THE POPE EMERITUS AT THE CASTLE

Pat Oliphant's latest cartoon on the pope in retirement.  Do click the link.  You won't be sorry.

ZACK KOPPLIN WITH BILL MOYERS

From the time he was a high school senior in his home state of Louisiana, Kopplin has been speaking, debating, cornering politicians and winning the active support of 78 Nobel Laureates, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the New Orleans City Council, and tens of thousands of students, teachers and others around the country. The Rice University history major joins Bill to talk about fighting the creep of creationist curricula into public school science classes and publicly funded vouchers that end up supporting creationist instruction.

I'm very proud of this young man who cared enough about science education to take on the political establishment and those who drive them to allow teaching nonsense science in taxpayer-funded schools in Louisiana. Zack gathered his own scientific establishment to rebut the scientific ignorance of the creationists - the young-earthers and deniers of the evolutionary process.  Believe whatever you wish, but if it's faith and not science, don't insist that it be taught in science class.

ULTIMATE ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE AD

Says it all. What can pro-gay marriage people be thinking?

Thanks to Paul (A.) for the link.

CARDINAL KEITH O'BRIEN ADMITS HE DID IT...

...and asks forgiveness.

A Scottish cardinal on Sunday acknowledged having engaged in unspecified sexual misbehavior, apologized for his actions, and promised to stay out of the church's public life in a statement that comes at an awkward time for the Vatican.
....

O'Brien initially rejected the claims, saying he was resigning because he did not want to distract from the upcoming conclave of cardinals that is due to pick a successor to Benedict XVI, who resigned the papacy Thursday. O'Brien also became the first cardinal to recuse himself from the conclave because of personal scandal; other voting-age cardinals have in the past stayed home because of infirmity or because they were prevented by their governments from participating.

On Sunday, the Catholic church in Scotland issued a statement quoting O'Brien as saying that there had been times "that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal."

"To those I have offended, I apologize and ask forgiveness," the statement continued. "To the Catholic church and people of Scotland, I also apologize. I will now spend the rest of my life in retirement. I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic church in Scotland."

There will be no basilica in Rome for Cardinal O'Brien.  How fraught the conclave to elect the next pope will be with pressure to assure that whoever is elected will not be accused of misconduct in the near or far future.  I pray that those who have secrets in their pasts that could shock or embarrass the church further will be honest enough to take themselves out of the running.  I have good friends who are members of the Roman Catholic Church, and I care about them and wish for them better and more peaceful times.  

WALKING TO NEW ORLEANS - FATS DOMINO

What can I say? I've fallen down on the job of posting Friday night with Fats Domino, so here's Saturday evening with Fats. You see, I like the alliteration in Friday with Fats, so the Saturday post is second best for me, but not for Fats in a video with pictures of himself and scenes of New Orleans.  My apologies to those of you who wait with bated breath for the Friday night music.

LOUISIANA DIOCESAN CONVENTION PASSES RESOLUTION ON GUN VIOLENCE

2013 Resolution R-2 AS PASSED

From: The Rev’d John H. Craft, Chaplain, Chapel of the Holy Comforter, and The Rev’d William H. Terry, Rector, St. Anna’s Church

Purpose: To Advocate for the Reduction of Gun Violence in America

Resolved, that the 176th Convention of the Diocese of Louisiana in response to the recent deaths from gun violence, including the loss of 28 of God’s children in Newtown, Connecticut, and escalating urban violence resulting in over 2,000 gun-related deaths since 2007 in Louisiana alone, commends and joins with other faith communities in an emerging moral consensus and with a prophetic voice by calling upon lawmakers at the federal, state, and local levels to take the following steps:

(1) Recognizing the sanctity of life, we urge the support and adoption of state and federal firearms legislation to promote safety, education and responsibility in the purchase, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition.

(2) Recognizing the sanctity of life, we urge the support and adoption of tighter controls, including background checks,on all gun sales and purchases.

(3) Recognizing the sanctity of life, we urge the support of mental healthcare reform, including adequate funding and improved care.

(4) Recognizing the sanctity of life, we urge the support of programs and policies discouraging our culture’s glorification of violence.

And be it further resolved that the 176th Convention of the Diocese of Louisiana encourages all members of the diocese to work within our congregations through prayer, preaching, education, and advocacy, toward eliminating all violence that kills so many of God’s children in our nation.

Thanks to Ormonde at Facebook for the link to the text of the resolution.

"RACIAL ENTITLEMENT" TO VOTE?

Don't be fooled by the smile and benign expression on his face.

Whenever a society adopts racial entitlements, it is very difficult to get out of them through the normal political processes. I don’t think there is anything to be gained by any Senator to vote against continuation of this act. And I am fairly confident it will be reenacted in perpetuity unless — unless a court can say it does not comport with the Constitution. You have to show, when you are treating different States differently, that there’s a good reason for it.

That’s the — that’s the concern that those of us who — who have some questions about this statute have. It’s — it’s a concern that this is not the kind of a question you can leave to Congress. There are certain districts in the House that are black districts by law just about now. And even the Virginia Senators, they have no interest in voting against this. The State government is not their government, and they are going to lose — they are going to lose votes if they do not reenact the Voting Rights Act.

Above is Justice Antonin Scalia's response to arguments in a case before the Supreme Court brought by Shelby County, Alabama, to dilute the Voting Rights Acts.  How is the right to vote an entitlement?  There's a history here that Scalia seems to have forgotten.  Perhaps consideration might be given to strengthening the Voting Rights Act to include the entire country, as we heard many stories of attempts at voter suppression in areas outside the South during the recent election.  Reducing the number of days for early voting, which results in long lines, 6 to 8 hours in some precincts, amounts to voter suppression.

Despite the low esteem with which Congress is regarded today, and despite Scalia's words to the contrary, it's still the duty of the legislative branch to pass laws in the country.

Anyway, I'll let Rachel Maddow on the Jon Stewart show have the last word on Scalia.



UPDATE: See Tom Toles' cartoon.

CUSTOMER SERVICE IN JAPAN

A little startling at first, but truly excellent customer service.

WHERE AM I?

You ask where have I been.  I'm right here.  In truth, no one asked where I've been.  Sniff, sniff...  I've spent the better part of the day trying to get virus protection downloaded onto my laptop.  (I know.  Buy a Mac, and I won't have to worry about virus protection.  I wanted that out of the way, before someone else says it.)  I'm not looking to buy a computer now. 

My laptop was freezing up, as I said earlier, and, as best as I and my helper could figure out, the culprit seemed to be my anti-virus program.  When I uninstalled the program, my laptop started working again. I didn't like the program anyway, so I decided to try the program I use on the desktop.  In fact, I tried to use the CD from which I downloaded the program to my desktop, but alas - the program was for one computer only, which may have complicated the subsequent attempt to download the anti-virus program to my laptop properly.  After a series of failures and frustrating phone calls with customer service, my efforts finally succeeded, and now all is well, after hours of effort.  Sooo...that's how I spent my morning and part of the afternoon.  What a fun day!

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

The Tyler Morning Telegraph has learned that a Van Independent School District employee accidentally was shot during a district-sponsored concealed handgun license class on Wednesday.

The class was part of an effort to permit teachers to carry firearms on VISD campuses.

....

[School board member Leslie] Goode would not disclose the identity of the employee or the nature of the injury, but did say the accident would not change his mind about a recent decision by the board to arm some teachers.

Thank heaven the person was not killed or badly wounded.  Sadly, I fear this is not the last of this kind of story we are likely to hear as the push for guns in schools continues.

Image from Wikipedia.