I think of our governor in Illinois.
Doctors at NYU Langone Health center conducted the largest study so far of U.S. hospital admissions for COVID-19, focused on New York City. They found obesity, along with age, was the biggest deciding factor in hospital admissions, which may suggest the role of hyper-inflammatory reactions that can happen in those with the disease.
If some had listened and paid more attention to Michelle Obama’s crusade a few years ago . . .
‘The media and a lot of supposedly smart people don’t know what they don’t know, and they don’t want to know. They don’t know how to look for “cooked” numbers, like strange causes-of-death rates. They don’t know why the perfect is the enemy of the good. They don’t want to believe that “No, you won’t get it right this time,” because central planning and government control of the economy and medical system can’t work’.
is a dangerous thing. Drink deep or taste not of the Pierian spring. – Alexander Pope
A WuFlu rant follows. Sorry, I needed to grouse. Come back tomorrow for non-current-events and lighter topics.
The line is part of Alexander Pope’s very long poetic essay An Essay on Criticism. It is not an easy work to read, and most of us no longer connect the Pierian Spring with the inspiration of the Nine Muses. Which fits my muddled meanderings on the modern media’s practitioners, a little learning, and the near-hysterical narrative shaping society in the US at the moment.
View original post 738 more words
At the eleventh hour, the nation’s highest court redeemed some of the credibility the Australian justice system had lost, reminding the nation and the world that the rule of law is not yet dead.
That assertion, however, remains doubtful in Victoria (Australia’s second largest state in terms of population).
There, the conduct of the Pell case routinely violated principles of justice recognised as sacrosanct in every civilised society.
Also:
Astonishingly, not one Australian Bishop (as far as I know) has publicly demanded a public inquiry into the conduct of the Pell case by Victoria Police and the state’s justice system.
Timid fellows, or unwilling to protest treatment of one who had been a gadfly in the cause of conservative liturgical reform.
In any case, Australian crawl got a new definition.
Dominus Vobiscum: Notes from a massgoer's underground
What’s going on, special attn. to final sentence:
HOLY WEEK
Due to the current pandemic, the Archdiocese has directed that there be no public Liturgies. The Masses of Holy Week will be offered in abbreviated form by Father Rutler.
On Palm Sunday, April 5, there will be no distribution of palms, but they will be blessed for possible future use. While Masses of the Triduum cannot be transferred, the Chrism Mass, normally celebrated in the Cathedral, will be translated to later in the year.
The last sentence/notation:
In these days, we pray especially for the soldiers, staff and patients in the emergency field hospital at the Javits Center, which is in our parish, and which Father Rutler is serving as chaplain.
Let us pray for him and his people.
As UN organizations go, this one
went. . . make that “might go,” that is, Trump threatened to pull funding, did not yet do it, as noted in the original post . . .
Convictions erased . . .
Sunday sermons, weekday observations
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s highest court has dismissed the convictions of the most senior Catholic found guilty of child sex abuse.
High Court Chief Justice Susan Kiefel announced the decision of the seven judges on Tuesday in the appeal of Cardinal George Pell. The decision means he will be released from Barwon Prison outside Melbourne after serving 13 months of a six-year sentence.
A Holy Week gift. Now, back to Rome, where he was putting Vatican finances in some kind of order?
Not clear, per this Wall St. Journal account:
Cardinal Pell has said privately that he wants to remain in Australia, near friends and family members, following his release from prison. But his continued presence in the country, where he is the most prominent symbol of the clerical-abuse crisis, might make it harder for church leaders to move beyond the scandals.
View original post 76 more words
Big-time exposure not gonna go to waste . . .
Doubles down as public complainer.
A day after President Donald Trump accused him of “always complaining,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker kept up his critique of federal efforts to provide states with the gear needed to protect health care workers and treat patients in a pandemic that has now claimed more than 300 lives in Illinois.
“To anyone who wants a response to some of the blame-shifting coming out of the White House, all I have to say is, ‘Look at the numbers here in Illinois,’ ” Pritzker said Monday at his daily coronavirus news conference in downtown Chicago.
He has his audience, know what to do with it.
Gets tiresome.
Blithe Spirit 