragedy. "It is sad," Capt. Scott Logan of the Halifax Regional Fire Service told The Daily News of Halifax. "Chances are they won't recover any of the beer." Noooooooo!
The truck, hauling 46,368 bottles of Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale, skidded to a stop against the overpass's guardrail, luckily avoiding a 50-foot plunge down to another road. The female driver was pulled out of the cab uninjured "more frazzled than hurt," according to Logan letting rescuers focus on the calamitous aspects of the disaster.
"I had a tear in my eye, actually, when I was watching it," said police Constable Mark Hobeck. "It was full of beer. We were hoping a Hostess truck full of pretzels would come by, but no such luck."
Posted by: Mike ||
04/08/2005 1:02:02 PM ||
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#1
There's hope for the Maritimes.
Posted by: A Blue Suit You Want ||
04/08/2005 13:05 Comments ||
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#1
The We Only Talk To Each Other club remains perfectly clueless and wildly out of touch. If the numbnutz of Fornicalia want to have everything run like a never-ending disaster movie, they couldn't do better than Reiner - a true Hollyweird Smoke & Mirrors and Silly Socialism Peddler who has all the intellectual power of a smarmy bumper sticker and lives down to his most memorable character.
"When we get to these important points in the script, Magik Happens! It'll be sooo coool!"
#3
I would love to see the Meathead-vs-Terminator. A matchup like that would show the left wing culture just how the little people think of them. Meathead has little practical experience running anything but a activist campaign. After the ranting he will have to offer something other than more taxes and social engineering.
#4
universal preschool for California 4-year-olds would reap $2.62 for every single tax dollar
Hells bells, I can top that. Let's just grab all the kids at 2 and then we can really mold them into something.
Also, am I the only one who gets that "Let me see your math" feeling when you see a return of not "around 2 to 3 dollars" or "about $2.50" but "two dollars and sixty two cents"?
#6
Jebus.. Another reason this state needs to be split up. South of the Tehachapi Mountains should be it's own state. The Queer San Fransisco Bay should be it's own state. These people have no political relationship with the rest of the state.
Rob Reiner like the rest of the socialist vanguard in California can FOAD.
#7
I actually think Meathead has some good ideas here about child education. But this smacks of more state socialist public schools which are failures nationwide. If it involved school choice his plan would be more honest. I don't want anything that gives the teacher's union vultures more power.
In Michigan the teacher's union has more members than the UAW.
#8
He only wants to get the kids so they can be programmed with his socialist ideas.
By the way both my wife and daughter are forced to be members of the teachers union. They are registerd Republicans. Ragging on teachers is cheap and easy but total bull shit. They have no control over the rigged elections that give the leaders power. Just like all other unions the rank and file do not in general support the politics of the leadership. All you ever see or hear in the media are the wackos that the media wants you to see. If you want to know what is going on in the schools get the fucking chip off your shoulder, open up your mind and spend some time in the actual classroom. Your biased second and third hand opinions are not worth a tinkers damn.
#9
JANE FONDA was on TV the other day practically apologizing for her infamous Vietnam photo - dare Fonda, Reiner, and Bill Maher and the rest of the HollyLeft now become proper Clintonian FASCISTA and AMERICANISTA, Communists-for-Fascism for Communism, Betty Crockercrats = Party of Prudence, Propriety, Protection and Protectionism, and Alternatists/Anarchists for Conservatism, Mafiacrats for Law Enforcement and Regulation, ..................etc.@??? ALthough the Failed/Angry Left admits to their agenda being internationally coordinated and having no plan for beyond achieving Mackinder's World Island, aka Communist- or Communism-centric Asia, they demand that no one has the right to argue that they are for the killing, raping, looting, pillaging, rampaging "Barbarians" or warlord-bandit armies of antiquity - Yeah, Right-t-t!?
AN earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale has struck a mountainous region in Tibet.
The earthquake struck at 4:04 am (06:04 AEST) 400km west of the holy Tibetan Buddhist city of Shigatse, the Tibet Seismological Bureau reported.
"The nearest residential areas from the epicenter are two villages about 70km away," a bureau official said.
"We're still not sure about any damage caused by the quake."
The Hong Kong Observatory reported earlier the earthquake had struck at 4:11 am.
Xinhua news agency later said the epicentre was near Payang township, along the Tibet-Xinjiang highway.
"There are evident cracks on some buildings but no casualty or accurate damages have been reported yet owing to the country's vast area and scattered population," the report quoted an official as saying.
Strong earthquakes are relatively frequent in Tibet.
Last July, a part of Tibet near the border with Nepal was rattled by a powerful tremor measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
04/08/2005 6:53:44 PM ||
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...and speaking of our favorite crazed female British journalists, there's good news for Yvonne. Yvonne Ridley has won her case for unfair dismissal against Qatari news site Al-Jazeera.net.
Ms Ridley was sacked from her role as senior editor on the English-language news site in November 2003 with no notice and with no reason. Oh, I'm sure there were "reasons". Is "sucks" a reason?
Three weeks after her dismissal, Al-Jazeera told Ms Ridley's lawyer that she was a 'threat to national security' - a charge which carries the death penalty in Qatar. And all she got was fired? Damn!
Ms Ridley had been an outspoken opponent of the war at a time when Al-Jazeera was rumoured to be under increasing pressure from the US government - which described the site as 'violently anti-coalition'. She had also helped to form a branch of the UK's National Union of Journalists (NUJ) at the Dohar-based broadcaster. Yvonne Ridley: Union Hack.
"What's really ironic is that I was trying to lift the standard of journalism and improve the pay and working conditions of journalists at Al-Jazeera," said Ms Ridley. Lift the standard of journalism??? Ummmmmmmmm...okay. Showing the wogs how it's done, right, Yvonne?
"But I still have great affection for Al-Jazeera. A lot of good people work there on both the English and Arab side, and the TV is still the best thing to have happened to Arab broadcasting in many years." A court in Qatar ruled in Ms Ridley's favour in February. Lawyers are still wrangling over compensation after Ms Ridley's lawyers rejected an offer from Al-Jazeera of around £10,000. A decision is expected in May. Maybe they'll have some of their "friends" pay her a visit?
Yvonne Ridley now presents a news and current affairs show for London-based satellite broadcaster the Islam Channel, available live on the station's website. She also writes a column for US title Muslims Weekly and her new book on Osama Bin Laden is due out in Spring 2006. I'll have to write that date down. I'm sure it'll be a literary classic.
Polly Toynbee makes an ass of herself again and reveals the teeny-tiny dimensions of her soul...
How dare Tony Blair genuflect on our behalf before the corpse of a man whose edicts killed millions?
Polly Toynbee
With the clash of two state funerals and a wedding, unreason is in full flood this week. Yet again, rationalists who thought they understood this secular, sceptical age have been shocked at the coverage from Rome.
Because they only talk to each other, they're surprised that the rest of the world has an entirely different thought process. As usual, when the rest of the world doesn't agree with them it's the rest of the world that's wrong...
The BBC airwaves have disgraced themselves. The Mail went mad with its front-page headlines, "Safe in Heaven" and the next day "Amen". Even this august organ, which sprang from the loins of nonconformist dissent, astounded many readers with its broad acres of Pope reverencing. Poor old Prince Rainier of that squalid little tax haven missed his full Hello! death rites through bad timing.
Bad timing on his part. He should have lasted a little longer before pegging out, though I understand he wasn't a bad sort...
The arcane flummery brings forth dusty academics in Vaticanology, the Act of Settlement and laws of Monegasque succession. These pantomimes of power fascinate in their quaintness, but they signify nothing beyond momentary frisson.
I try to keep all my frissons momentary...
The millions pouring into Rome (pray there is no Mecca-style disaster) herald no resurgence of Catholicism.
No, it's a reminder that the Catholicism is there, all around us, just not a spectacular phenomenon. People like Polly only notice phenomena when there's a crowd.
The devout are there, but this is essentially a Diana moment, a Queen Mother's catafalque. People queue to join great public spectacles, hoping it's a tell-my-grandchildren event. Communing with public emotion is easy now travel is cheap. These things are driven by rolling, unctuous television telling people a great event is unfolding, focusing on the few hysterics in tears and not the many who come to feel their pain.
So turn your teevee off. Read a book or go to a movie. Most of us can only take so much of the 24/7 coverage — for one thing, it repeats itself over and over. But people are interested, even if Polly's not and even if I'm only moderately interested in the mechanics of it all. The funeral's tomorrow, and they'll have elected another Pope in a week or so and then we'll all go back to 24/7 coverage of the Michael Jackson trial.
Bill Clinton had it right yesterday: "The man knows how to build a crowd."
He was referring to the Pope? I guess if you have to die of old age to build a crowd that's one way to do it. I'm not too sure why you'd want to, or what you'd do with it once you've built it, at least that way...
Curiously, the celebrity nature of this event - a must-do for 200 world leaders - signifies the opposite of what it seems. It shows how far people have forgotten what the church really is, how profoundly ignorant and indifferent they have become to history and theology. Hell, he was just a good ol' boy, wore white, blessed folk, prayed for peace - why not?
Large numbers of people consider him to have been a great and a good man, both of which are worthy of our admiration and even reverence. Our age produces few enough of both, and usually not in the same person.
In Europe church attendance is plummeting, even in Poland, the heart of reactionary Catholicism. Here the young are clueless about the most basic Christian stories. How about the DJ who opened his show with "Happy Good Friday!" Art galleries now need to explain the agony in the garden, the raising of Lazarus and even the annunciation. In surveys, half the population couldn't say what Easter meant. It is precisely this insouciant ignorance that lets people emote with the flow; they know not what they do.
I suspect people have always been much like that. I also suspect Polly's a condescending twit.
The Vatican is not a charming Monaco for tourists collecting Ruritanian stamps or gazing at past glories in the Sistine Chapel. It is a modern, potent force for cruelty and hypocrisy.
Here comes the carping...
It has weak temporal power, so George Bush can safely pray at the corpse of the man who criticised the Iraq war and capital punishment; it simply didn't matter as the Pope never made a serious issue of it or ordered the US church to take strong action.
It wasn't his job to do so, and doing so would have weakened the Church. Most of the Middle Ages was spent working out where the Pope's spiritual power ended and his temporal power began. We've moved considerably beyond the stage where the Pope claimed to be the ultimate temporal authority in the Christian world. We've moved beyond the point where doing the Bell, Book, and Candle thing is even feasible anymore. The Pope doesn't have any temporal power. He's a spiritual leader. The Papal States have been gone for 150 years. Polly's just mad because the Pope also made plain his disapproval — on spiritual grounds, we might add — of Communism and that it did collapse, in part because of that disapproval.
The Vatican's deeper power is in its personal authority over 1.3 billion worshippers, which is strongest over the poorest, most helpless devotees. With its ban on condoms the church has caused the death of millions of Catholics and others in areas dominated by Catholic missionaries, in Africa and right across the world.
Church doctrine is against using birth control. It boils down to forming an opinion on right and wrong, concepts which are slippery enough in today's world. It retains those quaint notions of sin — both venial and mortal — and penance and redemption. People who adhere to the Church's teachings on the subject of fidelity don't have much to worry about in the area of AIDS. Keeping one's pants on outside the conjugal bedroom isn't viewed as being quite the problem AIDS is. But if you're going to be in the club you should be prepared to play be all the rules, not just the ones you like.
In countries where 50% are infected, millions of very young Aids orphans are today's immediate victims of the curia.
Or the immediate victims of Pop doinking the local hookers and bringing a little present home for Mom...
Refusing support to all who offer condoms, spreading the lie that the Aids virus passes easily through microscopic holes in condoms - this irresponsibility is beyond all comprehension.
Maybe beyond Polly's comprehension. I can grasp it pretty easily.
This is said often, even in this unctuous week - and yet still it does not permeate. He was a good, caring man nevertheless, they say, as if it were a minor aberration. But genuflecting before this corpse is scarcely different to parading past Lenin: they both put extreme ideology before human life and happiness, at unimaginable human cost.
Because Polly doesn't agree with it, it's extreme.
How dare our prime minister go there in our name to give the Vatican our approval for this?
Probably because JPII was a world leader, revered by billions, to include non-Catholics. Probably as a gesture of respect not only to JPII, but also to the world's Catholics.
Will he think of Africa when on his knees today? I trust history will some day express astonishment at moral outrage wasted on sexual trivia while papal celebrity and charisma cloaked this great Vatican crime.
I'm not sure where the sexual trivia came from. Is she referring to Michael Jackson? Am I too tired this evening to follow elementary arguments? Or is she not making any sense?
The editor of the Catholic Herald was somewhat Jesuitical when I argued with him in a BBC studio yesterday. He asked how the Pope could be blamed when all the church calls for is sex within marriage and abstinence.
To me that's a pretty sensible question...
But abstinence and celibacy are not the human condition.
Abstinence and celibacy were the human condition prior to the advent of the birth control pill. Our parents were much more virtuous in their youth in that respect, if only because they were always dealing with live rounds. And Polly, probably as old as I am, should be able to remember those thrilling days of yesteryear...
If the Vatican learned anything about humanity, it would humbly meditate on 4,450 Catholic clergy in the US alone accused of molesting children since 1950, and no doubt as many in Catholic churches elsewhere still in denial. The scale of it is breathtaking yet not at all surprising: most humans are sexual beings. A Vatican edict in the 1960s threatened to excommunicate anyone breaking secrecy on child sex allegations, and guaranteed that ever more children continued to suffer. And within its walls the Vatican shields an American priest from allegations. Still the Vatican turns a blind eye to this most repugnant and damaging of all sexual practices, the suffering little children whose priests come unto them.
She's got a few valid comments, even though they're cheap shots. Most humans are indeed sexual beings. That's why there are more of us with each generation. The fact that we're sexual doesn't mean our sexuality's beyond our control, otherwise we'd be copulating all over the place. It's a sign of civilization to control one's impulses. At the very same time, it's the people on Polly's side of the argument who're in favor of allowing homosexuals to move in on the Boy Scouts, the while pooh-poohing any argument that the presence of significant numbers of pubescent and pre-pubescent young boys — too young to have any experience in fighting off sexual predators — will draw those predators like flies.
Yet at the same time it thunders disapproval of sex in every other more innocent circumstance, blighting the lives of millions with its teaching on gays, divorce, abortion and unrealistic self-denial.
I've known lots of priests who were capable of self-denial. I've known lots of ministers who, though married, managed to avoid having affairs. And not only ministers; people having affairs is still, 50 years after the introduction of the pill, considered scandalous in many circles. Just ask Prince Chuck and Cam. The Church has always discouraged homosexuality. The fact that it's become fashionable in some circles doesn't change the theological assessment of whether it's a sin or not. The Church's disapproval of divorce traces back to Christ's admonishment that "what God hath joined together, let no man put assunder." And if life begins with conception, if that's when the soul comes into existence, then the Church's stance on abortion not only makes sense but is quite principled. You may agree or you may disagree, but those are their opinions. I admire the people who do keep to the rules, myself.
There is no reckoning how many of the world's poorest women have died giving birth to more children than they can survive; contraception is women's true saviour.
Readily available contraception has been a benefit to the world, in my opinion, but it's had side effects that haven't been good for society. Falling birthrates in Europe contribute to much of the tension we see here on Rantburg every day, to whit, the arrival of fresh waves of Vandals, Huns, Visigoths, Gepids and all the other beturbanned new barbarians, trampling over a civilization that's old and deeply rooted but exhausted from slaughtering its finest in the flower of their youth — and not replenishing the supply. Increased sexual activity for recreation is fun, but it also imposes strains on the family. Think on the subject long enough and you can come up with lots of other non-beneficial side effects. On balance, I think it's a good thing, especially since I was young enough to enjoy a few of the benefits in my younger and more single days, but I recognize the down side, too.
In 1971 I interviewed Mother Teresa and asked how she justified letting starving babies be born to die on Calcutta streets for lack of contraception. She said sublimely that every baby entering the world was another soul created in praise of God, even if it lived only a few hours. She was never keen on cures: suffering was a gift of God that enabled those who cared for the afflicted to demonstrate their love. She was beatified by John Paul II for their shared religious mania. Those who met them talk of an aura of love, power, listening and intensity. But goodness is in doing good; good intent is no excuse for murderous error.
The babies were there. Mother Teresa was there. But she wasn't there to hand out rubbers; she was there to comfort the halt and the infirm. She was dealing with the effects — cleaning up a part of the mess — not addressing the cause.
Today's saccharine sanctimony will try to whiten the sepulchre of yet another Pope whose obscurantist faith has caused pointless suffering; it is no defence that he was only obeying higher orders.
Sure it is. He was carrying out the will of God as he saw it, agree with him on all points or not. I'll admit, though, that Polly's Eichmann allusion was more subtle than Ward Churchill's, though just barely. There's a rational body of thought behind the Church's teachings. Just because Polly disagrees doesn't make it wrong. And I'll take the Pope over the Islamic holy men sending people out to explode any time.
At the funeral will be a convocation of mullahs, rabbis and all the other medieval faiths that increasingly conspire together against modernity.
At least Polly's catholic in her condemnation of all religions. But even us agnostics recognize the fact that the concepts of right and wrong are deeply rooted in religion, in man's attempt to decipher the will of God. Without a belief in a higher being, you're left with whatever feels right. Abortion, homosexuality, and promiscuity feel right to Polly, even though society's struggled to control them through the ages.
Islamic groups are sternly warning the Vatican to stand firm against liberal influences on homosexuality, abortion, contraception and the ordination of women. What is it about religion that unites them all on sex?
They're all against you, Polly. You, personally.
It always expresses itself as disgust for women's bodies, leading to a need to suppress women altogether. Why is controlling women's bodies the shared battle flag of every faith?
I have a great liking for women's bodies, as do most other men. I love to look at them, love to touch them, love to do pleasant things with them. But I suspect that society began organizing itself into what would eventually become civilizations when we stopped being ground monkeys who jumped each other whenever a random female's nether regions turned color and started making rules governing how we formed our families. A big part of that rule making involves reaching agreement on not jumping each other's mates. That imposes certain obligations on the jumpees as well as on the jumpers. I also suspect that if we stop having rules about such things we're eventually going to revert to the ground monkey stage and be replaced by more fastidious giant cockroaches or something. It's not just an interpretation of Genesis that's rooted in religion, but societal norms.
Disgracefully, the European rich quietly ignore the church's outlandish teachings on contraception without rebelling on behalf of the helpless third-world poor who die for their misplaced faith.
I suspect they find Polly a twit, too. And the helpless third-world poor probably would, as well, if they'd ever heard of her.
Those "civilised" Catholics have as much blood on their hands as the Vatican they support. They are like the Bollinger Bolsheviks who defended the USSR and a murderous ideology that they could do much to change. For today, just remember what lies beneath all this magnificent display.
Polly is Maureen Dowd, without the charisma...
polly.toynbee@guardian.co.uk
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Polly has to be one of the most sexually repressed women on the planet. I say this seriously: I occasionally check out her articles, and at least half of them are, in the end, about women and the evils of sex.
She also writes this whopper: ". But goodness is in doing good; good intent is no excuse for murderous error."
Where the hell was that 20 years ago when the Commies were menacing us at the Fulda Gap and when the souls of Eastern Europe were being suppressed? Where was that 40 years ago in the Great Leap Forward? Or the dekulakization of the Ukraine in the 30's? There was murderous error throughout the history of Communism, and it was always excused by the Left because "its intentions were good." Oh well, better late than never, eh Polly?
John Paul II has made some mistakes: the priest sex scandal is the biggest one, and there have been others. I'll forgive him those (even though I won't forgive Bernie Law), because I saw with my own eyes all the good the Pope did. He lived a consistent life, and he practiced what he preached. Polly sure as hell can't say that about herself.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2005 0:24 Comments ||
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#2
Polly is an idiot.
The Church starts with a statment: God exists and loves us. From that it is a given that Life Matters. And all the contraception policies and teachings, the teachings on euthansia, the teachings on human dignity, the teachings on social justice, all of that flows neccesarily. Its a shame you dont go any further than sophist arguments that are underpinned by the ugly hatred that you show in your writings.
Polly, you doent work from first causes, switching effect for cause, and treating symptom and not the source. You make so many severe errors its hard to weed them all out without writing a 20 page post.
Extramarital sex (which by its nature includes homosexual sex and prostitution) and needles shared in drug abuse are responsible for the vast source of AID, not the lack of condoms. Its evolution at work. If you can control yourself and not rut like a beast in heat, you live. If not, you die. The old Catholic saw about "chaste by your station" rings true as a lifesaving rule.
Polly, its fairly simple, even someone as simpleminded as you. Act liek a moral being and you will live. Act liek a "rationalist" moron and let your hedonism drive you, and you will die.
Sorry Polly, no cracker for you.
Remember Polly, atheists like you fueled the rise of Hitler and Stalin and Pol Pot by refusing to recognize what John Paull II did: Moral choices drive life and death in this world. To ignore them is to reduce humanity to the status of a beast and allow for philosophical support of his enslavement and abuse.
So how does if feel to be nothing more than a piece of sentient meat, no better than a cow Polly? Because that is what lurks you at the end of your philosophical path; Mr Neitsche and gibbet await you there.
Or you can turn and see why Christ's church continues to exist and flourish in the world outside your little self-centered sphere, has done so for 20 centuries, and will continue to do so.
Its up to you, but imagine your surprise when you find out there is a God and he is your judge. Good luck with that. I know which side of the chasm I want to be on.
#3
Polly shoulda been a parrot. I couldn't finish, but Fred was WAAAAAYYYY ahead!
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/08/2005 0:52 Comments ||
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#4
"Still the Vatican turns a blind eye to this most repugnant and damaging of all sexual practices, the suffering little children whose priests come unto them."
Wrong - this has been addressed repeatedly in the US, and is an ongoing requirement by the Bishops form the Vatican that positive steps must be taken swiftly to stop this from happening, get those preists removed and handed over to the authorities, and purge the Church of those who woudl do such evil.
Apparently Polly has been sleeping the last 5 years.
And as for...
"It always expresses itself as disgust for women's bodies, leading to a need to suppress women altogether. "
Bullpucky. Other than the the Triune God himself, Mary is the most venerated (but not worshipped) people in the Church. Last I looked, Mary was still a woman.
Also, she has obviously NEVER read Pope John Paul II's "Theology of the Body", which dispells about 98% of her hate-filled tirade against religion.
I challenge her to read that, and to talk with a truly non-prejudging mind to Women of the Third Millineum http://www.wttm.org/.
As one of the Vatican documents on Human Sexuality (much of it authored by JP2) says:
Man is called to love and to self-giving in the unity of body and spirit. Femininity and masculinity are complementary gifts, through which human sexuality is an integrating part of the concrete capacity for love which God has inscribed in man and woman. "Sexuality is a fundamental component of personality, one of its modes of being, of manifestation, of communicating with others, of feeling, of expressing and of living human love. The human body, with its sex, and its masculinity and femininity, seen in the very mystery of creation, is not only a source of fruitfulness and procreation, as in the whole natural order, but includes right 'from the beginning' the 'nuptial' attribute, that is, the capacity of expressing love: that love precisely in which the person becomes a gift and â by means of this gift â fulfils the very meaning of being and existence".
Human sexuality is thus a good, part of that created gift which God saw as being "very good", when he created the human person in his image and likeness, and "male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27). Insofar as it is a way of relating and being open to others, sexuality has love as its intrinsic end, more precisely, love as donation and acceptance, love as giving and receiving. The relationship between a man and a woman is essentially a relationship of love: "Sexuality, oriented, elevated and integrated by love acquires truly human quality". When such love exists in marriage, self-giving expresses, through the body, the complementarity and totality of the gift. Married love thus becomes a power which enriches persons and makes them grow and, at the same time, it contributes to building up the civilization of love.
...
But when the sense and meaning of gift is lacking in sexuality, a "civilization of things and not of persons" takes over, "a civilization in which persons are used in the same way as things are used. In the context of a civilization of use, woman can become an object for man, children a hindrance to parents...".
...
Polly's very logic takes her to that place where peopela re objects and sex is juse a biological function, no higher than an animal. Totalitarianism lurks at the end of that path, using people as a means to your ends.
Polly probably is so blind to her own hatred that she may not even realize what a dead end road she is speeding down with a brick in the accelerator.
#6
I've been mediatating prior to watching the Pope's funeral - to heck with my Tivo, I should stay up to see him off regardless of how inconvenient to me. Gotta walk the walk you know.
Anyway, looking back, she strikes me as someone who has not moved fully into freedom, and is ignorant of how far she has to go - and is also iognorant of how little she knows. She is living proof that a little knowledge (very little in her case) is a dangerous thing.
She has only gotten into the first part of the first half - the freedom to ignore/disobey rules. She has yet to move into the freedom that comes from obeying rules by your on voltion.
Once you get there, you need to really start looking at what is, not your conceptions of what is, but seeing "with new eyes". Otherwise you will never move past external freedoms and into the freedoms that internalized freedom gives you. And if you are fortunate enough, you can move past the inner room, and get true freedom.
Its like this...
Here is a scene, a real one not a painting, just a place, put it in your mind. All that is in it is a boulder. No grass, no hils, nothing else of note.
A normal person says "Thats a boulder", but unthinkingly doesnt go any further. That is obliviouness - and it where most peopel are - indeed all of us are there in some respect given a matter about which we know nothing - At this point we have very little freedom other than just naming the object. We can either work to get a deeper understanding of the boulder or simply leave.
Polly is at the next point. The point you say that "I am a free being - I can call that a stone or a tree or a buffalo and nothing you can do can stop me from calling it that". But she can never see it as anything other than something that refuses to be what she wants it to be. So she is free in one sense, to be able to verbalize her wants, but not as free as she could be. And she is in self-deception in that she has placed her ego ahead of reality.
The freedom of accepting rules would move her into a stage where she could look at it as a sculptor or miner, for instance. Educating and discplining your mind to know the rules of sculpting or mining, knowing how rock will chip, how ore looks in the rock - and know them so well that you can see through lenses provided by the rules to what the rock can be: that could be a statue of an eagle, or it could be mined to produce gravel, silver ore, and metals. Once you reach this point, you see the statue or the products every time you look at the boulder. You have the freedom to see all the possibilities this boulder can contain, which is far more freedom than just calling it a name and wishing it was something else. You can use your rules to make the rock into something you want. But you still havent gotten to the truth aobut the rock, only to a stage where you can try to change how the rock looks to you, in your own mind.
The third stage is where you start to internalize and see the boulder for what it is. You can climb on it, you sit on it, use a flat spot to hold your picnic lunch. You are finally looking at the rock for itself, and what you can do without trying to make it into something else.
The last stage is where you see it for what it is, a boulder. Not for what you want to call it, nor what you want to make of it, nor for what you want to do with it. It is a rock, it exists and thats what it is - you see the essential truth of it, inside.
Its the last knowing that give you the most freedom - because you are no longer dominated by your efforts of trying to name the boulder, transform the boulder nor use the boulder, but are just setting your relationship to the boulder and seeing it for what it is.
At this point the boulder "just is" and you accept it as part of natural life - you could no longer see it as anything other than the boulder that it is, you have the freedom found in truth - and the truth found in freedom.
#9
Ah, thats where Christian Mysticism and Zen part ways. Zen may point to the moon, but we know who made both the finger pointing and the moon that it is pointing to.
In actuality, the early Chirstian Desert Fathers & Sisters and their mysticism and contemplative meditations are identical to those in zen, and they came about in 300-600 AD, which predates the Bodhidarma and his journey to China to invent Chi'an (which became Zen when it hit Japan a hundred+ years later).
So despite people thinking Zen is this ancient tradition, Christian contemplative type meditaiton predates it. Why you haven't heard this is that a lot of it was "lost to the Roman Church (and hence western society) when Christianity split east and west, then a lot more was lost when the Moslems boiled out of Arabia and put the Christian Church in the desert to the sword, and burned thier libraries and temples so they could build Mosques on top of them.
#11
Faith is what gets you through in the toughest of spots Or at least it did for me. I pity those like Polly who have their faith placed in man.
We are moral beings even though many of us deny it (myself included up until a few yeaaars ago).
I meditate, and introspect, and pray on my knees, and humble myself before my maker - and I even give it a lot of thought as to why and how I believe the things that I do.
Thats how I get things like I wrote above.
Stop looking at me like that...
What, did you guys think I was just some analytical stone cold spook?
#12
A Rantburg classic of a different sort. Fred, an avowed atheist defends the Pope and a Catholic meditates. My 2CW is 'Bollinger Bolsheviks' have mutated into Chardonnay Socialists, a category I would place Ms Toynbee in.
#13
The Pope doesn't have any temporal power. He's a spiritual leader. The Papal States have been gone for 150 years.
Good point, Fred. Losing the Papal States was the best thing that ever happened to the Church since the Resurrection. We're supposed to be in the world, not of the world.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/08/2005 6:56 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Having read your posts, esp # 6 & 9, I find myself asking several questions, meaning no disrespect in any of them. In # 6, you have clearly stated the process of meditation of a mystic: it is a rock, it is a unity, it is after all a rock. You are correct in #9 that christianity predates Zen by several hundred years, but the dharma is a thousand years older than zen, and shows many paths. I don't think the time line is of much real significance anyway, since almost all world religious beliefs have the path of the mystic, and most of them show similar characteristics. My real question to you is: to what degree do you beleive that the catholic path is the only true one. Are other christian paths only faint shadows of the truth, and non-christian paths simply invalid, or are there in pact many rooms in the house? Traditional catholocism, as I understand it, states that the only valid path is through the spiritual Christ. Your thoughts?
Posted by: Weird Al ||
04/08/2005 8:11 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Pope John Paul II: chosen spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics.
Prince Rainier: hereditary leader or 32,000 gambling resort citizens.
Polly Toynbee's Brain: miniscule, with what little there is focused primarily on contraception.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/08/2005 9:36 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Ha! Polly is a fruit-cake. She's feeling so right about blaming the Pope for killing millions because of his stand with the use of condoms. "Highly Illogical"
Posted by: Chinese Unomoger1553 ||
04/08/2005 9:44 Comments ||
Top||
#17
On the condom issue, the Pope said it best on the issue. He wasn't taking sides, but said he was like a father, just like any father would prefer no sex for their unwed children than safe sex.
#19
"With its ban on condoms the church has caused the death of millions of Catholics and others in areas dominated by Catholic missionaries, in Africa and right across the world."
Um, I don't get it. Are we supposed to believe that millions of Africans and others who choose not to adhere to the church's teachings on marital fidelity, sexual intercourse only being appropriate in the context of married relationship, homosexuality, etc., strictly adhere to the church's position on condom usage? That's total BS. While the Pope was a champion of the spread of freedom and political democracy, he made it emminently clear that the church is not, and should not be, a democracy.
Posted by: Tibor ||
04/08/2005 10:34 Comments ||
Top||
#20
Wonder if Polly's still getting sucked in by those Nigerian scam letters? That'll do wonders for people's perceptions of your intelligence.
The Catholic church is responsible for all those deaths, just the same way Reagan was responsible for the spread of AIDS in the U.S.
You know, they both...kind of...well...like... supported the uptight patriarchal view of sexual relations. And as we all know there is no better vector for the spread of disease than a patriarchy.
#22
Will someone please give this woman a dose of Ritalin. We Non-Catholic Christians may have differences with the Late Pope on a number of issues, both political, and religious, but to refer to him as a promulgator of mass murder is unconscionable.
Her delivery of ad hominem spewage silences discussion of her points, some of which may have validity (non-abortion birth control, etc.), but are a non sequitor to devout Catholics...
#23
she's right. The Pope's position on condoms directly led to the recent contraction of super-HIV and subsequent AIDS infection of the NY man who had unprotected anal sex with over a 100 unknown men in a gay bathhouse....
rrriiiggghhhttt
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2005 11:50 Comments ||
Top||
#24
To put it simply, my view is that for salvation, the Catholic Church has "the whole pie", compared to other parts of Christianity that have slices missing, and non-Christian religions that may be just a slice in itself.
Buddhism is particularly odd in that it depends on what kind of Buddhism you are looking at. Almost all of them are very non-Theistic, that is it doenst say anything about whether God exists in a monotheistic or polytheistic (e.g. Hindu) way. This is as opposed to atheistic, which positively denys the existence of any god. At their core they make no claims for or against god (indeed to do so coudl be construed as somethign that ties them down), yet the veneration of the Buddha (Gautuma that is) has blown into full-scale reverence that borders on god-worship.
After being an atheist in rebellion as a college kid (severe Objectivist Rand-inista, and I still admire much of Rand's work) I walked the 8-fold path for several years, and in the end, I found it wanting - as a matter of fact, that was the emptiness at the end of the path that led me to Christianity. The great "I Am" was there at the end daring me to recognize Him. It took me years to do so (Im a stubborn SOB). I can hardly condemn anyone that believes but never makes the (final) connection and takes the leap that I did - IMHO it is (was) very difficult seeing the Dharma as incomplete in an orthogonal way, and leaving the Sangha for the Catholic Church. But I believe there is Grace in Buddhism, since it contains noble ideals and a lot of intrinsic "good" (from my personal standpoint), and its quite interesting for that culture in which it was forged, given its "theology" that it is essentially a shortcut on how to escape from the wheel of rebirth.
Look to Thich Nhat Hanh and Thomas Merton for the linkages I walked, although both of them are giants and I'm relatively a pissant by comparison.
Remember - all of the above is not some theologian talking, its just my personal experience during my decades of journey on this earth (so don't think I'm prosetylizing or preaching). I'm not done walking yet, far from it: there is so much to know and so little that I do know, and I am far far from even approaching "good enough", much less "perfect". I'm just glad that my chosen faith allows for and expects human imperfection, because I regularly need forgiveness for my flaws and help in mending them and the damage they do.
And thats all for me, done rambling - time to get some sleep.
#25
I am tired - sorry I rambled and never answered your question.
I guess you could say that inside Christiainty and the Triune God, I am a strong believer in the holy catholic (and Catholic) Church that Jesus established here as His body on earth. Outside the Church, and Christianity, I do not condemn the other paths, but I do believe that mine is the surest one and I should let others know about it so they can choose.
Some give me severe doubts (Islam for one, since it is so violent and demands unthinking literalism), so there I am more inclined to disbelieve. Others, such as Hindu pantheon, is so alien to me that I tend to dismiss it out of hand. And Buddhism above, you can see where I think it leads, but also that I believe it to be worthy and to contain "good" with many paralells to Christianity's truth.
In sum, I believe that there may be many paths, but I also believe that the one held by Christianity in general and (Catholicism in particular) is the only one of which I am sure. The other paths may or may not get you there. And inside the realm of Christianity, Catholicism has the "Interstate Highway" - the most sure, complete and direct route to the destination of salvation.
Outside of Chistianity I am probably best labeled "agnostic" when it comes to those paths and whether or not they lead ultimately to salvation.
This time I really need to go. Zzzzz.. have a good day Rantburg.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2005 13:44 Comments ||
Top||
#27
Re Old Spook's mention of Thomas Merton: New Seeds of Contemplation is one of the most difficult books I've ever read, and one of the most profound. An absolute must if you're a Catholic.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2005 13:46 Comments ||
Top||
#28
Of course, the fact that Mr Blair and his wife consider themselves Christians (aren't they Catholic? I thought so....or at least Cherie is, right?) might have something to do with their wanting to be there, Polly?
Yeah, I know, too taxing. Maybe that nice little Nigerian girl you gave money to can explain it to you.
She might also be able to explain that condoms aren't 100% effective, too. Or why only someone stuck in a time warp calls it "safe sex" instead of the newer term "safer sex". Can you make the distinction between the two words, Polly? Didn't think so.
But hey, I'll give Polly some credit. She does have an impressive....thesaurus.
#29
Thanks to OS. I appreciate your thoughts. There are several paths, some as you point out less appetizing than others. For me, the path was almost the opposite. Raised more or less christian, I could never could seem to fit, and always felt there was something wrong with me. Some 20 years ago I began reading comparative religioon, and came upon the dharma. It was as though my eyes had opened, I remember feeling that I had finally come upon people who thought the same way I did. For each his own, and good luck to all.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
04/08/2005 13:52 Comments ||
Top||
#30
Polly is an idiot.
The Church starts with a statment: God exists and loves us. From that it is a given that Life Matters. And all the contraception policies and teachings, the teachings on euthansia, the teachings on human dignity, the teachings on social justice, all of that flows neccesarily. Its a shame you dont go any further than sophist arguments that are underpinned by the ugly hatred that you show in your writings.
Polly, you doent work from first causes, switching effect for cause, and treating symptom and not the source. You make so many severe errors its hard to weed them all out without writing a 20 page post.
Extramarital sex (which by its nature includes homosexual sex and prostitution) and needles shared in drug abuse are responsible for the vast source of AID, not the lack of condoms. Its evolution at work. If you can control yourself and not rut like a beast in heat, you live. If not, you die. The old Catholic saw about "chaste by your station" rings true as a lifesaving rule.
Polly, its fairly simple, even someone as simpleminded as you. Act liek a moral being and you will live. Act liek a "rationalist" moron and let your hedonism drive you, and you will die.
Sorry Polly, no cracker for you.
Remember Polly, atheists like you fueled the rise of Hitler and Stalin and Pol Pot by refusing to recognize what John Paull II did: Moral choices drive life and death in this world. To ignore them is to reduce humanity to the status of a beast and allow for philosophical support of his enslavement and abuse.
So how does if feel to be nothing more than a piece of sentient meat, no better than a cow Polly? Because that is what lurks you at the end of your philosophical path; Mr Neitsche and gibbet await you there.
Or you can turn and see why Christ's church continues to exist and flourish in the world outside your little self-centered sphere, has done so for 20 centuries, and will continue to do so.
Its up to you, but imagine your surprise when you find out there is a God and he is your judge. Good luck with that. I know which side of the chasm I want to be on.
#31
"Still the Vatican turns a blind eye to this most repugnant and damaging of all sexual practices, the suffering little children whose priests come unto them."
Wrong - this has been addressed repeatedly in the US, and is an ongoing requirement by the Bishops form the Vatican that positive steps must be taken swiftly to stop this from happening, get those preists removed and handed over to the authorities, and purge the Church of those who woudl do such evil.
Apparently Polly has been sleeping the last 5 years.
And as for...
"It always expresses itself as disgust for women's bodies, leading to a need to suppress women altogether. "
Bullpucky. Other than the the Triune God himself, Mary is the most venerated (but not worshipped) people in the Church. Last I looked, Mary was still a woman.
Also, she has obviously NEVER read Pope John Paul II's "Theology of the Body", which dispells about 98% of her hate-filled tirade against religion.
I challenge her to read that, and to talk with a truly non-prejudging mind to Women of the Third Millineum http://www.wttm.org/.
As one of the Vatican documents on Human Sexuality (much of it authored by JP2) says:
Man is called to love and to self-giving in the unity of body and spirit. Femininity and masculinity are complementary gifts, through which human sexuality is an integrating part of the concrete capacity for love which God has inscribed in man and woman. "Sexuality is a fundamental component of personality, one of its modes of being, of manifestation, of communicating with others, of feeling, of expressing and of living human love. The human body, with its sex, and its masculinity and femininity, seen in the very mystery of creation, is not only a source of fruitfulness and procreation, as in the whole natural order, but includes right 'from the beginning' the 'nuptial' attribute, that is, the capacity of expressing love: that love precisely in which the person becomes a gift and â by means of this gift â fulfils the very meaning of being and existence".
Human sexuality is thus a good, part of that created gift which God saw as being "very good", when he created the human person in his image and likeness, and "male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27). Insofar as it is a way of relating and being open to others, sexuality has love as its intrinsic end, more precisely, love as donation and acceptance, love as giving and receiving. The relationship between a man and a woman is essentially a relationship of love: "Sexuality, oriented, elevated and integrated by love acquires truly human quality". When such love exists in marriage, self-giving expresses, through the body, the complementarity and totality of the gift. Married love thus becomes a power which enriches persons and makes them grow and, at the same time, it contributes to building up the civilization of love.
...
But when the sense and meaning of gift is lacking in sexuality, a "civilization of things and not of persons" takes over, "a civilization in which persons are used in the same way as things are used. In the context of a civilization of use, woman can become an object for man, children a hindrance to parents...".
...
Polly's very logic takes her to that place where peopela re objects and sex is juse a biological function, no higher than an animal. Totalitarianism lurks at the end of that path, using people as a means to your ends.
Polly probably is so blind to her own hatred that she may not even realize what a dead end road she is speeding down with a brick in the accelerator.
#32
I've been mediatating prior to watching the Pope's funeral - to heck with my Tivo, I should stay up to see him off regardless of how inconvenient to me. Gotta walk the walk you know.
Anyway, looking back, she strikes me as someone who has not moved fully into freedom, and is ignorant of how far she has to go - and is also iognorant of how little she knows. She is living proof that a little knowledge (very little in her case) is a dangerous thing.
She has only gotten into the first part of the first half - the freedom to ignore/disobey rules. She has yet to move into the freedom that comes from obeying rules by your on voltion.
Once you get there, you need to really start looking at what is, not your conceptions of what is, but seeing "with new eyes". Otherwise you will never move past external freedoms and into the freedoms that internalized freedom gives you. And if you are fortunate enough, you can move past the inner room, and get true freedom.
Its like this...
Here is a scene, a real one not a painting, just a place, put it in your mind. All that is in it is a boulder. No grass, no hils, nothing else of note.
A normal person says "Thats a boulder", but unthinkingly doesnt go any further. That is obliviouness - and it where most peopel are - indeed all of us are there in some respect given a matter about which we know nothing - At this point we have very little freedom other than just naming the object. We can either work to get a deeper understanding of the boulder or simply leave.
Polly is at the next point. The point you say that "I am a free being - I can call that a stone or a tree or a buffalo and nothing you can do can stop me from calling it that". But she can never see it as anything other than something that refuses to be what she wants it to be. So she is free in one sense, to be able to verbalize her wants, but not as free as she could be. And she is in self-deception in that she has placed her ego ahead of reality.
The freedom of accepting rules would move her into a stage where she could look at it as a sculptor or miner, for instance. Educating and discplining your mind to know the rules of sculpting or mining, knowing how rock will chip, how ore looks in the rock - and know them so well that you can see through lenses provided by the rules to what the rock can be: that could be a statue of an eagle, or it could be mined to produce gravel, silver ore, and metals. Once you reach this point, you see the statue or the products every time you look at the boulder. You have the freedom to see all the possibilities this boulder can contain, which is far more freedom than just calling it a name and wishing it was something else. You can use your rules to make the rock into something you want. But you still havent gotten to the truth aobut the rock, only to a stage where you can try to change how the rock looks to you, in your own mind.
The third stage is where you start to internalize and see the boulder for what it is. You can climb on it, you sit on it, use a flat spot to hold your picnic lunch. You are finally looking at the rock for itself, and what you can do without trying to make it into something else.
The last stage is where you see it for what it is, a boulder. Not for what you want to call it, nor what you want to make of it, nor for what you want to do with it. It is a rock, it exists and thats what it is - you see the essential truth of it, inside.
Its the last knowing that give you the most freedom - because you are no longer dominated by your efforts of trying to name the boulder, transform the boulder nor use the boulder, but are just setting your relationship to the boulder and seeing it for what it is.
At this point the boulder "just is" and you accept it as part of natural life - you could no longer see it as anything other than the boulder that it is, you have the freedom found in truth - and the truth found in freedom.
#34
Ah, thats where Christian Mysticism and Zen part ways. Zen may point to the moon, but we know who made both the finger pointing and the moon that it is pointing to.
In actuality, the early Chirstian Desert Fathers & Sisters and their mysticism and contemplative meditations are identical to those in zen, and they came about in 300-600 AD, which predates the Bodhidarma and his journey to China to invent Chi'an (which became Zen when it hit Japan a hundred+ years later).
So despite people thinking Zen is this ancient tradition, Christian contemplative type meditaiton predates it. Why you haven't heard this is that a lot of it was "lost to the Roman Church (and hence western society) when Christianity split east and west, then a lot more was lost when the Moslems boiled out of Arabia and put the Christian Church in the desert to the sword, and burned thier libraries and temples so they could build Mosques on top of them.
#35
Faith is what gets you through in the toughest of spots Or at least it did for me. I pity those like Polly who have their faith placed in man.
We are moral beings even though many of us deny it (myself included up until a few yeaaars ago).
I meditate, and introspect, and pray on my knees, and humble myself before my maker - and I even give it a lot of thought as to why and how I believe the things that I do.
Thats how I get things like I wrote above.
Stop looking at me like that...
What, did you guys think I was just some analytical stone cold spook?
#36
To put it simply, my view is that for salvation, the Catholic Church has "the whole pie", compared to other parts of Christianity that have slices missing, and non-Christian religions that may be just a slice in itself.
Buddhism is particularly odd in that it depends on what kind of Buddhism you are looking at. Almost all of them are very non-Theistic, that is it doenst say anything about whether God exists in a monotheistic or polytheistic (e.g. Hindu) way. This is as opposed to atheistic, which positively denys the existence of any god. At their core they make no claims for or against god (indeed to do so coudl be construed as somethign that ties them down), yet the veneration of the Buddha (Gautuma that is) has blown into full-scale reverence that borders on god-worship.
After being an atheist in rebellion as a college kid (severe Objectivist Rand-inista, and I still admire much of Rand's work) I walked the 8-fold path for several years, and in the end, I found it wanting - as a matter of fact, that was the emptiness at the end of the path that led me to Christianity. The great "I Am" was there at the end daring me to recognize Him. It took me years to do so (Im a stubborn SOB). I can hardly condemn anyone that believes but never makes the (final) connection and takes the leap that I did - IMHO it is (was) very difficult seeing the Dharma as incomplete in an orthogonal way, and leaving the Sangha for the Catholic Church. But I believe there is Grace in Buddhism, since it contains noble ideals and a lot of intrinsic "good" (from my personal standpoint), and its quite interesting for that culture in which it was forged, given its "theology" that it is essentially a shortcut on how to escape from the wheel of rebirth.
Look to Thich Nhat Hanh and Thomas Merton for the linkages I walked, although both of them are giants and I'm relatively a pissant by comparison.
Remember - all of the above is not some theologian talking, its just my personal experience during my decades of journey on this earth (so don't think I'm prosetylizing or preaching). I'm not done walking yet, far from it: there is so much to know and so little that I do know, and I am far far from even approaching "good enough", much less "perfect". I'm just glad that my chosen faith allows for and expects human imperfection, because I regularly need forgiveness for my flaws and help in mending them and the damage they do.
And thats all for me, done rambling - time to get some sleep.
#37
I am tired - sorry I rambled and never answered your question.
I guess you could say that inside Christiainty and the Triune God, I am a strong believer in the holy catholic (and Catholic) Church that Jesus established here as His body on earth. Outside the Church, and Christianity, I do not condemn the other paths, but I do believe that mine is the surest one and I should let others know about it so they can choose.
Some give me severe doubts (Islam for one, since it is so violent and demands unthinking literalism), so there I am more inclined to disbelieve. Others, such as Hindu pantheon, is so alien to me that I tend to dismiss it out of hand. And Buddhism above, you can see where I think it leads, but also that I believe it to be worthy and to contain "good" with many paralells to Christianity's truth.
In sum, I believe that there may be many paths, but I also believe that the one held by Christianity in general and (Catholicism in particular) is the only one of which I am sure. The other paths may or may not get you there. And inside the realm of Christianity, Catholicism has the "Interstate Highway" - the most sure, complete and direct route to the destination of salvation.
Outside of Chistianity I am probably best labeled "agnostic" when it comes to those paths and whether or not they lead ultimately to salvation.
This time I really need to go. Zzzzz.. have a good day Rantburg.
The Church starts with a statment: God exists and loves us. From that it is a given that Life Matters. And all the contraception policies and teachings, the teachings on euthansia, the teachings on human dignity, the teachings on social justice, all of that flows neccesarily. Its a shame you dont go any further than sophist arguments that are underpinned by the ugly hatred that you show in your writings.
Polly, you doent work from first causes, switching effect for cause, and treating symptom and not the source. You make so many severe errors its hard to weed them all out without writing a 20 page post.
Extramarital sex (which by its nature includes homosexual sex and prostitution) and needles shared in drug abuse are responsible for the vast source of AID, not the lack of condoms. Its evolution at work. If you can control yourself and not rut like a beast in heat, you live. If not, you die. The old Catholic saw about "chaste by your station" rings true as a lifesaving rule.
Polly, its fairly simple, even someone as simpleminded as you. Act liek a moral being and you will live. Act liek a "rationalist" moron and let your hedonism drive you, and you will die.
Sorry Polly, no cracker for you.
Remember Polly, atheists like you fueled the rise of Hitler and Stalin and Pol Pot by refusing to recognize what John Paull II did: Moral choices drive life and death in this world. To ignore them is to reduce humanity to the status of a beast and allow for philosophical support of his enslavement and abuse.
So how does if feel to be nothing more than a piece of sentient meat, no better than a cow Polly? Because that is what lurks you at the end of your philosophical path; Mr Neitsche and gibbet await you there.
Or you can turn and see why Christ's church continues to exist and flourish in the world outside your little self-centered sphere, has done so for 20 centuries, and will continue to do so.
Its up to you, but imagine your surprise when you find out there is a God and he is your judge. Good luck with that. I know which side of the chasm I want to be on.
#39
"Still the Vatican turns a blind eye to this most repugnant and damaging of all sexual practices, the suffering little children whose priests come unto them."
Wrong - this has been addressed repeatedly in the US, and is an ongoing requirement by the Bishops form the Vatican that positive steps must be taken swiftly to stop this from happening, get those preists removed and handed over to the authorities, and purge the Church of those who woudl do such evil.
Apparently Polly has been sleeping the last 5 years.
And as for...
"It always expresses itself as disgust for women's bodies, leading to a need to suppress women altogether. "
Bullpucky. Other than the the Triune God himself, Mary is the most venerated (but not worshipped) people in the Church. Last I looked, Mary was still a woman.
Also, she has obviously NEVER read Pope John Paul II's "Theology of the Body", which dispells about 98% of her hate-filled tirade against religion.
I challenge her to read that, and to talk with a truly non-prejudging mind to Women of the Third Millineum http://www.wttm.org/.
As one of the Vatican documents on Human Sexuality (much of it authored by JP2) says:
Man is called to love and to self-giving in the unity of body and spirit. Femininity and masculinity are complementary gifts, through which human sexuality is an integrating part of the concrete capacity for love which God has inscribed in man and woman. "Sexuality is a fundamental component of personality, one of its modes of being, of manifestation, of communicating with others, of feeling, of expressing and of living human love. The human body, with its sex, and its masculinity and femininity, seen in the very mystery of creation, is not only a source of fruitfulness and procreation, as in the whole natural order, but includes right 'from the beginning' the 'nuptial' attribute, that is, the capacity of expressing love: that love precisely in which the person becomes a gift and â by means of this gift â fulfils the very meaning of being and existence".
Human sexuality is thus a good, part of that created gift which God saw as being "very good", when he created the human person in his image and likeness, and "male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27). Insofar as it is a way of relating and being open to others, sexuality has love as its intrinsic end, more precisely, love as donation and acceptance, love as giving and receiving. The relationship between a man and a woman is essentially a relationship of love: "Sexuality, oriented, elevated and integrated by love acquires truly human quality". When such love exists in marriage, self-giving expresses, through the body, the complementarity and totality of the gift. Married love thus becomes a power which enriches persons and makes them grow and, at the same time, it contributes to building up the civilization of love.
...
But when the sense and meaning of gift is lacking in sexuality, a "civilization of things and not of persons" takes over, "a civilization in which persons are used in the same way as things are used. In the context of a civilization of use, woman can become an object for man, children a hindrance to parents...".
...
Polly's very logic takes her to that place where peopela re objects and sex is juse a biological function, no higher than an animal. Totalitarianism lurks at the end of that path, using people as a means to your ends.
Polly probably is so blind to her own hatred that she may not even realize what a dead end road she is speeding down with a brick in the accelerator.
#40
I've been mediatating prior to watching the Pope's funeral - to heck with my Tivo, I should stay up to see him off regardless of how inconvenient to me. Gotta walk the walk you know.
Anyway, looking back, she strikes me as someone who has not moved fully into freedom, and is ignorant of how far she has to go - and is also iognorant of how little she knows. She is living proof that a little knowledge (very little in her case) is a dangerous thing.
She has only gotten into the first part of the first half - the freedom to ignore/disobey rules. She has yet to move into the freedom that comes from obeying rules by your on voltion.
Once you get there, you need to really start looking at what is, not your conceptions of what is, but seeing "with new eyes". Otherwise you will never move past external freedoms and into the freedoms that internalized freedom gives you. And if you are fortunate enough, you can move past the inner room, and get true freedom.
Its like this...
Here is a scene, a real one not a painting, just a place, put it in your mind. All that is in it is a boulder. No grass, no hils, nothing else of note.
A normal person says "Thats a boulder", but unthinkingly doesnt go any further. That is obliviouness - and it where most peopel are - indeed all of us are there in some respect given a matter about which we know nothing - At this point we have very little freedom other than just naming the object. We can either work to get a deeper understanding of the boulder or simply leave.
Polly is at the next point. The point you say that "I am a free being - I can call that a stone or a tree or a buffalo and nothing you can do can stop me from calling it that". But she can never see it as anything other than something that refuses to be what she wants it to be. So she is free in one sense, to be able to verbalize her wants, but not as free as she could be. And she is in self-deception in that she has placed her ego ahead of reality.
The freedom of accepting rules would move her into a stage where she could look at it as a sculptor or miner, for instance. Educating and discplining your mind to know the rules of sculpting or mining, knowing how rock will chip, how ore looks in the rock - and know them so well that you can see through lenses provided by the rules to what the rock can be: that could be a statue of an eagle, or it could be mined to produce gravel, silver ore, and metals. Once you reach this point, you see the statue or the products every time you look at the boulder. You have the freedom to see all the possibilities this boulder can contain, which is far more freedom than just calling it a name and wishing it was something else. You can use your rules to make the rock into something you want. But you still havent gotten to the truth aobut the rock, only to a stage where you can try to change how the rock looks to you, in your own mind.
The third stage is where you start to internalize and see the boulder for what it is. You can climb on it, you sit on it, use a flat spot to hold your picnic lunch. You are finally looking at the rock for itself, and what you can do without trying to make it into something else.
The last stage is where you see it for what it is, a boulder. Not for what you want to call it, nor what you want to make of it, nor for what you want to do with it. It is a rock, it exists and thats what it is - you see the essential truth of it, inside.
Its the last knowing that give you the most freedom - because you are no longer dominated by your efforts of trying to name the boulder, transform the boulder nor use the boulder, but are just setting your relationship to the boulder and seeing it for what it is.
At this point the boulder "just is" and you accept it as part of natural life - you could no longer see it as anything other than the boulder that it is, you have the freedom found in truth - and the truth found in freedom.
#42
Ah, thats where Christian Mysticism and Zen part ways. Zen may point to the moon, but we know who made both the finger pointing and the moon that it is pointing to.
In actuality, the early Chirstian Desert Fathers & Sisters and their mysticism and contemplative meditations are identical to those in zen, and they came about in 300-600 AD, which predates the Bodhidarma and his journey to China to invent Chi'an (which became Zen when it hit Japan a hundred+ years later).
So despite people thinking Zen is this ancient tradition, Christian contemplative type meditaiton predates it. Why you haven't heard this is that a lot of it was "lost to the Roman Church (and hence western society) when Christianity split east and west, then a lot more was lost when the Moslems boiled out of Arabia and put the Christian Church in the desert to the sword, and burned thier libraries and temples so they could build Mosques on top of them.
#43
Faith is what gets you through in the toughest of spots Or at least it did for me. I pity those like Polly who have their faith placed in man.
We are moral beings even though many of us deny it (myself included up until a few yeaaars ago).
I meditate, and introspect, and pray on my knees, and humble myself before my maker - and I even give it a lot of thought as to why and how I believe the things that I do.
Thats how I get things like I wrote above.
Stop looking at me like that...
What, did you guys think I was just some analytical stone cold spook?
#44
To put it simply, my view is that for salvation, the Catholic Church has "the whole pie", compared to other parts of Christianity that have slices missing, and non-Christian religions that may be just a slice in itself.
Buddhism is particularly odd in that it depends on what kind of Buddhism you are looking at. Almost all of them are very non-Theistic, that is it doenst say anything about whether God exists in a monotheistic or polytheistic (e.g. Hindu) way. This is as opposed to atheistic, which positively denys the existence of any god. At their core they make no claims for or against god (indeed to do so coudl be construed as somethign that ties them down), yet the veneration of the Buddha (Gautuma that is) has blown into full-scale reverence that borders on god-worship.
After being an atheist in rebellion as a college kid (severe Objectivist Rand-inista, and I still admire much of Rand's work) I walked the 8-fold path for several years, and in the end, I found it wanting - as a matter of fact, that was the emptiness at the end of the path that led me to Christianity. The great "I Am" was there at the end daring me to recognize Him. It took me years to do so (Im a stubborn SOB). I can hardly condemn anyone that believes but never makes the (final) connection and takes the leap that I did - IMHO it is (was) very difficult seeing the Dharma as incomplete in an orthogonal way, and leaving the Sangha for the Catholic Church. But I believe there is Grace in Buddhism, since it contains noble ideals and a lot of intrinsic "good" (from my personal standpoint), and its quite interesting for that culture in which it was forged, given its "theology" that it is essentially a shortcut on how to escape from the wheel of rebirth.
Look to Thich Nhat Hanh and Thomas Merton for the linkages I walked, although both of them are giants and I'm relatively a pissant by comparison.
Remember - all of the above is not some theologian talking, its just my personal experience during my decades of journey on this earth (so don't think I'm prosetylizing or preaching). I'm not done walking yet, far from it: there is so much to know and so little that I do know, and I am far far from even approaching "good enough", much less "perfect". I'm just glad that my chosen faith allows for and expects human imperfection, because I regularly need forgiveness for my flaws and help in mending them and the damage they do.
And thats all for me, done rambling - time to get some sleep.
#45
I am tired - sorry I rambled and never answered your question.
I guess you could say that inside Christiainty and the Triune God, I am a strong believer in the holy catholic (and Catholic) Church that Jesus established here as His body on earth. Outside the Church, and Christianity, I do not condemn the other paths, but I do believe that mine is the surest one and I should let others know about it so they can choose.
Some give me severe doubts (Islam for one, since it is so violent and demands unthinking literalism), so there I am more inclined to disbelieve. Others, such as Hindu pantheon, is so alien to me that I tend to dismiss it out of hand. And Buddhism above, you can see where I think it leads, but also that I believe it to be worthy and to contain "good" with many paralells to Christianity's truth.
In sum, I believe that there may be many paths, but I also believe that the one held by Christianity in general and (Catholicism in particular) is the only one of which I am sure. The other paths may or may not get you there. And inside the realm of Christianity, Catholicism has the "Interstate Highway" - the most sure, complete and direct route to the destination of salvation.
Outside of Chistianity I am probably best labeled "agnostic" when it comes to those paths and whether or not they lead ultimately to salvation.
This time I really need to go. Zzzzz.. have a good day Rantburg.
China plans to build 40 nuclear power plants over the next 15 years, making them the main power source for its booming east coast, a government official said in remarks reported Thursday.
China is expected to be the world's biggest developer of nuclear power stations in coming decades as the government tries to meet soaring demands for electricity while reducing pollution from coal-fired power plants.
Zhang Fubao, an official of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, made the prediction Wednesday at a symposium on the nuclear power market and technology, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
With no plants planned in the United States and few in other Western countries, suppliers of equipment are looking to China to drive sales in their industry.
Zhang said the Chinese nuclear industry's generating capacity was expected to reach 40 million kilowatts in 2020, though he did not say how that compared to current levels.
"Nuclear power will become the pillar of energy supply in coastal areas of east China," the center of the country's export-driven economic boom, he was quoted as saying.
China is reviewing plans for expanding two nuclear power plants and proposals to start building two more in the booming southern provinces of Guangdong and Zhejiang, Xinhua said.
According to the news agency, China's nuclear power plants supplied 50.4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity last year, accounting for 2.3 percent of the national total.
Posted by: ed ||
04/08/2005 12:18:43 AM ||
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40 thousand megawatts from 40 plants sounds reasonable, given that the world currently gets about 360,000 megawatts from 440 existing plants. The Chinese will be using the latest technology, which hopefully will be more efficient than some of the existing plants, thus explaining the slightly higher figures.
One hopes - you can never tell with Communist-trained engineers. They might be trying for some sort of idiotic gigantism. Cross your fingers and hope they've all been properly trained in the United States.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/08/2005 13:44 Comments ||
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#2
Even after China has built the 40 plants it will still generate less of its electricity as a percentage of the total than many developed countries. Plants that were built 30 years ago still produce cheaply reliably and are not subject to feedstock supply disruptions.
Another Great Leap Forward in the DPRK!
Pyongyang, April 7 (KCNA) -- A research institute under the Academy of Sciences of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has developed a new health drink "Kumgangchonyonbullosu" (Kumgang natural health water). Pronounce it, and win a swell prize.
Its ingredients are more than 50 essential microelements extracted from kumgang medicinal stone and various other medicinal minerals and 10-odd rare-earth elements. It, with over 10 kinds of deoxidizing elements, is efficacious for aging and diseases. Looks like they are combining Super Rock technology and Super Water technology. We're all doomed!
A section chief of the institute Ri Won Sop, who had led the research team, told KCNA that it is potent for such diseases as chronic hepatitis, rheumarthritis, diabetes, inveterate gastritis, gastric ulcer and other digestive diseases, myocarditis and arteriosclerosis and even various kinds of cancer. Cures what ails ya! So step right up!
When children take this water, it helps them grow quickly and healthily and increase resistance to diseases. Bet it tastes great with Kool Aid.
Clinical tests proved that it has neither toxic nor side effect. Could be because...it's water?
Posted by: tu3031 ||
04/08/2005 9:18:41 AM ||
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The DPRK will be hawking shite on late night tv infomercials here within 5 yrs. Now all they need to invent is a silver bullet (50 cal or larger) to stick in lil Kim's huge head at a few thousand fps. That would be a mass wonder cure for 99.9% of what ails the DPRK.
#2
"Here kid, drink this water. It'll make ya healthy and grow quickly. Enjoy, 'cause Kumgangchonyonbullosu is the only thing yer gonna get in yer stomach for a long, long, time."
PRIME Minister John Howard remained defiant today following Papua New Guinea's demands for an apology over the treatment of Prime Minister Michael Somare at an Australian airport.
PNG has suspended an $800 million Australian assistance program, saying Australia must apologise for making Sir Michael remove his shoes during a security check at Brisbane airport on March 24.
The incident has provoked protests in PNG, which has now cancelled meetings with Australian officials over the row.
Mr Howard said Australia and PNG would have to work through the incident, but did not offer an apology for the PNG leader's treatment by airport security staff.
"It should be understood that what was applied here are the rules that apply to all of us," he said on Melbourne radio 3AW.
"The last time I went overseas in January on a commercial flight ... I put my bags through the X-ray machine like everybody else."
Mr Howard said his wife Janette always took off her shoes, many of which had metal bands, before going through domestic airport security checks to avoid setting off the alarm.
"I've never had any problem with doing it," he said.
"We have a simple rule in this country that we do have these systems and if I go to another country and I'm asked to go through an X-ray machine I'm only too happy to do so.
"I frankly believe that these are things that if it's good enough for the rest of the community it's good enough for the prime minster."
PNG government's Chief Secretary Joshua Kalinoe said yesterday that 149 Australian police and civil servants already in the country under Australia's Enhanced Co-operation Program would be allowed to stay.
But he said no new personnel would be accepted until Canberra apologised over the incident.
Mr Kalinoe said today Australia's response to the issue has been arrogant.
"There was no indication of sympathy or regrets at the way the incident happened," he said on ABC radio.
"The fact of the matter is the incident happened to an elderly statesman and prime minister of a foreign country.
"And, the least we expected from Australian authorities is that to say, look, it was a regrettable incident, we will be investigating this and try to reach an understanding that it doesn't happen again in future."
Human Services Minister Joe Hockey said PNG's action would only hurt its own people.
"I just find it astounding I must say," he said on Channel 7.
"It's going to affect the people of Papua New Guinea who need the aid.
"We're not in the business now of throwing dollops of money through the Papua New Guinea Government ... we actually spend it on projects that help people with water supply, sewerage and so on."
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said the PNG Government should be more concerned with its looming health crisis.
"Frankly his (Mr Somare's) big challenge, if he was serious about it, is what to do with the exploding HIV Aids problem right across PNG," he said on Seven.
Australia plans to eventually deploy 210 police officers and 64 government officials to its northern neighbour under the five-year Enhanced Co-operation Program.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
04/08/2005 6:57:05 PM ||
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Heh. Every time I read a story about Howard - I like him a little more. He's getting dangerously close to totally phrakin' awesome, in my book.
Exclude Bush for a second and ask yourself: How far back would you have to go to find a US Pres who didn't think he was pretty far above special and that privilege was his due -- Truman, maybe?
Hell, we've got a herd of US Senators who would go apeshit. Imagine John F'n Kerry and Tahrayzah actually passing through airport security - like the little folks, y'know, us sheeple (heh)... Yeah, right.
It's probably well past time to bring our Public Servants back down into line with that fact - they're Public Servants. No wait, make that public servants. Yeah, that's more like it.
I excluded Bush above because I figure he'd be down with it, without much fuss and prolly a lot of laughter, but it's hard to picture many others who would be. In fact - if you ponder the folks in question, there's probably a clear inverse relationship between the individual's arrogance and their value to the Republic, lol!
#2
think there's a Saudi or Iranian - diplopassport subtext to this? Make everyone go thru, and the Iranians and Saudis can't sneak their shit thru on diplocover
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2005 23:44 Comments ||
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INDIAN parliamentary Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has cancelled his planned visit to Australia after the Howard Government refused to waive security measures for the MP and his wife, who has a pacemaker.
In what has become another international incident arising from Australia's strict border security requirements, Mr Chatterjee said the measures showed a lack of trust by authorities in Canberra, and was tantamount to an insult to Delhi.
Mr Chatterjee, 75, a member of the Communist Party of India, was due to fly to Sydney today with his wife for a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association ahead of Delhi's hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
He asked Australian authorities if security measures could be waived for Renu Chatterjee, but cancelled his trip after being told that he too would have to undergo security checks, including walking through a metal detector and the possibility of being frisked and asked to empty his pockets.
The Chatterjees were offered private screenings.
It is understood that India exempts international heads of state and parliamentary speakers from security procedures.
Mr Chaterjee said it was a sad day when parliamentary speakers were not trusted.
"What is the good of (Governments) if we do not respect each other," he said.
Mr Chatterjee said the US did not require screening during a visit last year, and said he was afforded similar privileges in Britain and Malaysia.
Speaker of the House of Representatives David Hawker last night said he was not aware of the incident.
"I remember (former US ambassador) Tom Schieffer saying that he was security checked whenever he returned to the US," Mr Hawker said.
A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer confirmed the Australian Government had offered a private security screening to Mr Chatterjee's wife.
"They've chosen not to accept it," the spokesman said.
"We explained that's entirely a matter for them.
"We explained that everyone who comes (to Australia) is subject to our country's security. That's a non-discriminatory policy. That is what the Australian public would expect, it's the law of Australia, there are no exceptions. Our own Government leaders are themselves subject to the security checks."
Papua New Guinea has also branded as undignified, and a breach of diplomatic conventions, an episode in which Prime Minister Michael Somare was asked to take off his shoes after he set off a security alarm at Brisbane airport last month.
But John Howard downplayed the incident yesterday, saying his wife, Janette, routinely took off her shoes when she was going through security at airports.
"She takes her shoes off because often she's wearing shoes that have got a metal band in them," the Prime Minister told Melbourne radio.
"She just automatically takes her shoes off, plonks them in that little container like everybody else and goes through.
"If I go to another country and I'm asked to go through an X-ray machine, I'm only too happy to do so. I frankly believe that these are things that if it's good enough for the rest of the community, it's good enough for the Prime Minister."
He said it was unlikely PNG would refuse $800million in aid from Australia over the incident, despite reports yesterday.
PNG has cancelled high-level talks with Australia, which were due to take place next week.
"This is an incident we'll just have to work through," Mr Howard said.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
04/08/2005 6:37:44 PM ||
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More than 1,500 of our soldiers in Iraq have given their lives to ensure America's safety. An emergency military spending bill to keep their comrades supplied with bullets and gasoline passed the House of Representatives last month with the addition of several important domestic security measures, including national standards for state driver's licenses. The Senate will debate the bill next week, and is considering an addition of its own: amnesty for illegal aliens.
I am not making this up. For several years now, Sen. Larry Craig has teamed up with Sen. Ted Kennedy to relentlessly push the AgJobs bill (the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act, currently S. 359), which would grant amnesty to most illegal alien farmworkers, and their families (plus admit many, many more through a harmful "temporary" worker program). Estimates are that as many as three million illegals could take advantage of this amnesty.
Sen. Craig has said he intends to offer his amnesty as an amendment when the military spending bill is considered next week on the Senate floor. His hope is that if his amnesty is added to the Senate version of the bill it will be too difficult for pro-borders Republicans in the House to kill it when the two bodies meet to reconcile the different versions of the bill. Rest at link
Posted by: ed ||
04/08/2005 8:46:39 AM ||
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It is so scummy that all the villains try to stick in their pet monstrocities into these bills. Note the brief mention of the national ID card, as if it is just a minor thing. That is far worse than any amnesty. Which, by the way, seems to be only fair: if you're going to wink-wink, nod-nod and let millions of illegals into the country, then fair is fair. At least require businesses to treat them like human beings, not slaves. If they are so precious to our economy, then they are precious enough to pay for. If they are too expensive to pay minimum wage, health care, and allow to belong to unions, then they are too expensive to let into the country in the first place. Business and the government have tried to keep the "have our cake and eat it" status quo for too long. Either lock them OUT or make them LEGAL. The US does NOT need a peasant class to abuse any more.
With China's economy booming, Thailand has revived a $23 billion project to excavate a 75-mile canal through its Kra peninsula, linking the Indian Ocean with the Gulf of Thailand. On paper the project looks good -- the canal could save millions of dollars in freighting oil to China and manufactured goods back to the rest of the world. A Thai canal would also allow vessels to avoid the pirate-plagued Straits of Malacca. Next month the Thai Senate is due to vote on a recently completed four-year canal "pre-feasibility" study. Security concerns may finally tip the balance in favor of the project; the Malacca Strait carries the brunt of the traffic to and from China, but a pirate or terrorist attack sinking one large ship in the right spot could completely close the channel, used by more than 50,000 ships annually, nearly one-quarter of the world's sea-borne trade. A Thai canal could relieve the Straits' shipping pressure, by rerouting more than 200 ships per day and shave around 600 miles from the journey from Africa and the Middle East to the Pacific. Hopefully, the canal will be more environmentally friendly than previous schemes; when the idea re-emerged in the early 1980s, backers of a budget $3 billion canal proposed to excavate it using nuclear weapons.
#1
IOW, like the Panama Canal, the Chicoms want it, at least within the range of their Missles, the PLAAF and the PLA Airborne, and just to make sure the Maoists and Red Fractions that are intent to destabilize INDIA will focii on Thailand as well!?
The Energy Department on Wednesday proposed to move a huge pile of radioactive waste away from the banks of the Colorado River -- a victory for environmentalists who fear the debris could poison the Southwest's major source of drinking water.
The immediate reason for concern is that the waste is seeping into the soil, getting into the groundwater and working its way into the Colorado River. The larger, doomsday fear is that a major flood on the Colorado could wash the stuff into the river and poison the water.
The Colorado supplies drinking water to about 25 million people in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix and other cities across the Southwest.
The pile -- a mostly open-air heap that sits on bare ground and is surrounded only by a chain-link fence -- covers 130 acres (52 hectares) near the town of Moab and consists of about 12 million tons of dirt and other waste from decades of uranium ore processing. It contains toxic chemicals and traces of uranium and other radioactive substances.
The Energy Department said it will recommend in an environmental impact statement that the waste be moved to a closed storage facility about 30 miles (48 kilometers) to the north, near Crescent Junction. The department said it plans no final decision until it reviews all public comment.
The site is the only decommissioned uranium mill overseen by the Energy Department that has yet to be cleaned up.
At the new location, the waste would be buried in a hole lined with a protective layer to keep the material from seeping into the groundwater. It would also be covered over.
The waste began piling up in the 1950s after the dawn of the atomic age turned sleepy little communities in Utah into uranium mining boom towns. The Energy Department took control of the site in 2001 after the most recent owner of the mill, Denver-based Atlas Corp., declared bankruptcy in 1998 when it realized it could not afford to deal with the mess. This could be a major nuisance. The "Church Rock Disaster" of 1979 had the same proximate cause and still threatens much of the southwest's water supply. (About the Church Rock Disaster)
#1
Church Rock Disaster - Mmmm! a disaster where no one was killed or apparently injured. Its language like this that causes a lot of people to dismiss this as alarmist claptrap peddled by people who are ideologically opposed to nuclear power.
The reality is all mining without exception leaves waste behind and that waste contains toxic metals and a degree of radioactivity.
#2
phil_b: Church Rock is a major problem. It happens to be upriver from Lake Mead, which is a major water source for Phx, LV, etc. The worst problem may not be the radioactive contamination, but the really nasty heavy metals and other pollutants. It just needs one good flood to create major havoc. Right now, at half-hour intervals, they broadcast in Gallup, NM, warnings not to use water from the river or nearby wells. Church Rock is going to haunt both states for the forseeable future. Its real irony was that it happened just a few months after Three Mile Island, that joke, so everybody already had "nuclear accident fatigue". But whether the contaminants eventually make it to Mead, or they are blown into a populated area as dust, it's still a significant hazard.
#3
Somehow, upon seeing the headline I knew it was referring to that uranium tailings pile near Moab. It can be seen on the right when descending out of the hills into Moab on US 191, just after passing the Arches Nat'l Park entrance. Someone driving past not knowing what it is probably wouldn't give it a second thought.
An Army sergeant who was wounded in Iraq wants a chance to remain in the military as an openly gay soldier, a desire that's bringing him into conflict with the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Sgt. Robert Stout, 23, says he has not encountered trouble from fellow soldiers and would like to stay if not for the policy that permits gay men and women to serve only if they keep their sexual orientation a secret.
"I know a ton of gay men that would be more than willing to stay in the Army if they could just be open," Stout said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But if we have to stay here and hide our lives all the time, it's just not worth it." "Like, at the morning formation, the Platoon Sergeant should have to call a roll for all gay soldiers, too. And we should get gay commendation medals and gay ribbons to wear on our gay uniforms. Because being gay and proud is what we joined the Army to be! Everybody must know and tell us daily what a good gay job we're doing."
#2
Per the authority of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, Congress makes all laws governing the Army and Navy [its there for a reason]. By their power, they implement that authority by Title X, U.S.C. subsection of which is commonly referred to as the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Of which -
925. ART. 125. SODOMY
(a) Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration , however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense.
(b) Any person found guilty of sodomy shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
Further -
878. ART. 78. ACCESSORY AFTER THE FACT
Any person subject to this chapter who, knowing that an offense punishable by this chapter has been committed, receives, comforts, or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial, or punishment shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
[Thus it is not POLICY, rather it is LAW].
What the gay advocates want you to forget is that hetrosexuals are also removed from the service for adultry and fraterization along the same process of don't ask, don't tell. If their activities become public, they too are subject to punishment and dismissal. If one chooses to serve, one accepts the laws that govern the force.
Posted by: Don ||
04/08/2005 19:26 Comments ||
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we should get gay commendation medals and gay ribbons to wear on our gay uniforms.
Always wondered whether Qaddafi's fembots were camouflage
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2005 20:37 Comments ||
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#5
"#1 Maybe he shoud start his own Gay Army. He can even become a Gay General then. And have a gay ribbon, a gay sash, a gay pointed star and gay medals"
Where's that picture of COL Qaddaffy? The one with the smashed clockwork proudly displayed on his warrior's tunic?
Posted by: Janos Hunyadi ||
04/08/2005 20:48 Comments ||
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#6
The Section 8 of the 21st Century.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/08/2005 21:14 Comments ||
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#7
Why the hell do people feel the need to incessantly talk about their sexual proclivities instead of keeping them in their pants like normal people?
Whatever happened to the concept of PRIVATE life?
Earth to Robert: I don't care. And I'm NOT interested to your telling me. Keep your private life to yourself.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/08/2005 23:31 Comments ||
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LEESBURG, Va. — A man convicted in the nation's first felony prosecution for illegal spamming was sentenced to nine years in prison Friday, but the judge postponed the sentence while the case is appealed. Postponed? Send his ass in and let him appeal from the prone position behind bars
Loudoun County Circuit Judge Thomas Horne said that because the law targeting bulk e-mail distribution is new and raises constitutional questions, it was appropriate to defer the prison time until appeals courts rule. Bah!
Jeremy Jaynes was convicted in November for using false Internet addresses to send mass e-mail ads through an AOL server in Loudoun. A jury had recommended the nine-year prison term. Obviously they've gotten spammed and don't like it...
Virginia, where AOL is based, prosecuted the case under a law that took effect in 2003 barring people from sending bulk e-mail that is unsolicited and masks its origin. Prosecutors said Jaynes used the Internet to peddle sham products and services such as a "FedEx refund processor."
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2005 2:10:59 PM ||
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I thought Virginia had a death penalty.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/08/2005 15:00 Comments ||
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Where are the constitutional questions? This isn't speech; it's theft and fraud.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/08/2005 15:07 Comments ||
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I formally protest!
These people are no felons. They are kind human beings who offer me 25 millions from Nigeria every day, a bigger youknowwhat, a wonderful enhanced sex life!
Those free AOL CDs instead littering my mailbox...
#5
9 years sounds harsh to me, but then I can make a claim to have originated the predecessor to spam, the junk fax. I wrote a program that dialled numbers and kept a record of those where a fax answered and we then send advertising faxes to them. Worked for a while, and I even made some money out of it. Interestingly, something similar to the 419 scam was even then operating out of Nigeria. However, we never put the two together.
#3
Cover story
"The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) seeks the elusive "Moho," "
Real project>> Deploy Asbestos Milsatellites in Magma (DAMN).
Capabilities..NRO has developed/ perfected 'footstep technology'.
Sats can differentiate and count footsteps. Next generation tec. will be able to ident. individual footsteps, IE. Rag heads, asshats and commie rat bastards.
...Mae Magouirk was neither terminally ill, comatose nor in a "vegetative state," when Hospice-LaGrange accepted her as a patient about two weeks ago upon the request of her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy, 36, an elementary school teacher.
Also upon Gaddy's request and without prior legal authority, since March 28 Hospice-LaGrange has denied Magouirk normal nourishment or fluids via a feeding tube through her nose or fluids via an IV. She has been kept sedated with morphine and ativan, a powerful tranquillizer.
Her nephew, Ken Mullinax, told WorldNetDaily that although Magouirk is given morphine and ativan, she has not received any medication to keep her eyes lubricated during her forced dehydration.
"They haven't given her anything like that for two weeks," said Mullinax. "She can't produce tears."
The dehydration is being done in defiance of Magouirk's specific wishes, which she set down in a "living will," and without agreement of her closest living next-of-kin, two siblings and a nephew: A. Byron McLeod, 64, of Anniston, Ga.; Ruth Mullinax, 74, of Birmingham, Ala.; and Ruth Mullinax's son, Ken Mullinax.
Magouirk's husband and only child, a son, are both deceased.
In her living will, Magouirk stated that fluids and nourishment were to be withheld only if she were either comatose or "vegetative," and she is neither. Nor is she terminally ill, which is generally a requirement for admission to a hospice.
Magouirk lives alone in LaGrange, though because of glaucoma she relied on her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy, to bring her food and do errands.
Two weeks ago, Magouirk's aorta had a dissection, and she was hospitalized in the local LaGrange Hospital. Her aortic problem was determined to be severe, and she was admitted to the intensive care unit. At the time of her admission she was lucid and had never been diagnosed with dementia.
Claiming that she held Magouirk's power of attorney, Gaddy had her transferred to Hospice-LaGrange, a 16-bed unit owned by the same family that owns the hospital. Once at the hospice, Gaddy stated that she did not want her grandmother fed or given water.
"Grandmama is old and I think it is time she went home to Jesus," Gaddy told Magouirk's brother and nephew, McLeod and Ken Mullinax. "She has glaucoma and now this heart problem, and who would want to live with disabilities like these?"
Gaddy's telephone is not in operation and she could not be reached for comment.
According to Mullinax, his aunt's local cardiologist in LaGrange, Dr. James Brennan, and Dr. Raed Agel, a highly acclaimed cardiologist at the nationally renowned University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center, determined that her aortic dissection is contained and not life-threatening at the moment.
Mullinax also states that Gaddy did not hold power of attorney, a fact he learned from the hospice's in-house legal counsel, Carol Todd.
On March 31, Todd told Ruth and Ken Mullinax during a phone conversation Georgia law stipulated that Ruth Mullinax and her brother, A.B. McLeod, were entitled to make any and all decisions for Magouirk. Ruth Mullinax immediately told Todd to begin administering food and fluids through an IV and a nasal feeding tube.
Todd had the IV fluids started that evening, but informed the family that they would have to come to the hospice to sign papers to have the feeding tube inserted. Once that was done, Magouirk would not be able to stay at the hospice.
Ken Mullinax recalled that Todd said the only reason Magouirk was in the hospice in the first place was that the LaGrange Hospital had failed to exercise due diligence in closely examining the power of attorney Beth Gaddy said she had, as well as exercising the provisions of Magouirk's living will.
Todd explained that Gaddy had only a financial power of attorney, not a medical power of attorney, and Magouirk's living will carefully provided that a feeding tube and fluids should only be discontinued if she was comatose or in a "vegetative state" — and she was neither.
Gaddy, however, was not dissuaded. When Ken Mullinax and McLeod showed up at the hospice the following day, April 1, to meet with Todd and arrange emergency air transport for Magouirk's transfer to the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center, Hospice-LaGrange stalled them while Gaddy went before Troup County, Ga., Probate Court Judge Donald W. Boyd and obtained an emergency guardianship over her grandmother.
Under the terms of his ruling, Gaddy was granted full and absolute authority over Magouirk, at least for the weekend. She took advantage of her judge-granted power by ordering her grandmother's feeding tube pulled out, just hours after it had been inserted.
Georgia law requires that a hearing for an emergency guardianship must be held within three days of its request, and Magouirk's hearing was held April 4 before Judge Boyd. Apparently, he has not made a final ruling, but favors giving permanent guardianship power to Gaddy, who is anxious to end her grandmother's life.
Ron Panzer, president and founder of Hospice Patients Alliance, a patients' rights advocacy group based in Michigan, told WND that what is happening to Magouirk is not at all unusual.
"This is happening in hospices all over the country," he said. "Patients who are not dying — are not terminal — are admitted [to hospice] and the hospice will say they are terminally ill even if they're not. There are thousands of cases like this. Patients are given morphine and ativan to sedate them. If feeding is withheld, they die within 10 days to two weeks. It's really just a form of euthanasia."
Ken Mullinax does not want that to happen to his aunt. He pointed out that one of the ironies in this tragedy is that the now-helpless woman worked for years as a secretary for a prominent local cancer doctor.
"She devoted her whole life to helping those who heal others, and now she's being denied sustenance for life," he said.
Mullinax said he has begged Gaddy to let him take on full responsibility for his aunt's care.
"If she would just give us a chance to keep Aunt Mae alive, that's all we ask," he said. "They [Beth and her husband, Dennis Gaddy] have a family and Beth is a teacher, and it was just getting to be a lot of trouble. But I'm the caregiver for my mom, and Aunt Mae could move in with us. We'll buy another house with a bedroom and we'll take care of her. She can move in with us once she can leave the hospital."
But her health becomes more precarious by the hour. Her vital signs are still good, but since admission to hospice she has not been lucid — "but who would be since nourishment and fluids have been denied since March 28," Mullinax remarked.
Attorney Carol Todd could not be reached for comment; a message on her voicemail said she would be gone the entire week of April 4. Hospice-LaGrange did not return phone calls.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
04/08/2005 10:34:07 AM ||
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This is a g--d----d disgrace. I am sickened and disgusted by this.
"She has glaucoma and now this heart problem, and who would want to live with disabilities like these?"
Why don't we give Mae nourishment, cut out the morphine, and ask her?
Posted by: Dar ||
04/08/2005 12:52 Comments ||
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As I blogged separately: no one is safe anymore. It is best not to become "inconvenient."
#4
Won't really comment...I would get madder than .com in his best rants. I dunno, there seems to be a lot of people that have a Soul Deficiency Syndrome with Empathorectomy.
#9
I'm with CF -- in a just world, Gaddy would be facing perjury, fraud, and attempted murder charges. Murder one, at that -- her misrepresentation of her power of attorney is clear premeditation.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/08/2005 15:06 Comments ||
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This report sheds light on a paradox that has been bothering me for a while. We know that volcanic eruptions cool the climate becuase the ash reflects sunlight back into space as the image above clearly shows, while at the same time we know from the geological record that the climate warms during periods of increased volcanic activity. Volcanic activity has been on a clear uptrend for the last 50 years and the article says that has resulted in increased water vapour in the atmosphere (by 1% per annum which is a lot). We also know that water vapour is a more important greenhouse gas than CO2. It looks to me like we might have found the primary driver of short to medium term climate change.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, a devout Roman Catholic, defied EU sanctions including a travel ban when he arrived in Rome to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II.
"Hi! I'm here! Hey! Where's the Pope?"
The 81-year-old leader, who was married in a Catholic church and once referred to the Pope as his spiritual father, was accompanied on the trip by Higher Education Minister Herbert Murerwa, Zimbabwe's state radio said. Telenews, a channel that monitors flight arrivals and departures in Rome, said Mugabe arrived at Fiumicino airport at 9am local time. The Vatican, a sovereign state, is not a member of the EU and has no airport but EU member Italy should normally comply with the travel ban imposed on Mugabe. However, under a 1929 pact between Italy and the Vatican, Italian authorities agreed not to stop visitors to the world's smallest state.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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I guess I'll have to insert a line on my Excel sheet, the source of my posting yesterday...
At least Zimbabwe can be put at the bottom...
Is he known as Chief Bob, President Bob, or just Bad Bob...
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A beer truck flipped over on a roadway overpass in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Monday, prompting local officials to comment on the tragedy. "It is sad," Capt. Scott Logan of the Halifax Regional Fire Service told The Daily News of Halifax. "Chances are they won't recover any of the beer."
Zimbabwean President 
