Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

FireUpChips10

FireUpChips10's Journal
FireUpChips10's Journal
April 30, 2015

Groom, 103, proves you're never too old to tie the knot!

Few people have lived the adage "you can't hurry love" quite like George Kirby, Britian's oldest groom-to-be.

Kirby and his 91-year-old fiancee, Doreen Luckie, are finally getting married after nearly three decades of dating, The Telegraph reports.

"We seem to have made every national newspaper. Good job I didn't marry her years ago..." Kirby joked in a recent Facebook post.

The couple is set to break a world record when they finally tie the knot on June 13, Kirby's 103rd birthday, with a combined age of 194.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/29/george-kirby-oldest-groom_n_7172218.html
April 28, 2015

How to fix potholes? Make phallic drawings around them

Armed with a can of washable spray paint, an artist in Greater Manchester, England, has embarked on a worthy crusade: to rid the region of potholes… by drawing penises on them.

The anonymous artist, who goes by the name “Wanksy,” told the Manchester Evening News that he decided to draw attention to the “appalling” pothole-ridden streets after some of his cyclist friends were badly injured on the roads.

“I wanted to attract attention to the pothole and make it memorable. Nothing seemed to do this better than a giant comedy phallus,” he said. “It’s also speedy, I don’t want to be in the road for a long time. It seems to have become my signature. I just want to make people smile and draw attention to the problem.”


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/27/artist-penis-potholes-wanksy_n_7149810.html
April 28, 2015

Please pray for some friends of mine:

*Randal and his children, Johannah and Jonathan, who lost their brother/uncle this weekend.

*Jacob, whose brother died last week.

*Amanda, whose mother died a year ago yesterday.

*Amber, whose grandfather is undergoing serious surgery right now.

Thank you.

April 27, 2015

Florida woman files motion to "f*** this court"

According to an order from U.S. District Court Judge Willis B. Hunt Jr., Tamah Jada Clark initially filed a legal complaint against several state agencies, law enforcement departments and individuals pertaining to the arrest and conviction of Jason Joseph Clark, whom Hunt said was her “husband (or possibly boyfriend).”

(“Jason is my HUSBAND, as I have stated, you [expletive],” Clark replied in the expletive-laden notice, by the way.)

Clark claimed in the original complaint that she was a citizen of the “territory” of Florida and not a U.S. citizen, and that the defendants were guilty of wrongful conviction, kidnapping, involuntary servitude and several other serious violations of U.S. law and of international agreements.

Hunt dismissed the case in late March for several reasons, noting that Jason Clark didn’t sign the complaint, that Tamah Clark didn’t have standing to file it on his behalf or on behalf of her son, and that the statute of limitations had passed for a personal injury claim.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/23/notice-to-expletive-this-court-and-everything-that-it-stands-for-is-the-legal-document-america-needs/?tid=trending_strip_2

Here's the motion itself:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/262792039/Fuck-This-Court
April 26, 2015

Pope Francis to give Jewish rabbi a Catholic knighthood

It’s an honor few non-Catholics have ever received, although the job description has evolved since the old days.

“No horses, no swords, nothing like that,” Joe Zwilling, New York Archdiocese said.

This most unlikely Knight of the Catholic Church has been a rabbi at the East Side synagogue for more than 50 years. He is a holocaust survivor known around the world for learning from the past and urging the use of religion to unite, rather than divide.

“This is a clear message that Pope Francis is continuing rapprochement with the Jewish people,” he said.


http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/04/24/new-york-rabbi-arthur-schneier-welcomed-as-knight-of-the-catholic-church/
April 17, 2015

A Jesuit priest speaks out on being openly gay

In a five-part series released the week of March 16th from the National Catholic Reporter, "God’s Community in the Castro," a parishioner from San Francisco’s Most Holy Redeemer parish had this to say about his spiritual home: "We don't see ourselves as a gay community, but rather as a community that's open to gays.... It's an acceptance and a realization that people feel O.K. to be who they are that makes this place different.”

For many LGBTQ men and women, The Castro District of San Francisco has been their home where life can be lived with dignity. As NCR reporter Michael Fox points out in this series, Most Holy Redeemer has been the spiritual center for LGBTQ Catholics living in and around this neighborhood. Much of its current history started in the 1980s, when AIDS was taking so many lives. Since then this parish has been the sanctuary for an often neglected and shunned community.

....

Yet here’s the truth I know and believe: I am created in God’s image and likeness, just as God creates us all. It is actually that simple. But sometimes we take that image and likeness and complicate it. That complication created concern for my loved ones as I discerned religious life in 2011 at the age of 33. Some were troubled that I’d find difficulty as a man of color in an ostensibly all-white male order. Others feared I would be forced into the closet after 17 years of accepting myself as gay. A few friends expressed worry I would not encounter common ground in an order filled with the privileged when I only knew disadvantage. All of their observations and concerns were valid because they not only came from a place of love but through their own experiences as Catholics.

I am more than my skin color, my sexual orientation, and my economic class. I am more than my skin color, my sexual orientation, and my economic class. It restricts God’s image and likeness if I only see myself as those three aspects. Defining myself purely on what I am limits who I am and how I can be of service. Even allowing these characteristics to dictate my life would prevent me from engaging the world as a wholly integrated human being. Besides, I prayed, and discerned, and made a choice. I made a commitment to live the vows of consecrated chastity, poverty and obedience because of my belief in Christ, the mission of the church, and the people of God. I share my struggles openly just as I share my joys. As my parents did with each other, transparency helps me live my vows honestly so that I am always available to live out my calling as a Jesuit.


http://americamagazine.org/i-believe-created-gods-image
April 16, 2015

Vatican ends LCWR scrutiny two years sooner than expected

The Vatican has announced an end to an overhaul of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious — an abrupt conclusion to a five-year doctrinal overhaul of the main umbrella group for nuns in the U.S. that began in 2012.

The Vatican said Thursday that it has accepted a report on the overhaul of the LCWR "marking the conclusion of the Doctrinal Assessment" of the umbrella group.

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli tells our Newscast unit the unexpected announcement is seen as a sign of Pope Francis' focus on a more merciful church.

...

The Rev. James Martin, SJ., editor at large of the Jesuit magazine America, said in a Facebook post that the LCWR agreed to implement some changes, "mainly regarding speakers and liturgies at its annual conventions. But overall, the operations of the LCWR remains intact."


http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/04/16/400094415/vatican-ends-scrutiny-of-u-s-nuns
April 13, 2015

Bishops back Obama on Iran, warn Congress against meddling

The U.S. Catholic bishops have welcomed the Obama administration’s tentative agreement aimed at limiting Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and their top spokesman on international affairs bluntly warned Congress against doing anything to undermine it.

The bishops “oppose efforts that seek to undermine the negotiation process or make a responsible multi-party agreement more difficult to achieve and implement,” Bishop Oscar Cantu, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace Committee, wrote to House and Senate lawmakers on Monday (April 13).

“The alternative to an agreement leads toward armed conflict, an outcome of profound concern to the Church,” said Cantu, who heads the Diocese of Las Cruces, N.M.

The warning — and accompanying support in a letter of commendation that Cantu sent last week to Secretary of State John Kerry — follow a thumbs-up from Pope Francis to the proposed accord, and coincides with an endorsement on Monday by a group of largely liberal mainline Protestant leaders.


http://www.religionnews.com/2015/04/13/u-s-catholic-bishops-back-obama-iran-warn-congress-meddling/
April 11, 2015

Proclaiming jubilee, Francis envisions non-judging, non-condemning church

Officially proclaiming the upcoming jubilee year of mercy, Pope Francis has powerfully called on the entire Catholic church to refashion itself as a place not of judgment or condemnation but of pardon and merciful love.

Writing in an extensive document convoking the year, which will begin Dec. 8, the pontiff states that the church’s "very credibility is seen in how she shows merciful and compassionate love."

...

"The time has come for the Church to take up the joyful call to mercy once more," he states.

"It is time to return to the basics and to bear the weaknesses and struggles of our brothers and sisters," writes the pontiff. "Mercy is the force that reawakens us to new life and instills in us the courage to look to the future with hope."


http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/proclaiming-jubilee-francis-envisions-non-judging-non-condemning-church
April 8, 2015

Former student sends teacher $10,000 check just because she's awesome

Decades after graduating high school, a man gave back to a teacher who left a big impression on him.

Almost forty years after she began teaching, Marilyn Mecham received a surprise from one of her first students, Kevin Perz. The former Missouri teacher, who is now 62, recently told the Lincoln Journal Star that Perz called her in January to simply say thanks -- and then sent her a note and a $10,000 check.

"I enjoyed your class so much. You gave your students latitude and respect. In turn, you were showered with respect and appreciation." Perz wrote in the note. "You were the B-E-S-T teacher EVER!!"

The moving gesture left the 62-year-old overcome with emotion.


Profile Information

Gender: Male
Hometown: Kentwood, MI
Home country: USA
Member since: 2001
Number of posts: 23,980
Latest Discussions»FireUpChips10's Journal