Be Not Idle

In nominating Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, Pres. Obama was fulfilling his commitment to choose someone with “empathy”. Of course, empathy can interfere with justice and fairness. Concern grew after the publicizing of a speech she gave in which she remarked that “a wise Latina” woman just might be a better judge than a white man.

As Charles Schumer (D, NY) said of another judge’s nomination, “His beliefs are so well known, so deeply held, that it’s very hard to believe — very hard to believe — that they’re not going to deeply influence the way he comes about saying, ‘I will follow the law.’”

Except that when Schumer was saying it, the “beliefs” in question were religious beliefs. Now that doesn’t seem to matter. Evidentally, we’re supposed to empathize with the beliefs of the candidate.

Willian McGurn has a piece in the Wall Street Journal about The Catholic Double Standard. Read it, if only to get great insights like the explanation of judging without personal prejudice:

What matters is the law, not the personal feelings. When judges follow this path, they take some of the heat out of culture wars. That’s because those who want to change the law — pro-life or pro-choice — have to do it the way our Founders intended: through their elected representatives.

The President of the United States is going to get into the Fox Sports broadcasting booth during the All-Star Game.

I don’t have a lot of confidence in the job he’s doing as President. Now it appears he’s heard the tech school ads: “You could have a career in broadcasting!” Why doesn’t he just go into the nearest high school and ask the counselors to give him an aptitude test? Although, that would mean that Joe Biden would lead the country… shudder!

I suppose it was only a matter of time before technology enabled a better, faster breed of jerk. (After all, CAD was part of its history – ha ha!)

My ex-boyfriend announced his engagement with a mass e-mail. The e-mail read thus:

SUBJECT: Ahem…
…she said YES!!!!

We broke up about a year and a half ago. He insisted we could remain friends. Our contact mainly consisted of e-mails.

He’d send me jokes and chain letters with lots of graphics. Periodically I’d ask about his dad and stepmother, his sister, his work on the night-shift, his studies… that sort of thing. His replies were nice, usually funny. In all that time, he never mentioned a new (or old) girlfriend. I believe the term actually in play was ”too busy for a relationship”.  

I used to find out such things naturally in conversation. In fact, after 20 years of dating, I prided myself on a hard-earned skill of sensing “hedging one’s bets.” That occurs when a guy keeps me around in case his current relationship doesn’t work.

But with technology, intuition goes out the window. Granted, my best friends have built long-term relationships with men they met on-line, including a still-strong marriage between Type-A Man and Miss Spontaniety.

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Swin flu is more than hysteria in Argentina. Until this past week, I had no idea that the swine flu (H1N1) was still a pandemic in some parts of the world. In Argentina, the number of cases has reached 2,485. Sixty people have died so far. Those totals are lower than other countries, such as Australia.

However, the Argentinian numbers have increased sharply. In less than a week, the reported number of deaths more than doubled. The number of cases jumped by 898 between the WHO’s July 3rd report to its most recent report.

An Argentinian aquaintance told me the normal 15-day school break has been extended to 30 days to prevent exposure. Her daughter is doing her work at home and faxing it in. Theatres and cinemas have closed, and children are not supposed to go shopping.

Her family hasn’t been able to get the vaccine, though a shortage isn’t being reported by the government. Meanwhile, tens of new cases are reported every day – and the death toll goes up. Doctors and medical workers are being pulled from their regular duties to handle the workload. That means surgeries have been cancelled, labs are processing only samples that have already been sent in, etc.

Part of the problem is that swine flu prefers cooler weather (although the new virus isn’t affected as much). Argentina’s weather is the opposite of North America, so it is experiencing winter now – prime flu season.

I decided to put all my favorite bookmarks into links. It doesn’t include all the sites to which I’m subscribed, but it’s a fair representation of writers I respect and handy resources.

Deej, the SciFi Catholic, is going to the seminary. He has listed the reasons he wants to be a priest. His #2 reason?

Wealth. …(W)e all know the Vatican has gigantic vats full of it, so much that if the Church only opened her greedy coffers, she could instantly solve all the world’s problems with her enormous monetary assets and still have enough left over to fund an ill-fated space program involving flying cathedrals and confused nuns.

I spit Coke Zero when I got to #7, just to warn you.

I noticed a couple weeks ago that rental signs appeared on the unused post office boxes. Now more signs of the times at the USPS.

From today until September, our post office is cutting back its hours. They now close at 3 pm. In a letter, the postmaster explained:

We are experiencing an ongoing decline in mail volume and we are seeing fewer customers in our lobby. As a responsible business, we have to preserve our operational efficiency and reduce operating costs to remain viable for the long-term.

On one hand, I’m glad they aren’t raising the cost of stamps again. And I can still get my mail before I go to work, if I get there when the lobby opens (now at 6:30 instead of 5 am).

I am as interested in reversing global climate change as anyone, but I fail to see how increasing taxes and random machete attacks on Ohio coal producers alone will solve the problem,” said Marcy Kaptur (D-OH). “Come on, people, there are plenty of other industries who deserve machete attacks, too.”

IowaHawk reveals opposition to the Cap-And-Trade’s Blood Sacrifice Amendment.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on all involved in this cowardly murder.

Attributed to a Muslim extremist group, the bomb went off in front of the cathedral, killing  5 people. Thank God it went off during Mass, rather than afterwards, when  people would have been exiting the cathedral.

The Pope released a statement here.

 Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions. – Matthew 19:21-22, New American Bible

I’ve been reading The Apostle of the Chippewas, about Servant of God Frederick Baraga.  In less than 100 pages, it summarizes Baraga’s life story. One circumstance grabbed me.

Fr. Baraga served at the Odawa (Ottawa) village of Arbre Croche, Michigan. NonChristian members of the tribe would bring him idols and other articles they had used, “requesting that Father Baraga would burn them in token of the native’s willingness to convert to Christianity. The missionary would participate gladly in such ceremonious offerings… (praying as they burned) ‘God of hosts, who alone should be adored, receive with pleasure this sacrifice.’” (p. 29) Continue Reading »