Forty Italian women ask pope to scrap celibacy rule

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/27/italian-priests-mistresses-letter-pope


The issue was put back on the Vatican's agenda in March when one of Pope Benedict's senior advisers, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the archbishop of Vienna, said the abolition of the celibacy rule might curb sex abuse by priests

Dozens of Italian women who have had relationships with Roman Catholic priests or lay monks have endorsed an open letter to the pope that calls for the abolition of the celibacy rule. The letter, thought by one signatory to be unprecedented, argues that a priest "needs to live with his fellow human beings, experience feelings, love and be loved".

The women  said the rule of celibacy was an affirmation of "the holiness of something that is not holy" but a man-made rule. There are many instances of married priests in the early centuries of Christianity. Today, priests who follow the eastern Catholic rites can be married, as can those who married before converting to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism.

BP's Dismal Safety Record

This is why MORE regulation, not less is necessary  and yet another case of the rich, buying themselves out of criminal prosecution    full story here

In two separate disasters prior to the Gulf oil rig explosion, 30 BP workers have been killed, and more than 200 seriously injured.

In the last five years, investigators found, BP has admitted to breaking U.S. environmental and safety laws and committing outright fraud. BP paid $373 million in fines to avoid prosecution.

in the last three years, BP refineries in Ohio and Texas have accounted for 97 percent of the "egregious, willful" violations handed out by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). OSHA statistics show BP ran up 760 "egregious, willful" safety violations, while Sunoco and Conoco-Phillips each had eight, Citgo had two and Exxon had one comparable citation.

In 2007, a BP pipeline spill poured 200,000 gallons of crude oil into the pristine Alaskan wilderness. In researching the environmental hazard, investigators discovered BP was aware of corrosion along the pipeline where the leak occurred but did not respond appropriately.

The Justice Department required the company to pay approximately $353 million as part of an agreement to defer prosecution on charges that the company conspired to manipulate the propane gas market.

full story here

Get Out The Vote Campaign!

Nah , not politics, this is not as important, but alot more fun , and the guy deserves to win.

N.Y.Mets Catcher Rod Barajas certainly merits the starting nod for this year's National League All Star team..
Full  Story here from Mets Merized Online

It's time to start stuffing the ballot box… You can vote for Rod Barajas up to 25 times by casting your vote here for the 2010 All-Star Team.

 here are some stats:

• Rod Barajas currently ranks #1 in the NL with 10 home runs. Of the five catchers in front of him in the early voting, only Brian McCann comes close with just 5 homers, half as many as Rod.
• Barajas ranks #2 in runs scored with 20 while batting mostly eighth in the batting order. Russell Martin leads all catchers with 25 runs scored batting mostly second in a potent Dodgers lineup . Yadier Molina has just eight runs scored this season.
• Barajas ranks #1 among all catchers in total bases with 74 and #1 in slugging percentage with a robust .554 mark.  The next best mark among those catchers who lead in the voting comes from Pudge Rodriguez whose .439 slugging percentage is more than 100 points lower than Barajas.  
• Barajas ranks #1 in RBIs with 27, one more than Yadier Molina who bats in the middle of a potent Cardinals lineup. Additionally, Yadier has played in five more games than Barajas.
• Barajas ranks #2 in doubles with eight two-baggers, only one behind Pudge who leads with nine of them.
• Now here's a stat I dug up I thought you might like. Barajas has grounded into just two double-plays this season. Pudge leads all catchers with ten GIDP's, followed by Yadier Molina who has seven, four more than his lead-footed brother Bengie who has three.

As you can see, Rod Barajas stacks up better than any of the catchers that currently are out-pacing him in the All Star voting.

Slippery Slope Just Got More Slippery

Life from NOTHING ??????

Their "stated" mission is a good one, but its the unstated ones and the potential accidents and deliberate misuse that scares me

The stated mission:-  designing algae that can capture carbon dioxide from the air and produce hydrocarbon fuels.

Naturally being a U.S. based company what else would they think of creating  but ( in layman terms) an organism that breathes the exhaled waste from our politicians mouths, and then craps out gasoline , lol
Full story here
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/science/05/20/scientists.organism.ft/index.html

Military Leader Wanted, NO Experience Necessary

A Texas man with no military experience tricked the Army into letting him enter a reserve unit as a noncommissioned officer earlier this year, in effect placing an untrained soldier in a leadership position in a time of war.  Full story HERE

Nothing new actually.
 After all we just had a guy who faked his way through his military service and then, as if that wasnt enough, he then faked being president for the previous 8 years.
 Or for those gullible enough to believe it,
there is the current man faking (?) his birth certificate so he could be president.  Seems the whole world is being revealed to be nothing more than "smoke and mirrors.  Like the Wizard of OZ, once said  "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain"

 But really what is at work here is the Peter Principle, where a person keeps getting promoted until he reaches a level of incompetence, and then they leave him there, and thats a sad testimony to our leadership

Oklahoma City Hail Storm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-n__Cfuz3c&feature=related

Dont quit too early on this. about 1minute 15 seconds into it,  the hail storm gets unbelievably bad

Copy Machines have Hard Drives that Compromise your Security

 Did You know that copy machines have hard drives in them?  This can put untold amounts of YOUR personal information at risk of being seen by who knows who.

watch the video

http://www.cbs.com/cbs_evening_news/video/?pid=Y1oOpSeQ6PUc4P_4oSnZ9M4FpDAYGb8z&vs=homepage&play=true

 

thanks mary, no doubt my "sole" subscriber, lol.

One of Worlds Great Mysteries Solved

Ryan Seacrest finds out if Donald Trumps hair is real or not



http://www.ryanseacrest.com/blog/whats-happening/donald-trump-proves-his-hair-is-real-video/

How Rich Are You?

http://globalrichlist.com/

This will make you feel better, now give some away, lol.
 I know many of you already do. This site is about donating. They put up a "wealth" Calculator relevant to the world as a way of showing just how well off we are

Child Safe Browsers

For anyone who has, or knows people with younger kids, here are some "kid-safe browsers  with built in safety features

  Zoodles,   KIDO'Z,  &  KidZui Stand Alone and KidZui Firefox Extension,             all via Lifehacker      

Laura Bush is Pro Choice & Gay Marriage on Larry King 5/11/2010,

Laura Bush On Larry King 5/11/10,
On Abortion: "I think it's important that it (Roe v. Wade) remain legal"
On Same Sex Marriage: "they ought to have the same sort of rights that everyone has"

Video HERE

Transcript HERE and below

KING: Lose your balance. Gay marriage, you tell us in the book that during the 2004 campaign you talked to George about not making it a significant issue. Do you think we should have it?

BUSH: Well, I think we ought to definitely look at it and debate it. I think there are a lot of people who have trouble coming to terms with that because they see marriage as traditionally between a man and a woman.

But I also know that, you know, when couples are committed to each other and love each other, that they ought to have I think the same sort of rights that everyone has.

KING: So would that be an area where you disagreed?

BUSH: I guess that would be an area that we disagree. I mean, I understand totally what George thinks and what other people think about marriage being between a man and a woman. And it's a real, you know, reversal really for that to accept gay marriage.

KING: But you do?

BUSH: But I think we could, yeah. I think it's also a generational thing.

KING: You think it's coming?

BUSH: Yeah, that will come, I think.

KING: How about choice?

BUSH: That was the -- I write in the book about the very first question I got on the morning of George's inauguration, from Katie Couric, who asked me two questions about abortion. That was the social issue in 2000 that everyone got asked about. And then I think gay marriage was the social issue in 2004. And I was say probably in the more recent election as well.

She asked me if -- she asked two questions about abortion, and then she asked me if I was for the overturn of Roe versus Wade. And sort of everything went through my mind. This was the very morning my husband was about to be inaugurated. And I thought, do I really want to start my husband's presidency, you know, suggesting that a Supreme Court rule being overturned. And I said no.

And I think it's important that it remain legal, because I think it's important for people, for medical reasons and other reasons.

KING: So you -- that would be two areas of disagreement.

BUSH: Uh-huh.

KING: But you weren't so expressive during the White House day.

BUSH: About those issues, you mean?

KING: Yeah.

BUSH: No, not really. I talked about those issues. I was asked about those issues a lot. Not so much about abortion, but in the 2004 election, a lot about gay marriage. That was the social issue that really animated that election, I think. KING: When you discuss it with your husband, is it argumentative?

BUSH: No. Not at all. I mean --

KING: He understands?

BUSH: Yeah, and I understand his viewpoint. I really do. I understand his viewpoint. And he understands mine.

Laura Bush is Pro Choice & Gay Marriage on Larry King 5/11/2010,

Laura Bush On Larry King 5/11/10,
On Abortion: "I think it's important that it (Roe v. Wade) remain legal"
On Same Sex Marriage: "they ought to have the same sort of rights that everyone has"

Video HERE

Transcript HERE and below

KING: Lose your balance. Gay marriage, you tell us in the book that during the 2004 campaign you talked to George about not making it a significant issue. Do you think we should have it?

BUSH: Well, I think we ought to definitely look at it and debate it. I think there are a lot of people who have trouble coming to terms with that because they see marriage as traditionally between a man and a woman.

But I also know that, you know, when couples are committed to each other and love each other, that they ought to have I think the same sort of rights that everyone has.

KING: So would that be an area where you disagreed?

BUSH: I guess that would be an area that we disagree. I mean, I understand totally what George thinks and what other people think about marriage being between a man and a woman. And it's a real, you know, reversal really for that to accept gay marriage.

KING: But you do?

BUSH: But I think we could, yeah. I think it's also a generational thing.

KING: You think it's coming?

BUSH: Yeah, that will come, I think.

KING: How about choice?

BUSH: That was the -- I write in the book about the very first question I got on the morning of George's inauguration, from Katie Couric, who asked me two questions about abortion. That was the social issue in 2000 that everyone got asked about. And then I think gay marriage was the social issue in 2004. And I was say probably in the more recent election as well.

She asked me if -- she asked two questions about abortion, and then she asked me if I was for the overturn of Roe versus Wade. And sort of everything went through my mind. This was the very morning my husband was about to be inaugurated. And I thought, do I really want to start my husband's presidency, you know, suggesting that a Supreme Court rule being overturned. And I said no.

And I think it's important that it remain legal, because I think it's important for people, for medical reasons and other reasons.

KING: So you -- that would be two areas of disagreement.

BUSH: Uh-huh.

KING: But you weren't so expressive during the White House day.

BUSH: About those issues, you mean?

KING: Yeah.

BUSH: No, not really. I talked about those issues. I was asked about those issues a lot. Not so much about abortion, but in the 2004 election, a lot about gay marriage. That was the social issue that really animated that election, I think. KING: When you discuss it with your husband, is it argumentative?

BUSH: No. Not at all. I mean --

KING: He understands?

BUSH: Yeah, and I understand his viewpoint. I really do. I understand his viewpoint. And he understands mine.

Bagster, Cheaper and Easier Than a Dumpster for Bulk Garbage

Moving?, Remodeling? or just contemplating suicide, and want to get rid of some of your worldly possessions?  Well if the job is too big for your local garbage hauler, and too small to justify a dumpster, then try BAGSTER   
Seriously, for whatever reason the need for bulk, but not too much, garbage removal arise, check out this site to see if they have service in your area.

 you just go to yor local home improvement store (Home Depot, Lowes, or Ace Hardware), plunk down $29, for a "bag", take it home, open it, fill, it and call for pick up.  It holds 3 cubic feet, up to 3300 lbs. Pickup fees are approximately $99. Comparatively a 10 cubic yard dumpster is about $300.
The BAGSTER. open to the approximate shape of a dumpster.
Of course this is new so service may not yet be available in your area, but still an interesting concept that you may want to share with others.
Bagster website