Month: February 2005

This Week's Show (Feb. 3, 2005)

LISTEN TO THE SHOW.

DOWNLOAD THE SHOW.

HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Does Jesus suffer anew in the Mass?
  • Where does the GIRM say lay ministers can do more than one duty at Mass?
  • Is the Holy Spirit the Love shared by the Father and the Son?
  • Can laity give the blessing of throats on St. Blaise Day?
  • What is the difference between religious priests’ vow of celibacy and diocesan priests’ promise of celibacy?
  • Why isn’t the KJV authorized by the Catholic Church?
  • How to square it when two councils say different and contradictory things.
  • If God is really Present in the Eucharist, why can’t we confess our sins to Jesus when we take Communion?
  • Must we take saints names at Confirmation?
  • Can parochial schools turn over sacramental preparation for children to their parents?
  • Should Catholics study The Purpose-Driven Life? What to do if your parish is doing this?
  • How do you know if you’re called to a vocation?
  • Are relics of the True Cross true?
  • If Judas hadn’t betrayed Christ, would we have been saved?
  • When Jesus forgave those who crucified him, was Judas included?
  • Where is the best discussion of the dating of Christ’s birth? Did the Church Fathers believe it was December 25th?
  • Can a mortal sin be accidental? Can Protestants who don’t believe in mortal sin mortally sin?

This Week’s Show (Feb. 3, 2005)

LISTEN TO THE SHOW.

DOWNLOAD THE SHOW.

HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Does Jesus suffer anew in the Mass?
  • Where does the GIRM say lay ministers can do more than one duty at Mass?
  • Is the Holy Spirit the Love shared by the Father and the Son?
  • Can laity give the blessing of throats on St. Blaise Day?
  • What is the difference between religious priests’ vow of celibacy and diocesan priests’ promise of celibacy?
  • Why isn’t the KJV authorized by the Catholic Church?
  • How to square it when two councils say different and contradictory things.
  • If God is really Present in the Eucharist, why can’t we confess our sins to Jesus when we take Communion?
  • Must we take saints names at Confirmation?
  • Can parochial schools turn over sacramental preparation for children to their parents?
  • Should Catholics study The Purpose-Driven Life? What to do if your parish is doing this?
  • How do you know if you’re called to a vocation?
  • Are relics of the True Cross true?
  • If Judas hadn’t betrayed Christ, would we have been saved?
  • When Jesus forgave those who crucified him, was Judas included?
  • Where is the best discussion of the dating of Christ’s birth? Did the Church Fathers believe it was December 25th?
  • Can a mortal sin be accidental? Can Protestants who don’t believe in mortal sin mortally sin?

Introducing: The Wild Woman Of Borneo!

NOTE: I’m about to break my no-names-in-the-main-blog-section rule (Rule #15) due to the special nature of this post.

Down yonder, Anna Louise writes:

Hello Jimmy!

Apa khabar, Jimmy? (How are you doing, Jimmy?)

Khabar baik! Dan Bu?

Not only am I Malaysian – I’m from Borneo too =)Would that confer on
me the title of "The Wild Woman from Borneo"? Lol! – that would be
pretty cool.

I hereby confer on you the title of "The Wild Woman of Borneo" by the power vested in me as blog administrator!

(That and $3.50 will get you a cup of coffee in America.)

I read your blog every day – there’s so much for my education,
thought and good entertainment here; and of course, it has helped
strengthen my love for the Faith and the Church.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks much! I will endeavor to do so!

Amare Et Severe,

Anne Louise

Latin, too! Cool.

Dear CNN . . .

I recently submitted the following story idea to CNN via their online story idea submission page:

The blogosphere has once again surfaced a story that MSM sources such as CNN cannot afford to ignore.

At the Davos conference, CNN news chief Eason Jordan recently made remarks of an inflammatory nature regarding the U.S. military. According to eye-witnesses of the event, he accused the U.S. military of deliberately killing journalists.

Subsequently, Mr. Jordan has said that he did not make these remarks and that he was misunderstood, however eye-witnesses continue to differ, offering more detailed accounts of what was said.

Bloggers have subsequently unearthed a string of similarly inflammatory and apparently baseless remarks previously made by Mr. Jordan, casting doubt on his recent disclaimer.

CNN now owes the public a full accounting of the matter. The conference was, according to eye-witnesses, videotaped. This videotape should be produced, allowing all to see for themselves what Mr. Jordan said.

If Mr. Jordan did make the remarks attributed to him, he needs to either produce evidence substantiating them or be fired. If he did not make the remarks, showing the videotape will clear CNN of a very damaging blow to its already tattered credibility.

Failure to address this matter in a head-on manner will inevitably result in the same kind of damage to CNN that CBS recently experienced when it stonewalled for almost two weeks at the onset of the Rathergate scandal.

If CNN values its reputation, it must come clean on this matter.

SUBMIT YOUR OWN STORY IDEA TO CNN.

BACKGROUND ON THIS STORY.

MORE BACKGROUND.

AND MORE BACKGROUND.

AND MORE.

AND MORE.

Friday TV Roundup

STAR TREK ENTERPRISE:

"United"

Trapped on a remote-controlled Romulan ship, Trip and Malcolm must outwit their captors to escape. NOTE: This is the second episode of the Andorian arc and continues to lay the groundwork for the Romulan War leading to the founding of the Federation.

STARGATE SG-1:


"It’s Good to Be King", Episode #813.

While attempting to warn a former adversary of an approaching threat, the SG-1 team stumbles upon what may be an ancient time machine. NOTE: Features the return of everyone’s favorite semi-bad guy, ex-Col. Maybourne of the NID.

STARGATE ATLANTIS


"Hot Zone", Episode #113.

McKay must stop a deadly virus from spreading throughout the population of Atlantis.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA


"You Can’t Go Home Again", Episode #105.

Adama and Lee put the fleet at risk while searching for Kara.

MONK


"Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever"

After Monk witnesses a Chinese mob killing, he goes into protective custody and is taken to a remote cabin in the woods, where he uncovers another murder.

What Happens If You Microwave A HamsterBad Guy?

That’s a question the boys at the Pentagon have been pondering.

SEEMS THEY HAVE AN ANSWER.

Later this year they’re going to be deploying non-lethal microwave weapons that can microwave a whole crowd of people at once, making their skin heat up and causing them to disperse.

The aptly-named Active Denial System (ADS) has a range of one kilometer and is useful both for crowd control and for denying insurgents the ability to launch attacks while hiding in crowds.

One of a wide range of new-fangled non-lethal weapons the boys at the Pentagon have in development.

What Happens If You Microwave A HamsterBad Guy?

That’s a question the boys at the Pentagon have been pondering.

SEEMS THEY HAVE AN ANSWER.

Later this year they’re going to be deploying non-lethal microwave weapons that can microwave a whole crowd of people at once, making their skin heat up and causing them to disperse.

The aptly-named Active Denial System (ADS) has a range of one kilometer and is useful both for crowd control and for denying insurgents the ability to launch attacks while hiding in crowds.

One of a wide range of new-fangled non-lethal weapons the boys at the Pentagon have in development.

The Day Star Trek Died

Star Trek Enterprise is dead. It has been cancelled.

Press release:

02.02.2005

Star Trek: Enterprise Cancelled!

After four seasons, Star Trek: Enterprise has reached the end of its mission …

PRESS RELEASE

UPN and Paramount Network Television have jointly announced that this will be the final season of Star Trek: Enterprise on UPN. [Production will continue until the end of this season, which will finish shooting in March.] The series finale will air on Friday, May 13, 2005.

"Star Trek has been an important part of UPN’s history, and Enterprise has carried on the tradition of its predecessors with great distinction," said Dawn Ostroff, President, Entertainment, UPN. "We’d like to thank Rick Berman, Brannon Braga and an incredibly talented cast for creating an engaging, new dimension to the Star Trek universe on UPN, and we look forward to working with them, and our partners at Paramount Network Television, on a send-off that salutes its contributions to The Network and satisfies its loyal viewers."

David Stapf, President of Paramount Network Television, said, "The creators, stars and crew of Star Trek: Enterprise ambitiously and proudly upheld the fine traditions of the Star Trek franchise. We are grateful for their contributions to the legacy of Trek and commend them on completing nearly 100 exciting, dramatic and visually stunning episodes. All of us at Paramount warmly bid goodbye to Enterprise, and we all look forward to a new chapter of this enduring franchise in the future."

A prequel to the original "Star Trek" series, STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE premiered on UPN on Sept. 26, 2001, and aired for its first three seasons on Wednesdays (8:00-9:00PM, ET/PT). On Oct. 8, 2004, STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE moved into its current time on Fridays (8:00-9:00PM, ET/PT). Through its four-year run, STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE produced a total of 98 episodes and earned four Emmy Awards [SOURCE; cowboy hat tip to the reader who e-mailed this].

With the passing of Enterprise, the Star Trek franchise now goes into hibernation. The franchise has been suffering from fatigue for a number of years, such that even when it has produced quality work (as recently on Enterprise), audiences haven’t tuned in. There has also been a lot of competition from other sci-fi shows, which weren’t on the air when the franchise re-launched years ago with Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The cancellation was expected. A year ago Star Trek was only barely renewed, and the Paramount brass apparenly told the creators of the series that they had a year to wrap it up in a nice way. It was also moved to Friday nights, which is a death-night for ratings in general (The Original Series was also moved to Friday night in its last season), and especially so for sci-fi series when the Sci-Fi Channel has such an excellent lineup opposite a show like Star Trek Enterprise.

The franchise is likely to lie fallow for several years, though there are indications that a Star Trek movie (reportedly involving exclusively new characters) is in development.

Though, personally, I wish Enterprise had got to finish its planned seven-year run, I recognize that a hiatus will be good for the franchise, allowing the field to lie fallow creatively and, more importantly, allowing the audience to regain an appetite for Star Trek. (Absence makes the heart grow fonder, after all.)

Whether its eventual re-launch (pun intended) will be successful is entirely up in the air. (Star Wars’ re-launch wasn’t that successful, despite eager fan anticipation.)

At the risk of speaking ill of the dead, allow me to offer a few thoughts on why Enterprise failed.

Apart from the phenomena of franchise fatigue and competition from other shows (and, indeed, a whole network devoted to sci-fi), the creators of the show fundamentally misjudged what the audience wanted to see. They made it too similar to previous Star Trek series in some ways and too different from them in others. What they produced in the early seasons of Enterprise was virtually a mirror image of what they needed to do.

Specifically:

  1. They misjudged the main plot of the show. The fans were not excited about seeing another Star Trek series where the characters are just wide-eyed explorers of the galaxy. We’d seen that before. What the fans were interested in seeing was the Romulan War and the founding of the Federation. Yet the creators stupidly set the series too early in Star Trek chronology for us to see that except in brief flash-forwards (complicated by the complicated and never-satisfactorily-resolved Temporal Cold War plotline).
  2. The fans were not interested in seeing the sexy aspects of the show, which at times verged on soft-core porn (or so I am given to understand from film critic definitions, never having watched any kind of porn, myself). Sex has always been around on Star Trek, but it has been handled in a less in-your-face way than in the current series.
  3. The series showed itself too similar to prior shows by introducing in its first season implausible meetings with aliens not-met-in-this-way or not-met-until-later-series (the Klingons, the Ferengi, the Borg). Rationalizations were offered for why these meetings didn’t violate established first contact facts, but they still alienated fans (no pun intended).
  4. The series showed itself too different from prior shows by reinterpreting major facts about beloved races, most notably the Vulcans, who are very different from how they have been portrayed in later series (a fact that was recently rectified in the current season, but only after alienating fans for three seasons).
  5. The series also was too different from other series by its "packaging." Instead of the vibrant color and slick design schemes that previous series had, Enterprise was far more drab in its color scheme and mundane in its design. While some of the latter was justified by its closeness to the present in time, the creators went too far.
  6. The creators also made a boneheaded mistake by not having the words "Star Trek" in the title of the series in its early seasons. This is a classic illustration of how the "re-thinking" of Star Trek simply went too far.

Having said all that, I look forward to the DVDs of the series, which will begin to be released May 3, just ten days before the final episode airs. The DVDs will allow me to see many of the episodes for the first time. (Since I had The Dinkiest Cable IN THE WORLD when the series began, I didn’t see a lot of them; also I was sufficiently unimpressed by what I did see that I wasn’t motivated to tune in when I moved and got better cable.)

To end on a happy note, the current season of Enterprise is much better than what has come before, and the final episodes of the season are supposed to be even better. The last episode is rumored to be very good and to serve not only as a fitting end to the series (given its cancellation) but also to be a "Valentine" to long-time Star Trek fans.

Watch ’em while you can, folks!

The Day Star Trek Died

Star Trek Enterprise is dead. It has been cancelled.

Press release:

02.02.2005

Star Trek: Enterprise Cancelled!

After four seasons, Star Trek: Enterprise has reached the end of its mission …

PRESS RELEASE

UPN and Paramount Network Television have jointly announced that this will be the final season of Star Trek: Enterprise on UPN. [Production will continue until the end of this season, which will finish shooting in March.] The series finale will air on Friday, May 13, 2005.

"Star Trek has been an important part of UPN’s history, and Enterprise has carried on the tradition of its predecessors with great distinction," said Dawn Ostroff, President, Entertainment, UPN. "We’d like to thank Rick Berman, Brannon Braga and an incredibly talented cast for creating an engaging, new dimension to the Star Trek universe on UPN, and we look forward to working with them, and our partners at Paramount Network Television, on a send-off that salutes its contributions to The Network and satisfies its loyal viewers."

David Stapf, President of Paramount Network Television, said, "The creators, stars and crew of Star Trek: Enterprise ambitiously and proudly upheld the fine traditions of the Star Trek franchise. We are grateful for their contributions to the legacy of Trek and commend them on completing nearly 100 exciting, dramatic and visually stunning episodes. All of us at Paramount warmly bid goodbye to Enterprise, and we all look forward to a new chapter of this enduring franchise in the future."

A prequel to the original "Star Trek" series, STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE premiered on UPN on Sept. 26, 2001, and aired for its first three seasons on Wednesdays (8:00-9:00PM, ET/PT). On Oct. 8, 2004, STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE moved into its current time on Fridays (8:00-9:00PM, ET/PT). Through its four-year run, STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE produced a total of 98 episodes and earned four Emmy Awards [SOURCE; cowboy hat tip to the reader who e-mailed this].

With the passing of Enterprise, the Star Trek franchise now goes into hibernation. The franchise has been suffering from fatigue for a number of years, such that even when it has produced quality work (as recently on Enterprise), audiences haven’t tuned in. There has also been a lot of competition from other sci-fi shows, which weren’t on the air when the franchise re-launched years ago with Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The cancellation was expected. A year ago Star Trek was only barely renewed, and the Paramount brass apparenly told the creators of the series that they had a year to wrap it up in a nice way. It was also moved to Friday nights, which is a death-night for ratings in general (The Original Series was also moved to Friday night in its last season), and especially so for sci-fi series when the Sci-Fi Channel has such an excellent lineup opposite a show like Star Trek Enterprise.

The franchise is likely to lie fallow for several years, though there are indications that a Star Trek movie (reportedly involving exclusively new characters) is in development.

Though, personally, I wish Enterprise had got to finish its planned seven-year run, I recognize that a hiatus will be good for the franchise, allowing the field to lie fallow creatively and, more importantly, allowing the audience to regain an appetite for Star Trek. (Absence makes the heart grow fonder, after all.)

Whether its eventual re-launch (pun intended) will be successful is entirely up in the air. (Star Wars’ re-launch wasn’t that successful, despite eager fan anticipation.)

At the risk of speaking ill of the dead, allow me to offer a few thoughts on why Enterprise failed.

Apart from the phenomena of franchise fatigue and competition from other shows (and, indeed, a whole network devoted to sci-fi), the creators of the show fundamentally misjudged what the audience wanted to see. They made it too similar to previous Star Trek series in some ways and too different from them in others. What they produced in the early seasons of Enterprise was virtually a mirror image of what they needed to do.

Specifically:

  1. They misjudged the main plot of the show. The fans were not excited about seeing another Star Trek series where the characters are just wide-eyed explorers of the galaxy. We’d seen that before. What the fans were interested in seeing was the Romulan War and the founding of the Federation. Yet the creators stupidly set the series too early in Star Trek chronology for us to see that except in brief flash-forwards (complicated by the complicated and never-satisfactorily-resolved Temporal Cold War plotline).
  2. The fans were not interested in seeing the sexy aspects of the show, which at times verged on soft-core porn (or so I am given to understand from film critic definitions, never having watched any kind of porn, myself). Sex has always been around on Star Trek, but it has been handled in a less in-your-face way than in the current series.
  3. The series showed itself too similar to prior shows by introducing in its first season implausible meetings with aliens not-met-in-this-way or not-met-until-later-series (the Klingons, the Ferengi, the Borg). Rationalizations were offered for why these meetings didn’t violate established first contact facts, but they still alienated fans (no pun intended).
  4. The series showed itself too different from prior shows by reinterpreting major facts about beloved races, most notably the Vulcans, who are very different from how they have been portrayed in later series (a fact that was recently rectified in the current season, but only after alienating fans for three seasons).
  5. The series also was too different from other series by its "packaging." Instead of the vibrant color and slick design schemes that previous series had, Enterprise was far more drab in its color scheme and mundane in its design. While some of the latter was justified by its closeness to the present in time, the creators went too far.
  6. The creators also made a boneheaded mistake by not having the words "Star Trek" in the title of the series in its early seasons. This is a classic illustration of how the "re-thinking" of Star Trek simply went too far.

Having said all that, I look forward to the DVDs of the series, which will begin to be released May 3, just ten days before the final episode airs. The DVDs will allow me to see many of the episodes for the first time. (Since I had The Dinkiest Cable IN THE WORLD when the series began, I didn’t see a lot of them; also I was sufficiently unimpressed by what I did see that I wasn’t motivated to tune in when I moved and got better cable.)

To end on a happy note, the current season of Enterprise is much better than what has come before, and the final episodes of the season are supposed to be even better. The last episode is rumored to be very good and to serve not only as a fitting end to the series (given its cancellation) but also to be a "Valentine" to long-time Star Trek fans.

Watch ’em while you can, folks!