Help Strike Out Health Disparities

Leave a reply

“Learn how you can strike out glaring inequities in our health care system at a forum on ‘Race & Health Care Disparities: The Heart of the Matter’, Sunday February 12th from 1-3:30pm at St. Paul Cathedral Center/Synod Hall. This is one series of racial justice and diversity forum sponsored by the Race & Reconciliation Dialogue Group of St. Paul Cathedral. On hand with information will be three dynamic speakers, experts in minority health: Wilford Payne, executive director of Primary Health Care Centers; Dr. Robert Bennett, a noted cardiac surgeon; and Patricia Fenton, executive director of the American Heart Association. Blood pressure screening and information on health care topics will be available. Attend this free interfaith program. Hear the glaring facts on health care inequities and what you can do about them. Everyone is welcome. For information call 412-683-2651.”

WHY: St. Paul Cathedral’s Race and Reconciliation Committee Dialogue Group’s Health Forum Committee
WHAT: “Race and Health Care Disparities: The Heart of the Matter”
WHO: Wilford Payne, Pat Fenton, Dr. Robert Bennett
WHERE: Synod Hall, St. Paul Cathedral
WHEN: Sunday, February 12, 2006 from 1:00 P.M. to 3:30 P.M.
INFO: 412-683-2651

Something Better Than Blogdigger

6 Replies

The rate of feature development (or lack thereof) at Blogdigger has led me to the decision to move the St. Blog’s Parish Aggregator somewhere else. Can anybody recommend a similar service for managing a publicly searchable list of syndication feeds?

Update: I had a very nice chat with Greg Gershman, one of the men behind Blogdigger. He made some temporary fixes to appease me, so I won’t be moving the aggregator. We also discussed various potential new features on the horizon for the service. I hope they come to fruition. Blogdigger has something unique and it’d really be a shame if they fell behind with feature development. I switched blogging software for that very reason.

I Hate Internet Explorer

8 Replies

Changing blog themes (or in this case, the whole blogging platform), can be a liberating a renewing experience. It can also be a pain in the tuchus. Every time I’ve changed themes, I’ve had to chase down bugs that only show up in Internet Explorer. That browser is a steamy pile of feces and I strongly urge, nay beg, my readers to pick a better one.

A kind reader informed me that the right sidebar is fubar in IE. I’ll try to fix it soon, but I’ll confess it’s a low priority. Might any of you have suggestions for fixing what’s broken? Anyhow, in the meantime, if you’re an IE user, please click this link:

Browse Happy logo

Addendum:

“While it is true that our implementation is not fully, 100 percent W3C-compliant, our development investments are driven by our customer requirements and not necessarily by standards,” said Greg Sullivan, a lead product manager with the Windows client group.

>:{

Religion of Peace?

18 Replies

[On 02/26/06 I changed the title of this entry.  I did so not because I feared personal retribution from radical Muslims but because I feared for Christians in less safe parts of the world, like Nigeria. –  Funky]

"Cast of ‘Will and Grace’, in fear for their lives, go into hiding after lampooning Christians.

"Oh. Sorry. I meant ‘Danish cartoonists, in fear for their lives, go into hiding after lampooning Muslims’"

Ah, Mark Shea has such a way with words.

I’m getting real sick of all the news surrounding Mohammed-gate. I really have nothing substantial to add to millions of opinions on the net, so I’ll keep this short. These "foaming Bronze Age fanatics" (Mark’s phrase) who are throwing a temper tantrum over some bloody cartoons, combined with the great number of Islamic terrorists, are really changing my view of Islam. I’ve been trying very hard to accept Islam as a religion of peace and give people the benefit of the doubt when they say that the nutjobs are the exception and are perverting the religion. However, the more often I see stuff like this, the harder that is for me to believe. I’m starting to susepct that Islam has always been a fanatically violent religion and that the peaceful sects we see today are splinter groups. IOW, they’re the fluke, not the psychos. I hope someone can prove I’m wrong.

Addendum: The Catholic League‘s response to all the hubbub is worth quoting in its entirety.

"The decision of most mainstream media outlets not to reprint or show the controversial cartoons is the right one: the Catholic League sides with the U.S., Britain and the Vatican in denouncing the inflammatory cartoons. Regrettably, the decision by the media not to offend Muslims is motivated by fear, not ethics. Worse than this by far is the violent reaction, and calls for violence, that have sprung up all over the Muslim world. This is pure barbarism."

"Whenever the Catholic League criticizes a work of art, cartoon, movie or TV show, we are told that (a) we’re the intolerant ones (b) what is offensive is in the eye of the beholder (c) art is supposed to make people uncomfortable (d) no one can criticize anything until they have seen it (e) protests have a ‘chilling effect’ on free speech (f) it’s not real anyway, and (g) get over it. So why have Muslims been spared this lecture? Because the extremists in their ranks—and they are not a tiny minority—have shown they may respond with beheadings."

"Why, according to the Washington Post, did European newspapers reprint the cartoons? It was ‘not their love of freedom but their insensitivity—or hostility—to the growing diversity of their own societies.’ The Los Angeles Times says it won’t reprint ‘these insensitive images.’ The Miami Herald boasts that it ‘must take great care not to offend.’ The New York Times says it is wrong to publish ‘gratuitous assaults on religious symbols.’ The San Francisco Chronicle says ‘insulting or hurting certain groups’ is wrong. Both CBS and NBC say it isn’t necessary to show the cartoons in order to report on them. CNN even went so far as to say that it ‘has chosen not to show the cartoons out of respect for Islam.’ Now if Catholicism were treated with such sensitivity and respect, we would have to shut down the Catholic League."

"Ethics, not fear, should guide the media. As for Muslims offended by the cartoons, they should learn what a civilized response entails."

Addnedum 02/11/06: Greg, at the Discerning Dilemma offers some interesting thoughts.

"First off, Islam does not mean ‘peace.’ It means ‘submission’, and the peace that comes from that submission. Islam itself, not necessarily its adherence, plain and simply is not a religion of peace. Mohammed was a warmongering lunatic. In the centuries after Jesus Christ died, Christians hid in the catacombs for fear of their lives, yet being willing to give up their lives (if things happened that way) as witnesses to Jesus Christ (in fact ‘martyr’ actually means ‘witness’). In the centuries after Mohammed died, his followers A) had to keep the masses from reverting to their old ways under threat of death, and B) went on a campaign of blood across North Africa and into Spain."

"Now how about today’s Moslems? The majority of them are not like that, and love peace and freedom. The majority of Moslems are peaceful folks. In other words, they are polar opposites of Mohammed. They are dissidents and good for them, too. When a Catholic dissents, they contribute to a decaying society and a culture of death. When a Moslem dissents, they lead a life of serenity and maybe even freedom."