When God's law becomes a cop-out

The Catholic church is a sad mess these days. Their stance on sexuality (or lack thereof) for priests has resulted in well-documented and publicized acts of molestation and inappropriateness between priests and young boys in the church. That's just shameful.

And then you have this. A 9 (!!!) year old, eighty pound Brazilian girl was allegedly raped and impregnated by her stepfather. It was discovered she was four months pregnant with twins (!!!!) when she was taken to the doctor for stomach pains. With her mother's support, Brazilian doctors performed an abortion since given her size and age the little girl's own life could be endangered if she were to carry the babies to term. The little girl, her mother and the doctors were each excommunicated by the church for violating the Catholic church's stance on abortion. The stepfather has been arrested, but NOT excommunicated because - you know - murder is worse than rape.

Under sharp criticism for the excommunication on everyone involved in the abortion, but not the stepfather who raped his own stepfather and started this terrible situation in motion, came out with this astounding comment in their own defense:

"God's law is above human law. The real problem is that two innocent lives were conceived and they have a right to life."

The adults in the situation will be okay, but the little girl has been victimized all over again. By her church. Absolutely terrible. Apparently, the Catholics read a different Bible than the one I read.

Get drunk, kill a girl, get knighted

You'll be happy to know that Edward Kennedy is now a knight. Now he's officially a British nobleman. Apparently, the idea of having actual nobility to become a nobleman is a quaint idea that the queen no longer feels befitting the honor.

Good thing too! Now there's hope for anyone who gets drunk, drives, crashes off a bridge, kills someone and then covers it up because of family connections...

I got your "Nugnuts" right here

What to do when you go to McDonalds, craving a McNugget, pay up, find out they're out of nuggets and are told you can't get your money back but have to order something else off the menu?

If you're Latreasa (and that might be part of the problem right there), you call 911. Three times. Yes, the McDonalds advertising campaign has finally spawned a real-life nugnut. Meanwhile, real emergency calls in Fort Pierce, FL were put on hold as 911 operators tried to get to the bottom of this McDonalds mishap.

Oddly, McDonalds has apologized to Letreasa. Latreasa apparently feels she had no other option but to call 911. And 911 operators will be reviewing tapes to prevent future McNugget meltdowns from slowing down aid to the injured and dying.

Career possibilities uncovered!

I'm so happy to know that now - safely removed from the interests of most 18-22 students - it is finally possible to go to college and major in the Beatles! I don't mean a class or two. I mean an MA in the Beatles. As in an actual degree.

So practical. So likely to be every parent's dream for their child. I love the irony of it being offered by Liverpool's Hope University. As in, hoping to get a job that pays off the investment I made in my Beatles degree!

The kids are alright (part 1)

I teach a class on e-commerce and marketing. Over the semester, the students in this class are developing and maintaining their own websites. They are a talented bunch. Check their stuff out!

Want to march against the crowd? Conjure up Caleb's chain maille jewelry

Feel the need for speed? Zip on over to Dustin's custom motorcycle gear

Just want to hang out and relax? Travis has the perfect handsewn hammocks

Craving more storage? You've got a future in plastics with Angela's Tupperware

Need to put on a happy face? Julie will make it impossible to control your beauty

Draw upon your favorite memories with Kara's custom portraits

Cross over to the good side with Brooke & Alex's handmade crosses

Draw upon Ryan's sketches

And finally (for today), show off your true colors with Cameron's handpainted coverings

Hey Recessionistas! It's a coming-out tea party!

Several great blogs including a personal fave - Pink Slips are the New Black - are calling for people to rise up and protest the bailout.

Check out their blog and rsvp.

There's strength in numbers. And collectively, we have more political power than we do sitting behind a computer screen tapping out words. Let's marshal our resources and rock the vote!

A bailout bucket for you, nothing for me

Santelli's rant has been splashed everywhere. While I don't agree with everything he said, I totally get the sentiment. My husband and I bought a fairly modest house that we could readily afford when we were both working. Now that my job is gone, we're using savings to pay our bills and mortgage. We're scraping by, but we're watching our savings dwindle down.

We haven't walked away from our mortgage because we put 25% down. We have a decent interest rate, but would love to refinance. We can't though. We won't qualify for a new mortgage now that I'm no longer employed.

It is terribly wrong that someone with no skin in the game (yes, I mean you 0% downers) can walk out of a mortgage that they shouldn't have entered into in the first place. Then, they can buy a short-sale house and profit off the foreclosure, entering into a much lower % mortgage than I have...and qualify for bailout assistance.

So yeah, I totally get the anger behind the tea party. It's an economic meltdown of serious proportions...it rewards irresponsible fiscal behavior. And, it's going to mean that I struggle for years not just under the burden of my own choices (which I am fully responsible for), but under the added weight of the poor choices and bad acts of others.

Stimulus? The only people feeling stimulated are the financially irresponsible and economic freeloaders. Oh, and of course those going on 'executive retreats' on my dime.