Punditry

First we had Iraq’s Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf
say that we weren’t in Baghdad, and now we have Egypt’s Ambassador Mohsen Khalil
saying:

"Iraq will not be defeated" in the war, Ambassador Mohsen Khalil
told a news conference in Egypt. "Iraq has now already achieved victory
— apart from some technicalities."
[Via
Little Green Footballs]

(Insert mandatory joke about Denial being a river
in Egypt
here)

I think Monty Python might have a copyright infringement suit
to bring against the Arab world for blatantly ripping off one of their skits.
The following is from Monty Python’s "Holy Grail" where King Arthur fights against
the Black Knight. This picks up after Arthur has cut off both of his arms and
one leg.

BLACK KNIGHT: Come here!
ARTHUR: What are you going to do, bleed on me?
BLACK KNIGHT: I’m invincible!
ARTHUR: You’re a looney.
BLACK KNIGHT: The Black Knight always triumphs! Have at you! Come on, then.
[ whop ] [ ARTHUR chops the BLACK KNIGHT’s last leg off ]
BLACK KNIGHT:
Oh? All right, we’ll call it a draw.
ARTHUR: Come, Patsy.
BLACK KNIGHT: Oh. Oh, I see. Running away, eh? You yellow bastards! Come back
here and take what’s coming to you. I’ll bite your legs off!
[Script for this scene]

I was reading earlier today about the Flagellants a
group that mainly thrived during the time of the Black Death. They were largely
lay folk who have great processions, amounting sometimes to 10,000 souls, passing
through the cities, beating themselves, and calling the faithful to repentance.
They held themselves above the average Catholic, concentrated on the Book of
Revelations, and also were very anti-semitic. Pope
Clement VI in a letter dated 20 Oct., 1349 condemned the movement.

Reading about them reminded me of Robert Sungenis’s Catholic
Apologetics International. Here again we have some people who think they understand
the traditions and mind of the church better than others and have also previously
delved into anti-semitic statements.

GENEVA (AP) — Sepp Blatter, who weathered corruption allegations to
remain the most powerful man in world soccer, is taking on a new opponent that
he may find more difficult to defeat — the Roman Catholic Church.

The twice-divorced FIFA fresident is furious that his new wife, Graziella,
is being treated as a sinner for marrying him, even though she has never been
married before.

Blatter has written to his local bishop urging him to intercede with the Pope
on behalf of divorced Catholics who want to remarry “because they believe
in the miracle of love.”

Blatter, 67, married Graziella, 40 a former dolphin trainer, in a civil ceremony
on Dec. 23. He told the Lausanne daily Le Matin on Thursday that he is not
seeking a church ceremony but is trying to protect his wife, who converted
from Protestantism before their marriage.

“I am defending my wife against hypocrisy and injustice,” Blatter told the
paper.

“What did the Lord say to those who wanted to stone Mary Magdalene? Let he
who is without sin cast the first stone.”
[Full
Story]

That’s an easy question. The answer is Jesus said nothing since
Mary Magdalene was not the woman caught in adultery. And to the women that
was caught
in adultery he said "go and sin no more" not "keep on and believe in the miracle
of love." No matter what group it is that want’s to go against Church teaching
on sexuality they always appeal to love. I presume he also "loved" his previous
two wives and that this guy seems to have the miracle of love striking
over and over in his life. When looking for an appropriate Bible quotation
I am not surprised that he didn’t choose "Every one who divorces his wife
and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from
her husband commits adultery."

Allowing his church to be used for a service marking the annual World Day
of Prayer for Women’s Ordination has gotten a Milwaukee priest in hot water
with the archbishop and attracted attention elsewhere in the country.

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan was going to "address it with those concerned," said
archdiocesan spokesman Jerry Topczewski, who indicated that Dolan was not pleased.

But people at the national Women’s Ordination Conference were elated.

The March 25 prayer service at St. Matthias Church was the first one known
to have taken place in a Catholic church in the United States in the seven
years that the prayer services have been encouraged, said Erin Hanley, a conference
spokeswoman in Fairfax, Va.

…"It is a wonderfully pleasant surprise, and, actually,
what (the Milwaukee pastor) said in his quote is the same thing that I heard
in Cincinnati – we have been told that we cannot talk about the issue, but
no one has ever said we can’t pray about the issue," Hanley said.

That’s a way getting around getting around the letter of the
law worthy of a five year old. This is like telling you son to stop saying
what he is saying to his sister so he starts singing it instead.

..During the reflection she gave, she lifted a basket
and a chalice – which she said the people could not see were empty – and
said the words of consecration, "This
is my body, this is my blood." But she said she was not behind the altar
and "it was patently not a consecration."
[Full
Story]

An empty basket matches that empty symbolism and theology.

Over the last couple of weeks there has been many pictures and
footage of all of Saddam Hussien’s paintings and statues in every part of Iraq.
He has been using Iraq for the last thirty years as his private playground
and commemoration museum. Even the state TV is pretty much 24/7 Saddam Hussien.
It must be hard to build up an audience for the new fall schedule. Coming
in November – yes it’s Saddam Hussien. And a few months later for the midseason
replacement shows – yes it’s Saddam Hussien.

Thinking about this I realized we did not take sufficient advantage
of his egomania and to offer him the right incentives to have him leave Baghdad
and to avoid the war.

What we should have done is offered him a senatorship for West
Virginia. The people in West Virginia are already use to megalomaniac Senator
Robert Byrd putting statues and paintings of himself everywhere and naming
every building and square foot of it after himself. It shouldn’t have taken
Saddam too long to adjust to shifting from unlimited oil dollars to unlimited
pork. He also could have gone on bashing Bush and making incoherent statements
just like Senator Byrd. But the opportunity is long passed, if he is still
alive I doubt the people of West Virginia would let him remain that way for
long since the details of Pfc Lynch’s treatment have come out.

Mel White, a national leader in attempting to make Christian churches more
hospitable to gays, was to have given the homily at the 9 and 11 a.m. masses
at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in south Minneapolis Sunday. But on Monday,
St. Joan officials telephoned White to tell him that Archbishop Harry Flynn
was forbidding him to use the St. Joan’s pulpit.

The archbishop’s last-minute decision is believed to have been influenced
by a conservative organization within the church, Catholic Parents Online,
which was offended by the thought of a gay man preaching at a Catholic church.

It actually doesn’t matter what his message was going to
be anyway, only ordained Deacons, Priests, and Bishops are allowed to preach
a homily. Listen to the bias of this reporter "apparently
doesn’t think his flock has anything to learn from a man who travels throughout
the country to deliver
a message of love." This message was probably not going to be
about love anyway, but about accepting the homosexual lifestyle. Love as defined
by St. Thomas Aquinas is willing the good for the other. Since as Catholics we
believe that homosexuality is "intrinsically disordered", then
for us to will acceptance of this behavior is not love. I have much sympathy
for those who suffer with same sex attraction since this is a heavy cross.
I also have sympathy for those who suffer from sexual temptations and desire
to have sex with someone who is not their spouse. If I were to go on a campaign
to encourage the tolerance for sexual activity of people who are cheating on
their spouses I would not be encouraging love. We are all called to be chaste
whether married or single, whether we suffer from temptations of the opposite
or the same sex. If I were to condemn adultery I would not be called a Cheater
Basher, adulteryphobic or said that I was intolerant. But if I say that living
the homosexual lifestyle is not good then I am branded a Gay Basher, homophobic,
and intolerant. The other day I compared the action of a Bishop not speaking
out against same sex marriages as similar to people in Germany ignoring the
many things that were happening during Hitler’s reign. On one web page I was
equated
as
saying "Gays wanting to marry is the same as loading Jews into trains and gassing
them?" I wonder when the intolerance and hate speech of these activists towards
people who don’t believe that the homosexual life style is a good thing is
going to stop.

The archdiocese’s action has been greeted by a large gulp at St. Joan’s, a
progressive church that for decades has opened its pulpit to a wide variety
of speakers.

"We’re very disappointed we can’t have Mel speak," said the pastor,
the Rev. George Wertin. "I respect him very much. He was not going to
say anything contradictory to church teaching."

I would have a tendency to doubt that statement. Looking
at Mel White’s web site he directly attacks the Catholic understanding of homosexual
acts as defined in the Catechism. Nowhere on his site does he encourage people
to live chaste lives. He also identifies with Dignity the un catholic organization
condemned by the church. As is usually the case the sin is confused with the
sinner. The identity of the person is connected to the sinful activity and
their personhood is then narrowed to just a sexual inclination.

Wertin said he will deliver the message that White was planning to deliver,
which White said is about embracing Jesus, the church and each other.

"I’m planning to do some healing," Wertin
said.

…He looks at the archdiocese’s decision to shut him out
with a little humor
and a lot of concern.

"I wasn’t planning to be controversial," he said. "I
was going to give what I thought would be a ringing homily. I was going to
show that
the queer preacher can love Jesus, too. . . . . To be invited to speak at a
Catholic church was astounding. To be thrown out by the archbishop puts me
in the ranks of the martyrs and saints."
[Full Article]

Not being allowed to preach contrary to the faith makes
you a martyrs and saint?

Lisa Frey has two contradictory visions of the future Roman
Catholic Church.

In one, a priest shortage means Catholics often stay home
on Sunday because Mass is a rarity. But in Ms. Frey’s preferred vision, Mass
is said frequently because the priesthood has been expanded to include women,
like her, and married men who aspire to ordination.

“I actually have begun to think if it’s open to me, I would
seriously consider seminary,” said Ms. Frey, 38, a leadership council member
of FutureChurch, a group working for grassroots Catholic acceptance of a priesthood
not limited to unmarried men.

Philosophically, FutureChurch has much in common with the
bigger, Chicago-based Call to Action.

Much in common? That is an understatement.

Ms. Frey, who is single, already has a feel for what life
might be like in the priesthood: She serves with a priest and a nun as part
of a three-member team running a suburban parish. A former teacher at a Catholic
girls’ high school, Ms. Frey has preached at communal penance services at the
1,200-family Church of the Resurrection in Solon, a Cleveland suburb. Sometimes
presiding at weekday prayer services, sometimes distributing communion, Ms.
Frey also directs youth ministry and social justice programs at Resurrection.
The priest in the trio handles liturgy matters like the Mass, but “we all sign
checks,” Ms. Frey said.

Oh yeah, “signing checks” is just so much more important
then “matters” like the Mass.

“The Eucharist is at the core of everything we are about
as a Catholic community,” said Sister Christine Schenk, executive director
of FutureChurch. “We think the gender or marital status of the presider is
not nearly as important as having Mass available.”

The Lutherans and the Episcopalian Churches both allow married
men and women, why aren’t they growing in leaps and bound if it is only a matter
of infusion into the ranks from other sources? Of course they don’t have a
valid priesthood or a valid Mass. The Orthodox Churches allow
married priests (not married Bishops), they should also be growing if their
solution was true. I almost wish these people would just leave the Church and
start up their own flavor of a church. Unfortunately our rats don’t seem to
leave the Church anymore but just try to gnaw it to death from within. I am
also really beginning to dislike the word "presider", it seems to have taken
on a political meaning which is used to reduce the importance of the priesthood.
I don’t remember reading "You are a presider forever according to the order
of
Melchizedek."

She is encouraged that Cleveland Bishop Anthony M. Pilla,
president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, has declined to condemn
the efforts of groups like FutureChurch. (To avoid conflicts with critical
bishops, some of her speaking engagements have been scheduled away from church
property.) Pilla, who will preside over the bishops’ Nov. 16-19 meeting in
Washington, responded to a request for comment on FutureChurch with a brief
written statement saying that the group isn’t a diocesan organization, doesn’t
have his approval and is responsible for its own programs. He has said he supports
the Vatican position limiting the priesthood to unmarried men.
[Full Story]

Nice of him to support the “Vatican’s
position” though. Women’s ordination is not a Vatican talking points memo but
part of the deposit of the faith. Of course this is not surprising from a diocese
that has this
spiffy rainbow colored page on their web site. If you dig far enough you
can find the reference on their site from the “Current
Catholic Catechism statements on the topic of homosexuality:” on what the
Church teaches.

NBC fired reporter Peter Arnett today because he told state-run Iraqi TV that the U.S.-led coalition’s first war plan had failed.

Arnett issued a back-handed “apology.” He said earlier this morning on NBC’s “Today” chit-chat show, “I want to apologize to the American people for clearly making a misjudgment.” But he couldn’t resist this zinger: “I said over the weekend what we all know about the war.”
[Full Story]

Maybe Al-Jazeera has an opening for him. Al-Jazeera should require no adjustment or change in his reporting.

PARIS — France introduced a new terrorism alert system yesterday, with four
color-coded levels to make the national warning plan more flexible and understandable.

Until now, France had only two grades of alert for its terror warning system,
simple and reinforced. The new alert colors beginning with the least serious
are yellow, red, orange and scarlet.

Well they should have come to me. I would have designed them a French terrorism
alert system for free. President Jacques Chirac email me and I will send this
to you since I think various shades of yellow is more appropriate.

French Alert System

Barbed wire and metal bars make Oakland’s business districts
look like war zones, say city officials who want to outlaw exterior security
devices that they claim are not only ugly but ineffective.

"It gives a sense that our community is not a very safe city," said
City Manager Robert Bobb, who has made fighting blight a top priority. "We
believe there are alternatives for securing their businesses."

A City Council committee backed a plan Tuesday to prohibit barbed wire fences
in commercial districts but stopped short of supporting a more far- reaching
proposal to eliminate burglar bars, roll-down doors and retractable security
gates, common fixtures throughout the city.

City officials said they believe Oakland is the first city in the Bay Area
to consider such a law, although Santa Monica has banned barbed wire.

Such devices "tend to exaggerate the perception of an unsafe area or
war zone," said city building services director Calvin Wong.
[Full
Story]

Again appearance is more important then actualities. The reason
it looks like the community is not very safe is because of Oakland’s high crime
rate.
Businesses
don’t pick these items because they like the war zone aesthetic but
to protect
their businesses. Maybe they think by making it look safe it will become safe.
I remember the first time I went to New York City and saw all of the roll-down
doors on businesses and burglar bars. I was soon taught the reason why the
area looked unsafe, as I was walking down the sidewalk in a crowd of people
a junkie pulled a gun on me and demanded my wallet. Don’t let anyone tell
you that New Yorkers aren’t polite. While I was being robbed in the shock I
had dropped the record album I had just bought (Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the
Holy)
and the robber picked it off the ground and handed it back to me.