Water on Mars...lots of it, actually!

"I vant to go to maaahrs"

Images reveal 'sea of ice' near Mars' equator

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Images relayed by a European space probe reveal the existence of a sea of ice close to the equator of Mars, scientists said Tuesday at a conference in the Netherlands. The existence of water or ice would significantly increase the chance microscopic life may also be found on Mars. The evidence comes from photographs - not yet published - taken last year by the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe currently orbiting the red planet. Scientists have long theorized there was once water on Mars and data from NASA's Mars Rovers has recently appeared to confirm it. But most scientists believed the water had evaporated into the atmosphere early in the planet's history. "The point is that the ice is very recent: it appears to still be there, covered beneath a layer of dust and ash," John Murray of Britain's Open University said in a telephone interview.

Comment: Freaky! From a Christian/theological angle, this poses some interesting possibilities. It also makes the idea of settling Mars seem like even less of a stress (since abundant supplies of water would be needed for any enclosed settlement to be able to thrive).

Raging bimbo

PETA goon-ette Pam Anderson throws hissy fit over fur clad woman

(excerpt) Pamela Anderson refused to get into a lift with a woman last week because she was wearing a fur coat. The former 'Baywatch' babe, who is a prominent member of PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was at the launch of her new fur and leather free clothing range at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas when the incident occurred. According to PETA spokesman Dan Mathews, who was at the lavish event, the beautiful blonde had seen ten elevators come and go. When a free car eventually arrived she refused to take it because there was a fur-lover inside. He is quoted by America's New York Post as saying "Pam waited patiently with Dennis Rodman and Stephen Dorff as elevator after elevator went by, filled to capacity. "When one finally stopped with two people inside, one of the women was wearing a fur coat. 'Going down?' the woman asked, to which Pam replied, 'Yes, but not with you, lady. Get rid of the fur.'" ...

Comment: To be perfectly honest, I have some misgivings about the way meat is produced for public consumption - not because I am confused about the obvious (falsely believing there to be some kind of equity between human life and animal life), but more for classically 'catholic' reasons. My "issues" over this are for the same reason classic moralists would tell you it's sinful to torture an animal - it requires a certain inhumanity and insensitivity to treat a living, feeling life form this way. I'm inclined to believe that much of modern agriculture fits under "tortuous", and all in the name of making a rich product even cheeper for an already morbidly obese society which could do with eating a few less pork roasts.

However, my concerns do not come close to the moral confusion plagueing the so called "animal rights movement", in particular the privileged white kids who swell the ranks of groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ("PETA"), whose methods are more often than not counterproductive to their stated goals (ex. I'm sure that woman in the elevator with the lovely fur coat walked away saying to herself "gee, maybe she's right...")

I also have to wonder if Pammy or the rest of these silly-bored-white-folks are equally passionate about the Pro-Life cause.

This is why (while I do not agree with it), I can at least respect the consistancy of the vegetarianism of groups like the Hare Krishnas, who are also keenly against abortion (and will tell you that it reaps the worst kind of "karma").

The real issue...

"One should not contradict the Latins when they say that the Bishop of Rome is the first. This primacy is not harmful to the Church. Let them only prove his faithfulness to the faith of Peter and to that of the successors of Peter. If it is so, let him enjoy all the privileges of pontiff ... Let the Bishop of Rome be succesor of the orthodoxy of Sylvester and Agatho, of Leo, Liberius, Martin and Gregory, then we also will call him Apostolic and first among other bishops; then we also will obey him, not only as Peter, but as the Savior Himself." (St.Symeon of Thessaloniki, Dialogus Contra Haereses, 23, PG CLV, 120 AC - excerpted from THE PRIMACY OF PETER: Essays in Ecclesiology and the Early Church, St.Vladimir's Seminary Press 1992, page 86)

Comment: In the simplest terms, I think this is what it boils down to for all of those who have issues with the Papacy, but are not possessed by xenophobic delusions or a faith that's been inadvertantly perverted by some variety of "no Popery" Protestantism.

If the Pope of Rome were a beacon of apostolic faith, no one bearing the name "Christian" would have good reason to not be in league with him. Since any grouping of people requires someone to preside for the sake of good order (local Orthodox Churches manifest this quite clearly - as does the principle behind the episcopate itself), there is no harm in their being a "first Bishop" with rights and privileges stretching beyond those of other heirarchs.

The problem of course, is that whole "faith" thing.

I've come to a point where I have little patience for poor arguments, even if they bolster "my side". Thus, I've developed little patience for some of the poorer quality polemics (both historical and contemporary) used by some Orthodox to weigh in against contemporary Papal claims. Orthodoxy doesn't need them - the truth is not only more satisfying, but it is much simpler.

And it is precisely because of this "simple truth", so tersely explained by St.Symeon, that folks like me (at this present time) cannot view the occupants of the Papal throne as "vicars of Christ", and certainly not in a way excelling that in which all genuine, Orthodox Bishops are truly Christ's vicars.

A scathing critique of NFP as anything but economia

Neo-Catholicism at Work: The Mysticism of Charting! - by Christopher A. Ferrara

(* note - NFP = Natural Family Planning; the use of means other than pills or barrier contraptions to prevent conception, all the while allowing the use of the sexual faculties within marriage)

(excerpt) Fr. Torraco fails to explain how the use of charts and thermometers to schedule marital relations “deepens the marital bond” and “cooperat(es) with the gift of fertility.” This is one of the claims for NFP that I find ridiculous on its face. How is the marital bond deepened, how is there cooperation with the “gift of fertility,” when the whole idea of NFP is to achieve scientific precision in scheduling marital relations for those times when one’s wife is not fertile? I would like to know how a marriage is improved when a husband and wife must maintain and constantly consult a chart of cross-checked fertility indicators before entering into the marital embrace. The NFP industry has even developed a computerized fertility detector that accepts input on basal temperature and mucosal viscosity, signaling green for “marital relations may proceed” and red for “unacceptable risk of pregnancy.” What, besides revulsion, should any Catholic couple feel at the prospect of arranging their entire married life around such techniques? Natural family planning? Let us not be ridiculous. This sort of thing is about as natural as a farmer planning meticulously to sow his corn in the dead of winter, lest he end up with the burden of a harvest. That periodic abstinence is licit in the proper case of necessity is hardly the point. The point is that this repellently technological variant of the practice is being promoted by neo-Catholic organs of opinion as a great boon to married life, and even as the norm to be desired. As noted already, the Couple to Couple League says that Catholic parents are called—called by God—to practice NFP when “Christian prudence” leads them to “conclude” that their family must remain a certain size. Parishes in the Novus Ordo now require training in NFP as a precondition for the sacrament of marriage! Another EWTN “expert,” Fr. Richard Hogan, who answers questions specifically pertaining to NFP, even dares to advise trusting souls that “it is better to have 2 or 3 children you can educate all the way than 7 or 8 you can only take so far.” [1] This monstrous teaching places the mere temporal good of an education above the infinite good of the eternal beatitude of an immortal soul, not to mention the incomparable temporal goods of loving one’s children, and being loved by them in return, whether or not they manage to obtain professional degrees. As we can see here, the neo-Catholic establishment is venturing so far into novelty that it is beginning to make the documents of Vatican II sound conservative by comparison. It is the neo-Catholic establishment, not traditionalists, that has erected a shadow Magisterium that drifts further from the faith of our fathers with each passing year. ... Thus, with the help of graph paper and a thermometer, Catholics can not only have SPICE, but also a “truly personal relationship” with “the Triunely personal Creator” through a kind of reverse mysticism that begins with the body rather than moving beyond it. This is the “new incarnational Mysticism” of John Paul II, according to Fr. Torraco. There seems to be no end to what is new in the neo-Catholic system: a new Mass, a new ecumenism, a new “dialogue with the world,” a “new evanglization,” a “new springtime of the Holy Spirit,” a new virtue of “responsible parenthood,” and now a “new mysticism”—the mysticism of charting! And perhaps we are also in the presence of a new “sacrament”—fertility charting—to go along with the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” first revealed to neo-Catholic charismatics in 1966 at Duquesne University. [3] That would bring the number of channels of grace in the neo-Catholic system to nine, as opposed to the paltry seven sacraments of the preconciliar Church. (Incidentally, I have no idea how charting fertility cycles could be a “means of evangelization.” It seems to me that any prospective convert who is “evangelized” with charts of basal temperature and secretions would think that Catholics belong to some kind of icky, body-obsessed cult.)

Comment: The article presents a view which in it's basics is similar to my own - only that I am inclined to believe that in so far as NFP is "tolerable" in "hard cases" as a lesser evil, so too would be certain forms of "artificial" contraception. It's not something which sits very well with me, but there is a lot that we as human beings do (myself included) which I'm not comfortable with. And that is how it should be - something that is tolerated is not supposed to be comfortable.

Whoah...

"The most evident mark of God's anger, and the most terri-ble castigation He can inflict upon the world, is manifest when He permits His people to fall into the hands of a clergy who are more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of de-voted shepherds. They abandon the things of God to devote themselves to the things of the world and, in their saintly call-ing of holiness, they spend their time in profane and worldly pursuits. When God permits such things, it is a very positive proof that He is thoroughly angry with His people, and is vis-iting His most dreadful wrath upon them." - St.John Eudes

These people are nucking futs...

the 'Rapture Ready' website

Comment: Here's a sampling of the thought/religion of the whackjob sheople being used by the Bushies/neo-cons as a power base in the U.S.A. Of course theyr'e all on board - they want all hell to break loose. Why? Because that means that 'Jeebus' (as opposed to the Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ) will come, rapture them to safety, and leave everyone else to suffer the agonies of the anti-Christ. And how do they know this? Because the 'Babble' told 'em so (as opposed to the Holy Scriptures.)

Frankly, deep down I think these people may just get what they want - save the rapture part (since according to the Scriptures when the anti-Christ does arrive, he will persecute and martyr any who profess the Holy Name - a little hard if all such souls were 'raptured' away, donchathank?). Boy, that'll be one big let down...


Minion of the anti-Christ
just got done with a fundagelical!
(I always thought there was something
sinister about the Smurfs!)

Also, I found it funny that their site goes on a screed against Catholicism, all the while featuring a gigantic advert for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ on their homepage - a film which is essentially a journey into traditionalist Roman Catholic piety, and perhaps the most elaborate 'Passion Play' to be ever put on film. Silly fundies...

Whoring history for Uncle Same...err...Sam.

Hollywood's dirty little secret

(excerpt) It's the scripts that pay a high price when Hollywood goes into battle. Brian Courtis looks at one of the movie world’s murkier truths. Well, we've known the rules. We've known them since Errol Flynn liberated Burma without any help from British, Australian or New Zealand forces. Churchill and a few Diggers may have been upset, but the fact is when it comes to Hollywood only the good guys win and, since we're playing with their toys, those good guys must inevitably be Americans. Never let the absurdities of history get in the way of a box-office blockbuster. They really do not want to discuss this, of course, in Tinseltown. They still see only their heroes and our villains. And they continue to win everything alone. Remember Steven Spielberg's D-Day spectacular Saving Private Ryan? Someone simply forgot that 72,000 British and Canadian troops were also involved. And if Hollywood is to be believed, it was the Americans who captured the Enigma coding machine from a German submarine; never mind that the Brits were there and accomplished that six months before the Yanks entered the war. Not everything has been quite so eagerly promoted. We hear less, for instance, about the effects of the powerful relationship that has grown over the years between the Pentagon and the Hollywood studios, a partnership that not only can save millions of dollars for filmmakers and produce fine recruiting propaganda for Washington, but can twist history and reality to produce the ultimate in international spin. In Operation Hollywood, which SBS screens on Tuesday, filmmaker Emilio Pacull follows up an investigative study by film industry journalist Dave Robb on the help producers have sought from the military over the years. Robb, who worked for Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, says he found himself obsessed with the minutiae of these negotiations with the boys with ships, tanks, materiel, information, bases, access to land, troops and some very real-looking fireworks. ... In the 1995 James Bond movie Goldeneye, for example, the original script had a US Navy admiral betraying state secrets. This was changed to make the traitor a member of the French navy. After that the military's co-operation was forthcoming. Pacull and Robb takes us from the pedantry to the powerful in examining the changes to scripts. They list the producers and the movies that have fallen into line and show how the military's script editors work. Interestingly, it's not the censors who come under fire here quite so much as those co-operative, self-censoring filmmakers. ...

Just what we needed...

Russian scientists invent pill that will keep you drunk-ass-drunk

(excerpt) The makers of RU-21, the "miracle" hangover cure reputedly developed for Soviet spies, have developed a product to keep you drunk. Spirit Sciences, which is based in California but has research facilities in Russia employing scientists who once worked on secret programmes for the Kremlin, have christened the new product RU-21 Red. If you take a tablet you need less alcohol to stay drunk, they claim. Emil Chiabery, a co-founder of the company, told The Telegraph from his offices in Los Angeles: "I never drink and there's no personal story. But RU-21 Red prolongs drunkenness and enhances intoxication.''

Comment: This might have appealed to me when I was 17, but now just the thought of accute inebriation makes me feel ill. I'll take a "mild buzz" in a comfortable chair with a good American cigarette (or a clove) and stimulating reading material over being sloshed in some noisy bar/club filled with obnoxious noisy people and their obnoxious noisy personalities any day. Being thrilled by "the scene" and it's excesses is a fascination for the juvenile, IMHO...thankfully one I outgrew quickly and fairly early.

There was no need for World War II

There Was No Need For World War II - by Alex S. Perry, Jr

(excerpt) There was no need for World War II. Adolf Hitler was doing everything he could to come to peace terms with Britain, but Winston Churchill would not have it. Churchill knew of the many peace offers coming from the German government. He knew that neither Hitler nor any other Nazi leaders wanted to fight Britain. ... The peace offer Hitler had in mind, if Britain would assume a neutral position, was such an astounding offer that Herbert Hoover, when he was told of Hitler's terms from Ambassador Kennedy, gasped: "Why didn't the British accept?" "Nothing but Churchill's bullheadedness," replied Kennedy.7 Kennedy's statement was enough to condemn Churchill as a war criminal. At the height of Hitler's power, the German chancellor offered to withdraw from France, Denmark and Norway.8 He proposed to roll back his army without a shot being fired. He would make peace with England even if England would not agree to return the German colonies, which Britain had taken from Germany at the end of World War I.9 Hitler did not want war. He was so against war that he said it would not do Germany any good, even if Germany won the war, as war would put an end to all his plans. "Hitler was not thinking of war," Albert Forster, 36-year-old district leader of Danzig, told Churchill, as "the Führer's immense social and cultural plans would take years to fulfill."10

Comment: This article could have just as easily have been called "How History is Written by the Victors". The article more or less summarizes my basic views on the second world war, and to an extent, the reality of the Nazi regime (as opposed to the mania of modern times, in which Hitler has been made to fill the place of satan in the secular pantheon/mythos - a position which would have been far better filled by our 'Ally' Josef Stalin for what it's worth.) Since I'm am generally opposed to "state-ism", fascism is obviously not my cup of tea, nor is the neo-pagan/idol-of-nationalism spirit which imbued German fascism in particular.

Another attempt to explain the mystery of consciousness

Wider Than the Sky: the Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness - Reviewed by Scott D. O’Reilly

Comment: While I'm not surprised at the glowing appraisal of this new book (given that the author of the review is written by a secular humanist, and featured in a sometimes nauseatingly liberal publication), I won't deny that the author (Gerald M. Edelman) doesn't seem to have anything interesting to say. I would deny though that what he does say, sheds any light on the nature of consciousness itself.

I've noticed that when authors/researchers possessed by fundamentally materialistic assumptions (and don't you forget that this is all that they are - they may be a part of the zeitgeist of the modern west, or at least western academia - but that doesn't not make them any less assumed/prejudicial) tackle this issue, they ultimatly end up doing everything but "explain consciousness", or even put a dent into the side of the great behemoth of a mystery. What they actually end up doing, more or less, is discuss the relationship of the body to said mystery. I'm disappointed that so few (in particular the ones doing the postulating) ever give an indication of realizing this.

Consciousness is a fundamentally "non-material" reality. It defies the normal categories we assign to material things. Yes, it interacts with matter - it is even affected by it (profoundly so)...but the very "act" of being human should make it quite clear, on an experiential level, that the reality "as it is", is not material.

For my money, the most satisfactory discussion of the soul (which is ultimatly what we're talking about here) is to be found in the well drawn arguments of St.Thomas Aquinas, who identifies the soul as being the form of the body. This avoids the unsatisfactory "ghost in the machine" type thinking which so obviously becomes problematic when we contemplate the radical effect that our physical health can have on our mental/spiritual health, yet does not cede what is fundamentally non-material to the realm of gross matter either. Unlike modern materialistic theories, where St.Thomas' excells, is that it does not treat the question of "why" as if it were irrelevent to understanding. If anything, to teach that things have "substance" and "form", is fundamentally to assert that they are not haphazard, and have purpose - a purpose both within them, but also that preceedes their coming into existance.

Aquinas' outlook on this topic is as elegant as it is logical, and as mentioned before, squares perfectly with scientific observation (ex. sleep and brain trauma, for example, can affect how the potential of the soul can be realized - this is similar to the reason why infants can be considered truly human, while not manifesting all of the qualities of culture and consciousness we associate with being human). The only "stumbling block" it poses, are for those who for one reason or another, find themselves in the condition of foolishness.

I kind of figured this was going to happen...

Pope back to hospital after relapse: Vatican

Comment: Politcal handlers everywhere have a tendency to understate the gravity of their boss's health problems, and the Pope is no exception. I kind of figured we'd see him back in the hospital (unfortunately.)

This Canucklehead says NO THANKS!

Group Looks At North America To Become One Country

(excerpt) OTTAWA—An influential tri-national panel has considered a raft of bold proposals for an integrated North America, including a continental customs union, single passport and contiguous security perimeter. According to a confidential internal summary from the first of three meetings of the Task Force on the Future of North America, discussions also broached the possibility of lifting trade exemptions on cultural goods and Canadian water exports. ... Members said the task force's final report this spring will focus on "achievable" rather than simply academic questions like that of a single North American currency. Nevertheless, the initial debates prompted a sharp reaction from trade skeptics and nationalist groups like the Council of Canadians, who fear business leaders and the politically connected are concocting plans to cede important areas of sovereignty at the behest of American business interests. ... "What they envisage is a new North American reality with one passport, one immigration and refugee policy, one security regime, one foreign policy, one common set of environmental, health and safety standards ... a brand name that will be sold to school kids, all based on the interests and the needs of the U.S.," she said. ...

Comment: Unfortunately, all of this is probably inevitable. Oh yeah, and here is the official website of the Council of Canadians.

...and yet more on Thompson...

Hunter S. Thompson bio piece

(excerpt) While to the general public Thompson is often portrayed as a subversive, drug-addled novelist, the truth is that he is and always was a sports writer (as well as a self-proclaimed political addict). And his road to literary success, like most authors/journalists, was a crevice-filled journey to say the least. Thompson abilities as a writer and, more importantly, as a ruthless con man were evident early in his life. He was born July 18, 1937 in Louisville, Kentucky. As a youth, he had several run-ins with the law but was regarded as brilliant by his high school English teacher. Even then he wrote in a sardonic style and constantly attacked the status quo. After graduating (which he did while in a jail cell, serving a six-week sentence for robbery while the rest of his fellow graduates were receiving their diplomas), Thompson enlisted in the Air Force and graduated from Scott Air Force Base in Belleville, Illinois. In 1956, he was assigned to Eglin Air Proving Ground in Pensacola, Florida. Eglin was where he first began in the field of journalism. When he arrived, he discovered that the base's newspaper, the Command Courier, was looking for a sports editor. Since he didn't really fit in with armed forces "lifestyle", Thompson conned his way into the position by claiming to have a journalistic background. As Thompson wrote at the time, "The people who hired me didn't bother to check too closely on my journalistic background ... I've managed to keep them in safe ignorance for about a month now." ...

2003 political piece from Salon.com - Thompson on the "New America"

(excerpt) Feb. 3, 2003 | He calls himself "an elderly dope fiend living out in the wilderness," but Hunter S. Thompson will also be found this week on the New York Times bestseller list with a new memoir, "Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century." Listening to his ragged voice, there is some sense that Thompson, now 65, has reined in his outlaw ways, gotten a little softer, perhaps a little more gracious now that he's reached retirement age. "I've found you can deal with the system a lot easier if you use their rules," he says. "I talk to a lot of lawyers." But do not be deceived. In "Kingdom of Fear" and in a telephone interview with Salon from his compound in Aspen, Colo., Thompson did what he's always done: speak the truth about American society as he sees it, without worrying much about decorum. "Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads?" he writes, referring to the people currently occupying the White House. "They are the racists and hate mongers among us -- they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis." That's his enduring attitude in this new age of darkness: a lot more loathing than fear. The godfather of gonzo believes America has suffered a "nationwide nervous breakdown" since 9/11, and as a result is compromising civil liberties for what he calls "the illusion of security." The compromise, he says, is "a disaster of unthinkable proportions" and "part of the downward spiral of dumbness" he believes is plaguing the country. ... Perhaps Thompson's most disturbing charge is aimed at the American people -- only half of whom exercise their right to vote. "The oligarchy doesn't need an educated public. And maybe the nation does prefer tyranny," he says. "I think that's what worries me." In the end, however, Thompson is not and has never been that easy to pigeonhole. He's friends with Pat Buchanan and has a lifetime membership in the National Rifle Association. In his own mind, if not in others', he is "one of the most patriotic people I've ever encountered in America."

Interesting "eulogy" article from liberal anti-war publication, Intervention Magazine

(Comment: While I believe the article makes some interesting points, I find the article's (probably satirical) portrayal of "God's wrath for the 'red state-ers' to be a little selective in it's observations. Not that I totally deny such a possibility out of hand - rather, I think AIDS/rampant-STDS, broken homes, nihilistic youth, and a couple of airplanes smacking into a mecca of American commerce are equally good candidates for manifestations of "God's wrath" - and can hardly be portrayed as being measures taking aim primarily at (granted, misguided/ignorant/foolish) American "conservatives" of the "fundigelical" variety.)

More on the late Hunter S. Thompson...

Hunter S. Thompson, Outlaw Journalist, Is Dead at 67

Serge of 'A Conservative Blog for Peace' made an interesting comment yesterday about the affinity between the "gonzo journalism" of Thompson and the whole weblog phenomenon. I found it interesting that the same idea was mirrored in the above article...

Yet his early work presaged some of the fundamental changes that have rocked journalism today. Mr. Thompson's approach in many ways mirrors the style of modern-day bloggers, those self-styled social commentators who blend news, opinion and personal experience on Internet postings. Like bloggers, Mr. Thompson built his case for the state of America around the framework of his personal views and opinions.

Catholicism & Priorities

I have to head off to bed soon (night-shift work 'n all), so I will try to keep this brief.

I have noticed that many Roman Catholic polemics against Orthodox Christianity make much of the following two topics...

- Orthodox allowances for ecclessiastical divorce/remarriage under certain circumstances
- The allowance under some circumstances for the use of artificial contraceptives by married couples, in consultation with their confessor

I will not bother getting into a defense of either of these practices, it's been done elsewhere. In fact on the second point in particular, I feel that certain Orthodox juristictions (or at least many of the clergy in them, at least here in the west) take a far too indulgent/lenient position on the matter.

What I would like to comment on, is an issue of priorities.

No matter how you slice it (and even those bishops/clergy in Orthodoxy of the most "permissive" persuasion would freely admit this), the allowance of divorce/contraception is far from the "Christian ideal" and is an obvious concession to human weakness. No arguments from me on this point.

Yet, if you listen to papal apologists, this is the "death blow" to Orthodox claims to 'catholicity' and genuine 'apostolicity' in matters of faith & morals. It is almost as if, once made aware of the typical Orthodox take on these subjects (which is actually not totally monolithic...but that's another posting unto itself), we should view it as a deal breaker - as if we are all to cry "that's it, forget Orthodoxy...time to pack our bags, move to Rome."

But...

Last time I checked, the commandments of the Decalogue which pertain to sexuality ranked 6th and 9th by Latin reckoning - where as the "top three" pertain to the glorification and honouring of God.

Also, last time I checked, no matter how "laid back" the parish, this is about as "slouchy" as things are ever going to get in an Orthodox parish...


Antiochian liberals!

OTOH, this is hardly uncommon in the "Roman Catholic scene"...


These are "nuns" if you can believe it...

This is not to say any of the commandments are dispensible...hardly. I just have a hard time buying unarguable "in communion with Rome sacrelige" over highly debatable "schismatic" Eastern Orthodox "sexual permissivness" (sic).

Hunter S. Thompson RIP

Hunter S. Thompson 1937-2005

'Gonzo' writer Hunter S. Thompson found dead

(excerpt) Hunter S. Thompson, the prominent countercultural writer who personified "gonzo journalism," has been found dead. He apparently died of a gunshot wound. Police do not suspect foul play. It happened Sunday evening at his home near Aspen, Colorado. Thompson was 67. His wife Anita was not home at the time. "Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," his only son Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News. Juan found the body. ...

Comment: I've long regarded Thompson (as a personality and author - though arguably the two are inseperable since most of what he wrote was at least semi-autobiographical) as one of my "guilty pleasures"; "guilty" precisely because of the excess which filled his entire adult life, and which in so many respects this excess became part of his work.

Frankly, I'm surprised he lived to reach the age of 67, given that his daily routine involved the use and abuse of an assortment of spirits and narcotics. Though it's too early to say exactly how he died, suicide seems to be a strong possibility - however, this may not be the case, given that Thompson was a lifelong gun enthusiast, and it's entirely possible he accidentally shot himself while "under the influence." In any case, this is sad news for me; I can only hope for the best for Mr.Thompson (spiritually speaking), but admittedly (a rhetoric of being "non-judgemental" aside) I cannot help but be pessimistic about his prospects. Lord have mercy...