Food fight in the cafeteria

2008-07-06T23:20:00.000-07:00

This blog is defunct. The author has moved to http://www.geraldnaus.com. Click here.

Closed !

2008-06-30T01:09:00.000-07:00

This blog has come to an end. Thanks for the attention throughout the years. I have moved to WordPress, which is wonderful. I am still working on the new blog, as you will see. But, the blog posts themselves are working already. Commenting will soon require registering with Word Press (free), which should keep things more civil. Banning policies will be stricter as well. I am moving a lot of posts from here to there. The photos will all be categorized in the course of the week, so you will be able to find them all in one place soon, from Rome to Paris to New York.

Here is the new address - it's simple: GeraldNaus.com

The new blog will encompass a broader range of topics, from culture to politics to religion and occasionally sports. There'll also be posts from other people.

If you're not sick of me yet, ~~you will be~~ you are welcome to come to my new digs. If you are, there's no point of coming.

On to WordPress !

Recent Topics

2008-06-29T23:59:00.000-07:00

Wedding Photography - I'm for hire nationwide, no travel fee.

Photos: Another beautiful bride

Photos: That magic moment

Photo: Mr. & Mrs. Casey, newlyweds

Haven't seen it yet? Here's my interview with Fr. George Rutler

Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church. An opinion.

Poem Cycle: The Life of Mary by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by me

Video: My interview with Cardinal Schoenborn

Video: My interview with Bishop Cordileone

Video: My interview with Fr. Joseph Fessio SJ of Ignatius Press
The importance of "AD ORIENTEM", by Fr. Uwe Lang

The 'original' anthem

2008-06-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

The 'original' National Anthem, "Chester" by William Billings - as heard in the grand HBO series John Adams

Let tyrants shake their iron rods,
And Slav'ry clank her galling chains.
We fear them not, we trust in God.
New England's God forever reigns.

Howe and Burgoyne and Clinton, too,
With Prescott and Cornwallis joined,
Together plot our overthrow,
In one infernal league combined.

When God inspired us for the fight,
Their ranks were broke, their lines were forced,
Their ships were shattered in our sight,
Or swiftly driven from our coast.

The foe comes on with haughty stride,
Our troops advance with martial noise;
Their vet'rans flee before our youth,
And gen'rals yield to beardless boys.

What grateful off'ring shall we bring,
What shall we render to the Lord?
Loud hallelujahs let us sing,
And praise his name on ev'ry chord!

Taking Communion 'for Tim Russert'

2008-06-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

From Slate.com

(N)on-Catholic Sally Quinn took Communion at Tim Russert's funeral—and blogged about the body and blood in the Washington Post-Newsweek religion site "On Faith."

Last Wednesday at Tim's funeral mass at [Holy]Trinity Church in Georgetown (Jack Kennedy's church), communion was offered. I had only taken communion once in my life, at an evangelical church. It was soon after I had started "On Faith" and I wanted to see what it was like. Oddly I had a slightly nauseated sensation after I took it, knowing that in some way it represented the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Last Wednesday I was determined to take it for Tim, transubstantiation notwithstanding. I'm so glad I did. It made me feel closer to him. And it was worth it just to imagine how he would have loved it. After I began "On Faith," Tim started calling me "Sister Sal" instead of "Miss Sal."

This reads a little too much like a restaurant review for my comfort; Christ Almighty: Tangy Yet Nauseating? And good as he was, we don't really take Communion to feel closer to Tim Russert.

Not surprisingly, Quinn inflamed conservative Catholics. William Donohue's Catholic League responded with the usual outrage: "Just reading what Sally Quinn said is enough to give any Christian, especially Catholics, more than a 'slightly nauseating sensation.' In her privileged world, life is all about experiences and feelings. … Moreover, Quinn's statement not only reeks of narcissism, it shows a profound disrespect for Catholics and the beliefs they hold dear."

Well, yes, but she's also brought progressive and conservative Catholics together for a minute; as a left-leaning Catholic writer I know said in an e-mail this morning, "For the first time ever, I may agree with Bill Donohue!'' At America, Jesuit writer James Martin distanced himself from the Catholic League but gave Quinn a (gentler) lecture:

Catholics believe in the "real presence," the actual presence of Christ in the elements of the Eucharist: the bread and the wine. It is a central element of our faith, and reception of Communion is something that a Catholic does not do lightly. Which is something of an understatement. … [I]t is probably not too much to expect that the co-founder of a prestigious online blog about religion run by two of the nation's premier journals would understand something about the most basic practices of the Catholic church. Most intelligent people know a few facts about the Catholic church: this is one of them. And even if one doesn't know this, one would know to act with great care when in the midst of a worshiping community not your own.

Alas, when the New Republic reached Quinn for comment, she made things worse for herself by asking What Would Jesus Do, lecturing that real Christians wouldn't turn anyone away and confusing her situation with that of Catholic pro-choice politicians.

Old Hippie song

2008-06-28T10:18:00.001-07:00

I guess I really have been in California too long :) In addition to iTunes, I also have a Napster subscription. Like tivo, if you give it one song, it'll find others for you you'd like. So, after I'd entered Bob Dylan, Neil Drake, Leonard Cohen (coming from Damien Rice originally), I found this song by Phil Ochs from the '60s. It still rings true. I'm kind of in between fronts - I am all for fighting against a war of aggression, like fighting the Nazis (the perverse fact that my grandfather and my wife's could have killed each other!). I do believe in necessary force (NRA member, got a .45 right here) Concretely, this means: Afghanistan yes, Iraq no. Embarrassingly, I bought into Bush's BS. Then again, he bought into his advisers'. In retrospect it all seems so absurd. Now if I had a family member who died for this, I can't even imagine how I'd feel. I cannot forget the footage from World War I, jittery old film, of young men on trains, cheering and all excited. Soon they would choke on their own blood in the trenches of France. National defense is necessary as a last resort, certainly. But I hope I'll be smarter next time our leaders tell us an unnecessary war is necessary.

---

Oh you tell me that there’s danger to the land you call your own
And you watch them build the war machine right beside your home
And you tell me that you’re ready to go marchin’ to the war
I know you’re set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

Before you pack your rifle and sail across the sea
Just think upon the southern part of the land that you call free
Oh, there’s many kinds of slavery and we’ve found many more
I know you’re set for fightin’, but what are you fighting for?

And before you walk out on your job in answer to the call
Just think about the millions who have no job at all
And the men who wait for handouts with their eyes upon the floor
Oh I know you’re set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

Read your morning papers, read every single line
And tell me if you can believe that simple world you find
Read every slanted word till your eyes are getting sore,
I know you’re set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

And listen to your leaders, the ones who won the race
As they stand right there before you and lie into your face
If you ever try to buy them, you know what they stand for
I know you’re set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

Put ragged clothes upon your back and sleep upon the ground,
And tell police about your rights as they drag you down,
And ask them as they lead you to some deserted door,
Yes, I know you’re set for fightin’, but what are you fightin’ for?

But the hardest thing I’ll ask you, if you will only try
Is take your children by their hands and look into their eyes
And there you’ll see the answer you should have seen before
If you’ll win the wars at home, there’ll be no fighting anymore

The new patriotism

2008-06-28T08:18:00.000-07:00

From the Denver Post

As part of the effort to make the August 25-28 convention the greenest ever, the Democrats’ guidelines for food catering include one that strikes at the heart of Southern cuisine: no fried food.

No fried chicken. No fried catfish. No fried green tomatoes. No fried okra. No fried anything.

In promoting healthy eating habits, the Democratic guidelines say every meal should be nutritious and include “at least three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, purple/blue and white.”

“It’s the new patriotism,” says Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, the driving force behind the greening of the Democratic convention.

Abp. Burke's statement

2008-06-28T01:26:00.000-07:00

The video version can be found here. In case you were wondering, the Signatura is the Vatican's version of the Supreme Court. It's more of an 'inside' job, not a limelight position, prompting some to suggest the pope had removed Burke from said limelight. I'd say that, given Burke's expertise and recent canonical actions - excommunicating womanpriests, dealing with St. Stanislaus - the pope wanted him in Rome.

Today, at noon in Rome (5 a.m. CDT), it was announced that His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, has named me prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, effective immediately. With the announcement, I ceased to be the Archbishop of St. Louis.

I am deeply humbled by the trust which His Holiness has placed in me, and, in priestly obedience, I have pledged to serve our Holy Father to the best of my abilities. Although you will no longer pray for me as your archbishop, especially during the celebration of the Holy Mass, I ask your prayers for me, that I may faithfully and generously cooperate with God's grace in fulfilling my new responsibilities.

Leaving the service of the Church in the Archdiocese of St. Louis is most sad for me. It has been an honor and gift for me to serve the archdiocese over the past four years and five months. It had been my hope to serve here for a long time, but, as the bishop who called me to priestly ordination often remarked, "Man proposes, but God disposes." I trust that doing what our Holy Father has asked me to do will bring blessings to the Archdiocese of St. Louis and to me. St. Louis is a great archdiocese which will always have a treasured place in my heart.

In a particular way, I am saddened to leave my fellow priests, whom I have so much grown to esteem and love. Often, I have spoken about the remarkable unity and loyalty of our presbyterate. For me, it has been a special grace to work with them in the service of God's flock in the archdiocese. I thank them for the priestly fraternity which they have always shown me, and for the generous obedience with which they have responded to my pastoral care and governance of our beloved archdiocese.

With regard to the governance of the archdiocese, the College of Consultors will meet to elect an archdiocesan administrator who, with the help of the consultors, will govern the archdiocese, until the new archbishop is appointed and installed. Please pray for the College of Consultors and for the archdiocesan administrator whom they will elect.

Again, I ask your prayers. You can count upon my daily prayers for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, always.

New blog & reader submissions

2008-06-27T16:54:00.000-07:00

As I prepare to move to Word Press (I am organizing old posts I want to keep and move there, esp. photos, Obama stuff, 'classics' etc.), I'm also thinking about a format for a new blog. In a way, it's not an entirely new blog, rather it rises like Phoenix from Arizona :-)

I know that there will be more photos, for one - one a day as minimum.
It won't be a blog with a theme, ie not a Catholic or Republican etc. blog
It won't be all-Catholic-news-that's-fit-to-print, it's so much work to sift through th e web and I have to focus on business, ie photography. Amy got exhausted after a few years, too.
Whether it'll have any readers - I don't know. It's easier to be strictly one thing, like, say, DailyKos, or Michelle Malkin.
Topics - politics, culture, religion, art, books, music, and of course photography.
The new blog will be neatly sorted into categories and subcategories, since that's easy on Word Press.

What I can tell you is that I'm not going to argue whether homosexuality is immoral or not :P It'll be a personal opinion blog with no claims to anything.

Working title: Standing athwart history, yelling #$@* !

I would be interested in reader submissions, that can be posted with name, link or anonymously. Topic can be anything really, anyone is welcome, Jew, atheist, Christian...I'm interested in personal experiences - regarding family, growing up, coming to a religion, leaving a religion, travel, what have you. Diverse voices certainly would be interesting.

Something that particularly interests me is history. Were you in a war, did you march in the Civil Rights era, did you fight for women's equality, did you survive a disaster, life changing experiences and so forth. Due to the new categorization system, all posts will be easy to locate from the main page, no matter how old they are. Email me :)

The current blog has run its course - I'm just teasing people now so that's not nice :) I'll keep posting political and other stuff for a few days until the new one is ready, but nothing church-related that's controversial.

I've become more, uh, nuanced, so some of my old posts sound horrid to me now, downright Manichean. Apologies to 'old hippies' - you're not all bad ;o) I've become mellow with marriage !

Misogyny

2008-06-27T07:07:00.000-07:00

St. Augustine of Hippo had this to say:

"Nothing drags the mind of man down from its elevation so much as the caresses of woman and the bodily contacts without with a man cannot possess his wife."

"The father should be loved more than the mother, because he is the active principle of generation, while she is the passive one."

"As a defective creature, still somehow on the level of the child, woman is capable of bearing children but not of educating them. The intellectual training of the children can only come from the father, since he is the intellectual leader."

You can imagine how influential that was - not that the sentiment was unique - throughout history.

Abp. Burke heads to Rome

2008-06-27T06:37:00.000-07:00

And surely to be made a cardinal. It's been rumored for a while. St. Louis Catholic:

Today brings the confirmation of the long-rumored appointment of Archbishop Burke to be the head of the Apostolic Signatura in Rome. From the Vatican website:
NOMINA DEL PREFETTO DEL SUPREMO TRIBUNALE DELLA SEGNATURA APOSTOLICA
Il Santo Padre ha nominato Prefetto del Supremo Tribunale della Segnatura Apostolica S.E. Mons. Raymond Leo Burke, finora Arcivescovo di Saint Louis.
This position ordinarily carries a promotion to Cardinal as well, which is of some solace to those His Grace leaves behind in St. Louis.
It is certainly a bittersweet announcement for those in St. Louis and around the world who have rejoiced in the Archbishop's stalwart defense of orthodoxy, his courage, his perseverance, and his wise and faithful pastoral care. He has been a shining example of how a Bishop should guide and govern.
Of course, this promotion will almost certainly obtain for him the Cardinal's red hat, and thus a seat at any conclave that may occur for the next twenty years. His Grace turns 60 at the end of the month. May it be in the plans of Almighty God that someday Cardinal Burke appears on the balcony in St. Peter's Square; whatever may come for him, however, we can be assured that His Grace will fulfill his duties with the same zeal he has shown in St. Louis and in the past.

SSPX rejects offer

2008-06-27T06:24:00.000-07:00

SSPX head Fellay turns down the Vatican's offer:

The leader of a breakaway traditionalist Catholic group has rejected a Vatican offer to rejoin Rome, accusing Pope Benedict of trying to silence dissenting voices.

Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) that broke with Rome 20 years ago, said conditions set by the Vatican amounted to muzzling the traditionalists who claim to be the only true Catholics since Church reforms in the 1960s.

Keen to end this schism, Benedict agreed last year to their demand to restore the old Latin Mass. But he insists they must accept the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) before he can lift excommunication decrees against them.

"Rome is telling us, okay, we are ready to lift the excommunications, but you cannot continue this way," Fellay said in a sermon last Friday now posted as an audio file on the U.S.-based Voice of Catholic Radio website.

"So we have no choice... we are continuing what we've done," the Swiss-born Fellay said in English at an SSPX seminary in Winona, Minnesota. "They just say 'shut up' ... we are not going ... to shut up."

The Milan daily Il Giornale reported on Monday the Vatican had told the SSPX it must pledge to respect the pope and accept him as the Church's final doctrinal authority.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi told the Paris Catholic daily La Croix: "The pope wants to extend his hand so they can return, but for that to happen, this offer must be received in an attitude and spirit of charity and communion."

Lombardi did not spell out the consequences of rejecting the offer, but Il Giornale's well-informed Vatican expert Andrea Tornielli wrote: "Such favorable conditions for a return to full communion will in all probability not come again."

Obama's pirouettes

2008-06-27T06:16:00.000-07:00

The tricky thing about American presidential nominations is that you first have to appeal to the extremists of your party (aka the base) - not to mention a handful of people in Iowa - and then to the broad public. Where a candidate's true beliefs lie is obviously hard to tell after all the contortions. The NYT has this to say about Obama:

Barack Obama has taken a stroll this week away from traditional liberal political positions, his path toward the political center marked by artful leaps and turns.

On Thursday, he seemed to embrace a Supreme Court decision, written by the court’s premiere conservative and upheld 5-to-4, striking down Washington, D.C.’s ban on handguns.

Mr. Obama seemed to voice support for the ban as recently as February. On Thursday, however, he issued a Delphic news release that seemed to support the Supreme Court, although staff members later insisted that might not be the case.

...
“I have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms, but I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common-sense, effective safety measures,” Mr. Obama said. “The Supreme Court has now endorsed that view.”

He added, “Today’s decision reinforces that if we act responsibly, we can both protect the constitutional right to bear arms and keep our communities and our children safe.”

In the last week, Mr. Obama has taken calibrated positions on issues that include electronic surveillance, campaign finance and the death penalty for child rapists, suggesting a presidential candidate in hot pursuit of what Bill Clinton once lovingly described as “the vital center.”
....
Mr. Obama has executed several policy pirouettes in recent weeks, each time landing more toward the center of the political ring. On Wednesday in Chicago, he confirmed that he would not fight a revised law that would extend retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the government spy on American citizens. (He had previously spoken against immunity provisions in an earlier version of the bill.) And recently he backed away from his own earlier support for campaign finance spending limits in the 2008 election.

Mr. Obama describes his new turns as consistent with long-held beliefs. On Wednesday he painted his decision to opt out of the campaign finance system as a reformist gesture, noting that most of his donors are not wealthy. “Our donor base is the American people,” he said, adding that this was the thematic goal of campaign finance reform.

Faith the dog

2008-06-26T22:15:00.001-07:00

Having only two legs due to a birth defect, this dog walks upright

Gay men and increased fertility ?

2008-06-26T21:51:00.000-07:00

William Saletan reports on an interesting new study (as it happens, it fits the pattern of two families with gay men that I know). Excerpt:

Gay couples can't have biological kids together. So if homosexuality is genetic, why hasn't it died out?

A study published last week in PLoS One tackles the question. It starts with four curious patterns. First, male homosexuality occurs at a low but stable frequency in a wide range of societies. Second, the female relatives of gay men produce children at a higher rate than other women do. Third, among these female relatives, those related to the gay man's mother produce children at a higher rate than do those related to his father. Fourth, among the man's male relatives, homosexuality is more common in those related to his mother than in those related to his father.

Can genes account for these patterns? To find out, the authors posit several possible mechanisms and compute their effects over time. They conclude that only one theory fits the data. The theory is called "sexually antagonistic selection." It holds that a gene can be reproductively harmful to one sex as long as it's helpful to the other. The gene for male homosexuality persists because it promotes—and is passed down through—high rates of procreation among gay men's mothers, sisters, and aunts.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition

2008-06-26T11:07:00.000-07:00

Hurray for the Second Amendment

2008-06-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

The Supreme Court has overturned the D.C. gun ban (you know, the ban guns and criminals won't get guns rationale... Guess what - clean up the ghetto and there'll be little crime left. Americans had guns long before the inner cities went bad). As an NRA member and gun owner (.45 1911 Springfield pistol with laser sights and Federal HydraShok ammo), I am happy.

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense in their homes, the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

The court's 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms restrictions intact.

The court had not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

The basic issue for the justices was whether the amendment protects an individual's right to own guns no matter what, or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.

Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said that an individual right to bear arms is supported by "the historical narrative" both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted.

The Constitution does not permit "the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home," Scalia said. The court also struck down Washington's requirement that firearms be equipped with trigger locks or kept disassembled, but left intact the licensing of guns.

Scalia noted that the handgun is Americans' preferred weapon of self-defense in part because "it can be pointed at a burglar with one hand while the other hand dials the police."
...
Joining Scalia were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

Gun rights supporters hailed the decision. "I consider this the opening salvo in a step-by-step process of providing relief for law-abiding Americans everywhere that have been deprived of this freedom," said Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association.

The NRA will file lawsuits in San Francisco, Chicago and several of its suburbs challenging handgun restrictions there based on Thursday's outcome.

Altar girl conflict

2008-06-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

It may well be true that having altar girls deters boys from applying - for the younger ones, at least, who still think "Girls ? Ewww!" rather than "Girls ? Oooo!". Thanks to the perverts and reading a few books on the topic, I can't think of altar boys without thinking of sex abuse. Anyway, Fr. Z. links to a story about a conflict in a parish in Wisconsin. One thing is obvious, once you grant something, taking it away is not going to go over well.

Members of St. Barnabas Parish in Mazomanie say they are stunned to learn that the priests leading their Catholic community will no longer allow their daughters to be servers at Mass. From now on, only boys will be able to assist priests in the ancient religious rite.

The new policy was announced at a meeting with parents Tuesday by Rev. John Del Priore, who was assigned to the parish on June 1.

"It's an outrage," said Tammy Parks. "They said it was a good way for boys to be indoctrinated into being a priest."

After letting her 11-year-old daughter know that she would no longer be allowed on the altar, Del Priore asked her 8-year-old son about his interest in becoming an altar boy, Parks said in an interview.

"Not only is the priest discriminating against my daughter, he's teaching my son that that is appropriate behavior," she said.

Parents at St. Barnabas are so distressed that there is talk of having the boys boycott altar duty.

The Catholic Church broke with centuries of tradition in 1994, when the Vatican said girls would be allowed to join "altar boys" in assisting priests at Mass.
...

He stressed that servers take on the duties of acolytes, traditionally a low clerical rank.

"Neither lay women nor lay men have the right to carry out the function of acolyte," King said.

Altar service is being reserved for boys to promote vocations to the priesthood, Rev. Jared Hood, one of a group of priests that serves the St. Barnabas cluster, said in an interview. Hood said he is a member of the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest, a religious order that ministers to boys to inspire them to become priests. The order offered its services to the Madison Diocese, which is consolidating parishes because of a shortage of priests.

"Very many priests began as altar boys," Hood said. "Without contact with a priest it's difficult for boys to even think about a vocation as a priest." He first learned about the order of which he is now a member as an altar boy in New Jersey, he said.

Four priests from the order now oversee a cluster of five parishes: St. Barnabas, St. Aloysius in Sauk City, St. Norbert in Roxbury, St. John the Baptist in Mill Creek, and St. Mary in Merrimac. Hood said boys only will be servers for each of the parishes.

That's been the case at St. Aloysius for more than a year, and the furor that met the change in policy has evaporated, said Ann Cicero, a secretary for the parish whose sons serve as altar boys.

No death penalty for child rapist

2008-06-26T08:12:00.001-07:00

Obama (& McCain) oppose the Supreme Court decision. So yes, for the record, Obama approves of the death penalty. I oppose this verdict, too - if you have a death penalty, why not apply it to child rapists ? The case in question is so horrific it defies words. It surely merits the death penalty. Whether we should have it is a different matter, but if you have it, that pervert should get the needle. He was sentenced to death by the jury, but the Supremes got him off. I believe that the mere existence of such great evil is something that should not be tolerated.

Let me warn you, you may not want to read on. It is severely revolting and depressing. Nor is there a 'greater good' that comes from it.

From Justice Kennedy's majority opinion. He's always the swing vote. Aggravating.

Petitioner’s crime was one that cannot be recounted in these pages in a way sufficient to capture in full the hurt and horror inflicted on his victim or to convey the revulsion society, and the jury that represents it, sought to express by sentencing petitioner to death. At 9:18 a.m. on March 2, 1998, petitioner called 911 to report that his stepdaughter, referred to here as L. H., had been raped.

He told the 911 operator that L. H. had been in the garage while he readied his son for school. Upon hearing loud screaming, petitioner said, he ran outside and found L. H. in the side yard. Two neighborhood boys, petitioner told the operator, had dragged L. H. from the garage to the yard, pushed her down, and raped her. Petitioner claimed he saw one of the boys riding away on a blue 10-speed bicycle.

When police arrived at petitioner’s home between 9:20 and 9:30 a.m., they found L. H. on her bed, wearing a T-shirt and wrapped in a bloody blanket. She was bleeding profusely from the vaginal area. Petitioner told police he had carried her from the yard to the bathtub and then to the bed. Consistent with this explanation, police found a thin line of blood drops in the garage on the way to the house and then up the stairs. Once in the bedroom, petitioner had used a basin of water and a cloth to wipe blood from the victim. This later prevented medical personnel from collecting a reliable DNA sample.

L. H. was transported to the Children’s Hospital. An expert in pediatric forensic medicine testified that L. H.’s injuries were the most severe he had seen from a sexual assault in his four years of practice. A laceration to the left wall of the vagina had separated her cervix from the back of her vagina, causing her rectum to protrude into the vaginal structure. Her entire perineum was torn from the posterior fourchette to the anus. The injuries required emergency surgery.

At the scene of the crime, at the hospital, and in the first weeks that followed, both L. H. and petitioner maintained in their accounts to investigators that L. H. had been raped by two neighborhood boys. One of L. H.’s doctors testified at trial that L. H. told all hospital personnel the same version of the rape, although she reportedly told one family member that petitioner raped her. L. H. was interviewed several days after the rape by a psychologist. The interview was videotaped, lasted three hours over two days, and was introduced into evidence at trial. On the tape one can see that L. H. had difficulty discussing the subject of the rape. She spoke haltingly and with long pauses and frequent movement. Early in the interview, L. H. expressed reservations about the questions being asked:

“I’m going to tell the same story. They just want me to change it. . . . They want me to say my Dad did it. . . . I don’t want to say it. . . . I tell them the same, same story.” Def. Exh. D–7, 01:29:07–:36.

She told the psychologist that she had been playing in the garage when a boy came over and asked her about Girl Scout cookies she was selling; and that the boy “pulled [her by the legs to] the backyard,” id., at 01:47:41–:52, where he placed his hand over her mouth, “pulled down [her] shorts,” Def. Exh. D–8, 00:03:11–:12, and raped her, id., at 00:14:39–:40.

Eight days after the crime, and despite L. H.’s insistence that petitioner was not the offender, petitioner was arrested for the rape. The State’s investigation had drawn the accuracy of petitioner and L. H.’s story into question. Though the defense at trial proffered alternative explanations, the case for the prosecution, credited by the jury, was based upon the following evidence: An inspection of the side yard immediately after the assault was inconsistent with a rape having occurred there, the grass having been found mostly undisturbed but for a small patch of coagulated blood. Petitioner said that one of the perpetrators fled the crime scene on a blue 10-speed bicycle but gave inconsistent descriptions of the bicycle’s features, such as its handlebars. Investigators found a bicycle matching petitioner and L. H.’s description in tall grass behind a nearby apartment, and petitioner identified it as the bicycle one of the perpetrators was riding. Yet its tires were flat, it did not have gears, and it was covered in spider webs. In addition police found blood on the underside of L. H.’s mattress. This convinced them the rape took place in her bedroom, not outside the house.

Police also found that petitioner made two telephone calls on the morning of the rape. Sometime before 6:15 a.m., petitioner called his employer and left a message that he was unavailable to work that day. Petitioner called back between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. to ask a colleague how to get blood out of a white carpet because his daughter had “ ‘just become a young lady.’ ” Brief for Respondent 12.

At 7:37 a.m., petitioner called B & B Carpet Cleaning and requested urgent assistance in removing bloodstains from a carpet. Petitioner did not call 911 until about an hour and a half later.

About a month after petitioner’s arrest L. H. was removed from the custody of her mother, who had maintained until that point that petitioner was not involved in the rape. On June 22, 1998, L. H. was returned home and told her mother for the first time that petitioner had raped her. And on December 16, 1999, about 21 months after the rape, L. H. recorded her accusation in a videotaped interview with the Child Advocacy Center.

Eiffel Tower

2008-06-26T06:53:00.001-07:00

Got a wedding in 2008 ? Email me for special deals (as I am usually already booking for next year)

The George W. Bush Sewage Plant

2008-06-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

Knowing my neighbors to the West, they might go through with this :)

Reagan has his highways. Lincoln has his memorial. Washington has the capital, and a state, too. But President George W. Bush may soon be the sole president to have a memorial named after him that you can contribute to from the bathroom.

From the Department of Damned-With-Faint-Praise, a group going by the regal-sounding name of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is planning to ask voters here to change the name of a prize-winning water-treatment plant on the shoreline to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

The plan - hatched, naturally, in a bar - would place a vote on the November ballot to provide "an appropriate honor for a truly unique president."

"Most politicians tend to be narcissistic and egomaniacs," said Brian McConnell, an organizer who regularly suits up as Uncle Sam to solicit signatures. "So it is important for satirists to help define their history rather than letting them define their own history."
...

The renaming would take effect on Jan. 20, when a new president is sworn in. And regardless of the measure's outcome, supporters plan to commemorate the inaugural with a "synchronized flush" of hundreds of thousands of toilets that would send a flood of water toward the plant, now named the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant.

It'd go well with the feces-throwing tree-dwellers in Berkeley.

Minneapolis crackdown

2008-06-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

St. Joan's Parish has long been a special case. Composed to a large degree of well-meaning, somewhat dated boomers with a taste for odd liturgies, it's known beyond its archdiocese's borders. It has a tradition of a gay pride prayer service, well until now when the new, stern archbishop forbade it. On a related note, I oppose the rainbow sash stuff, it's impolite, not to mention pointless. Despite the vast share of Catholic priests who are gay, gay people really aren't welcome and it's not going to change. Well, let me refine that - only gay people who think they are suffering from a disorder are welcome. If anything, the pressure has increased since the more gay-friendly times after Vatican II. It is illusory for anyone to believe the Catholic church will change its stand, as far as the institution is concerned. Catholics themselves largely stopped listening in 1968 and are much like any other American, a complete, and drastic, change from just a few decades before. Whether one bemoans or welcomes that depends on where one stands.

From the Pioneer Press.

A Roman Catholic Church decision to prohibit a Minneapolis gay pride prayer service has many in the gay community up in arms, leading activists to call the action a troubling and telling sign from the Twin Cities' new archbishop.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis recently told staff members at St. Joan of Arc Church they could not hold their annual gay pride prayer service planned for Wednesday — an event held for several years in conjunction with the annual Twin Cities Pride Celebration, parishioners said.

Instead, the archdiocese suggested a "peace" service with no mention of rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

"That descriptor (LGBT) was not possible on church property. We suggested they shift it, change the nature of it a little bit, and they did," said archdiocese spokesman Dennis McGrath.

"The reason is quite simply because it was a LGBT pride prayer service, and that is really inimical to the teachings of the Catholic Church."
...
"It was not something that happened because there's a new regime," McGrath said. "If (previous Archbishop Harry Flynn) had known of it, the same thing would have happened."

This year, he said "several people" came to the archdiocese to inform church officials of the event at St. Joan of Arc.

Michael Bayly, executive director of the pastoral committee, was skeptical.

"I find it hard to believe that they didn't know about it. St. Joan of Arc had been very upfront in advertising it in their Web site and on their bulletin. That was always their style — they took pride in welcoming and affirming gay people," Bayly said.

St. John's regular pastor, the Rev. Jim DeBruycker, is on leave until July. His replacement, the Rev. Jim Cassidy, who was faced with the decision of altering the service, did not return a call for comment Monday.

Bayly said he saw signs of an ongoing "chilling effect." Usually, gay-friendly parishes advertise in the "pride guide" in advance of the Twin Cities Pride festival; this year, none did. The 2008 festival is this weekend.

"I think most of the parishes are in a terrible bind," Bayly said.

McGrath said Nienstedt is simply following Catholic doctrine, like previous archbishops.

He said "the church welcomes people with same-sex attractions among its worshippers."

"The distinction is people who fully adapt to the GLBT lifestyle are not permitted to receive the sacraments or be the subject of a prayer service that endorses that lifestyle," McGrath said.
...
Nienstedt has said homosexuality is a disorder, and he is a leader in the campaign to persuade the Legislature to prohibit same-sex unions.

"Those who actively encourage or promote homosexual acts or such activity within a homosexual lifestyle formally cooperate in a grave evil and, if they do so knowingly and willingly, are guilty of mortal sin," he wrote in a November article in the archdiocese's paper, the Catholic Spirit.

Controversy over LGBT issues also had been an issue with Flynn, Nienstedt's predecessor.

Last year, the then-archbishop prohibited Mass at a symposium exploring the conflict between homosexuality and Catholicism, saying to allow it might mislead archdiocese members into believing the speakers' views had the church's sanction.

In October, authors Robert and Carol Curoe, a lesbian and her Catholic father, were scheduled to speak at the Church of St. Francis Cabrini in Minneapolis, but they were told they could not do so.

And in 2006, Flynn supported a proposed state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The year before, Flynn ruled that gay rights supporters could not receive Communion while wearing rainbow-colored sashes because the practice was seen as a protest of Catholic teaching.

The book mentioned is very moving, by the way.

Obama 15% ahead of McCain

2008-06-25T10:25:00.000-07:00

I feel sorry for John McCain. He doesn't appeal to the nutters in his party (not that you have to be nuts to not like him) and yet he's stuck with Bush's inheritance. No wonder Obama leads the polls

Democrat Barack Obama has opened a 15-point lead in the presidential race, and most of the political trends -- voter enthusiasm, views of President George W. Bush, the Republicans, the economy and the direction of the country -- point to even greater trouble for rival John McCain.
...

``The Obama voters are much more energized and motivated to come out to vote than the McCain voters; McCain is still struggling to win over some of his core groups,'' she says. ``The good news for Obama is also that he seems to be doing better on the issue that is uppermost in voters' minds, and that is the economy.''
...

Voters continue to view McCain, 71, as the more experienced candidate and trust him to fight the war on terror. Obama, 46, has the edge on most other matters, according to the poll of 1,115 registered voters, taken June 19 to 23. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Voters give Obama a 3-to-2 advantage on handling the economy and prefer his health-care and tax plans. They also say he is the candidate who cares most about average Americans and is most likely to change Washington and build respect for the U.S. abroad.

McCain's broader challenge is underscored by a depressed mood about the direction of the country, with just 13 percent of voters saying the nation is on the right track. Two summers ago, before the big Democratic wins in the midterm elections, that figure was 30 percent. In this week's survey, more than half of all voters say McCain would continue Bush's policies. Bush's approval rating stands at 23 percent, near historic lows.

At a fundraiser yesterday in Newport Beach, California, McCain said he relished his second-place status.

``We are behind, we are the underdog,'' McCain says. ``That's what I like to be.''

Bye bye Catholic vote ?

2008-06-25T07:07:00.000-07:00

I'm not quite sure where the Democrats' supposed strength in regards to 'social justice' lies, but that's their reputation. However, I don't think that's the main reason why Catholics are apparently turning away from the GOP - I'd say it's overall Bush fatigue, in particular his starting a needless war and then running it badly. Even if Saddam still had the infamous WMD's, he'd never have attacked us - his main goal was self preservation. He was a tyrant, not a suicidal lunatic.

In addition, there's the common fatigue after 8 years. Many Catholics might also be tired of the grandstanding Evangelicals associated with the GOP. What has been touted as 'values' is quite often reactionary resentment. There isn't much left of the old GOP from before the Christian Coalition & Co. took over. Mind you, their influence is far less with McCain, and far less than in its heyday already. It just takes a while to forget the creepiness. It's a shame the Democrats are such bastards. It wouldn't be hard to look good by comparison.

Speaking of Catholics and the GOP, another group that's on the way out are the Catholic neo/theocons to whom Bush has been lending his ear for quite a while.
David Gibson writes about recent polls:

The Pew numbers alone suggest the growing GOP losses among what is considered the biggest religious swing vote: A 2004 Pew survey concluded that the historic Democratic dominance among Catholics was at an end, with Republicans "approaching parity with the Democrats among Catholics, who once were a heavily Democratic constituency. The Democratic margin has shrunk from 43%-to-38% in 1992 to 44%-to-41% today," the 2004 report said. The data released yesterday (June 23) show that just 23 percent of Catholics identify as Republican, and 10 percent "lean" to the GOP, for a total of 33 percent, while 33 percent of Catholics identify as Democrats and 15 percent "lean" Democratic, for a total of 48 percent--a hefty 15 percent differential. Ten percent identified as independent, according to the Pew results.

Now check out the June 20 survey, "Election '08 Forecast," from CARA (the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate) at Georgetown, and the shift is even more dramatic: Only 21 percent of Catholic voters (some 47 million adults) either strongly or weakly affiliate as a Republican today compared to 31 percent who identified as Republican in 2004.

By contrast, 38 percent of Catholic voters identify themselves, either strongly or weakly, with the Democratic Party, down just one percentage point from CARA's numbers in 2004. In fact, even among weekly Mass attenders the Dems have a big edge, though not as large as in the wider Catholic community: According to CARA, 53 percent of weekly Mass attending Catholics are Democrats or lean Democratic, while 43 percent ID with the GOP or lean Republican.
...

The big shift is in those who say they are independent, moving from 30 percent of Catholic voters in 2004 to 41 percent this year. If Democrats haven't picked up Catholic loyalists, they at least haven't hemorrhaged like the GOP. But they still need to bring them out on Election Day. As CARA's director of polling, Mark Gray, concludes: "Even with a clear edge in party identification, Obama and the Democrats will need to do well mobilizing Catholic Democrats to take advantage of this...In the past two presidential elections the Republicans have been noted to be more effective at mobilizing voters using religion and religious organizations--often using the issue of abortion."

Opposing gay marriage isn't much of a draw anymore outside of places where there are few Catholics to begin with. Abortion takes a backseat to the war and the economy.

Conditions for SSPX

2008-06-25T06:28:00.000-07:00

The Catholic fringe can be quite a fever swamp, with SSPX actually not being the worst of it. Yes, there are people who think they are way too liberal. In SSPX itself, there also are factions. Whackadoo Richard Williamson, a certified antisemite and 9/11 conspiracy theorist, can, one would hope, not be representative of the whole organization. A return to the fold would likely lead to a 'schism', with the more, uh, intense people staying behind. Fr. Z. reports an article by Andrea Tornielli, who's an insider's insider.

I have gotten hold of the letter (written in French) which Dario Card. Castrillon Hoyos wrote with the five conditions sent to [Bp.] Fellay in view of a return to full communion with Rome. Contrary to the first leaks, there is no mention of acceptance of the Council or the new Mass: they are prior general conditions. In fact the Holy See, showing a great generosity, asks that they not attack the person of the Pope. [Bp.] Fellay asked Benedict XVI for the revocation of the excommunication, so the request to respect authority without first pretending to be the recipients of a a "superior" Magisterium to that of the reigning Pontiff seems to me to be a commonsensical condition! This is the text of the letter which bears the signature of the Cardinal President of Ecclesia Dei:

Conditions resulting from the 4 june 2008 meeting between Dario Card. Castrillon Hoyos and Bishop Bernard Fellay:

1. A commitment to a proportioned response to the generosity of the Pope.
2. A commitment to avoid any public speech which does not respect the person of the Holy Father and which can be negative for ecclesial charity.
3. A commitment to avoid the pretense of a Magisterium superior to the Holy Father and to not put forward the Fraternity [SSPX] in opposition to the Church.
4. A commitment to demonstrate the will to behave honestly in full ecclesial charity and in respect to the authority of the Vicar of Christ.
5. A commitment to respect the date – fixed at the end of the month of June – to respond positively. This will be a required and necessary condition for the immediate preparation for adhesion to have full communion.

Tornielle reports that they have until June 28th to respond.