Outside The Asylum

It's rare, but every once in a while I run across a cool site for Software Engineering.   97 things every programmer should know   is a resource to turn any code monkey into a professional

My wife and I recently went to a couple's retreat to try to improve our marriage.  While there, I learned a very interesting definition of what a man needs to be a man: a Challenge An Adventure A woman to die for. I was reading this upcoming Sunday's readings , and it occurred to me that the Gospel reading, the encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the Well, is Jesus Christ's moment of becoming a man. Bear with me.  Let's go through each of the above criteria: A Challenge.  Jesus Christ was both man and God.  Which means the God side was continually, in his brain, having a dialog with the man side.  What a challenge for a first century Jew, raised in a tribal society- to enter Samaritan Territory, and sit at this well. An Adventure.  Once he sat at the well, after the adventure of getting there at all (travel in those days for a poor man like Christ was on foot- slowly) the thirst kicked in.  All human adventure is linked to our needs; and ...

The problem of refugees has come to the forefront due to Donald Trump.  But the one place I've had a problem with Church teaching, is in the unreasoning allowance for human migration. Thinking about where I differ with Donald Trump, I think my problem with this teaching is a severe cultural problem that has happened with white American Catholics in my generation.  We've lost our roots, we were denied teaching about our culture in the 1970s and 1980s, and we're only now getting it back. When you have no culture yourself- multiculturalism is a threat.  Everybody else is allowed culture, but white people are not.  Why?  Because our culture is evil.  Our culture is supposedly that which conquored the world- but now must be denied. But what if we start taking a different approach.  What if, in forming "Sanctuary Chuch" policies, we not only feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, protect the criminal ( for a time, and to reconcile the crimi...

As readers of this blog know, since the first Synod on the Family, I've had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Pope Francis.  I recently came across an interesting "Rigid" side blog post   listing all the "Rigid Catholic" concerns about this Pope and the way Jesuits in general operate within the Church.  It is most excellent, and contains things that you won't see in main stream media or even sometimes in Catholic media about the Pope: Mercy for fornicators Mercy for pederasts (molesters of pubescent children) Mercy for Jesuit schools that in search of money are abandoning Catholicism in favor of Islamic or Humanist studies The side insults against rigid Catholics Twisting history to exemplify heretics at the cost of real saints Dialogue with Masons Ignoring the massive martyrdom caused by Islam, while welcoming massive numbers of Moslem immigrants to Europe who have an antithetical view of western women resulting in rape and murder The 500th...

Any time you see a privilege that someone else has that you want- that is an opportunity to create a business to give that privilege to others. Every "White Male Privilege" in the book   Four Days to Change , is in fact something that society once found necessary for survival.  It's something that white male culture *had* to have, and so built business structures to provide. There is no reason why those structures cannot be built to provide exactly the same privileges to others. All it takes is localism- taking an interest in your neighborhood, and building, rather than dividing.

The problem is, almost every form of birth control, including sterilization, has flaws.   Condoms cause more sex to occur, overcoming the contraception.   Same is true of any other form of birth control.

There has been talk of sanctuary churches as of late, and I got to thinking how these could be a positive rather than further division in our nation. From Wikipedia , we have this ancient description of Sanctuary in English Common law: Church sanctuaries were regulated by common law. An asylum seeker had to confess his sins, surrender his weapons, and permit supervision by church or abbey organization with jurisdiction. They then had forty days to decide whether to surrender to secular authorities and stand trial for their alleged crimes, or to confess their guilt,  abjure the realm , and go into  exile  by the shortest route and never return without the king's permission. Those who did return faced execution under the law and/or  excommunication  from the Church. If the suspect chose to confess their guilt and abjure, they did so in a public ceremony, usually at the church gates. They would surrender their possessions to the church, and any  landed pr...