Musings of an Expagan

Charlotte was Both

Here is a comment I left… I don’t know if she will approve it.

Ok…  So I won’t…

But I am picking up one of these.  110 MPG, and will help me save money.

dang… the Red and white are sold out… Now I have to get the Grey and Silver

News update…

United Stated Confererence of Catholic Bishops are still studying:

.

ON CERTAIN QUESTIONS REGARDING
THE COLLABORATION OF THE NON-ORDAINED
FAITHFUL IN THE SACRED MINISTRY OF PRIEST

Just in case you guys were wondering.  The document released in 1997, the bishops response was they needed to study it.  Sort of along the same lines as:

We need to know what you mean by “No Homosexual Men are to be allowed into Seminary.”  Can you please clarify that?

Diogenes over at Off the Record has a post about the Holy See issuing a clarification:

http://www.cwnews.com/offtherecord/offtherecord.cfm?task=singledisplay&recnum=4737

The Vatican Secretary of State has issued a two-sentence statement concerning the interpretation of the 2005 Instruction on the non-admission of homosexual persons to Holy Orders. In response to “numerous requests for clarification,” the Holy See made clear what was clear from the outset, that the force of the prohibitions extends to seminaries operated by religious orders, mission territorities, and Eastern rite Churches.

Also he points this out:

Nor is the Vatican faultless as to its own responsibilities in the matter. Remember the much-ballyhooed “new and serious” Apostolic Visitation of U.S. seminaries launched in response to the clergy abuse crisis? The results of the investigation seem to have vanished into the ether. Those in charge managed to steer it to its conclusion without risk to any sitting bishop, and lay interest in reform has waned to the point where the findings can be safely entombed in a file cabinet until a new generation of prelates replaces those who were implicated. To put in the (curial favorite) future perfect tense: face will have been saved.

I would point out to Diogenes that my personal opinion is that lay interest hasn’t waned… I would rather say that the Laity has woken up and realized that they were sold a bill of goods that, upon close inspection, really weren’t what was needed.  One only needs to look back at the epicenter of the clergy abuse scandal in Dallas Texas to see what has changed:

McKinney priest resigns amid questions of sexuality

Now mind you…  The website in question was around for quite sometime.  The bishop, if he had done any research, would have know about the issue, he couldn’t say that he didn’t know because the faithful in Dallas have been telling the Chancery about this crap for years.

So for the laity, I don’t think that are interest has waned.  I believe that we simply have come to believe that, as a collective group (Chaput, Burke, and a couple of others not withstanding), the American Bishops will do nothing except posture, put out programs that make it seem that it was a lay problem, and go about shuffling  abusers around like they did in the past.

UPDATE:   Dallas hasn’t been the only place that has not given sufficient thought to the clergy sex scandal.

 Bishop admits he was wrong giving job to former seminarian facing child porn charges

YAKIMA — The bishop of the Catholic diocese in Yakima admitted Tuesday that he failed to tell priests and parishioners he had hired a former seminary student who was being investigated for viewing child pornography.

Bishop Carlos Sevilla acknowledged that he made a “series of errors in judgment, a whole bunch of them,” when he gave a part-time job to a now 37-year-old man who was later promoted to direct the St. Peter Retreat Center in Cowiche.

In short, the collective of Bishops are simply giving us this:

I however would like to be proven wrong.  I just don’t see it happening.

As you probably know, Senator Kennedy was diagnosed with cancer. While I disagree with almost everything he stands for, I cannot help but ask for prayers for him.  So, lets pray a decade of the Rosary for him, or even a full one.  It isn’t too much to ask, and it just might help.

Also lets not forget his family in our prayers.  We might just throw a few up there for his brothers who have passed on into the next life.

Lord God, we ask for your grace to come upon Senator Kennedy, please protect him, and hold him in your gaze as he goes through this difficult trial.

Unedited Original

Our Pot Habit…

And our obsession with plastic surgery

So…Barbara Walters went out got naked with a senator years ago… and then tells us about it.

Frankly Babs… I didn’t need to know that about you or the Senator. Frankly I don’t think the Senator’s kids or his wife is really crazy about the admission either.

So what is with this tell all craziness that is going on… Why do we demand to know these things about people? Look guys, if we didn’t get some type of thrill out of our voyeuristic society then this wouldn’t happen. Look I really don’t care who you are sleeping with… just don’t let me in on the secret. And that goes for the rest of Hollywood and the celebrity circuit, I don’t need to know who is sleeping with whom, who went out with who without underwear on, and who is getting married for the umpteenth time.

If that is true, then I say good. Microsoft needs to focus on its own house instead of trying to ruin Yahoo. Microsoft has lost its focus (if it ever had one that is.)

Vista is overpriced and a resource hog

Xbox 360 is plagued with problems

The Zune… well enough said there… Did I mention brown?

Now on the Yahoo side of things, they aren’t doing very good either. They could have ruled the search category but they got lazy.

Now… the one good thing about all this is that Zimbra Collaboration Suite still remains outside of Microsoft. This alternative to Microsoft Exchange is something that many should look at. I am looking at it myself so that I can see if I want to implement it for my office. However I was holding off until this Microsoft / Yahoo thing was over. It wouldn’t be the first time that Microsoft bought a company and then killed the products that competed with their own.