Can you stand yet one more KittyWalk picture?

Of course you can. Are you watching, Rachel? See the line coming off the upper left side? That's GrandDog Ellie snuggled under the KittyWalk and visiting with Bubba. I'm not imagining these things, or setting them up, I swear. Can't get a decent shot, because they heard me shoot and came towards me.

Okay, for the rest of us, especially the Medifans, Grand Rounds is up at GruntDoc! No permalink today for that, because I insist you scroll down to his other goodies.

Finally the Cotillion has lots of good partying going on. (And only one link for the new SCOTUS nominee, please.) Me? Off to Save the World from the evil industrial empire Shinra...

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Little Pond

At sundown today...

I extend my wishes for a Happy Rosh Hashana to all my Jewish friends and readers.

Go here for something more authentic, and be sure to follow David's link to a previous post.

Peace and love. It's been quite a year, hasn't it?

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Little Pond

Watching the oncoming trainwreck.

Was it Fr. Andrew Greeley who was first publicly terrified of the possibility of Cardinal Ratzinger's elevation to the papacy? Any of his faithful readers would have the same horrible feeling as I did, hearing of the election. And yet I figured "Ratzinger the hatchetman could surely be softened and enlighted as Benedict the pope." How wrong I was!

But saints are not elected to the papacy, even though the papacy may occasionally carve out a saint. Can time ease this situation? Is there time enough?

When I was a young woman I considered leaving the Church, but it was just too painful to give up that part of me. There are lots of things I don't like about my country, and I will not leave. But the Church?

This post is full of question marks, but one thing is certain: This situation could ruin the Roman Catholic Church. At least for me.

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Little Pond

Gay Ban Update

Headline from an Elmira Star-Gazette item on 7A today:

"Jesuit Official Protesting Vatican Ban on Gay Priests." Tells of "...the great harm this will cause many good priests and the Catholic faithful."

The New York Times has a link with a lot more information about Fr. Gerald Chojnacki's response to the proposed ban. Some very brave, morally strong protesters are going over to talk to the Vatican about its folly.

Listening, Rome? Hope so.

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Little Pond

Can't find a link to

Today's Tom Toles editorial cartoon shows a man, marked "gays" standing on the stairs to a church. A man pokes his head out the door and says,

"You can't get married because you can't have sex.
And you can't be a priest because you can't be celibate either."

Pretty much says it all. It took 2,000 years for our Church to decide to exclude a very large number of its hierarchy and faithful?

Please say it isn't so.

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Little Pond

Shame on the Catholic Church!

It should know better. We didn't suffer enough through all the sexual predator scandals. Now we have to watch a witch-hunt, initiated in the mistaken belief that homosexuality causes pedophilia.

Pedophilia is a crime of power abuse. Nearly all sexual abuse is. It is not about sex. It is about power.

Because the Church considers homosexual behavior to be a disorder, it is looking to clean out homosexuals. I have a question for the Roman Catholic (or is it the American Catholic?) leadership:

Shall we wipe out upwards of 10% of the church hierarchy? Shall we eliminate up to 10% of humanity from the Book of Life?

When our leadership gets over its homophobia, then maybe it will set itself to the true task. Then it can train priests to be protectors of their flock. Not leaders, but servants. Precious lives are not theirs for amusement and ego-glorification.

When I think of all the saintly priests who have gone before, dedicating their lives to service, I feel sick for their memories. A celibate priest is not a sexual abuser, regardless of his orientation.

Get some competent advisors and get over it. A witchhunt is not the answer.

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Little Pond

The Heavenly Blues are in their morning glory, and the roses have noticeably faded. The summer is truly over for me. Now is the time for cleaning house and taking stock of our position in the universe. 

Soothing Thursday

Let's start with an update on the Ravenous HuggaMutt: The replacement part for the chewed shed arrived from Suncast. Husband RJ managed the job himself. It is very difficult to undo parts that snap together, but all is as it should be now. Glad I don't have to worry about snow-day heart attacks. Lost a friend's husband that way.

Both Sissy Willis and Shelley at BurningBird alerted us to the dangers facing the pets victimized by Katrina. Got a forwarded note from an animal rescue organization at the scene:

Speaking of rescues, time is running out for animals still in the city. But we still look forward to more and more rescues - especially since many more people have now been finding their way into the
city on their own, and simply putting out food and water until more help arrives. That, in itself, is a major blessing for animals who have been struggling to survive for just on three weeks now.

You can visit The Best Friends here. They have a really complete site to fill us in on all the operations. They need donations, too. Please remember that the easiest way to help may be to go through your closest SPCA. That goes for any donations to any efforts. If you donate local it will probably get there fastest.

Grand Rounds is up! Thanks to GruntDoc for the tip, as always.

Afghan Warrior has the local take on the Parliamentary Elections in Afghanistan. Looks like Al Quaeda being roundly ignored. Let's hope their glory days are over.

And save your last dance for the gals at the Cotillion. Their Late But Always Great Edition.

Ellie needs a walk, and I need breakfast.

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Little Pond

Aaaarrrrrggghhh!!!!

Join me in celebratin' Talk Like a Pirate Day! I'll be fixin' some grub for me mates tonight.

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Little Pond

Can you stand one more blog?

I was all doped out on antihistamines Sunday, so I grabbed the GrandDog and camera, threw them in the Tracker and rode out to Personius Woods, where Tanglewood had Doggy Days a few weekends back. We also stopped at Harris Hill Dam on the way back. Ellie was whimpering with fatigue by the time we headed home for a nap.

For those of you who wanted my take on current events, scroll down: I'm ignoring them in my blog. Visit my Everloving Blogmother for just about the only dissenting view on the Crescent blooper. Keep scrolling; she's like a voice crying out in the wilderness. (Give'em hell, Sissy!) And almost all of my sidebar links will at least touch on the Porkbarrel/Katrina Aid outrage.

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Little Pond

Light links, as promised

Sorry it's taken so long to keep my promise, but our old COMPAQ has finally gone around the bend. Memory problems, big time. Must be the automatic updates that ought to be carefully culled out. Just getting in and out of Internet Explorer is now fraught with hangups. Anyway....

Without further delay, we head over to Instapundit's place, because, frankly, that's where all the best links are, on a day to day basis:
This next year will be hugely blah, fashion-wise. Even Manolo is running out of ways to describe beige. And forget empire waists! They make me look hippy, and I don't mean emaciated, spaced out and druggy.
In a quite-possibly unintentional salute to our brave brothers and sisters of New Orleans, the Carnival of the Recipes has many cajun and bayou style meals to offer. Marvelous bonus: offered in a way that relates the brewing process for beer!
And, especially for those who love to follow comment threads, welcome one of your fellows to the Blogosphere. Remember, I got my start through commenting on my Everloving Blogmother's site.

And appropriate to my being so late with LightHearted Links, a piece on "Adult ADHD." I've always believed that a person who is consistently late could be consistently early, if properly motivated. Thanks to Grunt Doc.

Not so much light-hearted, as full of heart: The Afghan elections have me once again all choked up. Bless them and keep them safe during this celebration of democracy. The photos posted on Smash's site are truly inspiring and leave me all teary-eyed.

Not to be frivolous, but... Well, yes, okay, it's certainly frivolous, but I did promise Light. Dave Barry is showing his age. Hey, we can cry about it, or we can laugh about it. I'd much rather laugh. That's why it's great we can "celebrate" return to work Monday by observing Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Head over to helpless giggling with the girls of the Cotillion! Absolutely my favorite post of the week, or even month. Girls' gossipy take on the Robert's nomination hearings. Grab a great big wine spritzer before you sit down to this one!

And no links' post is complete without a trip to BurningBird's nest. Very unusual night photos of night-time preparations for a balloon race. Amazingly impressionistic. And Shelley provides references and photography details (lest we doubt that any mortal could take such marvelous pictures!).

That's it. The HuggaMutt awaits her Sunday stroll.

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Little Pond

LightHearted Links Later

In the post below I promised LightHearted Links. Later, I still promise. Right now, I'm in a more pensive mood. It's been months since the last murder, and I'm still asking, "Who's killing our street people, and why doesn't anyone seem to care?"

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Little Pond

Lotsa Links Weekend

Very busy. Too busy to blog. But never too busy to visit!

Been thinking about current events. Visited with David at Rishon Rishon to get his take on the events in the Mideast. As an expat, his viewpoint is unique. I was saddened to read his take on the Gaza handover. David is always a good read, and it's not all sad: He was tickled to find a transplanted Saudi with a lovely blog about Saudi Arabia, its policies and customs. Even some humor.

So I got to wondering about more currently American perspectives. The Right? The Left? Both? Neither? Here are a few links about the Mideast, in no particular order:

A new Mideastern blog is welcomed to the 'Sphere by Winds of Change.
Afghan Warrior checked in on the 9/11 anniversary.
And no visit to the Mideast is complete without reading the best reporter ever Over There.

Another huge anniversary. In my opinion, the CBS meltdown was the biggest event so far that affected (or was caused by) the Blogosphere. Thanks to the BlogFather.

Back later with LightHearted Links.

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Little Pond

Disaster Updates

Go to the Cotillion, to get our ladies' takes on recent current events.

Me? Got some baking to do. Zuchini bread is the order of the day.

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Little Pond