Can you tell that I have a good block of time on Friday morning to blog?
As usual, AKMA puts it quite nicely. This was a ridiculous controversey.
At least the kids at the school seem to know better than their elders
about what true freedom (and not Ann’s version below) requires.
There’s an Ann Coulter doll.
Politicks on 31 October 2003 at 10:08 am by Nate
I was talking with a friend last night, right as i was about to go to
bed, and he’s trying to figure out what to do with the person he’s
dating. He’s not into the person in a permanent way; he likes
hanging out and spending time with the person but doesn’t see the
relationship moving into a permanent place. So he’s doing this
dating for now, but he seems to feel a little out of sorts for being in
something he’s not committed to for the long term.
I guess I don’t see anything wrong with placeholder relationships, as
long as both people are generally aware that that’s what is going
on. Who decided that all of our relationships in life have to be
open-ended? We don’t keep friends, family, or lover forever, and
it seems unreasonable to think that every person we date has to be
decided upon quickly as relationship potential or not. I’ve dated
guys that I wasn’t planning on settling in with, but I enjoyed getting
to know them. They added to my life, taught me a bit about
romance and friendship, and they certainly have had an effect on my
life. I just knew from near the beginning that these were not the
guys I wanted to be with in the long term (‘though I’m pretty sure that
my current BF is that person)…. And I’d like to think they
learned half as much from me as I learned from them.
Any thoughts out there?
Hard working this last week on that West Wing paper, so not sufficient time for blogging. Fear not, adoring masses, I’m gonna be back soon.
I might post pieces of the paper here, just so you can see what I have been doing…..
I know I shouldn’t laugh, but this had me rolling. I think my
favorite line may be: “But instead, he said, she started drinking vodka while
she was out and returned to the hotel intoxicated. He claims she threw a lamp at
him and tried to beat up their security guard, screaming and running from room
to room.”
I am still laughing, but I feel bad
about the misfortunes of others….
Liza Minnelli’s Almost-Ex-Husband Sues Her, Claiming She Beat Him
By
SUSAN SAULNY
David Gest sued Liza Minnelli yesterday, claiming that while
they lived together she went into numerous alcohol-induced rages and beat him so
badly that he “suffers from virtually constant, unrelenting pain” in his
head.
According to Mr. Gest’s lawsuit, Ms. Minnelli gained physical
strength from drinking vodka, and would routinely turn that strength against him
with her fists. Mr. Gest’s complaint, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan,
details several instances in which he says he was beaten. The couple has been
separated since July, and Mr. Gest’s lawyer, Raoul L. Felder, expects that
formal divorce papers will be filed within a week or so.
In a union that
from the start had all the makings of a publicity extravaganza, filing a lawsuit
claiming assault before filing for divorce could have been Mr. Gest’s way of
airing his grievances before the court — or the public — in advance of any
procedure to end the marriage. Mr. Felder would not discuss the specifics of the
lawsuit.
Ms. Minnelli had not yet filed a response in court last evening,
and a call to her lawyer, Allan Arrow, was not immediately returned, nor were
calls to one of her aides, the agency that represented the couple when they were
married, and Ms. Minnelli’s booking agency.
In the papers submitted in
court, Mr. Gest described himself as “a world-renown event and concert
producer-promoter,” and Ms. Minnelli as someone whose “career had been eclipsed,
she was an alcoholic, overweight, unable to be effectively merchandised, could
not get insurance to perform concert dates on stage, or in any other artistic
media.”
Describing one of their typical fights, Mr. Gest said in the
complaint that while he and Ms. Minnelli were visiting London in June, she left
their hotel saying she was going “to fetch take-out food.” But instead, he said,
she started drinking vodka while she was out and returned to the hotel
intoxicated. He claims she threw a lamp at him and tried to beat up their
security guard, screaming and running from room to room.
In the suit,
which asks for $10 million, Mr. Gest said that he “limited his actions to trying
to avoid the blows by crossing his arms over his face and shouting repeatedly,
`Liza, stop it, stop it!’ “
While Mr. Felder would not comment on Mr.
Gest’s case, he said he would welcome the opportunity to talk about domestic
violence against men. “I think it takes a certain kind of strength to reveal
it,” he said.
Ms. Minnelli and Mr. Gest were married with much ado in March 2002
before 1,100 guests at Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan. At the
reception, Carol Channing, a guest, compared the whole thing “to when
they opened the World’s Fair.”
As a kid, I had a fair amount of acne. Not disfiguring or
scarring, but still quite a lot…. As an adult, I tend not to
break out anymore, but I do get these cysts (which my doctor has
assured me are perfectly innocuous) that occasionally become inflamed
and really hurt for a couple of days.
The one on the back of my neck has been doing that yesterday and
today. It really hurts, and I’m getting annoyed by tnot being
able to turn my neck and all. I’d go to the doctor, but by the
time I get in a couple of days from now, the thing will have gone
down….
Right, like you all wanted to hear about my medical issue of the day….
In mind of what AKMA said last week, responding to my post, I guess I should point out that I’m not really a panentheist. I recognize that there’s a difference between seeing God as present in all things and seeing God in all
things. It’s just that I’m trying to figure out why that’s
important (in my own faith) and in the larger context. So I
sometimes try on new beliefs and ideas, or they help to spark some
sense of thinking through an issue.
In all honesty, my theology is pretty much orthodox. But there’s
no harm (yes, I know about the damnation in store for heretics…) in
playing with a belief in the process of figuring it out.
This article in Christianity Today
(again, not my favorite mag, but it makes the attempt to provide some
range of voices and some occasional scholarship) about the challenges
in the Episcopal Church right now. It’s an unusually thoughtful
look at what everyone’s obligations — liberals, conservatives,
evangelicals, non-Episcopalians, Protestants, Catholics — in the
situation are. Here’s the last three paragraphs:
From the long perspective, the Episcopal Church’s
current battle bears real resemblance to a certain stand of General
Custer. Evangelicals may tend to take a kind of perverse pleasure from
this: “Those liberal so-and-so’s are getting what’s coming to them.”
But given Anglicanism’s signature values of moderation in religious
conflict, willingness to hear and work within the surrounding culture,
and nourishment from the historical tradition of the church, more
thoughtful Christian observers may wish to delay the party.
We may want to stop and ask, “What will America lose
if this venerable church experiences the kind of violent gutting that
now seems all but inevitable?”
Alien though their tradition may seem to many
conservative Christians, our Episcopal brothers and sisters are part of
the body of Christ. And as a church, they may soon be lying by the side
of the road, mortally wounded—like the man waylaid in Christ’s parable
of the Good Samaritan. God help us not to pass them by with a sneer,
but to recognize and act on our common bond in Christ.”
Another article from the Daily Telegraph
in Britain (again, not my favorite paper, as I’m not a subsriber to the
Tory party’s views and ideas) that points out, “The lesson of the
Anglican schism is that belief in one God is not
nearly enough to make Christians love one another: what works is a
belief in the same devil.”
Finally, for web based stuff this morning, we have Andrew Sullivan from this Sunday’s NYT. He talks about why he finally feels some measure of despair about the situation of gays in the Roman Catholic Church.
It’s one of those days where I don’t feel like doing the tasks right
before me, but I think I can get them done. I have my independent
study student coming in a bit under two hours, and I need to read her
assigned book so that we can talk about it over lunch. The West Wing paper is coming along VERY slowly.
I had a fantastic coffee with my friend Brad last night, after having attended a Latin Sarum-rite mass in Emmanuel Church’s Historical Liturgies
series. I’ve never been to a full Latin Mass before, and, per the
bishop’s authorization, this was not a recreation but an actual
Eucharist, and so we had some of the feeling that a fifteenth century
English person might have upon going to Mass. Which will make
next month’s introduction of the English Reformation liturgy all the
more dramatic. Then Brad and I had a good two hours discussing
religion, friends who are dating, our childhoods, work, and whatever
else might come up.
I feel a need to mention that a professor in my old department at UC
Berkeley has recently been diagnosed with inoperable brain
cancer. Lots of people here and there have been praying for
her. She’s jewish, but I know of Jewish, Christian, and Buddhist
prayers that have been said for her. BF’s priest-boss even
offered Mass for her, her family, and my friends who work with her last
week. One of the first things I thought of when I heard the news
was the line from the New Testament, “The prayer of a righteous person
is powerful and effective.” I don’t know any righteous people,
but as a good social scientist, I figure that if we get enough people
praying, we’re bound by random selection to hit at least one righteous
person…. *wry, somewhat sad grin*
BF and I leave for a weekend in New York tonight, to stay with my friend Kjrste, the opera singer, and her husband, Rob.
Right. Back to work.
It’s been a bad week to be a Californian. First the Red Sox beat
the A’s in a heartbreaking loss (although I think we would have been
done in by the Yankees, as our starting lineup is shattered…).
Then we elect Ah-nold to the governorship.
Whos wants to take bets that he’s recalled within a year? I’ll bet we’ve entered the Time of the Perpetual Recall.
Wendy’s indignation matches my own, but she doesn’t sound worn down by politics yet….
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