Friday, April 01, 2005
When it rains...
Well, the Pontiff's next.
We all need to pray for him. That's not a funny thing to say, even for the staunchest Lutheran. Despite what your Protestant thinks about the Holy See, the Catholics are our brothers and sisters. And the pope's the most powerful man in the world. It makes a big difference who's next.
If you're as young as I am you don't remember another pontiff, so I think there are a lot of us out there who are quite ignorant on how this all works. Time
has a good primer on the papal selection process. I'm going to be riveted, I can tell you this right now. Admittedly that's because I'm thinking about this as a once-in-a-lifetime event, even though it's rare that a pope should have as lengthy a papacy as Pope JP II.
Everyone should have a favorite pope. You can go to the Catholic Forum's list of the popes to pick yours. But you might want to shop around a little at other history websites before settling on one. Take Boniface VIII, for example. Sure, looks like he had his enemies, but it sounds like they're all kooks, and this site says nothing about why someone as cool-headed and purely rational as Dante would feel the need to eagerly await his arrival in Hell (XXVII)...
Boniface VIII
We all need to pray for him. That's not a funny thing to say, even for the staunchest Lutheran. Despite what your Protestant thinks about the Holy See, the Catholics are our brothers and sisters. And the pope's the most powerful man in the world. It makes a big difference who's next.
If you're as young as I am you don't remember another pontiff, so I think there are a lot of us out there who are quite ignorant on how this all works. Time
has a good primer on the papal selection process. I'm going to be riveted, I can tell you this right now. Admittedly that's because I'm thinking about this as a once-in-a-lifetime event, even though it's rare that a pope should have as lengthy a papacy as Pope JP II.
Everyone should have a favorite pope. You can go to the Catholic Forum's list of the popes to pick yours. But you might want to shop around a little at other history websites before settling on one. Take Boniface VIII, for example. Sure, looks like he had his enemies, but it sounds like they're all kooks, and this site says nothing about why someone as cool-headed and purely rational as Dante would feel the need to eagerly await his arrival in Hell (XXVII)...
Boniface VIII
Thursday, March 31, 2005
When Pointing Your Fingers, Use a Body
Breaking news: Terri Schiavo's dead.
I'm relieved. Now nothing more can be done for her. No more protests. No more appeals. No more rejections of appeals.
If the neurologists' reports are accurate, then the moment when something could have been done for Terri has long passed. Everything, at this point, that happened with her happened not for her but for the people around her.
This is a critique, of course, of her parents, who have for years seemed unable to just let this case go, to let their daughter go. I understand this, I do--especially since people in Terri's state do make noises and look around and all. Despite this, when the case is advanced as Terri's--and everything I was reading about her condition would indicate that she was beyond recovery--wanting to keep her alive just so that she can recover (which seemed to me, anyway, to be more the stance we received from her parents than it was from the Vatican arguments, which were more cleanly and basically right-to-life) is futile, and it quickly starts to appear that in this her parents wanted Terri alive more for themselves than they did for her.
But each sides want an autopsy to prove it's right, and it seems to demonstrate that the arguments have outgrown the comatose woman at their centers. When the autopsy demonstrates that Michael Schiavo's been right all this time, he'll finally be able to wave a big middle finger at the Schindlers. He might as well push Terri's fingers into shape for that gesture and wave her lifeless arm at her parents, since he's already using her body to prove his point.
I'm relieved. Now nothing more can be done for her. No more protests. No more appeals. No more rejections of appeals.
If the neurologists' reports are accurate, then the moment when something could have been done for Terri has long passed. Everything, at this point, that happened with her happened not for her but for the people around her.
This is a critique, of course, of her parents, who have for years seemed unable to just let this case go, to let their daughter go. I understand this, I do--especially since people in Terri's state do make noises and look around and all. Despite this, when the case is advanced as Terri's--and everything I was reading about her condition would indicate that she was beyond recovery--wanting to keep her alive just so that she can recover (which seemed to me, anyway, to be more the stance we received from her parents than it was from the Vatican arguments, which were more cleanly and basically right-to-life) is futile, and it quickly starts to appear that in this her parents wanted Terri alive more for themselves than they did for her.
But each sides want an autopsy to prove it's right, and it seems to demonstrate that the arguments have outgrown the comatose woman at their centers. When the autopsy demonstrates that Michael Schiavo's been right all this time, he'll finally be able to wave a big middle finger at the Schindlers. He might as well push Terri's fingers into shape for that gesture and wave her lifeless arm at her parents, since he's already using her body to prove his point.
Buffo update
Buffo's site's done regenerated.
Here is a picture of a clown whose arms don't match his body.
Here is a picture of a clown ripping a phonebook in half.
And here is the picture that made me wonder, initially, what the heck really is beneath the surface.
Here is a picture of a clown whose arms don't match his body.
Here is a picture of a clown ripping a phonebook in half.
And here is the picture that made me wonder, initially, what the heck really is beneath the surface.
Monday, March 28, 2005
How to (Really) Scare Children
I think there are many more people who say they are scared of clowns than who actually are. I mean, let's face it: most clowns may be strange, but they're not necessarily scary. And any scariness they do have is certainly learned; children love clowns, and it's somewhere in adolesence when we make the shift to understanding how cool it is to be afraid of clowns.
I'm on about this after following a Memepool link to Buffo's website. Buffo is not scary. He's just...different. He's the bodybuilding clown. His pictures look like a cheesy celebrity pornography picture of Jennifer Aniston's head pasted onto the body of some drunk no-name skank, or the scenes late in Mars Attacks where Sarah Jessica Parker's head is fused to her dog's body, only Buffo is the unholy marriage of Bozo's body and Hulk Hogan's arms and advertises his ability to make balloon animals AND rip phone books in half.
I wanted to illustrate the point by posting one of Buffo's pictures, where for the most part he seems not scary, just a little weird, but you'll have to take my word for it since his site (apparently not built for the possibility he'd be a blogging meme) has exceeded its monthly bandwidth capacity. There's just one picture, though, where Buffo toes the line of very scary, clinically insane.
Alas, Buffo is not clinically insane. And there are far scarier clowns. But they're not the drunken louts with clown suits and vampire teeth, or the facile morons who think that dressing up like clowns makes them interesting and edgy.
They're clowns like Spanky, the circus clown who was arrested last year on child pornography charges. Here's Spanky's picture:
And, for the record, Spanky's mug shot:
Spanky's only one of a type, anyhow. Here are some of his friends's pictures. I think they were all at the same party.
Roger Bentley, recently arrested for the death of little Jetseta Marrie Gage, who was thought by Jetseta's relatives to be a "friend of the family."
John Evander Couey, who confessed to police that he killed Jessica Lunsford.
Dorothy Dixon, Couey's sister, who lied to the police about his whereabouts.
Children naturally give trust and love to clowns, and these clowns, their devourers, are the scariest of all.
I'm on about this after following a Memepool link to Buffo's website. Buffo is not scary. He's just...different. He's the bodybuilding clown. His pictures look like a cheesy celebrity pornography picture of Jennifer Aniston's head pasted onto the body of some drunk no-name skank, or the scenes late in Mars Attacks where Sarah Jessica Parker's head is fused to her dog's body, only Buffo is the unholy marriage of Bozo's body and Hulk Hogan's arms and advertises his ability to make balloon animals AND rip phone books in half.
I wanted to illustrate the point by posting one of Buffo's pictures, where for the most part he seems not scary, just a little weird, but you'll have to take my word for it since his site (apparently not built for the possibility he'd be a blogging meme) has exceeded its monthly bandwidth capacity. There's just one picture, though, where Buffo toes the line of very scary, clinically insane.
Alas, Buffo is not clinically insane. And there are far scarier clowns. But they're not the drunken louts with clown suits and vampire teeth, or the facile morons who think that dressing up like clowns makes them interesting and edgy.
They're clowns like Spanky, the circus clown who was arrested last year on child pornography charges. Here's Spanky's picture:
And, for the record, Spanky's mug shot:
Spanky's only one of a type, anyhow. Here are some of his friends's pictures. I think they were all at the same party.
Roger Bentley, recently arrested for the death of little Jetseta Marrie Gage, who was thought by Jetseta's relatives to be a "friend of the family."
John Evander Couey, who confessed to police that he killed Jessica Lunsford.
Dorothy Dixon, Couey's sister, who lied to the police about his whereabouts.
Children naturally give trust and love to clowns, and these clowns, their devourers, are the scariest of all.
