Austria, blasphemy, Catholicism, gay, orgy, Schoenborn, Vienna

Those are the tags from Rod Dreher's latest bit of Catholic news reporting. Mr. Dreher is known in some circles to be a "religion writer", although I think his official title is Senior Content Provider.

Anyway, in the thread someone called who knew wisely comments: "Those who can't do, do shock value, those who should be shocked don't want to appear prudish." Another commenter, Alicia, ironically states the following:

Good post about "those who can't do, do shock value." I like that. My way of putting it is the artist is stuck in the anal phase - he has the desire to cover everything with his own excrement, and actually thinks other people will be just as fascinated by his excrement as he.

Hey! I like that, too. Well.... I'm sure Alicia's intention is to describe the homosexual artist responsible for the stupid weirdness in the cathedral, but I think her word "artist" can be replaced with "journalist" and the wisdom will still apply. As the old joke says, "If the Foo shits, wear it."

But you know here's some silver lining. I just realized that Rod's Catholicism tag can be used to summarize what he's been reporting on vis-a-vis the Catholic Church. Read those headlines — pretty fair and balanced, huh?

In other Catholic news, Pope Benedict is visiting America for the first time. But that's a whole 2 weeks away.

Update: I did just notice that Rod had put up a post about Pope Benedict's visit, but he didn't tag it with his usual "Catholicism" tag. So to be fair, OK, but is it a little fishy that he doesn't use the tag on the good and neutral news on which he uses the Pope Benedict tag, but reserves it for bad news? After all, he does acknowledge that the Pope indeed is Catholic, using the tired cliché.

Oh yeah

My oldest son's birthday is tomorrow

He'll be six, so naturally we will be entering the wonderful world of guinea pigs. And naturally I am researching these amazing creatures, starting at youtube, of course.



An interesting sound. The problem is that I'm not really what anyone would call a fan of animals, not living ones at least. So could someone tell me which end of the guinea pig this sound is issuing from?

I think it's best to start with a guinea pig rather than going for a full-blown pig right off the bat.

"They still the same white people"

Another newly revealed buddy of Obama, Reverend James Meeks, seems to be a little less radical that Rev. Wright. In contrast to Jeremiah Wright's "God damn America", Meeks prefers a more traditional "God damn those white people." Here he is blasting away at famous white guy and political machine operator, Richard Daley:

"We don't have slave masters. We got mayors. But they still the same white people who are presiding over systems where black people are not able, or to be educated."

"You got some preachers that are house niggers. You got some elected officials that are house niggers. And rather than them trying to break this up, they gonna fight you to protect this white man," Meeks said in a sermon tape which he later defended in an interview with Chicago CBS2 reporter, Mike Flannery.

It's amazing to me how these fine religious gentlemen can say whatever they please and the press just sits in the pew and says "Uh, huh. Well... Preach it! Amen." And the rest of us are neither shocked nor surprised. Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations.

Hawk's Sick 900

I know this happened 50 years ago in dog years, but it's still amazing. Check out the cool matrixy freeze-frame angle shifts.



Yeah.

Governor Casey's Revenge

I have become increasingly frightened by the possibility of an Obama presidency. Nevertheless, seeing the Clintons unable to get their way has provided some perverse moments of satisfaction. Also, I have been quite disappointed with Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey Jr. who has not lived up to his father's legacy. Gov. Bob Casey Sr. provided a model of what a faithful Catholic Democrat would look like. So while Casey Jr.'s endorsement of Obama does not thrill me it does provide one satisfying result: Revenge form the grave for Casey Sr. Remember that in 1992 Bill Clinton kept the good governor (whose victory in a big state over a pro-choice Republican was quite an upset and should have made him a star in the party) from speaking at the Democratic National Convention because of his strong pro-life position. But Kathy Taylor, a pro-choice Republican --from Pennsylvania no less -- did address the convention. From the NYT story:

Mr. Casey’s father, the state’s former governor, had a chilly relationship with Mrs. Clinton’s husband dating from Mr. Clinton’s first campaign for president in 1992. The elder Mr. Casey was strongly against abortion rights and did not approve of Mr. Clinton, who in turn shut Mr. Casey out of the Democratic convention. Another long-time Casey ally said that during the 1992 campaign, Mr. Casey refused to attend a dinner in his home county, Lackawanna, where Mrs. Clinton was campaigning for her husband. On election night in 1992, Mrs. Clinton closely tracked the results in Lackawanna, which her husband won.

A Casey endorsement is huge in Pennsylvania -- whether from father or son. I can't help but think that Gov. Casey is looking down from heaven and thoroughly enjoying the fact that 16 years after he was shut out of the convention, the Clintons really need a favor from his family -- and they aren't going to get it.

Microsoft / LOLCAT Hybrid Humor

I live for this kind of stuff.



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