New Pope Reveals Unanswered Prayers

Benedict XVI, the new pope, said that he prayed that he would not become the new pope. I find this interesting. Does this mean that the new head of the Catholic church---the one who is supposed to pray for the people---his prayers go unanswered? I might be worried if I was Catholic. But then I only have an admittedly shallow understanding of Catholicism. Maybe they don't believe that the pope is the one who speaks to God for them.

And it could also be a revelation of simple humility. And, besides, Jesus himself asked God to take away the cup. I'm not saying all Catholics are doomed or anything. But I just thought it was ironic that the one who I think is supposed to pray for the people---his prayer went unanswered.

On an unrelated note, I feel sorry for the guy. I've heard that they mainly picked him to be a "transition" pope, hoping that he'll only last a couple years until they can pick a new one for a longer reign. Or something like that. Or maybe that's just speculation. But at an age of 78, the odds may be against him for a long reign anyway.

Edmond the Hun

Hello Sunday

Well, I'm almost positive that I made an A on the history test. I didn't break the triple jump record again, and Ben actually broke mine by a half-inch, but that's OK. We have another meet this Saturday. And I did finish the music for the play. Well, not technically "finish" everything, but enough to record seven tracks that will work for the production this weekend.

So, 2 out of 3's not bad.

Anyway, I'm still following the news but there just hasn't been anything that's caught my attention that I feel like commenting on. If you come across something outrageous, just let me know.

Until next time,

Edmond the Hun

Hello Tuesday

It's been a week since I last blogged. I'm becoming quite the Renaissance man (or quite the too overworked and busy person, depending on your point of view. In the next week or two I will be attempting to again break the school triple jump record, finish the score for the school play Little Women, and get an A on a college credit history test made by a principal who has no time to be a teacher and only shows up to class 65.1% of the time (I'm keeping track).

So forgive me if my posts are sporadic, or if I don't update that new weekly sidebar this week. But I only have two faithful followers anyway (thanks a lot, guys!) and they're as busy as I am, so the world out there will probably keep running.

Edmond the Hun

Dying Freedoms: Boy Scouts and the ACLU

The ACLU has a new bone to pick: they're upset at the publicly sponsored Boy Scouts whose pledge includes the word "God." They claim it breaks the constitutional separation of church and state. Now I don't fully understand how the Boy Scouts work, and how they're sponsored and all, and how if the government or public something or other stops sponsoring them, they'll have to inconveniently find new sources... I don't get all the logistics, but that's not as important as the main issue here.

I'm sick of repudiating the non-existent constitutional separation of church and state (it'd help if someone who disagreed with me would read this thing). The First Amendment says, "Congress shall establish now law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." That's not exclusively separating church and state. It's saying Congress can't mess with the free practice of religion.

By the sponsorship of Boy Scouts that happen to include "God" in a pledge, Congress is not passing a law respecting a religion. It's not passing a law at all! The Boy Scouts can say whatever the Zeus they want---so what if they say "God." If you're offended, don't join the Boy Scouts! You don't have a constitutional right not to be offended!

Why hasn't the ACLU gotten in an uproar about government buildings putting the flags half-mast for the dead pope? That's against your alleged separation! I don't even undestand that---even conspiracy theories and liberal agendas doesn't explain why they pick on one subtle religious practice over an explicit one! Unless they don't view a symbolic Catholic leader as a threat. Who cares if they government honors a religious figure? He doesn't pose a threat to their goal of eliminating God from America, because scores of "Catholics" don't really care about God. But if you actually use the word "God," ah, now they're gonna come get you.

The ACLU is applying both a double standard and outright falsehoods. But what's new?

Edmond the Hun

The Pope Is Dead

Get over it. No one cares.

Wait, let me be politically correct, so the liberals don't attack me (actually, I wouldn't mind the publicity)---there's a lot of people that don't care.

Don't believe me? Then explain why Sin City was the top grossing movie this weekend. It's an extremely violent R-rated movie that's also full of sex, nudity, and provocatively dressed woman. And explain why Beauty Shop came in second. It involves women in a beauty shop talking about sex and, uh, other stuff. Watching either of these two movies isn't exactly the best way to honor the pope.

I'm sure there are some practicing Catholics who are saddened by the fact that an 84-year-old pope died so now they can replace him with another guy. Don't get me wrong, John Paul II was a great guy and all. My frustrations have nothing to do with the character of the man himself---I'm instead bothered by the various reactions to it. And lots of people just don't care.

But for some reason the media doesn't seem to realize that. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch devoted the first ten pages to nothing but the pope and advertisements. Ten pages! And about seven more in the succeeding editorial section. This is ridiculous! That left about two pages for Iraq and anything else. And this wasn't confined to my locality, either. A recent analysis has discovered that overall the news media of the world wrote 35,000 new stories about the pope the day after his death, compared with 3500 to Bush's re-election!

And this pope-crazy media is shoving out other news. I haven't seen anything about the Minutemen patroling the border. You probably don't even know what that is. I hardly know what it is, because I haven't especially gone looking for it---the only way to get good news around here is to go especially looking for it.

The Minutemen are a bunch of civilians voluntarily watching the US's southern border to arrest illegal immigrants. Illegal immigration from Mexico is a huge problem that most people aren't even aware of. These guys have made a few arrests. Don't know how effective that is, but it's better than nothing. Kudos to our volunteer citizens. But somehow this isn't making the papers, or the one I get, at least.

Who knew that I'd connect the pope, sex movies, and Mexican immigrants in one post? Well, I did. I'm fed up with hypocrites who mourn the pope's death and go watch immoral movies. And I'm fed up with the media using the death of an old famous guy to overshadow more relevant news.

Edmond the Hun

How to Contact Your Representatives

I finally did it! For the first time ever, I, Edmond the Hun, have contacted two of my representatives, and told them that I did not support one of two bills. It's really easy. Here's how to do it:

1. Find the website of your state's Congress. This can be done by a simple google search. For example: searching "Missouri State House" at www.google.com quickly gets you to: www.house.state.mo.us

2. Figure out who the representatives are in the house and senate for your district. In Missouri's page, at least, this can be done by typing in your zip code. Besides the normal six-digit code, you need the rarely-seen four-digit extension that comes after it. If you don't know those extra digits, there's a nice little button that opens a pop-up window, where you type in your address and it gives you all ten digits. Plug those in and it'll tell you who represents your district in the Missouri House, Missouri Senate, as well as the House in Congress.

3. Click on the representative's name, and it leads you to a brief facts page about him. If you're lucky, somewhere in the page is a link that says "e-mail." It will either take you directly to your e-mail or give you other simple steps to follow. If they don't have e-mail, you might have to write them a letter the old-fashioned way. But my two representatives both had e-mails.

4. Then, all you gotta do is tell them what you want to say.

I'm still waiting for a reply from my two representatives. I'm not on the up-and-up about how Missouri's Congress works (two years since Government class, you know) so those bills I don't support may not even be up for voting yet, and my representatives may not have even come across them yet, or they may never. But it couldn't hurt to give them my opinion.

I encourage you to follow these steps and contact your representatives too and tell them what you think about current bills, or even to suggest new bills that you think should be passed. In other words, take an active part in politics (that's a scary phrase).

Edmond the Hun

Missouri Politics: Changing the Feeding Tube Rules

There are three bills floating about somewhere in the legislative process of Missouri's Congress---bills to prevent a Terri Schaivo 2. One bill is obviously the wrong way to do it, one is unjustly
biased, and one is simple and different but I don't see anything wrong with it. I never thought

I'd be getting this active in politics and all, but I really am going to try to contact my representatives and tell them whether or not I support these three bills. If I do so, I will tell you how to easily contact them and encourage you to do the same.

(Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Saturday, April 2, 2005, page 10)