Cranky Bastard

Priest Accused Of Selling Coke From Rectory - News Story - WNBC New York: "URBANA, Ill. -- A Catholic priest on the University of Illinois campus has been charged with selling cocaine from his church office and rectory.
The Rev. Christopher Layden pleaded not guilty Thursday to two counts of delivery of less than 1 gram of cocaine within 1,000 feet of a church and one count of possession with intent to deliver 1 to 15 grams of cocaine near a church.
The 33-year-old was arrested Wednesday at St. John's Catholic Newman Center after investigators found 3 grams of cocaine and drug paraphernalia while searching his home and office."

Is that what we are going to say to justify this one too? We never said we were perfect, blah, blah, blah. If there are guitar-playing priests, then we really can say the Catholic hierarchy is about sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. Rock on!

NBCOlympics.com - Phelps' audacious dream completed in Beijing#phelps+audacious+dream+completed+beijing#phelps+audacious+dream+completed+beijing: "'The shame of it,' Hansen said a moment later, 'is that other athletes are not going to realize how hard what he did is.
'The world is fast at swimming now. The world was not fast when Mark Spitz did his seven.
'It's every part of sport,' Hansen said of the range that Phelps displayed here. 'It's endurance. It's strength. It's pressure ... he made the pressure putt in the U.S. Open, he won the Tour de France and he knocked out the best fighter in the world in the 16th round with an uppercut.
'He did absolutely everything sport is supposed to be and he did it with a smile on his face, and he's a good kid.'"

His teammate, Brendan Hansen, appropriately deferred the attention to Phelps just moments after the historic relay win. Of course, each of his teammates had an interest in this kind of press for their sport, because they are keenly aware of just how little airtime and ink the sport gets in comparison to nearly all others. However, it does not really matter why Hansen said what he said. What is important is that this does appear to be the kind of feat he describes. He did not say it in a jealous, uncertain or bitter way. He simply stated that the kind of preparation that goes into setting world records, one by one, and beating the best in the world race by race in this way should be included in the conversation for the best sports moment of all time. And indeed, he did this without saying the dramatic part of that, "the best sports moment of all time". It was also uplifting to see how genuinely excited each of these other men, to include the teammates from the two other relays, appeared to be to see Phelps realize his dreams. In contrast with the whiny weightlifter who threw his medal, only to have it rescinded, this too can make Americans proud. It simply felt good to live vicariously through these men last night. And to them, I give my sincerest thanks.

VF Daily: Christopher Hitchens Remembers Tim Russert: Online Only: vanityfair.com: "On the other hand, and especially with his own one-on-two interview program, The Tim Russert Show, he could be extremely generous and essentially get out of your way while eliciting your opinions. I most particularly remember him doing this for Newsweek’s Jon Meacham and myself, who had published competing books on the role of religion last year. Tim was much more than a “practicing” Catholic: he was a devout and highly serious one who attended church every day. It was very handsome of him, I thought, to offer a whole hour of more or less free publicity to one atheist and one Episcopalian. And he relished the discussion and the disagreements, on the set and off it, for their own sake."

For those that know me well, you know that I was eager to read or hear Christopher's take on Russert's death (still a strange phrase for such a lively man). I hadn't a doubt that Hitchens loved Russert for many of the same reasons that us, his viewers, did. I could also be sure that they knew one another well, and more than likely appreciated what the other brought to the collective American intellectual table. It's funny, even as I write that, the thought of Russert as an intellectual is a disjointed one. He clearly was an intellectual, but it seemed to me that he never fancied himself as such. He was much more interested in his friends and viewers knowing about his Buffalo home, Big Russ, and his faith than proving to all what he "knew".
Over the weekend, MSNBC both did tributes as well as played old interviews he did on "Big Russ and Me" and "Wisdom of our Fathers". In one interview led by Brokaw, he told a story from "Wisdom" about a 10-year-old boy walking with his father up to a Church. As they approach, Tim recounted, the father asked the son the time. The son, a bit baffled, answered the father and they stopped and watched a procession of people file into the Church for a funeral mass. Later, they watched the mourners file out of the Church, and the father asked, once again, for the time. The son obliged. The father said, "That person's life, as most, was reduced to 20 minutes." Russert went on saying that there are few lessons that so poignantly describe how important every action can be, and how they may have an impact on that twenty minutes.
Though he was only let in on that tale in the last few years, and even though I never met the man, I feel certain that he lived his life as if Big Russ had been the father in front of that Church. Another certainty...Russert's was a life that certainly cannot be summed up in 20 minutes.

DRUDGE REPORT 2008®: "DIES FROM A BIG HEART"

Drudge's headline is perfect. Two days before Father's Day for the man who consistently reminded us of just what an impact our fathers have on us was the saddest of ironies. I bought three copies of Big Russ and Me, one for myself, one for my father, and one for my grandmother. I am not a big reader, not as much as I would like, but this was a cover-to-cover read for me. I felt like I was being educated on how to live a good life, to be a good person.
Not a religious Meet the Press viewer, I still watched pretty often. He really was one of the best interviewers on television. I think one of the things we all liked about him was that he was a lot like all of us. He was a normal guy who interviewed people in power in terms we could understand. He was rightly proud of his own ability to do that, and often gave credit for that approach to his father, Big Russ. In fact, he often gave credit for much of his accomplishment and particular wins to Big Russ and others.
I hope that his son, Luke, Big Russ, and his wife can take comfort in Tim's grand impact on the world far beyond politics. Through his books and his appearances, he made many of us better people.

If you want to read a serious book about the intervention in Iraq, try War and Decision. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine: "I used to watch this mooncalf blunder his way through press conferences and think, Exactly where do we find such men? For the job of swabbing out the White House stables, yes. But for any task involving the weighing of words? Hah! Now it seems that he realizes, and with a shock at that, that there was a certain amount of 'spin' or propaganda involved in his job description. Well, give the man a cigar. Beyond that, the book is effectively valueless to the anti-war camp since, as McClellan says of the president, 'I consider him a fundamentally decent person, and I do not believe he or his White House deliberately or consciously sought to deceive the American people.'"

And from this very blog:
"Putting a guy like Tony there is what should've happened after Ari left. There was never a good excuse for McClellan. With access to the whole country, he picked Scott to speak publicly for him. An outsider would wonder if there was no better candidates available. This shows much better taste.
Monday, November 15, 2004
A Request, Mr. President?
While you are making all of these changes to your cabinet, could you do me one favor? Could you please replace McClellan? Unlike Ari, Scott is boring. Maybe you want him to be so that the presidential briefing does not so often end up on the 11 o'clock news, but you couldn't have picked a blander briefer."

As usual, Hitchy says it better, but also as usual, I agree. In fact, going back to see my words on McClellan, I was shocked to find my words were not sharper and more venomous. I remember cursing the decision. I suppose I was trying to sound more diplomatic or professional. Not sure why.
I simply never understood why we would choose him to follow Ari, who I quite admired. This is, however, pay back for such a stupid choice. He was never smart enough for the job, and he is clearly not confident enough to be loyal to those that gave him the job he never deserved in the first place. This is not to say that a person should be loyal above all, if there is something of value to share. McClellan, however, does not really say anything. Interestingly, I saw someone trying to defend him (can't remember who) by saying that the publisher "talked him into" a negative piece, using the carrot of bigger sales. That is terribly sad that a man who was the spokesman for the leader of the free world could be "talked into" something so stupid and that his defenders had no better explanation. They could've simply said, "Scott does not have a mind of his own. Poor guy."

From a Chicago Tribune editorial posted May 30, 2008: "Obama said Pfleger’s words were “divisive” and “backward-looking.” Pfleger apologized for what he said at Trinity. “I regret the words I chose Sunday,” he said in a statement released by his church, St. Sabina. “These words are inconsistent with Sen. Obama’s life and message, and I am deeply sorry if they offended Sen. Clinton or anyone else who saw them,” he said.If they offended? They offended. After everything that happened with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, how on earth does a priest, or any religious leader, take the pulpit and behave as Michael Pfleger did?Yes, race is a factor in this campaign. Some voters will tell you point-blank that they won’t vote for Barack Obama because he is black. But what has marked Obama’s campaign is his great ability to inspire people to look beyond race. It’s a shame that all of Obama’s supporters haven’t done the same."

What I fail to understand is how "leaders" of a Church, group or even family could espouse such views. I have always thought that you didn't go to Church to hear what you wanted to hear, but rather be led by a Church leader who told you what you needed to hear. What has been proven as of late (though I already knew it) is the fact that Church leaders are "playing to a congregation". This further proves that they are not "leaders" at all. They are panderers and much more interested in dollars in the plate than salvation. To be a person of any race and continue, in 2008, to fuel the basest of racial discussions and maintain a belief of powerlessness within a class of people who need personal power the most is a disgrace and an utter disservice. To those for whom these men were putting on this display, I say pick your leaders more wisely. Find leaders who tell you how to build yourself up, not stay in a bitter and defeated state of mind. All of us, regardless of race, gender or any number of other issues, can feel defeated. What we learn is that we often find in others reflections of how we view ourselves. To cheer a man who is preaching your inability to fuel your own fate is to cheer your own destruction. I wish for you more than that.

Race - Presidential Election of 2008 - Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton - Elections - Politics - Democratic Party - New York Times: "Even as Dr. Cone and others such as the Rev. William A. Jones at Bethany Baptist in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, crafted a theology of black liberation, Catholic theologians in Central and South America crafted their own liberation theology, arguing that God placed the impoverished peasants closest to his heart."

Michael Powell makes this point twice. If that is so, then what we can deduce is the Church's complicity in arguing for their congregants to stay in poverty. If pastors suggest on hundreds of Sundays that their parishioners are more loved by their god as a result of their poverty, there is no impetus to remove themselves in the eyes of god. I understand that the people in this article and others would fight that conclusion, but it is logical and quite sad. What this also does at its most organic is suggests that they could not ever have confidence in themselves, as they will always be viewed as "the impoverished, down-trodden". This kind of belief perpetuates a long wrong. What we should know now, these many years after King, is that anyone of any color, creed or nationality, has a birthright to freedom and access to self-worth and success. Now, what would our nation look like if that had been the message at the pulpit over the last fifty years?

Utah Mine Disaster Was Preventable, Report Says - New York Times: "“It is quite possible that, had Mine Safety and Health Administration known the full severity of the March bump, M.S.H.A. would not have approved the subsequent development and retreat mining of the South Barrier,” the report said.
This conclusion about the cause of the disaster contradicts Robert E. Murray, the chief executive of the Murray Energy Corporation, which owns and operates the mine. Mr. Murray has adamantly insisted that the initial fatalities were not foreseeable because the collapse was caused by an earthquake rather than by mining operations.
Federal mining officials, who have publicly expressed skepticism that an earthquake caused the collapse, are due to release their own investigation report in June."

What we all suspected as we watched that guy say and do extraordinarily strange things. The one thing that made me question him most was when Bob Murray questioned the geologists who were clear that no earthquake had occurred. These are the people we immediately want to hear from after the ground shakes. If they say no earthquake, most of us tend to believe them. When he was so adamant as to their mistake, I thought we had a major problem on our hands. He was also so self-interested while his people were irretrievably trapped. This is something that as we watch, we question how in the world he could be so detached. Apparently, that detachment was natural for him, or at least a long pattern.

Utah Mine Disaster Was Preventable, Report Says - New York Times: "“It is quite possible that, had Mine Safety and Health Administration known the full severity of the March bump, M.S.H.A. would not have approved the subsequent development and retreat mining of the South Barrier,” the report said.
This conclusion about the cause of the disaster contradicts Robert E. Murray, the chief executive of the Murray Energy Corporation, which owns and operates the mine. Mr. Murray has adamantly insisted that the initial fatalities were not foreseeable because the collapse was caused by an earthquake rather than by mining operations.
Federal mining officials, who have publicly expressed skepticism that an earthquake caused the collapse, are due to release their own investigation report in June."

What we all suspected as we watched that guy say and do extraordinarily strange things. The one thing that made me question him most was when Bob Murray questioned the geologists who were clear that no earthquake had occurred. These are the people we immediately want to hear from after the ground shakes. If they say no earthquake, most of us tend to believe them. When he was so adamant as to their mistake, I thought we had a major problem on our hands. He was also so self-interested while his people were irretrievably trapped. This is something that as we watch, we question how in the world he could be so detached. Apparently, that detachment was natural for him, or at least a long pattern.

DRUDGE REPORT 2008®:
"HILLARY: WHITE PEOPLE SUPPORT ME... "

What? I am not quite sure how to appropriately respond to this. She certainly has to know better, but that almost makes a statement like this worse, knowing better and saying it anyway. Once again, we have the Clinton's raising race as a voting issue. That is in such stark contrast to the "dream" and to who Americans aspire to be. Really, it is just offensive. Also, this makes it very, very clear that she can no longer blame Bill's statements earlier on in the campaign on him going off on his own. I didn't buy that anyway as they are the king and queen of strategy. Not much is ever said that hasn't been weighed heavily, if not polled. This, it is clearer now, is their strategy. Sick.
I understand that, in desperation, people will say and do things that otherwise would be on the top of their list to condemn. In this situation, however, her better pitches to the American people have been dropped in exchange for this base and profoundly disgusting discourse. She should be discussing how she has been able to work with Senators of all stripes and each party effectively. In fact, those Senators who were probably more inclined to dislike her have spoken out in her favor over the last several years. No, no, she doesn't appeal to a country desirous of togetherness with her ability for it. No, she appeals to the much less evolved among us. Shame on the "first black president and the first black first lady".