Brutally Honest

This might've been better attempted on April 1

Because in all reality, it was a serious joke:

Lauren Silberman's NFL tryout has lasted all of two kicks, neither of which traveled 20 yards.

Silberman is the first woman to compete at an NFL regional scouting combine. She is 28 years old and played club soccer at Wisconsin.

She left the New York Jets' practice field after injuring her quadriceps. She tried two kickoffs, the first going 19 yards and the second about 13 yards. She then asked to see a trainer.

As more than two dozen media, including E! Entertainment network, watched her every move, Silberman was examined by a trainer.

Whoever set this whole thing up ought to be examined by a shrink.

This was an embarrassment.

Feminists ought to be outraged.

Serious butt-munchery

Kathy Schiffer has words of advice to all priests and deacons: 

Do not do this.  Ever.

What you might be asking?

This:

"I got to go...I can't be here"

Details are emerging as to Kanasa City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher's last moments and they are excruciatingly painful:

From the Kansas City Star:

Seconds after fatally shooting his longtime girlfriend, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher leaned over her in their master bathroom, said he was sorry and kissed her on the forehead.

His mother, who heard gunfire as she stood in the kitchen, rushed to her son's bedroom and watched his remorseful goodbye.

Belcher apologized to his mother, kissed his 3-month-old daughter and fled his rented home in the 5400 block of Crysler Avenue in his Bentley.

The report goes on to state that Belcher drove the five miles to the team's headquarters, where he met Pioli in the parking lot. Belcher exited his vehicle with a gun pointed at his head and told Pioli that he had killed his girlfriend. Belcher, who signed with the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Maine, thanked Pioli for all he had done for him and asked that he and owner Clark Hunt look after his daughter.

Pioli and Crennel attempted to dissuade Belcher from committing suicide, but as police closed in, Belcher reportedly said "I got to go...I can't be here" before kneeling down behind a vehicle, making the sign of the cross and firing a single bullet into his head.

So much is being talked about on this story, so much that I believe misses the point.  Some blame the lack of gun control.  Others the NFL's violence. 

But let's cut to the chase.

What we're truly lacking today is sin control. 

I firmly believe that once this story is fully played out, we'll see that Belcher was cascading from one bad decision to the next and the next and the next, each one disrespecting moral boundaries that have been established for good reasons, until he felt cornered and helpless and desperate and... dead.  

It is tragic.  Particularly for the 3 month old infant left behind now to face the world's challenges without a set of parents.

If only those moral boundaries were taken more seriously.

Chris Matthews removes all doubt

The man is a caricature, he's a joke, he's one of the biggest journalistic buffoons in the history of journalism.

I think at this point we can all say confidently that no one will ever unseat him.

I honestly don't believe that you can sink any lower than the depths the man has plumbed.

Are you ready to experience the worst of all asshattery?  Experience this:

Disordered fakery

Gay guy attempts to do gymnastics on the streets of Missoula, Montana and fails miserably.  Then decides to use his self-induced injuries to further a cause and suck in the gullible.  He succeeds if only for a short time.

Revealing:

A 22-year-old Montana man who told cops he was beaten up by gay-bashing thugs while club-hopping on his birthday — igniting calls online for protest against homophobic violence — made the whole thing up and actually injured himself, he admitted.

Joseph Baken, of Billings, suffered the bruises and cuts to his face when he smashed it against a curb while attempting to stick an Olympic-style backflip in the street, he said.

The young con-artist pleaded guilty to making a false report on Tuesday and was given a 180 day suspended jail sentence and slapped with a $300 fine, the Missoula Independent reported.

Baken's bizarre ruse began when he told Missoula police that three men jumped him outside a club in downtown Missoula early Sunday because he was gay.

Baken said he had gone into the club, announced that it was his birthday and asked if anyone knew a gay bar he could go to.

A man invited him outside for a cigarette, and he and two other attacked him, Baken claimed, according to NBC Montana.

Photos of Baken's battered face were posted on Facebook, Tumblr and other social media sites, prompting an outcry against homophobic violence and calls for protest.

However, a tipster sent a video to the Independent that showed Baker trying to impress his pals by doing a backflip off a curb sometime around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Baker flubbed the stunt and landed on his face.

The newspaper passed the video on to police, and Baken quickly copped to lying about getting jumped.

Video of the man's athletic prowess, or lack thereof, at the link.

"Nothing but the God-Man satisfies the Problem of Pain"

I have come to believe that with most of my heart... I write 'most' because to say 'all' of my heart would be dishonest.  

As a flawed man, most flawed man, I'll have my moments of doubt... yet thankfully, mercifully, I've also come to believe that regular times in Confession, regular times with the Eucharist, regular times praying the Rosary, regular times attending Mass, all result in overcoming those doubtful times.

But I digress.

BadCatholic expounds on suffering and it's an expounder most worthy of your pondering:

The cross is not bound by time. It is an action of an infinite God, and thus infinite in nature, saving those in the past, the present and the future. It is not an example of suffering, it is suffering. It is the motion of humanity towards the Good. This means that our sufferings — our motions towards the Good — cannot be separate from his — the Ultimate motion towards the Ultimate Good. We can never suffer alone. This is why Paul says ”I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church” (Colossians 1:24).

For all those who understandably don’t like Bible quotes, I’ll put it simply. If Bob has an infinite number of blocks, can you own a block that is not Bob’s? Of course not, for then Bob would have infinity minus 1 block, which is no infinity at all.

In the same way, if Christ suffers infinitely, can you experience any personal suffering that is not Christ’s? Of course not. For then the action of Christ would be infinite minus your suffering, which is no infinity at all.

But then the Problem of Pain is resolved. For all suffering — even the most terrible, unexplainable, unbearable suffering — must be an essential part of the motion of reconciliation, the pulling of mankind back to God. The breast of the child dying with pneumonia heaves up and down with the strain of bringing the world back to its Father. The heart of the abused girl breaks with the weight of the world’s sin, as she hold us sinners up to the waters of Grace. All suffering must partake in the one act of infinite suffering, the Crucifixion, by which the world is brought back to the Good it was made for.

If this is true, no suffering is meaningless. If this is true, all suffering can be transformed in the heart of the sufferer by the simple recognition that this pain, this fear, and this stubbed toe — in some entirely mystical and entirely practical way — saves the world. All other world-views either ignore the problem of pain, accept it with resignation, or seek to avoid it. Christianity, that eternal contradiction, embraces it as salvation. Choose now who you will serve.

That's but a snippet.  Go and suffer (so to speak) through the rest of it, and get a glimpse of the Good to which he speaks.

Pain is inevitable in life.  

Why not get a more redemptive understanding of it?

Hurt people hurt people

I was having a conversation recently with someone, someone who had been wounded by someone else.  It wasn't a fun conversation and there was little I could say, or do, to heal the hurt.  

What I did blurt out at one point is that hurt people hurt people.  It was in the context of my suggesting that forgiveness, though hardly easy, is certainly necessary.  And I thought that seeing the person who had hurt the other as a hurt person themselves is a perspective that might more easily push open the door that leads to forgiveness.  The irony is that I'd love the chance to say the same thing to the second person.

I don't know that any of it helped.  I hope so.  I'm praying so.

All that for background on something I stumbled across today I thought was simply incredibly insightful.

It's an interview of someone who's experienced pain and who has found an exceptional and effective avenue toward forgiveness.  The whole thing ought to be read, especially by those who've been wounded and with that in mind, here's a particularly moving and poignant excerpt:

Q: What would you say to someone who feels trapped by old wounds, not sure where to even begin down the path of forgiveness?

I recommend partaking of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. That may sound strange, because certainly those who have been abused have no reason to confess things done to them that was not my fault. But, as I write in in My Peace I Give You, although the primary reason we go to Confession is to be forgiven our sins, forgiveness is not the only thing that happens in that sacrament. Christ touches us, and, whenever He touches us, He gives grace.

A problem that many abuse victims have is anxiety caused by their uncertainty over the state of their soul. They have so absorbed the lies imprinted upon them by their abuse that they have trouble discerning the difference between the lingering effects of the sins committed against them, for which they are not responsible, and their own sins, for which they are responsible.

Recently a friend who suffered from this painful uncertainty asked me for advice on confession. I recommended to her that when she went to confess, having the priest the sins that she was certain were her responsibility, she should add, “Since Jesus is with me in this sacrament, I want to ask His healing grace while I am here, because I was abused when I was a child. I know I am not responsible for my abuse, but it has led to my having thoughts that distance me from Him. If any of those thoughts are sinful, I am very sorry, because I don’t want anything to separate me from Him. And even if they are not sinful, I ask Jesus to cover me with His Precious Blood and heal my hidden wounds.”

A few months after suggesting that approach to my friend, I went into the confessional and was moved to say the very words I had recommended. It was very powerful. Afterwards, I could not believe it had taken me so long to take my own advice.

Lord, touch all who wound because they're wounded.  And allow them to embrace forgiveness which I'm convinced will help the wounds heal.

Let it be so.

This is NOT a hate crime. Nope.

By tim, The Godless Heathen

So says the Baltimore County Police Commissioner. Yes sir, looks like some love to me.

From GatewayPundit, where there is also another video of this barbarity shot from a different angle.

But don’t worry, Present Obama and AG Eric Holder will be holding press conferences and investigating this soon. Yup.

Truth, Lies and Afghanistan

By Locutisprime

This colonel's military career is over after this, but what he has to say is riveting. Speaking truth to command is not a survivable enterprise in the US military. By all means, follow the link and read the entire piece, as it really brings into focus what many Americans have known for at least the last five years as it concerns the war in Afghanistan.

How military leaders have let us down

By LT. COL. DANIEL L. DAVIS

I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force took me into every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy. Over the course of 12 months, I covered more than 9,000 miles and talked, traveled and patrolled with troops in Kandahar, Kunar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Kunduz, Balkh, Nangarhar and other provinces.

What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground.

Entering this deployment, I was sincerely hoping to learn that the claims were true: that conditions in Afghanistan were improving, that the local government and military were progressing toward self-sufficiency. I did not need to witness dramatic improvements to be reassured, but merely hoped to see evidence of positive trends, to see companies or battalions produce even minimal but sustainable progress.

Instead, I witnessed the absence of success on virtually every level.

My arrival in country in late 2010 marked the start of my fourth combat deployment, and my second in Afghanistan. A Regular Army officer in the Armor Branch, I served in Operation Desert Storm, in Afghanistan in 2005-06 and in Iraq in 2008-09. In the middle of my career, I spent eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve and held a number of civilian jobs — among them, legislative correspondent for defense and foreign affairs for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

As a representative for the Rapid Equipping Force, I set out to talk to our troops about their needs and their circumstances. Along the way, I conducted mounted and dismounted combat patrols, spending time with conventional and Special Forces troops. I interviewed or had conversations with more than 250 soldiers in the field, from the lowest-ranking 19-year-old private to division commanders and staff members at every echelon. I spoke at length with Afghan security officials, Afghan civilians and a few village elders.

I saw the incredible difficulties any military force would have to pacify even a single area of any of those provinces; I heard many stories of how insurgents controlled virtually every piece of land beyond eyeshot of a U.S. or International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) base.

I saw little to no evidence the local governments were able to provide for the basic needs of the people. Some of the Afghan civilians I talked with said the people didn’t want to be connected to a predatory or incapable local government.

From time to time, I observed Afghan Security forces collude with the insurgency.

From Bad to Abysmal

Much of what I saw during my deployment, let alone read or wrote in official reports, I can’t talk about; the information remains classified. But I can say that such reports — mine and others’ — serve to illuminate the gulf between conditions on the ground and official statements of progress.

And I can relate a few representative experiences, of the kind that I observed all over the country.

In January 2011, I made my first trip into the mountains of Kunar province near the Pakistan border to visit the troops of 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry. On a patrol to the northernmost U.S. position in eastern Afghanistan, we arrived at an Afghan National Police (ANP) station that had reported being attacked by the Taliban 2½ hours earlier.

Through the interpreter, I asked the police captain where the attack had originated, and he pointed to the side of a nearby mountain.

“What are your normal procedures in situations like these?” I asked. “Do you form up a squad and go after them? Do you periodically send out harassing patrols? What do you do?”

As the interpreter conveyed my questions, the captain’s head wheeled around, looking first at the interpreter and turning to me with an incredulous expression. Then he laughed.

“No! We don’t go after them,” he said. “That would be dangerous!”

"If he wants money. Get a job. Work, like everybody else in this world."

A would be robber occupies the left cross of one Derek Mothershead, a store clerk who decided he wasn't going to roll over:

H/T Bookworm.

Crossposted at Wizbang.