Check out the following – the transformation of a modernist R.C. parish church in France into a proper church.
Thanks to NLM for pointing to this.
Thoughts and opinions from a Priest in the PNCC
Check out the following – the transformation of a modernist R.C. parish church in France into a proper church.
Thanks to NLM for pointing to this.
A little Lingua Latina humor from my college days.
Frankly, as far as I’m concerned, fire every shock jock, talking head, conservative, liberal, doctor, or anyone with an opinion from every radio and television station. These people make my skin crawl.
People who listen to them fall into two categories.
I grew-up listening to WKBW-AM radio in Buffalo. These guys had enough broadcasting wattage to reach Virginia. They had music, family safe humor, the news and weather. That’s what radio should be, even AM radio.
But its come to this, the airwaves filled with mindless blather by people who like to hear themselves talk – and get paid a lot for it. Need ratings? Blather. Need more ratings, insult someone.
On the Imus issue I found Al Roker’s commentary on the issue to be not all that enlightening – what else could he say – but I did find the com-boxes disturbing.
Why?
Because many of them touted out the old lines: “I’m not a racist but…” ; “I love you but…” ; “What he said is wrong, and I’m no racist, but…” ; “I have a lot of black friends, but…”
Everyone needed to couch their language and their commentary just in case someone might think ill of them.
I’d ask everyone there, everyone with a comment, how do you live? What do you do in your day to day in dealings with people? Are you fair, honest, and trustworthy? Do you treat everyone with dignity? Are you so unsure of your own actions and lifestyle as to apologize before you even begin talking?
It’s time to take a step back.
Live a life that exhibits dignity, and treat people with human dignity. That DOES NOT mean you have to agree with their lifestyle choices, or in any way support what they believe in. It simply means that you must accept and preserve their humanity before all people. It means that you see yourself in them, in their eyes, in their souls regardless of color, creed, orientation, or membership in a terrorist organization.
Yep, even the ‘bad guys.’ We torture them, we torture ourselves.
Folks like Mr. Imus never got that. No one has dignity, not his peeps, not even the reflection he sees in the mirror. That’s the sad part. No firing will fix that. Only grace can fix that.
God help us to see the humanity of all our brothers and sisters. Help us to see your reflection in them.
Some things that have passed through my thoughts in the past month or so:
New York – Bastion of Stupid People
I guess our Legislators consider us to be so stupid that they have to put forward all kinds of weird legislation in order to protect us from ourselves. To wit from TechNewsWorld:
New York pedestrians could find themselves on the wrong side of the law just for crossing the street while chatting on a cell phone or listening to an iPod if state Senator Carl Kruger gets his way. The New York lawmaker plans to introduce legislation to make it illegal to use portable electronic devices such as a BlackBerry Get the Facts on BlackBerry Business Solutions or PlayStation Portable game console while crossing the street.
The legislation comes after the deaths of two pedestrians in Sen. Kruger’s Brooklyn district within the past five months. “iPod oblivion,” the lawmaker said, has become a term used nationwide to describe the state of compromised awareness that is a result of the huge popularity of electronic devices among users of all ages.
“You can’t be fully aware of your surrounding if you’re fiddling with a BlackBerry, dialing a phone number, playing Super Mario Brothers on a Game Boy or listening to music on an iPod,” Sen. Kruger claimed.
…
“This is an avoidable tragedy,” Sen. Kruger added. “If you’re so involved in your electronic device that you can’t see or hear a car coming, this is indicative of a larger problem that requires some sort of enforcement beyond the application of common sense.”
Here’s the Bill he submitted. It applies to persons in cities with a population of one million or more.
Funny thing is that there’s only one city of more than one million persons in New York, and that is New York City. The rest of the state is so economically dead that anyone who can leave does. At least they’ll get hit by a bus while listening to their iPod in warmer climes, while holding down a good paying job, and paying little if anything in taxes.
As to other moments of legislative brilliance:
I’ve already commented on Law and attempted Laws to ban trans fat and foie gras in this blog. We’re all ignorant of educational efforts promoting good eating and better health. As such good health has to be forced on us. I can’t wait for the next government hiring initiative. A cop for every citizen. You will walk that treadmill, you will do it now!
On the heels of all that is inattentive driving legislation. Put down that coffee (then they get you for driving while drowsy), cigarette, sandwich, comb, or shaver.
What really amazes me is that our elected leaders wish to protect us from ourselves in every way possible but can’t muster the courage to protect the unborn (yes, New York is rushing headlong into funding embryonic stem cell research – which doesn’t work).
They can promote so called ‘gay’ marriage, but can’t reform a corrupt legislative process wherein all state laws are agreed to behind closed doors by an oligarchy of the Governor, Assembly Leader, and Senate Majority Leader.
The New York Sun carried an article on legislation being considered which would offer an apology for slavery, and reparations. See Albany Mulls an Apology for Slavery: Reparations Study Is Being Sought.
Oooooh white guilt. I get to pay because someone in New York once owned a slave.
Wasn’t me, my family, or really anyone I’ve met. I have no guilt over slavery. My people fought against slavery in Europe, Haiti, and the United States.
When someone talks to me about their guilt over treating Polish immigrant coal miners as slaves – in the 20th century, the nativist movement, their guilt for selling Poland to the Soviet Union, or their snickering at Polish jokes, then we’ll have something to discuss. I’d also like to see a formal apology from all the states where the Klan actively targeted (and still does target) Catholics with the necessary reparations being paid to various Catholic Churches.
And a technical question. If the citizens of New York are apologizing for slavery does that mean its African-American citizens are apologizing to themselves?
Of course to answer that question you would have to understand the whole concept of citizenship.
I think rather that the people who promote such drivel and no more than self-serving stooges. They’re the ones that the family had to place in politics in order to prevent their bringing the family fortune to ruination (aka George Bush I and II).
Then, of course, NY stupidity extends overseas
See: Settlers launch first drive in U.S. to sell homes from Haaretz. One of those Americans who actually went through and bought a home in Israel’s occupied territories is Dov Hikind. He bought a home in Shomron. As one commentator on a blog said, he should make aliyah now. I agree and that’s his right, especially if that is where his heart is.
Why stupid? Because Mr. Hikind is fermenting continued bloodshed over land Israel has no right to occupy (unless of course you’re a dispensationalist) and he’s doing so as an elected representative of the people of New York.
That’s right, Mr. Hikind is a New York State Assemblyman representing the 48th District. You know, sworn to serve this country and this state.
Oy, he could have had a nice place in the Catskills with no problem.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on today’s bombing of the Iraqi Parliament in the heavily fortified ‘Green Zone’ in Baghdad as reported by the Guardian in Bush Condemns Green Zone Attack:
At the State Department, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the attack showed terrorists were determined to destroy the Iraqi people’s dreams of democracy, but did not mean that Bush’s troop increase in Iraq had failed.
“This is still early in the process and I don’t think anyone expected that there wouldn’t be counter-efforts by terrorists to undermine the security presence,” she said.
Don’t admit failure or mismanagement for any reason, and portray yourself and the Administration you belong to as so exceedingly stupid as to say “I don’t think anyone expected that there wouldn’t be counter-efforts by terrorists…”
R i g h t…
…and fish don’t swim, and birds don’t fly, and Ms. Rice received her degree from Bob and Larry’s School of Secretarial Science.
St. Julius of Rome, Bishop, (352)
St. Zeno of Verona, Bishop, (371)
St. Sabas the Goth, Martyr, (372)