Drive-Thru Jesus

Should Confessionals work more like a drive through? I've had priests cut me off in the confessional with "I don't need details. Just your sins. Type and Number."

I understand the need to keep things short and sweet to prevent a simple confession turning into a therapy session, confession of other people's sins, self-justification, or indulging scruples. But just "type and number"?

Type and Number? Sounds like an Extra Value Meal.

"Ok, I had a #3, two number 10's with malice, and a double whopper with a venial side of bending the truth. Oh, and supersize the anger."

"Can I get that absolution to go?"

Where does it all end? Fr Tom Washburn OFM's blog has a cute joke on the subject.

For those of you with iTunes enjoy Bob Rice's Drive Thru Jesus.

MS Who

Not long after one blogger expressed admiration for Microsoft founder Bill Gates' concept of "creative capitalism" to address the needs of the world poorest, the International Herald Tribune is reporting that the Gates Foundation may be responsible for fostering information hoarding within the medical research community.

According to the article, WHO officials are warning of "unintended consequences" of Gates foundation funded researchers who were once open with their information having a financial incentive to share their findings primarily with other researchers supported by the Gates Foundation, creating a kind of information "cartel".

Is this the same old Microsoft bullying that made the software giant the de facto computing standard brought to another sector? Or is it the result of fallen human nature and self-interest to follow the money? How "unintended" can the consequences be if the money comes with strings (and there are always strings)? Would you accept a Microsoft Vaccine?

To create a truly just society, surely it cannot be enough to do good deeds with our material possessions without creating just societal structures to support them.

Fair or foul? Sound off.

iStopMotion Movie Making Time

My firstborn and I had a great time last weekend making an iStopMotion movie. This was a little experiment with some cool software I picked up during MacHeist with some Playdoh, a MacBook, and a little imagination.



All told, we probably spent half an hour on it (we had some creative differences). Perhaps after this we'll put some actual thought into it and do some more. This movie is either thousands of years of plate tectonics compressed into 10 seconds or so, or else an erupting volcano island, or maybe it was a grass field with some rocks. We really couldn't decide, but we made the movie anyway.

Enjoy it for what it's worth. Leave us some comments!!