Lucky

I finished Absolute Monarchs, the one-volume history of the papacy. Interesting to note that after having reviewed some pretty unsavory popes, the author saves his harshest words for Pope Pius XII. The head of the church in World War Two was horribly anti-Semitic and refused to try to stop the deportation of Jews from Italy to Auschwitz. Not only that, he was racist, refusing to allow the Allies to employ any colored soldiers at the Vatican. The author decries the act of John Paul II to canonize Pius XII. Lest anyone think it was all bad, there were good popes who tried to do right. Sadly, the Curia, or Vatican bureaucracy, usually stood in the way. The current pope, Benedict, with hat: The current pope in sleeveless t-shirt:

Well, then why did I make this huge mistake? The game he is pitching is today, not Sunday! Check your FOX station.

I saw that too. Rich Rio. No wonder I can't afford it anymore.

Some questions are best left unasked.

I find gay priests who preach one thing and do another to be distasteful. I know many good gay priests, or I did at one time. They have a hard time of things because the church won't let them be who they are, yet they feel a calling to the ministry. But all of the stuff the nuns taught me in grade school was so much bullshit and I do resent it when the church comes along and tells me that I am the one who is intrinsically evil. A robe and a pointed hat does not make one holy!

I think Mr. Hinkle got himself outed for sheer stupidity. Why would he feel the need to show the kid his legislative ID? It scared the kid, and then apparently the stupid legislator decided a little false imprisonment was okay. Had he just had sex and sent the kid on his way, no one would be talking about him today.

Well, it's 3 years later. I think the acne is gone now.

I've got a better story than that, but I figured why hurt a fellow gay guy who was just trying to have fun. He (this other guy of whom I am speaking) shouldn't have bragged about his position though. Otherwise I would never have known who he is. I think if a gay guy (or girl) gets himself elected to office, he then has a new responsibility not to injure the community. But in this case, if I just kept my mouth shut, no harm, no foul. This time. The next guy might not be so nice.

One of the hottest and handsomest players in baseball will be pitching against the Yankees on Sunday, so check your local listings. I get Extra Innings on cable, which gives me 80 games a week, and, of course, I watch the Yankees nearly every day. But Jeremy Hellickson is a dreamboat. Beautiful twinky look with ruby red lips, I hope he last a good 8 innings before the Yankees cream him! I couldn't find a single pic on the internet of him with a smile on his face.

If you are not familiar with gawker.com, the smarmy attitude in its writing is its hallmark. They are not a homophobic site. The material they write about is well-documented, so why not let that be the source of any irritation?

I am currently reading Absolute Monarchs, a history of the papacy. We get to see them all, warts, children, and all. When I went to school, my nun had me believing all of the things she told me. I thought that when the Cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel, that Divine Providence in the form of the Holy Spirit actually guided the Cardinals to pick God's choice. Well, it doesn't happen that way. Popes fight to get the job, they bribe their way into it, and they enjoy it while they can, for many don't last long. The favorite pope of MER might be Pope Julius III, a "competent" canon lawyer in the 1500's. The Holy Man "was better known for his infatuation with a seventeen-year old boy, somewhat inappropriately named Innocenzo, whom he had picked up in the streets of Parma two years before and whom on his accession he instantly made a cardinal...Here again was a typical Rennaissance pope, shamelessly self-indulgent...whose banquets...tended to deteriorate into homsoexual orgies after the principal guests had taken their leave... he died of starvation in 1555."

Embarrassed by the recent turmoil in the US government, the Statue of Liberty announced today that she will be closing. "I can no longer proudly represent the values of a country which ignores their very foundation," the statue said. "What was once a great democracy is now in shambles, and I will not be a part of it." Government authorities meanwhile are trying to put a different spin on it, saying that the statue will be closing, but only for a year, for "maintenance" issues. Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/nyregion/statue-of-liberty-will-close-for-a-year-to-further-improve-safety.html?hp

Gawker.com reveals in what is for them a long article about the ex-bishop of Miami and his secret gay underground, wherein favored gay priests were rewarded and debauchery went unpunished. It's pretty interesting reading: (Bishop) Favalora, who was the most powerful Catholic official in Southern Florida from 1994 until last year, stands accused of cultivating what one group of pissed-off Catholics describes as a corrupt "homosexual superculture" in the 195 churches, schools, missions, seminaries, and universities that constitute the Miami Archdiocese. If their allegations are to be believed, for sixteen years Favalora ran his organization like the don of a lavender mob, rewarding his favorite homosexual sons and forgiving their many indiscretions—rampant sex, hedonism, embezzlement, alcoholism, and the railroading of chaste priests among them—while punishing those with the temerity to complain. Wanton hedonistic gay sex is of course unobjectionable—even encouraged!—among those not in thrall to the idea that God hates your penis. http://gawker.com/5825254/the-catholic-churchs-secret-gay-cabal

Perhaps we should implore President Obama to moderate this debate. He would have us start off by insisting that the number of posts in each forum be equal, thus causing some nonpolitical posts to go from the Hooboy Pub to the Politics forum. Then he would promise to become a fierce advocate for those of who want to consolidate the forums, thus ensuring that no change ever gets made. Shortly thereafter, the website will be seized by its creditors and sold to Fred Phelps.

So, if a city is not on the list, can that be considered an endorsement by MER of the safety of the city? Are the same cities on the list at nighttime? What other variables might make the city a less likely candidate for the list? Is it possible that the list is funded by the cities themselves as a roundabout way to encourage tourism to those places? And who is Fred Smith?

This topic is way too political for me to consider, and I resent seeing it here among the main discussions of the group. Shouldn't there be a separate forum for hotbed stuff like this? We need all of the space we can get for inane videos of little kids brutalizing grown up songs! And, in case I am not clear here, consider this:

This is a Bruno Mars song, much more enjoyable when he sings it. I can picture him "letting it all hang loose" or close to that, not these kids.

I am glad that you like the graph, DarnTop82. If you have read my other posts over time, you won't find me saying many good things about Congress or Obama either. I think they have all let us down. I think the riots in Great Britain are a sign of neglect of the affected youth and an indication that their needs should be heard. I did not characterize any ethnicity in the gun thing. Joe Blow could be any color. he could even be a woman.

You are welcome. When I saw such a succinct and clear look at the debt problem, I couldn't resist.

For most of us, life is different than it was in 1776. The country has grown beyond anything the Founding Fathers could have imagined. Big government requires smart people to run it. And we do have big government, not just to smite the Tea Party, but because we have a big population. Do we want the finest people running it(in theory) or do we want to continually turn the job over to rank amateurs? There is waste in government. The Bush wars, the Bush tax cuts- they compounded what was a solvable problem. Let's cut defense spending, cut out waste across the government, reduce eligibility for social services based upon need. Let the rich pay a tax rate higher than the one their secretary pays. Those are my Tea Party goals, and I don't even like tea!

Final thoughts on this subject. We all get to post in essentially open forums, dividing some subjects by categories to make it easier to find a particular topic. Politics is one of those forums, and it does help one looking for those subjects to easily find what he wants to see. Yet, many of us think politics is important enough to put in the general discussion group, not only because we want the topic to get the most readership, but because politics is an essential form of gay life. Had we not engaged in some politics of our own, we might still be patronizing Mafia bars and hiding our faces when the place was raided. The idea that we can post anything within reasonable guidelines helps increase the flow of conversation here, that conversation, I believe, being the very life of the place. Why some just cannot fathom coming across a political topic makes me think of women jumping on a table and screeching when they see a mouse. We are grown ups, yet sometimes we act like grade schoolers. There is an endless supply of butt shots, reminding me of trips taken with grade school boys where the first thing we hit was the Playboy newsstand. It's a commentary on us that butts are more popular than politics. And don't think I don't like seeing the butt shots. I appreciate the work of those like EXPAT, zipperzone, lurkerspeaks, and others to bring us the best choices. But I do wade through a lot of stuff that I don't care to see. Guys who post videos and expect us to watch it without any idea of what it is or why I might like it are just lazy. Why not tell us what you have so we can decide if we want to watch? At least on a politics thread you can soon discern its topic and move on. You didn't have to open up a video link and start watching. In short, in a community forum such as this, with multiple people and multiple interests, we come across much that does not interest everyone. Why single out politics as something akin to a mouse or fingers on a chalkboard? It demeans the rest of us who might have developed the interest and care more about the world than where the next butt pic is coming from. (And again, don't get me wrong, I like butt shots.) So, let's keep the spirit of openness and not impose restrictions on political threads as though they are some kind of rare fish that wouldn't interest us hedonists.

You jest!

You can go back and forth on term limits. In my opinion, it leaves a bunch of amateurs making big decisions. The whole country is on the decline anyway thanks to George W. Bush. His tax cuts and two unwanted wars have devastated the economy. Beyond that, his Republican appointees plundered the treasury to the extent they could, sharing it with their fat cat friends. They deregulated any meaningful laws to keep the environment or honest business practices flowing. Bush put Alito and Roberts on the Supreme Court to dismantle the Constitution. And they skillfully got Joe Blow to go along with it all in order to protect his right to bear a gun that he only uses when drunk.

A trip to China! How convenient. You can just bring your savings account and hand it right over to them, avoid the middleman!