The Minimalist - ‘Un-Frenching’ Mussels - NYTimes.com
The New York Times runs a recipe for "Southeast Asian Mussel Salad". I'm not convinced: I'm a big fan of mussels, but even so I don't think they look attractive outside of their shell, and so resist recipes that involve them naked, so to speak.
As it happens, here at Opinion Dominion HQ, we ate them on Friday night. One thing that puzzles me a bit is how cheap they now are. In Brisbane, they are sold in 1 kg plastic packets from either South Australia or Victoria. Even at an expensive fish shop, this costs around $11 to $12. The ones we ate on Friday were from the dirt cheap Vietnamese fish shop not far from where we live, and cost $7.00!
I don't know what the mark up would be, but that just seems to me to be extraordinarily cheap for a farmed product that has to be grown in the ocean, fished out of the sea, sorted, packed, and transported in a refrigerated truck for 1,000 or so kilometres to meet their fate in some white wine, garlic and breadcrumbs.
Now that I am on the topic, Sydney rock oysters have been very cheap for a very long time too, even from the expensive fish shops. (Mind you, they often are very small.)
I can only assume that being a shellfish farmer is not an instant way to riches.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
More muddled private lives of the rich and famous
Oh God, I wanted her to die - Times Online
This is interesting summary of David Niven's unhappy second marriage. Mind you, he has to take some responsibility for her alcoholism as it seems to have been pretty much a response to his being a philanderer of (apparently) the highest order.
Interesting twist: his wife claimed to have had a "quickie" with President Kennedy in the White House.
And in associated news: a young aide (aged 19!) who had an 18 month relationship with JFK is finally writing a book about it.
This is interesting summary of David Niven's unhappy second marriage. Mind you, he has to take some responsibility for her alcoholism as it seems to have been pretty much a response to his being a philanderer of (apparently) the highest order.
Interesting twist: his wife claimed to have had a "quickie" with President Kennedy in the White House.
And in associated news: a young aide (aged 19!) who had an 18 month relationship with JFK is finally writing a book about it.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Don't believe it
In The Australian today, they extract some Tarantino love from The Times:
(Although, sad to say, Tarantino fan boys will probably buy enough DVDs to let him make another movie.)
QUENTIN Tarantino swaggered back to the scene of his greatest triumph yesterday with a World War II revenge film that critics at the Cannes film festival greeted with relief and cheers. Innglourious Basterds, set in Nazi-occupied France, is a violent, occasionally funny love letter to cinema filmed in four languages and starring Brad Pitt.Yet, as I can't stand Quentin Tarantino and his movies, I have been taking an interest in critical reaction. A Los Angeles Times blog (and that paper, if any, should have a reliable take on movie critics) notes that the film is being "spun" heavily, and the biggest critics are not so impressed:
...a highlight from the [The Guardian's] Peter Bradshaw review: "Quentin Tarantino's cod-WW2 schlocker about a Jewish-American revenge squad intent on killing Nazis in German-occupied France is awful. It is achtung-achtung-ach-mein-Gott atrocious."Even the positive reviews in a few English papers have parts that indicate reservations that have perhaps been overcome as a result of the reviewer being a bit too excited at being in Cannes. For example, in The Independent it gets 4 stars but these comments:
The reviews keep coming in from all media outposts, with Variety mixed, the Hollywood Reporter largely negative and Time magazine's Richard and Mary Corliss declaring the movie "a misfire." My colleague Ken Turan, who was also at the screening, calls the film a "self-indulgent piece of violent alternate history."
The way the Germans are drawn is so broad that it makes the characterisations in Allo, Allo! seem restrained....And in The Times review (also giving it 4 stars) is this:The violence is often extreme – the Jewish Nazi hunters have a habit of scalping their victims; one hunter likes to batter in his antagonist's head with a baseball bat; and a shoot-out in an underground bar is sheer bloody carnage – but it comes in bursts and has a comic book element about it.
Some will be offended, although it's hard to get too upset about a film made with such geekish enthusiasm.
What’s difficult to square is the occasional Springtime for Hitler scenes, featuring an apoplectic Führer, with the darker corners of the film. The almost casual savagery perpetrated by Pitt and his German rival can occasionally look unnervingly out of place next to the lighter Mel Brooks-style moments.Interestingly, in the comments that follow The Times review, there are many people wondering why reviewers seem to be in love with Tarantino. For example:
Despite what most critics will say about this, people are sick of Tarantino's formula of 1970's cultural references, inane dialogue about superheroes or old TV shows, gratuitous over-the-top violence, and ideas ripped off from Sergio Leone. He tries way too hard to be "cool", and it's annoying.I am feeling reasonable satisfied there is enough negative talk out there (even within the positive reviews) that this film will not be seen as a critical or even commercial success.
(Although, sad to say, Tarantino fan boys will probably buy enough DVDs to let him make another movie.)
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Playing along with "tag"
As if this blog didn't already have enough random thoughts spread liberally throughout, Saint has tagged me for a "8 random things about me" thing-ee.
I guess I should feel honoured that, after 4 years of blogging, someone finally tagged me for something. Who knows, that long awaited $100,000 payment for posting some information that has changed some rich eccentric's life may soon be on its way too. (See that Paypal button? I don't even know if it works.)
Anyhoo, as they say in the classics:
1. I had my appendix out at about age 8. As a result, I knew that nurses shouldn't let a drip empty so that air gets into your vein, as (so I was told) you could die from an air bubble in your blood stream. Which leads to:
2. A couple of years later, while on holiday one Christmas in a country town in Victoria, I got a bout of gastro and was taken to a very doddery old doctor. He decided to give me an injection to quell the vomiting. When filling the syringe, I could see that he had sucked up some air along with the medicine from the ampoule. I expected him to invert the needle and squeeze the air out, as I had seen doctors and nurses always do, and which I understood to be rather important due to the potentially fatal result of injecting someone with air.
He didn't. He just took my arm and gave me the injection, air and all. OK, it wasn't a huge amount of air, but he emptied the syringe, including the bubbly bits at the end.
It seemed to me that there was a distinct possibility that I was about to die, and in a pretty pathetic sort of way if it was due to the simple carelessness of a doctor who should have retired 10 years earlier. I didn't say anything, and left the surgery, whereupon my my mother asked me if I was alright. She said that as soon as I had the injection, I had gone a ghastly shade of pale, and injections had never been a bother to me before.
I explained the story to her. She understood my shock, but after sitting down and still being alive 10 minutes later, it seemed my brush with death would pass.
However, I still occasionally wonder if there is a bubble lurking in me somewhere.
3. I highly recommend Victorinox steak knives. A sharper steak knife surely does not exist.
4. As a young adult I once got sick on home made Harvey Wallbangers. Last time I checked, I still feel queasy at the smell of Galliano.
5. I have eaten fish sperm (well, fish seminal vessels, to be precise.) Hey it was in Japan, OK?
6. The most famous person I have ever been physically close to in real life: probably Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, in the bookshop at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. (I think he worked at the Museum at the time.)
7. I once landed in a glider while accidentally leaving the landing gear up. (I lost interest in learning how to fly them soon after that.)
8. After getting over the shock of having Sister Lawrence (the scariest Irish nun in the school) as my Grade 1 and Grade 2 teacher, I was routinely pretty well behaved in school. But in (I think) Grade 4, we had a new lay teacher, who on the first day mis-interpretted something I did and instantly decided I was in fact a trouble maker. No, no, no, I tried to say: I am one of the good boys. The injustice and novelty of the situation did not last long: within a week she was hit by a bus on the way to school and died.
Maybe this is why, ever since, I have felt all of my opinions are directly vindicated by God.*
I suspect anyone I want to tag has probably already done this. Caz?
* a not entirely serious suggestion.
I guess I should feel honoured that, after 4 years of blogging, someone finally tagged me for something. Who knows, that long awaited $100,000 payment for posting some information that has changed some rich eccentric's life may soon be on its way too. (See that Paypal button? I don't even know if it works.)
Anyhoo, as they say in the classics:
1. I had my appendix out at about age 8. As a result, I knew that nurses shouldn't let a drip empty so that air gets into your vein, as (so I was told) you could die from an air bubble in your blood stream. Which leads to:
2. A couple of years later, while on holiday one Christmas in a country town in Victoria, I got a bout of gastro and was taken to a very doddery old doctor. He decided to give me an injection to quell the vomiting. When filling the syringe, I could see that he had sucked up some air along with the medicine from the ampoule. I expected him to invert the needle and squeeze the air out, as I had seen doctors and nurses always do, and which I understood to be rather important due to the potentially fatal result of injecting someone with air.
He didn't. He just took my arm and gave me the injection, air and all. OK, it wasn't a huge amount of air, but he emptied the syringe, including the bubbly bits at the end.
It seemed to me that there was a distinct possibility that I was about to die, and in a pretty pathetic sort of way if it was due to the simple carelessness of a doctor who should have retired 10 years earlier. I didn't say anything, and left the surgery, whereupon my my mother asked me if I was alright. She said that as soon as I had the injection, I had gone a ghastly shade of pale, and injections had never been a bother to me before.
I explained the story to her. She understood my shock, but after sitting down and still being alive 10 minutes later, it seemed my brush with death would pass.
However, I still occasionally wonder if there is a bubble lurking in me somewhere.
3. I highly recommend Victorinox steak knives. A sharper steak knife surely does not exist.
4. As a young adult I once got sick on home made Harvey Wallbangers. Last time I checked, I still feel queasy at the smell of Galliano.
5. I have eaten fish sperm (well, fish seminal vessels, to be precise.) Hey it was in Japan, OK?
6. The most famous person I have ever been physically close to in real life: probably Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, in the bookshop at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. (I think he worked at the Museum at the time.)
7. I once landed in a glider while accidentally leaving the landing gear up. (I lost interest in learning how to fly them soon after that.)
8. After getting over the shock of having Sister Lawrence (the scariest Irish nun in the school) as my Grade 1 and Grade 2 teacher, I was routinely pretty well behaved in school. But in (I think) Grade 4, we had a new lay teacher, who on the first day mis-interpretted something I did and instantly decided I was in fact a trouble maker. No, no, no, I tried to say: I am one of the good boys. The injustice and novelty of the situation did not last long: within a week she was hit by a bus on the way to school and died.
Maybe this is why, ever since, I have felt all of my opinions are directly vindicated by God.*
I suspect anyone I want to tag has probably already done this. Caz?
* a not entirely serious suggestion.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Rain
It started raining in the western suburbs of Brisbane last night at around 7.30. It was light to moderate intensity, and didn't stop all night.
But this morning, it has become heavier and heavier. It's 2.30pm now, and after a slight easing and lightening of the sky, it seems to have just re-started with renewed intensity. (Mind you, weather radar indicates it has stopped for a few hours north of the city.)
Rainfall totals around here for the last 24 hours are going to be phenomenal.
UPDATE: Well, glad that's over. It's Thursday morning, the sun is (nearly) out and rain has stopped after another solid drenching last night.
The good thing about it: if your house didn't get water inside during that event, it never will. (Save for wind blowing the roof off, of course.) Many parts of Brisbane had 200 - 300 mm of rain over 24 - 48 hours:
(Remember, this only shows one 24 hour period to this morning.)
Dam levels are up to 72% (yay) after being down to about 16% a couple of years ago.
My house is OK, except the phone is cut. Water in a Telstra pit somewhere, no doubt.
Someone who works at my office is an hour late to work, stuck in traffic somewhere. (A lot of roads are still cut this morning.) I think she's also had no power at home since yesterday afternoon.
Anyhow, work will be busy, I can't get onto the internet at home. Blogging will be light for a little while.
But this morning, it has become heavier and heavier. It's 2.30pm now, and after a slight easing and lightening of the sky, it seems to have just re-started with renewed intensity. (Mind you, weather radar indicates it has stopped for a few hours north of the city.)
Rainfall totals around here for the last 24 hours are going to be phenomenal.
UPDATE: Well, glad that's over. It's Thursday morning, the sun is (nearly) out and rain has stopped after another solid drenching last night.
The good thing about it: if your house didn't get water inside during that event, it never will. (Save for wind blowing the roof off, of course.) Many parts of Brisbane had 200 - 300 mm of rain over 24 - 48 hours:
(Remember, this only shows one 24 hour period to this morning.)
Dam levels are up to 72% (yay) after being down to about 16% a couple of years ago.
My house is OK, except the phone is cut. Water in a Telstra pit somewhere, no doubt.
Someone who works at my office is an hour late to work, stuck in traffic somewhere. (A lot of roads are still cut this morning.) I think she's also had no power at home since yesterday afternoon.
Anyhow, work will be busy, I can't get onto the internet at home. Blogging will be light for a little while.
Lie down to lose weight
Sleep May Be Factor In Weight Control
Here's another study suggesting that there is a connection between inadequate sleep and weight gain. It has some surprises:
Here's another study suggesting that there is a connection between inadequate sleep and weight gain. It has some surprises:
Go to sleep and lose some weight. I guess you could call it the Garfield Plan for weight loss."When we analyzed our data by splitting our subjects into 'short sleepers' and 'long sleepers,' we found that short sleepers tended to have a higher BMI, 28.3 kg/m2, compared to long sleepers, who had an average BMI of 24.5. Short sleepers also had lower sleep efficiency, experienced as greater difficulty getting to sleep and staying asleep," said lead investigator Arn Eliasson, M.D.
Surprisingly, overweight individuals tended to be more active than their normal weight counterparts, taking significantly more steps than normal weight individuals: 14,000 compared to 11,300, a nearly 25 percent difference, and expending nearly 1,000 more calories a day—3,064 versus 2,080.
However, those additional energy expenditures did not manifest in reduced weight.
Religion and violence
'Religious violence' a small part of the story
Dr John Dickson argues against the claim that religion causes violence, from the Christian perspective. It's not a bad essay.
But the main reason it is worth a post is because of some of the, shall we say, more than slightly antagonistic comments in response. For example, "No guy" writes:
And Elizabeth S:
There is certainly an aggressiveness in the new style atheism, isn't there?
Dr John Dickson argues against the claim that religion causes violence, from the Christian perspective. It's not a bad essay.
But the main reason it is worth a post is because of some of the, shall we say, more than slightly antagonistic comments in response. For example, "No guy" writes:
Sorry "Doctor", bet you are a theist, therefor your reasoning is based on faith, which makes no sense, as reason and faith a polar opposites. Therefor everything you've said in this article is null and void because you believe in an invisible magical man in the sky. So all the effort you've put into writing this article is wasted. You are a religious person, therefor anything you say can not be trusted, because you blatantly and ignorantly refuse to think logically, with reason, and instead rely on faith, or an absence of reason.Well, argument over then.
And Elizabeth S:
You believe you can only justify love and compassion because some celestial dictator has told you to do so or because only he/she/it can imbue value in the world??? What a creepy worldview.(Elisabeth does raise an old philosophical question, it must be admitted, but it deserves more thought than dismissal as "creepy".)
There is certainly an aggressiveness in the new style atheism, isn't there?
An unusual suggestion
Is Everything Made of Mini Black Holes?
These guys suggest that the LHC may indeed make mini black holes, but they might behave exactly as "normal" sub atomic particles.
The suggestion has been made before that evaporating black holes may leave a "remnant", the exact nature of which seemed to be left rather vague, but I'm pretty sure it has been said that they may just look like an electron.
The difference in this paper is that they propose a different theoretical basis by which the LHC may create mini black holes in the first place. (Not via tiny extra dimension, which has been the idea behind existing speculation on the LHC creating mini black holes.)
If the new theory is true, I would assume it must have major cosmological implications. That's not really covered in the paper, I don't think, but maybe such further speculation will come soon.
Meanwhile, we may all have black holes in our brains.
These guys suggest that the LHC may indeed make mini black holes, but they might behave exactly as "normal" sub atomic particles.
The suggestion has been made before that evaporating black holes may leave a "remnant", the exact nature of which seemed to be left rather vague, but I'm pretty sure it has been said that they may just look like an electron.
The difference in this paper is that they propose a different theoretical basis by which the LHC may create mini black holes in the first place. (Not via tiny extra dimension, which has been the idea behind existing speculation on the LHC creating mini black holes.)
If the new theory is true, I would assume it must have major cosmological implications. That's not really covered in the paper, I don't think, but maybe such further speculation will come soon.
Meanwhile, we may all have black holes in our brains.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Really?
Technology Review: TR10: Traveling-Wave Reactor
Technology Review has a short article about a proposed new reactor design that sounds almost too good to be true:
Technology Review has a short article about a proposed new reactor design that sounds almost too good to be true:
I wonder how you stop the reaction, though...As it runs, the core in a traveling-wave reactor gradually converts nonfissile material into the fuel it needs. Nuclear reactors based on such designs "theoretically could run for a couple of hundred years" without refueling, says John Gilleland, manager of nuclear programs at Intellectual Ventures.
Gilleland's aim is to run a nuclear reactor on what is now waste.
...the traveling-wave reactor needs only a thin layer of enriched U-235. Most of the core is U-238, millions of pounds of which are stockpiled around the world as leftovers from natural uranium after the U-235 has been scavenged. The design provides "the simplest possible fuel cycle," says Charles W. Forsberg, executive director of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Project at MIT, "and it requires only one uranium enrichment plant per planet."
That'd be right
There's a new branch of science yet to be investigated: how does a good space shuttle viewing schedule cause rain and cloud in Brisbane?
Remember this post of only a few days ago? Now read the forecast for Brisbane for much of the same period:
Remember this post of only a few days ago? Now read the forecast for Brisbane for much of the same period:
Forecast for Tuesday Evening
Rain periods with possible local thunder.
Forecast for Wednesday
Rain periods with possible local thunder.
Thursday Rain periods, windy Min 16 Max 19
Friday Showers, windy Min 15 Max 21
Saturday Showers, windy Min 17 Max 23
Sunday Shower or two Min 18 Max 25
Monday Shower or two Min 17 Max 25
Tuesday Shower or two Min 17 Max 25
Another reason coal is not cool
30% Ocean Mercury Rise Linked to Asian Coal Plants
The topic of mercury in fish (as well as dolphins and whales) has been discussed here before, so it's of some interest to read the article above about research indicating that coal burning has increased mercury levels in the oceans:
The topic of mercury in fish (as well as dolphins and whales) has been discussed here before, so it's of some interest to read the article above about research indicating that coal burning has increased mercury levels in the oceans:
Data analysis of the water samples indicated that total mercury levels in the North Pacific Ocean water have risen about 30 percent over the last 20 years.
The authors attribute the rise to increases in global mercury atmospheric emission rates, particularly from Asia. “We believe the majority of Asian mercury emission comes from coal burning (for electricity generation),” stated William Landing, a marine scientist with Florida State University, one of the lead investigators for this study.
Empty
HASHIMA, Japan, 2002 documentary version on Vimeo
I haven't watched it all, but it's about a tiny abandoned Japanese mining island, and is full of post-apocalyptic images of suddenly deserted buildings. (It looks at its history as an incredibly densely populated place too.)
Found via Japansoc, which will be added to my bookmarks when I can finally bother editing them.
I haven't watched it all, but it's about a tiny abandoned Japanese mining island, and is full of post-apocalyptic images of suddenly deserted buildings. (It looks at its history as an incredibly densely populated place too.)
Found via Japansoc, which will be added to my bookmarks when I can finally bother editing them.
About Ikea
BBC NEWS | Europe | In search of Europe: Sweden
Here's an article talking about why Ikea is internationally popular, and asks the question "how does Ikea manage to unify Europeans around its brand and its products, where the parliament so often fails to do so?"
A professor from Stockholm suggests:
Here's an article talking about why Ikea is internationally popular, and asks the question "how does Ikea manage to unify Europeans around its brand and its products, where the parliament so often fails to do so?"
A professor from Stockholm suggests:
"..Customers are picking Ikea because it provides certain values."I hope the town square in Almhult is full of plastic balls for everyone to play in.Ikea's senior staff travel to Almhult, in southern Sweden, to have those values inculcated into them. It is as close to a company town as you get these days - there's an Ikea hotel, a private Ikea museum, and a host of Ikea laboratories, communications and personnel units. You are never far from a self-assembled bookcase or nice-looking but really very cheap mug.
Rudd's new health measure
BBC NEWS | Health | Keep working 'to avoid dementia'
What do you know: not being able to get the pension til 67 can be sold as a health measure.
What do you know: not being able to get the pension til 67 can be sold as a health measure.
Monday, May 18, 2009
While we're talking Catholicism...
Father Alberto Cutie's scandal doesn't change the debate about clerical celibacy. - Slate Magazine
How unusual. Slate runs a column that doesn't do a bad job at defending celibacy for the Catholic priesthood.
Personally, however, I believe the rules should be changed to something close to that within the Eastern Orthodox church.
How unusual. Slate runs a column that doesn't do a bad job at defending celibacy for the Catholic priesthood.
Personally, however, I believe the rules should be changed to something close to that within the Eastern Orthodox church.
I watch so that you don't have to
For people who are curious as to how the "St Mary's [South Brisbane] parish in exile" conducts its masses, they have been posting videos of their services at their website for the last few weeks.
Unfortunately, they only seem to stay up for a week at a time, but I have watched a few of them now.
The latest one, from yesterday, also has the homily in written form.
A few observations:
* I could be wrong, but the latest video indicates a significantly smaller congregation than in the first couple of weeks;
* They never seem to incorporate an Act of Penitence. Given that few Catholics regularly attend confession these days, I would have thought that this part of the Mass served an increasingly useful function (even if it does not, according to the Church, actually give absolution.) But dropping this is typical of the strand of Christianity that preaches social justice as its main theme: they love to tell others about the importance of being fair and nice to everyone, but don't spend a lot of time examining themselves for any sign of "sin". (For them, it's such an outdated, patriarchal sort of concept.)
Of course, you can argue that a lot of damage has been caused to the Church by those who hypocritically preached the rules, but failed to live up to the standards themselves. (The Church's reaction to child abuse in the clergy gets a lot of airtime from those who attend St Mary's.) But (I would argue) from an intellectual point of view, such hypocrisy is not as corrosive to the core of the faith as the modernising Gaia-incorporating semi-realism of the type of faith St Mary's seems to propagate.
* Nor do they seem to bother with the Creed. (I suspect that it is because it would require too many amendments to bear anything close to the original.)
* The Lord's Prayer is incorporated but begins "Our Mother, our Father ..." Does any reader know of any other parish that does this? I know the suggestion has been around for a while, as I recall the late Bede Griffiths came up with it during a talk he gave in Brisbane years ago. But I am not sure if the idea has been adopted anywhere other than St Mary's. (Bede Griffiths was an interesting character, an English Benedictine monk who "went native" in India, but whether he was really operating within Catholic doctrine by the end of his life is very doubtful. I think he just avoided official censure by spending most of his time in India and concentrating on meditation.)
* As you can see from Peter Kennedy's homily (linked above) , he's very big on the whole Gaia-ish, birthing, Creation, life-giving, it's all about relationships, God-(whatever that might be)-just-wants-us-to-be-nice-environmentalists-and-kind-to-gays, view of Christianity.
There seems little doubt that Peter Kennedy would be a fan of Matthew Fox, the former Catholic priest (now Californian Episcopalian) whose pagan incorporating "creation spirituality" brought him a lot of attention a couple of decades ago until he got banned from teaching theology and chucked out of his order by our present Pope. Like Fox, Kennedy like to quote Meister Eckhart, who also was in a spot of doctrinal bother during his life.
Kennedy quotes in his homily another Catholic writer who I hadn't heard of before (Diarmund O'Murchu - his status within the Sacred Heart Missionary Order remains unclear to me) but this from his website indicates he is doctrinally probably already outside of his Church:
For a priest who complains that his Archbishop is mistaken when he says he is operating outside of the Catholic faith, Peter Kennedy sure spends a lot of time quoting those who are doctrinally radical.
* Kennedy said when he set up his "parish in exile" that it would be reformed with a bigger role for women. Unless it decides that it can ordain its own woman priest (which I reckon it is likely to do sooner or later) it is hard to imagine a bigger women's role than it already seems to have.
It is clearly already a church dominated by feminist critique. At this week's mass, one of the congregation asked them to pray that the Family Law Act go back to taking protection seriously. (Clearly, she is involved in the current advocacy that is trying to get the government to reverse the presumption of shared care for children between parents.) Another women took the opportunity to give a mini lecture on how women giving birth lying down was a terrible patriarchal idea, and indigenous women knew how to do it better.
It's really eye-rolling stuff. I don't see that they are ever going to attract a broader band of followers from within the Church than that they already have, and it will likely dwindle over time as well.
I suspect that it was at the peak of its popularity during the long period of the Howard government, when nearly everyone in the congregation perceived that they had a fundamentally unjust government to rally against. Now that it's Labor all around, and the appeal of hearing an anti-Howard rant every week has gone, one wonders whether it can maintain its appeal.
Unfortunately, they only seem to stay up for a week at a time, but I have watched a few of them now.
The latest one, from yesterday, also has the homily in written form.
A few observations:
* I could be wrong, but the latest video indicates a significantly smaller congregation than in the first couple of weeks;
* They never seem to incorporate an Act of Penitence. Given that few Catholics regularly attend confession these days, I would have thought that this part of the Mass served an increasingly useful function (even if it does not, according to the Church, actually give absolution.) But dropping this is typical of the strand of Christianity that preaches social justice as its main theme: they love to tell others about the importance of being fair and nice to everyone, but don't spend a lot of time examining themselves for any sign of "sin". (For them, it's such an outdated, patriarchal sort of concept.)
Of course, you can argue that a lot of damage has been caused to the Church by those who hypocritically preached the rules, but failed to live up to the standards themselves. (The Church's reaction to child abuse in the clergy gets a lot of airtime from those who attend St Mary's.) But (I would argue) from an intellectual point of view, such hypocrisy is not as corrosive to the core of the faith as the modernising Gaia-incorporating semi-realism of the type of faith St Mary's seems to propagate.
* Nor do they seem to bother with the Creed. (I suspect that it is because it would require too many amendments to bear anything close to the original.)
* The Lord's Prayer is incorporated but begins "Our Mother, our Father ..." Does any reader know of any other parish that does this? I know the suggestion has been around for a while, as I recall the late Bede Griffiths came up with it during a talk he gave in Brisbane years ago. But I am not sure if the idea has been adopted anywhere other than St Mary's. (Bede Griffiths was an interesting character, an English Benedictine monk who "went native" in India, but whether he was really operating within Catholic doctrine by the end of his life is very doubtful. I think he just avoided official censure by spending most of his time in India and concentrating on meditation.)
* As you can see from Peter Kennedy's homily (linked above) , he's very big on the whole Gaia-ish, birthing, Creation, life-giving, it's all about relationships, God-(whatever that might be)-just-wants-us-to-be-nice-environmentalists-and-kind-to-gays, view of Christianity.
There seems little doubt that Peter Kennedy would be a fan of Matthew Fox, the former Catholic priest (now Californian Episcopalian) whose pagan incorporating "creation spirituality" brought him a lot of attention a couple of decades ago until he got banned from teaching theology and chucked out of his order by our present Pope. Like Fox, Kennedy like to quote Meister Eckhart, who also was in a spot of doctrinal bother during his life.
Kennedy quotes in his homily another Catholic writer who I hadn't heard of before (Diarmund O'Murchu - his status within the Sacred Heart Missionary Order remains unclear to me) but this from his website indicates he is doctrinally probably already outside of his Church:
Jesus did not come to rescue or redeem us – there is nothing from which we need to be rescued, other than our own patriarchal dysfunctionality which is our problem and not God’s...In another essay, O'Murchu explains how the term "Kingdom of God" should rendered differently:
And what would we replace it with? John Dominic Crossan (in Borg 1998, 22-55) offers one of the best suggestions I know: a companionship of empowerment.I can see it now: "Our Mother our Father...thy companionship of empowerment come".
For a priest who complains that his Archbishop is mistaken when he says he is operating outside of the Catholic faith, Peter Kennedy sure spends a lot of time quoting those who are doctrinally radical.
* Kennedy said when he set up his "parish in exile" that it would be reformed with a bigger role for women. Unless it decides that it can ordain its own woman priest (which I reckon it is likely to do sooner or later) it is hard to imagine a bigger women's role than it already seems to have.
It is clearly already a church dominated by feminist critique. At this week's mass, one of the congregation asked them to pray that the Family Law Act go back to taking protection seriously. (Clearly, she is involved in the current advocacy that is trying to get the government to reverse the presumption of shared care for children between parents.) Another women took the opportunity to give a mini lecture on how women giving birth lying down was a terrible patriarchal idea, and indigenous women knew how to do it better.
It's really eye-rolling stuff. I don't see that they are ever going to attract a broader band of followers from within the Church than that they already have, and it will likely dwindle over time as well.
I suspect that it was at the peak of its popularity during the long period of the Howard government, when nearly everyone in the congregation perceived that they had a fundamentally unjust government to rally against. Now that it's Labor all around, and the appeal of hearing an anti-Howard rant every week has gone, one wonders whether it can maintain its appeal.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Some encouragement to pro-lifers
US abortion views shift, majority are 'pro-life': poll
Perhaps a reaction to Obama's partial birth abortion position? (And his quip about not wanting his "punished" by a pregnancy.)The "pro-life," anti-abortion opinion has risen from 44 percent a year ago, while the number of Americans who described themselves as "pro-choice" fell from 50 percent a year ago to 42 percent now.
The results "represent a significant shift," said Gallup, which interviewed 1,015 adults from May 7-10.
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