It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.

These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread.

Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.


 
Looking for a big laugh?

How about this one: the new Catholic Boston Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley laments the "breakdown of family life", and blames it on the attempts of gays to get their relationships legally recognized, saying, ""The social cost of the breakdown of family life has already been enormous."

Enormous. Hm. I heard that word describe something else in the Boston Archdiocese a little while ago. What was it?

Oh, yes. An enormous sex scandal in the Boston Catholic Church. Enormous numbers of Catholic priests putting their hands in the pants of little boys and girls. An enormous coverup where the leadership of the American Catholic Church tried to thwart the legal system and knowingly put sexually abusive priests in authority over little children.

But now, we are to understand, the Catholic Church wants to give us all advice about the legalities of sex and the family.

Mr. O'Malley, you and your church can go give a sermon on the meaning of the cross, or the symbolism of the burning bush this Sunday, but pretty please keep your filthy hands off the American family. You're the ones who have done the damage, and I don't think you're in any position to give the rest of us advice about sex and decency, thank you.

Posted by J. Clifford Cook at 7:51 AM. # (permalink)  




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