Cardinal Dolan's "Reckless Indifference to Children"

On behalf of hundreds of thousands of homeless LGBT youth, Carl Siciliano, the founder and executive director of the Ali Forney Center in New York, wrote an open letter to the Cardinal Archbishop of New York and President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Timothy Dolan.  In it he effectively argues that the Cardinal's actions contribute to "a climate where parents turn on their own children" and invites the Cardinal to visit the Ali Forney Center, which is a mere 30 blocks from St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan and provides housing, medical care, and vocational and educational support to LGBT youths who have been driven from their homes.  Siciliano realizes that it's important for the Cardinal to meet children directly affected by his staunch anti-LGBT position.  

Read Carl Siciliano's letter to Cardinal Dolan HERE.  

The Cardinal responded in the defensive tone and snarky prose of a man unhappy that someone clearly sees what he's doing and has called him out for behaving in a manner he knows in his heart is not Christian.  The Cardinal behaves as though he's beyond reproach, "above the law", perfect.  He needs to be reminded that he's a man, not a deity, and that men make mistakes.  A truly righteous man can recognize when he's on the wrong side of something, is humble enough admit that he was wrong and will take action to make things right.  Based on his response, I doubt that Timothy Dolan is that kind of man.  

Read Cardinal Dolan's dismissive response HERE.

Siciliano has responded to the Cardinal's letter, pointing out that the Cardinal completely ignored what was at the core of his original letter - the children.  But I fear that his second letter will get no further than his first.  

Read Siciliano's second letter HERE.

I believe the Cardinal is so blinded by the Church's misguided and patently pointless damnation of homosexuality that he can't see the damage he's doing, the needless pain and suffering perpetuated by his service to his god, the child victims rejected by their families, falling into substance abuse, prostitution, some becoming so hopeless that they take their own life.  Cardinal Dolan has the power to change all of this, but he refuses.  Instead he continues to speak out against the LGBT community, which only creates more homophobia and hostility.  The Vatican has rewarded his vigilance against LGBT rights and marriage equality by elevating him from Archbishop to Cardinal, and he can't very well disappoint the Vatican. Everyone knows you shouldn't piss off your boss.

Click HERE to learn about supporting the Ali Forney Center.

This Month's "My Favorite iPad Apps"

I love my iPad and use it constantly for everything from the obvious (email, social networking and surfing the net) to connecting to the office, watching TV and movies, reading the latest edition of my favorite magazines and playing ridiculous but addictive games.

This month four apps are replaced on my Favorite iPad Apps list, and one stays on for another month.  New this month are Airport Madness Challenge, Hulu Plus, LivingSocial and Smithsonian Magazine.  PBS becomes the tenured app on the list.

Airport Madness Challenge is simple but highly addictive.  The objective is to avoid crashes while carefully timing the takeoff and landing of planes on various runways.  It's not packed with fast-action animation sequences, but it quickly gets chaotic and effectively tests your visual acuity and organization skills.  The free version includes two airports (the simplest is pictured here) and the option to buy additional and more complex airports.

Hulu Plus gained significant popularity when Netflix executed its poorly conceived divide and conquer (or "divide and fail" as it turned out) strategy last year.  I like Hulu because it provides current television programming 'next day', which means that when show premiers in prime time it's on Hulu the very next day.  And they carry a ton of otherwise hard-to-find shows like Lou Grant, which I've been searching for forever, and wonderful ITV and BBC shows, like Kingdom starring the wonderfully entertaining Stephen Frye.

LivingSocial makes the list this month for one reason - it featured a fantastic offer for an Introduction to Stained Glass class from Brennan Stained Glass Studio in Syracuse, NY.  Brennan is responsible for the restoration of an amazing stained glass dome in Boldt Castle on the St. Lawrence River and they're an authorized restorer of Tiffany windows and lamps.  Until seeing an offer for a 3-hour Introduction to Stained Glass class for only $69 on LivingSocial I had no idea that Brennan offered such things.  After checking out their website I discovered that they offer several classes from beginner to the more experienced, and one can rent studio time by the hour, too!  This particular deal ends at midnight 04/01. Click HERE for details.

Last of the new apps on my list is Smithsonian Magazine.  I love Smithsonian magazine and have subscribed for years, just as I have National Geographic magazine.  When NG went digital last year I contacted Smithsonian begging them to do the same.  While I didn't receive a response, which was surprising and disappointing, I did learn through other means that they were working on the e-version for iPad's Newsstand.  The app was released in February and has the same smooth feel and operation of the NG app.  With both publications now available on iPad I'm ending my print subscription and going digital.  The days of stacks of magazines is coming to an end!  E-magazines are environmentally friendly, arrive without suffering abuses at the hands of the antiquated USPS and they're cheaper than their print counterparts.  A year of Smithsonian in print is $34 versus the in-my-opinion far more interesting $19.99 iPad version.

PBS remains on the list because it consistently offers high quality content in an equally high quality format.  Yesterday I pulled up American Experience: Clinton, a controversial but nonetheless amazing man, and was locked in for the 3-1/2 hour documentary.  Loaded with clips and full episodes I can watch Masterpiece (Downton Abbey was recently featured while Little Dorrit is the current offering), Nova, Great Performances, Austin City Limits, Antiques Roadshow and much more.  This is a must-have app for every iPad user.

"Overpiggers Anonymous" ~ Reynolds Unwrapped

A scene that's unfolded in every chain restaurant boardroom across the country...

<IMAGE REMOVED AT THE REQUEST OF THE ARTIST>

(Oh, in case you didn't notice, THIS BLOG DOES NOT GENERATE REVENUE, so in no way do I benefit form anything posted on the blog.  Everything appearing in this blog is nothing more than free publicity for the owner.)

Bigotry in Baton Rouge: Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum & Pastor Dennis "GET OUT!" Terry

"I don't care what the liberals say, I don't care what the naysayers say, this nation was founded as a Christian nation...There is only one God and his name is Jesus. I'm tired of people telling me that I can't say those words.. Listen to me, If you don't love America, If you don't like the way we do things I have one thing to say - GET OUT. We don't worship Buddha, we don't worship Mohammad, we don't worship Allah, we worship God, we worship God's son Jesus Christ." ~ Pastor Dennis Terry, Greenwell Springs Baptist Church, Baton Rouge LA

Seriously? Wow... Where to begin? How full of hate and bigotry does someone have to be to say things this outrageous? Is this an example of being "Christ-like"? Is this what accepting Jesus into your heart does to a person? Is this "doing the work of the Lord"?

Here's my take on him and it's short and sweet. The loving Pastor Terry is Christian Taliban, plain and simple. I'm thrilled that he's loudly exercising his 1st Amendment right to free speech, otherwise we might never have learned what a grade A raging asshole he truly is. He represents the terminal sickness that has infected the GOP for a couple of decades. The ϋber-conservative religious fundamentalists got their hooks into the GOP when Reagan brought them into the fold to secure his bid for White House, and they're not letting go come hell or high water. The don't realize that their brand of medicine is killing the patient. But fuck 'em, who cares. Karma's a bitch, right?

The best part of Baton Rouge Hatefest 2012 is that Pastor Bigot's speech was an introduction for Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum! I think Santorum later said that he didn't clap for the good pastor, like that makes any difference.

For more information check out this Huff Post Religion post.

I'd love to hear from Christians on what they think of this whackjob. Post your comments below...

Shanghai-style Zongzi with Eggs Over Easy

Zongzi, or simply Zong, is red-cooked pork inside of seasoned sticky rice that's wrapped in bamboo leaves and boiled. The first time I had this I thought "this is good, but it's missing something... Egg! It needs a rich delicious egg yolk flowing over it and it would be perfect!" So the next time Lu made zong he fried a couple of eggs over easy and served them on top of the steaming hot sticky rice, and it was spectacular.

Today we were fortunate to have farm fresh brown eggs from Baker's Acres of Chenango, my sister and brother-in-laws farm, and the zong was better than ever.  If this picture doesn't make you drool at least a little then you don't appreciate good food. :)