Can we stop with the circular firing squad already!

I read a post yesterday that set my teeth on edge. It was from a Catholic who had his assault rifle aimed dead center on traditional Catholics. Well, he wouldn't want to call them "traditional" Catholics because the word Catholic should stand alone -- no adjectives. We're all just plain, old Catholics. 

What We Can Learn From the Hummingbird Wars!

I have a hummingbird feeder hanging near my office window, a source of much amusement. One little female has delegated to herself the role of sentry. She feeds and then sits on the tippytop of the pole holding the feeder. From there she dive bombs other hummingbirds (mostly other females) to keep them from feeding. Occasionally, a ruby-throated male drops in for a drink, but most of boys apparently have already begun migrating. The females usually remain a bit longer, so the war is usually among the girls. Seems like a lot of wasted energy for nothing but territorial rivalry.

A Time to Laugh: When Trolls Crawl Out from under their Rocks

A troll dressed like an
angel is still a troll.

If you just wait a bit, a troll masquerading as an angel will cast off the costume and reveal her troll-ness to the world....well...at least to you.

I wrote about trolls and tattletales last week describing several as being like "moths to a flame" flapping around my blog. Before I continue, let's define the noun troll and the verb to troll:

verb: to antagonize (others) online by deliberately posting inflammatory, irrelevant, or offensive comments or other disruptive content;...to harass, criticize, or antagonize (someone) especially by provocatively disparaging or mocking public statements, postings, or acts. 

noun: one who does these things

I've stopped posting comments by trolls since they add nothing to the conversation as you'll see by the two most recent comments. They mostly engage in ad hominem attacks. I guess they figure if only they throw enough rocks or shoot enough darts, they'll knock you down and metaphorically kill you off. Fat chance!

Laity Against Laity: The Facebook Wasteland!

If someone on Facebook is plucking out your
feathers, aren't you a dumb cluck
to keep engaging with them?

At Akita, an approved apparition, Mary warned that bishops would be against bishops. Haven't we seen that daily during the past month as a select group of heterodox bishops in the Amazon synod hall were resisted by orthodox bishops excluded because they couldn't be counted on to put on an Amazonian face?

By logical extension, then, it's no surprise that laity also are warring against laity. Which brings me to the Facebook battlefield, a wasteland where "friends" engage in daily armed conflict flinging text back and forth like grenades.

I recently got into a "discussion" on Facebook (the more fool I!) over a Catholic school that would not send its students on a field trip to hear the lesbian astronaut speak. Interestingly, while serving on the space station, she committed an arguably criminal act getting into her partner's bank account. Headlines opined about the "first crime in space." What a role model, eh? I can't remember her name offhand and don't care enough to look her up. She is not the point of this post. Facebook is and the nonsense that masquerades as discussion.