Dream of the Dragon

Tag: monsters

May 13, 2010

Time to grow up.

by Justin

Anyone hoping the recent tidal wave of bad press and flagrantly sinful abuse within the Catholic Church might dismount the Pope from his high horse is, unfortunately, wrong. Condemnation still rests comfortably on the tip of his holy tongue.

I’ve kept my distance writing about the revelation of scandal in Europe that runs deep enough to warrant the resignation of Bishops. Our man Benedict XVI, in his less holy days, has even been implicated for turning a blind eye and by negligence being complicit in several specific cases. Specifically in a German archdiocese with a younger Benedict as its Archbishop (read about that wonder here and here among other places). This is all obviously terrible. The abuse of a priest, of a trusted representative of congregation member’s god, is about as egregious as it gets. It’s a spectacular betrayal of trust. A violation of “God’s law” and plain ol’ secular law. Also, really disgusting. The caliber of this crime can’t be overstated, I don’t think. But it’s pretty well covered territory and I don’t have anything to contribute to the discourse.

Except that I hoped this was an opportunity for an extremely influential and archaic institution to grow up a little.  Read the rest of this entry »

7 Comments
May 7, 2010

A Tree Killing a Whale

by Justin

A bit of Friday lightness. The British Kew Gardens joined with an organization called Velvet to launch an excellent children’s competition with the following prompt:

Imagine your dream tree! What does it look like? What grows on it? What kinds of insects, animals and birds live there? Let your imagination run wild and then draw a picture of this amazing tree.

Every entry is rewarded with a new tree planted and a special certificate honoring that contribution to ‘Trees for Cities.’ And then special prizes are available to the winners selected in the competition. The Guardian covered it in an online gallery showcasing a good range of artistic skill and childlike insanity. Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment
April 27, 2010

Tower of Babel.

by Justin

It’s cool, you know, because at the end of the day they’re really not that smart. Sure, the CEO gets paid $70 million and helms a labyrinthine behemoth of a corporation famed for recruiting the brightest stars in the financial world, but how could you expect him to understand the market? I mean, what reason does the public have for assuming that one of the only entities to profit from the recession did so by the grace of more than just chance?

This is blowing my mind. You plead ignorance? Blankfein played dumb as Senators challenge the ethical decisions of Goldman Sachs and argues that the company practiced exploitation and deliberately misled its clients. I don’t have the expertise (or anything close to it) to attack this monstrosity head on. In fact, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, for all its righteousness seems to be equally baffled by the Goldman defense of its actions. Jon Tester, Democrat from Montana, summed it up by saying, “It’s like we’re speaking a different language here.” Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment