__
                    __ _ / _|_ __ ___
           _____   / _` | |_| '_ ` _ \   _____
          |_____| | (_| |  _| | | | | | |_____|
                   \__,_|_| |_| |_| |_|
                   Another Foggy Moment

 These are the continuing adventures of a typical resident
 of the self-proclaimed center of the Pugetopolis universe -
 Seattle. Most are true stories but some are made of whole-
 cloth. I ain't the Mayor, the Governor or a Big Shot. Just
 another Working Stiff with a Bad Attitude.

    ------------------------------------------------
    WARNING: This is not a Child-Proof Neighborhood.
    If you're a kid - scram!, beat it! you little
    punk before your Old Lady catches you and calls
    the cops. They'll throw you in the Big House in
    Walla Walla and won't let you out until you're
    89 years old. There. Don't say I didn't warn you.
    -------------------------------------------------

                        - 151 -

 DAY: 110

 Mr. Trummel's humble webpages remain up:
           contracabal.net [Washington State version]
           contracabal.org [International version]
 That can only mean that KingCo Inferior Court's Judge Jimmy 
 "The Token Twinkie" Doerty, hasn't yet succeeded in killing 
 Paul off. Even amongst the other bigots, Yahoos and low-life 
 on the Inferior Court bench, Jimmy kind of stands out - most 
 of the baliffs and janitors are more qualified to be a judge
 than he is. He's a little short on background and experience.

 Today (6/17) is the Big Day. It's when Judge Jimmy skips
 his usual trip to the steam baths to briefly take another
 gander at Paul's case. The sassy, ancient and sickly Mr.
 Trummel with a history of serious heart and prostrate
 problems, has now also acquired TB thanks to KingCo Jail.
 That filthy dump breeds the stuff. Needless to say, KingCo
 doesn't hold itself to the same health standards it does
 you and I. And to top it all off, Judge Jimmy has now 
 put him in Solitary Confinement - the most physically and 
 emotionally severe form of imprisonment allowed under the
 law. It's normally reserved for the most violent and
 recalcitrant prisoners, not retired old U Dub Journalism
 profs. Judge Jimmy has wandered off into the judicial
 Twilight Zone. The punishment bears little resemblance
 to the crime.

 Joe Harkins of the National Writers Union and United Auto
 Workers is picking up the slack that our News Nazis have
 left. He has established an informational webpage dedicated 
 to freeing Paul. It's at:

            freepaultrummel.com

 Judge Jimmy's email address is:

            james.doerty@metrokc.gov

 By most accounts, he's both computer and Net illiterate. 
 He don't know how to work e-mail. So don't be expecting
 a reply let alone an acknowledgement. But just so he'll 
 have to lie to say he got no complaints, give him Joe
 Welch's great line from the McCarthy Hearings: "Have you
 no decency, sir?" It's worth a try.

                            *

 "Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do. The
  best way to predict the future is to invent it."
                                          - Alan Kay -

 On Friday morning on the way to work I noticed all the flunkies
 out setting up chairs and such at many places around the U Dub
 campus. It was the start of Commencement Weekend. It's that
 wacky time of year when everybody dresses up in black evening
 gowns and wears those funny party hats. They brought in the
 Wicked Witch of the East, our former SecState Granny Albright, 
 to do the honors - minus her 500,000 dead Iraqi babies of 
 course. Didn't want them stinking up the place. She has the 
 distinction of being possbily the only Babe in DC we're fairly 
 certain President Bubba Jay didn't hit on. Aside from Hillary 
 of course.

 These are the little Dumplings who were bright enough to pay
 out Big Bucks for the privilege of spending the past four 
 years working their butts off 7 days a week/18 hours a day
 without pay. Not real bright eh. And now they finally get 
 their reward for all that accumulated debt and hard work - 
 a BIG piece of paper with their name on it. It must be a test 
 of some sort to seperate the feebleminded from their money eh.
 Nyuk! Nyuk! Nyuk! And people said Enron was a hussle. Pshaw!

 Now it's off to the Cube Farms where they'll work 12-hours 
 a day and get paid for 8 while throwing in Saturday and/or
 Sunday for free. Things are looking Up! A big improvement 
 over their university gig. The lucky ones will while away 
 the rest of their lives in obscurity counting off the days
 until retirement while performing meaningless tasks for 
 18-year old Dot.commie multi-millionaire bosses who got 
 kicked out of high school for their el33t H8kRz XpL0itz 
 with the school computers. Oh well. They'll be fully-vested 
 in only 10-years if the company lasts that long. If worse 
 comes to worse, there's always Social Security and a 
 dog-food diet at the Publix Hotel. 

 The less fortunate will be fighting for a spot out front 
 of the Safeway supermarket hussling spare change. Returning
 each evening to their cardboard box after grabbing a bite
 to eat out of the nearby dumpsters. Dodging illegal aliens 
 in security guard uniforms carrying big night-sticks. Surely 
 the student loan collectors will never find them HERE. Only
 the lucky few who know a foreign language will be able to 
 escape to a comfy job as assistant-manager at a 7-11.

 Meanwhile, they're crying for plumbers. They'll pay all their
 moving expenses, wine them, dine them  and put them up in a 
 ritzy hotel if they'll only come out here to work. No BS.
 
                              *

 The chicken trick worked and, despite our notorious NorthWest
 reputation for clouds, we got to see the solar eclipse last
 week. Not that anybody gave much of a damn. While I prepared
 the Sin Offering, a friend set his scope up on his porch and 
 projected the eclipse on a nearby wall for passers-by. They 
 all roundly ignored it. Though I did have many inquiries about 
 the chicken. I had to keep yelling, "Back off, pal! That's for 
 the Sun God!"

 We're surrounded by miracles and profound mysteries. We're
 also utterly oblivious to most of it. Pass me another beer
 and the remote will 'ya. I hear there's "Barney Miller"
 reruns on channel 156.

                              *

 The salmon pool at U Dub has been in Release Mode for about
 a month now. They bring down the water to half-level, yank
 the blocking-board and partly lift the protective netting
 to allow the birds in. They pump in just enough water to
 maintain the proper level. Most of the little boogers seemed 
 to take off right away on their 5 year journey, but a 
 sizeable number, judging from how many of them keep popping 
 up, lingered on. 

 A couple blue herons work the pond these days. Not together
 though. If one of them is fishing and another comes by there's
 a great ruckus raised. Herons make a real disgusting noise
 when they're pissed off and look like some sort of flying
 dinosaur. It's like a flying-lizard fight-scene out of 
 "Jurassic Park" when they go at each other. Even a dope 
 like me who doesn't speak their lingo has little difficulty 
 recognizing their displeasure with one another's company. 
 There always seems to be a couple duck pairs under there. 
 Finally after weeks of careful and patient reconnaissance, 
 some of the ravens have decided it's safe to go under the 
 net. But only with great caution. First sign of 'trouble' 
 (somebody walking by, peculiar cloud formations overhead, 
 etc.) they're outta there like a shot.

.....................................................................

               TV is chewing gum for the eyes.
                  
                    - Frank Lloyd Wright -
                          architect 
.....................................................................

                      THE BON-BON FERRIE

 Every once in a while working around different places, I run 
 into this rather peculiar, skinny little runt of a guy. If they 
 had a picture next to the 'homosexual' entry in the dictionary, 
 it would be of him. He is the very embodiment of the phrase 
 'Flaming Queer'. His clothes are all weird, wild colors of the 
 rainbow and, aside from his various orifice rings, he's always 
 got lots of erotic little jewelry thingees hang'n off of him. 
 The sort of stuff that makes pasty-faced, smiling secretaries 
 blush and titter when they get a close look. One of his high-top 
 tennis shoes is red and the other one is green. His hair changes 
 color at least once a month. And hyper!? Oi! He talks like a 
 human machine-gun and zips around like a demon. All day long 
 this crazy old man giggles and squeaks and prances about like 
 Pee Wee Herman on steroids. He wickedly and enthusiastically 
 flaunts his Gayness in the world's face with reckless, care-
 free and exhuberant abandon. He don't know the meaning of the 
 word 'discretion'. He just lets it ALL hang out. 

 I love this guy. It's always a very happy occasion when we run 
 into one another. I told him if I was Queer I'd be all over his 
 ass like maple syrup on a pancake. Being the rather broadminded 
 and tolerant guy he is, he has never held it against me that 
 I'm Straight. Though he is puzzled as to why anyone would 
 deliberately expose themselves to ridicule and embarassment 
 with such a perverse sexual orientation. What can I do but
 shrug. Somebody has to feed the children of divorce lawyers.

 Needless to say, his appearance is about as far as most people 
 get with him. The first rule in America is: You are whatever 
 you appear to be. We're big on uniforms and only rarely venture 
 beyond the surface of things. So it's not surprising that most 
 people almost automatically groan when they see this guy. If he 
 weren't the best at what he does, they'd throw him outta there 
 in the first five minutes. But in fact he IS the best at what 
 he does and he's saved many a well-suited ass in his time. So 
 they live with it. They content themselves with behind-the-back
 snickering and dirty little jokes.

 The most striking characteristic of this man, aside from looks,
 is his unconditional happiness. Rarely have I ever run into 
 anyone who so blatantly and defiantly enjoys life. His sense
 of wonder at the universe is uncharacteristically high for an
 adult. He is a specialist at fishing pearls out of shit. And
 he wants to share some of his joy with others. So aside from 
 the many skills he brings to his job, he also always brings 
 brownies, fudge, candies and little chocolate Easter bunnies
 which he freely passes out to everyone like a demented Bon-Bon 
 Ferrie. Much of it he hand-makes himself. See's ain't got 
 nothing to match his chocolate covered cheeries. Guaranteed.

 What makes this so unusual is, he once told me he's lost 50 
 friends in the past few years to AIDS. Like everyone else, 
 I've heard of how devistating AIDS has been but this really 
 brought the notion home with a bang. It's like being in a 
 war-time Army. He's been through the agony of nursing his 
 long-time partner right from diagnosis to the grave. And he 
 stuck with him all the way. No Newt Gingrich deathbed 
 "Sayonara Sucker" routine from him. He says he's perpetually 
 been supporting other friends and acquaintances who are 'in 
 the queue'. Most of my friendships have invovlved beer, 
 parties and Good Times. Many of his involve hospitals, 
 medical therapies and holding the hands of dying people. 
 Life's a little different when you're Queer.
 
 I always think of this when I hear people say that relationships 
 between Gays are shallow and superficial - a capricious thing 
 based on a physical whim. In an age when Straight couples don't 
 take that 'in sickness and in health' thing as anything more 
 than a meaningless formality, guys like the Bon-Bon Ferrie take 
 it literally. I think of this when people call Queers perverts 
 and sub-normals.  There ain't nothing perverted or abnormal 
 about genuine love and affection between two adults. And the 
 Bon-Bon Ferrie could clearly teach such people a few lessons 
 in that department.

 His fearless 'defiance' has always intrigued me. We have a rep
 for banging down any nailheads that stick up. While people are
 a little bit more careful these days about candidly expressing 
 their 'ideas' about Colored Folks, they aren't at all shy about 
 sharing with others their feelings about Gays. Gays are still 
 fair game for the bigot half-wit crowd. A crowd Colored Folks
 have a sizeable share in. He's aware of the fact that he has
 this effect on people but he insists he isn't 'cooning it up'
 for the effect. He simply feels that since he has no control 
 over their feelings, why bother trying to control them? Nothing
 he can do about it. In effect he throws the ball back into 
 their court and says, "You deal with it. I can't." and goes
 about his business of being nice to people and acting a little
 wacky. Since he is a hired-gun he has little incentive to fit
 into the prevailing Corporate Mind Think anyways. And even
 less inclination to try. Works for me.

 He says he grew up on a farm in Oklahoma. Not exactly the Queer
 Cultural Mecca of America. But not only did his family have no
 particular problem with his orientation, the neighbors didn't
 give him a rough time either. He has many fond memories and
 friends back there and hints that it's where he wants to retire
 to when the time comes. This kind of surprised me. When I think 
 of Okies, I think of Bible-thumping, ass-kicking Rednecks, not 
 smooshy, tolerant live-and-let-live types. Another great theory 
 out the window. Merle Haggard hears about this there could be
 trouble.
  
 When I was a kid, Queers were totally invisible. It was like
 they didn't exist. I learned recently that a favorite Great
 Aunt was a lesbian. A sweet and generous lady who was a very
 devote Catholic, she passed away alone and spurned by her 
 family. To this day they can hardly mention her name without 
 much snickering and winking. Like it's any of their goddam 
 business. I don't think any of my uncles were Gay but a few
 of them were priests so...who knows? 

 When I was in the seminary studying to be a priest, two guys 
 got booted out for 'being too friendly' with one another. We 
 understood what it meant even if we didn't understand the
 mechanics behind the concept. None of us had seen anything 
 obvious in their behavior. The subject was so taboo that when, 
 in all innocence, I asked a priest in the confessional what 
 'sodomy' was, he about freaked and wanted to know why I was 
 asking. I thought it had something to do with salt. 'Sodium'...
 sodomy...salt...I sensed a pattern eh. But I was mystified 
 as to how you could get sinful with salt.
 
 As Gays became more visible in the 60's and we could see 
 that they didn't have horns and had many of the same 
 aspirations as the rest of us, the attitude began to slowly 
 change. Nonetheless, my Old Man's worst nightmare right to 
 his dying day was a black and white Gay couple. To him it 
 was the very definition of perversion and perversity - 
 worse than bank robbers, goat-shaggers and Commies all 
 rolled together.

 The first Gay guy I ever worked with knowing he was Gay, 
 was one of my bosses back in the early 70's. He was kind 
 of coordinating a bunch of us spread all over the country. 
 We occasionally had to come back to the Home Office for 
 meetings and the such. We knew he was Gay but the Big Boyz 
 upstairs didn't. Or didn't want to know. When he made the 
 friendly suggestion that I might want to save a few bucks 
 and stay at his place instead of a hotel, it put me in a 
 weird position. Here I was this urbane, debonaire and 
 sophisticated Modern Man and all I could think of was: 
 what does he REALLY mean? He's a nice guy and all but he's 
 a Queer. Is he going to hit on me? To cut a long story short, 
 I was too much of a wimp and too broke to refuse. I stayed, 
 sweating bullets the whole time half expecting to get raped 
 in my sleep. But nothing every happened. I saved a bundle 
 and another Booger Man bit the dust. We remained friends 
 for many years. Oh yeah... a year or so after the above 
 incident one of the Big Boyz upstairs decided to enhance 
 his career by 'outing' this Gay guy. It was okay to fire 
 Queers for being Queer back then. 

 I've worked with many others in the years since. Some were 
 real assholes and others were Holy Fools like the Bon-Bon 
 Ferrie but most were just pretty ordinary and boring. It 
 doesn't make a difference. Being Gay neither qualifies a
 person for sainthood nor demonic status. And the affection
 Gays and Lesbians feel for one another, regardless of how 
 differently they express it, is indistinguishable from that 
 of Straights. It's the way God made them. If it's good 
 enough for Him, it's good enough for me. I don't care what 
 it says in the Bible.

.....................................................................

 "Very handsome boys, much cleaner shaven and prettier than the
  American special forces."

                - Afghan Commander Malim Jan -
         (two wives, several boyfriends, many goats)
                  re: British Royal Marines
.....................................................................

                      'OL YELLER'S TWAT
               (aka The War Against Terrorism)

 As the raving bigots of Israel try to hide behind fences while
 attempting to obliterate the Palestinians with their American
 fighter-aircraft and helicopter-gunships, Uncle Sammy stands
 boldly at their side. Sammy's never met a bigot he didn't like.
 From the Redneck Crackers of Georgia to the Afrikaans of South
 Africa, he's always been there for them. Even these fake white-
 men in Israel, these Dune Coons with their uppity European 
 manners and their American relatives, are better than nothing. 
 They kill little brown people. That's good enough for him.

 Yeller's merrie band of lunatics is threatening to spin out of
 control. They ALL think they're President now. Why the hell not.
 They got as good a claim to the White House as our Executive
 coon-ass hillbilly does. It's not like anybody elected him either.

 One of the first victims of the new Homeland Security Office is
 the Lawrence Livermore National Lab at UC Berkeley. Just out of
 the blue and with no warning whatsoever, the brainless Boob who 
 runs HSO transferred LLNL's entire budget off to other places 
 while leaving its staff in place - in effect, employed but 
 with nothing to do. Oopsie! LLNL is Uncle Sammy's premier lab
 for everything from nuke warhead design to biotech research. It 
 is, and has been for over 50-years, an irreplaceable national 
 defense asset. I think I know where Osama has been hiding.
 He's a budget analyst with Homeland Security. Who would have
 ever thought of looking there?

                               !

 Yeller's TWAT seems to be going great. So far it hasn't cost us
 a cent. As long as it's free, Americans will cut him no end of
 slack. The second it starts to cost us money - watch out! LBJ
 understood this principle very well. He tried to Do the Vietnam
 War without any tax increases. It didn't work of course and
 resulted in economic mayhem later down the road but he was long
 gone by then so what did he care? It was somebody else's problem.

 President Yellowbelly is still in Mall Mode, happily racking up
 vast amounts of stuff with his credit card pretty much oblivious
 to how he plans to pay for all this. And both the Democrats and
 Republicans in Congress are whooping it up right along with him
 uttering hardly a discouraging word. After blowing $60 Billion
 Bucks on an unsuccessful attempt to capture Osama and Mullah
 Omar, he's now going for the Bigtime: a whole new, bloated, 
 buck-sucking Federal department duplicating and triplicating 
 stuff everyone else is already doing. Another Federal Turkey 
 Farm just stuffed to the rafters with retarded, clock-watching, 
 donut-munching, do-nothing Paycheck Patriots who really couldn't 
 give a flying fig about your safety or security. Just keep
 them paychecks roll'n baby.

 What makes Homeland especially unique amongst bureaucatic
 boondoggles is the obvious fact that we have no significant
 domestic security problem. The WTC attacks, for all their
 dramatic horror, failed to slow us down for more than a
 couple hours. The crappy design and sloppy workmanship of
 the towers killed 100 people to every one the terrorists
 killed. The FAA's shut-down of air services did far more 
 economic damage than the terrorists did. Nine months 
 after 9/11 even with the unprecedented powers to trample 
 all over the civil and legal rights of everyone in sight, 
 our FBI/CIA/NSA/BATF and military intelligence screwups
 have come up with only 1 guy under indictment. A Space 
 Cadet who doesn't even seem know what planet he's on. 
 That's it. No secret cells; no suitcase nukes; no apartments 
 stuffed with TNT; no nut'n. Camp X in Cuba has been an even 
 bigger waste of time. They haven't even come up with any 
 leads. War? What war? In your dreams pal.

 Without the benefit of a proper investigation of the events
 of 9/11, we nonetheless know beyond a shadow of a doubt that
 the reason the attacks succeeded was because the CIA failed
 to infiltrate the attackers group, the INS allowed 20 guys
 with terrorist connections into the country, the FBI failed
 to see a pending attack that was 'street news' in NYC weeks
 before it occurred, the FAA let armed attackers board the
 flights without any annoying checks and our military sat
 on its fat ass and did nothing when we did come under attack. 
 Worse, our Presidental retard was too stupid to catch the 
 obvious clues that came in from all over the world of what 
 was coming. Our guardians and protectors failed us. That's 
 why the attacks succeeded. We don't need a new Department of 
 Homeland Security. We need a new Department of Bureaucratic 
 Ass-Kicking. 

 When the bill for this coneroo comes due it's gonna be a real
 Whopper. They'll gut every entitlement program they can get 
 their hands on to start out. Raping the poor and powerless 
 first, seems to be Congress' standard way of getting 'in the 
 mood' for this stuff. But there ain't a helluva lot left to 
 rape and it ain't gonna be enough. They'll have to start 
 hitting the taxes - heavily. You think it's bad now? Uncle 
 Sammy gonna OWN your ass after this.

 The L.A. Times recently said that one out of every three people
 working in L.A. are working off-the-books for cash. It's hard
 to gauge such a thing and really know its extent, but a guess
 of 1/3rd of the work-force indicates pretty massive, widespread
 extent. These aren't druggies and hookers. These are ordinary 
 working people - the full spectrum from white-collar paper-
 shufflers to blue-collar carpenters. The tax and regulatory 
 burden has become excessive. So excessive that both employers 
 and employees are looking for ways to opt out. This is costing 
 both state and Federal governments Mucho Bucks in lost taxes. 
 Our underground economy is not only growing by leaps and 
 bounds, it's rapidly attaining a new respectiblility and 
 clout. Is it right? Is it wrong? It just IS. Deal with it.

 And why not? Uncle Sammy has pretty much thrown his Social 
 Contract with us in the trash. Millions of Americans are
 without health insurance, minimum wage is a joke, a university
 education has become a privilege reserved for the rich, safety
 and health overseers are chronically underfunded/understaffed,
 our courts blatantly sell justice to the highest bidder, and
 now our very Constitution and Bill of Rights have been dumped. 
 Our elections have been turned into corporate raffles conducted
 by our News Nazis, rendering taxpayers irrelevant as far as
 the decision-making loop is concerned. 

 What exactly is the incentive for staying In The System? It 
 isn't interested in our welfare. It don't care about us. It 
 has no intention of protecting us or our interests. Our many 
 governments bleed us for taxes while totaly ignoring us and 
 giving us ever less and less in return. Too stupid to even 
 maintain a proper infrastructure. Screw them.

 The bill for Yeller's TWAT should accelerate this process quite
 a lot. This would be a good time to begin exploring your options.

....................................................................

 "I believe part of what propels science is the thirst for wonder.
  It's a very powerful emotion. All children feel it. In a first
  grade classroom everybody feels it; in a twelfth grade classroom
  almost nobody feels it, or at least acknowledges it. Something
  happens between first and twelfth grade, and its not just puberty.
  Not only do the schools and the Media not teach much skepticism,
  there is also little encouragement for this stirring sense of
  wonder."

                          - Carl Sagan -
                     "The Burden of Skepticism"
                    Sceptical Inquirer, Fall '87
....................................................................

                       -  MONDO VATICANO -

 Next Saturday we remember St. John Fisher of England. He was
 one of those guys even a King doesn't have enough money to
 buy. Considered a co-founder of England's Cambridge University, 
 he was as known for his humanistic scholarship and love of books 
 as he was for his piety. Born into a merchant family in Yorkshire, 
 his dad sent him off to Trinity College Cambridge to be educated. 
 John must have been a pretty smart cookie as by the age of 22 he 
 had not only been given a special dispensation to be ordained as 
 a priest a bit earlier than usual, they shortly afterwards awarded 
 him his Doctorate in Divinity then made him both Master and
 Vice-Chancellor of the college! He was practically running the 
 place.

 King Henry VII's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, was so impressed
 by him that she insisted he become her chaplain. It was like
 getting hired into the Royal Firm. Together, they worked up a
 plan to make Cambridge one of the best schools in the world.
 At the time, no Hebrew or Greek was taught anywhere. So he
 hired his buddy, the legendary humanist Erasmus, as a professor 
 of Greek and Divinity. The library at Cambridge was a bit of a 
 joke. It only had 300 books in it. John loved books a great deal 
 and Lady Beaufort lent him her credit card so he could go on a 
 spending spree to fatten it up a bit. Many scholarships were
 established to attract the Brightest & Best. At the age of only
 35, Lady Beaufort then made him Chancellor of Cambridge to ensure 
 things got done right.

 None of this had escaped Roma's notice. Shortly after being made
 Chancellor of Cambridge, they named him a bishop. Pretty much
 able to pick any diocese he wanted, he chose Rochester. It was  
 the smallest and poorest in England at the time. The Bishop's 
 Palace was such a dilapidated, run-down dump Erasmus refused 
 to step in the place. But John loved it and often referred to 
 it as his 'old wife'. When later offered the richer dioceses 
 of Lincoln and Ely, he turned them down saying he "wouldn't 
 leave his poor old wife for the richest widow in all England". 
 He had a sense of humor too eh.

 Still Chancellor at Cambridge, he lived very simply at his old,
 run-down home in Rochester consciencously taking care of his
 episcopal duties there. Aside from the usual stuff of preciding
 over confirmations, he personally made the rounds of the local
 hospitals visiting the sick and personally tended to the many 
 homeless in that area. Erasmus said, "There is not in the nation
 a more learned man nor a holier bishop." King Henry VIIth even
 declared, "No other prince or kingdom had so distinguished
 a prelate." Everybody was impressed by him.

 Didn't impress John. He was too busy writing books on the
 side. He even decided at the age of 48 to learn Greek. That 
 went so well, that at the age 51 he started up on Hebrew. 
 He soon had collected one of the finest libraries in all of 
 Europe. 

 Then came Henry the VIIIth. John tried to get along with him.
 While he publically denounced Henry's affection for war and 
 strongly fought the anti-clerical laws he was forcing through
 the House of Commons, he went out of his way to try to invent
 a way for England's bishops to endorse Henry as head of the
 Church in England without compromising their loyalty to Roma.
 Though he didn't sign it himself. He was trying to give Henry 
 a chance to grow up and act his age.

 The final straw came when Henry divorced Queen Catherine of
 Aragon. John was Queen Catherine's personal chaplain. He 
 fought against the divorce with all the resources at his 
 command. This pissed off Henry greatly. He sent agents out
 to try to kill off John. There were attempts to poison him
 and even an asassination attempt. Henry demanded that John 
 sign the Oath of Supremacy acknowledging Henry as head of 
 Church of England. John refused. So Henry had the old man 
 stripped of his diocese and ordered him arrested. 

 Realizing his mortality was now upon him, John set about 
 settling his affairs and giving away the little he had. The 
 books went to Cambridge where they'd be safe. Thousands of 
 people flocked to Rochester to say their goodbyes to an old 
 friend. Riding bareheaded through the city on his way to 
 London to turn himself in, he blessed the crowds lining the 
 road. In London he was again ordered to sign the Supremacy 
 Oath and again refused. They threw him in the Hoosegow. A 
 secret courier from Henry VIII visited him a couple weeks
 later in his cell pleading with him to relent. He refused.
 He didn't realize it at the time but he'd just got a raise 
 and promotion to Cardinal by Pope Paul III. While it did
 John no good whatsoever, it pissed off Henry VIII even more. 
 A short while later John was hauled into Westminster Hall 
 and sentenced to death, with the execution to take place 
 on June 17, 1535.

 So weak and emaciated from his imprisonment that he had to 
 be carried out in a chair, he thanked his guards for their 
 courtesies, blessed the crowd, then bent his head for the
 executioner who chopped it off. His head was displayed on 
 London Bridge for 2 weeks then thrown into the Thames. The 
 rest of him was thrown in a grave hole in Barking and 
 covered over - no marker, no shroud, no nut'n.

 He was canonized as a saint in 1935 by that old bookworm and
 former head of the Vatican Library, the historical scholar
 and inveterate mountain-climber - Pope Pius XI. 

			+	+

 They're finally off and running at the Bishops Conference in 
 Texas. Every pagan and heathen in the Press Corps is down
 there to cover it. No children's choirs. That would be asking
 for trouble. Don't even mention altarboys.

 With 75% of American Catholics highly unimpressed by the
 Bishops performance so far and this year's pervert priest
 body-count running at 218 priests and 4 bishops, humility
 seems like a good strategy. After remaining mum throughout
 this entire mess, the bishop's powerless figurehead leader 
 finally got off his fat butt and apologized. He just wanted 
 to make sure he had all the network cameras pointing at him
 first. Sure it's kinda impersonal but it's The Spin that
 counts. It might have actually meant something if he had
 given some previous indication that he gave a damn.

 The big question on the Bishops minds is whether they should
 obey the law and turn in any pervert priests they encounter
 engaging in felony sexual assault of children or whether they
 should give the poor mug a break and hide him. What the heck. 
 We've all raped a kid or two from time to time. It's perfectly 
 natural. A man's got his urges eh and there aren't always nuns 
 around. You go with what you've got. Little Timmy will get over 
 it in time. It's not like it's a Big Deal or something. And 
 he'll be able to tell his grandkids how he got Cornholed by 
 a real priest once upon a time. Won't they be impressed! 

 The law, as we're all aware, takes a somewhat more prudish
 view of such shenanigans. Officer Friendly will bust your
 butt if he ever catches you diddling kiddies. He ain't got
 no 'first one is free' rule. Because of virulent anti-Catholic
 bias in America, our court-system is absolutely stuffed with
 Protestant judges whose greatest dream is to convict a Papist
 priest. There just isn't anyone around except Supreme Court 
 Justice "Fat Tony" Scalia to put the Fix in for Fadder and
 cut him a little slack. It takes a long time before you get 
 to talk to the Fat Man.
 
 Instead of a Bishop emerging to give sage and wise counsel to
 Catholics in this extraordiary time, we get this... 

 After setting a new modern record for pimping for his pervert
 priests, breaking the one recently established by Boston Cardinal
 Law, Kentucky Bishop Williams knew when to quit. And he did exactly 
 that after it was revealed that he also was dipping into the 
 altarboys just like his perverts. That explains that.

 Joining him in the Vatican Pogey Line will be New York Auxillary 
 Bishop John McCarthy. He quit after admitting to having a number 
 of affairs with women. WOMEN!? Oh oh. If all the Bishops and
 priests who have been getting a little Nookey on the side start
 quitting there ain't gonna be anybody left. Bishop McCarthy is
 setting a very dangerous precedent here.

 Auxillary Bishop Quinn in Cleveland came up with a bright idea
 a few years ago to help out dioceses who were facing legal
 problems with their pervert priests. He suggested they send all
 their embarassing and incriminating paperwork to the Papal
 Nuncio in Washington, D.C. As Vatican 'ambassador' to the United
 States, he would have diplomatic immunity from subpoenas and
 Grand Juries. The Vatican is an independant nation.
 
			+	+

 Sure he was a vicious and unrepentent thug, but he had enough 
 money to buy Brooklyn Bishop Tom Daily's ass. And so former 
 Mafia Boss John Gotti, "The Dapper Don", will be buried in a 
 consecrated Catholic cemetery after dying this past week. So 
 much for the sanctity of official Church burial grounds eh. 
 What a freak'n joke. A garbage bag down a septic tank would
 have been a bit more appropriate.

			+	+

 One of the Curia Queens, Cardinal Maradiaga, described as a 
 "leading South American Cardinal" (snicker, snicker) and "a 
 possible successor to JP-2" (right behind the Vatican janitor) 
 lashed out against the American Media, particularily Ted Turner, 
 for employing Nazi and Stalinist tactics against Mother Church 
 in its current vile and pernicious anti-Catholic Jihad. Yeah. 
 Why can't they be nice like the Vatican and keep it down to 
 lying, stonewalling, strong-arming witnesses, blaming victims, 
 hiding felons and threatening whistle-blowers? Show a little 
 class eh.

			+	+

 The Benedictine Monastery of Conception Abbey in Conception,
 Missouri was the scene of a double murder. Two monks were shot
 to death and two others were wounded. The man who did this, a
 Catholic, was distraught over an ancient divorce annulment the
 Church gave his former wife decades ago. It had nothing whatsoever 
 to do with Conception Abbey. They just happened to be convenient 
 when the guy went over the edge. The monks will be attending the
 funerals of both the victims and the killer (he shot himself
 afterwards). Sometimes there's just nothing left to do but
 grieve. This appears to be another one of those Prozac Flip-Outs.

----------------------------------------------------
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 on you baby. He'll teriyaki your sorry butt and turn
 it into Lutefisk.
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