Forever A Fangirl

I just expired!

Oi!
I just found out that I expired on April 24th!

My resident alien card did, anyway. Oh foo! Now I've got to hustle down to the busiest (no parking anywhere) part of Chicago to get renewed. Dang! I hope they don't slap the cuffs on me when I get there...I did enter the country legally after all.
I took the resident alien card out of it's usual stashed-away-to-not-get-lost place and put it right in the corner of my dresser mirror where it would remind me, too. Guess the week has been a little hectic--do 'ya think the immigration peeps will accept that as an excuse? Erg! Now I'm all paranoid.
I need to go fish around at their website and see what's up and find out too if they have a one-stop shop where I can register then get on the wait list to become half American (well fully here, but Canadian when in Canada). To think I was dissing my brother for doing the same. This past presidential election convinced me to give up something that I been quite proud to be for four decades plus. George W. Bush the motivator...who would have thought.
Have to take care of this stuff next week as we all know gov't offices keep banker's hours. (Is that phrase even relevant anymore?)

Big weekend comin' up in my little life. Concerts by my son's choir (they are doing a school tour today--performing at 4 area grade schools & spouse is a chaperone--probably very little chance of him getting bonked in the face, tho'.) basically all day/night Saturday. I get to do my favourite thing--stay backstage and be a "kid catcher," in case anyone swoons. I'm hoping for some good shots with the new camera --try to do something different with the composition.
Anyway, I'm rambling here.

I think I'm getting sorta well--slept good last p.m.--a rarity. I may have made the transition to getting to bed before 4 a.m. as I've done it all week. My goal is 2 am at the latest so I can be half-way on "normal" time.

So everyone, hope you have a delightful or productive (or both) weekend!

See 'ya next time,

--Cyn

 

Yay! It's The Pope!

Give it a few seconds to load...

I forgot to be embarrassed.

My day: got up about 3.5 hours early to make the school bus trip to Geneva, Illinois to see a minor league baseball game which was a reward to grade 7 children in English/Lit classes for reading X amount over a few months time. Parents signed off and so on. It was sponsored by the team with free food & drink and a "walking billboard"-type t-shirt for each child.
So about an hour school bus ride each way--and I sat in the back. Yay. 

Somewhere in the middle of the game (not a big baseball fan--plus pretty distracted with kids--there were many schools there) the mascot, a mangy-looking "cougar" (really looked more like a bear) with the assistance of two baseball players used a giant slingshot to shoot balled-up rubber-banded t-shirts into the crowds of mostly kids. They were compacted to about the size of a softball.
On this very blustery day, there was next to no one in the seats closer to first base, so we (along with most everyone else) migrated to the red section.

Though blustery, it was pretty sunny so I was wearing my sunglasses and then I wasn't. They were shattered and above and below my eye was cut and it stung like heck! I wasn't even trying to catch the dumb thing. I was paying so little attention to the antics on the field with the mangy mascot that I didn't even know that things were being slingshotted in my general direction.

So I went to first aid --I was kind of in a rush to get back 'cos by then the one teacher that came on this event was making noises about leaving soon...so I took a couple of disposable ice packs and went back to my seat for further instruction. The guy did a quick check and took my info and they are supposed to call me.

I haven't been socked in the eye for over 20 years, I'm proud to say. I'm more ticked off about my sunglasses--two weeks old they were.
It'll be interesting to hear what the Cougars will say about springing for a new pair. (I don't spend big money on them--'cause I'm rough on them--tho' not usually this rough.)

Everyone from my school was very nice--offering to take me in one of the parent's cars instead of the bus and was I ok... I was fine. I forgot to be embarrassed.

Anywho. We (Chris and me) got home, I napped, and later had a decadent meatball sandwich for dinner. That's on top of my baseball hotdog (kinda cool tho' that they had all the fresh ingredients to make it "Chicago-Style" (cucumber/pickles, chopped tomatoes, sauerkraut, other stuff). It's just too much stuff, IMO.
Not a big day for nutrition. :p.
My steam is running out so I'll bid you goodnight and a very pleasant tomorrow!

The Cacophony Of Crap

I'm feeling rather stuck as my computer is being scanned for bugs atm, and I cannot do much else whilst it (hopefully) gets de-bugged. "Luke Filechecker" says now that there is a worm of some kind and so far it's not deleted it (whereas it deleted all the G-mail phish files).
That doesn't seem like a good thing.

There's a lot happening politically and I'm so busy working I feel that I don't keep up with it enough to comment--or to repeat what I've already said about Washington and abuse of power and the events that still eat away at people's lives in Iraq, etc., ad nauseum (sp?)... so I won't.

Give a damn. Get political. Get vocal or write or both, give what money you can to the causes you support, be they political or not.
Sometimes I think the important stuff gets lost in the cacophony of crap that spews forth each day.

Are we serious about wanting to pack the Supreme Court with a bunch of conservatives?

Whatever happened to balance, fairness, moderation? Are these words devoid of meaning now? Why are we lurching towards a very dark place with these (for lack of a better word) men?

Why is it so important for the US to have to control, to have absolute power? We have been corrupted absolutely in so many ways and I suppose that left the opening that the hyper-conservative right wing needed to get their agendas on the table.

It's almost unbearable to listen & read each day as a new chink is being hammered in the "wall" that was supposed to protect the Constitution.

Do you folks that voted Bush in still feel okay with that?

Outside my back door

Angel on my doorstep--waiting for spring.

4.23.05 ~Seven p.m. looking into the courtyard.

Blossoms beginning to open on the crabapple tree next to our porch.

A sign...just enough to hang onto a shred of optimism that spring is on the way.

Men are pig-slobs (apologies to the two or three that are not).

Ugh, I'm in a bit of emotional turmoil. I need to work through it but it's some truth issues and male v. female issues (I live with three men, ok one is almost 13 y.o.--technically a boy). They just don't think or act remotely like I do and I get very frustrated mostly with lack of accountabilty and responsibilty and (the boy part) they are horribly disgusting in their slobbiness.

What is the value of an American life claimed by terrorists?

"What is the value of an American life claimed by terrorists? The answer, it turns out, depends on where and when you die..."

 

OK City Memorial Reflecting Pool

Photos (unless noted) taken by me whilst on summer vaction several years ago on a quick detour to the Memorial just before sundown, when it closes. The the reflecting pool and "gateways" are lovely, but the rows of glass and bronze chairs--that light up at night-- really got me. The nineteen small chairs represent the dead children.

Nighttime shot*

I Iiked (sounds weird to use that word) too, the one section of the Murrah building that is integrated  into the Memorial (above)--it's quite astounding. I believe the survivor's names are inscribed there.

The Chairs*

A chain link fence stands where thousands of small memorials are erected to the dead. This one caught my eye especially as Colton and Chase were one of two sibling sets in the blast. The other pair lived--amazingly--but with very severe injuries).

2005~ It seems our memories of the Oklahoma bombing are fading much like this small memorial.*

Oklahoma City firefighter Chris Fields gently carries little Baylee Almon away from the rubble. She had celebrated her first birthdayjust one day earlier.*

The photographer, Charles H. Porter IV, was a utility company employeewho happened to be in the area with a camera.Because he was on company time and using a company camera,actual ownership of the photograph initially was disputed.The photo was widely distributed by The Daily Oklahoman and the Associated Press and quickly became recognized around the world.The photo earned the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography.

United in grief, now divided by fortunes-- NYC & OK City Bears hang from chain link fence memorial.

Survivor Tree, OK City ( Chris in foreground)~ The tree which survived the blast--directly across from the Murrah Building. *Photos with an asterisk were taken for the Tribune article at
http://tinyurl.com/dm2ed .

Torment lingers in OK City

If you share a marker with someone, you share an ancestor in the past

I love science/cultural stories like this one.

Information morphs as scientists gain knowledge and it eventually comes to be considered the truth--according to science. But I snicker (bad me) to think of all the evangelicals and other "hallelujah peppers"* getting in a snit about the "lies" propagated by evil scientists and Theory of Evolution-ists.
Anyway, this stuff is cool...and it equalizes things a bit if it's accurate, no? ~* First heard in Carnivàle on HBO--which you made a mistake by not watching. :p

"When they're passed down through generations, they mark a line of descent because they occur so rarely," Wells said. "If you share a marker with someone, you share an ancestor in the past. It's by looking at the pattern of these variances . . . that we can trace people around the world."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0504140171apr14,1,1926751.story?coll=chi-homepagebiz-utl

Your ancestry might surprise you

Global DNA study aims to trace links of distant people, unravel migration

Michael Kilian and Jeremy Manier
Tribune staff reporters

April 14, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Your family tree may look quite a bit different from you thought it did. Which is to say, you might well be related to the queen of England--but through a common ancestor who lived in Africa tens of millennia ago.

In pursuit of such knowledge, the National Geographic on Wednesday announced a five-year, $40 million project to trace the evolution and migration of human beings and their cultures over the thousands of years of human existence.

Organized in cooperation with IBM Corp. and the Waitt Family Foundation, the undertaking, which will be launched in May, will involve the scientific identification and computer analysis of about 100,000 DNA samples--prehistoric, historic and contemporary.

Indigenous people in remote locations will be asked for DNA samples, and contributions also will be accepted from volunteers around the globe. This will help determine where groups of people came from, what impelled them to migrate, where they ended up and what happened to them genetically and culturally along the way.

"We want to learn the why of history," said population geneticist Spencer Wells, National Geographic explorer-in-residence and director of the Genographic Project. "Why did people move? Why did these people look a little bit like those people? Why did they speak the same language or a different language? We want to place the genetic information in the context of history and anthropology."

Origins in Africa

The new data and analysis will be combined or at least compared with existing knowledge and theory, such as the fact that, whether we live in Lake Forest, Ill.; Washington, D.C.; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, or the South Seas, we all have a common ancestry dating back to Africa, where the earliest known remains of humans were found.

"That is very clear," Wells said. "That comes out of every genetic analysis that is done. We can trace ourselves back to Africa 60,000 years ago. So, 60,000 years ago, everybody alive is living in Africa."

But the second earliest example of human beings was found in Australia, from as far back as 55,000 B.C., when a lingering ice age connected Australia and New Guinea. So much sea water was drawn up into ice that humans could walk across land from Australia to New Guinea. At the same time, the nearby islands of what is now Indonesia were for the most part connected in a single land mass that joined the Asian mainland, again because of the low sea level.

"We need more data to really nail down the details of how they made this journey," Wells said.

The project, however, raises concerns among some experts who say the organizers may run into trouble obtaining cooperation from native people around the world.

In the late 1990s, opposition from indigenous groups who feared their genes would be exploited for profit helped doom a similar effort, called the Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP). The leader of that project, Stanford University geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, is chairman of an advisory board for the new effort and has been a mentor of Wells.

`A checkered history'

"This whole idea has a checkered history," said Lynn Jorde, a professor of human genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine. "These kinds of studies are not as easy as just going out, saying `hello' to the natives and taking their DNA."

Many of the project's goals are worthwhile, Jorde said. Studies of genetic markers have contributed to knowledge of how people moved around the globe. For example, genetic studies support the idea that the Roma, also called Gypsies, originated around northern India.

"If it is done properly and with appropriate safeguards, this would be a wonderful addition to our library of human genetic variation," Jorde said.

Organizers of the new project say they have eliminated many of the problems that led to the downfall of the earlier one. The new study will not attempt to produce medical applications from rare genes--a potentially key point for ethnic groups that want to control any commercial use of their genes.

The new project's Web site (www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic) specifically addresses the failure of the earlier diversity project.

"Fourteen years ago when the HGDP was first discussed, the language of DNA and genetic anthropology was foreign to all but a few scientists," the site says. "Today that language is more familiar to many of us, and many of the ethical and privacy issues are more clearly understood by the global community."

Yet other old concerns have not gone away, experts said. Some native groups fear that new findings about migration patterns and ancestry could spur legal challenges to their historical claims to their lands, said Morris Foster, a medical anthropologist at the University of Oklahoma. He said it's unclear whether the privately run effort would offer the same ethical protections that academic research would, such as an independent institutional review board.

"I don't anticipate that many native people will contribute to this project," Foster said.

In Spencer Wells the project found a leader whose talent for self-promotion has left some geneticists and anthropologists unimpressed. Wells, 34, is perhaps best known for hosting a public television mini-series, "The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey."

"He's quite a showman," Jorde said.

To gather research data, the project is establishing field centers in the U.S., Britain, South Africa, India, Australia, France, Lebanon and Brazil.

Field work is `core'

Wells said, "The core will be the field work they'll be doing with indigenous populations, that is, populations that have lived in place for a long period of time, for generations, or perhaps dozens or hundreds of generations, that are in some way unique and contain the context in which genetic diversity arose. They give us a first glimpse of the migratory paths of our ancestors."

Volunteers from all parts of the world also are being sought because their stories and DNA samples are needed for comparison with the historic ones to complete the picture.

Though the project will bear the cost of the research into indigenous peoples, other participants will have to reach into their own pockets. For $99.95, the project will provide those interested with a Genographic Public Participation Kit, which includes instructions on how to obtain a good DNA sample with the kit's cheek scraper and information on what happens afterward.

Scientists are able to track back through populations genetically because every so often over generations small changes or mutations occur in the DNA that mark those who came before and those who came after.

"When they're passed down through generations, they mark a line of descent because they occur so rarely," Wells said. "If you share a marker with someone, you share an ancestor in the past. It's by looking at the pattern of these variances . . . that we can trace people around the world."

By Michael Kilian and Jeremy Manier, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune national correspondent Michael Kilian reported from Washington, with staff reporter Jeremy Manier in Chicago

Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune

A Top-Down Day :)

Got some top down motoring in today with my son, which was fun. He needed a favour of me (take my picture for a project in his German class--believe me, it's a big request! ) so I asked him to come help me vacuum out the Mustang with the big vacuum at Amoco as well as accompany me on another errand. We had pretty decent weather--real far from hot--but better weather to come, which is good 'cos I have to get some more shots for eBay auctions and a moderately sunny day seems to help make a good picture.

Tonight we used a gift card that we purchased to help support the Children's Choir to go to Olive Garden. They give something like 16% of the tab to the kids. I had lobster stuffed ravioli with a shrimp on top of each. As my spouse said, it looked "cute." It was pretty good. I had to laugh though at the end of the meal whilst we collected the check and my son noted that he could have eaten a lot more salmon (his current food fixation when at a sit-down-type place) and
"a bunch of other stuff," if we'd gone to his favourite Friday nite joint, Cholesterol City Buffet a/k/a Old Country Buffet. We take him there as a treat 'cos he loves it but it is not my first choice for eating out, by far.
I wan't feeling generous towards him tonite as he (barely) brought home a mediocre grade report from school this morning. Yes, he brought it home this morning. He'd stashed it in his History book for an entire week and parent's signatures were requested for today, at the latest. So he retrieved it and shoved it in the general direction of my spouse with a request that he sign it. I wouldn't have signed but I was here sleeping, so I'm keeping my lip zipped. Chris has been fibbing about homework assignments being done when their not and his grades reflect the fact that most of his teachers place a heavy emphasis on homework being completed. Many of htem noted that he gets high test scores (and gets along well with (respects rights of) others--moms love to hear that!)
He's only got a quarter left in grade 7, and he's had straight C's in the subject he scores in the top 1% in the nation, state, and county--Mathematics. He's in advanced placement Math and the homework "bores" him but what he may find out is how boring it'll be next year when they mainstream him and he's doing math that he learned two years ago. Now that ought to give him a real big dose of "boring." Kids. Sheesh.
I am so not cut out to be a parent sometimes. It's exasperating and I'm not a patient person but the counseling background puts me in problem-solving mode rather than angry/disappointed parent mode. So the different hat-wearing is somewhat dicey at times
Anyway, that was long-winded. It's very late. I need to wake my spouse up off the LR couch and put him to bed. He did the taxes tonight--we're getting almost $400 back on Federal--yay!

Have a good day/evening and a pleasant tomorrow!

--Cyn

Girl Power: Alicia Hempleman-Adams *01.11.09 Update

Fifteen-year old Alicia Hempleman-Adams, of England stands with her father David Hempleman-Adams in Pangnirtung, Nunavut, Canada, Wednesday April 13, 2005, after she became the youngest person to complete the Baffin Island Traverse through Auyuittuq National Park Reserve. Alicia was accompanied by her father and three others (names not available) for the expedition. When she was eight-years old Alicia became the youngest person to reach the North Pole when she was flown to meet her father during one of his earlier expeditions. (AP Photo / Johnny Green, PA)

Update 11/07

Alicia Hempleman Adams is the teenage daughter of explorer David Hempleman-Adams. She is aiming to emulate fer father's success by becoming the youngest person to trek to the North Pole. At the age of eight she was the youngest person to reach it when she was flown there to meet her father. Her PE teacher Jo Simmonds from Stonar School in Wiltshire will join her on the trek.

Alicia Hempleman-Adams took 10 days to walk and ski 150 miles across Baffin Island in north-east Canada. Alicia and her three companions had to battle a wind chill factor of minus 40C, thin ice and open water along the trek. But this will not necessarily mean the start of a career in exploration, she said. "I want to try other things first."

Alicia now goes to Prior Park College and is 18 years old. She comes out with classic quotes such as "YOU!!"

Update:

Alicia went on to attend Prior Park College in Bath.

She now lives with her fiance Ben Talbot, frontman in UK rock band The Scene.

Cyanide & Happiness

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Nose To The Grindstone, Head In The Clouds

I've been both in a funk and busy--back and forth.

My eldest son, for whom I've been meaning to do a quick update as doing "quite well," having stability, a basic life plan, and so on surprised me somewhat by having a warrant out on another non-moving traffic transgression. He got nailed by the cops in the next town over and fled on foot! A dozen of them decended on the store he manages (he was on his lunch break at the time) and not finding him, radioed to have the cops in my town come to the house. Of course, the last place he'd be is here.
What an ass.
At least I'm not enabling anymore. His boss and her boss have taken over that role. She called him on his cell whilst he was on the run and when he refused to turn himself in got the big boss (guy who helps runs this locally huge charity that my son works for) to talk to him. Big Boss talked him into turning himself into the police and then drove him there, as cops had my son's big white Caddy towed (wanna guess what kind of music the kid likes?).  
Big Boss bailed him out (for the warrant for not showing up at court--no charges for eloping). His bosses have a ton of justification for their actions--he's a good kid making bad choices, blah, blah. Yeah, a 22 y.o. "kid."

I hate to be a huge pessimist but he's done nothing but burn people for the past 8 years.
I'm greatly relieved that he is no longer my problem--and I felt no stress--just a bit of irritation at dealing with one of our finest when I needed to be doing something else.
No more tears and sleepless nights over him, though.
And my youngest couldn't be more different than his half-brother, so I'm beyond grateful for that. There are no guarantees in life especially when predicting long-term behaviour but as my youngest approaches age 13, he seems to be a solidly grounded, genuinely nice, decent kid. At age 13, my my elder son was running away (overnight to who knew where). I try not to treat Chris like he's the greatest kid in the world but I lucked out this time, I think (and you all know I haven't written my older son off, just can't have that emotional investment that I would have had, if things had been anywhere in the neighbourhood of normal).

I'm very close to my goal of swimming a mile as part of my regular swimming thing. I could do more if I stayed longer. But I wanted to build up speed for the forthcoming swim across Maple Lake, Ontario at the end of this summer. The last month before the swim I'll work more on distance (and I have no idea what I'm doing in re: "training"--I just like how I feel after I swim).
It's 2.5 miles and it should be quite doable. It's kinda weird just doing it now after going up to Maple Lake since I was 6 months old and spending entire summers there whilst growing up. I just hope my young (age 15) cousin who competes in swimming and will start the swim with me, doesn't have to wait too long for me to make it to the other side. I figure she'll be at least twice as fast as me, maybe three times. I should tell both her and our spotter to bring a good book with them.

Lately,I seem to either (just to hammer down some over-used phrases) have my head in the clouds thinking about this summer (Hawaii, Canada, & California) or my nose to the grindstone working to finance it. I thought last summer was full but this one will surpass it by far. Just wish I could spread stuff out a bit...but I wouldn't pass up any of the stuff I'm planning to do.

Not a whole lot else--I'm pretty beat right now so I'll wish you all well, and say bye for now. 

St. Charles, IL ~ 04.10.05

This is where we plan to move in less than a year or rather it's a bit of the downtown area that we walked around in on Sunday.
I love that the Fox River runs right through St.Charles. It forced the town to build around it with some pretty cool results. There's a ton of parks for a town this size as well as walkways over the river and here, a spillway and an example of the ubiquitous statue of The Fox River fox (they overdid it just a tad) The foxes happen to bear a strong resemblance to our Schipperke dog, Raven, 'cept she has a docked tail.

OMG, it's alive!
The magnolia tree behind the guys, that is. It's blooming!
It's April in the Fox Valley!  Mm-mm. Gotta soak it in as Ol' Man Winter is not quite done with us yet. :/

It seems the tree was the only sign of life so far. I believe these (duck eggs?) have lost their potential. :(

Part of a monument to a long list of people. This town is very good at thanking themselves. :D
Anyway, cool that there is a sea sponge implanted in the stones.

MORE: http://cyncity.typepad.com/photos/cyn_city_st_charles_il_03/

 

 

 

 

What Kind Of Dog Are You?

Click below to find out more about your inner canine:
http://www.gone2thedogs.com/

Click here to find out more about mine. :D

John Paul II lies in state in the Vatican's St. Peter's Basilica...

Some very nicely composed and photographed images are coming out of Vatican right now.
--Cyn

The body of the late Pope John Paul II lies in state in the Vatican's St. Peter's Basilica April 4, 2005. Pall bearers, cardinals and monks took Pope John Paul on one last trip from his palace on Monday, escorting his body to St. Peter's, the church that was his for 26 years and will be his burial place. Photo by Pool/Reuters

 

Monday, Monday

When I don't post it is either because a. I'm too busy (which is usually good) or b. things are shitty.

I've been busy.

The youngest had all last week off from school and even he remarked at how much got crammed into the week.
This is a kid who is quite content to play with his friends on-line and "outside" is pretty much a foreign concept unless he's asked to walk the dog.

So part of the time I was taking care of two kids-- went to Brookfield Zoo (eight dollars just to park)--very nice but windy day--tried my (first) camera phone for the first time--didn't have a clue what I was doing. Got it figured out now.
Movies--the boys watched Robots again--there's not much out right now suitable for 12.5 y.o.'s. I saw The Upside Of Anger. Best film I've seen in ages. The female lead Joan Allen, was like a force of nature. I'm absolutely sure she'll be Academy Award nominated. Very much enjoyed myself.

Spouse and I went out Friday night to see my bro-in-law play in one of his bands. They have a new lead singer who sucks pretty bad, so bro-in-law is sounding like he'll shift more of his time to his primary band. His wife is part of the team technically though she's not a band member, kinda reminds me of Paul and Linda McCartney and how even though she couldn't play an instrument or sing, he put her in the band anyway--just so they could be together.

Work is very busy. I'm getting some good final auction prices on the stuff I'm selling. Sometimes I feel guilty that people are paying too much.
I know, I do not have the mind-set to be a big money maker. I do work hard though and I'm doing some stuff that is fun--namely the photography and post-photography on the products.

Not a lot else. The college was closed so no swimming for over a week. I'm anxious to get back to that. Yoga doesn't take the place of it nor does walking, though I get a pretty good workout at the store whilst hauling books, climbing ladders, and just generally working at a frantic pace.

I have been struggling with disordered eating. I suppose most people would chalk it up to overeating a couple times--and we have been eating out a lot--but I'm also obsessing over my fat this and that and that's not good at all. It's so easy to fall back into old patterns. :sigh:

A Strategy Of Triage

Is this not a very cool photo?

I found this extremely interesting...The issue of will the Catholic Church's stance turn to to "saving" the Western world, which is consumed by consumerism, and how will the Church hang on to the new recruits so to speak, the vast number of Catholics in Latin countries--how to stop them from leaving the fold and going Pentecostal, not to mention how to deal with the Asian priests that want to marry. --Cyn

http://tinyurl.com/6rkfb

April 4, 2005
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

The next pope faces challenges so urgent that many church leaders and analysts worry that even a pope with the charisma and capacity of John Paul II will have to resort to a strategy of triage.

The rich nations pose one set of concerns: the Roman Catholic Church is withering in Europe, the continent that once supplied it with priests, cathedrals and intellect, while in the United States, the church is self-consciously struggling to make its message relevant in a materialistic society where even religion is market driven.

The poorer countries pose a different set of concerns: in Latin America, home to 4 of every 10 Catholics in the world, priests say they cannot compete effectively with the exuberant, proliferating evangelical and Pentecostal churches. In Africa and Asia, growing Catholic populations often live uneasily among Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.

The Roman Catholic Church is, more than ever, a global institution with global problems. With more than one billion members, amounting to half the world's Christians and 17 percent of the world's population, it is the largest and wealthiest religious or charitable institution on the planet.

But the biggest concerns of the new century - the turmoil within the Muslim world and the explosive shift of economic power to India and China - did not draw the focus of John Paul. As he proved, the church's leader is capable of changing the course of history. But the church has to make choices.

One question that the leadership of the church has to ask itself," said Christopher M. Bellitto, academic editor at Paulist Press, a large Catholic publishing house, "is will it invest most of its time and money and energy in what we used to call the third world, or will it try to pull Europe and North America back from the materialism that John Paul II said was the curse of capitalism?"

The choice may be embodied in the selection of a new pope. In the weeks leading to the conclave, the cardinals will be discussing among themselves not only who should lead, but what the church's priorities are. If they choose a candidate from Africa, or more likely, Latin America, it may signal that their primary concern is with the church in the Southern Hemisphere. Or they could choose a pope from Europe because he can speak convincingly to the West about its growing religious indifference.

Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson said, "As a church I think we're kind of tired, and I think we've lost a little bit of our confidence." The church in the United States, and in countries like Austria and Ireland, is still reeling from the disclosures of sexual abuse by priests. Bishop Kicanas's own diocese declared bankruptcy in the face of mounting lawsuits by people asserting abuse.

He says he regularly meets Catholics who are hungry for spiritual teaching but skeptical that the Catholic Church actually lives what it preaches. The major challenge facing the church is, he said, "to articulate the message of the faith in a way that's actually influential and convincing to people."

The most pressing problem facing the church, said Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, is "the secularity of our society, the passivity of people with regard to things of God."

In the third world, the church does not face the problem of making Christianity relevant. By serving the poor, refugees or people with AIDS, by speaking out on corruption, deforestation or global debt relief, churches are engaged in peoples' lives.

A crucial and delicate challenge for the next pope is relations with Islam at a time when militant Islam is on the rise. The church under John Paul focused its major interfaith and ecumenical initiatives on mending relations with Jews and Orthodox Christianity. But now the most urgent interfaith dialogue must be with Muslims, said Daniel Thompson, a theology and religious studies professor at Fordham University.

Tom DeLay: Is he corrupt, power-hungry and out of touch?

Dear Cyn,

Click here to read our full case file on Tom DeLay!

Meet Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), the man Republicans have chosen as their Majority Leader in the House of Representatives.

Tom DeLay is at the center of a bewildering array of investigations into corruption, abuse of power, and ethics violations.

As the courts and committees investigate DeLay's misdeeds and hand down indictments, keeping track of all the scandals can be a full-time job. So we thought it would helpful to offer folks a quick and easy guide:

http://www.democrats.org/delaycasefile

People need to get to know Tom DeLay. He personifies the kind of government we're getting from Republicans -- corrupt, power-hungry, and out of touch.

They also need to know that his Republican colleagues in the House have been complicit in his pattern of sleaze. They even changed the ethics rules to protect him, and packed the Ethics Committee with a bunch of DeLay cronies for good measure.

Spread the Word

It is vital that you help us spread the word about Tom DeLay. The more people who know about his record, the more pressure he'll face. Forward this message to your friends or use this handy tool:

http://www.democrats.org/spreadtheword

Even conservative commentators and editorial boards see the writing on the wall -- they have been weighing in against DeLay's misdeeds and shaming his fellow Republicans for supporting him. But House Republicans don't care -- his money for influence machine and his power-hungry crusades have become standard practice for the GOP.

The DeLay boat is sinking. And it's taking the entire Republican Party with it.

Thank you for making sure every American knows it.

http://www.democrats.org/delaycasefile

Nancy, Jesse, and Josh
The DNC Internet Team