Monday, February 25, 2013

A Lesson to be Learned


Two weeks ago a lightning bolt struck St. Peter's Cathedral in Vatican City.  Ironically enough it happened on the same day that Pope Benedict XVI decided to step away from his duties as the head of the Catholic Church.  That left people all around the world asking the same question "Can he do that?”  Apparently, he can.  That begs the question, who does he resign too?  Does he actually have a direct link to God?  Evidently church law doesn't specify who he has to resign to but the College of Cardinals is a safe bet.

What the Pope did has to be commended, since it has been 600 plus years that a pope has not died at the head of the church.  We have seen this far too often, not just in the church, but in television, sports, and especially politics.  It was excruciating to watch the "Rocking New Year’s Eve" show with Dick Clark after his stroke, you needed subtitles to understand him.  The same goes for rock singer Ozzy Osbourne on his old show and stage.  I still have nightmares of the 1996 Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Atlanta when boxing great Muhammad Ali, suffering from Parkinson's syndrome lit the Olympic flame.  He was shaking so much I thought he was going to light himself on fire.

Have previous Pope's stayed at the helm until death because they felt they had too?  I don't know.  It may have to do with the fact that there is nothing in Canon Law that states they can resign or have to stay until death.  It states that the ruling of the church must continue if the pope is incapacitated but doesn't declare who determines incapacitation.  So it puts the pope in a no win situation.

Rumor has it that Pope Benedict XVI never wanted to be pope, being elected was twist that he was not expecting.  What the pope has done has set a precedent for the next Cardinal that takes the papal rein when the College of Cardinals elects the next Bishop of Rome.  When the next pope has had enough, he can get out.  Will that happen?  It's highly doubtful but not out of the realm.  But the retirement could definitely put the hierarchy of the church into a new perspective.  Carol Williams of the L.A. Times wrote in her column two days after the resignation "The newly perceived option of retirement also could encourage the College of Cardinals to consider younger, more dynamic candidates when choosing a new pope or even extending to the papacy the retirement age of 75 that applies to bishops."

As a practicing Catholic I am very interested to see how this plays out.  The Catholic Church has been struggling to keep its parishioners over the past decade or so.  Most of it has to do with the sexual scandals that rocked the church several years back, but another factor is that true practicing Catholics are aging out and it does not appeal to young church goers.  I think the installation of young priests, Bishops and Cardinals will slowly start the appeal to the younger crowd.  I applaud the Pope for retiring and I hope the new Pope will do the best he can to transform the Catholic Church to better appeal to young people.

3D
If you don't take it from me, ask my wife.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Finding Nemo

Just like many of you this past weekend we were hunkered down because of Blizzard Nemo.  So before I go into my truly unbalanced weekend I must ask this question.  Did I miss the memo on naming of winter storms?  When did this start happening?  Well, apparently The Weather Channel (TWC) went rogue and decided to do this on their own.  That's just great, we give a media outlet that much power.  I guess than it is no different than anything else.  Let's move on.

I think I am the only person that welcomed the "snowmageddon" we got over the weekend.  Between my job, my basketball coaching and basketball officiating this is an extremely busy time of the year for me.  I love what I do, and have no regrets but a break is usually needed and Mother Nature is usually the person who gives it to me.  So when I received word that my basketball duties were cancelled for Friday, I was bummed and relieved, because I will get some long overdue family time.

The beauty of being snowed in for me is that my "honey-do" list indoor edition gets worked on.  On Friday I started the day of with a trip to Home Depot, not to get shovels or ice melt, but to get my honey do supplies.  I went to work and then I took care of the most important thing that was needed for the weekend, wine.  I visited my friends at The Wine Vine on Highland St. in Worcester and I stocked up for the weekend.  Then it was on to family time.  

With my wife coming home early we hunkered in on Friday afternoon and had a really good time.  We played games with our three year old, we watched a Disney movie and did chores around the house.  My daughter was mesmerized by the snow and was getting all geared up to make snow angels and snowmen.  We went cautious with her explaining that there may be too much snow and it wouldn't be possible this weekend.  After a day of constantly just doing things, including getting a workout in, my wife and I sat down and had a bottle of wine and just "chilled".

Saturday morning as the snow continued my wife and I took the task on of teaching our daughter to play Wii Bowling.  It was quite comical but she enjoyed and it kept her out of a TV coma brought on about Disney and Nickelodeon.  I then took to social media and was amazed at the amount of people talking about the same thing, and posting pictures of the snow as if their scenario is any different than anyone else.  I had some fun with it.  After I saw the twentieth picture of someone's snow covered car I went into my garage and took a picture of my wife and my cars and posted them on the internet.

The snow ended and this is where the weekend got a tad frustrating.  I went outside and started to shovel, as you may already know I was stunned at how much I saw.  I usually have my driveway plowed and I shovel the rest.  But when I got there my street had not been touched by city plows and the plow for driveway could not get down the street.  I was ok with it, I figured one would be along soon.  Nope! My neighbors and I decided to take matters into our own hand and clear what we could.  There is a large amount of liability of doing that.  So for a city that fines people for not shoveling their sidewalks within 48 hours has no accountability whatsoever when they just randomly skip a street.  I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt but when 9pm rolled around I was beyond frustrated.  So I took to social media and let everyone know what was going on. 

I could go on and on about how City Government doesn't work and there are too many loopholes and red tape.  It should not take me taking to social media to get action.  I appreciate my friends that helped and offered to help, especially City Councilor Kate Toomey.  This was a big storm and I am sure the city needed all hands on deck and then some.  But when several people call and are inquiring about when their street is going to get plowed they should not be ignored, luckily nothing happened and an emergency vehicle didn't need to get down my street.  Once again the city I live in let me down.

Needless to say, when we finally did get a plow down the street he did a wonderful job.  Even though he had some trouble getting up the road for obvious reasons, he did not plow anybody's driveways in.  Thank you very much for that.  I am done with snow for this year.

3D
If you don't take it from me, ask my wife.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Things to Consider

Last week John Kerry was confirmed as the next Secretary of State in President Obama's administration.  I never been a fan of our Senator and former Presidential candidate but I think he will be a very good Secretary of State.  This position is where President Obama has gotten right both times he has needed to fill the spot.  But with Kerry now moving on to the State Department that leaves a Senate seat open next to senior Senator (gulp!) Elizabeth Warren.  At the time of this writing there have been only 3 people to step forward and run for the open seat in the Special Election.  On the Democrat side we have Congressmen Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch and on the GOP side we have State Rep. Dan Winslow.  I am already bored with this election.

So as we go through another election cycle there are things that I am going to consider and I think you should to.  This is more of a list of things that annoy me during elections, which may or may not turn me off.  Needless to say, I am a political junkie and I highly doubt they will turn me off, but one can hope.

"Experience" -  So Markey and Lynch already have a strike against them,  Markey more so.  For the past few  elections I have been totally annoyed about the "Experience in Washington..."  that the incumbent or lifelong politician has been touting.  I'm sorry, did I miss something?  Washington is still a mess, right?  So what makes me want to vote for a guy that is promoting that he has been in Washington all these years? Sorry sir, you are not the solution you are part of the problem.  I am not looking for the status quo I am looking for new innovative ideas and ways to cut spending, cut deficits and work on bi-partisan legislation so there is less chance of repeal.

Television Ads - Now my wife would say that she can't stand PAC's, I actually don't mind them.  There is nothing wrong with people pooling their money in support of a candidate.  What bugs the heck out of me is the million commercials that both the candidates and PAC's buy every 30 seconds.  It makes watching local television unbearable.  I especially like when I have to watch New Hampshire ad spots.  That makes me happy.  Political TV ads need to go away.  Period.  If you want to reach people that you really don't care about, spend the time in their town or send them something in the mail.  Don't go out and lie on TV and promise them something they don't understand.  Someone called into a radio show and said that PAC's controlled the TV ad space because they "dumb down" to the electorate.  I wouldn't go as far to use the term dumb down, but the electorate is far less informed than in the past.

"Working for you" - I truly laugh at that.  There isn't a person in Boston or Washington working for me.  Not once has my Congressman or Senator personally called or e-mailed me back when I have called or e-mailed them.  I guess if I donated enough money to their campaign they would work for me, because the money would work for them.  So, spare me.  If you really want to work for me don't run after two terms, don't grow roots.

The Hate - This really needs to stop.  When did this get so personal?  I wrote about this back in September. When did we lose the ability to agree to disagree?  I have many friends that don't agree with my political beliefs, but they respect it and I respect their views as well.  We agree to disagree.

I am sure there are others that bother you as well.  If so, I would love to hear from you.  Please comment and let me know what bugs you about elections.  As always vote your conscience.

3D
If you don't take it from me, ask my wife.