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Too Stupid to be a Bishop

A Stupid Bisop breaks the Godwin Rule

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Catholic Bishop Anthony Fisher has just claimed that “GODLESSNESS and secularism led to Nazism, Stalinism, mass murder and abortion” [1]. This is a violation of the rule part of Godwin’s Law. We might not expect clerics to have enough general knowledge of society to know this rule, but it does seem reasonable to expect them to have enough empathy to understand why inappropriate Hitler analogies will just offend people and don’t advance their cause. But anyone in a position of leadership in a global organisation who is going to talk to the media should have enough intelligence to check historical references.

The Wikipedia article about “Positive Christianity” is worth reading, it includes references to Christian based race-hate in Nazi Germany as well as modern references [2]. There is also an interesting Wikipedia page about the Religious aspects of Nazism [3], there seems to be room for a lot of debate on the matter of how religion fit in to the Nazi regime – but it seems quite clear that it was not an atheist regime.

The Wikipedia page about the Rechskonkordat (the agreement between the Nazi Germany and the Catholic Church) is also worth reading [4].

Also I’m sure that the Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet wasn’t the only Catholic despot.

Community Services and Moral Authority

Cardinal Pell was quoted in the same SMH article as saying “we find no community services sponsored by the atheists“, of course if he was to investigate who is contributing to the religious based community service organisations he would find plenty of atheists. I know I’m not the only atheist who donates to The Salvation Army [5] on occasion. I wonder how many religious people would be happy to donate to an explicitly atheist organisation, I suspect that the prevalence of religious charities is due to the fact that a religious charity can get money from both religious people and atheists while a charity that advocated atheism in any way would be limited to atheist donors. If I was to establish a community service charity I would seriously consider adding some religious element to help with fund raising – it’s just a matter of doing what’s necessary to achieve the main goal.

Even if it wasn’t for violating Godwin’s law and a total lack of any knowledge of history Anthony would still have failed. We all know the position of the Catholic Church on the sexual abuse of children. The Catholic policies are implemented in the same way in every country and as far as we can tell have been done so for all time. I believe that makes them unqualified to offer moral advice of any kind.

Criticising the “Secular World”

Peter Craven has written an article for The Age criticising the “secular world” [6]. He makes the extraordinary claim “the molesting clergy are like the brutal policemen and negligent doctors and corrupt politicians: they come with the territory because pennies have two sides“. The difference of course is that police, doctors, and politicians tend to get punished for doing the wrong thing – even when they do things that are far less serious. But the “molesting clergy” seem to be protected by all levels of the church hierarchy.

Peter makes some claims about the “secular world” as if there is a Borg collective of atheists and claims that there is an “incomprehension of Christian values“. I believe that the attitudes of atheists and the secular justice system correspond quite well with what most Christians would regard as “Christian values” – the problem is that the actions of the church leaders tend not to match that.

It’s All About Money

I would like to know why Christians almost never change church and never cease donating. Religious organisations are much like corporations, they seek new members and new revenue sources. If a significant number of Catholics were to pledge to not donate any money to their church for a year after every child sex abuse scandal then Catholic policies might change. Also if Catholics were to start changing to Christian denominations that do the right thing in regard to moral issues then the Catholic church would either change or eventually become irrelevant. If you keep paying people who do bad things then you are supporting them!

I suggest that any church member who cares about the moral issues of the day should vote with their checkbook. If their church fails to do the right thing then inside the donation envelope they should put a note saying “due to the immoral actions of the church I will donate to other charities“. I am not aware of any church that would expel members for such a protest, but I know that some smaller parishes have cash-flow problems and would rapidly escalate the issue through the management chain if even a few members were to protest in such a manner.

20 comments to Too Stupid to be a Bishop

  • Florian Weimer

    Church fees are compulsory in some countries, as long as you are a member. For a Catholic, only the church can provide salvation, so withholding your money might not be as easy as you think.

  • etbe

    When you say “compulsory in some countries” what do you mean? Are you referring to some sort of government imposed tax on people that goes to the church? Or do you mean that the policies of churches such as the Catholic church differ by country?

    As for only one church providing salvation, I expect that a poll of Catholics would determine that most of them don’t believe that.

    In any case if “salvation” requires supporting child molesters then I’ll choose hell.

  • Florian Weimer

    Yes, there is a state-collected church tax in Germany.

    And if you don’t believe central points of Catholic doctrine, you aren’t Catholic at all. You may still be a Christian, but not a Catholic.

  • Henry

    Re: catholic despots, Mussolini and Franco come to mind.

  • etbe

    Florian: I don’t believe that protecting child-molesters is part of the Catholic doctrine. Therefore all parts of the Catholic church that do so can be considered as apostates. A true Catholic wouldn’t associate with a false church, they can do their own thing while waiting for the true church to re-establish itself and declare the current Pope to be an anti-Pope.

    As for state-collected church taxes, you really need a separation between church and state.

    Henry: Yes, and there was cooperation from the Catholic side – see Opus Dei for an example.

  • Florian Weimer

    Russel: AFAICT, church doctrine is that the church has the final say who can become a priest and who cannot. And the current discussion cuts right into that. If the state can decide that certain men cannot be priests, the relationship between church and state is profoundly changed. Few people outside the clergy could probably care. But I think this is the source of those totally inappropriate comparisons with Nazi Germany that keep popping up. (The main concern for the church back then was such meddling in the affairs of the church, cf. “With burning anxiety”.)

    Separation of church and state is part of the German constitution, but I’m not sure if it just means that the state must not favor a particular denomination.

  • buck

    The problem with your argument about voting with your wallet
    is that the Church is much more like a family than a business
    association, so, yes, we know that certain members of the fam-
    ily have problems, and maybe there’s more love and acceptance
    from the hierarchy than justice, when they see their subordin-
    ates fall down, but it’s more a matter of abandoning the 99
    sheep and looking for the one lost one than of a cover-up, i
    still can’t help but believe. But Church leaders are all com-
    ing around to realize that charity consists as much in taking
    necessary if disagreeable action to curb those who would harm
    their fellow members as in forgiving them, and, yes, even more
    so. But family is family

    Sorry if the Bishop offended you, in any case. It’s all the
    more unfortunate when these sorts of statements turn people
    off from the Church, since the whole idea is to get everybody
    to join (no, not for your money, but because Jesus said to
    preach the Gospel to and to baptize all–poor, rich, and, yes,
    probably even pedophiles [but ordaining them is another mat-

  • etbe

    Florian: Sure the church gets to say who becomes a priest, but the state gets to say who becomes a prisoner! Also I would be happy to see a church ordain some prisoners who are doing hard-time. The prison chaplain doesn’t really get to know the prisoners and a minister on the inside could do some good.

    buck: The above URL has a news report of a man who executed his 15yo son. I don’t think that killing the boy was the right thing to do, but he had to be prevented from doing it again. The Catholic church would rather let their priests keep doing it (maybe send them to Alaska or something).

    I would be totally happy to have pedophiles ordained while in prison! A convicted pedophile who is ordained could probably convince other pedophiles to abandon their evil ways. They just shouldn’t be allowed to look after children. But if a member of the clergy becomes a pedophile it’s a different story, they have grossly failed to fulfill their mission and should be defrocked and coerced to contact the police and make a full confession.

    Acts matter more than words. Priests are good at talking about morality (apart from at least one stupid bishop) but collectively they can’t demonstrate it in real life.

  • etbe

    sam: What relevance does that image (which appears to be a copy of something from Jack Chick) have with this post?

  • Brendan

    We donate to the Smith Family because we’ve been told the Salvos are more interested in building empires than helping people by a friend in the charity sector.

  • etbe

    Brendan: I am dubious about your claim regarding the Salvos, but the Smith Family seem to be doing some good things and they are apparently free of any influence by any religious organisation. One thing I particularly like is their aim for an evidence-based approach to solving problems. Religious charities are particularly prone to just making things up and then acting as if they were proven solutions.

    Now that you have drawn my attention to them I recall seeing adverts for the Smith Family. I find it difficult to believe that Cardinal Pell and his staff were unable to find any reference to the Smith Family in their search for non-religious community organisations. I suspect him of lying about this.

  • I wouldn’t donate via an explicitly religious group like the Salvation Army.

    The reasoning is most obvious with things like the Haitian Earthquake, where people gave money to the DEC, which gives money to the Catholic Aid agency which isn’t ring fenced, which the Catholic aid agency can use to displace it’s own funds, which it spends on abusing school children instead by teaching them incorrect historical facts, and indoctrinating them with daft religious ideas.

    So donating cash via groups like the DEC for earthquake relief means more cash is available for religious indoctrination in the UK. Not my idea of well targeted charitable giving, but others may disagree.

    Given there are plenty of secular charities that don’t waste cash on indoctrinating others, I think it is irrational for an atheist to donate via an explicitly religious organization. Or collectives groups that include religious organizations like the DEC.

    I’m sure the Salvation Army do a great deal of good work, but there are plenty of other deserving causes that aren’t churches.

  • John Walker

    Churches are human institutions , and as prone to going wrong as anything else that is human. I am not a catholic and thus could not comment on the internal dynamics of what is a very large and very disparate group.

    I am an anglican, who also has practiced a fair bit of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Somebody asked Evelyn Waugh; why it was that Evelyn Waugh despite being a very devote christian could be at times such a “bastard” Evelyn’s reply was : ‘You dont know what Id be like without it”. We are born very clever and very destructive monkeys .

    It is sort of true that the Nazis / Fascists et all were a sort of repose/caused by the individual freedom that modern free liberal societies grant . But moral panic is no way to live, and it is certainly not a quality of faith.

  • etbe

    Simon: Good point about the lack of fencing.

    John: Sure human institutions are prone to going wrong, but the problem is that the Catholic hierarchy doesn’t want to make it right. Why does the pope have so little interest in addressing these problems?

    The fact that some people like Evelyn Waugh might be less of a “bastard” because of being religious has nothing to do with the issue of supporting a morally bankrupt church. All the protestant churches formed because the Catholic church was too obviously corrupt for the population to stomach.

    There seems to be a correlation between Fascism and religion, but not in the direction you suggest. By today’s standards the level of individual freedom in the world was not particularly great 100 years ago, and the parts of the world that had the most individual freedom are the ones that didn’t get Fascistic governments.

    I think that a large part of the cause of autocratic governments was countries throwing off hereditary despots when the population knew little about any other sort of government which left things open for someone like Stalin or Hitler to take advantage of the situation.

  • John Walker

    The rise of the Nazis is one of those things :-lots of people have lots of ideas about causes. There is no doubt that the sort of freedoms for women , for gays ex cetera that the free liberal society grants causes panic in some older conservative circles.
    V S Naipaul was warning of this “moral panic”in parts of the Islamic world and the likely consequences, long before Sep 11 2001.

    The catholic church as an entity is old and very bureaucratic; change and dealing with change is not a strong point of such structures.
    The reformation and the general political crisis of 1550-1670ish had as much to do with the shear folly of a succession of popes as with anything else.
    The corruption at the time was very real, but few would describe the motives of Henry the eighth as all that pure.

  • etbe

    John: The fact that homosexuality was illegal in large parts of the non-fascist world long after WW2 (with Alan Turing being a case in point) shows that fascism was not related to freedom for homosexuals. It is true that the Women’s Suffrage movement was active in most parts of the developed world, but if this was one of the triggers for Fascism then it’s not an argument in favor of the world’s largest advocate of mysogeny – the Catholic Church.

    I don’t think that the Catholic Church is unable to make changes related to sexual issues, the above URL has a history of changes that they have made in the past. It’s not as if banning child molestation would be a difficult change to make, one would hope that the majority of the clergy already believe that child abuse and rape are bad things. It shouldn’t require much effort to change the “sex is bad – but only if it’s between consenting adults” stance of the Catholic Church.

  • John Walker

    I am talking about irrational -‘panic’, about things perceived in one country to be happening in other countries.
    Russia in 1917 was largely a pre-industrial country the reasons why it adopted marxisum had little to do with the actual internal reality of Russia at that time.

  • John Walker

    Regarding payments of support. The catholic church is much more centralised than most faiths. This has both strengths and weaknesses , they are a lot less prone to the extraordinary degree of splitting and sub-spliting typical of some parts of the lutheran branch of Christianity (something which is also common in the islamic faith). The inherent conservatism of the catholic faith has protected it from some of the worst forms of fundamentalist distortions of doctrine . In particular from the extreme anti-science positions of some american branches of the lutheran faith. Anybody at all can start a ‘church’ and thus there are some very strange sects in the protestant world.
    But this centralisation of authority in the catholic faith dose make it harder for the laity to withhold support to the central church without ditching support for the specific hometown church that they attend and also importantly to have a real say in the appointment of clergy.

    Why they are handling this so badly is a difficult question, but I would it has more to do with folly than badness.

  • The Salvation Army gets all pissy at a Tim Minchin song appearing on the CD even though the artists get nothing and the proceeds go to the Salvos.
    To my ear “White Wine In The Sun” beautifully expresses a healthy and positive spirit of the solstice celebration and what it means to us. I get moist eyes listening to either of Tim’s or Kate’s versions.
    As for the Salvos’s attitude:

    We hope the Australian community understands how important these funds are for us in supporting services for disadvantaged and marginalised members of the community, even though we do not in any way support the statements made in this song

    The song expresses the man’s joy of celebrating the solstice with his family. It condemns both dodgy sentiment and consumerism that is rampant at this time, and focusses on love and togetherness.
    If the Salvos can’t do charitable work without bristling whenever religious dogma is criticised, then we have plenty of secular alternatives including Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam, Amnesty International, International Red Cross, and lots of other specific charities. They can all do their work regardless of whether you criticise religion.
    We even have the Smith Family helping disadvantaged families using evidence-based and community-forming approaches, so the Salvos can kiss goodbye any hope of our charity money.


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Wednesday, September 01, 2004

That Greek word again

The theme of hypocrisy in European thinking was taken up by the Washington Times, with Erick Stakelbeck pointing to an interesting development.

The European Union, which had condemned Israel in no uncertain terms for building a security fence to keep out terrorists and whose members all voted to support yet another UN resolution, which demanded that the fence be dismantled, is … ahem … planning to build a security fence.

This one, presumably, will not be “contrary to international law” as the Israeli one was angrily described by Javier Solana, since it is not intended to keep out terrorists or suicide bombers but “to prevent the free movement of migrants seeking to enter” EU territory. Phew. That’s all right then.

It is perhaps worth pointing out that because of the fence yesterday’s suicide bomb that killed 12 people in a busy shopping area was the first since March and another potential bomber was caught at the fence as many others had been. One hopes that these unfortunate terrified children are treated well and sent back to their mothers.

To be fair Solana condemned the killings. But he has also condemned the attempt to stop them. What exactly does he think is the right thing to do?

A security fence that separates Hungary and Poland from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus is precisely what many critics of EU enlargement predicted. It will once again cut the countries outside off from Europe and separate families that live on either side of the border. The iron curtain will move eastward and stay there. Perhaps, if the EU officials and the Israeli contractors who, adding insult to injury, are being broght over to help build the barrier, look around carefully, they will find remnants of the old barbed wire, minefields and look-out towers. All of these can be put to good use.

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European Commission - Press release

New partnership between EU and UN Women to enhance gender equality worldwide

Brussels, 16 April 2012 - A new partnership between the EU and UN Women set up to strengthen cooperation between the two organizations on their work on empowering women and gender equality, was today signed by High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/ Vice President of the Commission Catherine Ashton and Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs, with Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Michelle Bachelet.

The new Memorandum of Understanding signed on the margin of the EU Sustainable Energy for All Summit in Brussels, reaffirms the partnership between the two organisations to support gender equality and women’s empowerment around the world and ensures closer collaboration; sharing information, expertise and analysis in order to effectively advance women’s rights.

Cooperation will primarily focus on ensuring women’s representation in decision- making in the fields of economics, politics and justice worldwide, as well as better access for women to work and social opportunities.

Crucially, the partnership will see the two organisations coming together to take action on combating sexual and gender-based violence. This will include a commitment to provide more support and protection to survivors of violence and increasing access to support and services for those women affected.

Catherine Ashton said: "Discrimination against women and girls remains the most pervasive and persistent form of inequality. Together with UN Women we will work to improve the role of women in political and economic decision-making. We will also fight impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence, ensure better protection of women and improve their access to justice. These are issues that need our full attention and this new partnership enhances our ability to work even harder to reach these goals."

EU Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs added: "As I travel around the world, I can see that women are the agents of change. There will be no human and economic development without a sound respect of women’s rights and conditions. This is a fundamental part of the development policy that I wish to champion. I'm convinced that this partnership will take our collaboration with UN Women to a new level, ensuring more efficiency and better support to women all over the world."

UN Women Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director Michelle Bachelet said: “The full participation of women strengthens democracy, peace and sustainable development globally. By signing this strategic partnership, the European Union and UN Women reaffirms their strong commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. This partnership builds on on-going collaboration in several areas of work. The EU is a very important partner to UN Women and the MoU will enhance our co-operation on policies and programmes which make a difference in the lives of millions of women and girls worldwide.”

The partnership will involve the two organisations working together on policies and programmes on gender equality and women's empowerment. It will also mean that relevant information, analysis and strategic assessments are regularly shared in order to improve collaboration.

The EU and UN Women are already working together regularly, for example, on the Increasing Accountability in Financing for Gender Equality Progamme, set up to help national governments; civil society and donors to improve resources and accountability on gender equality in 15 countries. A program recently started on enhancing women’s participation in peace-building and post-conflict planning in Liberia, Timor-Leste and Kosovo. The new Memorandum of Understanding confirms this partnership.

EU's work on gender

The Commission has a crucial role to play in furthering the development of women and girls. Since 2004, for example, thanks to EU support: more than 85,000 new female students have been enrolled in secondary education, more than 4 million births attended by health personnel and 10.8 million consultations on reproductive health carried out.

EU Sustainable Energy for All Summit – the Gender dimension

On 16 April, the European Commission and the Danish Presidency of the EU Council are organising the EU Sustainable Energy for All Summit. The afternoon session of this event will focus on gender and access to sustainable energy for women where Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Michelle Bachelet will provide the keynote address.

Women are disproportionately adversely affected by the lack of modern energy services. Energy plays a major role in women's daily lives; in practical uses, such as cooking and processing food and collecting water, and in meeting their wider needs; allowing them to study in the evenings, providing street lighting for safety, and enabling communication.

This Summit is being hosted by President José Manuel Barroso and EU Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs. Other high level participants include the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, as well as representatives from developing countries, industry and civil society organisations committed to achieving sustainable energy for all by 2030. This ambitious goal was set up by a High Level Group, led by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, of which Commissioner Piebalgs is a member.

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Spiritual Warfare is Guerrilla Warfare

Spiritual warfare is hardly a neat war between the uniformed armies of equal countries, snapping up this bit of land with all those nice mines and factories in it or grabbing up that lucrative trade route. Spiritual warfare is guerrilla warfare. Satan is in a rebellion against God, so he can hardly sign a peace treaty and must fight to the bitter end, with dire consequences for humanity. Although we are bound up in an irregular war that defies neat solutions, although Christians are on the legitimate side and have to follow rules that the enemy does not, and although the smallest failure is a setback for the kingdom of God, Christians are free to pursue unconventional solutions, rely upon power that the enemy will never have, and the smallest victory is a step forward for the kingdom of God.

Although war is not perfectly one or the other, there are two kinds of warfare: conventional and unconventional. Regular armies are conventional while guerrillas are unconventional. Conventional war is about which legitimate authority gets to control this or that, but unconventional war is about which people get to control this or that. Conventional wars have the potential to get all wrapped up in a few days: we lob a few grenades at each other, I take what I want, we sign a peace treaty, and maybe we will have another go in the next decade. Unconventional wars have the potential to last for decades: you decide that you do not like the way that I am running the place, you think you can do it better, so you start shooting, but when my army gets through with you, you will face the police.

Any decent guerrilla war covers everything from the conversion of individual minds to taking control of the state. Guerrilla operatives can be anything from missionaries for the cause, gun men and bomb throwers for the armed conflict, to the political masterminds behind the whole struggle. Guerrillas can gain the conversion of individual minds by persuasion or by terror, and once they gain political power, they start enforcing their rules with legal rigor. Leaving aside the question of the proper role of Christianity in politics, spiritual warfare has a great deal to do with whether individual people take their cues from God or something else. Demonic possession is like guerrillas overrunning a provincial town, rounding up and shooting all the people who helped the government. Unless the locals really want the guerrillas out, it does not matter how many times government forces defeat them in pitched battle, and even government victories can increase guerrilla influence and control over locals.

Christians go back and forth between being uniformed members of a regular army and guerrilla fighters hiding in the wilderness. On the one end, there is all the formality of Roman Catholic canon law and Baptist church constitutions and bylaws, and on the other end, there is all the disorganization of huddled house church members in the 10/40 Window and the odd convert who picked up an FEBC radio broadcast. Satan’s rule has a similar spread, but even his most formally established control is based upon bribes of stolen goods and intimidation. Christians have the definite promise that Jesus will come back and roll Satan’s evil up very neatly and dump it into hell, while Satan can only fling doubts about God’s sovereignty and sincerity, going on to counterfeit God’s truth to hoodwink people who do not want to stay in the oblivion of skepticism. There is no way that Satan is going to win, but Christians have much to gain for the kingdom rule of God by winning souls for God.

One thing that my dad said is that Satan only has to get a person to look away from God just a little bit for him to win in that person’s life. Never mind that the person is not worshiping Satan, that they serve the poor, or are painstakingly honest on their tax forms, if they do not trust God, they are lost to God and ultimately to themselves. In the same way, Christians can start to win and then turn over and sow their own future destruction. In The Gulag Archipelago, Alexander Solzhenitsyn writes,

If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Satan is able to use the spiritual corruption of individual Christians, especially leaders, to damage the apparent legitimacy of the Church as the Body of Christ. When Christians become so focused on the badness of evil that they forget to tend to their own “political indoctrination” in the ways of God’s love and joy, they inadvertently give themselves over to Satan. If they do not continue their own personal struggles for holiness and living out the fullness of the love of God through death to self and resurrection with Christ, then they lose the war on the home front and become fifth-columnists for Satan. Keeping proper attention to personal devotion to the Lord even opens up the possibility of martyrdom, but Christians forget that martyrs are very, very useful for guerrilla movements.

In 1 Corinthians 1, St. Paul talks about God’s foolishness being wiser than the wisdom of men and his weakness being stronger than their strength. God has allowed veritable Christian empires in Byzantium and Middle Ages Europe, and he has allowed his people to suffer the most abject persecution, and that for decades and centuries. Undoubtedly it would be nice to have certain Christian leaders from crises past to lead us again–surely they would know how to solve everything bothering us today. Wouldn’t St. Paul be able to put Richard Dawkins to the sword in debate? Wouldn’t the Apostles be able to run the Taliban into the ground for Jesus? Never mind the fact that all of the greats I just named died as martyrs or exiles. Christians cannot choose the trials they face, so whether we face bloody martyrdom or spit in our food from a grouchy diner chef, we have to follow the example of two great saints of the faith discussing the trials set before them:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Christ came to empty himself even to the point of death (Philippians 2), and until his Second Coming, Christians have no power to improve upon his methods. Perhaps God will grant spectacular mass conversions, perhaps he will grant the honor of martyrdom, or perhaps he will stick us somewhere in between with lots of hard work as we minister soul by soul. For the moment we must stick at deciding what to do with the time that is given us, living out the gospel and not betraying it in the process.

  • Michael Snow

    A faithful example: one who did not betray it in the process http://spurgeonwarquotes.wordpress.com/

  • Annie Bennett Atkinson

  • Born Again Ministry

    This blog is giving us the detail about Jesus and the spirituality.Spiritual Warfare is a topic that the bible spends a lot of time on, but today’s churches spend so very little.Its good to teach peoples about spiritual warfare.Thank you much more for sharing the post.


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With the said question marks the topic, I admit that this is the very way that I stumbled across Everything, and ultimately being addicted to it.

About a year ago, March of 2000, I was aimlessly browsing one day while working for the local ISP NetNet. I went to my normal online news sources, including ShugaShack, New York Times Online, CNet, and of course, Slashdot. While reading one of the articles about the future of the Iridium network, or about The Borg raising hell with the district courts, I noticed a small question mark about one of the mundane computer terms. Not knowing what the hell the word or the question mark meant, I clicked on the question mark.

Cue scene in 'Contact' where Jodie Foster gets sucked through the slipstream and onto that island in space . . .

Whoa and behold Everything2.com! What is this? Why is the screen so blindingly white? Who is rescdsk?

Let the good times roll . . .

A suggestion that has cropped up a few times is that slashdot should recognise square brackets as hard links to e2. This would certainly encourage /. users to take advantage of this beautiful resource that we have here.

This PHP function is the one I use on ascorbic.net, and I use a variant that also adds title attributes in the E2 Chatterbox Archive. Pass it your text with hard links and pipe links, and it will return it with HTML links to the E2 node. Enjoy.

function everythingize($source)
	$r="'$2'";
	$source= preg_replace($pat,$r,$source);
	$r="'$1'";
	return preg_replace($pat,$r,$source);

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text:
A dastardly, malevolent, impudent railer against the powers that be.

Derived from Thersites, a deformed, scurrilous officer in the Greek army which went to the siege of Troy. He was always railing at the chiefs, and one day Achilles felled him to the earth with his fist and killed him. (Homer: Iliad.)

    “He squinted, halted, gibbous was behind,
    And pinched before, and on his tapering head
    Grew patches only of the flimsiest down.
    ... Him Greece had sent to Troy,
    The miscreant, who shamed his country most.”
    Cowper's Translation, book ii.

gathered from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

Thesites is a character in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. A malformed Greek, Thersites wanders around the Greek camp commentating cynically on all around him. His protector, Achilles is the only person who doesn't despise him (rather ironic given what Homer says about his death)

Ina similar way to the Fool in King Lear, Thersites often provides the most insight into events. He speaks the famous lines

. . . lechery, lechery; still,
wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion."

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text:
A children's game played with a big rubber ball the size of a soccer ball. Very similar to baseball in that there are bases, three outs an inning per team, and the scoring is the same. Different in that the ball is rolled instead of pitched, has to be kicked to be put in play, and nobody uses a glove. Various neighborhood rules include...

  • Indian Rubber

    The ability to get a runner out by hitting him with the ball. Otherwise, only tagging or force outs are allowed (a la baseball).

  • Headhunting

    Throwing the ball at a person's head. Generally considered illegal unless the person moves their head into the ball.

  • Leading & Stealing

    Leading - the ability to step away from the base before the ball is kicked.
    Stealing - the ability to take another base before the ball is kicked.

    I have yet to see a kickball game that allowed stealing. Interpretations of leading allow for some pretty big leads, but the prospect of Indian Rubber usually discourages them.

  • Fouls To Midnight

    The ability to continuously kick balls in foul territory without penalty. An alternate of this rule would be three fouls and you're out.

  • Do-Over

    Perhaps the easiest way to settle a kickball dispute. Simply do it all over again. Everyone returns to where they were before the argument, and play resumes as though nothing happened.

  • Into

    Pronounced in-tow, short for interference. Any kicked ball that hits a tree branch, power line, or is in any other way altered by existing structures is called an Into. An Into almost always becomes a do-over.

  • D.C.

    "Doesn't Count". Refers to a younger person who wants to play, but whose talent would be detremental to the team in question. Their actions at the plate are ignored in the grand scheme of the game, but this way they aren't excluded and can still have fun with the big kids. The abbreviation is used to prevent the yute from learning the truth about his kickball status.

    Also known as a Washington.

  • Spinning

    The art of putting spin on a rolled ball such that kicking it often results in a foul ball or a pop up.

All rule variations must be discussed prior to the game to avoid any permanent friendship endings (which usually last two days). The typical pre-game meeting between kickball captains goes something like this:
     OK.  Fouls to midnight, leading but no stealing,
     Indian Rubber but no headhunting.

     Right.  Into's a do-over, OK.

     And Eddie's a D.C.

     Eddie?  Why?

     He can't kick.

          (beginning to pout)
     Come on!

     Look, he has to go inside in ten minutes anyway.

          (in full-out pout mode)
     OK, fine.  But no spinning, then!

As well as the name of a game, it's also the name of the ball used to play the same game. These balls are usually 8 to 10 inches in diameter and made of rubber or a rubber like material. Typically inflated with 6 to 8 pounds of air. They are also usually red in color, although I have seen orange, blue, yellow, and even green variations. They're generally fun to fool around with too.

While I can fully appreciate the writeups above, I do feel that there is something most important to add:

Kickball: It's not just for kids anymore!

Yesterday, I performed my first duties as the official captain of a kickball team, organising my group for a quick, dusk-shortened scrimmage with another. The teams which participated were just two of the thirteen that exist in Northern Virginia which, alone, has three divisions.

At this point, I'm sure you're probably shaking your head, thinking, "Kickball divisions?".

Let me assure you that it's true. It's all true.

Since its inception in 1998, the World Adult Kickball Association, or WAKA, has continued to grow at an astounding pace, with 13 divisions currently existing in the DC/Virginia/Maryland area alone, where it originated. Beyond the beltway, it had expanded to three divisions in California and one in Ohio. In 2003, the growth has been explosive, however. Today, there are now divisions in the process of forming, all across the United States, in cities such as "Atlanta, Denver, Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, L.A., Orange County, San Diego, Portland, Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Chicago, NYC, Boston, and others."1

"Everybody Loves Kickball(TM)" is the WAKA motto, and it is proving to ring true. This is my second year playing; after having enjoyed it so much last season, I ended up with my own team!

Some background:
  • Adult league kickball pretty much follows most of the same rules you played as kids -- in fact, WAKA even has its own official rulebook, to give some semblance of order to the many permutations listed in earlier writeups. In addition, there are referees (usually members of another team) to make sure everything is played correctly.

  • Games are five innings long.

  • WAKA games use an official, red Baden 10-inch playground ball. It's not as easy to kick as you might recall it being, either.

  • WAKA bills itself as "A social-athletic organization". Yes indeed, the emphasis is on social, because:

  • There is a World Championship of Kickball, where competing teams vie for the coveted Founder's Cup.

In the end, although a lot of people might view it with some skepticism, virtually all who play adult league kickball end up enjoying it. You probably would too!

WAKA's website can be found at: http://www.worldkickball.com/

1 - http://www.worldkickball.com/home.html

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text:
Kid-Friendly Lunch: Snackin’ Lunch

on Sep 20, 12 • by • with 2 Comments

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Home » Evolving Kids, Kid Friendly Lunch » Kid-Friendly Lunch: Snackin’ Lunch

Maddy is a snacker. If I let her she would snack all day long. So for lunch it’s a bento box filled with yummy and healthy snack food to fill her up and satisfy her snack tooth.

What’s in the Bento:

  • Cheddar cheese flowers
  • Pepperoni flowers
  • Cherry tomatoes from our garden
  • Baby carrots
  • Whole wheat crackers
  • Prunes
  • Honey whole wheat pretzels
  • Roasted almonds
  • Red Grapes
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2 Responses to Kid-Friendly Lunch: Snackin’ Lunch

  1. Donna says:

    This looks great. You get crunch sweet and salty. Yum!

  2. Those are so cute. I need to get a little more creative!

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text:
RERO Distribution Companies, Inc., Rochester, N.Y., acquired Brady Supply Corp., Elmira, N.Y., in a move that expands its coverage of the Allen-Bradley line and further expands its industrial market operations.

Brady Supply has operated in southern New York since 1931 and had 1998 sales of $7 million. RERO reported $85 million in 1998 sales.

RERO plans to merge its Elmira branch with Brady's headquarters, Herrmann says. The new facility will feature more than 4,000 sq ft of office space, an expanded retail sales counter and more than 200,000 cubic ft of warehouse space.

The Hassett family, former owners of Brady Supply, have retired from the business. Karen Gizzi will be branch manager for RERO's Elmira operations.


text:
The SHMUNMAP procedure is used to remove a memory segment previously created by SHMMAP from the IDL session. In addition, it may remove the memory segment from the system. (Whether the memory segment is removed from the system depends on the type of segment, and on the arguments used with SHMMAP when the segment was initially attached.) If no variables from the current IDL session are accessing the segment (that is, if the IDL-maintained reference count is 0), the segment is removed immediately. If variables in the current IDL session are still referencing the segment, the segment is marked for removal when the last such variable drops its reference.

During this UnmapPending phase:

  • The segment still exists in the system, so attempts to use SHMMAP to create a new segment with the same SegmentName will fail.
  • Additional calls to SHMVAR to attach new variables to this segment will fail.

Note: IDL has no way to determine whether a process other than itself is accessing a shared memory segment. As a result, it is possible for IDL to destroy a memory segment that is in use by another process. The specific details depend on the type of memory segment, and the options used with SHMMAP when the segment was loaded. When creating applications that use shared memory, you should ensure that all applications that use the segment (be they instances of IDL or any other application) communicate regarding their use of the shared memory and act in a manner that avoids this pitfall.

To destroy a memory segment previously created by SHMMAP with the segment name myseg:

SHMUNMAP, 'myseg'

SHMUNMAP, SegmentName

A scalar string containing the IDL name for the shared memory segment, as assigned by SHMMAP.

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© 2015 Exelis Visual Information Solutions


text:
Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Jump to: navigation, search

The following tagline appears at the top of the xkcd main page, regardless of which comic is being viewed.

xkcd: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

It's a kind of general mission statement for the xkcd comics. Nowhere is there a mention of humor, though it doesn't exclude it. In fact, there are some true downers.

In the early days (until april 2006) the tagline read as:

A webcomic of romance and geek humor. Updated on time every M/W/F since 1779.

(Old versions of the site can be viewed here.)

Personal tools

It seems you are using noscript, which is stopping our project wonderful ads from working. Explain xkcd uses ads to pay for bandwidth, and we manually approve all our advertisers, and our ads are restricted to unobtrusive images and slow animated GIFs. If you found this site helpful, please consider whitelisting us.

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text:
Home / News / News Features / Stalled Water Compact Progresses

Stalled Water Compact Progresses

Compromise is more like a few small tweaks

Apr. 16, 2008
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A new draft of the Great Lakes Basin Compact has been tentatively agreed to by Gov. Jim Doyle, Senate Democrats and once-reluctant Assembly Republicans. Heralded as a “compromise” when it was announced last week in New Berlin, the draft compact includes clearer rules on when communities would be allowed to take water out of the Great Lakes basin; preserves a Great Lakes governor’s one-vote veto over water diversions outside of the basin; and creates statewide conservation water guidelines.

Assembly Republicans had wanted to make more extensive changes to the compact—changes so extensive that all eight Great Lakes governors would have had to renegotiate the agreement. Legislatures in four of the eight Great Lakes states have already approved the current version of the compact.

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem) and state Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford) had attempted to work with Ohio Republicans to establish a majority veto rule, instead of the one-vote veto provision. But that Wisconsin-Ohio effort went nowhere.

“Without a doubt the biggest thing that we got done was beating back the attempt to change the compact itself,” said Patrick Henderson, deputy secretary of the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR). “Rep. Gunderson said it himself last week at the press conference that that’s a major give by him. The compact itself didn’t change. The biggest change is what didn’t happen.”

Henderson said he felt Assembly Republicans wanted to clarify language in the compact so that they felt more confident about supporting the agreement. “A lot of it was education,” Henderson said.

Although details are still being hammered out and amendments will most likely be offered by individual legislators, Henderson said the current draft of the compact includes the following provisions: Long-distance diversions out of the Great Lakes basin are banned.

All water taken out of the Great Lakes must be returned to the Great Lakes basin and the discharged water must meet all current water quality standards. Mukwonago, a community that straddles both Waukesha County and Walworth County, would be able to apply for Great Lakes water. Its application could be vetoed by one governor.

Because a portion of it lies within the Great Lakes basin, New Berlin would be able to get permission for water diversions from the state DNR. It would not be subject to the onegovernor veto after the compact passes. Waukesha County and other “straddling counties” that are partially within the Great Lakes basin would continue to have their water requests subject to the one-governor veto.

Water conservation programs would be mandatory within the Great Lakes basin and optional outside of the basin. But communities that apply for Great Lakes water would have to implement a water conservation program before making a water request.

Gov. Doyle has called a special session for the Legislature to take up the compact on April 17, although Henderson said it seemed unlikely that the Legislature would debate the compact on that date.

What’s your take? Write: editor@shepex.com or comment on this story online at www.expressmilwaukee.com.

Scott Walker has proposed virtually eliminating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. If passed, do you believe that Walker’s proposal would directly or indirectly impact the health of you or your children?

Getting poll results. Please wait...


text:
EeE Archival Publication Collection EeE Archival Publication Collection

This fact sheet explores basic methods for control and prevention of subterranean termites with and without insecticides. (1p.) Thumbnail for How to Control Subterranean Termites/Termitas subterráneas
(E-137/E-137S)
(PDF File)

Click this image to download the English PDF

Click this image to download the Spanish PDF

By William P. Morrison
Submitting Institution(s): Texas Cooperative Extension
Language(s): English and Spanish Versions Available
Released: 12/01 (New)
Review Level: 2

Extensión en Español is an archival site. The content is no longer updated, but the site will remain online to allow continued access to existing content.

Click here to review our Accessibility status


text:
Privacy collects only the minimum amount of information necessary to process your order. We will not email or phone you except in regard to a pending order or in response to your inquiries and support requests.
If you have subscribed to our optional newsletter we may also send you exclusive coupons and discounts for use on our site from time to time.
We do not under any circumstances sell, rent, or otherwise provide information gathered at this site to any third party!
Cookies are used only within the shop area of this site. A cookie is a small text file used to enable the secure shopping cart to function correctly. The cookies we use do not contain sensitive information or personally identifying details and do not track your online activity outside of our website.
Your vaporizer will arrive in a sturdy plain brown box and will not list the contents anywhere on the outside of the package. The return address will read simply "Warehouse". Your credit or debit card statement will be billed discreetly as "EZVP" followed by a private customer service number.
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text:
View Single Post
      11-09-2012, 01:20 AM   #21
Second Lieutenant

Drives: e90 328i
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Mission SJ CA

iTrader: (0)

Originally Posted by Racer Louis View Post
Perhaps a little background may help people calm down, even though I'm sure everyone feels like I do -- I really find it hard being patient only because I can't wait to drive the car again after driving it for 3 weeks in Europe.

The ship with my car reached the port of entry about midnight October 27th, the car got to the VPC (about 1 1/2 miles away) on the 28th. It is still at the VPC.

HOWEVER, I have been to this VPC several times in the past and I was there last week -- I have never seen so many cars in the lot as there are now. In the past it was very rare for the lot to be half full, now it is completely full. U. S. Customs even has an impound lot at the VPC and it looks like they can't get one more car in their lot. And this is on the west coast, I understand that the situation is pretty much the same at the other VPCs. And this was before the east coast storm. The VPCs are swamped with cars!

As far as your dealer knowing where the car is, my dealer previously told me when the car reached the VPC -- on the day after it actually did. She called me yesterday to tell me that the status report showed the VPC started working on the car yesterday! Your dealer should be able to do the same, if they want to!

If you were familar with the history of BMW deliveries you'd know that because of workload and other issues it isn't all that unusual that a car can be at a VPC for up to two weeks. If we don't know what is involved in getting the cars ready for and getting to the dealer, how long it actually takes, how many cars can be handled in a day by a particular VPC, etc. it is easy for us to think it can be done in a day. The problem is, we don't know what we don't know; if we knew maybe we'd understand.

I'm as anxious as anyone, but I'm trying to understand. I also understand that BMW has an interest in getting cars into the hands of customers because it doesn't count as a 'sale' in that great race with M-B and Audi until they do.

Hang in there, the car is worth it!
I have been to VPC several times as well.

My beef is that there are cars that were made two weeks after my drop off in germany on 9/16. Made a boat that only left a week behind my boat. That car is delivered before mine.

I am furious because BMW has not told me anything after monday.

So far BMW has wasted 4.5 weeks on delivery of my car.

My car made to port on 9/19. But it missed Fidelio that left on 9/28. I made cephues leader on 10/1. Why did my car set until 10/1 is beyond me. At worse case I would have been on Fidelio that left 9 days after my car reaches port.

2. Cepheus leader arrived on 10/25. The custom was cleared on 26th. But BMW told me they go my car on 30th, which is BS. Because their own website showed my car at VPC on 28th.

3. I had a little chip on my rear bumper that requires new paint. But from 10/28 to today 11/8. A total of 11 days. I have no idea what is going on.

The fact that a later car made earlier than mine is not acceptable.
-13 F10 M5 6MT (Amazonite Silver)