Monday, May 20, 2013

Cardinal Dolan’s Report Card After Four Years on the Job - From a Local Devout Native New Yorker


"...constantly guffawing and cackling like
some backslapping, red-faced Irish ward heeler..."





Now, after 4 years of Dolan (how time flies!) I think we can say that this man's record has been an unmitigated disaster for the Faith in New York.

Incredibly, Dolan has a reputation as a "conservative" and for some bizarre reason was even touted as papabile at the Conclave. I suppose mere words are enough to get a man a good reputation in the Church these days for Dolan to be considered any sort of orthodox prelate, let alone worthy of sitting in the Chair of St. Peter.

I am unaware of anything the man has done to warrant such popularity and esteem except for constantly guffawing and cackling like some backslapping, red-faced Irish ward heeler. 

No, rather he has undermined the Faith here at every turn. As evidence:

like several previous Cardinals here, he has been enthusiastic about playing ecumenical games by going to seders and engaging in interfaith prayer services, thereby denigrating the uniqueness of our Faith and spreading indifferentism among the Faithful.

he publicly applauded the gay pride group at the openly gay parish of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan.

he scandalously invited Barack Obama to the Al Smith dinner at the same time as this baby-murdering Nero was plotting to abolish religious freedom and force the Church to offer birth control to its employees.

worst of all, except for writing a blog post and giving an interview to an Albany radio show, he did absolutely nothing to fight against the passage of gay marriage in NY State. 

When it was all over, he didn't excommunicate the politicians who voted for this abomination; he didn't even say a word about it from the pulpit.

He did, however, write a blog post in which he apologized to gays who might have been offended by the Church's position against gay marriage!

even though the Catholic school closings aren't his fault, he has come up with no alternative solution and has axed them with the alacrity of a Bolshevik Commissar.


he has never spoken out about anything of consequence, or at least not in any way that would suggest to his listeners that he expects them to do anything or that he is going to do anything about it. 

Denounce abortion? Sure, why not? Words are cheap. Refuse Communion to pro-abortion politicians or even excommunicate them? Oh my! That would be scary! What does his new evangelization look like? Fiery preaching? Public protests? Letter-writing campaigns? A renewal of Catholic devotional life? No. 

We've seen felt banners with banal slogans hung from church doors. His episcopacy has been one, long, demotivational exercise in cowardice and compromise.


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Bill Donohue at Catholic League Yells Foul on George Bush’s IRS Investigating Catholic League Tax Free Assets – Pot calling Kettle Gold


Tax Free - Pigs in Mud Cake and Eat It Too 


Bill Donohue’s unpaid intern must have quit. 

He is bitching about Obama by way of the magic “evil” name George Soros who supposedly commanded the IRS to target the Catholic League during the Bush Administration.  

Paranoia knows no bounds when Bill is desperate for a ghost writer to operate his sole office IBM Selectric typewriter and no temp in sight.  

He even now quotes links to red neck Tea Bagger Party articles with advertisements about investing in gold against the impending end of the world in America.  

The fascist article along with comments, not allowed in Donohue’s usual Catholic League fare, and along with the usual veiled racist and anti-Semitic remarks you would find in such a right wing article.



BTW – FYI

From the Catholic League’s 2011 Tax Free Filing

Tax Year 2011

Contributions  - $3,040,171

Investment Income - $558,074

Grants and Similar Amounts - $502,890

Total Net Assets - $29,386,673

Salaries - $1,288,080

List of states requiring a copy of Form 990 for filing – NY VA NJ WI CA CT MA PA MN IL 

( Not all key gay marriage states but surprisingly the year before a national election, states critical to the election of a president. )

Salaries/Comp

President Bill Donohue – $374,500 + $54,678 = $429,178

Vice President Bernadette Brady - $192,600 + $29,257 = $221,857

Leaving $637,045 salaries for people not listed on the IRS form. 

They have paid staff besides the interns and volunteer seminarians stuffing the contribution appeal letters into envelopes?

Occupancy (rent 450 Seventh Ave.) - $267,967

Other Investments and Securities –

Christian Brothers Investments - $27,712,300

United Parcel Service - $1,228,443

Covidien $3,434

Grants –

Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies zip 90089 - $400,000

Etc.


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Mayor Bloomberg of NYC – Close the Universities – Lower My Taxes – Fix My Toilet


Mike Bloomberg - Whining Mayor of NYC


Nanny / Yenta Mayor Mikey Bloomberg of the New York City wants your mediocre kids to consider skipping college and student loan debts and to become a plumber to fix his toilet.

Close the Universities. Lower my taxes. If everybody becomes a plumber, the glut in supply and demand in that profession will put a plumber’s salary at 50 cents per hour, just where a cheap chiseler like Mike Bloomberg with his 27 billion dollar (I earned it myself!) fortune thinks all low life in his city should be paid – next to nothing or nothing at all.

Just what he thinks people are worth supplying him with the necessities of life in his Beaux Arts Mansion on the upper east side? God forbid the man lower himself and live in a Colonial era wooden farmhouse aka Gracie Mansion paid for by the taxpayers, the once official mayor’s residence.

Mediocre is as mediocre does. Mike and his sheepskin from Johns Hopkins University did pretty good for a mediocre boy from NY to become one of the Masters of the Universe that now rules this planet.

All future opportunities for youth in America are now officially over! Owned by Bloomy and the Koch Brothers etc. ?

Thank God there it is only seven months until his retirement as nanny yenta mayor on January 1. No fourth term FDR MRB!

Maybe then he can retire to his plantation in some fourth world country and preach to his dozens of servants on the evils of taking / stealing Massa’s ten cents an hour salary.  Lol






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Who Really Wrote Shakespeare? Trevor Nunn and Mark Rylance Parley with Words and Ideas




My muse led me many places recently on a research trip regarding Shakespeare and his plays.

Suppose a future archeologists in five hundred years come across a DVD collection of cartoons among ruins, mostly Disney stuff, and in the beginning phase of understanding of the cartoon genre, where Snow White, Cinderella, Fantasia get lumped together with Shrek and other minor works like Popeye the Sailor and Bugs Bunny and let’s not forget Daffy Duck.

The burning questions of scholars in the future, not familiar with cartoons for hundreds of years since the collapse of civilization in the late 21st century might be – Who really wrote Disney? – this body of cartoonic art and entertainment.

That is a good question. Over time, analysis and opinion will render no definitive answer unless someone digs up a download on DVD of Wikipedia on the topic of Cinema of ancient mankind.

In a certain niche capacity for comparison, Walt Disney had over 650 credits for producer, 125 credits as actor, mostly as a voice, and 11 credits as writer.

That more than anything, Disney is manager, Disney is Producer. He is author of the finished work whether his ideas were ever actually written down on paper on in a word processor etc.

Ben Jonson in the First Folio names William Shakespeare as author of the works in that folio. For lack of a better word or understanding of the times, author is as good a word as any in a limited lexicon.

If anything I believe that Shakespeare started out holding a spear in the background of some obscure theatre of the late Elizabethan period. He also depending on his youthful build and stance played some female roles in theatre, when it was illegal for anybody but men to act upon a stage.

I think that being in a female role or a usual spear holding minor supporting role would give a young actor a unique vantage point along with a lyric ear or a good memory for an instant or long standing analysis of the best actors on stage in what he saw up close and personal both on stage and behind stage as well.

And there are the teaching moments where a good actor or manager or producer gives valuable tips on how to improve the delivery of the product.

That Shakespeare’s last will and testament does not make mention of the plays is reflected more in the lack of the concept of copyright laws equal to assets or creative abstract property, an idea that did not take hold until the Victorian age.

That if you have the experience of Bill Shakespeare, how do you leave your knowledge and experience in a will to heirs that have no use of it or understand it. That to produce and make a play, gather the actors, rent the theatre, make the costumes, hire the writer or writers, re-writers, is the person who will make the hog’s share of the money take from the box office along with credit for the whole of the production and or performance.

That and I have to think that in a time with expensive paper that much of what was in the portfolio was likely put down on paper for the first time from the oral tradition of some actors, some of whom may not have been able to read and write that well.

And over time, the memory of lines might mutate or even improve with the input of newer younger actors talking the same lines and delivering them in a way that gets reaction from an audience every time they are delivered. That and the lyric ear of an actor who may actually change and add great beauty to the existing lines and as finally recorded.

I cannot help but think how the King James Bible of the same age was a work of dozens of translators and theologians but it is packaged under the title and or authorship? of King James.

An excellent article here below citing a debate of sorts between director Trevor Nunn and actor Mark Rylance on who really wrote one part of Shakespeare.




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