“They’re beautiful and they can strip a rifle.”

It’s hard buying gifts for people. I’ve already decided what I want for xmas, but what to buy for my fellow MR’s? Since giftcards to Liquor Mart are a little out of my range, I’m thinking of another group activity that can bring us all together … maybe a board game?

“Is the Pope Catholic!?! - The Catholic Nostalgia game. The objective is to become the Pope, starting as an altar boy, and advancing by answering questions that require a Catholic background to appreciate.”

I wonder what would happen if we mixed it up a little, say, with this ol’ chestnut:

Exciting! Ha! My friend and I tried to play this one as young ‘uns. Sadly, all we had was a case of warm Narragansett Beer.

I don’t remember this game at all:

“The game where you create what your opponents draw or charade. Situations occur in a barroom, bedroom, dating or outdoors. Definitely an adult game!”

Paul’s Last Minute Gift Giving Additions:

Purchase both titles here

When I read this headline in Tuesday’s edition of the Daily Breeze, I assumed it was ironic, or tongue in cheek.

Chuck Norris - The GOP’s Oprah

But the headline is completely serious.

I realize that the Breeze leans to the right. And I realize that the Breeze loves to focus on South Bay success stories and that Norris was raised in Torrance, graduating from North High in 1958.

But, really, the star of Good Guys Wear Black is a political player?

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, has stunned the Republican establishment by jumping out to a wide lead in the Iowa presidential caucus - now little more than two weeks away.

Huckabee has a small organization, not much money, and scant support from prominent conservatives. Even in the evangelical community, which forms the former Baptist minister’s base of support, most of the big names have backed other candidates.

So what explains his meteoric rise?

Two words: Chuck Norris.

“The Norris endorsement may be a bigger factor in Iowa than evangelical support for Huckabee,” conservative commentator Robert Novak wrote Saturday in a piece titled “Huckabee’s Oprah.”

“Norris may be no big deal in New York and Washington, but he is a folk hero with ordinary Iowans.”

I grew up a fan of Norris’ old, post-Bruce-Lee kung fu flicks. I worked at the Northridge Four Cinemas when we played The Octagon and I saw it like 100 times.

But I had no idea he was a player in the game.

Though Norris got to know Ronald and Nancy Reagan through a charity tennis tournament, he did not become politically active until 1988, when George H.W. Bush ran for president.

Norris was asked by Lee Atwater, Bush’s campaign manager to introduce Bush at a rally.

“People were calling Bush a wimp,” Norris said. “So I went out to emcee the rally, and 20,000 people showed up. Next thing I know I’m on the campaign trail.”

Before that election, Norris had never voted. Perhaps as a result, his political loyalties today are much more the result of personal connections than of a particular ideology.

Norris’ endorsement of Huckabee should be taken with a grain of salt:

Norris came to Huckabee after reading about him on a Christian Web site, TheRebelution.com. He researched his positions, and liked what he saw, but found a deeper affinity in Huckabee’s life story.

“Mike hasn’t lived an isolated, out-of-touch life like so many politicians,” Norris wrote in a column on the conservative site WorldNetDaily.com, in late October. “Mike and his sister grew up poor, not privileged.”

Norris also cited Huckabee’s values, which are rooted in his faith, and compared him to King David.

Though he had not met Huckabee, Norris felt compelled to endorse him.

Huckabee had shown some dark-horse potential at the time, but he was still an obscure candidate. After the Norris endorsement, Huckabee said in an online video, “Everything in my campaign changed.”

“Our Web traffic went completely nuts,” Huckabee said. “There were people who suddenly said, `He’s a serious candidate.”‘

Police expect no charges in youth group diaper skit

Saturday, December 08, 2007
By Mary Niederberger, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A skit at a local Christian youth group meeting had teenage boys taking off some of their clothes, wearing adult diapers, bibs and bonnets and being spoon-fed by girls as they sat in their laps.

Some say it’s just crazy, goofy teenage fun. But others, including one boy’s mother and the Mt. Lebanon School District, aren’t comfortable with it. The skit took place during the Nov. 29 meeting of the Mt. Lebanon Young Life club, a nondenominational Christian youth group directed by youth minister O.J. Wandrisco.

Laurie Metz, whose 14-year-old son was one of the boys who took part in the skit, said she found it inappropriate, demeaning and sexually perverse. Mr. Wandrisco and a national spokesman for Young Life say the skits are all in fun and meant to be used as “icebreakers” at the youth group meetings.

He declined to comment on the Mt. Lebanon teens being asked to undress before they put on the diapers and bibs or whether he thought the Mt. Lebanon skit was appropriate.

Ms. Metz said at the Nov. 29 Young Life meeting, after her son and two other boys were selected to take part in the skit, they were taken to a rest room by an older teen and given adult diapers, bibs and bonnets and directed to take their clothes off and put the diapers, bibs and bonnets on. Her son took off his pants, but kept on boxer undershorts, his shirt, shoes and socks.

The boys returned to the group, where they were asked to sit in the laps of three girls. The girls spoon-fed baby food to the boys and then gave them baby bottles filled with soda pop. The first boy to finish was the winner.

“The whole premise of the skit is questionable,” Ms. Metz said. “I see no purpose that it would serve, especially not in a Christian youth group setting. It’s perverse.”

She said even if there is no police action taken, she felt it important to speak out so that other parents know what goes on at the meetings. She said at an earlier meeting girls ate jelly beans in chocolate pudding out of adult diapers.

Mr. Wandrisco, in an interview, acknowledged that the Nov. 29 skit had taken place as Ms. Metz described and that the group had also participated at an earlier date in the skit that involved eating chocolate pudding out of diapers.

Source

DALLAS (Reuters Life!) - More Americans believe in a literal hell and the devil than Darwin’s theory of evolution, according to a new Harris poll released on Thursday. It is the latest survey to highlight America’s deep level of religiosity, a cultural trait that sets it apart from much of the developed world.

It also helps explain many of its political battles which Europeans find bewildering, such as efforts to have “Intelligent Design” theory — which holds life is too complex to have evolved by chance — taught in schools alongside evolution.

The poll of 2,455 U.S. adults from Nov 7 to 13 found that 82 percent of those surveyed believed in God, a figure unchanged since the question was asked in 2005.

It further found that 79 percent believed in miracles, 75 percent in heaven, while 72 percent believed that Jesus is God or the Son of God. Belief in hell and the devil was expressed by 62 percent.

Read more of the bad news here.

Wow! Forget Macy’s - if anyone wants to buy me a holiday gift, it’s one-stop-shopping:

Those with loftier ambitions might enjoy the Vatican’s answer to Monopoly, a board game in which the winner is elected the pontiff.

Up to six “cardinals” play the game, rolling the dice in the quest to become papabile, and encountering all the usual Catholic preoccupations on the way, from theological censorship and Latin liturgical texts to beatification politics and visions of long-dead saints.

Perfect for our MRev “game nites” though I’m sure Alex will somehow find a way to make it Strip-Vaticanopoly …

it’s a marshmallow world!

These are among gifts of questionable taste included in a “12 days of Kitschmas” list unveiled yesterday by Ship of Fools, a satirical Christian website. The items have been selected by Stephen Goddard, a former Church of England press officer, and Simon Jenkins, the website’s editor, to highlight the absurdity of religious kitsch.

One of the favourites is a calendar in which scantily clad models pose in front of a range of wood coffins, created by a firm of undertakers in Rome. Described by the website as the “Pirelli Calendar for morticians”, it is on sale for 3.50 euros.

Check ‘em out here. No mention of the sexy priest calendar, though.

Forgive me, Father.

Just like the one in FL who stabbed the other over an unidentified “frozen dessert,” this one comes from AZ:

PHOENIX - A 12-year-old boy stabbed his 13-year-old brother during a fight over what to watch on television, police said.

The 13-year-old was listed in extremely critical condition Monday night. The brothers were fighting in the living room of their southwest Phoenix home Monday afternoon.

The younger brother allegedly went to the kitchen, returned with a knife and allegedly stabbed his brother once in the abdomen with a 5-inch blade, said Phoenix Police Lt. Rob Howe.

The boys’ father heard them fighting over the TV. He entered the living room and the victim told his father he had been stabbed by his younger brother before collapsing, Phoenix Police Sgt. Joel Tranter said.

A 7-year-old sister was home but in a different room at the time of the stabbing, Howe said. Police are treating the house as a crime scene and are still investigating.

The suspect was in custody Monday night, Tranter said.

Hmm … “What not to Wear”? “Iron Chef”? “Project Runway”?

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

Of course we did, goddammit!

From the NYT:

“Even growing up around it, little shards of the language stayed alive in our mouths and came out as slang,” he said, spouting a string of words that sounded straight out of a James Cagney movie.

“Snazzy” comes from “snasach,” which means polished, glossy or elegant.*

The word “scram” comes from “scaraim,” meaning “I get away.” The word “swell” comes from “sóúil,” meaning luxurious, rich and prosperous, and “sucker” comes from “sách úr,” or, loosely, fat cat.

There is “Say uncle!” (“anacal” means mercy), “razzmatazz,” and “malarkey,” and even expressions like “gee whiz” and “holy cow” and “holy mackerel” are Anglicized versions of Irish expressions, he said. So are “doozy,” “hokum,” “humdinger,” “jerk,” “punk,” “swanky,” “grifter,” “bailiwick,” “sap,” “mug,” “wallop,” “helter-skelter,” “shack,” “shanty,” “slob,” “slacker” and “knack.”

*ahem.

The Problem:

1 day before Meeting <1.1> I received and email and voice mail from a scheduled artist in regards to having to cancel his upcoming art exhibition and that he was giving up art.

CLICK TO READ THE EMAIL

The Solution:
Invite 33 artists to discuss why an artist would cancel an upcoming exhibition and give up art because he/she believed Jesus told them too.

The response by artists to commit on such short notice to take part in this exhibition is amazing and we’re honored to have so many amazing new and emerging talents from such movements as:
Neo-Existential & Dramatic Realism

Gallery Artist Reps:

Ryan Pratt
Ken Garduno
Gale Hart
Greg Lukens
Kevin E. Taylor
Barry Wolfryd
Chris Peters
John Casey
Darren Breen
Derek Weisberg
Patrick Marraso
Zoso
Martin Wittfooth
James Kirkpatrick
Danny Heller
Paul Torres
Alex Garcia

Guest Reps:

Mark Gonzales
Vonn Sumner
Paul Barnes
Eric Shaw
Josh Taylor
Matt Rota
Max Micelli
Holly Wood
Thomas Hurley 3
Baruch Inbar
Daniel Lara
Shannon Freshwater
Pee Monster

Creative Design by: Visual Narcotics 20mg

Each Artist is available for interviews; please contact:

Daniel at info@theconfroom.com for scheduling and tear sheets

The Conference Room Gallery
325 S. Robertson Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90211