Undercover Nun

"A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip..."

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:27:35 -0500

“A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow.”

- Jeff Wheeler, in The Blight of Muirwood

The same is true of any person who has a new idea. It is frightening to suggest something new, and both the delicate new idea and the person who brought it up can be crushed by the response.

So, as it says in The Gospel According to Bill and Ted: be excellent to each other.

"The Virginia Legislature has passed this law that allows — or mandates — that a woman who wants to..."

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:06:43 -0500

“The Virginia Legislature has passed this law that allows — or mandates — that a woman who wants to have an abortion… they’re forcing women to get a vaginal probe. And it’s not for any medical reason — it’s just really to shame you if you wanna have an abortion. And (these) are the same people who say that ‘Obamacare is invasive.’ There’s nothing in ‘Obamacare’ that mandates the state put in an electronic dildo in your vagina — and that’s what’s going on under Republican auspices.”

-
BILL MAHER, remarking on Virginia’s personhood bullshit, on Real Time (via inothernews)

Preach it!

"If I’m lucky, the family will accept the news that, in a time when we can separate conjoined twins..."

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:01:42 -0500

“If I’m lucky, the family will accept the news that, in a time when we can separate conjoined twins and reattach severed limbs, people still wear out and die of old age. If I’m lucky, the family will recognize that their loved one’s life is nearing its end.”

- Craig Bowron, in Our unrealistic attitudes about death, through a doctor’s eyes

When my grandmother was dying of kidney failure last November, her three children struggled with the question of when to ask for pain medication. One refused to acknowledge the signs of pain, being more concerned with Nana’s blood pressure than with keeping her comfortable. This sibling held the medical power of attorney. One tried to stay out of the medical decisions; this sibling held the financial power of attorney. My mom didn’t know what to think or say or do, wrestling with her hope that her mother would wake and acknowledge that she was there against her wish that her mother would not have the painful and miserable death that her father had three years ago. They would stare at each other when the nurse at the hospital asked to confirm the dose of pain medication, like three deer simultaneously caught in the headlights, unable to speak. Even though I was two generations away, I would speak up: “We want her as comfortable as she can be.”

Hospitals — even the Mayo Clinic hospital in Florida (State motto: God’s Waiting Room) — are not well equipped to handle patients at the end of life. We were so thankful for the nurses and social workers from the hospice, who would check up on the doctor’s orders and make sure that as much as could be done for Nana was being done for her. They would spend time in the room just chatting with us, hearing and laughing with us at family stories, and these were the times when Nana was most peaceful.

The doctor also says this:

When families talk about letting their loved ones die “naturally,” they often mean “in their sleep” — not from a treatable illness such as a stroke, cancer or an infection. Choosing to let a loved one pass away by not treating an illness feels too complicit; conversely, choosing treatment that will push a patient into further suffering somehow feels like taking care of him. While it’s easy to empathize with these family members’ wishes, what they don’t appreciate is that very few elderly patients are lucky enough to die in their sleep. Almost everyone dies of something.

The one blessing of kidney failure was that Nana fell into a sleep, which became a deeper and deeper state of unconsciousness until she passed. It took several days, but we were all glad that her dying was peaceful.

The dying stand on holy ground, and sometimes we are privileged to witness this. It is hard, but it is a blessing.

The man who retrieves the Taliban's dead

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:46:22 -0500

The man who retrieves the Taliban's dead:

This is a longer read for you, but I promise that it is well worth your time. I can’t really say that you’ll learn anything from it, but I found it very moving. This man is a hero and a saint, and I have profound respect for him and for his work.

Is the United States the only country where more men are raped every year than women?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:43:10 -0500

Is the United States the only country where more men are raped every year than women?:

The US justice system is a shameful mockery. May God have mercy on us all.

Arizona Law Would Make It Illegal to Teach Law, History, or Literature

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:41:01 -0500

Arizona Law Would Make It Illegal to Teach Law, History, or Literature :

badassladyknight:

Just when you thought the Arizona legislature was out of bad ideas.

SB 1467, newly introduced in the Arizona State Senate, would force schools and universities to suspend, fine, and ultimately fire any teacher or professor who “engage[d] in speech or conduct that would violate the standards adopted by the federal communications commission concerning obscenity, indecency and profanity if that speech or conduct were broadcast on television or radio.”

For the first offense, you’d get a one-week suspension without pay. For the second offense, two weeks. For the third, a pink slip.

As Greg Lukianoff of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education notes, this law would not only block the teaching of such classics as Ulysses, The Canterbury Tales, and Catcher in the Rye, it’d prohibit historians and law professors from competently discussing campus free speech regulations, since the most important Supreme Court case in that field hinged on a jacket with the slogan “Fuck The Draft” written on it.

It’s also worth noting, as Lukianoff does, that the bill would regulate professors’ actions outside the classroom, which means that merely writing the paragraph above — in a blogpost, a scholarly article, even a private email — would get you suspended.

But it’s even worse than that.

Note the language of the bill: You’re violating the law if you engage “in speech or conduct” that would violate FCC standards if “broadcast on television or radio.” Not public speech or conduct. Speech or conduct, full stop.

If this law passes, it will be illegal for any “person who provides classroom instruction” in the state of Arizona to have sex.

Or pee.

Ever.

I’m pretty sure this is unconstitutional. Article 2, Section 6 of the Arizona State Constitution states: “Every person may freely speak, write, and publish on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right.” Although, I guess whoever wrote this bill is going to use that second portion of “abuse of that right” to justify the bill. I still don’t think it’s constitutional.

Senators Klein, Biggs, Melvin, Shooter, and Smith: this bill is now Number 1 on my list of Most Idiotic Things Of The Year So Far. Also, Undercover Nun is praying for your immortal souls.

~~You morons.~~ Bless your little hearts.

Or, to paraphrase Martin Luther, “God doesn’t save...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:24:25 -0500

Or, to paraphrase Martin Luther, “God doesn’t save the penny-ante sinners. If we’re stuck being sinners, sin boldly!”

US Troops burn Korans (sic), angering Muslims in Afghanistan

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:14:52 -0500

US Troops burn Korans (sic), angering Muslims in Afghanistan:

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — Deeply angered over the improper disposal of copies of the Koran by U.S. troops, thousands of Afghans on Tuesday tried to storm the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan.

The protests erupted early in the morning, after Afghans working inside the Bagram air base reported to local residents that a number of copies of the Koran had been burned.

The incident prompted the top U.S. military officer in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, to offer a public apology and order a prompt investigation.

Allen said the improper disposal of the religious materials was unintentional. “When we learned of these actions, we immediately intervened and stopped them,” he said.

Really, soldiers? REALLY? Truly I tell you: when you intentionally inflict pain and torture on others, when you disregard the values and faith of a nation you occupy, when you scorn and mock people who are different from you, whenever you do these things, you are not the world’s finest military. Whenever you do these things, you are thugs and bullies. You represent our nation, when you are out in the world, and I don’t like being represented by people who would intentionally disrespect and dishonor the sacred book of any culture.

Undercover Nun is praying for your immortal soul.

"Our simmering anger needs but a nudge to flame up and scald everyone around us. Yet when our..."

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:02:37 -0500

“Our simmering anger needs but a nudge to flame up and scald everyone around us. Yet when our thoughts are pure, we become a light by which others learn to read.”

- Jeff Wheeler, in the fantasy novel The Blight of Muirwood

This girl frightens me. There’s a homicidal look to her...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:18:48 -0500

This girl frightens me. There’s a homicidal look to her smile and expression that is, to put it mildly, disturbing.

ilovecharts: I found this in my “Reading and Writing for Civic...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:14:45 -0500

ilovecharts:

I found this in my “Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy” textbook. Are cats mortal?

-subdivo

The “Mortals” really needs to be “Mortals with Only One Life” instead. Cats are in the larger group of “Mortals with More Than One Life,” which would be the entire page.

"What is going on in California? How’s this? Congresswoman, you saw what happened to Whitney Houston...."

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:13:06 -0500

“What is going on in California? How’s this? Congresswoman, you saw what happened to Whitney Houston. Step away from the crack pipe, step away from the Xanax, step away from the Lorazepam because it’s going to get you in trouble.”

-
FOX News commentator Eric Bolling, commenting about Democratic, and African American, Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ over-the-top statement that Republicans John Boehner and Eric Cantor are “demons.”

Umm, crack pipe? Mr. Bolling insists that he was kidding, but that is one might racially charged “joke.”

Something to think about.

(via politicalprof)

Mr. Bolling, Undercover Nun is praying for your immortal soul. And Ms. Waters? Yours too.

mohandasgandhi: This is what it’s all about.

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:23:48 -0500

mohandasgandhi:

This is what it’s all about.

nakedpastor: Some would claim that Jesus never changes, that he...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:18:26 -0500

nakedpastor:

Some would claim that Jesus never changes, that he is the same yesterday, today and forever. But Jesus is not the same to me today as he was 20 years ago. So what’s changed? Or who? From my narrow perspective I would probably say Jesus has changed. But theologically, I would have to say I have changed.

In any case, something has changed and even developed. Jesus has grown from my best buddy to something far more cosmic, from something so understandable and manageable to something far more mysterious, from something quite local to something universal.

This little comic is awesome. Even if our questions aren’t quite the same along the way, I think most of us start and end in about the same places.

How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did - Forbes

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:16:35 -0500

How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did - Forbes:

tiffanyb:

I am simultaneously creeped out and fascinated. Read the linked NYT article this article is riffing on, too.

My reaction is about the same: both creeped out and fascinated.

"I do not think there are many among Bishops that will be saved, but many more that perish."

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:04:28 -0500

“I do not think there are many among Bishops that will be saved, but many more that perish.”

- St. John Chrysostom

Well then.

(via invisibleforeigner)

Wrong. We can’t disagree with or criticize bishops in any way.

Wait…. he was a bishop?!

(via shortbreadsh)

Yeah, I’m not prepared to do any formal statistical analysis, but I bet there are more saints that criticized bishops than who were bishops. Just sayin’.

(via galesofnovember)

If God’s kingdom is as topsy-turvy-upside-down-y as Jesus says in the gospels, then a whole lot of us — including bishops, priests, deacons, and religious — are in deep trouble.

Best. Tumblr. Name. EVER!!!

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:59:00 -0500

Best. Tumblr. Name. EVER!!!:

P.S. Lord help me, I sure do!

beingblog: The Damage of Apartheid on Desmond Tutu’s Psyche by...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:57:21 -0500

beingblog:

The Damage of Apartheid on Desmond Tutu’s Psyche

by Trent Gilliss, senior editor

During our interview a few months before he retired in 2010, the Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu shared this heart-wrenching story of flying on a plane out of Lagos, Nigeria. As he boarded the plane, he was beaming with pride, he says, when he saw two black pilots shepherding the plane. While in the air, the plane experienced some bitter turbulence, and at that moment he admits:

“The first thought that came to my mind was ‘Hey, there’s no white men in that cockpit. Are those blacks going to be able to make it?’

Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu is a pivotal figure in helping galvanize South Africa’s improbable and peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy in the 1990s. And he’s been an active participant ever since in the country’s developing story ever since. Despite all the discussions and Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, he helps us realize that the amount of damage done to black South Africans’ psyches is deep-seated. A sober reminder that history is present in incalculable ways.

Jesus weeps. Undercover Nun weeps with him.

archtoronto: Cardinal-designate Thomas Collins and Neil...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:55:39 -0500

archtoronto:

Cardinal-designate Thomas Collins and Neil MacCarthy, Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of Toronto, outside of the Vatican Radio Studios Skyping with Toronto television station CP24. Castel San Angelo can be seen in the background.

Watch the interview on www.cp24.com

Photos: Emanuel Pires, Archdiocese of Toronto

You have to admit, this is pretty freaking cool!

Before I started working in poverty law, I wasn't a particularly radical person.

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:53:14 -0500

squashed:

You see things. It changes you.

I know. Shit happens. But it happens for a reason.

When you see what’s happening—and why it’s happening, explanations like, “That’s just how it is” sound awfully inadequate.

May God have mercy on us all. :-(

And thank you for doing this work. It is important, and it is needed, and more of us should be doing it.