The Pope's Butler Is No Hero

Leaked documents, most of them confidential letters between various clergymen in the Catholic Church, and many to and from the Pope himself, have found their way into the media since last January. The biggest bombshells came by way of a book written by investigative journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi called Sua Santità. This is just one of six books Nuzzi has written since 2009 concerning the inner workings of the Vatican. Nuzzi refuses to name his sources. Nor do we know what, if anything, he paid for the leaked documents.

We learned a couple of weeks ago that the Pope's butler/personal assistant, Paolo Gabriele, admitted to leaking the documents. And we learned in the past couple of days that he had help by way of another Vatican employee—computer analyst Claudio Sciarpelletti. Gabriele claims that he leaked these documents as "an agent of the Holy Spirit" for the good of the Church and to "help" the Pope. He denies having been paid for the leaked documents.

However, after raiding Gabriele's apartment in May, not only were more stolen letters and other documents found, but also a stolen a check for 100,000 Euros ($124,000), a gold nugget and a valuable 16th century book all belonging to the Church.

Does this sound like a do-gooder? I'm sure there's plenty of corruption in the Catholic Church. After all, they've never denied the content of any of these letters. But I don't think this butler is any kind of a hero for a minute. He's now been indicted on aggravated theft and his co-conspirator, Sciarpelletti, will face charges for complicity. I believe that if Nuzzi and other media persons involved with the leaks are pressed by the Italian police to reveal their sources we'll find that, not only did they come from the Pope's butler, but that a good deal of money was paid for them.

The American media needs to quit portraying this thieving butler as a great servant of the people.

Heat Killing Fish by the Millions in the Midwest

This is something I don't think any of us counted on. The intense heat and drought has caused water temps in shallower lakes, ponds, and streams to reach as high as 100%. this is a photo of hundreds of dead fish at a pond in Rock Port, MO.

Possibly a million or more fish have recently been found floating dead in Illinois waters. Some 40,000 shovelnose sturgeon alone were found dead in Iowa last week. These sturgeon were valued at $10,000,000 because their eggs are prized for caviar.

Dan Stephenson, a biologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, said, "We're talking hundreds of thousands (killed), maybe millions by now," Stephenson said. "If you're only talking about game fish, it's probably in the thousands. But for all fish, it's probably in the millions if you look statewide."

High levels of bacteria have also been found in lakes lately. Carp at Lewis & Clark Lake in Missouri have been found with lesions on them indicated bacteria. This is typical when water gets hot. This includes flesh eating bacteria which is often found in water. There's also a brain eating bacteria that enters through the nose. Not a good time to be on the jet-ski.

Tommy Emmanuel — Live at the Sheldon Concert Hall (2001)

This is the entire 2-hour concert. I was really surprised to find it at YT. The first couple of minutes are in mono for some reason, but then the stereo kicks for the rest of the show. Tommy's a terible hotdog and general ham, but he sure can play. So hook your laptop up to your living room TV for a couple of hours and enjoy some great old tunes played by one of the best.

1. Luttrell (00:37)
2. Blue Moon (02:51)
3. Borsalino (05:44)
4. Mombasa (08:35)
5. That's The Spirit (11:54)
6. I've Always Thought of You (15:00)
7. Guitar Boogie (23:10)
8. Amazing Grace (30:56)
9. Classical Gas (35:11)
10. A Guitar Lesson With Tommy (39:07)
11. Windy and Warm (46:35)
12. Just an Old Fashioned Love Song (50:00)
13. Beatles - Medley / Day Tripper / Taste of Honey / Lady Madonna (52:50)
14. Those Who Wait (59:47)
15. Mona Lisa (01:04:34)
16. Initiation (01:09:46)
17. Biskie (01:17:24)
18. Michelle (01:19:06)
19. Dixie McGuire (01:22:04)
20. The Hunt (01:24:16)
21. Waltzing Mathilda (01:29:12)
22. Saltwater (01:33:53)
23. Imagine (01:36:58)
24. Train to Dusseldorf / To "B" or not to "B" / Mr. Guitar / Waltzing Mathilda (reprise) / Road to Gundaghi (01:41:03)
25. Tom's Drums (01:48:09)

Religious Joke

I found this online somewhere a couple of months ago:
~~~~~~~~~~~

I was walking across a bridge one day and I saw a man standing on the
edge about to jump. I ran over and said, "Stop! Don't do it!"
"Why shouldn't I?" he asked.
"There's so much to live for."
"Yeah? Like what?"
"Are you religious?"
"Yes," he said.
"Me, too! What religion are you?"
"Unitarian Universalist."
"Me, too! Are you restorationist or ultra-universalist?"
"Ultra-universalist."
"Me, too! New England Convention or Philadelphia Convention?"
"New England."
"Me, too! Transcendentalist or biblicist?"
"Transcendentalist."
"Me, too! Broad Street Group or Free Religious Association?"
"Free Religious Association."
"Me, too! Institutional Free Religious Association or Scientific Free
Religious Association?"
"Scientific Free Religious Association."
"Me, too! Are you theist or humanist?"
"Depends on what you mean by theist," he said.
"Me, too!" I said. "Are you oriented more toward supernatural theism
or process theism?"
"Process theism," he said.
"Me, too!"
"Do you prefer Charles Hartshorne's philosophical panentheism or Henry
Nelson Wieman's naturalistic theism?"
"Hartshorne's philosophical panentheism," he said.
I yelled, "Die, heretic scum!," and pushed him off.

Medley - A Dream in the Forest & The Minute March

The first half of this medley was written by the Paraguayan guitarist Agustin Barrios and in English is called A Dream in the Forest. The second part was written by myself and is called The Minute March, and if you can play it cleanly in under a minute, I'd say you're a pretty fair guitarist.

I struggled over whether to play this on steel string or nylon. It sounds fine to me either way. The tuning high to low is:

D# (1^st String)

A#

F#

C#

F#

C# (6^th String)

If you tune your guitar down a half step, and then tune the 5^th and 6^th string down another whole step lower yet, you'll be there.

Tony Rice - New Grass King

This looks to be be from around 1980 or so. And talk about an all-star lineup:

Tony Rice (guitar)
Bela Fleck (banjo)
Sam Bush (mandolin)
Jerry Douglas (dobro)
Mark O'Connor (fiddle)
Mark Schatz (Contrabass)

eBook Pioneers (My New Formatting Business)

Please spread the word about my new business venture. If you know a publisher or an author interested in self-publishing (which seems all the rage right now), I'd very much appreciate it if you'd send them the link to my website.

eBook Pioneers

Thanks!