Pillars of Islam

I'm hoping this gets the combox going.  How many pillars of Islam are there, and what are they?

What do Jesuits in Oregon have against anything pro-life?

Once again, I asked to have a pro-life item included in our bulletin, and once again, our Jesuit-trained pastoral assistant blocked it.  Over and over, whenever I meet a pro-choice Catholic, I'm told they are Jesuit trained.  What do Jesuits have against life? ---- Jesuit pro-choice strikes again. In the end result, 9daysforlife.com will not be promoted at St. Clare's.

Part 11: The Spiritual Works of Mercy | The Divine Mercy Message from the Marians of the Immaculate Conception

Part 11: The Spiritual Works of Mercy | The Divine Mercy Message from the Marians of the Immaculate Conception:



'via Blog this'



What I need to work on this year

50 Important Facts About Having Mild Autism:Asperger’s Syndrome | My Blog

50 Important Facts About Having Mild Autism:Asperger’s Syndrome | My Blog:



Best list of this type that I've seen yet- a must read for anybody who either has HFA Level 1 (the new name for Asperger's) or loves somebody who does.

My version of the Benedict Option

It starts with a ghost town. Some of them go really cheap. Someplace in Oregon, there is a ghost town that would be useful for this purpose. It needs a creek or a river running near it. But that's about it; cache basins can supply the rest of the water if we can build them to keep it. It also needs a hill or a mountain. And on top of the mountain, a very special chapel will be built. The Venerable Fr. Michael J McGivney chapel. The basement will look something like this- 4 rooms, for 4 very special purposes, no windows.

The stairs in the basement leads up to the next level, by the wall- where an altar on rails covers the steps when in proper position for the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, but is open for the Ordinary Form of the Mass. On this same level are 4 patios outside the walls of the Maltese Cross shaped church- two red and two white.

Finally- far above- is a very special sculpture- made of solar panels and steel- making up the roof:

Sitting nearby, is another cross shapped building with a circular dining hall, 12 rooms on two floors, and a central nurse's office. On its roof, is a painting of a globe and the white sculpture of a dove. It is the Patriot's Rest- an assisted living center and restaurant combined.

The Fraternal Retreat Center would be a log cabin lodge, for state conventions and rented out as a retreat center to Catholic groups the rest of the year.

The Unity RV Park is open to any Knight of Columbus that needs a place to stay. Full hookup parking lot, basically.

And finally, attached to the for profit supermarket, is the Charity Food Bank, subcontracted to the St. Vincent De Paul. Extra donations at the time yu are paying for your own food, stocks the food bank.

The History of Laudato Si

Time to repost my list. I thought I had already done so. Since Laudato Si has a definite economic component to it, as a part of the description of the Authentic Human Ecology in paragraphs 100-150, I'm adding it to the list.

And now, the ten Papal documents, so far, on economics, so that you can get a feeling of the history of the Doctrine of Distributism:
Rerum Novarum from Pope Leo XIII

Quadragesimo Anno from Pope Pius XI

Mater et Magistra from Pope John XXIII

Populum Progresso from Pope Paul VI

Laborem Exercens from Pope John Paul II

Centesimus Annus from Pope John Paul II

Sollicitudo Rei Socialis from Pope John Paul II

Caritas In Veritate by Pope Benedict XVI

Evangelii Gaudium by Pope Francis

Laudato Si by Pope Francis

People think that Catholic doctrine never changes- but it's dogma that doesn't change, doctrine changes ever so slowly because of the concern for human error. The Doctrine of Distributism is as solid as any other form of economics I can think of, but unlike communism, which requires total subservience to the state, and capitalism, which requires total subservience to self, distributism is duty to protect other people's rights and justice to fulfill other people's needs. And in return- other people have a duty to protect YOUR rights and fulfill YOUR needs. Interdependence, rather than independence.

And that ethic I think is really worth thinking about.

What I need to read for the Jubilee Year of Mercy

http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_30111980_dives-in-misericordia.html

WALDO- a better software methodology

I've been thinking a lot about the software methodology religious wars lately. It seems to me that all methodologies have their strength and weaknesses. 15 years in, Agile has given us faster coding, but worse quality. Waterfall was flawed due to its overemphasis on architecture and underemphesis on business. Lean cuts out inefficiency- at the cost of elegance and maintainability. Devops sacrifices quality and cheapness for speed of continuous Outcomes. And while it's true that the "User Interface is everything" because that's the only thing the user sees, Outcomes sacrifices the future for one-off unmaintainable code.

 So here's my solution- WALDO. The ultimate 3-6 person team- no more than 6, no less than three if a couple of guys wear multiple hats.

W- Waterfall
A- Agile
L- Lean
D- Devops
O- Outcomes

But these aren't just methodologies- they imply roles on the team.  The ideal six person team consists of:

W- The customer's view of the project should always be waterfall with iterations.  They tell us what they think they want, we build it- they're involved in every iteration.  Of course, they don't really know what they want- it takes several iterations before we discover what they want- but the W role is the customer herself.

WA- The Waterfall Architect, or perhaps the Waterfall Analyst.  This is the guy who is the face of the team to the customer- the single point of contact.  On smaller teams, may also be the scrum master- but ideally should be a master of the models.  This person should also be the principle advocate in scrum meetings for the customer.

AL- the real scrum master should be a master of both Agile and Lean.  This guy lives in the world of Gantt charts and excel spreadsheets- keeping both schedule and budget, keeping the team on schedule, communicating that schedule to the team and to the WA and W.  Daily scrums should keep people on task.

LD- the Lean Developer is a Model First Full Stack Programmer, but is the king of Object Orientation, maintainability, and reuse.  It is this role that you want somebody who excels in data- but can work in the higher tiers of programming right up to the User Interface Tier.

DO- the ultimate Devops guy should be as much artist as programmer- a whiz of the User Interface.  This is what the customer will see, so the DO and the WA are a natural Quality Assurance feedback loop for each other.  Since the DO consumes data and objects coded by the LD, there's a natural QA feedback loop there as well.

O- the Outcomes guy.  QA and Build Engineer rolled into one- this is your build manager, working with WA and W to make sure every release happens quickly and accurately, and that beta testing actually occurs to provide data back to WA.

This is my ideal team- one that insures you get the best of all methodologies, not the short sightedness of focusing on one or two.

I guess I haven't said it plain enough yet

Some time ago I read Rerum Novarum, and it changed the way I thought about both capitalism and communism. At the time, I had become a convinced crony capitalist. Though a communist in college, I had found success through hard work, and was living a life that by any standard I can think of put me in the top 1% of human beings worldwide, even if I was someplace in the middle in America.

When I was finally challenged to read a book called Papal Economics, I realized that crony capitalism and communism are two sides of the same coin. Both are so incredibly centralized that they prevent access to basic needs for some people in this world.

So in the end result- capitalism and communism are a false choice of false religions. Follow Christ instead.

Ok, I get Pope Francis likes mercy

And I get that I need to learn the Spiritual Works of Mercy better. But can I have mercy for my eyes from this crazy logo?

This is the reason my Google + profile wears the Arabic nun

It is only 10 minutes. I dare you to watch to the bitter end.

what3words | Addressing the world

what3words | Addressing the world:



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I don't think I like my new address by this system- curvy.backs.offers , but I guess it is memorable

What Does Mercy Mean? | Best Advent Ever

What Does Mercy Mean? | Best Advent Ever:



This series is helping me greatly with learning a much more Catholic definition of mercy.  Offering healing to a heart in misery.  What a powerful concept- and it shows that my primary problem with mercy stems from a very Americanist narrowing of the concept of mercy to just forgiveness.  How do we show mercy to the unrepentant?  By instructing the ignorant, counseling the doubtful, and by admonishing the sinner.  How do we show love to those we are being merciful to?  By bearing wrong patiently, forgiving offenses willingly, comforting the aflicted, and praying for the dead.



This is Catholicism at its finest- this is the Jubilee Year!

I eagerly await confession with one of Pope Francis's new missionaries of mercy. For all that remains, is reconciliation with Rome.