CNN.com – Greek mystery virus spreads
“It should be considered blasphemous, to say the least, to consider it possible that epidemic ailments could be transferred through holy communion and endanger human life,” the Athens diocese said in a statement released to Reuters news agency.
Déjà vu, anyone? Can’t put my finger on why it rings a bell; maybe I read too much scifi.
I’m a bit puzzled that the recent powwow in Rome was attended by all the American cardinals rather than all the American bishops.
As I misunderstand it, bishop is primarily an office, but cardinal is primarily a personal rank; a cardinal may or may not also be a bishop, in charge of all the churches of a diocese (territory), just as a prince (member of a royal family) may or may not also be a duke (ruler, once upon a time, of a duchy), and vice versa.
How many cardinals are not bishops? How many dioceses have bishops who are not cardinals, and thus were not represented?
This month’s most puzzling search: “8 day clock gear train” (4 hits).
2004 Oct 19: I guess it was attracted mostly by Travis’s Lego item.
Tessellating Animations, some quite witty. (Cited by Plokta and BoingBoing)
This state is run by boobs. I wish Condi Rice would return and run against Babs Boxer for Senate in 2004 . . . .
Better Condi’s boobs than Babs’ boobs, eh? The question calls for closer examination.
William Raspberry writes that there is a shortage of educated black men and that as a result, successful black women aren’t getting married. This, he says, is a tragedy.
And I suppose it is. But, you know, buried in Raspberry’s piece — and no doubt in the minds of the women he describes — is the assumption that black women should only marry black men. Isn’t that kind of, you know, racist?
If the women in question are needlessly suffering on account of their own irrational moral judgements, isn’t that the very definition of tragedy?
I don’t see a should anywhere in Raspberry’s piece, though it is a bit disappointing that he never touches the question “so why aren’t they marrying non-Blacks?”. Nor does the women’s behavior (what about that of their White non-husbands?) necessarily imply a should; I never eat apricots, but I don’t believe that people should never eat apricots — though admittedly if a behavior approaches unanimity (does it?) it gets hard to say with a straight face that it’s merely personal preference.
I’ve known far more women of pallor who married Black men than the reverse; why is that?
Just when you thought I had stopped talking about guns, here are John and Antonio on the recent school shooting in Germany:
And guess whose fault it is, according to psychologist Andrés González Bellido in the Vanguardia? You guessed it. America’s. “These episodes that once seemed only to occur in the US can be explained (in Europe), says this psychologist, because European society is becoming more similar to American society. ‘Loneliness, individual frustration, and greater and greater social inequalities lead to extreme situations,’ he adds.” These people took Death of a Salesman much too seriously. Interestingly enough, the exact same sort of commentary was made after 16 were killed in Hungerford, England, in 1987, after 14 were killed in Luxiol, France, in 1989, after 17 were killed in Dunblane, Scotland, in 1996, after 14 were killed in Zug, Switzerland, in 2001, and after 8 were killed just recently in Nanterre, France.
We are often reminded that US murder rates are the Highest in the Developed World. This parade makes me yearn suddenly for a comparison of mass murder rates.