RUMSFELD & MOMMY CAT UPDATE
The honeymoon fervor between the mismatched couple seems to have subsided some.  I woke up this morning to fund Rums asleep on my pillow and Mommy Cat curled up at the foot of the bed.  Glad that’s done with, for awhile. All kidding aside, over the years there have been seven dogs in the family and quite a few cats who have been considered ‘top cat’.  Never have I seen a relationship like Rums and Mommy Cat have.  All of our canines and felines have been friends, but is much different.  I know this sounds funny, but the two of them truly have a ‘relationship’.  

Just when you think the Mitt stories can’t get any more fantastical the Politico has one about his make-consultation, which cost THREE HUNDRED BUCKS!  That’s a heck of a lot more than I spend, which explains why he looks better than I do!

Another excellent posting by Curt at Flopping Aces – This one on the legacy of GWB.

Wizbang on the absolutely remarkable Nichelle Nichols.

Hyscience has another of those non-Episcopalian condemnations of Episcopalians.

MY COMMENT
This is somewhat old news, finally.  All we Episcopalians need is something like this.  It is a good thing we have a sense of humor and our reputation for knowing how to mix a good martini.  These days it takes the former and quite a bit of the later to deal with the liberal do-gooders in the church.

If I did not know better, and did not know many, many wonderful, Christ-loving, prayer-believing Episcopalians I would be truly dismayed.  We've learned to look at these people and just laugh.  Also take comfort in the fact that her parish will start losing both 'heads' and money.  That's how we Episcopalians tend to 'vote' on the behavior of our sometimes wayward priests.  When the $$$s stop coming in, behaviors will either change or she will be looking for a new parish.

One long time parishioners I know recently told me, "I’ve been here for 50 years and have seen priests come and go.  They have not changed my faith or what I believe.  I also trust the Lord enough to know when He is ready for them to move on, they do, then we are treated to someone special.  I'll be here long after they are gone."  I've come to realize she is right.

Quite frankly, I am quite tired of well meaning people from other denominations constantly piling on those the rank and file members of the Episcopal Church.  I've been a member of several denominations over the years and if I could not be Episcopalian I would be Catholic.  I've come to learn that I can always depend on my fellow Episcopalians for love, prayer, and support.  Contrary to popular opinion and a few nut-cases, we truly believe in Christ, John 3:16, and 1st Century Christian living.  

Don't judge all of us by a few crazies.  Also, don't make the mistake of condemning everyone who is Episcopalian.  At least our 'gays' our out of the closet, which is more than can be said of other denominations.  (Like I said, it takes a sense of humor).

CONSERVATIVE BLOGS NOT REPORTING
The conservative blogsphere is not reporting the prizefight between Lindsey and Jim Webb.  With the exception of MacsMind, no one is touching it, aside from Hot Air, that is as usual, slamming Lindsey. (Someone really needs to get over it and themselves).

The Palmetto Scoop is also handling the story.  I’m sorry, (not really) but Webb comes across as “Ralph Mouth” from Happy Days!
You need to read the way they play it on Hot Air.
One of the few conservative bloggers to cover the story is Mac’sMind.

There is some good news for McCain in SC.

THE BUSH IS HITLER SYNDROME
Someone needs to ask Keith Ellison how he really feels about GWB (sarcasm)
StrataSphere
Red State
Blogs for Bush

MY RANT OF THE DAY
Catholic Payola

Today while running errands I happened to listen to Michael Reagan for the first time in ages. He was discussing the LA Diocese payout of something like $1.5 million to about 500 or so victims of pedophile priests.  I am sorry to admit his show brought out a number of issues and basically brought and end to any blogging plans I had for the day, I was so upset.

I think by now most of you know part of my story.  I was molested by my elementary school principal when I was in the third grade.  Instead of helping, when my parents went to local authorities they were insulted.  The record of this person having ever been in Oconee County was erased.  My parents’ attorney dismissed them (they found a new one who, along with his wife, have become life-long friends).  This individual eventually becomes a highly placed judicial official.  The local political official who refuses to help rises to a high position.  We later discover that there are allegations of child molestation in his family, also.

The last things I actually remember about that year, until the final show-down with this individual was the JFK assassination (this also dates me).  I don’t remember my birthday, which was a few weeks later, Thanksgiving, or even Christmas.  I do remember the final day there at the school, when I was locked in a closet and my mother found me, that evening, in the first and only time of my life, my father let me go shopping.  It wasn’t until years later, when I realized my father was a child of the Depression, did I realize my father authorizing a shopping spree was the greatest example of indulgence he could provide.

Yep – now, when the going gets tough the tough go shopping.  I shop, therefore I am.  I go to confession, ‘Father forgive me for I have shopped…’ and so on. And so, my coping addiction manifested itself in shopping – shoes being the drug of choice.  (Oh, my gosh, I just forgot, I need to go pay for those adorable sandals I have in the shopping cart on the Bloomies web site…!)

The principal, fired from his position, would prowl around our house trying to break into my bedroom. No one would help us.  I would hear him trying to open my bedroom windows, and would begin screaming in fear.  This went on for months.  He tried to kidnap me out of my new third grade class in my new school. I fainted when I saw him and remembered nothing about it until a friend told me about it when we met for a class reunion years later.  There were additional kidnapping attempts.  I was not allowed to have a normal childhood.  I was afraid of the dark.  I was afraid to look out into the night.  I never opened my bedroom windows, never opened my shades – not for 25  years.  I hated the fall of the year, and never actually noticed fall colors or the changing of the leaves.  All I would ever fear was a dread of the season and the things that I feared would come.

This man stole twenty-five years of my life.  His actions cost me so much, and I am still paying for it.  So much has been taken from me.  Only now, in the past 5 or 6 yeas, have I truly begun to ‘recover’ and learn how to cope with the world.  I am still afraid of so many thing, though.  Irrational fear, created from a quarter century of living in fear, of being stalked, of death threats, of break-ins, of terror.

Where do I go to get my $1.5 million dollars?  Who pays my therapy bills?  Who forks over money to help repair the damage done to my life?  No one.  

I’m sorry, but I don’t believe in a monetary pay-out.  Oh, yes, it will help make life easier, but will it?  All the money and all the therapy in the world will not restore what has been stolen.  Literally stealing that money from a diocese where it is needed for helping people who are truly in need is not going to make things easier – maybe it will make things worse.  I’m sorry, but it is blood money.  Nothing good can come of it.

Would I take it?  

I don’t think I would. Maybe I would, but I would like to think if I took it, I would donate it back to the charities that need it far more than I.