Month: May 2006

The Fr. Maciel Matter

Pope Benedict has approved actions that appear to bring to a close the matter concerning Fr. Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionnaries of Christ.

For some time Fr. Maciel has been the subject of sexual abuse allegations, which he has strongly denied.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the approval of Pope Benedict, has now done two things:

1) It has suspended further canonical investigation into the allegations in view of Fr. Maciel’s advanced age and precarious health and

2) It has invited Fr. Maciel to retire from public life, giving up all public ministry and retiring to a life of prayer and penance.

Put together, these two actions indicate that the Congregation found that there was at least some substance to at least some of the allegations but they did not want to publicly humiliate Fr. Maciel by allowing the canonical process to reach its conclusion and have him defrocked at the end of his life.

That the Congregation found that at least some substance to the allegations is indicated by the fact that the Congregation invited him to give up public ministry and lead a life of prayer and penance. You don’t do that to people against whom baseless charges have been made, particularly at the ends of their lives. One does not lightly ask the enormity of asking a priest to have to give up public ministry, particularly if he is aged and infirm and has spent his career building an organization with a reputation for faithfulness.

This is an attempt to find a graceful way out of a difficult situation and achieve the good of redressing the wrongs that Fr. Maciel apparently committed while sparing him and the organization he founded as much humiliation as possible.

That being said, the fact that the judicial process was not allowed to reach its conclusion means that there is still a question mark over the allegations. There was enough substance to them that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was willing to take very grave action, but a formal finding of guilt still has not been made.

For his part, Fr. Maciel appears willing to comply with the Holy See’s invitation to retire from public ministry.

OFFICIAL VATICAN COMMUNIQUE.

RESPONSE FROM THE LEGIONNARIES [.pdf].

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND.

MORE FROM ED PETERS.

“Good Riddance”

I really, really do not like Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter. I mean REALLY. (Did I say "really"?)

But in THIS CASE he may have been Arlen the Semi-Friendly Specter.

The issue at hand was whether a constitutional amendment banning homosexual "marriage" in the United States should receive a floor vote in the Senate.

Specter–and the majority–voted that it should, though he seems opposed to the amendment himself.

He was–at least–willing to let the measure be considered by the broader senate.

Which is what prompted a shouting match between him and Democratic Senator Russ Feingold.

After shouting with Specter, Feingold left the meeting in a huff and Specter pronounced "Good riddance!" on him.

By signalling his opposition to true (i.e., heterosexual) marriage, I can only conclude that Feingold doesn’t want to be president of the United States in 2008.

Despite rumors of his current plans to run.

There is no way in hades that the nation will be willing to elect a president who is openly pro-homosexual "marriage" in 2008.

In fact, the nation will say "Good riddance!" to any such candidate.

It’s nice to have these things pointed out early.

The Albino

Y’know . . . every time I hear about Silas, the albino monk assassin in The Da Vinci Code, I can’t help but thinking about  . . . this guy . . .

The_albino

That’s my mental image of Silas, but could he be the guy I’ll see in The Da Vinci Code on Monday?

Incontheivable!

Talking With Your New Financial Advisor

Puttynosed_monkey_1Earlier today I posted some advice from John Stossel saying that when it comes to investing in the market you should forget what the experts say and either invest in an index fund or get a monkey to pick your stocks for you.

This, of course, leads to the question of how you will be able to communicate with your new financial advisor.

Fortunately, there is progress that is being made on that front!

Of course, there are some apes that have been able to
learn at least some sign language or other symbolic communications
systems designed by humans, but that’s apes. I am not aware of the extent to which
humans have been able to teach monkeys ways to communicate.

We are, however, starting to gain new insights into the ways that monkeys themselves communication.

FOR EXAMPLE, THE PUTTY-NOSED MONKEY (PICTURED) APPEARS TO HAVE SYNTAX.

This is the ability to combine linguistic elements–like words–into more complex wholes–like phrases or sentences.

The putty-nosed monkey, for example, has the ability to sequence is /pyow/ call and its /hack/ call in a way that means something other than what /pyow/ or /hack/ would mean on their own:

A sound known onomatopoeically as the “pyow” warns other animals against a lurking leopard, and a cough-like sound that scientists call a “hack” is used when an eagle is hovering near by.

The monkeys live in groups consisting of a single adult male accompanied by several adult females and their young. When the male utters this “sentence”, consisting of up to three pyows followed by up to four hacks, it seems to be a command telling others to move,generally to find safer, less exposed terrain.

[Dr. Arnold said:] “Observationally and experimentally we have demonstrated that this sequence serves to elicit group movement in both predatory contexts and during normal day-to-day activities such as finding food sources and sleeping sites.

“The pyow-hack sequence means something like ‘let’s go’ whereas the pyows by themselves have multiple functions and the hacks are generally used as alarm calls.”

So . . . if you’re consulting with your new financial advisor about the state of the stock market and he says something like /pyow! pyow! pyow! hack! hack! hack! hack!/ then it’s probably time to see about putting your money into bonds.

Rotten Tomatoes For The Da Vinci Code

Tomatometer_1
There’s a movie review site/portal called RottenTomatoes.Com that (among other things) gathers up snippets from and links to reviews of different movies.

One of the unique features of this site is its ratings system, which judges films "fresh" or "rotten" based on how many reviews of them are positive or negative. If a review of the film is generally positive, it will have a fresh tomato next to it, and if the review is generally negative, it will have a rotten tomato next to it.

These results are then aggregated together into something known as "the Tomatometer" (pictured above) that shows you what percentage of reviews are positive vs. negative. If a movie gets a minimum of 60% positive reviews then it’s judged a "fresh" film; otherwise it’s a "rotten" film.

Why 60% instead of 50%? (Everyone asks that.) In the words of the guys who run the site, "We feel that 60% is a comfortable minimum for a movie to be recommended."

Those critics who get their reviews counted toward the Tomatometer are
known, appropriately enough, as "Tomatometer critics." (And our own SDG
is one of them.)

The above is an image capture of where the Tomatometer was for The Da Vinci Code last night when I was writting this post: Only 6% positive, making the film rotten. There were sixteen Tomatometer reviews posted, only one of which (from the New York Post) was positive.

But the Tomatometer won’t stay that way.

Yesterday, when the first Tomatometer reviews were posted, the film was 100% rotten. Now it’s only 94% rotten. As more critics post their reviews, the percentage will further change.

HERE’S THE LINK SO YOU CAN CHECK WHERE THE TOMATOMETER IS NOW.

I’ll be interested over the next few days to see what the Tomatometer does regarding this film. I’m sure that the percentage of freshness will increase, but I’m dubious that it will get over the magic 60% to turn The Da Vinci Code into a fresh film.

My money would be that it’ll stay rotten, though by how much I can’t say.

I saw that in the message board on RottenTomatoes they were having a discussion of what the final freshness figure for the movie would be, with people betting (not for money) where they thought the meter would end up.

Anyone care to take a guess?

Ron Howard Endorses Boycott Of Da Vinci Code!

Ron_howardHe also encouraged outraged Christians to pre-judge his movie without seeing it first!

Yes! It’s true!

According to the Associated Press:

"There’s no question that the film is likely to be upsetting to some people," Howard told reporters. "My advice, since virtually no one has really seen the movie yet, is to not go see the movie if you think you’re going to be upset. Wait. Talk to somebody who has seen it. Discuss it. And then arrive at an opinion about the movie itself" [SOURCE].

So there you have it!

Ron Howard encourages people who might be upset to "not go see the movie" and, instead, wait and rely on the opinions of others to "arrive at an opinion about the movie itself" without seeing it first!

You really have to hand it to him for throwing in his lot with the boycotters and those who want to pre-judge his movie like that.

I mean, it would have been so easy for Howard to do what most directors would do and say something like, "These people calling for boycotts are absurd. They haven’t even seen the movie. How can they know whether it’s offensive or not? I’d encourage everyone to go out and see the movie and then decide for themselves what they think about it. I think they’ll like what they see!"

Yessirree, Bob! No typical Hollywood spin from Mr. Ron Howard on this one! He’s encouraging people to boycott his film and to form opinions about it without seeing it!

Maybe there’s a little Mayberry left in him after all.

May 19: Go To The Movies!

Davincicode

NOTE: I decided to republish this post just to remind y’all of a very effective means of protesting the opening of The DaVinci Code this weekend. Read on! –MA

Got plans for May 19, the day that the movie The DaVinci Code is slated to open? If not, go to the movies. If so, then go to the movies sometime that weekend before May 21. Just don’t go to The DaVinci Code.

That’s the advice being given to Christians by Christians who know how Hollywood works and know the best way to get the bean-counters in Hollywood to listen:

"May 19th is the date the Da Vinci Code movie opens. A movie based on a book that wears its heresy and blasphemy as a badge of honor.

"What can we as Christians do in response to the release of this movie? I’m going to offer you the usual choices — and a new one.

"Here are the usual suspects:

"A) We can ignore the movie.

"The problem with this option: The box office is a ballot box. The only people whose votes are counted are those who buy tickets. And the ballot box closes on the Sunday of opening weekend. If you stay home, you have lost your chance to make your vote heard. You have thrown your vote away, and from Hollywood’s point of view, you don’t count. By staying home, you do nothing to shape the decision-making process regarding what movies will make it to the big screen.

"B) We can protest.

"The problem with this option: It doesn’t work. Any publicity is good publicity. Protests not only fuel the box office, they make all Christians look like idiots. And again, protests and boycotts do nothing to help shape the decisions being made right now about what movies Hollywood will make in the next few years. (Or they convince Hollywood to make *more* movies that will provoke Christians to protest, which will drive the box office up.)

"C) We can discuss the movie. We can be rational and be ready with study guides and workshops and point-by-point refutations of the lies promulgated by the movie.

"The problem with this option: No one’s listening. They think they know what we’re going to say already. We’ll lose most of these discussions anyway, no matter how prepared we are, because the power of story always trumps the power of facts (why do you think Jesus taught in parables?!). And once again: rational discussion of history does nothing to affect Hollywood’s choices regarding what movies to make.

"But there’s a fourth choice.

"On May 19th, you should go to the movies.

"Just go to another movie.

"Save the date now. May 19th, or May 20th. No later than Sunday, May 21st — that’s the day the ballot box closes. You’ll get a vote, the only vote Hollywood recognizes: The power of cold hard cash laid down on a box office window on opening weekend.

"Use your vote. Don’t throw it away. Vote for a movie other than DVC. If enough people do it, the powers that be will notice. They won’t have a choice.

"The major studio movie scheduled for release against DVC is the DreamWorks animated feature Over the Hedge. The trailers look fun, and you can take your kids. And your friends. And their friends. In fact, let’s all go see it.

"Let’s rock the box office in a way no one expects — without protests, without boycotts, without arguments, without rancor. Let’s show up at the box office ballot box and cast our votes. And buy some popcorn, too.

"May 19th. Mark your calendars now: Over the Hedge‘s opening weekend. Buy a ticket.

"And spread the word. Forward this e-mail to all the Christians in your address book. Post it on your blogs. Talk about it to your churches. And let’s all go to the movies."

Spread the word. And go to the movies on May 19.

(Credit note: I received notice from an email forward originally sent by Barbara Nicolosi of Act One. The campaign was originally started by Quoth the Maven.)

Forget The Experts

I really like the iconoclastic streak in the writing of consumer reporter John Stossel. He tests conventional wisdom and is willing to point out when the conventional wisdom is actually unwise.

TAKE HIS MOST RECENT COLUMN, FOR EXAMPLE.

It’s about the fact that stock picking experts you see on TV and in other publicity venues are usually wrong. In other words: They give bad stock advice.

Why? Well, in part–Stossel says–because they frequently have hidden or mixed motives that lead to conflicts of interest, as in the case of stock experts who say they "like" a stock that they themselves happen to be selling off at the moment.

But the problem is broader than just the faces you see on TV. Indeed,

[Y]ear after year the trading advice that comes out of most of the big brokerage firms is no better at selecting winners than throwing darts at the stock table, or having a monkey throw darts. In fact, the advice is usually worse! People who chart the brokerage firms’ recommendations said that over a 15-year period ending in 2005, only 5.72 percent of actively managed mutual funds had beaten the 500 stocks that make up the Standard & Poor’s Index. In other words, 94 percent did worse.

None of the big brokerage firms would talk to me about their failure to outperform dart-throwing monkeys, so I interviewed successful money manager Robert Stovall. He used to run research departments at EF Hutton and Dean Witter Reynolds, and he told me just when the experts are useful.

"Everybody has a boss," he said. "Professionals won’t buy Coca-Cola or some other stock unless they have reports in the file produced by well-known analysts so if something goes wrong with the stock they buy, they can show their boss, ‘Hey, I’ve got a big file on this stock. All these analysts said it was a good one. Something went wrong.’"

So go ahead. Follow an expert. Then, when something goes wrong, you can blame him.

But if it’s your money at stake, you’ll probably do better with an index fund — or a monkey.

This’ll Be Good For Box Office

MckellenSir Ian McKellan was on the Today Show this morning with the rest of the cast of The Da Vinci Code, plus director Ron Howard, and when the interviewer asked what the cast would have thought about it if the movie had carried a "This is just fiction" title card, McKellan immediately responded that he thought the Bible shoulc carry such a notice.

Perhaps sensing he had gone too far, he then tried to explain and then backpeddal and ultimately made a mess of things.

WATCH THE VIDEO.