My now weekly posts...

To all of my like 1 or 2 readers out there, if you really care about reading something from my witty hands more frequently, you should know that reading other people's blogs is a major motivating factor for me to write more....

So a year, heh? Both hard to believe, and something that I wish I could go back to. This week has not been terribly helpful, but I think after today, things will be improving...

I seriously want to go to Catholic University of America right now. The history courses they are offering next semester are fantastic, plus they're offering Gaelic I, which I desperately wish to take. Money is going to decide it all, I fear. I did decide, however, that if I somehow get a seriously substantial scholarship, I am going to fly to the DC area in early April for a couple of days to really see if I could live there for 2 years. When I was supposed to be going to Boulder, I went, be really didn't look at the place and found it too big, stifling, and liberal. I'm not Rush Limbaugh, but I'm one of those old-fashioned types where sex belongs in a bedroom (not a dorm room!), where drinking should never be excessive, and the rigor of debate is best applicable when ad hominem insults are thrown out. I wonder frequently if Catholic would be the opposite. I mean, I understand there are instances where it is unjustified to require by force of law a woman to carry a child to term, but the only cases I see it morally acceptable is when both lives are threatened (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ectopic_pregnancy). However, sometimes morality cannot justifiably intercede on certain choices--a woman who is raped for example. It is more noble for the woman to carry the child, but I could never justify REQUIRING her to do so.
I also am quite liberal on same-sex marriage. The way I see it is that marriage under the auspices of the state is when two consenting adults form an exclusive agreement that includes shared living space, shared finances, and shared responsibilities in the care of children. If that is maintained, there is no fear of pedophila, bestiality, or polygamy from occurring, because they all violate the idea of a marriage contract. Incest would be harder to wrangle out, because then it's like "what if two siblings agree to this kind of a contract". My answer would be that the overall wellbeing of society would be so seriously damaged by the kinds of deformities that incestuous offspring might bring that it justifies inhibiting siblings, parent-child, etc being banned. Not to mention that I do not really consider myself Catholic. I've been hopping around in my beliefs for the last three or four years now. My general progression went from Catholic-->Eastern rite Catholic-->Eastern Orthodox-->Anglican-->Episcopalian-->Deist-->Agnostic-->Atheist-->Agnostic-->Humanistic Deist. I tend to believe that there is some higher power, but I don't know that it is active in the course of our existences.

Not to mention that I've figured that if the original Catholic faith in which I was brought up is right, I would rather be judged on the quality of my character, the generosity of my actions, against the meanness of temper and the proneness to human failing than on the basis of what I believed. In other words, judge me for what I do, not what I think.

I would wonder how that would correlate to the most "catholic" university in the country? How would I turn down all the invitations to rosaries, bible studies, etc., without offending people extraneously? How would I avoid the constant pressure to at least outwardly express a renaissance of those catholic sentiments I once had? Notice how I say avoid and not rise above---I have no intention of giving into peer pressure (never have done it before), and my conviction that the Catholic church in the US is fundamentally corrupt will not change.

In other, more exciting news, Ireland won pretty much everything in RBS6Nations--Grand Slam (winning against all other nations), Triple Crown (winning against all other teams on the British Isles), Championship (most points, beating all tiebreakers). I really want to buy a championship jersey, but Kaleena quite rudely mentioned that this would violate my money-hoarding tendencies...here are the AMAZING highlights of Wales v Ireland, played in Cardiff on Saturday...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFbe7vvEqjA. I seriously cried watching that. DAMN, I wish I was in Cardiff.

That's all I really have to say...