white after labor day - the list of wrongs just grows!

According to a statement by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Benedict is missing a “golden opportunity” to confront the crisis head-on. Victims’ activist Anne Barrett Doyle told the Agence France Presse that the Pope is avoiding Boston for fear of protests. She added that his three days in New York is a sign of papal support for the city’s Archbishop, Cardinal Edward Egan, who has refused to release documents about accused priests, in contrast to the Boston archdiocese’s belated disclosure of similar documents. “So the pope is sending the signal that he is honoring the cardinal who may be his most successful keeper of secrets,” Doyle said.

I’m from Boston - you don’t have to tell me:

Boston was where the first spiral of revelations from victims of abusive clerics began to emerge, and where the head of the Archdiocese, Cardinal Bernard Law, was eventually forced to resign after admitting that he’d protected a priest whom he knew had sexually abused young members of his church.

Cardinal Law. I know. Where is he now? At the Vatican, of course.

Source

Just when you thought it was over, look at this:

Nun, 79, declines to fight sex case

St. Patrick said he had sexual contact with the nun more than 100 times, beginning when he was in 7th grade, often after she removed him from class and took him to a bathroom in her office, the complaint alleged. St. Patrick told authorities that “her actions caused him to be confused because he had been taught that nuns were married to Jesus,” the complaint said.

According to the complaint, Giannini admitted to an archdiocesan review board in 1996 that she had sex with the two boys. In Kobs’ case, she said the abuse occurred after school during music lessons in the convent and in the school office. Giannini said St. Patrick was a paperboy who delivered newspapers to the convent on his route.

She said she never forced sex on the boys, though both were below the age of consent, according to the complaint. “I thought I was in love with both of them,” she told the panel. She also claimed that she never engaged in sex with children after she moved to the Chicago area. “I never intended to hurt a child,” the complaint quoted her as telling the panel.

Oh - the Pope won’t be stopping in Chicago, either.

Source

Defamer fills us in on the invasion of picketers at the Van Ness gate, in the shadow of our favorite Hollywood apartment building, Alexander, Ruler of the World! (Somehow, you just have to add the punctuation.)

Expect a slew of “wacky apartments” to turn up in sitcoms next season - with a group of unemployed writers across the street, AROTW!’s possibilities are just beginning.

photo: Defamer.

All over Los Angeles. I’m in the Valley and because of the Santa Anas, no sign of fire until now. Even parts of Malibu are smoke free. Coming out of the supermarket, I can see grey stripes across the sky, even darker when I put my sunglasses on. This is bad, which is of course the understatement of the year. It’s bad for Valley residents (I have no geographical shame - I like it here!) because we’re basically an ice-cream-scoop of land, and when the bad air settles in - unless the Santa Anas blow it out - it will linger over us. Two Octobers ago it rained ash as I drove down Ventura Blvd at 8pm, the streets oddly silent and the stores closed, almost as if it were Christmas.

My friend who owns the high desert ranch where I spend a lot of my time lives near San Diego and I think, that’s not possible, to have to go through that again. Last year the Sawtooth fires scorched the high desert, destroying hundreds of years of joshua trees and disrupting the entire ecosystem that depends on them, not to mention burning buildings everywhere. I was there right after the burn, when things were still smoldering, to pick remnants from the ash piles and marvel at how a fireball landed on the cabin just feet away from my hammock, destroying the building in its entirety but leaving my resting place unsinged.

On Saturday I was in Malibu, enjoying the glorious weather and the luxury of being a passenger for once, leaning back in my seat and feeling the cool blue-green air. “We’re so lucky,” I said to my friend as we drove through Malibu Canyon. “I can’t wait to spend this week at the beach.” I think about that and realize how stupid and spoiled it sounds, only three days later.

In the supermarket an elderly man hummed to himself and I saw a paper mask around his neck.

“I was a medic during the war and you cannot do enough to save your lungs,” he told me. “Buy a mask.”

I’m right there with you, Dame Helen. The same thing happened to me.

“There is a close-up of a woman having a baby, a close up straight up her vagina, and that’s all you see, and these are thirteen year old boys and girls, and its bloody and disgusting. Within thirty seconds two boys had fainted and the lights went on and they were carried out. I put my hands over my face because I realised I couldn’t watch this.”

The actress, who is married to American director Taylor Hackford, said she was deeply affected by the film: “I swear it traumatised me, I haven’t had children and I can’t look at anything to do with childbirth, it absolutely disgusts me.”

Is she disgusted by gallbladders? This is straight out of Dr. Moreau … or Hannibal Lecter.

MONDAY, Sept. 17 (HealthDay News) — French surgeons report removing a gallbladder through a woman’s vagina, joining a handful of surgeons around the world who have tried the novel technique because it eliminates visible scarring and minimizes postoperative pain. In March, surgeons at Columbia University in New York City performed a similar operation, and, last week, so did surgeons at the University of California, San Diego. The procedure has also been used for removing the appendix.

What next? Your Costco groceries? Even kids, for the most part, are “optional,” as is everything else that goes in/out … but not through. Seriously. That is just plain wrong. What sick bastard came up with the “let’s try this exit” approach? I’d rather have a scar on my side then a gallbladder in my - oh, I can barely even write about this. Dame Helen, where are you?

Thank the Virgin Mary that there is someone on our side:

“As a woman, I find it distasteful and invasive to have the vagina used as a midtown tunnel for the traffic of surgery, simply because there are a few surgeons who are looking to find something new to do,” said Dr. Christine Ren, an assistant professor of surgery at New York University School of Medicine.

Think of it this way: knowing that a gallbladder had taken the tunnel would you stop at that rest stop for a bite? I think not.

Dana Johnson, who had her gallbladder removed through her vagina at the University of California at San Diego on Sept. 11, applauded the technique. “I think it would be more gross to have it taken out of my mouth, but that’s just me,” said Johnson, 42.

More images at LATimes.com

Let there be lightening …

USC players, coaches and supporters aboard the team’s charter flight from Los Angeles endured a harrowing arrival in South Bend, Ind., on Thursday night. Several players, administrative staff and coaches’ spouses said passengers were hurled out of their seats and hit their heads on the ceiling when the plane dropped while making an approach through a lightning storm. The pilot aborted the approach and circled before landing without incident, said Dennis Slutak, USC’s director of football operations. Some of the passengers were not wearing seat belts at the time, but others said their seat belts broke.

trojanwire

Where was Father Elvis? Or Father “I’m not Gay”?

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco’s top-ranking Catholic clergyman apologized for serving Communion to two men dressed as nuns during a church service in the heart of the city’s gay community.

In a letter posted on the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Web site, Archbishop George Niederauer said when he offered Communion to the two members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at the Oct. 7 mass, he didn’t recognize either as wearing “mock religious garb.”

He apologized for giving them the sacrament, calling it “a mistake.”

That’s even better. He didn’t even notice? Have you ever seen the Sisters? They wear more makeup than my alcoholic hairdresser aunt! Good job, Father — he musta been hitting the “blood of Christ” a little too heavily before Mass.

Members of the decades-old group dress in heavy makeup and elaborate headdresses to satirize the church and draw attention to a variety of causes, including gay rights and access to AIDS care.

You can read the whole thing here.

At Communion time, toward the end of the line, two strangely dressed persons came to receive Coummunion. As I recall one of them wore a large flowered hat or garland. I did not recognize either of them as wearing mock religious garb.

Well, I guess when you’re in an organization where the men dress like this, you really wouldn’t notice.

I have a week to go. Came in this morning and well … sent this email out not long after.

SUBJECT: FOUND ITEM ON MY OFFICE FLOOR

One “used” or rather, “worn,” black THONG. Not shoe - underwear.

If you’re the one who was having fun after hours near (please, not ON!) my desk, you can come and claim it. It’s in Steve’s trash barrel, because he’s out today.

Donna

Update: my coworker suggested we take a “scene of the crime” pic.

Trash!

Minnesota Public Radio has a survey/quiz that measures your responses to questions regarding some of the major issues of the presidential race, then matches your answers to the stances taken by the candidates from both parties.

I’ve taken it a few times (a television station in Iowa has a modified version) and was surprised to find myself matched up so well with Hilary Clinton (on the modified version) and Dennis Kucinich and Barack Obama (on the full version). Even more of a surprise was the fact that I matched up most closely with Christopher Dodd the first time and pretty closely with Rudy Giuliani the second.

Take the quiz, the results might not be what you think:

The Minnesota Public Radio version

The slightly modified Iowa television station version

The LAC Dept of Health Services/Environmental Health’s list of restaurant closings always makes for a fun read. Glad to see that Christ’s Restaurant is off the list and He has risen again to open; La Luz del Dia didn’t fare so well. Sadly, more than a few local eateries just aren’t making the grade. Think of what we are missing at these fine establishments!

HOME DIAPERS, 1522 W 7TH ST, LOS ANGELES

* Date Closed: August 14, 2007
* Reason for Closure:
No Public Health Permit

LIMA EXPRESS TRAVEL AGENCY, 9814 E GARVEY AVE 21, EL MONTE

* Date Closed: August 18, 2007
* Reason for Closure:
No Public Health Permit

and sadly, they didn’t live up to their name, though they did namage to reopen:

NICE TIME DELI, 140 W VALLEY BLVD 209, SAN GABRIEL

* Date Closed: September 20, 2007
* Date Reopened: September 22, 2007
* Reason for Closure:
Gross contamination of utensils/equipment
No Public Health Permit
Vermin Harborage
Vermin infestation

THE NILE CHICKEN PYRAMID, 808 1/2 E 7TH ST, LOS ANGELES

* Date Closed: September 20, 2007
* Reason for Closure:
Vermin infestation

VALLEY HAND CAR WASH, 9540 E VALLEY BLVD, ROSEMEAD

* Date Closed: August 15, 2007
* Reason for Closure:
No Public Health Permit

And a word of warning: don’t ever, ever, ever eat at a Multiplex. Bring your own.