- Even
the pope can't travel somewhere new in the world without offending the locals. Pope
Francis, a native of South America, hit up his home continent to start off the
week and within 48 hours, he had Ecuador's largest
indigenous association complaining that it was left off his agenda. Pope
Francis is now the target of rage from the Confederation of Indigenous
Nationalities, a group that has been at odds with President Rafael Correa for
months. The head of the organization, Jorge Herrera, said Roman Catholic Church
officials never responded directly to
the group's request to meet directly with Francis during his three days in the
country. "It seems we're not being permitted a direct voice," Herrera
said. That claim stands in direct contract to the pope’s stated mission of
outreach to indigenous people during his three-nation South American tour. The
native of Argentina has said on numerous occasions that indigenous peoples are
the most vital stewards of the environment and the group most hurt by the
ravages of deforestation and contamination by petroleum and mining industries. But
if that were true, wouldn’t he want to meet with this confederation, known by
its Spanish initials as CONAIE? The group does come across as pompous and
self-important when it demands that Francis should grant it privileged status
during his three days in Ecuador and it also ignores the fact that, though a
lector at Tuesday's papal Mass in Quito, the papal one delivered a reading in
its dominant native tongue, Quichua. CONAIE just seems to be the sort of
disagreeable group that wars with everyone and it has been at odds with nearly
every Ecuadorean government since it was founded in 1986. Ecuador's 18
indigenous groups — dominated by the Quichua to which Herrera belongs —
comprise at least a third of the country's 15 million people, but 0 percent of
the pope’s official agenda this week……….
- Any
time you start to think that professional athletes are somehow better or
different than the rest of us, remember the cautionary tale of the White Mamba.
The White Mamba is, of course, San Antonio Spurs forward Matt Bonner. Bonner is
an 11-year NBA veteran who has carved out a niche as a 6-foot-10 ice berg of a
man who cannot job and can barely run, but who has hit 41.4 percent of his
3-point shots during his career. Yet last season, he was decidedly off his
game, making just 36.5 percent of his shots from
beyond the arc as his team bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. He
battled an injury to his left (non-shooting) elbow for a two-month span from
early December to the All-Star break and yet, there was no single play or incident
on the court that seemed to cause his malady. So the question becomes how one
of the best athletes in the world snipers his elbow so badly that he loses 5
percent off his marksmanship from behind the arc. Now, we know. Bonner says
that upgrading to an iPhone 6 is the reason his elbow was hurt and blamed the
large-screen smartphone for what ailed him entering free agency. “I hate to
make excuses, I was raised to never make excuses, but I went through a
two-and-a-half month stretch where I had really bad tennis elbow, and during
that stretch it made it so painful for me to shoot I’d almost be cringing
before I even caught the ball like, ‘Oh, this is going to kill,’” Bonner said. “When
the new iPhone came out it was way bigger than the last one, and I think
because I got that new phone it was a strain to use it, you have to stretch
further to hit the buttons, and I honestly think that’s how I ended up
developing it.” Dam straight, bro. You get a new phone with buttons further
apart and you’re going to be banging the wrong spot on the screen and straining
to reach the right spot for months. The iPhone 6 gas a 4.7-inch display and the
iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5-inch display, both apparently large enough to affect an
NBAer’s effectiveness from 23 feet out……….
- You
do NOT want to deal with a group of angry polygamists. First off, you have no
way of knowing whether all of them are married to one another or who is whose
spouse, so you risk offending five different dudes if you insult just one of
the women in the group. Oh, and if they come to you seeking
more water for their remote South Dakota
compound and you dare to question their request, they take it very personally.
Enter a polygamist sect that wants to block discussion of its faith and members’
personal details during a hearing with regulators that will decide the fate of
its request. This group has some cult name value, as Seth Jeffs, brother of imprisoned
sect leader Warren Jeffs, is a key figure in the group. He and his fellow
multi-spouse-havers are represented by an attorney who argues the information on
beliefs and personal data isn't relevant to the application to the South Dakota
Water Management Board. That and so much more evidence regarding faith be
excluded will be considered before the board addresses the group's application
for more water at a hearing Thursday morning, with those on the other side of
the issue arguing that the group's raise secrecy and history concerns about how
many people live at the compound and whether more are coming. Seth Jeffs is on
record in documents submitted to the court as saying that to his knowledge
there aren't plans to bring in more people than wastewater permits allow. You
can believe him because polygamists are known for sticking to laws and rules,
so if this cult claims that they are only asking for the amount of water they
should legally be allowed to have, then give them what they want. Heck, give them
multiple water sources so they can partake from a different one every day of
the week because in case you hadn't noticed, that’s sort of their thing………
- Shaggy
is right. The auteur of 'Mr. Boombastic' and 'It
Wasn't Me' is known for his distinctly quirky singing voice that sounds like
how you’d talk if you stuck your tongue to the roof of your mouth and tried to
mimic Kermit the Frog and he has some great insights on how to fight the global
threat of terrorism. Don’t bother asking how a reggae artist whose lyrics
aren't exactly probing new philosophical ground plans to solve a problem that
heads of state in charge of the best militaries in the world because one or two
verbal salvos from Shaggy and all will become clear. "If you're able to cut a man's head off,
you're sick. But right, music evokes emotion," Shaggy said of terror
groups like ISIS. "So if they're listening to Shaggy music or reggae
music, they're not going to want to cut somebody's head off." Suggesting
that music - specifically your own - has the power to bring people together and
end the conflicts which lead to violence is a bold move, but step back and
consider the facts. People who listen to Shaggy tend to be extremely influenced
by something other than extremist beliefs, namely ganja. They’re so stoned that
carrying out senseless acts of violence against people who merely fail to
subscribe to their extremist points of view is just too much effort to make
after they roll out of bed at 2 p.m. and settle in for a breakfast of Pop Tarts
and Yoo-Hoo on their friend Steve’s basement couch. So maybe it is time to see
if we can stop the bombs by pumping a little “Mr. Boombastic” through the
world’s speakers………
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