April 26, 2002

Gosh! Looks like I've had some visitors....Hope you get something out of your stay here!
When I haven't been figuring out arm chair strategy for President Bush and the U.S.A. in the War on Terrorism,
I've been fighting the Battle of the Bells.
Here's the latest on my Phone wars:
SWBell's DSL service has proven to be the worst-- they couldn't manage to hook it up at my new place to save their lives, so I turned to Earthlink DSL in desperation, but SWBell suspended my phone service as punishment and now they're freezing out AT&T local service, because *SWB* owns the lines and it's their turf that's threatened.
And Earthlink's latest word is that they can't give me DSL, because they don't work with AT&T when they are my local provider, and so it goes.
Soon, we're going to start negotiations when we'll try to "get into Tenet and then Mitchell." Ha-Ha!

When I'm not grinding what teeth I have left over these connectivity problems, I'm developing a growing dread about Tuesday, when I go under the knife at the oral surgeon.
And praying to Apollonia, the patroness saint of Teeth.

Meanwhile, President Bush got through his visit with Prince Abdullah and even looked happy about it. Whassup with that?
He's using that Bush Charm Offensive Again, but from the look on his face, it seems like he really means it.
What a NICE guy and a great leader! But I still don't like the whole thing and cannot see what the purpose of the Crawford invite was in the first place, but Bush was hell-bent on it and he must have his reasons.
GWB never fails to impress and amaze me.
I personally wouldn't have been so gracious, but as I said in an earlier post, I'm not the President.
It always turns out that Bush's instincts are better than mine, as these strong, personal relationships always pay such dividends for him and for America, in this world and the next, I'm sure.
George W. (who I also personally love in a "What if Laura passed away and George was available" kind of a way) always seems to have the Big Picture. So what if we common folk can't see that picture now(?).
The man is an inspiration to me, to all Americans, to the Freedom-loving world.

I hear the Bushes are having a big barbeque in Crawford this weekend for all the RNC large donors--wish I could afford to be in that crowd, meaning that I had $250, 000 to spare and had given it to the Bush campaign. What do we $25 people get? Even if that's the best we could manage at the time?
Yee-Haw anyway!

In other news, there's been that awful Columbine-like shooting in Germany today--Schade. R.I. P. to the victims.
Watch the media blame it on America(n culture), just like the French did when that had that public shooter in Fall '01.

And all the Catholics are up in arms about the Pope's rather aenemic handling of the current pedophilia crisis amongst the clergy.
No-one, not even His Holiness, seems to be talking too much about the ultimate and pervasive, not to mention Eternal, spiritual import of such "crimes and sins" on the victims, on all Catholics and on human beings everywhere who were even thinking about the Church.
All I can say is, my inate Protestanism is showing.
Am I ever sorry I was born one and have chosen to stay one? Nope.
Long live the Individual Covenant with God!
But I understand the position and beliefs of Catholics and don't count them any less Christian than myself.
It's a flawed system--Martin Luther, Zwingli and Calvin (among others) said so--at length.
However, once one is committed to it (literally from the cradle, I suppose), it appears you're committed to the whole deal , cafeteria Catholics or no.
I wish, for the good of the Christian Faith, that the Pope would step aside: I don't think he's physically strong enough to either deal with this outrage with the force that it requires or to command the obedience, compliance and understanding of believers and non-believers alike.
I respect him deeply and acknowledge that he has done much for the Church, the Faith and for the World, but it's time for him to rest from earthly cares and responsibilities, even if the Lord hasn't taken him to Heaven yet, and to let a younger, more vigorous pontiff lead the Church through the worst scandal it's had in modern times.
Oh, well.
I hope I won't be eternally damned for saying that I think the Pope has a wee bit of hubris as to what he can effect as a man alone.
(In the spirit of the times, they say the next Pope will be a black man from Africa. That could be an amazing thing!)
If the Church is just doing a quick fix, which appears to be the case, this problem will not go away and other children will be abused.
It gives me no joy to say that, certainly, but we know from our dysfunctional families (Bless their pointy heads!), that "If you don't pass the abuse back to the abuser, you pass it on."
[John Bradshaw, where ARE you?!]
This is just as true for priests as it is for parents.
The problem is connected with the Celibacy issue and the Church's attitude towards Sex, but I'm about the gazillionth person to remark this, so don't think I'm that profound.
I know that's one of the reasons I'm so at home in the Episcopal Church where we allow our priests to be married and for everyone to enjoy sexual knowledge of another person for purposes other than procreation!
The Church is going to have a bigger problem than it's acknowledging, because with the attrition from errant priests getting dismissed and the flat-line level of recruitment of new priests and nuns, in large part because of the Church's stance on celibacy and gays, there aren't going to be enough clergy to minister to the people, at least not in North America and Western Europe.
But, over and above that, God and Christ DID create the Church and it's weathered worse than this before.
If you think about the Inquisition, that was more destructive than this.
Maybe all those Roman Catholics can be converted to Protestantism someday,too!
Christ founded the Church-- meaning the body of believers and not the institution in Rome.
We Christians are one holy, catholic and apostolic congregation
(We just don't think St. Peter was the only one who was ordained or who could ordain others.)
Praise be to God!
As the Catholic Church will rebound and rebuild after this scandal is dealt with,
so we Christians CAN rebuild the physical Church of the Holy Nativity in Bethlehem, also.
I know those Palestinians who are holed up in there have completely trashed it.
I have actually been there in 1970 and one of my most vivid memories is that it is one of the few sites in the Holy Land that is recognized by ALL the Christian denominations: Protestants, Catholics, Greek and Roman Orthodox.
Perhaps if and when the various sects get together to rebuild that special, sacred place, it will be the beginning of a wonderful 21st Century Ecumenical Movement!

April 22, 2002

Here we are...the start of another week (groan) and Amazon's trying to tell me that my debit card is maxed out. Great.

The latest buzz is from the other side of the pond, i.e. France, where everyone seems to be up in arms about Jean-Marie Le Pen, the ant-immigration candidate, who has come in 2nd in the general election yesterday and almost singlehandedly killed the Far Left there.
It the biggest vote for a Right-Winger and the smallest for the Left since 1968, when the students held all those anti-Establishment riots in Paris.
Qu'est-ce je puisse dire mais "Ouias?!"
I think it's wonderful, especially for all my French (Jewish) friends that it will at least send a message from the French electorate to Chirac, the probable winner on May 5, that large numbers of the people are fed up with violence and street crime, especially against Jews, which often comes from their Muslim immigrant citoyens.
But from the "universal" outcry, you've got to wonder who *did* vote for him!
Of course, the biggest charivari appears to come from the Press/Media (quelle surprise!).
I forgot. They don't speak for "les peuples" and mercifully, it appears the French aren't listening (for a change).
Having been at the marvelous Bicentennaire (French Bicentennial) of 1989, I fear for their republic, as I did for ours during the Gore Coup Attempt (Election 2000).
Maybe, just maybe, the French can act in time and do enough to save their 5th one. On verra.
I would love to see the Death of Liberalism in France and a retour a l'ordre for more thinking à la Coté Droite.
Certainement, this is a rappel à l'ordre of the first rank!
It may be too late for France to unmire itself from the political demands of its millions of angry, poor and now violent Arab/Muslim immigrants--the barbarians are at more than the gates--but because I am a Francophile, I would love to see it save itself.
France has SO MUCH to give to the world--still.
I would hate to see it destroyed by those who truly do despise Western Civilization and whose aim is to wipe it out (not co-exist, as they would have you believe).
Along with the end of Liberalism, I would love to see PC thought end as well, as it is on the wane here in America. Thank God!
France has been the hot-bed for all of these PC thinkers, especially in my field--Art History--and if I could believe that "Deconstructionist" thought and art historical theory and "ANAL-ysis" such as Michel Foucault's and Jacque Deridda's (Barf!) would be finally passed over, as part and parcel of Unworkable Thought Systems that have been Junked, along with Communism and Socialism, I would indeed be a happy camper.
(BTW, I was amused to hear to learn that France still has people that come themselves "Trotskyites."
Given the deaths of both the Soviet Union and Leon Trotsky, WHAZZAT?!…
although I did find the most divine Russian restaurant in Paris, run by "White" Russians! The blini with crème fraiche made me cry real tears!)

All I can say for the moment is, "Vive La France!" and for today at least, "Vive Le Pen!"