Catholic Church and Gay Priests

Catholic Church's policy on gays isn't enlightened
By Joan Garry Wed Nov 30, 6:50 AM ET

I was raised Catholic. I never sat in a classroom without a crucifix on the
wall. Catholic grammar school, Catholic high school and Catholic college. I
sang Kumbaya while playing my guitar at Folk Mass.

I sang at my dad's funeral, too, with his barbershop chorus. The song was Be
Not Afraid. For one person in the church that dark day, the song was filled
with irony. The priest who said the Mass was under scrutiny for sexual abuse
allegations. Not long after the funeral, he was gone.

There is no question that Pope Benedict XVI has a big mess on his hands. People are calling it a sex abuse scandal, but let's be honest - it's about abuse of power.

And now we also have an element of emotional abuse as seminarians all across
the USA assess Tuesday's final mandate from the pope. When will they knock
on my door? What will they ask? What will I say?

Two months ago, it was widely reported that the Vatican would investigate all 229 U.S. seminaries for "evidence of homosexuality."

On Tuesday, the Vatican announced that it intends to bar from the seminary men who "support the so-called gay culture" or have "deeply rooted gay
tendencies." While I don't find this entire mess amusing, I did chuckle at
that one. Supporting gay culture?

The problem, as I see it, has little to do with homosexuality and a lot to do with how candidates for seminary are interviewed and selected. A book published earlier this year, Educating Leaders for Ministry, unearths a study that estimates only 10% of seminarians are highly qualified for the educational component of their work and nearly 40% are hindered by poor education, learning disabilities or lack of familiarity with American culture.

Instead of gauging public opinion, and spinning language for the announcement, why doesn't the pope analyze the interview process? If the Church insists on clinging to the celibacy vow, make it meaningful. Make sure that applicants have authentic leadership skills. Ensure that this is indeed a calling for every one of them. Make sure they understand that with power comes responsibility.

And then, after the pope fixes that process, he can focus on creating a clear, transparent and uniform set of rules that holds each of them (gay or straight, priest or bishop) accountable.

Now here's a confession. I'm not a practicing Roman Catholic, so maybe I'm a
bit jaded. But my 78-year-old mom is a practicing Catholic. She heads off to
daily Mass. I thought she might have a different point of view. She didn't.

"We all knew a lot of priests we figured were gay," my mom told me. "If they
did a good job, so what?"

She went on: "Decisions like this make the Church look worse and worse. The
whole thing gives me the willies."

I hadn't heard that expression in a long time, but it felt just right.

The pope is filling my mom and millions of others with fear about the future
of her Church. Not to mention the fear that must be palpable in each of
those 229 seminaries as they await the "verdict."

The last line of that beautiful song I sang at my dad's funeral is "and I
will give you rest."

With his new document, the pope mistakenly thinks he is putting this issue to rest. He isn't. Rather, he is choosing to foster fear and unrest.

Some gay priests (who would be exempt from the witch hunt) are already discussing moves in that direction - "outing" themselves through pulpit boycotts - to illustrate that gay priests, like gay people, are everywhere. Let's hope they find their voices and preclude the Church from making a choice that doesn't feel very Christian.

Otherwise, as they say on Survivor, the tribe will have spoken. One by one,
the flames of generous and spiritual men prepared to take a vow of celibacy
will be extinguished, and they will be voted off the island of Roman Catholicism. And the institution, not those men, will be left in the dark.

Joan Garry is a civil rights advocate, freelance writer and former executive
director of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

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Above, we have an essay by Joan Garry and next, the official
church rulings by the Pope on Tuesday. Being Episopalian (we have Catholic roots
as you may know, and some Episcopal churches [the ones going 'high mass' in their
practices] ae almost 'more Catholic' than the Catholic churches), I watch all this
with much amazement; a couple of my Catholic friends have discussed the 'problem'
with me [of sexual misbehavior by priests] and in their mortification have asked why it had to happen 'to their church'. I tell them it is not just Catholics, but in fact Protestants have the very same problem, with sexually misbehaving ministers. I tell them the difference comes in the way you Catholics place such reverence upon your priests. To your way of thinking, he is a Holy Man of God and all that. And that
is how you deal with it. There are probably _three or four times_ as many Protestant ministers who have 'acted out' inappropriatly over the years as there have been priests in that category. The difference is, most Protestants don't give a damn about their pastor in this way.

_If_ a protestant pastor is caught in this kind of situation, believe me you, there will be a meeting of the Trustees, the Board of Directors, the Elders or whatever they are called _that very day_ and their *employee*, the pastor will be out -- on his Ass! -- the same day. They'll try to keep it hushed up; (and after all, the pastor will _hardly_ be in a position to complain about it) and hopefully the incident will not become all that well known so as to not stink up the place too badly or affect the offering plate. They'll probably give him a chance to tender a resignation, effective immediatly 'for personal reasons' and go about finding a new pastor to fill his role. And if the pastor _does_ refuse to resign (the poor fool!) then the Trustees will offer to 'go public', get the police involved and all that. Any further discussion of the matter will never leave that room. That is how the Protestants generally handle that situation, same as Boy Scouts, same as school teachers, etc. If the indiscretion was so severe that police got in on it at some point and the Trustees cannot do damage control beforehand (i.e. Dennis Rader and the Christ Lutheran Church in Wichita) then they deal with it as best they can. The protestants do not keep the mis-behavior ones on the payroll, as the Catholics have done for God knows how many years. So after years and years of it all building up in the Roman Church, its no wonder it finally all split apart and flooded out at one time as it has done for a few years now. We have had _much_ more of it, but ours is 'spaced apart' differently, one by one as they are found out.

Something about pedophiles causes them to seek out employment where they can be in control over the children in their midst, be it school teacher, scout master, pastor, whichever.

We Episcopalians like to say 'we are much better' and in fact, if _homopobia_ is left out the equation, where no secrets are hidden, then things do seem to work better. We have at least one Bishop who is gay and makes no bones about it, and a few priests. We also have some 'closet cases' (men whose homosexual inclination is kept a secret) and if anyone is likely to get in trouble, it would be those 'closet cases'. Our priests can be in a marriage relationship if they wish (homo or hetero).

Now, let's turn our attention to what the Pope had to say on Tuesday. Like so many, he confuses _homosexuality_ with _child rape_ an entirely different subject. It is _NOT_ true -- a damnable lie, actually -- that gay men 'tend to be' child molestors.

Anyway, here is a summary of the Pope's thoughts:

---------------------------------------------------------------------

November 30, 2005

Directive Banning Gay Priests Is Released by Vatican
By IAN FISHER

VATICAN CITY, Nov. 29 - The Vatican officially issued a new document today
that strongly reinforces its ban on ordaining homosexuals as priests, and a
cardinal, making the church's first public comment on the decree, rejected
criticism that it is discriminatory.

"It's not discrimination, for example, if one does not admit a person who
suffers from vertigo to a school for astronauts," the cardinal, Zenon
Grocholewski, head of the Congregation for Catholic Education, the Vatican
department that issued the directive, said in an interview broadcast on
Vatican Radio.

The document's official release ended months of piecemeal leaks on one of
the most sensitive issues facing the church. Last week, a copy of the entire
directive was posted on an Italian Web site, sparking debate especially
among American Catholics about how restrictive the church meant to be and
how the rules would be applied in practice.

It was officially published today in two forms, as a booklet that ran for
seven pages, in the English translation with footnotes, and in the official
Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

The newspaper also published a much longer commentary by Tony Anatrella, a
French Jesuit and psychologist, who repeated the church's long-held
condemnation of homosexuality both in the priesthood and in the wider
culture. Generally, he said, homosexuality "presented a destabilizing
reality for people and for society."

"During these past years, homosexuality has become a phenomenon that is
always increasingly worrying and in many countries is considered a quality
that is normal," he wrote. He said that homosexuality was a "sexual tendency
and not an identity."

According to the text of the document itself, the church will not admit to a
seminary nor ordain "those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated
homosexual tendencies or support the so-called `gay culture.' "

Only candidates who had experienced "homosexual tendencies" that were
"transitory" will be ordained, the directive said, provided such tendencies
had been "overcome" three years before ordination as a deacon, a step on the
path to full ordination as a priest.

But the document did not provide definitions of terms like "tendencies,"
"deep-seated" or "overcome," though Cardinal Grocholewski gave several
specific instances of homosexuality that could be considered "transitory"
and thus possibly acceptable.

"For example, some curiosity during adolescence, or accidental circumstances
in a state of drunkenness, or particular circumstances, like someone who was
in prison for many years," he said in the Vatican Radio interview.

Advance reports of the new instructions pleased many conservative Catholics,
who say that church teaching on homosexuality needs to be restated and
enforced. But many liberals, who say that celibacy rather than sexual
orientation ought to determine eligibility for the priesthood, have been
equally critical.

A central question is whether the new rules will allow the ordination of a
man who is celibate but believes his basic sexual orientation to be
homosexual.

The new instructions do not apply to priests already ordained, though some
liberal Catholics predicted resignations in protest by some priests who
consider themselves gay.

Though the general content of the document has been widely known for some
time, many local church officials withheld comment until today, when the
official version was issued.

The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop
William S. Skylstad of Spokane, issued a statement calling the new policy a
"timely document" in an era when homosexuality and gay marriage are so
widely discussed.

He said it was a "valid concern" for the church to seek priests who are
chaste, mature and "can faithfully represent the teaching of the church
about sexuality, including the immorality of homosexual genital activity."

Bishop Skylstad said that for people who wonder whether "homosexually
inclined" men can be good priests, the answer is yes. In the future, he
said, a man could be considered for the priesthood "if homosexual tendencies
are indicative of a passing problem in the candidate's life."

He called on bishops, major superiors, seminary rectors, priests and
seminarians in the United States to discuss the new instructions thoroughly.

In an effort to stir resistance to the Vatican directive, the National Gay
and Lesbian Task Force, based in Washington D.C., called on closeted gay
priests to go public and "denounce this affront to their faith, vocation and
dignity." It said that heterosexual priests, bishops and parishioners should
stand up for gay priests.

Laurie Goodstein contributed reporting from New York for this article.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

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Werner/Manzie - The Tragic Results of Being in the Closet

This article came to my attention when I was recently investigating the 1997 murder in New Jersey of the 11-year old boy by the 15-year old. It appeared in the newspaper in Asbury Park NJ in the middle of the trial which went on during 1998.

Updated 5/29/98

I frankly wish I did not even have to discuss this tragic incident, but it
is in the news and it is happening now. I won't go into all the details but will give
links for more information for those that are not informed as to what happened. But
this is a perfect example of what can happen and what does happen when a society
tries to enforce it's will without consideration of the ramifications of it's
actions.

One of the results of the Megan law which the congress recently passed was
that all convicted pedophiles and sexual offenders around the country were
required to register with the police. Each state was to enact their own versions of this law, all for the purpose of protecting the innocent public and especially innocent children.

This is all well and good, but New Jersey went further, it required that
psychologist and social workers should report any instances of child abuse to them,
regardless of whether this broke patient confidentiality.

In September of this past year, the papers were publishing the story of a
missing 11 year old student, Eddie Werner, that had disappeared while selling
wrapping paper for a school fund raising event in his own neighborhood. Later the
papers reported that the boy's strangled body had been found in woods near his home.

The following day, they reported that a 15 year old boy, Sam Maznzie, also
from the neighborhood had been arrested for his murder.

Then the story started to unravel and it turned out to be one of the most
blatant cases of ineptitude on the part of government officials. It seems that the
14 year old Sam Manzie was a gay youth trying to come to terms with his sexuality.
Not knowing anyone, he got unto an adult discussion forum on AOL and got into conversations with among no other a Mr. Simmons. He made arrangements to meet
this Mr. Simmons for sexual purposes. Mr. Simmons, it was later revealed was
a convicted pedophile. When Sam Manzies parents found out about the contacts
between their son and the man, they tried to have them break it off. At this
point Sam's only contact with the gay world was this pedophile. He became more and
more rebellious towards his parents. So they carried him to a psychologist
for counselling. Sam admitted his sexual liaisons with the pedophile to the
therapist, who then went to the authorities as required by the law.

This then brought in the authorities from three different jurisdictions to
interrogate and convince Sam and his family to cooperate in a sting operation to catch Simmons. Mind you this involved three different groups grilling Sam Manzie
over and over about his most intimate relations with this pedophile. Is it any
wonder that Sam became convinced he was as guilty as the pedophile. Over a period
of a month or so they had his computer and phones taped and recorded each and
every conversation and contact, all for the purpose of allowing the authorities to
gather enough evidence for a prosecution.

Meanwhile Sam was being torn between his sexual (other?) feeling towards
Simmons, the only one with which he had ever been intimate, and what was
being demanded of him by the authorities. It was said that they seized his hard
drive at one point to get his intimate correspondence he had made with Simmons and
also ponography he had collected off the Internet. But Sam eventaully snapped,
he destroyed their monitoring equipment, and called Simmons to warn him of the
authorities. The authorities then seized Sam's computer, his only contact
with the outside world and disconnected his telephone line so that he would not be
able to contact Simmons again. Sam became ever more violent with his parents, so
they had him institutionalized for evaluation. The doctors said he needed to be
treated, but the Manzies could not come up with their own funds and the law required
a hearing for him to be committed. He was brought to a Judge that evidently
knew nothing of the case, and a case worker, that only visited him once before
the hearing, recommend that he be sent home. The Manzies not knowing the system,
did not bring any information from the other Doctors that had been treating their
son. Instead of sympathy and understanding from the Judge they got a lecture
about them being responsible for their son, and the Judge even asked Sam
himself if he was sick. Copies of this whole proceeding are available for reading.

The Judge then refused to put Sam in an Institution and sent him home with his
parents. The parents said they thought that their son was getting better, as he seemed calm before the tragedy happened. They had a previous scheduled Group Tour to
Atlantic City which is how they made extra income. They said that they planned on
his trip to help them get additional medical help for their son. They left him home
all day with his sister. But she had to leave for 4 hours.

It was during this time that young Werner came to Manzie's door selling paper.

He was invited in, and what happened has not been relayed in detail. But apparently
he was knocked unconscious and sexually assaulted by Manzie, and at some point
Manzie strangled the young boy. He hid his body for a day or two in a case,
and carried the body outside across the street under the cover of darkness where
the authorities found it the next day.

Here was a double tragedy, a young 11 year old boy dead, bu why? Would Manzie
have ever done this, if the authorities had not been pressuring him to cooperate?

Their whole approach in using Manzie was as if he was as guilty as the
pedophile Simmons. And Simmons had been prosecuted and jailed before, and was not a
U.S. citizen. What was he still doing the the U.S.? Had the Judge done his
job correctly Manzie would have been receiving the treatment that he needed before
that tragedy happened not after.

The aftermath, shows even more why our system is broken. The prosecutor has now
(in 1998) said that he intends to try Manzie as an Adult for murder, which could
keep him in prison for life. The prosecutor was just elected to office two weeks
before the murder, running on a platform of being tougher on Juvenile Crime. This
same prosecutor's office is one of the authorities that has since convicted Simmons and used Manzie for their own purposes. (Note from PT : Now, seven years later, the system runs the very same way.) Meanwhile Manzie is suicidal, he would gladly kill himself if given the opportunity.

He is on medication, and may never be able to fit into society again. The
people in New Jersey are up in arms against Manzie, not the authorities that caused
this murder. They are holding a very sick kid responsible for being the monster
that they created.

The latest hypocritical developments is that even though the Werner family has been pubically calling for the prosecution of Manzie as an Adult. They are now talking about possibly suing the authorities at some point for having caused this whole
tragedy. (Note from PT: In fact, the Werners did file suit against the Mainze parents and others; they later dropped their suit.) The Judge has postponed the hearing to determine if Manzie will be tried as an Adult until March, at which time the defense hopes it will able to present testimony on Manzie's insanity.

This whole tragic story really makes me sick and mad from beginning to end,
there is homophobia all over the actions of the authorities, there is vengeance
all over the motives of the public and the Werner family. Meanwhile we wait to see if
this gay kid will be another physical victim of this tragedy. When will
compassion and understanding be a part of our government? This is mindless and senseless. The greatest benefit I've gained from this is having meet a few very caring individuals that completely understand what it's all about. Even a Doctor in Russia, has come forward with his moral support for the Manzie family.

Most recently the impatient District Attorney has asked the Judge to set a
date for hearing on whether or not young Manzie will be tried as an Adult or
Juvenile. The results of this is that Manzie will be tried as an Adult. Because according to his attorney he can not be rehabilited by the time he reaches the age of 19, he is too ill. This is a requirement of New Jersey law. Another example of justice being corrupted in the name of vengence. The laywers hope to prove the kid was insane at the time of the crime.

Well the lastest is that young Manzie will be tried as an Adult because the laywers said they could not guarantee that he could be rehabilitated by the time he is 19.

Now what kind of logic is behind that law, if any? Manzie has also be moved to an
adult facility for unstated reasons. The lawyer has refuted the charges that
Manzie groped a 13 year old boy while in the Juvenile facility as a total lie. And
it appears that the next court hearing will be in August.

I've put some links below for those that wish to read more about it. One
which I would suggest is the essay that young Manzie wrote on Friendship while in
Catholic school. This is why our young people need a caring and educated process in
order to safely come out of their closets. When they are left on their own and
have to turn to pedophiles to learn who they are, we can expect tragedies like these
to occur again. Our schools allow harassment and homophobia to run rampant all
over this country. Until all of our kids are safe to be who they are, no kid
in this country can said to be truly safe. As our society is becoming more open
about homosexuality, there will be more kids coming out. And these issues will be
seeing more and more attention. One solution which I recommend is an organization called GLSEN, for Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

It was set up to combat homophobia in the schools and to help provide educational
information to the various school systems around the country. Unfortunately it is
not every where yet, but it is growing, and where it has started it's work
it has been very successful. Your comments on this subject are welcome.

With the above article, I did not find the links referred to but if you use Google search under "werner manzie" you should find more details. It was quite a controversial news item when the murder occurred in 1997 and throughout 1998.

John Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby

This item appeared in TELECOM Digeston Sunday, November 27:

Just as a historical note, it was forty-two years ago this weekend(Thanksgiving weekend, 1963) that President Kennedy was gunned downin a motorcade in Dallas, TX. Dallas police almost immediatly thereafter(a matter of an hour or so) arrested Lee Harvey Oswald and charged him with the crime. If you were alive, I am sure you may remember what youwere doing when you saw it happen on television or heard about it. I had been working as a volunteer for the Chicago Public Library and had prepared (with some helpers) a documentary and 'virtual tour' ofthe library's programs and facilities. (In those days they were located at Randolph Street and Michigan Blvd. downtown.) Our documentary film had been set to air on Sunday morning onChannel 9 WGN-TV at 11:00 AM the week before, but in those earlier days of commercial TV, things did not always work as they should and the stations would now and then go off the air for repairs, etc. That is what happened that week, and the fellow I worked with at WGN-TV said 'do not worry that they were off the air that day for some unscheduled maintainence; what we will do is move all the programs scheduled for today (including my documentary on the Library) up tonext Sunday, at the same time'. Well, we know what happened the next Sunday ...

Actually, Friday about 11:00 AM at the moment of his assassination, Iwas enjoying a brunch with some friends; the television was on andsome game show (I forget which one) was on the air; one of those games where you spin a wheel and get whatever prize is associated with theplace where the wheel stops. I do recall that Bob Barker was the host. It played idly in the background, while we chatted and ate. It had been on the air a few minutes and was interuppted by a news bulletin saying that 'shots had been fired in a motorcade in Dallas;they were not sure if anyone was hurt or not.' Back to the gameshow. Then within a minute or so, a second bulletin came across;indeed, 'someone' had been shot; they were trying to get all the details; it might have been the president. Back to the game show. A minute or two later, another news bulletin; shots _had_ been fired, apparently President Kennedy had been hit, the motorcade had been suspended and he was being taken to the Parkland Hospital inDallas. Back to the game show for all of thirty or forty seconds, then a final interupption in the day's events: it was true, Kennedy hadbeen shot, was rushed to the hospital, police were looking for the guy who did it, and the news department there at CBS would now takeover. By that point, we were all giving our attention to the TV set.

All television and radio stations began total coverage of the events in Dallas; all the talking heads were chattering non-stop all that dayand night, plus _all day_ on Saturday. People were in quite a state ofshock, to say the least. We saw the airplane coming back from Dallas with the president's body, and all the official mourning by his wife and his child, etc. By Saturday night, the talking heads had more or less run out of things to chatter about (after about 36 hoursnon-stop) and the television stations changed to the scene at the USCapitol where Kennedy's body was laying in state, and just focused on that for the rest of the Saturday overnight hours, playing somber music, and watching the crowds of people passing by to look at him and pay their respects.

I got a phone call from the program producer at WGN-TV saying their intention was to go back onto 'regular programming' early Sundaymorning. (In those days at least, television stations usually signedoff the air about midnight or 1:00 a.m. then returned to the air atwhatever time their morning shows went on, typically 6:00 or 7:00 AM,as did most radio stations; no laws about it; just not enough overnight listeners/viewers to make it worthwhile. I think WGN-TV wasthe first among them to go to 24/7 programs, maybe in late 1970's, andwhere it was customary for stations to sign on and sign off with their'official, FCC-mandated announcements' [and usually play the national anthem at opening and closing time each day] once WGN-TV went 24/7sometime in the late 1970's they began making their FCC-mandated announcements just once daily, along with the national anthem, at 5 AM most days; 8 AM on Sundays; 8 AM being the time on Sunday they started their 'broadcast day'.) So, said the producer, be sure to tell everyone to tune in tomorrow morning, your documentary program will be on as planned, although one week late.

Sure enough, Sunday morning at 11 AM we got together for another brunch and had the television tuned in on Channel 9. And, we got onthe air just as announced. For all of about two minutes, until 11:02 or 11:03 AM, then we were cut off by another news bulletin: "As you know, a Mister Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in the shooting ofPresident Kennedy" (by the tone of their voice we knew that the person making the announcement knew little or nothing about Oswald) "and Mister Oswald is going to be transferred from the Dallas City Jail to the county jail or perhaps into FBI custody. We are going to switch to our affiliate station in Dallas; our staff of reporters there want to know more about why he did this." Immediatly the picture changed to the lobby of the Dallas City Jail where a number of people were crowding around. The reporter, all excited, said "oh look, here hecomes now, they are leading him down the hallway to where the policecar is waiting to take him to jail; I sure hope we can ask him aboutthis." Crowds of people pushing around, reporter walks up to Oswald eagerly and starts asking him "oh, Mr. Oswald, what did you do this for?" or some words to that effect, as we see Oswald close up facingthe camera, possibly he is going to explain if he did it or not and ifso, why. But Oswald did not get a chance to answer; at that same instant, Jack Ruby appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, we see himangrily confront Oswald and everyone in the nation who was watching itas it happened on TV saw Ruby stick that gun in Oswald's side and say,"You rotten son of a bitch! You killed the president, now I am goingto kill you!" Bang ... Police officers grabbed Ruby, took away his gunand took him into custody. Ruby did not resist at all; he was proud ofwhat he had done; wanted everyone to see his work. Oswald fell over dead on the spot.

Ruby, a nightclub/restaurant owner in Dallas was there ostensibly with coffee and sandwiches for the police officers,which is why he was allowed to move freely about the jail. In those days, those times, things were _a lot_ different than today. Needless to say, our documentary show never did get back on the air,that day, or any other day. The entire day was taken over at that point by the talking heads of news, who for several hundred times, roughly every two or three minutes ("in case you missed it when it aired") kept showing over and over and over and over, that movie ofJack Ruby killing Oswald. But other than the original showing, laterviewers only got to see Jack Ruby's angry, contorted face and his lips moving angrily but _silently_ (out of respect I guess to FCCsensibilities at that time, they blitzed his voice out) and Oswaldfalling over dead. Smart lip readers probably figured it out. All the stations were still showing that Ruby/Oswald clip at midnight orwhenever they signed off for the day.There have been numerous theories about _why_ Kennedy was shot, and if indeed Oswald _was_ the shooter or not. Many people claim he was notguilty, and have various ideas about the rationale. Some contend thatRuby was used to silence Oswald. My documentary movie about theChicago Public Library never did get aired. PAT

A correction was submitted by a reader in the Monday issue of the Digest: The shooting was on the Friday before Thanksgiving ( a week, or six days earlier) and the time of day was at 12:30 PM central time zone. That's what I get in my old age, trying to remember events from more than 40 years earlier.

Brave, Courageous Police Officers Still Doing Their Thing

Even though the high court has told police (my generic term for those with authority over our lives), police persist in persecuting this young man who had the audacity to engage in a homosexual act with another guy. Police were understandably furious that their word on all subjects was not taken as gospel. But things got a little tight, so police had to release this guy as the story below will explain, and it is summarized under the link:

http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/10/102805limon.htm

GAY TEEN STILL BEHIND BARS DESPITE HIGH COURT RULINGby The Associated Press Posted: October 28, 2005 8:00 am ET (Topeka, Kansas) Matthew Limon, whose case resulted in the Kansas Supreme Court declaring the state can't punish underage sex more harshly if it involves gays, may soon be released from prison, his attorney said late Thursday night. Paige Nichols said the state's highest court Thursday issued its final order in the case at the request of the state and defense attorneys. (story) Normally, the court waits 20 days, but doing it now clears the way for Nichols to ask Miami County District Judge Richard Smith to consider releasing Limon. Limon has been in prison since 2000, serving a sentence of 17 years and two months for performing a sex act on a 14-year-old boy. Had one of them been a girl, Limon, then 18, would have faced only 15 months behind bars under a special "Romeo and Juliet" law allowing lighter punishment for teenage sex. "We are eager to get him out as soon as we can since we feel he has been there a lot longer than he should have been," Nichols said. "He's very excited and still in a state of disbelief." As for when the judge might consider the request, Nichols said, "We would love to see it happen before the end of the week, but it still could be early next week." Nichols said she wants Limon released from the Ellsworth Correctional Facility pending any further action by the state. She was optimistic the judge, who presided over Limon's trial, will grant the request because the state isn't opposing it. Nichols said she didn't know whether the matter will require a court appearance in Miami County or can be handled by a conference call. Last Friday, the court unanimously ruled Limon must be resentenced as though the law treated illegal gay sex and illegal straight sex the same. Striking the offending language from the law, the court said the different treatment violated Limon's equal protection rights. At the time, Attorney General Phill Kline said he didn't plan to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. He has repeatedly described Limon as a predator because his criminal record already contained two similar offenses. Even if Miami County Attorney David Miller decides to charge Limon anew, he's already served longer than the maximum sentence allowed under the Romeo and Juliet law. The case has been watched by national groups on both sides of the issue, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which handled his case before the high court. Both Limon and the other boy, identified only as M.A.R. in court documents, lived at a Paola group home for the developmentally disabled. In court, an official described M.A.R. as mildly retarded and Limon as functioning at a slightly higher level but not as an 18-year-old. Limon's attorneys described the relationship with the younger boy in 2000 as consensual and suggested they were adolescents experimenting with sex. Kline says Limon exploited the other boy. Kansas law makes any sexual activity involving a person under 16 illegal. The 1999 Romeo and Juliet law mandates lesser penalties for illegal sex when partners are age 14 to 19 and their ages are less than four years apart. As written, it specifically applied in cases where the partners were of the opposite sex.

=======================================


But not to be scorned or thwarted, police did let him out of prison then promptly re-arrested him for the very same charge, although they had to call it something different. You know, its that god-damned USA constitution getting in the way with complaints about double jeopardy and all that. This second story from November 18 explains how they managed that:

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon05/11/111805limon.htm

MATTHEW LIMON RE-ARRESTED by The Associated Press

Posted: November 18, 2005 5:00 pm ET (Topeka, Kansas) Matthew R. Limon, whose case resulted in the Kansas Supreme Court saying the state can't punish underage sex more harshly if it involves gays, will be back in court next week on a new charge in the same case. Miami County Attorney David Miller said he filed a charge Friday of unlawful voluntary sexual relations against Limon in the case that resulted in the high court's ruling last month. His first appearance is Wednesday morning before District Judge Richard Smith in Paola. Miller said his goal is for Limon to be put on parole for up to five years, not to send him back to prison. In 2000, Limon, then 18, was sentenced to 17 years in prison on a charge of criminal sodomy for performing a sex act on a 14-year-old boy at a Paola group home for the developmentally disabled. Had one of them been a girl, Limon could have faced only 15 months under the state's "Romeo and Juliet" law allowing lighter punishment for teenage sex when the partners are of the opposite sex. In its ruling, the Supreme Court ordered Limon resentenced as if the law treated illegal gay sex and illegal straight sex the same. It also struck the language from the law that resulted in the different treatment. Because Limon had already served more than four years in prison, he doesn't have to serve any more prison time. But Miller wants Limon to be under the supervision of the Department of Corrections supervision, and he said, "That couldn't happen unless he was recharged and went through the judicial process." The prosecutor said he didn't know if the case will go to trial or whether a plea agreement might be struck. "I can't comment on what future plea negotiations might be," Miller said. Paul Cates, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union which represents Limon, said what the prosecutor was doing isn't right. "We're fine with him being recharged under Romeo and Juliet, but it seems like the prosecutor is trying to extend the supervision," Cates said. "This is for somebody who has served four-and-a-half years in prison for a consensual sex act." On Nov. 3, the judge ordered Limon released from Ellsworth prison until the state decided its next move. A condition of that release was that Limon be placed under house arrest, limiting his ability to leave the home of his aunt and uncle in western Kansas. He also is barred from having contact with minors, cannot use alcohol and drugs, and must undergo sex offender counseling. The house arrest is due to expire Nov. 26, but Miller said he will ask Wednesday for that to be extended with the same conditions. During Limon's trial, an official described the other boy, identified only as M.A.R. in court documents, as mildly retarded and Limon as functioning at a slightly higher level but not as an 18-year-old. Defense attorneys said the relationship with the younger boy was consensual and suggested they were adolescents experimenting with sex. Attorney General Phill Kline's office repeatedly described Limon as a predator, noting he had two similar, previous offenses on his criminal record. On Wednesday, Kline said he wouldn't appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Kansas Court of Appeals rejected Limon's appeal in 2002. The next year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that criminalized gay sex and returned Limon's case to the state. Last year, the appeals court again sided with the state, and Limon appealed to the state Supreme Court.

==============================

God damn police! These Brave and Courageous Police Officers have nothing better to do than continue their harrassment of gay men. They are so fucking ignorant and bigotted it never ceases to amaze me. But what really amazes me are the gay men who take employment as police officers. Why would any gay person want to associate himself with our enemies in that way is beyond me. Considering how police have persecuted us and harmed us over the years, I cannot imagine anyone wanting anything to do with them.

If police would simply go back to their old habits of the 1950-60's where gay men were routinely arrested and placed in insane asylums, or perhaps given lobotomies then it would be quite obvious where their heads were at. But everytime the Supreme Court tosses some bone at the gay community police only proceed to get nastier.

One reason why Dennis Rader, serial killer extraordinary, ran amok on the streets of Wichita, KS for thirty five years undetected was because Brave and Courageous Police Officers were busy raiding gay bars in Wichita and hassling gay guys.

Ditto for John Wayne Gacy (gay serial killer of young boys in Chicago in the 1970-80's)
Larry Eyler (another gay serial killer in Chicago in the 1980's), and that third one, who lived in Milwaukee but commuted to Chicago to find his meals (the cannibal, his name escapes me right now) got away for as long as they did -- years and years and years -- was because police were too gad damned busy raiding gay bars in Chicago and Milwaukee.

Yet, if someone suggests -- and they have -- that police be treated to a dose of their
own medicine, invariably that person will be called a 'terrorist' and the fine men with guns strapped to their sides will come and get that one as well.

God damn the police.

Tis the season to be jolly (almost)

Fa, la, la, la, la and all that rot! Not only is it the season of the year
when suicides and homicides are at their higest level than any other time
of the year, it will soon be the time when fraud runs rampant. People who
work in credit departments will tell you that the week before Christmas
including Christmas Eve are the worst times of the year for fraud.

For several years in the 1960's and 1970's I was employed by the Amoco
Oil Company in its central credit card operation in downtown Chicago.
My grandfather had helped me get this job; his immediate supervisor
was the superintendent at Whiting Refinery, and by virtue of that
position also an Amoco/Standard Oil Vice President of refinery
operations. That same man had 'gotten me on' at University of
Chicago as a telephone operator when I was a junior in high school.

Most of that time was spent in the Sales Authorization Department,
which is another name for the part of the credit department which
approves (or not) credit card sales 'at the point of purchase'. In
those days, 35-40 years ago, originally there were no computers to
help us; -- there were the large mainframes in our 'computer
department' but no desktop individual computers; they did not exist --
then we eventually got computers but approvals or declines were given
by voice authorization. Of necessity, because of the huge volume of
calls received (typically several hundred calls per hour, distributed
to all clerks in that department via an ACD (or Automatic Call
Distributor) there were 'floor limits' in effect for the various
merchants. As an audit trail regards who said what, 'approval codes'
were recited over the telephone in this way, "okay (code number)" and
the merchant wrote down this number on the paper charge ticket which
served as his proof that he _did_ call it in and get it approved.
For example, "OK 67H3CPT" meant that some clerk named 'PT' had okayed
transaction '67H3C' on that day.

Prior to any computers at all -- except the mainframes -- (early to
mid-1960's) we worked from large bound volumes of books -- computer
'print outs' of about a thousand pages each with thirty or forty
entries; 30-40 entries per page, a thousand pages per book, about 40
books in total on shelves. As we walked around the room wearing
telephone operator-style headsets with very long cords on them, we
would go to the account number desired (the books were arranged in
numerical order, after a bit of experience you knew that a given
account would be found in volume 37, and approximatly what page it was
on therein) so you would walk over there, flip open the book, examine
other penciled in entries [amounts of previous sales since the book
was last updated], the 'credit limit' and any other notes handwritten
there by your co-workers. That gave you a rough idea of what the
customer's current balance [including any pencilled in entries] was,
and what it would be if the sale in question was approved. Thirty or
forty clerks, on their feet all day, all climbing over and around each
other to check books and note balances, etc. Needless to say,
excellent body hygiene was important, but not always observed. Suffice
to say, we by and large 'trusted' the customers to not go over their
credit limit; those were simpler times and simpler customers, not as
sophisicated in fraud as many are today. When a customer did go over
his limit, or was delinquent, then of course you did not approve the
sale, and told him why if you were asked.

Merchants had varying 'floor limits' also. For most merchants, some
minimum dollar amount did not have to be called in; jewelry stores
had to call in _all_ sales; gasoline stations did not have to call in
anything under ten dollars or so. It really depended on the commodity
being sold. Merchants got a mimeographed 'hot sheet' from our office
on a weekly basis; they always had to check this 'hot sheet' prior to
any sale, as this told them what cards were always invalid at all
times; customers who had gone way over limit with small sales under
the floor limits; instances of fraud, etc. The only time this did not
apply was when our phone lines got so backed up with calls waiting,
then the department supervisor would announce 'floor limit is raised
to X dollars' and that was understood to mean we did not have to
check the print outs for anything under that dollar amount; just
pronounce an approval code based on a 'manual' formula.

Then one day we all got personal desktop terminals, and the printout
books were gone. Now just sit there and type in the account number
given and the computer would respond automatically: If the account was
good, 'OK (code)' or if the account was bad: 'Declined'. If the
computer could not reach a decision on its own, then the response
would be 'review' and the customer's history for the past 5-6 months
put on display. For those accounts marked 'review' then we who worked
there had to look at the display and reach a decision and give the
approval code or the decline. It made our work much easier. At the
same time, changes in the floor limits due to phone line congestion
became less necessary. But there was no such thing as in later years
where cards were 'swiped' or automatically entered by the cash
register, etc. For the merchants it was still a totally manual
operation. For us in the office however, no more needing to try and
decipher someone else's illegible scribbles in the margin of the
print outs, no more climbing over or around a co-worker to find a
volume of account numbers in a missing print out book. This would
have been about 1968 I think when we each got a desktop terminal.

And it was 1967-68 when Amoco inherited Diner's Club temporarily.
Diners had always been located in New York City, on Columbus Circle.
Founded by Alfred Bloomingdale, in the late 1940's and early 1950's,
Diners Club was _originally_ the credit department of Bloomingdale's
store in New York City. About 1952 or so, Bloomingdale's decided to
'spin off' Diners Club into its own thing. (Recall for example how
the Southern Pacific Railroad decided to 'spin off' its
telecommunications department into a new entity 'Sprint'.) The very
same thing happened with Bloomingdale's Department Store and its new
entity Diners Club. Alfred Bloomingdale owned the department store
of the same name and he also owned Diners Club. Like Amoco, Diners
was also completely a manual operation for the first several years,
but unlike Amoco, Diner's ran into some severe problems, both in
their billing practices and their merchant payment practices. It got
to be so bad for Diners that they were losing many merchants and
many customers. About 1965, Diner's sent a letter to all merchants
saying they were sorry for being so screwed up and they were going to
try harder. By 1967-68, the VietNam era of anti-everything Diner's
Club and Amoco Credit Card Center had at least one thing in common;
they both were hell holes to work at, with some _very strange_
people -- a majority of whom were racially diverse -- each were 24
hour per day/seven day per week operations, at least in the Operations
Departments if not the 'customer service' area, both Diners and Amoco
had a large number of thieves among their own employees and labor
disputes among the workers, etc, particularly among the racially
diverse young ladies of whom both Diners and Amoco Credit Card were
full of.

After a particularly notorious incident in New York City, where Diners
management had planned secretly to close their office and move to
Denver, CO (at Denver Tech Center) and several hundred of their
employees -- suspecting the worst -- on the Wednesday before Thanks-
giving that year chose to _riot_ (police had to be called to vacate
the offices) and _take hostages_ from the mysterious place called
the 'computer room' three floors above (the rioters barricaded
themselves in the computer room, took their hostages, and proceeded
to throw three reels of tape (as yet un-backed up customer receivables)
out the window down to Columbus Circle several floors down, shredding
the tape as they tossed it out the window, Diners was about to call
it quits totally. Alfred Bloomingdale and other Diners executives
were out on Columbus Circle trying to gather up the shreds of computer
tape while police were herding the employees out. It sort of reminds
one of the stink at Norvergence on closing day when no one had gotten
paid ... remember that one?

But Diners _had_ paid everyone; no one had gotten cheated, in fact
they even got their Thanksgiving Day turkeys this Wednesday before the
start of the American-traditional four day Thanksgiving weekend. (Most
companies give Thursday and Friday, plus the weekend.) But Diners
'forgot to mention' until as they were handing out the turkeys to
everyone, "have a great four day weekend, but don't bother coming back
on Monday, cause we won't be here, we are relocating to Denver, CO."
And they did not bother to say what it is generally presumed management
was thinking: Salaries in Denver (in 1968 still a mostly rural small
town) will be a lot less; the work ethic will be a lot better; instead
of a lot of high-priced lazy anti-VietNam radicals who work in an
incompetent way when they feel like it, we will inherit in Denver many
housewives and 'regular' people who will love their jobs and work for
far less than you city people and not only that, but _they_ will all
be _white_. The employees responded by wrecking the whole office
until the police arrived to crack open some heads, etc.

Amoco observed it all ... and had been thinking for some time how they
would prefer to move somewhere else other than Chicago -- Des Moines,
Iowa perhaps -- for the same reason that Diners wanted out of New York
City in the middle 60's, but Amoco knew better than to just pack up
and sneak out of town in the middle of a holiday weekend, so when in
1972 _they_ decided to move to Des Moines, they gave their employees a
full _two year notice_ of their intentions, so as not to have a repeat
of the Diner's Club situation. And a couple months, or billing cycles
later, when Diners got the rude awakening of what they had lost in New
York -- they wound up writing off slightly over two million dollars in
credit card receiveables for which merchants had been paid but
customers had not been billed and would not be billed since the
computer tapes and paper tickets could not be reconstructed -- Amoco
took the hint and treated their employees much better, with a two year
advance notice that they were getting out of town. Later that same
year, the bottom fell out at Diners, and a consortium which included
CNA Insurance and Amoco bought up the leftovers. Amoco decided they
would start a new credit card lable, called 'Torch Club' which was
Diners and Amoco put together, and offer Torch Club only to their very
best customers. Citicorp would not pick up Diners until 1981, about
twelve years later.

With all that in mind -- that Alfred Bloomingdale almost wrecked his
company -- in fact Citicorp refused to say much about Bloomingdale
at all in their _History of Diner's Club_, I would like to tell you
about Mr. Bloomingdale's personal Diners Club card. Not his company
card, his _personal_ card. It was stolen from him, probably by one
of the various prostitutes he went out with all the time. I say this
only because it has some relevance. Many people know -- either
because they read the papers when he was alive or whatever, that
Al Bloomingdale was very much sexually into S&M, 'rough trade',
or whatever you wish to call it. He was indiscrete with the hookers
he would pick up. After he died, one lady started a lawsuit to get
his life savings claiming he had promised her all his money. True
or false, I do not know, but Al Bloomingdale was _kinky_ to say the
least. In one such affair, someone picked his pocket and made off
with his Diners Card and other stuff. Due to the incompetence of
the employees at Diners in New York and later at Amoco in Chicago
and, in fairness, the lack of effecient computer systems in those
days, the thief _lived on that Diners Card for about a year_. The
fact that the mimeographed 'hot sheet' had his number listed, the
fact that store clerks would call in for approvals and be told to
decline that stolen card from Al Bloomingdale, the card never got
collected, the charges kept coming in, etc. It seems whenever it
got close to the crook losing the card (because a store clerk
actually checked the hot sheet or called in for approval and was
told to decline the sale, this thief would bully the clerk or
the authorization person; one of those "Don't you know who I am?
By this time tomorrow I will have your job!" That kind of routine.

One night the crook's automobile stalled somewhere, I do not know
where, only that _I_ was working that overnight shift at the Amoco
center when I got a phone call from this pipsqueak kid in high
school somewhere working the late night shift at a gas station
somewhere, asking for approval on a TBA (tires, batteries, accessories)
sale and the labor involved. I saw _whose card_ it was, and the
status of that account. This, by the way, was in early December
sometime, maybe a few days after Thanksgiving. The Pip Squeak was
all excited: "I was about to give this guy his car back and then on
the list you sent me I saw his card number listed. The guy is
arguing with me and told me if I did not honor his card he was going
to get me fired."

I asked the Pip Squeak where is the car now? He told me it was
still on the rack but he was finished with his work. I told him
you keep that car up on the rack, which is your right. You have a
workman's lien on that car until he pays the bill, and he is not going
to get it paid with that card. I asked him if he still had the
plastic there. He said he did, so I told him (by then the pip squeak
had told me his name was Timmy) "Timmy have you got a pair of
scissors there or a sharp cutting blade?" He said he did and I asked
him, "Timmy, would you like to make fifty dollars?" I think his
eyes almost bulged out of his head as he said "Oh, yeah man, I really
need the money to get Christmas presents for my family, what do I
have to do to make that kind of money?"

I told him, "Timmy, it is very simple. Take your scissors and cut that
card into a few pieces now while we are talking, and then I want you
to mail the card pieces to Diners, PO Box (something), Chicago, IL
and when I get those card pieces you will get by return mail a check
for fifty dollars, how does that sound? Are you afraid of this guy?
Don't be; if you need help just call police; tell them you want your
money before you release the car. Timmy assured me that a couple of
his buddies were there "so I know this dude won't try any ##@& with
me." I guess his buddies there enforced the rule about no car off the
rack ready to go until cash money is paid. Two or three days later
there were the pieces to the card along with a chicken-scrawled note
saying he was told to return this card. Most lost/stolen/abused card
rewards were fifteen dollars, but up to fifty dollars could be
authorized in extreme cases, as this one was. The guy _did_ call
up a few minutes later, making a last ditch effort to convince me
that he was Alfred Bloomingale and I was going to get fired for what
I did. I told him it sounded a good deal to me since I hated working
there anyway.

Timmy got his check from Diners/Amoco a couple weeks before Christmas
but the part I liked best was when the office manager asked me to
come by his office a week or so later. "I heard that you picked up
Al Bloomingdale's credit card." I said I had. He handed me an
envelope and said "thanks very much". Inside the envelope was a
check from the credit card office for five hundred dollars and a
note from Al Bloomingdale saying "thank you for helping with this."
That was a good Christmas for me also.

So remember, December is not only the season to commit suicide but
it is also the time of year for all the scam artists to come out of
the closet.

PAT

Tis the season to be jolly

Already, during the past week, I have been hearing Christmas music in the commercials on television, and little notices in the newspaper about 'X Shopping Days Until Christmas" and it really is a pity. I used to complain when they started right after Thanksgiving rather than waiting until sometime early in Decmber. Now, they do not even wait for Thanksgiving. In this past week I saw city workers beginning to hang the Christmas lights on the street poles downtown and next Friday night (day after Thanksgiving) will be the annual Christmas parade in downtown Independence. As in the past, for many years, our church (Church of the Epiphany, Espiscopal) will have a float in the annual parade. I suppose it will be the same crummy hayride as in the past, and I would guess our choir will sing Christmas carols on the float. I suppose I will probably go along to ride on the float.

Did you ever notice that not only is the Christmas season a busy time of year for suicides, but it is also the biggest time of the year for scams and frauds. Years ago, when I worked for the Amoco/Diners Club credit card center in Chicago, in the Sales Authorization Unit, we were always warned to take exceptional 'interest' in the sob-stories we would hear from customers on Christmas Eve, and told to take precautions against fraud on Christmas Eve as well, and we would always get hit with a lot of it all that week.

Spam is Horrible Most Days

Spam is getting to be so horrible most days. I guess that is no secret to most netizens, but I can tell you from my experience with my main journal TELECOM Digest http://telecom-digest.org that even with an agressive version of Spam Assassin running all the time and a 'mailbox' devoted to just spam rejections -- usually 150-175 per day -- at least another hundred or so wind up in my main mailbox which I have to sort out by hand each day, in order to glean a dozen or two dozen 'good' messages for actual use.

Personally, I have found 'filtering' (the process by which spam is supposedly eliminated even before it is seen has been a collossal failure. I have given a lot of thought to using various 'challenge' systems but so many Digest readers have bitched and pissed and moaned about how hard it would be for them to have to respond to a challenge when they send me email. I sure wish there was a solution.

The Rest of the 'Category 7' Movie

It was on CBS (KOAM out of Joplin, MO for us, channel 7) on Sunday night, 8-10 PM central time. The more I watched it, the more bogus I think it became, for a few reasons:

Although the premise it started out with was reasonable (global warming causing some massive weather changes all around the earth and the USA basically refusing to cooperate with the rest of the world in correcting the problem [if correction is indeed possible at this late hour] and the various social/cultural forces in this country in effect trying to 'blame God' for the impending disaster) some of the 'solutions' proposed in the film in the second half of the showing which aired Sunday night seemed a bit far-fetched.

There were the usual political maneuvers; the president's press secretary getting fired when he tries to 'tell the truth', the assistant head of FEMA going on television only to have word given that his microphone and camera were to be turned off in the middle of his speech (thus far, sort of realistic, IMO) but the part where they decided to kill all the power in Washington DC to get the temperature 'lower than 79.2 degrees' was a little unbelievable as was the lady who convinced the technicians at the power plant to go along with turning off all the power. The side plot (kidnapping of the rental bus evacuating the children of government employees and the shoot out to rescue them was a little bogus as well. And the real blooper, IMO, even though power was cut off everywhere, many computers *and all the cell phones* continued to operate normally, even when the storm (alleged to be the worst in the history of Washington DC and even the United States) was at its worst. And wouldn't you know it, the kids escape from their kidnapper right about the time the heroine of the movie gets the temperature outside down to just the right tenth of a degree, and all live happily forever.

The movie was disappointing. I sincerely hoped we would see the end of the world rather than just piles of rubble everywhere as the government went about the business of rebuilding itself and the director of FEMA assuring us the goverment was now 'prepared more than ever to deal with these vicious category 7 storms.' And during the movie, when the 'secret formula' was discovered -- how to deal with these storms in the future was revealed, one of the senators was on the *telephone* talking to the other heads of state around the world telling them the procedure to follow in the future, although the United States president apparently took the hint from Mother Nature and agreed to change USA energy practices and other facets of our lives which caused this storm to happen in the first place. And, the Christian fundamentalists who were claiming the whole thing was "God's will' wound up dying also.

If You Would Like to Get Away From ICANN

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is sort of a strange bunch to deal with. If you would like to get a domain name totally free of charge in another country which is essentially anonymous (you do self registration) try one of these possibilities:

UNONIC (United Names Organization) http://unonic.com where you can register any domain name of your choice in the '.tf' top level.

or JOYNIC http://joynic.com where you can register domains in the name of your choice on the top level '.tt'

or CYDOTS http://cydots.com where you can register domains in the name of your choice in the top level '.ms'

or DHS International http://www.dhs.org where you can register domains in the name of your choice in the 'n3.net' top level and a few other top levels. These folks are based out of Australia
and do use 'American-looking' domain names i.e. '.n3.net' and they ask for a voluntary donation via Pay Pal.

or SMARTDOTS http://smartdots.com where you can register domains in the name of your choice in the top level '.tc'

All the above are self-service registration, meaning you do it from your own computer, picking the desired URLs and answering a few simple questions, set up the contact information truthfully, etc. Many of them also have email forwarding, and all of them simply redirect to your existingweb page elsewhere. The WHOIS information on many of them is totally confidential with only email of inquiry sent to you from the nosy person who is asking.

They are all totally free to use, they all cloak the true name of your web site by using frames and your alias URL name. They all last forever, require no contracts and except for DHS are totally free but they like it if you use a pop up or a banner they supply. In addition to the country codes mentioned 'tc' 'tf' 'tt' and 'ms' they all have a raft of second-level choices under them such as 'net' 'us' and others. I've had several of them over the years, for example, check out http://patricktownson.us.tf which will wind up bringing you right back here.

I hope this information is helpful to you especially if you do not like the ICANN contracts, prefer to be anonymous, etc.

We also have a free breakfast once each month

We also have a free community breakfast on the third Saturday morning of each month, open to one and all. Like the weekly Thursday night community suppers, it is open to one and all, from 8 AM to 10 AM every third Saturday, and the attendance at those is about the same as the Thursday night suppers: typically 60-80 people show up. But I do not do any work for those since it is almost impossible for me to get my ass out of bed by 7 AM to get over to the church as a worker; anyway, they already have a full compliment of workers for those affairs.

Swedish Meatballs, Mashed Potatoes

Every Thursday evening (with a few exceptions, such as Thanksgiving Day and during Neewollah week) at the Episcopal Church here in Independence, we have a 'community feeding' dinner, a free supper for anyone in the community who shows up. It is always 6 to 7 PM (cooks and other staff workers on duty 5 to 8 PM). What we serve depends on the cooks for the week (that is not my department) but typically, we are heavy on starch foods, a lot of pasta-like things and sometimes chilli. Normally, about 60 to 70 people show up, but tonight we were absolutely 'mobbed', with about 85 counted at the door. About once every month or two we have a really good dinner (tonight, Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, beans, salad, dinner roll, cake for desert, and beverage). I think the dinner details depend on what the budget allows; we always have something although as I stated above, sometimes more pasta-like dishes.

We get a lot of guests from Garden Walk apartments, the 'housing authority' (projects) here in Independence. My job is 'greeter' and person-counter so that for statistics, knowing how much food is needed, I provide those figures from when we open the door at 5:45 PM until we close it down about 6:45 - 7:00 PM. Many of the same people come every week (about half or maybe 70 percent) but we always get at least one or two new folks, usually from the housing projects and that is the way it was tonight as well. I am also in charge of opening the door at 5:45 and keeping some semblance of a line on the sidewalk in front before, and in the dining area as the food is being served.

Two sad occurrences tonight: One young guy -- around 18 or 19 moved into town a month ago from Neodesha, Kansas (pronounced Nee-owe-duh-shay) were he had been living; he stays at Garden Walk apartments with his girl friend. He said they got totally ripped off at their apartment two nights ago; whoever did it got their money and quite a few of their possessions. I saw to it he and his girl friend both got extra plates of food at dinner, and sent them both back home with some 'carryout' food (the leftovers). The other sad thing tonight was a young kid about 8 or 9 years old who is deaf (but can hear a little with a hearing aid) lost the damn hearing aid in our garden (the church has a courtyard on one side of the main church) as he was coming in. I took a flashlight and went out with him and his mother and we looked through some piles of leaves where he thought it had fallen while he was playing here with a couple other boys right after dinner. We never did find it, but someone from the church staff will go out tomorrow in daylight and look for it again. This is obviously going to be a major financial problem for the family; hearing aids are not cheap; the family is not rich. The kid was sort of stressed out by the loss; he was trying to act brave, but you could see some tears forming in his eyes as he told me about the loss; when his mother came to speak to me a few minutes later it was obvious to me that they would be hassled with the matter of getting it replaced if the lost one was not found somewhere, somehow.

I am really glad we have these community free dinners every week; it is a great opportunity to meet some new and interesting people, especially since Independence has become a sort of financially depressed community in recent years, and people do appreciate our work.

I've also started this with Feedbomb as Feed 461

As long as I am in the mood (for now at least) to spill my guts everywhere, I decided to try an RSS feed to this blog http://www.feedbomb.com/feed/detail/461 as well as doing the same for TELECOM Digest at http://www.feedbomb.com/feed/detail/453 so you can read there as well.

Category 7 End of the World Movie on CBS

Did anyone watch the first part (of two parts) of the movie "Category 7 End of the World" movie on CBS Sunday night?

The theme of the movie has to do with global warming and how 'massive weather conditions will do us all in over the next couple years or so. A 'category 7 storm' is a 'category 6' storm which collides somehere in the United States with another disasterous storm at the same time. The FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is mentioned several times in the movie since it appears (according to the movie) that government higher ups knew from a report issued by scientists that global warming had much to do with it; but that not only did the government ignore the warnings, they actually censored the report issued by the scientists telling them what to expect.

When the movie starts, FEMA has just had a new manager appointed, a woman who will supposedly 'follow orders'; it is alleged the man who was previously running FEMA 'could not follow orders' very well. But it appears the woman cannot 'follow orders' from the higher ups very well either. She begins by employing the scientist whose report had been censored and gets him started helping her figure out how to make these 'category 6 storms' which have been hitting all over the world (including the USA) go away. They find it is too late to stop this major storm (which they call 'category 7' ) from hitting. This storm had begun in the Carribean somewhere, and moved northeast, colliding with another storm which had been moving east from Detroit. The storms collide over New York City, which is getting totally flooded out, New Orleans style when part one of the movie ends. The government is very much afraid that Washington DC is next. The government has told FEMA that 'since 9-11 we have been stretched so tight we have to mainly search for terrorists, and you must do everything in your power to save the government (offices, agencies, officials, etc) even if you cannot save anyone else.' The government is to have the top priority during this category 7 storm. The woman (newly appointed as FEMA manager) does not entirely agree with that assessment. There are also allusions to the fact that these disasters (very frequent and severe storms of the category 6 variety repeatedly hitting the world) are 'evidence' that the world may be coming to an end as described in the Bible. And there is a religious personality who makes repeated appearances in the movie (I am sort of reminded of that charlatan Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye Baker although they are given some fictional name) who keeps insisting that 'all this is God's Will' all the while the scientists are saying 'yes it is going to happen [end of the world] but it is not so much "Gods will" as it is government coverup of global warming issues.

Very interesting movie thus far, second and last half on Monday night CBS around 8 PM central.

Anyone else watch it thus far?

Beautiful Weather But Sort of Scarey

The weather here has been simply wonderful for the past few days; daytime temperatures in the middle seventies and overnight in the fifties.

Trouble is, we are in mid-November and it should be a bit colder, IMO. Maybe I have been hearing too much about 'global warming' and 'greenhouse effect' and all that, and to be honest President Bush's total disdain for things like the Kyoto Treaty and his seeming total disregard for things needed to preserve our world have to make me wonder ... now here in Independence, summertime temperatures are normally in the upper nineties or lower one-hundreds so that would not be unexpected. But this is early November for goodness sake, and things should be getting cooler. The furnace in my house has only gone on once or twice thus far this season, and then when the early morning chill in the air caused it. But we are by and large leaving our doors and windows open; in fact , I took a little nap today in the back yard, and when I woke up and went inside and the air conditioner had kicked in! Very, very odd for early November IMO.

Maybe I have been watching too much television news lately, with some perfectly dreadful images of the snow caps in Alaska melting. I've got a hunch we are in for some very unusual weather all this winter. I know things are rough for the Arctic wildlife who are accustomed to living in cold conditions. I wonder why President Bush refuses to go along with Kyoto as the rest of the world is doing?

I am embarassed to say that ...

I am embarassed to say that I had forgotten -- due to lack of use -- a blog I had already started at http://livejournal.com/users/patrick_townson . I wonder if I should try to keep both of these blogs running? Maybe between them I can find something interesting to say. Anyway, please check the other one out as well and let me know. And remind me if I start to neglect this blog as well. Thanks!

This is a wireless camera looking out my bedroom window onto East Poplar Street. It updates every minute. Now and again you will see the cats playing out there or people walking past or perhaps a car on the street.