Noli Irritare Leones

Check out the second Carnival of Feminists. This one makes a special effort to link bloggers from around the world. Laos, Seoul, Australia, Kenya, etc.

Stephen Griffin at Balkinization on Unnatural Disaster: Katrina and Governance:

Commentators both here in Louisiana and elsewhere have had a difficult time describing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Is it “the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States?” Or “the worst civil engineering failure in history?”

Thank Heaven for Little Girls: A chilling story of what happens when they grow up and die of cervical cancer. Why we need the HPV vaccine. Via Pharyngula.

Since I’ve been following that Vatican document about admitting homosexuals to seminaries, I’ll mention, for whoever doesn’t already know it, that the Word from Rome is now reporting that it will be published at the end of this month.

The Feminarian has a few words about the suffering of Jesus:

Now we get to the sermon. It was a good sermon – a great one, really well delivered, and obviously well-received (but would have been better on Good Friday). The point was that Jesus suffered a lot and so when we suffer, Jesus feels our pain and we can take comfort in that.

I’m down with that. But the only time Jesus ever suffered, according to this sermon and the slides of classic art running behind the speaker, was on the day he was crucified. That’s it. One day in the man’s entire 33-year life. I mean, maybe he suffered other days, but we sure didn’t hear about it. Nope, the only suffering experience that is worth our examination is that day. Because of course, that’s the day everything changed, right? That’s the thing that causes our salvation, so it’s the only thing we care about, right?

Everyone is doing Frappr maps. Here’s mine. All five of my readers are invited to add themselves to it .

Here’s a Catholic blog entry of special interest to Quakers (especially those of us who attend silent, unprogrammed meetings for worship): Steven Riddle on Distractions in Prayer.

Al Muhajabah on Taking from the poor to give to the rich.

The Velveteen Rabbi on Sufism: Beyond the Veil:

The Western conception of Islam is often distorted by a wide range of social and historical factors. One of those distortions is an overfocus on one aspect of the tradition, and underfocus on the others. The news gives us plenty of stories about sharia, which makes it easy to imagine that Islam is purely legalistic. But Chittick is saying, I think, that islam is not complete without iman and ihsan; that right actions can’t exist without right thought and right heart-practice; that genuine living Islam combines law, theology, and devotion.

On a related note, if this stuff interests you, definitely check out God’s Mercy, a podcast of a lecture Chittick gave some years ago, about Islam’s understanding of the story of Adam. (The lecture was subsequently modified into chapter nine of Sufism.) It’s well worth a listen, and is especially resonant this week given that the Jewish Torah-reading cycle places our version of the Adam story this Shabbat.

Lee at Verbum Ipsum is impatient with an argument against the Virgin Birth:

This article in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer purports to instruct us that Science has shown that the Virgin Birth couldn’t possibly be true becuase, well, where would Jesus have gotten his Y chromosome if he didn’t have a human father? Jeez, why didn’t I think of that?

And, now that you mention it, hasn’t Science shown that dead people don’t come back to life? Time to close the churches, folks! Nothing more to see here!

Not very work safe sex blogger Figleaf takes a moment to explain why “no” is one of the sexiest words in the English language:

I think I’ve mentioned before that the most valuable contribution the cranky, misunderstood Andrea Dworkin made to human sexuality was the right to say “no.” I’m going to go further and say “no,” is one of the sexiest words in the English language because “no” gives you license to have all the sex *you really want.* Sex to prove a point, sex to prove you’re all grown up, sex to quiet a complaining spouse, sex because the minister said you’re married so get busy, sex because your peers are doing it, sex because your partner is begging for blue-balls “relief”, or, worst, sex because you’re coerced or intimidated or expected to eventually kills sex through guilt, resentment, trauma, bitterness, distrust, impotence, and loss of enthusiasm. “No,” when properly understood, honestly used, and heart felt, gives you the latitude to make “yes” meaningful when you’re ready.

Karen Street on improving the environmental quality of buildings.

Bill Samuel on Rosa Parks and the impact of an ordinary person.

UPDATE: OK, I didn’t actually have any articles linked on Guy Fawkes Day (of which today turns out to be the 400th anniversary), despite my title, but Thinking Anglicans links several, including this Guardian article by the editor of the British Catholic weekly the Tablet, and an article in the Tablet about the question “Does the position of English Catholics then have parallels with the position of Muslim extremists today“.

FURTHER UPDATE: blog.bioethics.net reports on professional associations condeming physician involvement in torture.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 5th, 2005 at 11:33 am and is filed under Blogwatch, HPV vaccine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.