For the first time since 1940, St. Patrick’s Day will fall during Holy Week, the sacred seven days preceding Easter.

Because of the overlap, liturgical rules dictate that no Mass in honor of the saint can be celebrated on Monday, March 17, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

But a few Roman Catholic leaders are asking for even more moderation in their dioceses: They want parades and other festivities kept out of Holy Week as well.

Bishop J. Kevin Boland of the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia, wrote to practically every agency in his city, from the Chamber of Commerce to the Board of Education, saying the diocese was changing the date of its celebration this year. In response, the citywide Irish festival was moved to Friday, March 14, when schools will close and bagpipe-driven parties will carry into the streets.

More than half a million people stream into the Southern city for the festival, one of the nation’s largest St. Patrick’s Day affairs, said Bret Bell, Savannah’s public information director. Savannah bars will be open March 17, but no organized events will be held that day, he said.

“The city has a very strong Irish Catholic community, a very traditional Irish Catholic community,” Bell said. “They attend Mass regularly. And the last thing they want to do is get in the bad graces of the Catholic Church.”

Source

CNN’s website just a few seconds ago:

I wonder why two of our incoming links are “buy cheap propecia” and “cure for impotence.” I don’t need either one of those! The news is bad enough:yet another horrible shooting, this time with legally purchased guns. And the photo? Your typical geek. Nice. Traffic backed up this morning not because of the holiday weekend, but because of a suicide jumper off the 101. Last night two pals of mine ruined their own Valentine’s dinner arguing over Clinton vs Obama. Of course, I don’t believe in Valentine’s Day, so Mr. Lethal and I enjoyed Leonard Nimoy on Colbert without cross words. Nimoy was on promoting his book of larger, lovelier women photographs and managed to get “oral sex” in the conversation. Nice bookend to Miss Fonda’s gaffe on the Today show.

I can’t believe this.

“My brother went to war tonight with the government,” Gerald Thornton said in an interview with a local television station after the incident. “He decided that he could no longer verbally work it out.”

More reasons:

On CNN, Mr. Thornton seemed to confirm reports that ticketing of his brother’s commercial vehicles were at the core of the dispute. Violations of his “constitutional protections” was also cited, without elaboration.

NYT

BERLIN (Reuters) - A 21-year-old German man has been convicted of sending a photograph of his penis to an unknown woman via mobile phone, authorities said on Wednesday.

“We all had a bit of a laugh when we saw the thing,” said Christian Kropp, presiding judge at the court in the eastern town of Sondershausen.

Talk about a backfire!

Source

Barack Obama Raises the Dead (SFGATE)

If Sen. Barack Obama wants to bring America together again, what better way than getting the Grateful Dead back together again?

The famously feuding surviving members of the band showed up Monday night for an primary-eve Obama rally at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco, the first time since 2004 that former bandmates Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart have performed together.

Sitting under a sign with the familiar skull and lightning bolt emblem that read “Deadheads for Obama ‘08,” the three living Dead all agreed the Illinois Democrat was their man. They said the fourth member, drummer Bill Kreutzmann, also was an Obama supporter and would have joined the party except for a previous engagement in Hawaii.

“I think that we all knew Obama was the guy for us, but we hadn’t talked about it because we’d all been doing our own thing,” said bassist Lesh, whose 18-year-old son, Brian, has been working as an Obama volunteer.

“We knew instinctively, intuitively that we were all together on this. We came together, and we’re doing it,” said guitarist Weir, who wore an Obama button pinned to the lapel of his sport coat.

Photo:Rolling Stone

The Set List

DEAD HEADS FOR OBAMA
The Warfield
San Francisco, CA
February 4, 2008

I.
Playing in the Band*>Brown-Eyed Women†, Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo†>New Minglewood Blues*, Come Together*

II. (Acoustic)
Deep Elem Blues, Friend of the Devil, Deal, Ripple

III.
China Cat Sunflower*†>The Wheel*†>The Other One*>Sugaree* Eyes of the World*†>Throwin’ Stones*>Iko Iko>*†>Playing reprise*†

E. U.S. Blues*†%

Bob Weir, guitar and vocals; Phil Lesh, bass and vocals; Mickey Hart, drums and vocals; John Molo, drums; Jackie Greene, guitar, keyboards and vocals; Steve Molitz, keyboards and vocals.

* with Mark Karan, guitar; †with Barry Sless, pedal steel guitar; %with Hippie Bill, flag
(Courtesy Dead.net)

As people across the country vote for a candidate to finally replace the scheming, intelligence-fixing architects of the Iraq quagmire, Bolton writes in the WSJ today, Our Politicized Intelligence Services:

Mr. McConnell should commit the intelligence community to stick to its knitting — intelligence — and return its policy enthusiasts to agencies where policy is made.

Bolton wants to “fix” the “politicization” of the intelligence committee — in other words, it’s failure to continue to march lock-step in support of Bush administration statements which directly conflict with intelligence assessments — by strictly enforcing the secrecy of National Intelligence Estimates against members of the intelligence community.

Funny stuff, coming from a key member of an administration which leaked partial and incomplete data to the New York Times, then quoted resulting stories as authority for the false propositions it planted.

Of course, if the Bush administration wants to leak select and misleading portions, they can be said to be merely “declassifying” material by executive fiat.

The utter disingenuousness of these people underscores why everyone needs to go out and vote for a President who won’t stock his cabinet and ambassadorships with liars, grifters, and mealy-mouthed ideologues.

UPDATE: Here’s a shocker — Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell on the veracity of John Bolton’s Op-Ed:

“the article you refer to is a gross misrepresentation of the professionalism of this community.”

But gross misrepresentation, after all, was the stock-in-trade of the administration in which Bolton served.

… why not to get an enema in Russia (you know, to be added to the long list you already have):

Unhealthy enemas put tourists in hospital

Thu Jan 31, 2008 5:02pm EST

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russians visiting a health resort received a rude shock when a nurse used hydrogen peroxide instead of water to give them enemas.

Itar-Tass news agency reported Thursday that 17 tourists in the Caucasus spa town of Yessentuki had to be treated in hospital after the mix-up.

Sources at the sanatorium said the mistake was explained by water and hydrogen peroxide looking the same.

Oh, that silly mistake. And liquid opium looks exactly like Coca-Cola, but sadly, I’ve never been given an opiate on the rocks.

President Dumbshit, in his final State of the Union address:

Ladies and gentlemen, some may deny the surge is working, but among the terrorists there is no doubt.

Iraq, on Friday:

Iraqi officials on Saturday raised the death toll from Friday’s pet market bombings as more bodies were found and as badly injured people died from their wounds, bringing the total to 98 dead and 123 injured, according to the Interior Ministry.

A stream of cars carrying simple wooden coffins traveled to the southern city of Najaf, where those who are Shiite are usually buried, as Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other high ranking Iraqis sought to reassure Iraqis of their commitment to fighting the scourge.