Year: 2007

Current Events, Perspective, Political, ,

For the glass house crowd

As you may have read, New York’s governor, Eliot Spitzer, has revoked an Executive Order formerly put in place by George Pataki. By revoking the order, he will be providing an opportunity for illegal immigrants to obtain NY drivers licenses.

Of course, 58% of New Yorkers are opposed to this, with the strongest dissension among upstate New Yorkers (the Downstaters know better, they live in closer proximity to the illegals they rely on each day – are are less hypocritical about it).

Yesterday, New York’s Association of Country Clerks stated that they would not obey the governor and would not issue licenses as required.

Legal wrangling will certainly ensue.

Here’s a few quotes from the Albany Times Union: 13 clerks against Spitzer

County officials to defy driver’s license change, citing security concerns, pressure from constituents

ALBANY — Citing security concerns as well as pressure from constituents, 13 county clerks on Thursday said they would defy Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s order to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.

“This is an issue of safety and security for New Yorkers,” said Saratoga County Clerk Kathy Marchione, who added that people have been walking into her Ballston Spa office to speak out against the plan since it was announced late last month…

The not so funny thing about all of this is the hypocrisy of those who are fighting the governor. They fall into a two broad categories:

  • The broad brush crowd: Immigrants are potential terrorists. We must be protected from their wily ways.
  • The out-and-out hypocrites: They are illegal, they shouldn’t be here, they deserve nothing.

Now the errors of the broad brush crowd are pretty obvious. They are bigots. Basically neo-nativists.

The other folks, the hypocrites, well they live in tony suburbs, eat at restaurants, buy groceries, get their car repaired, their lawns manicured, their manure, mulch, and lawn chemicals applied, their houses painted, their driveways sealed, their children cared for, their clothes sewn…

They save money, avoiding legitimate businesses and stores that charge more, and do everything in their power to save that last dime (because they are overspent and living on credit anyway), all on the backs of these very same illegal workers they would so readily deport.

Their 2,500 sq. ft. home was built with non-union labor, mostly illegal workers, saving them tons of do-re-mi.

Hey, how did Jose get to your house to mow the lawn? The truck brought him. How did he get to the employer’s jumping-off point? I don’t know (nor do I much care).

Did you know that Consuela and Yuan are out back chopping vegetables for your dinner tonight? Huh?

If these County Clerks and their constituents are so bent on ‘enforcing the law,’ perhaps they should card check everyone they do business with. Card check those restaurant workers out back, the lawn guy, the carpenter at your new house. But, if they had to think about that, they would quickly fall in with the bigot crowd.

‘I couldn’t do that, those brown people might hurt me.’

Frankly, I am ok with letting these folks have licenses. I am also all for protecting them from the myriad of bad employers out there who treat them like unprotected slave laborers. Of course others disagree.

While I agree with your right to disagree, I would then urge you to be very careful about those you do business with. You can’t have it both ways. If you’re all focused on being legal, be prepared, and pay that premium. Otherwise, you’re just throwing stones, and soon all your windows will be broken, and nobody will be around to clean up the broken glass, or put the new windows in.

Christian Witness, Perspective

I am the tax man…

From Forex: Pope says Catholic Church wants no privilege…

BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial News) – Pope Benedict XVI said today that the Roman Catholic Church does not expect special treatment as EU competition regulators considered a probe into tax breaks it enjoys in Italy, Agence France-Presse reported.

“The Church does not seek power, does not claim privileges and does not aspire to positions of economic or social advantage,” Benedict said as he accepted the credentials of Italy’s new ambassador to the Holy See…

Certainly true to what the Church should believe and how it should act. Props to the Bishop of Rome for speaking out on this sensitive issue. He is certainly refocusing things and is upsetting apple carts.

I wonder if the collective National Bishop’s Conferences are stroking out at the fact that all those property holdings might suddenly be enrolled on the tax register?

Unfortunately, not every Bishop can withstand the juggernaut of government. From LifeSite News: American Life League Urges Connecticut Bishops to Rethink Plan B at Catholic Hospitals

WASHINGTON, October 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “The actions of the Connecticut Catholic Conference are an outrage and a crime,” said Judie Brown, president of American Life League (ALL) reacting to the news that the Connecticut Bishops have given permission for the use of the so-called “emergency contraceptive” Plan B for rape victims at Catholic hospitals…

Christian Witness, Media, Saints and Martyrs, , ,

On the Commemoration of St. Francis (ooops)

From the Herald Tribune: Dutch priest blesses beasts in Catholic church on World Animal Day

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands: A canary, a goldfish, a guinea pig, a handful of cats and more than two dozen dogs received blessings from a Catholic priest in church Thursday to mark World Animal Day….

I have no problem with such blessings, which hearken back to the blessing of fields, flocks, and livestock. Helps us to remember our agrarian roots and to be thankful for all of God’s creatures and creation.

That being said, notice the co-opted term. No more St. Francis (mentioned only as the patron saint of animals), just World Animal Day and a rather funny pious tradition that makes the folks back home all warm and fuzzy.

They should be required to at least add a footnote: Respect for God’s creation, and our stewardship of it, brought to you by the Catholic Church.

Christian Witness, Saints and Martyrs, ,

Interesting sign at Borders Books

I was browsing through the Borders at Crossgates Mall in Albany today.

I saw the religion section from a distance and walked over. I was particularly interested in the signs they had pointing to “Christian Fiction.”

I figured millenialist books and similar, perhaps a few other things.

Guess what I found?

Bibles and Concordances.

That about sums up the world’s attitude toward Christianity, and most faith for that matter, excepting whatever people define as their personal brand of quasi-religious “spirituality.” I give them some credit for avoiding the soft-soap approach toward their attitude.

Side note, witchcraft, tarot, etc. were in a section all their own labeled “Mysticism.”

St. John of the Cross, pray for us.
All Holy Visionaries and Mystics, pray for us.

Calendar of Saints, PNCC

October 2

Feast of the Guardian Angels
St. Eleutherius, Martyr, (unknown)
St. Leodegarius, Bishop and Martyr, (679)

Traditional Polish Prayer:

Aniele Boże Stróżu mój,
Ty zawsze przy mnie stój.
Rano, wieczór, we dnie, w nocy;
bądź mi zawsze ku pomocy.
Strzeż duszy i ciała mego
i zaprowadź mnie
do żywota wiecznego.
Amen.

O Everlasting God, who hast ordained and constituted the services of Angels and men in wonderful order; Mercifully grant that, as Thy holy Angels always do Thee service in heaven, so, by Thy appointment, they may succour and defend us on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Everything Else, , , , ,

WordPress update

I updated to WordPress 2.3. It went pretty well, with one exception.

My host, Yahoo!, does not allow .htaccess files. It developed a plug-in to provide for pretty permalinks. Without using their plug-in WordPress’ permalinks options (besides default) do not work. The problem is described in the WordPress help forums.

For the time being I have disabled my pretty permalinks.

We will see if Yahoo fixes this in short order – but I have my doubts. Many of their promises about automatically updating WordPress were never kept…

I will also play with their plug-in, and see if I can fix it.

Sorry for any problems related to my permalinks. If I cannot resolve this I will be seeking another host. Things should not be this difficult, with workarounds and plug-ins to handle things most folks just handle.

Update:

Mark Jaquith of Mark on WordPress discusses WordPress 2.3 Canonical URLs and the problems they may cause.

He has a one line plug-in that disables canonical URL redirection.

I installed the plug-in and reactivated the Yahoo! plug-in. Everything works now. I will use this until Yahoo corrects its issues – or until I move to a different provider.