Mattie Catches Up

Hard to believe it has been a couple of days since I posted, but I guess I did -- work has been busy, trying to keep caught up with things -- I have sent out a raft of food pantry and SVDP emails and related such things over the past two days.  I also watched -- it was due back at the library today -- "Dirty Dancing."  Yes, I had not seen it, and as a recent addition to the National Film Registry... it was ok?  Seemed a bit anachronistic, honestly.  I mean, it was fine and entertaining, and maybe I had to be there back in the 80s, but...anyways, up to 849.  Rah.  I should probably get back to it -- we can get stuff from Interlibrary Loan, again, and that is a good source of them, and we are probably two months away from the release date of the next batch, most of which I will not have watched.  Sigh.

The Rigged Poker Games That Used NBA Stars and James Bond Tech to Steal Millions - WSJ
Gambling in the NBA?  I am shocked, shocked, I tell you, by this.  (The irony of that quote!)  More seriously, should we be surprised?  Hell, the leagues have embraced gambling, so what makes us think the staff will avoid the practice?  In some ways, baseball -- and the Black Sox scandal -- got it right, but we have retreated from it ever since...  I suspect we will have a lot more of these things going forward, like it or not...

How Russell Vought Became Trump’s Shadow President — ProPublica
Interesting profile.  I do not think that POTUS has these powers -- and I think the Court should rule as such -- but the man has a point: we need to cut spending and personnel, and sooner is better.  Say what you want about Trump, his four years in the wilderness were put to good use.

The Unspoken Trial of the Orphaning of Our Priests - Crisis Magazine
Can this be true?  One hopes not but suspects it is so...  I guess I should be sympathetic to the position of the Bishops -- we can't let pedophiles run around our parishes -- but the flip side is that good priests are now being treated completely differently, and that is not right.  And we have too few of them as it is (yes, this is my fault too, but...)!

w34353.pdf
Interesting read, and I think there is quite a bit of truth here...