The Wrong Stuff: Pope Benedict XVI

Some facts, wild suppositions, and articles re: Il Poppa: Pope Benedict XVI (a/k/s Cardinal Georg Ratzinger).

• This Pope is teetering on the brink of death? The College of Cardinals wanted a short term Pope, who would not have a long papacy. In the past 227 years there have been 14 popes, with an average age at death of 78.8 years. The Pope was born on April 16, 1927, and should last about nine months, if he conforms to the statistical bell curve.

• We can safely bet The Pope will not be among the 1.5% of all Catholic Popes who died during sex: Leo VII (936-9) died of a heart attack, John VII (955-64) was bludgeoned to death by the husband of a woman he was "ministering" to, John XIII (965-72) was also murdered by an angry husband, and Pope Paul II (1467-71) allegedly died while being sodomized by a page boy.
  
  
• Joseph Ratzinger, served in the Hitler Youth during World War Two when membership was compulsory, according to his autobiography. Ratzinger's wartime experiences have been a source of controversy in some newspapers when he became a frontrunner for the pontiff's seat. His biographers say he was never a member of the Nazi party and his family opposed Adolf Hitler's regime. BERLIN, April 19 (Reuters). But it still sticks, you know? Just a little.

• In a Good Friday Mass this year he said: "How much filth there is in the Church, even among those who, in the priesthood, should belong entirely to Him." I guess he is referring both to Priests and lay sinners. Watch out.

• In choosing Joseph Ratzinger, the cardinals picked the most polarizing figure in the Catholic Church. No one was respected more as a student of theology. But, as CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports, no one was more feared as a chief enforcer of Vatican orthodoxy. "He has the most appalling reputation around the world as someone who has squashed theology, persecuted theologians - the chief of the thought police, the master of the inquisition," says Catholic journalist and feminist writer Margaret Hebblethwaite. (CBS) In short, I don't think women will make many strides in the church, if they're not actually propelled backwards. I also suspect we won't see the celibacy doctrine lifted from the priesthood on this turn on the merry-go-around. Therefore the numbers of brothers, sisters, and priests will continue to decline.

• The brother of Pope Benedict XVI Georg Ratzinger, 81, said he was "very concerned" and "shocked" upon hearing that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had been elected as head of the Roman Catholic Church because of his age and frail health."I am very concerned. I would have thought his advanced age and his health which is not very stable would have been reason enough for the cardinals to pick someone else," said the visibly moved sibling in an interview on German television after the election of his 78-year-old brother. (AFP)
  
  

POTUS 19: Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes - "Rutherfraud"

Click to enlarge


Rutherford B. Hayes, as 19th President, began implementing policies to heal the nation after the Civil War. He had a reputation reputation for integrity as a soldier and politician. His election was the lengthiest , most bitterly contested, and corrupt presidential election in history. . .until the year 2000.

After the Civil War, Hayes served as a governor and congressman, and by 1876, Republicans recognized that the scrupulous Hayes--a swing state war hero--was potential Presidential timber. His opponent, Democratic opponent Samuel J. Tilden of New York rolled up a plurality of 250,000 votes, but the vote in three southern states was close enough for both Republicans and Democrats to contest them. Congress set up a special commission which awarded the disputed electoral college votes. The outraged Democrats called Hayes "Rutherfraud" and "His Fraudulency."

As President, Hayes believed that military occupation bred hatred among southerners and prevented a national healing. Reconstruction was nearly over when Hayes took office in 1877. Federal troops were stationed only in New Orleans, Louisiana, and South Carolina. The federal occupation ended early in his administration. Alas, by the 1890s, the racist Democratic hold on the South resulted in a complete denial of voting rights for blacks until the 1960s.

Hayes ran for only one term. In retirement he worked for equal educational and prison reform.

President Hayes was the only President whose election was decided by a congressional commission. He was the first president to travel to the West Coast as president and the first to have a telephone and typewriter in the White House.
---o0o---

Poem: Bird

Carrying his dented horn in a paper sack--
Pawned, lost, fifty times found and bought back.
He paid the price of a Stradivarius
To unhock that horn and blow for us.
---o0o---

James Joyce's Ulysses: A Book Report

For what little actually happened, the book could have been a bit shorter. He lost me at times, but the crux of the biscuit is this:

Stephen - Telemachus loaned Malachi his hanky, two cents for beer, handed him a key, suffered agenbite of inwit, and got drunk.

Leopold - Ulysses grilled a kidney, fed his cat, bought some soap, sat and read on the 'loo, commited an act of self-love and pondered The Suitors.

Molly - Penelope said "rocks," dreamed of sexual intercourse, and answered several times in the affirmative.
---o0o---

Poem: Monism

I'm you,
You're me.
All this
Is That.
---o0o--

I was thinking about religions and monism, and I wrote this. And a minute later, I remembered A Beatles song by John Lennon that said exactly the same thing: "

"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together."

From I Am The Walrus by Lennon-McCartney © Copyright 1967 Northern Songs

Poem: The Golden Rule

Listen to the songbirds
Trill
But keep an eye
On the buzzard section.
----o0o----

Hira Bluestone: Better Red Than Dead

Hira Bluestone's blog is about her life, from very early childhood, as a Rajneesh [1] sannyasin; a Rajneeshi. She grew up partly in Pune, India, and on Rajneesh's 65,000 acre operation/"Ranch" in Antelope, Oregon. These fantastic tales in her blog so far cover only the ground up to her seventh birthday. It is a colorful, strange, enthralling, fascinating, and heartbreaking story. Please keep them coming Hira!

[1] The Bhag (a/k/a Osho and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) seems to have basically taught Monism--that God was everything and everyone. There is no division between "God" and "not-God". People, even at their worst, are divine. He recognized Jesus Christ as having attained enlightenment, and believed that he survived his crucifixion and moved to India where he died at the age of 112. That's part of what he believed. He also appears to have believed in "free love" and that children should be raised communally. His top aides were charged with a number of crimes, including attempted murder of his doctor, and another attempt on a lawyer trying to close down the ranch. There were allegations of mishandled money. There are rumors they had a hit list. There was a lot of public outrage over him and his lifestyle. You hear a lot of good along with the bad. The volume is dialed way up on both sides of the question. It's hard to tell which story is right (but like most stories, you probably need to split the difference between the extremes). /jb

---o0o---

POTUS 4: President James Madison, The First President To Wear Pants

click to enlarge

President Madison was the 4th president of the United States. He served eight years each as a Congressman, as secretary of state, and as POTUS. He played many parts in the founding of this country, and he led the country through the War of 1812, which was more or less a second war of independence.

Madison co-authored The Federalist Papers--a series of articles written under the pen name Publius with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. These papers were intended to gain support for the proposed Constitution. The Federalist Papers are often studied in public relations classes as a prime example of how to conduct a successful campaign; they are considered one of the greatest PR campaigns of all time.

We mainly remember James Madison as "Father of the Constitution." He was its leading defender and interpreter for 50 years. He is often considered a lackluster President, but in fact he accomplished a great deal without a lot of flash.

His wife Dolley Madison was a spitfire, and one of the best-loved first ladies of all time. James Madison is the only President to have two Vice Presidents die, and is the first President to wear pants instead of knee breeches.
---o0o---

POTUS 8: President Martin Van Buren

click to enlarge


Martin Van Buren was the first President born as a United States citizen. He was the last vice president to be elected to succeed the president under whom he served. . .until then Vice-President George H.W. Bush was elected.

He was described as a "dandy," much like President Chester Alan Arthur, and loved frenchified clothes, expensive wine and rich food. His muttonchops were even more impressive than those of that other dandy President, Chester Alan Arthur.

He presided over the economic Panic of 1837, which was the worst recession the U.S. had ever experienced.

Before he was President, Van Buren moved from the New York State Senate, to the New York attorney general's office, and on to the U.S. Senate. Unhappy with the policies of President John Quincy Adams, Van Buren aligned himself instead with Andrew Jackson, the war hero who wanted a return to the Jeffersonian policies of a small government.

In Washington, he continued his party-building efforts on a national scale. Jackson was elected and named Van Buren secretary of state, in recognition of his political skills (and his help during the 1828 election).

Van Buren oversaw the nation’s foreign affairs and continued to build the organization that would become the Democratic Party. He became one of Andrew Jackson’s most trusted advisers and friends. Van Buren also threaded his way through the palace intrigues and in-fighting that marked Jackson’s cabinet. Toward the end of his first term, Jackson fired most of his cabinet, cut his relations with Vice President Calhoun, and dispatched Van Buren to the political calm of London as U.S. minister to England. He replaced Calhoun in the next election with Van Buren.

His enemies called him "Martin Van Ruin." He lost the 1840 presidential election.

Van Buren played key roles in the creation of both the Democratic Party and the so-called "second party system" in which Democrats competed with their opponents, the Whigs. He ignored calls from some Americans to respond to Canadian and British provocations with force, working instead successfully through diplomatic channels to calm tensions.

Martin Van Buren said that the two happiest days of his life were his entrance into the office of president and his surrender of the office.
---o0o---

POTUS 21: Pres. Chester Alan Arthur - Accidental, Partial One-Term President, Owner Of Some Impressive Muttonchops, And Dandy

click to enlarge


Chester Alan Arthur was catapulted into the Vice-Presidency and Presidency on the basis of a pretty thin resume. Arthur had been Collector of Customs for the Port of New York, an important and powerful position. He was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant but was fired by Grant's successor, Rutherford B. Hayes, under (probably false) suspicions of bribery and corruption.

Arthur is remembered as one of the most society-conscious presidents, earning the nickname "the Gentleman Boss" for his dandy dress and courtly manner.

Chester Alan Arthur was elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket with President James Garfield. His term as VPOTUS only lasted a few months.

Following President Garfield's assassination, he became President of the United States on September 20, 1881. He was often seen in the company of the socially prominent in Washington, New York, and Newport.

To the outrage of stalwart Republicans, the onetime Collector of the Port of New York and dispenser of political patronage became, as President, a champion of civil service reform. Public pressure, heightened by the assassination of Garfield, forced an unwieldy Congress to heed the President. He lost what friends he had in the party, and was not nominated for his own full term in office, which he likely would not have completed. Early in his Presidency, he had contracted Bright's Disease, a fatal kidney disease, from which he died in 1886.
---o0o---

Poem: The Countdown

The countdown is long:
3 Years
9 Months
4 Days
20 Hours
10 Minutes
17 Seconds.

Long Tall 'Abe weeps agates
From his throne of marble.
A wig of pain settles in.

The reign of error brings on xenophobia
And a touch of The Jitters.
Even a spring day is suspect.

A nervous wind
Rattles the windowpanes
In time with the sabres.
---o0o---

The Nuge To Fellow NRAers "Let's Get Hardcore!"

Click the title for a link to the AP story on Ted Nugent's NRA speech.

"I want carjackers dead. I want rapists dead. I want burglars dead. I want child molesters dead. I want the bad guys dead. No court case. No parole. No early release. I want 'em dead. Get a gun and when they attack you, shoot 'em."