KUDOS to Doug Ford.

A post from my Facebook status:
I never thought that I would utter the following words: KUDOS to Doug Ford.
I live in the "northern region" of Ontario and we have few cases of COVID19. (16 in the Algoma Public Health Unit). However, 3 of the cases registered on May 4th were in one of the city's nursing homes - a lot later than in southern/eastern Ontario. The last thing we need is people moving around. We haven't been told how/where COVID19 got into the nursing home. If the northern regions open up, then people from the closed regions will show up - you know that's true! People being people!! I can just see people start moving around to areas that are opening up, and low and behold our numbers start to rise.
I had a bad case of "cabin fever" yesterday, but I got over it. Lunch with friends will have to wait. Movies with friends will have to wait. The library visits will have to wait. I want my students in a class, not on Zoom. But there it is. On the upside of things, I can watch all the freebies from the National Theatre in London - a new play every week - heaven!
I do not want this virus - even if I don't die of it. I get a flu shot every year; I avoid people with colds like it was the plague. Life is short enough - I have no interest in it being shortened by something avoidable - so "self-isolation" it is: limited movement, masks, social distancing etc. Yes I would like to see my children and grandchildren in person on Sunday - not on a video call. The benefits are being extended for businesses and those unemployed by this disease. I am one of the lucky ones. All my contracts have been or are being honoured, although teaching on-line for the one that continues is rather taxing, but I am getting used to working from home.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-covid-19-end-lockdown-physical-distancing-regional-1.5545600

Go Listen to our Podcast: "Profiling Criminal Minds" (the TV Show, of course)

Needless to say - if you are a fan of the the show!

Come for the reviews of Criminal Minds, stay for the rambling digressions about child abuse and celebrity culture!

https://profilingcriminalminds.podbean.com/#

The Inside

I have just finished watching a wonderful TV show called "The Inside" from 2005. There are only 13 episodes, and it was cancelled. We have a podcast called "Profiling Criminal Minds"  - a meta discussion of the TV show, Criminal Minds. Between  our analysis of Season 5 & 6, we discuss "The Inside" to put Season 6 into perspective. Yesterday, we finished creating the bonus 7-part mini-series that discusses "The Inside". It will begin to air in September alongside our weekly podcasts.

To get it out of my head, I decided to write this blog post - I do have to do other work completely divorced from this topic!

Everyone who is interested in issues of the long-term impact of child abuse should watch this series. It contains a  brilliant character study of the main character - a woman who is working in the FBI as a profiler in the Violent Crimes Unit in Las Angeles. She was kidnapped at age 10, and escaped her kidnapper 18 months later. Created by Tim Minear and Howard Gordon, I was stunned by its focus and its character creations. Not that I should have been surprised given the creators. My podcast co-host had been raving about this show for ages, and he was right.

I won't go into details, but it rang true to me. There were many difficult moments in the episodes as Rebecca's story and life unfolds. As a survivor I recognized, empathized with and had some difficult moments with the content. You can hear my reactions if you wish to listen to the podcast later this year. It certainly made me have more than a few mini-reflections on my past - even though the situations (with which readers of the blog are familiar) were different. Even my co-host had moments of reflection on his past - and that almost never happens.

Kudos to Minear and Gordon and all the writers, directors, actors etc. on the show.

And many thanks to Chris from England for putting this playlist together, I assume that he taped them from ITV4 mainly. It is the only way to get them - they aren't available on DVD. Just a note: Episodes 4 and 5 are out of order on the Youtube playlist - you should watch Pre-filer before you watch Loneliest Number.

And here is the link for the playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG5YX8k3vkx5nb9R2ljthjsmq79JRFYMx

I should note that this is a very dark television show, as I say in the first podcast. I am not surprised that it was cancelled. It is harder to watch than anything else on the subject. It handles difficult issues with a tightness of control that is seldom seen in television. I have no idea how we are going to go back to Criminal Minds after watching this - but we will - we committed ourselves to talk about the entire show, and we will.

I Told You So! - #2

Be celibate or leave the priesthood, pope tells gay priests

Because homosexual acts are sinful.

I have to admit that I do feel sorry for all my friends who had such high hopes, but I would say "What did they expect?"

This is a doctrinal issue at the core of Roman Catholic theology.

Furthermore, do not expect "married priests" or "female priests" any time soon. Because you must remember that outside of the holy sacrament of marriage, sexual acts are all sinful. And, of course, since "God" chose to incarnate as male............................. need I go on??

Read my dissertation. It is a problem within Christian sexual morality that is not Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Baptist, etc., etc., etc. (For a Protestant discussion of this issue see Fred Clark's blog The Slacktivist: Here’s that ‘Anything Goes’ rant about evangelical sexual ethics

Oh well, it's not that I like being right about these issues - but at least, I don't get surprised or disappointed.

I Told You So!! And the schism continues to grow

And if you hadn't read my blog, well, you can always start to read it now.

Vatican orders US bishops to delay taking action on sexual abuse crisis

Everyone was so sure that Pope Francis was just the best thing in the world. 

The best that I could do was tell my friends that I will give him the benefit of the doubt - but I didn't believe for a second that things would be different. Like John Paul 2, Pope Francis' change is paper thin.

I'll bet between his bouts of tears (which I do think he sheds), Ratzinger (Benedict 16) thinks about how glad he is that he retired. 

The one thing that I can say is that the Vatican has just the "Best-ever" window dressers. 

The forgotten real-life story behind Lolita

In 1948, an 11-year-old girl named Sally Horner was kidnapped by a convicted rapist who made her pretend to be his daughter. Her ordeal inspired Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita - but Sally's story has been forgotten, and she died before she had a chance to tell it herself. Michael speaks with Sarah Weinman, the author of 'The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World'.

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/sunday-edition/segment/15593367

Thank You Chris Cuomo

I have had a bad couple of days, but this helps.

Cuomo: We give justice to [the] dead, but not living

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/08/16/pennsylvania-child-sex-abuse-catholic-church-closing-argument-cuomo-cpt-vpx.cnn