Yikes, libkitty! I hope the books and so forth survive in usable form! What a disaster.

{{{Betsy}}} Both of my parents have had messed up rotator cuffs, they might have been torn. Painful as all get out, but healable. There is, fortunately, good PT for it, probably from sports medicine. I wish you as speedy a healing process as possible.

Oh, dang, Betsy..

Sex may be good or bad, but hurting books is always bad, libkitty. Let me know if you end up having to raise money to replace books.

Ouch, Betsy. My mother had a torn rotator cuff from a fall and she was treated quite successfully with physical therapy. She may not have forgiven me for pointing out that injury meant the end of her pitching career.

Shit. I DO have a partial rotator cuff tear.

Oh no! You can't pitch in relief until June, at least. I hope this doesn't take a foot off your fastball.

In a more serious mode - I'm sorry! At least the surgery is routine.

Fortunately, I pitch right-handed.

Unfortunately, I can't pitch.

Dying of teh cute. My niece:

[link]

In other news, I have distressed my wife by ragging on the Catholic Church so hard on Ash Wednesday.

Nice timing, David. Apologies to all my ash-besmirched friends.

I agree with Lyra Jane that the Catholic church does not stand alone in this. Almost every religious organization that has been powerful and has endured over time has much to be ashamed of. It's just that the Catholic church is the big dog by virtue of its long history and the extent of its influence.

What I should have said is that their anti-birth control beliefs are based on their view that sex should always lead to the possibility of life. Not my view, but it's hardly immoral.

A hardline anti-condom stance in the age of AIDS, particularly in the parts of the world where the disease is rampant and so much of the transmission is in the boy-girl format the church approves of, isn't that far from only approving sex that always leads to the possibility of death.

It saddens me that people single the Catholic Church out for criticism so much over other Christian denominations

In this country, nsm. The politically active religious right is comprised of various flavors of Protestantism.

Worldwide and historically, well, nobody's ever had more money or more power than the Catholic Church. It's nobody's fault but their own if they don't have a history of using either one terribly well.