~ma for Tom please, who is at another interview as we speak ... thanks!

As a counterpoint to nutbar priest, my great-aunt who is an Ursuline nun and many of the nuns in her convent are huge Obama supporters.

Perhaps the Catholic church - or maybe just that diocese - should lose its tax-exempt status.

I wouldn't be against some smackdown for that diocese--though it looks like they're not actually denying communion to anyone; the pastor is just harping on the need for some penance before communion for anyone who voted for Obama. And of course he has no idea who in the parish did vote that way, and no way to enforce penance. So all he can do is stand up there at the altar and bluster and, incidentally, look like an idiot.

It varies like crazy from diocese to diocese. Last Sunday my own pastor started Mass with a rousing "YES WE CAN!" It was his first service in almost a month, after a long stint in the hospital and on bedrest for a massive respiratory infection; the last homily he'd given before getting sick had been all about the Good Samaritan, insiders and outsiders and the majority and the minority and the difference between tolerance and true acceptance, and he'd come just thisclose to out-and-out pleading for us to vote no on 8.

And ever since 8 qualified for the ballot letters have poured in to our weekly diocese newsletter by people vigorously opposed to it, none anonymous, all stating their name and parish. Yet, for all his "It is your solemn Christian duty to vote yes on this vital moral issue" bluster, our bishop hasn't dared to sanction, lecture or even say boo to any of his very vocal opponents.

For all the One Unified Catholic Church talk, it's actually (in the US anyway) a complete mishmashy patchwork.

And, because it deserves its own post, such a world of ~ma to Tom.

~ma for Tom.

Also a request for a bit of ~ma myself. I have my portfolio presentation for my MLIS degree this morning at 9:30. Meep.

ooh, good luck GC! Is this the end of the journey?

Thanks for the ~ma. In half decent news, he got called in for a second interview at a place he liked- that's next week. Today's is a first interview for a pretty cool sounding place on the North Shore.

Lots of ~ma for Tom!

Good luck, GC! (oneofusoneofus!)

Rock it, GC! Tom too!

I need to figure out if I can use the charger from my old iPod with the iPod touch. (It doesn't come with a charger, just a USB cable.)

yes, you can. You can also charge the iTouch with the USB cable, though I think it takes longer.

For all the One Unified Catholic Church talk, it's actually (in the US anyway) a complete mishmashy patchwork.

And in various chunks of the world has been the bastion of free expression. Crazy Polish Roommate regarded the Roman Catholic church a hotbed of radicalism -- it's where she got unfiltered news and tracked down banned books. When I was in Peru I was surprised to see a family planning clinic sign ON THE CHURCH. I asked around and apparently throughout the Andes that is pretty common.

Some people might like it to be all of one piece, but it really isn't.