Does anyone doubt that an increasingly large number of increasingly dumb, increasingly unsocialized, increasingly over-prescribed victims of the decades on war-on-boys (male and female victims) who play violent video games for hours every day may be a looming social problem?
Is this the alternative?
The other day a friend opined to me in a conversation over my smartphone about the value of having smartphones that cost hundreds of dollars so people watch cat videos more easily.
Speaking of cat videos, here’s a cat video. (Yes, dear readers, this is what watching the live stream of the USCCB meeting has reduced me to today.)
and… the sequel …
I wonder if violent video games aren’t a kind of human catnip, as is the affliction of pornography, on which the USCCB had a discussion today. Moreover, watching USCCB meetings could be a kind of liberal, professional soft-identity Catholic catnip.
Just thinking aloud… you know … like… who am I to judge? … like…. it’s all so… simple…. once you….
What was the question?
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Watching the USCCB meeting as well via EWTN livestream. Loving Bishop Paprocki and Bishop Leonard Blair this a.m. I’m a little astonished that no one contributed any theological depth to the discussion on the Confirmation “slap” which was just “slapped down” in the words of Cardinal Dolan.
Why do I love my very old vet? I took Cody cat to the vet because he was limping – result of a cat-fight. Instead of admonishing me with cat’s are only safe inside, he smiled broadly and stated that any cat worth his salt was going to fight and defend his territory! Father Z, USCCB meetings do make me wish you were a bishop! We need more salty bishops!
All time favorite, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7UhaeWFX8I
This is the funniest cat cartoon I’ve seen in quite a while!
I too watched USCCB proceedings.
Time not well spent.
Their discussion on
Confirmation Rites was a slap in the face on Tradition,
No more “Fear of the Lord”? at least not at the USCCB conference so why teach it to teenagers?
Whatever happened to “Not add, change or delete?”
Spanish translations (which were true to Latin Translations) must now confirm to ICEL?
All this brought to you directly from Baltimoro, MD. Why not Baltimora, MD.
I sense a discrimination here.
And now on to a ecumenical prayer service. Moros (Moors in Spanish) must be kept happy .
I’m not American, but I did watch the live stream of the USCCB meeting. Given all the posturing and politicking, I thought my time would be better spent watching paint dry since at least with the latter I wouldn’t have to spend time trying to clear my mind afterwards.
Personally, I’ve found the cure to keeping tabs on such meetings without having to wade through all the politics and pandering is to just find a twitter feed on the meeting. Here’s the one for the USCCB meeting:
https://twitter.com/USCCBLive
As a plus, if there’s a (surprising) decision you want to watch the discussion of, the twitter feed tells you approximately at what point that discussion happened, so you can advance to that point in the archived live stream and skip over all the irrelevant parts.
Bea,
I thought they shot down changing the translation of Baltimore on the premise that Lord Baltimore would not appreciate it. Add to that the later revelation, thanks to a google search during the conference, that “Baltimora” is Italaian – not Spanish.
Bishop L. Blair came to the rescue regarding “Fear of the Lord” being changed to “Awe and Wonder”. It was interesting to see the new Bishop and the Bishop Emeritus of the same Archdiocese so completely oppose one another. There goes the welcome wagon for poor Bishop Blair.
These proceedings were quite something to behold!
I watched most of the USCCB program this morning and it struck me more that it was a corporate meeting with stock holders (which it is) but what is missing is a REAL discussion of major items that are bothering the laity.
Politicians, Catholic schools and clergy that thumb their noses at the Magisterium, Common Core concerns parents and the list goes on and on.
It was interesting to see that most of the bishops couldn’t answer specific questions from the floor. Hopefully the USCCB staff are all Catholic, too. Notre Dame giving grants to the bishops to visit the Holy Land, is that what I heard? (My lord bishops, you sure do travel a lot).
Orthodox Chick
Baltimora may be Italian, but with what they were dealing here, was Spanish
Anyway my mention of it was just a feeble attempt at levity
Baltimore/Baltiless
It was more or less a Catholic conference as compared to a CEO meeting.
One pleasant surprise!
THEY STILL KNOW THE ANGELUS!
Bea,
I picked up on your levity. I was trying to return it with my own feeble attempt at the same. Except, the bishops actually did jokingly mention that Lord Baltimore might be offended at having his name translated into Spanish. And whichever bishop presented that whole spanish missal translation action item actually did come back at the end to report that he had googled “Baltimora” only to learn it was Italian, not Spanish (after participating in a little tiff about it). There was a yuck or two about that as well.
Yup, the Angelus snuck in there somehow. It made an appearance at 12:09 instead of noon, and no bishop/cardinal on camera could be seen genuflecting, or even bowing when praying “And the Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among us”, but still – I’m not complaining. I’m grateful they thought to pray it at all. Thank the Lord for small favors!
Haven’t seen the USCCB live stream, but I wonder -might there be a Bp Johnson attending the conference? This is one of the very few cat videos worth wathching,( and I’m a huge cat lover): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tvgkyODiOE
sorry, watching.
Just went back to watch the cat videos. That second one was clearly taped after a trek around the labyrinth with catnip.
OrthodoxChick
Yeah, I picked up on that too:
“no bishop/cardinal on camera could be seen genuflecting, or even bowing when praying “And the Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among us”
My husband remembers that in Elementary Catholic Schools, they always said the Angelus but that the desks were so close together, they couldn’t genuflect or kneel, so at the words “And the Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us” instead they would strike their breasts at these words.
Not trying to excuse them because I did not even observe that the bishops/cardinals even did that.
We had a mailing from some office of the USCCB to our KofC council recently, and the Grand Knight asked if anyone knew what the USCCB was…
Clearly the USCCB continues to be virtually meaningless to everyday Catholic lay people, even those highly committed and involved.
Actually, if you’re going to translate Baltimore into Spanish, it should be “Pueblo de Casa Grande.”
(Baltimore is really Baile Ti Mhor.)
Oops. Baile an Ti Mhor, plus some fada/accent marks. (As usual, posting a pedantic correction guarantees that you make a pedantic mistake.)
Gaming definitely has a “release” mechanism where you get lost in the flow of things. Perhaps there is a comparison to be made to the manic clicking of links and self-absorption of pornography. However most games in of themselves are not evil, while porn is.
I’ve found I played a lot of games during my college years but only because I commuted to school and couldn’t hang out with my friends at school all the time. Since graduating I have less and less time for gaming as my schedule gets busier with “real life.” I do love my violent video games for the chance to compete against my friends, but I have more appreciation for a good single player campaign that combines a thought-provoking story with clever gameplay like the original Bioshock or Arkham Asylum for example.
I always watch the whole conference on EWTN; I find it interesting to see what bishops are saying what and any disagreements they might have. Also makes me more familiar with them as people instead of just names in my prayer list — I pray for our bishops everyday!
With regard to the new president, I was hoping for Philadelphia or Galveston-Houston, but with the former having to deal with such particularly large troubles at the moment, I also didn’t like the idea of him having more work, so I’m happy about the new v.p.
Concerning the confirmation slap, I have to admit I was disappointed it didn’t go through. I got slapped at my confirmation in Mexico (in the 90’s), a nice, good smack, which, combined with the heavenly scent of the chrism, is a beautiful memory for me. When I returned to L.A., I looked forward to this at some confirmations there, but no, I was disappointed!
During the discussion of the confirmation slap, Bishop Boyea stated it was a “misreading of what the gesture is about” and that it was “a gesture of peace, it is not a gesture of saying you are a soldier of Christ, that’s not the point of the gesture”. So now I’m wondering about this. Can someone tell me some more about the history of confirmation slap?