Pelosi is half-right

The stimulus

The response

Actually NP has it half right. You must follow your conscience. It is your "right" as a child of God. But you have a simultaneous responsibility to form a "right" conscience. You are called to remain a child of God, of being in relationship with God, by listening to the Word of God.

And as a Catholic Christian, you have the gift of being able to discuss this formally with God through his servant, a priest, in a private ceremony called variously Confession or Reconciliation. I wonder of NP has done that. I suspect she has not.

The leader of the priests in her diocese is the bishop. I am quite sure that if she went and confessed to the bishop, she would find he has strong differences with her interpretation of her faith, of what it means to be a "practicing" or "practical" Catholic.

And as for "Benny", he is good at hitting all pitches, often out of the park.

Not only is she no Catherine of Siena, she is no Dorothy Day, who was as liberal as almost anyone. She cofounded the Catholic Worker movement.

She had a child out of wedlock. She refused to have an abortion when she became pregnant with her lover's child, to the point he left her.

Love good graphics

funny and good

it's sad but I understand

why this was invented

more scary than an horror flick

http://www.sphere.com/nation/article/first-case-of-highly-drug-resistant-tuberculosis-in-us/19294836?icid=mainhtmlws-main-ndl1link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sphere.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2Ffirst-case-of-highly-drug-resistant-tuberculosis-in-us%2F19294836

I think Herb Caen would call this

a name phreak

this includes at least part of the county I live in

http://www.housingwatch.com/2009/12/22/hottest-and-not-est-housing-markets-of-the-00s/?icid=mainhtmlws-main-ndl4link7http%3A%2F%2Fwww.housingwatch.com%2F2009%2F12%2F22%2Fhottest-and-not-est-housing-markets-of-the-00s%2F

tmi

http://www.gadling.com/2009/12/23/new-zealand-goes-easy-on-naked-bikers/?icid=mainhtmlws-main-ndl4link6http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gadling.com%2F2009%2F12%2F23%2Fnew-zealand-goes-easy-on-naked-bikers%2F

Tom - these people need counseling

or better drugs. Or was the year that bad in OR.

Christmas at Greccio

from the Christmas archives

What better way to prepare for the arrival of the Christ Child than to take a brief journey to Greccio, the spot in central Italy where St. Francis of Assisi created the first Christmas crib in the year 1223.

Francis, recalling a visit he had made years before to Bethlehem, resolved to create the manger he had seen there. The ideal spot was a cave in nearby Greccio. He would find a baby (we're not sure if it was a live infant or the carved image of a baby), hay upon which to lay him, an ox and an ass to stand beside the manger. Word went out to the people of the town. At the appointed time they arrived carrying torches and candles.

One of the friars began celebrating Mass. Francis himself gave the sermon. His biographer, Thomas of Celano, recalls that Francis

stood before the manger 'overcome with love and filled with a wonderful happiness.'

For Francis, the simple celebration was meant to recall the hardships Jesus suffered even as an infant, a savior who chose to become poor for our sake, a truly human Jesus.

Tonight, as we pray around the Christmas cribs in our homes, we welcome into our hearts that same Savior.

Comment:

God's choice to give human beings free will was, from the beginning, a decision to be helpless in human hands. With the birth of Jesus, God made the divine helplessness very clear to us, for a human infant is totally dependent on the loving response of other people. Our natural response to a baby is to open our arms, as Francis did, to the infant of Bethlehem and to the God who made us all.

link to prior Christmas post

Amen

I am not a lover of lawns. Rather would I see daisies in their thousands, ground ivy, hawkweed, and even the hated plantain with tall stems, and dandelions with splendid flowers and fairy down, than the too-well-tended lawn. - William Henry Hudson (1841-1922) author and naturalist

phrases that are not quite the same ATW

after tiger woods, has meaning changed?

Let's go play a round.

I had a bad lay on hole 7.

Let's play nine holes this afternoon.

I'll have one to go please

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/07/ibm_data_center_containers/

company has employees add their title to all emails

and no tech support email goes out.

It seems all affected employees had the word Specialist in their title. The netnanny found the word _c_i_a_l_i_s_ embedded in that word. ( I did spacing to fool netnannies.)

source

climate, weather & politics

wow good

this is gross

this is gross but I shouldn't diss it. He is a fellow union member.

one DNA test to go,please

http://www.gnn.com/article/brothers-living-in-a-cave-in-hungary/801265

great Christmas story and a blast from the past

http://news.aol.com/philanthropy/nc/article/new-secret-santa-gives-out-14000-in-one/810759?icid=mainmaindl6link3http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Fphilanthropy%2Fnc%2Farticle%2Fnew-secret-santa-gives-out-14000-in-one%2F810759

prior Christmas posts (you can follow links back 3 years)

Santa who?

http://www.urlesque.com/2009/12/07/sketchy-santas/?icid=mainmaindl6link6http%3A%2F%2Fwww.urlesque.com%2F2009%2F12%2F07%2Fsketchy-santas%2F

useless words

I was reading a letter to the editor in Commonweal. The writer called himself a "conservative."

What a worthless word! Along with liberal, progressive, Democrat, and Republican. The last two are at best brands which are redefined formally every four years at a national convention when the platform is created. Do people read platforms any more? Do the candidates? Who cares?

The c-word and the l-word are either implied brands when self-applied, but compliments or epithets when applied to others. As in a number of other languages, the meaning is in the tone of voice.

John McCarthy was a political liberal and a middle of the road pastor. As a bishop, he could not be called anything but orthodox and orthoprax (the spell checker does like me for turning a noun into an adjective).

Joe Fiorenza was a political liberal. As a bishop, he became head of the USCCB. You don't get any straighter than that.

So are/were they liberal? conservative? progressive? orthodox? right-wing? left-wing?

Why do we even have terms still around based on how people sat in the legislature after the French revolution?

I always used to call myself a middle-wing extremist. I may return to that - angry indifference - a quiet rabble-rouser (or would be if I could find a decent rabble).

The blessing of being single

Sophie and Shirley, two elderly widows in a Florida adult community, are curious about the latest arrival in their building -- a quiet, nice looking gentleman who keeps to himself.

Shirley says," Sophie, you know I'm shy. Why don't you go over to him at the pool and find out a little about him. He looks so lonely."

Sophie agrees, and later that day at the pool, she walks up to him and says, "Excuse me, mister. I hope I'm not prying, but my friend and I were wondering why you looked so lonely."

"Of course I'm lonely, he says, "I've spent the past 20 years in prison."

"You're kidding! What for?"

"For killing my third wife. I strangled her."

"What happened to your second wife?"

"I shot her."

"And, if I may ask, your first wife?"

"We had a fight and she fell off a building."

"Oh my," says Sophie. Then turning to her friend on the other side of the pool, she yells, "Yoo hoo, Shirley. He's single!"

It worries me when I see single people overly anxious to find a mate. Perhaps, though, we have contributed to the situation by treating singleness like it's some sort of disease. Singles often comment that they feel out of place at church (activities tend to be family-oriented) and feel they are sometimes regarded as less important than married people. While marriage is a God-ordained institution, I think we do a disservice by suggesting that singles are somehow "incomplete" until they find that "certain someone."

The truth is, while Paul held marriage in high regard (Eph 5), he preferred being single and recommended it to Christians at Corinth in the difficult situation they were facing (1Cor 7). Single Christians have the opportunity to serve God in ways that married Christians would have difficulty doing. Of course, the opposite is also true.

So what is the lesson to be learned? Whatever situation you find yourself in, seek to serve God with all your heart. If you are single, use your singleness to serve God as best as you can. And if you're married, use your married status to do the same.

"But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk.....keeping the commandments of God is what matters." (1Cor 7:17,19b)- http://www.tftd-online.com

I somewhat disagree. Companionship without commitment is empty. Been there, done that.

What a maroon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Kh7nLplWo

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/52/messages/630.html

requiescant in pacem

http://www.myabc50.com/mostpopular/story/Maj-Gen-Terry-deeply-saddened-by-loss-of-two/L1qRbNH0I0KxICEtkx3F3w.cspx

http://www.myabc50.com/news/local/story/Drum-officials-no-record-of-Hunter-seeing-action/ULBi4_LffEuLmvwisoqpEA.cspx

http://www.myabc50.com/news/local/story/Investigator-Hunter-admitted-killing-two-buddies/5ojJPkbXLUiWdQwvrlOkSg.cspx

http://www.wwnytv.com/news/local/78435077.html

http://www.myabc50.com/news/local/story/Murder-suspect-waives-extradition-proceedings/_RjdfOE_SE6J-6NlXmZnSw.cspx

http://www.wwnytv.com/news/local/78238502.html

http://www.myabc50.com/news/local/story/Double-homicide-near-Evans-Mills/04o6YQOBakeehcnf1UV8sg.cspx

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/double_homicide_reported_near.html