Politics: Where we struggle to kneel in the muck.

[Secret_Agent_Man]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
when your firm looks to hire a lateral partner, does it ask to see law school transcripts?

You and I value his book of business rather differently. I also see the potential for enormous liabilities that could bring down the firm. Read your ALAS bulletins.

S_A_M

eta: But of course, I was making a more general point.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Catholicism is a fucking joke - its like being a Mason or a fraternity member.

What is this, national trash-on-Catholics day?

I know non-Catholics like to oversimplify the religion, usually for the sake of disparaging it. I also know this is popular with any number of other religions (cf. Not Me posting on Islam). There are even Catholics who want to oversimplify for purposes of denying the tensions within the faith.

But it is possible to have a deeply felt religion that, yes, has strong tenets of faith, and still to struggle with elements of it. Faith need not be a simple matter of staring at your belly button and believing what you are told, and Catholicism is certainly very far from that.

So, for the law-and-order Catholics who have no problem with an absolutist right-to-life position, it is common to see them struggle with the fact that the Church is adamantly opposed to the death penalty. For me, the struggle is usually with the role of women in the Church - I find little rational basis for not permitting women in the priesthood, and this obviously puts me at odds with the Church's official position. But I have faith that the Church will also grow, and the time will come. And the Church is very diverse, and that does mean that it may move slowly at times because it needs to bring a lot of people along.

But I tell you what, let's not minimize the extent to which anyone feels their religion, or minimize the value or meaning of their religion, for the purposes of political debate. I won't call such behavior unAmerican, since it is more fundamentally wrong than that.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
In the end, none of this matters anyway. Abortion is a non-issue. Its only important to the crazy Southern Baptists (if there are two worse forces in our country than the Southern Baptists and Catholic Church, I'd be interested to hear their names...). Nobody wins or loses a state based on abortion politics. Its all about taxes, jobs and Iraq.

It's statements like these that make me realize that the Republican party in other states hasn't been taken over by the religious right, and it gives me hope that perhaps some Republican Texan with balls can set the party back here on track.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
when your firm looks to hire a lateral partner, does it ask to see law school transcripts?

We certainly look for strong indications of grey matter. Of course, by 15 years out of law school, there are better tests that law school transcripts, but it would be pretty extraordinary to see us lateral in a partner with a degree from Western Kentucky U. Law School (sorry, Hank).

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
When did the fucking Church get the right to equate abortion with slavery? I was reading the Times this morning and in an OpEd, some priest from Notre Dame said abortion rights will be recalled historically in the same way we regard slavery as a bleak period. Bullshit. I hope somebody from the NAACP will stick their foot in that waterhead's ass.

The blogsphere is pretty much convinced that Bush's baffling "Dred Scott" answer in the debate on Friday was a reference to "abortion=slavery" and a reassurance to those in the know on such matters that he will appoint justices that will overturn Roe. Google "dred scott" and abortion.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
We certainly look for strong indications of grey matter. Of course, by 15 years out of law school, there are better tests that law school transcripts, but it would be pretty extraordinary to see us lateral in a partner with a degree from Western Kentucky U. Law School (sorry, Hank).

Umm Florida Coastal, sorry.

http://www.fcsl.edu/

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
What is this, national trash-on-Catholics day?

I know non-Catholics like to oversimplify the religion, usually for the sake of disparaging it. I also know this is popular with any number of other religions (cf. Not Me posting on Islam). There are even Catholics who want to oversimplify for purposes of denying the tensions within the faith.

But it is possible to have a deeply found religion that, yes, has strong tenets of faith, and still to struggle with elements of it. Faith need not be a simple matter of staring at your belly button and believing what you are told, and Catholicism is certainly very far from that.

So, for the law-and-order Catholics who have no problem with an absolutist right-to-life position, it is common to see them struggle with the fact that the Church is adamantly opposed to the death penalty. For me, the struggle is usually with the role of women in the Church - I find little rational basis for not permitting women in the priesthood, and this obviously puts me at odds with the Church's official position. But I have faith that the Church will also grow, and the time will come. And the Church is very diverse, and that does mean that it may move slowly at times because it needs to bring a lot of people along.

But I tell you what, let's not minimize the extent to which anyone feels their religion for the purposes of political debate. I won't call such behavior unAmerican, since it is more fundamentally wrong than that.

I am Catholic, and I'm quite familiar with the Church's positions on everything. You'd do just as well to try to follow the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.

The only church edict worth a shit is from St. Francis of Assisi -"Do onto others as you'd have them do unto you." I live that one because its practical, sensible and I believe encapsulates how people should live. As to the judgmental rubbish offered by Rome and the eidtcs handed down by the Church - those are men's rules, and you might as well wipe your ass with them as read them. You think I'm going to have "faith" in a disastrous bureaucratic mess like the Church. I'm pretty certain if Chriost were to come back, the first temples he'd demand be cleansed would be the Southern Baptists and the Catholic Church. I'll deride Catholicism all I like because its a flawed, self-perpetuating corporate monster. As to its brother in judgment dispensing industry, the SBC, well, thats a good example of what happens when uneducated white trash gets together in mass numbers. They have a right to speak all they like, but I've no obligation to respect the views of imbeciles. And yes, if you believe, like the SBC, that women should be home and subservient, and that evolution is a teaching propagated by "satan", you're an imbecile.

As to the GOP being taken over by religious nuts, there will be a reckoning soon. I believe - I have to believe - that the Rockefeller Republicans will stand up and take back what's theirs. You can't have a party where the mass quietly accepts the tyranny of idiots indefinitely.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Umm Florida Coastal, sorry.

http://www.fcsl.edu/

Really!? Interested in lateralling?

[Replaced_Texan]

The Burnt Orange Report, which is the Blog of some Democrats from the University of Texas, has had to change its name and color scheme for a few days. They lost a bet on the UT/OU game to http://soonerpolitics.com/ and are now called "The Crimson and Cream Report."

This just hasn't been the weekend for Texas sports.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
The blogsphere is pretty much convinced that Bush's baffling "Dred Scott" answer in the debate on Friday was a reference to "abortion=slavery" and a reassurance to those in the know on such matters that he will appoint justices that will overturn Roe. Google "dred scott" and abortion.

If they overturn Roe v. Wade, you will see this country torn socially from stem to stern. I don't think anyone will really do that. He's paying the idiots lip service.

[Hank Chinaski]

Florida coastal photos are huge

[bilmore]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Its actually impossible to be rigidly Catholic anymore.

I'm guessing few guys, if any, actively contemplate their faith in the middle of sex. However, as long as there is "nun porn" available, there's still hope.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by bilmore
"nun porn"

why the " " ? Are you implying its not actual nuns?

[baltassoc]

Originally posted by Say_hello_for_me
And on that note, I got a book they are spreading around in law-enforcement and military circles for awhile now. "On Killing" by a guy named Grossman from the University of Arkansas...
Hello

This is a great, if somewhat scary book. For extra credit, think about how the techniques the Army uses to turn people into killing machines are like the techniques law schools use to turn people into lawyers.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
When did the fucking Church get the right to equate abortion with slavery? I was reading the Times this morning and in an OpEd, some priest from Notre Dame said abortion rights will be recalled historically in the same way we regard slavery as a bleak period. Bullshit. I hope somebody from the NAACP will stick their foot in that waterhead's ass.

This is exactly what turned me off to the Church as a small kid. These fucking moral harrumphers are so goddamned self-centered that they think their pet issues are on par with some of the biggest crimes in history. Its bad enough these fucking loons have the balls to equate abortion with the Holocaust (and I still don't know why the Jews aren't complaining about that), but now they're co-opting slavery? Does the Church have no shame at all?

If they truly believe that an abortion is the murder of a kid, how can they NOT equate the two (or was it three)?