Bach, Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, Adagio

I brag on my friends. It's a... habit.

Local news about the "Kiss In"

Here's an article about the so-called "kiss-in" which went on yesterday as a protest against Chick Fil A, or so I've heard. I've included the excerpt about one of the two locations close to me in my own town of Fairview Park, OH. The other one is in North Olmsted, OH on Great Northern Blvd which had an enormous line of traffic on Wednesday evening which wrapped around onto Brookpark Road about 15 cars long. That was Chick Fil A appreciation day which I'm fairly sure was probably much better for business all around. Also probably better for digestion on the part of the patrons.

More typical was the Chick-fil-A in Fairview Park, Ohio, where only a trickle of protesters could be found during the lunch rush, including one man who into the restaurant with his fist raised and said, "Support marriage!"

"It is just an average day for us, pretty typical," said Patrick Tate, operator of the Fairview Park location. "There have been some supporters and some from the other side."

Phyllis Harris, executive director of the LGBT Center in Cleveland, said the controversy does have an upside for her organization's goals.

"It is allowing people to have their say. It keeps the issue in the public view and you can see folks standing up for marriage equality," she said.

As for demonstrating, she said, "We are not going to participate as a group. We are going to focus on work here. What happens, happens. We are not against Chick-fil-A."

Reminds me of the wise, old Pennsylvania Dutch saying: "Kissin' wears out, cookin' don't."

Also I was thinking that Chick Fil A should come up with a really, really spicy hot sauce and name it "Sodom and Gomorrah Judgment Sauce." That would help keep this thing going for longer and provide even more great publicity. My guess is that most of the most vehement angry supporters of so-called marriage equality don't eat fast food at national chains anyway. So this thing has mostly been a huge win for the company. And normality.

Jonah Paterno

My readers often alert me to a proverbial "tree falling in the forest" so that we can all hear it. Here's the latest: Leader of US Orthodox Church Quits Amid Rape Claim. This leader is none other than Metropolitan Jonah (aka Met. Jonah, +Jonah, J++, etc.) who you may have read about on this blog before (here for instance).

I'm just going to put the entire thing here, it's not long.

Author: Frank Eltman, Associated Press

Date Published: 7/20/2012

The leader of the Syosset-based Orthodox Church in America has resigned and been replaced amid questions about whether he failed to report to church officials or law enforcement an allegation of a rape by a priest and other sexual-misconduct claims.

The church issued a statement saying Metropolitan Jonah, the archbishop of Washington, submitted his resignation in a letter on July 6. The letter from Jonah noted the resignation had come at the request of the Holy Synod of Bishops. Jonah did not refer to the rape allegation in his letter.

Part of the letter to the bishops said he begged “forgiveness for however I have offended you, and for whatever difficulties have arisen from my own inadequacies and mistakes in judgment.”

There was no telephone listing for Jonah, who couldn’t be reached for comment on Thursday.

The church on Monday issued a three-page statement detailing Jonah’s four-year tenure as its leader. It said Jonah had failed to report a 2010 rape allegation involving an unidentified priest to authorities when he learned of it last February. The statement said in light of sex abuse scandals involving the Catholic Church and at Penn State University, “the risk of liability to which the Metropolitan has exposed the church can not be overstated.”

It also said Jonah had “repeatedly refused to act with prudence, in concert with his fellow bishops” regarding the church’s standards and procedures regarding sexual misconduct.

It said for several years there had been a repeated pattern of Jonah “taking other unilateral actions that were contrary to the advice of the Holy Synod and/or the church’s lawyers.” It added he withheld information from brother bishops and church lawyers “concerning litigation matters, and matters which might have resulted, and still might result, in litigation.”

It said he gave unauthorized people a detailed internal church report concerning “numerous investigations into sexual misconduct,” which risked leaking names of accusers and the accused.

Father Eric Tosi, a church spokesman, referred any additional questions to the church statement.

There are approximately 80,000 Orthodox Church in America members in more than 800 parishes and institutions in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Funny thing about that blog post of mine. I noticed that the links to the ocatruth.com site go to a link farm specializing in Russian Brides, trips to the Holy Land and "Mark Stokoe", among the regular girly links. The tag line for the new site is "What you need, when you need it." Funny.

Dr. Paul Kengor's new book: "The Communist"

Serious stuff. Buy it here.

"The Forgotten Heroes of America"

Never forget.