August 11, 2009
The Story I Was Born To Blog!
Later this week, I have the privilege of celebrating the 7th blog-iversary of this fair blog. Apparently, the news gods have decided to offer up a little something for me a few days in advance. It is that news item, which I suggest is the very story I was put on this earth to blog about ....
» Chron/AP: Euless appeals ruling allowing goat sacrifices
Goats ... Euless, TX ... this is enough to put me in some kind of news nirvana. If only the defendant were an elected official or his son were the starting lineback for Trinity High, this would pretty much be the unholy trifecta of blog fodder. As-is, this ain't bad, though ... we've got an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal from the defense attorney, and some better background in the Dallas Morning News:
The case, decided by a three-judge panel, involved the right of Jose Merced, an adherent of a Caribbean religion called Santeria, to slaughter four-legged animals such as goats and lambs, as well as other animals such as chickens and turtles, in his Euless home as part of religious ceremonies.
In 2008, a lower court found in favor of the city, but on July 31 the 5th Circuit sent the case back for further proceedings, urging Euless to develop a permit for Santeria practitioners.
So, on with the show ...
First off ... yes, Euless is precisely THIS weird. The DMN reports that Merced had been engaged in this behavior for 15 years at his Euless home. I'm somewhat comforted by the fact that this means he began doing so after the Wythe family left for Houston in the late 80s. Back in my day, we just had to figure out Tongans (which were fairly new to Euless when we moved in). They made things fairly easy on us ... great people, hard workers, and their kids made our football team better. I'm not aware of them engaging in animal sacrifice. The only odd thing we had happen to us was a hostage situation at a local convenience store that, at the time, I seem to recall being registered as the longest hostage situation on American soil (that is, if you fail to count an American embassy in Tehran as "American soil").
The allure of the Euless has long been that it is an affordable place to live for airport workers at DFW. For the longest time, it's been Euless and Irving for the manual laborers, Los Colinas and Grapevine for the stewardesses and pilots.
If you look at census data close enough, you'll spot some very odd anomalies, such as a group of apartment complexes in northern Irving where the rate of Asian females is quite pronounced and a few blocks in Euless where "other" is the leading demographic.Feel free to figure out why the first datapoint sticks to my memory banks ... and also why I feel so at-home in the Little Ellis Island that is southwest Houston. Cutting to the chase, it comes as no surprise to learn that there is a sizable enough Santeria-practicing community where goats would need to be sacrificed in order to ordain new priests to handle what I can only assume would be a growing base of parishioners.
Lastly, for Houston-area readers ... how shocked can we really be at the practices among Santeros? If we think back a few years, I'll point out that the most prominent Santero is the manager of the Chicago White Sox: Ozzie Guillén ... the guy who beat us in the World Series. I remember reading a few stories post-World Series mentioning Guillén's religion (as well as it's practice of animal sacrifice) in the obligatory post-Series cooing over the skipper.
So, for whichever of the above reasons you wish to believe, count me as unphased by it all.
January 27, 2009
Suggestion
Because no one has posted anything here in nearly a year, I give you (as a tangent to a conversation I had with the estimable Johnny Foster), my film suggestion:
Smokey and The Bandit (the remake)
The Bandit: Edward Norton
Smokey: Tom Wilkinson
Carrie: Cate Blanchett
Cledus: Liam Neeson
Post your own remakes with cast. (C'mon, Ralphie, I am expecting great things from you!)
April 24, 2008
Brawndo anyone?!
(courtesy of The Corner):
Two signs on the doors leading from the visitors' clubhouse at U.S. Cellular Field to the first-base dugout read, "NO BOTTLED WATER ON THE BENCH."
What's this? Athletes can't drink water? Even in the humid Chicago summers?
Here's the explanation I got:
Gatorade is Major League Baseball's "official sports drink." So instructions were sent that no player could be seen drinking anything but Gatorade in the dugout. Not even Aquafina, which is the "official water" of MLB. Not even bottles of water with the labels removed.
White Sox clubhouse personnel said if players take bottled water onto the bench, all the bottled water will be removed from the clubhouse as punishment.
February 23, 2008
February 13, 2008
ATTN: CCBers... ENVY ME!
For I have achieved the greatest feat heretofore accompished upon this site... I have won the Gizmodo contest:
January 17, 2008
Finally....
The turkey comes home to roost:
'American Idol' Executive Producer's Secret Flop: 'The Apple'
MTVJanuary 8, 2008
December 18, 2007
December 10, 2007
"Psycho Sheep of Butte"
I'm almost too afraid to spend the buck-ninty-nine to find out what this is all about. Any takers braver than I?
November 20, 2007
In keeping with our high standards of content
... at this FINE web establishment... (click here)
November 16, 2007
October 29, 2007
Oh, fine....
Don't wanna talk football? Then let's get metaphysical (the following was x-posted to the LJ). Topic for discussion: a post over at NRO in re religion/atheism. Excerpts (it was written by John Derbyshire and references Theodore Dalrymple):
TD unmasks himself as what Kingsley Amis called, in reference to himself, "an unwilling unbeliever." I'm kind of the same way myself, but it's not a happy thing to be. The atheists scoff at you for being wishy-washy: "For goodness sake just come right out and say it, man—Religion's all nonsense! Go on, say it—You'll feel much better!" On the other hand, religious types see you as a potential recruit, and nag you endlessly: "Since you're not a sticks-and-stones materialist atheist, since you admit that there's something else going on, surely you must agree that..."
It's just not a good position from which to say anything about religion. People like TD and myself understand that the universe is a deeply mysterious place, and the human personality likewise.
On the other hand, we "unwilling unbelievers" are not willing to confess belief in the kinds of historical events claimed as real by all the big religions. Those events seem to us just too highly improbable; and in any case, you have to pick which set to believe in. The Christian account of the Son of God, the Muslim account of the Messenger of God, and the Hindu account of the seven (I think it is) Incarnations of God are mutually exclusive for devotional purposes. The most parsimonious explanation, it seems to us, is that all of them were just made up. Further, the mysteries of faith just don't seem very interesting to us by comparison with real mysteries. They have a contrived quality, and are not very imaginative.
(C)onservatives like TD and myself are inclined to defer to human nature in its generality, and there is no doubt that human beings are innately, instinctively religious. The Dennett-Dawkins-Hitchens program to sweep away all those musty old cobwebs of faith and deliver humanity into the pure clear light of reason just bears far too close a resemblance to every other millenarian project, from Spartacus's City of the Sun to New Soviet Man. No thanks. Human nature has its unappealing side, but grand projects to overhaul it invariably end with a mountain of corpses. We'll take humanity as it is, religion and all. This attitude is, it seems to me, the essence of a conservative outlook.
Obviously, not everyone here would cop to having a conservative outlook, and I'll bet we all fall along different lines religiously, but I certainly agree with him that the Hitchens/Dawkins nexus is as annoyingly proselytizing as any fantatical religous crusader.
Discuss. Or don't. Or discuss this: Kummu joked that the police had decided not to arrest the goat which looked the most guilty.
Surely this story will interest someone on this forum...
Completed pass, 15 laterals give Trinity miracle victory
My favorite chapter headline is "Lineman gets involved." heh.