A year after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, the official death toll has been raised to 2,975 people – compared with the previous official figure of 64.
The Adminstration, meanwhile, has done little or nothing to help Puerto Ricans. If the hurricane had occurred in Kansas, also full of American citizens, and not in a Latino island, would the reaction have been different? Just wondering.
The first modern Britons probably had blue eyes, dark hair and dark brown skin, according to a new DNA analysis of the oldest complete skeleton ever found in the UK. Cheddar Man, dug up in Somerset in 1903, lived some 10,000 years ago, not long after settlers began crossing over from Europe at the end of the last ice age. Britons of white ancestry are descended from this population.
The discovery, based on analysis (by the Natural History Museum and University College London) of DNA extracted from Cheddar Man’s skull, underlines the fact that lighter skin tones are a relatively recent phenomenon in Europe. They may have become predominant only as recently as 6,000 years ago. With the advent of farming, people may have started to eat more cereal and eat less oily fish, leading to vitamin D deficiencies. At that point, those with fairer skin, which absorbs more vitamin D from sunlight, may have gained a genetic advantage. (The Week 17 Feb 2018)
Message to immigrant haters and racists generally: if you can wait about 6000 years all the dark skinned immigrants you now want to send home will have become white. All will be well. In terms of the age of the planet this is just a twinkling of an eye. Just be patient.
(Makes it all seem rather silly, doesn’t it?).
“Shakespeare strikes fear into the hearts of many theatregoers because no one wants to leave one of his plays feeling stupid. And yet, so often, that point is not grasped by those who make theatre: they want to be seen as edgy and creative, and so play around with the plays until they resemble a disastrous mud pie-and-glitter experiment. This enrages me.
Shakespeare wrote mainly for us, the audience. Surely he provides enough intrigue without adding drag queens, cannabis farms, black plastic sheeting, grunge clothing, bungee-jumping stunts – not to mention endless dancing to hip-hop, grime, garage, trance, whatever-is-hip-now.”. (Ann Treneman in The Times)
I do so agree! But Ms. Treneman missed out one pet peeve of mine: muttering on stage. I used to do a lot of amateur acting. One venue was the Wimbledon Theatre in London, a massive barn of a place. Our fearsome director told us, “The audience has paid good money to see you and deserves to hear you clearly, every word you say or sing”. We would have to project and articulate every syllable until she could hear clearly at the very back of the gods that seemed a hundred yards away. Good training.
Nowadays actors mumble. Half their words are indistinct, especially on television. It’s as if they are in some live 19th Century impressionistic painting – you get the general idea – and the rest is up to your imagination. I hope this inexcusable fashion (for that is what it is) will pass, because Shakespearian audiences deserve to hear every word that is spoken or sung.. And this applies to workaday crime and other shows. Articulation, please! What do they teach you in acting school?
“The answer for me to E. J. Dionne’s rhetorical question about why people stay Catholic is simple: I attend Mass to deepen my relationship with the Lord. It matters not who wears the miter and carries the crosier. I don’t care if my priest is gay. The hierarchy and politics of the church offends me so I ignore them.
I am a Catholic in daily conversation with God in prayer and am strenthened by the Eucharist. No one can take that from me, and I’ll never give it up”. (Brian M. Mulholland, Washington).
What immediately came to mind reading this was a parallel attitude now rampant in a section of society. It goes something like this:
The answer for me to why people stay Republican is simple: I love money and the Party can be relied upon to put more of it in my pocket. It matters not who is in the White House, whether he is a crude, serial philanderer, liar, unethical businessman, childish or incompetent. Yes, the hierarchy, the politics, divisiveness and craven behavior of the present Republican party offends me so I ignore them.
I am a Republican in daily conversation with the God of Higher Income and am strenthened by the recent bonanza given me by Congress. No one can take that from me, and I’ll never give the Party up”.
A highly placed Vatican source claims that Cardinal Gerhard Müller, together with three experienced CDF priests, was dismissed by Pope Francis because they all had tried to follow loyally the Church’s standing rules concerning abusive clergymen. In one specific case, Müller opposed the Pope’s re-instatement of Don Mauro Inzoli, an unmistakably cruel abuser of many boys; but the Pope would not listen. In another case, the Pope decided not to give a Vatican apartment to one of Müller’s own secretaries, but to the now-infamous Monsignor Luigi Capozzi, in spite of the fact that someone had warned the Pope about Capozzi’s grave problems. The Vatican source also said that it was known to several people in the Vatican that some restrictions were put on Cardinal McCarrick by Pope Benedict XVI, and he thereby confirms Viganò’s own claim that Francis knew about Carrick.
A well-informed Vatican source, asked about Pope Francis and McCarrick’s habitual abuse, answered: “Cardinal Müller [as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF)] had always …followed up on these abuse cases, and that is why he was dismissed, just as his three good collaborators [the three CDF priests] were also dismissed.”
The source explained that Cardinal Müller, as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had always been loyally following the Church’s laws with regard to abuse cases, for the handling of which the CDF is responsible. According to the source, Müller also “resisted” Pope Francis in 2014 when he wanted to re-instate the serial molester of boys, the Italian priest Don Inzoli, allowing him to perform some functions of the priesthood. “The Pope decided differently,” the source continued. That is to say, Pope Francis did not follow Cardinal Müller’s advice.(Edited, LifeSiteNews item,August 29, 2018)
How can anyone have respect for an institution like the Catholic Church as it is currently constituted. How do we know that all this horrendous abuse hasn’t been going on since the Middle Ages? How many scores of people have been harmed over the years? Why does the church seem to attract predators? The celibacy rule must be part of the problem. In my opinion it is outdated and contrary to human nature.
The early christians were responsible for misrepresenting and unfairly ridiculing Epicurus and his rational teachings, so much so that Epicureanism became equated with gluttony, greed and hedonism. These charges were unfounded then, and now. It’s the pot calling the kettle black. The current charges against the Catholic Church are well founded, and the hierarchy attempts to cover it all up. Hopefully, the financial cost of all this will lead to reform.
