Less Lethal Superstitions….

Workout notes yoga, then 6 miles on the treadmill. 1 mile warm up (10 minutes), a 9:40 mile, then (at a grade of 1) I upped the speed every .25 miles: 6.7, 6.8, 6.9, 7.0 then 7.0 for 1 mile. I stopped after that, got a quick drink, and ran 2 in 19:10 to cool down.

I am not quite right yet, though I actually felt my knees lift while running.

Superstition: Yes, I know that Africa has problems with superstition:

see more pwn and owned pictures

And, even worse, some are being killed over witchcraft.

But what the Pope said was, well, ironic:

Pope Benedict XVI has urged Catholics in Angola to woo people “living in fear of spirits” into the church.

In a Mass celebrated in Angola’s capital, Luanda, he said Catholics should reach out to those who believe in witchcraft and spirits.

Human rights groups say many children in Angola have been abused after being accused of possession by spirits.

The pontiff, who arrived in Angola from Cameroon on Friday, is on the last stop of his week-long African tour.

He will later meet youths at a city football stadium.

On Friday, he made a powerful attack on corruption, which analysts say is rife in oil-rich Angola.

The climax of the visit will be on Sunday, when two million people are expected to hear the Pope address an outdoor service.

‘Threatening spirits’

The Pope urged Angola’s Catholics to reach out to those who had joined the burgeoning number of sects.

“Today it is up to you, brothers and sisters, following in the footsteps of those heroic and holy heralds of God, to offer the risen Christ to your fellow citizens,” the Pope said to 1,500 Angolan clergy and laypeople at Luanda’s Sao Paulo church.

“In today’s Angola, Catholics should offer the message of Christ to the many who live in the fear of spirits, of evil powers by whom they feel threatened, disoriented, even reaching the point of condemning street children and even the most elderly because – they say – they are sorcerers,” he said. [...]

True, condemning people for sorcery is bad. The Catholic Church has grown out of that. Sort of.

He also said:

The Pope also warned of a threat to the Catholic Church in Cameroon from evangelical movements and from the “growing influence of superstitious forms of religion”.

Something reminds me about a saying concerning pots and kettles.

Speaking of the Catholic Church, the University of Notre Dame has invited President Obama to speak at its graduation (as did my alma mater). Not everyone is happy about it:

Barack Obama will give commencement speeches at the U.S. Naval Academy, Arizona State, and the University of Notre Dame this year. The Naval Academy has received the news with little dispute, and Arizona State actually moved its ceremony to accommodate the president.

But when the president isn’t sticking it to a certain Naval Academy graduate and Arizona senator, he’s riling the Catholic community at Notre Dame. Critics say that Obama’s honorary degree is an affront to the school’s Catholic teachings, citing the president’s stances on abortion, gay rights, and embryonic stem cell research. Groups like the Cardinal Newman Society and the Pro-Life Action League have encouraged all Catholics to flood the university with phone calls and to sign online petitions (which have tens of thousands of signatures already).

The Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president, defended the choice, saying that it has been a standing tradition to invite the U.S. president to speak and that he was “honored” that Obama accepted the invitation.

“The invitation of President Obama to be our Commencement speaker should in no way be taken as condoning or endorsing his positions on specific issues,” Jenkins said. “We invited him because we care so much about those issues, and we hope for this to be the basis of an engagement with him. You cannot change the world if you shun the people you want to persuade, and if you cannot persuade them, show respect for them and listen to them.”

What is hilarious is how some wing nuts have reacted:

TS justifiably makes fun of this K-Lo sentence:

[Notre Dame] took a giant step away from their identity as “Catholic.” They rather be of this world than the one they supposedly exist to bring people toward.

But sentence structure aside, this line really says everything you need to know about conservatives — they’re angry when people live in “this world” — you know, the real one! — rather than in the fantasy one they wish existed.

Advertisement