BIG STRANGE FAMILY (FEMININE)

I don't think of it as working for world
peace, she said. I think of it as just
trying to get along in a really big strange
family.

From StoryPeople.

21 ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS PLACED ON LEAVE IN PHILADELPHIA

From CNN:

Twenty-one priests have been placed on administrative leave following a review of suspected child sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church in Philadelphia, according to a statement from the city's archbishop.

The church investigated 37 priests identified in a grand jury report as remaining in "active ministry with credible allegations of child sexual abuse," according to Cardinal Justin Rigali.

In addition to the 21 announced Tuesday, three other priests have already been placed on administrative leave after the report was released in February, Rigali said.
....

Last week, three Philadelphia priests and a parochial school teacher were charged with raping and assaulting boys in their care, while a former official with the Philadelphia Archdiocese was accused of allowing the abusive priests to have access to children, the city's district attorney's office said.

CNN Senior Vatican Analyst John Allen said the charges against the former church official appeared to be unprecedented and could have national implications.
....

Monsignor William Lynn, who served as the secretary for clergy for the under then-Philadelphia Archbishop Anthony Bevilacqua, was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the alleged assaults, Williams said.

The church investigated after the names of the priests were released in a grand jury report. And before the report from the grand jury, did the church know nothing of the allegations against the priests?

The grand jury believed that more than 30 priests have remained in ministry in Pennsylvania despite solid, credible allegations of abuse, Williams said.

Rigali had initially challenged that claim.

The charges against the three priests are sickening to read. And finally someone who participated in an alleged cover-up is charged. It's about time! It's way past time! I'd imagine that right about now, a number of people who participated in cover-ups around the country are running scared.

What led me to leave the Roman Catholic Church was not the crimes of abuse, horrific as they were and are, but the cover-up by presumably sane leaders who believed protecting the institution from scandal was more important than protecting innocent children and teenagers. And it seems the necessary lessons have not yet been learned even today, which nearly makes my head explode.

Lord, have mercy.

H/T to Ann Fontaine at The Lead for the link.

THE WORD FROM CHINA ON CHARLIE SHEEN

From the Beijing Global Times:

Actor Charlie Sheen is a classic example of the difference in Western and Eastern values and norms.

Ignoring public pleas from his father, Sheen has continued a weeklong media blitz, exhibiting obvious signs of mania. With no firm hand to guide them, Western media has deliberately goaded him into making increasingly delusional statements, more concerned about "winning" higher ratings than Sheen's own sense of pride, or the negative example his brash public admissions about his private sex life and unverifiable international conspiracies could be setting for society.
....

As much as Sheen has lived a life most Chinese men can only fantasize about, our admiration of him can only go so far. He has not only lost face with his public rants, but also crossed a cultural barrier no Chinese can abide.

He ignored his own father's advice to keep quiet, who was once the president of the US. Sheen is a disgrace, unfilial to his father and his fatherland.

Martin Sheen should at once go on television and tearfully apologize on behalf of his son for his inability to keep up appearances and keep his mouth shut.

Thanks to Paul (A.) for the link via Americablog. Paul (A.) says:

I didn't know that his father had been President of the U.S.

And it's a shame that he can't afford two houses for his two
mistresses.

I must have been asleep during Charlie's father's presidency, because this is the first I hear of it, too.

BYE, DANIEL CRAIG

Sorry, but I had to remove the video of Daniel Craig in drag in honor of International Women's Day because the video came on automatically each time I clicked on my blog. I tried all the fixes I knew to turn off "autoplay", but none of them worked.

You can find the video at the Telegraph.

ASH WEDNESDAY

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

PSALM 32

Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.


While I kept silence, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
Selah


Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’,
and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Selah


Therefore let all who are faithful
offer prayer to you;
at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters
shall not reach them.
You are a hiding-place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.
Selah


I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle,
else it will not stay near you.


Many are the torments of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord.
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

And so I welcome the Lenten season, for it is time.

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessèd face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice

And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgement not be too heavy upon us

T S Eliot - "Ash-Wednesday"

And God is good.
And God is love.
And God will have mercy.

And God is good.
And God is love.
And God will have mercy.

Photo from Wikipedia.

WHOSE CHOICE IS IT?

From the Washington Post:

The Montana Supreme Court has delayed an order that a cancer patient undergo a hysterectomy to give her time to appeal a finding that she is not mentally competent to make such a decision.

District Judge Karen Townsend issued a March 1 ruling ordering the woman to undergo a radical hysterectomy on March 3 to treat her cervical cancer. The woman is identified in documents by the initials L.K.

L.K.'s appeal says she is a deeply religious woman who wants children and that she objected to the hysterectomy on both grounds, the Missoulian reported Sunday.

After L.K.'s cancer diagnosis, Dr. Valerie Knutsen sent a letter to the Missoula County attorney's office in September with concerns about L.K.'s ability to make medical decisions. A nurse sent similar letters in September and October. A petition to appoint a temporary medical guardian was filed in November. On Feb. 11, the temporary medical guardian signed a consent form for L.K. to have the radical hysterectomy. The surgery was scheduled for March 3.
....

The Supreme Court stayed Townsend's order and agreed to expedite the appeal.

Ever since I read the article in the local paper this morning, I've been thinking about LK's situation off and on. She is Stage 1, and she could probably be cured and live for many more years. And yet, and yet.... Unless upon further examination, LK is shown to be incapacitated by mental illness beyond the decision not to have surgery, I lean toward her being permitted to make the choice. I believe that LK is wrong to refuse the surgery, but I do not believe the treatment should be forced upon her.

What do you think?

HAPPY MARDI GRAS PHOTO ESSAY

Today is Mardi Gras. Really! Mardi Gras was not last Tuesday, as in my erroneous post, which I quickly removed, but which stays in Google Reader probably forever. Tomorrow is really, really Ash Wednesday, and you will all need to get really, really serious about repentance of your wicked ways. But for one last day, you may revel in your naughtiness.

The pictures are from the Cleophas parade this past Sunday.



"Who Dat?" of course! - in honor of the New Orleans Saints football team. The National Football League has copyrighted the phrase, "Who Dat?" - as though they could.



Who dat wit' de umbrella? Dat's the rector's wife, dat's who. An' dat's her perch on de telephone box, an' nobody dare to steal her perch.



"We So Broke It's Whatever", to which a good many folks in the country can relate.



Over the hill and deep into the valley on the other side for me.



Thomas the Train, a really cute float. The picture doesn't do it justice.



Grandpère and the middle generation, my son and daughter-in-law.



The elder generation, who stay at home on Mardi Gras, but not on the Sunday before. It's raining here today. I hope it's not raining in New Orleans and in the other cities which have parades.

An' dat's dat, as dey say.

MAF THE MALTESE AND MARILYN

The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe, by Andrew O'Hagan, is a moving and affectionate fictional account of the last two years of Marilyn's life as seen through the eyes of her Maltese, Mafia Honey - Maf, for short, a smart, funny, sweet, loving companion to Marilyn. Maf is so named because he was a gift to Marilyn in November 1960, from Frank Sinatra who was thought to have "connections" with the Mafia. Frank acquired Maf through the efforts of Mrs Maria Gurdin, Natalie Woods' mother, who regularly traveled to England to bring dogs to America.

(Spoiler alert! If you don't want to know too much of the story, then don't read further.)

Maf hears the thoughts of humans and converses with animals and other living creatures around him. In case you didn't know, all cats speak in verse. Maf tries to talk to humans, but they hear his words only as, "Yap, yap." Maf becomes part of Marilyn's life just after her separation from Arthur Miller, when she is lonely and adrift.

O'Hagan captures the character of Frank Sinatra perfectly, the blend of menace and charm that kept those around him off balance. Sinatra stage-managed the entertainment side of the inauguration of John F Kennedy, but as the day approached, Kennedy and his people became alarmed as news of Sinatra's Mafia "connections" began to surface in the press, and they insisted that he take a back seat and stay out of the limelight. Peter Lawford, the English-American Hollywood actor and husband of JFK's sister Patricia, and go-between, tries to sooth Sinatra, who is in a rage at being pushed to the background:

'I know, Frank...'
'Don't give me "I know", okay? I'll cut your fingers off.'
'The family appreciates it...'
'Don't give me "the family", you smooth-assed English creep. Don't give me that.'
'Frank.'

Frank then launches into a tirade against poor Peter that I can't quote even on my edgy blog which crosses so many boundaries.

The book was a gift and a delight to read. I'm grateful to MadPriest, as I probably would not have discovered the novel on my own. I enjoyed Maf's account of his life with Marilyn immensely. I laughed often, many times out loud, as I read. Certain critics say that the writer indulges in excessive name-dropping, but I enjoyed the stories of Marilyn's encounters with other famous people. Where real life ends and fiction begins is difficult to know, but that didn't matter to me. Once I accepted that dogs hear the thoughts of humans and cats speak in verse, the rest was easy. On a few occasions, I wondered about the characters, whether they were pure creations of the author's imagination or descriptions of early encounters with Marilyn by persons who later became famous. The characters mentioned only by their given names are perhaps more likely to be inventions by the writer. An instance is Vince, the doorman, a great fan of James Thurber, who shares Thurber's view of dogs and humans, considering dogs to be vastly superior.

Thurber had gone so far into Vincent's mind that the doorman had Thurber-like thoughts, seeing people as alarming creatures and dogs as questing beasts.

Along with the humor, a thread of sadness runs through the book, since the end is known, and despite his devotion, Maf is not able to save Marilyn. My above description of Maf,"smart, funny, sweet, loving companion" comes quite close to the little dog's opinion of Marilyn, who, I agree, has been much maligned and not nearly enough appreciated in the many, many words which have been written about her.

Marilyn was late for everything: it was her creed, her prerogative, her style, and her revenge.

I get it, I do, dear Marilyn. In my head, I understand why times must be set, but the rest of me resists having to be anywhere at a particular time, and I am often late.

But I digress.

Marilyn and Maf, along with Carson McCullers, in full southern drawl, attend a literary party at Alfred Kazin's Riverside Drive apartment in New York City. Amongst the guests are the Trillings, Diana and Lionel, Edmund Wilson, Louis Howe, Lillian Hellman, and other literary lights. At one point during the party, the people named, except for Cullers and Hellman, are gathered in a small group discussing the contents of the Partisan Review. Changing the subject, Lionel Trilling speaks of the Great Books course which he directs at Columbia University and mentions the works of Freud and Diderot as being part of the studies.

Wilson took another slug from his glass. 'It's not American, Lionel. It's English. It's French. It's German. And it's more English than anything.' Mr Howe took a step back, behind the sofa, as if to distance himself from anything that sounded like patriotism.

Of Stephen Spender, Wilson says:

'Like so many Englishmen, he doesn't know where he is going, but he always knows the quickest way to get there.' Lionel looked at Diana and pointed to his watch. Marilyn was thinking that she must have bored the people, but she felt a nice cool breeze coming from the window. 'I'm afraid the British are the blind leaders of the blind,' Wilson said with his eyes almost closed, 'and quite despicable for that. All those second-rate painters, academics, with their high thin voices. Despicable.'

Maf, being British, birthed on a farm in Scotland, coming to America by way of Bloomsbury, (yes, that Bloomsbury, the Bells and the Woolfs, Vanessa, Duncan, Leonard, Lytton, etc., but not Virginia, who has already departed) takes umbrage, and when Wilson leans down to put his empty whiskey glass on the floor, Maf bites his finger.

'I wouldn't worry about it,' said Mrs Trilling at the door. It was a pleasure to meet you. Your little dog has the most exquisite critical taste. We must find a place for him on the faculty.

Certain of the literary elite are vicious in a civilized way, using words as weapons. The author's description of the relationship between Diana and Lionel is scathing, although, on the surface, the two strive to be the model of a successful literati coupling.

From what I've read of the literary group's writing and what's been written about them, I'd say that O'Hagan gets them just about right. Both the small touches, like Louis Howe backing away when the conversation becomes patriotic, and the large splashes such as the words the author puts into Lillian Hellman's big mouth are often hilarious.

In an earlier scene at the party, Maf, who is usually well-behaved, bites Lillian Hellman on her leg covered by a stocking full of holes. Maf, a devoted admirer of Trotsky, is roused to fury when Hellman says:

You are all addled Troskyites, as dictated by lunacy. I'm sorry to say Comrade Trotsky is a traitor. I was glad I opposed his application for American asylum.

Marilyn, angry with Maf for his bad behavior at the party, wounds him deeply by telling him that she misses her old dog, Hugo, who left in the custody of Arthur Miller. Before Marilyn sends Maf off for a walk with the housekeeper, a banishment for his willful insubordination, he tells us:

Marilyn brushed out her hair, before pausing and resting the brush on her lap. I looked at her and realized this was our love story, too. I guessed I would never feel so close to anybody in my life. Not just because of the feeling she gave me, but the other things. I believe she taught me everything about what it took to have empathy. I believe she was like Keats in that way: her small efforts spoke of beauty and truth in ways that made her eternal. Watching her, listening to her thoughts, I was in love. She formed everything about me, including my sense of the novel. Even in anger, she looked at me and I understood the storyteller's vocation. 'A novel must be what only a novel can be - it must dream, it must open the mind.

Ah, Maf's words are tender and lovely and make me tear up.

I loved the novel, but I wish the author had spared us and Marilyn the scene near the end of Sinatra in another terrifying rage, the rage to end all rages, short of physical assault, because rather than stay at Sinatra's Rancho Mirage, JFK went to stay at Bing Crosby's compound up the road. After reading the account of the incident, I felt battered and bruised, and my heart went out to Marilyn who was actually there - maybe. Did the scene ever happen? I don't know, but O'Hagan surely made it come alive.

I realize that my "review" of the book is long-winded, but I enjoyed the novel immensely, and I loved writing about it, so, even if no one reads what I've written, I'll have had my reward.



If you haven't read enough, you may want to read the interview with Andrew O'Hagan in the The Herald (Scotland).

You can purchase the book through the Amazon widget on the right sidebar at Of Course I Could Be Wrong and thereby throw a few pence MadPriest's way.

NOTE: I changed the picture at the head of the post to add Maf's brilliant but naughty commentary supplied by MadPriest.

ABOUT THE REPUBLICANS' BUDGET

TOP 10 WORST THINGS ABOUT THE REPUBLICANS' IMMORAL BUDGET

The Republican budget would:

1. Destroy 700,000 jobs, according to an independent economic analysis.
2. Zero out federal funding for National Public Radio and public television.

3. Cut $1.3 billion from community health centers--which will deprive more than three million low-income people of health care over the next few months.

4. Cut nearly a billion dollars in food and health care assistance to pregnant women, new moms, and children.

5. Kick more than 200,000 children out of pre-school by cutting funds for Head Start.

6. Force states to fire 65,000 teachers and aides, dramatically increasing class sizes, thanks to education cuts.

7. Cut some or all financial aid for 9.4 million low- and middle-income college students.

8. Slash $1.6 billion from the National Institutes of Health, a cut that experts say would "send shockwaves" through cancer research, likely result in cuts to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's research, and cause job losses.

9. End the only federal family planning program, including cutting all federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood to support cancer screenings and other women's health care.

10. Send 10,000 low-income veterans into homelessness by cutting in half the number of veterans who get housing vouchers this year.

From MoveOn.org.

PRO-UNION SIGNS IN MADISON, WISCONSIN

Courtesy of Jude at First Draft, who was at the protest yesterday.



Pictured above is a prime specimen of a union "thug". Frightening, isn't she?



Can you believe this nice-looking young woman offers hugs to "thugs"?



The Lego sign is close to my heart, as I've stepped on such a number of the little pieces in my sock feet, that I've grown quite fond of them.



Too little, too late, but at least the sign demonstrates that some folks are teachable, even if they must learn the hard way.

At First Draft, both Jude and Scout have done a remarkable job of reporting from the scene in Madison.