Women "ordained" by woman "bishop" in boat on international waters near Toronto.
The international waters-schtick is seen as an attempt to provoke a response directly from the Vatican.
News Clips: July 2005 Archives
Pope won't call Islam religion of peace
'I would not like to use big words to apply generic labels'
Never forget: "Islam" does not mean "peace", it means "submission".
Here is an interesting article about how the White House has spent a year trying to sell Roberts to conservatives, in particular religious conservatives, and why they think he will vote the "right" way on the Supreme Court. It talks about his devout practice of Catholicism, his wife's pro-life work, and how they followed an orthodox priest to another parish. All and all a good read for conservatives who are wary of his position.
Here's an interesting article about how Costco Wholesale is panned by Wall Street analysts who explicitly say that they are "too benevolent" toward their employees (they pay $17 an hour and have a generous health plan). They complain "it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder."
Wow. I have never seen what's wrong with Wall Street so concisely expressed. These people have so lost their perspective on things that the fault a company for serving its customers and employees. This is one thing that makes me glad for Catholic social teaching. I think it makes sense to benefit your employees and especially your customers, without whom you would not exist. A company can live without shareholders, but it cannot exist without customers. (Nor can anything but the smallest company exist without employees.)
The article contrasts Costco with Wal-Mart (Sam's Club), which has been in the news for their employee issues. Now I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart/Sam's Club, because they wring every last penny out of their suppliers, which forces their suppliers, in many cases, to oppress their workers, especially in areas of the world where there are no worker's rights protected by the government. Costco has a different approach. If they had stores near here, I'd seriously consider moving my membership because of what they are doing (I currently shop at BJ's, a regional wholesale club).
It is so good to see a company standing up to scummy Wall Street. And they deserve our business ...
2 More Women Die After Abortion Pills due to infection.
Still not at an alarming rate, but we can hope that the fear of death will make this pill unpopular!
Supreme Court Nominee: Judge Edith Brown Clement? She confounds both liberals and conservatives, and has no discernable track record on abortion. Good for confirmation, but not so encouraging to Bush's pro-life base. Sounds like trouble to me.
He struck a deal with prosecutors and got two consecutive life sentences without parole.
People who justify violence for the pro-life cause disturb me immensely. I suppose, statistically speaking, you're bound to have some, but I'm going to energetically denounce pro-life violence.
Pope's Birthplace to Fetch Fortune
"Deutsche Welle Sat, 16 Jul 2005 4:59 AM PDT
The modest Bavarian home that was the birthplace of Pope Benedict XVI is up for grabs, but you'd have to be seriously wealthy to buy it. Bidders include an oil sheikh, and the price has skyrocketed into the millions."
€9 million, to be exact.
A Christian adoption agency which receives funds from a Choose Life license plate is rejecting Catholic parents as they do not deem them to conform to their Statement of Faith. (The statement of faith says in part, "I believe that in all matters of faith and life, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the final authority", so they are right to deem Catholics not in conformance with it.)
Does this mean that they only allow Christian adoptive parents? How is it that they are accepting what amounts to public funds but only allow Christians to adopt?
Boy I'll tell you their website is slow today!
Three scientists are asking Pope Benedict to clarify the church's teaching on evolution in light of comments made by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn which said that modern evolution is incompatible with Christianity.
Schönborn does seem to have introduced some tension into the subject, as compared to comments that Pope John Paul had made on the subject. It's possible that Schönborn was merely rejecting materialistic, Darwinian Evolution, and John Paul was referring to evolution of species but not the baggage that full-fledged Darwinian Evolution brings into it.
It's certainly true that Catholicism has an objection to Evolution in the sense of the whole of creation being created by random processes devoid of any Providence. The big question is whether there is any real conflict between what Schönborn argues and what John Paul asserted. Comments in the article that Schönborn made certainly don't rule out a genuine conflict.
A woman has won a battle in her campaign to be able to go shirtless anywhere men can.
Talk about a woman who doesn't get the point. She's unwittingly turning herself into an "object of use", as John Paul the Great would put it. Women are not turned on by men's breasts to the same degree that men are turned on by women's breasts. A woman exposing her breasts is issuing an invitation for men to see her as a tool for satisfying their lusts, rather than as a person to be engaged on her own terms, and sought out for herself (rather than the pleasure she can bring). A woman exposing her breasts draws the attention of those who would want to use her and objectify her. The same is not true for a man exposing his chest. Such a woman is doing neither herself nor society a favor.
Apparently someone has invented a little flying machine like those flown by George Jetson. I had been wondering not too long ago why someone hadn't invented one of those yet. And NASA has figured out a way for them to all live in harmony.
Benedict XVI less conservative, more pastoral than expected
They say that some on the right wanted him to stop meeting with non-Christians — interestingly I don't know anyone who would take that position and I suspect they'd classify me as being on the right. They have a pretty good quote in here from Scott Hahn: "When he announced he was going to the synagogue in Germany, I got word from some of the traditionalists that they were upset. But it seems to me that he is continuing to be not so much John Paul, but St. Paul who went to the synagogue wherever he was, and they would welcome him." (Note that when Dr. Hahn says "traditionalists", he probably means traditionalists, and not merely orthodox believers.)
They claim "the new pope's words and deeds have drawn sharper criticism from the Catholic far right than from the left." Again this comment does not seem to gibe with what I know — although I suppose I have certainly run across traditionalists that are unhappy with Benedict. Guess it depends on whether we are talking radical traditionalists or merely orthodox believers. Take a quick look at Novus Ordo Watch.
Much of this ballyhoo is because his reputation was overblown in the first place. He wasn't the ogre people thought he was. He hasn't met "conservative" expectations.
The left, of course, will continue to be dissatisfied with him, no matter what. But perhaps we can get the media to back down somewhat.
Here is an interesting article about a new book (published by Random House) that discusses the marked physical and physiological differences between boys and girls and how this effects education. For example, girls are more aware of differences in color and texture, whereas boys have greater facility in discerning location, direction and speed, and female babies pay more attention to people and faces while male babies pay more attention to moving objects. This causes problems when women teachers encourage their children to draw people and use lots of colors, as the boys lose interest.
Very interesting given the bruhaha over the Harvard president's comments about women and their math skills. Whether or not he's correct, the idea that men and women's brains are exactly the same has never sat well with me. It seems obvious to me that they are different, and I am astonished that there is controversy over this from Harvard faculty.
