I wanted to not hate on the church for this, while I think they shouldn't have gotten so upset, I can see why they had a problem with it. And then, they called it a "hate crime". And I was done with them.

Oh, Bill Donahue is so VERY much not "The Church." He's living proof that any whackjob with an internet connection and a theasuarus can fake credibility if he comes up with an official sounding name for his tiny club of whackjobs.

"The Catholic League" has about as much official standing with the Vatican as I do. Maybe less.

[eta: And he pretty much calls any blog post with a whiff of an anti-Catholic stance a hate crime. I have yet to hear him apply this label to an actual crime.]

Sweet Jesus, how is it only 11:15???

I mean, I got up ungodly early to be on a conference call at 7AM, which lasted for over two loooooooooong hours. And my boss just called, but I talked to him and made everything sound pretty good, I think. (He was all "We haven't talked in like, two and a half weeks!" but he was on vacation for a week of that) And then I looked at the clock, and totally expected it to be afternoon. And it wasn't. GAH.

Doesn't someone want to magically do some grocery shopping and entertain me, oh, and do some work for me? Without making me get dressed and leave the house?

I'm really excited by the Google interview, but also terribly nervous.

Somehow I doubt it will work if I drop to my knees and beg of them, "Pleeeeeease hire me. I worship at the altar of Google. And I don't want to take the job offer in sales which doesn't pay very well. Please?"

Somehow I doubt it will work if I drop to my knees and beg of them, "Pleeeeeease hire me. I worship at the altar of Google. And I don't want to take the job offer in sales which doesn't pay very well. Please?"

Only use that as a second-to-last resort.

Last resort is waving the gun around.

I'm equally at cross-currents. The Catholic Church (by which I refer to the Powers That Be and not any individual lay Catholic) has done a fair amount to answer for -- the pedophile priest scandal comes to mind, on several levels -- that I can't give the Church much room for moral high ground.

On the other hand, as others have pointed out, stealing communion wafers from a Catholic church for the purpose of desecration is so far over the line as to obliterate it. That's not a protest of objectionable policies or practices. That's just spitting in the Church's face. And if anything is going to make me sympathetic toward the Catholic Church, it's that sort of thing. (And based on the definitions as I understand them, it's at least arguably a hate crime.)

But death threats against -- not the thief, but someone who expresses support for the thief? Conversely, if anything is going to make me sympathetic toward the thief, it's an organized campaign of death threats.

I note that Bill Donahoe has A Reputation as a Professional Victim, Catholic subdivision. Whose campaigns are not necessarily supported by the Catholic Church.

(ETA: Just saw Jessica's comment on hate crimes and wanted to clarify what I said. The theft of the wafers was arguably a hate crime. Expressing support for the thief isn't a crime of any kind, as far as I know.)

If I could think of a single thing I could legitimately get hired for at the Google office in Cambridge, I'd be over there begging with my kneepads on.

Yay shrift!

I have no opinion on the holy cracker controversy. The church I was raised in used grape juice instead of wine, and I like to think that if they believed in literal transubstantiation they wouldn't have started with Wonderbread. Or maybe that's exactly the sort of bread they should have started with. Anyway, after a few UU "love feasts" featuring sweet rolls (with raisins—yes, lets follow that along food-to-flesh thought lines) and apple juice (this is My plasma, given for you) it's hard for me to work up more than a "huh" over the whole deal.

Huh.

Oxygen therapy might help migraine, cluster headaches

Speaking as a Presbyterian agnostic here, stealing communion wafers is horrible and disrespectful at the very least, and I do wonder if it wouldn't be possible to prosecute it as petty theft of some kind.