And, incidentally, who died and made him pope?

Gawd spoke to him and said “Rick, you are so Holy I can just hang it up because you are there to provide divine guidance to the world. I am off on vacation for the next 1000 years or so. There is cold pizza and Holy Water in the fridge.”

Between Prop H-8 and now this, the American Catholic Church has a lot of answer for, in terms of intruding themselves into public life of this country. I should think that they have enough problems on their plates that they could easily just go home and tend to their own very serious legal issues on priest abuse and … STFU.
Oh, good morning, Christy – hope all is calm and well Chez Reddhedd and that you are well fortified this morning with a good cuppa.

Things are good here. Nice and quiet, have some Norah Jones playing on the iPod this morning and a fresh cuppa coffee at hand. Plus, it’s warmer outside…thank goodness. Spraing cannot come soon enough.

ooops — spring

Oh ha. I thought you were jest usin’ yor accent. Actually, you don’t have one do you? I’m working with a guy from Kentucky who wears a WVU sweatshirt and he has a serious one. Nice kid, tho.
Spring is starting to show up here in SoCal. Three months after all the fires, and there’s lots of green on the hills and little buds popping up. My pink jasmine’s got lots of nice little tight ones. I’m trying to be patient.

I do have one if I’m down visiting my relatives in the southern part of the state. I pick it up again quickly because I tend to have an ear for the accents around me. But it’s mostly a light lilt, with a touch of hick on a few words, I think, because we live closer to the north of the state these days.

And, regarding lying hypocritical holler (intentional) rollers, I’m turning the other cheek. And they can kiss that one too. *g*

btw, the picture above just cracks me up…couldn’t help myself. hehehehehe

Mornin’ Christy
nice to know Brownback is getting called on this

You do have a penchant for finding the great pix. BTW, those balogna sandwiches I’ve been taking to work for lunch? I’ve been calling them blowme sammies. Can you tell what a good mood all this economic down turning is doing for me?

Hilarious that Brownback’s a convert…not a *real* Catholic. ;)

Limpy Limbaugh is the Pope of the Great Republic Church. Brownback can be a Cardinal, maybe.

Wow — pouring the rain down here this morning, all of a sudden. I have one soggy, pissed off looking chickadee pudged out on the feeder perch, glaring at the rain. Hilarious little guy looks like he wants to kick some serious ass. LOL

The Texas Mountain Laurels are a-bloomin’. Mmmmmm….grape chewing gum air….

http://www.wildflower.org/plan…..lant=SOSE3

Ya, I should have put Sam instead of Rick in my first comment. I realy hate the holier-than-thou crap.

And is has been unseasonally warm in northern Arizona. The green onions are growing, the garlic is coming up, and the flower bulbs have been emerging. So we will be seeing daffodil action in the next week or two.

Oooooh, love that here, too. We aren’t nearly there yet. Remind me and I’ll put up a pix of how beautiful our rhododendrons were last year — just thick with blooms, it was gorgeous.

Sorry about the fake out yesterday — I accidentally hit publish when I was trying to save. Ooops!

So, who has some big plans for the weekend? I’m going to get some herb plants and freshen up my indoor herb planter and then do some spring cleaning. Trying to get a jump on it this year.

Boy, aren’t I a thrill a minute? *g*

Sam Brownback to be endorsed by the American Taliban wing of Republicanista party in his run for Kansas governor in 2010.

I think Brownback means “real Catholics” are those who adamantly follow every single one of Catholicism’s tenets, including the belief that abortion is a serious sin. I don’t think he meant cradle Catholics.
As a cradle Catholic, I always had a feeling the Republican Party was really for rich white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, not Catholics. That’s why I subsquently had the sense that the GOP was using the Catholic vote during the 2000 and 2004 elections. The National Council of Catholic bishops has said Catholic voters should look at candidates’ platforms that look at the whole range of life issues, including their stances on poverty, welfare, Social Security and care of the elderly, infirm and already-born — not just abortion, which is the most reasonable way to approach any election.

I figured that is what happened. When I wrote that comment yesterday I guess I was cross-wiring Brownback with Santorum, a very-holier-than-thou creep. Don’t know how I could have confused them. ;>

Yah, I know. Was brought up Catholic as well.

The level of hubris and hypocrisy of one person passing judgment on the depth of breadth of another person’s faith because of their political alignment in the Brownback letter just flabbergasted me. Because ti was solely based on abortion choice — not on efforts to reduce the numbers of abortoins overall, not on work to alleviate poverty or any of the myriad of other tenets of faith. But solely on a single sliver of an issue.

And whatever staffer of Brownback’s worked on this? Needs serious remedial politics training wheels.

My tomatoes will be ready to go into their little transplant pots next week. Hope we have some sort of growing season before it gets *too* hot. Hit 90 degrees here yesterday, and 100 out in the Hill Country.

I wish we were even close to that, but it will be a while yet before I can get anything in the ground. And I’m itching for spring in the worst way. But we’ll have at least two or three more good cold snaps…so I’ll be waiting.

Learned that lesson the hard way a couple of times. *g*

We have some daffodils right beside the dryer vent. They bloom about 2-3 weeks before any others in the neighborhood.

Now THAT is a brilliant idea. Instant spring!

Catholic here. Educated in Cathoilic schools from K to post-graduate. Was away a long time. Trying to get back now. Give it a go and see what happens. Whether it can ever work for me remains to be seen. Hav every serious doubts. We’ll see. But it pisses me off to no end when assholes like Brownback & Santorum are the public face of the Church. There are good people in the pews and yes, even in some of the rectories. By the guys in the pointy hats gotta get with it, man. Nancy Pelosi gets publicly slammed for speaking the truth but its crickets for jerkweeds like Brownback and Santorum. The Catholic Church can be has sometimes been and in some ways is a force for good. But its hierarchy senselessly limits itself and assures its place as a laughingstock. The men in the hierarchy are well educated but they lack open minds, priorities and common sense so what good is it?

My dad’s mother used to send my mom the first daffodil of spring every year, even after my parents divorce. My grandparents lived in Charlotte, and my parents in the mountains of NC. I’m in Atlanta, and since my grandmother died a few years ago, I send the first one to my mom every year.

The Catholic Church has ALWAYS had alot to answer for. their violence and brutality thru the ages combined with their misogynism and lies surely are enough to guarantee them a place in the ninth circle of hell ( Dante)

So, Brownback considers the ends justify the means again, huh?

If he’s never been smacked by a nun, he’s not a real cathoilc. I’m a real Catholic.

It can be that way in any religious sect when the people at the top insulate themselves from the real world needs of those further down the line (as in, “the congregation”), don’t you think? When it becomes all about authority and less and less about the actual actions and beliefs, then things begin to break down.

Speaking as someone whose grandpa was a preacher for most of his life, I saw that ebb and flow depending on who the particular church leadership was through the years through his eyes and sermons. And it was strikingly different at times — sometimes very inclusive, helpful and open to the individual needs of the folks int he pews. Sometimes? Not so much.

Before I forget, The Peanut picked out a doozy for the Friday Muppet Blogging this afternoon. Thought folks would like a heads up.

Picking out the YouTubes has been more fun for us than I can possibly describe. Nothing like sitting in a chair with a giggling five year old for an hour to brighten your week and then some…

still stinging here. beaten by the sisters of mercy.

oh, and can’t forget the jesuits in h.s.

morning all!

You’re absolutely right. I rant because I always feel a need to defend my Catholicism, such as it is. It shouldn’t be that way. The issue here is Brownback and excellent job bringing this to the fore. It’s all about and for years has been about peeling away Catholics from the Democrats. Cynical use of religion for politics sake. And that always perturbs me off to no end.

Morning! How are things in your neck of the woods?

Using religion in a political context galls me to no end. Always has. But you all probably surmised that by now, eh? *g*

I always loved it. the lady beating on you is a sister of “mercy” or in my case a sister of “charity”. Could ya show me some mercy or charity sister and get that pencil outta my head? Had jesuits in h.s and college and loved ‘em. Almost all, in my experience, very progressive.

Oh, have I got a story! When to a Catholic kindergarten where the nuns *refused* to call me my given name (Julie), instead calling me “Julia.” Got my knuckles rapped for correcting them! Finally had to get my parents to persuade them. No wonder I turned into such an apostate. ;)

needin’ the spring cleaning here this wkend too :(

Get to babysit my nephew later today and that’s always loads of fun.

must get laptop to start him early on friday muppet blogging ;-)

Yeah, Christy. I sorta got that point spmewhere along the way. (The reply thing isn’t there).

I think that Obama needs to temporarily nominate Brownback for a Cabinet position, then withdraw him after a week or so, so as to ensure the press will actually give some hardcore serious coverage to Brownback’s peccadilloes. As we’ve just found with Judd Gregg, about the only way to get the press to notice the longstanding corruption of some Republicans is for Democratic presidents to show them favor in some way.

And of course there was the Catholic Church on the army post with the mean-assed priest who was a Colonel…

“mmmm. . . bearing false witness and stabbing Senate colleagues in the back by questioning their faith, all for petty fundraising and political gain?”

Never accuse a religyoonut of lying. They don’t know what that means. Better to accuse them of bearing false witness. They don’t know what that means either but it has a nice ring to it.

If space allows add (A violation of God’s ninth commandment.)

We have some sort of coding glitch that we haven’t been able to find as yet — the tech crew are working on it for me. It’s intermittent, but usually refreshing the whole page brings the reply button right back. So there’s a fix until we figure out what’s causing the reply buttons to get dropped on occasion. Sorry for the inconvenience, gang, but it’s buried somewhere in the code…

The first line from the first link above is:

Did Republican Sen. Sam Brownback question the religious commitment of several pro-abortion Catholic Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy?

Now, the term “Pro-Life” is misleading enough. Many people who call themselves “pro-life” are also pro war and pro death penalty. Plus, it’s a meaningless phrase. Who isn’t pro-life? I’m guessing everyone, even those who think abortion should be legal are pro-life.

But, of course, the conservatives got their way and pro-life is now the same as anti-legal-abortion or anti-choice, which more accurately describes what those people believe.

Now, mainstream news outlets like the one linked above are calling pro-choice people “Pro-abortion?” WTF? Who the hell is pro-abortion? I think everyone realizes that abortion is not a great option, we just don’t want the government to make it illegal. It should be left up to the individual.

Did anyone else pick up on this? Can we stop calling anti-choice people pro-life and stop calling pro-choice people pro-abortion?

I caught that — and it’s crap. Totally right.

I had the Sisters of Mercy from 1st to 6th grades. They would threaten you with a visit to the Father if you really misbehaved. I avoided that at all costs. There was on the average 45 kids in my class through those years and no teaching assistants.

Having mean-spirited, stupid, decidedly un-spiritual representatives of “god” was actually a good thing for me in retrospect. Much less gullible as a result. ;)

We had 60 to 65 in our classes through the eighth grade without any teaching assistants but Mother Superior had this eighteen inch ruler that could pack quite a wallop.

Not one shout out for my “blowme sammie”? Oh, well. Going to work now. Enjoy your days eveyone.

Good Morning Christy and Puppies.

Great post, Redd. We apparently share the same hot-buttons. I tend to go mentally ballistic when people use religion to mask hateful behavior.

Sorry for the inconvenience, gang, but it’s buried somewhere in the code…

Meanwhile, I just LOVE your superb, all-purpose excuse here. Sounds like a keeper for all manner of mayhem. I see it going virrrrll, grrrlll ! *G*

“Por-Forced Birth”

Hi demi! I’m still trying to recover from the image of you turning the other cheek upthread (#7). heh.

“Pro- Forced Birth”

(Preview is mah friend Preview is mah friend Preview is mah friend)

Thank Goodness you’re here. I hate to think some of my best stuff falls on deaf ears. Wish I could stay and play. Only one more week of this temp job I’m on and then I’ll be back. Yes, that’s a warning for some. *g*

Sam’s letter is a real doozy. It’s so nice to know that some things are constant in the Universe.

The speed of light is 186 282 miles/sec, the charge on proton is equal and opposite that of an electron, and Sam Brownback is an a******.

I have often wondered about all these religious people. (Mostly Republicans, but some Democrats, too.) In Congress, and regular people, too. Are they REALLY religious? Or do they really not believe, and are just using it.

All of them lie so much — and also support bills that are VERY unreligious. In other words: so much of what they do DAILY.

I realize some religions think that if you’re just SAVED, you will go to heaven. No matter what else you do. In other religions, as long as you confess, it’s heaven for you. And Heaven help you if you die before you can get to a confessional booth.

Do they really believe this claptrap? That they can purposefully lie, steal, cheat, and murder with inpunity … and just waltz up to heaven because they are saved?

I just wonder what percentage really believe this, and which are just using religion to get votes/customers?

Please keep the CHURCH out of it! The Church is 2000-year old community of the Catholic faithful, NOT the 20th-centruy dictatorship that prances around Babylon/Vatican City in red Prada slippers.

Catholics like me (and there are quite a few) are true enough to the ancient Faith to be appalled when priests and bishops rent it out in exchange for transitory temporal power and faith-based cash contributions from the State. Old Scratch asked the Vatican to bow down and worship the Fascist idols, and it did. Now it is bowing to the Republican idols. Which is why I haven’t given the organization a dime in over 30 years. And it is why, when someone asks me if the Pope is Catholic, I always say “obviously not–Catholics are Christian!”