I didn't have my camera present today when a deer bounded up onto campus today and spent some time calmly grazing outside the Portiuncula chapel, despite the light traffic of students nearby. Someone managed to get it to lick their hand with the lure of berries before a sneeze chased it off.

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Despite the title's implication, this doesn't have to do with making a quick exegesis, merely with the quick choice of exactly what to do exegesis on.

Tonight was the first class of what I'll call Old Testament, (Principles of Biblical Study: Old Testament is I believe the full title) and the professor got down to business rather fast. A ten page exegesis of a passage will be due much later in the semester, but he wants us to have e-mailed him the passage choice by tomorrow. For someone like me who has never actually completed the text, much less have familiarity with it through the Offices, this caused something of a panic.

The Book of Wisdom stuck out as a book I'd like to pick from, as I have always had some fondness for it, despite rarely reading it. I believe I will be selecting the following passage, unless the professor vetoes it.

But ungodly men by their words and deeds summoned death; considering him a friend, they pined away, and they made a covenant with him, because they are fit to belong to his party.

For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves, "Short and sorrowful is our life, and there is no remedy when a man comes to his end, and no one has been known to return from Hades. Because we were born by mere chance, and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been; because the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts. When it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes, and the spirit will dissolve like empty air."

- Wisdom of Solomon 1:16 - 2:3, RSV-CE

It reads like an indictment of modern Western culture, which becomes even more damning in the balance of the second chapter. This may not make it the greatest of choices for exegesis. My backup, I think, will be Sirach 2:1-6:

My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation. Set your heart right and steadfast, and do not be hasty in the time of calamity. Cleave to him and do not depart, that you may be honored at the end of your life. Accept whatever is brought upon you, and in changes that humble you be patient. For gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. Trust in him, and he will help you: make your ways straight, and hope in him.

UPDATE: I elected to use the Sirach passage. It will probably be memorized by the time the paper's due in 3 months.

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The Old Oligarch wrote late last week on the subject of when exactly a person is dead from the position of Catholic theology. I read the post last night, and then to my surprise today in class, the subject came up when someone asked if a dead body would still have a soul. Whether that was asked from the medical or metaphysical perspective I don't know, though the professor explained that medical death (brain death) need not coincide with the soul's departure.

The professor said that dead things don't have souls (this is really almost by definition, as the soul is literally the animating power of God that gives life, and is also why every living thing from pets to plants has a soul, according to Catholic theology, even though humans are the only ones with the immortal sort), so there is not a situation where there could be a corpse with a soul.

I speculated a bit a few months ago on when the soul departs, toward the end of this post.

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Okay, now that I finally have a moment again after the wildly active time that was orientation week (Thursday to Monday really counts as a week for all practical purposes), I'll finish up my impressions of the weekend.

Friday offered one of the few low points of the weekend on the university's part, as the academic sessions succeeded in confusing me and making me worry that some bureaucratic paperwork isn't filed properly. I think in part it was compounded by my assigned advisor not being present that day.

Bishop Conlon was there to celebrate Mass, and he delivered a stunning homily (he gave one of the few examples I can think of where a quip like Thomas Aquinas burning at the stake actually fit well and wasn't out in left field) on truth, spirituality, and the mission of a university. My impression was that I sure don't hear homilies like that back home from anyone. The music, as I'd been advised, wasn't exactly anything I really enjoy, sounding much more like my Newman experience of old, but it was tolerable, excepting the butchering of the Agnus Dei that always seems to happen in folk Masses.

Graduate students here have a nice take on parties - alcohol, food, music, lots of people, but nobody getting wasted or out of control. We had a little party on Friday night after all was said and done officially, and it lasted about 3 hours or so. Conversation more or less flowed, with the slight problem that nobody was much able to remember anyone else's name, due to the constant rotation of faces.

Saturday saw some timeout for games - we ended up playing Mafia, an interesting game where certain players are mafia out to kill everyone else, while everyone else is trying to kill them. As one or two people always get knocked off per round, it got quite heated at times. The deacon, incidentally, was bumped off twice in this game, once by the mafia, and once by losing a survivor-like vote.

There was a president's reception and dance - a more formal event - but I didn't stay very long, as deafening bands that prevent one from being able to think aren't my thing, but it wasn't too bad other than that.

Sunday's homily offered a little gem from Fr. Michael Scanlan, TOR, who mentioned George Steinbrenner was his roommate back in college his freshman year and who, when at Franciscan some 25 years ago, couldn't stop talking about Fr. Mike's always wanting his car for dates.

Later, the graduate faculty turned out for a little social with the graduate students, which was a pleasant little evening get together. Dr. Alan Schreck was the main faculty member I spoke with, as he had joined a circle of theology students for a light conversation on theology. Dr. Max Bonilla followed a close second, with a conversation on the university's mission with a different group.

Today was pretty mundane, just browsing the job fair looking for work and the ministry fair looking for something to do there. The job prospects might be good if tutoring works out or one of the deans ends up picking me up; otherwise, I might well do better ignoring campus work for something else. The ministry fair had some nice choices, and I'll probably end up doing a few things in the tutoring and high school ends. Music, as usual, irked me, since there really isn't much going on for people looking for the more traditional choral setting. I met someone else who feels the same, so we'll both be keeping an eye out for an opportunity to join such a thing.

Side note on architecture - this place has UB beat hands down. The architecture definitely shows more inspiration and creativity than the functional box structure most of UB has. Pictures will be up when I can get a day without clouds and rain to take some.

Posted by Justice at 10:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

That pretty much sums up day one of orientation. It started out pretty mundane, checking in, getting the ID card lined up, opening up a bank account locally, making sure health, work, and e-mail paperwork was in order, and then grabbing some supplies at the bookstore.

Dinner was where the fun started, so to speak. I met some people I'd seen earlier in the day and chatted with them for the first hour. Just as I was ready to leave, a woman started up a conversation with me. It took about 5 to 10 minutes before I actually sat down again, but I spoke on a whole range of topics with her and her daughter and her daughter's two friends until the end of dinner. She is a mathematician - a profession dear to my heart for obvious reasons.

Later on, we had a grand opening presentation. This consisted of a lively MC, wild and wacky OA introductions, a hilarious video called "Freshman Fiasco" about two enthusiastic parents moving an unenthusiastic son down to the university with a peppy roommate, mock presentations of "Fear Factor" and "Dansing Idol" - the latter hosted by Harry Caray in a stunning impression, a Vaseline commercial (4 different takes of which none involved anything dirty, though they were uproariously funny), and some music.

The GNTs (Grad/Non-Trad students, as they call us collectively) then had a little group meeting. It began with all of the OAs running a little skit called "Dis-Orientation Zone" in a Twilight Zone fashion about what happens to the poor souls who miss orientation and are therefore clueless and lost their entire existence at the university (they're exaggerating...I think). Then they all introduced themselves - using completely bogus bios. The best were the guy from Mars who moved to Steubenville for the "cleaner air" (the area is a steel community still, and the water is undrinkable), the girl who lived with squirrels and ate chocolate-covered acorns and was the head of the nut-house, and the guy whose Louisiana swamp home flooded and who was living in Steubenville in a van down by the river.

It was insane, funny, and just like any other lively group of college students...except at the same time, it wasn't. Primarily, it was clean - nobody swore, and none of the humor employed any sexual overtones. But also, people seemed genuinely interested in people - stories, lives, and so forth.

Also, unexpectedly, a deacon from the Diocese of Buffalo is in attendance to complete a master's in theology. We got along rather well, and he was at both dinner and the group meeting afterward with me. The man recently lost his wife, so prayers on her behalf would be most welcome.

Update: This post is continued in the following post, Wrapping Up.

Posted by Justice at 11:22 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Hmm...Movable Type, the software that powers this blog, is offering a substantial discount on paid versions of the software. Now, for just under $40, it's possible to buy the basic personal version, which allows for 5 authors and unlimited weblogs. It's a tempting buy for me, since I do like this program a lot.

On the other hand, unlimited weblogs are now also available for people like me who are using the freebie version, which diminishes my interest in buying the paid version, since the only real attraction for me is multiple authors. But since I really can think of only one other person I would invite to post here at the moment (and I think he knows who he is), I'm not sure it's worth it. Also looming in mind is the fact that I'd then have to pay for future upgrades at some point, such as MT 4 when it eventually comes out.

The offer's good until September 30, so I'll be mulling over this choice probably until near the deadline. If anyone has an idea what Six Apart plans on charging for a paid upgrade when that time eventually comes, let me know - or let me know how much they charged the last time paid users had to pay for an upgrade, if there was such a time.

Posted by Justice at 10:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Well, not quite, but I did stop at the bookstore to buy my books for the upcoming semester. Only four courses are on the roster, so this shouldn't be too bad, right?

Yikes! Franciscan University certainly isn't fooling around, nor are they opting for Catholic Lite, either theologically or in the workload. The stack is composed of five course packs on the bottom, eight more or less normal-sized books, a compact Bible (thrown in for good measure to blind my eyes to the world, among other things), five of the blue books containing things like papal encyclicals, and lastly, as the icing on the cake, Dei Verbum. Twenty in all.

On the plus side, this entire stack only cost $250, most of it new. This should be considered a key selling point of theology as a field of study - not only are the books cheaper, saving hundreds over the short term, but the subject leaves one much richer on the spiritual side of the coin, which kind of matters more at the end of all things.

If blogging is lighter during the fall term, keep in mind the above pile of books, it will likely be what's occupying my time. Blogging will definitely be intermittent through Monday as I attend all the orientation events.

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The technical problems with my Yahoo mail address have been resolved, and they were not apparently Yahoo's fault. Feel free to keep using it if you already have it.

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And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, 'man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"

Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will give his angels charge of you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'"

Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'" Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."

Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." Then the devil left him.

This passage came to mind last week the night before I moved from home during the rosary, since the first of the Luminous mysteries deals with it, so thanks be to God the thought did not fly out with the move.

The passage in question shows us how temptation works on humanity in general. The most important thing to note is the order of events - Baptism comes prior to the temptation. The difference between Christ and us is that, when we reach exhaustion, whether it be physical, emotional, or spiritual, we can and often do fall to a temptation. But Baptism does not exclude us from temptations or from the possibility of giving in to them.

On a different level, as 40 days and 40 nights is symbolic of all the time there is, these temptations can also be looked at as Satan's ultimate temptations, namely self-gratification (the bread), notoriety (the temple jump), and power (the offer of the world). All of them are very self-centered, and in today's society, all three dominate, as materialism, fame, and power drive much of the culture. The three can also form a progression, as materialism can lead to a desire for fame to show off the goods, and that can lead to a desire for power to cash in on the fame, although any one of the three can be present independent of the others.

UPDATE: This post simply did not want to appear. However, all of a sudden, I managed to fix my connection problems and everything now seems to be working again. Apparently Sygate's firewall is incompatible with 2Wire's DSL modem.

Posted by Justice at 3:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Anyone who has been using my personal e-mail address (it's the Yahoo one), please be advised that the e-mail is inaccessible. As Yahoo's customer support is virtually non-existent, I have no idea how long it will take them to fix it. Please use my website address given on the sidebar in the meantime, or contact me via instant message (my screen name is also listed on the sidebar) for my G-mail address, which will be replacing Yahoo as my primary if they don't get their act together soon.

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I just managed to get everything in to be moved down, and now it's all sitting in my room in a semi-disordered state waiting to be put in order. Everything seems to be fine, with the minor irritant that Yahoo seems incapable of letting me read my mail today, even though I am now on their DSL service. If this problem continues, I'll have to start using my address over at G-mail.

On an unrelated note, Steubenville is very hilly. So much so that I don't think my bike will be much use here at this point. The hills are way to steep for me to ascend at this point, and some to steep even for me to descend. Going almost 20 mph downhill while applying the brakes is not the greatest feeling in the world.

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For once, the packing was done in a timely fashion and today was not a race against the clock. As a result, I am going out to enjoy my last night in town instead of stuffing items willy-nilly into boxes.

A special congratulations also to Todd, my philosophy instructor from last semester, whose wife gave birth just recently. I gave my regards in absentia, since I won't be there for the party which will follow. I've forgotten how many kids he has at this point, but I want to say this is number five, and is also the fifth daughter.

If all goes well, I will be up and running tomorrow. If it does not, I will be back at the earliest convenient moment.

Posted by Justice at 7:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Things are rather busy with packing up for the move. Right now, most things have been packed away, save for a few things in my room. There may be a few days' disruption while I'm moving and unpacking. Then again, there may be no pause at all.

On a bright note, we found a coupon that will save $45 off the moving expenses. That's very nice. I was also given a cake tonight that said "Good Riddance" - something of an odd message from the folks, but what can I say, they're weird. They'll miss me within the week anyway, so it was all in good fun.

Posted by Justice at 11:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

One of the funnier, albeit annoying, parts of having an old house is that things tend to break in streaks, creating the impending sense of doom, even though the individual things that have broken have been around for decades.

The latest streak began roughly a month ago when the dishwasher finally gave out. Dating from probably the late 1980s, it had been repaired several times, but this time we paid $70 to basically be told we needed a new washer.

A few weeks later, just back from vacation, the microwave suddenly stopped working. It too was well over a decade old, although it had never needed any real repairs.

This past weekend, one of the garage doors, heavy wooden overdoors from many decades ago, had its metal cable snap from fatigue, sending it crashing down. The repair wasn't too bad, but a little part critical to the springs was almost missed. The springs are unfortunately irreplaceable, as nothing is manufactured anymore which would be strong enough to replace them, so this was a lucky catch.

Yesterday the hot water faucet in the shower broke off, again from metal fatigue. The plumbing is very old, so finding a replacement to fit the hookup required some searching, but it went off smoothly today.

Hopefully, this is the end of needed repairs this year.

Posted by Justice at 10:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Regarding this post made about the two straight Canadian men who plan to get married for the benefits, a reader posed a pair of questions:

How is that any different from men and women who only marry for money instead of love (or, as you so eloquently put it, "the love of money")? Or all the people who marry strangers just to get a green card? Those aren't out of love, either - do those make a mockery of all straight marriages in the same way that these two straight guys make a sham out of all gay marriages?

Generally speaking, these instances do strike me as a mockery of the institution of marriage. The problem, however, is that the offenses listed are hard to prevent since they all deal with the intent of one or both spouses in contracting the marriage. We can't say for sure that green card marriages are shams, or that apparent marriages for money are only about the money, because we're not mind readers. If they say they intend to fulfill their marriage vows, it's hard to raise an objection. It comes down to the vows in these cases because opposite sex pairings meet, generally speaking, the essential requirements to contract a marriage - a man and a woman, neither of whom is bound by a previous marriage, who together are capable of the conjugal act.

Unlike these instances, same-sex marriage presents an impediment which is both permanent and also plainly on display. The problem here is not with vows, which for all I know may be quite sincere. Rather, such an arrangement doesn't meet the design requirements of marriage, thereby automatically precluding any possibility of the conjugal act, which is where God gets to enter the intimate relations of the married life.

Did your parents marriage become less valid when Anna Nicole Smith married that old oil tycoon just to get his money right before he died? That wasn't about love, either. It was a meaningless, emnpty sham marriage. Why don't you ask your parents - did they love each other any less because of it? Do they have any less of a right to be married because two other people used the same institution irresponsibly? Did their marriage go from being valid to "valid", just like you claim all the gay marriages will?

The problem is not one of validity. Objectively, marriages are either valid or they are not, and that designation does not change, since validity is determined by the circumstances in place at the time a marriage was contracted. Once valid, always valid, in the eyes of the Church anyway. The civil institution differs greatly here, both dissolving valid marriages and recognizing as valid unions that never were.

My point here though was about the significance or meaning of the marriage from the civil standpoint. It is most certainly impacted by people abusing it for money, the ease of breaking marriage vows through divorce, and also the society extending it to cover any conceivable partnership between two people or, if polygamists have their way, as I expect they will, any number of people. Reducing marriage from its family-structure ideal to mere living, sexual, or financial arrangements will have this effect in time.

The impact is not so much on those already married but on those who have yet to marry. Someone who has already married doubtless was influenced by what society said a marriage should be at the time they married, but changing views won't really change their opinion toward their spouse. But someone born today, who grows up under the prevailing notion that a marriage is just any mutually beneficial partnership is likely to place less significance in a marriage than someone who grew up with the notion that a marriage was supposed to be a family composed of a loving husband and wife with children.

The individual meaning depends of course on what the spouses bring to it. I don't know for certain what my parents think marriage means, how much of themselves they put into it, or what their view of their own marriage is to them, nor do I think it relevant to the discussion. I don't believe individual examples of couples belong in these sorts of arguments. A woman marrying a rich old man for money is no more an argument against the traditional understanding of marriage than the devoted gay couple is an argument for allowing same-sex marriage.

Posted by Justice at 7:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

- Today was my last time as a referee for this year. It went rather well, and this year I seem to have overcome my shin splints. Now if I could only call offsides better on the fly...

- Today was also my last Sunday Mass at home. It was pretty good all things considered, with a decent homily on the gospel reading of the woman begging for scraps from Christ, unlike a friend who got real table scraps at his parish on that reading.

- Lots of new construction has started. Two or three new buildings are being built on Main Street, along with the local parish's new center starting to go up - I hope it ends up nice.

- A new post is in the works from a reader's response to a past post of mine. This is a bit lengthy so it will take time.

- The Bills began their pre-season last night. Go Bills!

Posted by Justice at 11:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

As expected, today was a better day, and things are hopefully all smoothed over with those whose feathers got ruffled yesterday.

The day began with a garage sale, which netted about $75, hurt in part by a rainstorm, something we haven't seen in weeks. The remaining items were donated, which had the net result of clearing up a substantial part of our attic. Now if only those floorboards could be nailed down and the holes patched up so I don't have to worry about falling through to the second floor...

Later in the day I went to the fair, sister in tow, for a few hours. In a funny irony, this year we each had phones, but we never split, unlike last year where we didn't have phones but did split. The fair seems less and less attractive every year - maybe that's just the midway and rides no longer being a part of the journey. The only new thing I noted this year was a "North Pole" section, which seemed to be all about a Santa Day holiday that occurs sometime in December.

Tomorrow is my last soccer game of the season, and also the end of my last weekend at home. The move to Ohio comes up this Friday, which might occasion a break in blogging depending on circumstances.

Posted by Justice at 11:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This has just been one of those days where things start out bad, it sets a bad mood for the rest of the day, and things just keep on going the wrong way, in part because of the bad mood, thus creating a vicious cycle.

I'm going to hopefully get a good night's rest and have a much better day tomorrow.

Posted by Justice at 11:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Yikes! For kicks, I checked out my book list at Franciscan University for the upcoming semester. I counted 16 required titles for the 3 courses which have listings posted. Something tells me I'm going to be reading quite a lot this upcoming semester.

On the bright side, I don't need to buy every book, as I have one or two already, and I'm looking at only about $150 in book expenses right now. That's pretty low compared to math textbooks, for which I one time paid almost $100 for a mere paperback. If you think about it, my single shelf of math texts probably cost about as much as the rest of my collection of books, which numbers in the hundreds.

Posted by Justice at 9:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Msgr. Eugene Clark, rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral, has resigned as rector in the wake of allegations that he was having an affair with his married secretary. Both Clark and his secretary, Laura DeFilippo, deny the allegations, the wife alleging her husband is making this up to get a big divorce payoff. Her husband, however, hired a private investigator who has pictures and video of the two leaving a hotel room where they've had a change of clothes.

It's hard to know what to make out of all of this. Msgr. Clark, from what I've heard from him on EWTN and the one Mass of his I was present at, doesn't come off as a man who would approve of such behavior. There might be an innocent explanation to all of it, but at the least, it seems he put himself in a compromising position, which unfortunately priests in this day and age can't afford to do, even if the situation is completely innocent.

Posted by Justice at 9:07 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

In a scenario which probably didn't occur to the average Canadian, a pair of straight men plan to get married to take advantage of all the fringe benefits that come with it. The pair are nearing retirement age (56 and 65) and don't see themselves finding wives anytime soon. It's hard to blame them really. Divorcing would be a piece of cake, especially if they didn't mix any assets, and the monetary rewards are kind of alluring.

In an ironic twist, Bruce Walker, a gay rights activist, is criticizing their action, claiming marriage should be about love. Well, I've got news for him, it is about love in their case - love of money. The logic doesn't hold well for Walker either - if gays can marry the same sex or the opposite sex (nothing prevents the latter if they opt for it), it's impossible to try and bar straights from marrying the same sex - equality issues would certainly arise, which is what he pushed his case on in the first place.

And herein lies the whole argument by the people who were opposing same-sex marriage, that permitting it would lead to the institution falling into ruin. It's hard to imagine marriage can mean much in a society where two male retirees can simply hitch up for financial incentives with little or no investment required by either party and little or no obligation placed on them by the society to give anything back.

I hope those marriage certificates were worth it, because their significance drops to just about nothing when put against the equally "valid" certificate of this straight pair of guys.

Via LifeSite

Posted by Justice at 11:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The blog will be undergoing a category reorganization, as I've come to the conclusion that I'm using the Miscellaneous label way too often. Posts will be tossed around during the next little while as I do that. Planned new categories:

- Buffalo/Erie County
- Latin
- Theology
- Steubenville (when I move, anyway)
- Books

Any other categories you think I should put in, based on my past posting history, please let me know.

Also, per a call from my host provider, they plan on moving from a low-cost, economical business plan to providing more high-end service. The upshot of this is that my current plan, now $4.99 per month will jump to $7.50 per month. But not until next July, as I've already paid them through then (this is the great advantage of paying per year and not per month).

Should anyone be interested in taking advantage of their current pricing, be advised that the el-cheapo package (i.e. mine) comes with 3 GB of storage and 25 GB of monthly bandwidth, in addition to having PHP and Perl and all those nice scripting languages, for $4.99 a month. Recommended only for those who don't envision needing much tech support, as that's been subpar for some time now (outsourced, I believe). I've never had any problems, but then again, all I do with the thing nowadays is run Movable Type.

Posted by Justice at 11:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

While cleaning out an old box of junk I've kept in the attic a while (there were materials dating back as far as high school, including my 2001 college entrance stuff), I came across a lock which was last used 3 years ago to keep my chemistry lab materials secure. Despite not having the combination written down anywhere, the numbers returned automatically, and I opened it on the first try. And yet I can't remember more important things, like mailing out my timesheets as early as possible. Talk about a (stupidly) selective memory.

Curiously, this box also contained a copy of a set of Latin lyrics I'd been searching for earlier in the day - it's a subject of a future post - as well as some other neat things. I'm wondering what else I might find as I dig through the boxes.

Posted by Justice at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I might make something of a habit of diving into the Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin looking for neat words to post here. Below are 5 words to get the ball rolling.

From the Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin:

Abacus, -i (m): Small table for cruets, credence, shelf in the wall near the altar

Abbreviator, -oris (m): One who makes abstracts from papal bulls

Abditus, -a, -um: Concealed, hidden

Aborior, -iri, -ortus (dep): To disappear, pass away, set, miscarry, fail

Abscessus, -us (m): Death

Posted by Justice at 8:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The 166th Erie County America's Fair (the agricultural society that runs the fair is trying to promote to a wider audience) opens this Thursday, August 11, and runs until Sunday, August 21. The fair is billed as the second largest fair in the country, I believe on attendance (roughly 1 million over the 11 days). The Strates Shows people have been in town since Monday assembling the midway.

General admission is $9 this year, though advance tickets are just $7; entry is $3 any day before 11:00am. Weekdays are the best bets for rides, as for $18 most midway rides can be ridden an unlimited number of times.

This year's theme, which was 2002's original theme before 9/11 prompted a change to something patriotic, is Fairy Tales Can Come True. There will also be a special day for firefighters on Friday the 12th, and one for veterans on Sunday the 14th.

Posted by Justice at 11:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Two weeks from now, if all goes according to plan, I'll be down in Steubenville unpacking. This is going to require sorting through all my stuff and repacking it either for attic storage or for the move. Today I began the process, and ended by having two finished plastic crates - 1 for attic storage (mainly undergraduate texts and other books I don't plan on using this upcoming year), 1 to take with me (entirely books).

By next Friday, my goal is to have everything but day-to-day items all packed away.

Posted by Justice at 10:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Dick's Sporting Goods is not terribly internet friendly when it comes to its credit card, issued by GE Money Bank. The online URL to pay the bill isn't actually listed on the statement, nor on Dick's website, nor on the card itself. And finding GE Money Bank via a web search is an exercise in futility, given how many pies GE has its fingers in. The only way I found the correct website, www.retailsalesfinance.com, was by calling the phone number on the statement. The internet unfriendly card is further hurt by not being usable at the company's online store.

Note to Dick's and GE - the relative difficulty of paying this credit card online compared to my main one and its inability to be used online has discouraged me from using it.

Posted by Justice at 8:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

For today's First Friday, I went a little bit further out of town to a parish which had a Mass at 11 in the morning, besides a little perpetual adoration chapel. I arrived just after 10, but wasn't sure how to get to the chapel. I heard singing inside though, so I went in and sat down, thinking I'd misread the Mass schedule - and in about 15 seconds picked up that I'd just walked in on a Mass of Christian Burial (I might have caught on quicker, but there was no coffin).

Those Masses may be public, but I felt really out of place, since I was pretty sure I was the only one in the pews who didn't show up for the express purpose of saying goodbye to a loved one. Thankfully most everyone else had dressed down, so I didn't quite stick out like a sore thumb.

I haven't been to such a Mass in years, but it was a fairly nice arrangement. Both the priest in his homily and the daughter at the end touched on the right points for the occasion (a eulogy that centers on faith is always nice to hear, as opposed to the "good person" angle). Prayers for "Betty" would be appreciated.

Posted by Justice at 12:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

After President Bush's remarks earlier this week in favor of exposing students to more than one viewpoint on the origins of life, there's been a heated discussion about evolution versus intelligent design.

The whole discussion brings to mind Chesterton's statement about liberals and conservatives, except this time reversed - the ID people attempting to go on making mistakes about science and the evolution people to prevent old mistakes from being corrected.

Science, properly speaking, is the domain of observation and experimentation. Neither evolution nor ID satisfies either criterion. It is impossible to observe the past forces that brought life from its origins to the present state. This can be called the "time machine" problem - it's impossible to observe the past of this world. As for experimentation, neither theory gives much to test - for evolution, one would need to show a creature evolving - rather difficult given that the theory posits that thousands of years or longer might be needed for it to happen; ID would require some test to prove or disprove a designer's existence, an experiment I cannot even begin to design, since I have no idea how one would go about it.

So what to do? One idea would be consigning the two theories to their proper subject - philosophy. Evolution and intelligent design both talk about the same essential thing - the theory of the origins of life. Critics are correct that intelligent design doesn't belong in a science class, but they fail to see that that's because evolution also doesn't belong in a science class - both touch on a subject which science is incapable of answering, as no mortal was on hand to witness the beginning of life or the process by which life progressed to its present state. Origin of life theories most properly belong to philosophy or theology.

Does this mean that biology should be scrapped as a class in the schools? Certainly not - there is much about biology that we have directly observed and can hence speak intelligently about. But if we really want biology to be strictly about science, it must be limited to empirical observation and experimentation. In practice, the vast majority of biology education would be unchanged by this restriction. There's no problem with cellular structure, cellular processes, DNA, reproduction, genes, dissection, organic structures, organic processes, life cycles, food chains, pharmacology, the environment, or anything like that. None of them depend on evolution to be true as they are grounded in fact. Even the archaeological record does not depend on evolution, although I'm aware that there's a dating controversy among some intelligent design proponents. For the sake of this argument, I'd say that even dinosaurs, the fossil record, and the dating given to them are all fine. The only thing that doesn't belong in biology class is "man came from apes" and "everything evolved from lower species or a primordial slime," or anything like that.

Kids are in general smart and inquisitive people. If presented merely with all the factual scientific dots without Those Who Know having already connected them for them, they might just come up with some new theories which would be great advances for science in trying to tie them together.

The bottom line, however, is that evolution and intelligent design are both best suited for a philosophy class, not a high school science class.

EDIT: On an aside, my biggest problem with macroevolution is gender. It's not found in the lowest organisms, but is found in higher ones. How such a thing came to be is difficult to explain - it would require two non-gendered beings to evolve at the same instant, into the two different genders of the same species to work. That seems to imply a coordinated change, not a random one.

Posted by Justice at 9:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

It turns out my bank does not do business in Ohio. This means I'm almost certainly going to have to open another account when I'm there to keep day-to-day funds on hand. Then I have the fun of trying to manage money between two different banks.

Fortunately, I think Paypal might provide a convenient solution to the mess. I can draw funds from my current account to my Paypal account free of charge, and I can also send funds to a bank account free of charge. Since Paypal gives the option of adding accounts, I think they're going to be used as a go-between to transfer money without any fees in the mix. Granted, this will take 6-8 business days, but it wouldn't be any faster using the online service at my bank, besides the fact that they'd charge $3 per transfer.

Posted by Justice at 4:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The University sent my security deposit in the mail today. Having checked the apartment, they concluded there were no damages, and hence I got the full deposit back, plus a small bit of interest. I guess all of my frantic last minute cleaning was worth it.

The money will now be used to pay rent down at Steubenville, which at the moment looks to be a much nicer and cheaper arrangement than the one I had this past year. Hopefully reality matches my imagination in this case.

Posted by Justice at 11:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

While I can't be sure, not having access to the Buffalo News' back archives, I'm pretty sure that back when President Clinton made recess appointments the News was championing the move as the proper action taken against an uncooperative Republican Senate. Now that the shoe's on the other foot, it's a bad move, even though this time, the obstructing Democrats are the minority party, not the majority as in Clinton's time.

From the News's editorial:

It was a bad move. An appointment to the world body should be viewed as having the backing of the U.S. Senate as the Founding Fathers intended, not simply that of a stubborn president.

I doubt the Founding Fathers would have wanted us to have anything to do with such an institution. In addition, Bolton likely has the backing of the full Senate, just not the undemocratic Democrats who, knowing they'd lose the vote, refused to let it happen. I think the Founding Fathers might have had something rather harsh to say about preventing confirmation votes for political reasons.

What amazes me is how much value the News is placing in the UN. The only major accomplishments of that body in the last 5 years are sucking up money, getting involved in a massive financial scandal, being generally impotent, and otherwise only generating hot air that's contributing to global warming. I seriously think that if the institution were swept out of existence, most people would hardly notice, except for the bureaucrats.

Sad to say, Bush has rarely let bad judgment stop him in the past. With the Bolton appointment, he once again allowed his own mulishness to get the better of him. Lacking broad enough Senate support, Bolton's appointment was not in this country's interests. That was the test. Bush failed it.

Hmm...so "broad enough" Senate support is the benchmark of the country's best interests? Funny how I thought these things were supposed to be decided by simple majorities. While we're on the subject though, ever notice how squeakers that are in favor of liberals are decisions to be hailed, even if the support is narrow or even in the minority, while conservative actions always seem to need some impossibly high super-majority to win a mandate?

Here's one for the News's theory - let's put gay marriage to a vote in the Senate. I think such a thing would fail to find "broad support" in that body. Would they then be consistent and say it's not in the country's best interests to pursue it in mulish fashion by constantly pushing for it, as activists keep doing? I wouldn't put money on it.

Posted by Justice at 11:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I come from an Italian family, and those who know Italians also know that they can be a rather superstitious lot. I've heard more crazy superstitions than I can recall, although I'm always amused by the insistence on lucky "blue dots" in the magazines really bringing luck or the practice of having neighbors touch monetary winnings to pass on the luck.

I've never liked reliance on fate such as it goes in the common understanding. "If it's meant to be it will be" or its reverse, "if it's not meant to be, it won't" have always raised suspicion, simply because they imply that we don't have any power over whatever the circumstance is at hand.

Both ideas are wrong. For one, God means for any number of things to happen which human beings thwart, the primary example being salvation. Understandably, many prefer to think that the desire on God's part will translate into reality, but it just doesn't work that way. By the same token, this attitude is why many just don't understand why, given that God doesn't intend evil, so much of it is around - there is too much of a thought that if something isn't meant to be, it won't be or shouldn't be.

The reality of the situation is that God can will certain things to happen in the material world, but there is the check of human wills that get in the way, as the will reigns supreme in matters over which it has power; thus, even people may frustrate God's designs. The same applies to the reverse, as despite God's will that certain things not happen, people are remarkably rebellious.

God does have the ability to control things that don't involve human will absolutely however. For other things, like disease, accidents, terrorism, and anything else in which people had a hand, this rule isn't applicable.

Posted by Justice at 12:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This was a topic of discussion during the past week for me, given many people crossed my path briefly during visits. Ultimately, this is a thought not normally on our minds, simply because it has something to do with death, something frightening to contemplate at times.

In this case, I listened to someone say, without reservation, that should they end up in a situation where they had an illness with an expected slow death, they'd take the "medication" of a gunshot to the head. I expect this was influenced by watching his wife suffer slowly to the end, but I can't shake the vision of an after-life meeting in which the wife reproaches him for being a wuss, to say nothing of the divine judgment on such an action.

I sometimes wonder how much of the Baby Boomer generation is going to actually reach a natural and genuinely dignified end - and no, dying by means of suicide or euthanasia is not a death with dignity but more a death by cowardice when done with intent. As in the vision above, I would not be surprised if those who truly suffered in death rise on judgment day to condemn those who elected euthanasia, including the prime example of suffering, Christ.

But besides that problem, there is also the problem of the children keeping their parents around. The Boomers didn't do a very good job with the moral upbringing of their children, and I imagine more than a few of those children will act to speed mom and dad out the door to be rid of impediments to inheritance and time spent caring for them. There might also be cases of health care staff killing the elderly as well out of a false sense of mercy. These aren't dignified deaths either, though at least the deceased isn't culpable in these cases.

It's a sign of the times when more people are worried about the end of their life being free of temporal pain while paying scant attention to seeing that there's no everlasting pain beyond it. Even wills, I suspect, are more about divvying up goods these days than they are a testament to some deeply held beliefs of the individual. The good thief's approach is in dire need these days - to have the last action be the one of "Jesus, receive me into your kingdom" in an act of final repentance.

Posted by Justice at 11:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Well, probably not the light of a higher authority, just the political light. Having chosen not to run again for governor, vetoing a bill allowing over-the-counter sales of the "morning after" pill is pretty much a no-brainer if he has aspirations for national office. I don't imagine he's had any real change in principles here because his objection is mainly based on the fact that the bill offers no protections for minors. His spokesman says he'd sign it if that and certain other flaws are resolved.

Meanwhile, I'm amazed bills like this one have come up at all. It says a lot about society when we have movements to push a pill from the pharmacist to the counter. Shouldn't the FDA be making decisions like this, not politicians? Oh right, who cares about medicine, the activists only care about banning pregnancy, something nature is strongly defying, oddly enough. The words of Jurassic Park are applicable here - "nature will find a way."

I don't know folks, instead of spending billions of dollars on sex, maybe we could spend it on something more useful, like all those third-world projects I keep hearing about.

Posted by Justice at 11:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Christopher Dodd, Democratic Senator from Connecticut, had this to say about John Bolton: "He's damaged goods. This is a person who lacks credibility."

Hey, if that were true, Bolton would fit right in with all the other suits over at the UN. I wouldn't trust my wallet with those people for 5 minutes, let alone trust them with other people's well-being. The Oil for Food scandal has pretty much wiped out any trust I had left in the UN. But then again, there's not much to expect from the UN when it's an attempt to form democracy with many dictatorial nations.

Dodd also added that Bolton, "doesn't have the confidence of the Congress," a code phrase which really means that Bolton doesn't have the confidence of the Democrats. Dodd's statement is also a bit of pie in the sky, since Congress has never voted on whether or not to confirm Bolton, a vote I expect he'd win if the Democrats ever had the guts to let that happen.

Posted by Justice at 11:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack