Honestly, it's just so goddamn tiresome how much people project onto me because I am the owner of an email list. I have been accused of bias in my management of the list by gay Republicans who don't like the fact that people who don't agree with them post legitimate items; by gay radicals who claim that my posting legitimate items is shilling for Kerry (even when the items themselves criticize Kerry); by gay pro-lifers who don't like that someone else posted off-topic about abortion during the ten minutes a day when I wasn't checking my email; by small businesspeople who aren't as clever as other small businesspeople and thus don't realize that there are ways to promote their businesses that are not technically advertisements. Then there was the time when someone posted something off-charter and inflammatory. I happened to be online at the time and took immediate action, and yet multiple people wrote to me just to tell me that the post was offensive, as if I had anything to do with it. (Others wrote to thank me for my handling of the situation, which I appreciated.) Members of third parties accuse me of shilling for the major parties even though they themselves are free to post to the list and do so and even though the list rules are clear. Socialists attempt to post things that are clearly off-charter, and I block them, and then they accuse my organization of hindering their "efforts." People decide I am their new best friend because they get list mail from me. I have to explain the same rules over and over and over to stupid people who can't read. I have to say no to people I personally like because they can't/don't read the rules, and I have angst about it nearly every time. People who do know the rules ask for an exception because something is just sooooo important. Others subscribe to the idea that it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission. It's tiresome. It really is. Luckily there are usually enough rewards from doing the work that this stuff doesn't usually get me too down. But I have a right to complain anonymously in a blog that perhaps two people on earth will read, so here I am.
posted by Mad Anne Rackham at 3:33 AM

I am convinced that the Pope is no longer of sound mind (well, if he ever was) if he is still alive at all. I actually suspect this is a "Weekend at Bernie's" type situation, so I think I'll refer to him as Pope Bernie henceforth. Anyway, it's the evil and power-hungry subordinates around him who are putting out all of these hateful pronouncements and otherwise doing as much damage as they can before he finally officially kicks the bucket. The latest is that they, under Bernie's signature, appear about to endorse genetically modified foods despite the strong misgivings of those who actually work with the poor. Think the frankfoods industry bailed them out financially for their rape lawsuits or something? Anyway, that's neither here nor there as to the point that I actually write this to make. Which is, the Guardian story above quotes Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice-president of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life, as saying,

"There are no impediments to animal and vegetable biotechnologies. [They] can be justified with the motive that they are for the good of man."

Okay, so if you really believe that, then why do you oppose things like in-vitro fertilization, and for that matter condoms and most forms of birth control? Aren't these also for the good of man? But that would not further your agenda of control, would it? Jerks.
posted by Mad Anne Rackham at 1:56 AM

Geralyn Wolf, you continue to be a useless waste of protoplasm. I won't link to the ProJo piece, but the story is that in her usual stupid pursuit of a middle way, she voted the right way on Gene Robinson and the wrong way on liturgy to bless same-gender unions. She added in the article that:

she recognized that there were likely some priests in the church who are already performing them, but what is important is the norm. She said she has been very clear to her priests in Rhode Island that they are not to do same-sex blessings in any way, and "I would say this is the norm for us."

So let's see: you'll look the other way when your priests defy you because what is important is "the norm." What the hell does that even mean, other than that you are still so hidebound and order-obsessed but look the other way when people with actual spines do the right thing? That doesn't make you a benevolent ruler, though--just someone too chickenshit to actually stand up for your convictions, too cowardly to either do the right thing or to take an actual stand to stop or punish those who do. The middle way is no way at all. If you want peace, work for justice--don't just avoid conflict because you would prefer to just go to Taize services all day. It makes me sick that you can be surrounded by homosexual collaborators who do your work and prove their Christianity day in and day out (and not just by putting up with you, although that is of course proof of the patience of Job and lots of Christian charity), and yet you refuse to acknowledge their true humanity because that would mean rocking the boat.

Besides being so moronic, this is also a step backward for her. Back in the mid-90's, when the original local chapter of Integrity was around, her position was that priests were allowed to perform such ceremonies, but not on church property. I was disgusted by this, and when I heard in the same conversation that she wanted to come to an Integrity meeting, I said, "I guess that would be okay, but not on church property." Of course it was moot because she never came anyway.

So, my question for the homosexual collaborators who still wish and hope she'll eventually do the right thing: what kind of idiots are you? There should be a dysfunctional religion followers equivalent of Al-Anon that we could send these folks to to get them to learn to honor themselves because she never, ever will.


posted by Mad Anne Rackham at 4:33 AM

F*ck you, Jimmy Duncan! I think it is sad that there are so many moronic Republican whiteboys trading on their fathers' names and pandering to the most hateful common denominator in our country today. You think it's sad that I exist? How about Mayor Victoria? How about Coach Androgynous Pat? Just asking.
posted by Mad Anne Rackham at 4:56 AM

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

I fucked over one paper and gave the other one a scoop, and so now the one I fucked will look like the incompetent boobs that they are! Ha ha ha.
posted by Mad Anne Rackham at 4:32 PM

They said it, not me.
posted by Mad Anne Rackham at 3:12 AM

Not that I or anyone else thought that I was just paranoid, but....
posted by Mad Anne Rackham at 5:56 PM