Yes, everyone was in a writing frenzy about suggestions that the Pope would permit the ordination of women as deacons. Consider the “Deacon couple” — they take the classes together, and they both are acknowledged in the listing of staff in the church bulletin, and both are typically involved in the various church ministries, even though only he is formally ordained, and only he had a title. Would it be useful to have a way of recognizing and commissioning the... Read more
How often have you read that this election will end up destroying the Republican Party, as it splinters into two, and whatever its replacement is, will in short order become the new second major party and the Republican Party itself will ultimately be as buried in the past as the Whigs or the Federalists? That’s nonsense. The primary complaint about Trump is not a matter of divisions in the party with respect to ideology. This is not a matter of... Read more
Yeah, very rarely, I travel on business. In this case, it was an internal team meeting in New York, and I didn’t get out much, only during a few short breaks. So: The 9/11 Memorial. I have to say, I was surprised at how small the footprint was. The Trinity Church cemetery. And, nearby, Wall Street itself. though it’s hard to get a good picture of the NYSE on an ordinary camera, what with the fact that it’s not a... Read more
Remember this scene from The Sound of Music? During a ball to welcome the Baroness, Maria teaches one of the von Trapp boys to dance the “Ländler,” a folk dance, on the terrace; then the Captain comes and dances with Maria to show how it’s done. They lock eyes, realize they’re falling in love, and the Baroness, seeing the scene and mindful of her plans to marry the Captain, talks to Maria, who flees to the convent. Now, here’s the... Read more
Here’s an item out of Slate, linking to an article in the Washington Post (it’s the beginning of the month, so I haven’t hit my article limit): the Washington, D.C., public school system is going to teach its second graders how to ride a bike. This is being accomplished via 1,000 bikes, purchased with a mix of District and donor money, which will rotate through the schools as each, in turn, has a mini-unit on bike-riding, consisting of four weeks... Read more
So amidst all the hand-wringing about Trump and Clinton, my father-in-law passed away last night. He was 75. He’d been in ill-health for quite some time; three years ago, he had heart surgery and never fully recovered, but was doing well enough that he and my mother-in-law visited a year ago for my youngest’s first communion, and seemed to be doing okay-ish. But three weeks ago, he got an infection severe enough that antibiotics had no effect, and the decision was made... Read more
The next 6 months are going to be filled with debates about whether Clinton or Trump is the lesser of two evils, or whether one can ethically vote for a third-party candidate, or sit out the election entirely. For many of us, the polling will tell us that our votes don’t matter, given the nature of the Electoral College system. (Here’s a New York Times projection of results based on current polling.) But let’s set that aside. On the morning after... Read more
Is it the fault of The Republican Party that Trump is the nominee? Depends on definitions, I suppose. Certainly, the Establishment fought tooth-and-nail against him. Well, a faction did, anyway. The others, when it came down to it, weren’t keen on anyone else besides Bush, or maybe Rubio, and some were quite ready to make their peace with him. Is the Establishment to blame for being a sucky group of people, for running the Republican Party in a manner that... Read more
Well, that’s over. Cruz crashed in Indiana, and threw in the towel. To be honest, I was surprised at how poorly Cruz did — much worse than the recent polling predicted — and even more surprised that he dropped out, leaving only Kasich and his fantasies. The last I read, I had thought that Cruz still had a chance even if it came down to California. Yes, it was clear that the protests over the weekend, and the reports in... Read more
The Gap Year, the break from formal education between high school and college which is in the news again because of the announcement that this is what Malia Obama will be doing before attending Harvard, is nothing new. The working class have been taking gap years long before it became trendy. It was called, “earning money for college,” and often took the form of joining the army. And it was criticized as a poor decision, because once out of the... Read more
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