RULES OF THE SEMICOLON, please

And I apologize again that I could not take the call. I was in bed with a middle-aged astronaut. The last one of her kind.

Always a good story teller, that Bernie.

Yup. Especially since he did take some calls...and spoke with both Jonathan and me while we were basking on the Frying Pan.

(Cannot even get onto the Pan anymore. Velvet rope...long, long lines. John, the owner, had a heart attack a few years ago and died...so I don't get the dispensation from the velvet rope that I was promised years ago.)

Now that is bad news indeed.

I went to school with Reinhard Cardinal Marx, Cardinal archbishop of Munich and Freising. (He always says that we were classmates: we weren't, but he went to my sister's class.) [Cardinal Marx launched in October 2008 a book ("Das Kapital: A Plea for Man"), named after the work by Karl Marx, that critiques capitalism.]

Cool, Walter.

Have you read Cardinal Marx's book?

I think socialism and Marxism can be used to good advantage to deal with the problems unbridled capitalism is causing for America and the world.

I'd be interested to hear about what the cardinal had to say.

By the way (and this is seriously off issue)...

...do you realize that the bird was named for the clerical princes...

...not the other way around?

Yes.

This (more recent) report gives an idea about what he wrote earlier in his book.

All I can say, Walter, is: WOW!

For those of you following this conversation, here are a couple of items from the review...quotes from Cardinal Marx that I think are dead on target:





In this complex world, the Church cannot be just about religion, but must extend itself to impact on other social, cultural, economic, and political factors in play. It has considerable influence...and it can impact positively if it works in a way that does not impose religious restrictions on its contributions.




Health care...definitely. There are others. (see below)




Oh, if only conservative Christianity can see this the way the cardinal does.



AMEN! And since we cannot have a society without some members being unable to compete because of physical and mental deficiencies...and with all members eventually getting old and less able to contribute...the state has to act to provide safety nets there also.

Thanks Walter. This was a great find.

Did I tell you that I'm not his friend (though he even publicly said so)?
We had had some pretty hard discussions .... before he was an cardinal but only (an auxiliary bishop and) a professor for Christian Social Teaching.

I'm afraid to say that the Cardinal's spiel read like flannel to me.

What we need are traders in the global market who actually believe they will be tormented for eternity by a thousand devils for any gross actions of cupidity and for a few thousand millenniums for minor misdemeanors such as robbing one poor widow of her mite. Nothing less will do as I see it.

Prof. Skinner would agree I'm sure: him being a decent chap, if only to spare himself the distasteful scenes necessary for his atheist solution to the problem.

Absolution being available starting from 10% of uncharitable gains. (Enquiries to 111-1111-11-111. Call will be charged at £2 per minute from landlines etc etc....)

Do you happen to know whether the Cardinal traveled Business Class to the US?

Some wags might think it was deep irony. Not unlike the explanation given on CBS News for the power outage at the Superbowl: "a malfunction of the power supply system in the stadium".

Capitalism, especially in the US, has been wrestling with those sorts of grandiose phrases since the incorporation mania of the late 19th century. W.J.Bryan having, as I understand it, the thickest finger in the dyke for a time.

On the one hand there is the fear of corporation magnates expressing their free individuality in seeking to own the country and establishing a hereditary aristocracy; not having to remain celibate, and on the other the temper of the masses regarding the toleration of the burdens they are driven to shoulder. Scylla and Charybdis so to speak if you don't mind my flashing my erudition.

Do you know whether senior clerics could stand for Congress?

I always feel that a colon means "wait for it - here comes the rest". E.g., "I found her irresistible: blond hair, deep voice, slim waist."