Hrm.. funny coincidence...

I am a casual observer of "signs" I guess you would say. I'm open to them, but I don't look for them.

However, I remembered a story back in August about a billboard in New Orleans. What was curious was that a man had seen the Virgin Mary in the sign - yet it was not overtly printed or painted on the sign. It was a funeral home sign.

The next day, Hurricane Katrina forms as a tropical depression, and was spotted in the Atlantic.

The Billboard story:
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1124693329242840.xml

Katrina Timeline:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Hurricane_Katrina

It's a boat...

If you haven't seen this yet.. it's pretty amazing.

LiPo batteries are revolutionizing R/C... wait till we get methane fuel cells!

-CD

Colored Bubbles

These are very, very cool.

Zubbles!

Real midnight engineering!

Just found this website today as I was contemplating a radical engine design.

eMachineShop

Why is this place cool? Well, because if you can draw it - they can pretty-much make it. Aluminum, Steel, Stainless, Copper, Brass etc..

Of course I'll probably never create my radical engine design.. maybe I'll just file a patent for it... works for everyone else.

France is paying the price...

While I lived in Paris, I grew to know quite a few people. Some where high-class airline CEO's, others were poor and downtroden.

The beauty of the city is alive with the art and churches. The vibrance of youth is evident as thousands of best-of-the-best flood into the Supereor Normal, Universite Paris, H-E-C, and of course, the Sorbonne...

I worked at the U de Paris 7 - Jussieu(gratis), worked in advertisements, played music at the night clubs, went to class at the Sorbonne, just whatever seemed to come up. It was an incredible experience.

I met folks from every french (ex)colony... Morocco, Reunion, Algiers, even other places such as Greece, Russia and Lithuania, etc...

It's no place to live, though. The number of times people attempted to take advantage of me (you name it, they tried it) was on the order of DAILY. Sometimes you exacted a lower wage - which I could accept as part of being a foreigner. However, the scheisters, predators, and con-men is astronomical.

It seems to permeate all classes of society, from Chemisty professors, to professional photographers (No, not those kind.. this guy was a 10 year student of Ansel Adams), students, you name it. Even my landlord!

To say that France has lost it's moral compass would be unfair, as I know MANY outstanding people. But it wouldn't be unfair to say that a great many are far, far away from any morality you and I would ascribe to.

To be brutally honest, there's a lot of racism there - even printed in news papers. Sure, it's veiled speech, but beyond a doubt it exists - especially in the little pamphlets you find strewn at subway stations. My Algerian friends spoke of the horror of escaping from a country where maurading warriors beheaded their teachers in CLASS only to escape to a place where the only line of work was drug trafficing. My friend Moroc told me he just wanted to be a street sweeper, but that he was chased away from the employment office by union guys.

To be sure, I was never mugged or beaten up.. but I dressed in an overcoat and wore steel tipped boots. I looked poor, cut my hair with a razor, and avoided speaking English.

So, it comes as no surprise that the great masses of immigrants are revolting. No jobs, bad education, and no future leads the hopeless to violence. For years, the political answer was to ship them to the country side into huge apartments, the thought being that integration on every level would overcome the differences.

But the France we see idealized in movies is far from reality. The "other" communities in France have no wish to integrate into French society, such as it is. From their point of view, the moral decadence is unapproachable, and I would agree from my own experience.

I've seen military grade weaponry from guns, grenades to RPG's. I've seen massive mobs roaming the streets lighting cars on fire and burning down buildings. I've seen subway "accidents" almost first hand. I've experienced the big brother of cameras everywhere.

I've seen the standing buses of military troops in full body armor, waiting 24x7 for the next riot - they park in front of the National Assembly.

Perhaps France can find a solution, but it's going to be painful either way. The way things are looking, the sixth republic will be largely muslem.

First came A,B,C...

Rated: Geek
For: Lots of language bigotry and computer compiler complaining.

I've always been a C++ hater, and recently a Java hater. However, I've had enough years of C coding to know that it's productivity is pretty low compared to more advanced languages. I think it's ridiculous to write an office application in C. But today, it's also ridiculous to write an office application in Java or C#. Whence shall C++ die?

Why I "hate" java:

1. The evolution of the language has been a complete re-invention of all the standard libraries and toolkits already available through C and C++.
2. Using JNI(Java native invocation) to access said libraries is like playing with a box of bullets and a framing hammer to shoot a deer. Yeah, been there, done that.
3. It's a major memory hog. It shouldn't require 16 GBytes to run a first class production web server. Yes, been there, done that.
   
4. It's a CPU hog. While it does good on benchmarking, this is completely at the expense of memory management. Hit the memory wall and expect a massive wait time while java takes out the trash. This is the reason there is a "server" and a "client" VM now.
5. Language iteration has been awful. The base types are not first class objects, and can't be "boxed" into them easily. There are multiple threading models (though the latest is actually nice), and lots of "styles" of code around. I say they shoot the duck and make a coherent standard library.
6. AWT is foo to work in. Swing is slow. The obvious way to go is SWT - which is "abhorred" by the pure java community. Get a grip!!! SWT is wonderful to work in - it's the java client that we all deserved years ago. Eclipse is the prima donna example.
7. Failure to provide customer optimized native code. Yeah, I know this wasn't the goal of Java - but step through the looking glass and imagine a world where developers write the code and distribute the app as bytecode. When you install the app on a machine it builds a fast, sleek native version that always starts fast, and works on every operating system out there - flawlessly. In other words, the ultimate software delivery model for almost every customer out there. Yes, it's hard to do. Too bad java missed this boat.

I am of the opinion that C# is the way to go if you want to live in the virtual machine world. Java just makes me mad because it's all over the place version to version. I'm no Microsoft lover, either.

The good things about java though:

1. Interfaces, OOP, threading, sockets. Java taught the world that this stuff should be in the language and basic. My original fascination with java started here.
2. Applets. Yes, I love them - too bad they are under-utilized.
3. Eclipse. I'm in love with eclipse. Java is actually usable with eclipse.
   

I won't get into C++ - suffice it to say, I love templates and generic. I hate the memory management and the nasty syntax add-ons. Again, the evolution of C++ has battle scar written all over it. Not to say that you can't do some truly awesome stuff in it - quite the opposite. It can be very productive and given the choice between C++ and C for general development I'd go with C++. One controversial comment though... is it just me or are real C++ programmers sometimes snobby?

Now onto the goodies.

I've been doing much work with C# latily. WOW. Big WOW.

Let me list the goodies:

1. Coherent architecture, methods, naming conventions, types. It's just a JOY when you KNOW that the length of some type is .Length.
2. Structs live on!
   
3. Invoking native code is easy. I'd say 7x faster, as I've written wrappers for both java and C#, being completely non-proficient in either. One day, versus a week to get a simple library interfaced.
   
4. Built-in XML parser. No dabbling with multiple libraries, adding JAR's to your distribution, etc.. I know, it's semantic, but the JCP could have standardized on something like this long ago.
5. Pointers when you need them, mixed managed and unmanaged code. Yes, warn me that I'm using a pointer - no, I know what I'm doing.
6. Follows Java syntax and form, provides the goodies to build native GUI's without huge sacrifices.
7. Follows Java's example in threading, sockets, and other base libraries.

Now, the list of badies:

1. No native code, still have to live with a VM.
2. Again, memory is killed for CPU sake, though I've noticed that C# doesn't hit the memory wall nearly as easily.
3. Complex native structs just require pointers sometimes - I wish there were easier ways to manage structure members without having to write a complete getter/setter interface sometimes - but it's a small price to pay compared to pinning memory and locking the whole VM ala java.

Is there any hope for the average application developer? How about systems developers that want more productivity when the want it? How about developing an office application without sacrificing your soal to the dark one?

I think I've found it.. it's called D. It's a relatively new language, only 4-5 years old. However, it's not afraid to break old code and it's really moving in a nice direction.

From my basic overview of the language, I am hugely impressed.

1. It's clean, fast, compiles to native code, and supports all the goodies of java and C# without the big overhead.
   
2. Contract programming and unit test code "built into" the language
3. C# type delegates (basically functions as pointers you can juggle as needed)
4. C# type strings in switch statement (No more strcmp or overloading junk)
5. Resizeable arrays
6. No header files, methods are definitions
7. Threading, sockets, exception handling
8. Associative arrays ala perl hashes. BIG timesaver here.
   

I have to say, I am hugely impressed so far with the base language. I can see this language filling the needs of many developers. There's much work to be done on the libraries though - but again, a good base will naturally create ease in library development.

What a quote!

George W. Bush is a big spender. He has never vetoed a spending bill. When Congress serves up a big slab of fat, crackling pork, Mr. Bush responds with one big question: Got any barbecue sauce?

-Peggy Noonan

Fun with art...

Something I did a couple of years ago, I plan on doing more of. Enjoy!

Complete break down

Pondering my FEMA comments, I began to really ponder all that went wrong down there. I've got to say, it wasn't as simple as we initially heard - and I was too harsh on FEMA now that the facts are starting to surface.

I may be out on a limb here... but from everything I've read, it appears that even though FEMA did step in eventually (really, as of last Friday) what really happened behind the scenes played out like a cheap greek tragedy.

First off, the media had declared NOLA safe, except for some minor flooding along Lake Ponchatrain. Then, things started getting worse. The local governments BAILED and believed that state and the federal governments would just "take care of it." Of course, the Federal government was more than happy to contribute a few hands to a "normal" clean up effort. The state was busy trying to get information which was just not there.

Really, after that it was a snowball from hell. And as it got worse by the hour, the local government completely dropped the ball and fled town. The widespread destruction across a three state area and general mayham componded the problem of access to gas, food etc.

Frankly, it could have been worse. I think it goes to show that you can't depend on our Federal government to come bail you out. It's not designed to do that on this scale. It can't be done. You're neighbor is much more dependable.

FEMA is about command and planning, and expecting instant action on their part is wrong - but it was the only government structure that was in tact and which had the disaster background to handle this. We expect FEMA to be ready for this, but in reality, we've got to know that the sheer numbers of people was just too high to evacuate in less than a few days.

Ohh well, enough ranting. My appologies to FEMA and the National Guard... I still think they could have executed some things better - but given the scope, volume, and lack of information - it really was effective for a LOT of people.

Why do we even pay FEMA?

FEMA has shown it's complete and utter LACK of any common sense in sorting out the gulf situation. There's lots of characterization going on in the media.. painting the looters as all bad, but in reality most of them are mentally in survivor mode. Some points:

1. These people, if they were able, probably DID put aside food and water. Which is now trapped under 9-20 feet of water in their houses.

2. There is only 1 road out of New orleans right now, and it's DANGEROUS to walk around. It's also on the opposite side of the most affected parts of the city. Put another way.. would you stroll through this with your kids? I'd wait for an escort with guns, thank you.

3. It is essential to get people moved out within 48-72 hours of a disaster. After that, the shock of loosing everything you own wears out and you go into survival mode. The serious moral decay of society is coming out big-time here.

3. These evacuation buses are driving right past thousands of people. Today was the first day that any serious evacuation was happening.

I'm not excusing the behaviour of NOLA people - but I understand it. There's looting, rape and murder happening - at the shelters. 60% of the NOLA police force quite because there's no command/control. You have GOT to protect and provide for yourself and your family somehow.

Most people got clean WATER for the first time since Monday. Even at the Superdome.

If I were FEMA last Tuesday:
1. Get school busses and get accessible people out now. Sort them somewhere else and reduce the need to ship in food. There should be armed escorts getting these people out. They should be swathing the city eastward so they can make effective use of the manpower instead of diluting it.

2. Evacuate all hospitals. Call in every ambulance you can and fly them out of Baton Rouge.

3. Air-drop food and water all over the city. Hell, have the coast guard drop food around as they're going to rescue survivors. It took 4 days to get those "tons and tons" into the city we keep hearing about on the news.

They didn't do that. Instead they:
1. Advised everyone to gather at central locations.. and instantly had supply issues because there's only one friggin road into town.

2. They (Army engineers) thought they could fix a 500' levee of MOVING water in 24 hours. Huh?

3. The advised people to evacuate, but didn't coordinate escorts with the National Guard they had.

4. The police were overwhelmed. Many of them didn't even hear that they were under martial law!

5. The city government left town leaving people with no knowledge of the city to coordinate the effort.

It's just totally wrong. Even an 8 year old could figure it out. If you've got limited access you're not going to be able to provide needed services.

FEMA gets billions of dollars to figure this out and completely botched it. Now they're complaining that people are shooting at them, which is wrong, but these people are mentally in survivor mode and if you don't have food or water then you don't matter.

Posted on interdictor blog earlier:

Three days ago, police and national guard troops told citizens to head toward the Crescent City Connection Bridge to await transportation out of the area. The citizens trekked over to the Convention Center and waited for the buses which they were told would take them to Houston or Alabama or somewhere else, out of this area.

It's been 3 days, and the buses have yet to appear.

Although obviously he has no exact count, he estimates more than 10,000 people are packed into and around and outside the convention center still waiting for the buses. They had no food, no water, and no medicine for the last three days, until today, when the National Guard drove over the bridge above them, and tossed out supplies over the side crashing down to the ground below. Much of the supplies were destroyed from the drop. Many people tried to catch the supplies to protect them before they hit the ground. Some offered to walk all the way around up the bridge and bring the supplies down, but any attempt to approach the police or national guard resulted in weapons being aimed at them.

There are many infants and elderly people among them, as well as many people who were injured jumping out of windows to escape flood water and the like -- all of them in dire straights.

Any attempt to flag down police results in being told to get away at gunpoint. Hour after hour they watch buses pass by filled with people from other areas. Tensions are very high, and there has been at least one murder and several fights. 8 or 9 dead people have been stored in a freezer in the area, and 2 of these dead people are kids.

The people are so desperate that they're doing anything they can think of to impress the authorities enough to bring some buses. These things include standing in single file lines with the eldery in front, women and children next; sweeping up the area and cleaning the windows and anything else that would show the people are not barbarians.

The buses never stop.

Before the supplies were pitched off the bridge today, people had to break into buildings in the area to try to find food and water for their families. There was not enough. This spurred many families to break into cars to try to escape the city. There was no police response to the auto thefts until the mob reached the rich area -- Saulet Condos -- once they tried to get cars from there... well then the whole swat teams began showing up with rifles pointed. Snipers got on the roof and told people to get back.

He reports that the conditions are horrendous. Heat, mosquitoes and utter misery. The smell, he says, is "horrific."

N'Orleans

Been watching this blog: Interdictor, it's run by a NO ISP called directNIC.com. They're still online there.. riding it out. They've even got a webcam, and regular updates. You can watch looters and national guard. It's pretty startling.

The disaster of NOLA is only growing graver.. the entire rescue effort is blown apart. There's cops wandering the streets with no commanders, almost 1/3rd of the force has quite.

Good lord, even the Hospitals can't get help in NOLA.. There's even a doctor are canoing between buildings.

Hello? We can't move 400 patients in less than 4 days! The government can't get it together.. lots more people are going to suffer or die out there. God help them.

The story of Moo moo

05-02-05_2136
Originally uploaded by convivialdingo.

Moo Moo was a beautiful Jersey mix yearling steer. Sweet steer was he, now to table he goes.

Moo Moo weighed in at 540 lbs hanging weight and yielded about 275 lbs of Ground Beef, 28 T-Bone steaks (Which is the New York strip), 20 Club Steaks, 24 Tenderloin (Where the Filet Mignon resides), 6 big roasts, 28 ribs, 2 huge Brisquits, and much more. All in total, about 520 lbs of meat.. that's 18 square feet of freezer at the Ranchita.

Special note about this beef, it is all natural non-hormone Grass fed beef. Very tender as well.

I guess I am a sixth generation Texas Rancher in a small way, and I guess I did learn something about beef from my Dad, God bless him!

Benedict XVI

Well, I never have gotten around to finishing out my post on JPII yet, but I am really astonished at the speed of the Conclave! It's a wonderful thing!

Couple of interesting things on the name:
1. St. Malachi's prophecy of "Glory of the Olives" (he Benedictine's are also known as Olivetians )?
2. St. Benedict prophecy that the last Pope would be a "Benedictine."

The name has, for me, connotations of the story of Benedict, namely for the caves.

The Catholic Encyclopedia has a nice little biography. Choice quotes:

The path continues to ascend, and the side of the ravine, on which it runs, becomes steeper, until we reach a cave above which the mountain now rises almost perpendicularly; while on the right hand it strikes in a rapid descent down to where, in St. Benedict's day, five hundred feet below, lay the blue waters of the lake. The cave has a large triangular-shaped opening and is about ten feet deep. On his way from Enfide, Benedict met a monk, Romanus, whose monastery was on the mountain above the cliff overhanging the cave. Romanus had discussed with Benedict the purpose which had brought him to Subiaco, and had given him the monk's habit. By his advice Benedict became a hermit and for three years, unknown to men, lived in this cave above the lake.

"For God's sake he deliberately chose the hardships of life and the weariness of labour"

... the community came to him and begged him to become its abbot. Benedict was acquainted with the life and discipline of the monastery, and knew that "their manners were diverse from his and therefore that they would never agree together: yet, at length, overcome with their entreaty, he gave his consent" The experiment failed; the monks tried to poison him, and he returned to his cave.

Supposedly, on EWTN they were expecting him to take the name Boniface.

What in the world prompted him to take Benedict?

Fatima, the Pope, and Revelations Chapter 12

One of the most interesting things I remember about the Pope is his proclamation that Our Lady of Fatima, is in fact the woman of Revelation Chapter 12, v 1. And he also said, if I remember correctly, that we are in the midst of v3 and 4. (Speech on May 13th, 2000 in Fatima)

Trying to locate a link to the speech, but until I do.. there's something interesting about this (NAB, usccb.org).

3 Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadems.
4 Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth.

More on this later..

Justice served Cold

I'm certainly not the first to moan about Justice, certainly not the last. Our American form of Justice is encoded through a unique combination of inalienable rights and Christian morality.

Now, in the moribund 200+ years since our Constitution was set in motion.. some elements of our Government and the few, lonely depraved challengers are cleaning the house of Christian morality. Fair viewpoint.

On the other hand, perhaps it's simply a growing non-Christain group which obligates us to include and modify our laws to accomidate them. Also a valid argument and viewpoint.

But, just like in any complicated design, if you start changing base elements of the design - then you have to add "hacks". A hack meaning a clever though hastily designed solution that "makes it work" - at least for the time being. Duct tape, bailing wire, and Microsoft all come time mind.

The problem is, that our Code of law is being hacked.. and the Design document (Constitution and Bill of Rights) is still the same. The old software addage, "it's a feature not a bug" comes to mind as you read the code of law. We aren't writting good code, and sooner or later it will fail to execute correctly in some unknown edge case.

Example: I'm truly mortified at the outcome of the Schindler-Schiavo case ending in the soon-inevitable death, but I am not surprised. The Florida legislative bill which allowed the death by dehydration and starvation was introduced at the proding of the same lawyer which argued for her death - George Felos.

American justice and due process has, in actuality, occured. The evidence was admitted, a judge allowed or disallowed evidence, a series of motions were made, and a judgement according to the evidence before the court was executed. Even the Supreme court has said, indeed Justice is served. Hot or cold, fair or unfair.

We've been warned time and time again. Outspoken critics lambast our changing system of Justice on a daily, hourly basis. A TV sitcom makes a funny show about it and we all feel vindicated that it's really not THAT SERIOUS. It's just a stupid law, and it'll never apply to me anyway. The chorus of voices is just chatter.

TAKE A LOOK AROUND YOU.

• How many of your friends and relatives end up in Divorce Court?
• How many people do you know who got busted for Drugs?
• How much does it cost to get real Justice, and how much more to people pay to subvert it?
• Why does money matter in Justice, as only the Truth is the actual currency of Justice?
• What percentage of our population must go to Jail before we recognize that we have no true Justice?
• How many of you have dealt with the Death of a loved one - especially in a hospital?
  

Go ahead, count em up. Count up how many of those people end up in ruins. How if affects the parents, siblings, children, and loved ones around them.

Justice is not the servant of Logic. Truth is not the servant of Logic. In order to have True justice, there must be Truth, which is Logical. Why is Truth logical? Because it is the very nature of Logic that it is based on Truth. Otherwise it makes no sense.

No brainer for the vast majority of common sense humanity. But when the aim of Justice becomes the substitute for God, the punishment becomes harsh. Because, Logically, a crime or sin deserves Death - Truth demands it. Only through God can we obtain penance and forgiveness - not a penitentiary. Because True Justice has no mercy.

Proof: An auto mechanic Bob does a shody $50 repair job which results in the death of Mary. Should Bob pay the family of Mary $50 - or should he be put to death in exchange for her death? Shouldn't we kill Bob then?

How many of us are culpable for the death or misery of our neighbors? We buy shoes made by political prisoners or children. Our neighbor lost their job at the Shoe factory because they can't match slave labor wages?

How much injustice can a single American perform in a single day just by eating, shopping, and going to sleep? Some of you agree - even some Athiest - that a great injustice is occuring here. Just because we're ignorant of the misery and death resulting from our choices in shopping doesn't exempt us from Justice. And if Justice it to be metted out in equal portions - then don't we all deserve death?

Therefore, all of Mankind that perpitrates injustice through his own hands or actions, either from ignorance or malveolance is subject to the equal punishmment of Justice.

I submit that the true cost of throwing out God from our Code of Law, is the death of Man. Because without the weight of God through Mercy tipping the scale in Justice, we all do deserve the equitable punishment.

Pressing Issues

I have resisted writing about this.. but I am somehow duty-bound to write it anyway: The Schiavo conflict.

Wait wait, don't run - because I'm not going to convince you using rhetoric. Nor logic. Nope, I'm just going to quote the press... ready?

Schiavo recovery impossible, experts agree
Choice quotes:
"Terri Schiavo, at the center of an emotional and political storm over whether she should be allowed to die"

“Survival beyond 10 years is unusual. The chance for survival of greater than 15 years is approximately 1 in 15,000 to 1 in 75,000,” (Ed. Note: Terri Schiavo collapsed in 1990)

"Dr. Ronald Cranford, a neurologist and bioethicist at the University of Minnesota Medical School, said reflexes can fool non-specialists."

This is because in such patients, the cerebral cortex has been destroyed, said Dr. Lawrence Schneiderman, a physician and bioethicist at the University of California, San Diego.

“The rest of your brain, particularly the brain stem, can survive for fifteen or twenty minutes without oxygen,” added Schneiderman, who signed a friend of the court brief in July of last year supporting Michael Schiavo.

Ok, fair enough. Those two people are the only Doctors mentioned in the article. So, two experts agree. A quick google for "Dr Lawrence Schneidermann Euthanasia" on google reveals...

1. Dr. Ronald Cranford was a member of the board of the former Euthanasia Society of America, which eventually merged with Partnership for Caring
2. Dr. Ronald Cranford, the euthanasia advocate who hopes to help Pete Busalacchi
   take care of Christine when she is brought to Minnesota
3. Cranford calls himself, "Dr. Humane Death."

Ok.. well, maybe Dr. Schneiderman is the balance of the story? Hrm.. firing up google...

1. Dr. Lawrence Schneiderman of UC San Diego at La Jolla writes that one of the "unexpected yet undeniable" consequences of Oregon's assisted-dying law is that state's leadership in excellent and compassionate palliative care.
2. "Medical Futility" (video)

So there you have it.. two experts make it unanimous among the medical profession. Obviously, Reuters is doing a fine, fine job in balanced Journalism. Make your own decisions.

That old time Tradition

Thinking about anonymous tipster tonight. I can't really fault what he/she said.. but it kindof ties into what went wrong after the Second Vatican Council.

Notice I did not say what is wrong with it. I happen to like the council - otherwise I wouldn't have become a Catholic.

See, if the Holy Church has not changed.. then why arn't we still watching the backs of Priests. Why is there stadium seating at some churches, and alter rails at others?

It's tradition! Time to think about Fiddler on the Roof here. Remember, each of his daughters broke the tradition. Quite offended old Dad.

Turns out, if you ask someone about their religion.. the thing that sinks in the deepest and which we identify the most with is tradition. They think Easter flowers, processions, and all kinds of little acts that we perform in reverence.

Along came this Second Vatican Council. Now we've got this in the Catechism:

Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These are the particular forms, adapted to different places and times, in which the great Tradition is expressed. In the light of Tradition, these traditions can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church's Magisterium. (Catechism 83)

Pretty easy to spot what happened here. People suddenly realized that their idea of "local tradition" didn't quite line up with what everyone else thought of. Suddenly there was this giant revolution where everyone suddenly thought the church had changed.

Not so, only the window dressing so to speak.

But don't confuse tradition with essential elements of the Mass, and Tenents of the Church. Don't tell the first communion kids that group confession is valid, or that reverence is just pride. If you're not going to believe in the transubstantiaion - then follow your heart and go Protestant or something. If you want to be a married priest, then go Eastern Rite man!!

To me it seems very clear what is necessary to have a valid Mass. Why even go to church if it's not valid, anyway? Why, if you don't believe in the true Tenants of the Church - do you still call yourself Catholic? As if it's like being a New Yorker or something?

Funny, eh? Ohh well, maybe it's just me. Just let me keep our old-timey mass. You can do the liturgical dance and I'd like to kneel. Isn't that all ok?

In the famous words of a friend of ours: "Isn't it great that the Church is so diverse?" We'd just told her we were going to a Latin Mass.. at the time I thought she was being sarcastic. May be, but her words do ring true. The church is diverse, and that's a Good Thing.