Increasing anger at the Pope. The Catholic Church's systematic cover up of decades of abuse may be facilitating a crisis for Catholics in Europe. From the (Australian?) Times Online:
"In Austria, a poll last week indicated that almost 1(million) Catholics were considering leaving the church because of its handling of the allegations. The crisis is also spreading to Italy, where the Vatican’s influence has until now stifled any revelations. Cases have come to light in Rome and Florence."
The Pope: Take a letter, Maria. The Irish group One in Four deeply disappointed, yet not surprised by the Pope's Letter to Catholics in Ireland, regarding the systematic cover up of child sex abuse in that country. I was almost pleased with part of the letter that read:
"In particular, there was a well-intentioned but misguided tendency to avoid penal approaches to canonically irregular situations."
However, the context of that statement implies that the real problem was the rapid rate of secular change in society and a "misinterpretation" of Vatican II.
I'm going to have to side with those who are disappointed with the Pope.
I wish I had a Youtube clip for this. Viacom is suing Google's Youtube because unsealed court documents suggest that Google may have been aware that they were profiting off of pirated material. Oh, here's a Youtube clip for this:
Aside to all you people out there who crave a heroic pet story. Looking for such a story on Google News, I typed in "Dog saves..." and got a drop down menu including such juicy options as, "Dog saves boy/missing girl/owner/little girl/boy from cougar attack..." on and on. I was offered a veritable cornucopia of heroic dogs from which I could choose. But I wanted a cat story, so I typed in "Cat saves..."
zilch
So I'm going to have to make something up:
Heroic cat saves owner from heart attack by napping, encouraging master to follow her example.
"Born on a mountain top in Tennessee Greenest state in the land of the free Raised in the woods so's he knew every tree Kilt him a bar, when he was only three Davey, Davey Crocket, king of the wild frontier..."
--from the Ballad of Davey Crocket Music by George Bruns Lyrics by Tom W. Blackburn
More on Dan Choi's arrest. I heard earlier that he crashed the HRC rally where Kathy Griffin was speaking before his arrest. She didn't mind though, tweeting later, "I dig that dude."
More about Get Equal, the group that staged Choi and Pietrangelo's disobedience. They also staged a sit-in in Nancy Pelosi's office today. They said they weren't going to leave until Pelosi committed to bring the Employment NonDiscrimination Act to the floor for a vote, or until they are arrested.
The Flaming Chef (pictured, right) filled out his census form this morning, officially noting that he is married to Dr. Snickerdoodle (left). Can't help lovin' that man o' mine.
Mary Douglas Glasspool was confirmed yesterday as the Episcopal Church's first lesbian bishop. She is also the first woman to lead the Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. Atta girl!
Brian Egleston, Roland Dunbrack Jr. and Dr. Michael J. Hall have released a study showing that gay people are systematically barred from participating in a great number of clinical trials, for no good reason.
(Via Americblog Gay) Let's jump on the Blogswarm bandwagon and call Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, politely but firmly demanding that the house pass ENDA.
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnel says that his legally useless, nonbinding "directive" that accomplishes nothing to protect sexual minorities in his State is "enough."
"In a letter to McDonnell, Jon Blair, head of the gay-rights lobbying organization Equality Virginia, urged the governor to propose legislation to add sexual orientation to the anti-bias laws.
While welcoming McDonnell’s directive, Blair said that for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Virginians, “the basic right to attend school and college and work in public workplaces free of discrimination remains unsecured.“"
Self - described "animal tolerater" leaps into the freezing Mississippi river to save a dog's life. "Definitely not the smartest thing to do", she admitted, "and I would never encourage it."
An inmate in Kentucky is in trouble for assaulting her jailer with her own breast milk.
A bunch of Bible - thumping dimwits have decided that America's children need to learn more about why Bible - thumping dimwits are right about everything.
