It is time for pope-choosing and magick, and Peggy Noonan has once again taken to the pixels of the Wall Street Money-Changers' Gazette to Opine and feel the Breath of God. But ho! Some hooligans go on the picture-box and criticize the Church and throw out words like "celibacy" and "pedophile" when discussing it! And Peggy Noonan will not allow this to stand! Oh, it isn't that she hasn't criticized the Church her own self; she knows there have been Dark Days. But the proper way to criticize the Church, according to Sister Mary Margaret, ruler out and at the ready, is with affection and fear of the Lord and "due esteem." So, pretty much on one's knees, then. Thank you, Sister, may we have another?
Funny how the muslinophobic nutters never acknowledge that there was a mosque (actually a prayer room) INSIDE the WTC. The sixty-odd muslims who died there (not counting the islamaniacs on the planes) also don't seem to count, for some reason.
Well, it's not exactly that they want to "force" employees to abide by the Catholic dogma -- it's just that they don't want to pay into a plan that pays for the pills. I assume the church also insists on plans that don't cover abortion costs. (Paying for Viagra or Cialis, of course, is no problem.)
Statistically, taking the pill reduces costs for one's insurer, so I propose that insurers simply offer a "contraceptive coverage rider" to their health insurance policies, as an option to be paid for by the employee. The fact that the rider costs one dollar annually would surely not be of any concern to the church.
All Christian faiths have a persecution obsession.The largest religious denomination in the US still manages to sound whiny, put-upon, abused, and injured, whenever it does not get its own way, e.g., in the matter of being told not to impose its views on the rest of us. But the various Protestant groups are every bit as good at playing the OhPoorUsMinority card.
It goes with the territory, I guess. Whining and feeling persecuted are kind of hard-wired into Christianity.
In response, the actual minority religions and the atheists have perfected the art of the eyeroll.
Makes no sense whatsover to anyone who's sober, but I'm pretty sure it's a lame attempt to encode the message "Islam is worse."
A corrupt Italian is the most likely, given how the process works. A lot of these guys don't know each other at all, so the ballot is made up of the handful of prominent cardinals who have been politicking like mad for years--kind of like Robert Bork trying to get on the Supreme Court. Ratzinger was lobbying to become pope for most of his career, which is why he was a shoo-in, more or less on the first ballot.
This time, some of the cardinals who have been jockeying for the spot are probably too discredited--Dolan in NY, for one. So that leaves whichever insider Italians at the Vatican have been quietly lining up their votes over the last couple of years.
Meanwhile, there's a reasonably good chance of Obama Effect happening, and Peter Turkson from Ghana getting chosen. The old coots may think that choosing a Black Guy would galvanize the African and Latin American churches, and deflect the intense scrutiny of the whole raping children thing.
I'm putting my InTrade dollars on Turkson, just for the fun of it.
Exactly. The notion that we can't criticize the Vatican because It's Religion is crap. In Italy, no one calls the popes by their papal names--Ratzinger is Ratzinger--because people who live near the Vatican know perfectly well that it's a political institution like any other--only, wealthier, more established, more corrupt, and more opaque than most modern political organizations.
As a friend of mine in Milan said, after the recent fiasco election, "In Italy the Vatican is a shadow third party in every election."
It's time the rest of the world grew up and stopped treating the Vatican as if we were all Sunday school children in awe of the mysteries piety.
I believe the title is "Darth Emeritus".
"censer"
You can make "sensor" work, but only with a lot of effort -- and it ain't worth the trouble once you get there.
I'd limit it to no-cost riders. Heck, the employee could get a rebate in this particular case.
peggy noonan would have lasted about 12 seconds in henry VIII's court.
and she wouldn't have spent those writing.
It's a lifetime sinecure. No elections.
Funny how the muslinophobic nutters never acknowledge that there was a mosque (actually a prayer room) INSIDE the WTC. The sixty-odd muslims who died there (not counting the islamaniacs on the planes) also don't seem to count, for some reason.
Given what the host is supposed to be, I think I'd go with a nice Chianti.
I'm pretty sure it's called being "indisposed" for a day or two.
Your neurons have a way of shutting that whole thing down.
Well, a comparison of real estate holdings makes it pretty clear.
Well, it's not exactly that they want to "force" employees to abide by the Catholic dogma -- it's just that they don't want to pay into a plan that pays for the pills. I assume the church also insists on plans that don't cover abortion costs. (Paying for Viagra or Cialis, of course, is no problem.)
Statistically, taking the pill reduces costs for one's insurer, so I propose that insurers simply offer a "contraceptive coverage rider" to their health insurance policies, as an option to be paid for by the employee. The fact that the rider costs one dollar annually would surely not be of any concern to the church.
All Christian faiths have a persecution obsession.The largest religious denomination in the US still manages to sound whiny, put-upon, abused, and injured, whenever it does not get its own way, e.g., in the matter of being told not to impose its views on the rest of us. But the various Protestant groups are every bit as good at playing the OhPoorUsMinority card.
It goes with the territory, I guess. Whining and feeling persecuted are kind of hard-wired into Christianity.
In response, the actual minority religions and the atheists have perfected the art of the eyeroll.
Makes no sense whatsover to anyone who's sober, but I'm pretty sure it's a lame attempt to encode the message "Islam is worse."
I'm not clear on why, exactly, she was ever relevant.
A corrupt Italian is the most likely, given how the process works. A lot of these guys don't know each other at all, so the ballot is made up of the handful of prominent cardinals who have been politicking like mad for years--kind of like Robert Bork trying to get on the Supreme Court. Ratzinger was lobbying to become pope for most of his career, which is why he was a shoo-in, more or less on the first ballot.
This time, some of the cardinals who have been jockeying for the spot are probably too discredited--Dolan in NY, for one. So that leaves whichever insider Italians at the Vatican have been quietly lining up their votes over the last couple of years.
Meanwhile, there's a reasonably good chance of Obama Effect happening, and Peter Turkson from Ghana getting chosen. The old coots may think that choosing a Black Guy would galvanize the African and Latin American churches, and deflect the intense scrutiny of the whole raping children thing.
I'm putting my InTrade dollars on Turkson, just for the fun of it.
Exactly. The notion that we can't criticize the Vatican because It's Religion is crap. In Italy, no one calls the popes by their papal names--Ratzinger is Ratzinger--because people who live near the Vatican know perfectly well that it's a political institution like any other--only, wealthier, more established, more corrupt, and more opaque than most modern political organizations.
As a friend of mine in Milan said, after the recent fiasco election, "In Italy the Vatican is a shadow third party in every election."
It's time the rest of the world grew up and stopped treating the Vatican as if we were all Sunday school children in awe of the mysteries piety.