Miscellaneous Monday

[neadods]

MS Call for Funds
My deepest thanks go to all who have donated, online or offline, to the Team Wench MS walk. I've gone well beyond my initial expectations... and yet, I am going to make one last appeal. With the money that has been donated online and off, I am only $30 away from bringing in $250. If just six of you could toss in $5 here, I could make it, and Team Wench as a whole could get that much closer to their overall fundraising goal. Please help, they're only halfway there! Remember, all donations are tax deductible!

In other news, our Team Captain faireraven was made the MS Walk Ambassador at Sunday's Rally!

Another $.02 on the Pope
I had a rather belated epiphany today. Usually 24-48 hours after the death of a notable person, the backlash begins. I don't mean people poking fun at rituals or trappings, but the people ratting out all the little things the person did that were kept in a closet, inconsistent, hypocritical.

There has been none of this for Pope John Paul II. I firmly believe that this is because there was nothing to find. While I barely agreed with much of his philosophy, for a very long time he lived consistently with the dictates of his beliefs, and applied them evenly to all he met. That is so rare in a world leader or a celebrity - and he was both in his own way - that I think I can count those who qualify without taking off my shoes.

A good and faithful servant indeed. May the same be said of his successor.

Cagle (link to right on my LJ, under "Wish they had a feed" has a very nice set of tribute editorial cartoons.

From the worldwide sacred to the personally secular... my car & clothes
Tomorrow my car goes in for repair; Friday I get it back. In the meantime, I get a fully funded rental. The Eddie that returns to me will be FrankenEddie; they've told me that they're going to use a used hood. As long as it's the right color and fits, I guess.

In the resolution of another very old thread, remember my complaining about a skirt that had gotten ruined when something dripped on it at Home Depot? I tried dying it and a stained blouse this weekend, both black. The blouse was not a complete success. The skirt came out a lovely deep black... except for the now dye-resistant spots where the corrosive material dripped!

Next stop - airbrush ink for both. I can get airbrush fabric ink from Dharma Trading Company and run it through a regular spray bottle. Hopefully that will cover evenly!

Standing to center
Posting my monthly do-to lists publicly may be navel-gazing, but it has also proven highly effective in getting me to Get Things Done. Therefore, while both weight and diet (outside of the general lines of the polydiet) are too personal, I will make this public as well:

I pledge to find a way to walk at least two miles daily for exercise, preferably three, and to post my exercise regimin here by the end of the month on the assumption that I will be able to consistently maintain it throughout April.

And if I don't, I have to post my failure.

Comments

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

I had a rather belated epiphany today. Usually 24-48 hours after the death of a notable person, the backlash begins. I don't mean people poking fun at rituals or trappings, but the people ratting out all the little things the person did that were kept in a closet, inconsistent, hypocritical.

There has been none of this for Pope John Paul II. I firmly believe that this is because there was nothing to find.

I was seeing it before he died. And I couldn't disagree with all of it.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

There is a great deal I disagree with that he did as a pontiff. But what did he, as a person do that was inconsistent or hypocritical when compared to the rules he asked others to live by? That's what I'm talking about.

[faireraven.livejournal.com]

That's exactly it. While I may have disagreed with some of his philosophies, he was consistent. None of the "do as I say not as I do". He practiced what he preached, so to speak. I may have disagreed with the man in many respects, but I also have a lot of respect for him... And I think, so did many others.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

I have a lot of respect for him, too; he certainly showed a lot of bravery in WWII, and was a good ambassador for the church as well as a voice for peace. But I can't whitewash the man - in a position to do good for members of the church and others around the world, there were some people, some of the most vulnerable, to whom he did harm.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Valuing life, while opposing the use of condoms in Africa among married couples where one is known to be AIDS-infected, is hypocritical, and has worsened the AIDS crisis there, when implemented as policy among Catholic medical aid organizations.

It may not actually be hypocritical that he appointed bishops in the US that helped him cover up sexual abuse cases and silently reassign accused priests to new parishes, or that he gave Cardinal Bernard Law a job in the Vatican when he resigned in disgrace over the sex-abuse cover-up, but I would argue that it is, as the Catholic church can't possibly condone sexual abuse of minors.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Valuing life, while opposing the use of condoms

Oh, this is one of the biggest things that I take exception to in the Catholic teachings, and not just because of the terrible consequences in Africa. The terrible consequences all around the world!

But it is consistent with the church teaching on contraception, so I can't point to it as hypocracy.


he gave Cardinal Bernard Law a job in the Vatican when he resigned in disgrace over the sex-abuse cover-up,

Ooo, now there you have a point. Because as far as I'm concerned, Bernard Law's behaviour made it clear he was a good and faithful servant... of the devil.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

But it is consistent with the church teaching on contraception, so I can't point to it as hypocracy.

This is arguable, I'll agree. But the issue with contraception is that it doesn't value the life that God chooses to grant, and so, too, does giving AIDS to one's partner and any resulting offspring of a post-infection encounter. Giving AIDS to one's partner ultimately kills more people than contraception. I would argue that it is hypocrisy to uphold the contraception ban in the face of what is essentially the manslaughter of mother and child, although I could understand how people would say otherwise.

And regarding Bernard Law, not only was he rewarded, but it was Vatican policy to sweep the issue under the rug and have people reassigned, in some cases to jobs with acces to children, without alerting the new parishes. It was by no means limited to Bernard Law, although he was the most prominent to take blame, and the Vatican wasn't responsive to calls from American churches to deal with the issue. So I think there are some real systemic problems there, and the Pope was not a force for helping those children, but rather a force for preserving the status quo of silence.

[jennetj.livejournal.com]

I've actually had fairly good luck touching up dye jobs with permanaent markers. A favorite pair of corduroys has a small spot on one knee where the dye vanished (don't know how it happened--I pulled them out of the wash one day and there it was). My roommate found a comparable color of gray permanent artist's marker, and a few touches later, the white spot was almost completely obliterated.