The Clam Rampant

Kasia July 24th, 2007

Reiterate Call to End Iraq War
U.S. Bishops Seek Meeting with House Lawmakers

The U.S. bishops will meet with 14 Catholic Democrats from the House of Representatives to discuss a “reasonable transition” to end the war in Iraq.  A similar meeting has been requested with Republican members of the House.  In addition, the bishops reiterate their call to break the political stalemate in Washington and pursue a bipartisan policy to end the war as soon as possible.

“The current situation in Iraq is unacceptable and unsustainable, as is the policy and political stalemate among decision makers in Washington,” says Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, chairman of bishops’ committee on International Policy. He made the comments in a letter responding to a request for a meeting on Iraq from Rep. Tim Ryan (D/Ohio) and 13 other House Democrats.  The comments were also contained in a letter the bishop sent to Rep. John Boehner (R/Ohio), House minority leader, requesting a meeting with Republicans.

• Bishops Seek To Meet With Both Parties On Iraq War, USCCB

Clam here: Anyone think there’s a chance the bishops might wrap up the meeting with a reminder not to present oneself for Communion if one is actively legislating against Church teaching on life issues?

…no, I don’t think so either. Sigh.

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Kasia July 23rd, 2007

I meant to post a blurb about this when I noticed it a couple of weeks ago, but kept getting distracted.

My confessor (who is also DJ’s priest) actually has a t-shirt with the Memorare printed on the back. I’ve never seen that before, even on a priest. How cool is that?!?

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help or sought your intercession, was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To you I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your clemency hear and answer me. Amen.

Since I’m still a little “erm…” on the Blessed Mother, can someone please confirm for me that her ‘hearing and answering’ me is her interceding for me with her Son?

UPDATE: WOOO! Check it out! http://www.iamonetruth.com/shirts/iamonetruth_shirts.html

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Kasia July 20th, 2007

I used to think it was aggressive for the Jehovah’s Witnesses to come knock on your door. And it is. But I never knew they sat in cars in the CVS parking lot and accosted you on your way to your car…

I think what irked me most about the experience was exactly what has irked me about other Jehovah’s Witnesses in the past: that their style of argumentation is such that it’s almost impossible to respond coherently, and it doesn’t matter if you do because they’ll just respond with a non sequiter anyway.

This is more or less how the conversation went:

JW: Excuse me, ma’am, but I just want to show you this tract about life after death…so many people I know don’t know what the truth is…

ME: Oh…(flipping through to confirm that she’s a JW rather than a LDS, then handing it back) Thanks, but I’m actually Catholic. (reaching for my door handle at this point)

JW: Oh, I was Catholic for so many years, but there have been so many changes in the Church…first they changed the Mass, then they accepted homosexuality, then they started talking about wanting married priests, and then the pedophile thing…

ME: (a little confounded because as she raised each point I was preparing my response, but they were so disjointed – I mean, the Mass change deserves an answer about the authority of the Church and how the Eucharist has remained the same, but the Church’s teaching on homosexuality merits an answer going back to the Catechism; and the Church herself has not talked about wanting married priests, but rather a small proportion of her members; and the priest abuse scandal is a whole discussion in and of itself) Well, but I think if you look at what the Church has actually TAUGHT…

JW: Oh, but why didn’t they teach me that God has a personal name? I was baptized, confirmed, and all along they never taught me that God has a personal name – look at Psalm 83 (she cited a verse, but I don’t remember it offhand)!

ME: (getting very uncomfortable and just wanting to get to work, for which I was already late but I reeeeally wanted some caffeine so I stopped at CVS) Yes, well, but the Bible says that Christ founded His Church on the rock that is Peter, so I’m trusting the Church. (opening car door at this point and getting in)

JW: And that’s true, but why didn’t they teach us that God has a personal name? All those years, why didn’t they teach us that? They didn’t teach me that; they didn’t teach yout that. (Care to explain to me how your not having noticed Psalm 83 in all your years as a Catholic means that the Church is not teaching truth, or how you can justify being a Jehovah’s Witness if you do believe that Christ founded the Church on the rock that is Peter?)

ME: (smiling and preparing to close the door)  I wasn’t raised Catholic; I chose it as an adult. (close door, drive away)

Seriously. I’m happy to discuss each of the points she raised, but standing in a CVS parking lot with a verbal bait-and-switcher doesn’t ring my chimes. Especially not when I’m late to work.

Wonder if she saw me driving across the street to the Cathedral?

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Kasia July 19th, 2007

OK, at some point in your cyber life you have probably gotten forwards. If you’re like me, you’ve probably gotten a LOT of forwards, and the same ones seem to keep popping up. You know: funny typos in the church newsletter and stuff like that.

Well, a friend of mine works in the Ph.D. office of a university in the area. She sent me the e-mail below, along with the list of reasons why graduating doctoral students had chosen that particular university. I enjoyed them so much that I asked her if I could post it, and she agreed, provided I removed the name of the university.

Anyone else wonder if any of these students earned a Ph.D. in cynicism?

So i’ve been analyzing data from the phd exit survey and my eyes are now blurry. I amused myself by compiling the funniest answers to the question, “Why did you choose this university for your doctoral program?” I hope you all find them as amusing as I do. J Just goes to show you can never account for why some people attend a particular place! And now back to my pivot tables…. - Was nearby.
- I did not feel that there were any particular expectations.
- It seemed like the best fit at the time.
- Worked there.
- I am a Canadian citizen; my objective is to develop my professional career in the health-care industry in North America. (This is from an engineering student.)
- The first one to offer me assistantship.
- I got offer from my advisor. I found he was so nice that I could not betray him.
- Because I was told that my doctoral credits will get transferred. But they didn’t.
- Because my wife is here.
- It has different programs to choose.
- By mistake.
- Got enrolled by chance.
- Easy entrance and admission.
- This university is my second home.
- I had a family support unit.
- Default. There was no other viable option at the time.
- No other choice.
- Because of a man.
- Because I got the offer.
- By chance.
- Good question.
- Lack of options.
- Because I was conned to believe it was a good graduate school by the recruiter who came to my undergraduate university and pitched his lies.
- In a big city and did not charge application fees.
- No definite reason.
- It met my needs as a mature student.
- This was not my first choice. The school I wanted to go to I was not able to attend.
- I did not want to go back to Colorado.
- Funny story on that. In looking over the ratings for my program of study, this university was ranked very high. Unfortunately, this book was not consistent with any of the other ratings.
- Knowing that a Picasso is just a block away took my breath away.
- I think that the Cancer Biology program is a very good program. (student is not, and has never been in the Cancer Biology program)
- Easily accessible for transportation by local freeways.

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Kasia July 12th, 2007

I am a bad, bad person.

Went to Mass this morning at a local parish (no, that’s not why I’m a bad person), and it was all I could do not to crack up when the new associate pastor began the Mass:

“In the name of the Father, the Thon, and the Holy Thpirit…”

Then when he gave the homily, he started off with a nun joke (which was not overly appropriate, but wasn’t shockingly inappropriate either – of course, neither did it particularly fit his homily), then came down off the sanctuary and about half a dozen pews up to give one of the parishioners something that he’d been looking for to give her that he’d found in his briefcase…something about dogs and Heaven…and when he did the Consecration, he said Jesus gave the bread and the cup “to His friends,” not “to His disciples” I lost track of all the feel-good language he used, though I do remember that the lead-up to the Kyrie did not include the word “sin”…

Ah, well. Bless his heart. For his sake, I hope the priests’ health insurance plan includes speech therapy – I managed to resist the temptation to laugh, but I have a feeling the parish kids will have less restraint.

And I never thought I’d say this, but the next time I go there for Mass, I hope it’s more like it usually is. (I don’t normally like that parish very much, but their morning Mass is the most convenient one I’ve found for my location and schedule.)

I’m turning into a liturgi-Nazi, aren’t I. Back to Confession…

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Kasia July 12th, 2007

From my friend Jenn: 

There’s a prayer request going around the military community, that they have asked that I pass on.  It if for our soldiers in Iraq, as today the high is going to be 122 degrees, with a low of 111.  They are asking that we pray for them to have strength and endurance to be able to carry out their duties under these extreme weather conditions.

Please join in praying for our soldiers.

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Kasia July 11th, 2007

Gracious, these things are going around!

Puff the Magic Dragon tagged me for the “Why I Love Jesus” meme. Puff’s answers were so doggone good that I have to post them for all to admire:

WHY I LOVE JESUS.

5) HE has never forsaken me.
OK. Let’s all “ooh” and “ahh” over her answers, which are, quite frankly, probably better than anything I could come up with.

All done? Alrighty. Now I need to answer these, and I fully admit that my answers to this are not going to be as awesome as hers…let’s stipulate that I agree 100% with her answers, but will try to come up with five more.

Why I love Jesus. Hm…

1. Because He did it all – the Incarnation, the Passion, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection – willingly. At any point in the process, He could have said “No, I’m not going to do this,” but He didn’t do that.
2. Because He gives me His Real Presence, and His Body and Blood as nourishment.

3. Because He has loved me always, even when I loved neither Him nor myself, and in spite of all the wrongs I have done to Him, whether directly or through wrongs I did to others.

4. Because He is constantly calling me to Him.
5. Because He is Truth.
The rules
Those tagged will share 5 things they “love” about Jesus.
Those tagged will tag 5 other bloggers.
Those tagged will provide a link in the comments section here with their name so that others can read them.

Hmm…I don’t like those rules. Let’s skip the part about tagging five other bloggers, because I’ve tagged so many people in the last few days, and let’s say that anyone who wants to participate is invited to, whether in the combox or on his/her own blog. Let’s also say that if you don’t want to come up with five things (though let’s be honest, I’m sure most of us could come up with a lot more than five if we just thought about it, even if we don’t want to tell others about some of them), you’re free to just mention one or two in the combox.

After all, memes are like viruses, and viruses mutate. 

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Kasia July 10th, 2007

I don’t have much patience with the “equality for its own sake” mentality. As the Catechism says, equality before the Lord does not mean sameness.

Men cannot, for example, be wet nurses. Or do you remember the scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian where the Judean People’s Front is at the gladiator match and Stan tells them he wants to be called Loretta, because he wants to have babies? John Cleese is brilliant in that scene…”I’m not oppressing you, Stan, you haven’t got a womb! Where’s the fetus going to gestate? You going to keep it in a box?!”…but anyway. Judith comes up with the supreme compromise that Stan/Loretta “…cannot actually HAVE babies, not having a womb, which is no one’s fault, not even the Romans’ – but he can have the RIGHT to have babies.” Or as George Carlin once said “They want me to call that thing in the street a personhole cover. Show me a woman who works down there!”

Anyway. Apparently now there is some sort of student movement in Pamplona demanding a separate run for women, with cows instead of bulls. (Check out the story here if you don’t believe me. I couldn’t make that up.)

Look. The run with the bulls is kind of silly in my book to begin with. I don’t get it. It’s like the forerunner of “extreme” sports, which I also don’t get, and I think Jim Davis summed it up when he (through Garfield), looking for a topic to write a book about, thought he might run with the bulls in Pamplona. Then he’d write a book titled “The Stupidest Thing I’ve Ever Done.” But hey – it’s probably a testosterone thing, and I, as a cootie-infested, estrogen-riddled, chick-flick-watching double-X chromosome just don’t get it. That’s ok – I’ll just put on Sleepless in Seattle or something. Maybe Jim Davis will come over and watch it with me. We’ll make lasagna.

So first off, I can’t say I understand why women would want to do it, except perhaps to be able to say they did. And the article does specify that, while women are now allowed to participate in the run, there are precious few who choose to. But for those who do, hey – different strokes for different folks. It’s no skin off my udder if you want to run with the bulls. If you land in the hospital, I’ll say a prayer for you. Godspeed, sister.

But for some reason that completely eludes me, some group of equality-for-its-own-sakers want to have a SEPARATE run. With COWS.

Maybe I need some Sangria to understand?

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Kasia July 9th, 2007

I may have done this already, but am too lazy to go look…

Cris tagged me for the “Eight Things About Me” meme. A fine how-do-you-do, getting tagged for a meme by someone who hates memes! …but hey. Not only did she very generously accept a tag from me some time ago despite her dislike of memes, but she’s one of my favorite bloggers. And she specifically suggested I talk about myself AND The Canuck. So here goes:

1.  We met on the Internet. Yes. Internet personals. During the time I was on Internet personals (only about a month or two, and then I met The Canuck), I also was contacted by an ex-boyfriend (who didn’t know who I was, and we’re now dear friends), two men over forty, one of whom I did go on one date with (I was 26), a guy who was not even legally divorced from his wife yet, and a guy who I am pretty sure was schizophrenic. (I got rid of the last one by telling him I had sworn off premarital sex.) Now, knowing that, does anyone wonder why I love The Canuck so much?

2. I am a fussy eater. The Canuck’s mother makes me look like Anthony Bourdain. Crazy.

3. Despite having been born and raised in the frosty hinterlands of our neighbour to the north, The Canuck is a baseball fiend. What’s more, he’s been a Tigers fan since he was a munchkin. How he wound up being more attached to baseball than to hockey I will never know, but it’s beginning to rub off on me.

(Actually I do know: his father was a Tigers fan, and used to play the games on the radio as he grilled during those long Ontario evenings. But it’s fun to tease him about it nevertheless. At least I don’t take The Big Seester’s line and say it’s because he’s a closet American…)

4. The Canuck is legally blind. Which is good, because I’m not exactly a crack housekeeper. If he can see the dust bunnies (or cat-fur-tumbleweeds) before I vacuum them up, I lose. (Actually, he doesn’t much care. He’s a good egg like that.)

5. He complains to no end about the schedule I keep, and how full I pack our weekends together. However, when I blocked off a weekend for us to laze around the house – seriously, the only things we had to do were eat, sleep and go to church – he complained he was bored and wanted to go do something.

6. He can put together IKEA furniture like nobody’s business. I find that very attractive. 

7. Despite the fact that we both have a lot of books (well, really I have a whole lot of books and he just has a lot by normal-people standards), I think the only overlaps between our book collections are the Harry Potter series and the Bible. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure.

8.  It drives him absolutely bonkers if I put something back anywhere other than exactly where I found it. It’s understandable – it goes back to the visual impairment thing – but you should see the look he gets on his face if I don’t put the tweezers back on the same little TV table by his bed. I, on the other hand, probably own half a dozen pairs of tweezers but can never find one when I need them.

I tag:

Heather S., The Big Seester, Puff the Magic Dragon, Stephanie of La Vie Catholique, St. Jimbob, my fellow neophyte Jenn (who can play along in the combox since she does not yet have a blog of her own), Nina, and Paul the Regular Guy.

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Kasia July 9th, 2007

31. The Charismatic movement. Much like the Tridentine Mass, Charismatic worship isn’t my cup of spiritual tea, but I am perfectly content to let the Holy See sort out what is and isn’t appropriate Catholic worship. And frankly, given then “by their fruits ye shall know them” test, Charismatics seem to be doing OK. If I had some dread disease and I had to pick one person in the Archdiocese to have praying for me, the man I’d pick is a dyed-in-the-wool Charismatic…and if I had to pick ten, easily half of them would either be Charismatic or have had Charismatic influences.

32. As you may have noticed, I don’t worry too much about meme parameters, despite my general liking and respect for rules. 

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