Month: February 2015

Advice to the Pope: Stay away from your native country

It’s where shit flies a lot, and may explain some of Francis’s economic and political faux pas.

Argentina is in the midst of a political crisis, following the January 18 murder of prosecutor Alberto Nisman; he had been scheduled to testify to Argentina’s Congress about President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s alleged role in covering up Iran’s role in the 1994 terrorist bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Indeed, Nisman had drafted an arrest warrant for President Kirchner.

The journalist who broke the story of Nisman’s murder was Damian Pachter, of the English-language Buenos Aires Herald. Shortly afterward, he began to be followed. Fearing for his safety, he fled the country, and is now residing in Israel.

Thing is, he’s the Pope of off-cuff and/or lightly considered pontifications about things political and economic, the first supreme pontiff to pontificate in that manner on such matters. One would expect more humility from such a vicar.

Morality today ain’t what it used to be. Take fornication . . .

. . . which has become a word that’s never used, along with some others:

The expression “sexual immorality” seems overly contentious to people today. To say someone has acted immorally is usually to say he’s acted in a way that’s morally repellent. But most people don’t feel that way about non-standard sexual activity.

It’s not fornication, adultery, or sodomy that leaders of thought consider repellent, but the pharisaical judgmentalism (so they consider it) of those who view such things as seriously and categorically wrong.

Mainstream Christian preachers avoid the terms completely, including, maybe especially, Catholic. St. Paul, for instance, has become the hottest potato since, what? Apostasy?

Rauner rationale for stopping union “fair share” dues by govt. employees

I don’t know when I’ve heard something this clear and articulate from an elected official in our great state:

“Forced union dues are a critical cog in the corrupt bargain that is crushing taxpayers. Government union bargaining and government union political activity are inexorably linked,” Rauner said in the release.

“An employee who is forced to pay unfair share dues is being forced to fund political activity with which they disagree. That is a clear violation of First Amendment rights – and something that, as governor, I am duty-bound to correct.”

There it is, in a nutshell.

“People of color” or “colored people”? Cultural shaming gone wild

Oak Park Chronicles

In her responsetomy blogabout saying “colored people” vs. “people of color,“ Wed. Journal digital editor Ashley Lisenby did herself honor and me a compliment. I appreciate being called to task in a way that advances the argument and questions no one’s ancestry.

 

I particularly liked what I found on reading more of what her source said about why and how often people say “people of” — that the phrase is “most often used outside of traditional academic circles, often infused by activist frameworks.”

 

I don’t get all of this — how is something infused by a framework? — but “activist” lit a small light for me, leading me to realize that the phrase has become part of an ongoing rhetorical battle among academic elites — as much debate tool as natural progression in how people talk.

 

So someone who says one thing for…

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Can’t sleep? Feeling low? Job says tell him about it.

Today’s reading, from Job 7

Job spoke, saying:
Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights have been allotted to me.
If in bed I say, “When shall I arise?”
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.
Lots of people can identify with that.

Advice for hoteliers, innkeepers, and genial hosts, wherever you are, from letter to Hebrews

This letter to Hebrews has some on the mark stuff today:

Reading 1 Heb 13:1-8

Let brotherly love continue.
Do not neglect hospitality,
for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.

And other good stuff, following on the above:

Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment,
and of the ill-treated as of yourselves,
for you also are in the body.
Let marriage be honored among all
and the marriage bed be kept undefiled,
for God will judge the immoral and adulterers.
Let your life be free from love of money
but be content with what you have,
for he has said, I will never forsake you or abandon you.
Thus we may say with confidence:

The Lord is my helper,
and I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?

Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Right?