Choice and Consequence

So, I read this article this morning. I didn't even finish it before I started typing up this post. This is not addressed to anyone in particular. But is aimed at Rev. Jay Scott Newman of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville, S.C. I know that different issues carry different weight with different people when it comes to picking our leaders. With that being said, this country is not a theocracy, and should not be run as one. Sure, we pick our leaders based on our beliefs, but I hope one of the most weighted beliefs we choose with is the one that tells us the person we chose will help this country thrive. I don't think our abortion laws really help us suceed or fail as a country. I think our social, economic and foreign policies have a whole lot more to do with it, than our religious leanings do. I can understand telling parishioners that they should refrain from communion if they have been directly involved in an abortion. Not because they have voted for a candidate that takes a pro-choice stance on the issue. I voted for Obama. I would be one of the first people in line to tell someone not to abort their child. There are too many other viable options. I used to say I was pro-choice. I have been through something that taught me that I wasn't. I didn't have a choice, my baby didn't have a choice, the mother had the choice. It is a long, complicated and emotional situation that I will probably never go into fully on this forum. But it taught me that I was wrong (for me to say that I was pro-choice, you are allowed your opinion on it). But, I will not choose a candidate that might run this country into the ground, based solely on their abortion views, and I would hope that the staunchest supporters of the pro-life agenda would make the same choice. Although, I know that is a pipe-dream.

So, Rev. Newman, I am here to tell you that you are an idiot for trying to alienate your parishioners because they did not vote for someone that will probably do nothing for or against abortion while they are in office. This country has too many other important issues right now. It would be stupid to be focusing on what is ultimately a personal one. Teach your congregation that there are CHOICES that do not include abortion. But don't chastise them for making a CHOICE for a leader, probably based on many more factors than how they feel about a woman's right to choose. By supporting someone else, they might have chose a candidate that is supporting a war that was unjustified in the first place (Iraq not Afghanistan) in which innocent people are being killed everyday. I only use this example to prove a point, that no matter which choice you make, the candidate is probably supporting the death of innocents for what they believe is right. So, as a Christian, a voter and a pro-life individual, I would say, it is not up to you sir, to decide whose soul is at risk. Leave that to God, he will judge us when we pass from this earth. It is up to you to guide them in the right direction. If communion is taken to prove that Jesus died for our sins and this is one of the ways that we can receive Him, then why would you stop someone from receiving Him who might be trying to atone for the sin of choosing a pro-choice advocate. Maybe they used their religion to guide them in their choice and still found that the lesser of the two evils was Obama. Now they feel they need to repent and YOU won't allow it. You may be Christ's representative, but you are not Christ, you did not die for their sins and they are not receiving you, you pompus ass. Get over yourself and do your job. Help people find God, don't turn them away from him. None of us are perfect, least of all you.

Celebrity Gossip

I find myself reading celebrity gossip at work, on lunch. Not because I care. Because, I don't. Not because it's interesting. Because, for the most part, it's the same people doing the same things over and over. It's because I'm bored and have already read all of the stories that interest me. So I go for the time filling garbage.

Since I'm a sports fanatic, hockey being my biggest passion. And, NHL free agency gets about as much press as the new Barney tour. I finish the few short blurbs about who signed where each day in a few moments. Then I move on to that huge celeb drama that is A-Rod and Madonna. Today one of Fox Sports' columnists wrote this little cutting piece about A-Rod.

I swear to God, Mark Kriegel must be a huge egomaniac to believe that he knows thought one about what's going through A-Rod's head. Don't get me wrong here. I'm am not a fan of Alex Rodriguez. I hate the Yankees (worse than I hate the Cubs, and from a Cardinals fan, that is something). And, with the money and publicity that Rodriguez generates and/or brings home, he should know that every little thing he does is going to get huge coverage. That being said, holy shit, Mr. Kriegel, what do you expect? The guy has been the next coming since high school. Everyone and their mother had him in Cooperstown before he saw his first big league pitch. He's only 33 years old and this is arguably the first big hardship he is going to have to face, as an adult.

Shit, this guy is the poster child for "not knowing who he is". Outside of baseball what has there been in his life. So, good work dectective Kriegel, you win the "Captain Obvious" prize. But, who are you to judge A-Rod!? Write another book about what someone else has done with their lives instead of living yours, asshole. Seriously, I got married at 20 and divorced at 27. I had no idea who I was until I went through my divorce and was forced to figure it out. I had never in my adult life been alone long enough to figure it out. It seems to me, that is the case with Rodriguez. I doubt he will truly know who he is until after his baseball career is over and life slows down for him enough to figure it out. Until then, this will hopefully help him figure out a little bit more, what he needs or wants out of life. Who knows? I sure don't. I'm just guessing. Maybe, he already knows and maybe he never will.

The point is, why glorify people like Jeter, who is "making his way through Maxim's Top 100" and vilify the guy standing to his right on the field for screwing up his marriage by doing, arguably, about the same thing. Neither one is really that great of a role model, unless you really think that moving from woman to woman to woman is a noble pursuit. I really don't. Although, there are plenty of worse things that someone could do. And, honestly both of them are just trying to find what makes them happy.

So, Kriegel, who cares that Madonna is past her prime and Jeter has had some younger talent. I'd be willing to bet my next meager check that you've jerked off to most of the women either one has brought home. Don't be bitter cuz you can only write about it.