damien jurado "ohio" fisher "beautiful life" chaka khan "sweet thing" the game "hate it or love it" matt pond PA "new hampshire" tegan and sara "where does the good go"
VATICAN CITY—In the interim between Pope John Paul II's death and the election of his replacement, unsupervised Catholics seized the opportunity to sin without fear of reprisal, sources confirmed Tuesday.
"For two weeks, it was like Mardi Gras all over again," said Bryan Cousivert, a Catholic from Arizona. "People were drinking, cursing, and engaging in premarital or even extramarital sex. More importantly, everyone was being totally open about it. No one was worried about doing any penance at all!"
i'm happy about our new pope, benedict XVI. in the coming days and months, there will be a lot of thinly-veiled criticism of him in the american press. already they love to talk about how conservative he is - his positions on abortion, birth control, homosexuality, female priests. hey, remember that guy who came before him.....the one who has been unceasingly praised and called a saint......one of the greatest moral leaders of all time.......oh, you know, whatisname......john paul II? i could be wrong, but i'm pretty sure he held exactly the same beliefs.
and then there's the whole issue of him being european. anyone who thought that the pope should be chosen based on race (african, south american) is operating under flawed system of logic. he should have been african no more than he should have been eurpoean - race is immaterial. this decision was not made by racist white men, it was made by the Holy Spirit. the cardinals were simply vessels through which God expressed His will. however, do i think there will be a pope from the third world soon? yes, largely because the faith is growing by leaps and bounds there. but like i said, the media just feels the need to cook up a scandal and so they'll be blowing everything out of proportion.
i'll tell you what i do like about this guy (and it's a lot of what i liked about jpII) - he's willing to defend the faith unwaveringly. when you lead 1 billion catholics and stand as a moral authority for the whole world, you don't have the luxury of compromising your values. it is vital that you are resolute in your beliefs. being progressive or modern is not important, upholding standards of truth and justice in the face of relentless criticism is what makes a good pope. from what i've read about benedict, he seems to be just the man for the job. so praise God, we have a papa once again.
i normally reserve my judgment for things - books, movies, people, food - until i've actually tried them for myself. but since i do not intend to ever read this book, i'm gonna have to go ahead and semi-blindly criticize it. everybody LOVES this book, it's their new favorite! it's such a page turner and just a really good story. they promise that if i could just ignore the entire premise of the story (you know, the outrageous conspiracy theories about my church) then i would love it too. sweet, let me simply cast aside my sense of reality and fully embrace this marvelous tale.
i'm kidding of course, i take criticism with immeasurable grace. and really, part of the reason i won't read it is just because everybody loves it. i tend to enjoy being difficult like that. so if dan brown wants to write a novel with an exciting plot that is full of half truths, that's fine.
my problem is that people think it's reality. once and for all: it is a piece of fiction. you do not need a dateline special or a half-hour documentary on the history channel to explain that he made this up. he's a writer. of fiction. that means his stories aren't true. fiction=pretend. nonfiction=reality. there's a difference and it's an important one.
stepping off the soapbox and tucking it nicely under my bed......for now.
MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) -- Although Wisconsin residents have voiced their support for a plan to legalize wild cat hunting, some legislators and cat lovers say they will continue their fight. The proposal would allow licensed hunters to kill free-roaming cats, including any domestic cat that isn't under the owner's direct control or any cat without a collar, just like skunks or gophers -- something the Humane Society of the United States has described as cruel and archaic.
so tonight's episode of 24 has once again allowed marwan to escape relatively effortlessly. i mean, he was in the middle of the fucking desert guys. and you had a fucking helicopter. what does ctu stand for again ?? cant track unyone. ok, that was lame. but look what i had to work with. so tonight's circumstances were slightly more believable [and by believeable i mean total crap] than the other times when he just ducked behind a corner and somehow managed to bypass roadblocks and perimeters set up by trained agents. cough. bullshit. cough. or, hey, let me put on a hat. bam ! you cant track me anymore ctu.
there's really no denying that jack johnson is the most attractive man alive. but how he achieves such heart-stopping beauty is not just through his charming smile or gentle ruggedness (although they don't hurt) - it's the graceful way through which he expresses himself in song. his music is as soothing as it is powerful. he tackles some of the biggest problems facing our society without sounding pretentious or self-righteous. if you haven't already, i highly recommend that you pick up any and all of his albums, including his latest: in between dreams. this album has kept me company for about a month now and it's perfect for everything from sitting on a backporch relishing in a good rain to driving with the windows down on a sunny day. a few words of advice for listening though: don't just gloss over the words. soak up the lyrics as the thought-provoking source of self-exploration they're meant to be.
for the first time ever, i attempted to do my own taxes this year. my dad has always done them for me without complaint, but he waits until the last possible second and i wanted my money back sooner. plus, with my impending entrance into the 'real' world, i need to figure these types of things out for myself. so i downloaded my 1040EZ, gathered my W-2 and a pencil and filled in the little boxes. i've never claimed to be a mathematical genius, but this whole process only involves three little numbers so i figured i could handle some addition and subtraction. besides, i've taken the GRE and you do all of that without a calculator.
so i did the math, and discovered i owed $350. no way that's possible. two years ago my return was $700+, last year it was $350. there's no way it could change that much over the course of one year. double-checked my math. triple-checked my math. took it to work and had a coworker look it over. i was gonna have to come up with an extra $350, which means i was gonna have to borrow it from my parents. so i email dad, give him my info and let him do his magic. apparently he has some software program that changes payments into refunds, cause now i'm getting a $280 return. (read: i am kidding. we do not cheat on our taxes, never have and never would. if you work for the IRS, please don't audit me. i wouldn't know where to begin.)
so yeah, looks like i will be needing a husband after all. just for tax purposes and offspring.
my life's sense of balance was renewed through two small, but moving occurrences this weekend. last night i decided to head up to church to pray for the pope. i happened to get there before the spanish mass was over, so i called my mom to play catch up while i waited in my car. as we were talking, she told me that mail had come for me from an old friend who i haven't seen since high school. tighe and i grew up together and were really close in elementary school. when adolescence snuck up on us, we went our separate ways and downgraded our relationship to being mere acquaintances. i knew that she had gotten caught up with a bit rougher crowd, but had no idea where it was taking her after high school.
now five years later, i couldn't help but get teary-eyed as my mother read to me a wedding announcement and a letter from tighe telling me all she's been doing. she'll graduate with from school in may and go on to do youth ministry with inner city youth. joy radiated from her words, and i know that she has truly found her place in the world. the changes that can take place in such a small amount of time amaze me and i'm thankful for whoever or whatever started all of this in tighe.
riding on my emotional high, i headed into an almost empty sanctuary for some private mourning and praise. as i cried and prayed, i heard father mike begin to pray in spanish at the front of the church- i could hear that he was performing a baptism. i was struck by just how fitting it was that a tiny and brand-new person was joining the Church on the same day that so many were suffering such a great loss. my tears were replaced with a peaceful smile, knowing that there were surely countless other Catholics celebrating that rite across the globe.
small moments of immeasurable beauty like these are what make this life worth while and what allow us to fully comprehend the contrasting times of sorrow.
one of the best human beings ever to grace this earth has gone on to Glory today. he was a spiritual hero for me and so many others, and his passing feels like the loss of a loved one. we mourn him with the understanding that his tired soul has finally been united with the One to whom he dedicated his life. thank God for allowing such a wonderful man to walk amongst us and to help guide His church.
