Friday, March 14, 2014
Further thoughts on Pope Francis
Haven't been selling as much seafood at work as we thought we would despite a fairly strong demographic showing of Catholics in the area then I thought maybe I missed the memo, maybe this theological modster changed the rules again and we can now eat meat on Fridays during Lent. He has so many things in his head that are spilling out right now (e.g. civil unions) that the Vatican is scrambling to spin things along the lines of don't read too much into his words he's still upholding Church teaching but I'm wondering how long they can do this before they say Houston we have a problem. He was recently voted Man of the Year by BOTH Time magazine and the gay-rights magazine The Advocate so unless he's down with that I would have expected a polite but clarifying letter-to-the-editor to the gay review. The phrase I'm hearing most lately is he's some sort of rock star. That's kind of an interesting analogy considering the personal history of most rock stars and it kinda puts faith on a cheap pop culture level (Justin Biebs in charge of interfaith/ecumenical affairs?). If I may borrow a line from the classic Sidney Poitier movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Francis seems to be saying to all the mostly dead popes except one who have gone before him "it's time we got the dead weight of your generation off our backs" (Spencer Tracy was a great actor btw). Things are murky right now but Francis' foglight seems to be beckoning in the opposite direction so try not to hit all those traditionalists bobbing in the water as you steer towards some progressive's promised land. Does he have a Facebook page yet?
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A bit of a change from William (Any Catholic who's stupid enough to drink holy water is probably stupid enough to drink gas at the pump,"
ReplyDelete"I have the holy water in my apartment and I blessed myself. Guess what? I don't think I'm going to drop dead in the next half hour as a result of this and I'm smart enough to drink a beer and not drink the holy water.") Donohue, guru of the
Catholic League.
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Donohue is a company person, when the Church is under attack he's their pitbull. Not sure why he made such a statement though. Boss with the sauce ya know?
ReplyDeleteMy guru is a rock star. So is the Dalai Lama and Big Papi too. Catholics are afraid of him. Suddenly shit's got real.
ReplyDeleteHere's at the root of the frustration about him: he needs to be honest. Is he trying to change Church teaching? SAY SO. Does he not want to change church teaching in any particular but to adopt a more loving approach? SAY SO. Let's get it on the table because he keeps coming up with stuff.
ReplyDeleteIt's a long way from the Vatican to the Wabash River and many
DeleteBishops run things as they see fit. Sort of like if Z-Man was worried that
Obama insist he get that colonoscopy.
BB the way most doctors these days practically pressure you into that it may as well be a law.
DeleteThe other root is this: let's say he's not down with alot of what the Church has been teaching down through the centuries, as a person he has the right to feel the way he feels but does that make him a good pope if part of the job description calls for teaching and preaching what the Church teaches? Can a pope do this? should he? he doesn't seem to realize we need to have that debate first before one pope can start teaching and obliging people to follow his political and moral whims. It's like I don't agree with the Church on bc but that doesn't mean a pope trying alone to change that is the way to go. There would have to be councils first, conferences, meetings, discussions and it's not just up to the pope. That shit has to be tilled first.
ReplyDeleteBut to change the subject I take horrible selfies. Put my tablet on self-portrait mode yesterday and dunno if it was the lighting or maybe it's totally subjective like I don't like the way I sound on a recording either but the images I came up with were awful imo although I did come up with one that was passable and with a good tablet you can finetune stuff. What sucks about the way we lose weight is you want the weight to come off in the middle basically but you lose weight everywhere when you just want to trim the gut. I think I look ok but I just cannot take a good selfie.
ReplyDeleteConspiracy Theory #26585: that Malaysian jet liner pilot decided to go
Deleteto Vegas.
I meant to ask you about that. At work today we settled on aliens and/or a new kind of Bermuda Triangle phenomenon. I'm sure Alex Jones has an opinion.
DeleteWhat's up with CNN? Constant 24/7 coverage of the affair, even though
Deleteno one knows much of anything. Is there NO other news, guys?
Yeah like there was a little gas explosion in East Harlem the other day, Russian military maneuvers on the Ukrainian border...
ReplyDeleteHey, wanna picket a funeral ?
ReplyDeleteAs I recall the courts have upheld his right to do this, free speech ya know?
DeleteI'm thinking it might go this way:
DeleteSt. Peter- "Welcome to the hereafter, Rev Phelps"
Phelps- "Why thank you, I have been very, very religious."
St. Peter- "Rev, you have been assigned to the dead soldier and gay
section for eternity."
You know when they say there's a little good in everyone? well dunno.
DeletePersonal info on FB, I'm more comfortable with broad and general info. I'm more hesitant the more specific the query is: did you finish college? when did you start your last job? are you in a relationship? how are your bowel movements? I've a thing about what the English call pri-vacy.
ReplyDeleteWe note that in 2003, Italian law enforcement reported that 90% of married adultery cases were solved based on FaceBook. Sort of a spaghetti NSA
Deleteoperation?
& over here in Brooklyn a young man was arrested and charged with attempted murder over an argument with another young man that started on Facebook. In the boroughs of Gotham alot of gangs have been cracked based on Facebook. The average stuff on FB, I hope to do something more substantial than "my cat threw up today."
DeletePut on what you are comfy with. Im pretty open but my friends list is short so i control who can see my stuff. Some people frisnd everyone and everyone else. I keep it.way more intimate. Most of them are people i know personally.
ReplyDeleteYeah I mean you have to question when you suddenly have 10,000 "friends." I'd be like who's going to rob my house?
DeleteWell it's shaping up like this: the pilot once wore a "Democracy is Dead" t-shirt, he's Muslim and had an overly avid interest in aviation. The bastard sunk the plane in the ocean.
ReplyDeleteHe did have a facebook site (and never mentioned his cat throwing up).
DeleteWhat, no Dick Cheney connection yet?
DeleteConspiracy Theory #42138: The plane surreptitiously flew over the Andaman Islands, up the Mekong River, across the Himalayas and landed at Katmandu. Where it was swarmed by Yeti.
DeleteThe anagram is an exercise in rearranging the letters of words to make
Deletenew words. We note an example in this case:
Alien abductions = = Tabloid nuisance
Well apparently CNN's obsession with the subject has greatly boosted its ratings over MSNBC at least for three days. They probably hope it's not wrapped up too soon.
DeleteBtw, by implication this means i figure i know you personally EVEN THOUGH you didnt hsve coffee with me. Yes it is a compliment.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of that eggplant/spinach puree you posted about. How would it go down? would I like it? what are the health benefits? Can you put the ingredients in one of those NutriBullet things?
DeleteIt's terribly good. You don't puree it per se.. it just all cooks down. It's pretty mild, health benefits are that it's all veg, plenty of spinach, plenty of tomatoes, you can make it spicier if you like. NO you cannot put it in a Bullet. You cook it and cook it until it all cooks down.
DeleteIt'd be far better for you to puree it as then you're consuming it raw.
DeleteIt wouldn't taste nearly as good.
DeletePope Francis is a populist and people it seems quite enjoy populists. I don't care for modern Catholicism. If I'm going to go to church, I prefer the traditional Latin mass at my girlfriend's church.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, it is rare that you imagine someone looking how they actually do. I thought that when I saw your pic on your facebook page Z.
I kinda like the old Gothic Catholicism myself. Nowadays it's kinda preached that unless you're a Hitler everyone kinda pops into Heaven, no theological drama or tension there. Cheat on your wife, screw your employees and you get a good eulogy and everyone cries at your wake. I don't know how you imagined me Chris but I think we all wanna know how BB looks like. I'm guessing a perfessor type.
DeleteLike G. Edward Griffin
ReplyDelete"...Nowadays it's kinda preached that unless you're a Hitler everyone kinda pops into Heaven..."
ReplyDeleteMost definitely not the case within SPX.
Modern Catholicism -- even imo some sermons at memorial services lack heft and are full of platitudes. Pope Francis is trying to market Catholicism, to change the brand and I'm sure alot of this has to do with Latinos going the Pentecostal route.
ReplyDelete""I can't walk down the streets of our beloved New York without people coming up to me and saying 'Hey, thanks for Pope Francis. You guys did a good job. We love him,'" he said. "I hear from our parish priests, who are always on the front line, they're telling me the crowds at Sunday mass are up, the confession lines are longer, inquiries about the Catholic faith are more abundant and even the collections are going up." -Cardinal Dolan
Delete& Catholics in my area aren't buying as much seafood during Lent as they used to. Perhaps they sense that with this Pope and the rules changing so much now maybe the old stuff doesn't really matter anymore.
DeleteThe theological construct of on again/off again vegan practice eludes me.
DeleteIMO veganism is depressing, you may as well kill yourself.
ReplyDeleteI was a vegan for a while in the late 80s but I was uneducated and things weren't like they are now. I couldn't sustain it. Many of my friends are vegan. It is not a commitment I would ever try to take on again. However I do use vegan cookbooks a lot (simply sub in dairy for nondairy) because they don't use eggs. I also have found a company called Sophie's that makes vegan seafood to DIE FOR. Unfortunately I have to drive a very long way all the way down to Raleigh to get it and it isn't cheap but I keep it for special occasions. If I lived by you then I would go down Hester Street and go to May Wah Vegetarian Foods. Seriously I have considered doing a major road trip with like 5 empty coolers. But in the meantime I have to make do.
ReplyDeleteI CANNOT live without eggs. Even if I have nothing at home but eggs and some slices of cheese I can whip up something quite good. Jacques Pepin once said if you put him on some deserted island all he'd really need are three things: eggs, bread and potatoes.
DeleteEggs are good-lots of protein. One of my favorites is scrambled on rye
Deletetoast with ketchup. But the exotic eggs can get pricey .
I csn kick ass with just beans, rice, and spices.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the Westboro Baptists have requested there be no picketing at old
ReplyDeleteFred's funeral. You know, out of respect for the families of the deceased.
Dunno what the Sandy Hook massacre victims did to deserve Phelps' displeasure. The Rev. Fred Phelps is like some twisted Gothic character out of a V.C. Andrews novel.
DeleteAn absolutely horrible thing happened over the weekend of which I'll speak more tommorow. I think at the root of the problem is that Yonkers gives a higher priority to red-light cams than an animal control unit.
ReplyDeleteThe shortest version of the story is that a stray pitbull killed one of my beloved cats. Not the least of which it was a gross violation of my neighbor's property.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry.
DeleteThank you. It stays with you though.
DeleteSorry to hear that. The animal should be identified and euthanized. That breed kills more humans than grizzlies, wolves and cougars combined.
ReplyDeleteIf you get a red light camera ticket they are actually really easy to beat. Of course, most people don't fight them. They simply pay the fine which is what the state is hoping for.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.copblock.org/33390/how-to-beat-a-photo-enforced-speeding-ticket-or-red-light-ticket/
Sorry to hear about your cat. I was walking my dog a couple of years ago and we came upon an unruly stray pit bull.
ReplyDeleteIt was the first time I've ever had to unholster my gun because of a potential threat. Thankfully the dog took off after I threw a rock at it.
There was a really tragic case involving a young boy and a pit bull that happened in Yonkers late last year.
ReplyDeleteBB that's the problem the animal has not been euthanized let alone identified. It's a bit of a mystery as the beast doesn't show up all the time but when he does it's always the same narrow geographic area he causes his mayhem in and he's usually with another dog. The first incident happened in early or pre-winter when he entered the yard and killed a stray cat and that's when the dispatcher criticized me for waiting too long to call and didn't take down the info. This time I called right away and to be fair I honestly don't know what kind of investigation they do but as I told the cop this dog or dogs has been an ongoing problem/issue here for at least a few months now and it's obviously not been resolved.
ReplyDeleteSo what actually happened was I went to Mass Saturday afternoon and came home around 6. My neighbor called to say a couple dogs were down the backyard and attacked one of my cats. There was some confusion on my part initially as I went down my yard but the action took place in her yard. At any rate I went down there with my cell with my police contacts stored and I had a Swiss Army knife and a big wooden axe handle that I have around my place. The cat was already dead so I banged on the metal fence that separated us and yelled at the dog and he took off I know not where because a few moments later I was calling the police. The pitbull killed the cat rather quickly it is to be assumed 'cause the neck was clear broken which probably means he had some training. With the warm weather coming up you can't relax but the City of Yonkers has no animal control unit to speak of so they foist it on the cops who are usually busy getting guns off the street. How soon before they attack a kid or elderly person is anybody's guess.
ReplyDeleteI'd be in favor of huge fines on these thugs that own several pitbulls that run amuck.
ReplyDeleteThere is a pitbull movement* that claims they are harmless; enough so, that over 50,000 people wrote in to save a bull that mauled a baby in Florida. Me, I'd put a
bounty on the breed, I'm tellin' ya.
* TV series 'Pittbulls & Parolees, for example
I take it you feel the breed is innately vicious. Not having the knowledge I really don't have a position but I lean more towards they're made that way by low-life scum. Since Yonkers doesn't have an official animal control unit per se I wonder what happens when a resident calls saying a raccoon entered their home. This actually happened in my place as one warm summer night I made the mistake of keeping the screen door open and a raccoon came in and started eating the cat food in the kitchen. The raccoons here are civilized though unlike the pitbulls and he just left after a short while.
ReplyDeleteIf you'd had your e-whiz thing, you could have made a need YouTube shot.
DeleteKnew a guy that raised pigeons, had a fancy loft and expensive breeding stock. He found a cat In the loft and tried to remove it. He looked like he
barely survived Benghazi, ya know? I like raccoons, but hear they carry
diseases like sometimes rabies, and their scat can be dangerous. BB's raccoon story: When we were first married, we were canoeing the upper St. Croix river. There was a county park where we set up our tent, and we were the sole occupants. Ranger came by and said they had been having a lot of bears sniffing around for food, so close everything up. One of those extremely quiet northwoods nights and all of
a sudden the garbage cans are getting tipped over. The new Mrs. says
it must be the bears? I said, we will have to wait until morning to see. She
gets up, grabs a flashlight, heads on out to the garbage cans and hollers
get out-go away-you varmint, and comes back and said it was just a raccoon. I was an urban youth-she grew up on a farm.
Thanx for the tip about the raccoon scat. As a careless kid I can see the risk but if an adult gets that you'd have to wonder. Of course Obama would probably say the worst thing we have to fear is NYC getting nuked.
DeleteHow come Pope Francis doesn't meet with Bill Donahue ?
ReplyDeleteWhy birth control is controversial is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteThere's something weird with the cops down here, they don't respond to dog calls. Even their app on Google Play you can't seem to install and download even if you have an Android. So I went to Dick's in the Danbury Mall and got me two jogger's versions of pepper spray which they say is one of the better defenses against unruly pitbulls. Some people say to get the big bear version, some kind of macho canister of mace but as I told him you can have the wind blowing in your face when you use it then YOU have the problem. Seems in the big YO you have to handle things on your own.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good idea. I've seen recommendations that one should wear glasses in the event of windborne backspray, but a properly working can should provide a concentrated stream.
DeleteI think Obama is gonna exploit yesterday's audience with the Pope to no end. Deemphasize the social differences but overemphasize their common ground on the economic/political issues. I will say this for Francis, he pretty much told them Sicilian moblords if you don't stop killing people you're going straight to Hell and when was the last time you heard a mainstream religious leader say such a thing? I could warm to the guy but give it time:)
ReplyDeleteFor the life of me I don't know why more people don't carry mace. Not sure if this would make a difference but in an Adam Lanza situation I'd rather a few people have the stuff and the jogger one is so small and unobtrusive.
ReplyDeleteWorked at a place once where one of the foremen got himself liquored up and went to the CEO's place. Banged on the door at 2 AM and woke the old guy up. Said,
ReplyDelete"I'm gonna beat you up good!". Old CEO maced him to the ground and called the cops. Foreman was terribly red-eyed the next day; we couldn't figure out if it was
the hangover or mace effect.
& the beauty of the mace/pepper spray is we don't even have to get into a whole debate about firearms.
ReplyDeleteSo here's how it goes down in Yonkers. You call the cops about what you see as a serious dog situation or could be a serious situation, you expain the event and give a description and then a half hour goes by and you look out your window. You were ready to at least give a brief interview and now maybe 40 minutes have gone by since you made the call and it's early evening and you see a guy walking his dog and then a young black guy walking up the stairs talking on his cell. Now unless this is a real subtle low-key response I'm at a loss:)
ReplyDeleteInteresting: Yonkers has a strict and thorough code addressing the problem. But
ReplyDeletethey have no enforcement capabilities, from what I can ascertain. We suspect that
most of the patrol officers are busy putting up red light cameras?
I've a theory though. They've been working on some abandoned houses back here. I think maybe they've been using these two dogs as guard dogs and they got out. After the dog attacked my cat I yelled "Stop It!" and the dog took off.
ReplyDeleteThat's some code BB. I didn't even want to get into the subsection "Female Dogs in Heat" but the solution would seem to be if we have red-light cams how 'bout doggie cams?
ReplyDeleteCouple of things. A raccoon can kill a cat. They also do carry diseases and they have a sweet tooth. A raccoon got into a box of our raisin bran once and picked out every raisin, left the bran. Theyre cute but vicious in a corner. I am a big fan of pepper spray for personal protection. I have this stuff called Omega and its mace plus pepper spray plus ultraviolet dye. It shoots 20 feet and spreads about 3 feet so just aim for the chest youre good. I think people should give up the guns and go for the pepper spray. You can put someone down for 45 minutes but you wont kill them. Also, if you do use it, if you send a copy of the police report to the company you get a new one free. Whats not to love?
ReplyDeleteSome dogs are dumb enough to go after a raccoon, happened one hot summer night years ago. I too have almost the same product.
ReplyDeleteCraziest thing I ever saw was driving down the road one night and we got stopped by a possum and a dog doing the staredown in the middle of the road. That was the biggest possum I have ever seen and he was not going to back down from any dumb dog. We actually had to really roll up close on them before they were willing to get out of the way. I don't know who won the fight but my money would have been on that possum. It was HUGE and up on the back legs and everything. If that dog thought he was getting into it with your ordinary dumb-look-right-before-they-get-squished possum he was in for a huge awakening.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing about why pepper spray is a better choice: it's really hard to kill yourself with it. I mean, I imagine you COULD (and that you COULD probably kill someone else with it too) but I think you'd have to try really hard, like holding the person (or yourself) down while you spray the entire contents of the can point blank into their nose/mouth. It's just overall a better choice for those of us who are less stable than the rest of us.... know what I mean?
ReplyDeleteCraziest thing I ever saw on the road was a line of traffic backed up by two
Deletemating ducks. Well, that and a herd of horses galloping towards me in the dark. Thankfully they stayed in their lane.
In my area which is typical suburbia we have 'possums, raccoons and skunks in the summer. The 'possums and raccoons don't truly hibernate and they come through the yards here at night looking for food all through the year. They and the cats are often in close proximity and they're always civil with each other. Even the extremely territorial cats know to leave them alone. Yes yes yes we all know raccoons carry rabies unless you've been living in a cave and they mostly get bad press but I've been thinking with these two nuisance dogs around the dogs are gonna meet their match the hard way one day. Let Nature sort it out know what I'm sayin'?
ReplyDeleteI am totally sold on pepper spray and as I've said for the life of me I don't know why more folks don't carry it. I'm only guessing some people might be nervous around it like it'll go off by accident if they fart the wrong way. How many lives could be saved? how many maimings avoided? "Every season starts with Dick's."
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised the NRA hasn't come out against pepper spray. They probably have. Or they will if people begin to buy it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, self-defense; I see over in Montana, some creep tried to kidnap a 13 year old girl. He got out his handcuffs. She kicked him in the groin and chased him up the street with a jackknife. Speaking of peppers, I did a Greek lunch the other day and got sicker than h**l. What's up with that?
ReplyDeleteGetting back to the dog situation in Yonkers I was mulling over what Saty said in these pages a while back. Basically you can have a LAW on the books and everyone feels good about it but a law is not a law if you don't have an effective apparatus to back it up. Two dogs wanna hump on my lawn, well I mean if nobody comes what's the big deal???
ReplyDeleteGenerally I'm against carrying pepper spray in the workplace. As a strict policy I never do but ever work with a couple people who really make you wonder? They start getting up real close in your face and start yelling and so I've kind of concluded maybe a few managers should carry it. Then again maybe not.
ReplyDeleteWonder if Pope Francis will have a theological trickle down effect?
ReplyDeleteAgain kudos to Francis for not glorifying the mob which is a real cultural peculiarity imo.
ReplyDeleteFrancis has to be wary of monarchs bearing food .
ReplyDeleteAl Sharpton simply has to be wary.
DeleteI'm thinking Pope Francis might like Fr. Ray Kelly of St. Birgid's over in Ireland?
ReplyDeleteYou know he just said to some Italian pro-life group something about abortion being an "abominable crime" and some other inline things and I'm thinking you and Saty liked him early on and I may like him more later on. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteI see they are canonizing two recent Popes. That would make 82 ex-pope saints,
ReplyDeleteaccording to my count and being Pope certainly is a step up. For example, Pope Hilarius served for
7 years, died and became a saint. He didn't do much in particular, except argue
with his bishops. On the other hand, he suffered from radiculopathy: rare, even
among Popes. IMO, they have so many saints now, some saintly, some scoundrels, they ought to tighten the qualifications, ya know?
It's like any Hall of Fame, it eventually gets watered down.
Delete