Marsha writes

Marsha's cat Babu enjoys coverage of the dog show.

Retreat?

Any comments on the "Obama Birth Control Retreat?"

Sparty writes

The new controversy over whether or not the federal government may require religiously affiliated health providers to provide birth control information and the means of birth control is another example of the vitriolic character of current American political discourse. Republican leadership has rushed to label it as "Obama's War on Religion."

Here is Sparty's take on it:

This controversy over the Obama administration "infringing on the religious liberty" of the Catholic church is another example of a non-issue becoming a defining issue in a campaign, and that birth control should be a defining issue of religious liberty is laughable. The Catholic hierarchy is going to war with the Administration over an issue that few Catholics believe in. Survey after survey over the past 40 years have shown that Catholic couples practice birth control at approximately the same rate as the U.S. population as a whole. Of course, you don't need a survey to show that, all you have to do is look at the families in the pews. How many Catholic couples today have more than two children, let alone the five or more that were so common in years past?

Catholic theology contains the concept of sensus fidelium - that moral truth is taught not only by the institutional church but also by the faith of the people. The bishops at Vatican II taught that the teaching of the institutional church must accept this teaching of the people when there was a consensus fidelium. There appears to be a consensus on birth control that eventually will be accepted by the men who wear the mitered hats. Unfortunately, it won't come prior to November 2012 so we will have to put up with the charade of one Republican after another being "shocked, just shocked" over the HHS ruling.

and I'm not even "on" anything ....

I sometimes feel guilt, and wonder, that we are enjoying this comfortable and good life we now have. As a matter of fact, there are politicians who would agree that we shouldn't be adorned with tranquility.

I realize that what I am experiencing is nothing but the commonplace for a great many people now. It is the 21st Century, after all, and life has become routinized rest for millions of retirees who planned for it. Still, for the scrupulous, I feel, there is plenty of reason to pause and think how fortunate we are.

DASHMANN writes

Contributed by Dashmann:

datum

In The Villages, Florida, there is a Celtic Club with over 600 members.

staying alive, and warm

I read briefly with interest some of the speculation about the new recruiting "classes" of the big universities. We're talking about football, here, you understand. There is never a list about the recruited academic scholars; or if there is, the lists garner little or no publicity.

I don't put much stock in these things, and I certainly don't listen to any of the studio-bound sports experts who can engage in olympian sized conversation over even small items of sports "news".

What I did find interesting was the large number of schools from the south --- places like Florida and Georgia and Alabama on the list. Does this mean that we have raised a generation of pansy football players who, above all else, wish to stay warm?

1. Alabama

2. Florida State

3. Texas

4. Florida

5. Georgia

6. Ohio State

7. Michigan

8. Miami

9. Clemson

10. Notre Dame