Month: July 2005

A guest on NPR insinuates that the Bush administration is somehow behind the Darfur genocide. I kid you not.

NUTTY RIGHT WATCH: The anti-Kinsey obsessives now have a new theory: porn causes the release of harmful “erototoxins” in the human brain. Bring ’em on, say I.

“A friend forwarded to me your your recent (July 16, 2005) comments about a possible upcoming Vatican document that may ban gay men from priestly ordination. After reading your comments, John Allen’s article, and the email from a gay priest who wrote about his own struggles, I find myself so incensed that words almost escape me.

I, too, am a gay priest. While I am no longer in active ministry (currently on a leave of absence), I can fully understand and identify with the pain and anguish that the priest expressed. Though I no longer function as a priest in the sacramental or adminstrative sense, I have always considered who I am and the work I do to be “priestly.” I am a professional “do-gooder,” a social worker with a non-profit mental health organization; I am active in my Washington, DC parish, teaching RCIA to those seeking the good news that Christ and the Church proclaim. Though conscious of my own sinfulness and shortcomings, I try to live my life in the light of the truth that my ordination forever changed the essence of my soul, calling me to “be there” for others, as Christ has been and always is “there” for us.

For the Church even to consider taking a position that gay men are “unfit” for priestly ordination must be called what it is. You labeled it as bigotry; indeed, such a statement would be an expression of indefensible bigotry and discrimination. It also would be an evil of immense magnitude. If the current Holy Father were to promulgate such a statement, I cannot tell you the range of thoughts and emotions such an action would engender in me (anger and dismay being at the top of the list). I would also feel great sadness for Benedict XVI himself, and I would fear for his salvation. To knowingly inflict such immense harm on part of God’s flock, doing so in his role as the Church’s Universal Pastor, would, I believe, place on him the burden of one day standing before the Lord in need of the boundless mercy and forgiveness that only God can give.

Like the priest who wrote to you, I feel I must do something, but don’t yet know what that is. While I reflect and pray for guidance on what that “something” is, I wish to thank you for providing an enlightened place in these “darkening times” for all gay men and women seeking to follow the light of Christ.”

Another gay priest recommended this book to me. It’s a biography of one of the great Catholic intellectuals and priests of the twentieth century, Henri Nouwen. And, yes, he was gay.

“One’s life is probably in no greater danger in the jungles of deepest Africa than in the jungles of America’s large cities. In my judgment, much of the problem has been brought about by the mollycoddling of criminals by some of the liberal judges who have been placed on the nation’s courts in recent years.” – Senator Robert Byrd, a former racist who now directs his bigotry at gays.

The liberal media sees both through the prism of intellectual snobbery, says David Adesnik.

It doesn’t get more depressing than this.

“Judge Roberts has a first-rate mind and by all accounts he’s a wonderful person. In addition, his opinions to date are excellent and they show a healthy respect for people who disagree with him. It’s far too soon to reach any final conclusions – the process has just started – but Judge Roberts combines quality with a fine character, and that’s certainly something to applaud.” – Cass Sunstein.

“”He’s conservative in manner and conservative in approach. He’s a person who is cautious and careful, that’s true. But he is also someone quite deeply immersed in the law, and he loves it. He believes in it as a discipline and pursues it in principle and not by way of politics.” – Laurence H. Tribe.

It’s so good to see two proud, accomplished American women taking on the genocidal government of Sudan:

When NBC diplomatic reporter Andrea Mitchell tried to ask el-Bashir about his involvement with alleged atrocities, guards grabbed her and muscled her toward the rear of the room. State Department officials shouted at the guards. “Get your hands off her!” Wilkinson demanded. But all the reporters and a camera crew were physically forced out as Rice and el-Bashir watched.

Later, describing Rice’s meeting with el-Bashir, Wilkinson said, “She was very direct about the skepticism of the international community about their ability to improve Darfur.”

Rice put it this way: “I said action, not words.”

Mitchell is a great reporter. She asked the right question. Rice did right. I think we know what that thuggish government is about. If they do this to the entourage of the secretary of state, can you imagine what they do to domestic dissenters?

Yes, Canada now has marriage rights for all its citizens, equally. I don’t know what’s more remarkable: that it happened or that no one really noticed. In a few years, I confidently predict this will be a complete non-issue. What will be dicussed is why so many otherwise reasonable people got so enraged by the prospect of gays being brought fully into the fold of family values and social responsibility. (This piece by Julian Sanchez on gay adoption shows how irrational and hostile to children that opposition in America can now be.)

Anne Applebaum asks some disturbing questions.

There’s some indication that the London attacks may have been perpetrated by more members of the same group that committed 7/7. The difference is that today’s attempts at murder seem amateurish in comparison, which must be good news. Money quote:

Prof Paul Rogers, of Bradford University, agreed that the second wave of attacks was an “ominous” development. He said: “It implies there might be another cell primed and ready to attack. The one ominous thing is that this appears to be a group of a similar nature to the previous July 7 bombers.”

Prof Rogers said, however, that the apparent failure of the devices to detonate on the Underground lines would provide investigating teams with crucial evidence for the earlier attacks.

“The level of forensic evidence will be extremely high, much higher than last time. They will have the devices and much can be done to them in terms of fingerprinting, DNA, the origin of the detonators and where the bags were bought. If this was a series of dummies deliberately timed to cause mass panic then it puts the people responsible at considerable risk of being found.”

A silver lining. Memo to Londoners: don’t let these bastards get away. Ordinary people on the scene can be the best law enforcement we have.