Church leaders – meeting with their lawyers
The Catholic Diocese of San Diego, which filed for bankruptcy protection rather than face sexual-abuse lawsuits, has failed to disclose all of its assets and has not reported the fair market value of other property, a federal bankruptcy judge said Friday.
Judge Louise De Carl Adler ordered the diocese to explain at a hearing next month why she should not throw out the bankruptcy filing. The diocese, she said, has been “lax, ineffective or indifferent” in its oversight of parishes.
The diocese faces lawsuits from more than 140 people who allege that they were sexually abused by priests. It filed for bankruptcy protection in February, one day before the first court case was set to begin.
One more great example of why this nation needs to lose 18th-Century notions like tax exempt religions.
And therein lies the rub – or some of it, in any case.
‘Spreading bad memes’? Puh-leeeze. Utter all the ethnic slurs you want, all day long – you’re never going to convert anyone from being objective to being irrationally prejudiced. The only people who will respond to prejudicial comments with more of the same are people who are already that way. Your words will not and cannot do it.
But on the flip side, lies have a well-known way of spreading, and disseminating untruth, no matter how well-intentioned you may be, is a sin against honesty, integrity and ultimately, reality itself.
Sorry, Scott, but I’ve never heard such a specious, pseudointellectual rationalization for lying in my life. Since the beginnings of the written word, certain bits of timeless wisdom, acquired at sometimes terrible cost are passed down to us. One of those, found in virtually every viable culture on Earth, is the admonition against giving in to ANY ostensibly virtuous justification for spreading untruth, because it has invariably led to the worst consequences. A couple timeless expression of that are to speak the truth, even if it be unpopular, and
better a painful truth than a comforting lie.
Your generation foolishly dismisses the combined, distilled millions of man-years of real-world experience as irrelevant and meaningless – you know better… one of the many reasons why the modern world is in such wonderful shape. Sad. Stopping the spread of lies supercedes ALL other considerations, including your self-granted authority to ‘stop the spread of bigotry.’
..and that’s the other unfortunate aspect of what you say there; neither you nor anyone else in a society of free citizens is the appointed custodian of your brothers’ opinions. The freedom to speak your mind and your conscience is tightly bound to the duty to leave others to their beliefs and their corresponding right to express it as THEY, NOT YOU, see fit.
Your rights extend to the point you may say that you disagree. But nothing, no cause, no matter how noble YOU may think it is, confers upon you or anyone else the right to sqwuelch opinions you disagree with.
You don’t like it when Bible-thumpers presume to know how YOU should live, think and act – yet you need to look in the mirror, closely – because you are assuming the very same self-righteous pose as they. “No one has the right to run MY life, tell ME how I should live and think – but it’s OK if > I prevent people from _______ – because, obviously, I’M RIGHT!”
You’re caught in the the trap of the hypocrite who cannot see that that is EXACTLY the rationalization THEY use to attempt to control YOUR life and thoughts. They – just like you – KNOW that they’re right.
What’s the difference between “I would prefer the ass-kissing lie to prevent the spread of bigotry” and “I would prefer the ass-kissing lie to prevent the spread of Godlessness” ????
You don’t have to peek in the back of the book; the answer is NONE.
Stop concerning yourself with trying to control what others say, unless you’re willing to let someone else do the same to you… You’ll wind up a sly, deceitful, smug, self-righteous, would-be arbiter of your fellow humans’ words, deeds and thoughts – like Commie Podesta there.
Shit. Another unmatched tag. Isn’t not having a WYSIWYG editor and not being able to post-edit wonderful??
Suddenly, it’s 1981 all over again.
#32 – Fishy,
Don’t confuse rights and liberties. Certainly everyone has a right to say what they want. I have a right to tell them that what they say is total bullshit. They have the right to tell me the same, just as you did.
For example, I can tell you that you should probably remember your meds. Your comments today have been a bit over the top. Even when I’ve agreed with some of the content, you’ve been on a complete rant. If you want to be persuasive, you might take it down a notch or ten.
BTW, just where exactly do you get the idea to presume what generation I even am? You have no idea how old I am. I do not believe I’ve ever stated it on this site. So, out of curiosity, let’s see how good your clairvoyance is today. How old do I look? You should be able to tell from my handwriting.
Nah. Rants are fun. And being persuasive? Here? What would be the point? 🙂
#31
What really annoys me about what #17’s complaint was a selective one.
Did Kaeryn complaint about the “BibleThumper” which is a derogatory term towards christians? Nooo.
Did Kaeryn complaint about the “Sectarian Scientologist” term? Nooo..
But then, when the “Jewish Lawyer” term came up Kaeryn broke up in a tantrum that would make the Jewish antidefamation league proud.
If you (kaeryn) is going to go all for against bygotry than you should be against ALL forms of bygotry rather than only the one affecting you directly.
Heh, everyone’s tolerant until the racist comment is aimed towards them.
#36 – Angel,
It was selective, true. But remember “Bible Thumper” and “Sectarian Scientologist” are self-contained. Jewish lawyer brings two things together in a racial generalization. Why not Jewish bricklayer? or Jewish basketball star? or Jewish rock star? or Jewish astronaut? or Jewish gangster?
You put Jewish and lawyer together based on a racial stereotype. I’ve admitted already that this was a minor infraction. But, if you continue to ask about it, I will continue to try to explain it to you.
#37
That’s because so far the few jewish lawyers I know are OUTSTANDING lawyers. The same goes for bankers too.
Jewish bricklayer? Jesus, no wait, he’s a carpenter. Jewish basketball star? not unless Larry Byrd converted. Jewish Rockstar? Gene Simmons from KISS. Jewish astronaut? The israeli dude who died when the Columbia shuttle exploded in the atmosphere. Jewish Gangster? Meyer Lansky.
Angel, I thought you knew that it’s an utter impossibility that any ethnic group can possibly have any heritable traits that might make them better or worse at certain things than members of a different group! Everybody’s unique, but when grouped, they’re 100% identical to everyone else. You haven’t been paying attention.
#39
No worries, I’m just pissing up folk just to see how will they react.
Let me borrow the phrase uttered by the great Gary Oldman in most of his films:
I know… 🙂
#25, #27 – Misanthropic Scott
As for the stereotypes… we’re equally stereotyping Catholic priests as child molesters, Muslims as terrorists etc, but when the same thing happen to Jews, it’s automatically… oh, no… you can’t say that. Sure, I can overreact sometimes too, but the thing is that society has a tendency of treating Jews as holier than thou.
And as for Jews being a race… I can’t say that I agree. Ethnic group I can agree upon, but race…
As for the reaction on Don Imus’ comment… it’s slightly different when a public person says something like that, it’s through a megaphone compared to a comment on dvorak.org.
Since ALL RELIGION IS MADE UP, each and EVERY SECT is telling LIES !!! Why should LIARS BE TAX-EXEMPT ?