Bob Barr.....a Real Choice.

Pope appoints Archbishop Raymond Burke to Vatican post.

I first wrote about Archbishop Raymond Burke in May when the Vatican confirmed his excommunication of the board of directors of the St. Stanislaus Kostka Corporation ( formerly, St. Stanislaus Kostka parish ) and their priest, Marek Bozek.
It's been announced that Archbishop Burke will become the prefect of the supreme tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.The Apostolic Signatura is the administrative appellate tribunal of the Holy See and the highest judicial authority of the Catholic Church (other than the Pope).
During the 2004 Presidential election, Burke announced that he would refuse Holy Communion to then Presidential candidate, John Kerry for his support of abortion.
In 2007, the Archbishop resigned as chairman of the board for the Cardinal Glennon Children's Foundation because they had booked Sheryl Crow (who supports abortion and embryonic stem cell research) to perform at a benefit concert.
Burke has always received backing and support from the Vatican for his decisions so this promotion should not come as a surprise. A CNN article quotes Rev. Thomas Reese (senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University) as saying;
"Every pro-choice Catholic Democrat politician should be very nervous.He made his name in the U.S. by denying Communion to pro-choice politicians."
"If he gets that view articulated strongly in Rome, he could become the voice for having that position for the universal church."
Let's hope so. For far too long, too many U.S. politicians have continued to call themselves Catholic even though they publicly support abortion.
Pope Benedict XVI made a fine choice in promoting Archbishop Burke to this new position.
Link: http://www.stlouisreview.com/article.php?id=15623

Bob Barr on FOX News Sunday w/ Chris Wallace.

Anonymous Comments.

For several months now, I've not allowed anonymous comments on this blog. Most of the time,folks who want to leave nasty remarks don't want to identify themselves in any way so they'll hide behind a wall.

I kept this policy in order to maintain a certain level on the blog but it has limited the number of comments I receive. I'm changing the settings so, for the time being, anonymous comments will be allowed. If it turns out that I get too many comments that go beyond the limits of good taste I'll return to limiting comments to folks with blogspot accounts.

Let's see how it works out.

Update Sept. 24, 2008
I've received a few comments from "anonymous" after changing my comment policy. As I mentioned before, folks who hide behind the anonymous label are, generally, cowards who leave snotty remarks and then run away and hide.I have no intention of completely eliminating anonymous comments.....everyone can have their say - within certain limits. I did consider comment moderation, but, at least for the time being, I'll not do that. The anonymous cowards can still leave their snotty comments, but if I find those comments particularly offensive, I'll simply delete them.
This is my blog, so I am the sole judge of what is or is not an offensive comment.If you have a problem with this.....write a post on your own blog.

For an example of what can happen to anonymous comments go here: evolutionary theory......

Update: Oct.08, 2008
After a series of harassing "anonymous" comments coming from the Ga. Dept. of Education servers in Dallas, GA., I decided to enable comment moderation.
see: Comments from Georgia Dept of Education.

Update: Nov.13,2008
I'm changing settings, again, to allow anonymous comments.

Update: Jan.2,2010
Due to a recent harassing comment, I've decided to moderate comments until further notice. No anonymous comments.


Update: July 27, 2010
For more on my thoughts on anonymous comments, read Ujiosama Rides Again.


Update: April 27, 2012
According to Google Analytics, I've been getting quite a few hits.....many more than would be supposed if you go by the sparse number of comments. I'm thinking my comment policy has discouraged some from leaving comments when they drop by; I'm going to allow anyone to comment -including anonymous - to see if this helps.

Medical Tests.

Earlier this year, I was experiencing a great deal of pain in my left leg. It was diagnosed as sciatica- brought on by arthritis in my spine. Fortunately, the pain has gone away.
The doctor assures me that the pain will return.
As the sciatica subsided, a problem I have with my hands became more noticeable.
I have tingling and numbness in two of the fingers of my left hand and an area of my right hand is extremely painful.
I had two test performed on me yesterday: a nerve conduction study and an electromyography.
I'll use text from the umm.edu website to describe the tests:
"To perform nerve conduction studies, surface electrodes are first fastened to the hand and wrist. Small electric shocks are then applied to the nerves in the fingers, wrist, and forearm to measure how fast a signal travels through the nerves that control movement and sensation."
"To perform electromyography, a fine, sterile, wire electrode is inserted briefly into a muscle, and the electrical activity is displayed on a viewing screen. Electromyography can be quite painful and is less accurate than nerve conduction."
It's been observed that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm including a picture of the doctor and his assistant as they performed those tests on me.