It's almost Saturday and I'm reading about the music of 1983. Here's David Bowie again. This clip is from 2002 but the song he sings, Let's Dance, came out in '83 ...
Still researching music of the past by the year and now I'm in at 1982. This was when I was married. I can remember sitting in a Mexican restaurant with the ex after seeing the movie Cat People, David Bowie writing and singing the title song for it ...
A few days ago I had a post about Pope Francis' visit to Chile, where he defended a bishop accused of covering up sex abuse. Tonight there was a segment on the PBS NewsHour on this which I thought was pretty good ...
Ursula K. Le Guin, a prolific novelist best known for the Earthsea series and The Left Hand of Darkness, died Monday at the age of 88 in Portland, Ore. Across more than 20 novels and scores of short stories, Le Guin crafted fantastic worlds to grapple with profoundly difficult questions here on Earth, from class divisions to feminist theory .... Le Guin stood as a towering figure in science fiction and fantasy. Indeed, she completed a triple crown of the genres' biggest prizes, earning the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards several times over ...
I read her book The Left Hand of Darkness when I was a teen and it made a big impression on me. She was one of the early feminist science fiction writers and this book, which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, envisioned a world in which people were of a neutral gender except for when they reproduced, at which time they could end up being either female of male. What would our lives and our culture be like if our gender wasn't fixed, if we all had a common experience of being both male and female?
Remembering my cat Data who died today in January 2005. He was 15 years old and I had him (and his siblings) from when we found them in the garage as babies. He was very sick at the end with bladder cancer. My sister and I were giving him subcutaneous fluids every day plus a bunch of different medications, and he was so ill he didn't want to eat so I had to give him moist food with a syringe. He suffered a lot :(
One of the things that helped me get along then was that I had checked a two CD set of the Bee Gees' greatest hits from the public library and listened to it almost all the time as a distraction. Here is one of the songs I especially liked ...
If I had more time I'd answer both Andrew Sullivan and Catherine Deneuve, explaining in detail why they are wrong, but I'll just have yo make it short ..... Andrew, just because you're Catholic doesn't mean you have to believe in complementarianism or natural law - both science and reason are against you. And Catherine, come one, how can I take anyone seriously on sexual harassment who has this kind of Pepé Le Pew cultural baggage? ...
Here's more: Samantha Bee on the #Me Too backlash ...
Back in 2015, Pope Francis installed Juan de la Cruz Barros as bishop of Osorno, Chile, over the vehement protests of local Catholics ... Barros had been credibly accused of covering up sexual abuse by his mentor, pedophile priest Fernando Karadima.
The protests in 2015 when the bishop was installed ...
The Pope has just visited Chile, and he managed to make the situation even worse ...
Pope Francis accused victims of Chile’s most notorious pedophile of slander Thursday, an astonishing end to a visit meant to help heal the wounds of a sex abuse scandal that has cost the Catholic Church its credibility in the country. Francis said that until he sees proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up the sex crimes of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, such accusations against Barros are “all calumny.”
The pope’s remarks drew shock from Chileans and immediate rebuke from victims and their advocates. They noted the accusers were deemed credible enough by the Vatican that it sentenced Karadima to a lifetime of “penance and prayer” for his crimes in 2011. A Chilean judge also found the victims to be credible, saying that while she had to drop criminal charges against Karadima because too much time had passed, proof of his crimes wasn’t lacking.
[snip]
Anne Barrett Doyle, of the online database BishopAccountability.org, said it was “sad and wrong” for the pope to discredit the victims since “the burden of proof here rests with the church, not the victims — and especially not with victims whose veracity has already been affirmed.” “He has just turned back the clock to the darkest days of this crisis,” she said in a statement. “Who knows how many victims now will decide to stay hidden, for fear they will not be believed?” ....
Remember this little person from last spring? ....
Now Goldy looks like this ....
And his thoughts are turning to love. I suspect so are the thoughts of the other four former kittens, his siblings, and his mom, Marie, as well. Somehow I have to catch them all and take them to the SPCA or the County to get spayed/neutered before any more kittens arrive! The new cats aren't very tame and I can't pick them up so to help with catching them I bought a trap, one that seems like the safest version I've seen ... Tru Catch Trap ... and I found a video that explains how to use it, so here's hoping it all works out.
I've found that Wikipedia has pages for every year of music, with all the albums/songs released in that year. I've been going back and forth, finding stuff here and there - it helps distract me from all my worries, at least for a while :) Here's what I found today: Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas ...
Carry on my wayward son
For there'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more
Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond the illusion
I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high
Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man
Though my mind could think I still was a mad man
I hear the voices when I'm dreaming, I can hear them say
Carry on my wayward son
For there'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more
Masquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season
And if I claim to be a wise man, it surely means that I don't know
On a stormy sea of moving emotion
Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean
I set a course for winds of fortune, but I hear the voices say
Carry on my wayward son
For there'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more
Carry on, you will always remember
Carry on, nothing equals the splendor
Now your life's no longer empty
Surely heaven waits for you
Carry on my wayward son
For there'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more
On the PBS NewsHour tonight there was a segment about how a study from Sweden shows that dogs (and I think all pets) can help people live longer, especially people like me who are alone ...
My numerous cats come with a lot of baggage, but I am so much less lonely now that they are here.
